Bayler Shrike had slept for three years, his eyes wide but seeing nothing. Deaf and mute. Three years lost in dreams of an ancient forest where the trees were made of stone. And in that time, the last days of the world ticked away.

They say everything dies. Maybe it was more of a surprise the Earth had held on so long. "Say that's true, and say I believe you. What happens now? The city keeps flooding, and someday we just sink into the sea, gone?"

The translucent spider’s mouth was constantly moving, its glass mandibles constantly rubbing together with a low, harmonic hum. By comparison, the saintly woman within the monster's abdomen was as still as the grave, eyes closed in peaceful repose. Her voice existed only in his head.

“Things will not be so simple. You will not be left in peace to mourn your world. These walls do not exist to trap you, but to protect you. Countless other planets have fallen into the Abyss and been devoured by the sea. They leave behind nomads, drifters, who would take your land for their own given the chance.”

Leaning back against the hood of an abandoned car, Bayler set his lantern down. Far enough from his hand to be a sign of trust, but not so far he couldn’t reach it if that trust was misplaced. “So right now, this is all to prepare us to fight. That’s why you’re here?”

“That is why the guides were sent here. As for why I chose to be one of those guides, those reasons are my own. Now, I must ask something of you.”

“So this isn’t strings-free generosity.”

“The Powers require you complete their petty challenges before allowing me to teach you more. There are stones left behind when a monster perishes. Bring me three.”

“One more question.” Bayler pushed. Something told him that this limit might be more permissive than the spider let on - some part of him refused to believe this ‘new friend’ was being entirely honest.

“One.”

“Where can I find the person who took first place in the rankings?”

Laughter filled his mind, soft and beautiful laughter. “Bayler Shrike, if I knew that, would I settle for second? I can only say they have likely hidden themselves away, and will remain in hiding for some time. I have some idea what they may have received for their victory.”

“But.” Bayler noted, already seeing it coming.

“But you must pay the price for that knowledge. As I already have.”

He caught up with Lauren barely a block down the street. Instead of running away and not looking back, like any sane person, she’d hunkered down in an alleyway, watching from behind a dumpster.

“What happened?” She asked, looking like she was surprised to see him again.

“You know, actually, they turned out friendly. First real lucky break I’ve had.” Bayler paused, considering. Maybe that wasn’t quite true. He resented being changed against his will, but the Blessings had kept him alive. If he had been given the choice, no matter the cost he wouldn’t have chosen to stay in that hospital, too weak to move; there was very little he wouldn’t have given to escape that fate. “They were nice.” He amended.

“I didn’t see anyone.” The look she was giving him now - skeptical, one eyebrow lifted, mouth scrunched down and off to the side - said he might be crazy.

Bayler Shrike couldn’t dispute that he probably was.

They walked together without saying much, after that. The pale blue glow of his lantern wavered in reflections atop the floodwaters. The spider really must have cleared away most of the monsters surrounding her territory, because the haunting light didn’t draw any attention until they had crossed several blocks, the city center slowly giving way to smaller and meaner buildings.

In the shadows, things stirred. Lauren saw them almost as soon as Bayler did, tugging at his arm. The ‘no getting close’ rule had quietly been dropped. “I see them,” he answered.

Dogs with no skin on their faces, their muzzles stripped to red, bloody gristle. They sniffed the air with drool dripping from their bared teeth. They slid through the back alleys, through the shadows. One was on the rooftops, leaping from one low cement building to the next, a blur of shaggy black muscle. They came from all directions, slowly drawing a net closed around the two of them.

“Well, I think I’m gonna jump them before they jump us. You wait for an opening and just start running. Don’t stop and wait this time.” Sweeping his eyes over the closing ring, he identified the weak point - only two of the skinless hounds guarding a sidestreet. Two, he could take two.

"If those things bite you, you'll get sick." She had frozen up, every inch of her body language reading raw panic, her shoulders hunched as she clutched her armful of pill bottles. "Like my brother. You don't need to do this."

“Don't worry, I'm not one to die heroically. I'm going to be fine.” And he grinned, the leathery flesh of his dead-man’s face creaking to make room for a crescent of gruesome yellow teeth. Three years without a good fight had left him itching, and as he watched the circle closing, as the dogs began to howl and snap their jaws, taunting, he thought-

‘Nothing here I can’t take.’

“Kesslith!” A blue fire roared out from the lantern, engulfing one hound and turning its barks to screams as it tumbled over. Before the one beside it could react, Bayler was lunging forward, swinging the Lamp of Treachery in a wide, flaming arc that met the side of the hound’s skull with a wet dense thud.

Expecting it, Lauren started to run a second before the hounds did, darting past him as he turned to meet the incoming horde. Ten, maybe an even dozen. Claws and teeth. Something instinctive told him to run, that it was impossible to kill that many, that he was about to be torn to bloody raw meat while he was still alive. But he pushed that back down.

“Kesslith!” The surging rush of flames caught the first of the pack, sending it bowling over, its body tangling with the three behind it. He lunged forward, refusing to give them the space to encircle him.

The world had changed, and so had the possible.