Umwelt: Darkness Flows Like A River Episode 28: Darkness Falls

Their footsteps on the stairs ringing like bells, Imalia and her daughters scale the inner staircase of the tower. Imalia’s veil whips behind her, a purple cloud. Her excitement fills the narrow space, her impatience bites at it with hungry teeth.

‘Hurry,’ she says, barely out of breath despite the speed of her ascent, the weight of her skirts, the clutch of her corset on tender lungs. ‘Hurry, girls. It grows near. So very soon it will be strong enough to come to us. It needs our help.’

Her dau...