Saigo let out a weary sigh, the cracked wooden stool he’d been sitting on for hours creaking as he shifted his weight. The memory crystal let out a hollow clank as he replaced it with another, performing a quick check of the device to ensure it was recording as intended.

  His eyes flicked to his spear, which was standing at the ready next to the open doorway to the hall. Just a few more chores after this, then he’d be ready to set out. Finally. He turned a vacant gaze to the mirror, from which soulless eyes surrounded by black circles staring back at him. Despite clearing his throat, his voice was still dry as cracked earth when he resumed his tale.

  “When I returned from my brief journey and heard whispered voices turning to shouts, I dropped the kindling and ran. “Do not speak with it!” I roared as I pushed through whipping branches, feet moving as swiftly as they ever had. “Destroy its head! We must destroy-”

  The words stuck in my throat and I stumbled as I emerged from the final bush. Akihiru was cast to the side, whimpering as he clutched a broken arm, but that was not what gave me pause. Nioi was hanging off the ground, thick blood streaming down from shivering legs as she was held up by a claw that had pierced her from the back of her neck through the throat. A mouthful of blood gushed out with a wet gurgle before she was discarded, revealing the monstrosity that stood behind her.

  The desiccated corpse’s head lifted to reveal gaping eye sockets filled only with shadows. From its back stretched four thin, long claws and a single black, fleshy tentacle that swiped back and forth across the grass as if searching for something. A shroud lingered in between the many limbs, consisting of a complex mixture of colors, merging into a dark, muddy brown. I did not recognize its hue.

  I gathered my Ki and struck as the Hunting Stork, delivering a series of sharp, Ki-fortified jabs of the spear, but the claws swiped with surprising elegance and strength, turning my blows aside.

  “Do you…”

  The corpse’s mouth moved but the horrible sound must have come from elsewhere, sounding at once like a shrieking bird and the grinding of stone.

  “Do you want to be… my friend?”

  I stepped back, then exploded forward in a heavy lunge as my two remaining comrades struck from either side. Black claws flickered left and right, deflecting their attacks, while my own piercing strike stuck fast in its muddy Ki. I attempted to push through with rage, but the bright red Ki did nothing to disperse its brown counterpart.

  A tentacle took my comrade’s legs out from under him, before a claw flashed down and pierced his heart. It was clear we did not stand a chance. Cold despair ran through my veins as I called the retreat, throwing Ki-empowered knives for cover as I rushed to Akihiru and pulled him to his feet.

  “Do you… believe… that you have… a future?”

  The monster began to laugh, a deep and distorted sound that rumbled through the ground. I activated an explosive talisman, as much to drown out that horrendous voice as to cover our retreat. We fled through the forest and back into the city, stumbling through roots and rubble, pausing regularly to make sure it hadn’t followed.

  “This is my fault,” Akihiru whimpered. “When it coughed and began to whisper, I… I should not have answered, but-”

  “Not now!” I snapped, but the young man did not react, shocked eyes not seeing what was in front of them.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “It asked such innocent questions, I thought it was a dying man and just wanted to offer some empty words of solace. But as soon as I spoke, it took something from me-”

  “Come on!”

  Pulling him along, we took a roundabout route and went through great pains to cover our tracks. Akihiru was pale and weak, more so than what could be explained by a broken arm and minor loss of blood. Still we moved with a hurry motivated by fear, looking over our shoulders and clutching our spears at the slightest shifting shadow.

  Finally, we scaled the walls and returned to the dark halls of the Cupola. It felt like a hole opened in my stomach as I carefully opened the alcove, wondering if the stories might not all have been false, if I might not simply find it empty and be forever locked out. But the crystal was there. It took me longer than I’d like to admit to push past the regret and despair to muster the warmth that was needed here, to channel a feeling that a monster never could, but a glance at a broken Akihiru, sobbing on the floor, was enough to activate it. A warm pink glow lingered in the crystal for a moment as the massive stone slab slowly opened and we descended back to our home.

  I learned in the following weeks a lesson I had never wished to learn: that despair comes in different flavors. There was the base kind which I’d always known, almost comforting in its familiarity and stability. After so many years, it carried no surprises, and had in fact become less a feeling and more a piece of knowledge: that this life was unquestionably wretched and would never improve.

  But to have a felt a flicker of hope, however brief, brought a fresh new layer to the old and familiar despair. The crushing weight that settled in was markedly different than before; it felt not only heavier, but also more dangerous in that it carried both a surprise and a lesson. That life could, in fact, become more wretched, if only you dared to hope.

  Then there was the final kind, borne of community, which added to the despair a different dimension. It grew when I heard the heavy sighs and saw the defeated gazes of all the others. It was a heinous feeling, for your fellow men to have laid their hopes upon your back, only to see them cast down and trampled, to see them torn to shreds and burnt to ash. Does despair turn into something else, when dozens of people experienced it together? I do not know.

  In the coming weeks, the consequences of our failure became apparent. The first suicide came after three days. If you are watching this recording, it is likely that you came from a different place, perhaps even a higher floor. You must understand that values may adapt to a society over time. For a hidden band that has fought to survive over generations, suicide is one of the gravest sins.

  In other circumstances, those who fell to such depths of despair might have gone outside, claiming they wanted to embark on a scouting mission, though everyone would have silently understood the true reason. But now that a fate worse than death loomed outside with fresh certainty, even that freedom was taken away.

  There were those who insisted we should stop conceiving, that our young should be the last generation to suffer this cursed fate. Others argued for a more worthy death, to reach for weapons and burn brightly and bravely one last time before fading away. The voices in favor of patience, of carrying the legacy of our forebears into the future, grew ever fewer.

  In the end, none of it mattered, for we had already sealed our fates.

  When Akihiru shared the details of what had happened, it faintly reminded me of something that I could not quite remember. What we had believed to be a dried-out corpse had started to softly cough and whisper. The young man’s keen hearing had heard the innocent questions, and his innocent naivety bade him to answer.

  When a dying old man asks whether the war was won, if the city is still standing, if everything might be alright, then how cruel did one have to be to answer with cold honesty? But therein lay the trap.

  By the time I realized and had dug up the right stories, the monster must have already tracked us down. Even though it could not enter our hiding place, it must have known we were there, because then the nightmares started. People began losing their minds not much after.

  To have such an influence even from afar, it could only be one of their old generals. Of those, only one was reported to wield a brown mist, known to have dominion over lies. By the time we realized, it was far too late.

  We had awakened one of our old enemies’ most cunning generals.

  We had awakened Uso.”