They met in the great hall before sunrise.
There were not many of them. Almond and Lily, Big D, Rudra, Ainen, Natalia, Marcus and Kael. Hessa sat at the end of the long stone table with her eyes half closed, still watching something none of the rest of them could see.
The walls around them were covered in names. Big D had read every one.
"Tell us everything," Almond said.
Hessa opened her eyes.
"Frosthold came through about an hour before I found them," she said. "Eleven thousand, give or take. All F. They don't know anything. They don't know what an Ender is. They've lit more fires around your friend's fire, because they think that's what it's for."
Ainen put his face in his hands. "Oh, no."
"And the thing coming for them?" Rudra asked.
Hessa was quiet for a moment.
"I've never seen one," she said. "I've heard of them. Old stories, from people who heard them from older people. It's a Forgetter."
"What does it end?"
