Almost as if he could hear me, as if he knew my thoughts, he leaned in once more and traced his lips along my temple and across the shape of my jaw to the smooth skin of my throat.

But then, proving he in fact could not sense my thoughts, he pulled away and left me, walking deeper into the blackness of the cave at a speed I could never rival.

Episode 60: A Query Into Possible Delusional States

There were untamed pyres in the Rennington forest. I hastened my steps as I made my way back to where I hoped the Rennington manor stood, the taste of Alexander still fresh on my tongue. It was not so difficult for me to detect the presence of such creatures, and after having all my senses enlivened, I felt as if my awareness had increased. Untamed pyres had a particular kind of snarl which belonged only to them. It rose like the howl of a common wolf, but echoing itself many times and also thinner, as infused with some spirit. This chilling effect was a result of all the pyres calling out as one.

I could hear them calling over my shoulder, and I wondered why they did so. For there was hardly a moon to be seen in the night sky.

The hairy beasts that ran on all fours—lobulins as they were called—were the ones who screamed at the moon’s light when it was fullest, wishing to hurl it back from whence it came. The monthly surge in moonlight brought terrors and ungodly transformations for the lobulins. I did not blame them for wishing the pale orb of light gone. If theirs were the sounds I heard, however, I would not have hastened my steps, but would have taken off at my fastest pace.

But the untamed pyres did not detest the moon when it was full. They called to it. With great longing and reverence. They thanked it as they drank its light. And they did…other things…of which I rightfully had little knowledge. For one should only possess knowledge if one knows how to wield it properly.

Yet the moon was but a sliver in the night sky, so the calling of the pyres puzzled me. I doubted I was in present danger, as they did not usually prefer to drink the blood of humans. The pyres were territorial, though, and I knew so little of the landscape in Northern Lykke that I might have wandered past boundaries I could not detect.

A short distance from the Rennington manor, Willoughby found me, for which I was grateful. He waited among the trees as I walked over to meet him.