Our destination was an ancient church. It must once have been magnificent, but now it was falling apart. The windows had no glass, and the steeple was skeletal and wooden slats blocked the south porch. I raised an eyebrow.

“Is this a good idea?”

“I’ve done it before. Besides”—he ducked under a slat—“from what the Overseer tells me, you’re accustomed to unsafe structures.” He looked over my shoulder. “Quick. Gray Keeper.”

I slid between the boards. Just in time: Graffias passed by the entrance, leading three undernourished amaurotics. I followed David through the church. A large protion of the ceiling had fallen into the chapel. Wooden beams and concrete had flattened the pews, and glass lay in fragments across the floor. I picked my way through the rubble. “What happened here?”

David didn’t answer the question. “One hundred and twenty-four stairs to the top,” he said. “Up for it?”

He was gone before I could answer. I followed him to the staircase.

I was used to climbing. I’d climbed hundreds of the buildings in I Cohort. Most of the steps were still intact; it seemed like no time before we reached the top. A high wind caught my hair, whipping it back from my face. The scent of fire was strong and thick. David rested his arms on a stone balustrade.

“I like this place.” He pulled a roll of white paper from his sleeve and used a match to light it. “Higher ground.”

We stood on a balcony, right below the crumbling steeple. Part of the balustrade was missing, and another sign warned of the unstable structure. I looked up at the stars. “You passed your second test,” I said. “If you want to talk, tell me about the Emim.”

Eyes closed, he exhaled the smoke. His fingers were stained. “What exactly do you want to know?”

“What they are.”

“No idea.”

“You must have seen one.”

“Not much. The woods are dark. I know it looked like a human—had a head and arms and legs, in any case—but it moved like an animal. It also stank like a cesspit. And sounded like one.”

“How can you sound like a cesspit?”

“Like flies, 40. Bzzzz.”

Buzzer.

“What about its aura?” I pressed. “Did it have one?”

“Not that I could see. It made the æther seem like it was collapsing,” he said. “Like there was a black hole around its dreamscape.”

This didn’t sound like the sort of thing I wanted to face. I looked down at the city. “Did you kill it?”