As for Ryan and the others, it was time to go home. Rather than returning to Thiat, they would use the other Quest Ring in Aker, declining any attempt at a banquet or celebration. King Sondin had enough to worry about rebuilding his kingdom anyway, and no real staff set up to do such a thing. He settled for a procession that led them to the half-burned Castle Rivina. He could do nothing to restore it yet, but when they arrived in the room where their battle with Dravo had taken place, there were no bodies. They hadn’t been sure what to expect. King Sondin couldn’t keep the frown from his face as he surveyed the damage, vowing out loud to have it all restored.
Eric wanted a moment alone with the three of them, so they went to one side of the hall to speak. “The last time we returned to Earth, we aimed for nighttime. But this time, all of us were at Jack’s except Anna. It should be midday, and maybe there is enough activity at the hospital that you can lose yourself in it on the way out. It depends on how well that room is being watched.”
Ryan said to her, “We know that we always return to where we were, but we aren’t sure if anyone else knows that, but I think they do because of you disappearing and reappearing on the highway. Someone may be waiting for you.”
Eric looked concerned as he said, “There is probably still a warrant for your arrest. There might be someone in the hospital room you were in, either a patient or police.”
Ryan frowned. “Yeah, the bed might have someone in it. I hope you don’t end up on top of them or something. Not really sure how that works.”
Anna asked, “What if something occupies the space we were occupying?”
Matt spoke up. “I know the answer to this from my talks with Lorian. You just get moved over to the nearest space. Most teleport spells have this sort of thing built into them. I think we can assume Soliander was smart enough to do this with the return spell.”
“Good point,” Eric agreed and turned to Anna. “Listen, regardless of what happens, you need to be ready.”
“Yeah, I know,” she said irritably.
“I’m not trying to boss you around. Just thinking out loud.”
“Yeah, okay. Sorry. It just stresses me out every time we do this.”
“I know. I’m sorry, but maybe we can start working on getting those Home Rings set up.”
Ryan did not know how they were going to get that done, but it was definitely needed. So was a home base they could stay in and use for training. He wondered if his attorney or Jack had done anything for that in their absence, but it had been just over a day, so probably not. Sometimes it seemed like more time was passing from all the actions they had to take. Quests made for long days.
At least they hadn’t been stuck on this planet for weeks, as he’d assumed would happen when he learned of the quest to restore a king to power. He just wanted to feel in control of his life again, but saw no sign of that happening soon. Anna was the more immediate concern this time, just like last time. He thought of something to help her.
“If people are in the room when you arrive,” he began, “they will call security. I think you need to run out of there and hide. We can send Jack to get you.”
Anna admitted, “Not sure I want to go back.”
Eric pursed his lips in commiseration. “It will be okay, Anna.”
“Will it?” she asked. “I’ve killed one of my friends, maimed another, and paralyzed one for life. I hurt several more and destroyed their property. I have all these lawsuits coming. There’s an arrest warrant.”
Ryan had almost forgotten all of that and put an arm around her, saying he would use his family’s lawyers and money to fight everything for her if he could. She did not have to go through this alone or be financially destroyed. There were other problems, of course, but in the back of his mind was the possibility that she could heal those who had been hurt. They hadn’t talked about it in a while because he didn’t want to pressure her, but he never forgot it.
One day, hopefully soon, she would heal his brother Daniel, who could finally walk again. Anna could heal her friend, and as someone who had been paralyzed herself and knew what it was to walk again because she had been healed, the importance of it had to be apparent to her. Maybe he would talk about it with her soon, but not now. They needed to get home and be safe again, even if for just a little while. Anna, of all people, had felt this taken from her the most.
With the King of Aker waiting for them, along with those gathered to see them leave, the Ellorian Champions gathered inside the Quest Ring, confident it could send them home again even though it wasn’t the one that had brought them. That didn’t seem to matter, at least according to Matt. If it did, it wouldn’t take more than a few hours to get back to Thiat and go home that way. But it worked. The familiar sights and sounds of a quest starting or ending enveloped them as another world disappeared from around them and they found themselves headed for Earth.
Chapter 16 – Reunions
Anna braced herself for arrival. She really hated not knowing what awaited her. Leaving Earth was one thing, but being able to relax on the way back would have been nice. At least a car would not hit her this time, although being arrested wasn’t great either. Nor was shocking people who might scream and calling all sorts of attention to her. The idea of fleeing in a hospital gown with her butt visible made her smile. She tried to hope for the best as her friends assumed their Earth clothes before her. She felt herself wearing the thin gown, but she had forgotten having both legs and one arm in casts. Then the vortex of light ended.
The hospital room was empty, but the wooden door was wide open. She breathed a sigh of relief but had to grab the wall one with hand to steady herself. How was she supposed to get out of these casts? She felt healed and rested as usual, but walking without bending either leg had her wobbling toward the bathroom to get out of sight. If someone saw her like this, the attention would be immediate. She got inside and closed the door to remain hidden, listening intently. Her familiarity with hospitals meant she knew where to get a cast saw, but she would never make it there, even if she waited until nightfall, because plenty of nurses were still around then.
The guys had to come get her. And find a saw, plus some clothing. It was the only way. She cracked the door, looking for a phone she saw on the wall. A call to them would set that in motion, but they might see her doing it. She wasn’t sure where her room was, near a nurse’s station or farther away. Anna sighed. She was tiring of this whole thing. The likelihood of getting caught and arrested made her want to just walk out of there and not even bother trying to get away.
Footsteps sounded in the hall and she shrank back as a man and woman began arguing.
“Miss, you can’t go in there.” A guard. The room was guarded, after all.
“Oh, I’ll just be a minute. I wanted to see what the rooms are like.” The woman’s steps came closer.
“This one is off limits. You’ll have to–”
“I’ll just be a minute.”
More footsteps, this time from both, getting nearer. They had entered the room.
“Miss. Miss!”
“Does this one have a decent view? I so dislike not being able to see out.”
“Okay, look, you’ve seen the–”
“Sleep.”
The sound of a body hitting the floor made Anna’s eyes widen. Had the woman just cast a spell on the guard? The woman’s steps moved away and the room door closed with only a faint sound, but the lock turning made a louder click. Anna backed up as the woman’s footsteps approached the bathroom door. There was nowhere to hide if it opened, but the steps stopped just outside it, a shadow visible under the door.
“Anna,” said a woman’s voice, “it’s Eriana.”
Relief washed over Anna, and she peeked out to see her smiling savior holding a white plastic bag. An unconscious police officer lay on the floor. She let out a big breath and laughed. “I am so glad to see you right now,” she said emphatically.
“The feeling is mutual. Let’s get you on the bed a
nd out of that stuff. The officer will be fine and should wake soon, but we’ll need to be gone, of course.” She helped Anna wobble over to and onto the hospital bed.
“Do you know how to use that thing?” Anna asked on seeing the cast saw in Eriana’s purse. She had never felt so happy to see one.
“Sort of. I’ve been watching videos.”
Anna smiled, not reassured by that. “Well, I do. This is the hospital where I work, which means I really need a disguise to get out of here without being recognized.”
“I have a hat and sunglasses for you, too.”
“Okay.”
They slowly cut through the cast on her arm first, and then Anna took over doing the upper part of one leg cast and teaching Eriana how to do the lower part. It took uncomfortably long to get them all off, at which point Anna changed into the undergarments, jeans, and t-shirt. She put her hair in a ponytail and pulled it through a baseball cap, impressed with Eriana’s thoughtfulness. Then she donned the glasses she didn’t really need and exited the room, which she now learned was toward the end of a hall, making it easier to be undisturbed. The officer was the only one here right now. They went down a stairway just a few steps away.
“You’re a real lifesaver,” Anna said, her voice full of gratitude, a feeling that was becoming common. That she needed a lot of help wasn’t something she was accustomed to, but the devastating nature of her problems blew past any pride she might have felt about going it alone. Self-reliance was great, but she didn’t care anymore. Let the help come by the truckloads. She was entirely happy to rely on others and eager to show her appreciation, which made her wonder how to do so for the woman she was so often impersonating now. What was an appropriate thank you gift for healing your paralysis, or knocking out a police officer, or rescuing you from impending jail time? Was a fruit basket not enough? She laughed a little, needing some comic relief even if she had to provide it herself.
Eriana smiled. “That’s been the literal truth in my past.”
“How did you know I arrived?”
“Hidden camera with motion detection,” she said, slipping something tiny into her purse. “They have guarded the room since you disappeared, but I was able to flirt my way inside and plant one. I’ve been hanging out nearby or in the cafeteria or other waiting rooms since then.”
They soon left the hospital by a side door and walked across the parking lot to Eriana’s white BMW rental car. As the car started and they buckled up, they saw officers running into the hospital.
“I guess they’ve seen the guy you put to sleep. Or the casts. Maybe we should’ve hidden those.”
“Maybe.” The priestess handed her a red phone. “Why don’t you call the others.”
“Right.” Anna called Eric first, filling him in, then asking her driver, as they headed down the road, “Where are we going?”
“Back to Jack’s apartment, as quickly as we dare. I don’t want you disappearing from a moving car again.”
Anna had no argument against that. Along the way, they discussed the Corethian Amulet, which Eriana had in her purse. She asked Anna to take it out. She did, a weird feeling coming over her at the familiar sight of it. So far, they never saw something on Earth that they had seen on a quest. Though she had just been wearing a copy, seeing it on Earth brought a dose of reality to her. She shuddered, tears springing into her eyes before fading. The strict separation between quests and Earth had just ended for her, and though it had already been obvious that her life had changed forever, something about this brought it crashing in on her. She felt inexplicably lonely, frightened, and like the universe was infinitely bigger than she had known. And she was lost in it.
That reminded her of the trouble awaiting her, but when asked, Eriana said there had been no real developments. The police were obviously looking for her, but no one knew anything, though reports of her disappearance were all over the news despite it not being witnessed.
“Do you know how to create the Home Rings?” she asked. “I know Soliander did most of it, but the guys said you helped with the healing part of the Quest Rings.”
Eriana turned off the highway into the even heavier side-street traffic. “I’m afraid I don’t know enough, or have the power to make one. I just know what they’re supposed to do. I think if we can get the four of you settled somewhere and you don’t leave, you will be fine until we can create them. One thing I know is that you need soclarin ore.”
That didn’t surprise her. “That’s interesting. We gave some to Lorian when we were on Honyn.” She sighed. “If only we knew how to contact him.”
“There are ways to send messages. Matt can look into it and either do it from here or the next time you are on a quest. It would be easier if you’re already on Honyn, of course.”
Talk soon turned to how to use the amulet, but there wasn’t much to it. Anna would need to concentrate her will on it, and her emotions, opening herself to the touch of a god who might help her. The amulet would collect that energy and act as a kind of beacon to the gods of a world, whether she knew their names or anything about them or not. It facilitated an initial contact and all subsequent ones, but that was not all. The amulet helped channel power from that god under certain circumstances, mostly offensive ones, like when she had done things to the undead in Ortham.
For healing, the amulet didn’t do that, as Anna’s body was the conduit instead. It seemed to make sense to her, and Eriana suggested she try using it here on Earth to contact God for the first time. That seemed like a good idea, but she felt afraid of getting an answer. She still resisted the notion that He was real.
But she needed to get over it. And she wanted to. She had a friend to visit and see about healing because, inadvertently or not, Anna was responsible for what had happened to her. That was a conversation she badly wanted to have but was also afraid to do. And there was the issue of traveling there. There was too much risk to herself. Maybe she could send Eriana to heal Raven, but the real Light Bringer reminded her that even she was not strong enough to do it yet. Anna knew it to be true because Eriana would have healed her. Raven might have to wait.
The same went for Daniel. Ryan hadn’t brought up the subject of healing his brother for a while, a fact for which she was grateful. But Anna felt a new appreciation for his guilt in causing the paralysis, a new sympathy and compassion that had made her want to hug him more than once and apologize, not for anything specific, but in case she had ever seemed dismissive or frustrated with his requests to heal Daniel.
She had paralyzed Raven by accident, just like he had done to Daniel. Having been paralyzed, she knew the fear and uncertainty of it. Raven was likely still in that same spiritual place. Daniel was not, having been in a wheelchair most of his life. How would he react to the possibility of being able to walk again? In theory, he would be all for it, but after so much time, there had to be some adjustments he would go through. While she assumed this would be positive, maybe he would resist such a tremendous change to his life.
Jade had lost both legs, and Anna didn’t know if she would ever be strong enough with healing to fix damage like that. Even Eriana might not. That Jade would never dance again filled her with a different grief, because all of Jade’s ambitions and dreams were about that, and Anna had killed them, probably forever. And even if it wasn’t, Jade had no way of knowing that. Anna wasn’t sure she could ever face her and the unspeakable loss she had caused.
Worse than all of this was that Heather was dead. She had had little time to come to terms with it, other than those awful hours in the hospital. The strong desire to visit her grave—if she had even been buried yet, and she didn’t know—would have to wait. These Home Rings were everything and needed to become top priority. The random summoning was bad enough by itself, but having to be virtually imprisoned in Jack’s apartment, or somewhere else, so they would be safe when they returned caused too many problems.
Looking at the phone in her hand as Eriana neared Jack’s apartment, she wondered if
she should call her parents. Would someone tap the phone? Would an email give away her location? What was happening with any lawsuits or other legal problems? She felt relieved as they parked. Jack hopefully knew these things. She badly needed an update and wasn’t even sure where they had left off with any plans to create a home base that wasn’t his apartment.
The champions soon reunited with Eriana and Jack being the only other two present. They dialed Ryan’s attorney and Daniel for an update and planning session. The first surprise was minor; Eric and Ryan had been on the couch when summoned and had reappeared there, but Matt had been in the bathroom. Instead of arriving there, he was standing in Jack’s kitchen. Anna had also not appeared on the empty hospital bed, but standing a few feet away. She hadn’t actually noticed this. They didn’t know what it meant, but clearly the return spell wasn’t foolproof. Eriana speculated that the blast that had freed the real champions from questing had added some unpredictability to being sent home.
From Quincy, the lawyer, they learned that Heather’s parents had filed a wrongful death civil suit against Anna, who just wanted to settle and get it over with. Both Jade and Raven were discussing legal action or their parents were. Ryan and Eriana both pledged to take care of it, financially, so Quincy would represent the matter and make it “go away” as she said. They could handle the other suits for various kinds of other damages the same way. The accidents had involved other cars.
Anna wasn’t sure how to feel about all of it, from guilt over what happened to guilt that others were dealing with her problems. And part of her just didn’t care, having too many problems as it was. She didn’t want to think about it, didn’t want to try talking to Heather’s parents or anyone else, but she felt she owed it to them and that not doing anything was cowardice. But until they fixed this Home Ring situation, it would have to wait. And if the victims did not understand this, and they likely wouldn’t given her inability to tell the truth, there wasn’t much she could do about it. More powerlessness made her sigh in frustration and turn her mind to things she could resolve.
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