The cart door swung open, and Alucent stepped out onto the dirt road with his cane in his right hand and his left hand resting on the pouch at his belt. The turquoise moonlight fell across the path in pale uneven bands, and the air was cold against his face. Joy followed close behind him, her boots clicking against the wooden step before they touched the ground. Raya came next with her Weaveblade fully drawn, the metal catching the moonlight, and Gryan was last, his mechanical arm humming as he jumped down without using the step.
They stood in a loose formation on the road, the cart behind them and the forest stretching dark and silent on both sides. The horses stamped nervously, their breath coming in short bursts of white vapor that drifted and dispersed. The driver sat frozen on his perch, his hands still gripping the reins, his face pale.
Alucent scanned the darkness ahead. He could not see anyone. No figure. No movement. Only the trees and the black spaces between them.
For a moment, there was nothing.
Then the wind stirred, and it carried something with it. A coldness that seemed to press against his skin from all directions. A whisper that might have been words or might have been the rustling of leaves, but felt wrong either way.
Alucent's grip tightened on his cane.
He glanced at Joy. Her face had changed. The calm that had remained steady through both impacts, through the voice speaking outside the cart, had cracked. Her blue eyes widened. Her lips parted. Something flickered across her features, quick and sharp.
Fear.
Then it was gone. She pressed her lips together and folded her hands in front of her, and her expression settled back into composure. But Alucent had seen it.
She knows something, he thought. Or she suspects something.
Before he could speak, Gryan stepped forward and planted his feet. His mechanical arm rose slightly, the rune-lines along its surface glowing a faint amber in the darkness. His voice came out hard.
"Who are you?" he demanded. "Show yourself this instant!"
At the same moment, Raya spoke. Her voice was higher, tighter, the words tumbling out. "If you're sent from the Goddess Anima, does that mean she knows we talked about her? You mentioned her name. You must know her."
The two questions overlapped and tangled in the cold air.
Silence stretched.
Then a low chuckle came from somewhere ahead of them. The sound was soft, almost gentle, but it seemed to come from everywhere at once. From the trees. From the road. From the air itself. Alucent felt it vibrate in his chest.
"Ahh," the voice said. The same thick male voice from before, calm and unhurried. "Of course not. I am not a messenger of her grace. I am merely a worshipper, just as you are."
The voice paused. Alucent tried to pinpoint its location, but it seemed to drift, shifting between the trees.
"Also, who would be foolish enough not to know her grace, the Goddess Anima?" A note of amusement entered the tone. "I take it you must be from Verdant Vale, no?"
Raya opened her mouth to respond, but Gryan cut her off. He took another step forward, his right hand curling into a fist, the rune-lines on his mechanical arm brightening.
"I said, who are you?" His voice had changed. There was an edge to it now, something raw and dangerous. "Answer me!"
The chuckle came again. Softer. Almost pitying.
"Who am I?" the voice repeated, and now it seemed to come from Alucent's left. "I don't think that's important to you, because you can't even perceive me."
A pause.
"So how dare you ask who I am?" The calm had not wavered. The tone remained unhurried. But something cold had crept into it, something that made Alucent's skin prickle. "Are you in haste to perish?"
Gryan's jaw tightened, but he did not respond.
Alucent stood beside Joy, saying nothing. His mind was working, turning over possibilities. The voice came from ahead, but he could not see the speaker. He needed more information.
He waited.
The voice continued without pause, not giving them time to recover.
"But if you truly want to know who I am," it said, "then it is my pleasure to introduce myself."
The wind stirred again, and the cold deepened. Alucent felt it seep through his frock coat, through his shirt, and settle against his skin.
"But only because you won't leave here with your lives to tell anyone else."
The words hung in the air. Somewhere behind them, one of the horses let out a low, frightened sound.
"I am Tyranix."
The name seemed to echo, bouncing between the trees in ways that made no sense. Alucent heard it from his left, then from his right, then from directly behind him. He resisted the urge to turn.
"I am he who cannot be seen. Cannot be heard. Cannot be perceived."
The turquoise moonlight flickered, though there were no clouds in the sky.
"I am the death to your senses."
Another pause, and when the voice came again, it was closer. Much closer. Perhaps ten feet ahead of them, maybe less.
"Being in my presence today? The Goddess has blessed you all." A soft, mocking breath. "Perhaps her grace is testing the foolish."
Gryan moved.
He surged forward in a burst of motion, faster than Alucent had expected. Not fast by any extraordinary measure, but faster than an ordinary man, his mechanical arm cocked back with gears whirring. He swung at the space where the voice had come from, his metal fist cutting through the air.
He hit nothing.
His fist passed through empty space, and his momentum carried him forward a step before he caught himself. The mechanical arm hung extended, the rune-lines pulsing uselessly.
The chuckle came again, louder this time, echoing from somewhere to Gryan's right.
"Gryan!" Raya's voice was sharp. "Come back! It's too dangerous! We can't fight what we can't perceive!"
Gryan started to turn, his weight shifting to retreat.
Then something happened.
Alucent saw nothing. He saw Gryan standing alone in the moonlight, his mechanical arm still raised, his body half-turned toward Raya. But Gryan's expression changed. His eyes widened. His body went rigid. His breath caught in his throat.
"I'm glad you think you could try to hurt me."
The voice was right there. Right beside Gryan. Close enough that Alucent could almost pinpoint its location.
And then Gryan smiled.
The tension in his shoulders eased. The anger in his eyes faded. His jaw unclenched, and his lips curved upward into something warm and satisfied. He stood straighter, his chest puffing out slightly, and his mechanical arm lowered to his side. He looked pleased with himself, proud, as if he had just accomplished something worthy of praise.
Alucent stared at him. The smile was wrong. The posture was wrong. Everything about it was wrong.
Something has been done to him, Alucent thought. The voice said something, and now Gryan is proud of being mocked.
Raya had seen it too. She sprinted forward, her Weaveblade forgotten at her side, and threw herself at Gryan. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him back, her voice breaking.
"This is what I said! You shouldn't have gone! This is a mistake!" She turned her head toward Alucent, and her face was pale beneath the turquoise moonlight, her eyes wide. "Alucent! Something has happened to Gryan!"
Alucent did not move toward them. Not yet.
He was thinking. If this being is invisible, can Thread 1 work? Can I perceive the Runeforce around him?
He focused his intent, and the world shifted.
Thread 1 was the foundation of all Threadweave practice. Runeling. It allowed a Scribe to sense the flow of Runeforce in their surroundings, to perceive the currents and eddies of power that ordinary eyes could not detect. Alucent activated it now, and the darkness around him changed.
The trees became outlined in faint traces of ambient energy. The Runepaths beneath the dirt road pulsed with distant rhythms. The cart behind him glowed faintly with the preservation runes worked into its wood.
And ahead of him, standing perhaps eight feet away, there was an amber glow.
The glow was not solid. It flickered and flowed, shifting constantly, but it formed a rough outline. A man. Tall, perhaps six foot three. Neither slim nor heavy. The Runeforce gathered where he stood, outlining his shape in amber light.
Alucent's breath caught.
He glanced at Joy. Her eyes were narrowed, and her gaze was fixed on the same spot.
Then he thought, puzzled at him realizing that Joy has been staring at where he is now staring at. Seems she had already activated Thread 1. Has she been seeing this since we stepped out of the cart?
That means knew what to look for, Alucent thought. She's dealt with this before? No, she said she hadn't encountered any invisible opponent before. He sighed. The difference between us even though we're at the same Thread is noticeable.
The amber outline shifted, and the voice spoke again. This time, there was amusement in it.
"Are you from the Rune Threadweave?"
The question was directed at Alucent. He could tell by the way the amber glow had turned slightly, orienting toward him.
"I notice you're having a difficult time trying to perceive me," the voice continued, calm and unhurried. "Well, allow me to educate you. As long as you're not at the mastery of Thread 3 of your Threadweave, you'll forever be lost in the dark."
The amber glow flickered.
"And please," the voice said, "allow me to demonstrate."
Something changed.
The amber outline began to fade. The Runeforce that had gathered around the figure started to disperse, scattering into the air, and the shape that Alucent had been tracking grew dimmer. Then dimmer still.
Alucent pushed harder, trying to focus his perception, but the amber light continued to dissolve. It was breaking apart before his eyes, the outline fragmenting into wisps that drifted away and vanished into the darkness.
No, he thought. I'm losing him.
"Pleasure to introduce you," the voice said, and now it was everywhere again, coming from all directions at once, echoing off the trees and the road and the cart behind him, "to the Folly Threadweave."
Huh? The Folly Threadweave? Alucent had never heard of it. A second Threadweave? Something outside the Rune Threadweave he had studied. Something that operated by different rules.
There's more than one, he thought. So, There's more than—
The amber glow vanished entirely.
Alucent was blind again. He could see the trees. He could see the road. He could see Raya holding Gryan, and Joy standing rigid beside the cart. But Tyranix was gone. The Runeforce that had outlined him had scattered completely, and there was nothing left to perceive.
He heard movement. A rush of displaced air. The faintest whisper of a footstep on dirt, close, too close.
Then something struck him across the left cheek.
The impact was heavy and solid. A fist connecting with bone. Alucent's head snapped to the side, and pain exploded across the left side of his face. His feet stumbled backward, one step, two steps, three, and his cane slipped from his grip and clattered to the road. The turquoise moonlight blurred and tilted, and his vision swam with dark spots.
His head was fuzzy. The world was spinning. He could hear Raya shouting something, could hear Joy's voice cutting through the chaos, but the words were distant and muffled.
His hand reached for the pouch at his belt. For the Journal. For the Caster. For anything.