While jogging into the village I got in touch with Elmidath. “I just took Gorus’ family out of the village, where are you?”

“Just outside the village head’s house.”

She gave me directions and I hurried to join her. After another quick jaunt through the dark, I spotted her crouched beside the house. Not wanting to surprise her or alert anyone who might be around, I stuck to using our link to converse. “I’m here.”

Spotting me, she beckoned me over and I knelt down beside her. “What’s happening? Do you figure anything else out?”

“Not really, I’ve mostly just been waiting for you. I heard voices earlier though, there’s definitely people inside.”

“Okay, what’s the plan then? Bust right in and demand they tell us the truth?”

Elmidath shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

“Wait, what? You can’t be serious. I was just kidding.”

“What else are we meant to do? It’s best that we resolve this as quickly as possible and that sounds about as direct as we can be. Unless you happen to have a better plan?”

I was sure there had to be a better plan, but time was running out and I couldn’t think of one. “Fine, let’s do it.”

Taking the lead, I crept around to the front door and found it unlocked. I eased it open with my left hand, sword in my right. The hinges creaked and I froze, listening for any movement inside. When I heard nothing, I pushed the door open as quietly as I could and slipped in.

The dark interior was lit only by what little light the narrows windows allowed and I strained my eyes, searching for danger. Large enough that it took up most of the house, the room contained a fireplace and a modest collection of furniture. But most importantly, there was no one here. Gesturing for Elmidath to follow me, I crept further in.

I carefully moved between the chairs and paused at the door ahead. Leaning against the cold stone, I waited for Elmidath to catch up. Once she was there, I hesitated. “You’re certain you heard voices in here?”

“Completely.”

“Any chance they might have left without you noticing?”

“It seems quite unlikely; I would’ve heard them leave.”

Then whoever she’d heard was probably still in here, and it was only a matter of time before we encountered them. “What are we going to do when we find them then?”

“They’ll answer our questions, assuming they don’t attack us. It should be straightforward enough.”

I felt like it would be anything but straightforward, unless they really did try to kill us on sight. It almost made the latter option preferable. Easing open the next door revealed a bed room; once again devoid of life.

I poked around a bit and confirmed that there was no one else here. We’d searched the whole house now, yet I still wasn’t ready to give up. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but I didn’t believe Elmidath was mistaken. They had to be in here somewhere.

If they weren’t in either of the obvious rooms, then they must be hidden somehow. “Any idea where they could be hiding?”

“There might be a cellar beneath us, or something like that.” She got down on her knees and started searching. “Let’s see what we can find.”

I did the same and we combed the floor, only to come up empty-handed. “Can’t you use magic or something to find the entrance?” Conventional methods clearly weren’t working, so I hoped she had something up her sleeve.

“My sanguinis isn’t too suited for things like that, but I think I can manage something.” She closed her eyes and a thin trail of her colourful blood snaked its way out from her gauntlet. Descending, it roamed across the floor, never straying far from Elmidath as she did a slow patrol of the room. Not finding anything here, she returned to the front and I went with her.

The blood was sliding around the fireplace, leaving behind a thin layer of reddish-orange, when Elmidath broke contact with it and let it fall to the floor. “I think I’ve found it.”

“Where?” I’d expected something like a trap door, but I couldn’t see anything of the sort.

Elmidath crouched down and ran her hands along the stone. Grasping a seemingly innocuous portion of the fireplace, she pulled part of it free. “Give me a hand with this.”

Between the two of us, we shifted a large portion of the fixture aside, revealing a narrow passage leading beneath the floor. Finding it at last came as something as a relief, though it meant now we had to actually confront whatever was waiting for us down there.

Elmidath was clearly in no hurry to go first, so I climbed through and emerged in a small square room, illuminated by a hanging lantern. Helping Elmidath down, I picked up the lantern and used it to light the way ahead.

It wasn’t wide enough for me to make much use of my sword, but I hoped that wouldn’t be an issue. It’s not like we were getting into anything dangerous down here, right? Proceeding as quietly as possible down the corridor, I heard voices around the corner ahead and froze.

They were too quiet to make out what was being said, but there was a distinctive edge of anger or excitement. Handing the lantern back to Elmidath, I poked my head around the corner and spotted light ahead coming from behind another twist in the path.

I took a deep breath and went back to Elmidath. “They’re just up ahead. Are we definitely doing this?”

“Of course.”

“Alright, just thought I should check.”

Given the secrecy of whoever was meeting here, they were almost certainly up to no good and I steeled myself for a fight. It was far from my preference, particularly given that we still needed information from them, but it seemed inevitable at this stage.

“Alright, let’s end this.”

As I approached the light ahead, I threw caution to the wind and rushed in, sword point leading. The corridor opened up into an expansive cavern and I stopped dead as I beheld what lay within.

Nearly a dozen villagers knelt in a circle around a fissure from which spilt a dark mass of energy. Tendrils of it connected to each villager, their hoods and masks pulled back to reveal the horrific visages beneath.

Their thin, milky white skin was covered in pustules or missing entirely, exposing the pale muscle beneath. Reddish-black veins stood out across their hairless skulls, pulsing in time with the foul manifestation before them. Yet most awful of all were their mouths; lipless gashes filled with tiny pointed teeth bared in perpetual grins.

Enraptured, the villagers didn’t react in the slightest as Elmidath and I slowly approached. Once we were a few steps away, we stopped. A long pregnant pause followed, as words eluded me. How was I supposed to react to this? And what were we supposed to do?

Elmidath let out a long sigh. “I almost wish we could just walk away and pretend we saw nothing.”

“Huh. Is that an option?”

Still staring, she ignored my attempt at a joke completely. “These are our enemies, aren’t they?”

“Yep.” I knew it was rhetorical, but I figured she could use the support.

“And here they are, helpless before us. In a way, this is a great opportunity.”

“Of all the things I’ve considered since we stepped in here, that is not one of them. I suppose you’re right in a sense, but I don’t even want to think about that. Are we really going to kill these people?”

She turned to me. “What other choice do we have? We were sent here to destroy the bandits, and these are clearly them. That, or something even worse.”

“I realize what they are.” Their appearance made it harder for me argue in their favour, but I couldn’t help comparing them to the villagers we’d brought with us. The ones we’d so recently forced out of their homes. “I’m just saying there has to be another way.”

“Well there isn’t, and no amount of wishing will change that.”

“How can you be so sure? We haven’t even tried anything yet. Maybe there’s a way to free them from whatever influence their under.”

“And how are we meant to do that?”

I gestured towards the shadowy apparition at the centre of this all. “Well we can start by getting rid of that.”

Elmidath started saying something as I hefted my sword, took three quick steps and slashed at the ebony knot. My blade met resistance and then the darkness swallowed me. Blind and immobile, dread filled me as I struggled in vain against the inevitable. I knew all too well what would find me here; the force that dealt in the lightless depths was all too familiar to me.

The icy malice of its presence crept into being, filling the space around me. This time there was no hope. Shotensho wouldn’t be able to save me again and last time I had only survived with the sword’s aid. Doomed though I may be, I refused to let despair overtake me. It may not accomplish anything in the end, but I would defy the darkness as best I could.

While it wouldn’t do anything to save my life, perhaps my resistance would prevent it turning me into a puppet for its dark designs. The first tendrils of a foreign intellect intruded upon my mind and I angrily cast them out. I’d been used long enough; I refused to let the subterranean horror take me without a fight.

Despite my success, I could already feel them probing at my mind once more. The same clash ensued and I defeated it, but I was already tiring while the dark will only grew stronger. After merely a handful of attempts my mental defences were already crumbling before the onslaught.

Hazy and dejected, strange thoughts rose unbidden within my beleaguered psyche. A void grew within me, threatening to consume what remained of my mind and leave me as little but a husk. I held onto myself as best I could under the assault, while disconnected images and concepts flashed on the edge of consciousness.

Though I had little attention to spare these figments, I was able to discern something of a coherent message. Among the myriad, they focused primarily on a single scene. The dark suns overhead beheld a maelstrom in the heavens, as the sky split open in a flurry of interwoven lights and shadows. Figures clashed below while the world around them was torn asunder and they seemed not to notice.

The grand spectacle was accompanied by a recollection of agony that only grew more intense as reality crumbled. Everything went black and in that instant the pain was so intense that I lost all sense of what I’d been doing. By the time I realized, it was already too late; my mind was no longer my own.