“Well, he’s wrong,” I said and began marching down the slope into the valley. The warmth of my orb promised as much.

The glassy ice crunched beneath our boots. There were so many things I wanted to say about this place, but we walked in silence, each reliving our own nightmares and victories. Halfway across the rink, Zane took my hand.

My Patrolman stopped in the tunnel’s entrance, but I kept moving, anticipating the large, golden sun-orb bursting to life in the key room. I couldn’t wait to feel its glorious message sink into my skin. After the year I’d had, I needed a win.

Zane caught up as I swept through the curtains. I smiled and breathed in the fragrance of life, flora, and unity, studying the hundreds of Carrier names on the walls as I pulled off my necklace. This was for them.

“I think we should get back to the factory,” Zane said, glancing back at the tunnel with a peculiar face. I slid my orb into the nearest key slot just as the next word cracked from his mouth, “Wait!”

Frazzled, I tore the orb back out, but it was too late.

The golden sun burst with light, just like I’d imagined. But it flickered.

My hand tightened around my orb. The golden sun blinked out, then sank to dark black like molten ink. “W…what’s it doing?” I breathed, raising my orb. A crack popped upon the surface of the glass, a spear of smoke digging its way in. The gold and ivory retaliated, trying to smother it out.

“What did I do?” I croaked, dragging it against my chest.

The cave walls began to twist like an illusion of mirrors. The names carefully penned over so many years began to melt, their ink dripping down the walls. Flames burst from the sun, slashing at whatever names remained like they were crossing them off a list.

Zane grabbed me and tore into the tunnel. “It’s him!”

Ice needled from his Patrol staff as an eruption rattled the room behind us. “Run!” he shouted, and I gasped. Smoke rushed from the key room curtains, turning like a giant snake head and slithering after us.

Snow flew in from the tunnel entrance like birds pumping their wings and fused together to create an ice-wall at our backs, but the smoke split into three tentacles and leapt around it.

It got Zane first; a hand of smoke coiled around his neck and smothered his eyes. His Patrol staff clattered to the ground, and I screamed. He was dragged into the blackness; I grabbed his Patrol staff and slashed at the smoke.

My Revelation Orb burned with light, and I shouted at the darkness, “Let him go!” Heat filled my veins and I tossed the Patrol staff to go in, following Zane’s anguished shouts.