A Huntress who had been riding near Nia’s wagon signaled with her spear that Nia should get down. Clumsily, she climbed off and landed on the hard, smooth ground, her legs almost breaking away, weak and useless as she was. Her fingers reached out cautiously toward one of the stone structures blocking the horse’s path and brushed it.

  This stone was smooth and cold as well, familiar and still alien, but when her fingertip slid across its edge, she felt a stabbing pain and recoiled. A drop of purple blood welled up from the fine cut the edge had carved into her skin. The pain steadied her again, and she looked at the Huntress, who still held her spear trained on Nia, tense and watchful, her grip twitching, ready to stab her.

  "Leave the wagons. We are almost there," Kelwin called, his deep voice strangely muted.

  Hesitantly, Nia stepped forward, taking care not to touch the stones again. For a moment she wondered whether she could use them somehow to free herself from her existence in the Dream before the false Locu could. Or if she could somehow free herself from the chain around her neck.

  But she pushed the thought away quickly. She knew her collar was not as fragile as it looked, and she had already tried to remove it. All she had achieved was collapsing in tears while the Light of the stones punished her with anguish. She also could not leave the Dream yet; she had to get her judgement and also find out where all the darkness had come from.

  Around her, the Hunters crept through the sharp forest, their bodies tense, their spears clenched tightly in their hands, glinting now and then. For a long while the only thing in the air was stress and caution, but soon a biting, dreadful stench joined it. Soft whispers rose around Nia, and she could see the Huntress driving her forward clamping a hand over her nose.

  Nia could see Lera a few steps ahead, staring upward with a wrinkled nose at something above. The murmuring around them grew louder, and some suppressed cries slipped from the Hunters’ tongues as they followed her gaze.

  "Keep moving, ignore it," Lera called, continuing her path with disgust.

  When Nia saw what had caused the commotion, her stomach twisted, and she had to fight back a gag. High above them, impaled on the tip of one of the blades Lera had been examining, hung a dead horse.

  The animal appeared to have been skewered and lifted into the air, where it had died in agony. The rotting flesh stank horribly, and dried blood darkened the surface of the stone structure.

  Then Nia saw the torn white jacket, partly speared along with the horse and partly scattered in shreds around it. A few steps farther she spotted the boots, trousers, and spear of a Nightmare Hunter.

  She forced herself not to break, but a terrible pleasure rose within her at the thought that a member of the Radiant Order had met such a gruesome end.

  “I could skewer you the same way… Or do something worse… You must pay… My death was your fault…“

  Locu’s voice broke into her thoughts again.

  Was he nearby, watching her?

  No, that could not be; Nia still felt him farther ahead.

  His biting warmth, his eerie, seductive presence…

  A high, sharp scream made Nia flinch. Then more. Beside her, a Hunter vomited at his feet, and another dropped his spear with a clatter and squeezed his eyes shut, tense and shaking.

  "No, no…" murmured the Huntress behind her, shaking her head in disbelief.

  Her eyes were fixed in the direction Lera was marching, and all emotion seemed drained from her body except panic and revulsion. Nia followed her gaze.

  There was another horse. And another. And another…

  The farther they advanced, each step taken with growing reluctance, the more the air thickened with the stench of decay and rot. Beside the horse carcasses and the shredded armor of the Hunters they found, soon several shattered wagons came into view, held aloft by some of the blade-stones like grim trophies.

  Scattered around them were splintered wood and straw, crates of supplies and weapons, remnants of tents, and over and over again the remains of Hunter uniforms.

  Nia nearly tripped over the debris in her path. She stepped carefully over broken lances, dark boots, and a bent, gleaming shard of white metal lying beside fibrous scraps, all while avoiding the scattered wooden splinters with her bare feet. Not a human soul was in sight; they must all have vanished when they were awakened from the Dream.

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  Have they suffered long?

  Oh, how Nia hoped they had not died immediately…

  They pushed onward. Lera no longer paid the remains any attention, her gaze fixed and always forward. Kelwin, however, could barely walk and had drawn his whip, using it like a broom to sweep the debris from his path.

  Then, suddenly, the blade-stones thinned out and they stood again on smooth ground. Nia was now nearly level with Lera, though she kept her distance so as not to draw her attention.

  And there, perhaps a hundred steps ahead, another rocky fang jutted into the blue sky. Impaled upon it was the uniform of a higher-ranking Hunter. The clothing resembled that worn by Lera and Kelwin, though Nia could not make out more details as everything was too torn.

  Lera staggered toward the remains and stared at the ground in confusion. Nia followed her gaze and found white, polished metallic armguards, dark boots, and a torn pair of trousers.

  "That is… was… Immesh’s Aspirant. May he one day return to the Dream and live in peace," Lera called out to the group.

  Her composure threatened to collapse, but she managed somehow to steady herself. Kelwin stared with nearly lifeless eyes at the last remnants of the Aspirant that still remained.

  "Exorcist… what has happened here?" he asked.

  Lera was just about to answer when more screams rose from the Hunters’ ranks. The men and women pointed toward the plain beyond the forest of blades, and Nia let out a slow, relieved sigh. Lera and Kelwin turned from the sharp pillar and stared in the direction their Hunters indicated. Nia saw dark shapes coming straight toward them.

  Nightmares.

  Nia’s gaze shifted to the sky-stone held aloft by a young man. The shimmering colors of the artifact glowed faintly in the evening light. Would it be enough?

  The same question seemed to churn in Kelwin’s mind, and he asked Lera, who now tightened her grip and ignited her whip.

  "No, not forever. We must move faster. They are blocking our path onwards. I thik the seed is farther ahead, I still feel it from that direction. We… we will have to fight them. I cannot defeat them all alone; there are too many. It would be enough to overload the shield and drain the Sky Stone of its radiance, I cannot reinforce it quickly enough. PREPARE FOR BATTLE. WE ARE CLOSE. THE SEED IS WITHIN REACH, I CAN FEEL IT."

  Lera looked at Kelwin and her Hunters with new determination.

  "Ready yourselves. Lances forward, defense formation seven. Hurry, they will be here soon," she commanded, stepping forward.

  Nia soon found herself among the Hunters, who had formed a semicircle and leveled their lances. Sweat shone on their faces, and tension made their features stiff and expressionless.

  Nia could only wait for the Nightmares to reach them. Time passed with agonizing slowness, and again and again Nia thought she heard the wonderfully maddening voice of the false Locu calling to her.

  "Soon... Soon..."

  All that she could do to not go insane was lose herself in the calm nothingness that had been the only thing besides Uda from losing herself. She wanted to fill the nothingness, wanted to find answers, to know where the seed came from, who had made it...

  Then the Nightmares were upon them.

  They looked grotesque, wild beasts and mutilated humans, and other shapes with leathery skin and sharp claws and tusks, eyeless sockets and antennae, massive bodies and fragile skeletons. They charged the barrier, which erupted in colors each time one of the creatures struck it, dissolving the being instantly.

  The thunderous impact of colliding bodies boomed in Nia’s ears, and again and again the Nightmares hurled themselves at the shield, sensing its presence only from the flashes and sparks that marked their own destruction.

  "The seed… I think… it is among them…?" Lera whispered.

  Suddenly there was uncertainty in her voice. And terror.

  Above the noise and crashing, above the roaring and snarling and gurgling, a laugh swelled, deep, mournful, and infinitely angry. Nia’s hair stood on end, and an icy shiver ran down her neck, drowning out the stinging pain of the necklace, and a tingling thrill shot through her.

  She was confused, unsure what to think, but one thing was certain: The false Locu was coming.

  Her intuition was soon proven right.

  Through the glowing ash and dissolving bodies, she saw a figure slowly approaching them. It was the silhouette of a young man Nia would never forget…

  "I am here, my love, I will take you… and these vile human creatures as well…"

  Yes, she had to go to him.

  Finally be held accountable for the guilt she carried. For her carelessness, her cowardice. Soon she would be consumed in unimaginable agony…

  But who created him? Who created all those creatures? I must know it somehow. I must know more, more… I am not the only one at fault, am I? The thought shot suddenly through Nia’s mind.

  She stopped, not realizing that she had been slowly moving toward the false Locu. The others had not noticed yet; they all stood ready to strike, watching the Nightmare with suspicion but also fear.

  "No… you are the only being that is guilty… come to me…"

  The words tempted her, promising the suffering of absolution. But she needed to know if there was someone else. Whether someone had created these monsters or whether she had simply been unlucky and everything was her fault… her fear? She needed to know…

  Nia felt her thoughts resist. It was not yet time to submit to the false Locu; it was not yet time to repent. Lera’s torture had been punishment enough for now. Yet the pull of the Nightmare grew stronger, and she felt her resolve begin to falter.

  "Exorcist Lera. Exorcist, you must do something. I think that is a Deepest!" kelwin cried out, his hands twitching and fumbling his whip.

  A Deepest? Yes, perhaps...

  The false Locu was likely the reason the Nightmares were hurling themselves at the shield. Last time, he had been able to control the tide as well.

  But… if they could eliminate him, perhaps they could fight their way to the seed. It was possible she would have enough time to learn the truth about the Nightmares and shed at least part of her self-hatred and tormenting guilt. Surely the false Locu would return someday and hunt for her, but she would have time until then.

  A thought shot through Nia’s mind, so obvious she almost laughed for not having realized it earlier.

  But how could she make Lera listen under this stress? How could she avoid being struck unconscious for interrupting her before finishing a sentence? Then she knew. She had to try.