***Tirnanog, Northern Mountain Range***

***Magnus***

We practically crept the last few hundred metres towards the open shelter. The others acted like frightened animals and I would have lied if I said their behaviour didn’t get to me. Just what had them so horrified when they fought monsters daily? Was the threat in this case that much greater?

Nobody said a word as we strained our senses in anticipation of an attack, but there was nothing. The limestone rock around us was as quiet as ever and my senses revealed nothing.

But I felt like I was being watched. My new Precognition sense tingled madly. It was as if someone was running an icy finger up and down my spine.

It was disturbing to not know what was wrong. Apart from an open shelter.

At least Thalia decided to keep the group together. Our best chance lay in taking the shelter and finding a way to block the entrance.

“If we make it through this, I am going to vote for more maintenance crews,” Charite whispered angrily.

“You know very well the elders won't risk the equipment and the people with the necessary skills. Especially not the equipment,” Fox grumbled. “They always wait for the damage to be reported first.”

“Shut up!” Astra whispered vehemently. Her words had the desired effect and returned the group to order. “We don't know what we are facing, but it isn’t good if it can open shelters.”

By now, I had seen enough shelters to tell Astra was right. Once a shelter was sealed, nothing should be able to pull the perfectly fitting sealing rock out of place. The masons had ensured there would be no way to hold onto the stone, so not even the strongest of creatures had a chance. A very sturdy rope and the ability to thread it into hidden boreholes were an absolute necessity.

Opening a shelter required either the right tools or a presumably impossible adaptation to the task.

We finally reached our goal and I pointed my spetum into the darkness. The foul smell which attacked my nose right away didn't sit well with me.

If it was this bad outside, then how would it be inside?

Thalia pointed at the dark entrance. “Tulkas, Astra, go ahead and clean it up. Everyone else, ready your bows and crossbows. Cover the entrance against anything coming from outside and hold the position. Nobody runs.” She looked around, then pointed at Ivonne. “Ivonne, follow behind them and take care of anything that gets past them. I want nothing coming out of that tunnel!”

“Are you nuts?” Astra's turned sharply to hiss at her friend. “I won't have her at my back when I walk into the lair of some monster!”

Admittedly, I also didn't find the idea invigorating. I had said nothing so far since the group's anxiety was getting to me. Had I been alone, I probably wouldn't have known that walking into dark, enclosed spaces was to be feared.

“Ivonne is defiant. Not suicidal,” Thalia explained her reasoning. “She knows very well that we can't lose anyone if we want to reach our destination. Especially not our two strongest fighters. And you two need someone who doesn't die instantly to watch your backs. Ivonne and Charite are the only possibilities, and I want Charite out here with me. She has perfect aim with a crossbow.”

Astra and Thalia glared at each other for a long moment before Thalia tore her eyes away and gave more instructions. “Fox, Charite. You two stay out here with us. Everyone, form up!”

It appeared the matter had been settled by Thalia, even if Astra wasn't happy with the decision.

I sighed and stared at the shelter while I waited for Astra to stop fuming and step next to me.

“There is no other way of doing this?” I asked, surprised to find my voice being calmer than I felt. Years of hiding my feelings had steeled me better than I thought.

“I guess not, though it is a foolish thing to do,” Astra replied. “Better than taking our chances with a night in the open.”

I nodded, aware that there was no other shelter within reach. We maybe had an hour of daylight left. The Aerie had timed the distance between shelters just right so that they wouldn't be forced to maintain more installations than necessary. Only, close to their settlement, they had started to splurge a bit on the interior.

“You remember the layout of this one,” I asked to gain some time. It was a reasonable question.

“Entrance opens up into a large common room,” Astra replied. “From there, maybe fifty alcoves for privacy. Just like the last one.”

I hesitated.

“Is something wrong?” Astra asked.

“Nothing,” I said. “You guys just got into my head. So far, I either didn't have time to think about the fights which were forced on me, or I had time to consider the risk I was taking.”

The most dangerous challenge I had willingly taken since my arrival was hunting a pack of gutters with Mark. And it was a calculated risk.

I took a breath and thought back to what had brought me this far. That burning feeling from deep within me. It had ignited on the day when the Organisation had given me proof that my family was murdered. And since then it had carried me ever onward as I stepped over corpses as normal people walked over gravel.

Maybe they should have killed me that day, so many years ago, together with my parents. It certainly would have prevented a lot of the pain and suffering I visited upon the world since then.

'I have the power. Revenge will be mine. They are nothing. I am all that matters!'

The old chant calmed me.

All I had to do was to focus this feeling on whatever awaited us in the shelter and all would be fine.

I wasn’t some sheep. While other humans would have backed down, I sought answers. I could have stayed at the university and lived a happy life, a common life. All I would have had to do would be to let go of that hatred within me.

But it would have also turned me into a common man, a sheep. A peon who would be nothing more than yet another number for those in power. Easy to be thrown away when their goals required it.

Not anymore.

And especially not in this world. Ever since I came here, I actually felt better than ever. Not at first, but ever since I reached the Old Camp. My body was young and powerful and I had the feeling I could change something in this world. If I only managed to take charge.

But honestly, maybe it was just the hormones that came with having a beautiful woman at my side.

“Let's do this.” I activated my Second Sight and slowly walked into the cave with Astra at my side.

She sent out her filaments, allowing them to creep along the walls, questing into every nook and cranny. Somewhere, she had picked up two shortswords and was now holding them in front of her.

Ivonne was following with a sword of her own.

My Second Sight gave me almost flawless night vision. And normally I could see things through minor obfuscations, but even it couldn’t penetrate a few meters of rock.

We rounded a slight bend in the entrance tunnel and finally got a good look into the common room.

The floor was covered with bones. They were stacked higher and higher the further one got into the room until they piled up to my shoulders at the centre.

And there was a creature on top of the pile. Two eyes that reflected our bioluminescence were looking at us.

I almost would have called it a human, but it wasn't.

There wasn't a single hair on its body and the arms and legs were too long. They displayed powerful sinew and muscles without a single ounce of fat. The lower jaw was also elongated into a snout with fangs the length of my fingers.

Eerily enough, it didn't make a single sound when it moved.

The pile of bones beneath it exploded and before I could adjust the spetum, the monster was already well past the tip.

I pulled the weapon sideways with all my might and caught the creature's chest with a sideblade.

It dug in deeply before the abomination's ribcage stopped the blade.

Its clawed arms swung together from both sides. I pushed my weapon forward in an instinctive reaction to hold the monster at a distance. Simultaneously, I pulled my head back.

The claws missed my face by centimetres, even though I had used almost all of the spetum's reach.

I screamed and discharged electricity through the spear while I reached for the short sword at my side.

The electric shock didn't prevent my adversary from trying to claw me to pieces, but it messed up the thing's coordination. When the monster's flailing arms came back, I chopped one off and let go of the spear.

Immediately, the creature surged forward and I caught the other arm while I hacked down with an accelerated movement. The blade cut through its collarbone and deep into its chest.

While I was screaming like a madman, it hadn't made a single sound.

The worst about the horrific thing was that it was so close and yet so far from human. It was just close enough to engender some familiarity but wrong in all the right ways to send shivers down my spine.

Finally, it stopped moving and dragged the spetum down with it to the ground.

I pulled the sword free and was finally able to take in the situation. Four more of the creatures had appeared from the alcoves.

But because Astra had sent out her filaments like a web of tripping wire she had caught them.

One broke free before I could act and charged.

I threw my blade.

It hit the monster awkwardly in the chest, but the sheer force of my throw carried it through and slashed the edge into flesh. The blade snapped and the creature stumbled. Even if it hadn't stuck, there was weight behind anything I launched at a point-blank range.

Quickly, I picked up my spetum and ripped it out of the corpse. Then I beheaded the injured one with a swipe of the blade.

Not stopping, I carried on and stabbed the closest creature several times before it could free itself.

The other two finally tore themselves free, not caring that Astra's filaments carved painfully into their skin.

One rammed straight into me, causing both of us to go down. The second one would have been also on me, but Astra threw herself at the creature. She pulled her filaments in and wrapped them around the enemy.

Meanwhile, I tried my best not to be carved into ribbons by the one that was on top of me. The hag's claws were longer than those of its male counterpart.

Because that was what it was: a hag. I had no other description for it. Some mixture of ancient folklore between a witch, a werewolf, and a wendigo.

And I didn’t mean the glorified pop-culture versions. This was old-testament horror all the way.

I somehow grasped one arm while the monster raked its claws over my biceps.

Pulling, I simultaneously struck the joint, breaking the arm. Which didn't bother it much.

“Magnus!”

Ivonne was suddenly above us.

Holding her sword in both hands she rammed it down into the spot where the hag's neck met the shoulder, sliding it all the way down into the torso until the handle met skin.

Pulling, she used it as a lever to manhandle the creature off of me.

I caught the remaining arm as it changed its target to Ivonne, raking her thigh. With both hands holding on, I twisted while I brought my body around and dug my knees into the torso. The creature struggled, but I didn't stop until I heard snapping tendons and the cracking of bones.

With a rattling choke, the hag took its last breath and stilled.

Ivonne pulled the sword out, twisting it to open up the wound some more.

A whimper drew my attention and I looked for Astra who had brought down the last one. But my woman didn't need any help when it was just her and one of the things.

Like an anaconda, she had her arms, legs, and filaments tightly wrapped around her opponent in a chokehold. And while the creatures could free themselves of a few of her filaments, there was no getting out once she brought all of them to bear on a single target.

I could only imagine what the thing went through while Astra slowly wrung the life out of it. The others hadn't said a single thing in response to the gravest of injuries, but this one whimpered as every bone in its body snapped one by one.

There was a final snap as the spinal cord yielded and the fight was over.

I swallowed involuntarily, suddenly reminded of the fact that Astra liked to spoon me in a similar fashion early in the morning. Somehow, I no longer believed her earlier judgement of me winning against her in a wrestling match. At least not as long as my filaments were still too short to be useful.

“What are those things?” Ivonne asked and pointed her sword at the hag. Despite her best efforts, the tip trembled noticeably, betraying that this encounter had shaken her.

“Abominations,” Astra replied while she unwound herself from the corpse. The hag's extremities were loose and wobbly like she no longer had bones inside her. “Some failed mutation left over from the clan war. They probably went rogue and started reproducing on their own.”

“Those were human once?” Ivonne asked. She was even more agitated now.

“Maybe. Maybe not.” Astra dusted herself off. “Damned if I know. I just guessed at their origins. And it seems like humans were the base for these things.”

“In any case.” I pulled my spetum out of the speared corpse and turned to face Ivonne. “Can you explain how you know my real name?”

***Tirnanog, Northern Mountain Range***

***Astra***

Ivonne froze like an animal caught in the headlights.

When there was no immediate answer forthcoming, Magnus went so far as to point his weapon at Ivonne. And a dark glare took over his expression.

I quickly got to my feet and wrapped my filaments around the spetum. “Now wait! She even helped you! And there is a simple explanation! What if she is your sister?”

I admit I had played with the possibility in my mind but left it unsaid. Magnus had confided his feelings to me before we left on this trek, and I was sure it was something he had seldom done with others. If ever. I didn't want to hurt him by raising false hopes.

Magnus’s icy glare didn’t let off, but he lowered his weapon. “Maybe. But there is no telling if she refuses to talk, is there?”

“And what if I am?” Ivonne spat back. “Not that it matters. I am no longer this naive little girl who believed Mum and Dad would show up to save her! You didn’t even recognize me.”

She pointed at my partner. “You are no longer the brother I knew! Magnus would have never killed people! He was some scientist geek who spent his days looking at the stars!”

God, these two. I wasn't sure which of them was more stubborn. If not from their looks, then from their personalities, one could tell they came from the same stock!

Magnus shouldered his weapon and answered with a cool and controlled voice. “You are completely right.”

“What?” Ivonne was taken aback.

“I am no longer the big brother you knew. Seven years are more than enough time to change people. When I learned that you were murdered, I went down a long and dark path, Ivona. I killed hundreds and ordered the deaths of thousands. My only purpose in life is to strike out at those who orchestrated this cruel experiment. To throw some cranks into the grinding gears of the government that took you away from me.” He gestured at the world around us.

“If I found my sisters along the way, then fine. I thought maybe I could be a big brother again. But in truth, I never hoped for that.” He sighed. “I knew from the very beginning I would come far too late for a heroic rescue. That my sisters may as well be the enemy. Seven years have passed. Seven years for my enemies to pour their lies down a child’s throat. This isn’t some fairy tale, Ivona. If you are no longer my little sister, then all I have left is my revenge. If you stand in my way, then I will strike you down like anyone else in my path to achieve it! You think this world is horrible? Well, once you walk through Earth’s morass you will find there isn’t much of a difference. Earth only gives you a quicker, cleaner death if you make a mistake. But death it is all the same!”

“You are a monster.” Ivonne had sunken down to her knees and was looking at the floor. “If revenge is all you live for…”

I stepped to my partner and took his hand in mine. We made eye contact and I smiled. Then I glared at Ivonne. “Look up you stupid girl. At least look into your brother’s eyes when you tell him you are no longer his sister. You two are broken if you can’t even admit to yourselves who you are. He is so consumed he can’t even admit that he is crying because of what you said. And you… did the Thich break you to the point that you would raise your hands against your own blood? I would give anything to see my real family again.”

Ivonne finally looked up and saw the glistening tears on Magnus’s cheeks, even though his face remained calm and stoic.

He touched his cheek with a hand. “I am not crying. Damn it!”

To my surprise, Ivonne stood up, staggered over and hugged her brother.

I made Magnus hug her back and gave them that moment. Even though he was hiding it, his tears betrayed his true feelings.

A long time passed before Ivonne mumbled awkwardly, “Magnus, your back is squirming.”

“That's what you are concerned about?” he asked.

“It is really, really disturbing,” she replied. “Just why did you have to make out with her?”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “Her? Is that the thanks I receive for making you two fools see each other for what you are? The way you were behaving, you would have gone at each other's throats for things that aren't your fault.”

“Thank you, Astra.” Magnus smiled at me and this time I knew it wasn't a mask.

A scream from outside alarmed us and we rushed out of the shelter.

Thalia and the others had retreated into the entrance tunnel to avoid the hail of stones and sticks that assaulted the shelter.

Charite screamed and launched a crossbow bolt at a target I couldn't see.

“What's happening?” I asked.

“Abominations!” Thalia replied. “There must be over a hundred of them out there! They attacked us when Hailey tried to attach a rope to the broken blockade rock.”

They were trying to prevent us from closing up the shelter.

“There were five of them inside the shelter. Big fuckers too,” I said to bring Thalia up to date. “Do you think we can hold the entrance tonight?”

“It won't be easy-”

Thalia's reply was cut short when Magnus suddenly strode past us and out of the cave. He was holding the body of the male Abomination up and using it as a shield.

The rain of projectiles stopped when he presented the things outside with the body of their fellow pack-member... or tribesman... chieftain? Maybe?

Then Magnus did something that will probably be forever burned into my memories. And it drove home the point that my precious partner had a few screws loose.

He let out a scream which sent shivers down my spine. It seemed to hold all the rage and anger he had bottled up inside him over the years.

And then he plunged both his hands into the corpse's spine. There was a snap and then he ripped the head along with a sizeable part of the spine out of the body. He tossed the corpse to the ground and took the head between his hands.

At that moment, I was glad I was standing behind him and couldn't see the details of him crushing the skull between his palms.

Though, I saw the mess he dropped to the ground afterwards. I hadn't even known it was possible to charge our muscles to that extent.

When seconds passed without further reaction, I crept forward. A deadly silence followed as I slowly edged out of the tunnel with the others behind me.

The craggy limestone rock around the cave looked to be as empty as ever. There was no sign of the little army that Thalia had described.

“How did you know to do that?” I asked.

“I didn't.” Magnus huffed and wiped his hands on his pants. “I just figured it wouldn't hurt to assert a little dominance. They aren't the only monsters out here.”