My waterlogged feet stumbled their way through the underbrush as I followed behind Isa. The distant sounds of screams and gunfire were always present, along with the wailing of what sounded like a claxon alarm. My mind was empty, like a fog had crept over me; my legs were heavy; and I could barely keep my eyes open. The night was late.

Yet we couldn’t stop. We could still hear them. The heavy metallic thumping, the machine gun fire, and that daunting howl. They were everywhere. Like ants, these fighting machines roamed in every direction and, from what we could see, killed anything and everyone.

We found a group of corpses in the woods. A family, a father, a mother, and three children. The mother looked to have been shielding the youngest, while the father and what I assumed to be the eldest held a stick with a white shirt wrapped around it.

Like the soldier and people on the beach, they tried to surrender.

“Surrendering is a guaranteed way to get yourself killed or taken. These monsters have no empathy for your kind.”

The voice, which had been with me since the start of the battle, persisted. No longer present in merely my dreams. I had tried to reason with it ever since we left the beach. Yet the mysterious being in my head made it simply clear that I was to get to Johanneson.

“They’re monsters,” I said out loud, looking at the corpses as I gritted my teeth.

Part of me had hoped that perhaps these were soldiers following orders, mere men and women forced to do the work of their superiors. I wanted to humanize them in the hopes that maybe not all of them are terrible. Yet now I knew what Varis felt. The hatred towards these monsters, or demons, as Peter called them.

Peter…

I killed him. I thought. He was trying to help me, and I knocked him out… There’s no way he could’ve made it out alive after that.

I sniffed.

I murdered him.

“Perhaps, but you are alive now, and that’s all that matters.” The voice said it coldly.

You’re a heartless bastard.

“Perhaps, but it is my heartlessness that has allowed me to make it this far.”

Oh, shut the hell up with that.

The voice did not respond.

Isa turned around and saw me looking over the corpses. “Luna,” she said softly as she walked towards me.

She knelt down and gripped my shoulders. “Don’t look at them; look at me.”

I sniffed and glanced at her. “I-I’m afraid for my family.” I whispered. “P-Papa might’ve been on the boat. Or that beach.”

“I know, hon, but I told you. I’m sure they got away.” Isa smiled. “Slyran, your father, is very resourceful, and Cailynn is a powerful wizard. I’m sure they’re okay.” She pulled me into a hug.

I gripped her gently and sniffed. I closed my eyes and held her. Yet as we hugged, I felt something graze the back of my neck. Then my nose. I opened my eyes and noticed snow.

It was snowing.

“Sn-snow?” I muttered softly, and Isa opened her eyes and looked up.

Around us, flakes of snow began to come down from above all around us. Sticking to the ground and trees, Isa sniffed, and her eyes widened.

“N-no… it’s ash.”

My eyes widened as visions of the ray of fire in the streets, the boat, and then the beach flashed before my eyes. “Th-these are people…” I said it shakily. “This is the ashes of people.”

Isa’s eyes widened, and she shook her head quickly. “We don’t know that, Luna. This could be from the trees or the town. Don’t think about it.”

How am I supposed to not think about it?! My heart began to race, and Isa pulled me in close and shushed softly as we began to walk once more.

We took shelter in a small crevice in the earth, covered by an overhanging log. Isa’s bag had been soaked and ruined much of her rations, save for the dried jerky, which wasn’t so dry anymore.

It was awful, yet it put something in my stomach. It continued to rain ash for much of the night, covering the trees and earth in a faint gray sheen. I don’t know when I fell asleep. I don’t know if I even did.

I had blinked once, and then it was sunrise. I hardly felt rested. My clothes were crusty, and my boots and socks were uncomfortable, yet Isa helped me up and out of our hiding place as we continued on our journey west.

The screams and sirens had stopped at some point, though we still heard the sounds of distant cannon fire and the roars of fighting machines. Though it was coming from somewhere else, after that catastrophe, I was surprised to still hear the sound of fighting.

How do we fight something like this? I thought pessimistically as I walked behind Isa. They come from nowhere, they move so fast, and they’re so powerful… How are we going to survive?

“Follow my instructions.” The voice returned. “Listen to me, and we can stop this. You just need to do as I say.”

I stopped when the voice returned, and I stomped my foot on the ground. Isa halted as well and turned to look at me.

I don’t even know who you are.

“You do, but not right now. Once we meet, things will be clear again. For now, I can merely offer bouts of advice.”

I frowned, placed a hand on my hip, and looked up at the cloudy sky.

Isa cocked her head, her fuzzy ears flicking with confusion, and she asked, “Luna, is everything alright?”

Wouldn’t it just be better if I knew who I was talking to?

“No, because you’ve already told your feline friend about me, and I do not trust that you’ll conceal much of this information. It is for this very reason that I made it clear that I would keep myself distant from you before. Secrecy is key.”

I rolled my eyes frustratedly and sighed as Isa began to approach me with a somewhat concerned look.

She’s a serelli, and I don’t get it. Am I not supposed to be talking to you? Why couldn’t you have said before that you don’t want me talking about you?

“In a sense, yes, we shouldn’t be talking.” He didn’t bother answering my second question. “But already, I am revealing too much. Instead, all you need to do is listen. On your journey, you’ll encounter a forked path in a forest. Make your way down the left path towards the river; at the end of that path is a cabin. In that cabin, you’ll find the keys to a boathouse that’ll lead you to a boat. Take them.”

I frowned and ran a hand over my mostly bald head.

What if I don’t want to follow your little story?

“Then you will

die, and the fate of everything you hold dear will be put into jeopardy.”

I frowned upon hearing that. It almost seemed like a threat.

What if I tell Isa about this? What if I want to make my own choices and do what I want?

“You can do whatever you want, but I advise you don’t. The more people who are aware of this and the more you don’t follow my explicit instructions, the more you’ll be putting everything I’ve worked for at risk.”

I bit my lower lip. Everything you worked for? What are you working towards?

“I told you already. To put a stop to this, and that’s all I’ll tell you for now.” He sounded almost bitter.

I’m telling Isa. I thought.

“As said, do as you wish. If you believe she can be trusted.”

I blink with surprise. Of course, I can trust her!

Isa took a few steps towards me. “Luna, you’re making me concerned. Is everything alright? You look spaced out.”

Voice man. Can I ask you one last question? I thought.

“Questions will only bring more questions, which will waste more of our precious time. Yet if it’ll humor you into moving, go ahead.”

God, you’re kind of an asshole.

“It comes with the trade.”

You seem to know a lot about where these monsters are and such. That means you can see things, right? Do you know if my family is okay?

“That is two questions, but again, I’ll humor you. First off, no. I cannot see; unfortunately, I am not omniscient. But I can feel. I am able to sense powerful souls and their whereabouts. However, I can see through you, but I am limited to merely your vision. For your second question…” The voice fell silent for a moment, and I glanced at Isa and tapped on the side of my head, and she looked at me confused. The voice returned, “I am unaware. However, that doesn’t mean they are dead and gone. I simply do not sense a trace of them.”

I felt my blood run cold, yet I sighed and took a deep breath. Okay, thank you. How come you haven’t started speaking to me until recently?

“And this is why I said questions bring more questions. You’re burning time. Find the cabin, get the key, and make your way to the city.”

Can you not just avoid my questions?

The voice didn’t respond.

“I don’t like that guy.” I muttered under my breath.

Isa took a nervous breath and said, “The voice in your head?”

I nodded slowly. “He gave us a task. A place to go.”

“Where?” She asked me softly, her expression still one of concern.

“He said to find a forked path in the forest along our journey, so I’m assuming he means we continue with our current goal until we find this path.”

“Where would that path take us?” Isa rubbed the back of her neck.

“He said to take the left path to the river, where we’ll find a cabin with keys to a boat we can use to cross the Kenchala.”

Isa nodded slowly and sighed. “If it’s to the river, then that means he’s referring to the far west past the lake to where it transitions into a river again. That’s not too far from here.”

I shrugged. “You’re more familiar with the area than me.” I took a deep breath.

Isa smiled. “Well then, we have an idea of what to look out for.” She reached out and patted me on the shoulder. “I don’t know if the mystery man can hear me, but thank you.” She chuckled.

I smiled faintly and chuckled as well as we continued our walk through the woods.

We progressed onward as the sun drifted across the sky into the evening. The distant sounds of battle began to fade away as a calm silence fell over the forest we traversed through, and the sounds of birds and bugs made themselves known. Eventually, as the sun began to set, my stomach growled audibly.

Isa’s ear twitched upon hearing my screaming stomach, and she turned to look at me and nodded. “We should settle down for some rest,” she said as I nodded in agreement.

We spent some time looking around the area for a comfortable space to hunker down, and eventually we stumbled upon a structure. A cabin in the woods in a partial clearing. Not the one mentioned by the dream man, yet something different.

A small, lone structure that was overgrown with moss, the wood that made up the cabin appeared faded and possibly infested with termites, and the glass panes on the windows were covered in a thick grime. The place appeared abandoned. Cautiously, we approached the building, sticking behind Isa. I let her take the lead as we neared the small, run-down building.

“Hello?” Isa called out to anyone and knocked on the door to the cabin.

Yet there was no response. Timidly, I glanced around the side of the building and over our shoulders. There didn’t seem to be anyone around here.

I hate abandoned buildings. What if there’s a ghost here? Momma had some old books that talked about the undead and necromancers. What if they’re real?

Isa’s ears twitched as she continued to listen, and finally, she took a deep breath and glanced at me. “It looks like we’re in the clear. I don’t hear or smell anything off,” she said as the chirping of crickets began to rise like a chorus.

The sun was setting over the horizon, and night was coming. I took a deep breath and nodded before nearly jumping out of my dress when the distant howl of a fighting machine could be heard.

“Y-yeah! Let’s get inside.” I said it with a quick nod.

Isa grabbed the handle on the door, and surprisingly, it was unlocked. We stepped into the cool, stuffy interior. The grime-covered windows blocking the majority of the light created an eerie feeling as we stepped into the dimly lit interior. A thick layer of dust covered everything we could see.

The living room was made up of an old fireplace on the far wall with two cushioned chairs in front of it and what looked to be a dining table, which still held old glasses and rusty tins. I covered my nose as we made our way into the center of the room, every step of ours kicking up clouds of dust.

“Won’t be comfortable,” Isa muttered softly. “But it should protect us from the elements. I’ll take a look around and see if I can find anything useful; hopefully there’ll be some canned goods here that’re still good.”

I nodded as my eyes scanned over the table and saw plates still covered in rotted goods and rusty silverware. It’s like the family here just vanished without a trace. I thought there were no signs of struggle or anything, as if they just got up and left.

My eyes drifted up along the wall behind the table, and I saw something that looked a bit weird. A dusty plaque hung on the wall, and on it was etched a strange image. As Isa moved towards the back of the kitchen, I made my way over to the table and squinted at the plaque as I tried to make out the details.

It was an image of an androgynous face gazing down upon a group of twelve loosely silhouetted figures; behind the head was a multitude of sparkling stars. I tilted my head and glanced in the direction of the kitchen.

“Isa, do you know what this is?” I asked, pointing to the plaque.

After a moment, Isa stepped back into the room and glanced at the plaque. She pursed her lips as she came over to me and leaned in to get a closer look. Due to her tall nature, she had a much better vantage point than I as she examined it.

I watched as she reached up and wiped away some of the grime off it, then rubbed her chin. Finally, her eyes widened a bit, and she snapped her fingers.

“I do, in fact, recognize this,” she said, glancing towards me. “It’s a religious plaque dedicated to the Church of the All Father also known as Aerism.”

The All Father? Like Odin? I thought. Vinland is a place in this world, so probably. Yet, from everything I’ve seen in my old life, this doesn’t look like Odin.

“The All Father?” I said questioningly as I glanced up at Isa.

She nodded and said, “Yes. It’s a newer religion that sprung up many years ago. Once regarded as a cult in the times of the Twilight War, they had grown greatly in number in nations like Branoria and Iona. Eventually, in the past sixty or so years, I recall that they were officially recognized in Iona as their own religion.”

I nodded and glanced at the plaque. “Do you know what they believe in?”

Isa shrugged. “Admittedly, not much. The Church of the All Father isn’t overly open due to harsh criticisms they’ve received in the past. I’ve heard, however, that they believe that there’s only one true god, the one they call father, and that he is the one who created the twelve apostles.” She gestured at the androgynous being and the twelve figures. “And it was they who created the known universe.”

In a world that’s proven to have multiple gods, I can understand why a religion like this would be frowned upon. Yet, one god, twelve apostles? In my old life, I was born into a Roman Catholic family. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence, but that seems to be drawing very close to Christ’s followers.

“Interesting,” I said. “I’m surprised I never heard about them till now.” I glanced at Isa.

“That is because the church isn’t as popular here in Heinmarr. Go to Branoria or Iona and you’ll see much more of them.” She chuckled. “But let’s find something to eat first, and we can chat and rest.”

I nodded and followed her into the run-down kitchen in order to find some food and rest for the evening. Yet as we scrounged around the kitchen, to say we found much would be a lie.

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