"You did what? How could you be so foolish? You have been clothed, fed, healed. We have not asked anything of you, except enough respect to not pry into things that are not for your eyes to see. We have not pressured you into anything. We offered resources to you, rescued your friends and nursed them back to health. And now, this? This is how you repay the Temple? By exploiting the goodwill of its servants?"

Rae winced, scrunching up his face. After getting caught outside, spying at a Promem's door, he was thrown back in his room. A Masked had been posted in front of his door, to ensure that he didn’t get the urge to wander about again. Rae had no idea what was going to happen. No one talked with him, no one had even visited him -- to scold him or otherwise -- until the night, when Talon had come in.

Her voice wasn't raised, having an almost conversational tone, yet Rae still felt like she was yelling at him. He'd never seen the Masked like this, so out of character. She had always been composed, patient. Not now.

Talon paced the floor as she scolded him, arms behind her back. The colourful swirls on her mask seemed both more vibrant and toned down at the same time. The markings were erratic, almost as if they were moving. Rae couldn’t be sure that they weren’t.

The diplomat sat on the bed, hands under his thighs, waiting out Talon's anger. When no more outbursts followed, he said, "You kept information away from me! I understand that you would like to keep whatever really goes on in this place a secret, and I respected that, until my friends started disappearing! What did you expect me to do? Stand by and not do anything? Those people were responsible for my passage to Ga'ani. The storm and crash was none of their fault, but afterwards I was the one responsible for their wellbeing. It was my plan to look for help in this area. I'm grateful for all your assistance, but I will not stand by passively while your people stop me from seeing mine!"

"You could have asked," Talon shot back, her pacing increasing in speed.

He held his hands up, gesturing. "But I did, don't you understand? And no one gave me any answers! Instead, they forbade me from seeing the injured, then locked me up for a week. Still I tried to talk to them, I tried, but they continued to ignore me. I had had enough, at one point."

She stopped pacing, looked at him. "Why did you not come to me?" Talon asked. "I provided you with information about the Temple, did I not?"

Rae waved a hand. "Fairy tale mixed with speculation. That is no real explanation of what this place is, of what is going on."

"And yet, that conjecture was forbidden to be shared with an outsider. If I had risked myself to share that with you, what made you think I would not appease your worries about your friends?"

To that, he had no reply. Rae opened his mouth, closed it, then crossed his arms and huffed.

"Enough," Talon said, reading the expression on his face. "What is done is done. You are in danger. I will help you." She held up a hand as he stood up, stopping his questions. "There is no time. You must leave."

"What about the others?" Rae interjected. "I can't just abandon them!"

"You must. They are no longer yours. They belong to the Temple now. To us."

Struck silent, Rae watched as she opened the door, reluctantly following her when she waved him to her.

"Why should I believe you?" he hissed as he followed her down the hallway. The Masked that had been posted in front of his room was nowhere to be seen.

Talon stopped, exasperated. He nearly bumped into her. "Must you start this now?" she asked.

"Well, what if this is all a trick? If the Servlacs are the ones that want to hurt, so how do I know that I can trust you when I don't trust them?

"Not the Servlacs. They are just servants, acolytes. They just follow orders. No, the real danger comes from Keepers." Rae felt her staring at him through that eery wooden mask. He couldn't see her eyes, but he got the impression that she was weighing him. Wordlessly, Talon raised her arms up to her face. Rae braced himself for a blast of magic, anything, something, but nothing came. Instead, she simply took off the mask.

It came off badly, painfully. The edges of the mask seemed to be caught to the sides of her face, ripping scabs apart as Talon pulled it away from her face. She was like a tree; perfectly still, save for the movements of her arms as she removed the mask. Rae mirrored her, rooted to the spot.

Tendrils of magic seeped from under the mask, helping push apart wood from flesh. The mask came off with a sudden snap. The magic that had surrounded mask’s sides vanished, not a trace of mist left behind. The colours from the mask, too, vanished, bleeding into black, then brown, and then a shade of grey. That too eventually faded, until Rae couldn't make out the swirls in the wood anymore.

"Oh," he breathed out as Talon lowered the mask, revealing her face. "Oh."

Plain wooden mask by her side, she trembled before his eyes, her naked face finally betraying emotion. It was a gruesome sight.

Her face was ravaged, imprinted with uncannily familiar swirls. Rae couldn't stop himself from leaning in closer, studying the wounds. With a start, he realised that the markings on her face matched the ones on her mask. Instead of different, they were variations of the same shade of red, a canvas for the passing of time. A waterfall of fog spilled from her wounds, trailing down her face.

He wanted to ask what happened, if it hurt, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything, as if giving voice to the questions would ensure that what he was seeing was real, and not a dream or an illusion.

"Can you believe that I am on your side now?" Talon asked, cutting through the thick silence. A trail of blood slid down her cheek, onto her neck.

"Yes." His stomach still recoiled, and the uneasy feeling in his bones was still there, only for a different reason now.

Talon put on the mask again, a swift motion compared to the laborious process of taking it off. The blood down her neck vanished as fog started seeping around the sides of the mask once more.

“Good. Now follow me, please. We have already wasted too much time as it is.”

They started moving again, sticking to the walls. Rae stayed quiet, trying to get the grisly memories out of his mind. After some time, he asked, “What did you do to the Masked outside my room? How did you get rid of them?”

“It was one of the Servlacs. I simply… pulled rank.”

“Are you not a Servlac, too?”

“I will explain later. First, we need to get out of here.”

They were still walking by the time the moon reached its zenith and started to dip once more. Rae had long lost track of where they were going, everything looking the same in the darkness. He heard a door close softly behind him. Turning around, he saw a Masked walking towards him and Talon.

“Do we run?” he breathed out next to Talon’s ear, clutching her hand for support.

She shook her head. There was an indent in the wall, an alcove where they could fit in and hide, just a few steps in front of them. Rae tugged at her arm to get her attention, then tilted his head in that direction, pointing out the spot to her. The Masked was coming closer and closer to them. Talon shook her head again, instead pressing into the wall and motioning for him to do the same.

Rae held his breath, fearful that even the slight movement of his chest or the sound of his breathing would attract unwanted attention. His heart thudded against his ribs, blood rushed through his ears. He hadn't taken Talon seriously, back in the room. Seeing her without her mask on changed things.

The memory of another Masked attempting to take his mask off, only to be stopped, and be taken away, came unbidden into his mind. Judging from the ease with which Lynx had lifted the mask off his face, Talon was not in the same position as he. 'She must be higher-up the Servlac. It would explain why she knows so much,' he thought. She did mention that she had 'pulled rank' on the Servlac that was posted outside his door, but he’d only seen the Rememberers order the Servlacs about.

'Who are you?' Rae thought. He looked at her, watching as she melded with the forest-wall, disappearing from sight. He felt a tingle pass through his body, but when he looked down at himself, he didn’t see any difference. 'And why are you helping me?'

The Masked passed by them without a glance. Crisis averted. Talon waited a few more nerve-wracking minutes before peeling away from the wall. "Come," she said, looking at him. "We need to move faster. Try not to make any noise."

He modded, but she had already turned around. Talon took a deep breath, steeling herself, then pulled him along, quick. At first she dragged him, his body unused to the lithe grace with which he was forced to move. He felt like dead weight, stumbling on his own two feet. Soon, however, he found his rhythm, and he followed after her more easily. It felt like something was guiding him, nudging his steps.

Something seemed to have changed in the Temple complex. Before, the sense of urgency has just hounded them. Now it felt like it was all around them, a tangible energy in the air. The leaves seemed to pulsate with it, the soft light they emitted turning sharp and gloomy.

"They know," Talon said without missing a beat in her stride.

Rae swallowed, a knot growing in his stomach. "Wills. I suppose that we can't just politely ask them to let us go?" he said, trying to calm his nerves.

"No."

The sudden anxiety around him thickened. The uncertainty, the fear of the unknown -- he was stumbling about in the dark, a half-used candle in hand, trying to make his way to a place he didn't even know he was searching for.

Before he could ask her how they would get out now, she said, “We are near enough to the exit. Wait here.” Talon didn’t wait for a reply. She inched forward, peering around the corner then disappearing from sight. When she returned, her posture and the swirls on her mask told him everything he needed to know. "The other Keepers have prepared for us. The exit is blocked."

Rae swore under his breath. "Is there anything that we can do?" he repeated, hoping desperately for an answer other than ‘no’.

"Nothing you can do, no.”

"But?" Rae asked, sensing a follow-up coming.

"I will distract them. Try to make a path for you to escape through, then keep them occupied long enough to give you a head start."

He nodded. "They're going to keep following me, then."

"Yes.” She paused briefly, as if thinking something over, then continued, “But not far, take hope. Once you are out of this area of the woods, there is a good chance that you will be able to relax.”

Talon paused again, longer this time. “Never drop your guard down,” she said eventually. “Remain cautious. But they should not follow you for too long."

"How can I thank you?" Rae asked. It was all going so fast. He didn't know anything about her, and yet, he felt like he'd never known someone as well as he did her. He'd certainly never trusted anyone with his life to this extent, wholly relying on them. "I can't help but feel that I've just created trouble for you,” he said sheepishly.

Talon smiled underneath her mask, patted his shoulder reassuringly. "This was a long time coming," she said. The weight she put on the words made him think that she wasn’t just talking about him.

She continued, "You can thank me once you have escaped. I hid some supplies in the forest -- I planned to take you there myself, but well... That may not be possible anymore." She took out a rolled up piece of paper from inside her sleeves, handed it to him. "The location of the supplies," she said in answer to his quizzical look. "Look for the markers on the map. I have done my best to make it clear. I have also plotted the Temple, and the area nearest to it. Do not stray within that circle."

"I won't,” Rae said, taking the map and hiding it in his pocket. “Thank you. Truly. I-"

She cut him off before he could choke up in his gratitude, acknowledging it with a tilt of her head. "You are welcome. Now, I will go out first. There are two turns. The last turn is the one right before the exit. Run straight through that corridor. Keep your eyes closed and just run. Do not stop for anything. Do you understand?" He hesitated; Talon repeated fiercely, "Do you understand these instructions? Say them."

"I understand. Run through, eyes closed, don't stop," Rae repeated the instructions back to her. "I promise you."

"Very well. Wait for my call."

With that, she walked around the corner once again. The wait was even longer than the first time, when she went to scout ahead. Rae waited, body tense, his apprehension growing and growing.

'It is time,' he thought strangely. The call hadn't come, yet he could see the events clearly in his head. 'Now,' he thought, just moments before he heard Talon cry out his name. Taunt muscles snapped into action. His eyes closed. He ran.

It was like a dream. Rae had never experienced anything like it. He instinctively knew the number of steps until the exit; 23 and a half, turn to the right, 2 steps for that, then 19, another turn -- only 1 and a half steps for this one -- and 17 more steps before freedom. In short: 63 arduous steps, 3 infinite hallways, 2 tight turns. One fraught goal in mind: escape. A Herculean task.

Time resumed its normal course. Slide through the first turn, hands outstretched to prevent slipping: half a step saved. Bound through the next hallway. Turn around again. Ears assailed with the sounds of fighting, of people in pain.

17 steps to the door.

It was tempting to open his eyes. Talon had made it sound like the blockade was something big, that they wouldn't let him go that easily -- yet, there she was, apparently taking on multiple people at once?

13 steps.

He couldn't make out her voice in the cacophony. Talon wasn't someone that he was deeply familiar with. Already he was forgetting the exact timbre of her voice; it was growing fuzzy, blending in with the cacophony. He had the distinct feeling that he would recognise her, if she spoke. How was she doing?

9 steps.

Was the fighting going well, then? There was no way to tell. One of the voices burst into clarity, piercing through the veil of screams and curses.

5 steps.

"You will never see your friends again!" Everything else sounded like it was coming from underwater, indiscernible gurgles, except this. It was as clear as a thought, except… it was not his thought.

5 steps to the door.

"Will you really abandon them? They need you." A new speaker joining the first.

5 steps to the door.

"They will remain lost, forever alone." Another voice.

5 steps to the door.

"Empty shells stay behind what used to be your friends."

"Their own memories are stripped of themselves."

"Will you strip yours of them as well?"

5 steps to the door.

"Are you leaving me behind like last time, Rae?"

Hirai.

Rae turned around, trembling.

"You already got help. Where are you going now?"

It couldn't be her.

Could it?

5 steps to the door.

The countdown in his body became more insistent. It urged him to flee, not fight.

5 steps t-

But the voices also became more insistent, demanding his sole attention, overpowering his fear and his promise.

Something slammed into him, sending him tumbling towards the exit. It screamed, a raw guttural sound of anger and pain. Rae got the message -- he had overstayd his welcome. It was time to go. As picked himself up the thing ran into him again before he could move in any direction. Its scaly talons were around his waist, digging into his skin. It could snap him in half if it so wanted to, yet it showed startling restraint for not doing so.

Is it… is it carrying me? He was in the arms of whatever beast had picked him up, struggling to get free. The grip around his waist tightened, talons easily slicing through his clothes, then the thing shoved him one final time. As the talons unfastened from him, letting him go, Rae twisted around and opened his eyes, taking in the horror before he fell through what felt like liquid air.

0 steps to the door.

He held his breath instinctively, tightly shutting his eyes again. The feeling was like that of violently surfacing from underwater. A greasy sensation covered his skin as he emerged from the Temple complex and into a forest. The instinctual countdown that had possessed him in that final stretch evaporated, taking with it the little sense of self-confidence that powered him.

Rae opened his eyes, looking behind at the place he had just escaped. Where on the other side there was a full wall, on this side it was just a line of trees, some as far apart from each other as several strides, and others as close as two hands. It seemed nothing like the complex he had escaped from. Confused, but running out of time, Rae took out the map Talon had given him and set to it, walking briskly as he began putting as much distance as possible between himself and the Temple.