Crap, crap, crap, Daniel repeated in his mind as an afflicted body came into view. There was a moment there where they both stared at each other, one that seemed like hours--but passed for less than a second.

Daniel vaguely remembered this face. It was a classmate--someone he attended school with, back before he inherited a sword in the midst of shadows assaulting his home town.

School . . . school . . . that really took him back. Once upon a time, Daniel was little more than a school boy; he woke up in the morning, went to school, suffered through classes, suffered through a horrible muck of lunch, the latter half of classes, and then a long walk home. At the very least, he always had something to occupy him on the way to and from school: a board with four wheels, invented by some guy in New Xexoria to the far south. Daniel was a pretty good skateboarder back then. He still took from that whenever he had a flat surface and needed to get away fast, though it wasn't quite a thin board with four wheels anymore, and it wasn't quite natural, either. That was useful in that other city when he learned how to call it, but it wasn't doing him too much good right now.

Maybe he skateboarded with this kid. Maybe they shared classes together. There was a strong familiarity there. Maybe he was his cousin, or maybe an acquaintance that Daniel was passive aggressively trying to become closer to? He had a lot of those in school.

With barely even a hint of recognition in his eyes, Daniel turned on the boulder, his back constantly pressed against it, until he was knelt down with the boulder obscuring any image the shade-boy might have of Daniel. He didn't know where the others were; this one was alone, and while he could probably take him, Daniel didn't want to have to punch him out if it wasn't absolutely necessary.

The boy, seemingly happy with his perceived time alone, sat and tried to do what he seemed to enjoy: singing. Importantly, however, he could only try. His eyes were split between human and shade, and while the shade side seemed somewhat dormant, his human eye seemed... Mournful? As if he had lost something deeply important to him...

And then, the boy would suddenly jump forward, leaping to his feet with a significant amount of agility, it seemed. And as he did, his eyes would meet Daniel's, in his hiding spot across from the boy's rock. Daniel's presence would inspire a flicker in the boy's shade eye, and perhaps a realization... These hybrids, whatever they were, seemed to live normal if animalistic lives, until they saw Daniel...

On seeing him, too, the boy seemed torn. He wasn't a fighter, and yet... The seeming hatred the boy suddenly displayed said it all. If Daniel didn't do something, or try to stop him, the boy was going to run, and from there... Who knew? By this time, though, there were enough footsteps to make fleeing and further hiding likely very difficult. Daniel had to make a decision...

Initially, Daniel was surprised when the hybrid leaped from its side of the boulder to Daniel's side--opposite sides, really. Once Daniel'd been hiding, there was no way it could've seen him anymore. Though, maybe it only registered him late--but no matter. Now he actually had to deal with this kid.

With the amount of fighting Daniel had done in Oblivion and the City of Shadows--not to mention his first visit to this place--he'd developed some useful but also unfortunate instincts. Something jumped at him, threatened him, and he broke its face open. Usually, he could suppress that sort of instinct, but he was backed into a corner and decidedly on edge since meeting the first two hybrids down the beach.

So, he did it. And without thinking about it much, either. With narrowed eyes and tensed arms, he took a sharp step forward, to try and plant a fist into the hybrid's diaphragm.

With success, he'd just as well nab it in a headlock and throttle its skull with his free hand until he was certain it wasn't a threat any further. A normal human being only needed a few good hits to go unconscious--which was Daniel's goal, no doubt.

The boy, perhaps thankfully, was not a fighter. Daniel's punch, trained as it was starting to become, would connect full-force with the boy. The curious thing about the shade transformation, as Daniel would likely start to figure out, was that more than increasing strength, the shade body parts simply reduced the density of the person: they remained equally strong while becoming much quicker. In fact, Daniel's punch would actually lift the boy off the ground, knocking him flat on his back, unconscious...

As he struck, however, something fell out of the boy's pocket: a coin. Adorned with a picture of a tiny songbird opposite a formless inky-looking mass, the coin seemed almost... Customized. Daniel would of course be familiar with them: he had gathered such a coin from this area before...

It was an unfortunate relief that the boy was down. Daniel really hated to do this. Once upon a time, this boy was normal; unharmed, untarnished. But something changed him. Someone changed him. It wasn't Daniel's purpose here to end their lives. He defended himself, sure, but that was all. He wasn't a murderer.

In the best case scenario, they might all end up like this. Unconscious heaps on the ground. If Daniel had anything to say about it, that's all he might do to these poor people.

But he felt badly for even that . . .

What took his mind off the problem, though, was a new development. Something had fallen out of the boy's pocket when Daniel knocked him out cold. Daniel knelt down where he last saw it, and lifted it between his fingers to get a better look at it. It was a simple thing. Custom, but simple.

"A . . . coin?" Daniel asked aloud, initially confused, but quickly remembering the coins of this place. He couldn't remember quite what they could do, though. Only that he could use them, just like the other coins he'd found himself in possession of after he left this place the first time . . .

"You used them to summon weapons. Somehow. I tried, but I couldn't get it to work."

Daniel would suddenly become aware of Danyr standing beside him, in the curious way that Danyr tended to move around. He was extremely easy to not notice; almost supernaturally so. Indeed, at times, there even appeared to be illusions of Danyr that he couldn't really control...

"I'm glad you're allright. I don't think the boat washed ashore, though..."

Danyr's voice made it clear that for good or ill, they now seemed to be alone in hostile territory. Thankfully, the shade had fallen in a quiet manner, as footsteps could still be heard within the veritable maze of boulders...

"D--" Daniel was about to raise his voice in pleasant surprise, but upon remembering the situation, quieted his voice. "Danyr! Y-you're okay!"

He practically lunged into Danyr with a sweeping hug--but released that pretty quick like. Just a small show of affection, that's all.

"God, dude, I was worried as hell."

For a moment there, he stared at the coin in his hand. Funny. This is where that whole mess all began. It was only after he killed a hybrid in defense of Zera and himself that he started to find these coins, be they on others or on the ground, but none of the ones he found outside of the city were quite like the ones inside. He couldn't remember why. He was sure there was a reason--some sort of greater purpose for them, beyond what Daniel could do. What, he hadn't the slightest clue anymore.

But that wasn't nearly as important (to him) as a different revelation. The ship wasn't washed up on shore--and Presmodia and their captain were also nowhere to be found. If they were were still on the ship . . .

"O-oh. S-so, that means Presmodia and . . ." Daniel trailed off.

Danyr somewhat awkwardly returned Daniel's hug: while Daniel was perhaps the best friend he'd had, it still didn't seem right. Not that Danyr was unused to these things at this point...

"I imagine they're fine... Both of them are from Oblivion, anyway. And the guy who owned the ship certainly didn't seem worried... Even when the ship broke in half."

Danyr, in contrast to Daniel, tended to notice and remember everything they came across. Which led to him constantly reminding Daniel of what was happening, and why...

"I guess you've figured out that all these things want to kill us?"

"I hope so . . ." Daniel sighed.

He hated to think that he might have dragged two (somewhat) innocent people to their deaths, just because of his goal. Yes, it might have been a somewhat noble goal, rushing to save a woman he knew only through struggle--but it was Daniel and Danyr's goal, not Presmodia and the captain's. The captain was just nice enough to take them this way. Presmodia just didn't have anywhere else to go . . .

But beyond that, there was the present.

"Yeah . . ." Daniel frowned, "They were like that the first time, too. There's a ton of them, too. No way we could fight 'em all off."

Not that he really wanted to. They were in as bad of a situation as Daniel and Danyr were--worse, even. Daniel couldn't imagine what it must like, being one of them . . .

"They used to be human is all I know."

Danyr nodded, having seen a bit of the creatures in action. Or rather, not in action. Living... They seemed so close to human, sometimes, though none of them had spoken or seemed entirely human. Of course, he had no real idea how they were made...

"There are two towers a few miles to the north of here. These... Things... Get more packed as you go..."

Daniel may or may not have recognized that as significant. The last time he had been here, there was only a single tower near his hometown. That had been a few months, though... If Daniel could even remember something like that...

"They're the most logical spot to find Zera, but... I don't even know what we're facing here."

"The . . . tower," Daniel went quiet for a long moment.

He thought about it, what the tower meant to him. Back in the City of Shadows, it had all been explained to him--all in detail, narrated by a beautiful, but sad woman.

But the mention of the towers brought back something else--not just a recollection of narrative, but an event itself. A stressful, critical event, that led to his separation from Zera, and the subsequent quest to find her. The inside of the tower was the last place he saw Zera. It was also . . .

"We met that guy there," Daniel recalled in a haze. "I fought him. I don't think I killed him, but . . . he was responsible for it all. He tried to kill us."

Daniel didn't remember too well how the fight ended. Even Usurii, the beautiful witch of memories, was hazy on that one. It ended, somehow, but Daniel was only scarcely aware of how.

He didn't remember there being two towers, either.

Danyr nodded, quietly thinking for a moment. However, he knew even less about the situation than Daniel did. It seemed obvious, right?

"We have to go to one of the towers, don't we? Zera must be there, still. Or at least, there must clues as to where she's gone..."

Danyr stood up, pacing a bit. Much like Daniel, he tended to be antsy. At least, until he felt he was accomplishing something. If he had a purpose, he could sit without moving for hours at a time, if he had to. At least, they were close. And they had the element of surprise...

"How much have you really thought any of this through?"

The source of the new voice would become clear in just a second as a tall, lean man pushed himself easily over a boulder, coming to rest atop it, facing Danyr and Daniel in their small clearing among the maze. He was dressed in black, with a black enameled scale armor shirt, and a similarly enameled long barrel revolver under his arm. His face, clean shaven, was tattooed with thin tattoos that seemed to give him an almost reptilian look...

"How did you even get here...?"

Danyr, while not seeming surprised, just seemed to be... Disappointed?

For a moment there, Daniel thought about suggesting that they split up once they reached the towers--Danyr to investigate one tower and Daniel to investigate the other. He reconsidered shortly thereafter, though. They should be able to get to the towers with each others' help, but splitting up . . . There was no sense in that. They were better off as a team, especially in the current situation. They'd just have to check each tower one at a time. Daniel knew very well that splitting up might just get the two of them killed--and he wasn't willing to risk that.

It was at about that point in thought that Daniel nearly jumped out of his skin. Still on edge from the last hybrid, he tightened his hand about the coin and spun around. He didn't try to release the coin (didn't quite know how to work this one just yet, actually; but he'd succeeded with these things on the fly in the past), but he had in ready.

Daniel wasn't mindful of the revolver at all. The man had his weapon, and Daniel had his own, too. Neither had their weapons drawn, though. But if there was anything he'd learned about guns, it was to get in close before a person could shoot it, and beat the ever living hell out of them for trying.

"More than enough," Daniel stubbornly affirmed in reply--to how much they'd planned this venture out.

That was a complete lie, but Daniel wasn't about to let someone he didn't know get the jump on him and make a good point in the same breath. Especially someone that looked like as bad of a customer as this guy. He didn't recognize him, and could only figure that he was in league with the strange guy he fought while he was here the first time. Of course, it'd be great if he was wrong, but . . .

The strange man would leap down between the two of them, unconcerned. In fact, as he spoke, Daniel would likely notice that he had no affect at all to his voice. Nor did his body language convey any sort of emotion. He didn't make eye contact, either: a thick pair of dark sunglasses prevented that from occurring...

"You? You aren't even worth thinking about in the planning department, Daniel. Danyr is the only one here with any plan worth thinking about. Your fighting skills are the only thing worth thinking about."

Obviously, he was well-informed, as well. Zera had been captured, after all, and Daniel had likely even been observed last time. His tone, while not grateful, was... Familiar, for lack of a better word. In fact, on a bit of a closer inspection, the man's featured were somewhat obscured, but they almost seemed to resemble Danyr and the man they had encountered briefly, earlier in the darkness...

"You probably shouldn't count Daniel out. He's got something you'll never have: a heart. And I bet it could surprise you..."

Danyr spoke up in defense of Daniel, with a certain tone of spite in his voice. Whoever the man was, it was obvious that Danyr had a deep-seated anger towards him...

He was all prepared to ready to kick the hell out of this guy and ask questions later. Or at least attempt to kick the hell out of him. The way Danyr was talking to him didn't make the guy seem much like any ally Daniel would want to have around. And if he was here, that could only mean one thing . . .

But before he thought about just rushing the guy and trying to take him down for interrogation, he had to stop and think about the situation a little more. Danyr seemed to be awful familiar with him for having just met him. So, they'd probably met before. But how? Why? It made no sense. Unless this was someone that knew Zera. And therefore knew Danyr. And was here for a similar reason that Zera was here. But if Danyr was so aggressive toward him, there was a fair chance that this tattooed man had been cruel to Zera before. Or at least by proxy. Daniel again had the urge to punch this guy.

Daniel couldn't quite put his finger on the similarities between the two, though. If they were of any relation or not, he completely failed to notice.

Without looking away from the man, important in avoiding what could become a bad situation by taking his eyes off the enemy, Daniel asked his friend, "Danyr, you know this guy?"