The blood sprayed out between Arguel’s wrinkled fingers as she grabbed at her ruined throat and choked. It ran down the topography of her sunbeaten skin, soaking into intricately woven night clothes. Her pale blue eyes widened; shock, pain, betrayal, and horror played across her face.

She collapsed onto the floor of the chapel, voiceless, her heart driving the blood out of her into a growing pool below her neck.

Her eyes never left my face as she died. I wondered what she saw there in her final moments.

My grip tightened on my knife. I’d killed people before, but from a distance. Somewhere beyond the cloak fugue, an almost dysphoric sense of revulsion wrenched at me. But for now I was safe. It couldn’t find me because I wasn’t here. I was just a dream. This was all a dream. The dreamer would wake and Arguel would be gone.

A sense of solemnity filled the air as Torgaior manifested. Dark brown hair, rounded face—kind of Asian-looking, to an Earth native, but the eye color was wrong and the facial structure wasn’t quite the same—sharp chin. His eyes passed blankly over me and found the body on the floor.

“Who?!” he yelled. “Who would do such a thing?!”

The air was darkening, stained by the evil thing I’d done. The reverberations of the murder passed through the knife, its attunement filtering out exactly what was needed to slay the ancestor, passing through the resonator and rebounding across the village. Seven poles and a resonator, marking an octagonal boundary centered on the very building we stood in.

It burned him.

Torgaior arched in pain as the ether backlash hit him, fracturing his being along the ramshackle addition of souls. He screamed. A flicker of something hateful stirred in my gut.

“Go on, you piece of shit,” I said. “Eat her soul. Choke on it and die.”

He trembled as the corrupted frequency corroded his essence, the sympathetic effects crippling his avatar with pain.

“I hear you, murderer,” he said through gritted teeth. “And I will end you.”

“Murderer?” I scoffed. “How many souls have you eaten?”

“They are my progeny,” he hissed. “They are mine.”

“Fuck you,” I said, taking a step closer. It would be okay. This was how the dream went. I could kill him before he died.

The dying godling tilted his head, sensing my intent if not my actual person, and clawed the air with his hand. The air screamed as his power rent the world. The wall behind me splintered, letting in the night air. I heard shouting outside. He slumped to his knees, looking blankly ahead. He hadn’t been human in a long time, it seemed: he was ignoring the eyeballs on his avatar in favor of his etheric senses.

“You missed,” I said, walking closer. Should I be afraid? No. He couldn’t hit me because I wasn’t here. “Arguel’s never coming back because of you. And she was so sweet.” I was in range. I lifted my knife. “She had grandchildren!”

My knife, still dripping with the blood of his descendant, punched straight into his heart. A scream ripped out of his throat, something too harsh to have been made with mere vocal chords. He fell to the ground, curling up.

“They fall,” I spat. I kicked him in the gut. “They die.”

“You—fool,” the god gasped.

“What’s that, granny-eater?”

“No,” he said, each word an obvious effort. “Didn’t—her soul.”

I paused. “What?”

“She goes now—to Kives. My life. For yours.” A twisted smile worked its way across his face. “Calamity.”

At last, he lay still.

Oh shit.

Oh shit.

“Everyone, we’re compromised, get out!” I said.

“Lilith, what’s going on?”

Right, I needed to update the team. I’d forgotten about them for a moment. The shouting outside had ended, but they meant they were probably going to be here soon. “Commander, I got the target, but he refused the elder’s soul. And apparently the next best match was Kives. She’s going to know we’re here any second now. Everyone needs to get out right now.”

The commander responded instantly. “Team, extract immediately. Val, grab the resonator and liquidate the rest. Lilith, do you need support to extract?”

“I don’t. They’ll never find me,” I said distantly.

“Dammit, Lilith, you said you had a handle on this! Markus, get in there and extract her! Lilith, turn off the damned cloak!”

‘On my way,” he replied.

I reached through my soul and turned off the cloak. All at once it hit me, the adrenaline, the fear, the disgust—oh god I could smell the blood—oh god, poor Arguel, had I really done that?—that fucking god, dead on the floor, the cause of all this, smirking in death. I gave him another kick, then retched. Didn’t vomit, though, that was a plus.

It was chilling in here, where the etheric residue was thickest. In my newfound clarity of thought I realized the aura of concentrated evil was probably keeping the villagers away from this place. I certainly didn’t want to be here, but for now it was keeping me safe, so I told my brain that we needed to stay in the horrible creepy death environment.

“Markus, they’re not approaching the chapel from what I can see,” I said. “I might need a distraction if there’s no window. I’ll be re-cloaking when I exit.”

“I got you,” he said.

“Amplifier nodes successfully liquidated,” said Val. “I have the resonator. Extracting now.”

“Good job, Val. Lilith, you can use the cloak if you’re surrounded, but if it’s affecting your tactical judgment this much, I’m ordering you to leave it off. Now is not the time for mistakes.”

“I’m handling it!” I said. “I killed the target, didn’t I?”

“Shut up and get out of there!”

“I’m going, I’m going!”

The angel disguise had outlived its usefulness, and I had the etheric miasma all over me, so no one would buy it if I kept wearing it. I ripped it off, the light fabric tearing easily, and tossed it on the godling’s corpse. My lighter came out of one of my newly-accessible pockets. The dress, sadly, also burned well—couldn’t leave evidence for the diviners to follow. I touched the lighter to a couple spots to make sure it caught. I snagged the knife while I was at it—it was entangled with the resonator, didn’t want that pointing back to us.

“Scene is clear,” I said. “Markus, I’m exiting north.”

I drew my pulser and peeked out the chapel entrance—by which I mean the entrance that was supposed to be there, as opposed to their quisling ancestor’s ad hoc remodel just now. The moon was full enough that people would see me if I ducked out. And there were people, huddled together. With my enhanced vision I could make out the expressions on their faces like it was day—they were scared to death. The amplifier had pumped the entire area full of doom, and it was strongest here. Some had crude weapons, others farming implements. Here and there people lit torches, which I appreciated because they were killing their night vision.

None approached. But there weren’t any obvious openings, either.

“Markus,” I said, “I’m gonna need that opening.”

“Copy that. I’m thinking demons.”

“Shit, Markus, these kids are gonna have nightmares already.”

He laughed. “Repositioning to the east. Get ready to go.”

“I might have to make a break for it,” I said, eyeing a group of teenage boys who were obviously egging each other on. “Possible incoming contacts.”

“You’re authorized for disruptor rounds,” said the commander. “We can’t let Kives get any more information.”

I pursed my lips at that. I didn’t want to kill anyone else tonight, especially with soul-shredding bullets. “I’ll stick with my pulser if that’s alright.”

“Twenty seconds,” said Markus.

One of the kids had taken a few shaking steps toward the chapel. His fellows cheered him on. Emboldened by their praise, he set his shoulders and began walking, brandishing a stick. Some of the adults were taking notice. Good leadership potential, that one.

“I’m going now,” I said. “Sorry commander, I’ll have to cloak. I’ll do better this time.”

“I mean it, Lilith. I’m not losing anyone today if I can help it.”

“I know, I know,” I said, trying to remember my training as I turned the cloak on again—to a lower setting, this time. The anesthetic haze returned like a warm pillow after you hit the snooze button for the last time, no, really. But even as I became less real I tried to hold on to my willpower. I pushed through the doors and slipped away into the night, a shadow among shadows. Not invisible—irrelevant, illusory. I was pareidolia incarnate, the phantom movement in the corner of your vision, the shape that vanishes when you blink. I wasn’t—I was there, unseen, and getting the hell out of dodge.

The would-be hero never saw me go. His prize would be discovering the bodies first. Sorry, kid.

The next hurdle was a smaller group—a family, by the looks of them—who were all looking to their matriarch for reassurance in the sinister fallout from the amplifier. Markus’s timing was perfect: a horrifying roar spilled out through the streets. A noise like that would be a major concern for a pre-computerized society with no conception of audio engineering. The children in front of me screamed, echoed all across the village. Their parents picked them up and started running away from the noise. Great parenting instincts, but they were heading straight for me. That was fine, I wasn’t here. No, focus, Lilith, I was there, I had to get out of the fucking way.

I managed it, tucked into the shadow of a tree. Another roar shook the village. I ran toward the noise as fast as my legs would take me. I felt doomed. I knew exactly what caused it and why, but my stupid meat brain kept flicking back to the ancestor’s final words. Was Kives tracking me even now? Fuck, I was carrying a knife that was entangled with something Val was taking back to the ship at this very moment. That was a little doom-worthy, wasn’t it? Surely all of this couldn’t just be the horrible murder whose aura was still tied to my arm.

“Val, can you cut the entanglement?” I asked, breathing heavily. “I’m freaking out a little here.”

“Lilith,” the commander cut in, “you’re nearing Markus’s position. It’s a straight shot from there to the amplifier effect boundary. Just hang in there.”

Val chimed in. “Cutting the entanglement would require standing still, which currently seems unwise. I’m staying away from the ship for now.”

“Lilith, I don’t see you,” said Markus.

“I think I’m close,” I said, barreling around a corner and nearly colliding with a cart. “Comm check.”

I got a ping. Markus was close, like same-strip-mall kind of close.

“I’m in the field,” he said. “The corn-y plants.”

I barked out a breathless laugh—which probably confused the others, since that wasn’t a pun in Velean. “Okay, I see you!”

“I don’t see you,” he said. “Tune me in.”

I got another ping from Markus’s comm. I fed it into the cloak, which would let anyone with that frequency see through its effect. With my night vision I saw him perk up and wave. I kept running straight at him until he caught me in a hug.

“Heya, big guy,” I said, hugging him back. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

“Let me grab the duffel,” he said, releasing me.

“Only if you give me the rifle,” I said, flashing him a grin. “One of us should have it ready.”

“Duffel’s yours, then,” he said.

I pouted, but picked it up. “Oof, I’m gonna be sore in the morning. Which way out?”

Markus pointed. “I’ll watch our backs. Commander, we’re extracting. Route C, I’ve got a bad feeling about the others..”

“Just the fallout, Markus,” I tried, but the doom was clinging to me like my high school boyfriend.

“Acknowledged. Val, what’s your status?”

“Pretending to be a woodsman, commander.”

“See if you can circle back and provide overwatch in the case of pursuit.”

“Affirmative.”

“We’re out of the fallout area,” Markus said. “Proceeding along route.”

It was a breath of fresh air. We were making a good pace of it, but once we stepped out of the fallout, our breath came easier, our limbs moved just a bit more quickly. The sense of doom and calamity receded. Mostly. Some of it was still strapped to my arm.

“It feels like one of those nightmares where you’re just being followed by something,” I said, as we jogged toward the forest. The dreaminess of the cloak was just making it worse. We left the clearcut portion of the forest, following the path cut through by the villagers in past times.

“We are, if you think about it,” said Markus. “We don’t know how long it’ll take before Kives sends her goons after us.”

I shuddered for no logical reason. “Commander, I’m dropping the cloak.”

“Negative, Lilith. Just keep it manageable. It could be the only thing protecting you right now. Markus, if she fugues, snap her out of it.”

Eugh, fine, I’d just live with the creeping sensation of horror for now. I was going to take so many showers after this.

Just before we hit the tree line, a shadow passed over the moon. We looked up and halted immediately. Our comms blared warnings. Almost invisible against the starry sky, a cloaked figure flew deeper into the forest.

“Commander, we owe you one,” Markus whispered. “Angelic contact. Same as the ambush. Heading… east, by the looks of it.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, or as much as I could while continuing to jog.

“Ah. East, you say?” asked Val. “That may be a problem.”

“Oh no,” said Markus.

I checked my comm. The angel was heading straight for Val.