"There you are."

  Lys found Launa crouched in the corner of the cemetery, her eyes solidly fixed on a spot on the other side of it. Lys didn't have to follow it to know where it led.

  "Do you do this every year? Just watch them from a distance?"

  Launa nodded. "You know how they died."

  "You still haven't forgiven yourself?"

  "Don't know if I ever will."

  There was silence, then Launa reached out her hand.

  "Would you mind? Just for a while."

  Lys sat down next to her, entwining their fingers tightly.

  "However long you need."

  CHAPTER 5

  JOHN

  John hadn't meant to listen to their conversation -is what he was planning to say if he got caught. Though now, hidden in a corner and with the sound of a slammed door resonating in his aging ears, he really wished he hadn't. He stayed silent as Launa stormed into the shop. She stopped, looking towards the door leading to the moonlit square, hesitating, but she still veered back inside.

  She wasn't stupid. She knew she would only attract attention in her state, and attention was the last thing a Drifter needed. John went to check the portal door. It groaned in pain at the cracks in its wood, but nothing which would prevent it from working. He felt Launa pace in the next room.

  "Tea?" He asked, popping his head ahead of his body as he entered.

  Launa stared at him, her expression screaming Do I look like I want tea?.

  "I'll just make a pot then," he said. "Feel free to take some." It was in no way the hour for a pot of tea, but he grasped any straw he could to diffuse the tension in the room.

  Launa kept pacing, silent as a tomb, her fists clenched so tight it looked painful. It pained John's heart to see the contrast between the bright smile she had worn as she found the flower and now. She had looked like a small child, holding a seemingly insignificant object. But it had meant the world to her. She had built a massive tower of expectations, and it had all come crumbling down on her.

  "She's just scared, I'm sure you know that," he said, handing her a cup of tea. "It took her all of two seconds before she asked why you weren't safely at Headquarters."

  Launa stared at the cup of tea, idly watching the steam float away. "I do know," she said, taking it in her crescent-marked hands. "It's just-"

  "I know."

  She looked at him, and a small smile broke through.

  "Just give her time. She'll come around," He said.

  Launa shook her head. "That doesn't work with a scared Lys," she countered. "I have to go back to the strategy I used to get close to her in the first place."

  John raised an eyebrow. "Which is?"

  Launa showed a mischievous smile. "Being an annoying little shit."

  *  *  *

  John and Launa both left for Headquarters the next morning, each for different reasons. Launa left him with a hearty See you later!. Her mood a far cry from the day before. Her smile was full of determination, and John couldn't help but feel a little sorry for Lys.

  He went up to the Tower of Names, greeting the sentinel and climbing the winding stairs up to Philip's floor. He didn't wait for an answer to his knocking before entering.

  "Polite as always." Came a voice from across the office door.

  John smirked as he crossed the sitting room and entered the office. "I am the epitome of good manners. I even sent you an advanced gift yesterday."

  "Well thank you for that, dear Sir, I almost shit my pants when I saw her. Next time you send the most famous person in the country over to me, a memo wouldn't hurt."

  John shrugged. "She didn't give me any advance warnings before dropping into my shop. It was only fair."

  Philip grinned, dropping the document he was studying. "Isn't it exciting? Lys! Here! I want to go over to that stupid Victory Way tower and rub it in our dear General's face."

  John pictured the scene, and enjoyed every fake second of Brocker's face souring at the sight. "You and me both."

  The Order leader leaned on his forearms, looking every bit as young and hopeful as he did when he and John first met. The older man's heart broke in nostalgia of who they both used to be. "How did you get her to you?"

  "Launa kept placing signed flowers on the ruins of Leesha and Mordo's house. Lys told me an informant of hers picked it up and it led her here."

  Philip frowned, leaning back, and just like that, he returned to the weary-faced leader the newcomers knew him as. "Does that mean someone else is aware of New Sher's connection to the Order?"

  John shook his head. "She said that he knew nothing about the Order, nor of her connection to it. He's a native."

  "Still, you're going to have to be careful."

  "Worry wart as always."

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  The younger man shrugged. "Whatever keeps my people alive."

  "Hey," John said, leaning against the door frame. "Did you know Lys can open doors in the passage?"

  Philip scoffed. "Is this a new theory of yours? I have to admit it's almost believable."

  John crossed his arms, looking for any way to ground himself as he prepared for the implications of his words. "Philip, she told me herself. Brocker took her from her old world and she opened a door in the passage to escape him."

  The Order leader sat straight, looking directly into his friend's eyes. "What does that mean?"

  "Hell if I know."

  Philip low whistled. "For you to resort to swearing you must really be distressed."

  "It's just-" John stood straight, his arms animated as he spoke. "I know why Brocker can, I know why I can at least connect to the passage, but why can she be like him? It makes no sense."

  "I'm guessing she has no idea how either?"

  "Didn't know what the passage was until yesterday."

  Philip frowned. "So he knew about her before she got here. Is that the reason why? Because of her connection to the passage?"

  "Beats me." John sighed. He sat down on the other side of Philip's desk, leaning his right side on the flimsy wood. He really wished the leader would keep at least some of the good furniture for himself, instead of giving all of it to the members. "She could see Emella, so she has something"

  Philip's eyes widened. "Did you tell her who Emella was?"

  John scoffed. "I would need a full day and a chalkboard to explain everything."

  "But we'll have to tell her. If she learns to access the passage at will it could be a huge advantage for us." Philip's eyes were calculating, this was the face he made when he was dedicating every ounce of energy in him to the survival of his people. John hated that he barely saw any other look on the younger man's face.

  "That is true. I could die peacefully knowing you'll have a replacement." His tone was lighthearted, aiming for a joke.

  He flinched as Philip slammed his hand on his desk. "Don't say that." He said, his voice cold. "Don't you ever say that."

  John smiled. "I was joking."

  Philip's eyes slowly widened back to their original shape, and the tension in his body escaped with every calming breath. "I know, I'm just-"

  "I know." John said. He knew more than anyone the stress weighing on every movement the leader made. How responsibility had consumed him like a cancer, leaving barely a trace of his old friend. "We'll be fine Philip."

  "You don't believe that."

  "I don't, but it still feels nice to say."

  Philip laughed. "So it does."

  There was a knock on the door. A young man emerged from it, his posture almost apologising for his existence. "You're needed at the Forest Door," he said. John's heart sank. That sentence was never followed by good news.

  "What happened?" Philip asked, John could feel him clench his fists on the desk.

  The young man looked into their eyes, tears forming in his as he spoke. "We- We found Nart."

  The two men didn't even look at each other before leaping down the stairs, helped by John's Dancing. At the center of the woodland cradle, in front of a door opened to fields of blue flowers, was Ulyo. And in his arms, was the limp body of a young man, his face covered. It could only mean one thing.

  Ghosts.

  They never exposed the faces of Ghost victims while on the island. They didn't want the last memory of their fallen comrades tainted by the distorted blackness. They wanted their last memory to be a smile, a pout, a tear-filled face.

  Anything but what was under the piece of linen.

  Ulyo looked up when they approached, holding Nart closer. He was barely twenty, with wild brown hair and freckles, and he had never looked his age more than when he looked at them with a hurt expression filled with childlike honesty. Ulyo had seen such deaths before, one would think he had gotten used to it.

  But it only hurts more every time.

  "He hadn't come back from his errand in Compe so- so I went to check." His voice kept shaking even through his efforts to report to his superiors. "There's four others, just left to rot in the forest. I didn't recognise any of them. I'll- I'll show you the place when I-" He lifted Nart's body.

  "Go and place him in the mortuary until the funeral." Philip's voice showed no sign of emotion, but John knew it would come later. "We'll find the others with you and conduct the funeral once we've given them names."

  Ulyo nodded, holding Nart close as he walked out of the forest.

  "Oh, Ulyo!" Philip called out after him. "Stay with Malyt and the others tonight. Don't be alone. You're not alone."

  John could see the young man physically restrain himself from crying. He nodded silently, turning back towards Headquarters. The two men watched him silently. Philip was still as a rock, waiting for John's signal.

  "He's gone," John said when he couldn't feel Ulyo in the forest.

  Philip immediately crouched down. His hands on his face. "Fuck!" He shouted. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. He was fourteen John! He was just fourteen! Why-"

  John placed his hand on Philip's shoulder, and the Order leader leaned his head on it, tears running down his cheeks.

  "Why is it never us?" Philip asked. "Why are we always the ones who survive?"

  John looked through the door. To where a field of blue flowers was swaying in the wind, bodies waiting to be buried. "Because someone needs to."

  It took a good hour for Ulyo to come back. Until he did, John and Philip sat side by side. It reminded the older man of times long gone. When they were three. Huddling in secret. Making plans for a utopia.

  They were only two now, and what they had was far from one, but a haven nonetheless. One they had paid for with blood, dedicated their lives to, and were desperately trying to protect.

  They went to get the other bodies when Ulyo joined them. John carrying most of them with his Dancing. Philip couldn't recognise any of them, cementing that they weren't part of the Order. He gave each of them a name, which he wrote on the back of their hands. These would be carved in stone along with Nart's, waiting in the entrance room until they would eventually join the others on the walls of the tower.

  "Drink?" Philip offered as the two men had climbed back into his office.

  "If you've stopped your sleeping pills then yes, otherwise no."

  The younger man frowned. "I swear sometimes you're more a father than a friend."

  "So, tea then?"

  Philip groaned in surrender, but John knew it was fake. A facade of a normal conversation between two normal friends. Anything to keep them away from the horrors waiting for them outside. Because it never stopped coming for them. And even now, it was knocking at their door.

  Philip allowed entry, and Kirst's large muscled frame emerged with a blue piece of paper in her hand.

  "Message from Leesha," She said, face grave. "You're not going to like it."

  "Read it to me," said the leader, sitting down for the news.

  "The army's arrested a soldier who they believe was in close contact with Lys, just after the ghost raid on Compe. Leesha saw them place him in one of their bunkers in the snowy mountains. They're going to torture him nice and good. I've already talked to Lys about it, and though he knows nothing about the Order, he knows that there's something in New-Sher."

  Philip frowned. "John, go and close the portal to your shop. You're staying here for the foreseeable future. Kirst, did Lys say anything else?"

  "She did say she wanted to go and break him out."

  The leader's eyes widened. "Alone?"

  "Well she's going to need an Earth Dancer to dig up the entrance to the bunker but otherwise, yes, that seems to be her intention."

  "She can't just go alone! I won't-" He stopped before he got too agitated. "Call her up to my office. If she can convince me that she's capable enough, then I'll lend her one of our Earth Dancers. If not, then tough luck." His gaze wandered to the carved walls.

  "I'm not going to send my people to die for a soldier."