He felt like he’d been hit by a train, when he finally came around. It wasn’t waking up, as he hadn’t been asleep, but rather it was simply coming back to his senses. The room was spinning, and he was disoriented, but Riley was most surprised to find that he was alive. As his head stopped turning, he could see that, despite the darkness that filled the space he found himself in, it was not a room. He was planted on his ass in the dirt, and he knew Cliffridge was at least a quality enough town that the buildings had floors.

The position he was in, leaning back on his hands, having fallen on his rear, left him at a specific disadvantage to the sharp object that was being shoved in his face. He stared at the point of the weapon, blinked a few times, and tilted his head. Realizing his ears were ringing, and he couldn’t hear anything, he tried to articulate a sound, but he couldn’t hear that, either.

[...better move.]

I thought maybe I’d see what it was like to be a shish kebab.

[We can try that later, with less dangerous toys.]

The sounds around him were muffled, but they were starting to clear up, so Riley held up his hand to request that they wait a moment and let him get acclimatized to the nonsense that was currently happening. The point of the spear that was in his face flinched when he put his hand up, and he leaned back away from it.

Riley was not alone, as he found himself seated on the ground in the center of what appeared to be Cliffridge, only with a lot less sunlight, and a slightly less friendly populace. The square was positively crowded, Riley figured it must have been everyone who lived in Cliffridge. Most were huddled together in a group to the side, but a few had broken off to welcome Riley and Jensen with the friendly offer of face spearing. The scene was lit by numerous torches and one gaudy neon sign.

“...come from?” A man asked, poking his spear into Jensen’s personal space. Jensen seemed unconcerned, and didn’t flinch away from it.

“Bastion, born and raised.” Jensen kept his back straight as he spoke proudly, and even Riley thought he sounded somewhat condescending.

“And you?” Riley’s spear wielding buddy asked, with another pointless jab towards Riley’s face.

Not that jabbing the spear at Riley’s face made any sense. The men were too close, not taking advantage of the length of their weapons, and it would have been simple for Riley to liberate the man’s weapon and turn the tables. Though he wasn’t sure how many people had weapons, and if there were any ranged weapons, things could get messy. It was best to see where things were going before making a move.

Riley noticed, as he deliberately didn’t answer, that the spear in his face wasn’t a weapon built by any competent blacksmith. It wasn’t Lightglass, so that would have suggested the weapon belonged to a Collar. A cursory glance at the man’s neck proved this not to be the case, and anyway, with a weapon that poorly made, Riley would have called such a Collar a disgrace. A man just had to have principles, and Riley was a stickler for a finely made product.

A voice called out from the crowd, and a man forced his way through to the open area of the square. “Hey, hey, hey! You have got to stop jamming that spear in anyone’s face as soon as they show up here.” Riley recognized the voice, though what he saw concerned him. The man was Darius, sent ahead to scope out the situation. Darius was alive, that should have been a comfort, despite what all was going on. But the man also was covered in scrapes and bruises, dirt and blood. Bandages covered what Riley assumed were more serious injuries.

“Just because they’re human doesn’t mean they’re friendly. We’ve got a delicate eco...eco...a delicate balance here in Cliffridge. We don’t need no bandits coming in to screw it up.” Riley’s spearman replied.

“Said the pot to the kettle.” Darius rolled his eyes and walked over to offer Riley a hand up.

“Thanks.” Riley took the offer and stood, looking around, trying to make sense of the situation. They were in Cliffridge, but the sky was pitch black, no stars, no moon, and no clouds. Just black. Riley had no idea how far out from the town they could go before they would be consumed by the blackness, but he couldn’t see anything over the edge of the cliff, so he wagered it wasn’t far.

“Thanks, too.” Jensen waved, and when no one offered him a hand up, stood and brushed the dust off of his pants.

“I’ve got a question.” Riley nodded turned around slowly, rubbing his hands together.

“What the Hell is going on?” Darius asked.

“Oh, yeah, that is a better question.” Riley said.

[I don’t like this, Riley. I can’t materialize.]

You can do it! I believe in you!

[No, I don’t think that’s going to work.]

Worth a shot. Keep trying. I need you. If we’re trapped here forever, I am not sleeping with any of these people.

“What were you going to ask?” Darius wondered aloud.

“Is there a bar?” Jensen cut in before Riley had a chance to answer. “Because the first thing I think of when I get eaten by a Thrall-box is ‘I need to get blackout drunk’.”

Darius looked at the spearmen. “I know this one,” He gestured to Riley first, and then to Jensen, “that one? No clue. Do whatever you want.”

Riley held up a hand. “Hold on, he’s telling the truth, he came from Bastion. We’ve got no reason not to trust him, yet. So why doesn’t literally anyone explain what is happening right now?”

The crowd looked around at itself, murmuring in uncertainty. They didn’t have to words to explain it, or perhaps they simply had no idea. After a time, the crowd parted a one of its members was pushed to the front. They were reluctant to come forward, and the hands of the crowd were shoving them out into the open.

A boy, somewhere in his teens, stumbled forward after the final shove, and came to a stop in front of Riley. His hands were bound together by rope, and he had obviously been battered, his face was swollen and discolored. He looked up at Riley through a puffy eye, but he said nothing.

“Maybe you didn’t understand the question. I was hoping someone could make sense of all this.” Riley gestured wide, to the entire town.

“It’s my fault.” The boy said.

“Your fault?” Riley crouched to the boy’s level and looked him in the eye. “Why do you think it’s your fault?”

“I brought it here, the Thrall.” The boy said with a simple nod, though Riley noticed that he didn’t hear guilt or regret in the boy’s words.

[You think it could be his fault somehow?]

It’s unlikely, I think.

“Humans don’t cause Thralls, buddy. That’s a myth. They just are. So whatever you think you did to make this Thrall come here, you shouldn’t let everyone heap the blame on you, alright?” Riley stood up and turned his attention back to the crowd. “Shame. You all really believe this is this boy’s fault?”

“No, you don’t understand.” The boy spoke again, and he waited until Riley turned his attention back down. “I didn’t cause the Thrall. But I brought it here.”

Darius waved to the crowd. “Everyone go relax. I’ve got to explain the situation to my partner.” He paused a second, and then added, “We will be getting out of here. Everyone. So don’t worry.”

“Darius, what is this?” Riley asked, but Darius sat on the ground, and so did the boy, so Riley followed suit.

“It’s a bit of a long story. But what have we got but time, eh?” Darius glanced at the boy. “He’ll explain it better than I can.”

Jensen took a seat next to them, and Riley considered asking him to wait with the crowd of normal people, but decided against it. Jensen, as of right now, wasn’t part of the mob. And if things got ugly, having one more person on his side wouldn’t hurt. Judging by the boy’s condition, they had no trouble taking their worries out on others.

“I love a good campfire story.” Riley nodded as they sat under the light of a torch.

“No s’mores, though.” Jensen added with an exaggerated sigh.

“My name is Renton.” The boy started. Under the light of the torch, Riley could begin to guess the boy’s age was around 15, give or take. He had brown hair that was a bit too long and needed to see the business end of a brush, and overall, the boy needed a bath. He was covered in dirt and had some small cuts that didn’t appear to have been cleaned. His voice had a slight lisp, but Riley attributed that to the fat lip the boy had apparently earned.

But Riley was shocked by what else he could see sitting under the light with the boy. Around his neck was a bright red band, the brand of a Collar.

Renton continued. “I brought this Thrall to the village, and it consumed everyone here. I guess it’s still eating, because it got you, too.” At that, the boy sounded guilty. “I didn’t mean for it to get you, so I’m sorry.”

“What do you mean, you ‘brought it here’? Some magic Collar mumbo-jumbo?” Jensen asked, after he noticed the boy’s brand.

“No, I mean I picked it up and I carried it here.” Renton explained, condescendingly. He looked up at the black sky, the inner wall of the Thrall. “And despite what Darius says, we’re all going to die in here.”

At the same time as Isaac was worrying about what Dominic had done with his sister, there were other people in the world having troubles, as well. Life was hard in the Brink, and Renton had one ambition. He was going to make life better, easier for everyone. Because maybe if their lives weren’t so hard, they wouldn’t be such huge assholes.

Renton was born to a woman who had no business birthing a child, living in a place where children shouldn’t be born, and so she did the logical thing. She got rid of him. Renton didn’t hold it against her, he was intelligent enough to know that it was the right thing to do. It was the world they lived in, and if it was him, he would have made the same choice.

If she was willing to abandon him, he never figured that life with her would have been much better. A bad mother is a bad mother, no matter how you looked at it.

Lucky for Renton, she wasn’t a bad person, so getting rid of her child didn’t involve killing him. Another thing Renton believed in, despite his short time spent alive so far, was that people deserved a chance to do the right thing. Not the good thing, not the moral thing. The right thing. And that always differed from situation to situation, didn’t it?

His mother had done the right thing, which might have also been considered the good thing, unless you figured that good would have been raising the child herself. She gave Renton a chance to prove what he was worth. And he was going to use that chance to make life better, so no more children had to be abandoned in the Brink to fend for themselves.

What Renton had learned quickly as he grew up is that he was smarter than most, especially the near perpetually mentally handicapped denizens of the Brink. Survival was simple, thriving was easy. The biggest threats in the Brink were Thralls, bandits, starvation, and then the weather, in that order.

Renton had dealt with all those threats in one fell swoop.

Cliffridge was a mountain town a few hours by train from Bastion, and a few days on foot. The mountains were difficult to scale, and Bastion itself was built onto a mountain on the coast, giving the city fantastic natural defenses. At first, Renton had considered making his way to Bastion, finding someone to take care of him. He’d seen a stage play where that had happened once, but the thing was too optimistic, and the songs were grating.

The people of Bastion were affluent, as far as he was aware. He could be forgiven for not knowing there was a sufficiently poor Lowtown, seeing as he was only somewhere around 10 years old at the time. (He wasn’t entirely sure how old he was, but he knew he was currently somewhere in his teens.) Regardless, if he had known, he still would have avoided Bastion, because he didn’t like the idea of city life. Cliffridge offered him what he needed, so he had stayed.

Like most towns in the Brink, there was a resident registered Collar. The Registry claimed no ownership over the Brink, but they treated it like a community service. It was a smart move, if there were ever an altercation with Acadia, the population of the Brink would undoubtedly side with Bastion. Renton knew that the right thing to do was to use that Collar to his advantage. So one fateful day, Renton threw himself into the middle of a Thrall attack, putting himself at a calculated risk, and the outcome had been exactly what he’d been hoping for.

The Collar, Shel, had taken to the urchin, and the ‘frail, helpless boy’ convinced the Collar to take him in. Over the years that followed, Renton was surprised as he took to the Collar in much the same way. Like an older brother, Shel took care of him, raised him to be an intelligent man, instead of a smart boy.

Renton was convinced as a child that people weren’t good, and they weren’t required to be good. He didn’t ask them to be. He only ever wanted them to be right. It wasn’t their fault if the world made it too difficult to be good, but the least they could do was be smart about it. But as he grew, he began to change. Shel had changed him.

Renton still only expected people to be right, but somehow, he learned to hope that they might be good.

And then one day, Shel didn’t come home.

Renton had come to share Shel’s schedule, and so they would wake together at dawn each day. His first clue that something was wrong was when he was woken up by the sun, instead of by Shel kicking him out of bed. He rolled over, out of bed, and flailed on his way to the floor. Landing amongst a pile of junk on the floor, metal scraps and machine parts, he yelped and groaned. Something seemed off, but his sleeping brain had yet to put it together.

Get up, get clean, get dressed, get breakfast. That was the plan, and that was what he did, and he made it all the way through with the nagging sense of something being wrong. He set out breakfast for two, and went in search of Shel, who would be hungry if he got up to train so early.

Their house was only three rooms, not including the bathroom, and Renton would have run into Shel inside if he were there. The door to Shel’s bedroom was wide open, and he didn’t notice any sign of him. Venturing outside, Renton shielded his eyes from the sun, which was being made brighter by diffusion through a cloudy sky. Outside the house was a dirt lot, surrounded by a few more houses inhabited by people Renton never could bring himself to care who they were. They didn’t use the lot between the houses, so Shel used it to train, and Renton used it to experiment.

Shel wasn’t in the lot.

Renton tried calling his name, but he didn’t get the feeling that Shel was nearby.

They lived on the outskirts of Cliffridge, so it was possible that Shel had gone into town to get something. Usually, though, Shel would let Renton know if he was going out for something, even if it meant waking him up at 3 am. Shel was the town Collar, and if he went to fight a Thrall, he might not be coming back, so he always wanted to let Renton know where he was.

But it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that he was simply stocking up on something they were short on, or he had been out training, and something had called his attention away at a moment’s notice.

If he went anywhere other than the town square, finding him would be difficult.

Difficult for anyone except for Renton.

The boy had quickly realized he was smarter than most, and once he had secured a safe place to live, he decided to apply those talents to something more creative. There was another benefit to living in Cliffridge, in that he could find scrap to work with much easier than Bastion, where things were so neatly recycled. With the assumption that something like this would eventually happen, he had prepared a device for such an occasion. He skipped back inside to his bedroom to retrieve it.

The bedroom more resembled a machine shop with a bed in it, than a proper bedroom. Workbenches along the walls, and hanging from those walls, an assortment of tools for working with small machinery. The floor was littered with excess parts that Shel was constantly urging Renton to clean up. A locked chest at the foot of the bed held his personal belongings and other such things. He had to dig around in the clutter for a bit before he found what he was looking for.

It wasn’t pretty, but Renton wasn’t making consumer devices, he was just making things to see if he could. The device was a bit awkward to hold, a fat brick of a thing with an old style screen that wasn’t created using Aer. There was nowhere convenient to hold it, and it seemed as if it might fall apart at a moment’s notice. It ran on a battery that Renton had to rig up himself, as well, since running it on Aer at all caused it to feedback into itself; and the noise it made then was unpleasant to say the least.

Reason being that it was a device designed to locate concentrations of Aer in the nearby vicinity. It didn’t always work, but it worked well enough to give him an idea of where Shel might be. Collars were great sources of Aer. Switching the device on, Renton stared at the screen and waited for a reaction. There was a faint signature in one of the nearby houses, but Shel wouldn’t have been there. Renton remembered faintly one of their neighbors getting their hands on a Lightglass lamp. That must have been what he was picking up.

Time to take the search outside. Bringing the scanner with him, he made sure to also bring his weapons, a sack of bombs of varying types, sizes, and shapes. If he ever found himself in trouble in the Brink, arming a bomb was usually enough to keep people away. And Thralls were tough, but he figured he had a bomb or two big enough to give one pause.

The scanner sent out a pulse of energy, looking for Aer resonance, so it wasn’t a constant feed. Instead, it was closer to a radar scan. The latest pulse revealed the same small energy signature in the nearby house, but he was able to pick up some faint signatures from the direction of town square, as well.

Renton frowned at the screen, and then looked around. The sources from town square were too weak to be Shel, unless he was practically dead. There was another source on the screen, and though it was also weak, it was coming from the forest outside of town. That was something. Of course, it could have been anything. But if Shel was injured and weakened, he’d need someone to help him as soon as he could. So the right thing to do was check the source in the forest, and work from there.

Bag of bombs slung over his shoulder, Renton started out into the woods towards the scanner’s reading. They lived almost as far away from the town as anyone, so it wasn’t a long walk before he was outside what he would call Cliffridge, and firmly inside what he would call the forest. Cliffridge was in a mountainous region, so the forest was full of hills and valleys, plenty of places to fall and tumble if one lost their footing. Renton made sure to keep an eye on the ground as he watched the scanner screen.

It was quiet in the woods, Renton didn’t even hear the birds chirping, as he would have expected. The weather was starting to take a turn for the colder, but he was wearing a thin coat made out of a well-insulated material, and it kept him plenty warm. He didn’t have to go far before he came upon the source of the reading.

It was a Thrall, he knew as much the second he laid his eyes on it. Frozen, he stared at the creature over the top of his scanner screen. It was a cube, sitting there in the middle of the forest, not doing anything. Here was the biggest threat of living inland, and it was right in front of him. Renton had taken to living with Shel to provide himself with protection from Thralls, and where was Shel now?

It didn’t matter. Renton already had a spherical bomb in his palm, and he was arming it. Judging by its weight and size, it was an Aer bomb, and a circuit along its circumference glowed blue as it was activated. There were two main principles when it came to Aer and Barriers. An Aer wavelength could be negated by another of the exact same wavelength. For example, if Renton had a bomb that produced the exact same crimson shade of light as the Thrall, it would explode and ignore the barrier entirely, destroying the creature with ease. This was a challenge, as Thrall wavelengths fluctuated constantly, and no one had ever been able to develop a weapon that could keep up with the slight variations enough to reliably break through.

The other principle that made more sense to rely on was resonance, when two opposing wavelengths met. The two opposing wavelengths would attempt to temper each other to their own wavelength, causing a massive release of energy. The closer the wavelengths, the lesser the resonance. This was simplified by the fact that wavelengths also tied into colors. The Thrall had a red shield. Renton readied a blue bomb. Simple.

Bomb tossed, scurrying away, Renton glanced over his shoulder to see if he hit his mark. The bomb landed directly on top of the Thrall, and rolled, rolled, stopped. He ducked behind a tree but peeked around the edge, making sure the bomb did its job.

Beep, beep, beep.

As the explosive detonated, azure light radiated from the bomb in a sphere shape, expanding rapidly. Renton watched the blue light come to life, and for a brief moment, it was beautiful, blue and red light, representing opposing forces, the natural forces of the universe. It was proof to him that good and bad were less important than right or wrong. Aer wasn’t good or bad, but it could be used for the right thing. When the azure met the crimson, there was a blinding flash, and Renton huddled behind his protective tree.

He waited in silence for a moment, and then froze when the Thrall seemed to have launched a counterattack. He saw the Thrall’s flesh on either side of his tree, and he knew it was coming for him now. He shuddered helplessly, waited for the Thrall to kill him. When no such thing happened, he leaned around the tree. He didn’t fully understand what he saw. The Thrall was contracting again, after apparently having expanded considerably following the Aer barrier being breached. Once the Thrall had returned to its original size, the crimson barrier faded back into existence, and the thing became inert again.

“What a waste of a good bomb.” Renton complained as he walked over to the Thrall.

His mind was cranking, working to put together what he knew, and figure out how this Thrall worked. He knew that Thralls weren’t restricted by the rules of the universe as humans knew them, so a Thrall could do almost anything, and it wouldn’t be a complete surprise. It was a cube shaped Thrall, and when its barrier was broken, it expanded in a sudden attack. A creature with a defensive nature. It didn’t seem to be on the same destructive rampage most Thralls went on.

But a Thrall was a Thrall, and that meant it had to die.

After all, even in the woods, it wasn’t far from Cliffridge, and it was still dangerous. Renton looked at his Aer scanner. Still no sign of Shel. If the Thrall killed him, wouldn’t there be a body? No time to worry about it. Shel was probably at the town square, anyway, and Renton needed to tell him about the Thrall, so that was the best place to go.

After recording the Thrall’s exact coordinates, Renton held his bag of bombs tight and ran for town as fast as his feet would take him.

Shel wasn’t anywhere in Cliffridge, that was the conclusion Renton had come to rather quickly. He had asked around town square, looking for the Collar, and no one had seen him. It was a busy time of day at the square, and Renton had to climb on top of a box to get a good look at everyone. But he didn’t see Shel, and none of his Aer readings on his scanner turned out to be the Collar.

Overall, the people of Cliffridge treated him with indifference. They didn’t listen to the things he said, and they didn’t understand the implications of their Collar being MIA. It had something to do with Renton being of a young age, and people tended to disregard the worries of the young, especially in the Brink. That didn’t change the fact that they were in danger.

“There is a Thrall in the forest outside town!” Renton yelled, “We need to find Shel so he can kill it!”

Those that turned to listen didn’t listen for long. The Thrall was outside town. Why should they care? Shel would certainly find it and take care of it before it became a problem. Someone else would find Shel and let him know. That was just the way things worked. Nothing for them to worry about. It was sometimes a bad thing that Thrall attacks had decreased in recent years, it made people forget why they should be afraid.

Renton grew angrier the more he was ignored. The people wouldn’t help him, they were sheep, trusting that their shepherd would protect them. They would only run away if they could see the danger in front of their eyes. At that, Renton had an idea.

Renton did something that he would later admit was incredibly stupid.

A quick stop back at his workshop got him what he needed, and he took it with him into the woods to the coordinates of the Thrall. It was still sitting out there, still not doing anything. Shel was missing, and the people didn’t want to help Renton look for him. So Renton would give them a good reason to look for him. It was less than an hour later that the boy was pushing the dolly up Main Street, towards town square. On top of the dolly, the Thrall. He managed to walk it all the way to the center of the square, through a packed crowd, before anyone noticed.

Someone grabbed his arm, stopped him. Renton looked up at the man, and found a fist in his face.

“What the Hell do you think you’re doing, kid?” The man asked, and then he hit Renton again. “Why would you bring a Thrall here?”

The people in the square were starting to catch on, and the panic began. Like a colony of ants that had been disturbed, the people could see the danger now. The Thrall was right in the center of town. Renton tried to explain that they needed to find Shel to fight it, but instead, he got punched once more. He fell down. Some quick thinker took the dolly and started to push it away from Renton. The boy held out his hand towards it.

“We need to find Shel!” He called after them.

“I’m going to drop it over the cliff.” The man explained to someone else, ignoring Renton.

As the town scrambled, and the worrying began, and their protector was nowhere to be found, Renton realized this might have been a bad idea. Before he could think it over fully, the Thrall let out its unnerving screech, and as Renton had partially seen before, it expanded. As its flesh grew, it engulfed the people of town, including Renton, and as it did, the world went black.

“Oh. So when you said you brought it here…” Riley said as Renton finished his story.

“I meant that I literally carried it here, yeah. Not my best idea, ever, no. But that’s okay, because we’re going to die here.” Renton shrugged nonchalantly.

“Quit saying that, we are not going to die here. We’ve got two Collars here now, at least. We’ll kill the Thrall, and we’ll get out. Anyway, that doesn’t explain you being a Collar, young man.”

“Unrelated.” Renton dismissed him, and stood up. “My Indicia can’t take form here, for some reason, so it doesn’t matter. I don’t know how to use any magic.” The boy wrung his hands and dropped his head.

“That’s alright. You’re just a kid.” Jensen stood and slapped the boy on his back. “Let the grownups handle this.”

“I could say the same to you.” Riley glanced sideways at Jensen. Then to Darius, “You’ve been here longer. What’s the plan?”

“I went to check the perimeter of town. We can’t get further than the outskirts of town, and the cliffs are blocked off, too. At the edge, there’s just endless Thrall flesh. I tried to cut it, the barrier ought to be pretty weak, with it being spread over such a large area, but I couldn’t break it. There’s something strange about it. I don’t think we can just brute force our way out of here.” Darius laid out the situation, though he didn’t seem to like that Jensen was hovering so close by.

“The air is really dry in here.” Riley complained, looking up and around. “So I can’t do much with my water magic. And Renton’s right, Rain can’t materialize.”

“My powers are for espionage, not fighting. I’m a spy for a reason. They won’t help us get out of here, that’s for sure.” Darius agreed. “We’re pretty much neutered in here.”

“Renton, you said you like to make inventions, right?” Riley turned to the boy. “Ever made anything that might help us?”

“If I did, do you think I would keep saying we’re going to die here?” Renton snapped.

“Fair point, but lighten up. A Collar should be easy going.” Riley instructed, and then he looked around town, tapping his foot on the ground repetitively. “Alright, we need to take stock of what we’ve got. How much food, weapons, supplies. I haven’t been to Cliffridge in years, so I don’t know how much things have changed since I was here last. But if they haven’t changed much, then I doubt we’ve got much to work with.”

“That’s my town you’re talking about,” Renton growled possessively.

“Your town doesn’t seem to like you much.” Jensen pointed at the boy’s bruised face.

“No offense, but I almost got myself a nice beating here once, too. This isn’t a town to be proud of, Renton.” Riley added.

“I’m sure the place you're from has never treated you wrong. I’m sure it’s just paradise, for someone like you.” Renton referenced Riley’s dark skin and raven hair.

“Alright, this isn’t getting us anywhere. Riley, there’s something else. Remember the guy we’re here to find?” Darius changed the subject before it could get too ugly.

“Shel, yeah. That’d be the reason we made the trip all the way out here. Because he stopped reporting in. And from the sounds of Renton’s story, he’s disappeared.” Riley followed along with Darius.

“He had disappeared.” Darius clarified.

“So that means that he’s here, too?” Riley asked.

“He was here. He went out into town to get something from my lab.” Renton answered.

“What could you possibly need that badly?” Riley wondered.

“There was a weapon I made that might have been able to get us out of here. But Shel went to get it and didn’t come back.” Renton elaborated, but he offered no more than he was specifically asked about.

“I thought you said there was nothing that could get us out of here.” Riley was beginning to sound exasperated with the boy. He certainly wasn’t easy to talk to.

“No, I answered that question with a question. And to save time, the answer to the next question you’re going to ask me is, ‘Yes, but if Shel isn’t back by now, he’s dead, and we’re not going to get our hands on it’.”

Jensen sauntered closer to the group when the discussion turned towards the weapon. “You don’t know that, that he’s dead, I mean.”

“If he isn’t back by now, he’s dead, and we’re not going to get our hands on the Lance.” Renton repeated. “And there’s no guarantee that my house is even within the limits of the Thrall. And it gets dangerous, the further you get from town square. Basically, it’s hopeless.”

“What do you mean ‘dangerous’?” Jensen squeaked as he looked out into the distance, over the outskirts of town.

“The Thrall is more active, out there.” Renton gestured in the direction Jensen was looking. “It attacks us when we go there. So we stay here.”

“We don’t know that Shel is dead. And you know what?” Riley turned to look down over the town with the others. “I have a thing about freedom. I don’t like being cooped up. I’m not going to die in here, so if our hope of getting out is out there, then that’s where I’m going.”

“I thought you said your magic couldn’t do much in here.” Renton crossed his arms disapprovingly.

“I said I can’t do much with the water in the air. I’ll figure something out.” Riley spoke confidently. But the truth was, he was scared that Renton was right. That they were going to die in that dark prison. And that fear made him angry. So he turned that anger towards the Thrall. “I’m coming for you!” He shouted at the sky.

“That’s a good idea, but you’re not going alone. I let Shel go alone, and he hasn’t come back yet.” Darius stood beside Riley.

“Someone has to stay and protect these people.” Riley whispered to Darius.

“They’re fine. I’d rather come and protect an ally. These people, they live in the Brink. They’re… you know…” Darius explained.

“People. They’re people. And we are here to help them. So you need to stay here. You too, Jensen.” Riley instructed.

“No arguments there.” Jensen shrugged, joining the people of Cliffridge.

“I’m with you, then.” Renton sighed, joining Riley.

“Not a chance.” Riley looked down at the boy incredulously.

“You don’t know where my house is, what the weapon looks like, or how to use it. If you want to have any chance of getting out of here, I’m coming with you.” Renton was steadfast.

“Alright.” Riley agreed after thinking it over. What the boy said made sense. “Darius, you keep an eye on Jensen and the people here. Renton and I will go get the Lance, and if that doesn’t work, then we’ll come up with something else.”

Renton waved behind his back to everyone in the square as he walked away. Riley glanced at him, then looked at Darius, shrugged, and followed along. “You know how to fight?”

“Shel taught me a thing or two. But mostly I just blow up things I don’t like.” Renton rested his hand on the bag of bombs hanging at his side.

“You blow up things you don’t like? I know someone else like that, too. Yeah.” Riley nodded as he followed Renton down Main Street, towards the outskirts of town.

Jensen watched as Riley and Renton walked away. In truth, it would have been simple for him to go retrieve the object for himself. All he would have to do was phase through everything on his way to Renton’s house, and take the Lance. It was the weapon that Freeman had sent him to pick up, of that he was certain. This wasn’t the best course of action, though.

[I don’t like that I can’t come in there.]

I don’t like it either, but there isn’t much we can do about it, Sev.

[I just hate how apart we’ve been lately.]

After all this is done, we’ll take a vacation.

There was something else Jensen needed to do while Riley and Renton were busy bringing the weapon back. They would deliver it straight to him, and worst case scenario, he’d snatch it and split. Take it back to Alyssa, and decide what to do from there.

[Worst case is we destroy it, because we can’t let Freeman have it.]

I haven’t decided that yet. All I know is I don’t want anyone to use it until we figure out what is inside that vault at InCorp.

[Jensen…]

Don’t worry. No one knows what we’re doing except Alyssa, and I trust her. We have the upper hand. No one here even knows I’m a Vassal.

Jensen walked while they talked, towards the cliff at the far side of town. It wasn’t a long walk from the town square, and sure enough, what he’d been told was true. Buildings backed up all the way to the edge of the cliff, with some even hazarding balconies over the edge of the abyss. Jensen could pass through objects, but it was a complicated mental process, and one he wouldn’t want to figure out how to do on contact at the bottom of a freefall. He regarded the cliff’s edge with hesitation as he looked at the blackness just beyond.

Given what his power was, Jensen wasn’t exactly a scrapper. He liked to handle things with a more delicate touch, and wasn’t technically trained in any specific combat style. This sort of situation was a little outside his comfort zone, since he didn’t know how brute force or intelligence were going to get them out of it.

This close, he could see that the black abyss wasn’t completely black, but did indeed pulse gently, giving off the faint light of an Aer barrier. It was thin, weak after being stretched over such a large area, but still intact.

[What’s the plan?]

Though Sev was only asking as a formality, Jensen answered, hoping to soothe the rabbit’s nerves.

Can’t break the barrier. It’d break all over, and the Thrall would be pissed about that. It might kill everyone.

[Phase through the barrier, then?]

Jensen nodded and reluctantly clambered onto one of the balconies adjacent to the cliff’s edge, making his way to one that enabled him to reach out and touch the black wall. As he stretched his arm out and placed his palm against the scarlet light, he considered something he hadn’t yet thought of. The Thrall that had swallowed them was a small box, compared to the town-spanning size of the one they were inside of.

So on the other side of the wall he was touching, was it the town square or the edge of the cliff?

He concentrated and pushed against the barrier, and after a moment, he was still in the exactly same place. The barrier was solid, like a block of lead, and his hand wasn’t gaining any purchase through it.

[Performance issues?]

Come to think of it, I’ve never phased through Lightglass before.

Jensen pushed for a short while longer before leaning back safely on the balcony. He crossed his arms over his chest, stared at the black wall, and was out of ideas.

[At least that explains why you couldn’t get through the vault at InCorp. Must have a Lightglass barrier in addition to the door.]

Maybe.

For now, Jensen resolved that all he could do was wait for Riley and Renton to come through. He might be able to phase through the Thrall itself, and if things got bad enough, it might have been worth a shot. Darius said they’d been unable to break the creature’s barrier, but Jensen would try if he was forced to. Considering he’d never phased through a Thrall’s flesh before, either, and this one seemed to have particular disdain for the laws of physics, there was no guarantee that would work.

Leaning on the balcony guardrail, Jensen cursed how powerless he was. He’d never felt so trapped before, even when he was imprisoned by InCorp.

“You shouldn’t be this far from the group.” Jensen was startled as Darius came around the corner of the building, wobbled and felt like he might fall over the edge.

After he regained his balance, he climbed back to solid ground. “I just wanted to see it for myself.”

“It’s hard to keep everyone safe if they split up.” Darius insisted, suggesting they head back to the group.

“Speaking of keeping everyone safe, if you’re here, where’s everyone else?” Jensen snapped back, even as he started walking with Darius back towards the center of town square where everyone was gathered.

Darius stopped in his tracks, and Jensen stopped a few steps later.

“Wait, you could touch the wall from that balcony?” Darius asked.

Jensen wasn’t sure why it was important, so he answered honestly. “Yeah, I was just curious. Having trouble believing this is actually happening. I mean, have you ever heard of anything like this?”

Darius hushed Jensen and held a finger up in the air. “Hold on, I’m thinking.” The Collar turned and walked to the edge of the cliff.

“Thinking…?”

“Shh.” Darius held his finger up higher.

Jensen tapped his foot on the ground as he waited.

“When I first got in here, we couldn’t reach the wall. Just now, you could reach it from that balcony.” Darius explained, and he held his hand out over the cliff, reaching for the wall, and his fingers were just out of reach.

Jensen swallowed hard, and considered that maybe he would have to go with plan B sooner than he expected.

“It’s getting smaller.” Darius looked up at the starless sky. “This whole place is getting smaller.”

They walked together for a while and didn’t encounter anything of importance. Riley trusted Renton to lead him the right way, and he kept his guard up, ready for the Thrall to attack at any time.

Renton walked a bit more casually, though he carried a spherical bomb in his palm.

“We should talk about that.” Riley motioned to the bomb.

“What about it?” Renton asked.

“Bombs aren’t the best cooperative weapon.” Riley said, hoping Renton would understand.

“No, I don’t often fight by anyone else’s side. I usually just use them to threaten people trying to steal things from me.” Renton admired the metal sphere against the torch in his left hand.

“Right. So if we get in a fight where we need to work together…” Riley trailed off.

“You’re asking me not to blow you up.” Renton said.

“Not in so many words.” Riley said with a shrug.

“I know my bombs, I built them myself. I know how to use them. I won’t blow you up if I don’t absolutely have to.” Renton said.

Pointing at Renton, Riley threw his torch hand up in the air. “That’s what I’m talking about. ‘If you don’t have to’. No, just don’t blow me up at all.”

“If we’re both being held by the Thrall, and you’re severely wounded beyond help, I will probably blow you up if it gets me to safety.” Renton explained.

“I wouldn’t blow you up.” Riley complained, but he didn’t have a better argument than that.

“Of course you wouldn’t. You don’t have any bombs.” Renton said.

“I meant if I had bombs.” Riley said.

“No reason to worry about ‘if’.” Renton said.

“You brought up ‘if’ first! You said ‘if we’re both being held by the Thrall’.” Riley said, with an attempt to mimic Renton’s voice.

“I brought it up. I didn’t worry about it, though. Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to in order to get out of a bad situation.” Renton said.

Riley’s heart sank as he thought about what the boy had said. It was true, Riley had definitely done things that he wasn’t proud of in his past, and those things were why he was still alive. Still, Riley was an adamant idealist, assuming there had to be a good way out of any bad situation.

[That’s the spirit.]

You’ve grown on me, that’s for sure.

[I’ve grown on you, I’ve grown in you…]

Please, not right now.

But Riley couldn’t help his lips curling into a smirk.

They walked in silence after that, at least out loud. Riley kept up a conversation with Rain inside his head that he didn’t think would be appropriate to share with the teenage boy traveling with them.

It took longer than Riley expected to reach Renton’s house, and when they finally approached, Renton seemed guarded and hesitant. He stopped short of the building, spinning the bomb in his hand.

“What’s wrong?” Riley asked, put on edge by the boy’s hesitation.

“Shel should be here. We didn’t run into any resistance, so why didn’t he make it back?” Renton asked, looking at his house cautiously.

“Maybe he got lost.” Riley suggested, but he still kept his distance with Renton.

Renton ignored Riley and started a careful approach to the building. Riley kept just behind the boy, knives ready. The boy leaned around the corner, looking before leaping, and when he got a good look, he wheeled around the corner and sprinted away.

“Renton, wait!” Riley whispered, but the boy was gone. When he followed around the corner, he saw Renton kneeling at the side of, presumably, Shel.

The Collar was on his back on the ground, and appeared to be unconscious. Riley stood behind Renton, who was looking Shel over.

“What happened to him?” He asked while keeping a lookout.

“He looks like he was hit pretty hard.” Renton said, inspecting the Collar’s body, checking for a pulse. “He’s still alive.”

“Hit by what, where?” Riley asked.

“Something big, everywhere.” Renton said, “Like he was crushed by a building. The Thrall did it. We need to get him back to everyone else, see if they can help him.”

Riley took a deep breath and sighed. “I can try to carry him back.” He didn’t want to volunteer to carry the Collar, but he couldn’t exactly expect the boy to do it, and they likely didn’t have time to bring help to him.

“Okay, wait here. I’ll get the Lance.” Renton disappeared inside, and Riley set about trying to figure out the best way to lift the unconscious Collar.

The quaking started while Renton was inside. Riley looked up and all around, and he couldn’t find the source. All of a sudden, the ground started to shudder.

“Renton?” Riley shouted, but he didn’t get an answer. He hefted Shel up and over his shoulder, and regretted not lifting more weights while training.

[Come on, you’ve had bigger guys than him on top of you.]

Rain, could you just, for one minute…

[Sorry…]

“Renton?!” Riley shouted once more, and this time, the boy appeared in the doorway to the house. He was carrying a massive metal contraption in his arms that looked like nothing Riley had ever seen before. It was, it seemed, pieced together by a mishmash of different parts from countless other devices.

“Got it. Let’s go, we have to get back before…” Renton ran towards Riley.

“Before what?” Riley asked.

Riley got his answer when a pillar of black stone smashed the ground just in front of him. It was a large pillar, and it missed crushing him by an inch. Another pillar smashed behind him, and the pillar in front of him raised back into the air.

He looked up and found that it wasn’t black stone, it was flesh. The ceiling of their Thrall prison was projecting itself downward in huge pillars, trying to crush them.

“It did this once before. I figured it was what got Shel.” Renton explained, keeping an eye upward as he struggled to run with the Lance in his arms.

“You couldn’t have explained this to me before?” Riley asked, struggling to run with Shel over his shoulder. At least they were struggling together.

They had to dodge sideways a few times to avoid being crushed, and even had to jump backwards from time to time. The creature’s aim was getting better. They would have to move fast if they wanted to get back to the town square before they got crushed like Shel.

“Question!” Riley shouted.

“Why would you not just ask the question?” Renton asked back, breathing quickly.

“I wanted to make sure I had your attention.” Riley said, and he had to jump away from Renton to dodge a pillar.

“Alright, you’ve got it.” Renton said when they came together again.

“Can’t we just use that weapon here and now?” Riley nodded at Renton.

“Takes a minute to get ready. We need more time.” Renton huffed, and he tripped, stumbled forward, scrambled to stay up, and fell. The Lance bounced along the ground, and Riley winced each time it hit, hoping that it wouldn’t break.

There were two pillars falling now, one for Renton, one for the Lance. It was as if the Thrall knew what the Lance was and why they needed it. Renton and Riley made eye contact, and they had a quick exchange entirely in facial expressions.

Get the Lance, forget about me. Renton’s face said.

I hate being an idealist. Riley’s said, and he sprinted towards Renton, grabbed his hand, and pulled as hard as he could, dragging him out of the way of the pillar.

They both turned towards the Lance and watched it disappear under the pillar aiming for it. There was no time to worry about the Lance currently, however, as another pillar was falling straight towards the trio. Riley dragged Renton, who was still recovering either from his fall or the shock of losing the Lance, out of the way of danger. They came to a stop as a pillar slammed down in front of them. As Riley moved to dodge sideways, he crashed his shoulder into a new pillar that had just touched down, adjacent to the two previous.

Spinning around, Riley already knew what he would see.

A fourth pillar, already fully descended, corners touching the other pillars, trapping them in a small space the size of one of the pillars. There would be nowhere to hide from the fifth pillar that would undoubtedly be coming for them now. The pillars extended all the way to the ceiling of the Thrall.

“I told you to leave me!” Renton shouted in Riley’s ear.

Riley took a deep breath and ignored him. He put Shel on the ground, a bit rougher than he should have.

[Gotta think fast, Riley.]

I am out of ideas.

[Riley.]

“Now the Lance is gone, and we’re both going to die. What did I say about doing things you don’t want to do?” Renton continued to shout.

Riley didn’t want his final moments to be filled with the boy’s complaints, so he shoved Renton against the Thrall’s flesh and leaned close, whispering. “Shut up. If I die, whether it be here today or there tomorrow, it’s going to be for a reason. Maybe it won’t amount to anything, saving your life might have been the wrong thing to do, but I have a reason. There’s someone that I can’t let down. I don’t know how long you’ve been a Collar, but it means something. I was saved, and so my life has a purpose. Everything I do is to make him proud of me. I’d rather die with you here, knowing I made him proud, than get out and live even one day without him behind me one hundred percent.”

“That’s good, because that is what you’re going to get.” Renton said, not shrinking back from Riley in the slightest.

“I’ve got things I need to do, things I need to say. But Collars don’t always get that chance. If I live my life afraid to take risks and save lives then I may as well not be a Collar at all. I don’t usually get to say goodbye to my friends. You just wake up one day and your best friend is gone. The next day, another friend goes crazy. I guess tomorrow is the day when my friends wake up and I’m the one who’s gone, and we’re Collars, they won’t hold that against me.”

“The right thing and the good thing aren’t always the same. If you didn’t die here, maybe you could have gotten out. Think about the lives you could have saved. Instead, you chose to die here with me. You can’t save everyone, Riley. Why bother trying?” Renton said.

“Because he would try.” Riley said, and he let Renton go.

[Riley.]

I noticed.

[You’re still alive. No pillar.]

“Why’d it stop?” Riley looked up, unsure of what was going on.

“I don’t know.” Renton joined Riley, crossed his arms over his chest.

There was no fifth pillar falling on them. It wasn’t going to crush them.

“But we’re still trapped.” Riley pointed out.

“It could have killed us all whenever it wanted. I think it works differently than that. It was attacking us when we had the Lance, but it was destroyed. We’re not a threat to it anymore.” Renton was trying to deduce what was going on.

While Renton was busy talking to himself, Riley inspected the walls of their prison. Solid, yes, but still the flesh of a Thrall. And no barrier.

“Why do you think it trapped us all in here in the first place?” Renton asked. “I’ve never known a Thrall to do that before.”

“Thralls are unpredictable. They don’t follow one set of rules.” Riley responded, poking at the Thrall’s flesh with his knife.

“Stop!” Renton held his hand up, looked around warily.

“What?” Riley asked, but he obeyed, pulling his knife back.

“It only attacks us when we’re threatening it. If you cut through there, it’ll probably crush us.” Renton explained. “I think it trapped us in here for a reason. It doesn’t want to kill us. Well, not directly.”

“A Thrall that doesn’t want to kill? That’s definitely a new one.” Riley shrugged.

“Not that. It does want us here, and it is going to kill us. Thralls are powered by what?” Renton asked as if he were teaching a class.

“Aer. They’re Aer creatures, like Indicia.” Riley replied obediently.

“It wants our Aer. If we’re trapped here, it can drain our Aer until it’s gone, and then, as far as it’s concerned, we’re just skeletons.” Renton spoke slowly, figuring it out as he went along.

“So it’s content to just keep us trapped here, and we can’t cut our way out, or it’ll kill us.” Riley assessed the situation.

“That sums it up. Yeah.” Renton slumped against the wall, slid to the ground. “Who knows if the other villagers are even still alive? It wants Aer, and that means Collars. Out of the three Collars in here, two of them are sitting right here.”

“You mean four Collars, three of them are here. You forgot Shel.” Riley pointed at the unconscious form on the ground.

“Oh, you’re right. I forgot about Shel.” Renton sighed.

“That explains why it left Shel alive. It wanted to drain his Aer before it killed him.” Riley said.

            “So if the only Collar left in town was Darien, then maybe the Thrall cut its losses, and we’re in the only spot left. There might be nowhere left to go.”

“Darius. His name is Darius.” Riley corrected. “And that doesn’t matter. No sense in worrying about ‘if’. Either way, we need to figure out a way out of here.”

All they had in their square was a dirt floor, a bag of bombs, Riley’s daggers, two torches, and the clothes on their backs.

[Riley, if you don’t find a way out of here…]

No sense in worrying about if, Rain.

[I love you, Riley.]

Riley thought, if he died, that would be a nice thing to hear before he departed. No, not a bad way to go at all.

Jensen and Darius made it back to the mass of civilians right around the time the Thrall decided to start bringing the roof down. Though they could see the pillars emerging in the distance, where Riley and Renton presumably were, that didn’t stop the townspeople from panicking immediately.

Panic might have, perhaps, been the appropriate response, as it didn’t take long before the pillars started to fall in the town square. Jensen’s initial instinct was to phase through the pillars as they tried to land on him.

[We don’t know if that’ll work.]

Jensen was annoyed by Sev’s reminder, but it was true. If the pillars had barriers, he couldn’t phase through them, and he’d get crushed. If they didn’t have barriers, he still wasn’t sure he could phase through them, and he might get crushed. Not fancying a maybe-to-definite crushing, he decided to try dodging instead. This worked out well as far as keeping up the lie that he wasn’t a Vassal, as well, since if Darius saw him phase through something, the jig would be up. It wouldn’t be a disaster, no sane Collar would squabble over details like ‘Collar’ or ‘Vassal’ in such a situation, but the Registry schlubs would be curious why he hid the fact that he was a Vassal in the first place.

Jensen wasn’t ready to share his suspicions about InCorp or Freeman with anyone but Alyssa yet, so it would be easier to get his hands on the Lance if he wasn’t forced to reveal his abilities.

Dodging didn’t prove to be too difficult. The pillars were easy to spot and coming from quite high overhead, giving plenty of time to move. Unfortunately, most of the villagers weren’t smart or attentive enough to pull it off. Jensen winced as a pillar crashed into the ground amidst a swarm of people.

[How long do we have to keep this up?]

The pillars were starting to come down in greater number, more at once over a larger area. They tore through buildings, bringing many of the houses crumbling to the ground. Fortunately, after landing, most of the pillars rose back up, instead of simply blocking other possible places to dodge.

You always ask the best questions, Sev.

As he dodged, Jensen kept his eye on Darius, who was doing his best to not get crushed and keep as many Cliffridge citizens from being crushed as well. He was doing reasonably well, but he had more close calls than Jensen would’ve liked to have himself. And, regardless of their efforts, they were losing a large number of the villagers.

It wasn’t Jensen’s job to worry about the random people living in a small town in the Brink, but he felt remorse that he couldn’t save them. Not enough remorse to slow himself down, but enough to notice it.

It was enough to slow Jensen down when he saw Darius making a bad move. The Collar was shoving a group of villagers to the side, out of the way of a falling pillar. The dodge that Darius made after was a mistake, moving into a square that had another pillar falling fast. Hardly thinking, Jensen decided it was enough impetus to shed his guise of being a normal person, and he leapt on Darius.

Concentrating, he prayed to Sev that he could phase through the pillars as it came down on top of Collar and Vassal. Touching Darius, Jensen could keep them both on the ground and phase up through the pillar as it lowered. With any luck, it would rise back up like the others, and they both would come out of it with hardly a scratch.

To Jensen’s surprise, who fully expected to be crushed to death, he felt the usual, awkward numbness that accompanied his phasing as the pillar reached him. But something was wrong. He almost lost his concentration, taking himself out of phase while still inside the pillar, when he realized what happened.

He had managed to phase himself through the pillar, but for some reason, and this had never happened before, he couldn’t bring Darius with him. Bringing a second person was difficult, but something Jensen had mastered long ago. He felt weak as he began to understand. He didn’t have enough Aer, like when he escaped captivity from InCorp. Trying to save Darius, he had managed to save himself.

The pillar rose, and Jensen let out his tightly held breath, kept his eyes closed, refusing to look down at Darius below him. He rolled off the Collar, staring up at the ceiling. As if to mock him for his failure, the pillars had stopped, and Jensen was staring at an empty black sky. Out of desperation, he reached over to feel Darius wrist, but he knew already that the Collar was gone.

Jensen had no love for Collars, nor the Registry. And he barely cared about other people that he didn’t know. But this business with Alyssa and InCorp was changing him, making him think more about what wanted from life. Losing Darius felt heavy, weighed him down. He couldn’t stand, not yet.

The black sky above had no lights, no shooting stars to wish on for hope. No gods hid amongst the darkness, waiting to bring a miracle to them.

Jensen didn’t know it yet, but the Lance was gone. Riley and Renton stared at the same empty sky as the Vassal, and they were all alone, without hope, together.