With that, her teacher removed his hand. Rain's eyes were tightly shut, so she couldn't see anything, but she felt him walking past to stand between her and the approaching people.
Their steps were drawing closer.
«Wrong, wrong! This is very wrong!»
Rain was not stunned by the fact that he had covered her eyes. What truly disturbed her… was the fact that her teacher had not retreated into the shadows.
In all the years that she had known him, he had never, ever shown himself to other people, It was to the point that Rain had considered him a hallucination at first.
But now, her teacher remained in the open in front of absolute strangers.
«Why?»
Her silent panic was Interrupted by his bright, carefree voice:
«Greetings! Who might you be?»
The sound of steps halted, and a deep baritone answered in a friendly tone:
«Greetings, greetings! I am Master Sean, and these are my companions, Master Skif and Awakened Ardon. We were on our way back to Ravenheart… are you headed that way, as well?»
Rain frowned.
«Master Sean? Master Skif?»
She had not heard of these Ascended before. Granted, there were thousands of Ascended in the world, but still. Each of the Song Domain's Masters was like a minor celebrity, especially those in Ravenheart.
There was something else that seemed strange about these people, too. She was standing there, frozen, with her eyes closed… but they did not seem to care enough to react in any way, Wouldn't it be natural to ask what she was doing?
Her teacher lingered for a few moments.
«Yeah, we were on our way back to Ravenheart too.»
Then, there was a long stretch of silence. Eventually, Master Sean asked, his voice sending a chill running down Rain's spine, for some reason:
«You look a little familiar, young man. Say, have we met before?»
The tone of his voice was perfectly friendly, and so were his words. But she suddenly felt suffocated, as if there was something eerily, maddeningly wrong with it all.
Her teacher's answer was a little somber:
«As a matter of fact, we have indeed met before. Although I doubt that you'll remember. In any case, why don't you and your friends continue onward? Let's part on friendly terms and go our separate ways. How about it?»
There was another lengthy silence.
Shivering, Rain heard a strange rustle come from the direction of the three strangers. Their surroundings were slowly turning colder.
«What was that rustle?»
«How about it… how about it. How how how about It»
Master Sean's voice still sounded human, but his speech had turned strangely incoherent.
Another voice joined, its mannerisms and Intonations too similar to the first:
«We are on our way back to Ravenheart. These are my companions… Master… we are on our way. How about it?»
Rain was still stuck on her previous thought, unable to throw it out of her head.
«What… what was that rustle?»
She had never heard a sound like that before.
Just at that moment, the disturbing rustle grew louder, and a third voice added amicably:
«These are my companions.»
«My companions…»
«My companions.»
«That rustle…»
«How about…»
«…How about you become my companions, too?»
Her teacher took a deep breath. Rain could hear his voice turning dangerously cold:
«Listen here, bastard…»
She had never heard such coldness in his voice before, and the unfamiliarity scared her.
«You might have managed to claw your way out of Dread's Tomb, but so did I. You might have survived in the depths of a thousand hells, but so did. So save me the theatrics and be on your way Otherwise, I'll stop being gracious and skin you alive!»
Rain shuddered.
«Skin… skin him…»
Suddenly, a thought flashed in her mind.
«The Skinwalker!»
The Great abomination that had been the nightmare of humanity for the past four years!
A Great… A Great abomination…
Three of the indescribable horror's vessels, no less!
Her terror was so vast that she couldn't even move. All Rain could do was keep her eyes closed and tremble.
«I'm dead, I'm so dead…»
No, death would be a mercy.
At that moment, Master Sean — Skinwalker's vessel — spoke with a hint of curiosity in his voice:
«You… whose companion are you?»
Her teacher scoffed.
And then, the world quaked.