I collided with Valefor fairly hard as I put my arms around him. He couldn’t see me coming, so he couldn’t even brace against the impact. I would help him in such a way that he couldn’t tell me to stop helping and put himself in danger again.

Collecting him, I flew away from the scene.

I would help and serve him. That was the idea he’d planted in my head.

Before he could catch his breath from the impact, I flew in a spiral tight enough his legs went out to the side, and then gently deposited him on a rooftop.

I flew away before he could catch his footing, get a lungful of air, and give me another command.

The compulsion wasn’t gone. It was there.

But it had abated. I’d served the rule, but not the spirit.

The tide had turned. The villains that were assisting us were B-listers, but the Fallen weren’t the cream of the Fallen’s crop either. I flew past the group, jostling people, grabbing them and letting go a moment later.

Valefor wouldn’t find his way back in time, I hoped, and the Fallen were already injured from the brief surprise attack.

A spray of cold water from Capricorn woke up everyone I hadn’t been able to reach. The Fallen retreated, the intestine-snake snatching up two and yanking them back. I did much the same in finding Sveta lying in tall grass, her suit and wig without a head beneath. A knife impaled her back but hadn’t penetrated the shell. I carried her away, feeling the reassuring thump of her presence within.

“You okay?” I asked, once we were in the air.

“Embarrassed,” Sveta said, her voice sounding a bit like it came from the depths of a well.

“Okay,” I said. I landed a distance away, just far enough away we could keep Beast and Damsel’s group of capes in sight.

Once four-legged, now three-legged, Chris limped his way to us. He breathed hard and curled up tight. Byron followed.

“Hey guy,” I said. I wished we had a name for him. “Mr. Introspection. You’re missing a leg. You okay?”

He blinked once.

I had no idea what that meant. Go figure, that he wasn’t any more forthcoming when he didn’t seem to have a working mouth.

“What did you end up doing?” Byron asked.

“Took Valefor away. He’s still out there,” I said. “Unfortunately.”

I eyed Damsel, who was at the periphery of Beast of Burden’s group. There was a dark look in her eye as she talked to that group, clearly heated and I wasn’t there to talk her down.