In a split second, Hana wrenched herself away while the Captain remained frozen, the last light in his eyes glazing over. Brigdu readied a glistening spear, the ends of his fingers shaking.

“Watch him!”

Hana held her hand up out of instinct. Sayrin gasped behind her.

Ino leaped through the crowd again, past the Posdin, as Sayrin yanked Hana backward. The Joondin let out a screech and retreated as if assessing the best move. It dodged the first spear thrown by another guard and bared its claws at Ino. The Ghost tackled the creature to the ground as another blade sliced through the air, digging into the Joondin’s shoulder. Murky red blood spewed onto the floor, where it steamed and gurgled.

“Soldier!” shouted Marcus. Hana watched Brigdu, who hadn’t yet let go of his weapon. He appeared frozen, unable to bring himself to let go.

“Kill it! Now!” Marcus’s harsh words cut through the noise. It came sharp and high in a child’s tone but brutal and chilled in a way that made Hana shrink back.

“Hiata!” Bridgu released his weapon.

The Joondin stiffened and let out a choke. It dropped, blood seeping through its slope where the blade tip had settled between its eyes. Ino let go of its neck and rested beside it, looking defeated.

Brigdu let out a shaky sigh and stared at the body wilting away.

“Send those letters, Posdin,” Marcus ordered.

“Yes, Old One.”

“Look out!” a soldier screamed.

A crooked arm shot out and smacked Ino away. The Joondin jerked upright and wrenched the spear out of his forehead, the wound patching itself together and the blood vanishing. Another crawled from the pile to the side, dragging itself as its skin solidified and charged after Ino on gnarled hands and knees.

Marcus darted past Hana. With a quick, swift motion from Marcus’s arm, the Joondin reeled backward, away from the crowds. A wall of dim blue faded against the creature’s skin, dissipating across the air as Marcus held out his other arm and concentrated. Brigdu took up another blade and, holding his breath, thrust it through the next Joondin to reanimate out of the group. “They’re coming back!” he shouted.

Ino, stunned from the blow, almost missed the next Joondin that barged after him. It caught up, arms grasping, and instead of the scaling talons passing through him, the Joondin pressed its fingers into Ino’s neck and gripped.

“No!” Hana leaped out of Sayrin’s reach. She threw herself against the Joondin, her hand pressed against its face.

An ear-splitting shriek filled the room, followed by a blast of molten red and black spilling into the air over them. A reddened crystallized glow burst from Hana and solidified into spikes across the scales of the enemy, clawing into it. Deep wells of power flowed through her until Hana drew her arm away and reached for Ino. The Joondin careened backward. The fiery light disappeared and folded into the creature’s limbs until it lay convulsing. Hana pulled Ino toward the wall with as much strength as she could gather, adrenaline surging through her.

Marcus held out both arms and began motioning at right angles. A thin transparent plate of material resembling glass dropped out of the air and onto a Joondin, where it closed over it like a box and trapped him. Hana covered her ears as more and more beings screeched and thrashed in each of the boxes Marcus formed.

“Grab your weapons,” Marcus ordered to Brigdu, “You’ll need them. In the meantime, we’ll hide these underground.”

***

“I have good news, Old One. The Great Night is coming.”

Marcus turned from the latticed window, “What is it?”

“Yes,” the Posdin scuttled up the stairs, “I received the message. Look.” He passed him a sleek, thin block resembling a tile. Hana tried to peer over Marcus’s shoulder as he read it, though each symbol on the tile wasn’t anything she could recognize.

“This is good news. Where are the others?”

“Bridgu has gathered the battalion, and they await your orders.”

Hana gazed out the window at the emptying city. The Dimovens slunk past their windows, turning out lights, lugging their things behind them as they crept into the pitted cellars dotted across the circuitous landscape. Parents handed down packages and sacks to their children sitting in boats along the canal. Some locked their doors and hid the keys under mats before slinking off alone. Soon the city would be empty as everyone hid from each other, as Marcus commanded. Until the threat lessened, he had said, if it ever would.

“Old One!” Brigdu called from downstairs, “The leader of the Isthi has arrived. We are all here, awaiting your choice.”

“Not all.” Marcus took Hana’s hand. They both followed the Posdin down the curved metallic stairs, where Hana spotted a wide triangle-shaped table in the open space hung with multi-colored banners along the angled ceiling. Light streamed onto the seats where more strangers sat in clusters.

Brigdu gave a salute and resumed his position in front of the battalion, who stood in three staunch lines, their obsidian armor glistening.

“Marcus,” Hana whispered, gripping his arm, “What if all these people here start changing like the soldiers did? Or what if we do? What do we do then?”

“We must take that chance, Hana. We do not understand how it appears or what causes it. This was the last Layer for the changes to appear. You’ll be safe because you are Human. Remember, it may be possible to reform them now that we don’t have to kill them immediately.”

Hana breathed a little sigh of relief, though fear still churned in her stomach. She glanced at the individuals. “Is the Great Night here?”

“No. Trust me,” Marcus smiled, “You would know.”

A small, yellow-shelled creature resembling a cylindrical crab scurried under their seats, two miniature versions following in its wake. A woman with lilac skin rested near the middle of one side, poised, her gaze on Hana as she stood beside Marcus. Hana stared at the reflective table, becoming more conscious of being human. The sudden thought of meeting the Great Night, even the North Wind Himself, grew more terrifying the more Hana thought of it, but she pushed the feelings aside as best she could.

Hana jumped as a cold hand patted her shoulder. She looked up to see Sayrin hurry to stand near the wall.

“At this time, the matter is too pressing to wait for the Great Night,” Marcus boomed, silencing the entire room. Hana slumped in her seat as more strangers turned to them. The Posdin stood beside a small being similar to Sayrin, squat and swathed in blues and purples familiar to Setton, with a round, wrinkled face. Underneath, two of the crab-like creatures rested themselves beside Hana’s foot. In a sudden toss, the craggy shells flew aside, and two tiny beings with arms and legs the width of toothpicks appeared, their bulging brown eyes taking in Hana before they leaped onto the table and sat down with their legs crossed. Two more did the same.

Above, a square block of green seeped down the windows to the right. Hana looked up and saw a warm gray eye almost as large as she was blinking at her. The gray-bodied giant peered through an open window, its breath fogging up the lower half of the panes.

Swirls of ragged mountains, clustered forests, and crystal rivers bloomed out of thin air and revealed a map of the Beyond to everyone. The walls disappeared, replaced by a pitch-dark void, leaving only the soft silhouettes of the people. The map with all five layers of the Beyond lay spread out around and above them, while patches of red sloshed through sections of each region.

“These are areas of outbreak we have been recording for the past few months,” Marcus pointed, a solemn note in his voice, “All you leaders of the Beyond have done their part and killed them, but with this recent development, it’s clear that a simple killing is no longer effective against these creatures. The Posdin and I believe that someone turns into a Joondin, a Jyundu, or whatever you name these monsters at random. It appears that access to the Great Arts innate in the citizens of the Beyond vanishes, leaving behind only these walking corpses.

“It could happen to any of us at any point. But it’s best if we remain calm until we can discover the cause of this and what it means. If the Humans don’t realize what’s happening here, they won’t be able to enact any measures to keep themselves safe. While the Great Night must show up soon, it’s the North Wind we want to contact. No one has been able to get through to Him, but I have a proposition,” Marcus rested his hands on the table, his face drawn.

“I’ll take Hana. We will find the North Wind Himself. She must then return to her world to make us known to the humans.”

Hana covered her eyes as everyone around her and Marcus jumped up, shouting at once. The gray giant shook the ground with its moan.

“You couldn’t do so!” the woman shot up and dug her bony fingers into her slim palms, “It would be against everything we stand for. We work the machinations of their world, and if they knew of us, who knows what will happen? It’s bad enough that this girl is here among us!”

“I summoned her here!” Hana flinched at Marcus’s roar.

“Have her sent back!”

“She can’t,” the Posdin cut in, much softer than the others. Everyone turned to stare at him in surprise, quieting, even the Setton official sitting beside him, who looked the most flustered.

“The girl can show you. She has seen the Pillars of legend.”

Heat rose in Hana’s cheeks. A little yellow creature peered at her as if it knew what she had hidden. “I—I did,” she answered. Hana forced herself to stand, “I saw them a couple of times. The last time this happened.”

Hana held out her hand to show everyone, but as they all gasped and began shouting at once, she tucked it into her jacket, her face reddening.

“I’ve never seen anything like it!” whispered the official from Setton.

“I can’t believe it! How do we know this girl—this Human—has witnessed what is the stuff of legend?” demanded the woman, pointing a finger as sharp as an icicle. “If she has seen these Pillars, let her go back to them and prove what she has described is real.”

“Yes, let her send herself to the Pillars!” the Setton official chirped.

“She can prove it!” another added.

“How could she prove it?” demanded the Posdin, standing up.

Brigdu appeared through the map, saluting. “Old One,” he muttered.

“Yes, Captain?” Marcus glanced through the map.

“The Great Night is here.”