There was a desperate, grasping hunger.
That hunger came from Endrith.
It was horrible, but perfectly appropriate.
Vell had spent some time worrying about the cage and whether it would hold.
About whether the strange thing that had once been a man would ever become something resembling a person again.
And now, at the exact moment when Vell had a chance to escape, Endrith had freed himself.
Vell couldn't turn.
He couldn't look behind him.
Endrith had attached himself to him.
Vell could feel it now.
Something had wrapped itself around his essence, clinging to him with an almost animal desperation.
It wasn't entirely deliberate.
It wasn't even particularly intelligent.
Endrith had simply found Vell and latched onto him.
Like a starving creature finding food.
Like a rabid animal finally finding something it recognized as prey.
Vell tried to push against him, but found that he couldn't.
The power was still pushing against him.
Every last fragment of it was committed to the same task: to go forward.
Out and through.
His entire existence had become a single act of trying to move.
There was no reserve left for anything else.
Not even a fraction.
The tiniest sliver.
He couldn't muster enough to put toward anything else.
When he attempted it, the force faltered.
Or none would gather at all.
He stopped trying.
In some sense, Endrith had always been aware.
Aware of power, if nothing else.
And now there was another thought behind his actions, if barely.
It was very poor and broken, but it was there.
A fear.
A desire.
To escape.
To get to another place.
And beneath all of it, the simplest thought imaginable.
To gain power.
"Not now," Vell thought.
Endrith clung tighter.
That was the worst part.
He could feel him in a way he had never been able to before.
The essence that had once been Endrith was no longer merely an empty shape.
There were fragments inside it now.
Hunger.
Anger.
And something else.
Something that felt horribly close to desperation.
Vell didn't think Endrith fully understood what was happening.
But he did not want to be left behind here.
Vell tried to shake him off, but he couldn't.
He couldn't threaten him.
Endrith wouldn't understand.
He had no hands to push him off, no spell to blast him with, and no power to spare.
There was only the force carrying him forward.
The power could not do these two things at once.
And there was no turning back to reach into the vortex and pull out just a little more.
There was no action to take.
No clever trick to pull off.
He had already spent everything on movement.
All he could do was wait and see if Endrith was coming with him.
Vell felt another surge.
The pressure around him changed.
It seemed that the world became less distant.
Heat grew stronger.
Cold became colder.
Everything was sharper, and the tightness of the wrap around him seemed to lessen.
It was like he was in a dream.
But he could swear that he heard a yell.
A distinct scream of agony and pain.
And he could hear a whisper.
"Dread Mage…"