The woman’s dark eyes opened suddenly and the shadows that seemed to cling about her vanished in a flash. The walls of thick, smooth metal took on a dim sheen as if someone had suddenly uncovered a small light. Her long, silk-smooth raven hair also caught the reflection and gave her a cold aura as it hung straight down and around her form.

The woman reached her hand out and it closed on a small object on the table beside her, then brought it up to her face. She stared at the symbols carved on it and felt its shape with her gloved fingers in a firm yet distant manner. Turning it over nimbly with a quick motion of her wrist, she looked at the blank back of the rough, flat piece of stone. The look in her eyes showed pain, muted from time’s passing and stifled by her own restraints, but pain nonetheless.

A mechanical sound startled her and she thrust the stone into one of the pockets on her utility belt as one of the doors in the room opened, the look of pain being instantly replaced with the solid dark color of her eyes. It changed her entire appearance – it made the contrast of her black and white appearance look even colder, her hard-formed shape look even firmer.

“What do you want?” she asked without turning to face whoever had entered. “You know anyone’s supposed to ask me before they see me.”

“Anyone but me, Sava,” came the reply in the harsh-sounding voice of a young man.

Her eyebrows raised in surprise. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting you. It’s been some time.” She turned her chair around to face the speaker and the light coming in from the hallway lit her face, showing the long scar that ran up her cheek to her temple.

“I know.” The young man was tall, but his figure was entirely covered by a dark-brown hooded cloak and his shadowed face hidden by a blank mask. “We’re not as free as we used to be.”

Sava didn’t quite roll her eyes, but she came close. “Close the door,” she directed. The man nodded and pressed a button that slid the opening shut. The light from the hallway was gone now, but the cold glow inside the room remained. Sava stood up.

“So what brings you here this time?” she asked, her long hair sweeping slightly to either side as she moved. The ends of it brushed the tops of her tall black boots. “More ‘information’?”

“That was one time,” the man protested, “and no. I really do have something to report.”

“Oh, please,” she laughed, though the laugh didn’t sound entirely natural. “You don’t need to make excuses to see me.”

Her remark was met with silence and she quickly drew her posture stiffer. Her dark eyes stared at the mask.

“Do you want to hear what I’ve found, or not?” the man finally asked a little impatiently after allowing the silence to become awkward. “We both know telling you these things isn’t something I do because I want to.”

“Whatever,” she said.

“It’s about the Lindru.”

Her interest was obviously peaked. “You mean you’ve found it? Where? What is it—”

“I haven’t yet,” he interrupted. She glared. “I’ve only found more about it.”

“Such as?” Sava asked. “I don’t have all day!”

“I don’t have to tell you,” the young man countered, moving a little towards the door. But she stepped quickly forward and grabbed his arm, covered by the same loose brown fabric as his cloak. The strength of her grip surprised him and he turned his masked face in her direction.

Her dark eyes held the same mocking question she asked aloud. “You don’t?”

Behind his blank oval mask there was surely some expression on his face, and Sava wanted so much to see how he was reacting to her, but she knew it would be pointless to ask. She continued. “Just tell me.”

“Pay me first,” the man demanded. She sighed and released her hold on his arm, placing a small black sack of coins in his broad hand.

“Fine, fine, here. Now will you please just give me the information?”

The young man fingered the money inside the pouch and put it in the bag he carried before talking again. “I haven’t found the Lindru, like I’ve said before, but I know a way to find it. See, since the more moonlight the better for them, every month when there’s no moon they can’t keep their cover form. So all you’d have to do is track down its general location, wait until the new moon, and search the area for anything suspicious.”

“That’s great, except for one thing.” She paused. “It’s no use to me whatsoever to have a strategy to catch it if I can’t locate it! I paid you for this? I have no idea where on the entire planet this Lindru might be!”

“But I do,” the man replied.

“Stop with the dramatic reveal,” Sava groaned. “Tell me what you know before I really get tired of this.”

“All right, fine. About two weeks ago someone saw someone strange enough to tell her neighbors that she had seen the ghost of a child. Many other villagers have been suddenly wary of dark corners and shadows, and a young child disappeared suddenly for three days. She came back, but hasn’t spoken a word about where she’d gone.”

“And this is evidence?”

The young man’s head tilted slightly as he answered, “Of course, if you know anything about Lindru.”

Sava turned away from him in frustration, causing her long hair to whirl around behind her. “We both know I do. But the idea that spooked villagers – during a war – constitutes evidence as to where I could find one being is ridiculous!” She paced the room, the soles of her heavy boots steadily beating a pattern of sound in the air. “I’ve been patient with you, and you know why, but these last few visits have been so far apart and you’ve given me almost nothing to work with. I need to find the Lindru soon! Neither of us wants this war to last any longer!”

A frustrated silence filled the dark room after she sat down heavily in the chair in the center of the room again.

“If you’d stop cutting people off, you might have longer conversations and get the information that you want,” the man told her sarcastically. “The key point is that they were all in the same area, and that area was Kilcrea. Kilcrea has been peaceful. The residents have no reason to be afraid.”