2. SUFFUSE

two

SUFFUSE

M aji hurried to Oliver's side, dropping to the ground with a force that sent pain shooting into her knees. She hovered trembling hands over his back, suffusing him in a faint yellow glow. Her gaze flicked to where the dark Sentinel had vanished into the shadows. She didn't know what had prompted the imposter to release Oliver. Her tap roots had done little more than tickle.

Oliver violently coughed, crumpled on his hands and knees as Lucetta came to firmly rub him between the shoulder blades, still holding a log with Theta's fire. In its orange light, the bruising around Oliver's neck slowly vanished, the puncture marks sealing, leaving trickles of blood to dry.

"What happened?" Maji whispered, keeping her attention fixed ahead, certain the shadowy Sentinel was still nearby.

"Some weird portal appeared," Helen quavered, hugging her arms to her chest. "With blue doors."

Maji turned a shocked look to Lucetta.

"Yeah," was all she said, patting Oliver when he released another gruesome cough.

"Was that…was that Tau?" Maji asked, terrified of the answer.

Pop .

"Is that you, Oliver?"

Maji's head snapped upward, rendered speechless as she stared at a circular window situated several feet above them. Within, a dark-skinned man gazing down at her with mild interest.

"What the?" Oliver croaked. "S-Sam?"

"I thought it was you," said Samuel.

"Wh–Why are you angled weird?" asked Oliver.

Samuel shrugged, then clutched his right shoulder as if it troubled him. "I'm above you, I suspect."

"Where the hell are you?" Lucetta had risen to her feet, neck craned. "Jump through, you bunkhead!"

"I missed you too, Luce." Samuel seemed entirely unbothered. "Where's Benji?"

A strained glottal noise was all Maji managed in response. The portal was far from large, most of it occupied by Samuel's form. What little she could see was filled with all things aglow in violets and yellows, a colossal stone arch in the distance past the ball of his shoulder.

"Jump through!" Oliver and Lucetta both shouted at once.

"The last time I jumped, multiple portals overlapped and I still dislocated my shoulder. It keeps giving me trouble."

"That's because you know nothing about fixing a dislocated shoulder," Maji managed, the urgency crawling up her spine turning her words forceful. "Squeeze through, you can fit! I'll fix your shoulder."

"Do you even know how to do that?" Oliver muttered, doubtful.

Maji pursed her lips. She didn't. Balms for burns and small injuries she could make, but had no medical knowledge beyond that.

"Where's Benji?" asked Samuel again.

"He's gone, he went looking for you!" snapped Lucetta.

The beginnings of frustration eked its way into Samuel's otherwise neutral expression. "You're joking? I said I'd find him in the note!"

Lucetta angrily scoffed. "No you didn't, you dumb arsehole! It only said you'd gone into another realm. Obviously, Ben's going to go looking for you. Had he been in your position, he would have bulled his way through already, and he's bigger than you!"

Through the small window, Samuel rubbed his shoulder again, unperturbed his sister would argue with him, even now. "Where is he, then?"

Wing flaps echoed through the passageway.

Oliver perked up. "Hey look, it's Onyx!"

Lucetta visibly panicked. She jumped up, making frantic grabs for a bird entirely out of reach. "Don't let that bird—"

A spire of a shadow flicked past them. Onyx vanished into a large claw, snatched out of the air, leaving black feathers to float downward in its place.

Samuel's fearful face and the image of the imposter Sentinel now within the portal's frame was the last thing Maji saw before it vanished with another faint pop .

Silence befell the passageway.

"Swiving Sentinels," Oliver eventually rasped.

Maji's face grew hotter the longer others gawked at her. She wanted to run, hide in her hovel, wait it all out. Without Sigma though, there was no one to help keep them safe. The spare few guards were useless, barely holding enough authority to calm the panicked miners who had come to cluster by the only Sentinel-induced light within the mine.

It was up to Maji now. Or rather, up to the magic she had come into possession of two months ago, after Tau had finalised Nu's demise and given her the seed of Their magic. Only her friends knew of the tiny purple pinecone hanging by a leather cord around her neck, including Helen and Anna.

The seed was likely the only of its kind. It would be unfathomably valuable. Maji had tried to keep it a secret. Unfortunately, that was out now, the feel of Sentinel magic as powerful a lure as the scent of a rose.

"I didn't have a choice," Maji hissed under her breath, leaning into Lucetta's side. She was tired. Using Sentinel magic was exhausting .

"I know you didn't," Lucetta hissed back. Her dark eyes shifted to the illuminated wreath of sunflowers, serene in the way it floated midair, washing the surroundings with sun-gold light.

"Does that mean you're a Sentinel?" asked a young woman, reaching out to touch Maji's shoulder.

She squirmed away, further into Lucetta.

"How did you get it?" asked someone she couldn't see.

Another asked, "Where did you get it?"

"Was that Sentinel Tau?"

"What happened to Sentinel Sigma?"

"Are we forbidden from touching you now?"

"Will you heal my foot? It's been cramping all day."

"Alright, enough!" Lucetta snapped, shoving at those crowding in. "Back up, or I will make you."

That did the trick, more or less. Most moved enough for Maji to squeeze past and away, Oliver and Lucetta in tow. She turned back to face the crowd. Opened her mouth to speak, then faltered. She darted a glance at Lucetta, who unhelpfully shrugged.

"The answer to all of your questions is…I don't know. I need to talk to…Mister Pavlov?" Maji looked at Lucetta again, who was slightly more helpful this time by nodding. "He might be able to get a real Sentinel to protect us."

"That doesn't answer our questions at all," someone grumbled from the back.

"And that wasn't Tau," Oliver chimed in, his voice easily carrying through the bedimmed passageway.

"What do you know of it, anyway?" said a familiar voice that immediately clipped the last of Maji's patience. "You've always been Sentinel Tau's favourites. What makes you so special?"

She scowled at Lauper, holding a log burning much like Lucetta had, before she disposed of it in the nearest hovel.

"We're not," Maji said and her lips thinned into a line.

"We've always been loyal to him, unlike you arseholes," Oliver sneered. "Yeah, that's right. I remember how you behaved when Nu came 'round."

"You set fire to the place!" snarled Lauper. He stepped forward, glaring Oliver down.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Oliver snarled back.

Lauper had come so close, his chest bumped into Oliver's. "Maybe now is a good time to make you pay for it, eh?"

Oliver scoffed, refusing to budge. "We're all on the nut . Don't know if you've noticed, but things have been dry lately."

"That fur mantle you're wearing looks nice, I'll gladly take that off you."

"Try it. You know damn well I can sock you into another realm."

"Okay, okay. Please, just calm down," said Maji.

Since the two guards in the back did nothing, she squeezed herself between Oliver and Lauper. She knocked Oliver away by thrusting her backside into his thighs. He grunted, but thankfully took the hint. Maji wouldn't hesitate to defend Oliver, but she didn't long for a fight, either.

"Look, it's—I honestly don't know what time it is. My magic is nowhere near as powerful as a Sentinel's."

"You'd know if you bothered to look at a watch," said a frizzy-haired woman. Her gaze flicked down, then she added, "It's quarter-past midnight."

"Ugh. Thank you, I think," muttered Maji. "We'll head out…now? Now. We'll go and sort this out. Everyone else just…stay in your hovels."

"Not sure why it's up to us to figure out," Lucetta said once they were clear of the angry miners, trudging down the dark corridors. Since the rope haulage system was still damaged from the Wandering Horror attack, they had little choice but to make their way to the adit on foot.

"'Cause the guards are useless clucks," said Oliver.

"I feel like Tau made it my responsibility," Maji admitted, the soles of her boots scuffing over tracks. "I've been thinking about it all this time, but I still don't understand why he gave me Nu's magic."

"I think it's pretty obvious." Lucetta gave her a sideways glance, prompting Maji's brows to furrow. "You've had this magic for weeks now, but you're still here, still mining, and still broke. Anyone else would have run off to dominate the black market with a Solar Octahedron, or whatever Nu's equivalent is."

"Now there's an idea," said Oliver. "I'm not above committing a crime or two, if you're both in?"

Lucetta snorted, amused. "We know, you delinquent."

Maji remained quiet, directing her frown to the ground, deliberating. Aside from healing a few injuries her group sustained and giving her plants a helping hand, she hadn't considered using the magic. Refusing to be tempted by it for fear of others discovering what she was in possession of, if nothing else.

All this time, she had questioned why Tau would entrust her with it, what he meant by it. Not once had she thought to use it to her advantage, only ever worried if Sigma or worse, the other miners, would take it from her. Maji realised she could have done so much more, even if it was exhausting to use. Creating just the few lights had left her drained so much she longed for a nap, especially as they kept disappearing.

"I'm so stupid," Maji muttered sourly.

"No, just innocent," said Lucetta.

"How far do you think this goes?" At Lucetta's questioning look, Maji added, "The magic." She held up a cupped hand and willed a delicate yellow flower to blossom, no brighter than candlelight. "Can I make this tell the time, or give off warmth? Can I transport and fly like Sentinels? Or morph into a sphere, or take things to wherever Sentinels go to eliminate the Dire?"

"You could always try it," said Lucetta, the low light bathing her face and shrugging shoulders in gold.

A hand clamped down on Maji's shoulder. She jumped, stopping in her tracks to look at Oliver. His face was drawn tight with fear, tenebrous green eyes staring down the blackened passageway ahead.

"There's something there," he said.

Maji squinted into the dark, gave up with a sigh, and closed her eyes to focus. Lush green leaves formed midair, budding vibrant yellow petals, unfurling to reveal a wreath of brightly glowing florets. Golden light embraced the passageway, revealing their path and, unfortunately, what Oliver had so keenly spotted in the blackness.

Maji watched in dawning horror as the light spread across stone toward the shadow Sentinel. It glinted off clawed sabatons, and his head snapped in their direction, eyes glowing wild emerald.

"Augh! I thought he left through the portal!" Oliver stepped between Maji and the Sentinel lunging forward, claws first.

The sunflower wreath vanished in an instant, bathing them in darkness again as Maji tried to focus on creating a barrier. Rope-thin roots slithered from the surrounding stone to stretch across the width of the tunnel—shredded like cobwebs by enormous claws.

"I can't!" Maji cried, gasping at a fierce tug on her arm, pulling her out of the way of deadly swipes.

She barely kept hold of the tiny light in her cupped hand, stumbling back into Lucetta as Oliver ducked around several lunges and caught the Sentinel's flailing arms in a firm grip. Oliver pulled him forward, the mask connecting with his fist. It sent the imposter reeling backward.

Oliver spun on his heel, motioning at Maji to move. She did, doubting they could outrun the Sentinel.

Yet after running for several moments without being pruned, Maji dared a look behind her. All was dark, and as far as she could tell, they weren't being chased.

"Why'd you stop?" Lucetta panted, her hand firm on Maji's forearm. "Is he still there?"

"I think so. I think… I can feel him." Maji hesitated, then whispered, "Ollie, I think that might actually be—"

"Tau. I know."

She looked up at him in alarm. He appeared unusually calm, gazing into nothingness.

"How do you know?" she asked.

"He let me go when I said I love him."

Oliver had said it in such a simple, matter-of-fact way, but his heart had to be breaking into a thousand pieces. Maji reached for his hand. He took it without question. She squeezed his fingers, he squeezed hers in turn.

"We'll find a way to help him," murmured Maji. Whatever happened to Tau to make him like this, they could undo it and bring him back. They had to.

"Guess that means we're trapped, if Murder Mitts won't let us pass," said Lucetta.

"I'm staying here," said Oliver, still watching a being none of them could see any longer. "I can't leave him alone like this."

"Then, I'm staying too," said Maji.

"You two can't take him, you'll get shredded." Lucetta took their clasped hands into hers and gently pulled them along. "I know you're hurting, Ollie, but we need a better plan than getting strangled or sliced to ribbons. We'll figure this out, but not at the cost of Maji. We need to regroup and come up with a plan."

Oliver's eyes were so much brighter now. Maji wanted to stay, even if Tau scared her now, but feeling woozy, she knew she'd be useless.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled. "Making just those lights took so much out of me."

Oliver stayed quiet. Maji wished she had some way to comfort him.

They returned to the lodgings in stealth, hoping to avoid the other miners. By now, Maji didn't need to ask if she could stay with Lucetta. They were already being led to her hovel, while Maji kept a firm hold on Oliver's hand, ensuring he wouldn't sneak off to get killed.

A single prod to a perpetually burning log brought the sliver of violet back into lively orange flames. Her attention shifted back to Oliver, who wordlessly accepted the spare blankets and pillow Lucetta kept for him on the rare occasion he stayed over. He'd never told Maji that he struggled with nightmares lately, but she knew. She suspected that wielding Nu's magic made her more susceptible to these things.

Since carrying it around her neck, there were moments when Maji became keenly aware of her surroundings in a way she never had before. Or rather, the surroundings seemed to notice her , pulsing out in a manner reverberating through her chest like an echo. Spontaneous aches and pains would shoot into specific parts of her body, or fear would send her heart racing. Happiness not her own occasionally lit up her mood, and other times, inexplicable sadness caused her to crumple.

Maji could never pinpoint where any of it came from, but it was how she'd saved herself from Tau. Her innermost workings had become attuned to something deeply unsettling.

They didn't change into sleepwear for fear of Tau making another appearance. He'd been attracted to Nu's magic before, there was no saying he wouldn't come for it again. All the same, Maji released her hair from the plait and rubbed her aching scalp.

"I'll take first watch." Oliver settled down on the floor by the edge of the bed and tossed a crocheted blanket over his legs.

Maji wasn't going to argue. Oliver was far too stubborn for that, and so she laid beside Lucetta on the bed. She reached out to run her fingers through his ashen curls, greasy to the touch. His hair had gotten longer, he was probably itching for a haircut.

"Are you okay?" asked Maji.

"Never better." His words lacked bite. Oliver only sounded defeated.

"I miss Ben," said Maji. "I feel like he would have known what to do."

"He would have just used this as an excuse to hate Tau even more."

Oliver was right and Maji knew it. Benjamin had never been fond of Tau in particular, blaming him for what they believed to be Samuel's death.

"I hope Sam's okay," Maji whispered, her eyes drooping despite her best efforts to fight sleep.

Lucetta made a noise beside her, disgruntled, her large halo of dark curls fanning her head on the too-soft pillow. Maji could only guess at what she must be feeling.

She scoured the stone overhead, watching shadows dancing across it. Like blades of grass in the wind.

Maji's eyes flew open to a scarcity of light. Deep breathing beside her suggested Lucetta was fast asleep. She wasn't sure what had awoken her. Wasn't left to wonder for long, either, when a familiar face slid into view.

Tau.

Poor, poor Tau.

Staring down at her with those illuminated eyes. Void of emotion, but she could feel his suffering so clearly. He was aware of everything and in so much pain. So close now that if Maji lifted her head, she could press her nose to his mask.

Cautiously, she traced gentle fingertips along his hood, hoping to soothe. He remained as he was, a sense of desperation tightening Maji's chest. Her hand shook, hovering by the mask's jawline.

He was silently pleading with her to end him.

Maji thought she could. Tau had made it seem easy enough with Nu. She could ease his pain, but not like this. Not in the way he was asking. After all the years he kept them safe, he deserved to feel love and hope and not be in such agony.

Her hand trembled more violently still, eyes welling with tears. She was terrified. Tau had yet to move. He was of sound mind currently, but that could change. Maji focused on casting a small light, a pretty calendula flower, spinning gently in the air right beside his face.

It promptly became a vanishing line of yellow, sucked in through the underside of Tau's mask by the chin.

Maji's eyes widened with understanding, remembering what the black marketeer Hennessey had said, from whom she purchased the fur mantle Oliver now wore daily. She had wanted to buy a container of light, the Solar Octahedron, for Tau. Hennessey said that Tau would only consume it. It made so much sense now.

The second light Maji cast disappeared with equal speed. Working on casting another, a hand grabbed at the sleeve of her shirt and pulled hard. Maji started, the sudden movement of her arm wrenching Tau from his trance.

Yelping in terror, she rolled off the bed. Her shoulder connected harshly with the ground. The sound of shredding fabric tore through the hovel seconds later, followed by Lucetta's horrified outcry.

Tau had Oliver raised by his face, sharp nails digging into the skin, drawing blood. Oliver flailed, grabbing Tau's vambrace and kicking. Maji scrambled upright and squeezed her eyes shut. Focused as hard as she could, but the roots extending upward from the ground by Tau's feet were frail. They bounced off his face with just enough force for the Sentinel to move back, hitting his head hard on the low ceiling when he attempted to straighten up.

Oliver's breath rattled as he smacked to the ground. He fought to get to his feet. Claws snagged him by the nape. His panicked stare locked with Maji's. She forced her rapidly lapsing willpower to create more lights.

A feeble yellow flower unfolded between them. It worked for as long as it took Lucetta to launch herself at Tau. Her fist connected with the centre of his chest, the sound of bones breaking echoing through the hovel. Lucetta crumpled to the ground, the light conjured already gone. Maji tried and failed to cast another.

Snap.

Maji stared at where Tau and Oliver had been just a moment ago, now gone.

Shaking, she dropped to her knees by Lucetta, who clutched her hand to her chest.

"Shit," she gasped.

Maji didn't know what to say. Tau and Oliver were gone. Oliver was likely going to be killed. She reached out, both her hands cupped around Lucetta's broken one to try and heal. Nu's healing magic hadn't been strong at the best of times and it was pathetic in Maji's hands.

"We–We're going to have to go up to the clinic," she said, voice quivering as much as the rest of her.

"Sentinels damn it!" Lucetta hissed. "Things just keep getting worse."

On unsteady legs, Maji helped her up. She guided Lucetta to the door, whispering, "Tau is in pain. He's in and out of awareness, I think. Something's been done to him, he's not in his right mind."

"You're not in your right mind!"

Maji faltered, trying not to recoil from Lucetta's abrupt fury. "I'm…sorry?"

"What were you doing with the flowers ?"

"He was suffocating Oliver, and I was…feeding him."

Lucetta stared. Her mouth opened, then closed again. She continued to cradle her injured hand but otherwise didn't move.

"You were feeding him." A statement as dumbfounded as her expression.

"Y-Yeah. He's sucking up the lights I grow. I think it makes him feel better?"

Lucetta sighed, hanging her head as if in defeat. Guilt gnawed Maji's stomach. Whatever for, she wasn't so sure. She worried her lower lip.

"I'm sorry."

"No, don't be," said Lucetta immediately, meeting her gaze. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap. Ollie was supposed to be on watch, not you. That wasn't fair. I'm just stressed and in pain. I'm sorry."

"Come on, we'll go see the medic on the surface. I can't fix your hand."

"I hope Tau isn't back to haunting the adit again."

"I hope Oliver is okay." Maji hoped that wherever he was, he could get Tau to snap out of it, enough to be spared.

Ever the prepared one, Lucetta used her foot to nudge at a box resting on the bottom shelf of her bookcase. Maji pulled out two long candles and lit them with the hearth's fire. They weren't meant to move the fire at all, but she hoped they'd be pardoned, given the circumstances.

Reaching the adit again, Tau didn't appear to be haunting it. Maji chose to take it as a good sign—jumped at an onslaught of bright lights and the sound of several people marching toward her.

"Who goes there?" demanded a woman's voice.

"Miners," said Lucetta.

Maji still couldn't see much more than silhouettes, but saw the outlines of rifles and comb morions.

Guardsmen soon filled the passageway, wielding magical lights contained in wood lanterns. Fae magic, she realised, fluttering about like butterflies. How much had that set Mister Pavlov back? Fae magic was far from cheap.

"Where are you going at this hour? Where is Sentinel Sigma?" asked the same woman, stopping before them. Maji couldn't see her face when most of the light was behind her, although she was broad-shouldered and stout.

"Expired," said Maji.

"Something killed Them, no idea what," said Lucetta.

"So it's as Pavlov suggested. Damn it, this is your third Sentinel to have expired!"

"Not like it's our fault." Lucetta held up her hand. It was so swollen, Maji sucked in a sympathetic breath. "Now if you don't mind, I fell and broke my hand. I could do with seeing the medic."

"Right," said the woman, eyeing the state of it. "As it happens, we brought the good doctor along."

"That's awfully convenient," Lucetta muttered when the woman walked away. "Imagine conveniently knowing that a Sentinel's been killed and having the foresight to buy Fae lights well in advance, to send along with guards and a doctor."

"It is a bit strange…"

Maji didn't have the energy to muster any polite smiles for the passing guards. Not even when a woman in a long white coat and thick leather boots approached. Her hair was set in a large but tight bun glinting grey. She set down a leather bag and held some sort of tube in her hand. With a flick of her thumb, the tube lit up and cast a bright light onto Lucetta's hand.

"Oh wow, what is that?" asked Maji. It definitely wasn't Sentinel magic, or Fae.

"That's a flashlight," said the doctor, peering at her through round reading spectacles. "You've been out of touch for a while then. How long have you been down here? You ought to consider some real sunshine, it's better for your health."

Maji's cheeks grew hot. She wasn't a long-time deep dweller, and unlike the rest, often made trips up to the surface. She had only been mining for six years and a bit, but came from a village that didn't partake in modern inventions. Or most magic, for that matter. Her people were content to exist as they were, and so Maji knew little of technology.

"Long enough," she mumbled. She could feel Lucetta's eyes on her and stared down at the ground.

"Right. I don't think we've ever met. My name is Doctor Florellis." She inspected Lucetta's broken hand with a careful touch. "What caused this? It looks like you hit a wall. Never mind, I'll set it right."

"Cheers."

Maji and Lucetta exchanged a worried grimace.