Len woke feeling surprisingly refreshed for once. It wasn’t like she’d had any more solid sleep than before, the road wasn’t exactly hospitable under the best of conditions and best conditions these were not. Still, a bit of the nervousness she’d been feeling about Kes had faded after her talk. She may not have completely gotten through to the girl yet, but she’d made headway. There was a hard edge developing in her, not a surprise given the experiences she’d been through, and Len was determined to do what she could to temper it before it became a life-threatening problem. Too much mistrust and misery could do bad things to a person at any age, and early teens were especially formative. It didn’t exactly remove the weight of everything else that she had to look forward to, but sometimes even a small easing of worry could have great results.

Kes, for her part, looked bleary-eyed but rested herself. Len secretly wondered how she managed to sleep with that roaring snore of hers, but supposed it was just the benefits of youth. They packed up their tents before breakfast, enjoyed yet another serving of pan-roasted vegetables that were crying out desperately for salt and pepper at the absolute least, and broke camp. Their journey wasn’t quite finished but they’d been making good time and Balar was confident they’d make it to the city by midday on the morrow. Len’s overall nervousness at the upcoming challenges had mostly faded, a certain calm setting in over her as the inevitability of it all snapped into focus.

It wasn’t exactly confidence that she was feeling. She really didn’t have a lot of reason to be confident about anything that was headed her way. She had faith in herself and her abilities, sure, but whatever was going to be arrayed against her was sure to be an extra sort of ridiculous even by the standards she’d come to expect from this world. Rather than that, it was a sort of understanding that the events would play out the way that they needed to, and that she believed that they would play out in her favor. She wouldn’t have known how to put it to words if asked, but there was a comfort in her that hadn’t been there the day before.

“You’re looking better today,” Kes observed.

“Yeah, don’t know what it is, but I like it.”

They continued on their trudge until midday where they saw their first other travelers, a pair of hooded figures that were making their way along the road at a slower pace than their little troup. It didn’t take long to catch up with the pair, and something about the passing made Len’s hackles rise. There wasn’t anything obvious about them, yet she still found her hand straying to the dagger at her side. Balar and Kes didn’t notice it, but she felt something dangerous coming off the two. Still, they were allowed to pass without incident and continue on their way. Whatever the two were up to, it didn’t seem to concern Len or her companions, so it could be left as a problem for a later date.

In spite of that thinking, Len found her feet stopping in their place. Somehow, she just KNEW that if she didn’t deal with them now it’d be a much bigger problem later. An instant later, she was struck with a bolt of realization and called out to the source of this foreign knowledge in her head.

“All right, out with it. What’s going on here?”

Beside her, Len saw Kes and Balar start to look at her curiously before freezing in that customarily creepy fashion that everything else did whenever Pitch used its powers over time.

“I warned you that they’d be drawing near,” the creature said in an oily tone. “You thought the problem would go away if you ignored it and now it’s found you.”

“Are you going to elaborate on that, or is this gonna be another round of wasting my breath?”

“I might have elaborated,” said Pitch, “but there’s no time for that right now.”

“No time? What are you talking about, we’ve got nothing… but… time,” she trailed off as she realized that the two figures on the road hadn’t slowed their pace in the slightest, in spite of the fact that everything around them had. When they were within a few yards of the group, they stopped to observe her and her shadowy companion.”

“Huh, sis,” said the taller of the two, a reedy looking fellow based on what was visible of him from beneath the cloak. “Guess I owe you a Coke.”

“What can I say?” said the girl at his side, almost fully obscured by her own cloak, but likely no older than her late teens. “I’ve been at this longer than you.”

“Hey Pitch,” Len said cautiously. “Care to explain?”

“Oh neat,” said the girl in a sing-song tone that Len found unsettling. “You named yours? That doesn’t usually happen with the newbies.”

Pitch had shrunk back from the two and, for the life of her, Len would’ve sworn that it was hiding behind her.

“So yeah, Elfie,” said the boy, “we’re gonna go ahead and relieve you of that thing. It’s too dangerous for the likes of you to be walking around with one.”

“The hell does that mean?”

“Oh? You don’t get it? You’re possessed, babe. I’m gonna fix you right up, though.”

He snapped his fingers and a shard of light crashed down from the sky and embedded itself in the ground in front of the two. The figure threw back his hood and grasped the shard with one hand.

“You ready, sis?” he asked his companion.

“Sure thing, bro,” she said, likewise grasping it.

There was a flash of light and where the two had been standing, there was now a single headless figure clad in black armor and holding… a pitchfork?

“Pitch, what the fuck am I looking at?” she had time to ask before the figure charged at them.

Len dove to the side and avoided the blow. Pitch slithered after her, keeping alarmingly close as she moved. Not having anything near the context to deal with what was happening, she opted to prioritize. Time was still frozen, which meant that Kes and Balar were helpless. She wasn’t sure whether Pitch could even unfreeze time with things as they were but decided not to ask. Best not to get those two involved if she could help it. Instead, she circled away from her frozen companions and kept an eye on her attacker.

It was ridiculously fast for something clad from neck to toe in heavy plate armor, not so fast that she couldn’t keep ahead of it, but disturbing nonetheless. More troublesome still was the weapon it held. For all that it did look the part of a basic farm implement in general shape, the heavy tines were wickedly barbed and had a shimmering aura that reminded her of the waves of a mirage in the distance. Between the weapon’s reach and the creature’s speed, she was at a loss for how to deal with this threat armed only with the dagger.

“What the hell are you doing, Pitch? Are you going to hide this entire time?” she snapped at the shadow creature, somewhere between pissed at it and outright terrified of the strangeness of what was happening.

“You’ve made it very clear that you aren’t interested in the other powers I have to grant you, it seems futile to offer to deepen our pact again.”

For all the blitheness of the reply, Len didn’t miss the undertone of something else there. Pitch tended to have a smooth self-assurance about it, never hurried, never on the back foot. Even now, it wanted her to make the move towards it, to offer up more of herself to suit its ends rather than give her something unprompted. In spite of all that, she could feel a desperation from it. Whatever was going on here, it was in danger and it knew it. For some reason, that brought a smile to her eyes.

“You know, I think you’re right,” she said, dodging around another lunge that looked to run her through. “I really don’t get what’s going on, and you’ve spent so much time dodging my questions. Heck, maybe if I surrender, they’ll just take you off my hands and leave it at that.”

The headless creature halted its assault for a moment and squared up looking at her.

“If you really mean that, we could probably come to an arrangement,” said a strange stereo of the two people who’d started this fight. At first, Len thought it was the creature speaking, but after a second of observation, she realized that it was the weapon talking.

“Okay,” Len muttered, “that’s gonna take some getting used to. Well, Pitch, what’s it gonna be? You gonna meet me halfway on this, or do I let the creepy pitchfork kids have their way with you?”

“You think it’s that easy, Namethief?” there was a crackling rage in Pitch’s voice. “I have already become a part of you. The damage they would do to rip me free would never heal.”

“Cool, great. Creepy as hell and probably really bad for me. Thing is: you’ve given me very little these past couple of months. One gimmick that has saved my ass a couple of times, but next to nothing by way of details. These games of yours? They end here and now. You need me for something, and I’m willing to admit that I need you, but if this is going to continue, you’re not going to play these games any longer. You work with me here, or we’re done.”

The form of Pitch shifted and sputtered. It bubbled with a visible rage that almost overwhelmed everything around it. Then the spasm subsided, and a smooth, inky shadow regarded her placidly.

“Name your terms, Namethief.”

“You think we’ll let you,” shouted the siblings that were apparently a pitchfork, charging yet again.

“You give me the power to beat them. No tricks, no hidden pains afterwards, no grand manipulations towards a darker goal of yours. You give me all of that, and let me keep it, and I save your ass here. And when this is all said and done, you and I have a serious chat about what the fuck is going on here.”

“You realize that if I refuse your terms, we both die. You never get home, and the one whose name you stole remains trapped in your world forever.”

“Wait, what?” Len paused. “Oh, you better believe that we’re gonna get back to that, buddy. Anyway, stop wasting time and give me your answer. Do you want to live or not?”

“It seems that your will is stronger than mine this day, Namethief. Enjoy it while it lasts. My power is yours.”

Pitch spasmed once then shrank in upon itself, taking the form of an almost impossibly black ebony cane. Len might’ve taken the time to consider the potential repercussions of what she was about to do, but she didn’t have that luxury at the moment. Instead, she grasped the cane firmly and brought it up just in time to repel the blow that came for her head.

It caught her off guard how easy the move had been. By all accounts, the larger creature had more than enough power to drive her into the ground with a single blow. She’d been able to stay alive so far only by virtue of not getting hit. Now, though, she’d repelled a strike that should’ve crushed her, and it had been… so very easy.

“Bad news, kids,” she said with a cruel grin. “I’m afraid that I won’t be taking you up on your offer today.”

“Have it your way,” the two snarled in stereo. “We’ll just rip him from your shattered corpse.”