“Of these ancients, little is known. Perhaps that is for the better.”

—Historian Kalma Nereyda in a letter to Professor of History Inkhai Solmun discussing prehistory

 

Zaina stood in a world of pure shadow. She groaned and grabbed her head. The gnashing voices were back and louder than before, fading in and out, repeating themselves and crisscrossing each other.

Don’t you want to stay forever, Zaina?

Don’t you want to live forever?

We can keep your memories of this world intact…

All of it, forever…

A whole world, just for you…

The helplessness, the cacophony of voices, and the infinite darkness only fueled the anger taking hold within. A surge of heat rushed her body, followed by a wave of energy—the sensation made her feel powerful, like she wanted to make something bleed.

A growl escaped her lips. She closed her eyes and focused on moving a single finger, then moved her hand, and finally her entire arm—with pure will, she broke free.

The hatred buried within was satiated for the moment. Two-dye Tohm was pulling at Beni’s arm—his head was still trapped inside the dark, tentacle-like shadow, his body completely stiff. The other guards were madly firing off rounds from their birifles, joined by the Demelia Defense Force squad, but their barrages of explosive scrap beads were having no effect. The shadow was spreading.

Another swarm of heat inside her body almost made her collapse; she stumbled as a ravenous desire to kill, suffused with red-hot malice, surfaced. She shook her head—this wasn’t her. It wasn’t possible; she had never wanted to hurt anyone in her life. Her fingers curled into fists as she gritted her teeth and forced her body and mind to ignore the strange sensation.

Zaina glanced toward the hovering lights ascending in the distance—two of the buzzards were taking off. Her family was likely still in a grounded transport, given her father’s pace. She turned back—Beni’s head was emerging from the shadows, but it was—wrong. His eyes were red and had deep, black marks around them. He crumpled to one knee once the shadow released him.

Two-dye Tohm stooped down to help his friend. “B—Beni? Are you all right?”

One of Beni’s hands surged forward, clamping onto Tohm’s shoulder. Two-dye Tohm helped him stand, but once they were up, deep echoing chuckles emanated from Beni. Even through the hyper-glass covering his eyes, malice burned in his gaze.

Two-dye was trying to pull Beni’s hand away. “Beni? You can let go now. Beni—BENI!”

“Beni, stop!” Zaina took a step forward, reaching out to help.

Beni gripped Tohm’s neck with his other hand. With a growl, he pulled, prying Two-dye Tohm apart. With a succession of fleshy cracks, his head, spine, and half his torso were ripped from the rest of his body, splattering Tohm’s insides on the town circle pavement. The broken corpse’s halves were dropped, landing with a wet thump on the street.

“No!” Zaina cried out. “What the fuck!?”

Beni tore the metal mask from his face and ripped it in two as easily as he had his friend. For a moment he appeared lucid, his head moving to and fro in shock, horror flashing in his gaze. He winced and put a hand over one eye—then, darkness swept over him again. A smile crept across his face as he turned to Zaina.

Beni extended his arm toward her—ash swirled from the air and formed a black sword in his grasp. With a wolfish smile, he turned and charged toward the guards, still distracted by the floating phantasmal shadow. Zaina tried to shout a warning, but it was too late—Beni was too fast.

He fell on the Demelia Defense Force, still facing the shadow, and split the first from head-to-toe with one stroke, then beheaded the next mid-scream; the rest turned and fired off panicked salvos, but Beni easily evaded them.

“Heretic! Heret—rgh—” one shouted a second before her head was pierced with a metallic squish.

In seconds, all eleven of Demelia’s defenders were dead, their bodies broken into pieces on the crimson-stained street. Beni was alternating between deep breaths and disbelieving laughter, his entire body showered in fresh blood. Zaina’s mind was swamped, unable to see beyond the gruesome scene before her. And then rising within her in a flood of rage, the murderous urge returned.

Hands trembling, Zaina raised her father’s scrapshot and pointed it at Beni’s back. As if sensing her movements, he straightened up and turned to her, glaring at the weapon in her hands.

Many voices spoke in unison as his lips moved. “Zaina.”

Pin-pricks ran up and down the inside of Zaina’s skin as innumerable speakers uttered her name.

He stretched a hand out in invitation and said, “You hear the whispers, too—don’t you? You feel it, that burning, that—”

She took a step back, the scrapshot still trained on Beni. “Wh—what, Beni—Beni, stop—”

“It must be painful to resist. Why fight it? The oldest secrets of the galaxy are flowing through my veins—you have to let it in. It’s intoxicating.”

Zaina’s mouth opened in terror. The shadowy creature was spreading, twitching, and writhing outward. With no chance in a fight, Zaina fired off both beads in her scrapshot’s dual-barreled chambers, then turned and ran.

A chorus of haunting laughter mocked her efforts. She sprinted toward the rising craft, cutting through smoke-filled alleyways and fenced backyards. She tripped over some wooden debris, but quickly regained her balance and kept pushing on toward the lights rising in the distance.

Finally, she emerged in a clearing where the haze thinned. Awaiting her there were two buzzards—massive, elongated, gunmetal gray transports with engines humming to either side of the craft’s hull. There they were—her mother was helping her father onto the last grounded ship as the third made its ascent. The ship’s blinding lights were Zaina’s salvation.

Icy fingers of shock wrapped around her heart as a familiar noise came from behind.

It was Beni’s voice, his normal voice, calling her name. She froze in place and turned. Beni was standing there, his hand outstretched.

In multiple voices, he said, “Come to the Hollow, Zaina.”

Her stomach turned. What the hell happened to him?

Worse, the ethereal shadow was nearing, its core hovering over Beni’s shoulder as the edges spread toward Zaina and the transport.

Her head whipped back to the still-grounded buzzard, then toward Beni and the hovering black mass. The ship needed to leave a minute ago—Zaina didn’t know if the shadow could destroy a buzzard and didn’t want to find out.

The shadow lurched, expanding toward Zaina. She recoiled, bracing herself with a grimace. It seemed more interested in her than the evacuees. That was something to work with. There wasn’t time for everyone.

I’m sorry, Mom—Dad. Take care of Deril, Elanta, Dessa—and Kitali.

Zaina chambered two more beads. With a growl and two sharp cracks, she fired a round at Beni and a round at the shadow creature, then pivoted and ran back toward Ildegor’s outskirts, shouting all the way.

The whispers were back to an annoying buzz in her brain, making chills crawl up her back. They came from every direction, chanting her name. “Zaina, Zaina, Zaina…”

Short of breath from her panicked sprint, Zaina ripped the mask off her face and attached it to her utility belt. She glanced over her shoulder—the cloak of shadows and Beni were nearing, and the last transport’s lights were smoothly rising into the blackened skies—they’d made it. With her course set, she sped up, shaking tears out of her eyes.

Her family was safe. All that was left now was to run for her life from the howling darkness.

She caught a glimpse of black fur in her peripheral vision and turned. Kitali pulled up beside her, struggling to keep pace and yipping in concern. Zaina’s heart skipped a beat, her core filling with terror. Had the limphor jumped out to follow her?

“No, Kitali! Dammit! No—” Turning back to see the chasing shadow, Zaina changed her mind. “Stay with me, Kitali! Keep up! Keep up, girl!”

The limphor didn’t need to be told twice. As if sensing the evil behind them, she sprinted alongside Zaina without looking back.

Straight ahead was the edge of town, and beyond that, the forest. If she could lead the creature there, everything would be all right. The light—the light from before, if she made it to the light—

Zaina’s legs burned, but she pressed on. As she arrived at the edge of the forest, her seeming safe haven, she peeked over her shoulder. The ethereal shadow was twisting away, doubling back toward the impact site; Beni was still chasing her, but he wasn’t moving as fast as before—as if allowing her to get away.

The arguing voices were more like shouts now, drowning out Kitali’s pants and whines. Zaina shook every doubt out of her mind and charged straight into the forest. The trees were in verdant bloom, covering nearly every inch of the forest floor in shadow—perfect cover for hiding.

Zaina hopped over a few overgrown tree roots and jumped over a small stream, then slid down a short incline. She and Kitali ducked under a large nest of tree roots covering a small burrow at the tree’s base—the perfect spot. Rubbing the fuzzy underside of the limphor’s long, curved jaw to make sure she stayed silent, Zaina tucked her cloak out of view and hid.

Her own voice again turned against her in her thoughts.

Come, Zaina.

You don’t have to leave this world. It can all be for you, forever.

Come to the Hollow.

The light shuffling of feet on the forest floor grew closer. Zaina slapped a hand over her mouth. Beni’s shouts swept through the forest like a river of curses.

“I know you hear it, Zaina.”

The swarm of voices made her hair stand on end and sent waves of cold through her body. What the hell did Beni and this thing want with her, anyway?

His voice rang out again. “What did it promise you? An infinite lifespan? Endless power? A seat at the Shining Will’s hand when all life returns to darkness?”

Zaina grimaced, her free hand massaging her pounding temples—the voices flooding her brain were threatening to burst out.

“Why do you resist, Zaina? You, a mere mortal, cannot hope to defy the Shining Spirit. It’s coursing through my veins, like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Breaking me apart and putting me back together stronger every second. Why are you so afraid to be made better—to be improved?”

There were so many things she wanted to shout back at him, but she kept her tongue. Kitali, however, loosed a whine. Zaina’s heart roared into overdrive, and she stumbled to her feet and ran away as fast as she could. Kitali was right beside her, and Beni’s pursuit resumed.

Time blurred into one panicked moment. Her legs went through phases of aching, being hit by searing pain, going numb, regaining strength, and then aching once more. She fought against her body wanting to throw up or collapse.

The winding forest path thinned until it disappeared—the trees of the deep forest were twisted and curved, and had many roots above the surface. Zaina lost count of the times she banged her shoulder against a trunk or caught her foot in a twisting root. She was well beyond the furthest point she’d ever been. Shadow hung over everything, and mad laughter called from the branches.

Way past the limits of her endurance, Zaina sprinted with Kitali panting by her side. Then, as if parting the heavens themselves, a beam of light broke out up ahead—the end of the forest! She ignored the fire in her lungs, focusing everything on the glowing exit. She didn’t know why, but she knew it held the key to her salvation.

As Zaina cleared the treeline, she tripped and fell onto her chest—Kitali stopped right beside her, and not a moment too soon. At the edge of the forest was a cliff descending down to a lower level of green, fertile plateaus. Something else was there, too—something beautifully unnatural.

Light stretched before her—was it light? It moved like gently-flapping fabric in a soft breeze. At first glance it seemed solid, but upon closer inspection turned out to be more like a torn section of a gossamer grid made of luminescent string, barely large enough for the eye to catch; colors changed and connections altered at will. It was indescribable—her mind didn’t bother to try. Instead, her eyes widened and she reached out as the strange, glimmering material pulsed. The light swallowed Zaina.