The Void was not an empty space. It was a hungry one. The air felt thick like breathing cold oil. The ground was a shifting expanse of obsidian dust.
Juno clutched Jester to her chest. Her hands were slick with the blood still seeping from his missing finger.
"It is okay," Juno whispered. Her voice was trembling as she looked at Joker, Jala, and Jin. "Everything is going to be fine. I promise."
Her promise was cut short by a sound. It was a wet dragging noise that seemed to come from every direction at once. Then the shapes appeared. Disfigured elongated things with too many limbs and faces that looked like melted wax roamed through the dark. They were Kova's demons.
"Who has things like this just roaming around?" Juno thought. Her stomach was twisting. "What kind of mind builds a place like this?"
"I'm scared," Jin whimpered. He was huddling close to Jala. "Juno, they are coming closer."
Juno looked at the demons. She looked at the pitch black horizon of Kova's internal world. She felt the weight of her father's White Flame and the cold terrifying prickle of the Black Flame sitting dormant in her gut.
"Just do what he says and everything will be fine," Juno thought. She closed her eyes for a split second. "Master the flames. Protect them. Everything will be okay."
Back in the physical world Kova and Lokee had been working in a fever for forty eight hours. The ritual chamber was stained with the residue of spiritual filth that Kova had been pouring into Jaeren's open vessel.
"We are ahead of schedule," Kova muttered. His eyes were bloodshot as he stared at the legendary knight.
"Elowen's Day Three was the rejection. She flooded him with light and gave the world a target."
"We have done the opposite. The Stained Shackles have held the Zen in place. The Carrion Rhythm has beaten the soul back into the marrow."
"The Shroud is taking hold too fast," Lokee whispered. Her hands were glowing with a dim light as she maintained the anchor.
On Day One Kova used the Carrion Rhythm to create a spiritual vacuum. He shackled the soul by force. On Day Two he applied the Stained Shackles. He hardened the energy so it could not leak like silver sweat.
Now just before the dawn of Day Three he funneled the last of the synthetic spark into the base of the brain. A jagged electric snap echoed through the room. The Stained Shackles groaned against the flesh. The Shroud of Absence rippled.
Then Jaeren's chest heaved. A single violent breath rattled through his lungs. It smelled of ozone and the grave. His eyes snapped open. They were not golden or white. They were a flat hollow grey.
Kova leaned over the slab. His face was inches from the revived commander. He did not offer comfort. He offered a test.
"Do you know your name?" Kova asked. His voice was a low hum. "Can you move? Can you think or talk?"
Jaeren's throat hitched. The muscles in his neck were cording like iron cables as he fought the weight of the Stained Shackles. His fingers scraped against the stone slab. He left white marks in the rock.
"Jae... ren," the man rasped. The sound was like grinding stones.
He tried to lift his arm. His movements were jerky and unnatural. It was as if he were learning how to be human all over again. He looked at Kova. The grey in his eyes was swirling with a confused growing heat.
"I... can... think," Jaeren whispered. His voice was gaining a terrifying depth. "But the... dark... it is so heavy."
"Good," Kova replied. He didn't blink as he watched the man struggle.
"If it is heavy that means it is working. You are alive because you have information I need. If you prove useless I'll put you back in the ground myself."