Inside the cluttered single-room building, a thin man sat on a rough wooden floor before a stone fireplace, staring into a flickering fire. The deep lines in his forehead showed a lifetime of worry, and his vacant eyes reflected the dancing flames. His long white hair was tied back in a ponytail, his full beard hacked short. Dirt-covered pants and a stained shirt covered his body.

He looked up as Hina stepped through the doorway, and his face brightened. "Thank the gods you're here!" The man stood. "I've been waiting for you for—I don't even know how long it's been. I was starting to think you'd never come."

Hina moved out of the way so that Kai could come through. The door swung closed, hitting the frame with a wooden thunk. Hina glanced in Kai's direction. He shrugged.

"I'm sorry," she said, fingers tightening on the handle of the poker. "Who did you say you were waiting for?"

The man's face fell. "I thought you were the ones who were supposed to come." He let his extended hand drop to his side. "You're not—not here to help with the problem?"

"Problem?" Hina asked. "What problem?"

"The problem with the graveyard. The bodies—they keep—they keep waking up."

"Wait, what?" Kai asked.

"They won't stay buried. I'm at my wits' end. I've tried everything—every ritual, every prayer. Nothing works. I sent for help—weeks, months ago, but no one has come. Until now. Until you."

"I'm Hina," she held out a hand. "We were just passing through."

"Oh. Oh! Yes, of course. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm just so—" He looked at Hina's hand, then belatedly took it. His grip reminded her of the touch of an insect. "Alik. I'm Alik. The caretaker. I've been here for—I don't know how long. I've been here for a long time. I look after the graves."

"Kai." Kai shook his hand.

"So this"—Hina gestured broadly—"is all your home? Do you know how we can find a way out?"

"Oh, yes. Oh, I suppose I'd better show you the problem." The man said. "Yes, this way." He pushed past Hina and Kai and walked out the door.

Hina looked at Kai and shrugged. They followed Alik through the door.

She gasped. The island of stone in the void was gone. It didn't make any sense. They were outside, somehow, on an ordinary afternoon. The sun was just about to set. The house—the same rundown shack that they'd seen from within the dark room—stood in a graveyard. Perhaps fifty graves with crude wood and stone markers inside a crumbling wall, and there was room inside the fenced off area for many more.

"What?" Kai said. "How—"

"Where are we?" Hina asked. Her fingers clenched around the base of the poker, which she had leaning against her shoulder. "What is this place?"

"The graveyard." Alik walked on in amongst the stones, his voice calling back to them. "Like I told you—it's just over this way. Follow me."

The man led them to a pile of freshly turned earth beside a simple wooden marker that read Barth. There was no date. The hole had been filled in, the earth was dark and looked freshly turned.

"This one." He pointed to it. "I buried him yesterday. He's gone now. But he'll be back before morning."

"How do you know he's gone?" Hina asked, curious now.

"I saw him. He got up and walked away. Saw him with my very own eyes. Just a few hours ago."

"Do they do anything?" Kai asked. He tapped the butt of his spear against the grass. "Other than leaving? And coming back later?"

"Every time one of them walks, the Murchers up the road lose a pack beast, or a chicken, or a dog. Or the Flints lose a sheep. Once... once it was a child. From the village, up the way."

"What—" Hina shivered. "What happens to them?"

The man blinked and looked at Hina. "I beg your pardon?"

"What happens to the bodies? When the dead walk? When an animal goes missing?"

"Oh, I see. The bodies are found later, mutilated—drained of blood."

"How many graves?" Kai asked. "Have been disturbed?"

"Six. Pater Yori was the first. And then Frau Murcher, the senior, who died almost a year ago. Then Old Levine, who was mauled by a pack beast. Gilda Grey and her husband Daven, who died of the wasting. And now this one. Barth, a farm-hand."

"And all of them were buried within the last year?" asked Hina.

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"No. Pater Yori was oh, it would have been two years ago. More. Frau Murcher Senior was a year ago, or a little less. The others were within the last six months, perhaps."

"When it started, was Frau Murcher—senior—already dead?"

"Aye."

"What about—you said, Gilda was next?"

"Old Levine," Kai corrected.

"Right. Old Levine. Was he already dead, when all of this started?"

"No, no. He was alive when the first of the sheep went missing. He died a few days later. Torn up by a pack beast, yes."

"What do you think is happening here, Alik?" Hina asked in a soothing voice. "What do you think is causing this?"

"I—I don't—" He paused, seeming to collect himself. "If I knew that—I've tried everything. A ritual to quiet the spirits—calling on the gods." He shook his head. "I sent for help from the church. Sent for you."

"I'm sorry, Alik. We're not from the church. We're just trying to get out of here."

"I—no, no." He shook his head. "Please, I'll do anything. Just help me. Help me stop this. I have—I have a treasure, a treasure from the war. I've been saving it for years. It's yours, if you can help me."

"Can you show us the way out?"

"Yes, yes. Of course. Anything, so long as you help me first."

"What kind of treasure?" Kai asked.

"Gold and silver, a few items of value. Not a lot, mind you. But it's yours—everything I have—if only you can help me stop this. It's—it's well hidden," Alik said. "You'll never find it unless you help me. No. You have to help me fix this, first."

Kai looked at Hina and gave a small nod. Directions and a little bit of treasure would go a long way, Hina supposed. They could certainly use it for supplies, maybe even to buy passage with a caravan. And if they could avoid the wolves... She nodded back.

"Okay. We'll try to help you," she said.

"You will! Oh—thank you, thank you!"

"We'll try. I can't make any guarantees," Hina said. "Why don't you go inside, and we'll poke around for a bit, and see what we can figure out."

"We'll come get you if we need you," Kai added.

"Oh, of course. Of course." The dirty man left them without another word. He walked back to the tiny shack near the center of the graveyard and disappeared inside.

When Hina was sure that he was gone, she turned to Kai. "What do you think?"

"He's pretty crazy," Kai said. "But I believe him."

"What even is this place? We were in the corridors and then there was a house in the middle of a huge empty room, and now what, we're outside? In a graveyard? Is this even real?"

"I think..." Kai sounded thoughtful. "I think it's a trial. I think we're in a trial."

"Like a test?"

"No, no. Or kinda? Like if we do the right thing, we'll get a reward. If we do the wrong thing, nothing. Or maybe we'll get punished."

"A reward... like the treasure?"

"I think so. It happens sometimes, in books. You go in a spooky house in the woods, and if you do the right things, you get something good. Like treasure."

"What happens if you do the wrong things?"

"You get hurt. Or die." Kai leaned his weight on the spear. "But that's just in the books."

"Do you really think this is real? The same as the books?"

"Maybe? It sounds pretty similar! That guy—didn't seem to be all there, but he knew what he wanted. Not anything else."

"Okay, so you want to just, play along?" It was strange, but Hina didn't feel like they were in a lot of danger. Less than the corridors, at least. And if the wolves were still out there—the spear was a good start, but they needed more. Maybe treasure was exactly what they needed.

"Let's try it," Kai said. "If we don't get anywhere, we can go and look for another door."

"Wait, wait. Is the door still there? Are we still in the stone room and this is all like a dream? Or are we really somewhere else?"

"I think... I think we've gotta act like it's real."

"Can we talk to the people on the farm? In the village?"

"I don't know—maybe?" Kai said. "But shouldn't we watch the grave? For when it comes back? If it comes back?"

"Yeah—yeah that makes sense. Hmm. And I don't want us to split up. Okay. So we watch and wait."

Kai turned in a slow circle. "Up on the roof? We can lie down and watch from up there?"

Hina looked around. The land was flat around the graveyard, leading to low hills in the distance. The roof seemed like as good a place as any. The shack's stone chimney jutted out from the wood of the walls, and angled as it rose.

Kai held out his hands as a platform so Hina could step up, and she climbed from the chimney up to the roof, while Kai scrambled up behind her.

The roof was flat, tilted down towards the other side from where they'd climbed. It was covered with dirty wooden shingles, which were old and worn and missing in places. The roof must leak, if it rained. But how could it rain under the tower in the first place? It didn't matter—they were going along with the situation as it presented itself. For now, at least. The surface creaked under Hina's weight, and she lay down carefully on her front.

Kai lay down next to her.

The grave was in sight, and they were as far out of sight as they could be. It didn't seem like the man—Alik—had noticed him climbing on to his roof.

There was nothing to do but wait.

* * *

The moon rose, big and white and singular. An unfamiliar moon.

That, more than the lack of protections from the wild, was what convinced Hina that they were in some other place. Not the world they'd left behind outside the tower. Somewhere else. Whether it was real or some strange hallucination, she didn't know.

The man had spoken their language. And his clothes were normal enough. The graveyard wouldn't have looked out of place out the back of some out of the way farm near the hedge in Grambe—the farmers out by the edge were strange sometimes. But this wasn't Grambe.

A figure appeared at the top of the hill beyond the graveyard. A lurching, staggering silhouette. It made a bee-line for the grave, the one that Alik had showed them.

Hina poked Kai in the ribs. "It's here," she whispered.

Kai snorted awake. "W-what?"

"It's here!" She pointed at the figure. "The corpse, or whatever it is."

The figure crouched down at the grave and scratched at the dirt, a shadow amongst shadows.

Hina hopped down from the roof, landing in the dirt.

There was a quiet thud as Kai landed beside her.

She strode forward, making her way through the dimly lit graveyard. It was bright enough to see outlines, under the strange moon, but the night was drained of colour.

The sound of scratching and the patter of shifting earth cut through the quiet of the night. As they stepped around the grave-markers, the figure came into view, crouched down as it clawed at the turned earth with its hands. Something smelled like rot and death, with a hint of roses.

"Hello?" Hina said, tentatively.

The digging stopped. The figure went still. It jerked up to its feet, standing crooked with its back to Hina. It was shaped like a person—two arms and legs and a head. But there was something wrong with the back of its head.

The figure swung itself around to face Hina.

"Oh."

The thing—the corpse—was a man in tattered rags. Its eyes were blackened empty pits. It didn't say anything—it swayed from side to side.

It lunged towards Hina with its arms extended.