[Freezair]

"Me?" She raised a claw to her chest. "M-m-maybe. I wouldn't know how to do that, either. But I suppose it's a less daunting prospect than fighting!"

Dinni exhaled. "You know, I just realized I don't even know your name."

"We have skimped on the introductions rather," the purple Paragon said. "Perhaps we should rectify that. I'm Vermeer. What should we call you, 'Mr. Announcer?'" He grinned.

"My name's Dinni," he said.

"And I'm Simone, the Wave Fairy," the blue Paragon said. "Though Simone will do."

[Freezair]

With that, they went around the circle introducing themselves, even those whose names had already been spoken before.

"I'm Marion, and this is my big bro Kelly!" the little Kuhna said. "I've got another older brother, too, named Ace. But we can't find him anywhere." She frowned. "If there is a big tournament, I hope he gets to come..."

"And I'm Quazar. Salutations." The smaller-than-usual Ambia gave a bow.

"For those who didn't hear it the first time, I'm Jaya," the Soveris said. "But you all caught it, right?"

[Freezair]

"I'm Rygar," the blue Lucain said. "I'm a bit surprised to be here alone, actually. I have two children, Tropicos and Diva, who are of a similar otherworldly... and perhaps monstrous lineage. But they are still asleep at home. Perhaps the black mist did not wish to wake them."

"And I'm Drakescale... I suppose," the little Stargoyle said. "Mostly, I think this whole tournament business sounds exhausting. But I suppose I did agree to come along..."

"And... I suppose that leaves me," the cactus dragon said. "My name is Pear, as I've said. I... don't know what to feel about this. It's rare for my kind to fight each other; typically we only fight the Krawl. But... I do not know what else to do."

[Freezair]

Simone approached her, a smile on her face and her ears held welcomingly high. "If you are in need of a place to stay here in Evelon, I would be happy to be of assistance. Clearly this night has been distressing for you. You seem calm now, but I suspect it will eventually set in that you are far from home, and it will hurt. But I know of a warm, sandy place where you would be very welcome."

Pear smiled. "T-thank you. That is... very kind of you. Are there cacti there as well...?"

"Tragically, no. But it is warm, and there is more water than you have ever dreamed of."

"That sounds wonderful."

[Freezair]

Far off, a gentle blue glow overtook the horizon. The tops of the trees, hidden in the night, came into relief against the soft, bright fog of the coming dawn. But not all the stars faded away. Clouds of the dark mist still clung to the forest. The light brought it out wherever it lingered, in places it hadn't been obvious in the night--in scuds near the feet of the people in the clearing, near the treetops, and even in great black drifts in the sky. If the mist hadn't brought them all together--gently, for the most part--it would have looked very ominous. Perhaps even apocalyptic, as Gizma had thought. And yet the world remained.

"I guess dawn is coming," Drakescale yawned.

[Freezair]

The assembly sat mostly in silence, watching the dawn break. It is easy to forget, for it is easy to sleep through, but a sunrise truly is a beautiful thing. Tired by the confusion of their ordeal, the group were content to simply watch the morning come, surrounded by the smell of pines and the sounds of small animals waking up. Set against such a peaceful backdrop, the black mist didn't seem so bad. It was almost beautiful: tiny patches of night remaining amidst the morning dew. Poetic, almost.

And then the largest cloud of it in the sky began to descend.

[Freezair]

It was not a slow descent. All of a sudden, the large black mass balled up and began to fall. Dinni, Simone, and Pear all yelped. They made a mad scramble out of the middle of the clearing as the immense ball of darkness crashed into the earth.

Waves of black mist rolled off from it, and it hit with a strange hissing thud. It sounded almost like a sandbag being dropped. It looked a bit like a mounded pile of sand as well.

But then it began to stand.

A head and limbs broke itself off from the central mass, peeling themselves up as if the blackness was sticky and holding it back. The more it shaped itself, the less like mist it looked; it became more like a hole in the sky, a true fragment of night. It had horns. It had a tail. But it stood on two legs--a draconic humanoid. Dinni recognized it immediately, for he'd seen it not long ago.

"Greetings," it said.

[Freezair]

There was no malice in the shadow's voice. If anything, it sounded gentle--welcoming, even.

As if to prove a point, it said, "Welcome. You all gathered here were the first to answer my call. You shall not be the last."

Marion and Kelly's faces lit up at that.

"I have been watching your discussion. You have come so close to the truth, I have decided to show myself. Especially for Mr. Dinni, who is quite correct in that I have a special role planned for him."

"So you did--" Jaya began.

But the shadow continued regardless. "It is as you have surmised. I have sent my summons to the representatives of many different worlds--on Evelon and outside of it--because I wish you all to come here and participate in a grand tournament. A tournament of many worlds, the likes of which the multiverse has never seen before!"

[Freezair]

"Cool!" Marion said.

The shadow smiled. "Yes. And I wish it to be watched by many people--from as many universes as possible! I wish it to be a thing of great joy and excitement!"

But then the shadow hung its head. "However. I do not wish this just for my own amusement. For as jolly as I wish this tournament to be, it has a very serious purpose."

Surprising, it was Jaya who seemed to be most rapt. "Go on!" Her tone was almost begging.

"Very well." The shadow looked towards the sky. "Monroe? You are needed."

[Freezair]

Another ball of darkness descended from the sky to land beside the shadow, though not quite as violently. Like its master, it peeled itself apart, though unlike the shadow, it wasn't quite as abyss-like. It took on the shape of a Leumoo, and it clattered its spines at the assembly by way of greeting.

"This is Monroe. Monroe is not from this world either. But there is an important difference between he and you: Monroe is Lost."

[Freezair]

"Yeah? What's that mean?" Jaya asked. Her feathers swelled with anticipation.

"Monroe was merely one of the first such souls I discovered roaming Evelon. I could immediately tell he was from offworld. But there was something... strange about him. Something... incomplete. Initially I thought he was dead; a stray soul who had found its way here while roaming the afterlife. But as I investigated further, that turned out to not be the case. His soul lacked the insubstantiality and the weak grip on the physical plane a proper ghost does. He could still affect the real world easily and could not readily change phases." Monroe demonstrated this by turning a rock over with his hoof. "But nor was he fully corporeal. Instead, he seemed to be a fully living soul.

"Something had forcibly stripped him from his body."

The group winced in unison.

[Freezair]

"I used my magic to give him a more substantial body so he needn't feel naked. But he was only the first. I saw several more in quick succession... then dozens... then hundreds... then thousands. I could soon no longer manually create new bodies for them. To the denizens of this world, it is invisible, but I have since established a barrier around this world. It catches these stray souls as they enter and grants them these bodies I have devised. It is a small kindness, but it is what I can offer them."

Jaya's eyes were as sparkly as the mist. "That... is... so... COOL! And I thought I'D reached max level before I came here!"

The shadow did not change, but its manner seemed to smile. "I am glad you approve."

[Freezair]

"But what is a tournament going to do to help this?" Dinni asked.

"Patience, my grand emcee. I thought it important to tell you of the plight of the Lost first. I wished to give you incentive to participate.

"Now. As I was saying.

"Naturally, I myself wished to help these poor disembodied souls, but I did not yet know enough to help them. So I followed their auras back to the worlds from which they came. I discovered that all of them were, like Evelon, worlds in which the various nonhuman species of the plane engaged in combat. Most did it for sport, but for some, like Pear, it was a matter of survival. But even in her plane, there were still the occasional sparring matches for nothing more than the rush of it all.

"And on these planes, something strange was occurring."

[Freezair]

"What was that?" Marion prompted.

"Well, I happened to witness such a match, as was common on one of these worlds. And as all competitions must, there was a winner and a loser. Now, another thing that is common in these worlds is that humans will often serve as the trainers and guiders of these monsters. And I witnessed the trainer of the losing monster do something that was... unfortunately, tragically... remarkable."

The shadow hung its head. Dinni's heart tightened in his chest, and he was sure he wasn't the only one. Something about the tone of the shadow's voice made his blood freeze over.

[Freezair]

Though the shadow didn't appear to breathe, its voice also came heavily. "For his loss, the unfortunate creature was... disowned. As he lie there in the grass, wounded from his loss but injured more in pride, his trainer looked upon it with disappointment... and left. He had failed and was no longer needed."

Several in the audience gasped. Vermeer tut-tutted in the way only a disappointed old man could. "What a dreadfully cruel thing to do to a monster. I've no pity for that human."

"The unfortunate monster laid there in shock for a little while longer. I remained with him out of sympathy, wishing to extend help, but instead... For reasons I still do not quite understand, this summary rejection by his trainer caused him to eventually be... the only appropriate word I can find is thrust out of his own world. But not all of him. Only the essence of him: his soul.

"I had witnessed him becoming Lost."