My head hurt, a short, pulsing buzz that insistently sent shocks into my body. The tension in my shoulders ached down my spine and into my lower back, but the small twitching attempts to free myself only brought quickened pulses of responding pain. I knew Mattie, Aerit, and Cass spoke to me, their kindness was a distant echo that I couldn't find the energy to react to.

I flinched through a loud gasp from my throat when a piece of bread and water were leaned upon my knees. A firm blink reaffirmed me that they were rotten, and the hands that offered them were clean and not black with dirt. My group remained close, never speaking about what happened, never prying too far, despite how they—and everyone else looked down at me with pity or fear.

I sat for hours, and was tired regardless of how long my mind had stopped thinking. There was no motivation other than to wait; I couldn't look away from the shadows piled high with bodies and rotten blood pouring from the ceiling. I didn't know what happened to the adults, they were gone when I managed the awareness to look for them, or they had joined the corners.

"Raymond?" A young teen approached me, a momentary gap of where no one was by my side, seemed to embolden him. "Why is this man looking for you?"

"I'm a slave." I said, "I don't know how he found me. I don't know why I'm Senka…my name is Twelve." I wiped my hands against my pants, the heat from them smeared up my arms. Quickly, I turned them over, hoping it was only panicked warmth and not blood as a slow whine eased from my throat. There wasn't any blood or grime, but I stared at the brand in my wrist.

"There weren't any warnings?"

I scoffed loudly. "I'm escaped property, who warns a satchel that they're going to attempt to reclaim them!"

"But you brought him here…" A girl added, her tone was strained with a shake of my head. I slowly curled my knees to my chin.

"Hey!" Cass' shout startled the room. "Shut the actual fuck up—do you realise what a slave is? Are your brains fuckin' broken? He doesn't know anything, and grilling him and digging out dirt that isn't yours is making what little composure he has worse! So back the fuck up!" She stood in front of me, her black hair seemed blue just for a moment.

"He might remember something!"

"No, you're wanting to blame an actual victim! Which makes you unfit to be a Shield." Aerit and Mattie had finally joined her.

"Both of the adults are dead because of him! And we're next!" Another boy refuted, pointing at me.

"He's innocent!" Mattie said, through clenched teeth, he reached my side first, with Aerit reaching subtly to the seeds pouch on her hip.

"What if he's acting pathetic because—" no one was satisfied by the fist staggering the girl back, they all looked down at her, standing between me and them. I stared at their feet, my expression falling with the lucid apathy cooling my breaths into numb inhales.

They continued to shout once they realised what had happened. Only a small handful of people took the side of blame, the remainder had moved the seats and mattresses around us, primarily angled towards the door. I was still sitting, hoping that if my eyes were closed long enough that I would eventually see Hawkins and Yuna.

Aerit was slow when she sat beside me, even with her exaggerations I still flinched. "Sorry." She said, I didn't reply, and watched her knit through the dim crystal-light.

"I'm sorry." My voice was barely even a whisper, and its burn was heavy at the back of my throat.

"Me too." Aerit said, "we'll be okay."

"He's going to come back, I need to leave."

"It's barely been a day, Raymond." Mattie said, sitting up by me.

"But—"

"No." Aerit agreed. "The adults'll come." I shook my head.

"Then where are they?" I asked. "I think waiting is a potentially foolish idea. They might send another person…"

"Why don't we all leave? We have a better chance against a battle mage together." Cass said.

"What if we miss the adults though?"

"It's a straight-shot from the auditorium to the cabin…I think something caught them." Another said.

"So leaving will be the death of us—"

I scoffed, "so is my staying here. If I'm alone it gives everyone a chance to leave without being caught in the cross-fire." My frustration strained my voice, the exasperation was a muted tingle against my palms.

"I say let him go." Mattie decided. "Raymond can send the adults, and any High Shield."

"Ya can't just switch sides, Mattie." Aerit said with a loud tut. "He has a metal limb."

"Aerit, he's not a fucking cripple." He tutted, "Raymond walked all the way here."

"In pain!"

Mattie shrugged, "yes, but coddling him like he's going to break won't help any of us. I think Raymond should go, by the roots, I'll go with him if you're paranoid and run back myself."

"That's too much time." I mentioned, "I'll go alone." I stood glancing over at the earth mages.

"This is insane!" Aerit exclaimed, flinging her hands in the air, "yer an absolute dumbass!" She scoffed.

"We go as a group then." Cass said.

Mattie leaned back against the couch. "And back to square one…"

I stood, "I'm going to leave regardless—quietly."

Aerit's glower made me look away from her, the guilt soured at the back of my throat. I gathered only a small amount of food then approached the exit, an earth mage glanced at Aerit. Scratching her scalp before she pulled at roots with a slow curl of fingers.

The forest felt different and a fog had settled. The open field raised the hair on the back of my neck. My heart leapt with each step I stood upon, the shaking was the hardest to stagger through. But it was my responsibility to continue.

"Raymond!" I startled, turning to find a small group leaving. Aerit, Mattie, and Cass were at the front and back of the group.

"Yer are the most frustrating friend I have ever made. Go!" She hissed, we were five total, including myself.

"If anyone from the camp appears—you run, I can protect myself with my fire."

"We'll see." We were quiet while we descended onto the suggested path. The silence around us was wholly suffocating, there was no birdsong or flickers of life. Just the crunch of our boots and strained desperation.

"This feels like a trap." Aerit muttered.

"Possibly is." Mattie replied, slowing momentarily to look behind him, Aerit paused as well, holding a hand around his elbow and her other by the seeds attached to her belt.

I summoned my pistols, turning to fire at the snarl rustling the foliage. "Run!" I shouted, waiting momentarily before running behind them. Cass had fallen and I knelt beside her, then I angled myself outward; hearing the heavy pad of footfall snapping twigs with a gurgled laugh.

Slowly, it stepped through the underbrush, a hunched corpse rotted the surrounding green into grey-matter. A horrid, wet cough forced itself through an open metal jaw, like it was gagging at the life presented before it. I couldn't decide if it was once a man since it had a beastly half that wobbled behind its emaciated form. I stared as it wobbled then fell to its haunches and elbows. Its eyes settled upon me, vibrant and glowing yellow with a few strands of hair falling around its bleached sockets that widened slightly, staring at me with a slow tilt of its head.

I couldn't breathe, I raised my pistols towards it with a teen stopping in beside me. "Where the fuck did you get a gun!" She exclaimed and snapped the tension. Immediately the Nightmare Man lunged, opening its metal maw to reveal a human mouth sharpened and screaming out with pain and rage.

I fired immediately, missing into a tree that burst from the manifested magic. Cass scrambled up behind me as another Nightmare Man lunged from the brush, cornering the rest of the teens against a slow reveal of a hard, yellow, barrier coming into view.

"Stop!" I screamed, both of them focused onto me, a low laugh was coughed up by the one on right, and slowly I backed away. Panting while I raised my pistol again, shaking when I fired and tried to hit it again.

It shrugged the burst of magic off, the burn upon its skin steamed with rot. I backed away, only staring at the minor differences of metal-grafted skin and pale decay between the laughter and growls. The weight of their attention hurt, but I felt that it was better for me to have it.

"Henrick, Finse. Heel." The Faceless Man's tone was calm as his hand wrapped around my throat, caging me from turning towards him with a predatory grip. The forest around us shifted, blurring slowly as my back collided against his stomach and chest.

"Don't kill them." I said, startling when the hand around my throat squeezed

"Why?" He asked.

"They-They can't do anything," he leaned over my shoulder with a finger lifting my jaw. His breath was cold and smelled heavily of alcohol, I cringed while trying to pull away but he forced me still by a nail pressing into the hinge of my throat.

"They don't know what they're interfering with. We have work to do."

"I don't even know who you are…" I said with a faint whisper.

He hummed, sounding almost disappointed. "That's fine. Come along, Senka."

"You have to promise!" I shouted, catching his wrist to pull it away, "that everyone else here and at the cabin, won't be harmed!"

He didn't reply and directed me with a palm against the back of my skull. Forcing me to stumble awkwardly against the unseen rocks underneath my feet. "You have my word as long as you cooperate." I couldn't stop shaking, it made me stumble when the Nightmare Men paced after me slowly. I stared forward, unable to find the capacity to say anything else.

The day continued, and the pain in my hip would have been forgotten if it wasn't ordained by every step marking my next inhale with sharp pain. Eventually, the darkness around us folded into a dark grey, and then we stood before the Great Barrier. It sank into the ground, the foliage around it managed to bob itself cleanly through, and the closer we got the more it seemed to thicken into an opaque warning.

"Go." The Faceless Man said, ushering forward the two hell-spawn through the barrier. "Now you—"

His chest was pierced by an arrow. He stumbled back, the mirror-magic around him hardly faltering as I turned to find Yuna and Hawkins revealing themselves. I cried aloud, still frozen as a sharp and beautiful scythe curled around my throat.

"You will not take my son." Yuna's hatred terrified me, her tone didn't shake as she exchanged her crossbow for a long, elegant blade.

"He—" The Faceless Man choked, "is not your son." He pulled me closer, I grabbed the blade hissing loudly when the air sliced through my fingers and poured blood onto the yellow-bright magic which made it difficult to see anything past it.

"You will not take him from me, regardless."

"Raymond, now!" I ducked once I pulled the blade back, Hawkins' magic flared around me, sharp, and rumbling deeply with anger so profoundly comforting. But my hair was yanked back, my shoulder caught the blade but another vine had burst from the ground and yanked away the pain cutting into me. I scrambled down and forward, sprinting towards Hawkins' outstretched arms. He yanked me behind himself and directed his magic to branch out, the vines rattled around the Faceless Man.