Elizabeth

This was... Wilbur had said his spells didn't work on that girl. Was this what had stopped him?

The girl was awake?

Of course. They'd made plenty of noise just now. She might have woken up long ago and simply stayed hidden.

Hope struggled to his feet and shuffled over to Paul, placing a hand beneath his nose.

The girl crawled out from under the bed and watched him nervously.

A steady breath brushed Hope's fingers.

Relief surged through him.

Paul's stats appeared in his mind:

Agility: 1.00, Constitution: 1.70, Vision: 1.03, Mana: 0

His constitution had increased by 0.1.

His constitution increased...

An idea occurred to Hope.

He examined Paul's body, hoping to find something unusual.

Before long, he found a small patch of fishlike scales beneath Paul's wrist. They were soft and translucent, nowhere near the size or extent of Robert's, but clearly similar.

Hope relaxed. Perhaps Paul had some Miller Family blood. The cut from the ring was small, so he should be out of danger.

He looked up at the girl waiting for an answer. "He's alive."

After a moment's thought, he showed her the mark beneath Paul's wrist and added, "He must have some connection to the Miller Family, but his bloodline is thin. That's why he didn't turn into a monster, yet still survived."

He broke into a smile as he finished speaking, finally at ease. The girl smiled too, and Hope could tell her happiness was genuine.

She and Paul were strangers. She was simply glad to see someone survive.

"What is that?" Hope asked, pointing at the wooden charm she'd thrown.

He immediately realized the question was intrusive. Anything that could drive off the monster they'd just faced was extraordinary. It might be her secret, and he already owed her thanks for using it to save him.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have asked. Thank you. I really didn't know what to do back there."

"It's all right. I don't actually know what it is either." The girl straightened her clothes, brushed off the dust, then retrieved the wooden charm from Paul.

This time, Hope saw the design carved into it. It resembled a star, with a broken diamond shape at its center that looked like an abstract eye.

Apart from that, there was nothing remarkable about the wood itself.

The girl slipped the charm back into her pocket. She still looked shaken.

"An elder gave it to me as a protective charm. I thought it was just an ornament until now... I guess we're even."

Hope realized she was referring to last night, when he'd saved her. Now she'd saved him, so neither owed the other anything.

Something an elder gave her could drive away a monster like that... That elder might be a powerful person with supernatural abilities, perhaps even stronger than Old Whateley.

Hope used that term for anyone with unnatural abilities or spells, or whose stats exceeded the normal human range. He had a more precise test, too: anyone who couldn't hurt a Night Hawk and whom a Night Hawk regarded as food qualified.

Still, he couldn't be sure. He had never actually met either the girl's elder or Old Whateley.

He also didn't know what it took to gain such abilities. Was a divine gift the only way, or were there others?

Yet if a country could remain relatively peaceful, some force had to be keeping cultists like the Whateley family in check.

Otherwise, how could the Whateley family, with only three or four members, dare talk of sacrificing an entire town? If hundreds or thousands of cultists like them existed, the country would descend into chaos. If there were more, humanity might go extinct.

An awkward silence fell.

Hope soon remembered that he and the girl had little to talk about. They'd only met for the first time yesterday, with a shotgun pointed between them.

"Well." After waiting a moment, the girl spoke. "Perhaps we should introduce ourselves. I'm Elizabeth, Elizabeth Williams. I'm a student at Miskatonic University. What about you?"

Williams... She really is related to Old Williams. Maybe she's his granddaughter.

Thinking of Old Williams's house made Hope feel awkward. The Great Night Hawk had caused most of the damage, but Hope had been involved.

"Hope," he said. "As you can see, I live here."

Hope didn't call himself "Hope Whateley" because he wasn't Hope Whateley. Number One Hope was the one who went by that name.

Elizabeth spoke first again. She seemed uncomfortable too. "About yesterday... I'd never heard of Star Hemp. Since it was stored with rose petals, I assumed it was an ordinary herb.

"My uncle's notes didn't mention that it was poisonous, either. There was only a potion recipe...

"I'm interested in herbalism, but I'd only ever heard of potions. That was the first real recipe I'd seen, so I wanted to try making it myself. Do you know much about herbs or potions?"

Herbalism... Hope searched his memories, but most of what he found was obscure. The knowledge hadn't originally been his. Though he'd inherited the memories, mastering them would take time.

So he said, "Not much. I just happened to know..."

He stopped. The door was slowly opening.

No one stood outside. There was only something transparent and liquid.

It filled the space beyond the door. Light passed through it in strange ways, warping every line behind it into an irregular curve. Colors Hope had never seen flickered within it, then vanished before he could make them out.

The thing was so strange he couldn't tell whether it was alive. It hadn't left. It filled the entire corridor and had waited silently outside while Hope and Elizabeth talked.

Now it had opened the door. Neither of them knew what it wanted or whether it meant them harm.

Hope heard Elizabeth swallow. She took out the protective charm again and held it before her. Then she stepped forward, placing herself between the thing and Hope and Paul.

Hope noticed that she was trembling. He limped a few steps forward to stand beside her.

They stood shoulder to shoulder, shielding the unconscious Paul behind them, and faced the monster beyond the door.

It was no contest. They had seen the monster's power. Even together, they had no way to fight it. Neither stepped back.

The monster, however, was wary of the charm in Elizabeth's hand. It was the only thing standing between the three of them and the creature.

Hope looked at Elizabeth, and a sudden certainty came over him:

I can trust her.