The corridor King's group followed was longer than the last one, lit eerily by the soul torches and the tail of Khalaf's glow. The revelation about the Overcast still had Micaela's stomach twisted, and the man's occasional maniacal laugh was not making the situation better. King remained undisturbed, lost in thought as he led the group with no concern for the length of their travel. It made the brief moments of silence worse, and when Khalaf broke it the sixth time with a laugh, the woman squeaked and turned to face him.

“Could you stop doing that!” She said with her fist clenched. “It makes me feel like you’re about to become a demon yourself.”

He smirked. “No worries, Micaela. Even if I did become one, I promise I could never hurt you.”

“First of all, that doesn’t make me feel better, and second of all, it’s actually you becoming a demon that I’m worried about. I don’t feel like you’d be a sane one.”

“Guilty.”

“What are you laughing about anyway?”

“Oh just thinking about the One True God. That neighbor I told you about with the car? He was pretty confident in his belief. He had the biggest Christmas trees, would put the nativity scene up at the start of November, and never gave up the chance to preach to you when he could.”

“Sounds delightful.” Micaela glowered.

“Perfectly delightful. He didn’t like me much though. Maybe it was because I wasn’t the same type of believer as him? Once upon a time, a Jehovah Witness knocked on his door. You’d think they’d have a lot to talk about, but instead he was very dismissive. When I asked him about it, do you know what he said?”

“Going off of what you’re saying, he said those guys didn’t believe in the right god?”

“Bingo! Which was strange to me, because when he saw one of our atheist neighbors, he’d always say that they were the biggest sinners because even if my family and the witnesses believe in the wrong god, we still believe in his because his can appear in multiple forms.”

“Wait...what? Then how were the witnesses worshiping the wrong one?”

“Precisely!” Khalaf threw his head back with laughter. “There was no help for him. He believed he already had the right one, and there was no reason to question it. I’m confident he became a Gray when the Overcast fell, but I started thinking about all the people who came before him.” He gestured to the souls. “People say you see a light when you die, and I’m wondering now. Is that the light of Heaven or Hell?”

“That’s not as funny as you think it is.”

“But Micaela, it’s absolutely hilarious! Imagine my neighbor, snatched away from his God given new car, sure that there will be many more in heaven, except…!”

“He goes full speed to hell because he didn’t stop to wait and wonder.”

“A divine comedy!”

“Khalaf, are you insane?”

“Absolutely. You’d be too after being a tool for as long as I have. No one to talk to. No one to buy you a drink.”

Micaela shivered. “It was so easy to trust the Almighty Want. Life was good. If I died, what do you think would have happened to me?”

“There’s the big question, isn’t it? I wonder, do you think you would have gone into the blue light or the orange one?”

The woman stopped and looked at the souls. The colorless flames earned her pity, making her wonder what mistake they made. Was it the blue light, the orange, or some other color they thought would lead to salvation? Was heaven ever an option for them, or were they destined to light long dark corridors?

“Those souls aren’t the damned.” King suddenly said.

“Then what are they?”

“Disciples.”

Khalaf flowed over to his side. “Do go on. It sounds like your mind took you to some interesting places.”

“What does it mean that Dark Disciples didn’t revive through the light? There were a lot of criteria for who could become a disciple like me and the others, but what if that has more to do with speed than ability. What if these souls learned to discard their Luminance because it’d be the only way for them to come back?”

“And you think what? That they’re working on the next step?”

King stopped and stared. “Maybe. Or maybe their waiting for a new light?” He touched his chest. “Fang is different from me and Ace. She never had a Luminance to begin with. That means there are different ways to become Dark Disciples and I wonder what they are.”

Micaela took a second look at the souls, shaped like fire but barely moving. She touched her chest as if somehow it'd unlock a box of memories. She was a Gray at a time and had completely forgotten. Cerulean changed her because being void of light wasn't the end. There was a chance for a new beginning for her. There was a chance for these souls. Her attention drifted to King and her mind chewed on his words. Those souls are disciples…

“You think they’re stuck like this without a master?” She asked, and he nodded. “But where did the masters go?”

“I’ve been trying to figure it out, but I don’t know yet. Dr. Gupta said the spear of hell started breaking not too long after it was summoned. My only guess is that something is at fault for breaking it apart.”

Micaela sighed. Terror was easy to give into but it was no match for exhaustion. This business of Gods came with more questions than answers, and even illuminating minds needed a chance to rest. Even illuminating minds could be lost in the dark, and with so much around her, she thought she'd lose track of up and down. There were souls giving light, Grays given light, and light that gave you a reason to turn to darkness instead. And yet she found she couldn't let the shadows take her. Between false gods and the abyss, why did the latter seem worse? Maybe because the light let you find the answer, so long as you asked the right questions.

“I’m starting to wonder,” She started as their procession continued. “How can you be sure you’re worshiping the right god?”

Khalaf replied with a rolling laugh. Micaela sighed because she expected it. "I think we can say this, dear Micaela. It's all left to interpretation." He snickered and made her wonder more.

⁘⁛⁘

Ace was not falling. It was easy to think otherwise at first, dropping through the void with no chance of objection, but then he caught the pinprick of orange light and knew things were different. He wasn’t falling, but being pulled in, caught in the gravitation of a place that could be millions of miles away. He came at it like a shooting star, and when the darkness broke like the surface of water, he drifted to a marigold landscape below. A lone cabin sat at one end, with a field of tall stalks filling the rest of the land. Its harvest was ready, for as far as his eyes could see, strange bounties hung from thin vines. As he drifted closer, he felt his chest freeze. It wasn't fruits or vegetables that fed this farm, but squirming bodies hanging from spines pulled out and above their heads. The cabin’s door opened and they all reached out, crying out two words that rose in a wail.

“Spare me!” They cried, and a rotund giant stepped out of the house.

The marigold light came from it as it stomped forward on broad legs, carrying a scythe upon its shoulder. A diagonal line of eyes went down the face of a bald head, leaving its mouth to salivate in its bulbous stomach. It swept the scythe around and half the field dimmed as it pulled it dripping back. The light on its edge poured like honey, and a long tongue stuck out, lapping it from the blade. It let out a booming laugh as it turned back to the cabin, and the ice in Ace’s chest turned to fire. He went from drifting into a spin, holding his blades above his head as he soared down. He didn’t need to see the giant to know he drove into its face, letting his momentum rip a jagged path down its body. With a kick, he pushed away and felt the remaining eyes fall upon him. The Umbra helped him make the incision, and with his Luminance he tore it wide, forging spikes to spread the wound. The landscape shook as the giant dropped to its knees, but Ace barely felt it over the horror of the field. Color faded from the giant's body and the sky cracked, letting darkness pour in. The stalks broke in a wave and bodies dropped, crying out Not Fair and Your Fault as the abyss rose like a flood. The darkness submerged Ace again, but he felt like he could push it back as the light inside him pulsed with...something! He stretched his senses out until he found another orange light. He needed fragments of the God Eternal, right? Maybe he'd find none in this sea, but he was sure he'd find fear with light.

He took off toward it and the sea turned into a cave with glass walls. Skidding to a stop, he looked and found a silhouette crouched in a corner. It rose to its feet, and its pale body ignited with light, brightening one side with burning purple flesh. Ace only had a moment to question the color before it shot forward, burying its fist in his jaw. The wall cracked against his back as he hit it, and a fury of purple blows made it spread. He swiped and his attacker bounced back, holding up its arms as he peeled off the wall. Wiping blood from his face, Ace looked at it. There was nothing around to fear for its life, but he wouldn’t let that stop him from being its end…

⁘⁛⁘

Outside the obelisk, and still, a good mile away, Fiona leveled her bow and fired two arrows. One streak of green and one of red shot into the darkness at the spear's base, piercing it as if she shot into a lake. She lowered her bow, taking a seat, but Peter looked at her as if there was more to do.

“Are we just going to wait now?” He asked; she nodded. “But why?”

“Because it’s too dangerous for either of us to go there. It’s probably too dangerous for Corrosion too, but it should be obvious things are different for it by now.”

“Dangerous like King and his friends, right?” Rashawn asked. “You still ain’t explain that to us. Why are they dangerous? Is it the same reason?”

Fiona gazed at the spear. “Let’s talk about the Azure Coast.” She started. “It wasn’t a place you could find like Castle Cerulean. You could drive all over and never see it once. That was because the coast was kind of in its own spot, you know? Like how you can’t drive to Mars from Earth. Just the same though, if you knew the right way to get there, anybody could. Our dad did it by accident, but until Cerulean attacked, he was first person to come there in a long time.”

“Yeah, you mentioned that before.” Rashawn nodded. “I didn’t catch all the details, but I heard some of what you said to Peter.”

"Well, our dad was the first, but there was one more visitor between him and Castle Cerulean. I still remember when I saw them appear. For dad and Cerulean, there was this bright blue light. It was basically a welcoming show," Fiona chuckled. "But the guy between them came through a dark portal in the sky. We all stepped outside when we saw it. The night sky wasn't as dark as the portal. Then, something fell like a drop of water.

This person was covered in shadows and felt wrong in the domain. The light couldn’t touch him, and most of us knew to stay back, but the Lightbearers had to approach. I learned later that he wanted to see our leader—the Azure-eyed Prince—and maybe that's why the Lightbearers attacked. Even our strongest wasn't a match for him, though. He didn't win easily, but it didn't matter how much damage they did when he could do so much worse. A lot of our Lightbearers ended up dead or dying until the prince came and that shadow guy left."

“Left?” Peter asked. “You mean the Prince scared him away?”

“No. He just left, like he came there by mistake. He opened another dark portal and step through it, leaving behind the destruction like he spilled some milk and someone else was supposed to clean it up. The Prince saved who he could, but the coast didn’t forget about it. That was our darkness day, and it taught us to be afraid.”

“But how do you know these guys are the same?” Rashawn asked.

“You two can’t tell because of this darkness.” She gestured around them. “The light can’t go very far here. But in the Azure Coast I learned what it was like when the light just stopped against a person. It was like there was a blank space standing in front of me.”

“And you always remembered.” Peter nodded.

Rashawn scratched his head. “But how do we know these guys are bad, or at least as bad as that guy? It’s not like you guys are on the same side as Cerulean, you know?”

“I know, but there’s something fundamentally different here. Our Lightbearers didn’t attack intruders. Even if they asked to see the Prince. In fact, that was the first person they had to see. Maybe I could be wrong but I wonder, why did they think it was better to attack than let the meeting happen.”

The Reject listened but thought back to Painted Dog's words. He thought the darkness could only be an enemy of the light too. Didn't that backfire just like this?

“Why do you think he left after meeting the prince then?” Peter asked, stealing the next question on Rashawn’s mind.

“I don’t even have to guess, the Prince told us. He was there to fight, but didn’t see the need to do it anymore.”

“If the coast collapsed after Cerulean fed the Prince to the Arbiter, does that mean this dark guy would have killed everyone if the Lightbearers didn’t delay the meeting?”

Fiona nodded, and Rashawn still fought with her words. He had no reason to believe she was lying; no reason to believe there was a mistake, but he wasn’t ready to condemn King’s group yet. Wouldn’t it be the same as condemning all light? Wouldn’t it be the same as shunning all the gods? Yeah, and he wasn’t going to do that just yet. He turned his eyes on the Spear instead, deciding that he’d wait. There were no answers he could get right now. He’d just have to wait until he met a dark disciple again…