Callie looked...concerned, when she returned from her recon. "There's...something down there. I felt it in the shadows with me. I couldn't SEE anything though. Roaming the halls or protecting the tomb. Are you sure you want to do this? We can just go, there's no reason to go down there."

"Because I think we have to." I looked at Brightlaw. "You're feeling it too aren't you? That's why you brought us here. Your fate sense is picking up something weird."

He nodded. "It is. This place is somehow related to the nature of this dungeon. The way this entire construct works is too...deliberate. Too structured. It's been active for millennia, and should be safe enough, but something about it is just..."

"Off." I said firmly. "Agreed. I think this opening of the glade is different. I don't know how. Or maybe it's not, and there was something weird going on here the whole time. Regardless, something down there is involved. I can just...feel it. We could turn around and leave it alone, but I feel like I would regret it." I'd wondered before about the reasons for the Glade being like it was, but I'd just shrugged it off as Ascendant weirdness.

This place, though, this was related. My fate sense had never been this...overt, before, but I knew what I was feeling. I was being actively pushed toward something important. I wasn't entirely sure this wasn't a side effect of my Path either. The Fatewalker build was partly rooted in divination, maybe there was some synergy with my fate sense?

Callie smiled and took my hand. "Hey. You don't need to explain it to me. You were willing to charge in head first when you thought it was loot because you knew I'd want to do it. If you think this is necessary I trust you. Just...we should be careful. There IS something in that place, even if I couldn't see it."

"I'll send in a clone." I said cautiously. "Just because we're going in doesn't mean we can't be smart about it." Circling around to the front of the squat, imposing stone building, I approached the front, triggering a charge of my stored shadow clones. I only had three of them left.

A dark version of me warped into existence nearby, nodded, then headed inside. Closing my eyes, I focused on the connection and shifted it slightly with my soul. It took some effort, but with the progress I'd made after that shield incident it wasn't too tough. I was able to force my vision to connect to the clone, able to look through it's eyes with some effort.

It was...weird. Not just seeing through another set of eyes, but the WAY I saw. Shadows can't EXACTLY see in the dark, because they don't see how we do at all. Vision is just the eyes picking up light, and shadows don't do light. The washed out shades of gray the clone had instead was, at the very least, completely functional in pitch black.

Until the clone got ripped apart violently by what appeared to be some kind of huge angry cat beast. Made of pure darkness. My eyes snapped open as I felt the connection snap. I winced. That was much more intense when I was leaning on the connection so heavily. "Well." I said hoarsely. "I know what was in the shadows with you."

Spinning up my scan ring, I called Anna-Marie. I wanted every bit of information possible before we went in. Just like the Rakshari, these things might be a known phenomena.

She answered quickly enough, raising an eyebrow. "Solomon, calling again so soon? What can I help you with?"

"Cats made of sentient dark." I said bluntly. "There appear to be a bunch down there, ever heard of them before? They seemed like something that might have come up."

Frowning, she paused. "I...that sounds familiar actually." She turned to the side. "Amaya does that sound familiar to you? Not from the books, but something I heard as a little girl." Her brow furrowed. "I don't...where have I heard that before? It's on the tip of my tongue."

"Suvaya." Said Amaya's voice quietly. "You're thinking of the Night Pride."

Anna-Marie's eyes went wide. "Oh!" She sounded disturbed. "I suppose I am. I almost forgot about those stories. So few people worship the Moon Lady anymore. You think the tomb belongs to one of HER priests?" I could hear a tension in her voice I'd never heard before.

"The Moon Lady?" I prompted. "She sounds like she might be one of the vanished gods. She's important here?"

"She created this place." Said Anna-Marie. "At least, that's the story.The moonlight, the Lightblooms, these are all hers. But her priesthood has been extinct for longer than anyone can remember. You only hear about her from old family lines that passed down the teachings orally. Giancarlo's family were worshippers, that's how I remembered about the cats."

Well that was certainly a hell of a coincidence. And if my fate sense was pushing me toward this place I doubted it was anything pleasant, but that was a problem for later. This was a sub temple, which meant we had time to learn about Suvaya later. For now..."Tell me about the Night Pride."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"At first one darkness, then apart. The Night Pride comes to take your heart." She repeated mechanically, in the style of a children's rhyme or parable. "They're big cats that don't exist until they do. They're completely silent and VERY fast."

"Charming." I drawled. "Any special methods of defeating them? I assume something with light might help?" Or maybe not, since my poor clone got ambushed in pitch black. The entrance descended down sharply and the light vanished pretty fast. A sharp flight of steps and then BAM pitch black.

"The Night Pride doesn't fear the light." She said worriedly. "They are, however, somewhat special. Though they are ambush predators, they attack in such a way as to be seen at the last second. If you don't see them, they're just regular darkness. It's why their eyes glow."

I hadn't known they did, but that wasn't important. What WAS important was that I had an idea. "Awesome. Thanks Anna-Marie. Also when we get back I want to talk more with you about this Moon Lady."

I didn't think whatever was going on was a right now problem, but it might be soon. It occurred to me that this temple suddenly showing up now of all times probably wasn't a good thing. We said our goodbyes and then the entire group assembled in front of the entrance. "So." Said Benny hesitantly. "Evil shadow panthers that only exist at the last possible second when you see them...anyone else REALLY not like this?"

"We'll be fine. And put your hand down Abel." I glared at my mentor, who snickered slightly until his girlfriend elbowed him in the ribs. I thought I heard Mel snicker a bit as she did, but it was impossible to tell under the mask. "Anyway, I have a plan to get us through. The Night Pride can only attack after we see them, right? So what if we don't see them?"

"You want to walk in blind?" Said Benny incredulously. "Because I'll be honest, that doesn't seem like the...best idea."

I shook my head. "No. Not blind. I'll be able to see, but the rest of you will be following by touch, and they won't be able to see us either." Moonlit Night solved both problems, and assuming they couldn't attack us. When no one argued, I just shrugged and closed my eyes. "Alright all, everyone put a hand on someone's shoulder." I felt a hand on each of mine and triggered Moonlit Night.

A cloud of dense mist enveloped everyone, and I opened my eyes to a world bathed in light that only I could see. Striding forward, I focused on the skill, shifting it slightly to make sure the mist followed me, keeping us at the center instead of letting me remain mobile in the cloud.

"Remember before when you said we would NOT be blind?" Complained Nat as we walked forward. I heard a yelp and a curse as someone tripped and fell into someone else, and my cousin groaned. "Ow, damn it Valk. Watch where you're going." I heard a muttered apology, and I had to tamp down on my laugh.

"Just be careful." I said in amusement. "On the upside this will keep us under stealth, so we don't have to worry about talking. Not that you knew that a second ago. Also I can SEE you sticking your tongue out at me Natalie. YOU'RE blind, I can see perfectly." She froze, then shrugged, looking away innocently. I just rolled my eyes at her antics. It felt kind of nice to banter with family.

The hardest thing here was trying to keep Randall protected. The massive bear was a complete pain to deal with. I actually felt...something, shift the fog in a few places. It was hard to pick up, but Stealth is a form of Perception, and the movements of what could only be the Night Pride were detectable that way, if VERY subtle.

Callie gave directions as we walked. She hadn't really been able to search thoroughly exactly, but the layout wasn't complicated. A dozen hallways surrounding a central room with doors leading out to everywhere. We walked for about twenty minutes, my head starting to swim from stretching Moonlit Night so long and pushing it to keep up. When we finally reached the door I pushed it open and led them all inside, slamming it shut.

After checking with Callie, I let Moonlit Night drop, and I followed it down, collapsing to my knees and holding my head. My Stealth had covered twenty people, and I'd held it for almost half an hour. Still, it was already receding, and Benny put a hand on my shoulder to help. This was no giant lava shield. My head started clearing pretty fast.

"So, there are no Night Pride in here?" I asked as I finally stood up, breathing through the pain. Looking around, I noticed something...weird. "Wait. I think I see why. There's no DARK in here. Or light? The whole room is like...red?" It was weird to look at. A sort of bloody twilight that dyed the room visible shades with no visible light source. Like using red night vision.

Callie squirmed. "I don't like this. There's no shadows here. This is...gross." She glanced around before starling. "Oh!" She pointed off to one side. "A coffin. Is that ruby? F-ranked Ruby too." It was. Whoever was in that thing was F-rank like we were, though they had more Impact. I looked at the coffin, the stone exuding a bloody radiance that blurred the static red like a flare, almost painful to look at.

This had been one of the reasons I'd even agreed to this. No one over F-rank could come into the dungeon. We were safer with Gabriel and co than with basically anyone. I triggered my Eye of Revelation, looking for traps, and blinked as the red was forcefully suppressed. The coffin was the sole source of light now, also red, but less pervasive. More like a red light than red night vision.

I stared at the thing, until it began to twitch. My eyes got wide as the lid started to push open, slowly rising as a dessicated hand emerged, forcing the ruby covering aside as the corpse inside sat up. It's socketless mummified face turned to look at us, and it's dry, cracked lips peeled back from yellowed and rotten teeth. "Oh good." Rasped the obviously ancient undead. "Visitors."

My girlfriend stared at it for a minute, and I expected her to mention us being too hasty coming in here, but after a second I realized she was just drooling over that giant gemstone coffin and rolled my eyes as I began to get a sinking feeling. "Howdy." I said with a wave. "Nice to meet you. Think you could answer some questions?" Because sadly, from what my fate sense was telling me, this guy was the reason we were here. I hated being right.