DARKLIGHT

- 28 -

Like waking up after a particularly bad nightmare, we were shoved back into reality. As soon as vague silhouettes of trees began to reveal themselves in the shadowy night, I heard Kaces cry out, and turned to see that Councilor Blaine had inserted the red shifter disc into his arm again. The Councilor looked stricken as Kaces's scales started to reemerge. "I'm sorry," he said. "I should trust you, but now that our situation is more uncertain, I can't take any chances."

Kaces stared blankly at the forest floor, holding his symbol arm close to his chest with his other hand. "Helping us all escape isn't enough for you?" he growled, adamantly locked eyes with Blaine. The Councilor shied away slightly from his still shifting draconic features. "I thought you recognized me!"

Blaine sighed and brushed Kaces off. "Fleur! Corvan!" he called into the woods. When there was no reply, he put his hands on his hips, surveying our surroundings. I took the time to do the same, running a finger down my symbol to use the little light it provided.

The largest trees in the forest were broad and squat, unlike what Kaces and I had trekked through during our long escape. They grew sporadically, with large areas of extremely sparse undergrowth below their high branches. The nighttime sounds of Serkha City had become distant but carried enough for me to know that we weren't too far. We were closer than the WingWay exit had been, surely.

After scanning for signs of civilization and finding none, I looked back to Kaces. He was facing away from us, leaning against the monstrous trunk of the tree we had appeared under. I again felt the unexplainable urge to try to help him somehow, but I knew I would be pushed away.

The Councilor had been systematically searching the ground around the trunks of each of the large trees nearby. Finally, he said gruffly, "Found it," stomping on a raised patch of leaves that clanked under his shoes. "Corvan!" he cried again. "Daigar's hurt!"

A cheery voice seemed to materialize out of thin air near Blaine. "Lionel! Good to see you! Are you all coming in?"

Blaine hesitated, peering at Kaces as he remained unmoving against the tree. I looked between the two of them nervously. "Give them a few minutes," he said finally. "Daigar needs attention, anyway."

The voice chuckled. "All right. Fleur should be nearby when they're ready. Ortiyano Kohtar."

The Councilor vanished, and after a long silence, Kaces looked over his shoulder to check that he was gone. Then he sighed in frustration, sliding down against the tree trunk with his head in his hands. "He's forgotten who I am," he spat, "or perhaps worse, he thinks that I've forgotten. I haven't," he said firmly.

I was surprised and unsure what to say. "He's probably cautious around all of the Kireveans he rescues," I offered. Kaces pointedly looked up at my symbol arm, which Blaine hadn't touched. I sighed. "I had real proof that I was in the Order."

"And I don't?" he snorted. "I'm the son of a Councilor. He knew me right away in the Council room."

"You also worked with the Kireveans for years."

"Right. The same people that he's been rescuing from Order custody." He dropped his hands into his lap, revealing his vexed features. "There might be people in there that know me," he realized. "They'll think that I'm still working with Brymea."

He suddenly looked up at me, smiling with dangerous intensity. "I'm a traitor no matter where I go. For all you know, I might still be on Brymea's side." Scales on his elbows scraped against each other as he pushed himself to his feet. "Once I learn all I can about what Councilor Blaine has been doing, I can report back to her, right? She could take over and gain all of her old allies back."

Kaces's symbol had started glowing despite the shifter, and I was petrified in front of him. When he stopped talking, I thought he might have noticed my fear, but instead, he whispered, "Corvan." I started to back away towards the spot where Blaine had vanished. "Corvan," he repeated, eyes unfocusing as he tried to call back a memory. "I know that name."

I finally heard metal. "Fleur?" I quaked. "Are you there?"

A female voice asked, "Ready to come inside?"

I turned away from Kaces's growing madness. "Yes."

"Ortiyano Kohtar," she incanted, and as if a switch had been flipped, metal walls appeared around me, perfectly filling in the space between and below the oddly-formed trees and vegetation. A young woman in a gray and white jumpsuit was standing right next to me on a slightly raised floor, holding a small metal tablet that glowed with Light magic from her unicorn symbol. "Welcome to the Resistance," she quipped.

In awe, I stepped up from the patch of leaves, which now appeared quite out of place, and spun around to see the rest of the room. Then I noticed Kaces, with his arm outstretched towards where I had disappeared from his sight. He was just as visible as before, though his feet passed through the floor of the room by a few inches. With a shuddering sigh, his arm sank to his side, and he slowly sat down. His legs also passed through the metal floor to the ground below without any interaction. "This can't be happening," he said, turning pale.