"We can try," I said.
Professor Atwood added, "I don't think it would hurt to have someone accompany you."
"I guess that makes sense," I said. "We should try it."
We waited for several weeks until the classes had begun to find a rhythm again. I prepared myself mentally, but it still felt difficult. Was I ready to see my mother, if we could even find her? Ever since last year I was developing a strong sense of loss, for a life I never had. I had grown up without a mother, but now I knew I had one and she wasn't even human. When the day had come Kairn came to Halewick house and we went up to my room.
"The way I did this last time, was to open a hallow and go from there," I explained.
"That works for me," He agreed. We put our hands together as we had so many months ago. That class was the first time we had done ever done magic together. The Hallow opened nearly instantaneously. I forgot how much more powerful the magic was when there were two of us.
"IT's the same as I remember," He said.
I laughed. "Don't get used to it, the place we are going doesn't have nearly as good lighting," It somehow helped to try to make light of the situation.
I opened the door to the Liminal World. IT was becoming easier and easier to slip through the veil between the worlds, but it was no less frightening. I reached out for Kairn's hand and we stepped forward into the door.
"The Liminal World is different," I explained as we starting walking through the mist. "Time doesn't work the same here."
In his God form, Kairn walked out into the dark and mysterious world before us. The sludge was much worse than before. It covered every surface now and had grown up steadily to cover even the highest branches of trees. It was pulsing with some sort of dark energy.
"What is this stuff?" He asked.
"I don't know, but it's been here for a while now. It's what trapped Aria." I explained.
"It must be part of the Unsettling," He said, staring out at it. We made our way along a forest path.
"I know somewhere we can go. There's a group of standing stones. It's where I found the missing clock piece. The last time I was here, the sludge wasn't there yet." I said and we shifted paths. I hoped there was somewhere left uncovered.
"How far away is it?" He said, starting to run a little faster.
"I'm not sure, but running won't help," I tried to make him understand. "IN this place, you get there when you get there. You can't really move any faster or slower." He seemed frustrated but assented. I added, "It's better not to fight it."
We traveled to the ruins and I told him everything I could about the Liminal. I also told him how it scared me. When we got to the circular group of standing stones I was relieved to see that it was still free of sludge. There was great power in this site.
"What is this place?" He asked, incredulous as he stared at the jagged formation of the stones.
"I think it has something to do with my mother," I explained. "When you look at the whole formation, it looks like her crown."
"Maybe there's something here that can tell us how to find her," He said. WE began to search the area for any sign of runes or inscriptions. The mist clung heavily to the stones and it was difficult to see at times. Staring into the trees around us, I kept thinking I could see shadows moving. That couldn't be true, because nothing really moved here. Movement was for the living. The only movement that I could tell here was from myself and the slow creep of the sludge. Still, out of the corner of my eye, something caught my attention. It was circling the perimeter of the stones.
I pointed it out to Kairn silently. I saw the power in his eyes, the golden glow of magic running through his veins. He pulled me behind him. The shadow approached us. It was shrouded in mist but appears to be of tall stature. It felt like we were stuck, the sludge is all around us, surrounding everything in the Liminal World. We couldn't back away, we could only face it head-on. As it approaches I can see that it was a man. Strangely enough, it was a very well dressed man. AS far as I could tell, he was tall and handsome with well-coiffed blonde hair. He seemed young, but his features were inscrutable. It was hard to tell. He wore an exotic suit of deep blue with gold accents. He walked through the sludge to get to us but didn't seem to be hindered by it. I was entranced by him. How was he getting to us so quickly? He had no malice on his face. His features were smooth and peaceful.
Kairn was agitated as the figure approached me.
"Hello," he said. "Daughter of the Ancient One."
"That name, how do you know it?" I asked him. I didn't sense danger from him. I whispered to Kairn, "That's what the watchers called me."
The handsomely dressed man answered, "Is that not a fitting name for you, my dear. You are after all the daughter of the Queen of Witches." Kairn gripped my hand tight, pulling me closer to him.
"Don't worry," He soothed Kairn. "I mean her no harm."
"Do you know my mother," I asked.
"Quite well," He said, "We often found occasion to meet here."
"Who are you," Kairn sound, his voice a low growl.
"I am the Aeons, the Lord of the Great River that flows and twists," He said with a flare of his hands. I had to admit, he had style.
"You're the God of Time," I guessed.
"Very true," He grinned widely.
"Has Sybelle ever seen you, like this I mean?" I asked, feeling my curiosity get the better of me.
"Not yet," He said, "But one day she will."
Kairn nudged me with his elbow. Right, maybe he could help us.
"Do you know where we can find my mother?" I pleaded with him.
"Unfortunately not, my dear. She is gone." He said.
"What do you mean she's gone? We have to find her to stop the Unsettling." I said, my words spilling out like a torrent.
"Ah." He said sadly. "While I wish that it were still possible, it is not. She has gone on like the wind, taken a new form."
"So how are we supposed to find the new Gatekeeper?" I begged.
"Now my dear, surely you already know." He said. "It's why she made you."
My heart raced, but I knew that his words were true. Kairn seemed to grasp it at the same time as I did.
"It's me isn't it," I said slowly.
"It could be you." He nodded. "If you choose it."
"Do I have a choice?" I said, surprised.
"There is almost always a choice. But to answer your question yes. And you should think about it carefully because this choice will mean a sacrifice." He spoke.
"What are my alternatives?" I tried to bargain, but I knew he was not in charge of this decision.
"Well, you can choose to be the Gatekeeper, and forsake your human life. You will become fully goddess and the Unsettling will End. You will guide the souls of the dead home."
"Will I lose everything in my human life?" I looked at Kairn, but I was thinking of my friends too. What would I do without them? I would be alone.
"Yes, but things will be different. Time won't mean anything to you anymore. You wouldn't be the same to them or they to you." He was looking at me with sincerity. It didn't feel like he was pitying me. He must know what it is like to be alone.
"What is my other option?" I asked. There had to be another way.
"Let the Unsettling take its course, and deal with the consequences." He said.
Kairn interjected, "We'll find a way, Esther."
The God of Time looked on us thoughtfully. "Don't make the mistake of underestimating the consequences. The spirits of the dead have to go somewhere. They will be drawn to you. And not only the spirits of the dead, but other entities too."
"How long do I have to decide?" I asked.
"Time doesn't work as you see it. You have as long as you need, but it may really be only as long as you can handle the Unsettling. Right now it's beginning, but soon it will be unavoidable. In any case, you can return here at any time. I will guide you through the process." He offered kindly.
"I have to think," I said.
&n
bsp; "Of course," he nodded.
Kairn hissed, "Let's get out of here." He squeezed my hand.
"Feel free to go at any time," The God of Time wished us well and saw us off.
It wasn't clear if he did something, but we were back in my room before I knew what happened.
14
As soon as we were back on solid ground, I collapsed on the ground and cried. The tears felt unending. I had been holding back some of these emotions for a lifetime. As I sobbed, Kairn wrapped me in his arms and held me. I thought that it would never end, but eventually, it did and I fell into sleep.
I woke up to a chorus of knocks on my door. I opened it to find everyone in Halewick house right outside my room. I blushed when I realized that they could see Kairn in my room too, but I didn't feel like explaining.
Sybelle was the first to speak. "You've seen him, haven't you?" She asked, eyes wide.
"Seen who?" It took me a moment to clear the fog from my brain.
"Aeon." She said softly. The God of Time. Of course, he would have told her that he met me.
I put a pair of slippers on and gestured for Kairn to follow. We all went downstairs to the Sitting Room. Maeve made everyone steaming mugs of tea and then we talked.
"I did meet him yes," I admitted. "This whole thing with the Unsettling, It has a lot more to do with me, than I thought," I explained everything that he had told us, that I had to make a choice.
Ligeia finally spoke after a long period of being uncharacteristically silent, "I've got an idea." She said.
"Let's hear it," I said, not sure what to expect from her.
"This won't solve all your problems, but it may help a little bit. If he said that you can choose to become the Gatekeeper at any time, then we don't actually have to deal with that right now. What does seem like more of an issue is the Sludge. My guess is that it is an entity of some sort that leaves behind the sludge. We just need to find the entity and trap it." She added. "And if there's one thing I'm good at, it's setting up a trap." She laughed. She was bound to the Trickster God after all.
Maeve spoke first, "What do you have in mind?"
"Okay, here's the deal. If things are drawn to you because of your power why not pretend to have more power than you do, to draw them in even faster. I bet if you go into the Liminal World and pretend to be the Queen of Witches, maybe do some flashy magic, the sludge creature will come right to you. Then Kairn can banish it, right?" She sounded pleased with herself.
Sybelle chimed in, "That might actually work."
I looked at Kairn and he shrugged. "We might as well give it a try."
'We've just been there," I said, "So perhaps it won't be expecting us."
We agreed to it and began to make preparations. I was feeling charged up and ready to take down this thing.
"What do you think it looks like?" He asked.
"I don't know, but Aria thought it looked like me," I laughed bitterly.
"Hmm, maybe you frightened her when you took her out of there." He suggested.
"Why would I frighten her?" I was puzzled.
"Have you seen what you look like in the Liminal World?" He asked simply.
"No, it's not like there are mirrors anywhere." I was growing increasingly suspicious.
"Well, if she didn't know what to expect, you might have scared her, because you look like the daughter of a Goddess." He explained.
"We don't have time to argue about this right now," I laughed, but inside I did feel curious.
Maeve and Ligeia created a crown for me to wear based on the description I gave them and a rough sketch. I chose a long flowing white dress with gold ribbon embroidered on the sleeves from my closet that seemed to have manifested just for this purpose.
Back to the Hallow, we went and I held Kairn's hand as we slipped through the veil. This time the wind between the worlds was stronger and I felt a small push towards the Liminal World.
My voice echoed strangely in the dream-like world, "I think the center of the sludge is where the Fen should be. That's where I found Aria." I told him.
"Let's head that way then," He said.
"IT's this way," I directed us down the now-familiar path. I almost felt like I was getting used to the Liminal World. I wasn't fighting against it anymore and it didn't seem like it was taking as long to move around anymore. I wondered what would happen if I tried to get to the Fen a little quicker. Suddenly it was like the fabric of reality around us folded in on itself. IT was a disorienting feeling and Kairn wrapped his arm around me tightly.
"What was that?' He growled.
"I think I did it," I said. "I was trying to take us to the Fen a little faster, but I don't know how I did it exactly."
When everything around us reformed I was shocked to see the state of things. The Fen was filled with sludge to the point that it was unrecognizable. Person-sized forms were sitting all throughout the sludge. As we approached I saw that they were humanoid in resemblance, but not alive.
"That looks like Luke," Kairn called out from a few yards away.
I looked where he was pointing and saw that he was right. It did look like Luke. It was like the sludge had created models of all the students at the Academy. Was it somehow drawing power from these representations of them? It wasn't as bad as it had been when it trapped Aria, but it was very disturbing.
"I think it's siphoning magic off the students at the school," I said, feeling worried.
"I think you're right." He said. "We should do this now."
I agreed, whatever it was doing to the school was very ominous. I began to carry out the plan. I put the crown on my head and began to perform any magic that I could think of. I started with bursts of light from my hands. It was purely ornamental, but I hoped that this thing wouldn't know that. The golden sparks of luminescence began to spiral around me. I created intricate patterns of swirls, losing myself in the beauty of what I was creating. After endless minutes, I began to feel my own magic lifting me. It was pulling me into the air. My magic was different here, stronger. I could do more than I ever knew. I let it carry me up into the air. I was spinning, surrounded by the show of power.
"Something's over there," Kairn shouted. "Keep going."
I increased the intensity, adding more colors and arching starbursts of flame. It was all I could do to keep going when I saw what he was talking about. There was a figure moving toward Kairn under the sludge. It was created out of the dark slime. It appeared as an old man holding a lantern, but the closer it got, it began to morph. It had a thousand different faces, shifting so fast we could barely register the difference between them.
Kairn's hair began to fly out, and I saw his glowing eyes fill with power. His tattoos were pulsing with life and I knew he was preparing to fight. He reached for his belt and pulled out a sword. The thin edge looked unbelievably sharp. As the figure moved towards him he slashed at it. His sword cut right through the slime, but the figure reformed immediately a few paces away. IT seemed unharmed. I tried to distract it by pushing the light out towards it and it took the bait. It came towards me like a moth to the light.
"Now's your chance," I screamed as Kairn pursued the creature.
He pushed his sword into the figure of the old man, but this time the creature let out a piercing shriek. It collapsed into the sludge laying formless.
"Is it dead?" Kairn asked, speechless.
"I don't think so," I said as I felt a strong pulse of energy from the slime all around us.
Suddenly a fountain of dark oily liquid came spurting out from the center of the Fen. The jet of sludge solidified into a giant creature, standing as tall as the trees. It had the face of a million screams. I cried out for Kairn to get out of its way. It slammed down a huge fist in the spot that Kairn had been standing.
"I can't kill it," He yelled, as he circled the inscrutable enemy. I wracked my brain trying to think of a solution. What could I do?
He dodged the creature as I resumed trying to distract it. It was minimally e
ffective and the creature maintained the majority of its focus on crushing Kairn.
"Do something, Esther," He called out.
"What should I do?" I screamed desperately.
"Do you remember what you did to the demon last year?" He said as it circled him.
"I burned it somehow," I yelled back.
"Can you try that again?"
"I can't get that close to it, or it will swallow me whole," I yelled, staring at the gargantuan slime monster.
"Just do anything," He yelled, as it took another swipe at him. He barely missed it.
I flew up higher into the trees, carried by the swirling light around me. I need to get a vantage point of the area. When I reached the top of the tree line, I could see that the slime was radiating out from the Fen. I remembered the feeling of the awakening when I had realized that I was the child of a Goddess. It was pure fire. I tried to capture the feeling of that pure burning. I channeled it into the core of my being, allowing it to become me. I could feel the burning deep in my soul. IT was my birthright.
With a deep scream I let it out, the fire exploded out from me in a ball of pure energy. It hit the creature dead center and the sludge monster collapsed again. It reappeared, but smaller this time. I released another explosion of fire and some of the sludge began to smolder, spreading the flames.
"You should get out of the way," I screamed to Kairn. He backed out of the Fen. "Head to the Standing Stones. It's safe there." I said. I didn't know that for sure, but it felt right. I saw him start that way and I released another jolt of flame. It felt effortless and good, but with each burst of fire, I knew that I was getting closer to the edge. I could only unlock so much power before I fell over the precipice. I thought about what the God of Time had said. I was the next Gatekeeper. What did it mean to choose?
To Choose would simply be to follow that path. I didn't have to ask permission to go down that road. If I chose, I could open that door right now, but I knew that once it was opened I couldn't come back.
I screamed as I tried to control the fire in myself. It was hard but I managed. I burned up every last inch of the Fen until no sign of the sludge remained. The fire spread through the slime until all of it was burnt. Charred ground was the only thing left. I let myself back down on the ground and saw one last remaining evidence of the creature. The lantern sat pristine on the ground in the center of the Fen, the tool that had lured Aria into its clutches. I took a large stick from the ground and bashed the lantern, shattering the glass. It exploded, sending flying shards everywhere. I hid my face with my arm as the shrapnel flew through the air. When I looked back the light was out.
Unbroken: Mage's Academy II Page 8