I think I’ll start adding an introduction to every chapter here. My voice ought to be getting tired, you see. Not tired of speaking—I do that enough for twelve Go’lir combined and if I could get tired after just that, I wouldn’t very well be able to do things like this—no, I’m tired of talking about people.

  Well! the introduction is done, are you paying attention again? Here I’ll give you a minute.

  Humm deee dummm.

  Anyway.

  A few minutes after sitting down at the fire that you definitely remember from the last chapter, Keshel took a deep breath and frowned. Something seemed… off to his expert-watchman senses—which is totally a real thing and not at all me making fun of someone. Keshel crossed the room to the main window.

  The glass pane was large, spanning most of the wall, with only a couple of cracks following that length. From this high up, Keshel could see the fading sunlight in the west, even though the sun had set on the surface before he’d even descended to his mother’s grave.

  He looked at the fading light and it brought forth the same feeling as it always did. Hope.Evenn in his dreary life there was something to bring light. Keshel glanced at the land below as it quickly adopted that darkness. His gaze moved back up to the skies above as the stars slowly ignited. He traced the constellations for a moment before he found Lamariel, the blinking star.

  That part of him that was drawn to light watched those pinpricks, wishing he could fly to them and see what lay there. This is also a special form of irony, except it’s the kind that only I will ever understand. He frowned as the darkness claimed the rest of the lifeless land, because to his eyes, he could have sworn that there was something…

  Keshel blinked in confusion and squinted down at the burrows below, his heartbeat picking up as he saw various pinpricks of light on the ground.

  “What in the stars?”

  Raiders. Larborak.

  He watched those fires grow for a long moment, his throat grew dry and his heartbeat finally started to pick up. Three long horns sounded from below. Don’t look at the fires, He remembered his mother saying, it’s bad for your eyes. Suiki are light sensitive, not terribly so, but seeing as they’d lived underground for at least several hundred years, that amounted to something.

  Keshel closed his eyes tightly and let out a long breath, contemplating his options. It was his duty to contact the burrow, but he didn’t know any details yet. He didn’t know anything. Keshel went down flights of stairs and through winding hallways littered with gaps in the floor, ceiling, and walls. His mind raced as he ran, and when he passed his cloak hanging on a nail, Keshel snatched it as he continued to scurry down the corridor.

  The safe room wasn’t that far from the main observation deck… he would still have to travel to all three smaller decks to close them up; make them less obvious so that those bright fires couldn’t reveal the fact that people used the ruined tower. “Sloppy sloppy sloppy…” the young man mumbled. Those smaller decks were supposed to be closed. He usually kept them closed.

  He trailed to a stop, conflicted yet again by the decision of what to do next. If you’re annoyed at the length it took him to do something, so am I. Anyway, I’m skipping his next ten minutes of Keshel panicking, since it leads nowhere, so don’t get too confused on me.

  Keshel stared at the floor, finally contemplating the coming work. He still had to contact someone first, the sooner they heard from him the better. His self pity from earlier was completely forgotten in the wake of an emergency. Yes, he could still do something about this; he could still be useful. He could still protect people.

  Before he could think about it too much, Keshel pulled his bangs to the side, feeling the antennae begin to unfurl and catch the scents and sound around him. They could catch light too—thanks to the defect—which was generally just painful and didn’t even give the poor sap any information.

  Before the antennae could tell Keshel just how gross this place was, he reached out toward the burrow and caught the strongest mind he sensed. Keshel connected himself to something. A piece of him that wasn’t quite Keshel. The place where thoughts and commands lived.

  I would have called it reaching into the between realm and finding thoughts, but Keshel—being a very practical person—didn’t believe in magic. I know I know, it’s very naive of him, but right now I have to pretend it doesn’t exist.

  He pulled on the strange sense and set up a link to the mind he’d caught. It was the elder, Yumaar. ~Raiders.~ Keshel told him immediately, before the man even had a chance to really figure out who it was. The elder’s mind stirred at the connection. ~I see the fires.~ Keshel continued. ~They camp just beyond the great cliff. I’m awaiting your instruction.~

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  A moment later the elder finished the connection, forging it on his side. ~The Watchman?~

  ~Yes sir.~ Keshel replied quickly, sending obedience. Which was… a feeling that was at exactly the back of his mind at that moment. Keshel thought that was a bad thing, I’m not entirely sure why, it must be a suiki thing.

  A mental sigh passed through the link. ~Falling stars… How many?~

  Keshel sent a mental confirmation and stood up, pulling himself toward the small window that stood just above him. It didn’t have any glass left, but it was still an opening. Keshel peered outside and counted. ~I can see twelve fires I think. I heard three horns earlier, they must know that the burrow is nearby.~

  Yumaar cursed, ~send me an image, boy.~

  Keshel blinked and examined the darkness and the bright fires, taking in the details. He pushed that through the connection in response.

  Yumaar was silent for a moment, contemplating. ~Thank you for your service, watchman. Now if you please, I’m going to need someone to sabotage their camps.~ Keshel felt the connection stirring, Yumaar was trying to take control of him, he was trying to reach into Keshel’s gift and guide him to do his will. This is a thing that suiki can do, and probably their ancestors too.

  I believe this is where the rumors of tuvei mind magic come from. Though we’re much cooler than the suiki by virtue of being in bounded limbo—which is certainly something you’re supposed to understand and not at all me throwing random terms at you to see what happens.

  Anyway, since it was Keshel that the elder was trying to control, the defect appeared. It didn’t care when Keshel used the mind links, but it halted Yumaar in his tracks with an iron wall. This wasn’t a natural part of the suiki gift, it was a mutation wrought by generations of this gift being misused, and the power it therefore granted guaranteed that it would never die. ~That’s not going to work.~ The younger suiki said apologetically.

  Yumaar paused, sending frustration, ~Right, you’re Keshel. What a time to have a watchman with the defect. What in the stars was Roana thinking, letting you keep it?~

  Keshel sent a weak sense of embarrassment over the connection as he examined the enemy. It was too dark to tell the numbers. ~Perhaps if we do nothing they will leave?~ He offered weakly, trying to subtly change the subject.

  Yumaar scoffed, ~raiders do things quickly and efficiently. If we do nothing then we’ll be dead by sunrise. I’ve already called an emergency meeting.~

  Keshel looked away from the fires and stepped away from the window he’d been using, pulling the curtains back and tying them where they belonged. ~Sir, I can still try to sabotage them, it just won’t be with your guidance.~

  Yumaar sent uncertainty, ~Keshel, you don’t know how to find important information or how to take them down. It’s not something I can teach you.~ There was a long silence, ~and if you get yourself captured for nothing then you could doom us all.~

  That was true. The more suiki that the Raiders found, the longer they would keep looking. Their burrows were hidden and the invaders were bound to miss most of them, but if they found a suiki wandering around then they were bound to look harder.

  ~The last time Raiders graced Karbion, I still felt young…~ Yumaar sighed at the thought, as I find that many old people are prone to doing. ~Watchman, we’ve just finished collapsing the main tunnel, it seems as if the Raiders haven’t found us yet. Go to your safe room.~

  The safe room was the only room in the entire tower that had all four walls and intact ground. Not to mention the ceiling, which even had all the tiles. It was a miracle I tell you!

  Before the great wars, that room might have looked like all the others, but after decades of rot and disrepair, its wallpaper and organic material had destroyed themselves. Leaving nothing but bare metal walls. They had no idea what the safe room had been used for before, but now it was perfect for a food storage and emergency shelter.

  Keshel glared at the door to the safe room as he tried to push it open, wincing at the heavy resistance. ~How did the Raiders even learn that we were still here? We’ve been so careful.~

  Yumaar sent sadness, ~day creatures are beyond our understanding.~ Which is a load of dragoncrap, by the way, I’m pretty sure that people are just people whenever they happen to sleep. ~Maybe they never forgot about us, maybe we weren’t as careful as we thought, but they did find another burrow just a few months ago, perhaps they learned of us from them.~

  Keshel wrenched open the door, pushing his full weight against it. ~Hopefully, they’ll give up after a few days of looking and won’t stick around long enough for us to find out.~

  The old suiki seemed to grimace, ~I wouldn’t count on that, there’s a reason we have so many supplies in the tunnels.~

  Keshel peeked into the safe room and stopped dead. Tunnel supplies were kind of important, for living and stuff. Living was a very good thing to do, I would know and so would you.

  ~Oh, stars.~ Yumaar sent concern over the link as Keshel madly scoured the shelves that the previous watchman had installed. ~All my supplies are low! I was due to resupply but I’ve been getting sloppy!~ He sent panic to the elder.

  Yumaar went silent. Then, after a moment he sent consolidation. ~We’ll… figure it out.~ He paused awkwardly, ~We’ve collapsed all the potentially problematic tunnels. Anyone who was outside had been captured already, knocked out. I’ll contact you once we know more.~

  With that, he cut the connection.

  Keshel had a feeling that this wouldn’t end well for him.

  He would be right.