In the middle of an Abhorrent invasion, he somehow had a perfect night. He woke when Katayoun rolled over next to him. When he opened his eyes, the light of morning had brightened the interior of the tent. After looking at the fire of Katayoun’s hair, he closed his eyes again.

Wasn’t I due for watch duty?

His eyes snapped open. Carefully throwing the blanket off, he pulled on some clothes and stepped out of the tent.

The camp was quiet. The fire they’d built between the four tents had burned out, and wasn’t even smoking. Looming not too far away was a large rock where they’d agreed was the best place to stand watch. A figure was barely visible up there, but couldn’t see clearly who it was.

Breath puffing in front of him, he hurried away from the tents and up the slope until he reached the huge rock. Jad lay there, curled up in a ball as he slept.

“Fuck,” Xerxes muttered. He took a few steps forward and took advantage of the superior view provided by the rock to examine their surroundings. Everything was still and quiet.

He glanced back down at Jad, who didn’t look comfortable as far as Xerxes was concerned, yet was clearly sound asleep.

Xerxes was too awake to consider going back to sleep. Nor did he see any benefit to waking Jad up. So instead, he stayed on the rock and kept an eye on the surroundings as the sun climbed up.

There were no signs of Abhorrent, but there was a bit of life. A rabbit-like creature hopped in the distance. Birdsong floated on the breeze.

Everything was peaceful as the sun burned away the morning mists.

Once the sun shone brightly enough, he saw Dasi come out of her tent. She looked up in his direction and he waved. She waved back.

Kashtiliash woke next, followed by Katayoun.

They started tending to the camp and creating a hot morning meal.

Eventually, Xerxes stepped forward and nudged Jad with his toe.

“Get up, lazy-ass,” Xerxes said.

Jad jerked up. “What? Who?”

Xerxes stepped back. “You slept through your watch,” he said.

Jad rubbed his eyes and stood. “Fuck. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine. I woke up early and came to check. Everything’s good. Let’s go down and eat, then start moving again.”

Neither Dasi, Kashtiliash, nor Katayoun asked about what had happened. Their expressions made it obvious that they didn’t need to.

They ate in silence, packed up, and started moving.

At noon, they crested the mountains.

The wind and rain treated this side of the mountain differently. There were no paths, not even ones created by animals. In fact, the terrain was so treacherous, and their progress so slow, that Xerxes felt like he wasn’t even a mage. He thought back to people he’d known in Harborview on Mannemid, such as folk who harvested bird eggs from seaside cliffs, and mused that there were probably Unsighted who could move faster than them in terrain like this.

At one point, they spent thirty minutes backtracking from a stretch of rocks too sharp and numerous to hike through. As they mages were scrambling across the mountainside toward an area much less infested with rocks, they saw a few meteors falling overhead. As before, Jad minimized it, saying a few meteors weren’t going to cause any problems.

But the streaks of light grew more numerous. Despite it being the middle of the day, the they filled the sky. As they ate a quick meal of bread and cheese, they saw it intensify until everything above them was alive with falling stars.

“This is bad,” Kashtiliash said, scratching his beard.

“There’s not much bad terrain between here and the Gateway complex,” Dasi said. “If we push really hard, couldn’t we make it by the end of the day?”

“There’s no way,” Katayoun said. “If it was a single straight road. A paved road. Then maybe. Except it’s not. Besides, how many Abhorrent are we going to have to avoid? I bet we’re two days out. Maybe even three.”

“This negativity is really getting to me,” Jad said loudly.

No one responded.

“Let’s keep going,” Xerxes said.

They did.

An hour later, big meteors fell from above. They stopped moving to watch.

Back on Mannemid, Xerxes had seen one of these meteors up close. And more recently, it was the same variety that had deposited the massive creature that savaged Black Jackal Company.

The current view was different from either previous instance. At least a dozen of them fell, perhaps even two dozen.

Plumes of smoke rose from five or six of the impact points. And from their vantage point, they were certain at least two of the meteors had landed in villages.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Dasi said.

“My thoughts exactly,” Kashtiliash said.

“Come on guys,” Jad said, “a few big ones aren’t going to do anything. It makes them easier to see. And if you can see them, you can avoid them.”

“They’re faster and stronger,” Dasi said. “And harder to kill. If we can see them, they can see us.”

“And sense melam from a greater distance,” Katayoun added.

“We don’t know that for sure,” Jad said.

Come on, Jad, Xerxes thought. Even you must realize how desperate you sound.

From this height and distance, it wasn’t possible to make out the size or shape of any of the larger Abhorrent that had fallen. But Xerxes was convinced he could detect movement.

Dasi sighed. “We have a decision to make.”

“Yes,” Jad said. “Which route do we take to the Gateway complex? Just looking at where those big meteors landed, I can think of two options.”

“She didn’t mean that,” Kashtiliash said.

“We already went over this,” Jad said. “We’re going to the Gateway—”

“Shut up, Jad,” Xerxes interrupted.

“W-what?” Jad spluttered.

“Just shut up,” he repeated. “We thought going back to the Gateway complex was going to be an easy task. A quick run at top speed. But it’s not so simple.”