Oscar stood outside the door trying to convince himself to leave. He could hear the music thudding through the door, overlaid with a chatter of people talking. Ironically, it sounded like Glad You Came was playing, but he did not consider it a sign. He'd knocked twice, probably not loud enough to be heard, and he felt terrible. He looked over his shoulder, down the hallway to the elevator and wondered if it was still raining outside. His coat was dripping steadily onto the carpet but the water was pleasantly cool on his face. He was pretty sure he was developing a fever.

He could try texting Solaire that he was there, but Solaire had a tendency to forget his phone existed when he was around people and hadn't answered anything in the last few hours. Besides, he felt groggy and grouchy and not like he wanted to see people. The only thing that deterred him from leaving was the thought that he'd come here specifically to be present at the party because Solaire had asked him and if he left it would be a wasted trip. Not completely wasted, he could probably meet up with his friend later, but still. He'd already texted Solaire. He'd see it eventually and wonder why he hadn't showed up after all. Oscar had already told him he probably wouldn't be coming, months ago; earlier in the day he'd changed his mind and he didn't want to change it again. He steadied himself and raised his hand to knock a third time. The door flew out from under his knuckles.

"Oscar!"

It took him a few moments to focus on the tall man filling the doorway in front of him, but when he had, he smiled. Solaire looked the same as always, in cutoff shorts and flip-flops, his gold hair swept back into a ponytail. He didn't have long to look at him because as soon as Solaire recovered from his surprise he swept Oscar into a crushing bear hug. Oscar grumbled in mock dismay; not in genuine discomfort so much as because he was in the habit of complaining about Solaire's rib-crushing gestures of affection.

"Hey Sunny," he said, patting Solaire twice on the back. Solaire released him and held him back to look at him. His bright grin faded a little in concern.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I... sorry, I was kind of zoned out for a sec. I think I'm getting sick." Oscar smiled dryly. "You know me."

"Oh no! You look terrible."

"Thanks."

"No, I mean, do you need to go rest? Should you be here?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Maybe not my most talkative, but I didn't want to miss this."

"Good, good. Come in, can I take that?" Solaire took his wet raincoat, shook it and hung it up. Under it Oscar was wearing civilian clothes, dark grey pants and a deep blue shirt embellished with the crest of a brewery near his hometown in faded gold. "I'm glad you get to see the place," Solaire said confidentially, turning towards Oscar and lowering his voice a little. "It's a nice apartment, I like it a lot, but, you know. I might not get to stay here much longer."

Oscar nodded. Solaire had told him when he received the Darksign. He appeared to think of it as a blessing, granting him access to the fabled land of Lordran, but Oscar wasn't so sure. With things the way they were it was surprising that his friend hadn't been identified and shipped off to the Asylum yet. And if he did make the journey to Lordran, what dangers would he find? From what Oscar had heard, the place had become like another Asylum, crawling with the hollowed remains of previous seekers. The land was empty of answers and stained with blood.

Unless the legends of the bell were true. But in that case why had no one rung it yet?

Oscar looked across Solaire's living room, where the apartment-warming party was in full swing; he could see at least thirty people at his first glance, and the lights and movement jammed in his head. He closed his eyes and then tried to focus on something closer to him. Solaire's shirt. It had a picture of the sun and the words "420 Praise It." Oscar snorted, and Solaire struck a stance, making jazz hands at himself.

"Aaaeeyyyy! Like the shirt? I made it myself! Can I make you one?"

Oscar chuckled. "No thanks. Looks rad though.—How do you even know this many people?"

"Ahhh, the arcane mysteries of the extrovert. I doubt you'll ever be able to understand my secrets." he leaned closer to Oscar and winked. "I talk to people. You should try it sometime." Oscar gave him what was supposed to be a steely glare but probably ended up as a mildly peevish wince of discomfort, since Solaire straightened and gave him another concerned look. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah." Oscar ran a hand across his jaw, suddenly unable to remember if he'd shaved that day. He had, and his hair was too short to really look bad no matter what he did to it, but he knew without looking that he was pale and had dark circles under his eyes. As he followed Solaire into the living room, he clutched at his chest. The heat of the Darksign seeped through his shirt and into his fingers.

So far the Marines hadn't been ordered into the Undead debacle, but other sections of the armed forces had been, and he'd spent most of his deployment on a ship exchanging horror stories. SWAT teams being called into "infected" neighborhoods to round up peaceful Undead who showed no signs of hollowing. Friends in the national guard ordered to separate children from their parents. And then the stories about the Asylum itself, that the prisoners were never fed, but were locked into cells and abandoned to go hollow. That there were other things locked into the place with them, beings too powerful to be easily done away with in more conventional ways—the abominations which most simply referred to as demons. These simply wrenched the doors of their cells off the hinges and wandered where they pleased, killing anything in their path.

The music changed to a new song, and Oscar winced as the sharp bass thudded through his skull.

BOOM CLAP THE SOUND OF MY HEART THE BEAT GOES ON-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NANNA

Looking across the room, he caught Solaire's eye. His hand was on the volume of the speakers, which he'd just cranked up about five clicks, and he was beaming maniacally over the crowd of people. When he saw Oscar's face his look shifted to one of concern. Oscar forced his face into a stiff smile and gave him a thumbs up, then walked towards the drink table, mostly for the sake of looking like he was doing something other than being a wallflower.

Solaire cranked the volume back down by two clicks and leapt over a table to insert himself into a nearby conversation.

Oscar gazed at the drink table, trying to keep his eyes from going out of focus. There was some sort of punch that looked like it was made of Sunny D and sherbet, there was Sunny D by itself, the usual cross-section of sodas, water, and a large pitcher of homemade kombucha. Oscar poured himself half a glass to taste so he could honestly compliment Solaire on it later. Solaire made his own kombucha.

He tried to mingle. He ended up in a circle of chatting people who all knew each other, introduced himself and then mostly spaced out while they talked to each other. When the circle started to break up he found an isolated spot near the wall and stood there, trying to decide if it would be worse to stay or to leave. If he left he'd have to walk back to the hotel. If he stayed he'd have to be social, and he felt like lying down on the floor. The room was fading out of focus. He glanced down at his drink and thought with surprise that the music had gotten so loud that it was sending ripples through the remaining kombucha, then he realized that it was his hand shaking. He braced his wrist with his other hand. The ripples decreased slightly.

"Are you doing okay?"

Solaire had appeared out of nowhere. Oscar jumped as his hand landed on his shoulder.

"Uh, yeah, hi."

Solaire, frowning, felt his arm through his sleeve. "You feel really hot—may I?" he brushed Oscar's hair back and touched his palm to his forehead. Solaire's hand felt cooler than it reasonably should to him, the air conditioning wasn't that cold and Solaire did not have a tendency to have cold hands. Whoop, great news, he was definitely coming down with something nasty. "Oh, you definitely have a fever."

"Yeah, I think I might have to go."

"Are you sure? Do you want to lie down for a bit first?"

For roughly .005 seconds, Oscar considered saving his pride and refusing, but quickly decided that nothing in the world sounded better than taking a rest right now. If he turned the offer down he'd probably fall asleep on a park bench on the way back or something equally stupid.

"That would be great, actually. Thanks so much."

Solaire took his arm and towed him across the lunatic activity of the room, then opened a door and entered a darker, quieter room. Moonlight lay in strips on the floor. Oscar felt better just getting out of the light. The noise was only slightly muffled by the wall, but he wasn't particular at the moment. He kicked off his shoes and curled up on Solaire's bed, noticing on the way down that there was a framed mosaic of the sun hung at its head. He smiled.

"Comfortable?" said Solaire.

"Very. Thank you," said Oscar. "I might just take a nap, I'll probably feel better after that."

"Alright. I'm sorry about the noise—"

"No, dude, it's your party, I don't care. Honestly I'm so tired it doesn't bother me."

"Well, if you're sure—"

"Solaire. I'm cool, this is great. Thank you. Now go back to your guests."

"Okay!" Solaire sprang to the door but then stopped. "Remind me to show you around when you wake up, you weren't here for the tour and I really had fun with decorating this place!"

"Cool." Were there more suns sprinkled throughout the decor of the house, Oscar wondered? He rather liked to think that there were, it meant Solaire was still good old Solaire, staying true to his incandescent ideals.

Oddly enough—it was his last thought as he fell asleep—he felt like he had a sun inside him, warm and glowing, heat radiating from his skin.

Dreamily, some time later, he was aware that the music that was now blaring was the Dovahkiin song from Skyrim. He woke just enough to mumble a sleepy "wut" to himself, then dropped off again.

A dream-memory. He was hunting with his brother and his uncle—they were off in their own stand, he was by himself, on the ridge where the old summerhouse was. He had his sights trained on a young doe which almost seemed to shine in the predawn light. She stepped lightly through the lightly swaying deep grass, like a cloud drifting among dark waves. Far off, from somewhere deep in the trees, he heard two shots close together, then a third. He watched the doe raise her head in alarm, then flick her tail, turn, and bound into the trees. He followed her shining body in his sights until she was swallowed up by blackness. Then for a long time he gazed into it. He felt that somewhere, beyond the void which seemed to open beneath the trees, there was a door that led out of the realms of waking into a world of dream.

His next sensation was of a cold greyness and falling from a great height. He woke with a gasp and realized that Solaire was shaking him. "Sorry," he said.

"Do I need to go?"

"No no! I was going to offer you an aspirin but I don't actually have any. Are you alright?"

"Uhuhh. What time is it?" he was still only half-awake.

"Late. Do you want to stay here?"

"...Yeah."

"Do you want me to sleep on the couch?"

"Nah."

"OK, can you scoot over a bit?"

Oscar clumsily straightened out, wormed down under the covers and was asleep again within seconds. Sleep was a heavy warmth that dragged him down, stealing the strength from his body.