The moon loomed high overhead, casting light everywhere. But as she walked away from the village, and into the dark, heavy-canopied forest, that didn't help Vera a great deal. The only light she had to guide her was the distant glow of redstone torches.

That was all Clarke had said. Follow the redstone trail and she could find out why she had to go out instead of sleeping through the night. Not that she minded too much. The distant groans of zombies, the inviting rattle of skeletons, and the scuttling shrieks of spiders promised the night might hold some fun after all.

She stopped beneath a towering brown mushroom, adjusting her blonde ponytail. and smirked as she equipped her flint-and-steel in one hand, and an ender pearl in the other. It would be nice to have an excuse to use her powers without one of the village elders getting mad at her.

"Stupid Yenthric," she muttered. "You burn one prized bookshelf…"

Vera wound back for a throw of the pearl, close her eyes, then let it loose. She felt the adrenaline rush through her and tried to follow the pearl's flight into the dark. She pulled out her shield, then started to run into the forest at full pelt.

"Three. Two. One…"

Crack! The pearl shattered and she immediately stopped running, instead summoning ice beneath her feet and sliding straight through the forest. Mobs swarmed from every side. Zombies lunged, skeletons fired arrows, creepers turned and began to flash. And she left every single one in her dust as she skidded from one redstone torch to the other.

Avoiding the mobs had become so natural to her that it almost had a weird meditative quality for her. Exactly what she needed after a pretty mundane day of tending crops, helping out at the forge, studying history…

If she had to hear about the war between the Third Legion and the Sovereign one more time, she would actually lose it. If she wanted to learn about that she'd just get the juicy stuff from Kami or Clarke when they visited on patrol. She did not need to know about Martin's disastrous economic policy.

She came too close to a river and had to jump over it. One of the drowned surfaced and hurled a trident at her. She twisted in the air to avoid, then with a strike of the flint and steel sent a fireball flying back. The waterbound zombie perished in a spurt of steam.

She kept moving from redstone torch to redstone torch until, finally, she arrived at the end of the trail. She left the forest and came to desert, where a redstone torch stood atop a sandstone pillar. A boy her age was waiting there, with round-rimmed glasses, curly black hair, and a surprising wide jaw. He grinned as he saw her.

"Hey Vera!" he waved exuberantly.

He noticed a spider crawling towards them over the dunes and drew his trident. He tossed the weapon leisurely into the air and it plummeted sharply onto the spider's head, followed shortly by a bolt of green lightning. He folded his arms and look impressed with himself.

"You've been practicing, Gareth," smirked Vera. "Maybe next time your village will stand a chance at the tournament."

"Oh, please no more!" He clutched his chest. "My poor heart just can't take your cutting sarcasm, Gwynevere."

Vera snorted at the use of her full name, then punched Gareth in the arm. He was from the next village over. Both of them had shown up at the same time. Just appeared out of nowhere about three years prior.

It was hard not to like someone when you shared a similarity that big, but it was also hard not to compete with them, too. And that they had, every year at the tournament of the eight villages.

"So, Clarke called you out too, huh? And here I was starting to think I was his favourite."

"You might still be, Kami invited me."

"She say what this is about?"

"Just that we'll learn our purpose in coming here."

Vera rolled her eyes.

"Why do they always have to be so vague? 'Come out here so we can tell you why we invited you out to the woods.' Yeah, I want a little more than that, Clarke."

Gareth looked at her like she was from the Moon and pushed the glasses down his nose to look over them.

"Vera, he was talking about our purpose. Like why we woke up in the forest."

Vera clasped a hand to her mouth. Even in the light of the redstone, it was clear that her cheeks were going crimson. Gareth started to laugh, and Vera started too.

"Oh my Notch," Vera strained. "I can't believe I didn't get that, I'm so stupid."

Gareth shrugged.

"Happens to us all sometimes."

He grinned again. Suddenly, they didn't have anything to say. Suddenly Gareth's eyes became fixed on the single lock of speckled grey in an otherwise completely blonde head of hair. It had come loose. He reached out and brushed it with his hand. Their eyes locked. Vera realised how close together they'd gotten in the course of the conversation.

"Alright kiddos!" Clarke called, fiddling with his shield.

"Sorry we're late!" Added Kami.

The two friendly Legionaries approached through the woods. But they weren't alone. A third figure. A stern, weapon-covered woman with greying black hair stood between them. Vera immediately realised this was Lupe, the seldom-seen leader of the Remaining. Vera had never met her before, and only rarely heard her name, but she somehow felt as though they had known each other a very long time.

Vera and Gareth bowed to the Legionaries, and Lupe began to speak.

"Right, I'll keep this quick. The world is changing. You've heard the rumours. Stories of cities rising out of the End, of strange manors built in the forests, villagers who lose their minds as their skin turns grey, undead flocking around an ancient desert overlord. Wars are starting, cities are being sacked. It's gotten so bad that some even say the bedrock beneath our feet is shifting deeper to get away from all the chaos up here. So far, we've been able to keep the eight villages safe from Illager raids, but I'm not sure we'll be able to keep that going much longer."

Lupe began to walk. Vera strained her eyes and made out the faint outline of a ruined village. She'd heard the wandering traders talk about it, and seen it mentioned in the history books: Sandshard.

"You see," Lupe continued, "The Illagers now have a leader. Or maybe they always did. We've gotten conflicting reports. Whoever he is, this Arch-Illager is now making moves. And, unfortunately, those moves are in our direction."

There was a clang as Gareth knocked his foot off the head of a dead golem, half-swallowed by sand. Lupe gave him a disapproving look and he limped nervously along. Kami patted him comfortingly on the shoulder, and Vera realised that she and Clarke had begun to flank them, as though they were worried they might run off… or someone might try to get the jump on them.

"And suffice it to say, while they have an army, there are only three of us left. And we're still good, the best probably," Vera shot a sceptical look at Clarke who confirmed it with a smug nod that make her smile, "We helped David and Destiny take out the Second Sovereign, in their memory we helped win the Battle of Nexus… but we're getting old. We need a new Legion. A Fourth Legion."

They stopped outside an old hut, made of wood and mossy cobblestone. Sand had begun to pile up around the door, and part of the roof had caved in. The door was weathered and decayed. Still, in the light of the torch, Vera could make out a symbol: a diamond with the word "Legion" carved into it. She and David stared at it like an old acquaintance whose name they couldn't quite remember until Lupe cut in:

"This is the part where you say, 'Where do we come in?'"

"Where do we-"

"Where do we-"

Vera and Gareth stopped, then after a moment of silent gesturing, Vera asked the question:

"What do you need us to do?"

The Remaining had kept them all safe for years. Of course, they'd help out.

Lupe smiled.

"Go into the hut."

The two stepped forward. Gareth pushed the door open with his trident. He looked in. On the other side, the floor had fallen away, revealing a cave filled with water.

"Looks like a pretty steep drop," he remarked. "Granted, water at the bottom. What's in there?"

"You'll know it when you see it," said Lupe with surprising nostalgia.

With that, Gareth shrugged, spread his arms and flopped forward. Vera laughed and jumped in afterwards.

They landed in the water, and down a tunnel, saw a new line of redstone lights. They swam in slow silence, every gulp of air bouncing off the walls and water a million times.

Finally, they came to a small, circular chamber, with a stone table lit by glowstone. There was a waterfall at the far end. It was pretty clear that something was on the other side, but the table called to them.

They waded up to it and looked at each other as its contents became clear. The table had two piles of objects, one at each end. Weapons, books, articles of clothing. Vera found herself drawn to the one at the far right, and Gareth to the one on the left. Her pile was crowned by a weathered bow. His had a broken gauntlet at the foot of it.

"So, do you reckon this is the thing we're supposed to know when we see it?" he asked.

"Yeah, probably… Do you think they wanted just one item, or the whole pile?"

"Might be good to take the whole pile just to be safe," Gareth muttered. "Hope this isn't a secret armoury, a lot of this stuff looks completely ruined. Shame, that gauntlet probably would have been pretty cool back in its day."

He pulled out a bag from his jacket and began to pile items into it. Vera looked at her pile and couldn't take her eyes off the bow.

"I don't know, this bow still looks pretty good."

She touched a hand to it, hoping to test the string. It quivered reliably as ever.

"It's at times like that, I really wish I was any good with a bow," said Vera.

She slung it over her back and turned around and came face to face with a pale, almost transparent face.

"That can be arranged."

Vera screamed and jumped back, pulling out her flint and steel. Gareth leapt into action, pulling out his trident and grabbing a sword. It had a leather handle and a faded gold centrepiece.

"What is it?" he asked.

Vera scowled at Gareth and gestured to the figure who had now appeared. A pale young woman, only slightly older than herself, wearing her brown hair back in a ponytail, and dressing in a grey tank-top and jeans.

"I don't see it, is it a bat or something?" Gareth asked, clueless.

Vera scoffed.

"No, the intruder girl who just jumpscared me!"

Gareth continued to stare blankly, clearly weighing his words in the hopes of not getting hit.

"Yeah, he can't see me, yet," sighed the girl. "Could you please tell him to pick up that gauntlet."

Vera looked back to the table and saw it glinting in the light of the glowstone.

"You seriously can't see her?"

Another examination of the pale young woman revealed she was slightly see-through. Or was it just a trick of the light. She began to rummage around in her pocket.

"No, sorry Vera," said Gareth, now clearly weirded out. "You didn't hit your head in the fall, did you? I've got a health potion on me if you need it?"

"No," Vera said. "I don't think so."

She pulled out a stone and threw it at the pale woman. It passed right through. The pale clenched her fists and assumed a fighting stance.

"You are so lucky I'm dead," said the pale young woman. "Or I would be beating the ever-loving crap out of you right now."

"Okay," Vera said. "Apparently, I've summoned a ghost. Good to know those exist."

Gareth started stroking his chin.

"A ghost?"

"Yep."

"Nope," interjected the pale woman.

Gareth, not hearing her, continued: "Is that why we're here?"

"Huh?"

"To summon the ghost? Maybe it knows something."

The pale lady groaned.

"I'm not a ghost, I'm you." She pointed straight at Vera. "First, I was Anya, then I was me, now I guess me is you… Vera? Yeah, he definitely said Vera. Pleased to meet myself. Tell your buddy to grab the gauntlet."

Vera's mouth opened but no words came out. Gareth started speaking again but Vera shushed him.

"Sorry, did you say Anya?"

The pale woman clenched her teeth and started to tap her foot. She kept looking at the pile with the gauntlet.

"Yes, yes, the leader of the Liberators, I just-"

"Then, does that make you-"

"-Yes, Destiny, who helped stop Martin and later killed the Entity. I teamed up with Freak, got stuck in the Void and then the Entity possessed me before someone, presumably Shadow, shoved me back into this world. That's why I'm a little more transparent than Anya was, and probably where you got that weird lock of grey hair-"

Vera snarled and jutted her head forward in confrontation.

"I like the grey lock."

"Okay but-"

"Clarke says it makes me look wise."

"In that case I was just joking, but please kid just hear me out!"

Destiny was now pleading, crying out for help. Her eyes were desperate. Suddenly Vera saw herself in the stranger's face. Gareth continued to look back and forth between Vera and the empty air. Vera drew back and nodded.

"The fact that I'm back means there's a new evil to beat. And I'm sorry kid, but it's down to you to help stop it."

Destiny stepped forward and pressed her intangible hands against Vera's shoulders.

"I thought this was a curse at first, but to be perfectly honest, I was in a pretty bad spot emotionally at the time. It's not a curse, it's not a blessing, it's exactly what we make of it. And I know this is a lot of pressure, and that you're confused, and scared, and isolated, but I will help guide you through this. Any question you have, I will answer. Does that sound good?"

Destiny had tears in her eyes. Vera, feeling as though she had been struck by lightning, nodded.

"Then I just need you to do one thing for me. A thing I have been waiting twenty years for. Please, ask your pal to pick up that gauntlet."

Vera walked over to the table. Gareth followed. Their footsteps echoed endlessly. Vera picked up the gauntlet and held the cold piece of broken metal out to Gareth.

"Take it."

"Is it safe?"

They locked eyes.

"Trust me."

He placed a hand on the gauntlet and immediately his eyes widened as he saw the ghostly Destiny. However, the pale apparition wasn't looking at them. She had her head turned to the figure beside her.

A man in a blue trenchcoat and a leather chestplate appeared, much more tangible than Destiny. If she hadn't known he was a ghost, Vera would have mistaken him for a real person. His hair was dark and messy, with stubble speckling his chin. He looked tearfully at Destiny, a smile creeping across his face.

"Hello David," said Destiny.

She wiped her cheek. He reached out and touched her arm.

"Hello Destiny," said David.

She wrapped an arm around his neck. He leaned in. Their lips touched, and they collapsed into one another.

Vera realised she had taken Gareth's hand like it was the most natural thing in the world. She looked at the two lovestruck ghosts and marvelled at how this had come about. A magnetism across lives? An instinct across ages? A scene ever-imitated?

Whatever grand narrative had guided her there, she was happy to be part of it.