Asural, Desmond, 10416 P.C.

Todd loved small, dark spaces. They had always given him a sense of peace somehow. When he was younger, he had often crawled under his bed to read a book with a flashlight, play on his gamer, or just lie in silence, enjoying the solitude. After he had moved in with Henry and Cathy, rolling under the bed had become a near-daily routine, either to hide or to seek solace away from them. The closet had worked for that as well.

Now, though, the small dark space under the compound felt like a death sentence. It was like a whole other floor, a huge room the size of the whole compound. Wooden beams were staggered around for support. Trap doors from the roof above dropped down as children climbed down from their rooms. The roof was only five feet, so most resorted to crawling around, crowding the walls and corners of the dimly lit room. There were eight escape tunnels, two in each corner. Each child carried around a backpack; some were already pulling on the gambeson the backpacks had possessed. Todd found it incredibly clever. Each backpack had been specially packed for each child, containing an extra pair of clothes and gambeson for protection. They also carried water bottles and non-perishable foods, in the case that an attack forced them to escape into the forest.

So, in their case, right now.

Benjamin's sword knocked itself against Todd's legs as he crawled, pulling his backpack and the shield behind him. He joined Colette and Jessie in one of the corners and unbuckled the shield from his back, his heart still pounding as he worked the zipper on the backpack. He pulled out his gambeson and quickly put it on, seeing that Colette and Jessie were doing the same. It fit nicely, and he could only marvel at Benjamin's methods. The evacuation was running like clockwork — everyone was down below in record time. There were nervous whispers, even some crying, but most of the room was filled with weighty silence. Above, the alarm still droned. Todd knew he was breathing heavily, and he fought to calm down, busying himself with buckling the shield on his back once again.

"Colette," he whispered to her, his voice shaky. "What about Benjamin?"

She was working the dagger she had grabbed from the TR room through her hands anxiously. "Don't think about it. Just don't even."

But he did think about it. It consumed him, terrified him. He could imagine the man up above, trying to ward off an attack on his own, doing his best to single-handedly protect the children.

A scream from above silenced the room in an instant. Todd's blood ran cold as he realized not everyone had made it down below; screams echoed and yelling joined the chorus, as did the sounds of pounding boots right over their heads. The compound had been infiltrated.

Colette slipped her hand into his and squeezed it hard. He glanced at her, saw the tears glistening in her eyes. Beside her, Jessie stared at the roof, cold resolve cementing her features. Todd closed his eyes slowly, taking a deep breath and squeezing Colette's hand back. He knew the truth: Benjamin would have given his life before allowing Motch's soldiers to enter the compound.

"Children." Todd's heart skipped a beat as a calm voice spoke. It was Justine, the doctor lady, approaching their corner. "It is time to evacuate into the forest. Remember what you've been taught, and may the Immortal One be with you."

It was a bitter and solemn goodbye. Todd watched her go to the next corner to deliver the same solemn message. Behind him, the small crowd of children was shifting, moving toward the two tunnels. Most disappeared in pairs. Todd watched in muted silence, listening to the pounding above. Looking back at the trap doors, he fully expected them to start smashing in at any moment. He had to trust. Those trap doors had been very well hidden in the rooms; if he hadn't been shown exactly where his had been, he never would have found it.

"Come on, Todd." Colette was tapping his arm.

He moved to join her but stopped suddenly, his blood running cold. Annabella will kill me.

"Bethany!" He scanned the room searching the faces of the kids around them. "Where's Bethany?"

Jessie grabbed his arm. "We can't—"

He pulled out of her grasp and started crawling to the next corner. The children were already heading out of the tunnels. "Bethany!" he whisper-yelled, frantically trying to find the three-year-old among the sea of faces. He hurried to the next corner.

"Todd, we don't have time!" Jessie was at his heels, hissing at him, trying to get him to turn back.

"Todd, over here!" He heard Colette's voice from the fourth corner, and he turned, sighing deeply in relief when he saw that she had Bethany with her. He and Jessie scrambled over as fast as their hands and knees could carry them. When he reached her, Bethany immediately sprang into his arms for a hug. He could sense her fear.

"Let's get out of here," Jessie said, leading the way back to where they had left their packs. When it was their turn to crawl into the tunnels — which were even smaller than the five-foot roof the room had — Jessie decided on the left tunnel. Todd followed without a word.

The earth seemed to close up around them. It grew dark as they crawled away from the room's dim lighting. Todd followed Jessie through the dark, emerging out into a larger tunnel sooner than he had expected. This tunnel was tall enough for him to stand in. Flashlight beams bounced off of the walls farther down the tunnel; the children had utilized the flashlights that had been packed in their bags. Todd waited for Bethany and Colette to emerge.

"Where does this tunnel lead?" Jessie asked Colette as Todd dug through Bethany's pack and helped her into her own gambeson.

Colette pulled out her flashlight. "I don't know. Benjamin had them made years and years ago, and he never told anyone where they led to. Some of them are longer than others, that's all I know."

Todd shone his flashlight beam on the walls. They were hard-packed dirt, as was the floor and ceiling. It was a suffocating feeling, realizing that hundreds of pounds of dirt sat above them, ready to crush them at any moment.

They walked along in silence, listening to the hushed whispers and frantic breathing of those ahead of them. After several minutes, Todd saw a light up ahead. A trap door had been opened, he assumed. They were about to exit out into the world above.

Then what would happen to them? He had no idea.

"Hurry, hurry," Colette muttered under her breath. The trap door was high above them, some twenty feet up a ladder that rose into the ceiling of the tunnel. It could only be climbed one at a time.

Then Colette screamed. The sound was excruciating, ricocheting around in Todd's mind like a dagger. He grabbed her arm as she fell; she pulled him down with her, and it was only when he hit his knees that he saw the arrow in her leg. His heart seemed to stop for a moment.

A voice calling from the down the tunnel ripped him out of his stupor. "Stop in the name of the Dragon!"

A kid nearby burst into tears. The scramble for the ladder was much more frantic. Todd saw an arrow strike the ground to his left. Colette's pained gasps were loud in his ears.

'The shield!' a voice whispered urgently in his mind.

He obeyed without thought, unbuckling the shield from his back as fast as he could, rising to his feet as he fitted it on his arm. An arrow glanced off of it and he stumbled back, gasping at the force. Yells erupted around him. Flashlight beams bounced around down the tunnel as more arrows flew at them. Todd lifted the shield higher, blocking several shots with pure terror surging through his veins.

'Breathe,' the voice inside whispered gently. 'Relax.'

Todd sucked in a deep breath, his heart pounding like a drum against his rib cage. "Jessie, get Colette!" he instructed, his voice calmer than he felt. The voice repeated calming words in his mind, and a strange peace was filling him. He was focused, more focused than he had ever been in his life, and he blocked three different shots without hardly a thought. The shield felt right on his arm, it felt powerful. He felt powerful.

'Do it.'

He drew his sword and charged.

"Todd!" Jessie yelled. "No!"

He didn't listen to her. He ran down the tunnel, adrenaline surging through him, arrows glancing off his shield like toy darts. He met the soldiers halfway down the tunnel and attacked. He didn't even know what he was doing — it was as if some other being had taken a hold of him, directing each and every one of his moves, taking down soldier after soldier without a shred of hesitation. He was calm, even as his sword danced before his eyes possessing a fiery, unnatural glow. It cleaved his opponent's sword in half. Todd hardly noticed. He plunged his sword through the man, straight through his plated armour. The man's scream fell on deaf ears.

Todd stood still, gasping for breath, coming to himself. Dead men lay around him, having been impaled upon his sword. It took him several seconds to realize what he had done, and shock paralyzed him. His sword glowed red-hot, the engravings practically pulsing with fiery energy. It was already beginning to fade, and Todd could feel the adrenaline fading with it. Exhaustion like a thick sludge was sliding over him. His limbs felt extremely heavy. The sword and shield were heavy weights, and he let them hang limp in his hands as he struggled to catch his breath, struggled to understand exactly what he had done.

He had just killed several men. That's what he had done.

Jessie was still yelling for him, but her voice felt distant and unimportant in the scheme of things. He waited for the voice in his mind to comfort him, to soothe the incredible burden sweeping over him, but it was silent. He exhaled heavily, trembling, Michael's face on every soldier at his feet. Todd stumbled to his knees, his glowing blade scraping the ground.

The ground exploded. Todd was thrown back, tumbling head over heels through the air and smacking the ground like a rag doll. The world was on fire, spinning in circles, smoke thick in his lungs. Screams echoed around him. He fought to get up, hearing the girls screaming his name. He let out a shuddering breath, gasping — he was sluggish, hardly able to drag himself to his feet. The shield was like a bag of bricks on his arm. His sword was gone. He found himself standing amid an inferno of flames. It should have been hot, but he hardly felt it. His clothes were on fire and he didn't feel the burn. The tunnel was engulfed in flames, and it hardly registered in his mind.

Colette was screaming, and it snapped him out of his daze. They were at the end of the tunnel, near the ladder, Jessie crouched beside Colette and doing her best to smack out the flames that had caught on their clothes. Todd found himself walking toward them, unharmed by the fire, his mind foggy and disoriented. His sword lay among the flames, glowing red-hot once again, and he picked it up without a thought, his hand passing through the fire without consequence. Slowly, he buckled his shield on his back once more. He reached Colette and Jessie and crouched down, grabbing Colette's arm. The smoke from the fires was bringing clarity to his mind, burning his eyes and stinging his throat as he coughed.

"What happened?" he rasped.

Jessie jolted at his voice, looking at him as if seeing a ghost. "Todd! You—"

"What happened?" he demanded, coughing again. His pant leg was on fire, and he smacked it out.

Colette had tears streaming down her face, holding her wounded leg with bloodied fingers as she stared at Todd with huge, glossy eyes. "You really are the Deliverer," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the roar of the fire around them.

"Colette—" he started.

"We need to get out!" Jessie yelled in his ear.

"I can't," Colette said, her body shaking and trembling like an autumn leaf. "I won't get up the ladder."

Panic seared Todd's muddled mind like an iron. He grabbed her other arm tightly. "You will!" he shouted. "Come on, we'll help!"

"No!" she shouted right back. He was taken aback by her force. In the light of the fire, her skin glistened with sweat and tears, smeared with dirt and spotted with fiery-red burns. Her trembling hands found his wrists, pulling his hands off her arms. "You need to leave me."

It hit him like a slap in the face. "What? No!"

"Todd." Colette was holding his hands, her face twisted with pain and fierce determination. "Promise me you'll find him," she demanded. "Promise me you'll stop Motch."

"Cole—"

"Promise me!"

Todd swallowed hard, nodding quickly.

"Say it!"

"I promise," he said, his voice hoarse. "I swear it."

She gave him a trembling smile, and then she whispered. "Good. Now, do me a favour before you go." She let go of his hand to grasp the dagger on her hip. She handed it to him. "Do it fast. Then it won't hurt so much."

He stared at her, his mind unable to wrap around what she was asking of him. It hit him full force. "No," he whispered. "No, I can't."

"Please," she murmured. "I'd rather not burn to death."

He took the dagger, his hand trembling. "I can't," he stuttered. He saw Michael die, saw the knife in his chest and the life leave his eyes. He had never wanted to see that again. He had never wanted to cause that. He had just murdered several soldiers without hardly a thought, and it terrified him. It terrified him, who he was becoming. He was a murderer.

And Colette was asking him to do it again.

"Please." She held his gaze, terrifyingly calm.

The dagger was snatched from his hand. Jessie pushed him out of the way, cupping Colette's cheek in one hand while she cradled the dagger in the other. "You're brave, Colette," she said hurriedly, firmly. "The Immortal One would be proud of you."

Tears tumbled down Colette's cheeks, and she gave a quick nod and closed her eyes. Jessie gently bowed Colette's head. "May you rest in peace with the martyrs of old in Euforemalta forever."

Then, with a resignation and strength Todd had come to recognize in the girl, Jessie lifted the dagger and drove it down into the back of Colette's neck. Todd managed to look away at the last second, a sob tearing from his lips he hadn't realized he had been holding back. The flames blurred in his vision, slinking around them like demons. He trembled.

She's dead... When Todd looked back, Jessie was gently laying Colette's limp form on the ground. She reverently wiped the blade on Colette's shirt and slipped it back into the scabbard on Colette's hip.

"It was painless," Jessie told him as she quickly unbuckled the scabbard from Colette's limp form and buckled it around her own waist. "She didn't feel a thing. Come on." She grabbed his arm, pulling him to his feet. The tunnel was suffocatingly hot, already thick with smoke, and Todd coughed hard, realizing then that Bethany wasn't with them. He prayed that she was above ground waiting for them, almost glad she hadn't witnessed the scene below. Jessie scrambled up the ladder with dexterity. He looked over his shoulder at Colette one last time. She looked peaceful. Calm. Surrounded by a growing puddle of blood.

Goodbye, Colette. Goodbye, Benjamin.

May you rest in peace with the martyrs of old in Euforemalta forever.

He didn't even know what Euforemalta was. Todd wiped his tears. Colette's pant leg caught fire. He quickly turned away and retreated up the ladder after Jessie.