The trees didn't welcome our light. Jenny's spell haunted us through those branches, casting shadows that had our eyes looking off into every corner, expecting to see something that was never quite there. All the while, whatever fears the other two may have had swirling in their heads, my mind tracked the things behind us, whatever they were. I only hoped they were behind us, and now I was putting some distance from the wagon.

A knot settled into my stomach at the thought of leaving the horses, but, I reasoned, they should have survived. It was just the dark, after all. Horses were a valuable resource to humans and Kindred alike. Our wagon was filled with food and supplies. They would keep it, use it, and keep the horses alive.

Right?

But that shiver down my spine told me another story. That the horses were already dead, and I had left them to die in the dark, lonely and cold.

"Eskir, knock it off."

"I can't see!" He had been stepping on her heels as we walked, trying to get closer to the light. A thump sounded from below, and I shot my hand out to his shoulder. Eskir had tripped on a root and nearly fallen straight into Jenny.

"Learn to walk," she spat.

"Learn to cast a spell properly."

I smacked Eskir on the back of the head, took a large step forward, and did the same to Jenny. "Behave," I said. "Are you two trying to get us killed?"

"I can't help it when I get nervous," said Eskir. Jenny didn't speak, but I saw the frame of her shoulders tense up.

"You can and you will. Both of you. Whoever cast this Hunak was not playing around, and something's out there. Shut up, watch where you're putting your feet, and walk."

"What is it?" asked Eskir, gesturing behind us in the same direction I kept glancing, dreading I'd see or sense something in the abyss of the forest. In a way, it would have been reassuring if I had. The dark was an endless ocean, and we were blinded by the depths.

I gave him a stern look. He could only barely see it in what little light we had, but he clamped his mouth shut and looked back towards Jenny's light.

I knew so little about magic, but from what I remembered from Lyana's lessons about Hunak, they were probably shades. Manifestations of the spell. Not sentient beings, but byproducts, like an infection. They weren't hunting us, not really. Not intentionally. They had no intentions, no more than a tornado intended to bash your head against the rocks.

And I was caught with two bickering children, drawing in the unconscious ire of the shades.

Even with their reluctant silence, the walk dragged on for an eternity. We had no destination, and the faint light gave us no direction. Normally, I could tell which way was north quite easily. I used to carry a compass while escorting Lyana, but it was rarely essential. But now, my instincts pulled up nothing at all. We were aimless and lost.

And it was only after hours that the shades finally moved.

"Xera, I think I hear something," said Eskir.

Shut up, I wanted to say. Instead, I moved to clamp my hand around his mouth. Neither of them knew what they were. It was my responsibility to keep them safe.

Mine alone.

"Mghfm!" Eskir mumbled through my hand. Why wouldn't he shut the hell up?

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"AH!" Jenny shrieked. I glanced up, and her light vanished. Another cry came from Eskir, quieter this time, muffled again by the omnipresent dark.

I let go of Eskir and pulled my hand around to wield Stoneguard. I didn't draw out the entire weapon from my ring, I only brandished the familiar pulsing blow, scattering it in all directions. I heard nothing, not a scream or squelch or reaction. The shades were immune, or it missed them entirely, or they were just silent.

"Xera!" I heard Eskir call, and then a breath of air. Something had struck him. I reached out, but my hands felt at nothing. He didn't shout again. There was only silence.

I readied my weapon entirely, preparing to brandish it the instant I felt something touch me, but the shades were faster. They struck me in the side, and in less than a heartbeat, I was lifted off the ground and flung into a tree.

The next blow came heavy and hard, and only hit me after I'd crumpled to the ground like a defunct doll. One of the shades slammed me back up and against something else, either a stump or a rock. It was quick, just a one-off attack, but it sent a ringing in my head so harsh that I could barely tell which way the ground was.

I groaned, trying to stand. The shade didn't touch me again, for reasons I couldn't fathom. I was beaten. It could have desecrated my body if it had wanted to, or eaten me, as shades often tended to do. They were nasty things, manifestations of imperfect spellcraft that preyed on people like us. Passersby, bystanders to the sorcery. They were ravenous and without conscious thought, and were known to tear into people apart just trying to fill the deprivation of magic that cause their existence.

I finally struggled to my feet, heaving my lungs for air. The two blows had winded me. The earth was soft under the soles of my boots, like moss and last year's fallen leaves creating a barrier. It was spring, not early enough for the mushrooms and moss to have grown in enough to make the ground soft. But I was not walking on shades. This was a natural basin.

"ESKIR!" I shouted. "JENNY!"

There was no answer. If they had been anywhere nearby, they ought to have heard me.

My heart began to race. There was only silence, and I couldn't see well enough to keep walking. I leaned back, searching for purchase against a tree I had just brushed past. My head rang like the bells of Bell Haven. Everything hurt so much, and even in the dark, I closed my eyes reflexively, as if preparing myself for the light.

"ESKIR!" I shouted again, but I felt the volume in my head and knelt down from the shock of what hadn't been there a moment ago. This time, with a lower tone, I said, "Where are you?"

With a sickening crunch, a shade struck me from behind. I flew forward, hitting my head against something that I can only assume was a large rock. I had no time to process it, it just happened.

I believe I woke up some time later. I wasn't even confident I'd ever been unconscious, because the dark betrayed nothing. How was the battle still ongoing? That was what was keeping the spell active, it had to have been. Why else would they still need it if not to win?

At the very least, my head wasn't perpetually threatening to end me anymore. For the most part, the pain had subsided. Instead, I found myself exhausted. Standing up, taking a step forward, it all hurt so much.

I looked around, thinking I might find something with more substance than the dark.

Instead, it found me. A small light nearby came into view, emanating from a nook in a short cliff of dirt that sheltered overgrown roots. I crept over to it, minding my steps to avoid tripping, until I rounded the corner and greeted Jenny's half-lit face under the light.

Her eyes, which widened for a moment as I came into view, were bloodshot. She clutched the light between her hands, scared to let it go.

"Xera?" she murmured, hesitant, as though my presence were a figment of her imagination, or a light brought upon by the dark.

"I'm here," I said. "Have you seen Eskir?"

She shook her head.

"Okay, let's get you up." She didn't want to move, so I dragged her upright. The light almost flickered from her hands, but she kept it safe in the shuffle.

The shades still moved outside of our line of view, but didn't approach with the new zone we had created. I knew they lay just beyond my sight, waiting to attack as I had done so before.

I turned to look for Jenny again, to secure her position beside me. Now that I could see her face in a bit more light, I noticed the scratches and bruises from her foray through the dark, presumably from the twigs and brambles she would have had to walk through.

"What are they?" she asked. "I could feel them... one of them nearly dragged me off before I found the weak point to the spell."

"They're shades," I said. "They lurk where the magic's thinnest. They're offspring of the magic itself, and they're very dangerous."

She shivered at the thought of them behind her, or anywhere near her that she couldn't see.

"We need to find him," I said. She nodded obediently, too scared of what they might do to her if they caught her again. The light in her hand held high for me to see too.

Behind us, in front of us, in all directions, the shades still moved.