It didn’t take long for exhaustion to catch up to the wolves. Not wishing to press her friend any further, Kylie guided Asalya to stop. Nightfall would come soon, so she set up camp for the night. They’d have a chance to catch up to Naomi tomorrow. Kylie worried that the Absentia would grow impatient and pass them while they slept. But the beast, when it caught up to them again, simply waited. As persistent as it had been in its pursuit of Naomi, it had possibly been in this plane for centuries. If it didn’t have any before, it must have learned patience. 

Kylie and Asalya huddled together for warmth that night. The air was cold, though lacked the bite they’d come to expect. Sheer exhaustion guided them to sleep. When they awoke the next morning, the Absentia was still waiting, its giant red eyes focused solely on them. It must have sat there watching them the entire night. Some part of Kylie found this viscerally disturbing, but the rest of her was still too tired to care.

They rode out of the stone forest that day, and back into the grey desert for only an hour or so before they saw actual trees on the horizon. The land scarred by dragonfire ended abruptly; tall evergreens pushed right against its border. Kylie took in deep breaths of the refreshing but thick pine scent that hung in the air and marvelled at the trees’ deep green. Within the forest, the trees grew so high and so close together Kylie could hardly see the sky. Pale brown fallen pine needles blanketed every inch of the ground, occasionally poking at Kylie’s ankles. If not for the distance she and Naomi travelled together, Kylie might have mistaken this pine forest for the one a few miles to the south of Nighthills. She wondered if this type of tree grew across the whole length of the continent.

They settled for the next night in this forest, still having not seen any sign of Naomi. Asalya seemed more tired this day than the last. Carrying Kylie must have started getting to her. The next day, Kylie found a broken branch that seemed to be the right size and shape, and scraped off what pine needles and bark that she could. The handle of her new cane was sticky with dried resin, but using it made walking bearable enough for some lengths of time. Asalya, however, insisted on frequent periods of riding, presumably not wanting to lose their chance to catch up.

The Absentia, Kylie observed, also had its periods of stopping and starting. While it never seemed to get tired, it also didn’t seem capable of moving at a moderate pace. If it was walking, it stalked slowly across the forest. If it wanted to move quickly, it would begin leaping into the air and crashing back down. Often, it would let the wolves get far enough ahead of it that they would lose sight of it for hours at a time, only to rush to catch up. Even then, it seemed to keep its distance until they slept.

The days wore on as their journey continued. Kylie’s hope of catching up with her friend dwindled. She was burdened with injury, Asalya couldn’t carry her for too long, and they were both slowed by cold and growing hunger. Naomi would likely beat them to Laryth. Then whatever would happen to her there would have already happened by the time they arrived. 

Kylie had made two promises - one, to keep Naomi safe, and the other to return the Light. The way she saw it, there were three possibilities. If Naomi had been banished and still had the Light, she could beg her to give it up. If she was banished and had given it to the Order, Kylie would have no qualms plotting to steal it back. The tricky part was if she wasn’t banished, if they had offered her a way to return to the Order, and she had accepted in some foolish desperation. 

But Naomi had made a promise, too. She’d vowed to stop the Absentia. Kylie trusted that Naomi would keep to that, no matter what. Surely, even then, when she met up with Naomi, they could formulate some plan, tell some lie that would get the Light to the Absentia’s hand. Kylie was a cursed creature. She would steal the Light. Even if it meant having to play at being Naomi’s enemy one last time.

Another few days passed before the wolves came across a dirt road winding through the forest. It was wide, old, and worn. They began following it immediately. Any road that didn’t lead to Laryth at least led to a road that led to Laryth. They were on the right track. To quell their hunger, they made stops at travellers' lodges in the handful of modest villages of red-brick homes that dotted the roadside. They moved quickly in and out of these towns to lead the Absentia around them and not through them. As they moved down the road, the distance between towns grew shorter. They seemed to be getting near.

Kylie sniffed the air. A pleasant woodsmoke lingered underneath the pine scent, a smell she’d come to associate with an upcoming village and the many burning fireplaces within. Typically, though, they’d have discovered the village within a few more minutes of travel. This time the smell permeated for miles and grew stronger with each step. The sunset turned the sky orange. By now, Kylie would usually start to set up camp. But if this smell was truly the scent of Laryth, as she suspected, she wanted to camp just outside the city’s border and give herself the whole day to search for Naomi inside.

That plan wouldn’t come to pass. As night fell, Kylie hobbled down the road, Asalya beside her and the Absentia far behind them both. She spotted someone sitting in the middle of the road ahead of them, at the crest of a small hill. Her many thin, dark braids ran down the length of her back, which was turned to Kylie. Beside her sat a brown bag. Kylie’s bag.

With her injury, Kylie made no attempt to run to Naomi. But nothing hindered Asalya. The wolf ducked into the woods beside the road, and swiftly but silently moved up the hill and past Naomi. Kylie couldn’t see Asalya emerge from the forest, but saw and heard Naomi stand up and ask, “Asalya?”

The healer turned behind her. Her eyes caught Kylie’s, which shone with an inhuman brightness in the starlight. They stared at each other as Kylie limped up the hill, putting most of her weight on her walking stick. Naomi didn’t move, surrounded as she was by the wolves that had chased her across the land.

Kylie walked up to Naomi, looking up slightly to keep their eyes locked. She waited a moment to see if Naomi would say anything, but she seemed to be waiting for Kylie to go first. Kylie gently lowered her walking stick to the ground and sat down in the dirt, facing the same direction Naomi was. “You’re not actually surprised to see me, are you?”

“I’m not sure,” Naomi meekly replied, her gaze following Kylie’s. Asalya trotted up the hill in front of them, and laid down on Naomi’s other side. 

The hill in front of them sloped gently downward for what seemed like miles. From there, hundreds of red-brick homes, some short, others enormous, spread out in front of them. An equal number of windows were dark for the night as there were ones alight with activity. Smoke trickled from endless chimneys. Even from this far out, they could see the movement and life of the city of Laryth laid before them.

 “I thought you’d already be in there by the time we got here.” Kylie nodded toward the city. “Why’d you stop?”

Naomi took a few steps forward. For a moment, Kylie thought she might continue the rest of the way down the hill. Instead, Naomi lifted up her right hand and reached ahead. She recited a spell, and her hand wrapped in magic. Her fingers spread as though to grasp something. “There’s a ward here.”

Her hand delicately brushed against solid, yellow light. From where she touched, the scrawl of floating, glowing runes came alight and spread. Kylie noticed the runes seemed different than in Crescentia. The size of the text was larger - each rune would have covered a dinner plate - and the yellow of the lettering seemed browned and worn. The wall of magic became visible for a few yards in every direction, showing that it blocked the road and much of the woods around it. Kylie understood that what she could see of it was only what Naomi had made visible. It probably surrounded the whole city. As the glowing text finished forming a half-circle, the flat part of which stuck into the ground, Naomi stood in its center. Her hand listlessly felt against the wall. 

“This barrier is quite old, it seems. It’s an ancient, free-standing form of light magic, likely cast to keep the first Lightbringer safe from the first Absentia she summoned. I didn’t feel it when I left, but I could feel it when I walked back in. It’s likely been here my entire life.”

Her hand drifted through to the other side. She turned to Kylie. A tear rolled down her cheek. “It doesn’t actually stop me, you see? But after all this, doesn’t it feel like it should?”

Kylie didn’t say anything. There wasn’t anything to say.

Naomi’s arm fell away from the wall, and the glowing half-circle turned invisible again in an instant. She took the few steps back up the hill, and sat back down between the wolves.

“I’m sorry I betrayed you.”

Kylie thought about hiding that she felt that way, but then thought better of it. “Yeah, it hurt. Physically, too, considering how much I had to walk on this leg. I’m still not sure why you did it.”

“I told myself it was to keep you from following me. That maybe your intense stubbornness would finally be broken and you wouldn’t insist on travelling all the way here on a broken leg. Clearly, I was wrong.”

“What’s the real reason?” Kylie asked, leaning forward to listen even closer to Naomi’s answer.

“I’m still not sure. I think impatience. I wanted to get here and get banished and just get it over with. I’m tired of waiting for my life to be ruined. Better to abandon you now, and ruin that too. Because that’s going to happen anyway, right?” Naomi couldn’t seem to bring herself to look at Kylie.

“I’m still here, okay?” Kylie carefully placed her hand on Naomi’s. “I don’t know what you’re going through, and I don’t know how to help, and I can’t be there if you run away from me. But I’m still here, and I’m still gonna be here to do what I can.”

Naomi didn’t look at Kylie, instead turning to the darkness of the woods behind them. “I think sometimes I wanted it to catch me, and get that over with, too, you know?”

Kylie’s hand squeezed Naomi’s tighter. The healer leaned over and rested her head on Kylie’s shoulder. Asalya, not wanting to be left out, walked over and laid back down, nestling against Naomi’s side. They sat and looked at the city, the stars, and the black void of the new moon. At times it seemed like sleep would creep up on them, but they never rested for long. There was still so much more to say to each other.

By the time Kylie thought the moment was right to tell Naomi about the situation with the Absentia, Naomi had thought of something she wanted to ask. “So, that’s why I ran away. What about you? Did you ever figure it out?”

Kylie looked away from Naomi. She didn’t want to talk about this. But there didn’t seem to be any point in hiding it from herself any longer. “Honestly, I’ve always known, at least a little. It’s not nearly as awful as everything that’s happened to you, though. I’ve been too embarrassed to bring it up.”

Naomi leaned up to look at Kylie incredulously. “Need I remind you that you travelled all the way to Laryth, taking the longest route possible, some of that way with a broken leg, at least in part to avoid whatever it is that you’re avoiding in Rodehills?”

“I guess,” Kylie replied, her ears dropping low. 

“Kylie, do you remember on the way to Crescentia, when we talked about your mother? I held back from telling you this, because I didn’t know how you’d take it, but I’m telling you now. I don’t think it’s wise to compare pain like that. Just because you’re not hurting as bad as someone else doesn’t mean you’re not hurting. Now, maybe everything else I’ve learned about healing is a lie, but I still hold that as the truth.” Naomi straightened up her back. “Is it about your father?”

“It is,” Kylie conceded, “It’s kind of about when Nighthills split off from Rodehills. It all happened a while ago.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Maybe. I mean, I guess so.” Kylie took in a deep breath. Her body shook. She wanted that to stop. 

“The trouble with me and my dad kind of goes back to when Madeline first arrived in the village after her transformation. There’s a lot about that I only found out later. She didn’t know how people would react; she was a lot more shy back then than I ever knew her to be. And because of that, she didn’t want to be seen by anyone until she was ready. She tried to keep quiet and travel at night, and not be noticed. That didn't work for long.

“I was one of the first people to see her. I’d stayed up too late so I could stargaze, and I saw her shadow pass over the window. I told my dad about it in the morning. Apparently I wasn’t the only one though. By the next day, all the adults and older kids in town were talking about the werewolf they’d seen. Then, like, they started talking about what to do about it. My dad wasn’t one of the people leading that charge, but he said he was really worried about my safety, so he was there.

“Eventually Madeline came out of her house and explained things, and that cleared the air for a little bit. That’s when I saw her walking around town. And you’ve got to understand, we’re a small town, this was someone I’d known all my life. The idea that she could transform herself like that, especially into something that cool, was important to me in a lot of ways. More ways than I even realized at the time. I mean, she got to be a wolf. Hell, she got to be a girl! Not that she wasn’t before, you know, but she got to in the way she wanted to. And to me that meant maybe I could too? I was more excited and nervous to talk to her than I’d ever been for anything before. The whole reason I even became her apprentice is because I started following her around town. Like a lost puppy.”

“A habit it seems you never broke,” Naomi jokingly muttered.

Kylie stuck her tongue out half-heartedly. She didn’t mind the ribbing, but her mind was elsewhere. “It was when the wolves came that things got tense again. I don’t know what drew them to town, but Madeline took them into her home and started building little places for them to live in. That made Rodehills’ shepherds really uneasy. One day, a group of people came to her house to ask her to stop. My dad was one of them. 

“When he came home that night, he looked so angry. I guess it hadn’t gone however he wanted it to. He closed the door behind him, and walked straight by me towards the kitchen, muttering something under his breath about that freak.”

A tear dripped down Kylie’s face, and she hurried to wipe it away. “I’d already started looking up to her so much. I know he was just mad. I don’t think it’s something he even remembers saying. But, I do. ‘Cause when he was talking about her, even back then before I really knew anything, it felt like he was talking about me.”

Another tear fell and she reached for it, but found her arms pinned down by Naomi wrapping her in a hug. Kylie turned her head away from Naomi’s. Some childish impulse didn’t want her friend to see her crying. Kylie groaned in frustration. She should be past this by now.

“And, like, things never really got better after that? He never stopped me from being me - he never said no. But he always had questions and concerns about every little thing, and he still won’t let my best friend be in the house with me? Maybe he’s just protective, maybe he’s worried about me, I get that. But I’ve never been able to shake the feeling that he’s just pissed off that I wanted to be more like her than I did like him.” 

“Have you ever talked to him about this?”

“I wouldn’t know how to even start that conversation.” Kylie picked at the dirt road with her claw. “So, yeah, I think I just needed to get out of there for awhile. I didn’t want to keep feeling lonely in his house and guilty for not being lonely in Madeline’s. I needed some space.”

Kylie held her head low as she glanced at Naomi. She kept expecting some rebuke, some argument in her dad’s defense, or to simply be told to suck it up. But none of that came. Instead, Naomi rested her head back on Kylie’s shoulder and said, “I’m sorry.”

They sat a while again, teary and shaken, and looked. To the road ahead, to the road behind. To the stars and the void moon, to the lights of the city and the pitch black of the forest. They were here, together, on this hill, on this road, but they must go. Where to?

“I’m surprised the Absentia isn’t already upon me,” Naomi spoke up.

Kylie’s ear twitched as she heard the familiar sound of branches breaking behind her. “About that...”

She stood and hobbled a few steps down the road, back the way she came, walking stick in hand. The sound grew closer. Naomi watched her go, her eyes filled with concern.

“It’s going to be here soon.” Kylie said, “Please don’t-”

“Please don’t try to fight it again,” Naomi begged. “I’ll run in. I’ll run in past the ward, it won’t be able to find me. You just go into the woods and stay safe.”

“Wait, wait! It’s alright! Please, please don’t run. I don’t know how it’ll act if you run.”

They heard it smash into the ground as it landed. The familiar rhythmic leaps grew louder as the beast came closer. Doubt entered Kylie’s mind. It may not stop for her, now that it was so close to its goal. But she had to try.

The Absentia’s eyes shone in the darkness of the forest. Naomi’s body urged her to run. She stood still, her body trembling, her feet turned to flee at a moment’s notice.

“I talked to it!” Kylie shouted back.

“You what?”

The Absentia lept from the shadows, its mass landing so close to Kylie that the displaced air knocked the walking stick from her hand. She held up her arms to shield her face. It crouched, its shadowy teeth inches from Kylie’s face, its eyes focused solely on Naomi. But it stopped.

“I talked to it,” she repeated.

Naomi stood, stunned. Though the Red-Eyed Omen’s piercing gaze fell firmly on her, all fear evaporated from her. The creature that had hunted her from her home and back was finally still. She couldn’t believe it.

The Absentia and Naomi stood, locked still, each waiting for the other to move. Kylie broke the tension. “It wants the Light so it can go home, Naomi.”

“What? But…” She drifted off. She knew she couldn’t keep it. It was never hers. It was never Laryth’s. Diana had shown her there were other ways to heal people, ways so easy that wouldn’t even use the Light. They didn’t need it. 

Naomi held her breath, clenched her hands, and muscled past the fear keeping her legs frozen. She took a step towards the Absentia. The world around her seemed to turn to haze.

Kylie stepped aside. The Absentia’s eyes followed Naomi as she approached. There was something wrong about this. Something incomplete. Naomi stared up into the beast’s eyes, and held out her hand, the words to relinquish the Light of Laryth on the tip of her tongue. 

Instead, she fell to her knees.

“Please, let me hold it just a little longer.” 

They both expected it to refuse. Kylie jumped back, claws extended, ready to vainly fight the Absentia if it attacked. Naomi braced herself to feel the weight of the beast’s claws crush her. The Absentia, however, stood still.

Naomi lowered her head. “I and my Order have done you and your kin a great injustice. I know that I have no right to ask you for anything, and if your answer is no, then I will accept that. But my mission was to bring this light back to the sanctuary of the Order of Rejuvenance of Laryth. My selfish request is to see it through to the end.”

The Absentia stared unmoving at the Lightbringer, its legs still arched and ready to pounce. It looked at Naomi, through Naomi. Then it lowered itself onto its back legs. It agreed.

Naomi rose. Her head high, she looked up into the Absentia’s eyes, her wide smile showing the space where her tooth once was. With the same expression, she turned to Kylie, then nodded toward the city. 

Kylie grabbed her walking stick from the ground, and started back up the hill. Naomi quickly caught up to her, and held her other hand as they walked up and past where Asalya was still peacefully resting. Naomi let go of Kylie, and the wolf girl held her hand out until it came to rest against the magic ward. She pressed with all her strength, pushing past the bright light fighting against her, until her arm broke through.

The dome crumbled, letters over the city coming alight then turning dark and fading away to nothing. Confused noise and movement filled the city of Laryth, to the point it could be heard from the hills. Their protection against the darkness, which few knew even existed, was now gone.

Naomi said, “Shall we?”

And the four continued into the city.