Silent Darkness

Overnight the haze that smothered Wyndham lifts as abruptly as it settled, and the creatures that stalked the streets vanish along with it. Wary townsfolk crack open their doors and realize the vision they shared in their sleep has become real. Laban rides in at the head of his Arklow Knights and calls the citizens to assemble before the cathedral, urging each of them to rouse their neighbors ahead of a full evacuation.

The knights had braced for panic and are relieved to find the crowd steady instead. Laban divides his force, sending one half to manage the departure while the other rides with him to the royal castle. In the courtyard they find only the emptied garments and dropped weapons of the Kushan sentries, a sight that leaves the men uneasy, and the halls inside prove just as deserted.

Laban notices barred windows crammed with pale gowns to block any view outside, then spots a locked door beside a fallen ring of keys. Behind it wait the captive, unclothed women. When he declares that his knights have arrived to free them, the prisoners stay silent until one girl bursts out that their rescue matches the dream they were given that night. Laban deduces the women plugged the windows themselves to keep the fog away, and he tells them their captors have abandoned the castle.

The knights fan out to open the remaining cells, freeing hundreds more captives. Laban grows anxious, since the swollen number of prisoners plus the entire city will overwhelm the underground waterways he had meant to use as an escape route, leaving no way to clear everyone out before dawn.

The discarded Kushan uniforms give him his answer. As the population gathers at the cathedral, a column of apparent Kushan soldiers files out, and Laban reveals that they are disguised prisoners. The rest of the citizens pull on the same enemy garb, and the whole crowd strolls through the front gate and directly through Ganishka's reassembled army without drawing a single glance.

The cathedral chosen as the gathering point takes its design from the real Notre-Dame de Reims in France.