Yunkef spluttered, confused. Before he could say or ask anything else in protest, Anre waved him off again and stilled. Yunkef, with a sigh, turned around as well. The two were silent for a while until Yunkef spoke quietly again.

"I do like her, but not in the way you've been implying."

"Hmm?" Yunkef spoke in such a matter-of-fact way that he moved his head so he could better hear him. "What do you mean?"

"Red is headstrong, responsible. She never seems to panic. She's dependable, tough, has a good heart." Yunkef said slowly. "She reminds me of someone. An old friend."

"Yeah? Someone from your Settlement?"

Yes, her name was Nenry." Yunkef said with a sigh. "She tended to the farm and the animals. I helped her out when I wasn't learning from Grass."

"What happened to her?"

"She's still there. I left her behind to go on a hunt. I hope she's alright and didn't leave the Settlement to go after me after..." he trailed off.

"After you never made it home, huh?" Anre sighed. "It must be nice, to have someone who’s waiting for you. Anyone at all."

"I'm sorry, Anre."

"No, it's alright. Can't miss what you never had, right? And besides, maybe after all of this, things will change for me." The wild-man snickered. "Maybe when we finish this expedition, the four of us can start our own Settlement. Maybe even bring in more people that need a home like Night's always been doing for us!"

"That's a great idea! Yeah... Let's ask Night if we can do that. There's people out there just like us, in need of a home and a safe place. I'm sure of it." With a contented sigh, Yunkef shifted on his back, looking up. Then he yelled.

"What! Yunkef!" Anre yelled, startled by the volume of Yunkef's voice.

Red and Cross came running, with Cross carrying his spear at the ready. "What's happening? What's wrong?"

Yunkef was staring, wide-eyed, and pointing straight up with a shaking hand. The area he and Anre chose to sleep in did not have a rock ceiling above them. Yunkef straight up, and where there had always been inky blackness, the dark now seemed different. The space high above their head looked lighter.

The twins looked up as well while Anre kept asking what was happening.

"What is that?" Red said, voice rising in panic. "Why does it look like that?"

"I don't know! I don't know what that is!" Yunkef said, sitting up and staring.

"Will one of you tell me what's happening?" Anre sat up as well, getting frustrated.

"Above us, there's something wrong with it."

"With what?"

"With the..." Yunkef gestured wildly. "I don't have the words for it! The up, above our heads, what is it called?"

Cross looked up, tilting his head this way and that trying to make sense of what they were saying. "Red and I never had to talk about it. What about at your Settlement?"

"Same with us, no one ever mentioned it!" Yunkef replied.

While the three scrabbled and panicked at the revelation that something was above their heads and whatever it was, it was different from what they had known all their lives, Anre was silent. The wild-man simply sat up and tilted his head up, unseeing.

"Hey, you guys?" He said softly. It took a minute for the boys to calm down.

"What is it, Anre? Are you alright?" Red asked. She sat down beside him and looked up as well, uneasily watching the dark gray expanse that used to be just as dark as everything else. "What are you thinking about?"

"What if that is what Night was hoping we would find?" Anre said. "You guys said it was never like this at the Settlements or your homes, right?"

"Yes, that's true. It wasn't even like this at the Citadel, and they had torches and light everywhere." Yunkef chimed in.

"I think that's where we have to go. We have to go find out what's making it look like that. Find out what that is."

Yunkef looked up as well and walked around the outcropping to find a path. "The rocks keep going up from here, so..."

"That means we need to keep climbing."

Rest was uneasy after that. Where before the darkness and its dangers were familiar, the sight of a lighter area was too strange and bizarre. It was upsetting, but it was the closest they had to a clue as to what they were searching for. Gathering what they could of their supplies, they climbed on. The four of them walked with only the sound of their tired, heavy breathing and the crunching of loose rocks underfoot as their accompaniment. Ice went ahead of them, jumping from boulder to boulder and scouting the path for unseen dangers that might lurk ahead. In their efforts to progress, they kept their heads down and focused on putting one foot ahead of the other. Eventually, the ground began to slope sharply upward, forcing them to use their hands to keep balance.

"Guys?" Anre said at the top of their short column, holding his hand out to them. "It's hard going from here. Ice can't find a way around, so it's all straight up. We're going to have to climb."

"Are you sure? There are no walkable paths at all?" Yunkef wheezed, stopping to catch his breath with his hands on his knees.

Anre shook his head. "Ice can't make the climb from here. We have to go on our own."

As if to demonstrate, the beast tried to jump towards an outcropping in the sheer wall, but her claws could not find purchase and she slid back down with the high-pitched screech of claws on stone.

Red examined the rock face and saw it veer sharply vertical and continue on to loom above them. There were cracks and crags that pocked the surface of the stone every so often, along with small rock shelves. "There are handholds enough, I think. And we can rest at those points over there. And..." she stared straight up, her mouth agape.

Yunkef quickly looked as well and gasped. "It's even lighter here!"

"We're going the right way! We need to climb this and see what's at the top."

While the Yunkef and Red started looking for handholds in the rock, Anre took a moment to say goodbye to Ice. The beast whined plaintively, unwilling to be left behind, but she sat obediently. While the other three were busy, Cross looked up as well and grasped his spear tight. "It's lighter alright."

Yunkef struggled with the climb more than he had ever struggled with anything before in his life. He was born and raised on flat land, and never knew an incline until this journey. While every moment send a thrumming ache through his limbs, he found his curiosity was what spurred him on. Not this desire to see Night's wish fulfilled, not the panic to escape Lady Black's influence and beasts, but his curiosity to see what lay above the rock. What made the space above their heads this color? What was lightening the darkness? What was that space even called? There was so much to the world that he had never seen before, had never even considered possible to exist! There was so much he did not know. Even as his fingers shook and his arms ached from inching himself up the rock with every pull, Yunkef kept his eyes on the rock above him, and the gradually lightening area just beyond. It was so close now, he was almost there.

"Yunkef!" Cross's voice sounded from below him.

"Cross! Are you alright?" Yunkef paused in his climb and tried to look down, but looking to either side of him, he could not see Cross. "Where are you?"

"I hurt my arm, but I found a cave to duck into. Can we stop for a moment?"

"Alright! Good, you found something! Hold on, I'll go to you. Red, Anre, Cross found a place to rest! Let's go there first, my hands are shaking too much."

"Mine are too," Red said back, and Anre grunted in solidarity. "We'll be right there!"

The cave Cross found was surprisingly vast, and looked out onto the land below them. Yunkef was surprised by how far up they were already, and how far he could see through the land. "Is that the cavern and camp we found before? It's so far away now!"

Cross nodded and pointed to another spot in the distance. "That's the Citadel camp over there."

"It's been burned to the ground."

"There are other camps other there, some distance away. Those looked burned too, the rocks they set up beside are blackened."

"Would they have been Citadel camps as well?" Yunkef mused, his heart falling. "So many people from the Citadel were out here at the edge of the darkness?"

"Maybe. You did say they were looking for something. Maybe they found it."

"I hope they got the satisfaction of it at least."

“Satisfaction of what? Of dying horribly by beasts and zealots?”

Yunkef shook his head sadly. “No, from exploring. I hope they found what they were looking for before they died.”

“Well, even if they didn’t there’s nothing we can do about it now.” Cross looked out at the sight, absentmindedly running his thumb over the edge of the beast-tooth on his spear. “They came up against people stronger than them and were brought back to the darkness.”

A chill went down Yunkef’s spine. He asked his friend slowly. “What do you mean by that? Brought back to the darkness?”

Cross still did not look away from the camps in the distance. “Everything you see here, and everything you can’t see, all belong to the darkness. To Lady Black. Wouldn’t you agree, Yunkef?”

“I don’t know what to say to that,” Yunkef answered, shifting uneasily where he sat. He glanced fearfully at Cross, getting more nervous by the second. Cross didn’t notice.

“Everything here is her property. Everything here is her’s, by rights. Belongs to her and are under her control.” Cross’s voice was cold. He stood and gripped his spear just as he heard the footsteps of Red and Anre, signaling their approach.

“Cross?”

“She’s very, very angry, Yunkef.” He said under his breath. “She likes you, but not what you’re doing. No one is allowed to leave. Or else.” Cross’s arm shot out at his friend, reaching to grab him.

Yunkef scrambled to his feet, throwing himself away from the edge of the outcropping.

Everything started happening at once. Yunkef ducked under Cross's swing, Red screamed, and Anre flinched at the sound. While Yunkef managed to get out of Cross's reach, the motion of him going back towards Red and Anre shifted Cross's focus. His gaze fell on Anre, and he grinned.

"I always hated you, Anre." He said cooly, leveling his spear at the wild-man. "You'll die first."

"Cross! No!" Red pleaded, jumping in front of Cross's spear. Without a word, her twin brother cracked her across the jaw with a well-placed punch, sending her spiraling into the cave wall.

In the confusion, it took Anre a precious second to process what was going on and where everyone was, even with the extra confinement of the cave walls helping to bounce sound back to him. He dropped to a low stance, ready to dodge Cross, but the other boy was ready. Cross followed him with his eyes and lashed out a thrust with his spear as Anre moved.

"You tried that trick on me before, you idiot," Cross said, laughing over the sound of Anre's pained scream. The beast-tooth speartip bit true, stabbing the wild-man in the shoulder. "Just like catching a glowfish in a pond."

Anre grabbed at the spear's shaft, trying to wrench it out of Cross's hold. Yunkef likewise scrambled to help Anre, to push Cross away somehow, but Cross was quick. He muscled Anre towards the mouth of the cave, and simply shoved the wild-man out, spear and all. Anre disappeared over the outcropping and fell down the sheer cliff.

Yunkef screamed for Anre, arm outstretched as if he could grab him somehow. But Cross simply laughed and reached behind his back.

"Cross, why?" was all Red could choke out, stunned as she was. "Why are you doing this?"

"Red, get away from him, Lady Black got to him!" Yunkef said, trying to hold back tears.

"Oh she did get to me, you're not wrong about that," Cross said, drawing the ritual knife. Yunkef gasped when he saw it, the unmistakable hole in an already dark space. "But you're wrong about when. It wasn't at the zealot camp."

"What?" Red said in disbelief.

"I..." Yunkef stammered, his mind jumping from thought to thought. "I saw you speaking to someone at the cave with the glowing plants. You were speaking to her then, weren't you?"

"Observant!" Cross laughed. "I didn't think anyone was awake then. You're close, but no."

"If not at the cavern, then when?" Red's eyes were wet with hot tears as anger and grief threatened to overwhelm her. She was relieved to have her brother back, but now he was so blatantly stabbing them in the back. Stabbing his own sister in the back. It was too much to take. "When?" she screamed at her twin, hair plastered to her face.

"From the very start, Red." Cross ran his thumb across the ritual knife's blade. In a tight area like the cave, he didn't need the spear, to begin with. "Ever since our Settlement burned down and we were left alone."

"But I never saw her! Night took us in before she could get to us!"

"Before she could get to you, maybe, but I heard her in all that rubble. I heard her in the shadows cast by the fire." Cross's eyes were wide, just as wide as his smile. Yunkef went cold; he looked just like Zealous.

"You're darkness-touched." Red breathed in disbelief, staring at the strange, manic look in her brother's eyes.

"We both are."

"No..." Red shook her head. "No, I'm nothing like you. You're mad."

"I'm not mad, I understand. I understand Lady Black completely. Here, she is our kind yet misunderstood god." Cross thumbed the edge of the knife and gave it a few twirls. "She's angry that the people of the Settlements raise walls to keep her and her children away. She wants us, all of us, to come back to the darkness. She wants the light gone from her world."

"You're just like Zealous," Yunkef said, getting to his feet. "Right before he destroyed the beacon and burned the whole Citadel to the ground."

"But we're nothing like the people of the Citadel!" Red cried. "We don't have beacons of light, or expeditions, or anything! Why come after us? Why kill Anre?"

"You're right Red, we're not like the people of the Citadel. If anything, we're just a little bit worse." Cross took slow steps towards Red and Yunkef, who backed away from him. "She told me, specifically, to go with Night and not say a word. You see, Night was one of the first people she took into her special flock. Made them into a nest for her children, a bait to lure the people of the Settlement out into the open, and just generally be her right-hand."

“But that didn’t happen,” Red said in protest. “Night wanted to help people, not lead them to their deaths in the darkness!”

Her twin brother simply scoffed. “It never mattered what Night wanted. The guide was a pawn to our Lady, and a stubborn one too. Night had no choice but to obey for a very, very long time. I don’t know what it was, but Night started to act on their own recently. Lady Black did not like that one bit. Saving orphans from beast attacks and hiding them away to keep them safe instead of being brought back to the darkness like Night was supposed to? Ooohhh.” Cross laughed. “Our Lady was insulted!”

"Night was doing the right thing, going against Lady Black," Red said with steel in her voice. "And you are wrong for following her!"

"Me, wrong? Sis, Lady Black is a goddess. Her power is absolute here." Cross smirked. "Did you really think we could get out of the darkness?"

Yunkef's eyes went wide with shock and realization as Cross's words sunk in. He stood beside Red, mind racing as fast as Barro's vehicle did. "Her power isn't absolute," he said.

Cross glared at him. "What did you say?"

"Her power isn't absolute, and she's scared that we'll find a way to escape," Yunkef said, his voice growing in confidence as the pieces started to fall into place. "If she wasn't so scared, she wouldn't have planted you to watch Night's movements. She wasn't able to get her darkness or beasts past the walls of Settlements or into the light from the Citadel, so she sent zealots to tear them down from the inside."

"Yunkef." Cross said in a low voice. A warning.

"If she wasn't so scared, she wouldn't have put you ahead of us with a ritual knife!" Yunkef continued. "She wouldn't have you try to stop us from reaching the top and finding what's past the darkness!"

Cross had enough. He yelled, holding the ritual knife high and charging for the two. Red moved first, getting between her brother and Yunkef. Seeing her twin in the way, Cross instinctively angled the knife away from her. The twins tousled, grappling at each other with Red throwing a punch into Cross's weak shoulder. The boy yelped, and Red grabbed his wrist and slammed it into the cave wall. The ritual knife slipped out of his hand and clattered onto the floor, where Yunkef dove after it, scooping it up and holding it out of Cross's grip.

Angered at losing his weapons yet again, Cross grabbed at his twin's hair and yanked her head back sharply, peeling her off him as she screamed and clawed at the hand that held her by the hair. He pulled back his arm, glaring purposefully at the opposite wall and readying a powerful slam when suddenly he stopped. Cross let go of Red's hair and looked down at himself in shock.

Yunkef let go of the knife's hilt as Cross's blood started to seep down the blade.