At the same moment, invisible hooks latched painlessly to something inside me, and pulled my body into the air.

“Whoa! What’s happening!” I tried to break free, flailing my limbs to no avail. The same thing happened to Willow and Piranha, like an invisible hand had grabbed us all by the torso. Sharp, still on the ground, leapt backwards into a defensive position.

“Someone else is here!” she shouted. “Badger, can you disappear?”

I kicked and punched like a helpless child. “No! I can’t do anything!”

“Get the armored one!” Mercury’s voice came from the further end of the clearing, now twenty feet from Sharp’s range. A second stranger appeared from behind her companion, keeping us in mysterious suspension with a pair of splayed, tense hands. She was a tall woman with bright green eyes glowing against dark black skin. Her hair was green too, woven into dozens of long, thin braids tied together to form a single braid hanging past her shoulders.

“My hands are full,” she drawled.

"Let my friends go. Now!" Sharp's eyes captured a lavender glow. “We aren’t your enemies! Stop attacking!”

Olivine gritted her teeth, pretending not to hear what Sharp was saying. My friend seemed ready to act, but our luck only worsened when a third person dropped from the trees, a burly man with a nightmarish visage. The foggy white voids of his eyes suggested blindness, and if it wasn’t for the eight golden rings on his ear, his true age would have been indecipherable because a morbid canvas of scars covered his gray-skinned face. The thick, heavy sword in his gnarled hands made Sharp’s bone-blades look like toothpicks.

This intimidating image didn't faze the Warrior, as she tapped an eerie melody on the lower notes of her armor. A strange wind rotated around us, stirring up dirt and fallen leaves. "Are you the leader of these people? I would appreciate you letting my friends go. We’re not here to hurt you."

"Your swords say otherwise." He spoke with a burned-throat voice. His face, carved messily onto unflinching speckled stone, turned to Willow struggling in the air. "Not to mention your windy friend here."

Sharp turned to an offensive position, striking the resolve. "Let them go or I'll make you let them go. Choice is yours."

Clang!

His choice was heavy, knocking her right arm back along with her blade. She used the momentum to duck and dodge out of the way, flipping her glossy hair in a fluid circle. Long, loose hair was crucial to the strict training regimen of all City Warriors. The objective was not to protect the hair, but to be aware of it, and attune themselves to every flourish.

Turns out, it was a beautiful art to watch, and it became clear who the better swordsman was. The benefit of lighter swords was quick, precise actions. Clang, clang, parry, twirl. Before the leader could even showcase his skills, she had cut him across the knuckles. He dropped the weapon and stared in surprise.

“Go Sharp! Get 'em!” cheered Piranha from the air.

“The woman!” I shouted. “Break her concentration!”

Olivine tensed and backed up, but before Sharp could complete my request, the scarred man stepped in between them. "Put your swords down. Then Olivine will release your friends."

"What is your name? Tell me," Sharp demanded, raising the blades higher.

"My name is Marrow," he answered. Some of his scars were unsettling, deep to the bone.

She aimed the blade at his chest, but he didn’t flinch. He almost looked bored. “Well Marrow, I have a question. I'll put my weapons down because I never wanted to hurt you. You attacked us first. My question is, why does such a weak fighter think he's the one who should be making demands?”

A smile cracked along his face. “Because I’m not the one who lost this fight.”

I’ll always be haunted by what he did next. The stranger took a forceful step towards Sharp, faster than she could move back…and the blade ran right through his heart.

Chapter Eight

Gold and Ivory

It was rare for Sharp Of-the-City to lose her composure, like she did then. She leapt back in horror, leaving the bone-blade lodged in Marrow’s grotesque chest. The green-haired woman jerked away from the unsettling sight of her friend's apparent death, releasing us from her grasp. Piranha and I hit the ground with a thump, unlike Willow, who continued floating on his own.

As soon as I had control, I disappeared. In the Unseen Dimension, the zombie man remained unchanged, a solid body surrounded by the floating souls of the others. He removed the blade from his chest. No blood followed.

“Sick!” Willow drifted back down, lazy like a feather. “You aren't even bleeding! Look, freak, we didn't want to fight in the first place. Maybe you can help us find the person we’re looking for.”

Marrow snarled. “Nobody is asking for your opinion, Strawhead. Olivine, hold them again. The invisible one is still in the same place.”

“Strawhead?” Willow touched the yellow-white tips of his hair. “You mean me?”

Olivine's green soul dimmed. “Wait a minute, maybe we should listen to them. They look like teenagers, Marrow. Wyvern doesn’t send scouts this young.”

Willow's bright light pulsed. “No, we’re definitely not sent by Wyvern. Hate that guy.”

“Don't be naive.” Mercury crackled back into the scene. “Why do you have a wind scarf?”

“It’s in style!” Willow gasped.

“Enough of this!” Sharp snapped. “We are not your enemy. Come back Badger, we need to surrender.”

I reappeared. “Really? I’m not so sure.”

Piranha's eyes widened. “You want us to surrender to these demons?”

"Just trust me.” She tucked the blade away and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Olivine. I remember now, you used to work as an assistant to Dr. Gold-and-Silver, right?”

The green-haired woman put her hands back down. “That's right. How did you know that?”

Sharp’s face flushed with relief. “He’s an old family friend. My father is Dr. Glass.”

The glow in Olivine’s eyes shifted to a more subtle green, like a grass stain on white linen. "No way! Little Sharp!" She glowered at her undead companion. "Why do you have to be such a cold-blooded creep, scaring these kids like that?"

“I-I’m sorry,” Marrow stammered. “What was I supposed to think?”

Olivine sneered at him before offering us a warm smile, putting both hands on her heart. “My sincerest apologies for this misunderstanding. Tensions have been a little high and many of us are on edge. Is this boy really Of-the-Wind?”

“I’m from the north mountains," Willow licked his hands and pushed his hair back, “so I’m offended you'd suggest I come from such a despicable place.”

I sensed another presence. From the shadows emerged a petite woman with moon-white skin and gold filigree hair. She carried herself in a way both youthful and ancient. The amber glow in her eyes whispered to me, imploring me to trust her. Before I knew it, she was clutching my hand with cold porcelain fingers.

"I'm sorry if my family hurt you in any way,” she said, voice like a bell. Her soul was powerful enough to leak across dimensions, surrounding us all in an orange haze. “My name is Ivory, head of the Topaz Clan. What can I do to make it up to you? We have plenty of food and places to sleep at our shelter. Or is it information you need?”

All my fears were dissolved away by the orange light.  I put a hand over hers, like I’d known her all my life. “We're looking for someone named Gold-and-Silver, as well as my godfather, Pyrite.”

Her companions exchanged tense glances, but Ivory’s face was unreadable.

“Gold is with us, and we can take you to him immediately,” she explained. “But as for Pyrite, he’s lost contact with the Topaz Clan and the rest of King Obsidian’s council for days now. We suspect the Sapphire Clan was using him somehow. The last I heard, he managed to escape past the border.”

I shook my head. “You don’t understand. We were with him only yesterday. He was guiding us to meet with the doctor, but we were ambushed. Two women took him away on his own horses.”