There were trials and tribulations in getting everyone to their respective homes that night, but nothing major, nothing dangerous. Sly had to stop to vomit at one point, and Praetorian began singing an Auldvynian dirge and commanded Amanda to accompany him before Mist clonked him on the head with the butt of her spear—a desperate move, but one that everyone appreciated. Tzugakk, meanwhile, mostly just grinned at everyone and kept telling them how wonderful Nala was.

"You do not understand," he whined. "She is wonderful, can you see that?"

The others assured Tzugakk that they did indeed see this.

"No, she is wonderful, are you listening? Wonderful."

And so on. Eventually they got Sly to Fauxgreen and Mist to her apartment in battle quarter, and for once she didn't feel an awful ball of heavy tension in her stomach as she walked up the stairs, and when she waved goodbye to the others it was with a happy smile and bright enthusiasm, and after she went inside and burst into tears it wasn't from fear or frustration or loneliness, it was because she couldn't hold in how relieved she was that finally something was going right.

Getting Praetorian and Amanda to their cottage in Everglim was simple, after that. At night the area was quiet, magic-using types liked their sleep and non-magic-using types avoided the area, so that worked out well for everyone. In fact the streets had been almost empty everywhere in the academy. Even the sprawl, normally crawling with shadowy figures doing shadowy things, seemed near-deserted. By the time the familiar building that held Nala and Tzugakk's room came into sight the little goblin was giggling with uninhibited happiness.

"Luck!" he called out, before giggling again and waving his finger in Nala's face, heedless of the heavy look she was giving him. "Luck is ours, today, tonight, tomorrow? Why not! Why not tomorrow!"

"Tzugakk."

"What? What is there to be scared of? Nothing! No one in the sprawl will harm us, these are our kind! Listen! Everyone! Today we won! Today we showed this place that strength alone is not enough! We showed them that low-tier losers can be DEADLY!"

There were no answering calls, no angry yells for Tzugakk to shut up, but Nala sensed a shift on the blue-lit street, felt the gaze of unseen watchers, and she hurried Tzugakk along as he continued talking, his voice lower now, his words meant for her alone:

"Nala, Nala, my Nala. My good, good friend. I have a secret for you. My precious secret. Only for you, do you understand? Yes! That's WHY!"

Tzugakk dissolved into a fit of giggles that lasted until Nala had gotten him up the stairs and into their room.

"Ah," he said, somewhat blurrily taking in the familiar, spartan space. "Yes. Ah, yes!"

He grinned at Nala, or at least near her, then beckoned her forward, almost hitting himself in the nose with the gesture. Without expression, Nala leant closer.

"Nala," Tzugakk said, all seriousness, all earnestness. "You understand. That's why. That's why my secret is only for you, because only you understand. I found it. When we researched. So much research! But that's why. That's why we won. You know." Tzugakk poked Nala in the chest with a knobbly finger. "YOU know because YOU did it. More than me, so much more, not even sleeping, when will you sleep? Soon, please soon, promise me, promise me promise me promise me—"

"I promise I will sleep."

"Good, so good, you need to sleep, Nala, you push yourself and push yourself. Ah ... we ate, that's good. Blue Haven ... haven ... maybe this place—ah, no! Because," Tzugakk said, once more tapping Nala upon the chest, "I found a true haven. Islands. Islands! Beyond Nimbus. I have read, I have read in a book that there are islands, oh, they are beautiful ... just words, just words but beautiful, green jungles and high hills and wide fields and sparkling rivers and pure white beaches and blue clean ocean and monsters, Nala. Monsters who are NOT monsters. Like our beautiful Amanda. Like our ugly me. This place, this place this place ... it's our place, Nala. You too! Dwarves are not monsters, just different, yes, yes yes, THAT is important. Different. New. Clever. Different. All these things you are. All these things they hate. Nala, do you ... do you know. One more victory. One more like we won so gloriously today ... and we are free. WE are free, you, me, FREE. We can go! We can travel, it will be difficult, we cannot afford good licenses but, but but we can go, together. Together! Find quests. Easy quests, money? No, not that, freedom. Go west and north and further west, to the island, to the island where monsters are free, where 'different' is 'normal', this ... Nala, this is my dream. This is my 'to'."

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Tzugakk had drooped more and more as he'd talked, his voice growing lower by the word. Nala guided him towards his sleeping mat, his gnarled hand held in her own, and helped him lie down. She patted his arm, then stood and moved to walk away—but Nala stopped as Tzugakk spoke, his voice distant and thick:

"One more," he murmured, speaking through sleep. "One more fight. Just one more and then never no more."

Nala stood there for some minutes, making sure that Tzugakk was truly sleeping now, that he was settled, that he was safe, and then she pulled the hood of her cloak up over her head and slipped out of the room, fading into the shadows of the Bright Battle night...

...shadows that watched her as she went...

...shadows that whispered to each other...

...shadows that slipped through the moonlit streets in her wake, walking where she had walked, seeing what she had seen, until finally they stopped, watching as Nala made her way over the pale grass near waveless beach, watching as she walked to the end of the long grass-covered pier that stretched over the drop, the night ocean so far below as to seem like another world, an impossible distance, as unreachable as the stars in the sky.

There was an odd thing at the end of the pier, a kind of couch made of dark stone carved with angular patterns. It faced out to the stars, and Nala was observed to stand beside it, her right hand upon its smooth surface, her left hand holding something; a simple cloth pouch. Presently Nala was seen to open this pouch, and to take out a pebble from within it, and it was with a mixture of amusement and curiosity that Nala was observed to drop this pebble over the edge of the pier, to fall and fall and fall and fall until eventually, presumably, it met with the surface of the far-below ocean.

Again and again Nala was seen to do this, to drop pebbles off the edge, or sometimes to throw them out a little way—she took her time between each throw, appearing to think carefully about exactly where and exactly when and exactly how she'd send each new pebble over the edge and into the darkness.

With each pebble the shadows crept closer. With each pebble the shadows grew bolder. With each pebble the shadows found themselves drawn deeper and deeper into a web of curiosity, until finally...

...finally...

The shadows sat.

Nala didn't look up from what she was doing, which was the same thing she'd been doing for the past hour; randomly tossing pebbles off a floating island. It was only after she had emptied the pouch that she turned, and regarded the darkness, and cocked her head to the side.

Sitting in the perfect centre of the pier, its large black tail flicking from side to side, was a shadow in the shape of a large cat ... or perhaps a fox.

"You're a shadowtail," Nala said. "I've read about you."

"Aren't you clever."

The shadowtail's voice was soft and slippery, coming like a whisper and fading like an echo.

"Do you have a name?" Nala asked.

"There is power in individuality," came the whispered response.

"That doesn't answer my question."

The shadow's tail flicked. "Doesn't it?"

"How long have you been following me?"

"How long is it since you arrived at Bright Battle Academy?"

Nala crossed her arms. "I saw you on the first night. While I was walking beside the wall."

The shadowtail raised its head, perhaps to gaze up at the stars. "Was that me?"

For a time Nala was silent, watching the shadowtail as it looked at her, as it flicked its tail, as it raised an ethereal paw then tapped it against the ground, one-two.

"Why did you reveal yourself?" Nala asked, finally. "Are you going to attack me?"

"Could I allow harm to befall a student of Bright Battle Academy?"

Nala considered this, then continued:

"You're a servant of the academy?"

"Shadowtails are known to honour their contracts."

Nala watched the shadowtail as it stood, waited for it to flee ... but it just sat down again, never once taking its unseen eyes off her.

"The test of worth," she said. "Will it be a monster hunt?"

"Is it my place to confirm such a thing?"

Nala watched the shadowtail closely. It did not move, aside from an intermittent twitching of its dark tail.

"Why did you reveal yourself?" she asked.

"A familiar question."

"Why did you reveal yourself?"

The shadowtail looked back, at the nearby ruins and the sprawling academy beyond, and to the spire-covered hill that dominated the northern part of Bright Battle.

"There are many ways to express personality," it said, and with that it was gone, one moment casually sitting, the next a vanishing flicker in the night.

Nala stayed at the end of the pier for a time, gazing into the darkness, trying to see the shadows within the shadows.

Then she moved on, walking back towards the ruins, back towards the academy, once more fading into the Bright Battle night, her thoughts—as always—on escape, on freedom, but now also on something else.

Something new.

Monsters.