The wagon jolted across the wide, rocky plain, its monotonous creaking interrupted only by the occasional thistle, spiraling dark-thorned plants, and, increasingly, by jagged rock formations that jutted into the morning sky like broken spears. A faint warmth spread through Nia’s chest as they ventured deeper into this land streaked with shadows.

  Lera had barely spoken since dawn. They had ridden through the night, yet the Exorcist kept urging them onward, always north. Kelwin, too, remained silent, his eyes wandering over the barren landscape as if nothing around him deserved his attention.

  Looks like that stupid bitch Diga meant more to you than you knew. I am glad she was ripped from you, even if you might see her again. I want you to feel what it is like to be away from the person you… love…

  The stings now gnawing more and more at the back of Nia’s neck made it impossible to rest. They left her alone with her spiraling thoughts about the horrors she had endured, and those Uda would soon face.

  She will manage somehow, Nia tried to reassure herself, although she knew the lie even as she formed it.

  She had seen Immesh’s sudden anger, had sensed the cold rage knitting itself through him like a living thread. She had glimpsed the corruption beneath his skin, felt it radiating from him and his disgusting burnt flesh. Uda had probably already been abused by him and now lay with a mutilated mind and body in a cage too small for any human shape, trapped with nothing but her own darkness.

  I will make all of you pay for what you did to us. I will burn you out, gut you, force you into torments you have never even imagined, screaming and begging to be woken. And you will finally understand how wonderful it can be to suffer…

  A thin smile crept over her lips.

  She did not know why these thoughts surfaced so often now, thoughts that shifted her hatred away from herself. Yet the urge to reach the seed grew stronger with every hour. Somehow she wanted… more. To know more about the Nightmares. To understand who had shaped them, how she might punish herself and everyone else, how she might escape Lera’s grasp and—

  Lera…

  Perhaps she was trying to bury her own guilt. In the end, it did not matter whether she paid these people back. What mattered was accountability, and she knew exactly who deserved it most.

  Locu, if you had not awakened because of my stupidity, my cowardice… What would it be like now? Would we be living somewhere together? Would I be happy, instead of drowning in the depths of my own terrors? Would we be laughing and cuddling under the light of the moon…?

  The memory of his grin slithered through her mind and made her shiver.

  She herself had destroyed that future. She alone had carved the emptiness where he should have been with her stupid inaction. Not the Hunters. Not Kelwin. Not even Lera, although Nia longed to place all the blame on those two cruel people riding beside her.

  She tried to grasp the darkness, to hold it inside her like a balm, yet the necklace only tightened and drove more suffering through her spine. She closed her eyes to savor the pain, to drown her thoughts beneath its pulse.

  The wagon struck a stone and lurched violently. The terrain had grown harsher, the earth split by uneven rises, and the foothills of rocky ridges began to choke the path. Nia no longer cared. Lera ignored her, and Kelwin drifted in and out of some private reverie. The other Hunters avoided Nia as usual, giving her a small bubble of air in which to breathe.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  The Sun climbed higher, the light sharp as a blade in her eyes, and the foothills swelled into steep ridges that made it difficult to maneuver the wagons. Nightmares appeared now and then on the horizon, flickering silhouettes that lingered before retreating from the shield’s protection.

  The Hunters grew tense, gripping their lances until their knuckles whitened. They murmured small reassurances to themselves, reminding one another that they had not missed anything lurking in the dust. They kept flicking anxious glances at Lera, yet she ignored their mounting unease. Her gaze remained fixed ahead, her lips drawn into a line of unwavering determination.

  Immesh’s warning was forgotten, or simply discarded. Lera rode as though the shortest path north were the only path that existed.

  Nia felt a distant warmth despite the stones around her neck. It reminded her of the Nightmare she had sensed in Immesh’s base, or the warm aura that clung to Uda like a second skin, yet this one was different. More open. More… freeing.

  Familiar.

  The false Locu?

  Cold washed through her veins.

  No. He had vanished beneath the shield, destroyed forever. And yet she knew that presence, recognized it the way one recognizes the voice of an old friend not heard in years. And all of them were marching straight toward the feeling.

  Toward him?

  Should she warn Lera? Should she speak to the Exorcist or Kelwin? They would reward her handsomely…

  No. If that Nightmare came, she could finally receive the punishment she deserved. She would no longer kneel before Lera but before a being who understood her perfectly, who knew every wound carved into her soul. Maybe it would take Lera and Kelwin as well, dragging them into the awakening they deserved.

  "Exorcist, out there in the distance…! I sense something truly terrible, and we are moving straight toward it!" Kelwin suddenly shouted.

  His horse surged forward until he rode beside Lera.

  She did not even look at him. Her smile widened as she stared at the horizon.

  "This is it. The seed. I can feel it. I am certain it is there."

  She turned to her Hunters, her eyes bright with fervor.

  "Our objective is close! Before we go, know this: you are the bravest Hunters I have ever seen. Even so, I know you are afraid. I know the darkness of the seed pierces your minds like a knife sinking into wax. Yet we are Hunters of the Radiant Order. We stand between that feeling and all those who rely on us. Prepare for battle! We do not know how many Nightmares lie ahead. Only this: our goal is within reach. We must examine the seed and, if we can, destroy it. Perhaps the sky-stone will be enough. Perhaps we will need all the Light we possess. Yet the Goddess is with us. The future will be bright and radiant."

  She lifted the handle of her whip. It rose like a serpent, then unfurled into a glowing white circle, tinged with faint shimmering colors.

  The men and women around Nia stiffened. Some grimaced, others bit their lips. All saluted. Their lances hummed with Light, and their postures snapped into rigid alignment.

  "For the future will be bright and radiant," they thundered.

  "Then let us move. Make ready. Fight for all those trapped behind the Holy Shields!" Kelwin shouted.

  The Hunters roared their reply.

  "For the future will be bright and radiant! For the future will be bright and radiant!"

  Nia loathed them. She loathed the terrible Light burning from Lera’s whip, the faces lined with devotion to an Order that had ignored her suffering.

  Hypocrites. All of them. You damned, self-righteous bastards. What about me?

  Her face twisted with revulsion as the chain stung the back of her neck.

  Energy surged through the unit. Determination ignited their steps. They pressed on faster despite the worsening terrain. Lera rode at the head, tall and almost majestic, her red hair aflame in the midday Sun while her glowing whip split the air beside her, ready to strike like a waiting predator.

  The wagon jolted and groaned as they climbed the crest of a rocky hill covered with tall brown pillars veined in white, as if grown from hardened roots rather than mineral. The air dried Nia’s tongue. Sweat trickled down her spine. She could no longer tell whether the heat came from the Sun or the proximity of the false Locu.

  Her limbs throbbed, her head ached, and the stings at her neck pulsed in rhythm with her heartbeat. Yet they soothed her all the same. They reminded her that she would soon face whatever awaited her.

  Lera reached the summit and guided her horse across gray stones dusted with pale lichen. Suddenly she yanked the reins, bringing the animal to an abrupt halt.

  Nia could not see the cause, but she saw the tremor passing through Lera’s shoulders. The Exorcist raised one hand, her voice cracking sharply through the air as she ordered the caravan to stop, her whip curling back to her side.

  The Hunters lurched to a halt, scanning the ridges with fearful eyes as panic flickered among them once more. Kelwin galloped up beside Lera, his complexion fading into a sickly shade of blue.

  What is there…? It feels strangely… empty…