A stinking flood of fluid gushes from Heric’s split cocoon to herald his rebirth. I hop back with my pack raised to keep it from the spreading pool as the cocoon opens fully. Heric’s arms emerge; he grasps the edge of the cocoon for a moment, his hands tensing, before he levers himself upright with a gasp.

  I wait. Hopeful, but with my spear held close, just in case.

  “How do you feel?” I ask softly as Heric’s coughs fade to wheezing and he spits out the last of the vile liquid that has filled his lungs.

  “Like I’ve fought toe to toe with a dungeon boss…and lost.” He steps out of the cocoon; behind him the tendrils of it are absorbed back into the dirt to leave only a patch of liquid and a naked man standing tall where it once was. Heric has no injuries. All signs of his fight with River have faded, even some of the scars he’d gathered in his life have softened.

  “You look better than when you went in.”

  Heric smiles and looks at me through eyes that are black from edge to edge. He blinks. “I feel better. I can see more than I did before but…” He steps towards me and I struggle not to take a pace back. The mark is clear on his arm; it is white against his black skin as mine would be lighter against my brown. He is changed and I do not yet know how.

  “Your eyes have changed, Papa Heric.”

  He winces at the name. “How can I be that now? After letting my children down so badly.” He shakes his head. “I think Heric is all I am now. Perhaps not even that. My eyes are different, you say? My vision is also. I can’t see colours. But I see more. I see the wisps of power that you exude; I see the thump of light in your veins and the core of yourself. I see the world for what it is.”

  “And what is that, Heric?”

  “Pain. Suffering. Misery. No, don’t worry, Pik. I am not now some mad Marked with a violent nature. I can see clearly for the first time in my life and I…I’m sad. You’re strong. Stronger than I was by degrees and yet—”

  He’s faster than I can track; even with all the strengthening of my body and the training of my muscles the tip of my spear barely levels with him as he darts to the side. The world goes black. If I did not have my new eye tracing his every movement in vivid blue, I don’t think I would have been able to see him at all.

  He taps me on my shoulder and bounds away once more.

  “That’s impressive.” I say, careful and neutral.

  “It is a fraction of what I can do now. The architects have gifted me mastery over darkness itself.”

  “And you use it on me?”

  “It was an experiment. I’m sure you’re harder to scare than that.”

  “Never again, Heric. Never. Or I walk away now and we don’t speak again.”

  “You’d leave those people in the hands of River?”

  “I will weep for your people. I have wept. But I will not not stay with you unless you promise me; unless you swear to me on the lives of those children and the memory of Plim that you will not use your powers on me again.”

  The world returns to light and colour. Heric sits on a rock and places his head in his hands. “I’m sorry, Pik. I didn’t mean to…Of course, I promise on my life and theirs. On anything you want. I don’t know what came over me. The architects whispered to me while I was in there. They taught me of what I now am. They told me so many things and their wicked tendrils…no not wicked. They can’t be wicked. I must be misthinking their words from a memory deceived.”

  “You’re a good man. I know you want to do right and act from kindness. Becoming a Marked cannot change your heart.”

  “Can it not? How can you be sure? I saw many things in there; I know more than ever I did and yet…The cost is worth it.”

  I nod, not willing to loosen my grip on my spear. “Whatever was said to you, you are your own man and I know you will act with honour.”

  “I will try. But, Pik, what use is my honour with my family taken? Should I spare them for the sake of civility?”

  I let out a bark of laughter and it shocks both of us. “Sorry. Sorry. No, of course not. I don’t understand your powers yet, but if you need to choke them to death on the concept of darkness itself then they shall die with their mouths filled.”

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  He nods. “Good. You seemed a practical man, I am glad that I took the measure of you.”

  “What now? Are you well enough to travel?”

  “I believe so. In fact I’m stronger now than I’ve ever been, by quite some margin.”

  “We have three days of travel to make up; they’ll be traveling slower than we can so we might catch them before they reach River lands.”

  “Three days? Blazing sun…No.” Heric shakes his head. “You didn’t see them, Pik. They will press on fast. If any of my people fall behind they’ll be dispatched and all we’ll find is a trail of corpses marking their passage. There’s no use pursuing.”

  “Then what was the point of this?”

  “I have my mark, but I’m untested. We can travel any of three ways back to the River static and Oran’s domain. None of which I relish. Still, it’s only you and I. A Marked and a remarkable Heightened, but you are still only Heightened, Pik. We should find a dungeon and bring forth your mark too.”

  “The seed won’t work on me or I’d have eaten it a year ago when I found it.”

  He looks at me with those deep pitch eyes and its like falling into an endless void. They’re not truly black, either, there is something there. Twinkling in the distant dark, a presence that lurks behind and below.

  “You grow stranger to me each time we speak. Fine. I will take your word that you cannot advance through the seeds; unless you wish to gift me your spear, I am both naked and bereft of arms.”

  “A dungeon is too dangerous.”

  “We can do it together.”

  “Have you ever been into one, Heric?”

  “I was always fonder of looking after our children. There wasn’t much in the dungeons that drove me.”

  I shake my head. The thought of turning down the opportunity to advance, escorted through a dungeon by the tribe’s Marked to gain one of your own…that was a blessing and Heric had turned away from it to care for children. It doesn’t make sense to me. Everyone should be striving to advance; they should want to pass the trials and ascend to the place above and onwards to heaven.

  “I’ve been into two dungeons. In the first, half a dozen Heightened died before the Leaf tribe Marked could defeat the boss. In the next.” My throat closes with a pain that hasn’t faded from the day she died. “My friend died. She had cleared fifteen dungeons all alone and still she died. You cannot assume that you’re strong enough just because you’ve been gifted power.”

  “I know myself well enough. This is important enough to take a risk. Without a dungeon and the treasures it provides we will not be strong enough to oppose Oran. Even with weapons, time, training, and preparation it still may not be enough. We should give ourselves every chance of success, even if the margins are narrow.

  I jab the tip of my spear at him to punctuate my words. “I’ve come too far to die for a crusade and damned pride.”

  “What about dying alone, afraid, and ashamed?”

  “Don’t do that.”

  “Do what? Tell you truths? I saw how you looked at the boy. You knew us for a day and you could have left, but you came back to us. You saw our troubles and you couldn’t help yourself. You’re a good man, Pik. I can see it.”

  “I let your people die.”

  “I know.”

  I furrow my brow and take a pace back. “What do you mean you know?”

  “I’m not a fool. I know that you took care of those creatures on the ridge; I heard the battle, I heard the delay before you came down and I saw another one of my people die for your lateness.”

  “Then how can you not hate me?”

  “If you hadn’t killed those monsters on the ridge we’d have been swamped. If you hadn’t come down and dispatched those at the base then more than Lia would have died. I wish you’d come sooner. I didn’t know what delayed you, or whether it was something so simple as catching your breath, but I knew that when you came down you’d done good and we were safer for having you there.”

  “But I delayed. Don’t you care why?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “You’d hate me for that too.”

  “I don’t think I have room in my heart for more hate.

  “I eat monsters, Heric. That is why I didn’t come down. I was carving a meal from the carcasses of the monsters.”

  He hesitated now. His eyes should be unreadable, but they are still set in a human face. His nose crinkles and his jaw clenches. I see him work through emotions that he isn’t prepared for within information that he couldn’t have anticipated.

  “Why?”

  “The food that the architects give us doesn’t nourish me. It hurts my stomach and I’m sick after. I was lost and alone when I was scattered here from my sector and I had nothing but the carcass of a monster, so I ate it. It was the best meal I’ve ever eaten and the only thing I can stomach now.”

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  “So you know who I am. I’m a monster eating coward who betrayed people I didn’t know so that I could fill my stomach with flesh.”

  Heric steps closer. I pull my spear across my chest and drop lower to brace myself, but his hand is slow, his palm open. I let him through my guard and he lays his hand against the side of my face.

  “You’re not a coward, Pik. A coward wouldn’t fight. A coward with your life would have lain down and died in obscurity. You’re a man without a place. You’re afraid. But you’re not a coward.”

  “I couldn’t save Plim.” His touch is soft and comforting. Someone must have held me once, when I was a child fresh from the womb of the architects someone from my tribe must have taken me, strapped me to their body and carried me. Maybe they even cared for me. But that wasn’t the life that Papa Heric’s children had. They’d had love too. A tender touch and a caring smile as he raised them until they were ready to stand for themselves.

  “The burden of his loss weighs on my soul. Yours is free, Pik. You don’t have to join me on this. It’s likely to be to the loss of my life. I can’t guarantee that I’ll free any one of them, but I’ll try. I don’t care that you think yourself a coward or that you…eat monsters. None of that matters to me. Only the content of your heart and the sun blazing drive of your will. Would you step into the light with me?”

  “I can’t promise that I’ll be steadfast, Heric. I’m too craven. But I have business with Oran and I’ll do my best to help you revenge those who’ve been taken.”