Chapter One - Part 1

“Wait!” Crystal replied, from her position at the top of the gnarled hardwood. The course bark of the Genjin tree scraped against her back as she twisted against it.

Squinting her eyes, she studied the cold, early-evening horizons. Northeast, the bold ring that was usually copper-colored, looked deep purple in the fading light. Nearer the horizon, she could still make out the inner edges of the other two below it.

Glancing down, she knew her father would be straining trying to see for himself. She guessed his patience was stretched to its limits.

“Bad enough we’re stuck in a See-hole,” Jack groused, “without this bullet wound giving me fits.”

She sighed out loud.

"Crystal?"

"No! No sign of either! Been a long time since you were up a tree hadn't it? Ain't all that easy."

“Stay up there all night, if it gives you comfort!”

She descended the tree, taking her time navigating the lower limbs. When she finally jumped, the landing jarred her teeth when she fell into the dirt.

Picking herself up, she made an unneeded attempt to brush herself off before she put her coat back on. The freezing wind burned her face, and her head ached.

Holding out the reigns of her mount in one hand, he gripped his collar with the other.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"I think we're gaining on the ones we're chasing, and the ones chasing us will never catch up.” She grabbed her weapon belt from where it hung on her saddle horn. “And I think I hate these pockets of land were we can’t use our See. You alright?" Lightly resting her hand on his wounded arm, she searched his face.

"Yep… suffered worse than this on my eyeball."

Though she laughed at his old familiar joke, inside she felt sick. Their future looked every bit as dark as the falling night.