Dariea grabbed him as they hit the solid mud. She began to run. Jano was dazed and confused. He looked around and didn’t recognise where they were. He scrambled after Dariea, terrified of falling away and into the grasp of the creature who was so close in the Palace.

After a moment, he realised what happened. Dariea had jumped them somewhere else. She had done it while they were training in the Dome. He thought she could only go so far and the distances were short. He had never considered that she could take others with her. Surely they couldn’t be too far away, he thought. Could they?

He craned his neck as they were running. Though it was still dark, he could see the imprint of thick grey stone walls behind him. Great towering structures behind it morphing into an amorphous block. It was wider than anything he had ever seen, it seemed to stretch for miles. He couldn’t see the ends of it out here in the mud.

In the distance, he saw a great dark spire reaching all the way to the clouds. “Is that the City?” He asked, spluttering. He turned back to face the way he was running, he could see a small patch of bare trees ahead. Barely, it was still dark and the morning light was only beginning to filter through the blackness. “…Is it?” He shouted.

Dariea said nothing. She kept running. He turned his neck once more and he almost fell over the uneven surface of the mud below. He could see faint traces of green close to the walls. More of those creatures? He turned back just in time to see Dareia grabbing him and the darkness consuming them once more.

“Keep running!” She screamed.

Jano was getting very disoriented. They were still running on mud. Now instead of a patch of bare trees, they were running up a hill. His legs started to grow incredibly wary. He was exhausted. If he wasn’t on the run, he wanted to turn and examine the City from the outside. He couldn’t quite believe he was outside of its walls.

“Hurry up.” Dariea shouted again. As far as Jano could tell, nothing was following them. However, if he had learned anything since he had met the Mage, it was that he didn’t know much at all and that he really should just listen to what she said.

He glanced behind once more and could barely see the shadow of the City any longer. It looked like a mass of shapes from this far away. A spot of darkness in the distance, a smattering on the horizon. It was only from this far away that he could see that there was space either side.

He faced the hill before them. He felt the dread in his legs. Dareia was also tiring. The exertion was clear in her movements. As though she was trying to push through the water in the sewers at too fast a pace. Or really thick mud. It took a few hundred horrible paces, but they finally breached the hill. They started running downhill and it briefly felt like Jano was going to lose control of his legs.

Another hole opened at the bottom of the hill, for a horrible breath, Jano thought it was created by someone else. As though the Emperor might step through it, with those spectral creatures of his. Thankfully, nobody did and Dariea grabbed his arm once more as they passed through.

They hurtled through the hole and ended up crashing onto some bright green grass. It was wet, but it felt clean. Dariea was no longer running. She lay flat on the ground, panting and clearly exhausted. Jano felt the dizziness come all at once. His head was spinning and his stomach lurched. He lumbered onto all fours and vomited. His face burned with embarrassment as he turned back to face Dariea, but she managed a weak smile before pointing towards a large group of trees.

The trees were thick and their branches were filled with dark green needles. Even in the darkness, Jano could tell these were a different sort of tree to those he had seen in the City. He had heard of forests, occasionally the Criminal Class were sent there to gather wood. Merchants were usually relied on, but if there was a lull in the trade routes, then they would send the criminals. He had never expected the forest to look so calming.

The dead needles lay brown and restless on the floor as though laying a soft carpet for their arrival. The darkness looked welcoming rather than dangerous and in that moment he suddenly hated never seeing one until right then.

He helped Dariea up and set her on his shoulder. He was exhausted, but he could only imagine how she felt. Together they slowly made for the trees, stumbling and taking short steps. Jano hoped she was alright. He felt extremely scared about his new surroundings and about the potential of being hunted by the Emperor’s creatures.

How far had she taken them? They reached what Jano deemed a sufficient distance into the trees and collapsed. Dariea seemed to drift in and out of consciousness. He sat with his back against the trunk of the tree and watched.

——

Jano prodded the fire. He was surprised he had managed to keep it going for as long as he had done. The small fire trick that Dariea had taught him in the Dome had surprised him by working. He wasn’t altogether sure he could replicate it though, so he had anxiously tended the fire ever since he had started it.

Dariea finally stirred. Jano let out a long sigh of relief. He had placed her close to the fire in the hopes that it would help, but he had absolutely no idea what to do. He hadn’t slept and he was starting to slowly get more and more worried that she wouldn’t wake up.

“J…ano?” She muttered. She sat up a little bit and looked around, observing the trees suspiciously. He saw her eyes flick from tree to tree, as though she was slowly remembering what happened. “How long have I been asleep?”

“A day or so. This is the next morning. Not the morning of the night when you fell asleep, but the next one…” he was tongue tied, it really had been a long time since he had gotten some sleep.

She waved a hand, telling him to stop talking. “I know what you mean. I’m sorry. Have you slept at all?” She said.

Jano shook his head. “I wasn’t sure whether more creatures would come. So I stayed watch. Just in case.” What good he would have been if they had come was another matter entirely, something he had thought about at length.

She stood up and walked around their makeshift camp. “So we didn’t have any visitors I’m assuming?”

Again Jano shook his head. It was about the only thing he could do and even his head felt heavy. Dariea smiled a little.

“Jumping takes a lot out of me. It’s probably one of the more intensive things I can do. Never mind after I’ve been locked up in a cell and…. “ she paused as she was processing what had happened to her in the dungeons. Jano wasn’t even sure that the dream he had had was real, but enough had happened that he was sure that some of it probably was.

“It’s a good thing nothing has attacked us, because I’m basically totally spent. Even now.” She shuffled herself up against a tree and watched the small insects running up the trunk. Another quirk of the trees which Jano had come to quickly despise as they bit at his skin.

“Unfortunately though, we will need to keep moving. If we are where I think we are. We’re still a long way from a friendly village or the closest kingdom. But you need to get some sleep and I could do with more rest, just in case we meet with more danger on the road.”

Jano sat up as best he could. He felt awake and absolutely exhausted at the same time. As though they were two separate parts of him battling for control. “What about the City? Are we just going to leave it?”

Her face darkened. “Now that the Hollow are under the Emperor’s control. We need to find a way to beat him. But we don’t stand a chance right now. We’ll need to find some allies and probably just as important. I need to teach you how to use essence properly. We’re going to need as much firepower as we can get.”

Jano felt his stomach twist. He pictured Alsace with the Emperor. Jano couldn’t get the image of him smiling and waving out of his mind. He shuddered as he thought about his wife being kept alive as leverage. In the knowledge that she would be useful to the Emperor should Dariea try to return.

“I know you probably hate the idea of leaving your wife. But we need to gather strength before we can even think of going back. To do so now, well that would be suicide. Besides, the citizens are probably safe enough. It’s just the Empire’s other enemies who need to worry.” Her eyes flicked to the floor and back to Jano. “That includes us by the way.”

Jano had expected that sort of answer. But it still didn’t make it any easier to hear. He didn’t exactly want to be torn apart by the creatures either, or the Emperor. So he had quietly resigned himself to that while she was sleeping and he had nothing but time to think.

“Can I… Can I become as strong as you?” He asked.

Dariea chuckled, surprise evident on her face. “That’s what you’re thinking about?” She paused. Her eyes scanned the tree line. “Well I suppose we are going to have to try and find out aren’t we? Rest assured though, we need much more than just us two. We’re going to need an army, and they’re pretty hard to come by.”

Jano grew excited at the thought. Becoming as powerful as Dariea seemed impossible, but she said that they could try. Which meant somewhere in her wealth of experience, she thought there might be a way. “Where do we start?” He asked.

“Well I suppose we better start by breaking your Contracts and you can start using essence without relying on someone else’s power. But that will mean you have almost no power for a while as you learn. Are you sure you can handle it? I don’t want you to think you’re forced into anything.”

“Do it. Whatever we have to do, do it. I want to get started straight away.”

Dariea moved, testing herself. She slumped back down to the bed of leaves Jano had fashioned for her. “I’m sorry Jano, but I don’t have it in me right now. We both need to get some more rest.” Jano tried to interrupt, but Dariea shot him a tired look.

“If I could do it, I would. But I meant it when I said I have almost nothing left. If I was to try and channel essence and morph it into a usable form now, it could kill me. You’ll understand soon enough.”

Jano nodded reluctantly. He felt his eyes closing and his head dropping. His excitement and anger were keeping him going and now that he knew there was nothing immediate he could do, they started to fade away slightly.

“I’ll look after the fire and try and get some food. Get some sleep. Don’t worry, there’s nothing useful either of us can do right now.”

As though he finally had permission, he dropped from his sitting position and stretched out on the floor. Even the image of the Emperor waving slowly faded out of his mind. I’m going to kill him. Whatever it takes, I’ll get Alsace back. He watched Dariea walk into the trees and he slipped into dream.