The afternoon went-by quickly after that. Students were told to study the fifteen spirits and memorize them, which was a task that everyone took very seriously. Some students left to go to the library, the cafeteria, or back to their rooms to study, but Alex and their group did not.

Since Alex would not be joining them after classes, they had decided to setup their rune communication system during class, or at the very least, receive his assistance during class. .

“So lightbringers, horned-ones and the fifteenth spirit are the only ones that choose sides, right?” Serah muttered from where she was copying Alaya’s notes, though the look that she threw Alex said that her comment was more because she had gained a little better an understanding of lightbringers than because she was trying to understand the notes. There was a slight smile on her lips.

Alex returned the smile. “Yes. Generally, even if lightbringers have a shady partner, they can be trusted.”

Her smile widened mischievously, though she still seemed a little cautious. “I still think it would be better if such a shady person stopped being so shady, though.”

“Sometimes a person needs to be shady, when up-against shady people.” He countered, lightly.

Serah pointed the back of the thin metal tool that they used for writing at him. “Well, that’s fine, as long as they remember to stop being so shady when they’re with their friends. It’s very important, you know?”

Alex noted that Scarlet was grinning but pretending not to notice them. He sighed. “That’s a fair point. It’s just that you never know when those other shady people are watching.”

Serah tapped her chin thoughtfully with the stylus. “Then it would be best to find a place where those shady people aren’t welcome.”

“Not welcome?”

She nodded. “It’s just a thought.” She said, but the look on her face said that she was still following that train of thought somewhere.

From Alex’s left he then heard Jamie mutter, “there aren’t many notes on the fifteenth spirit, though I suppose I shouldn’t be complaining.” He was looking at his two pages full of spirit descriptions and the blank space next to the number fifteen.”

Alex enlightened him: “It’s the enemy of all spirits. Kind-of like the worst and most evil spirit. Supposedly, it was once an entire species, just like the others.”

Jamie frowned at him. “Yeah, but it doesn’t exist right?”

“Huh? What do you mean it doesn’t exist?”

“The professor said that there is no fifteenth spirit.”

Alex turned and looked at Scarlet and Alaya with a questioning expression, and they nodded, then Scarlet spoke: “The teacher said that the spirits believe in the fifteenth but that there isn’t any evidence that it exists, so it probably doesn’t.”

“Ah, I see.” Alex frowned. “I was taught by a spirit, so that explains it.”

Everyone looked at him in astonishment for a moment, except Serah who asked simply, “Did Star teach you?”

He nodded. “We didn’t learn lessons like this though; rather than thinking of them as commands and sigils, it was more like learning how to speak and write, as well as all about spirits and their way of living. I’ve probably spent more of my life using the spirit language than the human language actually. Aside from the couple who took me-in, I didn’t talk to other people much.”

She continued to smile at him silently.

Feeling a little awkward, he turned away, only to come face-to-face with Jamie.

The young-man with girly features was watching Alex like he was some kind of exotic animal. “That’s really weird” he muttered, frowning.

Alex nodded to him, “I guess.” Then he turned back to the paper that he had been writing-on, and finished the last few strokes before showing the symbols to the group. They were a list of twenty commonly-used runes. “Pick one each.”

Each of the group then picked a rune.

“Excellent. Now copy down the runes that everyone picked into your books and write the person’s name next to it. Later this afternoon, you will need to go into Zephyr and buy these runes from a shop that stocks items for magisters. Everyone needs to buy one stone with each of these runes on them, excluding the rune that they chose for themselves, stain them with blood, have their spirit allocate a marker to them, then give them out so that everyone gets one.”

Alex went on: “Also, remember, your blood is a beacon for spirits. They can usually only remember one person’s blood at a time, but once they’ve focused on a target, they can hunt that person forever. Just as your spirit can find your blood runes wherever they go because your spirit has become focused on you, an Ashai can lick your blood off those runes and use that taste to track you wherever you go.”

Their faces suddenly grew serious and they nodded again. As per usual, Jamie looked bothered by the information on the Ashai, but he was now used-to it.

“You aren’t picking a rune?” Scarlet asked

Alex shook his head. “No. It would be best if I didn’t.”

She thought about it for a second and didn’t question him further, but she did look at Serah once before returning to her work.

Serah only kept smiling.

Alex couldn’t tell at all what Serah was thinking. He had thought back on the conversation between her and Star, and concluded that Serah had developed some suspicions, at-least, about him and the deaths at the Dilstardt manor because there would be no other reason for Star to feel the need to vouch for him. While this worried him, Serah had accepted Star at her word, so he decided that it would be best to simply put the issue aside for now. Most people would have taken suspicions of mass murder to a higher authority immediately, so Alex counted himself lucky, and was extremely grateful, that Serah had gone far above and beyond what he thought was the normal response, to give him the benefit of the doubt.

*****

A chill autumn wind blew across the city of Zephyr as the sun set, carrying with it the smell of pine and cold stone, but those within the matte-black carriage that rolled slowly through the streets towards the ruin of the Dilstardt manor paid no heed to such things.

Count Art Dilstardt sat calmly observing the empty seat opposite him within the carriage, his bodyguard at his side. He was an elderly man, with grey hair that fell in a single long curtain down his back and a beard that hung straight and neat, both oiled and cropped to grant him the appearance of sophistication. His half-moon glasses and the ornately decorated steel walking stick that he carried with him both added to this impression.

Art was no magister. Originally, he was a simple merchant by trade, dealing in anything that he could get his hands-on to make enough money to start his own trading company. With most of his younger life spent learning, saving and investing, he eventually fulfilled his dream and began his own business, and the empire that became the Dilstardt Trading Company was born. Primarily handling tea, coffee, and spices, it spread quickly and became a household name not only in the three northern kingdoms, but also on the continent of Glass. Naturally, in the country that profited the most from this trade; where his centre of operations was based; and where he offered many generous donations to the crown, he gained the title of Count. Art was not a magister, but he was an intelligent man, and by the time he had begun smuggling Ashai into the country he had already read more books on spirits and Ashai than most qualified magisters.

“Do we have any idea who is responsible yet?” He asked the empty seat in-front of him.

He’d asked the question several times that day and received no response, but the replying voice showed no hint of irritation. It was only the same dead tone that the creature always used. This time however, the reaper in the seat before him finally had some new information. “The spirits that returned have informed us that the manor was attacked by a boy of around seventeen, with brown hair and green eyes. They have also told us that he was accompanied by an elder lightbringer.”

The count sighed and closed his eyes before speaking. “If an elder is involved we could be looking at an all-out-war breaking-out before we can even deal with the other great houses.” Then he looked back at the seat. “Wouldn’t it be better to abandon the plan at this point?”

A hiss of metal on metal sounded from the seat.

Beside Art, his personal guard put one hand to the pommel of his dagger. Art quickly struck that hand with his cane. “Don’t be stupid. You might be some hot-shot here in Windria, but you’ve got no chance. This isn’t like the baby reapers your magister friends have, this one’s a well-fed adult, and it’s never been given a name.”

A soft chuckle came from the empty seat, with no emotion in it. “You should train your dog’s better.”

Art nodded. “My apologies. No matter what I say they won’t understand what one of the greater Ashai is capable of.”

“Then perhaps I should show him.”

A strangely coloured liquid suddenly sprayed across the guard’s face, and Art winced as his eyes widened in terror. Art had seen that look before, and automatically assumed that the guard would not survive: it was the look of a man about to die.

The reapers voice came from it’s seat again, slow and emotionless. “To experience death, unable to move or scream; I’m curious to know what this particular drug feels like. I am immune to the substances that I produce from this body, you see, but I’ve always wondered about this one. Tell me, how does it feel?”

The guard didn’t reply. His face was expressionless; his pupils enlarged; his breathing fast and shallow; and sweat was on his brow.

“So, what are the plans to deal with this elder?” Art asked, making a point of averting his eyes from the guard’s face and turning back to the empty seat.

“The master has instructed that you continue with the plan. He has said that the boy will come whether you seek him out or not.”

“I see. So, I’m going to be the bait. That isn’t a great position that you’ve put me in. You wouldn’t have a problem if I search for the boy and kill him before he attacks, would you?”

“Of-course not,” the dead voice replied, “but the master has left one important message concerning that.”

Art nodded seriously, showing that he was listening closely.

“You are not to talk to the boy. The master was very clear about this.”

Frowning, Art couldn’t stop himself before the question had left his lips. “Why?”

Again, the hiss of metal on metal filled the carriage, and Art quickly raised a hand in surrender. “I was not questioning the command, I was simply asking you because I’m curious. Do you know why your master would instruct this?”

The hissing slowly stopped, but the voice that followed was much deeper than usual. “I do not question, and neither should you.”

Art only nodded. “Then I will finish him without investigating further. Was there any new information gathered on the girl before the manor was destroyed and the operation ruined?”

The reaper was silent for a moment, before releasing the best news that Art had heard all day. “One of the men who was watching her reported seeing her together with a boy with brown hair and green eyes the afternoon before the manor was destroyed. Apparently that boy hunted down those watchers and killed one of them.”

Art looked out of the carriage window, a half-sided smile growing on his face as the ruin came into view. “I see. That makes things much easier.”

*****

The university was accessible to students every day of the week outside of holidays, with the library and facilities remaining open constantly, so that information and resources were always on-hand. While clubs often functioned during these days too, keeping students busy, there were no lessons.

As the fifthday began, in the classroom the talk on everyone’s lips was of how they were going to spend the weekend. Depending on whether students were involved in extracurricular activities or not, the weekend could be either two busy days filled with a variety of activities, or two days of boredom.

“I don’t mind just training, relaxing, and hanging-out.” Scarlet shrugged, but the noise coming from Jamie, and his sour face showed that he found the idea unappealing.

“It’s not as though I don’t exercise, but I’m not really into it the same way you girls are, and spending the days watching other people swinging weapons around would be kind-of boring.”

Serah nodded along with him. “Didn’t we have an idea for what we wanted to do on the weekend anyway?”

“The trip to collect spirits, right?” Scarlet asked with a smile, then sent a look between Alexander and Serah. “Of-course that’s also a good idea because it means that Alex will be coming with us.”

Serah’s face darkened a little when she heard Scarlet use Alexanders shortened name, and Alex immediately responded to that look, misinterpreting. “It’s not like I have to go with you. If you four would prefer to go alone that’s…”

“No, I’d like it if you went.” Serah interrupted him. “I’d prefer for us all to go together, Alexander.” The last word hung on her lips.

“Okay. That sounds good to me then.” He replied quickly with a smile.

“Me too.” Alaya chimed in with a small voice and a shy, but excited, smile.

“I’m in.” Jamie added.

“We’re all good to go then,” finished Scarlet. “So, where’s the best place to go?”

Alex didn’t even need to consider it. “The red-zone near the Lammria border just South-East of here would be our best bet; it’s the only place within a day’s travel where greater spirits have freedom to live unbound and to hunt animals.”

“But isn’t it illegal to go there?” Scarlet shot back.

“It’s fine. They’re areas where regular civilians aren’t permitted, but for magisters and students it’s a different matter.” He pursed his lips. “Whether or-not we’ll be able to contract four spirits over the weekend however, is a completely different matter. Once you tell them you plan on fighting in the South, there probably won’t be many who would be willing to join you. It might be a good idea to pick up some materials in-case we need to call some from the spirit world.”

“Maybe, but I get the feeling that we’ll find them.” Serah said confidently with a smile. “Leave that part to us.”

Alex nodded, but wasn’t too hopeful.

The professor made her way to the front of the class and began their lesson. The day was a continuation of the basic commands lesson from a couple of days ago, this time incorporating a few commands that were relevant to specific greater spirits. While the class had learned to whisper more quietly, the full day of noise soon had Alex touching his temples and earning sympathetic gazes from Serah. He wasn’t completely unhappy with the lessons however, because for the first time since coming to Etheret, he learned something new in a class: no matter how well he spoke the spirit language in regular conversation, he hadn’t learned the words for things like a hiveminds calming gaze, or an underworlds illusion of concealment. He even happily took a few notes.

When classes ended he made his way back to his bed and lay there waiting for the headaches to subside and thinking about the next day. They had decided to go early in the morning, picking up supplies from Zephyr as they went.

Alex smiled at the ceiling thinking about it and wondering how it would go. At the same time that part of himself that always worried was telling him that he shouldn’t get used to it, and that he shouldn’t let his guard down, because this too could become a dangerous situation that might easily sweep up his friends and get them killed. It told him that he shouldn’t be doing this, but he pushed that part of himself to the back of his mind as much as he could. ‘It’s only for a little while longer.’ He said to himself, and he slowly drifted-off to sleep.

Two children stood side-by-side. A curtain of white had consumed the distant mountains and a thick, crystalline carpet had crushed the world around them. The breaths that they exhaled emerged in tiny puffs of vapour that lingered fleetingly before they too faded into nothing, and all sound, all life, all heat, and all movement had died. It was winter, and the end was coming. Like it always did, it would descend and choke the screaming life from his world, and like he always did, he would lose to that darkness.

“Alexxander and Lilly. You bothh have shuch beautiful namess.” The raspy voice spoke the words in the human tongue through a smiling, lipless mouth that was clearly not made for such an expression. Rows of pointed, needle-like teeth emerged from the twisted roof and floor of that mouth at irregular angles, and long after the words had finished, that creatures lower jaw moved up and down, as though chewing on the feel of them. The creature spoke with emotion, but it’s eyes were dead and they looked at the children with complete disinterest.

It had appeared after they’d sent-out their carrion to search for a greater spirit, and promptly declared itself to be such a thing.

“I am a horned-one” it had said simply, and the children had immediately believed it, because on its head, nine small horns protruded like the prongs on a crown, black as pitch. The children knew nothing of horned ones, but they knew that they were indeed one of the fifteen species, and both children were immediately in-awe, and fear, of the thing before them.

He (for this creature most resembled a human male) stood at eight feet tall, with the emaciated body of someone who had starved for months. His skin was dark grey, he had holes instead of a nose, and his eyes were large and slit vertically like a snake’s, but what stood out most for the two children were not these traits, but the elongated four-fingered hands that hung down to his knees, ending in sharp talons. With a glance the children understood that those deadly appendages could bring death with a stroke.

“How do you look like that?” Lilly asked, carefully inspecting his features as though a flaw might appear that would give away a mask, “I thought that the only spirits that could look like humans were doppelgangers.”

While the creature certainly didn’t look like a regular human, he could be said to resemble one in many ways. Despite the strange differences, he gave off the same aura as a human: whether it be the wisps of black hair on his head or the way his skin stretched across his cheekbones and ribs, for both children there was the distinct impression that the creature that they were talking to was somehow a person just like them.

The spirit chewed on nothing, and watched her, considering the question for quite a while before replying. “A thousand yearss ago every sspirit looked different to now. We spiritss are forever changing our form in thiss world to ssuit our needsh. If I look like a human, perhapss itsh because of thish.”

Alex tilted his head questioningly “So, over the last thousand years your species changed and became like this so that you can talk with humans better, is that what you mean?”

A glint appeared in the creature’s eyes, as though it found something in Alex’s question to be amusing. “...Changess in birth, and changess in life. Even now, I shlowly change. We take from the blood.”

Interpreting that as a yes, Alex turned to Lilly, “There’s nothing to be afraid-of. He just looks like that because he was born that way Lil, so don’t worry too much, okay. All the soldier’s spirits are really scary too, you know?”

“Y-yeah, I know. I’m not scared.” She declared loudly, but her hands were shaking enough that he could see it through her gloves.

The spirit tilted its head. “Sso which one of you iss my mashter.”

“Master?” Alex asked, frowning “don’t you mean partner?”

“Shame thing.” The spirit said, before his lower jaw moved up and down as though he were laughing, but only short, rasping breaths came out. It gave up on the action after a few short moments.

Alex looked at Lilly before asking, “why don’t I take this one, and you take the next one?” He could tell she was terrified of the thing.

She shot him an angry look, her competitive nature emerging. “I’m not scared, okay, I can do it!” and smiling at her forced bravery, Alex nodded.

“Okay.”

The spirit looked Lilly up and down. “That ish fine, but I will need shome of both of your blood. One ish not enough. You’d die.”

Alex nodded immediately, and held out his arm, rolling up the long sleeves that protected him from the winter chill. It wasn’t even something that an older brother would need to think about.

The spirit moved to him and immediately sunk its teeth into his upper arm, and at the sudden shock he almost screamed. Having only given a little blood to carrion by cutting his skin, he had never even had a lesser spirit bite him before. It was so painful that his mind went blank and his knees gave-out. The sound of rushing water rung in his ears, but still the blood was being sucked and slurped from his body. It was only as his vision flickered and began to fade that the horned-one stopped.

“Alex?” Lilly squealed with a note of hysteria in her voice, but she didn’t move. There was no way that she could move, because the creature before her was the scariest thing that she had ever seen, but she put on a brave face when she heard him groan, realising that he was still alive.

Turning slowly, it walked towards her, then without asking or waiting for permission, it took her arm and bit into it.

Watching his sister fall to the creature, a part of Alex suddenly realised how crazy what they were doing actually was, and seeing it sucking his sisters blood from her body, it sunk-in just how nightmarish the thing before him was, because whether it obeyed spirit laws or not, it was in-truth the kind of creature that could only be found in nightmares or horror stories. It was a monster; a real monster; he had seen things clearly for the first time, but this clarity would come far too late.

“Ah, I’m nice an full now. That feelss good.”

Alex fought back his dizziness and asked, “So you’re my sisters partner now, right?”

The creature grinned widely, its mouth splitting much further than it should have been able. “No. Now I have weakened you, and tassted her blood, sso I can follow her wherever she goes.”

“What do you mean?” Alex asked confused.

The horned-one laughed its silent laugh and leaned back against a tree in the snow. “Your sisster is food now, I will drink from her when I have taken my new body. Do you understand?”

“…but you can’t hurt us. You can’t take blood unless we let you. That’s against the spirit law!”

“I follow no law!” it hissed, and then it moved suddenly, in less than a second, from the tree to right before Alex, it’s movements so fast that they left the children confused as to what had happened, but smooth, its long limbs shifting its bodyweight gracefully. Raising one of its taloned hands, it lay its fingers across his face, two of the deadly weapons touching the tender skin just below Alex’s eyes and one sealing his lips. “Shall I tell you why horned-ones look like humans, Alexx. It is because we wear human sskin. We like to climb inside you and make your bodiess our home. Then we bend you, we shape you, and we make you strong.”

Alex stared up into those demonic eyes, and his body started shaking in fear. What scared him was not the creature itself, but rather the emptiness in its eyes. It was playing with them. It would kill them on a whim, or torture them, or turn them into its toys. The creature before him saw humans like this. It didn’t care about contracts. It didn’t care about spirit or human laws. It didn’t care about life or love or right or wrong, or anything. It was just toying with living things because to this monster, that was fun.

The creatures voice dropped into a whisper, “Thiss body iss all worn-out, Alexx, I’ve pushed it sso hard and made it sso good that it hass started falling apart… so I will be taking yourss.”

One of its deadly talons slid up the side of his head while he tried to gather enough strength to run, or even walk. It hissed near his face, “I find your ability to hear whisperss interesting, you ssee. I wonder if I will be able to hear them better with your earss.” It leaned closer, and on its breath was the scent of decay. “But don’t be sscared Alexx, you won’t die for many years yet. You’ll sstill be here, watching. Your poor sisster however... You’re going to drink her dry.”

“Lilly.” He whispered, pouring as much of his fading spirit into the words as he could, though his breath barely emerged from his throat, “run!”

And then the shell of a human closed its mouth around Alex’s head, its teeth holding him while the monster within poured out from it and into his mouth and nose, invading him, but he couldn’t scream.

Behind him he could hear Lilly forcing all her lifeforce into her whispers as she ran, calling to their parents; calling to anyone to help; screaming to the forests and the mountains beyond.

Then the memories came, and they wouldn’t stop, flooding him; Then the horrors came, and they wouldn’t stop; he wanted the nightmare to end; he wanted to shut it all out; but he watched it all, because he couldn’t even close his eyes.

“Alex. Wake up.” Star whispered to him and his eyes snapped open.

The night was silent all around him. He was back at Etheret.

Breathing slowly and forcing himself to calm down, he reached up his hands tentatively, shaking, and slid them through his hair before rubbing the ends of his fingers together. He let out the breath and his fear all-at-once, relaxing as he completely returned to the present. There was no blood there anymore; there were no horns.