by Elon Vidal
Lucy bit her lip. She was the one to bring the end of days, but not this way. Definitely not by ending life. Was this the reason the book of prophecies was leading her to Netherim? To stop the shadow dwellers before they could wreak havoc on the real world?
“I… I have no idea what to do about that,” Lucy finally said, letting out a tired breath.
She couldn't fathom going against the creatures who had taken Anwar's sight, and the weirdest thing was that it was because a part of her was sympathizing with the shadow dwellers. She felt it was wrong to come at them violently. Maybe they were just misunderstood. They needed the light. Anything that needed to come in contact with the light was good, right? No, Lucy, don't think about that. She decided she was probably just tired and her thoughts were jumbled.
“Will I be able to ever see again?” Anwar asked aloud, staring straight ahead.
“He was blinded by the shadow dwellers,” Didi explained, placing a hand on Anwar's shoulder to her right.
Wolfe's eyes widened as he stared at Anwar's eyes. “Oh dear, that's bad. I've only heard of a few instances where they strike out of anger and blind their victims. There's a river, though, that could cure him. The Styx —”
“No,” Madge interrupted him. There was a coldness in her eyes and voice that scared Lucy.
“Why no?” Crick asked in a small voice.
“Not everyone who goes into the water survives it,” said Madge, scowling at Wolfe.
“But can't you give it a try? He would be permanently blind if you don't,” Molly added.
“He could die if we do,” Madge argued. “I'm not willing to take that risk.”
“Madge, there's gotta be a way to go around the dangers,” Lucy spoke up. Gesturing towards Wolfe, she said, “I mean, he wouldn't suggest this if it hasn't worked before, right?”
Wolfe nodded. “It has worked a few times.”
Madge still shook her head in disagreement. “The mortality rate is too high.”
Didi chimed in with her opinion. “It won't really hurt to try. Unless he dies, then yeah, that's bad.”
“Okay, stop!” Anwar yelled, silencing the whole table. “This is my decision to make, right?”
Madge wasn't having any of that. “You're just a child, Anwar.”
Anwar cringed, but continued anyway. “I want to go to the river. I can't live like this.”
Madge was about to speak but Phoebe reached over Crick's head and placed a hand on Madge's shoulder.
“I might have a loophole to assure his safety,” she told her aunt, “but I need some time to think about it. Anwar,” she turned to the boy, “you'll get to the Styx, just give me a day to come up with something.”
Anwar gave a grateful smile in Phoebe's general direction, and Lucy let out a breath she had been holding. There could be a way to get Anwar's sight back! It was only a matter of patience and effort to make that happen, and to have Anwar back in one piece.
While Wolfe brought up story about how he learned to cook for the first time, Lucy drifted in and out of the idle conversation at the table. A thought echoed in her head.
Find the light…
The thought she had snagged from the shadow dweller back at the cave, but this time, it was saying more. This part of the thought hadn't been there the first time. Why could she hear it now?
...meet at the Prism monument.
Find the light. Meet at the Prism monument.
Find the light. Meet at the Prism monument.
Find the light. Meet at the Prism monument.
The more Lucy tried to push away the thought, the more it resounded in her head, until she felt like tugging out her hair. She hit her fist on the table, making the cutlery jump and startling the others into silence, and thankfully stopping the echo of words in her head.
“What's the matter?” Ivar asked her, concerned.
“Uh… I accidentally bit my tongue while eating,” Lucy said, knowing fully well that wasn't what happened. How would she start to explain how some shadow's thought was starting to get obsessive in her mind?
“Are you sure?” Didi asked, pushing a glass of water forward to Lucy.
Lucy took a sip of the water, then got up and pushed back her chair. “Excuse me, I need to lie down. I feel a headache coming on.”
Madge raised a hand with green sparkles floating around it. “Let me help —”
“No, no, I'm sure it'll go away when I lie down,” Lucy refused. “I just need rest.”
Without waiting for anyone else to speak, Lucy turned and hurried into the adjoining hall and up the stairs. The house had two floors, and once again, she wondered what someone like Wolfe was doing with so much space.
Shutting the door of the room she would be sharing with Didi, Lucy stripped and took a hot shower, but the thoughts still echoed.
Lucy pulled a pillow over her head, trying to block out the intrusive thoughts, but the problem was in her head. After a while of fighting against it in vain, Lucy decided to find the monument. She had no idea how to get there, but felt like she was doing the right thing. Her inner self reached out, trying to get her to alert the others before doing anything, that this wasn't normal, but Lucy shut the little voice out.
This would be her little secret.
Find the light…
“Lucy?” Ivar called from the other side of the door. He knocked twice, and when he didn't get any response, he slowly opened the door and looked in.
Lucy was dressed in a black hoodie she found in the closet, a size too big for her slim frame, but it served its purpose. Her jeans were also black, along with her sneakers, and she was stuffing a muffler into her backpack where the Lumenary Prophetiae and The Witchlight Quest both lay.
“Where are you going?” Ivar asked, stepping into the room and closing the door.
“The Prism monument,” was Lucy's sharp reply.
“Why?”
Lucy stopped packing and stared at him for a second, before zipping up her bag and pulling it over her shoulder. “I don't know, but I don't think I can sleep if I don't get there as soon as possible. Why are you here anyways?”
Ivar raised both eyebrows and pointed at Lucy's dragon bracelet. “You called.”
Lucy glanced at her bracelet, then at Ivar. The bracelet still looked as normal as ever, not glowing orange. Maybe she missed the glow while she was focused on getting to the monument as fast as possible. After a moment's silence, she said, “Come with me.”
“Alright. I can help,” Ivar responded almost immediately. Lucy glanced at him, but decided not to dwell on that for long. He could just be concerned about her safety.
When they were ready, Lucy lifted the window, allowing ice cold air into the room. She turned to Ivar and asked, “You sure you're all set, going in that?”
Ivar looked down his body. He was in a simple pale blue T-shirt and jeans. “What's wrong with my clothes?”
“Oh, nothing. I guess the freezing air doesn't bother you.”
“I hope you don't plan on jumping from this height,” Ivar said. “We're about twenty feet off the ground.”
“Get me some water,” Lucy requested as she looked down from the window, the icy wind twirling through her ponytail.
“What? Why —”
“Just do it!” Lucy cut Ivar off before he could protest.
He gave her a weird look before leaving the room. Lucy inhaled deeply and sat on the window sill. She couldn't take it anymore. She had to get to the Prism monument, despite not knowing where it was. She would find out some way.
“Water,” Ivar said as he handed her two bottles of water.
Lucy took them, turned the caps and spilled everything on the carpeted floor. Ivar's jaw hung loose as he looked from soaked carpet to Lucy.
“What is wrong with you?” he asked.
“Nothing.” Lucy tossed the empty plastic bottles aside and stretched out her hands, pulling the water molecules from the pale orange carpet. A large blob of water formed between her hands and
the carpet was as dry as before.
Ivar placed his hands on his hips and frowned. “What are you trying to do? I'm more confused than I usually am in Spell Calculus.”
“Just be quiet and watch.”
Taking a small blob of water, Lucy moved it out the window and flattened it with just a thought. It froze in seconds. She did the same with another small blob and soon formed water disc steps leading down to the ground below.
Soaking in as much light as possible from the bulbs in the room, Lucy mentally held the ice discs in place as she climbed on the first. Turning back to Ivar, she asked, “Are you coming?”
Ivar blinked several times, before nodding and moving closer to the window. The discs were only big enough for one person at a time, so he could move forward when Lucy descended to the next step.
Half-way down, Lucy's energy weakened, and the disc before her dropped to the ground, shattering.
“No, no, no, no, that's the last thing that should happen right now,” Ivar gasped, wide eyes staring at the melting ice below.
Then the discs above them began dropping to the ground.
“Lucy… get us off this thing!” he cried in panic. They were still about ten feet off the floor.
“What does it look like I'm doing!” Lucy hissed. She was scared they'd fall from such height, and the fear combined with Ivar's panic was not letting her think straight.
Lucy jumped down to the next disc below her, sliding and nearly losing her footing. She caught her balance and moved on to the next. Ivar followed her, jumping off just as his dropped. He yelped and reached out to grab a hold of the next disc, but smash it with his hand during his fall.
How strong was he again?
Lucy grabbed his hand just in time, and the disc she stood on made a little cracking sound.
“Just so you know,” Ivar panted, hanging from Lucy's grip, “I'm never doing this again, if we survive it.”
“Scaredy —” Lucy didn't finish as the disc split in half and sent them falling through space. They both landed on the ground with a loud thud. Ivar broke Lucy's fall with his body.
Lucy scrambled off Ivar as ice-cold water sprinkled down on them from the melting falling discs.
“Are you okay?” she asked, turning his face towards hers.
Ivar groaned and slowly sat up, popping his joints, which prompted more groans.
Lucy chuckled as she said. “I'll take that as a ‘yes, I'm perfectly okay after hurtling through the air several feet from the ground, and nearly breaking my head’.”
“Glad you find that funny,” Ivar huffed, pushing himself off the ground.
“If you feel any fractures or brain damage, just raise your hand.”
Ivar let out a laugh before saying, “Yes, Lady Lucy.”
Lucy rolled her eyes and smiled. She was suddenly overcome with a sense of happiness and relief, knowing she was one step closer to the Prism monument, wherever that was.
Really, what was wrong with her? She was just curious about the monument, not desperate to see it like her life depended on it, right? Wrong. Lucy knew she was drawn to this monument thing, like metal to magnet. She just couldn't understand why.
They walked down the street in silence, and when they reached a fork in the path, Ivar raised his hand.
“Yeah?” Lucy nodded for him to speak.
“The Prism monument is that way. I saw it when we were on our way here. Wolfe—that's his name, right? He showed us, something about it having magical properties.” Ivar pointed to the road on the left. “Aaannnd, I may or may not have broken my spine.”
Lucy scoffed and lightly smacked his left arm, before going down the left road.
“Ow! Is that the thanks you can give me? By smacking my arm?” Ivar cried, hurrying after her. “I might have broken the tibia in that arm, too!”
“The tibia is found in your shin, dummy!” Lucy hollered not too loudly.
“I knew that!”
The Prism monument was set in a vast, sandy field so cold Lucy could see her breath vaporize. Itstretched several feet high, with colored glass panels making up the two triangular and rectangular sides. It reminded Lucy of the Louvre Pyramid from the real world, but this was in the shape of a prism and much bigger.
“There it is,” Ivar said. “The Prism monument.”
“I saw that,” Lucy huffed, out of breath from walking. “It's large enough to contain a disturbing number of elephants. Who would miss it?”
“Why use ‘eleph—”
“I'm still wondering why you know this place exists when it's way out to the side of the road.”
“Wolfe brought us here, remember?” Ivar said.
Lucy was about to ask why he would, and how they had managed to get so far in the short while Wolfe was gone, when voices interrupted their discussion.
Lucy sucked in a panicked breath and looked around for a place to hide. There were no trees or anything for at least half a mile all around the Prism.
Ivar took hold of Lucy's wrist and pulled her towards the Prism. Placing his index finger on his lips, he gestured for her to be quiet.
A group of four shadow dwellers came out of the Prism, passing through the rectangular side next to where Lucy and Ivar hid. One was about an inch away from brushing sparkly dark arms with Lucy. She pressed her fingers into her palm to keep from freaking out and giving them away.
Ivar kept his eyes on Lucy's face as he led her to the smaller, triangular side of the Prism at the back. Once the shadow dwellers were out of their sight, they both let out a tense breath.
“I guess they can't sense magical signatures,” Lucy whispered. The shadow dwellers might as well be blind with the way they ignored Lucy and Ivar's presence.
“...was supposed to be here tonight,” a piece of ongoing discussion drifted over to Lucy's ears. She moved closer to the end of her side and peeked out. The shadows were still standing by the Prism, speaking in hushed tones. They looked more human than shadows now, probably in corporeal mode.
“He never misses our meetings,” a female shadow dweller said. “He's been desperately trying to get to the real world, I doubt he'd miss this particular one, especially since Aeron has gotten a breakthrough.”
“Maybe he was so dedicated, that he decided to go ahead with his own plan and leave us behind to wait on Aeron,” a grouchy voice added with a huff. “I heard he attempted fleeing to the real world with some other shadow dwellers today and got caught up with the Dracoterran gatekeeper.”
The shadow dwellers laughed mockingly.
“Serves him right for trying to leave us behind,” the female shadow dweller said. “Aeron says that he's receiving power from the witchpetal, and will soon begin his trials in sending us to the real world.”
“At long last,” the grouchy voice sighed.
Lucy stifled a startled gasp. Netherim's witchpetal was in danger. From what she had witnessed at Dracoterra, whoever was after this petal didn't have good motives. She had to get to this Aeron and stop him, but she certainly couldn't at the moment. She needed more information and a plan.
“Wait, I though the petal was guarded by a jinn that literally scares people to death?” a different male shadow broke through the supposedly good news, bringing silence as the others thought about it.
The female shadow was the first to speak. “Yeah, true, but Aeron has his ways and we shouldn't question him. When the time is right, we will be transported back into the real world where we rightfully belong.”
“Exodus!” Grouchy Voice cheered.
The shadow dwellers raised their hands while they chorused, “Exodus!”
Soon, their voices started drifting away and Lucy assumed they were departing. She let out a sigh of relief and leaned against the colored glass wall. She had half-expected the shadow dwellers to catch her and Ivar eavesdropping.
“What was that all about?” Ivar asked, also looking relieved. He bent and placed his hands on his knees.
Lucy did a one-shoulder shrug. “
The only thing I think I understood was that they were talking about the absence of that shadow dweller that gave us a hard time back at the cave. He's the one Aquarius stopped today.”
Ivar raised his eyebrows, then nodded. “Yeah, that one.”
“There's also the thing about migrating to the real world,” Lucy said. “I have to tell Madge about all this.”
While they snuck back to the house, Lucy thought over what she had overheard. Who was Aeron, and why was he preparing to take powers from the Netherim witchpetal? Wasn't that illegal or something? Who was the Jinn guarding it?