Osawa [https://shadowsprey.com/wp-content/uploads/story-images/01_42_osheader.png]

The creeping dark stopped its progression and the shadows ceased their cries. The group exchanged glances, none of them willing to be the first to test their luck.

Osawa extricated himself from the pack and approached the darkened area, half expecting it to come back to life and pull him down.

It didn’t move, and the sounds didn’t return. “I think it's clear,” he said, moving aside as Yassen shoved past him.

“Alright, let’s open it up and see what we got.” Yassen placed his hands on the stone blocking their path, but nothing happened. He stepped back, scratched the nape of his neck, before trying again with the same result.

“It’s… dead?”

“What do you mean it's ‘dead’?” Vahn asked, moving to the front. “Here let me--”

When his feet touched the darkened area of the cavern, the flame in his hand spluttered out. Vahn jumped back, the fire coming to life once again in his palm. He looked from the flame in his hand to the rock, retreating from the blackened area.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Edin said. She lifted her hand and a breeze gathered around them. She flattened her palm and the wind moved, but it dissipated once it reached the black.

Yassen stepped back. He picked up a loose stone and skipped it over the area. It kept going, smacking harmlessly into the covered opening. “Oh,” he said. “I got this.”

Osawa and Vahn stepped behind Yassen as he lifted a boulder from the earth outside of the blackened space, hurling it towards the enclosure.

The wall shattered under the force, cracking into sharp-edged shards and opening to the outside.

Osawa blocked his eyes as the light pierced the cavern. He blinked away the glare and focused, but it wasn’t right.

The orange sand of the Theatre was a ruined black. It shifted beneath the heels of his boots, sliding slick beneath them.

The evidence of the day’s battle was frozen in a barren relief--pillars from the earth loas, half destroyed, jutted up from the ground. The ground was cracked open and shattered. The black crept up the walls, ending in the Theatre seats. He breathed out, his breath fogging in the chill that crept over the area.

Haru stood apart from Kanna on the Theatre’s once grand stage, look at her with a combination of concern and confusion. She glared back a warning, tense and alert.

“K!” Vahn exclaimed, his long legs eating up the distance as he jogged forward. The others followed, calling her name in celebration.

Osawa hung back behind them.

Haru moved to intercept Vahn, grabbing him by the arm and stopping his progress while the ragtag rebels moved past them.

“Kanna! You’re alive, holy hells, what was that?” Yassen exclaimed, practically vibrating with excitement as he drew near.

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Kanna scrambled back, her hands clutching her knives like lifelines. She held one up, leveling it at them. “Stay away!”

Her voice was desperate, a near screech. It stopped Osawa in his tracks. Kanna was commanding, smooth. Even when she raised her voice there was a low thrum of dangerous challenge beneath it. The others backed away, drawing even with the soldiers.

Haru had his eyes shut as if it was the only defense he could summon.

“She doesn’t know me,” Haru said to them, his voice barely over a whisper. “She didn’t even recognize me.”

Vahn scoffed. “That’s ridiculous.” He turned toward Kanna, attempting an approach. “K? What’s going on?”

She changed her grip on the knife and threw it at Vahn. He cursed, drawing his own blade to deflect its loping arc.

“I said,” she growled, “stay back.”

“Still Kanna,” Vahn muttered, whirling on Haru, “but what the hells did you do to her?”

Kanna struggled to her feet, swaying uneasily as she stood. She’d found Haru’s white handled knife in the sand and she leaned to the left as if it weighed more than she could lift.

“Wait here,” Haru said, motioning to the others to step behind him.

He held up his hands, taking each step slow, pausing after each while Kanna’s eyes roved over him. She’d move to skitter back and he’d stop, waiting until she settled once again.

Haru took another step and Kanna stumbled back, teetering before regaining her balance.

“Kanna,” he said, “inara, please. I’ve been looking for you.”

She shook her head. Her hand went to her side as he moved closer and she nearly doubled over. “Stop,” she said, “it hurts. Why does it hurt?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “We can figure that out, though.”

“We?” she looked up, barely focusing once more.

“Yes, we’ll figure it out. But you’re hurt. You have to let us help you.”

“Us…” she looked up past her shoulder, focusing on the group behind him. A smile snuck onto her features, a kind of relief, as if she was seeing them for the first time. Yassen waved, but he was far less jubilant than he had been.

“Oh,” she said, straightening. “They’re safe.”

“Yes, they’re safe. So are you,” he said, moving closer.

She turned back to him, swaying on her feet. The knife fell from her hand, settling back into the black sand.

“No,” she said, “I’m really not, Haru.”

Her knees gave out and Haru rushed forward in a flash of light, catching her before she hit the ground. The flash caused Osawa to jump in his skin--none of the other loas’ abilities worked in the waste that Kanna had created, yet Haru didn’t seem to even notice its effects.

Haru lifted Kanna’s boneless body in his arms as if she was something precious and not a bomb threatening to detonate at any moment.

A trilling sound broke the spell.

“Of course you kept your comm,” Vahn muttered, shaking his head.

It rang again, and the misfit gathering turned its attention to him. Osawa glared over his glasses at Vahn and patted his pockets, producing the thin device he had tucked away.

“What’s that thing?” Yassen asked, looming above Osawa's shoulder.

Osawa unlocked it with a click, squinting. The words didn’t make sense. Not at first. When they registered, he froze.

He hated always being the one with the bad news.

He looked up to Haru as he approached, cradling the exhausted Kanna in his arms. Haru raised a brow, his grip tightening around Kanna on instinct. As if he knew.

“What does it say?” he asked.

Osawa shook his head, turning the tablet to Haru.

Haru read the message through gritted teeth. “Surrender the Legatus.”

Above them, a single wail set off a cascade of warnings as the city's sirens began to howl