[ TT ] One can only hide from the darkness for so long until the candle dies out .

The sewers were rank and dark. Sounds echoed off the stone wall mingling with one another until they were a cacophony of noise with no source. Splashes, gasps, and moans echoed through gloom. The noises of the sewers would swell and disappear, replaced by other sounds, but the screams never stopped. They were faint now that Marcus and his group had traveled ever deeper into the maze of waste tunnels, but they were there. Marcus glanced upward thinking of the city above him, the city lit ablaze by black fire. He shuddered and continued on. 
 
 `` Marcus, are you sure this is the right way? We could've taken a wrong turn. We've been walking these endless tunnels for ages! All we need is our torches to go out and we're-'' 
 
 `` What do you suggest, Nathaniel?'' Marcus cut in. `` We go back? There is *no* going back. There is nothing left behind us. The Umbrans leave nothing but witch-fire and darkness in their wake.'' 
 
 The three youths behind him did not know the terror and horror that would be left. But, Marcus did. Marcus had been at Ferrydown when the Umbrans had sacked it. He saw the jets of black fire pour over the walls every night. He saw the Umbrans, creatures of shadow and darkness, melting out of the gloom and destroying all in their path. 
 
 `` We follow the map David gave us. We escape this city. We survive. We pray to the Earth-Father that our torches hold out. That is all we can do,'' Marcus turned towards his companions. Their faces were painted with fear and exhaustion. Heavy bags ringed their eyes and the beads of sweat running down their faces twinkled in the torchlight. He tried to give them a reassuring smile, but all he could muster was a thin-lipped grimace. He turned back, holding the map aloft once again, and led the way. 
 
 They moved on in silence for a while. The screams grew fainter and fainter. The lack of sound pressed in on them harder and harder, until Celaena finally broke the silence. 
 
 `` Artesia was the last light. The last great city of the realm. If it is lost, then so are we,'' She spoke in a quavering voice, barely above a whisper. 
 
 `` We were lost the moment the Umbrans set foot into our realms from whatever godsforsaken place they call home,'' Nathaniel spoke off to her side. `` The elves thought their magic could hold the night back. They should have learned the lesson my people bought so dearly: nothing can hold the darkness back. Ferrydown was the last great city of men, and it died without a fight.'' Soft sobs echoed through the sewers as grief overcame Celaena. Klaern wrapped his arm around her, glaring at Nathaniel. 
 
 `` The Heart of the Tower was the greatest force of light ever conceived. We believed we would be safe under its protection. The Umbrans should not have been able to break through the barrier,'' Klaern said over Celaena's tears. 
 
 `` The Heart of the Tower was a single candle flame in a sea of darkness. We hid in its light instead of running for our lives. It died. Now we have to run,'' Marcus said with an air of finality. The last thing he needed was in-fighting. David had assured him that no one else knew of the path through the sewers and that they would be safe moving through them. But, there was no telling what eyes could have seen their flight through the dying city. What could you trust, when even the shadows were against you. 
 
 `` Yes, and who was it that said we should make our way across the sea and leave this pitiful land behind us? And who was it that decided to listen to the pointy-ears and come to the so-called'last light'? More like our last resting place. If only I could have died in the land of men, with my peoples instead of these high and mighty-'' 
 
 `` Shut your mouth, Nathaniel!'' Klaern yelled. He slashed forward pushing Nathaniel into the wall. Nathaniel's torch flew from his hand, landing in the water and extinguishing. The gloom deepened as Nathaniel picked himself up and launched at Klaern. They tumbled into the water, Klaern's torch meeting a similar end in the black water of the sewers. The darkness was pressing in. Nathaniel and Klaern vied for dominance over each other. 
 
 `` Stop it! Stop it, now!'' Celaena screamed. She tried to pull Nathaniel off Klaern, but almost lost her footing. She glanced at her torch and stepped back. They could not afford for any more torches to give out. 
 
 `` Take this, Celaena,'' Marcus said as he shoved his torch into her hand. He snatched at the two boys fighting in the muck. Klaern began to hiss a spell. `` No! Silence, boy, you will draw them here!'' Marcus had not spoken soon enough. The ancient words flew from his mouth and a heavy feeling came over the whole tunnel. Nathaniel was lifted into the air and thrown down the tunnel into the water. He came up sputtering and angry. He stood to renew his assault, but a new sound stopped him. 
 
 It was coming from the direction of Artesia. It flowed liquid through the tunnels, there was no echoing, it did not bounce around the stone walls. It came from the darkness, appeared from the darkness and then evaporated seconds later, only to appear once again. Whispers. Hundreds and hundreds of whispering voices filled the chamber. Klaern's face turned a shade of ghostly white as he realized what he had done. The Umbrans were coming. They had felt the magic, heard the ancient words from up above, and now they were coming. He had killed them all. 
 
 `` GO!'' Marcus roared and they were all in motion, fleeing down the tunnels in black terror. They splashed and stomped, fell and stumbled, picked each other up and set them on their feet. For all their efforts, the whispering only grew louder, and the shapes in the darkness behind them only grew more tangible and real. 
 
 Marcus lifted the map to his eyes, praying to all the gods in the land to secure his footing. If he slipped now, he would not get up again. By his reckoning, the group was nearing the exit of the tunnels. The Umbrans could not survive in full daylight, could not coalesce into tangible form. Artesia had been sacked in the night, and they had wandered through the sewers for hours on end. The sun must be up. If only they could reach the exit. 
 
 `` Only a bit farther! The exit is salvation. Do not stop running!'' Marcus yelled through gasping breaths to his companions. 
 
 `` We'll never make it! They're too fast. They'll catch us before we get to the exit!'' Celaena yelled back. 
 
 `` Keep moving!'' was the only reply Marcus could think to give. He hazarded a glance back. He wished he had n't. There was no tunnel behind them. Only darkness, all-enveloping darkness. It was at the edge of their torch-light and gaining. Farther back, Marcus could make out the glint of witch-fire, the fire of darkness, which consumed not just flesh and bone and skin and marrow, but the essence of a person. Witch-fire would burn your soul out of existence. Marcus turned back, put his head down, and ran for his life. 
 
 Klaern was trailing, the edge of the darkness just inches behind him. He could feel it pulling at him, waiting to devour everything he was and everything he could have ever been. He was terrified, but he knew Celaena was right, there was no way they could outpace the Umbrans. But, if given just a small amount of delay, they could survive. They could make it into the light. Klaern grit his teeth and set his jaw, brows furrowing. He began to speak. 
 
 As soon as Klaern began to speak the ancient tongue, words of power dripping like sweat from his body, the darkness sped up, egged on by the promise of magic to feast on. Celaena glanced at Klaern, her eyes widening. Klaern simply shot her a look and nodded. The words he was speaking were powerful. The air grew heavy and thick with their magic. He would need a powerful spell to delay living darkness. The more words that spilled from him, the faster they came. With them, a glow began to emanate from Klaern, glowing brighter and brighter the more complex the incantation became. 
 
 Until at last, when his glow was almost too bright to bear he turned towards the darkness and burst into flame. The flame did not come from inside him; it was not conjured around him. He *was* the flame. He shed his earthly body, and the flame of his soul erupted from him, becoming a wall of fire, a blockade of light to save his friends. The darkness screamed as the fire ate into it, the first wave of attackers vaporizing from the brightness. Celaena glanced back a single time, as Marcus turned a corner, to see her love's light devoured by the darkness behind them. Tears ran down her cheeks. 
 
 Marcus saw light ahead and pressed himself harder and harder. He burst through the gloom onto an overhang on the side of a cliff. The light blinded him as he dodged to the side. He breathed deep, letting himself bask in the light. It was only once he had caught his breath, that he remembered that he had a group of friends with him. He turned around to find only two of them. Nathaniel was collapsed on the solid rock, breathing hard. Celaena leaned against the side of the cliff and looked up into the sun. 
 
 `` Celaena, where-'' He began. 
 
 `` He was a single candle flame in a sea of darkness,'' Celaena said. A sound of anguish ripped through her as she buried her face in her arms and slid to the floor. 
 

