The water was colder than it looked.

  Cold as the lightless void between the stars.

  Cold as deep stone beneath a crypt.

  The lake did not ripple at first.

  Her hand passed through the still mirror sheen.

  Then the lake’s surface shimmered.

  Not ripple as disturbed water.

  A pulse.

  Illara’s reflection wavered, elongated, then snapped back into place.

  The cold, the chill.

  She shivered.

  Her world inverted.

  The Temple of the Eternal Night loomed before her.

  Her fingertips remained in the ice cold water.

  Startled, Illara withdrew her hand.

  She heard Matthias sucked in his breath.

  The Nightblade was beside her.

  But she was not looking at him.

  She was looking at the temple before her.

  A black pyramid.

  Monolithic.

  Ancient.

  Rising from the lake’s center in the night sky, the Temple of Eternal Night was smooth and black, mirror sheen.

  Its gold trimmings brightened by Nautauri’s unnatural illumination.

  Illara felt something was amiss.

  Then she realized.

  The temple cast no reflection.

  Before she touched the water, the apex of the pyramid were inverse.

  Its pinnacle pointing downward into the lake’s depths, its base touching the reflected horizon.

  But here, the apex was righted.

  Nautauri shone in the night skies.

  A black moon framed by a pale white halo.

  Visible to her naked eyes.

  “Stars above…” Matthias whispered.

  Astraria and Vesperia.

  Pitch black.

  Together with Nautauri, their black light shone pale in the midnight skies.

  Illara’s breath caught.

  Matthias withdrew his hand, flicking off the liquid clutching to him.

  Illara lifted her gaze from the water to the world ahead—

  The lake did not reflect the black pyramid or the moons.

  Only water.

  Only reflection.

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  Illara felt a pull then.

  The lake clutched at her hand.

  An insistent tug.

  A nudge at her sense of orientation, as if the world were gently trying to draw her in.

  Matthias stepped closer, his voice low. “Lara—”

  Illara swallowed. “I know.”

  She withdrew her hand slowly.

  The water clung to her skin in a thin sheet, reluctant to let go. It did not drip like normal water. It stretched, then released.

  Illara’s palm was numb.

  She flexed her fingers.

  “Your compass, Lara,” Matthias called.

  Illara snapped her compass open.

  The needle was unwavering.

  Pointing towards the pyramid.

  Illara’s voice came out as a whisper. “My thoughts are we head there.”

  Matthias’s reply was equally quiet. “Yes, we should do so with all due haste.”

  Illara looked to where the Nightblade was pointing.

  A shadow of movements.

  Matthias’s eyes flicked to the forest behind them. “The Pale Coil.”

  Illara nodded without looking away from the lake. “Do the ever give up?”

  Matthias stepped to her side. His hand hovered near his weapons.

  Steel not drawn, but ready.

  They burst forth then.

  Five hulking Pale Coils.

  Illara’s grip tightened on her crescent blade.

  She raised her shotgun and fired.

  The first shot shredded the lead lizardman.

  Matthias took a stride.

  He vanished.

  Reappearing behind the charging Pale Coil.

  His daggers flashed.

  He cut the tendons of the trailing Pale Coil

  As the furthest lizardman fell heavily to the ground, the lizardman Illara shot rose.

  He charged again.

  Illara shot it him again.

  Her shot shredded his chest cavity.

  Matthias stepped into the fringe.

  He reappeared beside Illara as she reloaded.

  The lizard he hamstrung stood up again.

  “What in the name of the One…”

  Illara threw her crescent blade.

  The weapon spun tip-over-hilt to buried itself into the revived Pale Coil.

  Matthias crossed blades with two of the hulking Pale Colls as Illara vanished.

  Her hand closed around the hilt of her crescent blade.

  She spun, drawing the blade across the lizardman’s chest.

  Shearing him in halves.

  As the halves fell, Illara vanished into the mist.

  She reappeared behind one of the hulking Pale Coils battling Matthias.

  She shot one and rammed her blade into the spine of the other.

  Matthias drove his daggers into the creature’s muscular neck.

  Illara wrenched her blade, severing the Pale Coil at the waist.

  As the halves fell to the floor, she put another shot into its face.

  To her horror, the half-destroyed face hissed at her.

  “These are not Pale Coils,” Matthias said as he reappeared.

  The last two lizardmen lay twitching, dismembered.

  As Illara watched, the further lizardman was attempting to reconstitute itself.

  More of their brethren arrived.

  They came out of the forest, heedlessly revealing themselves.

  Hundreds of them.

  “I suggest we depart,” the Nightblade said.

  Illara did not argue.

  The Astrastars ran.

  They headed for the pyramid.

  The structure regarded them with malevolence.

  Illara noticed then.

  The lake reflecting the pyramid now.

  In the reflection, the temple’s inverted steps seemed to extend outward.

  An unseen path forming across the lake’s mirror surface, faint lines of gold and black tracing themselves into existence like a door being written into the world.

  Illara felt her pulse in her throat.

  Matthias’s voice was barely audible. “They are herding us.”

  Illara nodded grimly.

  Her eyes fixed on the mirrored steps. “To the only door that opens.”

  Matthias’s gaze flicked to the drowned streets around them, to the shadows beneath broken arches, to the obelisks etched with unreadable signs. “The path revealed itself?”

  Illara finished quietly, “…we were awaited.”

  “Then we shall not disappoint.” Matthias finished coolly.

  The reflected steps brightened faintly under Nautauri’s zenith.

  Illara took one rapid step after the other.

  She stepped onto the surface.

  Their boots touched the lake’s surface.

  The surface of the lake did not break.

  A Mistwalker and a Nightblade.

  The water bore her weight like glass.

  Illara felt the cold through leather, as if she stood upon the infinite void.

  A depthless lake.

  Matthias kept pace beside her.

  His strides did not ripple the lake.

  The temple loomed closer now.

  Illara glanced back behind her, once.

  The Dread Coils gave up their pursuit at the edge of the lake.

  They did not step onto the lake.

  They did not follow.

  They lingered at the threshold.

  Unmoving, reverent, fearful.

  Creatures that knew the unspoken law.

  Illara faced forward again.

  In the frantic moment, she did not see her reflection turned a heartbeat slower.

  The pyramid loomed ahead.

  Impossible and immense.

  Trimmed in gold and black like a crown of old empire.

  The reflected air felt thicker.

  The reflected mist felt colder.

  Illara’s skin prickled as they drew nearer.

  Matthias’s voice came softly, as if afraid to let the reflected world taste loud speech. “Lara, once we cross…”

  Illara nodded, eyes fixed on the steps at the base of the inverted temple.

  The ascent awaited them.

  “…we will return,” she finished as she looked at him.

  Matthias did not contradict her.

  They ascended.

  The steps were unseen, but they existed. Each footfall made no sound.

  The lake did not ripple.

  The three moons shone their black light upon them.

  And as they drew nearer.

  Illara felt the pull behind her eyes again.

  Insistent. Subtle. Insidious.

  Above, the steps seemed endless.

  Illara’s bare hand still tingled.

  She raised it, flexing her fingers.

  The chill of the lake lingered.

  Matthias glanced at her, “are you all right?”

  Illara swallowed. “Yes.”

  Matthias’s expression hardened. “Then do not falter.”

  Illara nodded.

  They are in the shadow of the eternal night now.