“The castle in the mountains is not easy to find unless one knows what one is searching for. The agency owns the surrounding land, and uses various mundane measures to keep trespassers out. It is, anyway, a place with an aura that even those with no magical sense find repulsive. At best, those who have seen it have immediately suggested it to be haunted.”

~ Bek Trent, M.A.S.O

Squeaking irritably, Itoru glimpsed a stark mental image of ridged trunks and wind-blown leaves before he ducked beneath a branch and banked left. The muscles at the back of his shoulders ached as he suddenly rotated both wings forward and dropped, catching the rough bark of a branch and then slamming his thumbs into the wood to swing forward. Heart beating out a rhythm so fast that one beat seemed to meld into the next, the little bat strained his ears against the nothingness. Within seconds, the sounds of movement around him ceased, and the bat remained utterly still, breathing short and swift as his heartbeat slowed.

Dreading the blindness, Itoru cut off his cries and turned his ears to the other sounds of the forest instead. The air was still, the hiss of snow the only sound in the deepwood. No insects sang tonight, no squirrels scrabbled in the dark trees or cursed the marauding crows.

Itoru knew where he was, even without his song. And he knew what was before him. Wing lengths of solid brick and wood that reared from the trees like a monster from the depths of a long-lost lake, preserved from time and heady with the reek of magic. The roof was pitted with grooves and chambers and eves that would appeal to any bat, but were home to none. The castle was a place that invited death and nothing more. He should fly far, far away…

But without his song, Itoru dared not fly. He was not blind, but what appeared before his eyes was a mass of strange and disfigured shapes; they were too little to fly by safely, particularly if he hoped to outmaneuver a larger beast.

And that was what he had to do.

Zien had asked him to scout ahead of the nerske. Itoru had known it would not be simple, but he had hoped he would not be discovered by the Zara that supposedly lay in wait for the humans’ arrival. It had been a vain hope.

A deafening hiss sounded above him as the tree suddenly shook and groaned with a new weight. Itoru swayed back and forth so violently that he had to dig his claws deeper into the bark or risk being thrown out into the open air. Something moved below him then, and he decided the open air was the better option. Not waiting for the motion of the tree to slow, he released his hold and chirped nervously, watching the world flare to light long enough for him see that the nearest branch was several feet below; far enough to drop into a solid dive before opening his wings at the last possible moment.

The bat did just this, waiting long enough to feel the prick of pine needles below his tail before his membranes caught the air and sent him sailing forward. He sang another sharp string of chirps to light his passage. All of this came not a moment before, with an ear rending roar, the tree was stripped of all of its branches on the east side, including the one onto which Itoru had clung seconds before.

The surge of freezing air that bit at his wings only spurred him forward, through the narrow gap between the battlements of the castle’s face. Brick bit at the bat’s wings as he tilted upwards again, dipping beneath an arch in the eves that brought him directly below a steepled roof and to another narrow recess between spire and stone. Itoru was crying sharp and quick now, clinging to image after image as the multitude of close walls sent back a confusing array of information.

He ducked again, feeling the wind pressure on his wings fall as the narrow space opened up into a clear sky. The stars had been extinguished. The moon was gone. Such a bold darkness…even the bat’s continuous cries could do nothing to illuminate it.

Then something caught him. It pulled him back to the castle, back to the earth, down and down with such speed that he flexed his wings instinctively against his captor’s icy flesh. All motion stopped. Something leered down at Itoru, illuminated by his cries, but no clearer to his ears than to his eyes.

“Guide her to me.”

The voice was not spoken aloud. It pierced his mind, icy like the Zara’s touch, filling him with an unnatural terror. The bat squirmed and struggled, chest heaving. Then he screeched, a pure sound of terror. The Zara hissed in response, loosening his grasp. Itoru twisted, staring into the shadow beast’s expressionless eyes.

No words passed between them, but he understood. Tonight, he would live. Tonight, death itself had use of him.

In a flash, Itoru was free. He sped upwards, crying to the sky, leaving the castle behind as quickly as his tiny wings allowed.

Around him, the night was still. Deathly still.