Oracion's POV

"And what am I supposed to say about that?" I ask her.

She doesn't respond, instead hopping over the river and to the other side of the flourished green. She crouches down, fiddling with the grotto's hedge walls, "You had to go North right? I'll lead you as far as I can, but once we reach a certain place...I'm going to have to go a different way, that good enough for you?" She advises,

I nod my head in approval, bowing slightly for her to lead the way first.

"Bit of a gentleman, are we?" She grins before crawling through, not giving me anytime to snapback with a statement.

Twigs, branches and stones fill the newly formed holes in my clothes and honestly makes me question what don't I have touching my skin at this point.

After some silence between us, I hear her sort of scowl in annoyance at something. "Please don't be night." She whispers to herself like some sort of prayer. "Please. I need more time." She begs.

"You okay?" I exhale, hoping she hears it from this awkward position.

"Does it sound like I'm okay?" She snaps, gradually managing to stand up as we come to the exit of the grotto.

"Shit." She complains, "I wasted too much time, way too much time." She stares back at me, making me feel a little guilt ridden.

"Sorry." I admit but she shakes her head, not wanting to hear that clearly.

"Don't be, it's my own fault and honestly you were worth it...but I don't usually like to move through the night." She states, continuing on to walk despite her own words.

"How come?" I follow behind her, slightly tilting my body to try and look at her face from above after she doesn't respond.

"I'm sure even your keen eye noticed this, Oracion. But your world in the Veil isn't the same as the one out here." She explains.

"I've come to understand this" I confirm, internally smiling a bit at the memory of the fish.

"Come night, there's a celebration that living things are able to hold, a parade...a ritual."

"Lik-" I retract my current step, almost bumping into a crystallised blue orb that gently fell from the sky above.

"It's a Will-o, Pop it." Mousai suggests.

"You sure?"

She sighs, walking up to it and squeezing it till it pops in front of my face. A sudden noise fills the space, something that fills me with joy or even happiness. One that I'd remember like second nature. It was Freya, laughing.

I pause briefly, trying to process it before grabbing another one and popping it just as she did. This time it's Ira's laugh. And another for Requis. "We all hear different things, but it's always a positive...always a falsehood." She finishes, abruptly turning to face back in our destination's direction.

More and more orbs form from above us but she smacks them away in distaste, clearly not taking to them lightly. "So why is this happening?" I ask her.

"We're by a sentient village of life, one that can both recognise and support this Moonlit Festival. They're called the Noisi, they won't particularly understand what you're saying but they respond well to emotion." She advises as we make our way down a steep hill, eventually spotting the opening where the trees stop at the edge of the forest.

"And how exactly do things support this Festival?" I ask out of curiosity.

"Bring he-" She interrupts herself. "The Moon a gift, sing it a song, bring it a sacrifice or some sort of offering. In exchange you get Will-o's to fall along your land, bringing joy and blah blah blah." She waves her hand in an exaggerated motion.

We enter a very clear prairie that's complimented by the night sky sitting on it, alongside the Will-o's lighting up the ground as they gently fall from higher up. The near dead grass effortlessly flowing alongside what appears to be elongated pillars stretching up way above us. Just as we enter the field, an incredibly deep soothing bellow meets our ears.

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Mousai cups her ears, attempting to hear more of it as she walks peacefully in awe as the constantly changing wind blows her dress back and forth. I run my hand along one of the pillars, only to pull back in nothing less than immediate fear.

"You...didn't fucking tell me." I point at it, staring at her in rage and disgust.

She laughs hysterically for knowing exactly what I'm talking about, "So you've found the Noisi's?" She looks upward, meeting the pure white eyes of numerous creatures with their gargantuan mouths pried wide open. They weren't pillars, they're legs.

"That constantly changing wind you're feeling? That's their breath, this is them singing!" She cheers, spinning throughout the grass as the crystallised blue light chimes around her, accidentally popping them and filling the environment with laughter and compliments directed towards me.

"I know, someday we'll dance here as well!" She responds back to something. "I know. I miss you as well." Her pace slows, bursting one more bubble with her fist before dropping her head to face the floor. "I'm coming, Z." She finishes, before looking at me with a sad expression.

Her eyes trail upwards slightly, changing her expression from sadness to one that carries the fear of death. "ORACION RUN!" She charges towards me from afar, confusing me from the lack of explanation. "DON'T LET IT SEE YOU!" She screams, extending her hand towards me which I grab out of trust. Pulling us behind one of the legs of the Noisi as it looks down at us, continuing to sing.

"What are we hiding from?" I try to question her but she's catching her breath.

"That-" She looks towards the piercing spotlight shimmering across the field.

"It's just a light, isn't it?" I obnoxiously respond.

"It's the dead of night, what else can cast a light like that besides the moon?" She answers.

"But it's just moonlight then?" I attempt to walk towards it without fear, pausing once something runs across my face, pain.

"I need you to drop the tough guy act, for one measly second. If that spots me, or even you. We. Are. Done." She tugs my hand to force me to look from under the Noisi, allowing me to see the moon. Its surface cracked open with a gold pupil eye staring across the field, shaking back and forth erratically as it searches for something in particular.

"We're going there." She points at the castle ahead of us, one that's clearly worn down and seen better days but nonetheless, it would cover us.

"Is that where I'm meant to be going?" I ask, kind of excited to be finding it so quickly.

"I'll explain when we're there, but for now..." She begins climbing along the hairs of the Noisi, "Hurry up" She urges.

I copy her, climbing on another leg parallel to her as the Noisi begins to move...away from the castle. "Please, we need you to help us." She leans against it, placing an open palm.

"Oracion ask him! They respond better to the stronger emotion!"

"And what kind of emotion should I be expressing...?"

"FUCKING DESPERATION, BEG IT FOR IT ORACION!" She shouts.

I practically headbutt it in urgency, "Please, take us there!" I beg, feeling the giant stop in its tracks.

A loud horn like cry bellows out as it turns its body back towards the castle, causing Mousai to scream a cheer towards me. Throwing one of her hands in the air and almost falling off from the lack of grip. She hurriedly pulls herself close to the hairs of the Noisi, grinning like a child at her success.

The light of the moon passes under us, pausing my breath unintentionally as if I was in the presence of a predator, something higher than me on the food chain.

We drop off of it once the Noisi gets close enough, patting it on the leg as a thanks and causing it to release that same horn cry of approval. "And here I was thinking we were about to get eaten by one of those."

"They have no teeth, at best we'd just of been swallowed whole and digested slowly." She looks at me with a straight face. "I'm kidding." She jokes, waving her hand as we head inside. "They actually have retractable teeth."

"MOUSAI!" I shout at her as she skittishly slides through the door and I quickly follow her through, not wanting to be left behind. "You absolute rat-" The wind flows out of me, silencing the next words that tried to leave me.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know. I didn't know this is what it was like on the inside." Mousai swears, looking back at me with intense guilt.

I hold up a hand to her, showing her it's fine but it for most certain, was not fine. Cages strung up with pipes flowing through decayed bones of humans. Flowing down into openings that would allow nothing more than a fancy glass to fit inside. All of them lined up and built into the walls like some sort of interactive decoration for anyone to have access to at the press of a button.

"We can leav-" She tries to suggest.

"We can't, you know that, not with that thing watching us out there." I advise, walking in deeper to the abandoned castle. "What even happened here...?" I ask.

"The Vampiric were known for their harvesting machines, the question is though...how did they get their hands on people, real living humans. I had believed their King, Eragon came up with some sort of artificial version for survival." She runs her hand along some machinery, quickly pulling away and covering her ears from something.

"What's wrong!?" I lean down to look at her closer.

"I can hear any interpretation of music...the wind, whistling grass, flowing water or even screams of those long past. And that's exactly how they heard it, music to their ears." She uncovers her ears, looking back at me with a determined but worried gaze. "I know you, I know what you're capable of and the stories that have been told about you, Oracion. But nobody would fault you for walking away from this."

"I can handle it." I answer.

"You're going after an entire race, one that views your people as nothing more than food and a means of sustenance."

"I can handle it."

"You're going to have to fight a King, one that's been alive for a periodically long time, far longer than you." He states one last time.

"I promise you, Mousai. I can handle it." I confirm once more before deciding to continue looking throughout the remnants of decay.