by J E Mueller
“That may work,” Key agreed. She glanced around and I could feel her magic stretching out a short distance to see if anyone was nearby. “What is your backup if it doesn't? After traveling this area for so long, there are many odd things that let me know where I’m going, and I’m certain they have their own markers too.”
“I’m sure they’d take on a noble quest to deliver a letter, wouldn't they?” I shrugged, using her idea.
“It would set them back slightly. Not by much, but any extra time does help,” Key agreed and stopped, pointing out a rabbit.
Eventually, we made it back with enough food for breakfast. Lydia and Rosalie instantly began cooking while Jareth tried to help. Since I was free, I decided to see if I had anything to write on or with. I took note that Key pulled Lee and Emmyth aside. While I couldn’t tell what they were discussing, I had a feeling it was about our recent conversation. Hopefully, they would still be willing to help.
Lee seemed to be reluctantly agreeing with things, and Emmyth was completely disagreeing. Finally, Lee seemed to side with Key and Emmyth reluctantly went along with it. After a little bit longer, Emmyth came to see what I was doing.
My letter was progressing slowly. I hardly knew what to say. There were a lot of conflicting emotions.
“How are things?” he asked, sitting down next to me.
“Life is more insane than normal. I was hoping for a few easy weeks.” I yawned.
He nodded. “Are you sure making another realm is necessary?”
“It’s the only way to get rid of the demons. To keep the balance and to keep everyone dying from the realms caving in, the angels need to go too.” I shrugged.
“That could hurt a lot of things,” Emmyth commented.
“Such as?” I asked and gave him my full attention.
He was going to say something then stopped. For a moment he looked away and then finally looked back at me before responding. “Actually, the only thing I can see it hurting is the magic structure. Angels and demons give us a big connection to it simply by being here.”
“But the world will have no extra outside evil. It can be however it wants to be,” I replied.
“It will also have no outside good influences. Those can be very beneficial,” Emmyth countered. He wasn’t angry or upset, just curious to see my next response.
“Yes, so people need to start standing up for each other more. Good words and good deeds, and not relying on someone else. I see nothing wrong with people owning up to the world they’ve created.”
Emmyth paused. “That is a fair point.”
“What is?” Lydia asked sitting down on my other side and laying her head on my shoulder. “Writing to Mother. In case anything were to happen it’ll be good to have a letter for her.”
“That is a good thing. We tend to highly encourage that.” Lydia accepted my answer. I still had to fill her in about the roundabout route, but that could wait until I was certain Rosalie and Jareth weren’t listening.
“Is food ready, then?” I really wanted to be on the move again soon, but it was starting to smell good.
“Just about.” Lydia yawned. “Maybe a nap first.”
“Nope, gotta move.” I laughed, nudging her. She didn’t budge from my shoulder.
“Nah. Nap first.”
“Food’s ready,” Rosalie called.
“Never mind, food first.” Lydia yawned once more and got up. She offered me a hand.
Laughing at her quick change of demeanor, I accepted.
24
Lydia and I had just finished packing and almost had the tent put away when Lliam reappeared with several spirits at his side. I tried to take a good look at them, but they were all in their Blessed cloaks with their hoods up. Still, I was excited. Maybe this could work.
“Reinforcements?” I asked Lliam.
He smirked. “You could say that. They are more than ready to take the fight to the next level.”
“Perfect.” I could feel some of the tension ease out of my shoulders.
“We think we should be able to keep the spirits off your trail, but…” He glanced back at his group. “Until we’re able to try it we won’t know for sure. Either way, if we need to knock in a few skulls and whisk them away, we can do that.”
“We’ll take whatever help we can get,” Danni said, joining us.
“Agreed.” I nodded at her before turning back to Lliam. “We’ll be leaving here shortly, so do whatever it is you have to do.”
“Sounds good.” Lliam walked back over to them and they spoke in hushed voices.
Turning toward Lydia, I caught her up on what was going on before we joined the others. We needed so much to go right, and I had so many doubts. It would help if I knew what had happened to Marella but she seemed to be missing. No one knew where she was. I wasn’t sure if something had happened to her, or if she was hiding for our sakes. With no way to know, I shoved the thought out of my head. We needed to go.
The plan started to go off without a hitch. We were more than halfway through our plan of arcing around our original destination when Jareth realized what we had done. Rosalie and Emmyth were wrapped up in a heated discussion toward the back of the group. He kept trying to get her attention before stopping us all.
“We’re taking a much longer route by mistake,” he informed us.
Rosalie seemed surprised. “How did we get misdirected? It’s not a straight shot but still, it’s not that far.”
Key knew the answer but she and everyone else looked at me, Lydia, and Danni who had been leading the way.
I shrugged. “Staying out of sight from everything must have added the extra distance,” I replied simply.
Rosalie nodded and started walking again, but Jareth stopped her. “Weren’t we heading back? This is a good spot to part ways,” Jareth asked her.
After her initial outburst back at Reawakening, I was surprised to see her hesitate.
“If you’d like to head back, I will accompany you,” she replied after a moment.
Jareth frowned. I could see the disappointment in his eyes. “You’ll accompany me? But you don’t want to head back?” He sounded baffled. I was equally confused.
She nodded and quickly glanced at the rest of us. “I’ve had some time to think. While I’d hate to lose my mission, I wouldn’t be opposed to starting a new one. Helping others is in my blood, but we don’t need the demons here to add to the evils of the world. With them gone, just think of what we can actually accomplish. There is no balance to worry about. There’s just us trying to make ourselves worthwhile.”
Jareth huffed. “I think you’ve spent too much time listening to this blasphemous scum.” He waved an arm my way.
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, but thankfully Emmyth spoke up instead, “The route you take is your own. Own it, and never fail to walk it in peace.”
“Easy for you to say. You’re going along with these heathens!” Jareth spat back.
Emmyth didn’t even look fazed. “Walk it in peace. You know the rest of the mantra. Spewing your words angrily, no matter how right or wrong they are, does not make you a better person.”
Jareth was about to say something, but instead walked off, heading home. “Rose, follow me.”
Rosalie didn’t budge. “I said I’d accompany, not follow. I’ve chosen my path. Best wishes on your journey.” She bowed to him, then without another word took the lead and pulled her hood over her head. At first her voice was hard to hear, but it quickly built up until I heard her sing the words of Vallen’s Lullaby. The song of a fallen comrade.
The shock on his face was hard to bear, so I turned to follow her. The others soon followed us as well.
The thing about Vallen’s Lullaby that always got to me wasn't the words on their own. When sung in a round, it created a haunting sound that penetrated deep into my soul.
I wasn't expecting for the others to join Rosalie’s song, but near the end of the first verse Lydia had added herself, followed shortl
y by Emmyth. I had forgotten just how long Lee had been involved with them. He had never really been a singer, but that didn't stop him from joining. Key didn't add her voice. She and I were not of the Blessed ranks, so neither of us joined this particular song.
Key came to walk next to me. Her presence was always warm and reassuring.
"I'm not sure where this path will lead..." she whispered to me. "But be ready for it to be a bigger change than you expect."
I wasn't sure where this advice was coming from, so I just nodded, letting myself think about it for a moment. Going from Cursed to just being gifted with magic would have been an interesting and huge shift for her.
"Do you think this is the right thing?" I asked. My heart fluttered. Were my intentions selfish?
"If no others are destined to walk your path, then yes. I don't know the repercussions, but whatever the price is, I think it'll still be worth it," she replied, not skipping a beat.
"What if it takes more than what we think to send these powerful beings away?" I realised that could actually be a problem.
"Then we will take those issues into account one step at a time." Key shrugged. "As much as we can prepare, are we really ever ready for everything?"
"Even the most boastful of the Blessed I've seen have not always been completely prepared," I agreed. It was a good point.
Key smiled. "See? We'll figure it out."
"But what if we have to sacrifice more than we should?" I wondered aloud.
"At that point, it'd be good to ask yourself how dedicated you are to this idea. Where are your limits? Set yourself some ground rules," Key replied helpfully.
"Did you do that for your curse?" I asked curiously.
"Not really. As long as it didn't harm another, I didn't much care about the risks. That leads to a lot of problems. I was so focused on the physical harm I could cause, not realizing my actions could still hurt others on different levels." She shrugged. "We learn as we go."
We walked together in silence for a few moments as the song started to die down. Lliam had appeared at my side but didn’t say anything. Having died for the Order and seeing what things were really like must have been hard for him as well. Seeing people who were like family fight over these things couldn’t be any easier.
I realised too late that there was no good way to distract him from reaching his destination now. Even though I could catch up to Jareth, he had no reason to deliver a letter for me. Too soon we’d be walking on thin ice. Was there a way to fix that?
“If Jareth informs the angels of our plans, we’re fairly doomed. He has no reason not to just stop somewhere and pray,” I mumbled to Lliam. Key was still right next to me and had no way to know who the comment was meant for.
“That would complicate things,” Key agreed. “I’ve no idea what we can do to prevent that.”
“I could try and distract him,” Lliam said. “Plenty of us try and give mortals warnings. Many describe it as a ‘change of the wind’. They know something is wrong, but can’t quite pinpoint it. That could make him ask the angels for help even sooner, though.”
We had no real answer right now.
I hadn’t realised Rosalie had heard us. “He’s following us.” She shrugged. “I’ve no idea why, but I can still feel him following from a distance. He may be against this plan, but I don’t know if Jareth would actually sabotage it.”
That just raised more questions than answers. Why would he follow us?
It struck me they’ve been working together for over a decade. Maybe he still felt responsible or attached to Rosalie. It was hard to say since I had not seen much of their friendship. In the years I’d known them, we hardly said more than a couple of things to one another. Now, I wished I knew more about these two. Hopefully, Jareth would come around, but I didn’t put much hope in that thought.
That night we camped, knowing we were only a few more hours from our destination. I felt restless and wondered what the outcome of this would be. Part of me wished we had just stayed on course. It would have been nice to see Mother again. It dawned on me that I still could. Since I was supposed to be sleeping anyway, slipping out of my body wouldn’t be hard.
I snuck off. It was surprisingly easy to slip into the spirit realm this time and to locate where I wanted to go. Home was always close to my heart and easy to remember how to get to. I was in my village in no time, and seconds later I was back home.
I saw my brother still up late, speaking softly and flirting with a girl by the fire. I smiled. He hadn’t really shown interest in anyone, so it was nice to see him happy. He knew well he didn’t need anyone to complete him, and I hoped the two of them would work well together.
Mother was already asleep. It amused me that my brother was speaking so softly, with the illusion of letting her sleep better. Mother could sleep through storms. A tree had once, many years ago, fallen on the house. It startled everyone awake, and even some neighbors, yet she somehow slept through it. As a spirit, I couldn’t easily wake her. Seeing her was enough for me.
“I miss you,” I said to her.
She seemed to blink in confusion and looked around. With a yawn, she rolled back over. Did she hear me? It was hard to say, but I didn’t want to accidentally wake her again. Feeling worlds better, I returned to my body.
Morning, as usual, came too soon. My head throbbed, and I tried to relieve the pain by rubbing my temples. It wasn’t enough, but things needed to be done. I was surprised Lydia was already up and out of the tent. After getting ready, I found her sitting next to Danni. They were speaking so low I couldn’t hear them, and they stopped before I reached them.
“Morning, sleepy,” Lydia beamed.
“Since when are you up ages before me?” I yawned at her. “What were you talking about?”
Lydia yawned back. “Only half up before you.”
“Lliam said there seemed to be more spirit activity in the area,” Danni commented.
“Oh?” While I shouldn’t be surprised, we weren’t that far from some larger villages - a day or two in most directions - but still, I hadn’t often noticed many in this area.
“Whatever the reason, we need to be ready for problems,” Danni replied. “I assume you still have all your daggers?”
I nodded. “Of course. It’d be silly to leave anything behind.”
“Especially with how much we travel.” Lydia laughed.
“Very true,” I agreed, leaning against Lydia. “Do we even have a plan?”
“Eh, if it can be considered a plan.” Lydia glanced at Danni.
Danni shrugged. “I remember well enough how to make a gate, but creating a whole new realm thing is a bit more complex. It is a much more finicky process and if things change, we need to adjust accordingly and immediately. There will not be hours or days to consider things.”
“I’m good at adjusting plans, shy of killing any innocents of course,” I replied.
Lydia nodded. “I can agree with that. That is a very reasonable limit. What about you, Danni?”
Danni considered the question for a moment before giving a reply. “Definitions vary. Drawing blood from someone living is hard, but spirits are still living beings. Their energies need to be harnessed and transformed in some way. Is taking essence from a different form killing something?”
Lydia paused, unsure how to respond. “I guess if it’s still actively part of something, it isn’t really dead… but that is kind of a stretch.”
“Creating a new realm is a stretch,” Danni pointed out. “Something can’t really be created from nothing. Energies went into everything you see. Spirits are transformed upon death once they reach the gates here. The only way one world gets more of something is when it gets more energy from another place. We shrink and grow constantly. This will displace some of the energy elsewhere.”
Lydia blinked a few times. “I think I liked the for beginner’s version better. This is getting way too complicated.”
Danni gave a small laugh. “Just follow alo
ng and be ready to make choices. That’s all you need to do.”
Nodding, Lydia got up and stretched. “I think I can handle that.”
“Then we should be good to go.” Danni gave a more confident nod. She passed me a bowl of food. “Eat up so we can get going soon.”
I watched Lydia go to start breaking things down before looking back over at Danni. “I sense something is going on.”
“Well, you are not wrong.” Danni shrugged.
“So, what is going on?” I asked tiredly as I tried to force myself to eat.
“It’s going to take a lot more energy to make things work than I initially expected. Nothing bad or anything, but I’ve had to have several discussions with our little team here. We can make this work, and everyone does have a part to play.”
“That’s very vague.” I sighed.
“Your part is very clear.” Danni shifted as she sat.
“And that part would be?” I asked, watching her carefully.
“Key will need your daggers. I have figured out you don’t need special ones. Instead of using your spirit energy to slide into your other form, send that to whatever weapon you have. There’s a whole process to fuse it and create those weapons, but we don’t have time for that.”
“Why does Key need them?” I was more concerned by that fact.
“I have a gut feeling Mist has caught on to us,” Danni stated, getting up. “Eat up so we can go.”
I got up with my food and followed her. I had a feeling Mist would catch on sooner rather than later. “And what exactly does that mean? Obviously she’d like to stop us.”
Danni stopped and turned toward me. I took a large bite of food and motioned for her to answer. I wasn’t going to let her escape my questions that easily.
Sighing she continued, “That would explain the extra spirits Lliam and the others have seen in the area. We can use the Blessed to hide from demons. If she’s recruited any angels, we’ve no way to hide. What that means for us is that things are possibly going to get complicated soon.”