As the air around her cleared, the mage's breath came in small puffs of white vapors. The creature loomed in front of her shadowed in the light, covered in her companion's frozen blood but otherwise completely unaffected by her most powerful spell. It took a deep breath.
Blood shattered all around it in a frozen shower that sounded like crystal falling from it.
She screamed until everything went black.
Rowena awoke. She must've been out for hours, when she had followed her traitorous companion to the other building it was dawn. Now it was mid-day by the sun's light on the floor. As she pushed herself up she felt cloth beneath her touch. At first she brushed it off as her mage's robe, then realized that unlikelihood and looked down.
"Where are my clothes?" she asked. She saw that what s
