Fixed far above, a small artificial sun cast a grim, rusted red over the ruins of a desolate city. The light began to dim. Below, caged, glowing amber bulbs speckled all along the narrow streets struggled to keep the shards of the encroaching darkness from spreading, and growing deeper.

There was a mournful wail; a siren echoed through the city, as little bodies could be seen scurrying from shadow to shadow, across the open square. They dashed from larger streets where giant buildings crumbled, to smaller ones; then to thin back alleys, into trap doors, and narrow tunnels; into stone burrows and open mouths of iron pipeway that all led into the city’s hidden under-realm.

One of those lean, hooded denizens looked about frantically, trying clumsily to throw his bag across his back to his far shoulder, as he sped along.

“Too early!” He spat. “The sun…”

“Go!” an older one barked, shoving him along as they crossed paths. The two sprinted together, curled at the shoulders, as others did the same nearby.

The siren continued its song. A crackling voice accompanied it, delivering a message that was too distorted to understand.

“Anagmir,” the elder grunted as he ran down a wide, cracked street, towards an alley a long dash ahead. “They’re going to come out.”

The younger, who had lagged, was still fumbling with his bag.

“Hurry, Taq!” the elder cried in a whisper, never slowing his pace.

The gap between the two widened, as the younger of the two finally adjusted his load to his back. As he scampered sloppily, some of its contents leapt from his bag and clattered to the ruined street.

For a moment he stopped.

“”It’s heavy! I’m dropping units!” Taq replied, eyes wide.

The elder of the two, nearly yards from the alley, turned on his heel with flabbergasted rage on his face.

“Idiot! It doesn’t matter! The faces…”

Just as the elder reached the entrance to the alley, he saw one of the terrible beings leap down between Taq and himself. The impact of the monstrosity’s bonelike limbs further disturbed the mangled pavement.

“Taqi!” the elder bellowed. “Hey! You ugly monster! Here!”

The being angled itself away from between the two denizens, quickly taking them both into account. It snapped its head towards Taqi, and then to the Elder.

The enormous, masked face shone with a haunting luminescence. As it stared at the elder, who gestured violently to keep its attention, the being’s eyes widened beneath its mask, and began to glimmer brightenly in ripples of bright golden waves. From its curled, smiling mouth, a haunting cry issued forth, echoing between the buildings that surrounded them. It began as a high pitched winney, then dropped down into such deep, reverberating vibration that the small debris resting high overhead in the ruins began to rain down. The elder clutched at his chest.

“Bastards,” he hissed. “Taqi! RUN!”

Taqi, frozen in fear until that moment, dashed to his right, hoping to use the time the elder purchased him to win passage into a pile of burned out vehicles lying like leaves, against the standing facade of a hollow building. As he went, he dropped his bag from his back, and was faster for it.

Blood began to stream from the elder’s nostrils.

“Keep your eyes on me, demon!!”

Taqi’s effortful escape was marked by the monstrosity, which craned its head slowly in his direction. He was nearly within the scrap heap, filled with little crevasses and nooks, and beyond, hidden passages through the dilapidated building and into salvation. Taqi grinned wildly. His escape was near.

Another giant luminescent facade rose to the top of the heap of scrap, just as Taqi reached it. It hoisted itself up on all fours, like a gargoyle of twisted sinew, and gazed down with one of those curdled smiles. Its eyes flickered and brightened, casting a dreadful, lifeless glow on Taqi, stopping him dead in his tracks.

“Taqi!” the old man garbled, blood rising up into his mouth. He spit it onto the floor. “Don’t look at its eyes!” The first monster whipped its head back around, and leered at him with that same inflamed gaze.

Taqi stood, enchanted with horror, the light from the being reflecting from his own eyes. He moaned, quietly.

The creature perched before Taqi leapt down and forward, and swallowed him, in one swift snap. Its throat bulged, and its entire body began to illuminate from within. Taqi could be seen within the swollen, sack-like neck, struggling against being consumed before quickly beginning to melt. His liquifying silhouette vanished into the darkness of the monster's belly, as its face was upturned in joy, golden eyes sending forth two beams of light toward the dying red sun.

The elder had only a moment to witness this, as the being interested in consuming him was already ripping towards him on all fours, digging its gnarled, humanoid hands into the ground for traction. The elder panicked, stumbled back, and began to fall into the alley.

Just as he fell, and the being’s long arm reached out like a whip to snatch him, the elder was pulled back violently by a number of hands. In the darkness of that alley, the elder and his two saviors toppled onto their seats, then scurried further away from the monster that flapped its hand violently from side to side, looking for a little set of legs.

As it peaked in with one pupiless, luminous eye, the alley was lit with its ethereal light. It chittered, seeing not one meal, but three.

“Come, Aern! Don’t stop!”

The three scrambled breathlessly, leaping up to their feet and retreating to the left, and then right, into the arched doorway of an furnace room. One of them opened an iron trapdoor behind a set of broken boilers that lead into their hiding places. He stopped for a moment, peering wildly at Aern.

“Taqi?” he said to Aern. The other turned to Aern as well.

Aern shook his head, wiping the blood from his lips with his sleeve.

“The cell units?” the other asked, almost sheepishly.

Aern cursed through his teeth. “Shut up and go in.”

The terrible beings out in the open spaces of the city cried their haunting, diving cries in the distance, as if responding to the wailing siren.

The three denizens slipped quietly into their underworld.

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Under the city, the denizens bustled through their secret pathways, congregating at a center point; an enormous room that housed two gigantic pistons that pumped slowly and endlessly, one after the other, into the earth below. A bright liquid flowed from the machinery at the center, spreading through thick glass tubing that rose and split in dozens of directions, vanishing into the rest of the undercity. The light here was as alive as an inferno, and splashed the entire subterranean chamber with a coat of molten crimson-orange.

Under the hoods of the denizens were old leather industrial breathing masks. Through the large glass windows for the eyes, they wore expressions of wonder and fear. They gathered by the number on many layers of iron catwalks that circled over the giant pistons. There were three layers of catwalk, and each layer was crowded with the hooded denizens, stumbling in from dozens of entrances from the surrounding territories of the undercity. They all were aglow, chattering feverishly with one another, until a voice rose above them.

“Quiet!” It bellowed. “Quiet down. Everyone, please.”

From high over the pistons, and the surrounding catwalks of the chamber, a raised landing staged three distinct figures. On either side of the center figure, two sturdy denizens, armed with long, rodlike weapons, stood motionless, with one hand behind their backs. The figure at the center, poised with one hand raised, wore a leather helmet complete with mask and goggles, as well as a plume of black feathers that rose on either side, like the open wings of a dark falcon.

“Calm now. Calm now.” The voice was low and soothing, resonating from deep within and carrying out across the chamber. The denizens quickly clipped their words and looked up, many with their hands gripping the safeguard of the catwalk that prevented them from tumbling down into the great gleaming fissure, where the pistons managed the blazing, luminescent liquid.

“The sun is out of power. That much we must come to terms with, tonight,” he said, without doubt or fear. There were many nods among the crowd.

“Some of our brothers and sisters have been taken by the bright-faces. Though we have been diligent in collecting our needs from the city, the dimming of the light came unexpectedly soon. The errors of our calculations will be addressed, and we will continue forward with faith in our hearts, as we are compelled by our loyalty to, and our reverence for the Long Lady.”

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“Anagmir,” the crowd responded grimly, in unison.

“Our Althelib brothers and sisters, who have laid down their lives for our unfortunate circumstances, will be remembered for their sacrifices, and sent through the gateway under the vigilant eyes of our great Lady. Let us hear their names.

“Menik… Absinon… Torra… Hermenias… Simbal… Gris… Samli… Astar…”

“That many?” a young denizen whispered in awe, turning toward one to its left, who waved his hand with impatience.

“Quiet, Lu.”

“Sedric… Carmon… Taqi… and the brother of our own Casiq in waiting, Givven.”

There was a quiet exhalation from the denizens.

“All of their forms will be sent to rest, like stones in a water well, and by the grace of our Lady-”

“Anagmir,” the crowd replied.

“-be rewarded with the eternal comfort of Oblivion. Let Her hold them, and keep them, as they await their pack, who follow in time.

“Go home, and await your work summons and rations. Though we foresee a long darkness, we will persevere, and make right the errors we have committed, until once again we are given the grace of the light above. The bright-faces will recede, and we will return to the surface, as we have for a hundred years. Our guardsmen will take up their posts, and through their vigilance, we will have word of the coming and going of the faces, and plan according to best practice, how we may hasten the passage of the night.

“Her Lady watch over us all.”

“Anagmir.”

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Lu tailed Aern as he removed his mask and shoved his way down a narrow set of stairs, into a small den, near the lower outskirts of the undercity. Here a handful of denizens drank away their sullen moods. It was one of few places still operating at the hour, accepting the few who were kept up for the night by the troubling events.

“Aern!” Lu called, pulling off her own mask and hood as she entered just behind him. Her shock of filthy black curls leaned askew, and her face was smeared with oil. Her long, black-tipped Althelib ears unfurled, flicked and turned towards Aern.

Aern paid no mind to Lu, and sat with a heavy thud at a table near the glowing amber rods of the tempered glass fireplace. Someone nimbly delivered to his table an iron cup filled with whatever spirit his quiet comrades were drinking. Aern took it up immediately.

“What happened to Taqi?” Lu asked with wide, burgundy eyes glistening.

“Pshh. I don’t want to talk about it. You should be with your aunt, sleeping.”

“Was he eaten by the bright-faces? Did you see? Poor Taqi. Did they turn him into oil? Were you scared, Aern?”

Aern nearly finished his drink, and put it down to rest gingerly, as if withholding the urge to smash it down on the old iron table.

“Taqi’s dead. We’ll mourn him tomorrow.”

Lu looked to the side, and frowned. “Taqi’s dead. I never knew anyone who was killed. Only through sickness, like the poisoned air, and mother. But Taqi is the first person I never knew who was killed…like…”

“It’s murder,” Aern said. “They’re murderous.”

“Yea,” Lu said, considering the word. “Murder.”

“It’s dangerous upstairs. Out there.” Aern was lost in his own thoughts.

“Were you scared? What did they look like? Is it true they smile and have millions of little teeth? That they freeze you with the light in their eyes? Is it true they’re wearing a mask? I heard their real faces are much worse… did you see them? Their real faces? It must have been the scariest-”

“Listen Luinosa. This is a troubling time for us, and I’m afraid we hadn’t got enough of what we needed at the chargers in the overcity. We need a lot of energy, and I don’t that we got what we needed. That’s the worry. You should be worried about helping your aunt with her household quotas, shouldn’t you? They start in the morning.”

Luinosa looked at Aern, and rose slowly.

“Yea, I think you’re right,” Luinosa said, and pulled her large brown hood over her head, and her formless curls were sent over her troubled eyes. She marched slowly to the door of the den and pulled it open.

“Luinosa,” Aern said, finishing his cup.

“Yea?”

“I… you asked me if I was afraid.”

“I did. Are you?” she asked, turning toward him.

Aern sat thoughtfully for a moment, and then clasped his hands together, interlacing his thick, calloused fingers.

“I am,” he nodded. “I am afraid.”

“Oh,” Luinosa said, gently. “I see.”

“But that doesn’t mean you-”

“Oh I know Aern,” Luinosa said, scrunching up her small black nose. “I don’t want to be afraid. I want to be something else. I’m gonna look for another feeling, and when I find it I’ll come and tell you. But, it won’t be that. It won’t be fear.”

Aern smiled, an old, labored smile, and Luinosa returned it before she vanished.

“One more!” Aern barked. “One more, and then it’s to sleep with me. Just one more, Taqi. You clumsy… you should have just…

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The lookouts perched at the peak of no more than a half dozen narrow watchtowers, built atop the sturdiest of the overcity’s remaining architecture. They huddled inside their long coats as they readied themselves for their shifts.

Each station was fitted with a siren, and a longscope for viewing the expanses of the open city spaces. If they would, a lookout may spy through the scope, and see, scattered throughout the overcity - searching every hidden nook and slim space between buildings - were the bright-faces. If the lookout turned around to the opposite side of the watchtower, and aimed their spyglass back into the distant waste that surrounded the city, there would be a great rolling wave of darkness, bespeckled by tiny lights. The bright-faces were there, too. They were everywhere, now that the artificial sun no longer kept them away with its strange power.

As he spied this nightmarish landscape, a lookout gasped and was sent sprawling onto the tower floor. The tiny sneak who surprised him at his post stood over him with a satisfied grin.

“Luinosa!” the lookout hissed.

“Alto!” Luinosa mimicked in return. “I need to see them.”

“I can’t believe you. Does mother know you aren’t in bed?”

“Nope,” she said. “Gimme.”

Luinosa snatched the scope, and aimed it out over the city. She handled it deftly. Her cousin rose, and stood behind her with his eyebrows in a knot.

“I told you not to be up here. Especially not as things are.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell them you let me.”

“I didn’t let you,” he spat.

“Have you seen them? The bright-faces?”

“Obviously,” Alto said. “They’re everywhere. The sun is dead. They’ll keep coming.”

Luinosa scanned the city, and found one of the bright-faces in the distance, crouched as low as a lizard, waving its enormous head slowly back and forth. Its eyes suddenly flickered and ignited, aiming its beams into the shadows under a footbridge well into the city square.

“Oh,” Luinosa breathed. She aimed the scope elsewhere, and saw another, climbing the facade of a low, hollow edifice. Another, found much closer to the tower than any others, seemed to be scanning the darkness of the high places in the city, with those large, alien eyes aglow.

“I want to see one up close.” Luinosa handed the scope back to Alto.

“You are a lunatic,” he said, snatching it. “Don’t entertain that idea for more than a second, or I’ll tell mother.”

“Everyone’s afraid,” Luinosa said, quietly, looking out over the city.

“Of course they are, stupid.” He said. He adjusted the scope, and began scanning the city once more. “We’re trapped here.”

“Are you afraid?” She asked.

“Lady… what is that?” he mumbled.

“Don’t be tough. I just want to know if you’re afraid. Tell me the truth. I want to hear someone say they aren’t. I mean… I’m not. I don’t think. Or, I don’t want to be. If I saw one up close, maybe I would know if I’d be afraid, or if I-”

“Shut up, Lu. I see something.”

Luinosa hopped over to the railguard of the watchtower, squinting her eyes.

“I can’t see anything. Let me see!”

“Wait… it’s a person. I think it’s a girl… but she doesn’t have Althelib ears…”

“What! Out there?”

“Walking through the square,” Alto said, in horror. “She’s going to die. I should sound the alarm. I should sound the alarm. I’ve never sounded the alarm before…”

“Let me see!”

Luinosa snatched the scope back from him as his panic rose, and whipped into position.

“Where… where… I don’t…. Oh.”

Through the scope, Luinosa saw what seemed to be a woman, clad in brilliant colors. She held the scope steady against the rail, and adjusted it with a click, bringing the scene closer.

The woman in view seemed neither young, nor old. Her clothing faded around the edges, into the darkness, like a cloud taken from the dawn and placed into the night with all of its muted colors remaining. Her arms were lifted out to her sides, and her sleeves dangled under her wrists in shredded white and pink. Her bare feet were sooty, and she walked with slow steps through the square of the overcity. Around her face, which seemed aglow with mutable angles of shimmering olive tones, was a frame of wavy hair that lifted gently in the night air. The hair was one color, then another; pale-pink and then suddenly washed over with a bright lilac; ripples of icy blue, and back again, to other hues that were hard to describe.

As Luinosa watched her, the face of the woman turned toward her.

Luinosa gasped.

The woman was waving at her.

“She… she… I think she waved. At me.”

“I need to sound the alarm, don’t I… Luinosa…”

Some of the bright-faced beings took notice of the woman, and began to slink towards the square, where she stood waving.