Crap . . . are they talking about me?

Supported between his father and Sunray, and slipping in and out of unconsciousness, Night could only pick up occasional words from their conversation. He mainly heard their voices going back and forth in an intense discussion. From the specifics he did hear, it sounded like he was right.

I hope he's not telling her all my embarrassing secrets.

He forced open his eyes halfway in an effort to maintain consciousness as they struggled forward, but continued to listen. Anything to keep his focus off the pain. Although literally every inch of him was hurting, it was worse in his left leg than his right, and it hurt to breathe because of sharp, painful cramps beneath his ribs. What disturbed him the most, though, was how every beat of his heart felt slow, irregular, and agonizing. 

"Night?" Sunray had paused her conversation and was looking at him with gentle concern. "You back with us?"

"Mm, hm . . ." He lifted his chin slightly and tried to meet her eyes. "Can we s-stop for a second?"

"Looks like we've got no choice," another male voice behind him replied tensely. He had no idea who it was, but couldn't turn around to look. The voice went on, "That patrol is almost here. I was hoping we would make it to the tunnel before them, but . . ."

"All these darkalds, and none of them are your friends?" Sunray sounded incredulous. "Raevyn, you struck me as a social butterfly."

"I have no friends." The voice, apparently someone named Raevyn, lowered to a flat and bitter tone. "I can't. All the other darkalds of Rifugio have no minds of their own. But I'll explain that later," he added as Sunray started to ask something. "For now, we have the patrol to deal with."

His partner led him over to the side and let him sink to the ground, then knelt down to eye-level and asked, "Night, would you be able to shadow-transfer us out of here?"

Night gazed back at her in silence for a moment, swallowing. "I-I can teleport more than one person," he stammered quietly. "But Sunray . . ." Memories of that night long ago surfaced in his mind—the last time he'd tried shadow-transferring her, and the results. Guilt swept over him again as he remembered. ". . . you can't."

The light guardian hesitated, frowning. "Why not?" she protested. "It would only be for a second. I'd be fine."

"A second is too long," he tried to explain. "The darkness in a shadow portal is different, k-kinda like darksweep. You . . . I . . ." His voice trailed off, the guilty feeling growing more intense as he realized he would have to tell her his nearly fatal mistake.

"I've been in darkness longer than that," she insisted. "Seriously, it'll be okay."

"No, it won't!" Raising his voice hurt his throat, and he lowered it again. "Sunray, I know what I'm talking about. Please just trust me!"

"But Night—"

"It will literally kill you and destroy the light gem at first contact. It's already almost happened once."

That's what finally startled her into silence. At that point he'd turned his face away and closed his eyes, overwhelmed by guilt and shame. The adrenaline he'd felt during their brief argument faded away, leaving him even more drained than before. Fighting the blackness that threatened to swallow his mind if he kept his eyes closed for much longer, he forced himself to look back at Sunray, then reached out and touched the blackened ends of her hair.

"This is what happened the last time I tried to bring you through a shadow portal," he told her softly, and she froze. Although it was hard to keep looking at her, he held her gaze and repeated simply, "You can't."

This time, she nodded in stunned silence. Swallowing slowly, she picked up a part of her hair again and stared round-eyed at the darkened strands.

Raevyn, who'd been standing awkwardly to the side with Tizian watching them argue, ventured, "Uh . . . Night, if you could shield us with a bit of your magic for a second . . . that would be good."

". . . Sure." Although he was quickly going downhill both emotionally and physically, Night raised his hands a little and willed a veil of shadows to cover them, but not touch them. The four sat in silence as a patter of footsteps walked by on the other side, eventually fading as they got farther and farther away.

When he couldn't hear them anymore, he let the darkness vanish, then immediately slumped back against the wall in exhaustion, only just realizing that he'd been tensed up. Gingerly, he rested a hand on his chest. Why was his heart hurting so much . . . ? It felt like it was affecting every other part of him. His chest felt tight, and his left arm was starting to throb.

"Hey . . ." Sunray's tentative voice sounded, and he looked at her. "Using your power isn't supposed to affect you; what happened now?"

The expression on her face distracted him from her words. It was such a fragile, half-hearted look, which made him realize she felt bad about their argument and was afraid he was mad at her. It made his heart sink; they'd had fights before, but the situation had made things a little more heated than usual.

"The . . ." He forced himself to focus on answering her question. "The dark gem is the only thing keeping me alive," he told her quietly. "So whenever I use . . ." He paused to take a deep breath; the pain was getting worse by the second. Not wanting them to worry, he tried to finish, "W-Whenever I use its power, I'm using up—"

He broke off as the pain in his heart suddenly changed to pure agony in the span of a second. He flinched and doubled over with a gasp, clenching his fists. A set of hands instantly touched his arm and back, which didn't do anything helpful. The pain started spreading through his entire left side, making him curl up tightly in a shivering heap on the floor. It sounded like everyone had started talking at once, because a jumble of voices was all he could hear.

This . . . This better not be a—

For a moment, everything around him vanished; the pain must've made him black out momentarily. However, when he regained his senses, it was subsiding, and the voices were distinguishable again.

—heart attack.

"Are you alright?!" Both his partner and father were practically shouting the question. He gritted his teeth, eyes still tightly shut.

Why do people keep asking me that? No, I'm not okay!

"I'm fine."

He tried to sit up again, but only managed to because Sunray and Tizian were helping him. It felt embarrassing to have to rely so heavily on others for basically everything at the moment, especially since they didn't really owe him anything. 

"Sorry," he whimpered, still in a good deal of pain.

"Wh—Don't apologize," Sunray protested, her form blurring. His father merely stared at him in surprise.

"Guys, we really need to keep going," Raevyn whispered urgently. "We're pushing our luck. Night, we're almost to the tunnel. You'll only be able to properly rest and recover once we get back to Milan."

"G-Got it . . ." Still trembling, Night struggled to stand, his father and partner assisting him once again. However, this time, the movement sent a rush of dizziness coursing through his head, and within moments he'd blacked out yet again.

The next time he opened his eyes, he was lying flat on his back, and the surface below him felt somewhat hollow. A small, slender hand was holding his, and a familiar pair of soft green eyes were looking into his own.

"Hey . . . Sunshine . . ."

A smile instantly crossed her face. "Good morning," she replied. "We've already gone through the tunnel. We just need to get up this—" She paused. "—ladder, and then we'll be out."

"But with you and Oscuro not being able to get up the platforms," Raevyn's voice put in, "it would take a while. Too long. Do you think you could shadow-transfer the two of you to the top?"

He took a slow, deep breath, then answered, "Yeah—s-sure." With Sunray's help he sat up again, then shifted slightly onto his knees and touched his dad's shoulder. Tizian moved closer, letting him lean against his chest for support and warming him ever so subtly. He smiled a little, then closed his eyes and tried to focus on teleporting to the top platform.

Their surroundings briefly were engulfed in blackness, then changed back to the normal world. In an instant he slipped out of his father's grasp and fell back hard against the wall, panting.

Before Tizian could say anything or Night had had the chance to catch his breath, a darkald standing on that level stiffened, then narrowed its sky-blue eyes and lunged at him with a snarl.

Instincts still intact, he summoned his seax and turned the blade towards the creature, causing it to pounce right on top of the sharp edge. But even though it yelped and slowly went limp, its thorny claws had managed to graze his left shoulder pretty badly. Shaking from cold and shock, he dropped his weapon and collapsed with a cry, slamming his head against the ground as he fell.

Pain exploded anew, wrapping an iron grip around his consciousness and dragging it away no matter how hard he fought. His shoulder stung like crazy from the darkald's claws, and that combined with his aching heart and the sick feeling overall was simply too much. He thought he heard voices again, but couldn't tell if he was just hallucinating. He felt dizzier than ever, and couldn't stop shivering as he feverishly wondered if this was what it felt like to be dying.

No . . . that's probably a little dramatic . . .

That was the last thing he fully recalled going through his mind before everything went blank for the umpteenth time.