Nighttime at the base of Noctim’s tree was best described as “oppressive.” Vast shadows from the canopy above covered the entire city, blocking nearly all light from the sky. Gentle glows from the lights in the canopy filtered down, providing the only real light for Benedict’s eyes to catch. Even after letting his eyes adjust for nearly an hour, he could barely see the sights of his rifle as he lay in his rooftop position. He wondered what was going on up there. Even more, he wondered what was going on around him. The masked men hadn’t shown up in the area yet, no monsters wandered close, and a cramp had developed in his right leg.

  Amalyn was one rooftop away, so he couldn’t even Sense the area as much as he wanted to. Even if she was in the middle of a nap (she wasn’t), Kirion, Ordra, and Celica weren’t much farther away. Kirion kept an eye on the body itself, while Ordra patrolled his rooftop. Celica was next to Kirion, waiting for orders on where to send a spell.

  Shiyo was three rooftops away, acting as bait for the assassins under the logic of being mostly alone would be more enticing than if they were all together. Benedict could fire on anything that attacked her from his position, so she was well enough protected. That was her excuse, anyway. Benedict suspected that what she really wanted to do was be far enough away that she could Sense the area. He tried to satisfy himself that she would see any danger before it came close, but that didn’t help much when he looked behind himself.

  Silence prevailed as the night dragged on. Ordra took Amalyn on a patrol once, coming across rotting monster corpses unmoved from where they’d been felled. There weren’t even any scavengers picking at them.

  Amalyn came over to Benedict and knelt by him. “This didn’t turn out how we thought, did it? Do you have any other ideas?”

  “None whatsoever.” Benedict let out a loud, frustrated sigh. “Not my brightest hour, I admit.”

  “It was a good thought. Being incorrect doesn’t make you an idiot.”

  “I’m not sure that helps as much as you might think, Amalyn.”

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s appreciated regardless. Thank you.”

  Her smile gave him a little bit of warmth in the night’s chill. Benedict stood and stretched while trying to shake the numbness out of his leg. “I should see how Shiyo is doing. She might be up for a walk around the rooftops.”

  “Don’t forget to signal if you two find trouble.”

  “Three quick shots from my rifle. I’ll do it regularly if I can until you all arrive.”

  Amalyn gave Benedict a thumbs up. He returned the gesture and dashed over the nearby rooftops toward Shiyo. She sat in her position, legs crossed and still as a corpse. She turned as he approached, eyes glowing with Morighana’s bluish white light.

  “Here to join me?” she asked in a nonchalant tone.

  “I thought you’d be Sensing,” Benedict said as he stood next to her. “What do you see?”

  “Much. Join me.”

  Benedict let Morighana’s power flow through his body, then he threw his Sense in every direction.

  First, he looked back to his friends. Around them there wasn’t even a whisper of trouble. Looking away, toward the tree, he saw the horde. Dozens of men, all positioned in small groups, stood around tables, walked through passages, or slept, all underneath the city in a labyrinthine maze. Monsters came from beyond the range of his Sense, marching away from the tree. They were a menagerie of all kinds known within the city. What was beneath their feet?

  A flash of movement caught his attention. It was far away, probably three hundred yards. He focused on it; a man wearing a bird mask and large, tattered poncho. Each footstep sent him flying ten yards, and he landed in the exact position to push off again. A second figure, nearly identical to him, followed shortly behind.

  “Those two have been skulking around for a while,” Shiyo said.

  “Should we take a look?” Benedict asked, letting the power slip away from him.

  “Just us. I have a bad feeling about this.”

  “I trust you.”

  Something nagged at the back of Benedict’s mind, too. Amalyn had powers that she used for acrobatic movement, but she didn’t move the same way. They had a power, yes, but it was different from what counted as normal on Phynel.

  They dashed across rooftops together, grappling where they couldn’t jump to new rooftops and sprinting across streets when grapples couldn’t reach. Their quarry in the distance continued on their way. At this rate, the attack would be a brilliant surprise.

  When he and Shiyo were a hundred yards away, their quarry split up and veered toward them. Benedict almost stopped running. Not once had he or Shiyo been in a position to be seen. Yet still, the masked men came right for them, bolting through streets, then over nearby buildings. Finally close enough to see them, Benedict spotted glowing eyes, glowing crimson.

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  Shiyo sword and pushed Benedict away just in time for both men to crash into the spot they had just occupied. Benedict instinctively aimed his rifle.

  “Swords only!” Shiyo shouted as she come in with two quick strikes that both the men avoided. “Or do you want our friends to know?”

  Benedict curse himself for almost messing everything up and drew his sword. Shiyo landed next to him and raised her sword in a guard. Across from them, the two men stood next to each other, long daggers in their hands.

  “I believe these may be our assassins,” Benedict said.

  “No doubt,” Shiyo grumbled.

  One of the assassins laughed. “What fun. The Gift makes things much more interesting. What say you, brother?”

  The other laughed along with him. “The last one was such a treat. I can’t wait.”

  “Last one?” Benedict murmured.

  Before he could even think another word, an assassin rushed him, slender blade aimed right at his neck, while the other attacked Shiyo. They moved faster than Benedict had seen during his time in Phynel—likely because of whatever power they were Linked to—weaving and dancing around every strike Benedict attempted. For his part, Benedict felt the wind off the assassin’s dagger multiple times, it came so close.

  “Amateur,” the assassin hissed as he drew several small needles with his left hand.

  Benedict ducked away as a needle flew, searing through the air over him, coated in a faint red glow. He pushed off the ground, flying away from the next projectile. One pierced the ground just under his foot, spreading an evil crimson black glow from the tip.

  He recovered and flourished his sword back to a ready position. “Is that all you have?”

  “What an unfortunate turn of phrase.”

  The assassin threw his arm behind him as shadows the same color as those spreading from the needle engulfed it. Benedict wasn’t going to wait for whatever was happening and charged in. The assassin flew on the defensive as Benedict’s blade darted into and out of his guard. More than once, Benedict came so close to scoring a hit that the assassin had to parry. Benedict avoided the riposte only to find a large crimson hand dominating his vision as it closed around his head.

  Deep in his body, Benedict felt every organ screaming in pain. Lights flashed in his closed eyes while a piercing ring filled his ears and the acrid stench of rotting corpses his nose. All he could do was flow all Morighana’s power into his sword. Her light broke through all the pain, instantly bringing back all his senses. The assassin leapt back, then Benedict thrust his blade forward. Light speared the assassin directly in the chest. More crimson shadows flashed around him like ethereal smoke. When the chaos cleared, he stood still, holding his chest.

  Benedict’s follow up halted as the assassin bolted in, slipping by his blade and grabbing Benedict from behind. A razor-sharp blade at his neck, Benedict halted all his movement. Even the shallowest breath brought his skin right up to the edge.

  A guttural, arrogant laugh came from the assassin. “And here I thought you’d be a challenge.”

  Benedict’s sword hand twitched, and the blade at his neck brushed against his skin. Hot, thick liquid began to trick down his neck.

  “I hate to kill someone else with the Gift, but that’s how things go. Any last words?”

  If only he could signal Shiyo somehow. She was in an alley farther away from them, locked in a flurry of parries and ripostes with the other assassin. Then, her opponent fumbled. A single misstep ended with Shiyo’s blade scraping his torso, followed by a kick that threw him into the wall. There they stayed, Shiyo standing over her opponent with the tip of her blade an inch from his neck.

  “Your friend might need some help,” Benedict said.

  The blade at his neck faltered. Benedict moved his blade. When the assassin didn’t move his, Benedict inserted his arm between himself and the blade while slamming his head back, cracking it against the mask. The assassin grunted and fell back.

  Benedict turned, drawing his rifle. Three bullets flew, two striking the assassin in the side of his torso while for sure alerting Amalyn. The assassin’s hand glowed as he threw it forward. Smoke tinged with crimson spread from the hand and surrounded him so thick he couldn’t see past three inches ahead of him. He tried to Sense the area, only to find flashing, static-like light around him. Pain shot through him, and he ran until the smoke cleared.

  As Sense came back, he spotted Shiyo also charging out of a similarly distorted mass, sword ready. He downed a healing potion and dashed to her location, letting Morighana’s power fade. It still coursed through his body when he heard Amalyn behind him.

  “Benedict, what happened?” she shouted from a nearby rooftop.

  Without looking back, Benedict grappled to a roof. “We encountered the assassins. Shiyo’s this way!”

  “The others are behind me. Show me where.”

  When they arrived at Shiyo’s location, the smoke had cleared completely. Every wall around her was gouged with deep slashes. A portion of the street was black with a serious burn. Worse was Shiyo. She let her arms hang, her sword still dripping with blood and her shoulders pulsing with heavy, rhythmic breaths. Benedict landed in front of her. The glow in her eyes had faded but wasn’t gone.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  Her lips curled into a shallow, somewhat frightening smile. “I got what we needed.”

  Benedict didn’t know someone taking a drink of a healing potion could be threatening, but somehow Shiyo made it happen. The glow faded completely.

  “What happened here?” Amalyn asked.

  “Those assassins are stronger than one might think,” Shiyo replied.

  “Do you need another potion?”

  “I’m fine. Most of this is the curse.”

  “That’s not better!”

  Benedict removed the bullet-filled coffer from his rifle then fired three times into the air, just in case the others had lost track. “What was it you found out?”

  “I know where they are and how the monsters come back,” Shiyo said.

  Amalyn stared at her. “How?”

  “I have my ways.”

  Benedict thought back to Shiyo’s interaction with the bandit leader and seeing him slice his own throat at her command.

  By the time the others turned up, their wounds were gone. Benedict explained what happened to him—skipping the parts that would reveal he was Linked to Morighana, of course—and Shiyo did the same.

  “What is it, then? How is all this happening?” Ordra asked.

  “There’s an underground network of tunnels beneath the city,” Shiyo said. “They lead into the root system of the tree, where there is a nest that generates these monsters constantly. If we’re to stop this infestation, we must destroy the nest.”

  “That’s all well and good, but a tunnel network is usually quite vast, so how do we find our way around?” Kirion asked.

  Shiyo answered by holding up a sheet of parchment. A map was inked onto its surface showing a vast network of passages, likely right underneath the city.