I awoke with a start. It was dark. I thunked my head against a porous gray stone and recited almost every swear word I knew. Only halfway through did I recognize the danger of making so much noise, being the hunted party in a high stakes game of hide-and-seek. Hissing out the last of my breath, I expelled the pain and pushed away my rising paranoia. I ran a hand through my matted hair. It came away sticky and red with my own blood.

“That really hurt,” I said, winced, and looked every-which-way in case my outburst had given away my position.

I climbed to all fours at first, then slowly rose. Stooped but standing on my own two feet, he dug through my mottled cloak and produced the compass. With my vision as it was, it took longer than it should have to get my bearings— from what I’d overheard in the past, Manzant was Northeast of Altressor.

It was also rumored to be populated by Remnants. If the rumors had any truth to them, the Nuclear Winter had mutated man and beast into horrible monsters. I had once read a study that asserted all Remnants were savages with only the most basic of instincts. In my condition, running into one of them would be suicide. Deliberately running into a pack of the monsters was insanity.

“Is the chase scene not over yet? How much time have you wasted twiddling your thumbs like an imbecile? Put that damn compass away and put your puny brain to use for once. Brave the harsh road ahead and maybe die, or stay behind and die,” Nyx said.

“Great. I’ve fallen so low that even my shadow is patronizing me,” I said, secretly happy that Shadow had freed me from my indecisive standstill.

I grinned. My too-white teeth shone and my vision went from hazy to clear in an instant. I stashed away my compass and pulled my stolen cloak tight around him. The stolen pants were still loose on my lean frame, so I cinched the belt tighter by a few notches. Turning around made that first step require all the more determination, but I refused to look back after that one time.

“But seriously, is the chase scene over yet?” Nyx said. Shadow yawned contemptuously.

I didn’t have the slightest clue whether I’d evaded pursuit or not. I did, however, have some insider information. There was no way the Matriarch would let Altressor’s deity waltz off, leaving the village to fall to pieces from its absence. It didn’t matter if the hunters had lost my trail or not. They’d be coming after me with everything they had. Time was a-wasting.

I smiled. “Since you were napping the day away, I think it’s only fair to leave you in the dark.”

A mere quarter-mile beyond the forest the land was dry and cracked like a parched man denied the slightest respite from unbearable thirst. After a burst of hot steam scalded me through my pants-leg, I was careful to avoid the cracks as much as possible. Soon I’d forgotten all about pursuers and lost myself to a game of my own making. I avoided the cracks by any means necessary, hopping side to side and sometimes even going out of my way to avoid a particularly unpromising area.

“Gods, what happened… did… did I have a hand in this?”

Lost in the children’s game or not, eventually the stark distinction between the lush landscape he’d grown up in and the broken world that stretched beyond me was impossible to ignore. That night, Pleiades seemed to cast more than cast more than enough light to see more of the same devastation in the far-off distance. No amount of begging or screaming would be enough to convince him Altressor was the place I was meant to be.

My life-force pulsed in time with my heartbeat. An unnatural artifice within him— I recalled a passage about man-made dams— shattered. I broke out in goosebumps and felt pins and needles stabbing all over my body. Steamy vapor exploded out of the forcibly opened aural nodes and soon encapsulated me in a thick cloud of the stuff. If my nerves hadn’t been fried already, I might’ve sprinted to safety like a spooked hare and hid like one in hopes that this would all blow over like a passing storm.

Shadow wriggled. It had become more tangible than any shadow had a right to be.

“Having second thoughts? There’s a whole lot of nothing to get lost in out there… a quick death for you and another sealing— may save the both of us the trouble of hoping there’s anything left in this world that’s worth a damn.”

I ground my teeth and clenched my fists so tightly that my wrists cracked and forearms spasmed. “Shut. Up. I’m warning you.”

“Woah there, take it easy. Whatever you say goes, kiddo. Go right on ahead, be my guest— no really, I insist!” Nyx said placatingly, then whispered snidely, “Not like I’m against you endangering your life… quite the opposite in fact.”

My face drew into grim lines. “That Outsider… he was…” I choked, the words just wouldn’t come for awhile, “He died to give me a chance to escape. I’m not about to throw it away.”

There would be no returning. No matter how far or for how long I had to travel, no matter how dangerous the road ahead became, the vast unknown beckoned to him. As if I’d been pricked by countless needles that penetrated my every pore, I watered the parched earth with blood and pain as my booted feet fell into a thoughtless rhythm. I didn’t bother looking over my shoulder: freedom beckoned, and I was all too happy to bury my past for a chance to make my own future.

Why bother worrying about what was out of my control? After all, my path lay ahead… and it beckoned me towards the dawn. Soon the lightening sky would be accompanied by the rising sun, Sowillo. I knew I would have to make a choice soon, because as sure as I was that I’d be followed by every able-bodied man and woman from Altressor, my gut told him it wouldn’t be long before Manzant came into view.

Sure enough, when I crested the next rise, I stopped to gape while he sucked in great lungfuls of air and threaded my fingers together behind my sweaty neck. The dilapidated ruins of Manzant bore a close resemblance to the rendering of an animal carcass I’d seen in an ancient artist’s compilation of flora and fauna from across the known world. Unlike the book, the half-buried ruins seemed to breathe with unnatural life.

“Extended periods of forced confinement can do a number on the human body. Better get strong fast, or else your weakness will be the death of you,” Nyx said matter-of-factly.

I forced myself to breathe evenly and tensed all my muscles to still my trembling body. “I trained for this. Just needed to catch my breath is all, I’m good. I am, really,” I said.

“Those cute little workout routines of yours were tolerated because they’d never be enough for you to evade their Hunters. Bet they were happy to keep you nice and occupied while they prepared to sever my seal and pour me into a new soul container.”

I stomped on my shadow, or, at least, tried to. It twisted and bent like nothing I’d ever seen. Nyx moved mesmerizingly, all liquid grace and amusement. I stuffed my hands into the outside pockets of my mottled cloak and pretended like I wasn’t hiding clenched fists there. After double-checking my inherited compass and verifying my location, I tucked it away along with all my foreboding thoughts.

“Well then. Ready or not, here I come!” I said, careening down the treacherous terrain like an avalanche.

I made doubly sure my hood was drawn tight and angled low over my face. Surely my best bet was not to make a spectacle of myself. From the stories he knew, simply going unnoticed would be cause for celebration. That was a rather unlikely possibility, especially with the commotion that was sure to follow right on my heels.

Nyx coughed delicately. “Don’t forget you have me.”

I snorted and slapped a hand to my face until I was able to choke down my rising laughter. Wiping away tears of amusement, I almost didn’t notice dawn’s arrival. Nyx shriveled like a dried fruit and jumped into me before he burnt to a crisp.

I chuckled and scratched irritably at a sudden itch beneath my breastbone. “Yeah, some help you are. Are all gods as talented as you at running and hiding at the first sight of trouble?”

Manzant hadn’t looked like more than a pile of haphazardly stacked rocks and strewn rubble from afar, but it was— or had been at least— so much more. Around two-thirds of the stone construction remained aboveground, Everywhere I looked was stone, and a portion in the distance exhibited a marked increase in stone quality. As they neared the wealthy quarter, I hazarded a guess: granite? Many such qualified as manses, while one more opulently designed castle likely had belonged to the big guy, or whoever ran these parts— when there’d been parts to move at all.

“These must have taken forever to move into position… let alone the shaping and joining the pieces. This workmanship is incredible,” I said, a note of awe creeping into my voice.

“So you know a few things about before the collapse of modern civilization, but what good does that do?” Nyx spoke bitingly and with little pause, said, “Hmmm, none? All that time spent cooped up inside reading must have scrambled your brain. This place is history and so are the people who lived here— dead and gone, the lot of them. All that’s left are broken remains.” He waved expansively and seemed to cast a disgusted look up at the heavens.

I beamed. My shadow had slipped up. If that had been a genuine emotional response and not an act put on for my behalf, our pairing may bear unexpected fruit… assuming the strain of sustaining the seal and providing the metaphysical being inside me with power didn’t kill me first. I felt like a battery being slowly but surely drained of every ounce of energy sustaining my life force.

How long did I have? How much time? There was so much more I wanted to see still. A blast of arctic cold radiated through my body, and I shivered uncontrollably for a moment before the feeling passed. Something skittered in my peripheral vision— a rock— I scanned the surrounding rubble nonchalantly between hot and cold flashes that set my teeth on edge.

Nyx’s voice reverberated inside my skull; it was an odd feeling to say the least. “How could I have missed it— it must have been him… Shokuf is a barbaric technique— forcing The Sight— Áse — upon an gifted soul might spell death, even for one possessed of ancestral Othala and the overflowing energy, Anima, that flows forth from your own vitality… Must tread carefully, or else bound as we are, the strain will kill the both of us. Stupid stupid stupid! An like me Álfar undergoing centuries of humiliation and that’s now expected to intermingle with a lesser being like some Fetch? Watch what you have wrought today and weep my mortal enemy, for only bloody vengeance will come of this,” Nyx said.

I shushed my shadow with an urgent hiss, one finger held up to my lips. “Quiet. Enough ranting already. We’re not alone. Not sure how many or who they are, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” My eyes dilated and I struggled to keep my neck still as I surveyed area.

“Pardon me, I forgot I’d been saddled with a string of incompetents— I’ve been sealed time and time again into untrained imbeciles that— get this— lack sufficient anima to even attain Áse. Pitiful, unseeing wretches, the lot of you! Absolutely pitiful! And from that imbecilic look and dopey stare, I might as well have been talking to a wall, or, better yet… these Remnants may have a compatriot with rudimentary skill in the Aural Arts,” Nyx muttered darkly.

I shut out Shadow’s spiel and rolled to a nearby block of stone. It wasn’t quite large enough to hide my entire body from view, but then that wouldn’t matter if they were surrounded. I slowed my breathing and stilled my body to disguise my presence, then squinted and surveyed the area for life.

This time I saw two cities, two worlds, one overload on top of the other. Manzant was a crumbling necropolis in the present, but that hadn’t always been true. I saw how the shattered city might’ve gleamed with reflected light; instead it sparkled glumly where Sowillo’s rays revealed shattered glass that was crusty with dirt and dust. Yes, a corner store might’ve been a purveyor of fanciful goods and a rundown shopfront might’ve housed a confectionary, but the ceiling had long since fallen in on itself. Lush vegetation grew out of every crack and crevice; nature wasted no time in reclaiming what it had lost to civilization, and it had no reservations about using what remained to support its growth.

A disembodied voice called out to them; it sounded like it was pitched to sound like it was behind and to my right. “Come out with your hands up— way up and away from your body, nice and slow-like.”

My stomach churned, but my gut told me the Remnants weren’t as strong in number as they’d have their prey believe. I swallowed dryly and licked my split lips. Did I play along and let my enemy think I’d been fooled, or should I make a break for it before they closed in on my position? More than likely there’d be no one in the vicinity and I’d have fair odds at making good on my escape.

This time the voice came from behind and to my left; something metallic caught the light and reflected it back at my strained eyes. “I didn’t say snail-like. Do what I say, you hear? Else it’s your own damned fault when things get all hostile-like. You see, we Remnants are tired of digging through this old scrapheap, and if we have to drag you out by force…”

My suspicions grew, but I stood up straight all the same. “Whatever you’re looking for, I don’t have it.”

A patchy green cloak fluttered in the breeze in the top right corner of my vision. I marked the spot while trying to appear nonthreatening. The almost perfect blind hid the Remnant from view again, but it had already been robbed of its strategic value. A short sprint and a frantic climb up crumbling stone and thick rope-vines, that’s all it would take to reveal my hidden adversary. It wouldn’t solve being unarmed against one or more opponents, but it was a whole lot more appealing than ceding control of the situation to a band with a reputation for wasting nothing they scavenged: that’d be true for the clothes off my back and the meat on my bones.

“You’re a sickly little bugger, aren’t ya? Hardly worth the effort hauling you back dead. What’dya say we make a deal: strip down real docile-like and my trigger-happy friend won’t fire a hole straight between your eyes.”

I had started moving before the Remnant spoke a word. I moved with a measured, incremental slowness that wouldn’t rouse the shooter into thinking I planned to resist. Luck was on my side, because I’d crossed half the intervening distance. To mollify the bandits, I stripped off my cloak and let it fall to the ground. My luck ran out when I fumbled the compass and almost dropped it in my failed attempt to palm it discreetly.

“Lookie there, he’s got a shiny! Oh-ho! You been holding out on us, boy-o?” the Remnant said.

I had to climb an unstable amalgamation of crumbling stone and thick vines before I came face-to-face with my enemy. That said nothing for the silent sharpshooter who remained unaccounted for.

“Take another step and you’re dead, ya hear? No funny business.”

What choice did he have?

I spat. “I don’t know my fate and I don’t know how I’ll die, but I don know I won’t die naked and humiliated,” I said with feeling.

I latched onto the sturdiest-looking vine I could pick out at a glance and climbed like a madman. I jumped sideways midair and caught the edge of a humongous boulder with the tips of my fingers. While I scrambled for purchase and swung there like a helpless babe, the sniper took their shot. I hadn’t wholly believed what I’d read in my books until he experienced the power of human ingenuity firsthand. I was shocked speechless by a combination of helplessness and breathless disbelief.

Something that felt like getting a slap on the back by the giant Warden, Helga, pushed me up and over the crest of the boulder. I rolled limply onto my back and stared at the sea of clouds overhead awash with color from the setting sun. Only a maniac would’ve smiled so serenely as my heart went into palpitations and my life-blood pooled around me; it was sticky and warm like recently washed blanket that hadn’t been left out in the sun long enough.

“Suppose it’s about time I get out of here. These guys don’t look like the type to settle things peacefully. Plus, someone should pay for ruining the only normal set of clothes I’ve ever worn,” I slurred as blood trickled out of my eyes, nose, and mouth.

“Ain’t that a trick! You sure are one tough sonuvabitch. Normally I wouldn’t bother, but it ain’t like we got anything better to do while we wait for you to bleed out. Tell me, what are you seeing right now? How does it feel to be knocking on death’s door?” the Remnant said, a liver-spotted hand waved almost cordially from no further than a dozen paces.

Limbs trembling, I made use of the slim chance I’d been given. So the Remnant was toying with him. Plus, I figured just about anyone would be hard-pressed to feel threatened by a pitiful-looking youth bleeding out on hands and knees. Thorns had made a mess of my hands by the end of the climb, which made my approach all the more comical.

“Looks like some kind of half-breed to me, what with the long white hair and skin as pale as can be… and look at those red eyes!” the Remnant said.

I wondered whether the man was talking to himself or to the ace up his sleeve, the sniper that could strike from anywhere, anytime.

“Not a very talkative fellow, are you?” the Remnant said with an audible sigh. He was growing bored.

So what if my lungs were alight with pain? I cradled the pain like a babe to my chest. I wouldn’t allow myself to give up and die at the start of my search for my own truths and my place in the world. Digging deep, I was surprised to find there was strength left in him to stand up straight, even if I wobbled back and forth like a drunken fool.

“Well, I ain’t so dishonorable like most of the bottom feeders that’ve joined our ranks. I’ll not allow those I kill to leave this plane without knowing who it was that done them: Hinge be my name. And I’ll not be called a coward for shooting an unarmed pup like you,” Hinge said.

Half-blind from chunks of stone and shrapnel, My eyes were like waterworks. Unable to see much through the haze, the clatter of steel falling to the ground made it seem like the man had actually disarmed himself. Perhaps the stories I'd read about thieves and bandits had a grain of truth in them after all. There was honor among thieves.

A blurry, scarred hand reached out from a hidden crevice where the blind had been setup and caressed My face like a mother would a babe. “Shhhhhhh. Don’t cry. This’ll be over before you know it—quick and painless, promise,” Hinge said, kissing his thumb and forefinger reverently and raising it to the sky, as if in benediction.

I wondered briefly about the sort of deity that’d be pleased by human sacrifice. I instantly regretted the thought when a mental pressure batted him around like a child’s plaything. To be so helpless in the face of immeasurable power had the opposite effect he’d expected. Rather than be terror-struck by the seemingly-omnipotent force, a dark fury rose within me and I expelled an unfocused blast of anima in every direction.

Hinge didn’t fail to notice the release of aural energy, and the grimace he wore bespoke of the consequences he was likely to face for failing his inhuman master. “You’re one of the Chosen Ones— a revenant? Why didn’t you say so sooner… sir! If we’d have known… I swear I meant you no harm! Please, you have to believe me!”

He knew he wouldn’t have been able to drive the creature away in a test of strength, but the wry amusement that tickled my ear before the presence vanished rubbed him the wrong way. Happy to have an outlet for my burning rage, he hop-step-hobbled to the blind and its cowering occupant. As he pulled the man from my hiding place and tossed him in a pile of debris, I took refuge in the small shack that served as Hinge’s residence.

Moments later, several well-aimed bullets struck the blind’s weak spots, then I made my move: there he was! The sniper was three floors above and far removed from their position, and although I’d already assumed it a likely sniper’s nest, getting visual confirmation allowed him to expel a relieved breath. A bloody mist flowed from my mouth every time I breathed, but my frantic eyes strained to spot the missing sniper.

Not good. The longer the long-ranged attacker roamed free, the more likely I would be targeted again, and this time I’d trapped myself in an alley that was ideal for gunning down retreating foes.

“I thought I saw something in those blood-red eyes of yours. We Remnants don’t discriminate— not even against Albino monstrosities like you. All I ask is that you concede, and I shan’t never treat you as anything other than a brother,” Hinge said, and dragged crossed fingers across open eyelids in honor of the pact.

If I hadn’t been steadily losing consciousness, I would’ve cursed at the smell of filth mingling with the scent of a body gone unwashed so long that it had burned and cracked under the unrelenting sun. Yellow-green ooze coated Hinge’s visible arm from finger to elbow before the slime disappeared under two ratty cloaks piled one on top of the other.

My sensitive skin had already turned cherry-red beneath the shredded remains of my stolen clothes, but I shook my head resolutely. So as not to startle the man, I moved with delicate slowness: one step right and two forward— a flash of light illuminated the darkened eaves of the Remnant’s hideout and I dove to the ground on my belly and rolled instinctively in the direction of the wall that seemed to have avoided the hail of bullets. When I tumbled to a stop, I was miraculously unscathed.

“Still alive? Impressive. You simply must join us— but first you must die!”

I gargled vomit and spat, wiped away the excess bile. My trembling body relaxed and narrowed my eyes to slits. Luck had cast me into the hidden eaves behind which the Remnant crouched. With one arm useless, I deflected a clumsily left-handed thrust at the cheap price of a minor flesh wound. I gave the Remnant no time to recover from the blunder and closed on the man without mercy.

Grappled to the ground and missing an armful of strength, the man went limp after being subjected to a relentless stranglehold. I collapsed and pushed the dead man off of me while I shuddered in revulsion. My own weakened state left no room to dwell on dark thoughts; my vision blurred and grayed. I struggled to a knee and brushed aside the curtain of leafy vines almost carelessly, but the absent sniper remained mysteriously absent.

“Probably gone back to report to his comrades of prey worth pursuing,” Nyx said darkly. “Best be on your way before this place is overrun with Remnants and revenants alike.”

“Oh, so now you decide to speak?” I accused.

“You wouldn’t have been worth anything to me had you died there. Doubtless you have less a chance of outrunning pursuit with that wound slowing you down,” Nyx said.

I grunted. Far from fatal, the blow to my back was the result of a hail of shrapnel from near-misses. Nasty stuff, but I picked out bits of metal and stone from my skin and did my best to bind the worst injuries with strips of cloth pilfered from the Remnant hideaway.

“You may want to hold off on that if you want to remain free for much longer. Revenants are a breed apart. They possess some— but not much— anima, and use it as a blunt tool of death, pure force and bloodlust. A revenant lives a sort of half-life, and must consume vital energy to survive.”

I was already running from the only home I’d known and my pitiful excuse for a family. I would have to keep running from the Hunters until I learned how to survive and protect myself, but the Remnants were another story. I could run at every sight of trouble, but that wasn’t any way to live. That wasn’t living at all, and it wasn’t the kind of freedom I sought.

I went about the task of adorning myself with a belt and the two short swords that retained a crusty film of my blood on each edge. I cleaned both thoroughly and strapped them on.

My next prize was an empty backpack tucked away in a dark corner. Canned fruits, smoked and salted meats, and curious bits from all over the hideaway were stuffed inside haphazardly before I slung the pack over my back. Unused to carrying anything at all, the straps weighed uncomfortably on my shoulders. Wincing, I grinned and bore it. It was only reasonable to assume that a new life came with some growing pains.

“Still not listening to reason I see. Youth without a sense of urgency? Laughable that is— preposterous!” Nyx said.

“Shut up already,” I said.

I tore off chunks of dried meat and chewed mechanically as a nervous tension began to rise within me. Soon the Remnants would be scouring this hidey-hole and the surrounding countryside in search of me. I patted a lump beneath my cloak to reassure myself and unpacked my compass from the inner linings of my cloak.

“Aren’t we more trustworthy than that thing?” Nyx said disdainfully.

I stared at the device resolutely while it spun merrily. My heart was in my throat before it stopped spinning and pointed towards what I hoped would be my salvation and just not another form of enslavement. With Altressor’s Hunters on my trail and Remnants all around, I fled towards the ruins of Manzant in hopes that the treacherous place would make some of my pursuers balk.

I ran and ran and ran. My fearful feet bore me through a maze of underground corridors, each darker and more decrepit than the last. Although my lungs were burning and my flesh was covered in sweat and goosebumps, a persistent paranoia pushed me past the point of exhaustion— until my tired legs failed me and I tripped over a fallen pillar.

Weary beyond measure, I lay gasping on the stone floor. My vision mottled, went gray, then faded to black.