As we waited, the fog rippled and shifted, a tiny crack in the untouchable wall appearing. The crack became wider until it was a gap, then a passage. Fear rose despite attempts to muffle it, and I found myself wavering in my grip. A tall man walked through, with a large slender mink curled around his neck. He was bone-pale, with not a stitch of clothing on him. He saw us and stopped, a large grin on his face. The sight made me turn around to face him, with the others doing the same. If we saw with mundane eyes of the newcomer, we would’ve made the fatal mistake of dismissing the man.

  “What’s this? What’s this? New toys to play for me?” The man said in a sing-song voice. “Oh my! Oh my! I’m so touched that I''ll cry.” The man laughed. “I’m Riil, and this is my pet, Stunner.” The mink responded by leaping off the man and turning into a gorgeous naked woman. I found myself staring as the she-monster displayed its generous gifts. Telara put an end to that though, sparing time to slap us three times.

“We are about to die and you’re all slack-jawed from seeing some skin. Unbelievable.”

  “Oh, don’t blame them, dear. I made little Stunner here to have that effect. She, or He, can do a lot more though.” Riil snapped his finger. “Stunner” morphed into a stateuesque male god, with all the right endowments. Telara averted her eyes at first, with hands shielding her from the sight. Curiosity got the better of her though, as she slowly untangled her fingers. Stunner winked once her way and Telara's face became redder than sunset. As this distraction went on, I took the time to have a proper look at the newcomer.

  His nakedness aside, the man was full of gaps. He neither moved with caution or seemed at all alarmed at our presence. And there’s also the way that the ghosts parted before him, giving him way to us. He’s working with the ghosts, or they’re working for him. A bizarre prospect either way. I don’t like how at ease he is right now. My mind rifled through the list of things I’d brought with me to see if they could help me in some way. It lingered on a little thing. A bauble. I considered, but decided not to. It’s not the right place, anyway. That’s how this kind of stuff works. Right place, right time.

  To my good fortune, Riil’s gaze was neither on me or the others. It remained where Mathis Moreau stood, looking him up and down. “Mathis of Moreau. I’ve seen you work before and I am impressed. Well, not in-person of course.” Riil looked to around at the wall of specters all around and grinned. “Some of my uglies here would love to have a face-to-face with you.”

  “Is that right?” The man in the limelight looked as impassive as ever. “Well they can keep their words. I have no ears or care left to give to anyone. And if your ‘uglies’ and you stand in my way, there will be nothing left of you to even burn.”

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  Do ghosts burn? I wondered at his statement. No, stop thinking useless things. Keep your eyes open, Lucy.

  “A bold statement.”

  As Riil spoke these words, the wall of ghosts began to stir like a nest of wasps. I felt the others’ backs press against mine and I realize there was no way out. No desperate idea borne of a chance look, no desperate gamble made at the slimmest odds. The thought, as despairing and hollow as it was, didn’t bring me to my knees and sob. All it triggered me was instead a sort of thought-less determination. All that mattered were my arrows. Where each one would go, and how long it’ll take me to draw them. And when my arrows were out, I thought of my daggers, then my fists, and then at long last, how loud of a shout I can make before I go.

  And then like clockwork, my eyes went where Mathis Moreau was again. The age in him now seemed like a cloak, hiding the true warrior waiting beneath it. He cracked his bones into place, flexing muscles that never weakened. He took his spear and aimed it right at his enemy. His weapon no longer glowed, content to instead be the simple instrument of death that it was. His armor seemed mundane, but that no longer proved true as I saw them change and conform to their wearer’s body. What stood now in Mathis Moreau’s place was no longer human, but a statue brought to life.

  Riil took the first move. He held out a hand and the wall collapsed into a wave, the bulk of which converged on Mathis Moreau. That difference made me almost cry out in a relief, but the deluge that came was still formidable. I tried to cast spells as I shot arrows, which worked about as well as emptying a river with a bucket. Telara did much better than me with her daggers, and Kard even more so with his bare palms. Frederick … did what Frederick does best, but with more haste and shouting. As I built up my confidence and hope that we could survive, I made the mistake of looking over at Mathis Moreau’s place.

  He was fighting a shifting mass of white flesh, with waves upon waves of ghosts crashing upon him. Sometimes a lull came and Mathis Moreau would rest. Any ghosts that came near found a spear tip greeting them, and this happened many times in the span of a blink. The spear moved in ways no normal man could’ve made, but they did anyway and left no gaps to exploit. But upon this sight, I realized that Riil was nowhere in sight. Not a thought came in light of this though, as the gauntlet pressed down on us all even more.

  Time became a chore to keep track, and so I stopped counting. As expected, my arrows ran out and I had to resort to my daggers, tiny as they are. And when those slipped from my grasp, I …