Glint woke, eyes blinking, searching for light. His body was heavy not just from sleep, but from mud. A white-blue glow emanated from somewhere nearby. Trying to move, his hand brushed against something, and he yanked it out. It was hard, white.

A bone? His lip curled in disgust. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he saw more bones protruding from the yellowish mud. A hand, a rib cage, a skull. Many of each type scattered throughout the mud and when his hand sank beneath, he felt more.

Terror washed over him. These were the bones of people. He was about to scramble up when he heard a crunch. Teeth crunching bones. Before him was a mound of mud and beyond that loomed a shadow. Folds of gelatinous skin rippled. Another crunch. A Haunter was feasting.

How did it get in here? Glint knew the Lumarn soldiers patrolled the border at night. Could it have slipped in without them noticing? Haunters could flatten themselves and slip under doors or gates with ease. But something as large as a lion, and it even seemed to have a mane, couldn't have gone unnoticed. Then he spotted movement from the side of his eye. A slender figure walking among the white-bluish glow. Hands silhouetted against the glow and picked up an egg.

Haunters lay eggs? Glint had never heard of such a thing. But wasn't strange, he supposed. Very little was known about Haunters. They were creatures of the shadows that had sat sentry in Noier's forest for decades, created when Vezperex's curse spread deep into the soil of the land, feeding the vegetation that fed the creatures. Many Haunters reflected the creatures they were meant to be. This one was a lion.

The slender figure began to coo, approaching the Haunter. A female voice. As she set the egg down, he glimpsed her green hair. His heart leapt into his throat and he suddenly felt all the scares from the abuse he endured during his captivity in Thagarmius. What he had seen earlier, the green haired woman was not a mistake. A Thagarmian was with Haunters.

He didn't have time to think what it would mean when her head turned. It was Frufru Greenwhisker, also known as Lady Green. She was the captain of Thagarmius Royal Army and she began to hum.

What's she even doing here? Glint wondered, as he hurriedly stumbled to his feet, tripping on bones he fell face first into the mud. He scrambled up again, trying to start his magick, trying to make a glow even just but only small sparks came off his fingers. Hadn't he gotten his powers back?

Crawling with desperation, he reached the other end, touching his hand against the wall, feeling the slime beneath his fingers. He looked right, but they were too far in the depths of the tunnel. What part of Lumar were they even in? A cold draft made him shiver, smelling dank and musty. Water dripped on his face, leaking from cracks in the stone above. Yellow mud caked to the top of the tunnel and he realized that where he was, the mud had come to a stop, collected here at the end.

It was all stopped up here with smears or clumps trailing long the wall in a straight line. At some point, that water was higher than his head.

Waterline. Tunnel. Dead end. He poked his cheek with his tongue. An idea was forming as swirls of green light appeared before his eyes. Ropes strapped around his ankles, but when he turned, they were vines. Green vines snaked from the dress of the Lady Green.

"So, it is Glint." Her voice reverberated, bouncing off the stone in echoes. She felt around his body with her vines. Thorns grazed against his skin. Glint inched away, pressing his back against the stone wall. Water seeped into his clothes, although he was already quite damp. He could feel the power slowly returning, but it wasn't fast enough.

A thorn sank deep into his skin. He grunted and felt his eyelids go heavy.

Not again. Not again!

He grappled for his magick to find something to push it away. A symbol of light appeared in his mind and faded. He reached for it again, but suddenly he forgot what he was doing. Yellow and green gradient light swaddled him in a blanket of softness. Wasn't he here for this?

Lady Green's vines carried him to dryer ground.

"The Masked Guard of Lumar, I hear, is Meridie's favorite." Her face contorted into a snarl. "How dare she."

"What's Veneficus doing with Haunters?" His voice slurred when he spoke. It was like he was drunk, and he only ever was this drunk once in his life.

"You mean to say, what am I doing with Haunters?" She gave a low chuckle and whispered, "Who is the one behind the curtain, dear?"

"What?"

What did she mean by that? The Royal Army only listened to Veneficus. Glint struggled to stay awake, but at the same time, the seduction to relaxation, to forgetting all that was going on around him was too strong for he was too weak.

* * *

A hand pressed against his bare chest.

Realizing what was happening, Glint jerked awake, throwing Lady Green off of him and threw light in her eyes, blinding her. Hastily, he dressed, heart thumping. Lady Green was shrieking, and the Haunter snarled. He had to escape. Brought back to reality, he ran through the mud, shivering from cold and fear. The Haunter roared behind him.

"Don't let the doll escape!" Lady Green's shriek echoed all through the tunnel. Glint tried to summon the water around him, using his second element. But he couldn't do it with the mask. Clicking his tongue, he took the mask off, letting his eye adjust to dim lighting in the tunnel. His feet thumped against the hard-packed mud where water had not touched in a long time. When his eye finally adjusted and he could see where the water lay, he tried calling to it.

Over and over, he called. Singing out loud but in as much a quiet voice as he could. Lady Green didn't know he was Otbelesk and he hoped to keep it that way. But the water wouldn't even slip off his clothes. He could dry himself if he could use it properly, but nothing happened.

"Carp," he cursed and then something knocked into him from behind. The Haunter had pounced. He hadn't even heard it coming! Glint fell to ground, the mask flung from his grasp, hitting the stone. There was a CRUNCH. He cringed.

No, no, no. He tried to throw off the Haunter, but it was too heavy. No, please. I need it or they'll kill me. Magick, come on. He gritted his teeth, searching deep inside of him for the powers, but he was as empty as if he had none.

And over the years, he'd become passive. He couldn't think of a way to get out of this like he might once have. So many days spent obeying rules and being a watchdog, he forgot how to be a warrior. Struggling beneath the Haunter, he heard the clip-clop of high heels. Lady Green somehow able to fight in those things always amazed and annoyed him.

"You were always a fighter, but in a way that made my skin itch. His Majesty would say the same. Long live King Veneficus." Lady Green called off the Haunter, but Glint didn't get up. If she used her magick and he faced her, she would recognize him.

"The king may have given you to Meridie, returned you to your home, but I'm not done with you, doll."

"I'm not a doll," Glint growled and tried to crawl, to reach his mask which he could see poking out of the water where it had started to get deeper. He could feel Lady Green's eyes on his back as he crawled. Realizing it was weird he was crawling if he could just face her and fight, he pretended to try to get up and fell back down to the ground feigning lame legs. If she was stupid enough and distracted enough, she won't see through his sorry attempt at faking it.

"Oh, you are. You choose to have no gender. You said you are a man, but inside you are neither. If you have no gender, you are worthless and unable to leave offspring."

Anger bubbled in his chest. It wasn't like he chose to be born this way. It was just the way he was. "I can find someone to love me the way I am. And that's not you." He began to crawl again. He was so close to the mask that he could just barely reach it if he stretched when Lady Green put her foot on his back, flattening him to the ground. His chin knocked against the stone, sending a spasm of pain up his jaw.

"Love you?" She spat and stepped harder on his back. "Don't flatter yourself, servant. You are an object to be used for desire. That's the only use for third gender."

As she talked, he reached out, hoping she wouldn't notice the mask and think he was trying to reach for help. His fingers grazed the tip, but then it tipped the other way. He cursed silently to himself when she suddenly lifted her foot. Glint sprang to mask and was about to put it over his eye to face her when vines strapped around his waist, locking one of his hands to his side. The other held the mask.

Head lifted he saw a dot of light up ahead. And voices.

"Vegetables!" Lady Green swore.

"...the tunnels. Search them carefully!"

"Yes, sir!"

It was Torrent and the soldiers.

Lady Green hissed and began pulling Glint back. He fell into her arms. She started toward the darkness of the tunnel. With the mask in one hand, he couldn't pull himself free. He also couldn't cast any magick even if he wanted to for fear of being found out by the others.

The Haunter roared and the voices stopped. He knew they were contemplating going further. But Torrent was a man of loyalty to Meridie. If she had ordered him to search and kill all the Haunters, he would make sure of that as much as he could.

He gritted his teeth as an idea popped in his head. The only weapon he had in his hand right now was his cracked mask. One edge was pointed where a piece had chipped off. If he threw his arm back, he could hit Lady Green in the head and run to the light.

At least, not to my death.

But then he would potentially expose himself. His eye.

Carp. He would just have to run. Back to his tower, he would sprint and hope they would just think he was a coward who couldn't face Haunters.

And that I'm stupid for trying to face them alone. They probably think that anyway. He bit his lip and swung his arm back as hard he could. Lady Green cried out. The vines fell away.

"That way!" called a soldier.

Glint ran, keeping his head down. He splashed through the water and fell into the deep end. What was left of the mask fell away, crumbling into the water.

"Who's there—"

The roar of the Haunter silenced the soldier. The water rippled and the ground shook. Glint scampered to his feet and waded through the water, fixing his long hair over his eye. Slowly, the water shallowed. Light flowed around him, exposing him to the soldiers with Torrent in the lead. Glint's cheeks burned as he saw the disappointment in Torrent's face.

"You were given orders to report. You failed me and put our lives in danger!" he snarled as Glint stepped out of the water. He kept his head down.

"Look at me when I'm speaking to you, Masked Guard!" Torrent shouted and slapped Glint hard across the face, making his head turn. The impact stung a second later when he touched his cheek, there were scratches all over. Torrent had struck him with lightning.

"Look at me!"

"I'm sorry."

Guttural sounds of Haunters came behind him.

"Soldiers, get into formation! We have orders to have a Haunter massacre!" Torrent shouted over his shoulder. Glint wondered where the captain was and then the large Haunter roared again. That was his cue. He ran, ignoring the shouts of Torrent calling him a coward and a failure. A worthless third gender and an imbecile. The words were daggers to his back and his eyes stung with tears. There was no place for him here without his magick.

Back out in the open, the breeze was cool on his face and the rain soaked his body, washing the mud from his clothes. Dark gray clouds churned above with an occasional wisp of black smoke carrying sparks of red lightning. From the tunnels came voices shouting command or screaming in terror.

Glint tried to sing, but his voice caught in his throat.

Worthless. Failure. The words clung to his heart like sticky cobwebs. They were right. He couldn't be anything. Not anymore. Maybe his magick might return in full, sending power through his veins, but if he didn't have the foundation of a good soldier, how could he be anything more? The worse part of it all was that he couldn't leave his country. He was once born here.

Since no one was around, he walked to the edge of Lumar where the golden fields were drenched, browned, dead in the rain. Beyond the fields were the villages of commoners. Amidst the light-skinned, golden-haired Lumarns, Glint was a recessive gene, born with dark skin, black hair, and an odd eye. A second element. 

As a boy called Otbelesk, he used to run around the fields, free, until one day he realized he didn't feel like a boy or a girl. Third gender they called him. Instantly, he was shunned, so he worked harder than everyone else and then one day the former Master Magee appointed him as her successor. Many Lumarns had questioned her sanity that day.

The other Master Magees would always talk down to him. They thought he was only claiming to be third gender. He was a man in a woman's world. Unwanted. How jealous they were when King Vezperex took a liking in him.

What happened to him? He never let harsh words get to him, always had a shield against their swords. The Master Magee of Lumar with his head held high and his gaze strong was gone. Not only had Ozel Emla lost its spark, but so has Glint.

He walked out into the field and took a knee, bowing his head like he did on the day of his coronation. Closing his eyes, he recalled his vows. He had promised to lead Lumar, to make it prosper, and to serve King Vezperex, later, to protect his daughter. He vowed to never betray them.

"I haven't. Believe me," he whispered through tears. He opened his eyes and lifted his head. Veneficus, for whatever reason, was on the move. He was creating an army of Haunters. But what more? 

Today, Veneficus was the most powerful Magee and corrupt. He had to be stopped, not with talk, but with murder. Glint decided Veneficus had to be killed. No other way around it. That meant returning to Thagarmius. 

At that thought, Glint couldn't catch a breath. He gasped and clutched his chest. Bile climbed up his throat and he bent over to vomit. With ragged breaths, he wiped his mouth, washing it with rain.

I can't. I can't go back there. He squeezed his eyes shut tight, tears wetting the corners of his eyes. Then, Glint found the seed of an idea and as he walked back, it grew and blossomed. Not only would he get people to go after Veneficus, but he would also get a new, sturdier mask. But first, he had to convince Jasper.