“Alex. Alex Bound. What about you?”
If the boy heard her question, he gave no sign of it.
Seeing he wouldn’t answer her question, at least not now, she asked, “What are you waiting for?”
“I’ll remember when I see it.”
The darkness grew bright with runes, shining as if they were stars—the same rune, over and over as far as the darkness extended. Alex wished she knew what the rune stood for. Its repetition brought no insight into its meaning.
The masked boy started to walk. It did not seem as if he thought he would be followed, but Alex walked after the boy. “Is there anyone else here?” Alex asked.
The boy stopped. It was not as if he stopped walking, but rather that his body no longer had any weight. It was as if he shimmered in and out of existence, waiting to be called back, yet unwilling to wait for the calling. “Yes, there’s someone else,” the boy answered.
“Can you take me to him?” Alex asked.
“Sure. He’s cruel, though. I’m not sure you would like him.”
The two walked through the darkness, the light flickering around them like the darkness was filled with thousands of pixies. “Do you like him?” Alex asked. “Do you want to hang out with him?”
The boy stopped walking, looking around as if there were answers to be divined in the darkness, in this place where there was nothing but everything at once. “No, I don’t,” the boy said. “I don’t like him at all. But I’m stuck with him. Bound to him.”
Alex thought of Chine and their intertwined destinies before answering, “Yeah, I know what you mean. At least, I think I do.”
The two continued walking, pilgrims of the night, unaware of that which they strode toward, yet heading toward it nonetheless.
Alex could not tell when her legs started to hurt, nor when she realized she had legs. Slowly, memories came flooding back to her. None of this was real. This was a psychic projection—Chine had told her that—but she wasn’t outside anymore, so It couldn’t be a projection. She was inside something.
The masked boy stopped walking and pointed to the light. “Go in there,” the boy said. “That’s where he is. The one you want to talk to.”
Alex, against her better judgment, knelt and looked the boy in the eye. She reached out and touched his mask. The boy didn’t protest. Alex pulled the mask off.
The unmasked child did not have black eyes. One was the brightest, clearest blue Alex had ever seen. The other was a black hole as dark as death. The boy’s face was covered in soft freckles, and his hair was sandy blonde. Even though he couldn’t have been any older than ten, his eyes held the age of the ancients. “What’s your name?” Alex asked.
The boy was silent, his lip quivering as if he were uncertain of being able to speak such a profane thing. “Forni,” the boy finally said. “That is what everyone calls me.”
“It was nice to meet you, Forni.”
“You too.”
With that, the boy was gone. Alex stood alone before the light. Her heart was racing. With Forni gone, Alex remembered why she was in the darkness and what she was doing. She was looking for a way to save Middang3ard, and that way seemed to be in the light.
Alex took a deep breath and stepped inside.
A shriek tore through Alex’s head, heard and unheard. She thought it had just been in her head until she opened her eyes. Then she saw the truth.
The light was emanating from a black hole, a large tear in reality. Planets, stars, and time were swirling around it. Alex felt drawn to the black hole, but she refused to move.
That was when the eye focused on Alex. It came from the black hole, but she did not know how. She could not see the eye, but she could feel it watching her, peering into her, piercing her skin, crawling through her chest. The eye saw every single thing.
Alex did not know when she began screaming, but she feared she would never stop.
Before her was an eye, nothing more and nothing less. It floated in the blackness, its veins massive and terrible, quivering and shaking as it rolled its iris toward Alex, slow and awful as the tide of a tsunami.
The eye trembled, and the darkness swelled and screeched as Alex stood before it, wishing she could run and knowing there was nowhere she could flee. How are you here? came a voice, crashing through Alex’s head.
The sheer power of it reduced Alex to tears. She did not know when she fell, but she embraced the darkness beneath her, screaming to cover the reverberating words echoing in her brain.
HOW ARE YOU HERE?
Alex felt her mind unraveling. It was not a slow process. There was sanity, and there was insanity. She almost slipped from one to the other.
No, she thought to herself. You are here for a reason. The mission. Remember the mission.
Alex forced herself to stand. Her nose was pouring blood and her head was pounding, but she made it to her feet. “Who gives a crap?” Alex managed. “I’m here. What the hell are you doing here?”
A wave of psychic energy blew past her. It was like having her head ripped open, dissected, and displayed. She tried to hold it together, but it was impossible. Her thoughts lay splayed out for the eye to see.
The eye swelled as its veins grew redder. How dare you? the voice thundered.
Alex felt another wave of energy coming at her. She imagined herself far away, standing atop a castle, looking down at a horde of warriors rushing toward her. The walls would hold. She knew that. “You’re the Dark One, aren’t you?”
There was no answer. The eye continued to twitch and swell. Alex had expected an answer. This gave her an idea. “You are, aren’t you?” she
