In the blinding dark and chaos, Bren slipped the coin out of his pocket. His heart was racing, eyes transfixed by the spectral glow surrounding the stranger. Though for a moment Bren thought she was looking at him, he saw he was mistaken, her gaze flicking around the room as if she were searching for something… Someone. 

Magic itched under his skin like a shiver, the coin in his hand starting to vibrate as he connected to it. An arcane aura shuddered through the very marrow of his bones, a swell of power boiling in his blood. His fists were clenched, jaw set as he stepped forward, ready for a fight. 

A hand grabbed the back of his coat, yanking him behind a pillar before he could take more than a few steps. Snarling in rage, Bren stared up at Archer, seething, “What are you doing? We have to stop her—!”

“No, we don’t. You can’t,” Archer snapped in retort, his chest heaving as he panted in fear. Craning to peer around the pillar, Bren felt Archer pull him closer, almost protectively. His eyes were sharp, scanning what little they could make out of the room before his gaze flicked back and locked with Bren’s. His voice was a hush as he said, “You’re supposed to be a Manos. If anyone saw you…” Archer shook his head as if it were too difficult to utter the remaining words out loud. “Manos like us don’t fight. That’s what the prosecutors are trained for.”

As if on cue, there was the sharp sound of something cutting through air, piercing light shooting out through the darkness in a shower of sparks. The light collided with the Umbra, briefly illuminating the room with a golden glow as fragments of magic and radiance skidded across the ground until they dissipated. 

The Umbra hissed, jerking her head around to see what had hit her, Bren following her lead as he found himself desperate to know who had been brave enough to attack. 

The Warden stood there, blood dripping down the center of her face from a large gash in her forehead. As the features of the room died down once more into shadows, the Warden remained alight in the blaze of her power. Gauntlets of magic gloved her hands and glinting particles of luminosity suffused her, flowing down her arms like sand in an hourglass. 

Archer’s voice was a hiss in Bren’s ear, painfully righteous as he snapped, “See? The Warden is here, she’ll summon reinforcements if needed… The only thing you need to do is come with me and get out of here. Now.”

Bren could tell that Archer wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Silently conceding, Bren was about to drop the coin back into his coat pocket, when he saw the Warden charge forward like a shooting star, her magic blinding.

For a moment Bren was captivated, seeing how menacing her face was, teeth bared and arms up and at the ready. Though there was no question that she would exile him if she knew what he was, for a moment he admired her; her magic was something powerful and pure…and he understood why she was in charge of Vitalos. 

Feeling all the tension leave him, Bren had never been more certain that, whoever this Umbra was, she was about to regret ever crossing the Warden... 

But he was wrong. 

Holding the amulet tight in her grasp, the Umbra’s hand outstretched…and with it surged forth a turbulent wind of thick smoke. It collided with the Warden in a blast of power, ripples of light and smolder erupting from the point of contact.

Though Bren thought the Warden would pierce through the void, instead the Umbra’s attack shot her back at full force, like a bug being flicked. There was a thunderous slam as the Warden’s body struck the wall, marble cracking and crumbling on impact. Shock spiked through Bren as he watched her body fall limp like a ragdoll, slumping forward onto the ground. She didn’t move again, the light of her magic slowly dissipating and dying down. 

The room was pitch once more, a sense of fear and dread seeping back into him. He wanted to reach for Archer, unsure if what he was witnessing could be real. This Umbra was nothing like the others he’d encountered… Nothing like him. Her magic was strong enough to render even the Warden ineffective; there had never been an Umbra like that, and Bren certainly would be no match for them.   

Knowing there was no chance at victory—no outcome in which he’d be the hero—Bren knew his only course of action was to follow Archer. This time, he was ready to run. 

There was another pulse that carried like a wave throughout the room. Everything stuttered to a stop, Bren frozen in place as he felt his body caught in some unseen current, unable to move. He grunted, trying to pull his limbs free of the magic but they were heavy, like metal had been cast around them, rendering him stationary.

It only lasted a moment, like a grip had seized him and let go. Panting as he moved his limbs in relief, Bren clutched the coin tighter in his hand, the edge of the curved metal biting into his palm. 

Before he could even think of what to do next, a horrific sound made his stomach drop. It was a voice that echoed through the pitch, sending a cold chill running up his spine and making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. It was something that he’d never heard, as if there were several entities speaking at once, all in different cadences as the sounds surrounded them and penetrated his mind. 

Don’t… Move…
I… See… You…

Bren instinctively stepped closer to Archer, too terrified to oppose the voice and try to leave. He couldn’t tell if the voices were a warning to everyone in that room… Or if they were inside Bren’s mind alone. 

He glanced up at his brother to gauge if he’d heard it too, but he couldn’t tell and he dared not risk asking and being overheard. Archer’s face was white and his eyes were wide as he leaned farther out around the pillar. Bren followed his lead, wondering what Archer could see…and in that moment he wished he’d remained ignorant.   

The light of the Umbra’s eyes illuminated her face, shadows roiling around her like plumes of smoke as they caught the light and took form. It was as if they were creatures, fluid and changing as she moved through the frozen crowd, Manos reduced to cowering on the floor whether they were injured or not. She stopped, Bren’s heartbeat pounding as he watched her hunch over someone, grinning wickedly down at them. 

There was a moment where he thought that this could be their opportunity to escape…until he saw the dress the woman recoiling on the floor was wearing. It was a large blue ball gown, draped elegantly over a slim figure as it fanned out across the floor. The woman’s red curls were matted with blood, her face visible from the glow of the Umbra’s eyes as she stared pleadingly up at the intruder. 

It was his mother. 

Bren’s magic flared protectively, his palm burning as he felt the coin in his hand vibrate and heat. He tried to swallow down his magic, his arm painfully rigid as his muscles clenched and he squeezed the coin tighter. He wanted desperately to intervene, his heart in his throat as he stood there and watched helplessly, too terrified to move and risk making things worse. 

His mother’s eyes were full of tears, glistening in the glow as they streamed down her cheeks. Her lips parted, her voice so trembling and quiet Bren almost didn’t hear her, barely making out her words as she uttered, “Ora… Please don’t do this.”

 There was a pang in Bren’s chest as he heard his mother speak. It wasn’t just because of the realization that his mother knew this Umbra… It was that this Umbra—Ora, she had called her—was here for her.  

The Umbra’s cacophony of voices slithered out between her lips as she answered, “Celestine…” It was the same eerie sounds that had pierced through Bren’s mind not moments ago. “You’ve been sticking your nose in places it doesn’t belong… So tell me,” the Umbra’s nails grew long, curved, and glinting as if each one were a knife made of metal, “where is my vessel?” 

With barely a pause, he saw his mother’s face turn from fear to ire as she snarled, “I’ll never tell you.”

“No? …So be it.” There was a grotesque noise as the Umbra jutted her hand forward, hooking her claws into his mother’s stomach as she yanked her closer, blood blooming over her blue gown. 

Bren screamed at the same time as his mother, almost as if he could feel her pain and agony. His vision blurred as tears formed in his eyes, and then his world ignited. 

Magic ripped out of him like a violent tear, the coin in his hand boiling white. He couldn’t even feel his skin blister as his hand shot out and lightning tore through the air for the Umbra. It slammed into her, making her shudder and convulse as a monstrous screech left her throat. Her eyes snapped onto Bren, his mother’s body slipping off her claws and thudding to the ground. 

Bren was already sprinting, blinded by his own rage and tears as he sliced his arm through the air again. His magic closed around him in a shield as a bolt of lightning flared outward. It tangled with a stream of blue flames, roping together as a whip was formed and snapped out to lash around the Umbra. 

He could feel the moment his magic collided with her, a horrible agony shooting up his arm from where he held his coin… He was connected to her power; he could feel it pressing on his bones, his nerves on fire as if something was slicing through every atom of his being. A sound of torment left his throat as he turned the power over, using the surge to strengthen his own magic.     

Bren could see fury in her gaze as his shield glowed brighter, his weapon fiercer as it tightened around her arms in a vice, holding her captive. She screamed as she wriggled free of his magic, her bloody hand thrown back as a glow formed in her palm…but Bren was already in front of her.

Dropping to the floor, Bren skidded across an opening as he yanked on his whip, tugging her to the ground before she could attack. There was a thud and clatter, Bren’s eyes sharp on his target as he pushed himself up quickly, his magic still wrapped around her like a snake constricting its prey. He watched her writhe as if she couldn’t breathe, the light in her eyes flickering. 

With his teeth gritted and bared, Bren felt a rolling torrent of magic surround him, the Umbra’s eyes glowing brighter as she stared up at him with a sadistic grin. The corruption staining her face and filling her veins deepened as shadows swarmed her and turned into smoke. The room felt like it was heavy and quaking, Bren dropping to his knees as he struggled to keep her bound by his own magic. 

Nice… Try… The voices whispered in his mind, before the smoke consumed the Umbra’s form and suddenly… 

She was gone.