Portals Heather

by Leslie Edens Copeland

  "I'm not sure. I think I remembered something, but now . . . " He wrinkled his forehead. I tucked his tie into his vest for him.

  "Those two need to stop playing and help me get Sam and Lily," I said. "It's like they've got Lexiverse fever, or something." I smoothed Emmett's part. His hair responded by springing up, more curls rapidly escaping any semblance of order.

  He said, "At least they could give me another memory boost. That was amazing! For a few moments, I got back the knowledge and memories from all my previous lives!" Emmett smiled weakly, his manifestation flickering.

  "Do you remember any of it now?" I asked.

  "Not exactly." He frowned. "I might be slightly worse off than before. For example, your name is escaping me."

  "It's Heather," I said.

  He gave me a blank stare. "And my name is? Ah, what was yours again?" His face tumbled into confusion.

  I put my arm around Emmett's shoulders the best I could. He faded in and out, like a failing light bulb.

  "Oz and Tense!" I shouted, but there came no reply. "That creative impulse is a devilish thing to overcome, isn't it?" I hugged Emmett's misty shoulders. He shivered, the sound of a thousand skeleton-mobiles rattling, then he faded for so long, I feared he wasn't coming back.

  "Emmett! Don't you disappear on me, too!" I mind messaged him, but I felt nothing there. "What did they do to you?" Maybe Bellum had got to him, somehow. I had to do something! I wracked my brains.

  "Help me, please, oh, Lexiverse," I said. And the words formed in my mind, remembered, like a song that had gotten stuck there. The words the shade had given me. Without thinking, without stopping, I incanted:

  "Plouton, Aletheia, Bellum, All,

  Come together, unwrite the fall,

  Return what subdivision stole,

  Restore his memory, make All whole."

  The words intoned into the Lexiverse air, the clouds below me tilted, and my stomach lurched as I rose rapidly up.

  From high in the air, I peered over the edge of the cloud pillar that held me aloft. What did that incantation do? I couldn't remember, except something about the All. From my perch, I sighted the OzTense, docked against the cloud island, the boys nowhere in sight. And where was Emmett? I feared he was now lost for good, and my throat closed up with fear.

  The cloud supporting me shifted and sprouted trails of mist, very much like giant fingers. In fact, this cloud resembled a giant hand. Above me an immense, black shape resolved into the pupil of an enormous eye. Dark as a well, so large and black, I felt vertigo staring into it. I might tumble into such an eye and never find my way out.

  "Emmett?" My voice squeaked.

  "The All hears you, my child," boomed a voice of a thousand thunders.

  I held my ears, my body vibrating with the blast of sound. And I knew I was not hearing the effects of Sordid Sounds this time. One more boom like that could be the end of me.

  "Sorry," said the voice, this time in a whisper that hummed through me to the core. "I shall appear in another of my ten thousand manifestations."

  Emmett, in ragged suit and mussed curls, reappeared standing next to me.

  "Emmett! Thank All!" I embraced him. He stayed remarkably solid, for Emmett, so I gave him a good, long hug. Clouds wisped around us, fogging my vision. When at last I released Emmett, the cloud pillar we stood upon was lowering. Remnants of the pillar billowed over the cloud plain in great cottony bursts. We glided gently downward. I held Emmett's hand with a sensation like falling.

  "You're welcome," Emmett said with a kindly smile. The shifting haze cleared, and we stood again on the shore of the cloud sea, its cloud waters churning with crystal-colored waves.

  "Are you all right now? You seem so solid," I said. I squeezed his hand, amazed that my hand did not sink in. He flashed that beguiling grin, and I smiled back, helpless against its charms.

  "Wonderful Heather Esperance d'Espers," he said. "You've restored me. Or rather, I restored myself. I'd lost the knowledge of how to do so, but you gave it all back. I remember everything."

  "Everything? What kind of everything?" I asked.

  "Let's get those two back here, and we'll discuss it," said Emmett. He whirled a finger. Trenton and Oskar materialized before us, still in their costumes. They were gazing deep into each other's eyes, and blushed red when they saw us.

  "Emmett!" Trenton gulped. "You figured out how this place works!"

  "I am how this place works!" Emmett thundered. I gasped. Trenton gave a little scream.

  "Yipes!" said Oskar. His pirate costume swirled into black monk's robes. Trenton's ninja costume did the same.

  "I'd advise you to respect me—and my protégée," bellowed Emmett. How was that voice coming out of him? And such heat and radiance coming off his aura—I shielded my eyes.

  "Emmett," I said. "When you say you remember everything—is there some powerful part of your identity, maybe one of your lives, that you'd forgotten?"

  "I am Emmett the Universal, the Great and the Small, the force of the All, Everything, Unified," said Emmett, his voice solemn as a tolling bell.

  "But—that would make you one of the four powers of the spirit world! The All? Emmett, really? You'd forgotten this?" I felt faint and had to sit on the clouds. Emmett cast his eyes away—a relief, since his direct gaze burned straight into my mind, making my hands shake and my mouth go dry with fear.

  "It was purposeful, since you are wondering. I deliberately undertook the division of my being," said Emmett.

  Trenton and Oskar clutched at each other, frozen in their black cowls, horrified.

  "Heather! What did you do?" hissed Trenton.

  "I incanted to get his memory back," I said. "A passage from one of my father's books. Emmett was fading, no thanks to you guys. He couldn't even remember his own name."

  "Nor hers," said Emmett. I saw with some relief he retained a little of his affable personality, even as a god. Perhaps he could be reasoned with—although he seemed so severe.

  "But are you still Emmett?" asked Oskar. "Who are you, now that you've remembered everything?"

  "I'm Emmett," said the boy spirit god. He reached out to me and touched my ring. It dazzled my eyes with a sunset glow. "Emmett the All. And I can take us home, or to the far dimensions."

  I shielded my vision, and he said, "To thank you, I gift the Ring of Esperance with a map of the spirit world. Touch, and you will see—in terms you can understand—your position relative to other familiar locations. Twist, and you will navigate to the desired destination."

  "Thank you, Emmett the All," I said, bowing low. I realized I was shaking. He was amazing, beautiful, glorious—and terrifying. Sadness welled up in my heart and stuck in my throat. I wanted nothing more than to escape him, fly far, far away from this All being. Find Emmett, bring Emmett back. Except this was Emmett.

  "Please, oh great All," I said, "If you really can take us anywhere, we mortals can return to the Vic. And you can—go do spirit god things?"

  I glanced up, squinting. It hurt my eyes too much to look at him directly. But I heard him laughing.

  "Yes. Spirit god things. This Lexiverse is Bellum's realm, and he thinks to trap me within it. But no matter! The battle draws nigh. Now that I am restored, I can simply bring him to me!"

  I trembled. Calling Bellum to us would be a horrific idea. I knelt before him. "Great All—Emmett—perhaps bringing Bellum here right away is . . . a bit premature. You've only just remembered your true identity. Bellum's had a long time to prepare, and we stand in his realm. And if you'll pardon me, oh All, I've got a funny feeling. I mean, there's got to be a reason your godhood was hidden . . . right?"

  "The All in our wisdom saw fit to divide our being. Once it is done, it is not undone. Unless. There is one who can do it. Aether. The medium, quintessence, joiner of worlds. You." He bowed his head.

  "Me?" My mouth dropped open in shock and protest. "Why me?"

  "Bellum Omnium Contra Omnes, come forth! The All summons you!" boomed th
e deity.

  I covered my ears and whispered, "Sam—just this once. Be somewhere I can reach you, with your spiky hair and creaking leather and green eyes and combat boots. And get your taciturn, see-in-the-dark, hard-hitting, infallible-seer self here, and help me!"

  I thought I felt a twinge—maybe his sharpened thoughts. But a roar of sound overwhelmed my internal senses. Thunder, rockslides, tsunami, crashing ice—the noises swelling without visible source. Winds kicked up, blowing hard—the first time I'd felt this in the spirit world. The clouds on the horizon took on the color and texture of asphalt.

  "Bellum has arrived. Now begins the battle for the Coming End," said Emmett the All.

  "Wait! Now you just have it out with the Bellum?!" I shouted over the rising winds. "I have a terrible feeling about this. Send us home first!"

  "What's he doing?" asked Trenton. He and Oskar stared at the dark clouds, trembling.

  I could do nothing more for Emmett, lost inside the enormous power of the All. Perhaps lost forever. I could neither stop him nor persuade him. I swallowed a lump that was rising in my throat, as the All turned from us and swept through the air, toward the dark clouds. Heartbroken, I watched him go, my chest aching.

  Then I resolved—if Emmett was lost, at least I'd protect my friends. The old Emmett would want me to. I'd use the power he unleashed in me when he gave me the ring. As Emmett's protégée, I had the responsibility to protect the people of our worlds. I could at least do that.

  "Hold on to me, boys," I said. "Stay close. I think we're about to get front row seats to the battle of the century!"

  Chapter Eleven

  The Battle for the Coming End

  I grabbed their hands. Oskar, Trenton, and I formed a circle.

  "Stay together," I said.

  A great ripple of dark clouds swept toward us like a mighty ocean wave. When it hit, we spun and flipped in its momentum, gasping and holding tight to each other. At last, it subsided. I sat up to find us sprawled on the same flat cloud plain.

  "Where's Emmett?" I searched the horizon, the white void above and below.

  "I don't see him," said Trenton, looking all around with me.

  "There!" Oskar pointed.

  Far away on the white plain strode Emmett the All, the bident in his hand. He marched swiftly toward a twisting pile of black clouds that rose from the horizon. Within the clouds, I made out a form. Old and spindly, tall and bent: the Bellum. He leaned on his long staff. Or was he crouching—ready to strike?

  I groaned. "He's back," I said. "He always comes back. I was such a fool when I thought I'd taken him out."

  "Oskar told you," said Trenton, shaking his finger in my face. "But did you listen?"

  "Shh, Tense." Oskar kissed Trenton quick, behind the ear. Trenton blushed. "Let me tell Heather off myself," said Oskar. He took Trenton's hand and smiled at me.

  "You're not going to brag about how you were right?" I braced myself to be mocked.

  "You fought a very brave fight," said Oskar. He bowed his head to me graciously. "I have nothing but respect for you as a spiritualist."

  "That's how you tell someone off?" My mouth dropped open. Then I went after Trenton. "Why can't you be a gentleman, like your boyfriend Oz?"

  "Eep!" said Trenton, his eyes bugging out. I thought he was responding to me, but when he kept staring past me, I turned.

  Next to the Bellum, I spied two forms. Both with spiky hair. One taller, in a leather jacket. One shorter, with great big glasses like owl's eyes.

  "Sam!" I screamed. "Lily!"

  —Don't come any closer!

  It was Sam! My all-seeing brother, tuned in on our personal psychic channel.

  —I got your summons. You didn't have to scream, Heather.

  From a hundred feet away, the gaunt old spirit god eyed me with disdain. Evil energy oozed out of him, its charge thick in the air. Just standing near, I felt weak and drained.

  Emmett emerged from the clouds, twenty paces from Bellum and they stared each other down. Not a word passed between them, but the air zinged with charge, and I had a funny feeling that, like me and Sam, they could communicate without others hearing.

  "So it begins. The battle for the Coming End." Emmett raised his bident high. In his hand it began to spin, gathering energy. The Bellum raised his staff. They never lost eye contact.

  We waited, hardly daring to breathe.

  Without warning, Emmett shot into the air and leveled his bident at Bellum. Bolts of spectricity crackled the air and slammed into the cloud surface with the force of a blast of lighting. Bellum had stepped back just in time, but the power of the blast knocked him over. Then came the thunder, rumbling so close that I had to block my ears to save my hearing.

  Bellum rose up with some trouble, shaking against his staff.

  "What's wrong, old man?" shouted Emmett. "Did you live too long, and lose your agility?"

  Bellum, in answer, flew forward and drove his staff into Emmett's chest. I cried out, thinking he'd killed Emmett, but instead of stabbing, the Bellum lifted Emmett and flew upward with him. Up and up they flew, until we could barely see their struggling forms. A giant fireball burst across the sky, enveloping them both.

  "What happened? Did they both burn up?" Trenton hopped around with anxiety.

  —Sam! Get out of there! I messaged.

  Sam was already running across the plain, dragging Lily behind him by the wrist. None too soon. He had just reached us when the fireball fell to the cloud plain and roared with flames on the spot where they'd been standing.

  I embraced Sam, and Trenton embraced Lily. Over Sam's shoulder, I saw the strangest thing.

  "Look," I said.

  Out of the fireball stepped a completely whole, unharmed Emmett. He wobbled around, as if dazed.

  "That was truly impolite," he said.

  Behind him, a very small, sooty figure crawled from the wreckage. It lengthened and stood upright, and there was the Bellum, shaking his staff and laughing.

  I turned to Sam. Wait, why was Lily hugging onto him like that? He was ignoring it, so I did the same. "What's going to happen?" I asked him.

  Sam squinched up his eyes and touched his temple. "It's garbled. Spirit world visions are weird. Just—stay away from Bellum, whatever you do."

  Lily took the opportunity to huddle under Sam's arm. He put his arm around her! Sam put his arm around Lily!

  "Scared, Lils?" he said, in a much gentler voice than he'd ever used with me.

  I looked over at Trenton, who was similarly huddled under Oskar's armpit. I motioned my head in the direction of Sam and Lily.

  I know, mouthed Trenton, his eyes widening.

  We were right near the front lines of an epic battle between ancient spirit gods. Our own destruction could be right around the corner, if Emmett lost. Yet somehow, all I could think was since when did Sam take an interest in Liliana Renee Benavidez?

  The Bellum's laughter turned into a roar, interrupting my thoughts.

  "What's the matter, young man?" he snarled. "Don't like burning to a crisp high up in the air?"

  Emmett took two steps back, centered himself on the clouds, and raised his bident.

  "Guess I went too far." Bellum sneered. "Thought you'd enjoy it, for old times' sake. How long has it been?"

  "Since you last killed me? Over a hundred years," said Emmett.

  "Then we've got catching up to do," said Bellum, and he flew at Emmett, slicing with his staff. "How dare you hide from me?"

  Bellum's staff made contact, slashing Emmett's face. Emmett caught it on his bident and they locked weapons. Emmett strained to hold Bellum off.

  "No!" Emmett's face twisted with effort. "I won't do this again! I'm not going to fight you and play into your plan!"

  With a mighty burst of power, Emmett blasted Bellum clear to the other side of the battlefield and into a heavy bank of clouds.

  "I won't be part of it!" Emmett screamed. "You won't turn me against the worlds, as a tool for your takeover."r />
  A mighty laughter rumbled around us, vibrating the clouds under our feet. "Don't want to play anymore? Emmett, you know we need to finish our game." The rumbling grew stronger, and clouds wisped up. Thicker and thicker the clouds rolled in, until I couldn't see Emmett anymore.

  "Emmett!" I shouted. I looked at Trenton and Oskar. "Where'd he go?"

  Out of the clouds strode the Bellum. He locked eyes with me. I saw him smile as well, and then my vision blurred.

  When it cleared, the Bellum was ten feet away from me and the other mortals of the Coterie. Clouds enclosed us together. Emmett was nowhere in sight.

  "Heather Esperance d'Espers. We meet once more," Bellum said in a polite voice that nevertheless hissed with a thousand tiny whispers and echoes. "What a pleasure this is!"

  "The pleasure is all yours, I'm sure," I said, lifting my hands. As my palms crackled and spit flames, I hoped I had enough power to defend my friends.

  A message drifted from Sam.

  —Heather! Don't let Bellum summon you!

  I glared at Sam. "How do you—?"

  —How do I think you can avoid it?

  —Exactly. I raised my hands high, where an orb of spectricity the side of a beach ball was forming.

  —Get out of here, Heather! He doesn't know the rest of our names. I'll take care of him!

  Sam's message sung with bravado. False bravado, since Sam's best offensive maneuver was a wicked—but very mortal—uppercut. With nothing but his bare fist.

  "How do you do?" The Bellum bowed to me, very grand. He thought I was talking to him! So—he wasn't all-knowing, then. Couldn't hear me and Sam messaging. "Won't you please do me the immense honor of conducting my séance?"

  The Bellum came up from his bow with a superior smile, full of long teeth. I looked around us in a panic. The clouds were drawing closer, but they didn't touch us. Almost like we were encased under glass.

  "I would so love to examine that ring you're wearing, Miss d'Espers," said Bellum.

  As he spoke, Bellum waved his scepter, tracing patterns in the air. This scepter had a topper resembling the Earth that kept opening and closing, coming apart along different lines, like sections of an orange—sundering the world in every possible way.