The Light On Your Face For The First Time

The normalcy Lotusfoil had finally established was thrown so askew by Redmaw's departure that she felt displaced, like a stranger in the Echoless realm all over again. All the looks and comments made under breath. The avoidance, gawks of curiosity, prying questions elucidating her status as an oddity to the Knives. The buzz of gossip culminated in Beocraft cornering Lotusfoil once more that evening.

"So where is he?" asked Beocraft, bearing down on her with Ghostmass and Mattergeist at his shoulders.

She held her ground. "I don't know."

"Didn't you speak to Evander?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"We don't know where he is." She knew why Redmaw wasn't here, but the announcement hadn't been made yet. Her lips were sealed.

Beocraft scoffed, "Pathetic. That's not the Redmaw I know. Looks like I finally broke him." He elbowed Mattergeist, laughing as he walked away with her.

But Ghostmass lingered, staring down at her, engulfing her in his titanic shadow. Lotusfoil swallowed her nerves until Ghostmass' growl split the silence. "He's disqualified from the trials," Ghostmass remarked. "The stakes have become much higher."

"I'm not particularly concerned about what reward you've arranged with Evander," said Lotusfoil.

"But I am about yours."

"My arrangement has nothing to do with you."

"Your threat to Beocraft suggests otherwise. If you recall telling him to stay out of your way, and that he'd be grateful if you succeed."

She supposed the threat remained since she'd actually figured out a course of action. Lotusfoil hummed, ego nourished by Ghostmass' concern. "My priority is finding a way out of this realm and back to Earth," she clarified. "Unless you intend to assist me with that, then I maintain that my arrangement has nothing to do with you."

Ghostmass slowly tilted his big, heavy head. She imagined him narrowing his eyes. "A way out for all of us?"

"Yes." Unlike Redmaw, her goals extended beyond her own self-interest.

Ghostmass hesitated. Behind him, Beocraft and Mattergeist watched, waiting, certain to peel him open later for insight into this conversation. He grabbed a fistful of her tunic, shoving her roughly against the wall. "Don't think I'll go easy on you just because you claim to have noble intentions," Ghostmass snarled over her. "When I win, the Knives will know a new nature of leadership. The mercy and compromise they deserve from Beocraft. And those who don't deserve that... will get what they do deserve from me."

The impact left her heart racing. "Weren't you all resistant to Redmaw's cruelty in the first place?"

"Redmaw thought he could be both judge and executioner, and maintain the respect of his comrades. That was his downfall," said Ghostmass. "But me, I don't care how anyone else feels about me. Fear me, hate me, good." Wicked laughter brewed deeply in his chest. "I take pleasure in seeing you pissbabies tremble. I'll crush every last one of you until nothing remains but my authority. Our authority. When I win, Beocraft becomes Knive Superior, and I become the Knive Secondary, free to maim and kill as I see fit."

Lotusfoil battled the ice-cold washing over her. "Don't you want your freedom?"

"Freedom means nothing here. It never will."

'Don't you want more than violence?' she wanted to ask. 'Don't you want knowledge, justice, don't you want the truth?' But she really didn't know Ghostmass or what drove him. She didn't expect that he would savor violence... in the way that Redmaw didn't. The man behind this mask wasn't guided by a moral compass, he didn't lash out at others because he had to, he did it because he enjoyed it. The only freedom that mattered to him was the freedom to destroy without repercussion.