"Do you remember anything at all?" asked Cloud, impatience creeping into her voice.

"Nothing. It is as if a whole day of my life got wiped out," replied Tedus in frustration. "I want to find Aerus, too. And I want to know what the Wizard of Pain had done to me."

Two days passed since the last time anyone had seen or heard anything from Aerus. Cloud and her friends had looked for him and the masked stranger everywhere, yet to no avail. They suspected that this was not a coincidence.

"We will find him," Cloud promised. "Continue looking. Go to the places Aerus would usually go. If you hear anything, you know where to find me," she told the group of dirty children clad in rugs that gathered around her. They were girls and boys of all ages, and most called the streets of Leivrat their home and the mountain their parents' grave. They looked disheartened, the news of their friend's disappearance weighting heavily on their young souls.

Cloud watched the children disperse and disappear around the corners. Only Tedus and Simas remained.

"Grannie, what will you do?" asked her Simas, his face concerned.

"I will seek out Gaulot," she said firmly, her mind made up. Noticing the frightened looks the boys gave her, she added, "The Dark Night is almost upon us. If Aerus is out there, we must find him. That is the pact we made. We watch after our own."

The boys nodded at that, yet their unease remained. They had learnt Gaulot's name with their mother's milk and knew to fear it.

"One of us should go with you," said Tedus, stepping closer to the girl.

"I will go alone. I did not stop Aerus when I could have. I am to blame for this," Cloud said, daring the boys to disagree. The boys knew better than to argue, then her stubbornness was legendary among those who knew her.

Cloud ignored their concerned looks and turned to leave. Her mind set on the difficult path ahead. Cloud's grandfather thought her that when facing two possible choices, the one that scared her the most, was always the right one. She knew Gaulot was dangerous, but faced with the decision to stay away from him and thus possibly never finding out what happened to her friend, or seaking out Gaulot and facing the consequences, it was clear to her which path to take.

Her best chance was to look for one of Gaulot's Dust Men. Dust Men were Gaulot's shadows that moved through the night and did his bidding. They were his eyes and ears in Leivrat and beyond, and they were his spies, his thieves and his bringers of death. It could be the old woman who sold flower seeds at the market, or the neighbour next door who liked gossiping, or a the man who cleaned the cages of Aleutan eagles. It could be anyone in Leivrat, and therefore many Leivratans thought them a blessing and a welcome opposition to the rule of Aleuta.

Aleutans guards saw them as outlaws who kept Leivrat in fear and tremor, disrupting the order and the Aleutan law meant to uphold peace. Cloud disliked Aleutans and Dusk Men alike, then caught between the two – the simple folk were the ones who suffered. Aleutan guards had been searching for Gaulot for decades, with little success. Some said he had secret powers, then he was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Cloud did not know what was true and what not, it sufficed her to know that everyone was afraid of him. And she should be to.

Yet, with the Dark Night approaching and the wind howling over Leivrat, bringing dark clouds and rain with it, Cloud could not allow the fear to dim her judgement. She needed to know if Gaulot had anything to do with Aerus's disappearance. But one didn't just go to Gaulot and asked him. Nobody knew who he was and how he looked like. Yet, nothing happened in Leivrat without Gaulot's knowledge.

Cloud had long heard the rumour that Old Yak was a one of Gaulot's Dust Men. To him she went. He was displeased to see Cloud and tried to chase her away.

"I must speak to Gaulot!" she shouted above the noise of the old tree branches rattling in the howling wind.

"Stay away from the sorts of him, you foolish wench! You don't know what you are asking for!" shouted Old Yak back, attempting to shut the heavy door that led into his drinking den.

"You don't understand!"

"Go away! And we forget you have ever come to see me! I am tired of seeing you filthy little beggars around my den," he said angrily.

"Please..." she begged. Visibly annoyed, Old Yak released the door and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Tell him I need to talk to him!" she tried to convince him once more.

Instead Old Yak whirled her around and gave her a good kick in the back for good measure, which made her fly across the street and fall on her hands and knees. Cloud sprang to her feet again and managed to squeeze herself through the door just as Old Yak was about to close it. He almost jumped at the sight of her being back again. Before he could say anything, she quickly shouted "It... it has something to do with the stranger."

"What are you saying? What stranger?" asked Old Yak, his eyebrows drawn together.

"The one who came to your den three days ago."

He looked at her suspiciously, anger still burning in his eyes.

"I don't know what you are talking about." He grabbed her roughly by the arm and dragged her towards the door again.

"Don't think I can't ask somebody else!" she shouted at him. Unimpressed, he threw her out roughly and this time firmly locked the door.

The truth was, Cloud didn't know whom else to ask and so she was not giving up on the Old Yak just yet. She banged, she kicked and she scratched it, but the door remained locked.

Just when she decided to go around the old den to try the windows, the door swung open and Old Yak's head appeared.

"Go home and don't let me see you here again, foolish wench. If he is interested he will find you."

Before she could say anything in return, he slammed the door in her face. She stood staring at it until the meaning of what he had just said reached her.

Old Yak will tell Gaulot about her.

Cloud did not sleep that night. Nobody ever slept on a Dark Night. The three little girls, Aerus's sisters, cried through the lightning storm, frightened by the noises of the night. Even her grandfather's stories did not calm them, as they used to do, when Cloud was growing up. Albite the children were washed and fed, all they wanted was to be back with their mother. But there was no going back for them anymore.

For the first time, Cloud's grandmother was not with them on the Dark Night. Cloud had always felt safe with both her grandparents around, yet this time her grandmother was needed elsewhere more. Agata, Aerus's dying mother and his other siblings needed someone to comfort them now that their father and even Aerus, the eldest of the children was gone. Cloud hoped that he was somewhere safe and that he was not waiting out the Dark Night alone and in an unfriendly place. She hugged the girls closer to her, feeling their shivering tiny bodies next to hers.

Only with the break of the new day, the thunder subdued and quiet descended on the island of Ailarin. Worn out by the fears, everyone slept at last. When Cloud finally woke up it was already late afternoon. Not feeling rested, she got out of bed and dressed. Her grandfather had already taken his place at the window, looking at the devastation the Dark Night had brought on Leivrat. Many old trees had fallen, and as every year, there would be families buried alive in the ruins of the old houses. She heard the bells ring in the temples announcing the beginning of the new year, mingled with distant shouts and heart-breaking cries, and the screeching of the birds - the sad song after the Dark Night.

Cloud approached her grandfather and put her arms around his neck. Together they looked at the tragedy before them. Since they had moved to Leivrat, Cloud had been trying to picture the city as her grandfather had described it when it was first build, when there was no Aleuta and no divide between the poor and the wealthy. The gloomy clouds gave the ravaged city a mournful look and it was hard to believe it could have ever looked differently.

"Grandfather, why can't all Veilys just leave this place? Every Outsider city we have seen during our travels, was better than this. Why can't we all just do elsewhere and build a new city? Away from the Aleutans and the ruins that kill us?" Cloud asked her grandfather bitterly.

He patted her arm, understanding her pain.

"This place under the mountain is our home. We Veilys were made to guard the dead and the living, then the mountain is where the dead go to rest and new life is born. This is where you and I will go one day. And this is from where we will return to life again, you know that. I have tried to get away from the mountain and it forced me back. I can never walk away from it again, even if I tried." He gave a barely audible laugh. "This is our burden. Veilys who live here feel that within them, that is why they stay. It is the Aleutans who have forgotten their place."

"Aleutans! How I wished they never existed," Cloud said, her anger rising.

"Don't judge them, girl. The mistakes were made long before they were born. They don't know it any other way."

"Children are responsible for the mistakes of their parents," Cloud told her grandfather darkly.

"You never knew your parents, Cloud. You don't know what mistakes they might have made in life. You are not your parents," disagreed her grandfather, and there was sadness in his voice.

"And who is to blame that I do not have parents? The Aleutans! They killed my father in the mines of the mountain and at the same time killed my mother, too!"

Her grandfather turned to face her.

"Forgive, Cloud. You will feel better if you do," he said, softly touching her cheek. "Always remember, it has to be dark for stars to appear."

She averted her gaze and moved away from him. Her grandfather did not say more, knowing full well that the anger she felt that moment, made her deaf to reason.

Cloud went to fetch her shoes that she had left by the door and to her astonishment, she found a piece of parchment tacked away in one of them. She glanced back at her grandfather, but he was studying the city again and paid her no attention. She unfolded the note and read, "Sunset. Old city library."

Her heart began beating fast. The note was from Gaulot, without doubt. How he got it inside her home unnoticed, she did not know. She was surprised to find the handwriting beautiful. Every letter was well drawn. Her grandmother would give a lot to see Cloud write like that. But Cloud was practical in nature. Who needed a beautiful handwriting? Maybe those spoilt Aleutans, but not her. That was a useless skill. Will a beautiful writing get you food on the table? Defend your life? Not down here in the world she lived.

She stuffed the note in her pocket and left the house.

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Note from writer:

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