It did not take long for Leona to find the opening to a cave at the back of the cliff’s shelf. A faint light was shinning through it. She had to crawl into a tight opening, sharp edges pressing into her hard scales. Soon, the passage opened into a massive cavern carved out of spongy stone.

  Lights hung from wires in the ceiling, illuminating the space in florescent light. It was so harsh to her Void-trained eyes, she grabbed one of her black ribbons off the ground, put it over her eyes, and looked through it like a pair of shades.

  Through the shade of her black ribbon and her soul sight she could see some kind of factory. Few little-stared Voidlings moved about the place, aimless. There were conveyor belts on the floor, and big hooks dangling from the ceiling. Giant cylindrical sheets of metal lay about the frozen conveyor belts. Leona thought about the barrels on the cannons mounted around Vera City’s ring-wall. Nothing was rusted. All of it might have been new, or more likely, nothing in the Voidlands could ever experience weathering.

  Near one of the operation panels for the assembly line an image that looked to be projected on glass flicked in and out of existence. On it there were instructions written in an unfamiliar language. Leona understood the picture. It looked like a pointed metal tower from a castle, but smoother, and with monster fins on it. She wondered if it was old architecture used in castles long ago to keep monsters out.

  The itch to explore was overwhelming any fear she had of her shadows chasing after her. Leona followed her whims of wonder up grated stairs and into a room overlooking the assembly lines. The door had a glowing panel on it. Strangely, a human hand-print was outlined on it, so she pressed her larger clawed hand onto it. Nothing happened at first, but when she lifted her hand off, some of her void liquid seeped into the panel, breaking the locking mechanism inside. The door hissed open. Leona jumped back, briefly taking on a fighting stance.

  More lights flickered on inside, buzzing like an annoying swarm. She relaxed and picked up another one of the ribbons on her back, wrapping it to fold her ears down. Inside of the room there was a table for meetings and and two office desks. At one of the desks another glass panel flashed red and white, saying something scary on it. A warning, she thought.

  The other desk had some picture frames on it. Human families and children smiling. They wore strange clothes, but it wasn’t so different. She gingerly pried one of the frames apart, removing the image of the happy kid. She would call him Timmy. It was good to have some company down here. Timmy’s picture was tucked into her pocket.

  Outside of the office windows, a new threat had entered onto the factory floor. It did not have a soul, or if it did, it must have hidden it very well. Leona leaned over the desk to get a better look.

  There was a white orb floating around the chained up hooks. It had dark tendril arms like she did. The plentiful arms hung below it giving itself the appearance of having straggly hair. It hovered over the conveyor belt, passing through a sheet metal tube. Suddenly, it stopped and lowered itself down to investigate a dark puddle.

  Leona was sure that the puddle had formed from her leaking scales. She watched as the orb’s tendrils sucked up the liquid. It then gradually rotated towards her. At this moment, if Lev had been awake, Leona knew that her danger sense would have been erupting. She realized the terrifying orb was not an orb, it was an eye.

  The eye did not look like the overseeing eye that was stabbed through Ozceron’s sword. This larger one had purple irises and no eyelid or lashes of light to protect itself. Leona was disgusted with the way it wiped its slick tendrils over itself instead of blinking.

  The eye turned it’s attention to the Voidlings in the factory. They were making a ruckus walking over the conveyor belts, knocking off various tiny metal parts. The Voidlings tried to kept their distance from the eye. Some escaped the room through a sliding door near the office. Others were backed into a corner by the eye. It passed its sticky arms over their heads, counting. After the uncomfortable interaction, the Voidlings stumbled over each other and fled. The eye decided that they were not its true prey and started looking elsewhere.

  Leona was crouched behind the glass, deciding if she should hide or run away too. The eye was using its tendril arms to feel around the factory. It traced lines along the floor feeling for more Void residue. It had looked right at her before; it must be blind. That explained it touching everything. If she kept her distance, she could attempt to escape.

  Down the stairs and across the assembly lines, Leona could see the last Voidling exit through the sliding doors. She mentally prepared a path to follow them out.

  All her plans fell apart. When Leona stood up, her vestigial arms brushed a device off the desk. When it hit the floor, the device started to emit a calming melody. The music, a love song produced by instruments lost to time, filled the office and seeped out the open door. Leona pounced on it, trying to muffle it or turn it off.

  The tendrils on the eye rose up like human hairs on a cold day. They spun in tight coils, whipping the air around them. Unbelievable, the stupid eye could hear better than it could see!

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  In her rising panic, Leona resorted to smashing the device. She slammed it hard against the desk, trying to kill the music. The device continued to insulted her with lyrics about love and sunny days. She would never see the sun again if the device didn’t shut up. Finally, with all her force, she flung it into the wall. Hitting the wall, the accursed device burst into pieces.

  Silence.

  Leona breathed in a sigh of relief that caught in her throat. Inside, a black snake was slithering over the window. The eye was stuck in the door, reaching in to find her.

  Resisting her instinct to run, Leona slowly backed away. Another dark limb appeared right over her head. She ducked as it wiggled over her. They were on the floor too. Leona picked up all of her ribbons, holding them close to her chest, she high-stepped away from the door.

  There was a wardrobe in the far corner of the office. It was left open. Inside, there were a couple of white hard hats and two neon yellow vests. The wardrobe was a tight squeeze for Leona with her horns and wings, but she ducked in to hide. She closed the doors and looked through the gap in the middle, praying for the eye to give up and leave.

  Some time passed. Leona was getting tired of standing in a slouched position. The eye was persistent. It had already found her Void residue on the hand-panel outside. And it had picked through the fragments from the music device. She held her breath when it’s limbs like long slugs slid over her wardrobe.

  Leona held herself still. She brainstormed what she might do if the eye pried open the wardrobe. Would she bite it? Could her new claws cut it’s limbs or skewer it’s eye? Images of her viciously mauling the creature infiltrated her mind. It frightened her that only a sword or magic kept her from fighting like a monster. And it was becoming too easy. Too easy to see her opponents any other way.

  The eye believed that she was still trapped inside. After feeling about the room, it remained in the doorway waiting for her to make a move. It’s limbs were strewn about the office like a series of trip wires. It wasn’t going to leave without her. Leona had to act. She looked down at her claws, cringing at what the eye might feel like splitting between her fingers.

  For an even longer time, Leona debated her possible actions. She had already decided to fight, but she knew that when the wardrobe opened, she would have to commit to her plan. Her hand rested on the door. She breathed in and pushed out.

  The door squealed on its hinges. The blind eye looked at Leona, standing in the wardrobe. It wiped its slimy limbs across itself to blink. Those same limbs reached out to the wardrobe. Leona hopped as one slid across her ankle.

  “Ew, ew, ew!”

  Filled with fear and disgust, Leona stomped on the limbs as if they were house bugs. The limbs became angled and sharp, all slickness gone. They lashed out. One whipped the desk beside Leona, splitting it in two. Another spun around the office, shattering the windows behind her. Right at her feet, a sharpened tendril sprung up to her face.

  Leona reacted, blocking the uppercut with her claws, but the impact threw her off her feet. Momentarily in the air, Leona unsuccessfully blocked two more attacks with her wings. The eye tendrils tore through the thin membrane of her wings, just missing her body. She hit the ground on all-fours.

  There was nothing in Vestra that was sharper than a shadow. Leona scampered around a filing cabinet that the eye then cleaved into pieces. She returned to her feet holding one of her own shadow ribbons between her hands. The eye attacked again and she grappled it’s limb with her ribbon.

  Leona willed her ribbon to sharpen and it did. She pulled it tight and the eye’s limb was cut off. It wriggled around the office floor, bleeding shadow and light. The eye enraged, pressed itself into the door frame, bulging at the edges. It tried to squeeze itself through with its other limbs, but it failed.

  More sharpened limbs were rising up to blend Leona. Seeing that the window had been broken, Leona raced to escape. She climbed over the broken desk and spread her wings. Shadow limbs climbed into the air after her. Leona jumped and…

  She got caught.

  The sharp limbs roped around Leona’s wing and cut it clean off.

  Leona watched her wing fly off on its own, leaving her to fall. She spun through the air. Before she could hit the floor, she willed all of her ribbons to save her. They responded again moving weakly to break her fall. The ribbons crumpled and she hit the ground hard.

  The impact left Leona breathless. She gasped at her bruised ribs. Void liquid was pouring out of the throbbing stump where her wing used to be. It pooled onto the factory floor. But Leona was not going to die again.

  Finding her ribbons back under her control, Leona got up. She re-bound the cut on her arm and applied tight pressure around her stump. The flow of the Void out of her slowed.

  Blades screeched against metal. The eye was trying to escape, but it had wedged itself into the door. It could not follow Leona and she was safe to exit.

  Leona passed between the wide sliding doors and into the next room where the light was blinding. She kept her eyes to the ground, thankfully passing under the shade of a big tree. A wave of dizziness hit her. Forced to rest, Leona sat down under the tree.

  “Leona, I found you,” said the voice, gentle, familiar.

  “Tusund?” Leona asked, looking up thorough the light.

  Pointed nose, mossy dreads, carved tattoos; it was him. Tusund had fallen into the Voidlands with her.

  Leona’s face scrunched up as she held back her emotions. Tusund sat down and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in close. Finally she let go, shaking through gasping tears.

  She struggled to ask, “how? Can’t…fly…and…no sun.”

  Tusund patted Leona’s head behind her horns. “I’ve managed alright down here. We are in this together. It’s going to be hard, but we are going to be the first ones to reemerge from the Dread Sea. Trust me, I have a plan.”