The trail narrowed as it climbed.
Switchbacks tightened into cruel angles, the slope sharpening until each step felt like a wager against gravity. The wind grew teeth. By mid-afternoon—or whatever passed for it beneath the bloated blue sun—the column had stretched thin, servants lagging like snapped beads on a broken necklace.
Cassian finally raised a gauntleted fist.
SFX: WHOOM—crunch
The line shuddered to a halt.
"Ten minutes," Cassian barked, amber eyes raking over the exhausted group. "No more. Sit if you must—stay in sight."
The guards dismounted, their armored forms vanishing into the blowing snow as they scouted a treacherous ridge ahead.
The servants collapsed.
Some sank to their knees where they stood, breath tearing from their lungs in ragged clouds. Others leaned against jagged rock outcrops, heads bowed, bodies trembling. Levi staggered toward a half-buried boulder where Mira and Torin had already taken shelter. The stone broke the worst of the wind, creating a pocket of fragile calm.
They huddled close.
Shoulder to shoulder.
Breath to breath.
Torin's hands shook as he rummaged through his robes. After a moment, he produced a hard gray lump—ration bread. Dense. Cracked. The size of a fist.
He snapped it in three.
SFX: KRACK
No ceremony. No words.
One piece pressed into Mira's hand. One into Levi's.
"Won't help us," Torin muttered, "if one of us drops before nightfall."
The bread was tasteless. Dry. Chewing it felt like grinding gravel between teeth. But Levi forced it down anyway, the faint warmth in his stomach a thin anchor against the cold gnawing at his bones.
For a moment, they ate in silence.
Then the stories came.
Mira spoke first, gaze fixed on the white horizon. "I was from a village," she whispered. "Fields. Forests. Goats." A ghost of a smile touched her lips. "Took care of them after my mother passed. Quiet life."
Her fingers tightened around her robes.
"Then the sickness came. Fever that wouldn't break. Wasting me away." She swallowed. "Thought I'd die in my bed. Window open. Smell of hay."
Her voice trembled.
"Midnight came instead. Felt the pull. Woke up outside somehow—barefoot in the frost. The door was there. Red. Standing in the lane like it had always belonged."
Torin nodded slowly. "City man," he said. "Foundry district. Hammered iron. Fixed carts. Made tools." His eyes darkened. "Street brawl. Shrapnel in the gut. Infection took its time."
He exhaled a plume of white.
"Whispers dragged me out of bed. Door was waiting in the alley. Open just enough to see the dark."
Levi hesitated.
His voice still didn't feel like his own.
"One-room apartment," he said quietly. "Sick for months. Pills. Calendars. Waiting." His jaw tightened. "Stayed awake as long as I could. Bad soda. Anything to beat midnight."
He closed his eyes.
"It found me anyway."
Fear bound them tighter than the cold.
They spoke of rumors—all half-heard, all unfinished. Survivors who returned stronger. Scarred. Changed. Others who came back broken, minds splintered by endless trials. No one knew if anyone had truly won.
"We stick together," Torin said at last. Not a question.
Mira nodded fiercely.
Levi smiled—small, grateful.
Ten minutes ended too soon.
Cassian's shout cracked through the wind.
SFX: "MOVE!"
The march resumed.
Late in the day, as the blue sun began its slow descent toward jagged peaks, the first howl split the air.
SFX: HOOOOOOOOOWL—
Distant.
Long.
Rising.
The servants froze.
Another answered.
Closer.
Then another.
The sound slithered through the gullies and shadows, carried on the wind like mocking laughter. Even the guards tensed—hands drifting to hilts and hafts.
Cassian's voice cut sharp. "Close ranks! Weapons out!"
The line bunched tight.
Levi's heart hammered. He knew the sound. Mountain ghouls. Drawn to warmth. To weakness.
To the dying.
Darkness fell fast once the blue sun dipped below the peaks.
Torches flared.
SFX: FWOOOSH—CRACKLE
Their flames guttered violently, casting thin orange pools that barely pushed back the night. Strange stars burned overhead—too many, too sharp, set in patterns Levi did not recognize.
They made camp on a wide ledge carved into the mountainside.
"No fires for you," Cassian said with a thin smile. "Draws them faster."
Instead, the servants were forced to dig.
Bare hands scraped at frozen snow and stone. Fingers split. Blood froze. They carved shallow trenches, piling snow into low walls until the ledge was dotted with crude hollows.
Graves.
Levi collapsed into his.
Muscles screamed. Feet burned and numbed. Mira and Torin dug close enough to whisper if needed.
The howls circled.
Closer now.
Shadows flickered at the edge of torchlight—too fast to see clearly.
Sleep tugged at him.
Heavy.
Dangerous.
Levi fought it, pinching his arms, biting his tongue until copper filled his mouth. Fear of the ghouls was nothing compared to the deeper dread—
If he slept too deeply, the Spell might pull him further.
Into something worse.
He stared at the alien stars.
Listened to the wind whisper his name.
And wondered whether dawn would come—
Or whether Blackwind Mountain would claim them all before it did.