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SHE WOKE, PANTING IN the darkness, the stars overhead hidden by the clouds piled thickly above her. The embers of the fire glowed dimly in their bed of ashes, pin pricks of light half glimpsed before they faded. Her heart raced as the tattered edges of her nightmare groped at the back of her mind, trying one last time to drag her back into its clutches. Across the dying coals her companions slept on and she sat up, her hand gingerly rising to touch the shirt over her heart, her fingertips numbly stroking the soft and well worn material.
"A dream." she murmured huskily, feeling her pounding heart slowly subsiding.
"A nightmare." whispered the voice in her head. "But true enough."
She grimaced, her hand smoothing over the rumpled shirt. The thought that the dream could have any grain of truth horrified her
"Why would the world want something like that to return?" she muttered in disgust
The voice was silent and she looked down at her chest, relief flooding through her when she saw that at least one part of the dream hadn't been true.
"The world doesn't want it." the voice finally answered. "It wants the world. It has always wanted the world."
Taking a deep breath, Rebecca lay down again and stared up at the black sky.
"Where has it been all this time?"
"Banished." the voice sighed, disappointment lacing through it. "But obviously not far enough."
A chill ran through her at the voice's pronouncement and she shivered, wondering if it was only from the cold night air or if it was a remnant of the dream. Pushing the tangled blankets aside, she crawled to the broken branches stacked near the fire and gently laid a handful on the coals. A thought brought the fire to life and she smiled at the flickering flames. Watching them dance across the fresh fuel, her smile widened as a pair of salamanders appeared, scampering through the fire joyfully.
"While I'm glad I can be a part of this world." she muttered, her eyes following their playful chase across the coals, "There are some things I would prefer to be ignorant of."
"If only humanity could remain so." the voice agreed. "But there is no room in this world for ignorance when so much would see it burn."
The sun was barely cresting the horizon when William woke, rolling over to feel the unexpected warmth of a fire against his face. His eyes opened in surprise and he looked across the fire to see Rebecca sitting with her back against a log staring at the flames.
"Morning?" he said thickly, wiping the sleep from his eyes with a callused finger.
She glanced up at him and nodded before returning her attention to the fire, her indifference making him frown. Sitting up, he tossed the blanket aside and stretched at the stiffness in his joints.
"Four hundred years old and sleeping on the ground." he grumbled. "Doesn't get any easier with practice."
His grumbling brought a fleeting hint of a smile to her pale face, there and gone again in a moment. "We'll make you a bed today if that will make you feel better." she replied flatly.
Watching her, he frowned at the shadows under her eyes and the paleness of her skin. "Didn't sleep well?" he asked.
She turned her gaze to him slowly and shook her head. "Couldn't sleep."
He sighed and got to his feet. Adding more wood to the fire, he gingerly stepped over Katherine to sit beside her.
"Still thinking about..." He trailed off as Rebecca began shaking her head before he could finish the question. The last few days had been burned permanently into his head. It had been a terrible introduction to the Path for her and he wouldn’t have been surprised if it had been eating at her.
"Terrence and Denny were...necessary." she murmured eventually. "They aren't what's keeping me awake." She shook her head again, letting her eyes fall to her hands where they rested in her lap. "Do you ever have nightmares about the darkness?" she asked softly.
William grimaced and nodded slowly. Even with only that brief question he understood her problem. What warmth the fire had been giving him disappeared, a chill running down his spine at memories he had thought had been deeply buried for centuries.
"Not for a long time now." he admitted. "But for a while after my initiation I did. Most of us do." He lifted his chin toward Katherine, a smile tugging at his mouth as he watched her sleeping. "I remember being woken by her screams late at night after her initiation."
Glancing at the sleeping woman, Rebecca sighed, her fingers trembling as she lifted her hand to watch them. Her eyes shifted to William, not quite meeting his gaze as he looked at her shaking hand. She let it drop back into her lap
"I thought it was just because of the last few days." she said slowly. "Then again, it had nothing to do with what we saw. It was something else, something much...darker. But if you and Katherine had them..."
To his mind, facing what had become of his brother had been dark enough. Resting a hand on her shoulder, he smiled at her reassuringly when she looked up.
"Perhaps it's something to do with our initiations." he suggested. "Nightmares aren't uncommon. I once thought that it was the Path's way of showing us what we needed to be wary of."
She grunted unhappily and clenched her hands tightly to hide their weakness.
"I wish it could find another way."
Taking her hands in his, he gently prised them open to fold them between his calloused palms. The tremors slowly stilled beneath his calming touch.
"It may feel like they might go on forever but believe me when I say they will pass."
Squeezing gently, he nodded to Katherine again.
"Remember that we are right here with you. We'll do what we can to help you through it."
Rebecca stared at him for a long moment, tired eyes searching his until she nodded.
"Thank you."
He squeezed her hands once more and let go.
"No need to thank me. I just want you to know that you're not alone."
Pushing himself to his feet, he smiled down at her.
"How about we get breakfast ready. You'll feel better with a full stomach."
Katherine woke with the smell of cooking bacon rising from the pan over the fire, William turning them with the point of his knife.
"Better get yourself up if you want some of this." he told her.
Levelling the knife at Rebecca with a faint smile, he added.
"She's likely to eat it all if you don't hurry."
Katherine glanced at Rebecca to see her scowling at him.
"I'm sure she will." she replied dryly.
He shrugged and tipped the bacon out onto a plate, quickly adding a round of cornbread dough to the hot pan.
"Suit yourself. But don't wait too long."
She rolled her eyes and stood, folding the blanket up and stowing it away under William’s saddlebags. Passing him, she let her hand trail across his shoulders in a light caress and smiled when he shivered at her touch.
"I'll be back in a few minutes." she told him when he looked up, inclining her head toward the river. "I'm going to see if anything new washed in during the night."
He nodded and turned his attention back to the pan.
"Let me know if there's anything interesting."
The water caressed her bare feet as she stepped into the icy flow, her elemental greeting her warmly. Unlike Rebecca, her water elemental rarely spoke, preferring to communicate through mood and images. This morning it brought her a sense of calm and a memory of deer wading in the shallows far upstream. This form of communication never failed to brighten her mood and she waded out further until she could trail her fingers in the clear water.
"Good morning to you too." she murmured. "Have you any news?"
A rapid sequence of images flashed through her head, snapshots of different scenes along the length of the river filling her mind until it overflowed. She chuckled lightly and swept her hand against the flow, the images fading at her gesture.
"So nothing new." she concluded. "Another quiet day."
Warmth flooded through her and a sense of satisfaction.
"A good thing too. We've got a lot yet to do before my house is rebuilt."
A single image came to the forefront of her mind, a tree toppling from the bank into the water. A sense of uncertainty came with it and she nodded.
"Of course. Anything that we can use will be appreciated."
The warmth and satisfaction came again and she caressed the water one last time.
"I'll let William know that we have material coming. He'll be happy to know you've made his day a little easier."
William looked up when she returned, his eyebrow raised questioningly.
"There is a good size tree on its way." she informed him. "Perhaps forty feet long and an arms span around."
He nodded approvingly.
"With some work that should do for beams to cover the cellar. Perhaps some of the floorboards too."
He picked up a covered plate beside him and held it out to her, giving Rebecca a brief but pointed look where she sat hunched over her plate.
"I saved you something."
Katherine chuckled and took the offered plate.
"Thank you."
The tree wasn't the only welcome surprise for them that morning. Three horses wandered into their camp as William lowered a rough hewn beam into place, their plodding steps and low hanging heads lending them a dejected air. Katherine was the first to move toward them, a wide smile lighting up her face.
"About time you showed up again."
The lead horse lifted its head to look at her, whickering in greeting. It allowed Katherine to reach out and run a hand up its nose, bowing its head to lean into her touch.
"I was hoping you might have escaped this mess." she murmured into its ear as it nuzzled affectionately into her chest. Looking past it to the two behind it, she nudged it with her shoulder.
"And you took the others with you." she said approvingly. "Good girl."
The mare followed obediently as Katherine led it to what remained of the fenced yard at the edge of the trees.
"You're not going to run away again are you?" Katherine asked, stopping at the damaged fence.
The mare snorted and stepped over a fallen rail, the two horses following behind placidly. Lifting the rail, Katherine slid it into place and ran her hand down the mare's nose once more.
"I'm glad you're back."
The mare snorted and lipped at her fingers before turning away. Katherine chuckled and watched her go before coming back to the skeleton of salvaged timbers William had already raised.
"One less thing to worry about." he said to her quietly.
She nodded, looking over her shoulder to where the horses were now nosing at the stale straw under the shelter.
"We left so suddenly." she said unhappily. "I worried that they might have been killed in their yard but when we got back they weren't there."
Lifting a beam onto his shoulder, he turned slowly to look at her with a faint smile.
"They're smart enough animals. They're good at escaping if they really want to."
Lifting his chin to the yard and the broken poles, he shrugged.
"They're also strong animals. I'll warrant they ran straight through the fence at the first hint of trouble. I'll check them for injuries once they've settled in."
Looking at them worriedly, she heard him chuckle behind her.
"The way they were moving I doubt they've done themselves anything other than a sore chest. Given some rest and feed they'll be fine."
Their day ended with the cabin in marginally better shape than it had been that morning. The tree that Katherine's elemental had brought them still lay washed up on the shore, though most of its lesser branches had been hacked away in preparation for it to be dragged up to the cabin. As Rebecca's elemental had suggested, there had been plenty of sound beams left in the wreckage and those now stood in place, ready to be joined by new timbers. The biggest change had come from the iron that had been threaded throughout the old cabin. William had spent most of the afternoon in deep meditation with his elemental and with help from Rebecca and her elemental, they had shaped it into a free standing cage ready to be covered over by the new cabin. Katherine looked at the work already done and sighed in resignation.
"This is going to take forever, isn't it."
William let his hand rest against her shoulder and nodded.
"With just the three of us it is likely to take weeks before there is a roof over our heads."
She turned to him, a faint smile on her face.
"I won't deny that I am disappointed at the loss of the last house but I suppose it was getting old."
He chuckled and nodded.
"For a hundred year old cabin I think it was holding its age well. You looked after it."
Her smile widened and she took his hand.
"Perhaps. But in truth, you built it to last."
Keeping hold of his hand, she turned to look at the skeletal shape in the gathering darkness. While it wasn’t much, what they had managed to raise already looked sturdy.
"I think this one is going to last just as long."
Rebecca woke, sweat streaming from her as she gasped for breath. Struggling to throw the twisted blanket off, she began to panic when it clung to her.
"Calm. You were dreaming."
Freeing herself from the blanket, she sat up and looked around the clearing wildly, her hands grasping at her chest.
"So real." she panted, her eyes roving across the deep shadows of the nearby trees. "It's coming."
"It is." her elemental murmured sorrowfully. "But not yet. There is time."
Looking down at where her hand clutched at her shirt, she frowned and slowly let it go and restlessly smoothed the rumpled material. The echoes of the nightmare revolved around her head and she shuddered.
"I can't sleep again tonight." she whispered huskily, stealing a glance across the coals to where William and Katherine slept on. It seemed unfair to her that they were still blissfully unaware, while she had to suffer the torment during the night. "How can they sleep? Can't they feel it too?"
"Not all can feel it as keenly. That is why they still sleep."
She scowled, wishing she could be as oblivious as they were. Looking around at the darkness shrouding the trees, she shivered and reached for the stack of firewood to throw more on top of the coals. Even though she couldn’t feel anything out there, the nightmare had her checking the trees around her again.
"The light cannot banish the darkness forever." her elemental whispered. “Night will naturally follow each day, whether you like it or not.”
She shivered again, trying hard not to allow the thought to cross over into her nightmare.
"If it can hold the night back until morning then that will be enough for me."
Her elemental was silent for a few seconds before whispering to her once again.
"The darkness is only temporary, it will be banished with the dawn. And morning may bring you relief in more ways than you expect."
She scowled and moved closer to the fire, feeling its heat against her face.
"You're like him." she muttered, lifting her chin toward her sleeping father. "Always talking in riddles."
Her elemental’s amusement washed through her and Rebecca looked at William enviously, wishing that she could sleep as deeply and peacefully as he was.
"He has been bonded with one of us for centuries.” her elemental observed. “Perhaps it is he that sounds like us."
The suggestion didn't ease her mood and for a moment she wondered how to get the voice out of her head. The elemental’s amusement didn't fade as it sighed softly through her mind.
"If it is privacy that you want, you need only ask."
"You will leave me to my own thoughts?"
"I can leave you for a time if that is what you wish." it agreed. "If you have need of me I shall only be a thought away."
Her sense of the elemental faded, replaced with the hiss and crackle of the fire before her.
Dawn brought a new surprise for them, the first faint streaks of light in the sky illuminating a horse at the edge of the river, its owner standing silently beside it. Rebecca stared at them from her place against the log, her red rimmed eyes struggling to focus on them in the pale light. When they didn't approach, she stood stiffly and woke Katherine. The older woman grumbled sleepily but threw her blanket off at Rebecca's insistence.
"What's so important that you're waking me up before William?" she grouched.
Rebecca pointed toward the stranger.
"We have company." she murmured. "I didn't hear them coming."
Katherine surveyed the man and the horse with sleepy interest, running her hand through her hair to straighten it. Pulling a leather cord from her pocket, she quickly tied her hair back and stood.
"I think it might be an idea to wake your father." she said quietly, a faint smile beginning to appear on her face. "He'll want to meet him."
When Katherine began walking toward him, the man tugged on the horse's reins and met her half way. Rebecca crouched next to William and gently shook his shoulder, keeping one eye on the stranger as she did, her other hand resting on her revolver. At her touch his eyes opened and he looked up at her alertly.
"Someone is here." he muttered without looking around, his hand straying to the holstered revolver beside him.
Rebecca nodded, frowning while she watched Katherine and the man talking quietly. The older woman looked relaxed as she spoke to the stranger and Rebecca felt her tension seep away.
"I think Katherine knows him."
William sat up, shrugging the blanket off. Looking toward where Katherine and the stranger were, he nodded to himself and let his hand fall away from his revolver, Rebecca following his lead.
"If she knows him then I doubt there is anything to worry about."
Seeing that William was awake and poking at the fire, Katherine pointed the man toward the yard where the horses were and came back to them, a thoughtful frown on her face.
"It's not often people come here." she told them. “Sometimes I could go weeks without seeing anyone.”
"And now you have three guests in only a few days." William pointed out. "Something is going on."
Katherine nodded. Her gaze briefly swept to Rebecca before coming back to him.
"He's got some news for us and I think you're going to want to hear it."
William raised an eyebrow questioningly but she shook her head at his look. It would be better for him to hear it directly, rather than her passing it on.
"I'll let him tell you. While we're waiting for him to take care of his horse, how about we get something ready for breakfast? He's been riding most of the night."
A glance at the stranger showed he was slowly unsaddling his horse, his movements slow and mechanical as though just lifting his arms was an effort. William frowned but nodded understandingly.
"He’s likely tired and hungry. It must be something important."
Katherine nodded agreement.
"That's what I thought too."
The stranger joined them ten minutes later, his weariness clearly weighing him down. Katherine drew him to the log they were using as a seat and set him down, wordlessly pushing a plate of fried bread into his hands. He smiled at her thankfully and tore into the sparse fare. They let him eat in peace, waiting until he put the plate aside and brushed stray crumbs from his shirt.
"Thank you." he murmured. "It's been a long night."
As he said it, his tired eyes turned to Rebecca and she ducked her head to hide how bloodshot her own were. When she looked up again she saw that he was still looking at her.
"I heard a rumour on the wind." he said haltingly. "I heard there was someone I needed to see and I followed the call."
He smiled faintly and tore his eyes away to settle them on William.
"If what the wind tells me is true, I'm glad I did."
With his gaze no longer on her, Rebecca felt like she could breathe again. For a moment she thought she had seen her own fear reflected back at her from him and wondered if perhaps riding through the night had been his way of escaping from it. Her fathers voice cut through her thoughts.
"What does the wind tell you?"
The stranger glanced at her once more and she saw it again. To their surprise it was her voice answering for him.
"Darkness." she muttered. "And the end of the Path."
The stranger breathed out a ragged sigh of relief and nodded.
"I'm glad I'm not the only one to see it."
There was an extended silence, then Katherine was the first to question them.
"Darkness? Is there some Greater Fallen causing trouble?"
The stranger paused but then shook his head.
"I’m sure there are Greater Fallen causing mischief out there somewhere, but I fear it is worse than that."
William cleared his throat and frowned, giving Katherine a pointed look. She raised her eyebrow at him and after a moment he tilted his head toward the stranger and she started guiltily.
"William, this is Daniel."
William’s frown gave way to a grudging smile.
"You told me off for not making introductions and now you go and do it." he growled.
Katherine rolled her eyes at his barb. Between her thoughts of rebuilding her house and then Daniel’s appearance, introductions had honestly slipped her mind. Raising a hand toward Rebecca, Katherine completed the introductions.
"Daniel, Rebecca."
He smiled at Rebecca, reaching out to take her hand. His was larger and lightly callused but warm in hers, his grip shaking slightly.
"How much have you seen?" he asked her.
He must have felt her hand begin to shake at his blunt question because he grimaced and squeezed her hand in return before letting go. Katherine looked at the two of them then turned to William. He nodded at her look.
"Nightmares." he said simply. "She told me about them yesterday."
Daniel shook his head quickly, turning his attention to William.
"They’re more than nightmares." he said softly. “My elemental was adamant that they were and my mother concurred..”
Looking at Rebecca, he gave her a faint smile.
"Your elemental told you the same, didn't she?"
His question was more of a statement and Rebecca nodded grudgingly.
"She said it was something that wasn't banished far enough."
Daniel nodded and turned to William and Katherine.
"How much of our old history do you remember?"
William shrugged and looked at Katherine. History had never been his strong suit, though living as long as he had, he'd picked up enough to remember.
"It’s been a long time since I’ve heard the old stories, but I remember enough. How about you?"
Katherine shrugged as well and Daniel shook his head in disappointment.
"Does the name Andras mean anything to the two of you?"
They both froze at the name. William might have forgotten much of the history he had learned as a child, but that name was so deeply ingrained into the Path that it would be impossible to forget.
"No." William murmured, his face turning white. "Not possible."
Katherine’s reaction was much the same and she turned to Rebecca, her eyes wide.
"What have you seen?" she asked huskily. "What happened in your nightmares?"
Rebecca shivered despite the fire crackling beside her.
"The end of the world." she breathed unsteadily.
Quickly getting over his initial shock, William sighed and settled his gaze on Daniel.
"What else has the wind told you?"
Daniel hesitated, a frown of concentration on his face as a fitful breeze swept through the camp. Half heard voices whispered along the breeze, too light for Rebecca to quite catch.
"Find the Relic of Andras." Daniel finally murmured. “The Relic will be your salvation.”
William grimaced, nodding slowly. The news only confirmed what he feared.
"The Spear." he muttered. "The relic that banished the last of the Old Ones."
Katherine looked from William to Daniel questioningly.
"I remember the story but I didn't think it was real." she admitted. "Does the Spear even exist any more? After all, that story is over two thousand years old."
William nodded though he looked doubtful.
"Last mention of it was somewhere in the Old World. Though that was centuries ago."
She scowled at the news.
"So if the Spear still exists, it’s on the other side of the world. We’ll need to get tickets on a ship. And that trip is going to take us weeks."
Daniel nodded in relief, glad that they had accepted his ramblings without question. The nightmares had been so vivid that he had had no choice but to believe them. When the wind had told him that there was another that shared them, he hadn’t hesitated to ride out in the middle of the night. It was only when he had arrived in the early pre dawn light that it occurred to him that they might not believe him. William’s and Katherine’s easy acceptance came as both a surprise but also an easing of the worry that curled tightly in his chest.
"I'm sure I can point the wind in the right direction long enough for us to cross in half the time." he told them. His gaze slid across to Rebecca and he grinned shyly. "Perhaps we can use the time to train?" he suggested. "The wind brings me stories and from what they tell me, you could use a little help."
Rebecca ducked her head to hide the smile that crept across her face, feeling the blush that coloured her cheeks. Being so new to what she could do with the elements, she didn’t doubt that there was much she had to learn. It was just a little embarrassing that the wind had passed along how out of her depth she was.
"I think that might be a good use of your time." Katherine agreed, smiling faintly at the colour in Rebecca’s cheeks. "Even with a good wind behind us it will still take us a week to make the crossing."
Rebecca woke, gasping for breath and clutching at her chest again, her eyes darting wildly around the camp. At the edge of her vision a shadow rose and her hands groped for the holstered revolver beside her, a scream rising in her throat. It died before it could escape, some small rational part of her mind latching onto the fact that the shadow was panting in fear and fighting with a blanket. Her hands stopped with the revolver half out of its holster.
"Daniel?"
The shadow jerked and she lifted a hand, producing a feeble flame in her palm to light the clearing. He flinched from it and she let the flame go against the coals of their fire, quickly dropping a handful of sticks on top to feed it.
"Not real." she heard him muttering to himself.
"Daniel?"
He turned to her, his face drawn and glistening with sweat.
"It's coming." he moaned softly.
Her heart skipped a beat at the fear in his voice and she pushed the blanket away, crossing the fire to sit beside him.
"I know." she murmured.
He looked at her in the pale light of the fire, the flames casting much of his face into shadow.
"I don't know if we can stop it." he whispered. "The stories say Andras was one of the most powerful Air Masters ever seen."
He looked down at himself and grimaced.
"I can barely call down a minor storm."
She laid her hand against his arm, offering him a reassuring smile when he looked up again.
"If we can find the Spear then we can do it." she told him with a confidence she didn't feel. "Look at us. Four elements drawn together in one place."
He looked at William and Katherine sleeping and nodded slowly.
"Is it true?" he suddenly asked. "Are you..."
A breeze passed between them and she clearly heard the whisper it carried.
"Avatar."
Judging by the faint lift at the corner of Daniel’s mouth, she knew that he had heard it as clearly as she had. She grimaced at the name, her own doubt clouding the elemental’s assurance.
"They think I am."
They sat in silence for a few minutes before he grimaced and his hand unconsciously rose to touch his chest. The gesture was not lost on Rebecca.
"You have the same dream." she murmured, her hand rising to feel the soft material of her shirt as well.
"I always wake up when He tears my heart out." he admitted. "I can never make myself wake up before then."
She nodded, the image vivid in her mind.
"I see the world on fire." she added. "I'm standing alone because William and Katherine are already dead beside me and He is standing over me."
His hand crept into hers and she looked down at his trembling fingers.
"My parents are there." he muttered. "Torn to shreds and he's laughing at me."
She took in a shuddering breath at the similarity of their dreams. It wasn’t hard to figure out that the nightmare fed on their worst fears.
"It's real, isn't it?"
He nodded jerkily.
"I won't sleep again tonight." he sighed. "I can't."
Her fingers tightened around his and he looked at her questioningly.
"I don't want to dream again tonight but I know what William will say." she murmured.
Daniel raised an eyebrow and Rebecca managed a faint smile.
"Sleep will fix everything." she told him.
He looked doubtful and she rested a hand against his chest.
"You look as exhausted as I feel. If we have to start riding tomorrow, be damned I'm going to fall out of the saddle because I'm too scared to close my eyes."
He still didn't look sure and she sighed. When she moved to get up, his hand tightened on hers and Rebecca looked at him in surprise.
"Stay here?" Daniel asked uncertainly. "Maybe we can both get some sleep together?"
Though the thought of lying down next to him should have appalled her sensibilities, Rebecca nodded gratefully. Returning to her blankets alone on the other side of the fire didn't appeal to her.
"Just for tonight." she agreed.
He nodded, relief written clearly across his face.
"Just for tonight."
