The Light On Your Face For The First Time

The plan was laid. After a sleepless night, the Knives clustered in the courtyard, ready to depart and enact the first stage of their recovery mission.

Evander stood at the helm. "Double check that each of you has a dagger and the weapon of your choice." The Knives placed their hands on the hilts of daggers hanging off their hips, on their swords, crossbows, polearms, axes. "Each of you has a double-sided map and a communication device with the time on it." The items were all in a pouch attached to their waists. "You should also have a flashlight, twenty feet of rope, and a climbing pick." Also secured to their waists. "Finally, you will obey your team leaders, Ghostmass and Lotusfoil, without question." The Knives nodded, attention divided between the two leaders standing alert before Evander. "Good luck on your mission. I look forward to receiving you with the Death Blade and the Fractal Glass in your possession. Dismissed," he said, gesturing them away.

Lotusfoil turned to her Vipers and held up a map of the city with their path drawn in red. "Viper Team will travel the red path to our destination, while Wolf Team will take their path marked in blue. We travel silently—anything that needs to be communicated will be spoken to me directly. We keep to the shadows, and we move constantly. Rebels or other threats will not be engaged unless I give the order. Is that understood?"

"Yes," they barked back.

Ghostmass gave a similar, if more concise speech to his team with an undertone of threat. "Disobedience will have you sent back to Evander," he growled, light glinting off his axe. "The moment we have eyes on the Death Blade or the Fractal Glass, they're mine. I will not tolerate anyone else attempting to wield them."

The Knives collectively nodded, both teams understanding that this mission sat on the shoulders of Ghostmass and Lotusfoil, and anyone else wasn't meant to play hero. His threat only emphasized Lotusfoil's argument the day before—she watched the Knives tense under his violence. Lotusfoil then raised a hand and the veil of silence fell over them. With a flick of her fingers, a tilt in her wrist, she guided her team of Vipers toward the gate and into the morning light. The Wolves marched after them, then broke off down their own route.

Unease mounted the further Lotusfoil went from the Sanctum. What should have been blooming confidence leading her team was offset by the unnerving wrongness of Redmaw's absence. She couldn't shake the thought that it should have been him leading them into the unknown, paranoia needling every step, that she would make a novice mistake and condemn her companions to eternal death. Passing between the shadows of shops and apartment buildings, she sought reassurance in their uninterrupted journey, but every stray sound reminded her of enemies unseen; there could be a crucial observation that Redmaw would have made that she'd missed, that would alert them to an impending ambush; or a detour she should have taken to hide their tracks that a local to the faceless city would have known better. It would do her no good to question herself, this she knew, but couldn't deny that her courage that day was at best feigned.

While her team paused beneath an overpass, Lotusfoil slunk up the escarpment and crouched behind a concrete barrier, peeking across the cityscape to visually orient herself. A gust of cold air blew in from the north, bringing glittering flecks of snow. Unusual for what her predecessors called summer in the Echoless realm. The cold only became more prevalent the further north they traveled throughout the day—the closer they came to the subway—until it was enough to condense their breaths and crystallize into frost on their masks.

Their destination materialized inconspicuously under the late evening glow. A sheltered, open structure lined with glass windows and adorned in a friendly blue metal roof sat on the paved median between two three-lane streets in what would have been a bustling commercial district, were there any people besides the Knives. Concrete steps led down to the subway station, the passage illuminated in cool white. A sign read, 'SUBWAY — AA NORTH LINE STATION' with an arrow pointing to the entrance. The Vipers clustered behind the corner of a tower while Lotusfoil assessed the scene.