The roars continued coming from the horizon as the walls of the Eternal Bastion filled with soldiers. Lilith remained beside Claire, trying to locate whatever was approaching, but she could only make out the treetops shaking several kilometers away.
She expected to hear an evacuation order or see the fortress's enormous defensive mechanisms begin firing. Instead, after several tense minutes, the creatures changed direction. The movement in the forest shifted north, and the roars gradually faded until they disappeared completely.
"Is that it?" Lilith asked.
"Luckily."
Claire removed her hand from her sword. The soldiers remained in position for a while longer before beginning to disperse. No one seemed particularly surprised. To Lilith, it had been the possible arrival of a horde of monsters. To many of them, it seemed to be nothing more than another inconvenience of the journey.
"What were they?"
"Probably a pack of red fangs. The Bastion's movement usually scares them away."
Lilith looked at the walls. "I thought they were coming to attack us."
"Monsters don't usually attack things hundreds of times larger than themselves either."
"I'm glad to know they have common sense."
The sun was already disappearing behind the mountains, and Lilith decided to return to her chambers. She had spent practically the entire day observing the Demon Continent and was beginning to feel like she needed some rest. However, after dinner and changing her clothes, she discovered a small problem: she was not sleepy.
She remained lying down for almost half an hour staring at the ceiling before giving up. Her body was relaxed, but her mind seemed more awake than it had been during the day. The sounds of the Eternal Bastion reached her with surprising clarity. She could hear footsteps in the corridor, conversations in distant rooms, and even the constant operation of the mechanisms hidden behind the walls.
She sat up.
"Vampire."
She probably should have expected it.
She left the room and began walking without any particular destination. The fortress was completely different at night. Most shops were closed, and small magical lamps illuminated the streets with a bluish light.
There were fewer people, although the city was far from completely asleep. Soldiers changed shifts, workers continued supervising the mechanisms, and some establishments remained open for those who preferred living at night.
Lilith quickly discovered that she did not need the lamps.
Even in the darkest alleys, she could distinguish every detail clearly. The colors were less intense, but the shapes remained perfectly defined. She could also hear sounds that were hidden during the day beneath the noise of the crowds.
The beating of small animals' wings above the rooftops, water flowing through nearby pipes, and conversations she probably should not have been listening to.
That had its advantages.
It also meant she would have to learn to ignore many things.
She eventually climbed to one of the upper walls. She expected to find it empty, but recognized a silhouette leaning against the railing.
"Don't you sleep?"
Claire turned her head and raised an eyebrow. "I could ask you the same thing."
Lilith approached. "I'm not sleepy."
"That tends to happen with vampires."
"I'm discovering a lot of obvious things lately."
Claire let out a small laugh and looked outside again. She wore simple clothes instead of armor, and her blonde hair hung loose over her shoulders. It was the first time Lilith had seen her without a sword at her waist.
She stood beside her.
The Demon Continent was even stranger at night.
Thousands of small lights appeared among the trees. Some moved, others remained completely still, and a few slowly changed color. In the distance, several rivers emitted a faint blue glow that made it possible to follow their paths through the forest. Above them, the floating rocks cast enormous shadows beneath the light of two moons.
It took Lilith a few seconds to realize it.
"There are two moons."
Claire looked at her.
Lilith briefly closed her eyes.
Another question she probably should not have asked.
"Yes," Claire replied slowly. "There are still two."
"I was just checking."
"You've been checking a lot of things lately."
"I like to be sure."
Claire smiled and decided not to press the issue.
For a while, they remained silent. Lilith appreciated moments like these. With Claire, she did not need to constantly play the role of a princess. The knight had already decided that her illness had made her strange and, for some reason, seemed to find it amusing instead of suspicious.
"Have you been here before?" Lilith asked.
"To the Demon Continent? No. This is my first time."
"You seemed to know quite a lot."
"I've spent years preparing for this journey."
Lilith rested her arms on the stone. "Why so much effort just to cross it?"
Claire took a while to answer.
"Because the Eternal Bastion always ends up coming here."
Lilith turned toward her.
"Always?"
"Every recorded route eventually leads the Bastion toward this continent sooner or later. Sometimes it takes decades. Other generations have entered and left several times." Claire pointed toward the darkness ahead of them. "We never know exactly where it will take us."
That immediately caught Lilith's attention.
"Who decides the route?"
Claire looked at her as if the question were strange.
"The Bastion."
Lilith waited for the rest of the explanation.
It never came.
"The fortress decides?"
"The navigators can make small corrections to avoid certain obstacles, but the general direction comes from the core. It's always been that way."
Lilith slowly looked back toward the horizon.
Until then, she had assumed someone was guiding the fortress toward some destination. A commander, a council, or perhaps a family responsible for governing it.
But apparently, no one was at the wheel.
"And no one knows where it wants to go?"
Claire smiled slightly. "If we knew, explorers would have a lot less work."
Lilith thought about Oblivion. Another fortress. Another route. The black fragment. The woman who appeared in the old Lilith's memories.
The questions continued to pile up.
Claire yawned.
"I should sleep."
"I thought knights could stay awake all night."
"We can. We prefer not to."
She stepped away from the railing, but before leaving, she stopped beside Lilith.
"I'm glad you came."
Lilith raised an eyebrow. "To the wall?"
"On the journey."
Claire did not explain anything else. She simply smiled and started walking down the stairs.
Lilith remained watching her for a few seconds before turning back toward the landscape. A strangely pleasant feeling remained in her chest, although she decided not to analyze it too much.
She remained alone on the wall.
Then she heard something.
A distant sound.
Wings.
Many of them.
Lilith raised her head.
Her night vision found several silhouettes moving in front of one of the moons. At first, they looked like small black dots, but they were growing larger quickly.
Ten.
Twenty.
Maybe more.
This time, they were not changing direction.
They were coming directly toward the Eternal Bastion.
The alarm bells began ringing before Lilith could call anyone.
Claire reappeared, running up the stairs with her sword in hand.
Lilith looked at her in surprise.
"Weren't you going to sleep?"
"Later."
Both of them looked toward the sky.
The creatures were already close enough for them to make out their enormous wings.
The Eternal Bastion's first night in the Demon Continent had just become complicated.