Midnight wasn't the most convenient time to meet, but it was the safest.
Shade waited in his usual tree branch, surveying the darkened ground with one leg dangling under him as he lounged against the trunk. It wasn't long until Dusk's tall figure appeared between the trees. As Dusk passed beneath, Shade kicked himself off the branch, landing softly before falling into stride with his friend.
"No surprise attacks tonight?" asked Dusk. "No scaring the life out of me with a torch?"
"I have to keep you prepared somehow," said Shade. "Didn't you say someone else would be joining us?"
Dusk opened the hidden tunnel with the integrated crystal-pattern recognition tech they'd paid through the nose for with stolen crystalite. "He wasn't at the meeting spot."
"Captured?"
"He isn't the most punctual of individuals, from what I've been told."
"Great."
The tunnel opened up into the familiar dark room. Most Radiants wouldn't have stepped inside with their ease, but they were long past that. Both of them had long since outgrown that natural-born fear, but they still needed light to see by. Shade set about lighting the well-worn lantern as Dusk set up the platforms, dumping his rucksack on the ground in the middle of the room.
"We might have to get this replaced soon," said Dusk as the lantern came to life. "One of the platforms has a crack."
"I'll keep an eye out next time I'm in a city," said Shade. "Do you--"
The door slammed open. Shade's sword was in his hand, his position shifted to place himself between Dusk and the newcomer before the lantern revealed the newcomer's cloth-wrapped face.
"That's the guy we're expecting," said Dusk, completely unconcerned. "Shade, meet Ink."
Shade lowered his sword, but he didn't sheathe it. "Nice of you to join us, Ink."
"I got here as soon as I could!" said Ink, words muffled by the facewrap. "Getting out of the League is harder than you'd think at midnight. Not all of us can do what we please, we have--"
"Enough," said Dusk. "You two might want to keep it civil, considering you might end up working together at some point. Ink, I'll ignore the fact that you're late for now. Report."
"They brought in another one."
"Another full-blood?" asked Dusk.
Ink nodded. "From what I heard, she's going to go into the cure research team, even if she's young."
"How old?"
"I'd say barely seventeen."
"Appearance?"
"Typical full Radiant. Violet hair, iridescent skin in the sunlight, large heart crystal, and I counted at least five crystal patterns on her skin. It wouldn't be hard to assume that there's another two hidden under her clothes."
"A Radiant's crystal patterns often develop in places most exposed to sunlight," said Dusk. "So I wouldn't assume anything. Eyes?"
"Normal, but she wasn't using Light when I saw her."
"Hm," said Dusk. "They wouldn't bring her onto the cure team unless they were sure she was full-blooded. The update is appreciated. Did she arrive with anyone?"
"Only Asriel."
Dusk nodded. "If she's a full-blood, there won't be anything we can do to help her, but we'll keep half an eye on her until we're sure." He flicked his wrist, checking the time on his watch. It'd taken Shade longer than he cared to admit to track that watch down. Humans loved powered things with crystalite, but it didn't suit their cause. "It's almost time. You two can stay in the corner and listen if you wish, but I'll have you on watch duty for the next fortnight if you interrupt anything."
Shade placed a hand on Ink's back and steered him to the elevated platform, what he liked to think of as the rafters in the room. "We sit up here."
Shade yielded the prime viewing position to Ink, having seen it enough for it to be boring. Dusk opened the heavy rucksack, revealing the glimmer of Light inside as he placed the charged crystalite in the centre of the twelve platforms and brought them to life.
That was the problem being unable to wield Light yourself. You had to buy it pre-charged, and it didn't come cheap.
Ten figures flickered into existence as the Light reached the platforms, the eleventh glowing as Dusk stepped onto its surface. Dusk ran through his usual introductions and greetings, but the twelfth platform remained empty. If Dusk was proceeding with the meeting regardless, it only meant one thing.
"What is this?" whispered Ink.
Shade saw no reason not to tell him. "They're the leaders of each safehouse region. In a nutshell, they micromanage everything in their region and report back to Dusk."
Ink observed the conversation, and Shade was hoping the discussion was over when Ink said, "They all look the same to me. How does Dusk tell them apart?"
Shade glanced at the grey-garbed figures with everything but their eyes completely covered. "No idea. I can't even remember which codenames belong to which one anymore, but that's the idea. The only reason the Radiants can't find us is because Dusk is so careful with it all. Only he knows everything."
"But he's so close to the League here! Isn't that dangerous?"
"Where would the first place you'd look for a bunch of organised Lightless be?" asked Shade.
Ink frowned. "Not anywhere near the League. I guess it makes sense."
"Good." Shade leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. "Now shut up and listen."
The meeting continued on in its usual fashion, with each region giving a general report. Having been on the other end of Dusk's transmissions before once holeing up in a safehouse in region eight, Shade knew that Dusk was the only one able to see all of them. The others came off as disembodied voices that often echoed back through Dusk's transmission, which frankly was rather annoying, having experienced it.
Still, Dusk claimed being able to hear the others gave them a much-needed sense of unity, something that was hard to maintain when you were existing at the edge of the Radiant's glow, and Shade couldn't argue with that.
The tone of the meeting changed when region twelve finished her report.
Dusk shuffled papers that Shade knew far too well. "As you all probably noted, region eleven is absent. I'm afraid to report that the Radiants discovered region eleven's main safehouse."
A hollow silence followed as Dusk drew in a deep breath and continued.
"There were a few from a smaller safehouse that managed to escape, and I've sent them the way of region ten, so please keep an eye out for them in the coming week. Aside from that, the raid was too coordinated to save anyone else."
"Is there any chance of staging a rescue?" asked the woman from twelve. "I have fighters available, and eleven isn't anywhere near a spire, correct? If so, it'll take the Radiants longer to get the necessary full-bloods and equipment to transport those they captured from eleven."
Dusk shifted on his platform. "I'll look into it and discuss potential strategies with you, but it's unlikely. I will have to take in the safety of the other regions, including your fighters before making any final decisions."
The woman from twelve nodded and said no more.
In the rafters, Shade released a heavy breath, digging his fingers into his arms as the other safehouse leaders pitched ideas and potential strategies, almost all of which Dusk declined.
"I don't get it," said Ink, his words edged in something that could have been anger or confusion. "The Radiants captured almost an entire region of safehouses, and they're not going to do anything about it?"
Shade licked his lips, ensuring his voice was even before he spoke. "The main problem is resources. The Radiants are backed entirely by the humans. We're never going to have that support--after all, we're the result of the parasite they're trying to eradicate."
"I don't feel any different from before," said Ink. "How can there be a parasite inside me if I can't tell the difference?"
"Because you have more human blood in you than Radiant," said Shade. "The human blood keeps the parasite under control, allows you to keep your mind. You ever seen a full-blood Shatter before?"
"Shatter?"
"They're true Lightless," said Shade. "They're ones they show in all the pictures when the Radiants need more funding or whatever. The monsters. They're the ones that the parasite takes full control of, and it's not pretty." He gave it a moment to sink in. "So, tell me--as the victim of a parasite that's wiping out a once-godlike race, how would you go about rescuing your Lightless kin when the rest of the continent is afraid of you and the only reason you're not in some research lab now is because you've got people who know how to hide really, really well?"
Ink glanced down. "I don't know."
"And neither do we," said Shade, clapping him on the back. "We do what we can, but there's a limit. If you come up with any solutions, you let me know."
Below, Dusk called the meeting to a close with his well-used words. "I think we've discussed all we can for now. I'll keep you updated on the situation and let you know if the rescue is going ahead. Meeting adjourned."
The ten figures placed their hands over their heart and disappeared.
Dusk stepped off his own platform with slumped shoulders. Shade knew it wasn't easy to be the bearer of bad news, but it was only going to get harder. Both of them knew it, but one of them didn't like admitting it.
Dusk replaced the charged crystalite back in the bag, once more leaving the room to the flame of the lantern as Shade and Ink descended from their rafters.
Dusk's eyes glanced to Ink. "That's all the excitement over for the night, if you'd like to leave and get back to the League, Ink. We'll just be packing up. Thank you for the report, and let me know if anything else happens with this new Radiant the League's brought in."
Ink, hand over heart, inclined his head.
"I'll keep you updated, Dusk," he said, and left.
Shade remained leaning against a pillar that supported the rafters, watching Dusk go about his meticulous clean up routine. He chewed on his lip, wondering if voicing the words was going to change anything this time.
"Just say whatever it is, Shade," said Dusk, his back turned. "Your brooding is killing the lantern."
Shade unfolded his arms and kicked off the wall. "Dusk, I've been your right-hand man for two years now. I've supported you and tried to keep everything as cohesive as possible. I've never spoken out against you in front of the others, but when it's just us, I'm not going to pretend everything's perfect."
"Of course it's not perfect!" said Dusk, snapping faster than Shade would have expected. "You aren't delusional enough to think it would be either, so what's this about?"
"Things are changing, Dusk." It was a struggle to keep his voice civil, and frustration slipped through the cracks. Shade saw the tension in Dusk's shoulders, but it had to be said. "They're adapting. We didn't just lose one badly protected safehouse this time. We lost an entire region, and it won't be the last one we lose if we don't adapt with them."
"And what would you have me do?" said Dusk. "You're younger than me, Shade, but even you have to remember when one of the Lightless regions tried going public. The humans dismissed it, saying that they weren't anything like the Lightless they know. The Radiants said they were 'infected' and we never saw them again. To the rest of the world, we're parasites, and you want me to--to what? Try again? Lose another region?"
"That isn't what I'm saying at all, and you know it!" said Shade, matching Dusk's volume. "But we have to do something, because if we sit here and keep waiting around for the Radiants to find us, we'll all be labrats before the decade's out! We can't fight them, we can't go public--but maybe we can try to find out own cure. Shatter it all, maybe we could return to the Radiant homeland itself and make a new life there!"
Dusk snorted. "I won't risk the other regions, especially not with a suicidal plan like that one. That's where the parasite started, where the Shattering started, and--"
"So what?" said Shade. "We're already diseased, aren't we? What more have we got to lose? Everything we have--every safehouse, every storeroom and setup--they aren't ours anymore. We're just waiting for the Radiants to take them, and you seem to be perfectly okay with that!"
"I'm not perfectly okay with any of this, Shade," said Dusk, sighing. "I had friends in region eleven. Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to tell twelve not to bother, that there was no point? If I didn't have everyone else to think about, I'd charge straight in there, but I can't. Because someone has to step back and look at the bigger picture--at our survival."
"Survival's all it is though, Dusk," said Shade. "We aren't living. We're hiding."
Dusk shrugged and opened the door, the night air rushing down the tunnel like the land herself was breathing. "Survival's all I ever promised when I started this. Maybe in the next few years, the Radiants will come up with a cure. Maybe they'll be able to reverse whatever it was the parasite did to us. For now, we just have to keep saving as many as we can."
"They aren't going to solve this for us," said Shade quietly as Dusk locked the door and covered it once more. "If we want to live, we have to do something for ourselves."
Dusk didn't reply, walking off into the shadows of the midnight covered forest once more, leaving Shade standing alone with his sword.
Shade sniffed and hoisted his hilt over his shoulder for the trek back to his lodgings.
As much as he respected his friend, his mentor, he didn't agree. He knew Dusk believed them to be broken, that they had that something missing that the parasite had taken from their Radiant blood, but that didn't sit right with Shade. Ever since Dusk had pulled him out of the collapsed ruins, there'd been a sense of purpose to his life, one he couldn't attribute to a parasite leeching the Light out of him.
There was more to this story than a broken people, and it was time he started figuring out what it was.
*+*+*+*
A/N - *resists urge to type 'what joy is there in this curse?'*
MEET SHADE. He probably doesn't care to meet you but that's okay =>
Wordcount: 13,307 [yes I did write 6k words today hello nano i'm catching your butt]