Uda was surprised. For a heartbeat she could not even process his question. No one in this place had ever asked for her name. Not Lera, not the Hunters, nobody. They had tied her down, tortured her, burned her, stripped her, judged her, but never once treated her as someone who deserved even the smallest human courtesy. This little realization of something that should have been obvious to her stung her with a strange mix of confusion and unexpected emotion, something tight rising in her throat. She felt tears welling up in her eyes and did her best to fight them.

  “My name is Uda,” she said, realizing that her voice was trembling.

  After another heartbeat, Uda’s cheeks started burning as she noticed that she was still naked. Cold air clung to her skin, prickling against dried sweat and grime. Quickly she tried to cover herself with her arms and legs, feeling filthy, small, exposed, even though her Lucidity had now started enveloping her like a second skin, invisible but healing. Before the shame could swallow her, Immesh spoke.

  “Why don’t you put something on... Uda?” he asked while turning his head away.

  His face was partly flushed now.

  Shame? A man like him? How?

  “Where can I get something?”

  “I can create clothes for you, although I doubt you’d want to wear white and yellow after all that has happened.”

  Uda shook her head. “I don’t want your colors. Not the white. Never.”

  Immesh nodded, accepting the refusal with surprising ease. He gestured toward a wooden trunk in the corner of the room, its surface scarred by use.

  “There are Hunter garments in there, used for training exercises. Choose whatever you prefer. They belong to no one, but they will suffice.”

  Uda approached it slowly, every step cautious, expecting a trick. When she lifted the lid, the smell of leather and dust rose to meet her. Inside lay dark brown and gray pieces of armor, simple and practical, made for those who ran, fought, and hunted Nightmares. They had the horrid circle on them as well, its white like a terrible fungus on the garments, infecting them.

  She reached for a set that looked her size: a leather vest reinforced with thin metal ribs, bracers, flexible greaves, and a dark cloth undershirt meant to cling lightly against the skin. Practical. Silent. Built to move with the wearer rather than restrict them. Disgust returned as the faint white of the Circle touched her. But this time it was not something that would torture her, on the contrary: a faint warmth spread beneath her skin, oozing outward. The edges of the leather deepened in color, darkening past brown into a rich, shadowed black. The cloth followed, threads pulling tighter, weaving into something smoother and stronger. Even the metal along the vest glimmered faintly as if swallowing the light around it, changing from silver to a muted graphite tone.

  Uda froze, heart quickening.

  Lucidity.

  My Lucidity.

  It was back to what it had done what felt like an eternity ago: protecting her from harm. Back then it had been the Nightmares; now it was the Light. As if it was trying to make sure it changed the clothes until they were a perfectly fitting light armor made of blackness.

  Relieved, Uda inhaled sharply, watching the armor reshape itself in subtle ways, becoming even lighter at the shoulders, firmer across the ribs, adjusting as if it knew her movements before she made them. It felt like stepping into something that was not only armor, but an extension of her body, of her instincts.

  Immesh observed her quietly, not intervening even though she feared he would at any moment. Still, he just stood there, his eyes observing, his face now a mask.

  Uda tightened the straps across her chest. The leather moved with her, flexible and silent.

  “It is… black,” she said quietly.

  “Yes,” Immesh answered. “You shape it without meaning to. Darkness answers you. You must have trained that Darkness a lot already. Lucidity being this ingrained into your being, working without determined thought, is rare. Not even many of us can do that.”

  The words made her stomach twist, though the armor settled on her shoulders as if it belonged there. She did not know whether the sensation comforted or frightened her.

  “I never trained this,” she said. “Perhaps in my previous life?”

  “Unheard of. But who knows. Even Seekers do not know everything.”

  His eyes narrowed, but he did not pursue the topic further and let her explore the armor.

  Uda pulled on the gloves last. They tightened around her palms, fitting perfectly.

  “I am ready,” she said finally, and for the first time since waking in this place, she almost believed it.

  She could hardly believe she was no longer wearing filthy, torn linen, or nothing at all.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, hesitant. Gratitude burned in her chest, almost mocking and perverse, tangled with anger she had been holding down for so long. As her confusion receded, that anger began to win.

  These people had tortured her, abused her, and nearly… defiled her...

  The memories flickered sharp and fast: ropes biting into her wrists, a hand pressing on her thigh, the cold wooden table beneath her back. It had been only by meaningless luck that Immesh had used the Sky Stone. Only by meaningless luck that he had restrained the urges he was infamous for. He was still the same man who had stared at her so openly on that table. With filthy lust.

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  She could attack him. Maybe she could overpower him and send him tumbling down through the lower floors; after all, he still seemed weakened.

  Uda tensed her muscles, weighing her options.

  Should I wake him? Maybe. Maybe I could do it. But then what? What comes after that? I’ve played along this long. I can endure a little more, especially now that it seems the torture is over.

  Nia matters more than hatred, more than revenge.

  Another memory flashed before her eyes: Nia’s trembling hands, her voice soft and sad, her face streaked with tears she tried to hide.

  Nia has probably suffered far worse.

  The thought hollowed out her chest. How long had Uda been broken, sick, unable to protect her? How much control had Lera already taken by now?

  Nia…

  “You think you can save her, don’t you?” Immesh asked suddenly.

  His voice was flat, and his eyes grew sad again. A shiver ran down Uda’s spine. For a heartbeat she had the absurd impulse to soften her voice, to take the edge out of her anger and… comfort him. The instinct horrified her. Even after everything they had done to her, some part of her still reached out to protect even them, as if some broken instinct tried to keep the peace. For a moment she even felt the absurd impression that beneath all the evil in front of her, there was still a friend. The thought made her throat tighten, and she tried hard not to gag.

  “Yes, of course. She isn’t possessed either. Lera was wrong about both of us. Nia never touched a Sky Stone,” Uda said, looking at him defiantly.

  If you’re going to stop me, you’d better do it now. One way or another, I’ll hunt Lera down and free Nia. Somehow…

  Immesh closed his eyes and pressed his lips together in anger.

  “She didn’t have to. The red mark on her neck, did you not notice it spreading ever farther?”

  “Of course I noticed it. So what?” Uda snapped.

  “That mark is a sign of Possession. A sore that festers, a discoloration of the skin, hair, eyes. It spreads. Tell me, how much has that red patch grown?”

  Uda’s blood turned to ice. Her fingers twitched as she remembered the first time she had noticed it, shortly after Locu awakened from the Dream. It had been no larger than a mole. But when Nia and Lera set out toward the Seed, almost all her skin had already changed.

  That doesn’t mean anything. She is still Nia! Isn’t she...? No, I have to believe in her!

  “Yes, it’s grown. And? Maybe it’s some normal change. How should I know? I’ve had no chance to learn anything here, since I’ve been nothing but attacked and TORTURED!” she screamed.

  Immesh remained calm, though his mouth twitched.

  “You have every reason to despise us. We did something to you that should never be done to any human being. It is the Radiant Order’s highest duty to protect people, and we betrayed you. However…”

  He hesitated.

  “This other one… Nia… a Nightmare surely has her in its grip. Possession doesn’t happen instantly. It takes time for the Nightmare to infect a person’s thoughts and take over without the victim realizing it. The body begins to change, bending to the Nightmare’s will. Its primal instincts twist the mind and the flesh. That is why Lera thought, and I also believed, that you were a Seductress.”

  “What does that have to do with anything? I don’t understand,” Uda cried, sinking to the floor. The cold seeped through her knees, her breath coming fast and shallow. For a moment she felt dizzy, as if the room tilted around her.

  Is Nia… possessed? Is this a trick?

  Immesh still avoided looking at her.

  “You look… very striking. A Seductress would have shaped your body that way. Of course, there is another explanation,” he said.

  Uda looked down at herself, suddenly aware of her well-built body, her shape, as though seeing it through someone else’s eyes. The idea made her stomach twist. She had never taken the time to examine her body before, yet he was probably right. Her lightly brown skin was smooth, and from what she could see, her figure was well formed.

  “What other explanation?” she asked to distract her thoughts from her body.

  “How attractive are Lera and Kelwin? I know you must hate them both, though speaking purely in terms of appearance?” Immesh asked.

  “They… they both look pretty good,” Uda admitted, the words scraping out past the disgust tightening her throat.

  “Yes, they do. I looked better too, before that Deepest got me. Shit, you can believe that! Damn it, I looked great. Not this old! Young and handsome. That is what Lucidity does. The more you embrace it and the stronger it becomes, the more you appear as your heart desires. Usually younger, stronger, and more beautiful. Which means…”

  Immesh folded his hands together.

  At last, he looked at her and raised a singed eyebrow.

  “…that I’m very lucid?” Uda finished his sentence.

  But I never saw the barrier. I could not light the candle…

  “How?” she whispered.

  “I don’t know. I only have some ideas. Only hypotheses, yet they seem plausible to me. Here are the facts: you are drawn to darkness. You are sharply lucid in your thoughts. The Circle makes you sick. I would guess you are someone pulled toward the opposite from most people, toward darkness instead of the Light. If you focused more deeply on that dark, you could become extremely powerful. You…”

  He hesitated again, a spark of madness in his eyes. He now felt like a completely different man from the one she had seen interact with Lera, almost sophisticated. His smile grew wider. Even though she should have been afraid, she felt safe. Her armor seemed to be doing hard work already.

  “You could help us fight the Nightmares in ways we rarely manage. Consider that for a moment.”

  Uda stared at him. Her heart gave a hard, painful thud.

  Is he insane? Has the Deepest that destroyed half his unit also taken his mind? Darkness, isn’t that evil? Isn’t the Radiant Order devoted to eradicating it? And he asks me to HELP? After EVERYTHING?

  “I’m going to find Lera. And I will wake her up,” Uda said firmly, pushing his words aside.

  Is darkness always evil? I… I don’t think so… but what does that mean…?

  She kept her eyes fixed on Immesh, though he showed no sign of shock or surprise.

  “You may go, as I said. I will keep my word. And I think you have every right to pursue her. Still, your friend will soon no longer be the person you once knew, if she ever was. How sure are you that she is not possessed? That destruction, hatred, and pain are not already growing inside her, shaping what she does?”

  Uda froze. A memory surfaced: Nia trembling in her arms on top of the tower, whispering through tears that she hated herself, that everything she touched was ruined. Uda remembered brushing a strand of hair from her face and then seeing desperation in her eyes.

  Nia had carried only grief within her, and self… hatred…

  “She feels those emotions because of YOU! Because of your damned TORTURE! Because of your CRUELTY and INHUMANITY! YOU ARE WORSE THAN THE NIGHTMARES!” Uda shouted.

  Her body trembled as furious heat surged through her. Her vision narrowed, her hands clenched, and she felt her breath become ragged. She had to push her doubts away.

  I talked with Nia about this, and she sounded sincere. She wasn’t pretending… was she?

  “You have no idea, Uda. You have never seen someone possessed, truly and completely possessed, so do not speak lightly about them and the Hunters. It is beyond your imagination. The evil that emerges, that seizes and devours a human being… it is indescribable,” Immesh said, not a single twitch in his observant face.

  His voice grew quiet, and his eyes drifted once more into the distance, and now he did scare Uda. A faint tremor slipped into his expression, something haunted and hollow.

  “You have… seen someone like that?” she asked.