Halo pulled gently on her hand, guiding her softly away from the path. He didn`t speak and Sosa found she could not. She said nothing, thought nothing. In her silence, she could hear it, some deep part of her mind that screamed.

　　Run. Run run run runrunrunrunrunrun.

　　Shut up. Halo was back. He was alive. She`d left her parents at the base of a wide darktree guarded only by the light from a bit of armour and the hope it didn`t fail, that the bodaki would not reach their bodies&

　　She shivered at the thought and gripped the small, comforting hand. Grammawe was so old, she was nearly dead anyway, she might not even survive the trip.

　　Where to? Where to, Sosa?

　　It didn`t matter. Only Halo mattered. Her brother had found somewhere to hide. He was always so good at finding the hiding places.

　　&no he wasn`t&

　　If she could help him find it again, he`d be safe from all these monsters&

　　He`s dead.

　　He might not be.

　　He`s bodaki.

　　He can`t be. He walked into the light, she could feel him touching her hand. The bodaki can`t&

　　Maybe they can if you let them. Maybe he`s something worse. Something so bad, even the bodaki fear it. So bad, even the bodaki fall silen&

　　Shut up.

　　The little voice was screaming but like a voice underwater it was drowned by the bubbles and noise of the struggle.

　　There was a thudding noise growing louder. It took far too long for Sosa to realise that it was something running and it must be coming toward her. Whatever it was appeared from the dark, didn`t stop once it hit the light - didn`t shriek or scream in pain - it kept coming right at her. It was Sosa who screamed as the thing struck her, sending her sprawling to the floor. She grasped for the small fingers, but they were torn away. The little voice returned, more shrill, more terrified than before.

　　Run. Just run.

　　Something grabbed the back of her armour and dragged her up. What are you doing you stupid girl!` The voice was accented. Even in her terror, Sosa knew the voice belonged to Eleris. Don`t just stand there!`

　　Sosa wasn`t aware she was standing, she wasn`t aware of anything, Fear crept up from the soil through her feet and set in her veins like amber. Run!` She was jerked again, a direction to match the instruction. This time, she let her legs respond of their own accord and in moments they were flying along the path.

　　Halo. She couldn`t leave&

　　It wasn`t Halo.

　　Sosa`s legs felt stiff, how long had she been standing? The light which crept through the trees hung at a very different angle than it had only a moment ago. Eleris sprinted alongside her, wasting no energy on looking back or talking.

　　Sosa had learned to run with the spear, Eleris was not so encumbered. She wore a weapon at her waist and a short bow, that also appeared to be made of metal, across her back. Sosa`s legs were stiff as if she`d been sat - or stood - for hours. Eleris was not waiting, she was fleeing. It was up to Sosa to keep up.

　　Together, they ran from it.

　　I was going to go with it, Sosa thought, I never even questioned, I was just going to go with it.

　　What& is& it?` Sosa asked, between gasps.

　　Shut up.` Eleris spat back between gulps of air. Run.`

　　Her own people must be close.

　　This way,` Eleris changed direction, taking them off the path.

　　No!` Maybe Eleris didn`t know there were survivors, or maybe she didn`t care. Sosa would not leave them defenceless against whatever this thing was. A hand hooked around the nape of her backplate and pulled her off course.

　　Stop!` she cried. Get off me! We can`t leave them.`

　　You`re going to lead it straight to Rala!` Eleris turned on her, furious.

　　Sosa matched her. I`m not going to let them die!`

　　If that thing finds Rala, no one, not your people, not mine, will be safe. Do you understand?`

　　Sosa pulled herself free of Eleris` grip and drew the sword, lowered the spear and turned to face the darkness behind them. Fine. You go. I`ll kill it.` She knew it was unlikely, but maybe she could buy them time to escape.

　　Eleris stopped and grabbed her roughly. You won`t. You can`t. It follows you to them and them to Rala. Then everybody dies.`

　　Sosa lowered her weapons about to tell Eleris how she would not let that happen. It was my brother. But he`s dead.`

　　It spoke to you?` Eleris` eyes grew wide, she took a few steps away from Sosa and spat out a word Sosa had never heard before. We need to go.` She grabbed Sosa and dragged her away from the path, away from Rala, away from the band of slowly moving refugees.

　　But&`

　　Move!`

　　Side by side the pair ran.

　　I& I think it want`s me.` Sosa called over to Eleris, who only gave a grunt, then looked behind.

　　After a short while, Eleris slowed. We can`t get too far, we need it to follow us and not your runaways. We can`t kill it, but we can try and lead it away.`

　　Can we lose it?` Sosa stared into the dark, feeling the ripples, feeling the thrum of the darkness.

　　I don`t know.`

　　It`s still coming,` Sosa said after a moment. It`s not a thing like the bodaki, is it? It`s something different.`

　　It is no beast. If it has been close enough to you to use your fear, then it has your scent. We can use that.`

　　I can feel where it is. It is coming closer.`

　　Then you feel what I cannot. Trust that instinct. Does it follow us, or them?`

　　Where Sosa had learned to feel the dark and the bodaki within, she tried to sense their pursuer and the ripples it made. It was hard to pinpoint, like a tree fallen into the stream, its ripples were too big, it was everywhere. Yet it felt like nothing, an absence, a void - one that would never be filled though it pulled on everything. The ripples were drawing closer. It was following them, but how close?

　　It follows us, I think.` If she concentrated hard& Oh, it`s&` Sosa`s eyes widened. The dark swirled and something stepped out of it.

　　It wasn`t Halo, not this time. This time Gris stepped into the light though not the Gris Sosa had met. This Gris was younger, resplendent in shining bronze armour and holding a slender spear whose tip glinted with unseen light. Slung across his back was a large round shield and at his waist his skirt hung in strips of leather each riveted with a series of overlapping bronze plates that jingled as he walked. He wore a helmet that came down to his nose, leaving open holes for his eyes, and extended upwards to a gleaming point.The author`s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

　　Sharp, bright eyes swept over Sosa and he gave the hint of a smile, but he reserved the greatest smile for Eleris.

　　Oh, Gris,` Eleris muttered and began to take a step towards him.

　　Sosa`s skin felt like someone had dripped cool water from the river on her. Bumps rose, but she was not cold; Sosa had never been cold. Eleris was walking to him.

　　Eleris! No!` Sosa was too slow. In a moment Gris was in her arms. Then she pushed him so hard he was flung back into the dark. The look of shear terror on her face almost froze Sosa, but her scream of Run!` had Sosa moving again.

　　They ran hard, rushing through endless forest until finally Sosa was panting so hard, her legs had turned numb and she tumbled to the floor. There was no complaint from Eleris who fell beside her and was looking back.

　　We can`t afford to lose it. We need it to know where we are. We need it to follow us away from Rala.`

　　Sosa looked back trying to judge anything she could. Was is close? Was it following? It was all too mixed up to know.

　　It had come this time to try and tempt Eleris, but why had it appeared as Gris? The way he`d held his arms out to her, the way she had gone to him& Wait. Just wait. It came as Gris. For me it was my brother, but to you, it was Gris.`

　　Girl, don`t. This is what it wants.`

　　To the trees with what it wants! It came to me as my brother. Why did it come to you as Gris?` Sosa felt the anger rise as she pieced together the answer for herself and slowly all else fitted around it.

　　It all made sense. The stone lodge in the woods between their two villages, the smoke, the way Eleris reacted when she saw Gris.

　　You, you two were&`

　　Yes we were. Once.` Eleris spoke softly.

　　You lit the fires as a signal. You were calling to Gris.`

　　Eleris nodded, looking through the black at something more distant. We were separated by our duty. Then I saw smoke and I knew. He built the shelter so we could still&` Eleris swallowed hard. Then he stopped coming. I assumed&` She turned her face away. I assumed he was&`

　　You didn`t come to the village to check?`

　　It was too much of a risk to leave Rala undefended, just for, just for myself. Besides, there was only one reason he didn`t come and it was because he was dead. I thought.`

　　But you kept lighting the fires.` For as long as she`d been alive Sosa had seen the smoke. For as long as Grammawe had been alive. Longer probably.

　　Eleris nodded. He was all I had. I lit the fires to remember. Maybe there was always the hope he would come back.`

　　Sosa bristled. When you came to the village to get rid of our thief, you did know he was a guardian. You& you thought he was dead and then, oh,` Sosa thought she might be sick, Oh, I can`t& you saw him again, alive, and he wasn`t dead. He just didn`t want you any more& so you& you killed us all, you told him to go and you knew you`d killed us all&` Sosa felt breathless anger well up. Eleris moved nearly faster than her eye could follow.

　　Eleris had Sosa by the throat, pushing her back until she was pressed against a tree, her face close to Sosa`s. Sosa tried to push her away but Eleris had arms as solid as tree branches and just as strong. The spear spun from Sosa`s grasp as she wrestled, but she could not break Eleris` hold.

　　Not want me? Don`t you dare tell me he didn`t want me you streak of sap. It was you!` Fury laced every word with poison. It was your people who forgot him. He wasn`t some thief! He was not some bully or some wild man who came to steal from you! He was your guardian, you were meant to look after him, you were meant to bring him tribute! But you forgot him!` The pressure of Eleris` fingers on her windpipe deepened with her anger. You exiled him, you rebelled, you chose to forget. Don`t you see what you reduced him to? You! Your people thought him no more than a thief. You did that to him.` Eleris fingers dug into Sosa`s neck and she began to choke. You did that! Reduced him to stealing what was owed.` Sosa`s eyes bulged. There was no air. She clawed at Eleris` fingers. A further jerk of the hand, How dare you say he didn`t want me. He was ashamed,` Eleris was choking on tears now, Ashamed! Ashamed of what you`d done to him, of what he`d let you do to him. He was too ashamed to let me see.`

　　Her grip finally broke as Eleris crumpled, collapsing at the foot of the tree, curling in on herself. She was gasping, sobbing, though Sosa barely noticed as she gasped for breaths of her own.

　　Sosa didn`t see the heartbroken woman, the centuries of hurt that had eaten at this immortal. She saw the monster who doomed her village, who killed her parents.

　　She drew the sword from her belt and lifted it to strike Eleris. The guardian rose up, reached out and grabbed Sosa`s wrists before she could even flinch, easily turning the weapon aside. Sosa was so driven by rage she did not see how outmatched she was.

　　We didn`t know who he was!` She pulled free and swung the sword. Eleris stepped inside the arc and grabbed her wrists again.

　　And you never asked.` Eleris twisted her hands, bending Sosa`s wrists and forcing her body to fold backwards until she buckled at the knees. She was being driven hard into the floor You forgot him, you destroyed him. You deserved to die, your whole damned village deserved to die.`

　　Sosa was kneeling pinned, wrists locked above her head. The sobbing Eleris slipped the sword from her limp fingers, flipped it around in her hands and lifted it, tip inches above Sosa`s head. She stared up at the sword tip. When it moved, she was dead.

　　Well he`s drinking himself to death now,` Sosa said, but I think that`s because of you, not us.`

　　Eleris hesitated, her eyes closing for a moment as if the words caused her pain.

　　Oh,` Sosa said, sensing the hesitation which was all that measured the length of her remaining life, and he gave me this, so obviously he hadn`t given up on us. Even though you wanted him to.`

　　Sosa flattened her chin to her chest to indicate the pendant. The sword lowered slowly and Eleris dropped to one knee, letting go of her wrists, staring at the pendant so intently that Sosa wondered if this was a mistake. What if she was wearing a gift Eleris had once given to Gris and his passing it to Sosa had not been a gift of power and of life, but a death sentence? What if he knew Eleris would see the pendant and kill whoever wore it?

　　Eleris` hand closed over it and then pushed it back in place at Sosa`s chest.

　　You`re a guardian now, girl,` she said simply, then stood and tossed the sword back in Sosa`s lap. Sosa fell backwards, and lay on the earth doing nothing but breathing. It didn`t feel like she had in a while.

　　Eleris stared out into the blackness, her back to Sosa. There was anger still, but Sosa felt a clarity settle. Perhaps being so close to death did that to a person.

　　My people. They need shelter.`

　　There was a slow bitter laugh. I ought to feed them to the bodaki. Your people reek of fear. Quite the banquet they make. I`ve never seen so many of those things together. At least I know why now. And your people are taking them to my village. Them and this thing.`

　　Eleris was right. Sosa searched the dark and there were hordes of bodaki, all following the survivors as they crawled towards Rala. The thing was still out there, but she was too shaken to see where.

　　Sosa saw her own hatred mirrored in Eleris` eyes. You have brought destruction to my village. They gather and soon it will only have to follow their call to find us.`

　　No,` Sosa said. She could not let another village burn. It followed me here, it will follow me away.`

　　You cannot fight it.`

　　I don`t need to.` Sosa looked at Eleris, swallowing down on her anger, trying not to think of her parents propped against a tree surrounded by slavering bodaki. If my people are safe. If I know my people are safe,` she looked at Eleris, I could lead it away.`

　　Eleris looked at her a long time, her face unmoving, hiding all her thoughts. Then she nodded, slowly. Fine. You take it far from here and I will tend to your people.`

　　Do you promise? You will let them into Rala?`

　　I would not lie.`

　　Swear it.`

　　I never lied to you.`

　　You deceived us. Swear it.`

　　I swear upon Rala-ki.`

　　Sosa closed her eyes. She could feel the armour, feel her grammawe, feel the other pieces and their bearers. If you kill them, I will know. And I will lead it to Rala and let it destroy every single one of you.`

　　Eleris nodded. I swear it.` She glanced out at the dark. We don`t have much time.`

　　Please tell my grammawe that I love her and I`m sorry I couldn`t save her son. Tell her& Tell her I`m sorry.

　　Eleris looked down. Was it regret? Sadness? She nodded.

　　You need to draw the bodaki off as well or it will just follow them to Rala instead.` Sosa looked grimly into the dark. Eleris held out a hand, and grasped Sosa`s wrist. Good luck,` she said. Take this.` Eleris pulled her bow and handed it to Sosa. It was metallic in colour and feel, but far lighter than it should have been. While Sosa held it, Eleris strapped the harness to her that could hold the bow and a quiver of arrows. As she worked she didn`t look at Sosa. Keep moving. Don`t lose it, but don`t let it get close. Don`t stop.` Finally she looked into Sosa`s eyes. You can`t ever stop, understand? Not if you want to go on living.`

　　Sosa nodded, but she didn`t, not really.

　　But, how far do I need to take it?`

　　Eleris looked at her but didn`t answer. Sosa felt panic rise.

　　What is it?`

　　Eleris still did not answer her. Can you shoot this?` she said instead, strapping the bow to the harness.

　　Starting to feel numb, Sosa nodded. Her breathing grew faster. She was going to throw up. It had been Halo and she`d nearly gone with it. What would it be next? What would it do to her, alone in the forest?

　　She had no choice. She had to do this for her village. Sosa took hold of Eleris` shoulders. I can feel them, my people. If I think for one moment you have harmed them, ever, I will bring it right back here, do you understand?`

　　Eleris looked at her, grimly. I will keep my word. But if I ever see you again, I will kill you.`

　　Something nudged against the dark at their backs. Both of them felt it and exchanged a nod. They`d made their agreements and their promises. It was up to the people and Eleris now, to make it work. She had to keep her part of this bargain.

　　Tell Grammawe what I told you.`

　　I will.`

　　She,` Sosa shook her head feeling tears well and threaten to choke her. She might not&` Sosa swallowed, She might not remember me.`

　　Eleris nodded as if it didn`t matter. Sosa supposed it didn`t.

　　Take it away, keep it far from here and your people will be safe. I promise.`

　　Sosa nodded. I`ll lead it away. The bodaki too. I`ll get their attention.`

　　Ahead, something sent ripples through the dark. Without looking back, Sosa ran towards it.