Kala followed the hearthmaster into the hut. It housed tools but was clearly lived in, probably more than Roo`s own hut.

　　I`ll tell you now, I don`t think we can melt it. But we can try, if you like.`

　　Kala shook her head. Do you know what it is?`

　　I`d say you clearly do.` Roo picked it up and flipped the leather straps.

　　I was just trying them, I was wondering if that was, I don`t know really, it was just&` Kala didn`t want to bring the old woman into this and get her into trouble as well.

　　Roo laughed. Calm down. There`s loads of these knocking about. They`re useless. It wouldn`t even make a decent shovel. Too curved to make a decent plate, not curved enough to be a bowl. You could wear it, but why make yourself hot and have everyone think you`re breaking fadi?` Roo threw the linen cover over it dismissively. Just take it home and hide like the others do. Bury it if you want, but somehow that seems worse than just hiding it.`

　　So it was true. And likely every hearthmaster for generations had reached the same conclusion.

　　I`m busy. I`ve got scrap to melt.`

　　Wait. Please. There are other pieces?`

　　Every time someone old passes away, I wait. Often times something like this shows up in the hands of a worried relative. All I know is they don`t melt. For that, they`d make fine crucibles if I could only reshape them, but I can`t do that either.`

　　It`s armour, isn`t it?`

　　Roo shrugged. Looks like.`

　　Do you know where the other bits are?`

　　I will keep your little secret,` Roo said, in the same way I will keep theirs. I won`t tell anyone anything and certainly not for the record.`

　　Kala was both elated and deflated. There was more of this, much more.

　　It`s important.`

　　It always is. And it sounds like a story my fire doesn`t have the patience to hear.` She nodded to the door and the hearth outside which ate through its fuel.

　　Will you tell me what you have seen? Like, what pieces?` Kala asked.

　　Roo stared at her a long time. Most folk, rush home to pretend none of it ever happened. Not you, though. You`re not going away, are you?` Roo sighed. Fine. Wait here.`

　　The hearthmaster called over the other hearther and gave her instructions pointing to her own hearth and the piles of broken tools.

　　The watching youngsters cheered at the prospect of helping melt the scrap.

　　Roo returned. Lucky for you we`ve eager helpers today. Everyone seems to enjoy melting things.` Checking no one was watching, Roo dug a sheet from the bottom of a box and unfolded it.

　　You can write?` There were drawings but words also beside some of them. Roo just grunted.

　　The sheet had one corner missing. In the centre was a large sketch in sharpened charcoal and others, much smaller, added after. Barely legible notes surrounded them all.

　　They were a jumble of shapes, some had an organic swirling pattern, like the piece Kala currently held.

　　Every time someone brings me a new one, I make a little drawing of it. Reckon I must have seen nearly all of it by now. I`ve often wanted to redraw them all in the right places.`

　　Do you mind if I do?`

　　Roo shrugged and fetched a fresh sheet. She sat and watched the chronicler work with interest. There were two large pieces at the centre that would cover a torso front and back. The other parts were just like Kala`s but in a variety of shapes depending on the body part they were intended to cover. She redrew each one roughly in place on an imagined person.

　　Kala tapped a finger on the large breast plate. Someone has that?`

　　Roo nodded tapping Kala`s sketch. Your bit goes there, I saw another just like it.` She tapped her own forearm. Must be the other arm.`

　　Roo took the sheet from Kala and filled in faint approximations of the missing parts, until a complete suit of armour was detailed in front of them.

　　So where did you find yours?` Roo asked.

　　It belonged to Talon`s father,` Kala lied.

　　Ah.` Roo`s knowing smirk was becoming annoying.

　　Could you get these together do you think, if you really needed to? You still know where they are?`

　　Well, it isn`t something that ever gets spoken about again. Most people won`t throw it away. At least keeping it might be useful, but burying it or throwing it in the forest walks a little too close to fadi for some. So, yes, I could probably find all these again.`

　　Is it possible some of the gaps could be with people who haven`t come forwards? Or maybe they approached other hearthers instead of you?` Kala knew Talon had only shown the spear to Devon.

　　That smirk again, this time breaking into a smile. Oh, all these pieces didn`t necessarily come to me. If anything comes to my hearthers, I still know about it. There`s no secrets from Roo.` Roo`s fingers touched the missing corner of her original drawings, and Kala realised it was not missing, but folded over. Kala stiffened as Roo straightened the corner to reveal a sketch of a spearhead.

　　The hearthmaster laughed. Talon brought this to Devon a little before Gris got him. I thought maybe you`d found it in Talon`s things and that`s what you`d brought me& well you`d be surprised how many times I see the same piece show up with a different family member before it goes back into a new hiding place. Looks like you`ve been looking elsewhere.` Roo waved her hand as if dismissing Kala`s stuttered excuses. I don`t care, don`t worry. You don`t need to tell me where this piece really came from. It doesn`t matter.` She chuckled again. But now we`re best friends, you can tell me something.`

　　Kala stared warily at the hearthmaster.

　　What are you and Talon up to? He`s not on the field and I know it`s him who got my hearthsman killed.` Roo raised her hands to stop Kala, who began to take a deep breath, Devon wasn`t stupid and he wouldn`t have followed Talon somewhere dangerous for no reason. Devon was a grown man and could make his own stupid mistakes, but Talon shows up with this spear and the next thing is your son gets lost with the ki, an outsider turns up and then four villagers get murdered followed by the chief. Then here you come, not with the spear, but with a piece of the armour and you`re not looking to melt it, no, no, you`re looking for all its friends.`

　　Roo sat back, letting Kala consider and watching her panic. The hearthmaster`s laugh was becoming reassuring. I`m not going to drag you to the council, but when you ask me if I could find this armour if I needed to, I suspect you`re going to need me to sooner rather than later. Am I right?` Roo leaned in, serious and imposing. I`m a hearther. I don`t work in the dark, Kala. Not for the Elders. Not for the chronicler. Understand?`

　　Kala considered her carefully. She needed allies it was true, but choosing them wasn`t that easy. Can I trust you?`

　　Depends. Are you up to something interesting? I know Devon made a bunch of spearheads without me knowing. Badly. I mean the spearheads were fine, he`s just not very good at keeping secrets.`

　　Roo hadn`t immediately reported that to the Elders had she?

　　Was she ready to take more risks?

　　Kala nodded and looked at the floor. Devon went with a small group to try and bring Gris back, to arrest him for what he did to my son and for all the other crimes he`s committed. The attacks, the stealing. People are tired of it and Halo was the very final straw, but no one was going to do anything until Talon decided to.`

　　Ah. More than they could handle, was he?` Roo asked, grimly.

　　Kala nodded. He controlled the dark and the bodaki in it.`

　　Roo looked alarmed. What?`

　　He`s more dangerous than we know. And I think he`s old. Like really old. We thought there might be a family out there, but there isn`t. It`s just him, it always has been.` Kala let Roo absorb this, the hearthmasters head slowly shaking.

　　But the council has just decided to do nothing and hope he`ll leave us alone in kind, right?`

　　Kala nodded. They`re afraid. I can`t blame them. If he really is this dangerous then we don`t have anything we can fight him with. Except&`

　　Except you think the armour could help.` Roo sat back in final realisation. So who is going to wear it?` She looked doubtfully at Kala. And are they stupid enough to think wearing this automatically makes them a warrior?`

　　Oh, it`s more than just armour. Well, I hope so. That`s what I need to find out.`

　　Roo picked up the arm plate and looked at it. Well, there`s no doubting it`s special, somehow. But you think it has some power?`

　　The spear does.` Kala looked Roo in the eye. Why don`t you try and get another piece. We can test them and I can show you.`

　　But we have two pieces, assuming you have the spear, still. right?` Roo looked at her.

　　Kala kept her face still, her mouth firmly closed.

　　Alright.` Roo grinned at her. She looked as excited as the children who were melting a scythe on the master`s hearth. Why can`t we use the spear?`

　　Well&` Kala`s eyes grew wide.

　　Roo roared with laughter. Making Kala uncomfortable seemed to be her new favourite sport. I don`t want to know. I`ll find us another piece.`

　　Great,` Kala said. Then thinking about the smothering dark that hunkered under the darktree`s canopy, she muttered, Yeah. Great.`If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

　　Wait here,` Roo said.

　　What? You mean now?`

　　Roo shrugged and in a matter of minutes she was back with a piece just like Kala`s but more suited to fitting on a shin. Kala would have preferred to go at night where no one would see them, but Roo didn`t seem to be so patient.

　　We`ll go down to the wood store,` the hearthmaster shrugged. If anyone asks me, I`m fetching wood and drafted you in to help, given that my only other assistant today is grot sitting.` She nodded over at the group of youngsters gathered around the woman who worked her hearth. No one will see where we go from there. You sure this will work?`

　　The spearhead worked. Talon said it pushed the dark away. And the bodaki. I`ve not tried anything else though. I suppose we`ll see.`

　　They walked to the edge of the village and then entered the trees as far as they dared and approached the dark. In the daylight they had to go uncomfortably deep into the trees to reach it, but when they did Kala saw it swirl like sitting smoke caught on someone`s breath.

　　Look,` Roo pointed excitedly. It is, it`s going away. Ale-ki, I`ve never been so close to it, never realised how much it moves. Never realised how much you can see it when you really look. It gives me the creeps.`

　　Kala stared at it. She`d let her husband and daughter, her only child now, go off into that stuff. It was hard to imagine a situation where they might come back.

　　We should split up.` Roo whispered.

　　No.` Kala blurted out before she could stop herself. I mean no point taking unnecessary risks.`

　　Roo smirked at her. Scared?`

　　Terrified. If you`re not then there`s something wrong with you.`

　　Okay, stay there. I just want to see if these things work on their own.` Roo sidled slowly away from Kala and the dark receded from her. Kala realised her own bubble was beginning to close in.

　　No! Wait!` she called after Roo, I don`t think mine works!`

　　It does, look.` Roo stopped and the dark settled once more against whatever force the pieces of armour emitted.

　　The bubble had indeed reformed around Kala, but smaller. Okay good. It works. But they`re stronger together, looks like. We can assume then all the other bits probably do too.`

　　Oh!` Roo sounded like an excited child awaiting a gift. Just think what effect all of them would have together! You could go in,` Roo nodded into the trees, and there would be nothing to fear.`

　　Kala disagreed.

　　Something in the dark made it swirl and only a few paces from Roo. Kala let out a short, involuntary scream. The smile dropped from Roo`s face and she danced backwards away from the thing. The dark followed her and so did the hidden thing within, they could hear it disturbing the undergrowth.

　　Roo gave a little screech of her own.

　　Run!` Kala shouted.

　　They ran.

　　Some large bulk began to crash through the foliage, snapping old branches and crushing plants, feet beating against the floor like a drum. Kala fancied she could feel breath brushing her bare back and gave another yelp. They broke out of the trees and the sounds of pursuit stopped, but the women did not slow until they were safely back by the woodstore where they collapsed gasping for breath.

　　Roo`s face was hidden in her hands. Was she crying? Kala scooted over and touched her on the shoulder. Roo turned, her eyes red, and Kala realised.

　　Not crying. The hearthmaster was laughing.

　　What`s so funny?`

　　You nearly got eaten.` Roo collapsed into giggles.

　　That`s not funny!` Kala punched the much larger woman on a muscular shoulder. It was like hitting a leather covered rock. Why is that funny?`

　　Roo stopped and thought, then offered, I nearly got eaten too,` as if it stood in explanation. Then she burst out laughing again. Kala watched her wide eyed. It only took a moment before she was giggling like a child as well. It was the first time she`d laughed since& in a while.

　　Roo clapped a hand on Kala`s shoulder and Kala felt herself being driven ever so slightly into the ground. You take these. I`ll find what others I can. Keep them covered though.`

　　Kala was tired. She missed her husband. She missed her daughter. She missed Halo with a hollowness so deep it physically hurt. She`d worked hard and while she had achieved much, there was so much more to do. Having Roo involved was good, but at the same time troubling.

　　When she got back to her own hut, there was a cooking fire already lit outside.

　　Sometimes when Grammawe cooked for them, it was only water, but this time it smelled good.

　　Talon will be back from the field soon,` Grammawe said as she stirred. I cooked enough for everyone.`

　　Kala just nodded, smiled kindly at the old woman, but inside she felt more lonely than ever.

　　Where is Halo? He hasn`t come to see me in a while.`

　　Kala was too exhausted to hold back the tears. A moment ago she`d been laughing. What sort of monster was she? She turned her head away so Grammawe would not ask about her tears.

　　Sosa is such a good girl, she still comes to see me. She can read you know?`

　　I know.` Kala managed. You taught her, remember? Like you taught me?`

　　Kala found somewhere to hide the bits of armour, then sat and realised she still had the rolled sheet with her sketch tucked into the belt of her skirt. She opened it out and looked at all the bits Roo said she could find. Would they make any difference to all this, she wondered? If they had power over the dark and Gris truly weilded the dark himself, then surely it had to help?

　　What if, after all this, she never saw Talon or Sosa again? She`d live here with Grammawe until they both slowly went insane.

　　Gris.`

　　Kala looked around, unsure if anyone had spoken. Grammawe?`

　　Talon`s mother had wandered in and nodded her head towards the picture. That looks like Gris.`

　　Kala shook her head. She felt sorry for Talon`s mother, but her patience ran out sometimes. No, it doesn`t look anything like anyone.`

　　From a distance, when properly arranged, it did look like a person of course, one without hands or feet or face. Clearly Grammawe had Gris on her mind.

　　Grammawe took the sheet from her. Yes,` she said. I saw a picture of Gris. It looked like that.`

　　Oh Grammawe, how could you have seen a picture of Gris? We`re not allowed to look at the record since it got burned in the fire and since then it`s been fadi to mention Gris. There aren`t any pictures of him in there.`

　　Grammawe wasn`t really listening to her. I remember the swirls.` Her finger was tracing the faint pattern that Kala had drawn on only a couple of the pieces. She walked toward the door where there was more light.

　　Grammawe? How have you seen a picture like this one? And how can it have been Gris?`

　　The old woman shook her head, already moving on. We burned it. My mmawe said it was not allowed. When she was teaching me to read we found it hidden. We burned it because it was fadi.` Grammawe stepped out through the door and dropped Kala`s picture onto the cooking fire. It flared, rose up and tried to fly away. Before Kala could reach it there was only ash floating through the air.

　　Grammawe!` she scolded finally. You nearly brought the whole place down.`

　　Grammawe began to spoon food into bowls and ushered Kala inside. Come inside so we can eat. The others can eat when they come home.`

　　Kala sighed and took a bowl. Grammawe`s words troubled her. Why would the picture of the armour make her think of Gris? The old woman who gave her the metal plate said Gris had once traded it. What if it had been his? What if all the pieces had been his? What would it mean? Kala wished she could look at the picture again, but it wouldn`t really help. It was probably safer if it burned, anyway. All that mattered were the pieces Roo could find and if they could put them together before Talon and Sosa returned.

　　Because they would return. They would.

　　Kala sat out by the remains of the cooking fire watching the smoke dance ragged lines in the rising bluster. There was a storm coming, the sky shouted it. Talon and Sosa would be out there in it. Somewhere.

　　She rested her head against her knees, resolving to go and find Roo, but exhaustion crept up in the smoke. She dozed finding no rest among dreams that came in little more than awful moments snatched away by the wind to be replaced with another. Finally when the nightmares were done tormenting her, they shocked her awake leaving her confused, trying to remember which of her children were still alive.

　　As far as you know.

　　Grammawe was gone and not wishing to be alone, Kala left in search of the the old woman, the hearthmaster, anyone. Maybe after a walk, she would feel composed enough to continue her quest for information about Gris.

　　Wind pulled at her skirt and hair, at the branches and leaves of the banefruit and waternut trees dotted around the village. She tried to imagine what it would be like to be among the hideous darktrees jerking in the squall. It made her feel ill.

　　Tears welled up hot in her eyes. Talon and Sosa had left, fled more like, in darkness. Night had fallen once and it was about to fall again.

　　How many more times will the sun be swallowed over the forest canopy before you stop waiting for them to return?

　　In the distance, piercing even the rising storm, a bodaki screamed, clear and shrill.

　　Doesn`t sound right. It was too close for bodaki, too human. Kala was already running before she realised why, driven by a reflex of dread, far faster than any reasoned thought.

　　Windswept villagers clustered closer to each other and stared at the market. Their goods, mostly piled by the end of the day for removal, were being picked up and scattered by the rising wind. Normally Gris had some space when he appeared, but the villagers fled as far from the man who had murdered a chief and was responsible for the death`s of five others as they could.

　　Kala`s legs stiffened, refusing to move, to carry her away, to save her. Why had she run out here?

　　Because you thought it was Talon and Sosa returned. But it isn`t.

　　No, she thought, no it is the man who has come to kill me for daring speak of challenging him.

　　Gris bent to some small tool among a display of wares forged freshly in the hearths, examined it, put it back, unaware, or perhaps uncaring of the tumult. He might have passed for any older villager, simply out looking for something among the displayed wares. Perhaps it was how the wind was tugging at the mess of grey hair and the straggle of his beard, but he looked suddenly very old to Kala, almost frail. If he`d been someone`s father, she would have expected him to be collected and led out of the weather to the safety of a hut. He eased stifly up from his knees and ambled further through the windswept items. He wasn`t killing anyone.

　　He wasn`t coming for Kala.

　　Maybe it would change if he saw her. She began to back away but for the first time she realised that most faces around the market were no longer staring at the murderer, but in the opposite direction. Kala turned to see what held them so rapped.

　　Waling from the trees towards the centre of the village was Talon.

　　He was tired breathing hard and covered in cuts, grazes and marks that weren`t there the last time she saw him. An involuntary breath dragged shakily into her chest, her throat closed on it and for a moment, or for an eternity, her heart refused to beat.

　　Where is Sosa?

　　When Sosa stepped out from behind Talon, Kala`s breath exploded in a shout of pure joy. Kala wanted to run to them, but her legs turned to rope, her feet felt stuck in deep mud. and all she could do was reach out with shuddering hands. It didn`t matter. With light shining from her face, Sosa bounded to her mother`s arms and Kala had no choice but to weep as she grasped the hair and skin of the girl she thought she`d never see again. Why had she let them go? Why had she even considered the idea?

　　Talon came a moment later and Kala crumpled to her knees with them both in her arms. Tears mixed, babbling words crossed and Kala let the absolute hell of the last few days flow out of her with every drop. She forgot everything. She forgot her many conversations about Gris, the armour, Roo, the reason why they`d even gone away, all of it, none of it mattered not one bit of it mattered. They were here, they were back and nothing in this world was going to take them away from her again.

　　Words were no longer an option for Kala, her near miss with unfathomable grief overwhelmed her and she held them both and listened to them clamour over each other, each standing on the mountain of the other`s excitement.

　　Slow down, slow down!` she said eventually when she could follow no more of their incoherence. She held Talon out at arms length to look at him.

　　He pulled her back to her feet and looked hard into her eyes. We did it, we found Ego`s guardian. We convinced her to come.`

　　You made it? To Ego`s village?` Kala and Roo had stepped into the forest for only a few moments and been so afraid. Talon and Sosa had been out in the forest, deep in the forest, with the screaming of the bodaki, with whatever had made her and Roo flee for their lives. Talon and Sosa had been out there with those things. With all those things and with Ale-ki only knew what else. She wasn`t ready. Her stomach heaved, but she gritted her teeth to keep from throwing up. She hadn`t found Roo, they hadn`t gathered all the armour, not found out enough secrets about Gris. Kala realised she`d ever thought about running out of time simply because she never expected to see them again. She was going to let them down. She already had. I have to find Roo, she`s got the armour.` Maybe they wouldn`t need it now, but Kala`s thoughts were clattering as if the wind was chasing them about in her head, to fast to hold on to.

　　What?` Talon asked, confused.

　　She swallowed and made herself slow. Too much to explain now, I have to&` but her eyes drifted over Talon`s shoulder and she stopped, her hands dropping away from her husband. Too many things fell into place, too many to see them all, too many to understand them all.

　　Too many things.

　　Behind Talon walked the drawing she and Roo had made, the drawing Grammawe had burned, except this time it was coloured. This time it shone in sparkling bronze far brighter than any charcoal drawing, and this time there were not gaps between the pieces. There were arms and legs and feet and a head. Her drawing had come to life and it was walking towards her.

　　The woman behind Talon was beautiful, tall, muscular. Long hair flowed from beneath a shining bronze helmet, something that had been missing from her sketch. A large plate of the same metal covered her torso, etched with a whirling pattern of curls and another matched it on her back. Smaller plates covered every length of arm and leg and they glittered as if catching a clear noon sun, not this pre-storm murk.

　　Kala looked in horror at Talon, still seeing Grammawe pointing at the picture and uttering the name.

　　Gris&

　　Oh Talon,` her breathless words barely made it over the sound of the wind. She wanted to go on. We`ve made a mistake she wanted to say, I think this is a terrible mistake, but the woman who shone like golden embers looked at her and the woman`s ancient eyes stole all Kala`s breath and with it her words.