Alize brooded over the excessive exposure of the campsite that Kell and Davram had chosen. She decided not to voice her fears until she had consulted the trees. The forest echoed her restlessness as she prowled the area surrounding the camp.

Their message did not change with location. Careful not to strain her stitches, Alize climbed to where the branches thinned and surveyed the treetops. The autumn languished, the deciduous trees’ empty branches left feeble against the prickly evergreens. In the crisp air, Alize could see the eroded mountains in the west. That spring the Hrumi scouts had reported numerous landslides off the cliff faces. Alone, any clanmember was limited to her own experiences, but in combination, they revealed the world of the steppes and mountains. Alize drew her arms around herself, wondering how she would know when the winter rains started in the west.

She turned her gaze to the immediate vicinity. Her own camp fire glimmered some distance away and she could see several others poised a little closer than she would have preferred. But it was not those travelers who disquieted the trees. Alize would stake her life on that verdict.

She pressed her fingers into the tree trunk. The trees exuded the feeling of safety underlain by something more sinister. Alize probed the clue in her mind until it struck a chord within her memory, like a foul but familiar smell.

Kogaloks. They were still far down the road, but Alize knew now that their path drew them ever nearer.

At the camp fire Davram played the flute while Kell tapped his foot to the tune and Onder hummed along softly. Alize halted before them and folded her arms. Davram took one look at her before abandoning the music. Immediately she had Onder and Kell’s attention too.

“There are Kogaloks on this road.”

“Close?” Kell asked.

“No. I’ll know when they are. But they’re coming.”

“What are they doing so far from the Silver City?” Davram muttered.

The men all regarded Alize as if they expected her to reveal something that would suddenly allow everything to make sense. But she responded with a blank stare.

“What about your shield Onder?”

“It’s working.” Onder said quickly, “I kept it up while you were gone – even I could not locate you. Anyone tracking you is doing it conventionally.”

“Forgive me if that doesn’t seem a full comfort right now.” Alize responded, disheartened.

The moon still lay ensnared in the tree branches when Alize woke up gasping. Her heart surged into her throat and she thrashed out of her blanket. As she tried to still the panic aflame in her chest, she heard the trees wail around her. They had woken her with their cries and now in their terror the wind ran through them like shivers.

Alize struggled to her feet, leaving her sleeping cot behind. The men around her did not stir, which seemed incredible to Alize considering the pitch of the trees. But their voices were for her alone.

Alize understood they needed to move and stumbled to shake Kell while yelling for Davram and Onder to get up. Kell caught her hand and swatted it away, rolling over.

“Kell wake up, we have to leave.”

Across the extinguished campfire Davram sat up on his elbows. “Alize? It’s not even midnight.”

“Kogaloks!” Alize said bluntly

Davram choked, “The trees told you?”

“It’s bad. Something’s happening and it’s sudden, and we’re in danger.” Beside Alize, Kell finally blinked his eyes open.

“Why are you shaking me?” he asked sleepily.

“Wake up, get up, we’re leaving.” Alize responded.

Kell muttered a grumpy comment about it being nighttime, so Alize unceremoniously tugged his blankets off to relay her point.

“Hey! You’re lucky I have pants on!”

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“Please get up!” Alize snapped. But her anger dissipated the instant her ears began to ring. It was an earthquake, without a question. Alize groaned a warning and slumped to the ground, putting her head between her knees. “Nocturne,” she whispered.

Kell pulled himself from his cot to sit beside her. He pressed his hand to the small of her back as the earthquake stuck. Alize did not register leaning into him.

“Alize,” Davram said softly after the tremors ceased. “I can’t wake Onder.”

“What?” Alize moved to crouch beside Davram and the Mage.

“He’s breathing, but he’s not waking.”

Alize took her turn at shaking Onder, with no response. This felt significant, but she did not have the capacity to try to understand it. “Can we take him with us like this?”

“We can, but it will hurt our speed.”

“Then I’ll go ahead.”

“No.” Davram answered, “There’s safety in numbers.”

Alize frowned. I didn’t ask for your permission. Still, she did not want to face the Kogaloks alone, not with the trees so unnerved.

“Fine, but please Davram, we’ve got to move now.” Sargons and Hrumi scrambled together to disassemble the camp and load Onder onto Davram’s horse. Davram climbed up behind him, steadying the sleeping Magi.

Alize led the Sargons at a quick trot, with Onder’s horse following behind. She cursed whatever had happened to the Magi, wishing for a faster pace.

Still, they traveled too swiftly for conversation. Alize paid close attention to the trees. The road was wide enough to ride abreast, but she hushed Kell when he tried to ask her questions.

“I need to hear it if they have anything to tell me.”

Kell pressed his lips together and withdrew.

Alone, Alize continued to believe she succeeded in masking all her fears.

The world sank deeper into night, but in the darkness the trees became more agitated, not less. Amongst their distress, Alize’s resolve broke. She pulled Josoun into a gallop, leaving the men behind. But the trees roared louder even than Josoun’s thundering hooves.

Alize bowed to their will and halted. Not out of obedience, but trust.

When the men arrived, Alize explained that the trees no longer advised them to continue on the road. They dismounted their horses and led them into the woods.

Kell quickly caught up with Alize and grabbed her wrist, whirling her to face him. “I know that wasn’t you leaving us behind back there,” he accused.

Alize put one hand on Kell’s shoulder. “You can’t hear them, Kell. You don’t know what’s after us.”

Kell hesitantly raised his hand to cover Alize’s and squeezed it. “You don’t have to face it alone.”

At any other time this exchange would have greatly embarrassed Alize, but her thoughts were already elsewhere. Onder had still not awoken. From the tone of the trees, there were enough Kogaloks to physically overpower Alize. And the Sargons would be defenseless from any Soul Eaters.

Alize finally paused in a sheltered part of the forest. Kell and Davram retraced their steps to clear their tracks for some distance before returning to Alize.

She sat listening to the trees, oblivious to the dead leaves tumbling into her lap with the wind. The trees’ tension confirmed the Kogaloks’ steady approach. Davram proposed sending someone to a watch point, but Alize rejected the idea as too dangerous. Slowly the forest’s apprehension subsided until Alize tentatively announced that the Kogaloks had passed. Kell stretched his stiff fingers as he released his sword hilt. Davram left to examine the path.

Alize hugged her knees and each breath rattled her chest. She made no efforts to speak to Kell as she had earlier. Her fear had been replaced by uncertain silence, and that brought its own disquiet.

Suddenly she sat up straight.

“I think – they must have turned around.” she whispered.

The implications resonated further than her safety. Up until this moment, some part of her had still believed the Kogaloks did not truly seek her. This raised the same question, why?

Kell met Alize’s eyes with the same constrained panic but he kept his voice calm, “I’ll go find Davram.”

“No. You cannot reach him in time.” Alize formed the words as if they were a recitation. Her interpretation of the trees.

“But we have to fight!” Kell told Alize.

“No, we cannot fight them. They’re too many and they’re Soul-Eaters.” Even though Alize was protected from their special assault, she could not bear to expose the Sargons and the Magi to it.

“Then-”

The trees jostled. “There is another way,” Alize spoke. She tilted her head, listening. The trees had invoked the same emotion she had felt when the Onder had cast his invisibility spell. And then encouragement.

“I’m not sure I understand this.”

Alize shifted to sit next to the unconscious Mage, taking his limp hand in hers. “He and I were in the forest together,” she told Kell to answer his questioning look. “Onder hid us from Kogaloks using a spell. Now I’m going to try to cast it.”

“Can you do that?” Kell asked. He did not have to state that such an action needed a Conjurer’s knowledge, of which Alize had none.

“They seem to think so.” Using her mind she sought the connection she had made with Onder. Then she pushed past it into him with her essence. A mass of spells surged forth, some complicated, some simple, but most palpitating with power. Alize invoked the memory of Onder’s enchantment until it guided her to the correct spell. When she found it, she drew it into her consciousness until she could feel it curl into her own magic.

Alize grasped the spell and began to retreat. For a moment she floundered, but then Kell’s hands firmly gripped her shoulders, keeping her body upright as her mental self threatened to slip away. The physicality of that connected grounded Alize. She opened her eyes without even realizing she had closed them.

Kell sat before her, eyes unblinking.

Alize released the spell. With her fingers together, she whispered words that she did not recognize, all the while picturing Davram in her mind’s eye. A blue light bolted from her hands and into the forest, casting shadows that swooped in the darkness. Alize had faith that the spell would hit her mark. She repeated the action with the horses, then the Magi, then Kell and finally herself. She heard Kell ask her a question but her mind could neither make sense of the words nor form any coherency in reply.

Instead Alize surrendered to an onslaught of dogged darkness.