Once more the mountain of bones, and the wide weird lands below. This time, without Miranda and her snowfield, the plain of hellfire and the forest of gnarled trees were wider. Sparrow’s bright and blasted dreamscape was as narrow as ever, though.

And there stood Jocasta, looking out over the fiery land, her face a stoic mask.

"Just us two this time," said Sparrow. "A little lonely, eh?"

"Technically three," said Jocasta. "We’re kind of…" Her stoic mask cracked into a wide grin, and her shoulders shook as she looked like she was struggling to hold in laughter.

"What?"

"Nothing," said Jocasta, "nothing, just the kind of joke I would make."

"Hmph." Sparrow crossed her arms. "After all that happened today I don’t feel like joking. You and Jill really went off like fireworks there. I dare not ask what you told Ealdwine, nor do I need to ask how it was making you feel – I saw the results myself. But –"

"But you have a question to ask anyway."

"I just need to know if talking to Ealdwine helped you any. Because, you know, you’re clearly less stable than I thought, even with me around."

"Ah…" Jocasta’s face fell. "I suppose...being able to vent our feelings helped, some. He did ask what had caused us all this trouble...and we were able to fully explain, for once, in confidence. I still don’t know what this Lord is that Ealdwine keeps talking about, but his whole Seal of the Confessional deal is reassuring."

"But Blaise was also there," said Sparrow.

"We were making a racket in front of their house," said Jocasta. "What did you expect?"

"I expected them to...I don’t know, be asleep during the day?"

"We were making a racket in front of their house," repeated Jocasta.

"Were they grumpy then?"

"Also invaluable," said Jocasta, "for being someone to talk to who has more updated attitudes than Ealdwine. And for being another confidential listener. They speak only to the dragons, and the dragons speak only to each other. So."

"That’s...good." Sparrow moved to Jocasta, and took her hand, looking up into her eyes. "I’m glad you’re finding a chance to speak out your pain. Feelings get bigger when we hold them in. Although, I will admit, I’m a little jealous that I can’t be literally everything for you."

Jocasta chuckled. "As you ever wish to be for all, eh? But what about you and your own trouble, then? Didn’t Ealdwine say you need as much of his help as Jill and I? After your panic attack made that clear. Oh, but I know you, you’ll try to deal with it by throwing yourself into helping other people."

"You would not be wrong," said Sparrow, letting go of Jocasta’s hand. "Just like I’m doing right now. Hup!" She threw herself sideways, leaping off the peak into open air, and down, and down, and down.

...

Here was the charred corpse, and here was the buried doppleganger, and here was her body decapitated – Sparrow wondered if she was going to be shocked out of sleep with each new body to find, or if the sight would get easier. She was already feeling only slightly unsettled. Maybe the next one would –

As she ducked through a low gap between boulders, she saw a great stone spike standing before her, and she saw her body impaled upon it, hanging pale and limp.

Sparrow blinked her eyes open, in the darkness, under soft sheets, snuggled up to Jocasta’s side, where the girl lay beneath the arm of Jill. Warm, safe, sweet –

But not the quest at hand.

Sparrow rested her head against Jocasta’s shoulder, breathing in her scent, and closed her eyes.

"I’d hoped it would get easier," said Sparrow, as she kicked a skull. "I shouldn’t be getting surprised by anything now."

Jocasta shrugged. "You could just ask Jill to reveal her secrets directly, and bear the brunt of her flame. Trust your shield."

"And miss all the metaphors?" said Sparrow. "Anyway, Jill wouldn’t let me. Alright, I’m back at it." She stood on tiptoes to give Jocasta a kiss on the cheek, then turned and made her way down the slope of bones, at an easy stride this time.

As she slipped and skidded her way to the plain, she wondered what exactly all of these horrifying dismemberment visions were about. Jill’s primary danger, if she could even be a danger to Sparrow, was in the form of uncontrolled flame; that had been reflected in the first corpse, but not the remainder. The rest were just...different ways to die. Possibly all ways to die. It could be that Sparrow would be seeing every different way she could possibly die, up to and including being eaten by a lethifold.

Which could mean she would be at this quite a while.

Nothing for it, though. Sparrow alighted on the plain and made her way forward. She was going to reach Jill’s heart the hard way, or get a major headache trying.

Yes indeed, this time, beyond the scene of impalement, in the shadows of an overhang, there lay a short skeleton whose bones had been completely picked clean.

Sparrow blinked her eyes open, the back of her skull aching faintly. That wasn’t going to stop her, of course, but it would make her miserable in the morning. Possibly enough that she wouldn’t be giving any kisses. Perish the thought, but Sparrow had to persist anyhow.

She closed her eyes once more.

"I just don’t get it. What does all of this mean?"

Jocasta tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean, what does this mean? Jill is constantly worried about you dying."

"Yeah but – I’m not going to. I’ve got my shield."

"Which can break."

"And I’ve got my crew."

"Which can fail you."

"And I’ve got Jill."

Jocasta rolled her eyes. "You’ve got a lot of confidence, is what you’ve got. Same as me, I suppose, before The Spider Incident. Maybe you’ll be learning the hard way like I did…" She looked out over the plain of fire and brimstone. "And what would that do to Jill? Have you thought of that?"

Sparrow shook her head.

"Go down there and keep at it," said Jocasta, "and maybe you’ll figure it out."

And so Sparrow skidded her way down the slope of bones again, all the way down to the plain – which area between the slope and the lava field was becoming littered with bones. Sparrow kicked them aside as she marched forward into the maze.

Once again along the path as she found it, down boulders and around lava pools and under arches, and once again she was meeting all her various possible fates. Past the charred corpse and the buried corpse and the decapitated corpse and the impaled corpse and the skeleton, and for a while thereafter, she found nothing, nothing but more lava pools and overhanging crags and huge boulders.

For a while, she had some hope that it would be fine from here on out. Maybe Jill only thought of Sparrow dying in specific, limited ways – maybe this would be easy after all!

And then upon a great flat rock face, Sparrow could see her body hanging from where its wrists had been staked into the stone, arms spread wide. A crucifixion.

Sparrow’s eyes opened into the warm, comforting darkness. Her head aching worse than she expected.

"Oh come on," she grumbled. "Nobody even does those anymore."

She closed her eyes.

Sparrow kicked a skull off the peak of the mountain. "I’m not getting it. It doesn’t make any sense."

"No sense to you," said Jocasta. "But it obviously it makes sense to Jill, and you have to figure out what her logic is."

Sparrow groaned. "I chose to tackle the metaphors, didn’t I? Alright. I think I’ve got time for one more shot tonight."

"Good luck then." Jocasta bent to kiss Sparrow on the cheek.

Sparrow returned the kiss – then she turned and threw herself off the mountain and down, having no more time to waste.

When she reached the place of the crucifixion, Sparrow came to a halt. "Right," she said, "what’s linking all of these, if the burning is the only one that’s plausible? I die one way, I die another way...the only unified factor is that it’s me dying. Because somehow I haven’t got my shield up in time, or somehow it broke, or maybe I ran out of juice…" She looked up at her crucified body. "Or maybe I deliberately sacrificed myself. Would I be that stupid?"

She paused, hoping that the stones or the lava would give her an answer. If they could have they would have said yes.

Which meant Sparrow believed it herself. She was that stupid, wasn’t she? After trying to do everything for her fellow classmates last month, and exhausting herself for the sake of that one spectacular duel, and every time she’d thrown herself in the way of one thing or another...if she hadn’t had her shield spell she would certainly have been in the position of that body hanging up there.

But she had the shield. If she hadn’t, would she have so often stood in the way of anything?

She would have been devoured along with the rest of her friends six years ago. And had that slumber party not been in that position, if it had been a peaceful evening, if Sparrow had not been so horrified, would she so steadfast in protecting everyone? She might not have made such a vow. She was not who she was without that vow. There was no plausible way to separate it or her shield spell from her life.

And yet, all these visions of death assumed the shield either did not appear or was not enough. All these were worries of Jill’s. Not rational, only fearful.

And Sparrow only added fuel to the fire by constantly throwing herself in harm’s way. She was honor-bound to keep doing so. No wonder Jill had said she wished to hold Sparrow close and safe. It was the only position where Jill would be certain to take the brunt of something before Sparrow. Jill stood as Sparrow’s sword, not because she was eager for battle, but because Sparrow was.

Sparrow let out a long sigh. "I’m sorry to be scaring you like this, my love. I’m sorry that I’ve sworn myself to taking this risk time and again."

The ground shook with a sudden rumble, as great stones began to slide apart, opening a long path for Sparrow to follow.

And follow she did – on a path more straightforward, not beset with pools of lava or tilted stones or sharp jags, yet no easier for it. For along both sides of the path was every single other death Jill could have thought of for Sparrow. There was her body drowning in lava; there was her body being electrocuted; there was her body being hit by a Killing Curse from an unseen wand, there was her choking on food – okay, that one was plausible. And so was the one where her soul was being sucked out by a dementor. And so was the one where a Nundu was suffocating her with its poisonous breath. And certainly was the one where a Nark was chowing down on her torso.

Yet none of these were shocking Sparrow into waking, not as each individual one had before. Perhaps because they were all lined up in a row, and they were no longer a startling surprise. Or perhaps, as Sparrow realized, all these displays were bringing her to admit that she could die. Even last year she’d thought she couldn’t.

And then, of course, there was the most plausible scenario, the one Sparrow had to admit she would not be escaping, no matter how long she lived. For as she reached the end of the long path, near to a space where a curve in the path showed bright orange light dancing upon the bend of the rock wall, there in a bed lay a white-haired, wizened old woman, shorter even than Sparrow was now. Her eyes were closed, and she was breathing peacefully – until her eyes flew open, and with a rattling, rasping gasp, the last breath she would ever take escaped her. And the light left her eyes.

There watching it unfold stood Jill, stone-faced.

She turned, at last, and met Sparrow’s eyes. "You finally got the picture, then?"

"I get that you don’t want to let go of me," said Sparrow. "I get that I’ve been making it all too plausible that you might be forced to." She gestured to the bed. "But it also looks like you’re admitting to yourself that all things must end."

Jill closed her eyes, and, taking a deep breath, let out a long sigh.

"As for me," said Sparrow, "I worry that you’ll go out in a blaze of glory, and leave us."

Jill’s eyes snapped open, glowing red. "You would not be the first to fear so."

"Uh –"

"Come." Jill took Sparrow by the hand, leading her past the ancient woman and around the bend. Into the source of the orange light –

Where the path lined by stone crags ended, opening into a vast sea of lava. Far in the distance, on the horizon, lay the great stone dome. "Alright," said Sparrow, "what the hell is this?"

"Look there." Jill pointed to a spot within the lava. An oddly visible spot. A spot that was, when Sparrow concentrated, an arm reaching up out of molten rock, grasping at nothing, then sinking back down. "My death," said Jill.

"You – wait. That was the vision, back in the dungeons."

"My great-aunt Parvati said to all my family that I would drown in fire. To all my family, and they believed her." Jill took a deep breath. "And I have as well. I have always wondered when my end would come. And when we first met Professor Clearwater, and it was clear that her visions were at least accurate…I felt like I had run out of the frying pan and into the fire. It didn’t help that her first question to me – do you remember what it was?"

"She asked you about your family’s special new technique of staring into flames."

Jill hissed. "Yeah. Talk about starting off on the wrong foot. I certainly didn’t want to be reminded of my most horrible years, the years I thought I was doomed to be destruction, a wild little girl impossible to contain or control...and then...I met you. And I met your shield. And ever thereafter I have clung to you."

"And yet," said Sparrow, "you simultaneously do and don’t believe in my shield. It doesn’t appear in any of your visions in this dream."

"Does it not?" said Jill. She pointed at the dome on the horizon. "Look closer, little bird."

Sparrow peered at the stone dome. As she watched, she realized that its surface was not static, as the surface of stone ought to be, but shifting and swirling, as the surface of her own magical barriers – and beneath it, something was swirling in a different direction. Almost as if the outer layer was but a thin, translucent shell, containing a mass of –

"Volcanic smoke," said Sparrow. "That’s a bunch of volcanic smoke."

"And what do volcanoes do?" said Jocasta.

In one moment the shell was flying apart into countless glittering white shards as the smoke burst forth into a vast cloud, as fast as blinking.

In the next moment Sparrow could see the shockwave heading straight at her –

There was a light casting its glow into Sparrow’s eyes. She sat up at once, terrified that it was the full light of mid-day and she had missed a morning of reciting the Animagus spell.

But as she blinked, and her brain caught up with her eyes, she realized that it was her shield spell, in a bubble around the edge of the mattress.

"Well," murmured Jocasta, pushing herself up to rest on her elbows, "that’s one way to wake someone up."

"Better than having a frikkin’ volcanic explosion in your face," grumbled Sparrow.

Jill shifted, and yawned, rising slowly from where she lay. "Volcanic explosion, there’s a way to talk about me."

"It’s how you talk about yourself," said Sparrow. She gestured to her shield. "And let me just make it clear, dear, that it is only in your nightmares that I am so vulnerable. In the waking world, I am ever your shield."

"And you think you’ve been tested," murmured Jill.

"That entire duel didn’t count?" said Sparrow. "The inferno in the empty tower? Did neither of those represent your power?"

Jill shook her head.

"And yesterday’s outburst," said Sparrow, "that was not your full output?"

"We got talked down," said Jocasta.

"Fine," said Sparrow. "Fine, we’ll pick a time to figure out how much my shield can actually take, in the waking world, and then we can either settle this matter or figure out how I can do better. If you honestly think my shield can be broken by magic, I have to do better. You can help me, instead of thinking you’re going to hinder me. Alright?"

Jill looked nonplussed. "You would welcome my flame?"

"I welcome it as I please," said Sparrow. She clambered over Jocasta, and threw herself at Jill, capturing the girl’s lips in a kiss. She did not pull back for quite a long moment, though she felt herself filled all with fire. Only when she could truly take no more did she withdraw, meeting Jill’s eyes. "I daresay I need it. I need you. Do you understand?"

"I –"

"Let me have a turn." Jocasta put a hand on Sparrow’s shoulder and gently moved her aside, before grabbing Jill’s chin in one hand and planting a hard kiss on the girl’s lips – before pulling back near as quickly. "Goodness! You’re all fired up, girl. Pretty damn hot. In more ways than one." She gave Jill a sultry look.

Jill, for her part, seemed to be giving Jocasta the same look. "It is tempting, as ever, to indulge you there."

"I’ll just attend to my own business then," said Sparrow. She dismissed the shield spell, then rolled off the bed and out of the curtains, into the morning sunlight.

Cold it was, this morning, and colder without Jill near. Sparrow shivered as she tugged her wand free of the Fetching Stick, and as she recited the animagus incantation. She dressed hastily thereafter, tempted to throw herself back into bed and sleep through more of the morning with her girls, but then, the Sabbath was done and there was work to do today. Doubtless more peaceful than yesterday.

Or at least, it had better be.

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