***

Isaac cut the last few branches of the enormous pine with the sharpened edge of the jagged rock he’d found down by the riverbed. He took a few steps back and surveyed his work. He didn’t know what species of pine this was, it stood at least a hundred feet tall, the trunk towards the bottom looked more like a concrete pillar than a tree trunk.

The branches of the pine protruded from everywhere and were thicker and more luscious than any pine he’d ever seen. That was the reason he’d chosen this tree. He’d pushed the branches aside and dug out all the pine needles, cones and composting plants from underneath it. At the very bottom the branches sat so close together you couldn’t see the trunk.

By cutting away most of the branches at the ground level he’d effectively made himself an igloo of pine branches. The space was tight and the ground not very comfortable. But it would have to do. It felt like his heart hadn’t slowed down even a bit since the church.

Sweat poured down his features and dripped off his nose. His hands pulsated from the exertion and the pain. He looked down and realized with a surge in his stomach that he’d been using his broken arm for the work the entire time. Yet it didn’t seem to hurt more than his healthy hand. The adrenaline must still be pumping through his veins.

He put the rock away and walked over to a pile of discarded branches, he gently lifted them aside one by one and uncovered Aster beneath it. She didn’t move and his pulse hastened as he knelt down and held a hand against her mouth. He felt her breath spill over his palm and he breathed out himself, not noticing before now that he had held his breath.

With great care he dragged Aster inside the makeshift shelter. He sorted her into the farthest alcove beneath the cover of the tree branches. Then he turned around in the entrance, grabbed the discarded branches, and covered the entrance by sitting down and leaning the cuttings against the other branches above him. He left only a little slit in the dense covering and he sat down cross legged in front of it.

He sat peering out, his heart beating out of his chest. He tried a breathing exercise but he couldn’t calm down his heart. He needed to focus and keep watch for Crassus. He remembered the explosions, the way the spikes had bounced off Crassus’s chest like they were toothpicks. He saw the mangled corpse of Jakob, clear as day, the resigned expression on Ronan’s face as he walked off into the battle after having saved them yet again.

Something hit the branches. Isaac flinched. He looked wildly around, trying to spot anything through the slit. Something hit again. The branches shivered in the wind. It sounded like a pebble, or something similar. It hit again, and again, it started pouring down. It sounded like droplets, like rain. Isaac buried his face in his hands. It sounded like rain because it was rain.

He noticed he wasn’t doing the breathing exercise anymore, he was hyperventilating. Abandoning the watch, Isaac closed his eyes, head between his hands and focused on the pitter-patter of the rain. The rain comforted him. He didn’t know why, but it did. Perhaps it was because the sound would be muffled by the falling drops and help hide them.

His mother had been the one to make him notice that about the rain. She’d always loved rainy days. It had been quite some time since last he thought of her. He’d never apologized to Finn for blaming him. The pine canopy seemed to be watertight and no raindrops wound their way through the branches, yet still a few droplets fell onto the leg of his pants. Isaac had never been good with grief, or feelings in general for that matter. That had always been Finn’s forte. Just about his only forte, but still.

Isaac drew a shuddering breath. His heartbeat settled. But in its wake, his hunger grew to a gluttonous beast within him. He spared a glance for Aster. She slept. He couldn’t leave her. Not even to gather food. Not while Crassus still remained out there. If he found her while Isaac was away, she would die. Besides, it wasn’t like Isaac knew how to gather food in the wilderness anyways. Especially this kind of wilderness. Who knew what was out there.

An idea began forming in his mind. There was one way in which he could be sure Crassus wasn’t nearby or worse yet, headed for them. He could never have explained it to Aster, but he was certain he could find Crassus through the whispers from the keys. Isaac would never forget the hundreds of voices at once, so close together, chasing him.

Isaac closed his eyes, but didn’t reach out. He hesitated. As long as that overwhelming sensation didn’t render him unconscious or something it would probably be fine. His eyes sprang open again and he breathed hard, steadying himself against the tree trunk. Oh, he couldn’t fool himself. This was a huge risk to be taking. No Aster to get him out of it should the voices take over. No one to protect him from Crassus should he faint.

But the hunger inside him didn’t let up. Starvation was an issue, but more likely than that they’d sooner die from the next challenge they faced. They were already badly hurt, the both of them. They needed food. They needed strength.

Isaac steeled his nerves. He reached out and the voices were there in an instant. They didn’t fade in like last time. First there was nothing, no whispers, and then they surrounded him. Isaac curtailed his immediate instinct to silence them. He could feel his mind teeter at the edge of what it could tolerate. He tried to categorize the keys by direction and proximity.

One voice came from his chest. That would be his own key. Two voices emanated from his pocket. That had to be the keys he had taken from Jakob. A set of additional keys came from a couple feet to his left. Aster’s keys. Then there were about thirty or so individual keys scattered about around him each in their own place ranging from close to far away. The curious thing was that they all seemed to stem from somewhere beneath him.

He didn’t linger on the fact, he hurried on searching for the hundred voices bunched together. He knew he could find them, if only he were fast enough. He focused on the keys in the direction they had traveled from. There were less voices that way. That didn’t seem right. There were just more of those keys below ground.

But when he focused on the keys underneath the earth, he heard new voices further off. Isaac focused on them in turn and they sort of— shifted, closer in his mind. He repeated the process, using the keys he found as a way to shift the center of his awareness. There were a lot less keys around now, and he found it easier to keep himself from becoming overwhelmed. He repeated the shift several more times. He counted each shift, two, three, four then at ten he started doubting himself, maybe he could have skipped past Crassus without knowing it.

But the moment he shifted the twelth time, he heard them. Hundreds of them, screaming vitriol at him and just like last time he understood some of it.

“Rend, rip and tear you.”

“Eat, crush and devour your bones.”

Isaac clapped his hands to the sides of his head but it of course did nothing to abate the screaming. In panic he shifted back the way he had come from and the voices stilled. He sat waiting for a long while to let his heart calm down but also to see if the keys were coming towards them.

After a long wait with no voices he started doubting himself again. It was so very difficult to judge distance in this void realm of voices without end. He dared one jump forward to see if Crassus maybe had moved past him somehow.

“Hate them, kill them, hunt them—”

Isaac shifted away. Yup, they were there. He spent some time searching the areas around Crassus to see if he was alone or perhaps being followed by someone else but Isaac couldn’t find anyone. Finally it occurred to him that maybe there were other people with keys close to their hideout and he shifted all the way back.

His excitement grew as he traveled through the void by jumping from key to key. If he could map out where every living person were around them, perhaps they could avoid all trouble from now on. Well, he’d only be able to spot the ones carrying keys, but then again, those were the only people worth worrying about in the first place.

“Find the tower.”

Isaac retreated from the void so fast he continued the retreat in the physical realm and hit the back of his head against the tree. He rubbed his head and spared a glance to make certain Aster still slept. His heart pulsed in his chest. That voice had been the clearest and most human he had heard so far. He had heard it the moment he returned to his own keys. It had been the sound of a young boy. Clear as day.

He reached back in.

“Find the tower. Find the tower where it all began.”