Caw.

Corvin ran for the shadows. Lights converged through the fences as he sought the safety of the darkness. The Collectors walked in the light. Shadows were the only sanctuary.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

A collector walked across the street. Down the alley, Corvin froze, flattening himself against the nearest wall. He only saw three long silver spikes, each spread wide to hold it high in the fog above. A handler waddled along nearby, his hand holding a chain as he rubbed his stubble-covered face. His backpack looked heavy, but Corvin knew from experience that a handler was quick. Their short legs were deceptive.

Corvin pushed farther into the wall, squeezing himself into the stone. He shivered as the cold sank through his clothes and into his skin. His mask pressed hard against his cheek.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

Corvin sucked in a breath and closed his eyes. He desperately wanted the Collector to pass him by. He shouldn't have been out, anyway. Granddad always told him not to go out at night. It was only safe to move around during the day.

The only people who had to worry about Collectors in the day were those who owed a debt.

"Wait."

The collector stopped, and Corvin's eyes snapped open. He peered down the wall to the street and saw a single point of light raised high. The handler had pulled out a lantern and held it high. Orange light peeled back the fog, and shone out four ways from the lantern. Corvin watched in horror as the light stretched out for him, no different than grasping claws.

If that light touched Corvin, he knew he would fall like the others. He would disappear, never to be seen again in the castle's light on the hill. That was the fate of someone taken by a Collector. Corvin needed to run.

Scrrk.

Stone scraped across his boot as he slid along the wall. Everything in him told him to break out into a sprint deeper into the shadows, down the alley and out of sight. He could outrun the Collector. At least, he wanted to believe that.

"There you are," the handler's voice cut through the night like a knife. "Thought you could hide? What are you doing out in the night?"

Corvin's breath came in sharp gasps. His eyes looked back to the Collector. However, neither the handler nor his charge was near him. In fact, they had started down an opposite alley. The orange light revealed another figure hiding on the opposite side.

She was a young woman, collapsed on the ground and looking up the long silver legs at the Collector. She wore her porcelain mask, the same as every person in Binvieti. Corvin licked his lips, but did nothing. He would not be the prey tonight. He could do nothing for the woman.

"You know what must be done for those who walk the night," the handler's voice shuddered. "You know the price that must be paid, the toll. Will you come willingly, or will I have to take you by force?"

Then, she screamed.

Clap.

Corvin nearly joined her as the hand grabbed hold of his shoulder. Only a quick grasp around his mouth stopped him and muffled the noise. He was lucky that she had screamed. If she hadn't, his muffled cry might have given his position away to the Collector.

"Why are you out here, Corvin?" the voice cracked out in a whisper, old and annoyed.

Corvin's heart leapt and sank at the same time. He was saved, but Granddad had found him. While being found and rescued from the Collector was a good thing, he didn't want to think about what Granddad would do to him for being out in the night.

"Mmph-mph," Corvin apologized as the woman's scream was cut short.

"Now, you listen to me." Granddad pulled Corvin away from the wall and into his long coat. "We're going to quietly walk away from here. She's lost already, and they'll be busy loading her onto a cart. That'll give us a chance to get to the hideout. Nod if you're ready."

Corvin nodded. He didn't want to be out on the street anymore than Granddad wanted him out there.

Thud. Thump.

In the distance, the handler was tying the woman up. Tendrils extended out from the fog above, acting as the ropes to bind the woman. Neither Corvin nor Granddad did anything about it though. They knew that there was nothing they could do to stop it. If someone struck a Collector, they would face the wrath of Count Gavril.

No one, not even the mightiest of the Military Police, could stand against Count Gavril.

"Keep walking." Granddad pushed Corvin forward inside his coat, only occasionally looking back as they walked.

Corvin could no longer see the woman, though he could hear as she was pulled up into the Collector above. He knew what would happen. All the kids knew exactly what happened when you were taken by a Collector. Granddad had told them the stories, night after night. They knew why they shouldn't be out at night.

However, Corvin had gone out. He couldn't have helped it. Not when Branou had told him the news.

Click. Thump.

After a long walk, Granddad opened the entrance to their hideout and closed the door behind them. In the far rooms, Corvin could hear his brothers and sisters snoring. They had all gone to bed exactly as they should have, and Corvin had missed the bedtime story, of course. However, how could he wait for a story, when the real thing had arrived in town?

"Now." Granddad shuffled over in his long coat, sitting down on his old rocking chair next to the embers in the fireplace. "Tell me, Corvin. Why did you go out tonight?"

Corvin knew the tone. It was full of disappointment, not anger. However, he still didn't know if Granddad would punish him once he knew the reason. Granddad could hurt people when he was angry. He just never did it to his kids. Only other adults.

"I'm sorry." Corvin sat on the floor in front of the chair. "I was just too excited to stay. Someone told me they had seen him, and I wanted to see for myself!"

"Who?" Granddad ran a hand through his long white beard, his long frayed eyebrows quirking as he leaned forward.

"A swordsman with a flaming sword." Corvin smiled. "Just like the one in the stories!"

"What?" Granddad frowned, his eyes going wide.

"The Sword Saint." Corvin mimicked his frown. "Just like the one you always talk about."

Granddad froze then, but Corvin didn't know why. Then he shook, and tears fell down his face. Corvin watched him as the embers slowly burned away in the chimney.

Alex was losing the game.

Clack.

"Ten points for me, brother!"

'Sword Saint' Sayed slapped down a rectangular domino with a one and a five on the opposite end of the table, and Alex sighed before making note of his points. Sayed wore a loose white shirt around his massive frame, his muscles only partially showing up against the cloth as he took his hand back from the table. He wore a smug smile on bearded face, but he always wore a smile on his face. That was just who Sayed was.

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On Earth, Alex would have said that he was Middle-Eastern, but they weren't on Earth. Sayed was from a world or a nation called Hajh. He could never pin the man down with an answer for which it was. Like Alex, he wasn't from their current world.

"What's he up to?" Li 'Cold Shot' Wen asked from the opposite side of the table as she reached down for her own set of five dominoes with one hand.

Her wide-brimmed hat rested on the empty fourth chair around the table, and her foot rested on the bottom of the chair as she leaned back in her own. She wore a long gray jacket that she refused to take off, no matter where she was. Her hair was long and black, and was from England, actually on Earth, but her family was Chinese.

"Fifty." Alex shook his head, rubbing his stubble.

"You should be more careful," Jean Baptiste 'the Reanimator' said from across the kitchen where he sat near a second table. "Once you get him started, he'll take you for everything."

Several books were stacked around him, which covered the fact that from the neck down he was nothing but bones. His neck and head were fully intact though, and currently, his purple eyes were scanning a tome laid open on the stack of books in front of him while he ran his bony fingers over his bald scalp. If he was from Earth, his ancestors would hail from Africa, though his name was French. Jean wasn't from Earth, though. He was a native of September, which was one of the islands in the Core.

A month ago, Jean would have been playing right along with them. However, since they had broken through Grim Aegis and made their way into the Core, Jean hadn't been the same. He was all books and research, without his usual smile or cheerful demeanor.

Clack.

"We're playing to one hundred, right?" Li Wen sat down her own domino, which was a six and a five. "Fifteen."

Alex marked it down on the paper, right next to his very blank column.

Clack.

"Yeah." Alex eyed the double blank domino in his hand before setting down a six and one on the opposite side of the double. "I thought getting into the Core would be more exciting than this."

"It's mostly just tubes and tunnels between the sections," Li Wen said as they both watched Sayed examine his hand. "Aside from checkpoints and lines, there isn't much room for excitement."

Completely unlike the nightsea. The nightsea was the area outside the Core, filled with a spattering of glowing lights called islands across mostly empty space. They had sailed across several to get to the Core. Their destination was the Dark Meridian, which could only be reached by a path through Magnus Hortus at the center of the Core. All because of some old explorer named Roald, and his message that the world would find their answers in a new world—the New World.

To get there, they would have to fly their ship through the various islands of the Core though, and the Core was nothing like the nightsea. Alex already had some idea of it, though his escape from August was mostly shrouded by hiding inside cargo boxes. It wasn't as simple as going between islands in the nightsea.

For one, they were at the heart of the Scions' power, where the Military Police was in full force and ready to capture outlaws like them.

"Have you thought about where we're going first?" Li Wen asked, running her hand across her remaining dominoes. "We can't just make a break for the center of the Empyrean. We'll have to go through a few of the Twelve Kingdoms to get that deep."

"I think Harut had the gate opened to November when we passed through." Alex grimaced.

"That's a long way from the Core." Jean looked up from his book and shook his head. "We'll have to go through at least four of them to get there."

"I don't think he has much choice in it," Alex said.

"We'll have to find a pass," Jean said. "Or find a person to forge one. I doubt any of us could get them with our names after what happened."

"What about Li Wen?"

"Wen is known by the Military Police to be working with us." Jean shook his head. "I don't doubt that's reached across the entire Core."

"Great." Li Wen sighed, eyeing Sayed as he ran his finger across his palm. "What's taking so long, big guy?"

"I am counting." Sayed frowned.

"So, we have that problem," Alex said. "We'll have to stop somewhere in November to figure it out."

"Not near a major city," Jean said, flipping a page. "It would be better to pick one of the smaller towns on the outskirts and work our way into safer areas."

"You guys know more about it than I do," Alex said, stretching a little to try to see over Sayed's massive hand. "We can pull up a map in a bit and we'll pick the smallest town with a dock we can find."

"Any town with a dock will have some presence, noble or military," Jean said. "But that is a risk we'll have to take. Those same places will have the facilities to gain documents."

"Come on, Sayed," Alex said, reaching up to Sayed's fingers. "Just play it so we can keep the turn going."

"But it is my last one." Sayed frowned, pulling up his hand. "I want to make sure if I can get a five, or not."

Alex froze, thinking about the double zero in his own hand. If Sayed played his last one, then the game was over. That was fifty points to Sayed if he emptied his hands. It sure looked like things weren't looking up for him.

"Just play it." Alex sighed. "Let's get this over with."

"We still have a few rounds anyway." Li Wen started flipping her dominoes over, though she didn't know that it was already over.

"Fine, I will do as you ask." Sayed laid down his domino on a five.

Alex licked his lips and flipped over his blank. "Well, game's over. That's fifty more for a hundred."

"Why'd you hold it?" Li Wen shook her head and slid her hand into the pile.

"Didn't get the chance." Alex did the same before standing. "Shuffle or take a break?"

"We have arrived at the exit." Mari's voice crackled over the speakers above.

"Head up front." Erin's voice came over after. "We'll need to actually pilot the ship through the exit."

"That answers that question," Alex said as Li Wen pulled out the box and Sayed started piling them inside. "I'll go get it warmed up. If you guys want to see it as we come in, get to the bridge quick."

They all gave their own noncommittal responses, though Sayed started stacking the dominoes in the box faster as Alex exited the kitchen. Alex was surprised they had found the game at all, and that it had translated so well across worlds. He started up the tubular metal hallway toward the bridge, the fluorescent lights lighting the silver walls as he walked to the bridge. He passed the stairs up to the deck, and all the crew's rooms before he reached the bridge, and it was a good walk, because the ship stretched at least a soccer field long.

The Nighthawk was a ship design that was new to the nightsea. It was shaped a lot like a submarine, though instead of a black faceless hull, it had a bridge on its top, with a curved window that opened up to the surrounding air or space that the ship flew through. Behind the bridge was a long metal mast, with a door that opened to a flat metal deck off its back. Two long tubes ran on either side of the ship, which were the equivalent of lodestones on a regular slipship. The only thing on it Alex had no idea about was the massive gold cone on the rear.

Most ships on the nightsea were either old wooden ships that looked almost like sailing ships from the era of discovery on Earth, or almost modern versions of metal cruisers and destroyers. The only real differences were that they all had light sails somewhere on them, either masts on more traditional ships, or across their back in small triangular shapes on the modern metal ships and the lodestones that hung off on rods from the sides of the ships to provide them lift.

As he stepped onto the bridge, he could see both options on either side out the viewport along the semi-circular screens at the front. They weren't the only ones flying into November. The incident on Grim Aegis had tied up trade and everything else for over a month, when everyone got their memory back. Now everything was piling up.

"You made it," Erin said from her side-chair at the center of the bridge.

Erin 'Thorn Queen' Leah was looking a lot less pink now that her skin had grown back completely after nearly being burned alive on Grim Aegis. She now was a pale, short woman with black hair in a long green cloak. Beneath it she wore complete black, so that no one could notice what her hands were doing beneath the cloak. It was a good idea, since she was in the People's Revolution. After coming to the nightsea from a world called Erys, it was an odd chain of events that led her to the crew.

Not that she would be there for long.

The bridge was long, with a central chair encased in metal that stretched the oval shape of the room. Two long arms with orbs allowed a person to take control of the ship, almost merge with it so that piloting it was just a natural extension of the pilot's consciousness. On both sides were four chairs, each one with its own console that hung off the side of the chair with a semi-clear green screen. The screen allowed a crewman to pull up information on the ship and had its own controls.

Alex didn't worry about those. He stepped into the central chair and leaned into the orbs.

"The door will open in a few minutes," Mari chirped over the speakers again.

She rested in the area behind the bridge, buried inside the ship and connected directly to it. Magical Artificial Recombinant Intelligence, M.A.R.I. or Mari, as they called her. To anyone who saw her, she would appear to be a pale little girl, though the lines across her face, and her metal body and glowing eyes marked her as something didn't. She called herself Roald's daughter, and had helped them find the ship before becoming their navigator.

She was another reason to head for the New World. What she was, and how she worked could only be answered out there.

Alex leaned into the orbs and opened his gate as a thin line opened against the large gray metal wall that covered the entire viewscreen in front of him. Electricity cracked out of his heart and down his fingertips as power flowed from his body and into the ship and back into his body. It was a feedback loop not too different from other amplification devices he had encountered on other islands. It boosted the power of his curse and allowed him to use it through the ship.

Magnetism, the ability to control the attractive and repulsive fields around him to influence metal. That was his power.

He blinked, and he was one with the ship. His vision stretched across a wide field around as the light flooded out into the dimly lit corridor that the Nighthawk and other ships floated in.

"Let's go," Alex whispered as he sensed the others joining him on the deck. "It's about time that we see what's out here."

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