Five days and nights later the Wastes became impassable for the Andros and Pequod. The rolling, roiling metallic dunes had all but given way to a thin veil of sand that masqueraded as a carpet atop of fissured earth and to sail any further would have meant risking the damaging of the undercarriage of the ships. Thus the two sandsailors had come to a stop and their directions reversed for the return trip. The timing seemed eloquent enough anyway.

  Everyone could see the forest now.

  Their final approach aboard the ships had been mere moments before dawn. The sun had not yet peeked over the horizon but the twilight of daybreak was beginning to obscure the cloudless night sky with a veil of copper light. None the less everyone with sight could see their destination plainly enough by the way the manifold stars in the sky seemed to descend from the heavens and rise from the earth. A sea of glittering jewels just at eye level in an otherwise black and blue canvas of night. As the sun rose the mirror trees seemed to erupt in shimmering flame as if to entice them to come closer and warm themselves by a fire that did not exist.

  Everyone was on edge now in a way that the rest of the preceding journey hadn’t made them. Every ningen and bloodling was quiet as they worked together to unload the Andros and Pequod of everything that they had brought to prepare for this moment. The ornithopters had been called back before the ships were turned around. The wagons were largely handled by the animunculi who worked together to lift them up onto the deck and then slid down the sides on the anchored arms of the ships. Arms were distributed among the able – spears, plumbatae, and flamethrowers – and masks and goggles were handed out just in case. Anything in excess, like the fuel tanks and flamethrowers that would not be used by the wounded or the fallen, were placed within the wagons to be stored unless needed.

  Once everyone was equipped, the wagons loaded, the wounded left on the ships with a small contingency of volunteers and a trio of animunculi to watch over them and operate ornithopters from afar, a feast was thrown. As much as one could be with the rations they had with them. For nearly a month all of them had been subsisting off of water, manoushe, toum, a versatile grain known as teffa which they had used to make a simple porridge as well as a thin, rollable pancake called injera by mixing it with just a bit of water to form a batter before cooking it in a flat pan, salted and preserved meats of various sorts. Processed sand whale. Fish. Unicorn. Even some preserved mollusk from the mainland had been expended from Mirage’s stock.

  Everything was brought to bare in the early morning light and portioned generously with no thought given to the return trip. No one needed to say just what the reason was. They all knew.

  While the ningen ate of their rations, the bloodlings who would accompany them fed off of their rotated ningen donors. Each donor was put into a minimum of seven day circulation to insure the health of everyone involved. No one was exempt from the duty while they were away from Mirage. The process made everyone uncomfortable, including the bloodlings who, at Vivicetti’s directive, refused to parasitically eat from their donors by biting them. Instead small, but deep, and harmless incisions were made to drain a sufficient amount of blood to sustain themselves healthily for the day – no more than a liter – afterwards the wound was treated by the bloodling who collected the life sustaining blood. As an unspoken courtesy, no bloodling consumed their daily allotment in front of their donor.

  As they ate their fill properly for the first time in days, no one could resist looking towards that sparkling horizon that coldly beckoned them despite the warm light it reflected. Voices were quiet when spoken. Friends and family huddled together and tried to enjoy this very last moment of tranquility while it lasted, knowing full well that when next they arose it would be to march towards fiery violence or death. It crossed everyone’s mind at least once that a minuscule flicker of light could actually be an oleum monster moving in place to ambush them. Imaginations flared with horrific terrors as their minds filled the unknown with hideous possibilities.

  In total, of the one hundred who had made the journey, discounting the dead, the injured, and those staying behind to tend to them, there were sixty-five who were preparing to risk their lives for the sake of everyone they knew and so many more they didn’t. Nearly half of what had been meant to make it this far in fit enough shape to fight. Of all of them, none were as aware of the weight of this number than William was, who scarcely looked away from the glittering promise of danger not so far away since disembarking on the Andros and stepping away from everyone else to be alone, blade gripped firmly in his hands.

  Vivicetti and the other bloodlings that were still fit to undertake the mission from the Tesstess were sat together, sipping their donations and eating a smaller portion of solid foods from the rest. Quietly she was wondering to herself if all of this was worth it, the selfish center of her predatory nature urging her towards self preservation by hijacking one of the ships and taking her and her bloodlings back to Mirage or, better yet, the mainland. Grappling with this instinct logically concluded that there was something worth fearing not far ahead, and facing that fear compelled her to ignore impulse and stay.

  Teutna had elected to sit among those who numbered in her original crew that had survived Lucifer’s attack on Mirage, minus her Songbird. She was doing everything she could to ease tensions, for herself and those around her, by striking casual conversations, telling jokes, humming – anything to not think about the weight of the fuel tank leaned against her or the fact that she was likely about as accurate with a plumbatae as a child lobbing a rock. She hoped that whatever had been done to make the heavy darts incendiary would have a wide area of effect so she didn’t have to aim as stringently when the time came to use them.

  Luff and select members of his crew were eating on their feet, double and triple checking what supplies and arms that were left, making certain that everything was in as good of shape as it could be. To him this was very reminiscent of military drills that he had never had to properly put into action until today. As the seconds ticked by, the notion of actually putting his training to use was making him nauseous. He wondered how much of his final checking was pragmatism and how much was procrastination.

  Marisia, her father, and her uncle were all sat in a small circle together with William who had been pulled down to sit with them by Marisia once food had been prepared and passed out. The four of them ate quietly, with Joscur watching his daughter, Daniellex watching his best friend and Marisia, and William staring off to the gleaming unknown. Each of them was thinking about the safety of the others, discounting their own, except for William, who thought only of putting an end to this as quickly and efficiently as possible and was preparing himself mentally to dominate the choices of everyone he could to make sure that as many of them made it out of that forest alive, and unspoiled, as possible.

  When the quiet could be bore no longer Joscur spoke. “We will be leaving soon. I would speak with you alone before we departed, Marisia.”

  “I am coming with you,” she responded without lifting her head.

  “Marisia-” Daniellex tried to implore softly, before being spoken over by Joscur, who glared at William.

  “William,” he insisted, expecting the eidolon to uphold his promise.

  “Only until any fighting begins!” Marisia cut through all of them, turning towards her father and uncle. “I said that I would not get in the way of any fighting and I will not! If a struggle begins, someone can take me back to the boats where I will be safe.”

  “Entirely out of the question!” Joscur snapped, switching to Mirage-Tongue so he could scold his daughter. “It is bad enough that you are here in the first place, but now that we are right on the edge of danger, I will not -”

  “How are you still treating me like an idiot child!?” Marisia snarled back to her father in the same fashion.

  “Peace, you two, peace!” Daniellex boomed, raising his voice to try and get a handle on the both of them in their shared tongue.

  “She is my daughter! Your goddaughter!” Joscur spat at his best friend. “Does her safety mean nothing to you!?”

  “It means everything to me!” Daniellex insisted, pointing at Joscur. “As does yours! Do not let this be the last impression that our daughter remembers her father by!”

  “We are coming back,” Joscur insisted through gritted teeth before turning back to his daughter, “which is why you will be here waiting for us-”

  “You cannot know that!” Marisia shouted.

  “Enough,” William said quietly. He was ignored.

  “Marisia, Joscur, stop this, please,” Daniellex pleaded, trying to keep the peace as he reached out and placed a hand on his god daughter’s knee and his friend’s shoulder. Joscur swatted his burly hand away and raised his voice further.

  “If anyone thinks that I am going to allow my last remaining family member to risk her life for… what? What? What reason could there be that is permissible!?”

  “This could be the last time I see any of you alive…!” Marisia choked out, tears in her eyes. “Can you not see that I want to be with you for as long as possible?”

  “Enough,” William repeated, getting through to them all this time. He took a quick swig of water before sighing and turning his gray gaze to Joscur. “Marisia comes and she’ll stay beside me along with one of the animunculi, until we get within sight of the citadel. If anything happens before hand, if the ornithopters catch sight of any oleum, she and the animunculi will return back to the ships together along with anyone else who can be spared to make sure she’s safe.”

  Joscur’s teeth ground together and his fists quaked at the declaration but remained silent. The way William was looking at him made it clear that there wasn’t going to be any more debate about this, so he averted his angry eyes with impotent frustration. As William looked to Daniellex, he gave a nod, saying just as firmly, “I will be sticking close to Marisia and Joscur as well.”

  William nodded. Marisia touched her uncles hand and briefly smiled before, hesitantly, reaching over to touch her father. Joscur, in his anger, stood up and began to gather his armaments without returning the touch.

  Following his lead, William stood up himself, his sword the only weapon he had on hand. “Finish eating and prepare yourselves. We’ll be leaving soon,” he warned before walking away to let everyone else know.

  ***

  Minutes later William was leading a briefing with Luff and Daniellex about what was about to happen and how. Daniellex went over the precise operations of the flamethrowers and how they were used, how to use them safely in close proximity to one another, the amount of fuel the tanks had and approximately how much fire they could sling as a result. Luff then explained, for all those unfamiliar, the basics of using both the spears and the plumbatae as well as explaining how they had been altered to be incendiary weapons, pointing out how a potent cocktail of chemicals had been placed into fragile casings wrapped in cloth beneath the heads of the weapons that would ignite when exposed to the air. They were, thus, each a one time use weapon that were meant to impale an oleum if it came within range and set them alight and should be used as last resorts. He stressed with military strictness that the flamethrowers should be the first line of defense, then the spears, then the plumbatae if they have to retreat and create distance between them. He also took the opportunity, while he had everyone’s attention, to remind everyone not to let an oleum bleed on them or get any of the black fluid on their body. Any who did would be considered lost and have to be dealt with accordingly.

  After Luff gave his brief William explained how they would proceed going forward. If at all possible, the plan was to have the wagons carry as many as possible while the rest split up into roughly two equal sized groups who would walk in front and in back of the wagons with animunculi on either extreme. William would stay in the middle with one of the artificial giants who would be in contact with an ornithopter flying overhead that would warn them if there was any movement approaching them from any direction as they moved through the forest. If the wagons could not make it through at any point, they would continue on foot in as close of a circular grouping as was possible. In either case there would be people around the perimeter of the formation who would keep their eyes peeled for any sign of any movement within the trees. When they reached the citadel, William would lead the way in himself.

  “Once we’re in the citadel, if we have not encountered any oleum before then, we should expect to encounter all of them inside. There is no telling what we will find within there, and I need to be candid with you all,” William said, speaking frankly as he looked from one soul to another who were very likely to not make it back to either the Andros of Pequod. “Lucifer is not like any other ningen you’ve met before, and right now he is not in his right mind. He may try to torment us, make it so that there is nowhere safe within the confines of his domain. Light will be our greatest ally against him. Assume that every shadow is dangerous, every patch of darkness a threat. There may be worse things than oleum hiding in wait around every corner for all that we know. I know that sounds perilous, but if you follow my lead, do exactly as I tell you, work together and keep your fires burning bright, we can get through this yet…”

  He trailed off, half turning to give one last look at the morning-bright shimmer on the horizon. “Masks and goggles on, people. If you see anything that isn’t us when we get in there; burn it on sight. If we encounter Lucifer, I need one chance to try and speak with him. If he’s unresponsive and I am unable to kill him, burn him, too. No mercy. No exceptions. Assume anything, alive or dead, is an oleum and should be dealt with with extreme prejudice.” The Ediolon turned back towards everyone as they were pulling their respirator masks up over their mouths and snapping their goggles in place. He did the same. The only one who did neither was Marisia, who stood between her two father figures and clung onto the elbow of her uncle.

  “For the sake of those you left to protect in Mirage, let none survive!” William declared grimly, voice distorted by the respirator, raising his sword above his head. Daniellex was the first to raise a gauntlet clad fist into the air and let out a defiant cry but was followed almost immediately after by everyone else doing the same, fists and spears and voices raised defiantly in the dry air.

  They began their march.

  It took less than an hour for individual trees to become visible. Glittering trunks stood out against each other with their silvery sheen, the last wisps of sand washing against roots which perforated the ground like some petrified surf on a long dead shoreline. As they approached the goggles proved their worth as the sunlight bouncing off of one leafless trunk and then another illuminated the area around them for several meters. Even with the shaded lenses it was harsh and many squinted behind them. Shadows grew longer and stretched out behind as though desperately trying to escape their owners and return to the ships.

  “Fuck me, it’s like staring directly into the sun except it’s right in front of me…” Vivicetti lamented from her place inside one of the wagons where she and the other bloodlings were sat, having stuck her head out to look ahead. Because of their relative sensitivity to sunlight, it was unanimously agreed that they would seek shelter within the cover of the wagons until night fell unless it was necessary.

  “Aye, would probably be for the best that you lot not poke about until nightfall,” Teutna commented from where she walked beside the wagon, spear slung over her shoulder. Vivicetti ducked back into the shade and looked away from the trees without another word in silent agreement.

  “Anything of note that the ornithopter is picking up?” William asked the animunculi who marched beside him in between the wagons, turning to look up at it as he spoke.

  “The ornithopter does not visually detect any signs of movement within the forest as of yet, however, certainty cannot be ascertained at this time due to the ambient light pollution causing visual distortions,” it replied in its tinny tone.

  “What do you mean?” the eidolon asked.

  “The amount of light refracting off of the structures below is visually impairing the ornithopter’s camera,” it clarified. “Air based visuals should not be fully trusted at this time because of this.”

  William turned back to the forest and took this information into account. ‘If the amount of light pollution is bad enough to make cameras inaccurate, then exactly how much light is in there?’ he wondered to himself.

  His internal question was answered as the small caravan came to a stop at the edge of the forest, the crowd dispersing wide as the wagons were pulled up beside each other by the bulky animunculi. A murmur ran through them all as what they faced was considered. “What is it? What is happening?” Marisia asked, stepping forward and giving William’s elbow a tug.

  “It is so… surreal…” Daniellex mumbled directly behind Marisia.

  “Do you remember the mirror trees I told you about?” William asked.

  “Yes?” she responded.

  “We’ve arrived, and… there’s no shadows here,” he informed her, knowing there was no proper way to convey to the blind teenager how strange the world looked without the presence of any shade. Light from the sun shone down onto the reflective surfaces of twisting trunks and snaking branches, bouncing off of each other and reflecting outwards in all directions, overlapping in on itself from every conceivable angle until all was luminescent redundancy. Everything before them was at once more defined and visually distinct than it normally would be, including themselves, and distinctly uncanny. Their reflections warped on and around convex trunks that simultaneously stood apart from all others and blended in. Within this curtain of oppressive sunlight, if one were to look straight ahead into the forest which created this illusion, distance was difficult to parse accurately at a glance for the depth that shade normally provides was entirely absent.

  Marisia, sensing the unease, clung onto William’s arm tighter.

  Vivicetti, and the other bloodlings, were hard at work finding something to use as a cover over the open ends of the covered wagons to protect themselves from the intrusive light.

  “The ornithopter can’t positively identify if anything is moving within because of the light pollution,” William commented, indirectly addressing the animunculi that stood nearby, “but can it see the citadel from here?”

  “Yes,” the animunculi confirmed with a brief blue flash in it’s cross shaped visor. “There is a structure approximately five miles ahead.”

  “Can you make out any details about it? Windows? Ledges?” Twilight asked.

  “I am afraid not,” came the metallic reply. “While there is a structure of some sort that seems solid, it also appears to be a solid black in color, making identification of any features indistinguishable from this distance. It is strange, as though the light reflecting off of the trees does not touch it. Anomalous.”

  William thought about what that meant silently, confusion settling in as this new information presented itself. Why would Lucifer – Darkness – create a forest with no shade? Was he, perhaps, drawing all of the darkness around him during the day to him and his citadel? Why? For what purpose? Far from the first time he felt as though he were lacking some important information, but, none the less, he knew they had to press on.

  “If there are no shadows to hide within, then the oleum can’t use them either,” the eidolon stated flatly. “Let’s find a path for the wagons to make. Everyone else on foot will fan out and keep a look out for any trouble. Joscur. Daniellex,” he announced softly, looking to each of them in turn. “Go and tell everyone else. We’ll stay here until you get back.”

  “Alright,” Daniellex grunted. He didn’t walk off to tell his share of volunteers until Joscur had departed without a word himself.

  ***

  Moments later the small caravan of would be exterminators had made their way into the forest as William had instructed. A break in the silvery trees with enough space for the wagons to be pulled through was located and from there the focal point of their incursion was set. Every ningen on foot was spread out but remaining within arms length of one another, save when they needed to step around a tree, and formed a loose oval around the wagons as they were slowly lead through the uneven, winding terrain. The going was especially slow because stray roots made it so that the wagons had to be rolled over each snag with care and caution so as to not accidentally disturb any flammable components within. No one dared to step on a room, be they ningen or animunculi, and everyone was silently content to wander this uncanny domain of light at a snail’s pace for fear of unseen dangers.

  If being just outside of the unnatural woods and seeing how the light denied one a shadow had been dizzying, actually walking among the trees was outright disorientating. Tensions were high, spears gripped, wary eyes peeled for any hint of danger, and, on top of not being able to accurately judge distance, all around each and every person were distorted reflections of themselves. With such clear surroundings the lightest movement from anyone was enough to shift the scenery within a wide enough degree of vision, leading to more than one instance of someone snapping to attention to something seen out of the corner of their eye, only to find that it had been the reflection of their neighbor shifting around the trunk of one of the cylindrical mirrors before them.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Is it cooler?” Marisia asked the trio around her not long after they had made their way in. “It is still hot of course, but I feel on my skin that the air is different here. Colder…”

  “It’s the trees,” William confirmed for her as she continued to hold his elbow to let him guide her. “They’re defusing the light from the sun. Scattering it around in all directions. It’s making it less warm in here by maybe only a degree or two at most.”

  “How does that make sense?” Daniellex mused quietly, curiously. “The sun is out and shining down in the Wastes. There is no machina barrier to reduce the temperature. Should these trees not be making it hotter, if anything?”

  “No. It’s the albedo effect in play,” William explained casually, absentmindedly. “The reflective surfaces of the trees are bouncing the thermal energy of the sun away in every direction at once. The light isn’t staying still long enough to heat things up like it normally would on the sands, basically.”

  “How do you know this?” Joscur asked skeptically.

  “It’s basic science. I -” William cut himself off, realizing that he’d been speaking as though on autopilot. He looked to the two ningen who were looking at him with such suspicion before turning his gaze back to the woods. “Never mind. Just trust me, there’s nothing unusual about it,” he said dismissively, realizing that neither Daniellex nor Joscur likely knew what the albedo effect was and not wanting to waste time explaining it.

  The long bearded ningen turned away without any further prodding. Joscur mumbled, “How strange,” before looking away from William himself.

  It wasn’t long after this exchange before other dangers within the forest presented themselves. One of the ningen on the right wing of the caravan noticed something strange about the ground ahead and drew attention to it to those beside him. As they got closer they stopped and examined it closer before sending a call down the line to let everyone know of the newest discovery. William quickly made his way over after asking Marisia to stay with her father for a moment to see for himself what the commotion was about.

  The ground that the ningen had spotted had turned to glass. Not the reflective, metallic sheen of the trees around them but a dull, opaque, thick lump of glass perhaps a meter in circumference at most. It clashed against the smooth, nature-mimicking roots of the trees as this dumpy blob. It was warm to the touch and seemed to radiate heat more than the rest of its surroundings. Questions were asked in Mirage-Tongue about what it was, why it was there, how it had been made in the first place. The answer came when a closer look at the surrounding area was taken. All around this patch of once molten glass, the trees were turned outwards, curling inward into a shape not dissimilar to a spherical, concave cage. Curiously, William held his hand out and passed it through the light that shone over the glass floor and found it to be noticeably warmer than the air just outside the circle.

  Kneeling down, the eidolon lifted his goggles and squinted at the harsh light assaulting his gray eyes. He needed to have a better look at the circle of comparatively abnormal trees, his thoughts whirling. ‘They refract sunlight to make it so that there aren’t any shadows… These trees aren’t natural. Something Discovery made, maybe. Maybe one of the others if he was in communication with any of them before he changed… They didn’t grow like this, they were placed with purpose -’

  The answer hit him suddenly. “It’s a trap,” he said with a distorted voice, standing up and lowering his goggles, blinking back the bright blotches of purple and green in his vision. He looked around him at the others close by and pointed up towards the sky. “Certain times of day, the angle of the sun is enough to cause light to refract in this circle and heat up the ground enough to melt the sand and surface of the earth into glass. No way of knowing when. Treat it as random. Spread the word – avoid circles of trees like this, unless you want to get burned to death by the sun.”

  The news was passed along and William returned to Marisia’s side, thoughts still troubled. ‘Why would Lucifer use light as a trap instead of darkness?’ he wondered silently as they moved on.

  The deeper in they went the more patches of glass they found. The path that they took became very akin to water making its way around stones in the river, the wagons snaking around tight turns in order to avoid areas that may catch them alight. There never seemed to be no way for the wagons to go, however. Even if they had to backtrack a path was always found to continue forward. In that way the forest began to resemble a maze, the light traps akin to dead ends. ‘Why wouldn’t he make this place impassible?’ Choice pondered.

  About an hour into passing through the mirrored forest, Lucifer’s trap was sprung.

  A scream caught everyone’s attention and all heads turned towards the source – which immediately elicited more screams of shock, terror, surprise, confusion. Weapons were raised, flamethrowers primed, confused words reigned supreme in the ears of all.

  “What is it? What has happened?” Marisia asked fearfully, wondering if she needed to turn around and be lead back to the boats as had been discussed.

  “That is impossible…” she heard her father say, fear in his voice.

  “How? How?” Daniellex was repeating, his voice reverberating as he turned his head to and fro.

  “What? What? Do I need to go?” she asked, panic rising within her.

  “Stay exactly where you are,” William said calmly, his hand touching hers before he stepped away and raised his voice. “Calm down! Everyone calm down! It’s a trick, nothing more!” he cried out, wrangling as many choices as he could as quickly as possible. Getting the ningen to look at him and not the trees would help ease the panic, so he moved around quickly, touching people to grab their attention, calling out for calm. “It’s just an illusion! Lucifer is toying with you!”

  What they were seeing were themselves by the dozen, each reflection on each tree entirely different from one another. Everyone who looked into them saw themselves but not as they were – dressed in leather fatigues, goggles, and masks, suited up for combat, no. They saw themselves as they were, inside, their psyches reflected back at them and exaggerated. It was as though each individual reflection were personalized for the viewer, seeing themselves, and only themselves, in a thousand different ways that cut to the core of who they were at a thousand different angles. Depictions of each individual at their best, their worst, the expressions they wore during the most painful moments of their lives, faces they would never admit were a part of them. Faces they never knew they could make, outfits they had never worn yet were tailored for archetypes that made up the infinite complexity of who each of them was as a person.. Everything about them was laid bare for each and every one of them to behold.

  “Look away from the trees! Look away from the trees!” William commanded, doing his best to reign things in before they broke out into total chaos. He was using his sword to swat at spears, his free hand to force raised flamethrowers.

  “What in the hell is happening out there?” Vivicetti’s voice rang out from the closed off wagon. “Do we need to fight?”

  “Nae, stay inside,” Teutna replied weakly, having listened to William enough to keep her calm, but she, like so many of the others, couldn’t help but look at herself in her myriad forms that all seemed to stare back at her with unfamiliar eyes. No one recognized their reflections and yet were utterly paralyzed by their truth.

  Fortunately for everyone the animunculi seemed to be as unaffected as William was, the six of them following William’s lead and wandering around between people. “Please, remain calm,” they said, holding up their hands and gently touching the smaller ningen on areas where skin wasn’t exposed to not burn them. “There is no need for concern, you all appear to be suffering from a shared hallucination,” they parroted.

  “What is happening, William!?” Daniellex boomed out, his voice easily discernible over the din of roiling unease.

  “It’s Lucifer!” the eidolon called back. “He’s showing you all yourselves! The facets that make up who you are as people! It’s just a shock tactic, you all need to stay calm and look away from the trees!”

  “Uncle Dani?” Marisia asked meekly, stepping towards the burly ningen and touching his arm. He placed his gauntlet over her hand and looked at her, scared for herself and her family, and that was enough to center himself.

  “We are okay, we are okay,” he assured her in their native tongue, turning to his best friend. “Jos?”

  Joscur was still, limp, unable to peel his eyes away from one tree in particular that showed him at his most traumatic moment. Covered in dust and sweat. Hands blistered and bleeding, his son in his arms.

  “Jos! Look at your daughter!” Daniellex demanded as he reached out and yanked on his arm to turn him around and force his gaze away from the tree.

  The instant he did and his eyes landed on his daughter, something broke within him. It was as though every since Vamenco’s death his vision had been filtered through that moment and it was all he could see until this very instant where he saw his daughter, standing there beside her godfather, fear in her blind eyes, an unsettled frown on her face, on the verge of tears. All the confusion. All the pain. There, before him, was his daughter. His only remaining family. It was as though they had been separated until Daniellex pulled him back and suddenly, all at once, the weight of the guilt, shame, the mourning was replaced by love and concern for his daughter’s well being.

  He pulled Marisia away from Daniellex and embraced her, pulling her to his chest and holding her head there against him. They both began to cry, but, with his daughter in his arms, a strange sense of clarity overcame him. He made eye contact with Daniellex and the look was acknowledgment of the wasted time in grief he’d spent up to this point. He suddenly understood the trap and looked to the others around him instead of the trees as William was pleading.

  “Go. Go help. Go!” he urged Daniellex, who nodded and walked off to physically jolt whoever needed it. Pulling back from his daughter he held her at arms length as she wiped her cheeks with the heel of her palm. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he uttered, knowing it wasn’t enough as he kissed her forehead.

  “So am I, baba,” she sobbed, hugging her father again.

  The moment between them was far from over, but so many were still panicked and needing help. His instincts as a guard, that feeling of responsibility to help others that he hadn’t felt in any measure in weeks, rose up within him.

  “I need you to stay here between the wagons so I can go help,” he said to her. She nodded in understanding, stepping away from her father and grabbing onto the open end of the wagon that was in front of her. “I love you,” he said, and he heard her repeat it as he turned and marched off to help William, Daniellex, and the animunculi subdue the rising anxiety.

  With everyone gradually working together to help anyone else who was especially shocked, it only took a few moments for calm to reign once more among the caravan. What helped most was the quiet that followed as raised voices were lowered and everyone collectively realized that their reflections were not out to get them, that nothing, in fact, was. William was correct, they were, all of them, merely some trick being played on them. With his help the ningen all turned inwards and huddled around one another and the wagons, looking to one another instead of the mirrors around them.

  William made his way towards the center so that he could easier speak to everyone. “I warned you all about this, and now you know. Lucifer made this happen. Shock and awe. He knows we’re here, he’s trying to disorganize us.”

  “Aye, but, how, William? How’s he doin’ it?” Teutna asked from the crowd.

  “Think of it as a hallucination, a trick of your perception. Lucifer has made each and every one of you who looked into a tree discover who you are when you’re broken up into all of the parts that make you who you are. Your pasts, your secrets, your deepest fears. Your inner darkness. He knows that about you and is using it against you, to try and scare you. To make you act stupid. To leave.”

  Murmurs of confusion and skepticism rose but he was quick to speak over it. “I know how it sounds but we do not have time to go into it! I need you all to trust that I know who Lucifer is better than all of you, and I need you to trust me that – this? All of this? The trees? The reflections? This is only the beginning of what he’s capable of. This is why its so crucial that we put an end to this now! There’s no telling what he’ll do if he isn’t stopped.”

  “None of this makes any sense…” Daniellex piped up uncertainly. “People can’t just… do this sort of thing. It goes against everything that’s fundamental about… well, everything! I’m not exactly the smartest ningen, but even I know that you’re only supposed to have one reflection because of how light works…” he said, his head starting to crane back over in the direction of the trees.

  “I told you, Daniellex, we don’t have time to get into it. You just have to trust me that what’s happening here is real, it’s possible because it’s Lucifer. And if he knows we’re here, that means that we’ve got a limited window to get this done.” Twilight turned to one of the animunculi who were stood on the outskirts of the circle, their backs facing the crowd so that they could keep watch on the forest. “Has the ornithopter spotted anything? Can you see any sign of movement in the forest?”

  “Nothing at all,” one of them confirmed.

  “Any change to the citadel?”

  “None.”

  “We go on as planned, then. Everyone, I need you all to do your best to not look at your reflections as we move forward. They’ll show you things you wish weren’t true about yourself, and that might distract or distress you, but they’re just tricks. He can’t use them to harm you except psychologically. Don’t give that to him! Be stronger than that, for your friends and family back in Mirage! For everyone else we’re here to protect – do not look at the trees when possible! Keep your eyes peeled beyond them, between them, there may still be oleum out there we just haven’t come across yet. We can’t let this put us off guard, or else this all would have been pointless!

  “Luff? Take point. Find us a path, keep them disciplined as much as you can,” William instructed.

  Captain Luff nodded grimly, turning his eyes downward and looking at those around him before gesturing and leading the way forward. The others followed gradually, fanning back out into the oval position they had been in before. William sighed deeply and ran his hand through his black hair. He was the only one who understood how dire the situation was now, knew that if Lucifer was able to make everyone see all of their different selves that he knew them, too, and if enough of his mind remained to take advantage of that discovery, it could be well and truly impossible for any of them to survive this if Darkness was so determined. He’d know their every weakness of character and how to exploit it, every part of themselves that they denied, rejected, weren’t aware of, never wanted to know. He’d twist them until they broke by manipulating the darkness in their hearts and there would be nothing that Twilight or Choice could do about it.

  “Are we ready?” Daniellex asked, stepping up next to William as the wagon in front of them began to move again.

  He looked to the bearded ningen and nodded, quietly glancing over at his own reflections as he began to walk. The faces he saw were all his, in a fashion. The trouble was, unlike the rest of them, none of them matched. Anywhere that William looked now in the forest he saw the faces of Twilight and Choice’s past, in all the bodies and all the lives that the ultimatum had inhabited.

  There weren’t enough trees in the forest to show just how many there truly were.

  ***

  The way forward was made even slower than it had been before because of the light traps and avoiding looking into the trees. William helped silently by monitoring every time someone attempted to choose to look out of curiosity or grit and denying them that choice. Lucifer had never pulled something off like this, that he was aware of, but had employed similar tactics to get under people’s skins in the past. There was no telling which reflection would be the one to send any of them into a spiraling mess of psychosis. Far better to keep everyone’s heads down as much as possible instead.

  As the hours passed by and the angle of the sun changed so, too, did their path have to alter to accommodate for the reflected sunlight. More than once they needed to backtrack and find another way at the sight of fumes rising up from a patch of previously melted glass, a sure, if nearly invisible, sign that the path was heating up to dangerous levels. Progress was slow but safe. They did not see any oleum as they continued their way towards the citadel of Darkness and Discovery.

  Marisia and Joscur had started walking together. In that strange sort of way that only a parent and child could, all of the anger and resentment between them seemed to have faded now that the father had properly seen his daughter once again. She held onto his elbow and he smiled softly, looking at her instead of the trees trying to show a million different versions of himself. He wasn’t happy, neither of them were, but they were glad to have each other at their sides again. As they walked they spoke quietly to themselves. Apologizing. Making up for lost time. Trying to get as much out of this moment as possible. Neither of them minded the slow pace they were traveling at.

  Daniellex, too, was happy to see them reconciling with one another. He said and did nothing to get in the way of his goddaughter and best friends’ reunion. What more could he had to such a quietly perfect moment as this? Despite the circumstances in which they all found themselves, relief brought a smile to his bushy face every time he looked over at the two of them. A smile he often turned William’s way. He wasn’t a fool, after all. He knew how Marisia felt about the quiet stranger turned family friend. He was also aware that they were far from safe, but he quietly hoped that this uncanny calm in the lighted forest would last until the very final moment when Marisia was guided back to the ships and they were left to do their fiery work. She and her father needed this time together, and he was all the more determined to make sure Joscur made it out of this unscathed so that the two of them could have more time together in the future.

  A few careful, tense hours later, and the citadel came within their sight. It was well into the afternoon at that point. All of them were tired, physically and mentally, from a night spent traveling and a day walking through a disorienting maze. Water was distributed generously out of what they had brought with them at regular intervals, but no one had eaten since the small feast during the dawn. Exhaustion was starting to set in when the great shadow was spotted through the trees and, after confirming with the animunculi via ornithopter that this was the place, William declared they would take the next few hours to rest before continuing on.

  “I do not understand,” Luff commented. “You said yourself Lucifer knows we are here, yet has done nothing to obstruct our progress. Should we not seize the momentum and strike while there are no oleum about? Catch the lot of them by surprise?”

  “Everyone needs time to rest for a few hours. Lucifer hasn’t attacked us yet, and that’s either because he can’t or he’s waiting for the cover of night when he has the advantage. We’re going to keep watch, rest up, and then go once dusk gets here, so that we have the advantage,” William explained calmly.

  “How does that give us the advantage exactly? It’ll be getting dark by then. Isn’t the working theory that these light traps are keeping the oleum at bay?” Vivicetti called out from the wagon, having, apparently, been listening in on all manner of talk to stay informed throughout the day despite her and the other bloodlings’ self imposed isolation.

  Despite the circumstances William smiled knowingly beneath his respirator mask. “This is another one of those trust things, Vivicetti. We go at dusk, we hit them fast, we hit them hard, we’ll have a very solid advantage before night falls. If we do it right, and get just a little lucky, we may be able to end this quickly.”

  “How can you be so certain?” Luff asked, turning to look at the not so distant patch of darkness which loomed as an ominous abyss after a day spent in irreverent sunlight. “This… citadel, as you call it, if that is even accurate, looks quite large. There could be any number of oleum held within, and the ornithopters saw it above the trees, no? There may be multiple floors we have to sweep…”

  “Quick is a relative term. We might not be in and out of there within a few minutes, but if the oleum behave like they did in Mirage, I’m willing to bet that most of them will come to us once the fighting starts. We just need to draw them to our location in as best of a kill zone as we can make. I’ll take care of Lucifer myself, the rest of you just need to make sure to burn whatever you can and make certain nothing escapes once the fires start.”

  “That’s all well and good, lad, but what exactly are we going to do come dusk that’s so advantageous? That’s what we be askin’, do ye kin it?” Teutna insisted, hoping that William would give her a straight answer.

  “It’s… hard to explain,” William fessed up. “But it’s similar to how Lucifer can manipulate the trees. I have an idea that will give us the advantage no matter what Lucifer has inside. We just need to wait until dusk so I can set it in motion.”

  They would get no clearer answer out of him than that and so had to accept that William had a plan that somehow revolved around the day ending. Rest was had by all who came and huddled around the wagons, sitting on the ground and doing what they could to wind down. Many covered their eyes with their arms and lowered their heads to try and get as much sleep as they could. The heat made that nearly impossible without needing to hydrate every half an hour or so meaning the majority of them had to subsist off of motionless micronaps if sleep was had at all. William was among the few who opted not to sleep at all and instead keep a vigil with the animunculi who stood as sentinels around the wagons with the ornithopter orbiting overhead. Every so often he would make sure that it saw nothing new. A small bit of confidence grew within him each time one of the mechanical giants reported that it had not.

  ‘Maybe they really are all inside that structure. Maybe Lucifer is keeping them under control somehow. Has he returned to his senses? Is that a possibility?’Choice pondered to himself, hoping against hope that the best outcome was the most plausible one.

  As day began to wane into night the light within the forest changed accordingly. Gradually the harsh light of the afternoon desert sun faded into the soft flaming glow of sunset. Shadows began to return to the mirrored trees with the advent of nightfall. The bloodlings emerged from their wagon, the most well rested of all of them and the most prepared to give their all. As they stretched the stiffness out of their bodies William took the chance to let everyone know that it was time to go. Dusk would be there soon.

  As ningen all around them began to rise to their feet, Joscur, weary but prepared, kissed his daughter’s hand. “It is time for you to go, child,” he whispered in their native language.

  “Not yet, baba, please,” Marisia pleaded.

  Joscur shook his head. “No. Do not disobey me now, sweetling. This is where we part, but I will be back with you in just a few hours. After this, your mother and brother will be avenged. I can rest knowing I did all I could to bring them justice.”

  He rose to leave, looking for the closest animunculi to ask it to escort his daughter even as she scrambled up his arm to stand with him. “Just until you go inside! I will go after, but let me walk with you as far as I can!”

  “Marisia…”

  “Do not deny her this,” Daniellex urged, stepping over to the two of them and planting his big hands on either of their shoulders. “One more short walk before she is taken back to the ships. There are no dangers out here now that the sun is setting, what harm could it bring?”

  Joscur was uneasy about the request, but as he looked to his daughter whose face was so much like her mothers, her hair bright like his, feeling how she clung to him so desperately as though she were small again, he found himself unable to enforce his wishes.

  “Very well. You stay close to me until it is time for us to go, then you turn around and do not look back until you are back on the ship,” he capitulated.

  Moments later they were marching once again, making the final push towards the citadel which had silently stood like a hole in the world this entire time. It wasn’t until they drew closer to it and could see its details that the oppressive of the gothic brutalist architecture made itself known. It was massive, towering above the dimming trees as though longing for the freedom of the sky. There were no windows to be seen in its nearly uniform structure, every brick a slab of stone so black as to absorb any light that touched it. To look up was to behold steeples, buttresses, all at varying lengths and angles as though to emulate a funneled web to ensnare the stars above. There was no rhyme or reason for its architectural choices, no hospitality in its design. It stood as a monument to Darkness, made by Darkness, and radiated malice. There was but a single entrance, a gaping portal into the unknown whose entryway stretched to either side as though to embrace all who entered, inviting, as if to say ‘Come and see!’

  “Alright, this is in,” Captain Luff said, turning away from the citadel and looking back at the sixty-five souls that were there with him. “One last equipment check. Make sure your gauntlets are primed. We move in momentarily!”

  “Time to go, sweetling,” Joscur whispered against the clatter of clanking spears, counted plumbatae, and flipping switches to prime flamethrowers.

  Marisia nodded, reluctantly. Hesitated as she let go of her father’s arm.

  No one noticed that the reflections had stopped being abnormal.

  William was distracted scanning the building’s face for any other ways inside, suddenly consumed with dread at the convenience that their path had lead them to the only entrance. Had he not been so focused on the missing pieces of the puzzle he faced, he might have noticed Marisia’s choice precious seconds before it was made, instead of as he felt the cooling air breeze past him as she ran forward.

  His gray eyes shot to her as she bolted past. ‘What are you doing!?’ he wondered, unable to verbalize the thought as he watched her turn her back on the entrance. A bright smile was on her face, chosen out of bravery and meant to be encouraging. She was hardly five steps away from where William stood beside Luff, Daniellex and Joscur nearly the same distance between them.

  “Good luck, and soft winds carry you all home!” she called out in Mirage-Tongue, wanting nothing more than to be one last bit of encouragement to those who were about to risk their lives for people like her, for all of Mirage!

  He came from above, dropping down silently behind the blind ningen who heard only the touch of his feet upon the ground an instant before the serrated obsidian blade impaled her gut at an upward angle. Lucifer rose to his feet slowly, lifting Marisia up off of the ground as he did without changing the position of his blade. She gasped in agony, body quivering, face contorting into a mask of suffering. Lucifer’s orange eyes burned with apathetic malevolence as he looked upon the host at his door.