Yurie's strange mana still filled Dan’s vision with explosions of colour even as the dust on the roof settled. In a heap to one side of the roof lay the crumpled body of Shade and to the other were four individuals.

Each of their energies roared like a blistering supernova in Dan’s perception. Every path leading towards them was as black as night. Dan didn’t need Yurie’s explanation to decipher the meaning behind that one.

Death.

In every sense of the word, the way forward was blocked. Primal instinct took over and Dan was immeasurably grateful that both he and Yurie made the same choice.

“Clever things,” purred the same voice as before, “stay where you are, it could be quite the show.” Along with the dust on the roof, the impacts had sent shockwaves around which had knocked Dan’s mana away. He had severed his connection to the scattered pieces, but was beginning to push more into place now.

“That one’s looking.” If the first voice was honey, this voice was acid. The sibilant sounds were stretched and then a punch of spit on every hard syllable, a growl hidden in the words. As Dan’s mana crept closer, he felt another energy push outwards. A shell, like Shade or Raffyal, but darker. It didn’t destroy his mana, it tortured it. Dan recoiled like he had touched a flame.

“Oh is he like Bulwark? Are we in his zone?” A third voice, the first to sound feminine.

“Bulwark is a freak.” This time, the fourth and seemingly final new speaker. Their voice was a higher pitch than even the woman’s but they were also the largest of the group. Dan could see them all now, and he might have laughed at the disconnect between size and sound but he was far too stunned.

Four intensely powerful looking majaal, three men and a woman, stood on the roof of the Barracks. Each of them had dark skin, almost black but with something of a shimmer on each. Dan wasn’t sure if there was a leader in their group but if he had to guess, it was the one who had spoken first. Finally getting a look at them, there was a similarity to their features. A familiar way of holding themselves, a hint of accent on their voice which they all shared with Shade.

“Who are you?” Finally Dan found his voice and aimed it towards the one who had first spoken. It was not particularly strong, a shaky question without expectation of an answer. He cast a quick look at Shade who was definitely in no state to make introductions. Whatever Dan expected, it was certainly not the immediate appearance of one of the majaal inches from his face as he turned back towards them.

As Dan fell back with a shout, Yurie also yelping beside him, the majaal laughed. It was one of the men, the one who Dan had addressed. “Oh, fun! We definitely should have come here earlier.” Instead of giving their name, they clapped and turned back around to their group, gesturing as though Dan’s fright was something novel and worth closer inspection.

“You shouldn’t have come here at all.” A reply punctuated with the ragged and agonised coughing of broken ribs. Shade had roused himself slightly, propped against the grey wall he had landed against. “Not welcome.” Before Shade could say another word, the large majaal with the high voice appeared in front of him. The massive bulky figure did not vanish and reappear but dashed so fast that even Dan could not see the movement. Were it not for the scorched mana left in his wake, Dan would have thought the movement instantaneous.

“You lost the chance to tell us what to do, brother.” The huge majaal raised a foot backwards, about to smash Shade to pieces against the wall, if Dan’s horrific premonitions of the majaal’s power were true. However before he could, the female majaal kicked him instead, flowing with a similar lightning fast movement but not holding back. The kick sent the bulky form flying from the rooftop, deeping into Allusia.

“Shady. Awake now?” The woman leaned down as she was speaking, her voice sarcastic and taunting as though she was talking to a baby. “Do we need to call mommy or will you do as you're told now?”

“I told you what I told her and Mania, Ravage.” Shade spat on the ground next to him, a splash of red colour amongst the grey blankness. He lifted his chin at the majaal near Dan as he spoke, naming that one Mania, which meant the woman was Ravage. “Leave me and Allusia alone.”

“If we listened to what you told us, Shade, we would still be fighting for scraps with the others, wouldn’t we?”

Ravage’s skin was a very dark red, Mania’s an ochre. The huge majaal that was most likely currently picking themselves out of a building or crater had a tinge of blue in his hard and on the sheen of his skin. The final one who had not spoken since Dan compared them to acid in his mind was, fittingly, green.

The woman was taller than most humans Dan had seen, but that still had her more than a head smaller than Mania and the blue one. Her most eye-catching aspect, aside from the revealing outfit which looked like small bundles of wool held in place with leather straps, was the chaotic nest of dreaded hair which sat atop her head. At the end of it, a metal ball collected the hair at the end and when she moved, it whipped around like a mace.

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“If any of you listened to me, Bloom, then I’d never have seen you again.” Shade continued the back and forth. Dan looked to Yurie but saw no answer from her. She seemed terrified in a way that Dan was not. Knowing that she was better at seeing the potential future than he was meant that if she was worried, it was worth being worried too.

Bloom was the green skinned majaal. They were lanky in a similar way to Endun, though less tortured looking and more naturally gangly. Most of their form was hidden by a large brown cloak, but what could be seen was almost crocodilian in nature. A long nose met his upper lip in a reptilian snout, his eyes a bright yellow with a dark lined pupil within.

A feeling that bordered on nostalgia crept over Dan. It was a feeling he knew well but one he hated desperately at this point. Arrayed before him were powers he didn’t understand, with agendas that he had no concept of. This time, however, he was no longer the scared boy with no confidence. If Yurie couldn’t help him decide, he would simply take her advice and act.

The paths were still showing on the floor, shifting slightly as the conversation continued between the assorted majaal. A large swath of black appeared, Dan and Yurie both flinched at it as the taller majaal returned to the roof with a large crash. Around each of the majaal, Shade’s siblings, was another well of dark black footprints, as well as nearly every path leading towards them.

Nearly every path.

“What do you want?” Dan moved forward. He could not worry about Yurie, trusting her to keep herself safe. Instead, he raised his hands to his shoulders, palms outwards and tried to look as benign as possible. The path he walked was a murky, discoloured thing but it was not the pitch black of others. Dan wondered how often he had walked a path like this without knowing it.

The woman, Ravage, looked at Dan as though she were disgusted to be reminded that she was breathing the same air. “It’s a brave one, isn’t it, Bloom?” The one called Bloom turned away from looking at Shade and fixed their eyes on Dan instead in an uncomfortably fluid motion. “What do you think, Shade?

“He doesn’t know anything, let him go.” Shade was looking at Dan like he hated him in that moment, a fierce anger on his face telling Dan to leave. Despite Dan’s own desire to do just that and walk away, that isn’t what the path suggested. Yurie lived her whole life following these things? Dan was exhausted after five minutes.

Mania looked Dan up and down. Dan had stopped moving now he was being paid attention to, around halfway to the cell from the stairs he had just left. Yurie had disappeared from the top of the stairs and Dan had no time to follow her in his vision. All he could do was hope that she was choosing safety over excitement right now.

“Is our older brother right, human? You don’t know anything?” He slinked closer, a similar fluidity to his movements as with Bloom’s. Of the four, Mania looked most like a human, though he stood well over a foot taller than the average. Other than their ochre skin and pure white hair, Mania looked unremarkable. “Are you sure you’re going to let him talk to you like that?”

Exactly as the footsteps showed, Dan’s feet fell into place as Mania put a deceptively strong arm around him and led him towards the injured Shade. Exactly where he wanted to go. The surrounding paths got darker and darker, until Dan’s footsteps were the only spots of relative light available. Despite the danger, the path was still clear and Dan understood what he needed to do. Mania brought him right to his goal. As they passed Bloom, his eyes never swayed from their position, staring right at Dan with an intimidating focus.

The other two, Ravage and the unnamed bulk with the shade of blue, moved apart as Mania came through with Dan in tow. Dan felt more certain that Mania was the leader and most likely the dangerous one. After the run in with the Ashes, he had no desire to become the target of another murderous group of unknown power but it seemed he had no choice this time. The path he was following seemed to banish the dark colours as Dan closed the distance to Shade.

Dan could feel the effects of Yurie’s technique fading away, the dark cloud covering the world in warnings of death disappeared as well as the guiding light towards hopeful salvation. It was up to Dan now. All he could do was pray desperately that he had understood the path he was on.

“What are you doing, Mane?” The large majaal man whined. “Ravage already ruined my fun and if we can’t kill Shade then why are we even here?”

“If you ever heard a word mother said, Void,” Mania’s voice was right in Dan’s ear as he turned to address the large majaal, finally named, “you’d know it’s not my choice to keep him alive. Unless you want to end up grounded?” Void seemed terrified at the idea and shrank slightly, their frame falling in on itself in anxiety. “What I’m doing, Void, is giving our new friend here a chance to join our fun.”

Ravage and Bloom suddenly barked with laughter, Void getting a grin on his face to replace the frown. “Want some help?” Ravage asked, a hungry energy in her voice.

“Let him alone.” Shade said once more.

“Kick him.” Mania’s voice which moved like an expensive alcohol around Dan’s ears sounded different all at once. Dan wanted to do what he said. Without a second more of thought, his foot swung backwards and with pendulous force returned to collide with Shade’s mouth. The explosion of discordant laughter around him snapped Dan out of the sudden influence he felt from Mania’s words. It felt like when Shade had done a similar thing, though not as powerful. Still, Shade’s head lolled and his eyes completely unfocused.

Dan would apologise later but he was now in the exact position he needed to be. The final footstep Dan had seen led him to this action. Now that Dan was close enough, the heavy weight of mana gathered in his hand was ready and he jumped forward to press it onto Shade. Mania made a grab for him as he lunged but Dan was at least quick enough to dodge that.

Once his hand touched Shade, the situation became much more tense. A foot hit Dan’s hip, sending him sprawling away from Shade but his work was already done.

Shade punched the floor and flew to his feet, a complete recovery of his injuries occurring in moments. The man’s experience was on full display, not wasting a moment for the confusion that he should have felt, his bones and muscles knitting back together under the surface. Shade exploded with power and Dan was sure his decision was the right one. There was a reason four of them had attacked him alone.

Shade was terrifying and his siblings knew it. As though they had been waiting for the perfect moment, other allies arrived as Shade cracked his knuckles and rolled his neck. The sight of not one but two members of the Ashes, Calliope and Grier, made the situation look a lot more even.

“Time to leave, it looks like.” Mania replicated Dan’s gesture from earlier, hands raised. With a flicker, as though they were both there and not, the four majaal disappeared without another word.

Leaving an injured Guan Ah Dan right next to the man who imprisoned him.