“You Pass.”

The words had weight, substance, something heavy and physical to them. They reached me like a blow to my entire body but went still before they were past my bones. Cut off by a haze that passed into my body centered around the Gloom as it licks my blood from its paw. A curtain of power it had opened just enough for me to see the death I’d been offered and refused. As it walked away it drew the curtain of silence and shadow back into itself before it vanished completely from my sight.

It had been as beautiful as a naked blade. There was an edge to it so soft I could have cut myself trying to touch it and never noticed until the blood flowed freely. My heart thumped in my chest and I looked down as I felt something tug at my boot.

A root reached up towards a dark stain running down the back of my—

Bleeding.

Oh, by the Stars and Titans, I— I was getting so tired. My eyes and limbs felt heavy and—

WOUNDED.

The word hit almost as hard as the—

GLOOM.

Oh. Right.

The root continued to slide up my calf and I took a gentle step away. Feeling the motion three more roots shot after my ankle, faster and more insistent than the first.

MOVE.

I couldn’t take a step, so I rolled away out of the roots gr—

Aaaaaa- Ow. Aaaa.

”Mmmmm,” I bit my lip, refusing to make another sound until I was past Twilight Song and truly into Gloaming. Even as roots found and tore into my shoulder in the brief contact it had with the forest floor. They pain numbed as my blood roared. The ground was alive with seeking roots that writhed like worms and snakes. They had my sword. I had to—

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MOVE.

I stepped carefully forward. Avoiding roots as they looked for more blood. A rolling carpet of motion just steps behind me that swept the first floor clean.

Clean.

I tore at the shirt under my tunic as I walked. The Gloom had tried to end things with two swift blows. After it withdrew it was fastidious, leaving not a single drop of my blood on its paw before it set it back down on the forest floor. It Knew. A single drop of blood was enough to create chaos and death. To steal away a corpse from an unlucky hunter. To steal away an unwary life.

I reached to shove the fabric into the gap where the Gloom has struck me and nearly screamed. A hands-breadth gash nearly to the muscle bled from where I’d pushed my—

I bit down on my lip, harder, and tasted blood. It was almost as sharp as the string of curses I held at the tip of my tongue. My blade could sublimate back to me, but I wasn’t any kind of sword-conjurer. It could take weeks, months if I was unlucky. And I didn’t know if I’d last hours without it.

And I’d shoved it out of my shoulder. I was unpracticed and unprepared for that kind of movement. I’d cut myself nearly as deeply as the first time I’d drawn it from my chest, and much worse. It still bled. Had it been hours? Minutes? Days?

I stilled my breath as a wave of nausea and dizziness washed over me.

Had I— at some point I’d packed my shoulder with the tattered cloth from under my armor. The forest had stopped rolling after me in a wave as bleeding stemmed and stopped. My lips were wet with something other than blood and I realized that at some point I’d pulled out my water skin. I needed my—

Sword.

I blinked. I was back at the beginning again. I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten here but my legs burned like I’d been walking for much longer than I thought I had. My sword wasn’t far off, it’s broken blade stuck in a cluster of roots and sparkling-clean.

As I walked towards it I felt silence push its way through my body and beside it the Gloom sat, waiting for me. Its coat glistened like threads of sun-bleached bone. It’s golden eyes shone like two coins being offered to ferry the dead into the night. It’s grin was satisfaction, unmarred by the small slice across its nose.

”And you pass again,” it purred.

”Very well,” a deeper voice rumbled from next to my ear. I froze as a second veil passed over me. My left eye went blind as bone-white fur obstructed my vision. It was softer than a final breath.

My vision returned as the blanket of soft fur lifted up off of me.

”Turn,” the deeper voice commanded.

I turned to a wall of white. I look a single step back, closer to the Gloom. My head tilted further back. Further. Two gold eyes gleamed like dinner plates from a white visage that crouched down a hairs-breadth the canopy above.