by Elon Vidal
Lucy shrugged. Inside her, she was trying to access the light energy she gathered in order to summon Ivar. Feeling through her web would require being unconscious for a while, and she couldn't let Aeron know what she was up to. She had to distract him while she worked on her plan for an escape or rescue.
“What about you?” she asked Death. “Does your family give you gifts?”
Aeron scoffed. “I don't have a family.”
Lucy tried her luck. “What about Light? You look like her.”
At the mention of Phoebe, Aeron's formerly emotionless eyes lit up, but only for a couple of seconds. He turned away and folded his arms behind his back.
“She's my older sister. She's… she's the only person I ever looked up to. She let me down in the end... If my family loved me, they wouldn't make me this way,” he mumbled. “I don't have a family, not anymore.”
This was an unexpected piece of information. Death's role model was Light?
“What way are you?” Lucy asked.
Aeron glanced at her, before looking away and walking towards the floor to ceiling window. “I take souls to the afterlife. Many look at me like I'm a villain, like I take away their loved ones from the land of the living intentionally, but they forget it's what I'm created to do… They forget the ones who were suffering in the land of living, who are finally given peace and freedom in the land of the dead.”
Lucy bit her lip. She wouldn't admit it, but she actually used to think Death was a bad thing… well, person, now that she'd met him face to face. But what he said was true; there are many who finally have rest in the land of dead. Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy.
“But why are you trying to switch between the living and the dead?” Lucy asked. “Isn't that wrong?”
Aeron gave a deep chuckle. “Dear Chosen, you might not understand. There's no way to conduct this project without living and dead switching places. Do you know how it feels to be restricted to this… this dull world, when everyone else in my so-called family lives up there in the ‘marvelous’ land of the living? I'm going to make every living thing feel what I felt, and let my children, the shadow dwellers, enjoy the Light again. Finally, I'll join them, and the switch will be complete. We need Light.”
As if a thought just made itself known to Death, he paused, turned, and hurried off, out of the hall.
Lucy could now see a connection between the shadow dwellers needing Light, Light being Aeron's role model, and the way Phoebe had been worried since this phase of the Quest. There was more to this story, and Lucy had to find out more information concerning this.
But first, she had to summon Ivar. Was it working? She couldn't see her bracelet to know if it was glowing.
“Being in the Underworld as a shadow dweller is like losing the ability to breathe,” Grouchy muttered. “It's like a slow death when we're not even capable of dying anymore. It overwhelms me sometimes… I just want freedom, to see the Light again... The darkness is cold and reminds us of death, and we don't want that. Never did.”
Lucy pulled her lower lip between her teeth. She really couldn't see any harm in the shadow dwellers' request. They weren't planning to hurt anyone, but they would. There wasn't a way for them to be transported to the land of the living without replacing the living, who still had much potential to, well, live.
“If this doesn't work out today… I might have to give up,” Grouchy said with a sigh and a small pout on his dark face. His large black eyes stared at Lucy for a while, before turning away.
Footsteps echoed through the hall. Aeron reappeared with a small gray sack tied shut with a glowing golden cord, and a silver urn. “Moon ashes,” he told Lucy. “A catalyst for Light magic beings like you.”
Lucy wondered what he meant by that. What were moon ashes, and why was he bringing it for her use? Were the ashes going to make the switch possible? She hoped not… but deep down, she wanted the switch to happen so she could leave and find her friends. She could always find a way to reverse the switch...right? Fingers crossed there was a way to do so.
And also, a part of her wanted the switch to happen, to give relief to the shadow dweller. It felt like two opposite sides of her were fighting for dominance; doing the right thing as a Lightbringer, or sympathizing with the shadow dwellers.
While Lucy was juggling her thoughts, Aeron untied the sack and poured the contents into the urn. Sparkling dust from the ashes floated around the room and tickled Lucy's nose with the smell of cotton candy. The ones that landed on her skin felt like dew and gave her pleasant chills through her body. What was this?
“Let's try again, shall we?” Aeron asked with a sinister smile.
Before Lucy could comprehend what Death was up to, he sprinkled some moon ash on a stone. It lightened up in bright orange, and the stone next to it became light pink. All sixteen stones rapidly lit up in their respective colors, and Lucy was hit with a burst of Light energy. It felt like she was out of her body, floating around the room. Nothing felt real anymore. Worries and thoughts were mere fairy tales. It felt like forever and a second at the same time, then it was all over.
Silence…
She then heard a small voice. Lucy slowly opened her eyes and looked around. Grouchy was no longer seated in the chair set on the crescent tile design. In his place was a fair-skinned girl with hair the color of the night. It flowed behind her, with a few straight strands tucked behind her ears, which held up her thick glasses. She looked familiar…
“Lucy Duceaul?” she asked with a small gasp.
Lucy opened her mouth to speak, but shut it, then tried again. “You shouldn't have called my name first… now I'll have to say yours, and I don't remember it.”
The girl gave a small smile. “I'm Alina. Remember me from the school of Light?”
The gears turned in Lucy's head and her lips formed a circle as she mouthed an ‘oh’. Alina was the Lightbringer from Scoil Solas, who she hadn't interacted much with, apart from the time the Spelliterature teacher had an issue with Lucy's Light magic essay.
“What are you doing here?” Alina asked. “What am I doing here?”
“It's a long story,” Lucy mumbled.
Aeron cleared his throat from the side. “Pleasant that you both know each other. I would hate to interrupt this sweet little moment, but I have more switches to conduct.”
“No, wait —” Lucy cut in, her voice cracking from desperation. She couldn't let Death take more of her energy. She wasn't sure she could handle it.
“Why would I wait?” Aeron asked with the sides of his lips tugged downwards.
“Won't you pause and celebrate the success of your first switch? Pop champagne or something.”
Aeron scoffed, unimpressed. He turned back to the stones, while Lucy let out a cry of defeat. Her energy was diminishing, and no matter how hard she tried, she was no match for Death himself. She couldn't even get past his magic ropes without feeling like her arms were on fire.
Alina looked from Lucy to Aeron, and seemed to partially understand what was going on. She drew in a deep breath and stretched out her arms towards Death. A heavy gust of wind appeared out of nowhere and flung Aeron against an orange stone. He groaned and grunted in pain. The stone blinked twice, then died out.
“Grab her,” Aeron ordered his guards in a low voice, glaring at the younger Lightbringer.
With the speed of light, two of the four black-cloaked beings appeared on either side of Alina. They grasped her arms, and didn't give her the opportunity to even struggle; it looked like her arms where frozen in place, in their hold.
Lucy had to think fast. Alina had tried to help her, but apparently it was only a slight delay on Aeron's schedule. She had to get out of here or else she would be totally drained of energy.
Come on, Ivar… Come on.
Was it glowing?
Aeron got up, dusting imaginary dirt from his coat, and cleared his throat.
Come on… summon!
Aeron began, “The switch must —”
The doors south of the hall swung open, but to Lucy's disappointment, it was one of Aeron's guards, not Ivar. Cue sad Lightbringer noises.
“Excuse me, Sire, you have a message,” the female guard reported, with a bird latched on her shoulder. Her amber eyes rested on Lucy's face for a second too long, before returning to Aeron.
“Can't you see I'm busy?” Aeron huffed.
“It's from the higher powers,” the guard said.
Aeron rolled his eyes, then stretched out his arm for the bird to land on. Wait a minute, that bird looked mighty familiar…
“Snack!” Lucy blurted out.
Everyone turned to Lucy with a quizzical look. No, she couldn't let them know she knew who Snack was; this might be her only chance of escape, or to at least find help.
“Snacks… are not food,” she said, trying to cover up, coughing slightly at the end of the sentence.
Aeron scoffed and rolled his eyes, while taking out the paper from the message tube clipped to Snacks leg. “Quiet. I need to read through this.”
While Aeron scanned the paper with his eyes, Snack tilted his head in Lucy's direction and hiccupped.
Drunk… he better not bust Lucy's cover.
“Oh, hello, person I totally don't know,” he slurred, swaying on Aeron's arm.
Lucy winced. Wishful thinking, huh?
Aeron raised his head. “I smell sarcasm.”
“Nah, it's probably just the nuts I had for dinner,” Snack hiccupped.
“Or the alcohol,” Lucy added.
“It's most definitely the alcohol,” Alina agreed with a nod. “I can smell it from here.”
Aeron brought Snack closer to his face and sniffed, then leaned away as the smell hit him. “Now why would you be drinking on the job, little bird? I might have the higher powers bring you down a level for this...”
Snack groaned and flapped his wings. “Nooooo… you can't do that to me… I can't send messages to the Sidhe; they always talk about how they'd cook and eat me, right in my presence. The audacity. Besides, I have a family to feed!”
“You don't have —” Lucy started to say, then shut her mouth and looked away.
“I promise this is —” Snack hiccupped, then sneezed, “— this is the last... time. I won't drink again.”
So he always says.
Aeron held up a hand. “Hold on… this letter says nothing relevant to me. And apart from the awfully bad handwriting, my name is even spelled wrong; the ‘a’ comes after the ‘e’ in ‘Death’, not before.”
“I can't be bothered to learn how to spell,” Snack muttered, hopping off Aeron's arm and nearly falling flat on his face, before flapping frantically and barely missing the tiled floor.
A loud boom sounded in the distance, then another. Soon, noise and commotion startled the occupants in the room who were left confused as the tumult increased.
“What's going on?” Aeron asked, before taking long strides towards the doors leading out of the hall.
The guard who had brought Snack in drew a dagger from her cloak. With one smooth slash through the ropes, Lucy's path to freedom began. The magic ropes spilled on the floor in pieces, and the glow died out as the magic dissipated from being struck by a magic blade.
“Follow me,” the guard said. Her voice was deep and sounded familiar, but Lucy couldn't remember who it belonged to. Her senses were mixed up after so long in this cell.
None of the other guards were moving to stop Alina and Lucy as they followed the cloaked guard with the dagger. Were they also part of the plan? Why would they do this when their master was literally Death?
Unless they couldn't die… then there was nothing left to lose, Lucy guessed.
There was another loud boom, followed by a crash through the wall on the left side of the doors. An orange dragon emerged from the gaping hole in the wall as the dust settled.
Lucy's bracelet was rapidly blinking orange now, and she couldn't hold back her smile and laughter as she said, “Seriously, Ivar? You could have used the door two feet away from you.”
Ivar in his dragon form huffed and gave a low growl. He rolled his bright, lizard-like emerald eyes, then turned so the escapees could get on his back.
“Hurry,” the guard with the dagger prompted as she helped Alina climb Ivar's wing, using the bone structure like a ladder.
Snack settled on Ivar's head, in between the two small horns set in his skull, and loudly chirped, “Hey, Death! Try reporting to the higher powers now! You can't if you can't catch me!”
The corridor leading out of the hall was suddenly filled with darkness, so dark the lights on the wall looked dim and barely sufficient for sight. Shadow dwellers in their multitudes trooped in, rushing towards Lucy and her team.
“Snack, you idiot!” Lucy facepalmed.
Snack cleared his throat and calmly said, “Be nice to me, I'm saving you.”
“Yeah, right.”
Lucy got a hold of the reins Ivar was wearing, while Alina hugged her torso from behind. The amber-eyed guard slid her dagger back in her cloak, quickly grabbed the urn of moon ashes, and disappeared in a second.
Ivar turned to the hole he had created in the wall, and flapped his wings to fly through. Some shadow dwellers caught hold of his legs and talons as he lifted off, and tried to pull him down. The shadow dwellers were actually stronger than they seemed, and Ivar struggled to break free from their hold. More and more were latching on, and if Lucy didn't do something, this escape would fail. She couldn't let that happen.
“How do we stop them?” Alina asked, drawing her leg up and away from a shadow dweller that tried to grab it.
Lucy drew the energy left from the amount she had gathered from the switch. She pooled water molecules above them, until a large rain cloud formed. Before she could release the water droplets, the shadow dwellers let go of Ivar, trying to get away from the darkness the rain cloud brought.
Their release was so abrupt that Ivar couldn't control his direction, as he was still using the same resistance to pull away from the shadow dwellers. He slammed his shoulder into the side of the hole, along with Lucy's left leg. Pain spiked through her bone, but she lurched forward and grabbed Alina, who almost fell off Ivar's back.
“Please don't let go,” Alina pleaded, hanging only by Lucy's hold.
“Don't worry, I won't,” Lucy promised while blinking away the white-hot pain in her leg. She held tight the small hand clutching hers, and the reins with her right hand, all the while praying she wouldn't slip off Ivar's back.
Ivar regained his composure, and with a couple flaps of his wings, they were up to the high ceiling. Lucy heaved Alina up and didn't let go till she was seated behind with her arms wrapped tightly around Lucy.
“If you keep that pressure constant, I'll have a few broken ribs at the end of this ride,” Lucy told Alina.
The younger Lightbringer loosened her grasp with a small nervous laugh. “Sorry, I'm just still shaken.”
Ivar smartly steered around the line of chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. They rounded a corner and came out to the grand foyer. More shadow dwellers were there, blocking their way out the front double doors, which were shut and probably locked.
In the midst of all the blackness stood the one pale Death. He had his hands folded behind his back while staring up at the Lightbringers with an expressionless face.
“Next time, keep the door open and don't hold people hostage so your pretty little house doesn't get kicked down,” Lucy retorted.
Aeron scoffed. “Do you think you're free to go now? I have thousands of shadow dwellers ready to strike you at my command.”
Lucy looked around. They were everywhere; up on the balcony, on the stairs, below them on the ground, shadow dwellers were stationed with their hands stretched towards the Lightbringers. When Anwar had been struck on the eyes, he had become blind. Getting struck by shadow dwellers was ridden with danger. Could the victim be paralyzed if they were hit anywhere else?
Lucy couldn't a
fford to let another one in her team get hurt because of her. Alina hadn't joined on purpose, and Ivar… he did nothing but come to Lucy's rescue.
“It doesn't have to be this way, Aeron,” Lucy said.
“Then what other way, if not by force?” Aeron asked. “Are you willing to strike a bargain with me?”
Lucy cringed. She hated bargains; there was always a catch.
“What do you want?” she asked, then quickly added, “whatever it is, you have to let me and my friends go.”
Aeron huffed and crossed his arms across his chest. “Fine. I need your energy.”