Just when Fiyu began to hope that they could complete their journey through the Greater Dark without any serious incidents, she felt a presence at the edge of her ability to perceive. Someone else traveled this part of the expanse... alarming enough on its own, but it was a large number of individuals milling about. She hoped that they were merely setting up a camp, but their behavior continued to be unusual, which suggested that there could be a problem.

"There are people to the north," Fiyu said. She felt Companion Nauda immediately sit up and try to look on instinct, while Companion Theo began generating cantae. He was the first to respond.

"Attacking?"

"No, I think something is wrong. But it could easily be a trap of some sort, as they are strangers."

"Why do you say something might be wrong?" Companion Nauda asked.

"Because they continually move around an unmoving object of varying density. It may be a broken wagon." Fiyu didn't change their course, but her fingers twitched over the sleigh's controls as she strained to determine more about the far off group. "I cannot feel them in great detail, but it is possible that they are in distress."

"If this place is so dangerous, how would they call for help?"

"They wouldn't." Companion Theo cut off any potential response, climbing up into the second seat and extending his senses, though they were insufficient. "Unless they're Ruler-tier soulcrafters, your stealth should be sufficient. Move closer until you can get a better feel for them."

Companion Theo said what she had been thinking, but she hadn't been able to bring herself to take the action. She was ranging in the Greater Dark without an elder relative, after all, and such an action was highly unusual. The strangers were not her relatives at all, yet she felt as though it would be better to do something for them if possible.

After reinforcing the sphere around her, Fiyu extended her senses over the group. It was easiest to confirm that the large object was indeed a wagon, lying on its side. A slightly dense material formed a large pile beside it, presumably what the vehicle had been transporting. She thought it was foolish of them not to have used a sledge in such an environment, for this very reason.

She looked first for what had disrupted them in case it was a source of danger, her senses delving deep into a crevice. It was narrow and filled with dense spiked stones. Their patterns were beautiful, if common, but for the first time it occurred to her to wonder how they would look in the presence of light. Given their flat and polished surfaces, she suspected they would glitter, which her companions might enjoy. However, she did not know what creatures might live in the Greater Dark's crevices, so she merely watched for movement below as they approached the group.

As they moved alongside the group, she was able to make out the individuals. There were no less than five of them, some working at the bottom of the wagon and others still moving about. She sensed physical exertion on behalf of those by the wagon, and the others moved stiffly, likely as a result of tension. Unless they hid their strength, only two were first tier soulcrafters...

"It appears to be a group of five, transporting goods across the Greater Dark when their wagon was damaged," Fiyu reported. "They have limited soulcrafting ability and are only lightly armed. It seems that they are in distress, to be stranded in this location."

There was a pause, then Companion Nauda leaned forward expectantly. "Well? Aren't we going to help them?"

"They are still strangers. We must be cautious, in case they have deceived my senses." Still, Fiyu thought that she was correct, so she released her technique and let out a low whistle. It was designed to echo, not revealing her location precisely, but still opening potential interaction.

After several heartbeats, a warbling whistle came in response. Companion Theo's face contorted in displeasure before he spoke. "I don't think I know what that one means."

"It was improperly done, but I believe they meant a cry for help." Fiyu shook her head as she shifted the sleigh to move toward the fallen wagon. "They are likely to be cavesteaders, or another group that does not understand how to range in this region. I hope it will not be a burden to assist them."

When they approached the group, Fiyu was able to make them out in greater detail: two men, two women, and a child. Likely one of the relative units that she had once found strange, though such units seemed much less so after witnessing families in other worlds. Their physical condition suggested extreme emotional distress, which finally allowed her to set aside most concerns about it being a potential trap.

Stopping the sleigh at a safe distance, Fiyu whispered to her companions to join her and then stepped forward. The small group had realized their location now and gathered together, nearly touching one another in a defensive cluster. Anywhere else, Fiyu would have spoken to them at a reasonable distance, but the Greater Dark required quiet, so they needed to come absurdly close, only a pace away.

"We greet you," Fiyu said. "We are only visitors here, but we may be able to assist."

"Thank the Dark you came." One of the Stranger Women spoke and Fiyu's mind reeled as she heard two voices simultaneously. The one that spoke to her soul was perfectly understood as a result of her movement through the gate, while the one that spoke to her ears was composed of half-understood words. Clearly, they used a trade language she had only partially learned, but there was no time to focus on that, not with tense negotiations underway.

"I assume this is your wagon of goods. What were you attempting to do?"

"We have heard tales of a fantastical path to other lands. Places outside the known world, we mean. But a trusted relative said that he knew a merchant who achieved great profits from selling goods there. A brief journey through the Greater Dark did not seem a terrible risk for a sight of fantastical lands, but now..."

It was quite an unnecessary speech, removing her doubt that he was a cavesteader. More surprisingly, they appeared to be innocents, not even aware of the existence of other worlds. Fiyu attempted to glance back to Companion Theo before realizing that her action was doubly strange: first, he could not see her, and second, she would never have done such a thing before.

Still, even without an exchanged glance, she could feel Companion Theo's expression tightening in something like pity, or perhaps derision. She considered that she should tell him that some Ichili would be able to sense his expression, because normally his face was tightly controlled. In any case, the negotiation was more important.

"The tales you heard are true," Fiyu said, "but the path you seek is many days away, over dangerous ground. We cannot pass that way without sacrificing our own journey, but we could help you reach a safe location."

"But without our goods, we are ruined." A Stranger Man took several steps toward the wagon to indicate the spilled items. "Your vehicle does not appear capable of transporting everything."

"This is true, but fortunately for you, we have other means. Companion Nauda?" Fiyu turned back to her companion, who stood with her staff planted firmly beside her, though the tension in her back showed that she was putting up a front.

Not caring what the others thought, Fiyu took hold of Companion Nauda's sleeve and guided her past the group to the wagon. Once Fiyu led her to the edge and whispered of the wagon's position, Companion Nauda easily lifted the wagon upright. Several of the Stranger Cavesteaders gasped softly, impressed by their strength, but they would be more impressed when Companion Theo joined them.

"You want to levitate the wagon behind us?" he said. Though his eyes were closed and he was oriented in the wrong direction, he'd clearly understood much.

"As well as these five people and all of their supplies. It is not too heavy?"

"Weight has nothing to do with it. The only hard part will be stopping the momentum." Companion Theo waved a hand and the wagon lifted off the ground, before another one of his strange fields reversed it. The wagon wobbled up and down before Companion Nauda grasped it again, stabilizing it.

Their actions had left the strangers awestruck, but unfortunately, what followed was a great deal more tedious. The strangers needed to pick up all of their spilled goods, as well as take down their partial camp. Beyond that, they would need to attach the wagon to the sleigh, and Fiyu was not willing to let strangers near her vehicle, so many steps would be required.

While they retrieved their goods, Fiyu examined the items carefully, in case the groups had more sinister motives for taking the risk. She identified many solid fabrics, their surfaces woven in patterns for aesthetics. Several spheres of artistry, though not particularly well-crafted. Some organic materials and pots that appeared to contain glazes. So far as her senses could penetrate, everything was perfectly ordinary.

Recognizing that the tasks might take some time, Fiyu went to Companion Nauda and helped her set up a tent so that she could sit within the light while they worked. Meanwhile, Companion Theo was required to stay next to their sleigh, modifying his fields as the Stranger Family took an unacceptably long time gathering everything, often moving the wagon while adding items. Though silent by the standards of most other worlds, she found them unacceptably loud for such a region.

While they worked, Fiyu learned more of their story. Not personal details, of course, but they revealed that one of their wagon wheels had fallen into a cleft in the ground. There were many such clefts, which was why a sledge would have been a better choice.

She learned the reason for their unusual openness soon: some of their goods had fallen into the cleft and they hoped to retrieve them. Normally she would have considered this unacceptable, but Companion Theo was able to to levitate them upwards to the ground.

There was a strange tension in Companion Theo's eyebrows that she recognized as a sign he was thinking deeply. When there was nothing else required of her, she stepped beside him and spoke softly. "Have you noticed something?"

"Nothing serious." Companion Theo frowned again, but when she did not depart, he continued with his thoughts. "I realized that I have some awareness of objects in my gravitational fields. At first I thought I shouldn't, but then I started thinking about how all objects do have gravity, if only a little. Right now the sense isn't fine enough to use, but perhaps..."

"You could develop a real sense." It was a fascinating idea, though certainly not advanced enough to make out fine details. That explained how his movements in the group were no longer completely blind. She looked forward to discussing the matter further with him.

While they spoke the strangers moved in various inefficient patterns, so Fiyu realized too late that the child had wandered away from the others. That alone was terrible lack of discipline, and she intended to inform the relatives and perhaps remind them about the dangers.

Too late, Fiyu realized that the child had wandered toward the tent where Companion Nauda sat. Before she could do anything, the child pulled open the flap and blinding light flared out into the darkness.

She attempted to move toward the tent, too slow to prevent what had already happened. The child let out a scream and fell back, sobbing and clutching its eyes. Companion Nauda thankfully understood the danger and grabbed the flap to pull it back into place, then attempted to close every gap that cast light into their surroundings. Fiyu swept in and grasped the child's mouth, silencing its cries as quickly as possible.

Her heart thundered in her chest as the landscape around them again became quiet and dark. The disruption had been significant, but also brief, so she hoped that they had been lucky.

In the darkness around them, she felt swift-moving shapes swarm from underground clefts and begin to converge on their location.

~ ~ ~

For a brief moment, Theo considered that they might have courted disaster, then he felt Fiyu's cantae rush from her soulhome. Whatever she felt, she clearly sensed danger, and that was a very bad sign.

Exerting the full extent of his willpower, Theo tried to sense cantae around them. Something slithered at the edges of his grasp, cantae of a predator far too subtle for its average victims. Even with the experience of a full lifetime, Theo could only get a sense of sublime beasts, converging on them from all sides. He wanted to ask Fiyu for information, but then it was too late.

Blue lights lit up all around them as the beasts opened their eyes. Not to hunt, but to shock their prey. The Ichili family let out a wail and cowered, and even Fiyu flinched.

Theo reacted without any more thought, slamming down gravitational fields all around him. He knew Fiyu and Nauda by their soulhomes and avoided them, but everything else he simply flattened. It was immediately rewarding to see the blue eyes drop to the ground and he tried to catch his breath. Before he could, the cries of pain began.

"No, you must not!" Fiyu grasped at the front of his shirt, her face actually visible in the reflected light. "You are hurting them."

At first, he didn't react, seized by survival instinct. His mind was fixated on the danger around him: sublime beasts like these were talented pack predators, with teeth that could no doubt tear into him. If he let them go, they would descend on him, and his life would end right there. He couldn't allow that, even if...

"Companion, please."

Her second statement got through to him and, against his better judgment, Theo released the gravitational fields. If he'd been lucky, the sublime beasts would have fled in shock, but instead they began stumbling to their feet, reorienting toward their prey.

Now that he wasn't reacting on instinct, Theo cast a more selective field, sending many of the beasts falling skyward. But there were so many of them, and he could only maintain a few fields... he realized that Fiyu had vanished, somewhere within her stealth technique.

Veering away from him, the predators raced toward the cringing family. Theo cast two fields that dropped many, but even more closed the distance.

Then Fiyu emerged from the shadows, a storm of light exploding from her palms. In the near darkness it was blinding, practically an explosion. Many of the beasts were torn apart instantly, and the others staggered away, despite their eyes being mostly vestigial threats.

Theo's eyes, adjusted to the darkness, were seared completely blind, which only increased his panic. Yet he heard a complex whistle from Fiyu: a military call to retreat. It didn't make sense, until he realized the hidden meaning: he needed to get the civilians away along with their vehicles, otherwise they'd rapidly be overwhelmed.

Because as he started to regain his vision, his first sight was more blue eyes lighting up in the distance, converging toward them.

A group of the beasts raced from the opposite direction, but at that moment Nauda burst from her tent, sending its light blazing in all directions. That left all the Ichili sobbing and blind except for Fiyu, who continued to destroy the nearest sublime beasts with bursts of light. Yet there were so many more, and they'd soon be swarmed unless they acted quickly.

"Get them into the wagon." Theo gestured at Nauda, who immediately understood. Now that she had light to fight by, she moved confidently. As she ran to the huddled family, she stabbed her staff out at one beast, then swung its frozen body into the nearest.

Meanwhile, Theo leapt into the sleigh, casting upwards gravitational fields around him as a precaution. He might be willing to risk himself for this, but he wasn't going to die to a predator coming out of the shadows and getting a lucky blow to his neck. Fortunately, they'd finished attaching the wagon, so they had an option for fleeing, but he needed something else.

They hadn't discussed this, since it was an unlikely contingency plan. Even though it violated her privacy, Theo tore into one of the packs of supplies Fiyu had prepared. Surely she would have... yes, he found a diamond-shaped rock that emanated the right sort of cantae. Not a good sublime material for soulcrafting, but it had a definite use in situations like this.

When he looked back, he saw Nauda handing the child up to its parents, while Fiyu fought behind her, fending back the growing mass of beasts with indiscriminate bursts of light. Yet they were no longer so intimidated, and they were clearly used to taking down powerful prey with numbers, so they had begun to spread out.

Theo whistled a warning for light, squeezed the rock, and then hurled it behind them. Even in the air, it began to glow, and when it hit the ground it emanated light in all directions.

Fiyu had understood his intent and retreated to the sleigh, so he started moving. Nauda was the only one still on the ground, but she raced after them, leaping into the wagon. As soon as she did so, Fiyu extended her sphere over their entire group, silence falling over them. Though the Ichili peasants still whimpered and shifted atop their wagon, the sound should be absorbed by her technique.

Behind them, two white lights shone in the darkness: the light from Nauda's tent, and the distraction flare he'd thrown. Between the two, the beasts seemed to be thoroughly confused. A troubling number of eyes glowed around those lights as they closed in, but they still hunted in absolute silence.

Eventually, he started to see those lights go out as the beasts gave up their chase. It didn't make him feel any more relieved.