The Mate I Never Chose
Dust and pulverized rock rained down as a figure stepped through the swirling debris.
Datu Bua stood silhouetted against the dark jungle, his robes embroidered with shifting, oily sigils. He didn't look like a warrior; he looked like a butcher. Behind him, the shadows of the forest coalesced into the hunched, twitching forms of a dozen dark shamans.
"The anchor," Bua rasped, his voice sounding like dry leaves skittering on glass. "And the last of the Buntu rot."
Rangga stood up, his body radiating an aura that turned the cave air into static. He didn't feel afraid. He felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff, waiting to jump.