Vahn [https://shadowsprey.com/wp-content/uploads/story-images/01_39_Vahn-S3.png]

“Move!” Vahn shouted, the others running ahead of him.

He questioned not having handed off the weight of the stranger he had slung over his shoulders to the Gegenii man, but Vahn was the one who pulled him from the dirt so he was going to see this through.

The shadows chased at their heels but thinned as the group put distance between themselves and Kanna, the epicenter of it all.

Osawa and Astar made it through the open maw of the tunnels first, Edin right behind them. The Gegenii man braced himself and started to bring the earth to close over the entrance.

Vahn dove through just before the opening shut behind him.

They were sealed in the dark, a different kind of blackness than the one outside.

The screeches of the shadows outside the cavern became a muffled wail. They hit the wall but retreated, moving back to easier prey.

Vahn crouched down, relieving himself of his burden as carefully as he could. With his hands free, he snapped his fingers.

A pale glow danced in his palms and he coaxed it higher, enough that the tunnels were illuminated by the soft flames.

The Gegenii man’s back was pressed to the stone covering the entrance, his breath coming in hard gasps.

Vahn leaned over the man he’d carried, bringing the light closer. The man was dirty and bruised, but otherwise in one piece, at least physically. There was a glazed look in his eyes, one that Vahn knew too well.

“She got him, didn’t she?” Osawa asked.

Vahn nodded. “I don’t think it’s too bad, though. We might be able to get him out.”

“What do you mean get him out?” Astar asked. “If you can help him, help him.”

Osawa put himself between Astar and Vahn. “Why would we do that? We don’t know him, or you, for that matter.”

Astar pressed her hands to her hips and pulled herself up, meeting Osawa eye-to-eye. “I don’t know you, either, so I guess we’re even. But all things considered, we might need a doctor, sooner rather than later if you don’t back up, pretty boy.”

Edin grabbed Astar’s arm and pulled her back, shaking her head in warning.

Osawa blinked, his head jerking back in shock. “Pretty boy?”

The raw laugh that shook Vahn’s body set him off kilter and he had to put his hand down for balance. “Pretty boy,” he said, shaking his head as the laughter cleared. “Fine,” he said, clearing his throat and brushing off his hands, “though one has to wonder what a doctor did that the shadows would get him all twisted up. What’s his name?”

“Isco,” Astar said, turning her glare away from Osawa.

“Alright, Isco,” Vahn said, crouching in front of him. “Watch the pretty light.”

Vahn settled the small flame in his palm again, keeping it calm and steady. He slid it from one side to the other, the light flickering on the planes of Isco’s face, until his dark eyes began to follow its path.

He slapped his hands together and the fire flashed and crackled, turning blue and white and shooting out and away.

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Isco snapped out of his trance, throwing up his hands to block the flare and scrambling back against the stone.

The flame returned to a steady glow in Vahn’s palm.

“You in there?” Vahn asked.

Isco studied his hands, turning them over in front of himself. His gaze met Vahn’s, still somewhat distant but present in the moment, and he nodded. Vahn smiled, hoping the half-titled smirk would be some comfort.

“Good,” the Gegenii man said, his breathing calmed from his previous exertions. “Now will someone tell me what in all the hells is going on?”

Vahn rose to standing, stepping away from Isco so that no one was behind him. “How about some introductions first?”

“What’s gotten into you,” Osawa hissed, drawing his attention. “It doesn’t matter who they are, and it's probably better if they don’t know us, considering.”

Astar jerked to attention, turning her gaze on Vahn. “Considering what, exactly? What are you doing here, anyway?”

Vahn shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned back against the wall. “You’ll have to excuse Osawa, he thinks he has manners. I, for one, would like to know who I’m spending what’s possibly the last few moments of my existence with.”

Osawa glared at him, shoving his glasses up his nose before crossing his arms.

“I’m Vahn,” he continued, “I’ve got Isco’s name already. That’s Edin,” he indicated his cousin with a nod, “and you’re Astar. She showed us a picture, part of our deal to get here. I assume our part is done?”

“Nice try,” Edin replied. “The deal was you get her out, not trapped in a cave while Ananke loses her shit. And, by the way, it would have been nice if you three had mentioned you were chasing after her of all people.”

Edin crossed her arms, glaring at Vahn. “Can’t believe that’s who you decided to glom onto.”

Vahn smiled at Edin, lowering his tone. “I don’t understand how you think you have the high ground, here.”

Edin clenched her jaw and turned her attention to Astar instead. “You want to tell me what you were doing on the stage?”

“Something weird happened and everyone started to run out of the Theatre,” Astar said by way of explanation. “We were trying to get to Kanna, and then weirder things started to happen.”

“I’m Yassen,” the Gegenii man interjected, raising his hand so everyone turned in his direction, “and I would very much like to get back to that whole ‘last moments of existence’ thing.”

“Kanna is synching,” Vahn said. “Haru might be able to stop her but if not…” he shrugged.

“Synching?” Yassen asked.

“You’re a loa and you don’t know what synching is?” Osawa replied.

Yassen shook his head, and Osawa looked to Vahn.

“Lecturing is more your thing,” Vahn said.

Osawa sighed so loud Vahn could swear it echoed in the cavern. He adjusted his glasses, uncrossing his arms and clasping his hands behind his back. “When a loa syncs, they become one with their element. The fallout tends to be near cataclysmic, depending on the loa’s strength. A fire loa synched in Tages and devastated several city blocks. She wasn’t one of ours, meaning she didn’t even have enough power to pass trials.

“Kanna, on the other hand,” he continued, “is one of the most powerful loas in known history. And considering her abilities, there’s no telling what will happen if she does sync.”

“I have a theory,” Vahn said, more to the ground than anyone else. “Everything came from the dark. Who’s to say it can’t return to it.”

As if on cue, the light in his hand flickered. He raised it overhead, turning to the entrance they had used.

“Yassen, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Get away from there,” he said.

Yassen looked up and scrambled to his feet.

The dark was seeping through the wall.

Vahn grabbed Isco by the arm and yanked him to standing, shoving him back with the others before recalling the flame.

It wasn’t nearly enough to hold back the dark.