'Umbra'

Rhea couldn't sleep.

That was to be expected, of course. She'd never been particularly good at sleeping. Rest was easy enough, sure- stilling herself to lay in wait came just as easily to her as breathing or changing faces- but that wasn't where the issue lay. The real problem was getting the dark to open up. It was a hassle, forcing the void of the dreaming sea to allow her passage beneath its hazy seafoam and letting sleep paint its rosy grotesqueries in her mind. Creatures like her hardly ever had a knack for it, save for a fortunate few- but since their escape, true sleep had gotten progressively harder and harder to achieve. Was it a punishment? A curse? Some old cave god's way of telling her she'd done wrong and needed to repent for her many sins, whatever they may be?

She rolled over with a harsh huff, dragging half of the bedsheets with her.

A sleepy red glimmer flashed from the other side of the bed, a spark of hellfire in the dark shroud of the pitch-black room. "Stop shaking the bed," the little girl mumbled, flipping so the two laid back-to-back. Her wings brushed against Rhea's spine, their downy softness palpable even through the serpent-woman's shirt, and one flicked up to bap her on the head. “'s too late. Sleep.”

“Can't,” Rhea replied, rubbing her eyes. “Otherwise I wouldn't be awake, kid. 'm just as tired as you are. ...Probably.”

“You don't need sleep, so you can't get tired,” the child said stubbornly.

“Neither do you, Nili,” she reminded, sitting up with the sheets still heavy over her legs. “But you still like to sleep anyway, don't you?”

Now quite considerably awake, Nihili dramatically rolled her eyes. “Fine, fine. You got me.” She hopped out of bed, dangling halfway off the edge as she looked back at Rhea. “What time is it?”

The serpent sauntered over to the window, and shoved aside the thick blackout curtains with an elegant sweep of her hand. She opened the frame and leaned out the window, one pointed ear flicking absently as she searched the gray city haze-sky. “Uh... late five-ish, I think. Like... thirty or so out from sunrise?”

“It's 5:42. ...you know, you could've just used the clock.”

Rhea closed the window and squinted at the digital clock's tiny screen, struggling to read the obnoxiously red numbers it proudly displayed, then gave up and wandered off into another part of the room. “I'm not good with those things. Not used to them.”

Nihili trotted over to read the display, then nodded in agreement with Rhea's guess. “If you don't have clocks, then how were you supposed to tell time?” She asked, head tilted to the side.

“The sunstones,” Rhea replied absently, already battling to get one of her usual red turtlenecks on. “They shift progressively throughout the bright and dim. Somewhat like the sun, but… not? Split up into pieces, and buried into the ground. Like… if it was made of glass bottle shards.”

"Ah," Nihili said, failing to understand but pretending to be smart nonetheless. "Telling time through a bottle-shard sun. That's, um, certainly one way to do it."

"Don't patronize me, you awful little creature," Rhea joked. She'd finished putting her clothes back on, and had tucked her black-and-white hair up into its signature ponytail. Now, all she needed was the finishing touch: her necklace. It was a five-pointed star set in a circle, consisting of a single strand of metal that sharply twisted in on itself. According to the person she'd gotten it from, it was some sort of Terran symbol of the demonic- which, had she actually cared for humans' thoughts on her kind, might have been fitting.

Mostly, she just thought it looked cool.

"Oh, hey," Nihili said, her voice breaking up the rustle of fabric.

"Yeah?" Rhea questioned, ears perked up in half-awareness.

"It's the twenty-fourth," the girl said, a smile slowly spreading across her face. "You know what that means."

"Pancakes?" She asked with an equally devilish, if not slightly more serpentine, grin.

"Pancakes," Nihili agreed.

~

The little diner was almost aggressively quaint. Warmly-lit and fashioned in an aesthetic almost seventy years out of style, it was the perfect picture of a late-night resting place. From the conical light fixtures to the ambiguously real-or-fake plants dividing the booths, every inch of it was drenched in a deep, thick haze of potent nostalgia for a life neither of them had lived. Only a few patrons were milling about at this late hour; most of them were younger humans, though a couple of pale, shifty little demons with fang-filled mouths and tufted tails that Rhea had pointed out as harbingers- small, vaguely feline creatures who usually preferred dark caves to bustling human cities- were settled a few booths diagonal to them. And, save for a nasty-sounding argument between a group of scarred young men that had been winding down just as they’d arrived, the place was blissful. The low murmur of casual conversation and bouncy backing track of an achingly familiar- but even more achingly out-of-decade- pop song made for a strangely peaceful environment.

It was a shame it couldn’t stay peaceful for long.

“So, tell me again exactly what we’re up against.”

Nihili tapped her fork against the porcelain rim of the plate, fixing Rhea with an intense glare. The demon glanced up from scrolling through a phone that was most definitely not hers, her attention still not fully on the girl across from her.

“Up against what?” She questioned, attention already straying back to the phone.

Nihili dramatically rolled her eyes and firmly stabbed her fork into a perfect golden pancake with performative annoyance. “You know. Who and what is trying to kill us?”

She cut loose a chunk and popped it in her mouth, spending an extra few seconds savoring the chocolate chips laced in between the warm fluff of buttermilk batter.

“I never said they were trying to kill us,” Rhea said, lifting a brow. “Everyone wants you alive. You’re more powerful than pretty much anyone out there, every single one of your enemies included. As for whether or not they’ll show a lowly serpent like me so much as a scale of mercy… eh. It depends. I was never much appreciated.”

“Sure, but that’s no excuse to not tell me,” Nihili said through her pancakes. “Stop redirecting the conversation and tell me what we have to do.”

Rhea sighed. “Fine, fine, fine. Alright, Nili. What do you want to know?”

“Like I said,” Nihili reminded. “Who we’re up against.”

Rhea snorted. “Short answer: just about everyone in two and a half different dimensions. Long answer… let me think.” 

She made a show of counting on her fingers while focused on the suspiciously plastic-y monstera potted in the row between booths. “The Annex and its emperor, who are pissed at me for rescuing you from them, and for a whole lot of other things; pretty much everyone else who works under him, though the most pressing of those are the Aphelion and Thorntangle city-states; Syzygy, probably, out of spite; don’t think Zenith gives a damn who lives or dies, as long as they’re left to their own devices- but if those bugs got roped into this too, we’re even more screwed; slavers from the Outlands; rogue mercenaries; and probably even Edenna’s council, for good measure.” She offered her still-technically-kidnappee a weak grin. “You’re famous, kid. Impressed yet?”

Nihili blinked at that. “Sounds like it’d be easier to just give up.”

“Oh, infinitely so,” Rhea snorted. “But hey: there’s no point to being the sole survivor of a brood if you’re just going to go ahead and die right after tasting the nectar of a venomous victory.”

“Uh… I guess not?” She said, confused. “I still don’t get your metaphors.”

“And I do not expect you to,” Rhea answered, turning her attention to the shifting shapes of shadows outside the nearby picture window.

“But could you tell me more about them, at least?” Nihili prodded. “I want to know exactly who’s trying to send me to say hello to God.”

“None of these worlds have any gods worth following,” Rhea dismissed. “But fine. I’ll humor you. Who is it exactly you want to know about?”

“Um… the Annex, I guess? If they were the ones who took me,” she said slowly, turning her attention to another pancake. “And… you used to be part of them, right? So you’d know stuff?”

Rhea sighed and set down her stolen phone. “Fine, fine. You got me. I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

Her playful demeanor dropped away, and she turned to fully face Nihili with unblinking eyes. “So. The Annex. For starters, it’s the most recent clan in Lilth, but also the biggest- we’re talking practically an empire. Holds claim over an absolutely massive swath of land, and it’s always expanding and taking on new members. Its populace is pretty much a clusterfuck of everything sentient, from demons to humans to a few outcast seraphim. Nobody knows how the thing is still running- seriously, you’d think it would’ve long since meandered off and collapsed, considering how much of a mess it’s gotten to be in the time since it started.”

“Were you around then?” Nihili questioned. “You’re old enough. Right?”

The demon gave her a noncommittal shrug before continuing. “Pretty sure the five bastards who run it are holding it together by sheer brute force and force of will alone- and, surprise, surprise! Those are the same five who want you back at any cost.”

“Oh.”

“Yup. But, uh, the Annex higher-ups are… well. They’re a lot, so I’ll try to keep things concise enough. Feel free to whack me if this explanation drags.”

“An excuse to punch you? Definitely.”

“Slither off.” Rhea rolled her eyes. “So. There’s five of them, as I said. Technically there’s the emperor’s partner, too, if you want to count her. She doesn’t really do much in the way of politicking, and would probably end up being your mother if- nevermind. Just… just disregard that. There’s five. Four generals and the emperor.”

Nihili nodded, fully enraptured. If she had any sort of pencil, she’d probably be taking notes.

“You’ve already met one, sort of- Lady Velkari, the Dragon. She’s the one with the sword who tried to block us from the portal-”

“The one who recognized you?”

Rhea was quiet for a minute, before nodding. “Yeah. Her. Big lady with all the scars. Bad attitude, but a brilliantly skilled commander and a fearsome warrior; makes sense, though, since she’s the oldest. She was a queen in her own right before the Annex conquered her clan’s territory, and it’s more than obvious from the way she carries herself. Out of armor, she’s dripping with bloody jewels.”

Nihili piped up, eyes wide. “Are they actually bloody?”

“Fortunately, no,” Rhea answered. “They just look like it. She pretty much only wears red.”

“Oh. ...um, you can keep going.”

“Thanks. Anyways, so you know how I mentioned her being a conquered queen?”

The child nodded.

Rhea grinned, all of her sharp teeth on display. “Nix almost killed her for it. If she wasn’t so smart- and probably so damn intimidating, too- she’d probably be dead by now.  Unfortunately for us, she didn’t get executed and is now determined to make herself everybody else’s problem.”

“Fun.”

“Exactly. She’s a riot,” Rhea drawled, voice dripping with sarcasm. “There’s two others you haven’t met yet, on top of her- and they’re the only two who actually get along with each other. Honestly, pretty sure they’d both do anything for one another. It’d almost be sweet, if they weren’t…”

“Evil demon generals who want to kill me?” Nihili asked.

Rhea blinked at her. “Sure, kid. Let’s go with that.”

The entry bell dinged across the restaurant, and the faint voice of the exhausted, but still ferociously over-eager, hostess piped up.

“Their names are Lord Cerca and Lord Velid, and… well. Let’s just say that you’ll know them when you see them. Cerca is swarming with bugs on a pretty much constant basis, and he looks about three-quarters of the way starved to death. On the other hand, Velid is teeny-tiny in comparison to him, and would probably be kind of adorable if he wasn’t likely to try and bite your entire arm off if you try to pet him. Or just because.”

Nihili chuckled at the thought. “Are you speaking from experience?”

“I will neither confirm nor deny.”

“Okay then,” Nihili said, taking another bite of her pancakes. “So, who’s the last one?”

Rhea gave the young girl a peculiar look. “What do you mean, ‘the last one’?”

“The fourth general. You said there were four, but only listed three- so who’s the last one?”

“The last one…” Rhea stared into the distance with a little frown, as if she were carefully combing her thoughts for the right memories. “They called her the Lady, and from what I remember, she's a bit of an enigma. Nobody knew anything about her- other than that she's, well... a she, and an ophidite like me.”

“Ophidite?”

“Snake demon,” she explained. “A skinchanger. She didn’t keep herself restrained to just one form- and she was a master at shifting between them, too.”

“Oh. Got it,” Nihili nodded.

Seemingly satisfied for the moment, Nihili turned back to focus fully on her pancakes. Rhea stared out into the dark for a while longer, enamored by the waving shadows and bright lights. Not that many people were around at this time, when the world balanced on the cusp between night and day, but there were enough out and about. People she’d never met and would never know were going about their lives, oblivious to her presence; their metal behemoths crawled on the streets, lights suspended overhead dictating their movements, herding them to and from places unknown. It was a slightly strange sight, though not precisely a new one. Regardless of which world the sun was rising over, dawn was dawn.

The demon’s reverie was shaken when she suddenly piped up again.

“You mentioned you had a mentor,” Nihili said, voice tense. “Was… was it her?”

“Who?”

“The Lady. Did she teach you?”

“She-”

Before the demon could answer, she was cut off by a sudden scream.

They both shot up from their seats at the booth, startled. Rhea’s ears pinned back like a frightened cat’s, and Nihili’s wings were hugged tightly to her body. Around them, the rest of the building’s patrons were warily rising to their feet, unsettled. The sound had come from the front of the diner- nearby the entrance, where the hostess had been standing. The hostess, who now lay in a crumpled pile at the feet- or, rather, the paws- of a strange beast.

What stood  before her was a hulking figure, far taller than her and lightly armored. Its face was like that of a particularly ugly wolf, had said wolf’s snout been repeatedly and mercilessly smashed in with a rock. Long, yellowish-white fangs jutted from its mouth at uneven intervals, each tooth razor-sharp and as long as one of her fingers. Copper fur covered almost every visible inch of its skin, save for the pads of its paws. Golden eyes that gleamed with intelligence methodically swept the diner, searching for something.

Or, more likely, someone.

The beast raised its head to sniff the air. Its large ears flicked this way and that, straining to pick up on every potential trace of sound. It took one step forward, then another, the long claws of its hind paws clicking upon the tile of the floor. Silently, Rhea gestured for Nihili to hide beneath the table. The halfling obeyed in short order, pulling up the hood of her sweatshirt and ducking out of sight. Other patrons, too, followed her lead. They hid beneath tables, benches, chairs, even a plant in one case- anything that would shelter them.

With one last taste of the air, the beast’s head lowered. It briefly scoured the room, and then locked directly onto her. Their eyes met, red-brown and gold, predator and prey. In a quick movement, it dropped from two legs to four. Rhea flicked her wrists, and felt the familiar weight of blades in her palms. Her mother had told her once that no good snake should ever be far from her fangs, and she’d taken that advice to heart. It was a rare occurrence that she wasn’t prepared to strike. There was barely time between that and its next move, but she could see the signs of its preparation even as she readied herself. Its ears flicked back, and the short-cropped copper fur along its neck raised like the hackles of an animal. 

She was prepared for when it charged. 

In a flash, she dodged out of the way of its angry fangs. With a twist of her right arm, she was able to slash out at the beast’s side with her dagger. The beast snarled as the blade ripped through its clothing and met tender flesh beneath. Having failed to meet its target, the beast slammed chest-first into a table with a snarl. The furniture went flying, and a few empty plates, bottles of condiments, and pieces of silverware were knocked free by the impact. They scattered across the floor. Blood bubbled up from the open wound on its side, staining the already-dark fabric of its coat- but not nearly enough. The wound hadn’t hit anything major. Rhea silently cursed her mistake as the beast whirled back around, shaking off the daze of its first failure and launching itself at her again.

She dodged again, though by a much narrower vicinity. Its impact clipped her left shoulder, and she narrowly avoided slamming square against the wall. The demon grit her teeth against the sudden blaze of pain, but simply rolled her shoulder a few times and glanced back towards the beast. Once again, it was readjusting itself to charge- only to pause suddenly. Its golden eyes wandered down to the blade buried halfway through its chest. Rhea allowed herself the slightest of smirks as the beast tore it out, tossing it back towards her.

Just like she’d wanted.

Rhea easily dodged the throw- clumsy work; clearly, this beast wasn’t trained with knives- and, as it charged for a third time, she took the opportunity to leap again. This time, she was far more successful. She was able to briefly grab a hold on its back, and stab a blade into the spot where its throat met its chest. It let out a horrible howl and staggered, but still managed to throw her off. She hit the ground on her feet, one knife still in hand. With a flick of her wrist, she called her other fang back towards her- earning another gush of blood from the beast- and shifted both to face it again. Its ears suddenly flicked back up, and it pulled back into the room.

Nihili, still beneath the table, suddenly shouted in warning. Before Rhea could prepare herself, the picture window behind their former table shattered. Glass rained down, slicing up her jacket and her raised arms with a fury- but the little shards were nothing compared to the sinking despair she felt as the second beast pulled its way through the window. This one was white-furred, with slightly longer fur, but its blazing silver eyes were nearly the same as those of the other beast: intelligent, fierce, and hungry. The eyes of a predator.

A predator that was hunting for her.

Unfortunately for the beasts, though, she could hardly be called easy prey.

Rhea tossed her newly-recovered dagger towards the second beast, aiming to hit it square between the eyes. Her shoulder was stiff and aching from her earlier fall, and it interfered with her aim. Still, the blow hit. The white-furred beast was skewered straight through its upper arm, and howled in outrage at the attack. It ripped the dagger out with a growl, then clambered up onto another table from which to pounce. With only a split-second to spare, she scuttled out of its way. The beast launched itself at her, and she barely dodged again- nearly tripping on a pile of spilled sugar in the process- as it slammed into a row of the dubiously real plants. The table from which it had jumped had also fallen, cracking a dropped plate in half as it collapsed. Stunned by the force of its pounce, the beast let out a vaguely dazed snarl. 

Seizing the opportunity, Rhea launched the two blades she had in hand at the white beast. Additionally, she pulled a third from seemingly nowhere- in reality, it had simply been stashed further up her sleeve- and launched it towards the first beast. Two out of three daggers hit their marks; one had found its home in the white beast’s skull, the second in its spine, and the third in the wall near the copper beast. The white beast slumped over, presumably dead, whilst the other beast only angered further. She grinned at it, as if daring it to come closer. 

It did.

She called her daggers back to her. It prepared for her to throw them again- only to look on in confusion as she grabbed each one and tossed them all into the abyss behind her, with seemingly no care as to where they fell. Momentarily, Rhea tensed in uncertainty. When she didn’t hear the sound of them clattering to the ground, her anxiety abated and she leaped into the air without a spare second. Clear from the expression on its face, the beast hadn’t been expecting her to pounce- and especially not while unarmed. And, in a way, it was right to have not expected such a thing. Because she wasn’t pouncing. 

As she flung herself through the air, her body contorted and shifted. Bones and muscles snapped and merged, and her form blazed with golden light. Suddenly, she was smaller, and coiled around the beast’s still-bleeding neck like a macabre piece of jewelry. Before it could realize what was happening, the serpent tightened her coils in a desperate attempt to squeeze the air from its throat. The beast howled in panic, and set immediately about clawing her off. She’d been expecting such retaliation, though, and was fully prepared. Its claws scrabbled along her scales and it swung its head around, trying to shake her off, but it was generally unsuccessful- until its claws caught her cheek, and it peeled her from its body. Once she was in its grip, it flung her away. Rhea hit the ground on her feet, much to the beast’s anger- but it didn’t retaliate against her. The beast was already exhausted, and on the verge of death. Without interference, nothing could survive those wounds.

She could let it go, just this once.

“Run!” She snarled. “Get the fuck out of here, and never show yourself again.”

The beast responded with a roar, then fell back onto four legs and leaped out through the open window. She took the opportunity to materialize a fourth dagger- which had indeed actually been pulled from thin air this time- and threw it after the creature, aiming squarely for its back. Her knife found its mark, and the beast staggered. It didn’t fall, though- it just kept running, fleeing from the deadly serpent’s nest that it had stuck its snout into.

Once the fighting stopped, Rhea lingered for a moment, panting. She’d won, clearly- the collapsed body of the white beast was proof enough- but it didn’t feel like she’d achieved much of anything. She was tired, and bloody, and the diner had been partially wrecked. The window was broken, and its remains were lying about like a minefield of broken shards. Tables lay on their sides, plates and silverware were shattered, condiments were spilled, and some of the booths were scratched. Even a few of the plants- which she was still uncertain upon the nature of- had been turned on their sides, with one having been crushed entirely. The fight she’d put up had been markedly worse than usual; under better circumstances, she would’ve been able to best both beasts in a minute. Perhaps it was just because she was on the receiving end of the ambush, but still. 

Something felt… off.

“It’s over,” she finally said, voice far weaker than she would have liked. “You can come out now.”

Nihili was the first to crawl out from her shelter, but not the only one. The scattered humans had emerged, and the hostess had clambered to her feet. Even the pair of harbingers had popped up from beneath their table, and were surveying the carnage with four pairs of wide eyes. Their brows raised at the sight of the dead beast, and then their gazes turned to Rhea. She couldn’t tell if they were hostile, scared, confused, or relieved. Knowing the sort of relationship the harbingers had with other demons- and especially with the beasts- they were probably all of those at once.

Ignoring the prickle of their observance, Rhea walked over to the collapsed remains of the white-furred beast. With little ceremony or interest- but surprising strength- she flipped over the beast’s body, squatting down to get a better look at its features.

Her earlier description had been fitting. It looked like an ugly wolf, all right- but she knew it was more. Its face was somewhere between human and animal, with a short snout, canine nose, and raised cheekbones. Its lips were pulled back to make room for all of its teeth, and its silver eyes- glazed and lifeless as they were- still burned with hate. She closed them. Upon further observation, her suspicions were confirmed. This wasn’t a mere coincidence. They were being hunted.

A sudden tap came at her shoulder, and she startled. When she turned around, she expected to be greeted by Nihili’s split-color face. Instead, one of the harbingers was staring at her in concern with four big red eyes. The stranger’s face wasn’t dissimilar to the beast’s, though it was far more natural-looking. Unlike the more canine beast, she was a strange blend of cat, mouse, and demon. Tufts of colorless white hair fluffed out from her head, adding to the suggestion of her being a little white cat. One of her large ears had been pierced, but all that was left of the former earring was a large nick where it had been torn free. Rhea’s brows creased, but the harbinger ignored her pitying look.

“How badly are you hurt?” She asked Rhea, her head tilted. “I can help.”

Rhea nodded, rising to her feet. “Not dangerously, but you can probably tell better than me. Want me to sit down for this?”

“Standing is fine,” the harbinger said, rolling up her sleeves and turning to her fellow demon. “Just relax your muscles for me. Ignore the instinct to tense up. It’ll be over before-”

“Before I even realized I was hurt in the first place,” Rhea echoed. “I know. I’ve been worked on by a bloodhealer previously.”

“Oh? By whom?” the harbinger asked.

“A little cat-thing,” she said. “It doesn’t matter who. Just that I know what you’re doing, and have the vaguest idea of how this works.”

“I’m going to take that to mean you won’t squirm.”

“I don’t,” Rhea assured. “So I’ll shut my mouth and let you get it over with.”

“Thank you.”

Rhea relaxed, letting the harbinger work. She watched through half-lidded eyes as the pale demon unsheathed short, catlike claws, and dragged them lightly across one of her bare arms. Blood welled up in orderly lines on her light, grayish skin. The faint imprints of previous scratches implied this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. Satisfied, the harbinger sheathed her claws. Once returned to a more manageable length, she neatly swiped a finger along each cut, squeezing the skin until each was covered in crimson. Fingers still bloody, she turned to Rhea with questioning eyes.

“Where’s the worst damage?”

“Face, I think. Cuts on my hands, too.”

The harbinger nodded, and wordlessly set about her work. Stepping up on her tip-toes to reach her face, the harbinger smeared her blood-covered fingers along the edges of Rhea’s cut cheek. Once the other demon’s cheek was covered in gore, the harbinger stopped and began pulling the blood-coated skin together with her fingers. Rhea squinted against the sensation, desperately fighting the urge to itch the skin as it was knitted back together.

“Done,” the harbinger announced. “With your face, at least.”

Rhea huffed, and scraped her freshly-scarred cheek on her shoulder- an unwise decision that just left both more agitated. “Let me know when you’re completely finished.”

The healer nodded, and continued to work.

When the procedure was mostly done, Nihili finally made her way over. Somehow, she was completely undamaged. In comparison to the rest of the diner, she was practically pristine; the only thing off about her was her tousled hair and disgruntled expression.

“What’s going on?” She asked, squinting at Rhea. “And what’s she doing?”

“Bloodhealing, child,” the harbinger hummed. She didn’t turn to look at Nihili, but politely explained regardless. “Using a life force to heal those in need. Or, at least, that’s ideally how it works- in practice, it’d be just as easy for me to tear your companion up as it would be for me to heal her.”

“So you use blood for it? Oh- is that why your arm’s all cut up?”

“Indeed. I needed it fresh.”

“Then why not use hers, or that monster’s?”

“It’s forbidden to use blood other than one’s own.”

“Why? Is it really that bad?”

The harbinger’s silence was her only answer. She didn’t speak again until the final one of Rhea’s cuts had been tended to. Even after then, she remained quiet. She tended to her own wounds in a similar manner, patching up each cut with great tenderness, then wiping the residual blood from her fingers and pulling her sleeves down.

“Finished,” she announced, breathless. “Everything is healed, except your shoulder- but it’ll hurt less in a few days, if you give it the time it needs.”

Rhea nodded in thanks, stretching her back like a cat. Her skin still itched fiercely, and the scars were new, but things were fixed enough to be tolerable. The ache in her shoulder hadn’t abated, but she could manage. She could handle far worse.

“Before you go, though.”

Rhea’s gaze looked back to the harbinger, who was looking at her with intensity in her scarlet eyes. “Remember that you might not have a healer around next time this happens. Be careful, serpent, because you won’t be able to rely on somebody else having your back next time a monster bares its fangs.”

She nodded, but didn’t quite meet the harbinger’s eyes. “I know- I was just… I’m not sure. Usually I’m better. I’ve been through worse with less backup.”

The harbinger looked unconvinced. “Very well. Just don’t go wasting your life fighting every monster that crosses your path.”

With a twitch of her whiskers, the harbinger returned to her companion. The two of them gathered their things and departed the diner, each throwing one last glance towards the beast’s collapsed body. Rhea watched them go, then turned her attention back towards the corpse. Nihili’s eyes followed.

“What is that thing?” The girl asked, squinting at the monster’s remains with squinted eyes and a wrinkled nose. “You seemed to recognize it.”

“It’s a snowstrider,” Rhea said, once again returning to her knees. “They’re demons, too- from the Outlands, mostly. Generally keep to themselves out in the arctic, but sometimes they venture out to hunt- or they’re recruited.”

“Why?”

“There’s no tracker better than one. They can follow scents near perfectly- it’s the one thing most demons can’t change when they shapeshift. Seraphim, too, with illusions- though they’re hardly ever sent after them, since Edenna’s under lock and key.” She drew closer, her eyes searching it for anything that she might have missed. Her tongue flicked in and out of her mouth. “This one doesn’t have a crescent on its arm, so that rules out Frostguard- but… I don’t see any other identifying symbols. And I doubt these two were acting alone.”

“What about this?” Nihili asked.

Rhea glanced over, and her face paled.

With the toe of her shoe, Nihili was pointed to a symbol tattooed onto one of the snowstrider’s palms. It bore resemblance to a three-pointed crown, but eight other lines jutted out from it; two from each corner, four on the top, four on the bottom. Based upon the silhouette, one might find it resembling a spider.

Rhea drew away. Muttering curses under her breath, the demon leaped to her feet and dragged Nihili with her. “Did you bring anything?” She asked.

“No. Why-”

“Good. Then we’re leaving, right now.”

Rhea strode over to the table and snatched up her phone, then grabbed Nihili’s hand and led her out. The hostess had sat up, and watched them go with a dazed expression. Nihili waved at her. She waved back with a look of confusion, as if she didn’t entirely understand the gesture she was making.

As Rhea went to open the door, Nihili grabbed her hand and tugged.

“Hey, wait.”

“What?” Rhea asked, eyes sharp.

“I want to fix things up.”

“Fix them up? You can’t. And besides, kid, we can’t stay here-”

“It’ll only take a minute!”

“Fine, then. Do what you have to do.”

Nihili mimicked a curtsy, then shoved her way back through the door. So as to not leave her alone, Rhea followed. They both walked back into the wrecked remnants of the diner, Rhea with her hands in her pockets, Nihili bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“Go ahead and work your magic, kid.”

“Yes, ma’am! Watch this.”

“I’m watching.”

Nihili closed her eyes, and opened her arms with palms out. Her wings relaxed, draping themselves across the floor like a discarded deep gray cloak. A gentle breeze crept through the shattered window, ruffling her hair in its slight wind. Though she was a child still- twelve, thirteen, fourteen at the most- she looked almost saintly in the uneven light, among the ruins of battle. Rhea had guessed she was half-seraph, based upon her wings and pointed ears, but it felt more fitting than ever in that moment.

For a time, nothing happened at all. Rhea shifted her weight from one foot to the other, one to the other, waiting, waiting. Then, after a few moments of waiting, it began. 

Around her, the room was changing. Objects started to lift and move back into place. Shards of glass from the window flew back into the frame, each hovering in the spot where it had originally been as the broken window’s cracks filled themselves back in. The crushed plants were righted, and the spilled remains of food were cleaned up off of the floor. Plates and drinking glasses put themselves back together, each shattered piece fusing back into its previous whole. A light that had fallen from the ceiling lifted up and righted itself. Even the rips in Rhea’s clothes found themselves erased. Through everything, Nihili was serene. Even though Rhea knew that she was the one controlling the process, she still seemed oblivious to it all; as if she were deeply asleep, or in another world entirely.

When everything seemed to be as it had been, Nihili opened her eyes. She sagged forwards, suddenly off-balance. Rhea moved to catch her, and the child gratefully leaned on her support. With her bone-white hand, she brushed a streak of silvery-white hair from her face. Blinking hard, she looked back towards the demon with a slightly fatigued smile.

“There,” Nihili said, somehow breathless. “Fixed.”

“What’d you do?” She asked.

“Rewound the physicality,”  the little girl answered.

“Uh… what?” Rhea’s brow furrowed.

“I came up with the name on the spot. It’s a little dumb, but I like it.”

“That’s not what I meant. I was asking what you did.”

“Oh! I just scooched some objects back a bit in time. Simple stuff.”

“…I am not going to ask you to clarify.”

“Good. Because I have no idea how I did it either- I just had a feeling I could help, and… so I did. Somehow. I think.”

“Had a feeling. So, uh. Can we go now, then?”

Nihili righted herself and tucked her wings back in. Rhea offered the little girl her hand, and she eagerly took it. Hand in hand, the two walked out the door, leaving nothing but the little bell ringing behind them.

~

During the fight, the sun had risen over the half-ruins of the city. Curtains of soft blue and silver and yellow swished and crept across the streets and storefronts, washing miserable shells of concrete with bright golden garb. Soft trails of clouds wove above a net of power-lines, separating the sky into pieces. A cloud of peeping, chattering sparrows shot by overhead, tugging forward the rising dawn with their beaks and talons and wings. Nihili turned to wave at them. The budding faces of landscaped flowers tilted their chins up to greet the new day with a rainbow of unfurling petals. A chilly breeze threaded through the empty streets, bringing the smells of sea salt and cooking food along with it.

Rhea’s eyes searched the city, with no target in particular. It was a lot to take in, though it was far emptier in the sunlight. With the darkness banished and the streetlamps dimmed to nothing, the city was clear to be seen as itself. Old signs carpeted older architecture, and discarded things littered the streets. Stains pockmarked walls that the sun had long bleached color from, giving the impression of a sort of city-wide neglect. Were it not for the dawn’s beauty, it’d certainly be a hideous mess worse than the streets of her own home. She rubbed idly at her new scar.

Nihili's attention turned from the birds, and she inhaled sharply.

“Look,” she whispered.

Rhea turned and looked.

In the middle of the street, there stood an angel.

She was dressed in pure white, with silver-blonde hair that fell in wavy tresses down to her shoulders. Her pale feathered wings were folded tight to her back, their feathers neatly overlapping. Framed by the rising disk of the sun, she looked to be the picture of holiness.

And she was walking away.

“Hey!” Nihili shouted. “Miss! We just want to talk!”

The angel started walking faster, until she broke into a sprint- the familiar predecessor to takeoff. Rhea, giving up any hope of catching her, slowed to a jog. Still, an odd feeling prevented her from stopping entirely. Something was off about the way she moved. Where normally a seraph’s wings would unfurl, bright and beautiful, then beat to take to the sky, this one’s... weren’t really doing much of anything. They spread, but seemed unable to catch a hold on the air. All they served to do was warp the already-irregular shape of her shadow.

And then it hit her.

Rhea continued the chase.

They ran for some time longer, pursuing the angel through the empty sun-touched streets. Nihili, though capable of flying, stayed on the ground and sprinted beside her. Much to their exasperation, the angel was fast. Faster, in fact, than the both of them- though Rhea doubted she could outrun them if they hadn’t just been tangled up in a fight. She was agile, as well, and knew the terrain better. However, Rhea had done more to reach less important targets. She wasn’t giving up that easily.

They ran through the commercial space, and the angel took a sharp right into what seemed to be a neighborhood. Rhea initially shot past the entrance, then realized her mistake and corrected her course. By then, though, the angel had been lost in the neighborhood- or so she thought.

“There!” Nihili announced, pointing to a winged white figure attempting to vault over a stone-brick garden wall covered with ropes of ivy. 

Without waiting for her, Nihili dashed after her and left the serpent in the dust. Rhea sighed and dashed after her, quickly closing the gap between them. Just as the angel climbed over the first wall, Rhea dug her claws into the gaps and vaulted herself over it. That simple maneuver took considerably more effort than usual, due to her shoulder still shrieking with every move she made. For a moment, she balanced precariously on its top, before ducking into a roll and dropping down it.

When she straightened, the serpent was met with what felt like another world.

The little garden was an oasis of peace, modestly-kept but pleasant. Bushes and flowers grew along the edges of the walls, and squat trees- fig, lemon, and apple, if her memory served her right- shaded the tiny yard. A fountain burbled somewhere, and wind chimes dangling from the roof rang with the morning.

The angel flipped around to face them with a look of resignation.

“What do you want,” she said, flatly. A statement rather than a question.

“Just... an explanation…” Nihili panted, drawing her hands along her chest as if to will air back into her lungs.

Rhea blinked at her in silence.

Upon further examination, the angel wasn’t as divinely beautiful as she’d first appeared. Her face was thin, and shadowed, with deep bags beneath her strange, solid black eyes. Bones jutted from beneath sallow skin, their lines and shadows indicating she hadn’t eaten well for a while. What she had thought to be waves in her white hair were instead knots and tangles, frizzing and matting elegant locks. Her clothes were rumpled and dirty, unwashed and unchanged for what was likely days. Two little horns poked above her brow, identical to Nihili’s. Only the outline of dawn gave her any trace of the divinity Rhea once thought she’d had. The figurine of an idol, knocked from its pedestal; a holy symbol, stripped from its church; the angel, fallen from grace.

She almost felt bad.

“Um... h-hello, ma’am. It’s a... beautiful day, so far, huh?” Nihili said, still trying to catch her breath.

“Beautiful things don't exist,” the angel replied. Her eyes grimly scanned Nihili's pallid markings, her single horn, her strange two-ringed eye. “We of all people should know that.”

“We?” Nihili asked. “Since when has… has there been… a we?”

“In my case? Years, probably, though it’s been worse. In yours, well… a while, I’d guess Long enough to start metamorphosis.”

“Metamorphosis?” The child parroted again. “What do you mean?”

“You’ll see,” the angel said bitterly. “It’ll happen when it happens.”

“What? What will happen?”

“I said, you’ll see. Just… cherish the time you’ve got left.”

Nihili huffed. “Stop being vague and ominous. Please. Ma’am.”

The angel grinned. “No.”

“Why not?”

“I have my reasons.”

“Seriously?” Rhea interjected. “Is that your motivation for doing all this? You ‘have your reasons’?”

“My motivation,” she snapped, “is at least getting to wallow in misery I consider comfortable. I’ve been through shit, snake, and I’m not suffering through that all over again. I’m not letting it back into my head.”

“...it?”

The angel groaned. “Wonderful. Just fucking wonderful. Now you expect me to explain everything, don’t you? Well, too fucking bad, because I’m not. If you want actual answers, go talk to someone who knows things about the world.”

“Like…?” Rhea prompted.

“The Doctor,” the angel said, lifting her chin. “Because he knows everything I do, and I’m sure as hell keeping my secrets.”

“So, if you want us to leave you alone, tell us where he is.”

“Edenna, obviously. Where do you think I came from?” She put her hands on her hips and stared at the serpent with a scowl.

“Uh, not Edenna? Since…” Rhea gestured to her misshapen wing, and the angel’s expression soured even further. If she got any more upset, she’d probably have soured enough to become a lemon herself.

“Well, that’s the breach I crawled out of,” the angel said bluntly. “And even if it wasn’t, it’d still be where he is. You still have to go there- probably could right now, if you wanted.”

“Why?” Rhea asked. “Why can’t you just make this easier for everyone and tell us what’s going on?”

She shrugged. “One, I’m not in the mood. Two, it’s not my responsibility. Three, it’s not my place. He knows more than I do, and it’s better if you hear it from the mouth of a man whose brain works.”

With that, she turned tail and started to climb the opposite wall of the garden. Once she’d reached the top, she lingered for a moment, glancing back towards the two of them. “And if you find him,” she said, “tell the old man Calyxa sent you.”

“How do we find him, again?” Nihili asked.

The angel- Calyxa, apparently- rolled her eyes, clearly thoroughly finished with them. “Just ask around or something. As far as I can recall, everyone knows of him. You’ll find someone who can take you to him eventually. -and before you ask, you’ll know him when you see him. He stands out from a crowd.”

With that, Calyxa hopped off of the wall. Within seconds, the greenery had swallowed her up, and she was gone entirely.

“Well,” Rhea started, long after the angel’s departure. “She was pleasant.”

“I mostly just felt bad for her,” Nihili said softly. “She didn’t seem to be doing well.”

“Seemed?” Rhea lifted a brow.

Nihili rolled her eyes. “Don’t mock me. Anyways, we’ve finally got a lead, then?”

“I hope so,” the demon said. “Let’s just hope we can make this quick.”

~

“So, um, question. Important one. What’s Edenna?”

Rhea gave her a look.

“No, I’m serious,” Nihili protested. “I have no idea.”

The demon sighed. “Then let’s find a bench or something, because in that case I’ve probably got some explaining to do.”

After their cryptic and generally unpleasant encounter with Calyxa, the pair had left the neighborhood and found their way back to the surface streets. Currently, they were walking alongside a street, heading towards what felt like nowhere. Rhea had a vague idea of where she was going, but not much beyond that. Terra wasn’t home to her, and though she’d been before, it was still silent and alien to her. She didn’t keep a complete map of it, mental or physical, and barely knew enough to get herself around. Even the location of the breach leading to Edenna was mostly an unknown to her, though she had enough vague recollections and guesses to find her way there eventually. 

She could probably also ask for directions, but she knew herself well enough to know she probably wouldn’t. She’d always been of the stubborn sort.

“So… Edenna, okay,” she started. “You know how we came here from another world, through a breach- which is basically, like, a portal?”

“Yep,” Nihili said.

“You know there’s more than just those two worlds, right?”

“Mm-hm.”

“And you know you got your wings from one of your parents, too, right?”

“Totally.”

“So, put all those together.”

“Edenna is the world where winged people are from?”

“There you have it,” Rhea said. “And they’re called seraphim, by the way.”

“Seraphim,” Nihili said softly to herself. “I like that word. It’s sharp, but… the good kind of sharp. It has music.”

“I don’t think that much into it,” she said with a shrug. “Anyways. I don’t know much about it, either? Or at least, I’ve never actually been there, myself. I know of it, and I’ve heard stories- enough to get a vague idea of what it’s like.”

Rhea already anticipated her reply. Nihili didn’t even bother asking the question.

“It’s a tropical paradise, basically. Warm sunlight, pure white beaches, crystal-clear water, verdant rainforests, all that stuff. Edenna isn’t the name of the world, though- just one particular city, since said city is basically the only thing there that isn’t just nature. And that’s where the seraphim come from. One of your parents was probably from there. Were they?”

Nihili shrugged. “I don’t remember my parents. Like, I know I had to have had them, but I don’t recall anything. No names, no faces, no experiences. I don’t know if they were around.”

Rhea stuck her hands in the pockets of her jeans. “That’s fair. Trust me, some parents ought to be forgotten.”

“Like yours?”

“Good question.”

They continued on in silence for a little while longer, passing beneath a few shade trees on their aimless walk forwards. Occasionally, Nihili would hop up with wings fluttering to try and high-five the branches. Reaching up as high as she could, she smacked the small green branches- often taking a few leaves with her in the process, and earning a chuckle from Rhea. The serpent’s eyes thoughtfully followed each of her hops, glancing along the feathers of her wings and the powerful leaps of her legs.

“Nili?”

“Yeah?” The girl said, still thoroughly fixated on her tree-hopping.

“Can you fly? Like, actually? Did you learn how?”

Nihili stopped in place, looking towards Rhea with her head tilted slightly. “I… I think so,” she mumbled, messily tucking her wings back in. “I remember someone teaching me. Vaguely. They were taller than me, I think? Or maybe I was just short back then.” She smiled in uncertainty. Something misty glimmered in her eyes. “Their face is familiar, but… I can’t quite describe it. I can’t quite describe them, other than that I know them. I know them.” She paused for a while longer, for long enough that Rhea didn’t think she was going to respond. Then, finally, she piped up again. “And their eyes were as blue as robin eggs,” she finished. “I always thought they were prettier than mine.”

“Huh,” Rhea said. “Interesting.”

“So, basically, what I’m saying is that yes. I can, I think.” Nihili said with a smile. Her eyes wandered back to the trees, and the plants growing alongside the sidewalk. She picked the pace back up, humming to herself all the while. Rhea assumed she’d finished talking, and so shifted herself back into a passive state of watching.

They righted a corner, and stumbled onto the sidewalk of another road. This one cut the neighborhood in half, leading through the space between rows and rows of more small houses. Some of the fences were wood, some were brick, and some were chain-link, all crawling with thin vines that flowered brightly in the gentle summer. Dirt slopes led down from the back walls of their yards, held away from the crumbling sidewalk by half-shattered concrete barriers. Uneven clusters of grasses and flowers- overflow from back gardens, presumably- lined the earthen hills, bursting in brilliant hues. Rhea didn’t recognize the colors, but some of the shapes were familiar. She was able to catch a few she recognized; the spotted blue borage blossoms, snarling fuchsia sweetpeas, blindingly yellow buttercups. A crawling jasmine bush peeked over one of the fences, its tens and tens of tiny white blossoms like fallen stars. 

Rhea stared after it wistfully, idly reaching up to touch her earrings. They were small, humble rings of a nondescript metal. No crystals or fangs hung from them, and no patterns were engraved. There were five in all; three on her right ear, and two on her left. There’d been six at one point in time, but now all that remained of the last one was a nick in her ear. 

It didn’t even know it had been lost.

The serpent softly sighed, lashes flicking as she traced the curling pinkish shapes with her eyes. It was a knotted mess, crawling across a teal-painted fence with blackish-green stems. A faint memory scratched at the back of her mind, of a similar plant curling up a trellis. It had been placed beside a pea-green door, its cheerful spring hue out of place in the nest of shadows. She sniffed the air, and could almost smell the scent of lime rice cooking.

A few of the metal behemoths shot past. Rhea jumped at the sudden rush of hot, reeking air, and wrinkled her nose as the scorching wind whisked away her memory. Noticing Nihili had left her behind, her ears perked up. She dashed towards the girl, closing the distance between them as quickly as her legs could carry her.

Nihili yelped as the serpent suddenly appeared beside her, skittering to a halt.

“You scared me,” she said, breathless.

“Yeah, well, I scare myself sometimes,” Rhea replied, not even panting. The serpent simply rolled her shoulders and shoved her hands back into her pockets, earning an eye roll from Nihili.

“Sure you do. Anyways, why’d you ask about whether or not I could fly?” She asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“Because it’d make this whole process go marginally faster,” Rhea said, dusting her jacket off. There had not been any dust on her jacket. “You could just shove me in your hood or wear me like a necklace or something, and we could just look for the breach from the air. It’s kind of hard to miss, if you’ll recall.”

Nihili nodded in understanding, then paused. “Wait. How could I shove you in my hood? You’re, like… actually, how tall are you?”

“Like, five-ten, I think. I don’t know human measurements,” she shrugged. “Taller than you, anyway. But regardless,  I don’t mean my human form. I mean this one.”

Rhea stretched again, and stretched, and stretched. Shining golden light overtook the demon’s body, molding it into a new shape. Something cracked. Nihili winced at the sound. Despite her stretching, though, she seemed to be getting smaller. And smaller, and smaller. Nihili squinted her eyes against the light, scrunching her eyebrows up. The glowing cleared, and revealed that Rhea had disappeared- or at least, appeared to have. In the demon’s place was a serpent. She gently curled around Nihili’s neck, black-and-red coils draped loosely like a lei of tropical flowers.

Nihili blinked in surprise, then gently gave her a few strokes on the head. Her scales smooth to the touch, and black as a starless night. Along her cheeks and belly, they turned towards a deeper reddish-pink shade, leaving tinges of dark red on her nose. Her eyes were that same piercing coral, and were trained firmly on Nihili as she curled her head forwards. Snake-Rhea gently nudged the girl’s own nose with her snout, and she giggled. With careful hands, she redirected Rhea back into the hood of her jacket. The snake obliged, though still kept her head flopped onto Nihili’s shoulder so that she could see.

“That’s you, right?” Nihili asked, her question directed to the snake.

“It’s definitely me,” Rhea replied. She knew it would be strange to hear a woman’s voice coming from the snake’s tiny mouth, but Nihili would get used to it. Everybody did, eventually. It was one of those things that came with the territory of allying with a shapeshifter.

“Cool. Okay. So, uh. What’s your plan, then? Because I didn’t exactly say yes to this.”

“We’ll figure it out.”

“So you don’t know, either?”

“Not really, nah.”

“Wonderful,” she sighed, tucking her hands in the pockets of her sweatshirt. “But you do have a vague sense of direction, yes?”

“Emphasis on vague sense, but yes. I know where it is, and I’m pretty sure we were already on the right track.”

“Sweet,” Nihili grumbled, kicking absently at the cement. “How much more walking?”

“Oh, we’re just barely getting started, kid.”

Nihili sighed dramatically, and Rhea responded with a snarky cackle. “But in all seriousness, we were getting close to the first landmark.”

“So, is that your way of saying to just keep walking?”

“Yup.”

They continued on their path in a similar fashion as before, albeit with a much more peeved Nihili. Rhea herself simply rested her head on Nihili’s shoulder, and watched the world pass by. As Nihili walked, their surroundings changed. Houses were replaced by taller buildings, facing outward instead of in. Bright signs in unfamiliar letters advertised products she didn’t care for, and strange sights glowed in picture windows. Webs of strange black cords arced above, connected to poles that emerged from the ground like leafless trees. Trash that nobody bothered to pick up littered the sidewalks, piling up in corners and drifting through the streets. Scattered puddles of some unidentified reddish slush pooled in the gutters and along the sidewalk, clinging to the stone like stains. A storm of unfamiliar scents filled the air, some delightful, some disgusting; something cooking, something burning, something rotting.

A crowd of chattering adolescents passed by, walking in a loose formation. Most were human, though some showed telltale signs of demon blood- several had pointed ears, two or three had traces of fur or scales along their faces and arms, and one girl had a pair of short horns poking up from between her gold-threaded box braids. Nihili dodged aside, narrowly avoiding stumbling into the street in the process. The girl gave one of them a scowl, and he muttered a halfhearted apology before turning back to his friends. She rolled her eyes and muttered something about older kids always being impossible to deal with. 

With a sigh, she turned her attention back to the conversation.

“Rhea?”

“Yeah?”

“Where’s the first landmark, again? You said we were close by.”

“We are,” the serpent responded, not breaking her eyes from the city.

“Nice,” Nihili said. “So what is it?”

“A pale white horse,” Rhea answered.

“With a crooked smile?” Nihili asked, a slight grin stretching across her face.

“What?”

“Nevermind. I just… remembered something, that’s all.”

“Okay then. What I mean is that it’s a pale white statue of a horse. At the front of a park, I think? I’m not sure. My memory’s spotty, but we’ll know it when we see it.”

“I’ll take your word for it, then,” Nihili muttered.

Rhea nodded and retreated further into the hood, sinking further than she had been previously. Her head retreated from its place at Nihili’s shoulder, and she curled herself around and around until she was completely swamped in the darkness. For whatever reason, she hadn’t been entirely truthful about the statue. Her memory of the place wasn’t spotty or hazy, not in the slightest. The mental image of the horse’s blank eyes and sharp marble hooves still lingered in her thoughts, even years out from her last expedition here. Were Nihili somehow telepathic, it’d be right at the forefront of her mind. Fortunately, as far as Rhea was aware, she wasn’t. Her secrets, each and every one of the hundreds, were safe.

She settled into her coils and tried to rest.

Time passed strangely in the darkness. It was slow, and sluggish, and suffocating, as if she’d been submerged in black sand, or buried alive by a cave-in. Minutes and hours and days flowed with irregularity, and she had no way to tell how long had passed. Such a feeling wasn’t unlike how her first time traversing between worlds had gone; the absence of time, the crushing nothingness, the disorienting lack of anything. 

That was, until she’d come out the other side. 

Once she had emerged from nothingness, she stood on a distant, unfamiliar shore, staring out to sea, with sand beneath her feet and the light of the sun on her face. The sun- now that had been strange. Seeing a light above her, constant in its shine, so bright she couldn’t look directly at it. And to feel it, on her skin, dazzlingly warm in a way hardly anything had ever been before. The mere knowledge of its presence had been enough to fill her with awe, and wonder, and a sense of freedom that her own homeworld had never given her. Here, everything was limitless. The sky went up, up, up, and the sea went down, down, down. No walls held her back from running as far as she pleased, and no cave ceiling boxed her in. She’d been so young and wonderstruck in that moment that she almost forgot why she’d come to that place- then she remembered, and remembered, and remembered. 

The present hit her like a tidal wave, and the dark was suffocating again. All she could feel was the heat of her breath on her face, a slowly-settling dread, and a hum in her chest.

“Can you feel that?” Nihili’s muffled voice asked.

Rhea’s head poked up out of her nest within the hood. “Feel what?”

Nihili blinked at her strangely, then wordlessly pointed straight ahead.

Their surroundings had changed again- Rhea wished that would stop happening- and now they stood beneath a twisting series of raised concrete coils. Supported by massive pillars as thick around as an ancient jungle tree, they criss-crossed through the air and cast long shadows. Were the noises coming from them any judge, they appeared to be more roads- except these ones were held aloft, rather than being on the ground like all the other streets they’d run across. Highways, they were called. An obvious choice for a name.

But they weren’t what Nihili was pointing to.

Instead, her attention had been consumed by something else. Rhea slithered out around her shoulders to get a better look at her face, wondering if following her gaze would give the serpent a better idea of what Nihili had noticed. She nudged the girl’s round brown cheek with her snout, but Nihili didn’t acknowledge her. Her focus was fixed on something further out, beyond Rhea’s view. There was something strange in her eyes; an intensity Rhea recognized, but couldn’t put a name to.

“Uh, no. I don’t,” Rhea said, awkwardly breaking the looming silence.

Nihili blinked a few times. She hummed a few notes of an eerie tune, then dropped her arm back to her side. Her shoulders slumped slightly, and her head tilted a bit to the side. “Oh,” she said, a note of disappointment in her voice. “Funny. I could have sworn I… huh. I don’t know what I… huh.”

Nihili stretched and fanned her wings out, then shrugged and kept walking. “So, um, anyways,” she said, eager to change the topic, “-are there any other landmarks after the horse, or is that the only place we have to go?”

Rhea flopped back into her previous position, head resting on Nihili’s shoulder. “I think there’s another one, but it’s in the same park. I’ll point it out when we get there.”

The girl sighed in exasperation. “And how much more time will I have to waste walking us to get there?”

“As long as it takes,” Rhea said, flicking her head in loose imitation of a shrugging gesture. “Or, you could cut that time up into little pieces if you just-”

“Flew, I know,” Nihili grumbled. “Which is getting increasingly tempting by the second.”

“Then why don’t you just go on ahead and do it?”

“Because I don’t want to, duh. For one, it’d single us out, and I don’t want to get dragged out of the air. …It’d be embarrassing.”

“And?” Rhea prodded. Nihili had a point, but flying wouldn’t single them out- winged folk were uncommon, but not totally nonexistent. Nobody had batted an eye at the demons from earlier, and neither would anyone pay the girl heed if she took wing. There was enough room in the sky for Nihili to just pass as another person trying to get somewhere in a hurry.

“And, you should shut up before I take you out of my hood and throw you face-first into the wall of a building or something,” Nihili fired back, tone just lighthearted enough to keep Rhea from biting her.

“Sure, sure, whatever,” Rhea responded, trying her best to put a smile onto a serpent’s face. “I’ll be quiet. Just let me know when you’re ready to hear more of my biting wit.”

Nihili rolled her eyes and gave the serpent’s head a few strokes.

The girl did a decent job of navigating by herself. She opted to continue along the path they’d already forged out across the sidewalks, but walked with a quick enough pace that she managed to avoid getting nearly trampled again. Indeed, she even managed to make things fun for herself. She hopped from place to place, swinging along lamp-posts and hopping between cracks in between slabs of concrete. Rhea didn’t appreciate getting jostled from place to place, but the girl’s enthusiasm managed to soften her enough to keep her from being entirely upset. 

Nihili continued to trot and bounce for a good while longer, her long brown-and-white hair bobbing and waving in the wind. She took another hop over a crack in the sidewalk, and another, and another. Rhea tried to track them at first, but eventually gave up. With every thump and jostle, her train of thought reset and she lost count of the numbers she was crunching. Fortunately, the jumping stopped after a while- albeit only because they’d reached the corner of the sidewalk. Rows and rows of the metal behemoths were rushing past, making it impossible to get through on foot. Earlier, though, she’d seen the beacon change color and cause them to all halt at once. She knew it was possible to stop them; it was an easy problem, with an easy solution.

An easy solution, she quickly realized, that Nihili already knew. As a Terran native, it only made sense that she knew how to command the roads. The girl took to fiddling with a large yellow button mounted on the side of a metal pole, eagerly pressing it with her palm over and over again. Taking this brief pause between bounces as an opportunity to get more comfortable, the serpent settled back into the hood, stretching her coils and readjusting herself until her spine no longer felt as if it was being slowly bent in half.

After a sufficiently satisfying number of presses, Nihili scooted back from the button, joining a small cluster of other waiting people. Whilst waiting for the button to take effect and stop the behemoths, Nihili trotted in circles. Though the movement felt random at first, it eventually settled into an easy one-two rhythm. Rhea slowly began tapping her tail to the sound, flicking it against the fabric of the hood with each hop. It was familiar, almost; like a dance, or a sword duel, with steps continuing in an easy, understandable order. The longer that any rhythm continues, though, the more jarring it will be when it ends.

Midway through a bounce, Nihili unexpectedly halted with a sudden sound of disgust.

“…ew.”

“‘Ew?’”

“I just stepped in a puddle of something,” Nihili muttered, wrinkling her nose. “It’s all red and gooey and stuck to my shoe.”

“It’s probably just garbage. Someone spilled a drink, or something like that.” Rhea shrugged, readjusting her chin.

“No, it’s… it’s different from that. I’ve stepped in spilled drinks before, and those feel different. Those aren’t… slushy.”

“What do you mean by slushy?”

The serpent craned her head forwards, slithering over to get a better look.

“I mean that it looks like someone spilled one of those frozen drinks they sell at convenience stores.”

“You know I have no idea what you mean, right?”

“Then see for yourself.”

Rhea stuck her neck out, carefully balancing herself across Nihili’s shoulder. The girl leaned one hand against the metal post, and used the other to pick up her shoe so that the demon could see. Sure enough, a strange sludge-like substance was coating the bottom of the girl’s shoe. The pile she had stepped in sat nearby, the print of her sole clear within it.

Resembling a mix of half-melted snow and gore, both the patch on the ground and on her shoe were easy enough to mistake for the discarded remnants of a spilled drink. Upon closer examination, though, it quite clearly wasn’t. The reddish tinge it had was closer to that of blood than artificial coloring, and the faint wisps of little vessels and veins could be seen mixed in with it, as well as what looked like bits of ground-up bone, and… was that a fang? Something about it was familiar. She realized she’d seen it earlier, lining the streets they walked on. Still, her recognition went deeper than that.

As they watched, the sludge started to drip from Nihili’s shoe. It trailed down in methodical, precise  rivulets, carefully cutting between each of the ridges beneath her shoe. Slowly, it pooled together, all of the patch she’d stepped in rejoining the main puddle. Once Nihili’s shoe was free of the substance, the now-united puddle began to drip and move across the sidewalk. It flowed across the curb of the sidewalk, and pooled into the gutter, disappearing amid an array of other garbage.

“Eugh,” Nihili said, dropping her leg back to the ground. She gave it a shake, and then scuttled back to the group of people they’d been standing with previously.

Rhea remained quiet, staring at the spot where it had been with expressionless eyes. There wasn’t even a dark spot where the liquid had been, as if its leaving had caused it to disappear entirely from existence. Briefly, Rhea wondered if she’d just been seeing things. Nobody else seemed to have noticed- or, if they had noticed, nobody seemed to care. Only Nihili’s disgruntled expression convinced her that the strange, creeping substance hadn’t been a figment of her imagination. That, and a familiar clinical reek that she could taste in the air- one that was steadily getting stronger.

She felt a sinking horror in the pit of her stomach.

It had been a mistake to let that second snowstalker escape alive.

“Nili,” Rhea said, placing her head close to Nihili’s ear. Her voice was a whisper. “I need you to listen closely to me.”

“Listen to what? Why?” The girl asked, giving the serpent a glance.

Overhead, the light above shifted from green to amber. The behemoths slowed.

“I’ll explain later. Just listen.”

“Fine, then. What am I listening to?”

Rhea huffed. “This. What I am telling you, right now.”

Amber turned to red, and the rows of behemoths halted in their tracks.

“We’re going to need to fly, right now.”

“What?! Why? Aren’t we-”

“We just have to. The park isn’t far- just fucking wing it, kid. With every bit of strength you’ve got. We can’t let them-”

“Can’t let them what? Let who?”

The crowd began to move.

“No time to explain. Just run. Run!”

“Fine, then. Hold on tight, unless you’re in the mood to go flying yourself.”

Nihili started to walk with the rest of the crowd. Rhea nestled herself deeper into the hood. Blood roared in her empty ears, and her heart beat faster with every step the child took. She hated this helplessness, hated this uncertainty, hated everything about being so small and not having any control. She was a child again, sitting in the rain. She was going to die here. She was going to die.

Nihili’s bouncy trot strengthened into a jog, and then a sprint. Her wings snapped open, wind rushing between the feathers. They beat once, twice, three times, four times, five. Then, with one final stroke, her feet left the ground. Rhea could hear the air swirling around them, and the swoop of Nihili’s feathered wings, and the quick, shallow pant of her breathing. She didn’t dare look, for fear of seeing a show of horrors behind her- or, more likely, of simply falling to her demise.

Slowly, things evened out. Nihili’s wingbeats became less frantic, and the gaps of space between them widened. Her breaths were less ragged, and the world steadied around her as she stopped climbing through the air.

“You can look, now,” the girl called back. “Careful, though.”

Rhea nodded, and quietly slithered forwards onto her shoulder of choice.

“How high up are we?” The serpent asked, shouting over the low howl of the wind.

“Eleven stories or so, I’d say,” came the response. “High enough, basically.”

The view below her was incredible. Spread out beneath the child’s gray wings was a messy quilt called Terra. Most of the patches that made it up were varying shades of gray, punctuated by the occasional splash of tan or brown. Smaller patches of yellow and green interlaced between them, fields and yards and trees, breaking up what would otherwise be bland, sun-bleached monochrome. Here and there, a sparkling arc of silver cut through the dull ground- the curling ribbon of a river, ambling its way towards the sea. People went about their daily lives far below. From up here, they were the size of aphids. If she’d had hands, she might’ve been able to mime squishing them between her fingers.

“Uh, Rhea?” Nihili called. “I need you to navigate, not gawk.”

“Yeah, yeah, just give me a minute,” Rhea said, still distractedly watching the world pass below. She’d flown before, though only once or twice. It hadn’t been with her own wings, either- even if she shifted them, she was still a hopeless flier. Much like now, she’d perched upon someone else’s shoulders. Though her previous companions in the air had been far bigger than Nihili, and far stronger; they’d fought the wind with ease, and achieved far more than the young girl could with each swoop of their wings.

Rhea shook herself out, and shifted the position she occupied to better watch the ground below. From this high up, details were hard to discern- but still, she knew they were close. She knew where the park that held the breach was, and could pick it out from her perch. 

“Right,” she shouted, hurling commands to the wind. “A little more right.”

Nihili adjusted herself, banking right and slipping into another vein of wind. Rhea poked her head out a little further, carefully checking if her directions were right. A patch of green had appeared on the horizon, significantly bigger than the gray-brown cobble of buildings around it. It was near, very near, but not quite there just yet. They’d closed a significant distance already, but still had further to go.

Rhea nudged Nihili’s cheek with her snout again, pointing her towards the expanse of green. Nihili nodded, and shifted herself to match her destination more clearly. With them riding the wind, the gap was quick to narrow. In the span of about two minutes, the greenery spread out beneath them fully, almost close enough to touch. Rhea prodded Nihili again, and the girl tucked her wings in closer to make a slow descent. If she hadn’t been worried about Rhea falling out of her hood, she would likely have been able to dive and hit the ground in just a few seconds. Or maybe not, considering she was still at least half human- she might simply be unable to handle it.

Regardless, they were already making their descent. Whether or not the whole thing could hypothetically be done faster didn’t matter. All that mattered was the sky, and the ground, and the fact that they were almost there.

As she drifted down, Nihili’s wings snapped to their full span. The girl straightened her body, shifting herself into an upright position and widening her feathers to slowly parachute downwards. She hit the ground a moment later, finely touching her toes to the path at the park’s opening. Rhea tapped her cheek again, and the demon slithered off her arm and dropped onto the ground. She quickly assumed her true form- or the closest thing to it- and stretched herself out, grateful to once again have separate limbs attached to her body.

Nihili once again turned to Rhea. “So, we made it.”

Rhea rolled her shoulders, taking only a brief break from the motion to shrug at Nihili. The motion made her wince as a spike of pain shot through her left shoulder. “We made it,” she echoed.

“So, what do we do now?” She crossed her arms, tossing her head to push her windswept hair out of her face.

“Well, we-” Rhea started.

Nihili was quick to interrupt. “Oh! Is that the horse?”

There, indeed, was the horse.

In all of its- literally- statuesque glory, it towered over the entrance. It stood reared up on its hind hooves, with its gaunt stone face twisted into an angry whinny. A carved mane and tail  billowed behind it, caught in some invisible wind. The statue was placed upon a pedestal, upon which was placed a plaque. She’d never bothered to read it. Short, well-pruned bushes blooming with purple flowers surrounded its base, separating the statue from any park-goers. Clearly, it had been immaculately sculpted, carefully done in every regard. It was someone’s magnum opus. Still, something about its dead eyes had never quite sat right with her.

“Uh, obviously,” Rhea said, turning to glance around their immediate surroundings. There were trees, and grass, and neatly-manicured beds of flowers. Stone paths, dotted with benches, wove through the grounds. The hue of green was strange to her, but there was otherwise nothing of real note. “It’s not like there even are any other horses here.”

“I wish there were other horses,” Nihili said, bouncing idly on her feet. “Just one more would be okay, but ideally I’d like three more.”

“Why three more?” Rhea asked, not even really paying attention.

“I like even numbers,” Nihili said with a grin. “And it’d complete the set. Anyways, where do we go from here?”

Rhea shrugged half-heartedly. She gently brushed past Nihili, heading away from the statue and further into the park. “I don’t know exactly. I guess I just thought you would.”

“Any particular landmarks coming to mind?”

“You have to pass under a tunnel of trees. It’s in the main park.”

“Then why’d you make me land at the entrance?”

“So you could see the horse.”

“But we wouldn’t have needed to see the horse if you just told me where the hecking breach was.”

The girl’s use of ‘hecking’ earned an amused glance from the demon. “That’s true, but you forget one very important thing. I don’t know either.”

“Then why am I following you, again?”

“Dunno.”

Nihili groaned dramatically, and Rhea responded to it with one of her usual cackles.

“Seriously, though. I do know the way. Just follow me; it’s not far.”

“I guess I’ll take your word for it. Which is probably a mistake, but I’ll do it anyway.”

Rhea once again tucked her hands into her pockets and started casually making her way towards where she recalled the breach as being. Nihili followed after her, with a bit less energy in her trot. She’d need a break, sooner or later. Both of them would. Rhea had hoped they’d be able to snatch one here, but that hope was proving increasingly unlikely the more she considered their current circumstances.

“So,” Nihili said, sliding over to her. “You said you’d explain what’s going on.”

“And I will,” she said. “Eventually. When we don’t have to worry about being overheard.”

“Overheard? Who’s listening to us, the ants? The pigeons? That guy with a dog over there?” She briefly waved to the dog-walker, and he waved back. “I doubt any of them have malicious intent. They’re just living their lives.”

“You never know,” Rhea said, glancing from Nihili to the dog-walker to their destination. “You never know.”

“Or maybe you’re just paranoid,” Nihili retorted. “Maybe there isn’t anything to be afraid of, and you’re just a little rattled from earlier.”

“I’d say more than a little,” Rhea said, rolling her sore shoulder a few times. “And that’s not the reason I’m worried.”

“Then what is?” Nihili asked, exasperated.

She was quiet for a long time, staring straight ahead rather than meeting Nihili’s bicolored eyes. When she spoke up, all the response she gave was a simple “Let’s just keep going,” much to Nihili’s chagrin.

“I’ll go when I have answers,” she said sharply. “I’m not going to just be okay with jumping straight into a world I’ve never even seen just because you’re afraid of some nebulous bad thing. Tell me what’s going on, Rhea.”

Rhea opened and closed her mouth a few times, before frowning at Nihili. “I did tell you, though. You asked what we were up against, and I told you who all wanted us. I assumed you were smart enough to put the pieces together.”

Nihili blinked at her, eyes slightly squinted. “Yeah, but that’s not what I meant. I mean who’s after us right now.”

“Well, if you don’t pick up the pace, you’ll find out.”

The girl went quiet and frowned at her, but fell into line.

Rhea sighed, pinching at the bridge of her nose. She shouldn’t have snapped, but it’s not as if she didn’t have good reason to. These weren’t the circumstances under which one could easily be patient and gentle. Sometimes, you had to bare your teeth to get your target to understand just how much danger they were in. Even if your target was a little girl.

“Anyways,” Rhea said with a sigh. “We’re getting close. I promise.”

Nihili gave a quiet nod, and continued to walk.

The shadows lengthened as they passed. It couldn’t be any later than eight in the morning- if that- but Rhea still felt as if she’d been dropped from an impressive height. Her shoulder was aching, and her back hurt, and some of her hair had fallen out of its ponytail. The sun had only come up an hour or two ago, and they still had a full day ahead of them. Probably one that would be spent walking.

Wonderful.

At least they’d made it to the tree tunnel. Though, it might not have been right to call it a tunnel, so much as an area that just so happened to be covered by trees. Several aspens, planted in specific formation, arched overhead. Their trunks had been bent so that they curved slightly, and their branches twisted to form a jagged, interlocking net. From those sprung several leaves, weaving together in a verdant canopy that rustled and shook lightly as they traveled beneath it. At some points, she could glimpse the sky between them. Light shone in from each end, separating the interior of the park from the exterior.

Nihili stared up at the branches, tracing along the wooden bones of the little grotto with her eyes. At first, her gaze was wondrous. She was fully enamored by the rustling of the leaves, and the gentle way that sunlight dappled across the ground, and a peace in her face eased her annoyance. Slowly, that wonder drained away. Something caught her eyes, and her brows scrunched and furrowed together again. She frowned, slowly stepping over to tug at Rhea’s wrist. The demon flicked an ear up and glanced at the girl with one brow lifted slightly.

“There’s a bunch of bugs here,” Nihili said in a low voice.

“And? We’re outside. Of course there’ll be bugs.”

“No- I mean, like, a lot of bugs.”

Rhea’s eyes narrowed, and her body went still. “Describe them.”

“Um…” Nihili started unsteadily. “Well, they’re big, and black, and about as long as my finger. They look kind of like grasshoppers, except if grasshoppers were-”

Rhea didn’t even need her to finish. Already, she was muttering a string of increasingly elaborate curses under her breath. “Let’s get moving,” she said, the sharp tone of her voice leaving no room for protest. “The breach is close. We should be able to make it before…”

“Before…?”

“You’ll see,” Rhea ominously responded.

She took Nihili’s hand and positioned her so that the girl was firmly behind her. The girl looked at her questioningly, but Rhea didn’t acknowledge her. Instead, the serpent’s eyes were focused firmly on the roof of the tunnel, following the crawling black shapes of insects. Nihili’s description of them had been apt. The bugs resembled large grasshoppers, though they were darker, angrier, and radiated a sort of pure malice no humble cricket bore. Tucked between the leaves, the locusts looked rather like the scattered shards of a black hole.

Rhea quickly rushed Nihili the rest of the way through the weaving canopy of trees, and they burst out into the sunlight. They stood in a field, surrounded by greenery, looking out onto the interior heart of the park. It would have been the picture of a beautiful morning- a bright blue sky free of clouds, dappled sunlight on the grasses, sycamores and flowering jacarandas shadowing the meadow’s edges, and ducks serenely swimming across the surface of a pond- were it not for the terror still rising in her chest. She couldn’t see the breach just yet, but she could feel it humming and churning like a reflection of her own panicked mind.

Her fears were vindicated just a moment later. Rumbling like the engine of some horrible machine came the sound of thousands of wings humming in unison. The insects from beneath the canopy poured out in droves, joining with more and more clouds of the horrible bugs until they formed an awful swarm that seemed to blot out the sun. Nihili let out a shriek of raw panic, and grabbed even tighter to the demon’s wrist. Rhea stood firm against the swarm, trying to discern where the bugs were coming from, how many there were, anything that could potentially be helpful in the moment. Yet, despite her best attempts, no answers were to be found. They were just coming, and coming, in an endless ebony swarm.

As if the situation wasn’t bad enough already, the bloody slush from earlier had returned as well. It pooled and swept across the hills in a slow, scarlet tide. It flowed and oozed, but with a distinct sentience to its movements. The tide of gore had intention to its movements, and a thinking mind controlling it. As she watched, it started to pool together- teeth, organs, blood vessels, bones, eyes- and reform into a mound roughly the size of a person crouching down with their hands and knees on the ground. Unearthly light glowed from within it as the figure took form from within the slush, like a torch shining through an ice cave. The humanoid form slowly pulled itself to its feet, gradually resuming its original shape as the sludge absorbed its outlying pieces back into itself. 

Taking the first demon’s transformation as a signal of sorts, a chunk of the swarm of locusts began to coalesce into a bright, horrible tornado. The storm of insects began shrinking in size as a figure formed in its eye, glowing with the same sort of bright light that engulfed her whenever she shifted shape. Something tall and thin was taking form, though she couldn’t catch any details from within the blazing cyclone.

“Shit shit shit shit shit-” Rhea hissed, stumbling back. The serpent snapped her fingers, and a knife slid into her hand. Nihili took an uneasy step back, lifting her hands with her fingers curled inwards.

“That’s no fighting stance,” Rhea told her. She flicked an ear, and her eyes swept the battlefield-to-be. “Quick. Find the breach and open it. It’s supposed to be here, and I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to sniff it out while I handle these two.”

Nihili nodded and dashed off. Quickly, she disappeared across the other side of the field, absorbed by the long grass and shady trees. Rhea straightened her back, lifted her chin, and turned to meet the approaching demons with blade in hand. The pair of them drew closer, and closer, until they had stopped nine or ten feet from her.

They were just as she remembered.

The one who had formed from a puddle of gore was small and pale. He was a harbinger, small and catlike. Like the gentle little healer from earlier, his skin was a light purple, his hair a pure white, and his eyes blood red. One of his large ears nicked from a torn earring, and a long, fur-tufted tail lashed angrily behind him. That was where the similarities ended. His small, flat nose was scrunched up aggressively, and his face was set into a deep scowl. The fangs that poked free of his lips were bared, razor-sharp, and fully prepared to bite. His hair was shorter than the healer’s had been, too, though no less fluffy. A pair of small antlers curved forward from within it, placed atop them like a crown. The clothes he wore were white in color, with blood-red embroidery at the edges. They were largely clean, though stained here and there with blood and soot- more stained than she remembered. He’d been busy.

By contrast, the one who’d arrived via swarming locusts was tall and dark. Unlike the first figure, they were a nadirite- a type of demon she hadn’t seen in a while. They were insect-like, with chitinous skin, dark eyes, horns like a wildebeest, and a buzzing set of yellowish-green bug wings. Their face was long and gaunt, and their cheekbones and nose sharp and prominent. Framing it was long, black, hair, which they left to flow in straight tresses around their narrow shoulders. Four long, pointed ears poked out from their curtains of hair, each ragged and torn. One had a ripped piece nearly identical to the nick in the other demon’s ear. Every inch of them, save their face and hands, was covered. Dark, billowing sleeves hid their arms, and the folds of a long black-and-gold coat trailed down to their boots. A bronze chestplate, studded with an array of bright green crystals, protected their chest and upper arms; a few insects crawled across it, though the majority of their ominous swarm still choked the bright morning sky above. A high collar covered their neck, hiding the horrible scars Rhea knew trailed along their throat. Beneath their clothes, she knew, they were thin and frail- appearing to be three-quarters starved to death, as she had wryly put it- but still no less weak or vulnerable than any other demon.

The second demon, the dark one, was the first to step forwards. “Dezzzerter,” they buzzed, in a monotone voice.

Hardly a moment later, the first demon stepped forward. “Traitor,” he spat, glaring at Rhea with all the terrifying anger his four red eyes could muster. “What have you to say for yourself, you-”

Before he could launch into a string of insults, the second demon placed a light hand on his shoulder. He relaxed slightly at their touch, and covered their fingers with his own. Though sweet, it didn’t seem to have much effect. He snapped back to his usual anger a mere moment later, though remained thankfully silent. In his place, the second demon took command of the exchange. A fine frown twisted their mouth, but they otherwise looked marginally less angry than their harbinger companion. She knew that that wasn’t a guarantee, though- they always had been good at hiding their moods.

“What have you to zzzay for yourzzzelf, Haile?” They questioned sharply. The demon removed their hand from their partner’s shoulder, and let it hand briefly in the air. As if responding to a summons, the insects balancing on the pauldrons of their chestplate stirred. In the air above, the swarm hummed ominously.

Rhea tensed.

“Firstly, don’t call me that,” she said, locking eyes with the tall black demon. “You know that’s not my name, Cerca.”

The tall demon- Cerca- tilted their head. The motion was stiff, mechanical, as if the motion had been shaped by someone else’s hands. “Why have you chozzzen to dizzzcard it, then, Haile? 

“I said,” she seethed, “to not fucking call me that.”

“I will call you what I am told to call you. Dezzzerter. Traitor.”

“Why?” She hissed. “Why are you listening to him on this?”

“All the other namezzz I have for you are worzzze,” they replied.

Rhea’s nostrils flared, and the first demon bared his teeth. “And what do you have to say for yourself, Velid? Why do I have to do all the talking?”

The harbinger, Velid, opened his mouth to speak. Once again, Cerca stopped him. They shook their head just slightly, and he squinted at them with a frown before turning back to the serpent with his arms crossed. His anger was clear in his shaking, hissy voice, but it was just restrained enough to keep him from starting to scream. “You’re doing all the talking because you’re the one who kidnapped her. Do you know how-”

A low boom sounded from the direction Nihili had run off in. For a split second, the three of them froze in place. They quickly glanced between each other with matching slightly shocked expressions, before the present hit them like a tidal wave and they scrambled into action. Rumbling like the aftershocks of an earthquake coursed through the ground, and a low churning sound followed on its heels. Rhea felt her ears pop. Cerca staggered unsteadily on their long, long legs, on the verge of collapsing entirely. Velid quickly righted them, and they gave him a nod of acknowledgement. Swiftly, both of them turned their attention back to the situation at hand- that, of course, being Rhea herself.

She didn’t manage to hold their attention for long. Soon after the shaking ended, there came a shout. “Rhea! It’s open!” Nihili yelled, cresting the incline with gray wings flapping triumphantly. “Come! Come quick!” She hopped up onto the tips of her toes and started waving her arms, as if she wasn’t already being obvious enough.

The two demons’ eyes snapped together.

“Is that-” Velid started.

“That’zzz her,” Cerca confirmed breathlessly.

With a swish of their hand, the swarm’s path shifted. A ripple traveled through the thunderhead of locusts, and they turned to slowly drift in the direction of Nihili. For a moment, she was terrified. She’d seen the Locust Lord in combat before, and their swarms were a force to be reckoned with. Together, those hundreds upon thousands of insects could rend flesh from bone, and eat an enemy alive in minutes. They weren’t moving to attack Nihili, though. Instead, they were trying to hold her back. Hold her in place.

Rhea’s throat seized up. 

Without a second thought, she scrambled back into action. She first flung her knife at Cerca, slicing a deep cut into their hand. Their swarm wavered in the sky, but the demon themself simply grunted at the blow. They’d endured worse pain than just one dagger through the hand. Which was why she was quick to call the dagger back to her hand, and then throw it back at Velid, cutting deeply along his leg before planting itself squarely into his calf. 

Unlike the dignified Cerca, he let out a horrid, blood-curdling scream of agony. That was enough to shatter the demon’s concentration, and they shrieked a wretched cry at the sound of their partner’s pain. In an instant, they were at his side, whispering to him in a soft voice. A momentary break in their tending gave them the opportunity to turn their gaze to Rhea, full and furious.

“What are you doing?! Thizzz izzz madnezzz!” Cerca demanded.

“What I did last time: leaving!” Rhea shouted back, calling her blade back into her hand as she took off running in Nihili’s direction.

The swarm had faltered when she’d attacked Velid, but now it regrouped with a vengeance. No longer did they aim to restrain. Now, the furious cloud of locusts buzzed with an edge of bloodlust. It wasn’t enough to dissuade her, though. She had already been single-minded in her pursuit of escape, but the humming threat of the locusts was additional motivation to add that final bit of speed to her sprint.

Heart hammering in her chest, the serpent ran. She ran across the empty meadow, scattering the half-eaten remnants of some poor couple’s picnic. As the locust swarm descended, the other people left in the park joined her in running as fast as they could. None matched her speed, but that didn’t matter. They would be safe anyway- Cerca wasn’t one to take out their fury on innocents. They knew too much about what it felt like to be punished without reason to ever enact pointless vengeance on assorted passersby.

The same couldn’t be said for Rhea. She was quite certain they wanted her dead for daring to hurt their Velid. Frankly, she couldn’t blame them. They were entitled to their anger. But so, too, was she entitled to her desperate desire to survive.

Run. Run. Run.

Her breaths came in sharp, desperate slices of air. In her mind, the sharp voice of her mentor piped up. Inhale. Exhale. Let the rhythm overtake you. Don’t fight the adrenaline. Her mentor had taught her such things in reference to knifeplay and the thrill of the hunt, but they held just as true now. Her training had always intended for her to be the predator, and not the prey- but she knew that, time and time and time again, it was more than easy for the hunter to become the hunted.

Run. Run. Run.

With every step she took, the ground slammed hard into the soles of her boots. The rumbling of the ground had stopped, but the shaking in her limbs hadn’t. Panic still threatened to seize her and send her spinning into the abyss, but her concentration was needle-sharp. There was almost an irony to the fact that the looming threat of death’s mighty jaws made her feel alive.

“Run! Run! Run!”

Reality rushed in around her as if she’d come up for air. She’d crossed the meadow, but the swarm was still behind her. Buzzing locust wings and rushing blood screamed so loudly in her ears that she could barely hear Nihili’s voice over all of it. Still, though, she heard it anyway. Rhea shifted course, scrambling desperately in the direction of the girl. She was running so quickly that she almost slammed right into her and sent them both tumbling into the breach, but she caught herself just in time and slid to a halt. Legs still shaking and eyes wild with panic, she glanced over the portal. It looked similar to the one that had taken them out of the black castle, albeit slightly smaller and notably a little shaky around the edges.

“Will it work?” She gasped, shaking.

“Let’s find out.”

Nihili grabbed her hand and yanked her into the portal, and then everything was gone.

~

The rift was completely the same, and yet it was entirely different.

The emptiness was vast still, but not so endless as to be suffocating.

Time flowed not as order, but as suggestion- and it was a suggestion she could mold.

Her hands knew what it was like to make mountains.

Her tongue could speak the true nature of every star.

She was limitless.

And she was not alone in knowledge.

She was not alone in that emptiness.

She was not alone.

One voice sung as thousands, and she was quick to find the singer.

She had caught their attention, and stirred them from their idling.

They turned to face her.

And the empty face that stared back at her had nothing on it but eyes.