The Return To Erda Box Set

by Beca Lewis

  The three sisters are easy to tell apart. Not only do they behave differently, but they also have some distinctive physical attributes. You would think the Pris, as the older sister, wouldn’t be the one who wore pigtails. But she does. Probably, knowing Pris, it was an act of defiance.

  Pris can be moody, but she is fierce about protecting what, and who, she loves. Pris has a multitude of faces that can stop grown men in their tracks. When the little blue star on her forehead starts to wrinkle, watch out, trouble is brewing.

  All three fairies can pull a pout that could last for days, especially if they don’t think I trust them. I was learning that they were always right and that I needed to stop trying to control what they do. Fairies do what they want when they want, especially Pris.

  Cil is the middle sister. Her green eyes spark when she is angry, or happy. Mostly, Cil is cheerful and easy going. She gets along with everyone. Sometimes she acts as the buffer between Pris and their youngest sister, La. I doubt that Cil likes that role very much, but she is good at it.

  I patted Cil on the head, and she slid down into the pocket of my tunic. It is one of her favorite places to sleep. Sometimes she forgets she is in there and falls out as she is waking up. Usually, I catch her in time, but when she drops the whole way, she is never hurt, just embarrassed.

  La has a white streak in her hair and is the quietest of the three of them. A little shy, she is sometimes intimidated by Pris. However, when there are essential things to be said, La is often the one that speaks up and makes sure everyone who needs to say something gets a chance. La also has a crush on Zeid, and can often be found on my shoulder staring at him. I don’t mind. It means someone other than me is watching out for him.

  The picture of Abbadon lay on the table. Pris flew off my head, down to the picture, and stamped on it. I knew exactly how she felt. I wanted to stamp on it too.

  “Okay, now that you have kept me from going after Garth and Anne, why not tell me what’s going on.”

  Zeid just shook his head, and the fairies shook their heads along with him. It was ridiculous, all four shaking their heads at me.

  I would have complained more loudly and perhaps gone after Link anyway except I saw Beru and Ruta coming my way. Now, you might not want to piss off a fairy, but for sure, you never want to cross Beru and Ruta.

  To look at the two of them, you would never think that they would end up as best friends. But they are. Beru had told me that she considered Ruta a brother. I know there is a story or two that I don’t know that caused that to happen, and I am hoping to hear it someday.

  I know a little more about Beru than I do about Ruta. I consider Beru’s hometown of Kinver my second home. Five men from Kinver had gone with us to fight the Shrieks and Shatterskin. Only four came back, and I felt I owed the village my thanks for their sacrifice. But it isn’t just that. James was one of the men who came with us, and I adopted him as a second father, or he adopted me, I’m not sure which came first. But he calls me Hannah, and promised me that Kinver would always welcome me as one of their daughters.

  James has a daughter, Liza. It was her gift to me of a little star necklace that I wore around my neck that helped us overcome the odds and defeat Abbadon. It allows me to see the world in 4D instead of the usual 3D version. It’s incredible how much is going on around us that we can’t see.

  I suppose it’s to our benefit to not see all that all the time, but it is so beautiful sometimes I wish that I could stay there. I only use the star when it is necessary because I promised Liza to never just play with it. Liza might be a young girl, but she possesses wisdom and skills far beyond her age. She can see 4D at any time she chooses, and she has told me that I too have that ability.

  It’s true. I have done it once or twice, but it doesn’t come easily or often. It’s something that I am still working on.

  John, James’ brother and one of the men from Kinver who helped us fight Abbadon’s monsters, is the naysayer in the group. He is always questioning our plans. At first, we thought he might be the mole that was giving away our secrets to Abbadon. We soon found that wasn’t true. Besides, we need him to question our decisions. More than once he had helped refine what we were doing. And of course, Abbadon was in the Castle the whole time, finding out our secrets all on his own.

  The men from Kinver were going to stay home this time. Assuming we had a plan. Liza told me the last time she saw me that I would know what choice to make when it was time. I wondered what she knows that I don’t.

  Abbadon Four

  Beru and Ruta drew a chair up to our table, and one of the metal toadstools made his way over to the table. I called all of them George because I wasn’t sure which ones were which. But I was reasonably sure that the one at our table was the real George. He already had some goodies on the plate that was on top of his head, along with cups of coffee and water.

  When I patted him on the shoulder, he purred. “He only does that for you, you know,” Zeid said.

  I didn’t know that, but I smiled at George and said, “Thank you.” George did a little shiver and moved away.

  “So what’s going on? How come you two are out here?”

  “Just keeping you company,” Beru replied sweetly. As if that fooled me.

  “You’re keeping me from going after Anne and Garth. Come on, admit it, that’s why you are all here. Why am I kept out of these things?”

  Ruta grunted at me. That wasn’t unusual. I got a lot of grunts and humphs from Ruta. When he and Beru met me at the portal, it was apparent that he didn’t like me, or held a grudge against me, and he was only there to greet me because it was his duty.

  Once I discovered that Abbadon had destroyed his whole village, I began to understand his resentment. Perhaps he thought that if I hadn’t been someplace else, I might have been able to save them.

  Although I would be inclined to take on that guilt, we both knew it wasn’t true. My mother had been there visiting his people, and she died too. If anyone could have stopped Shatterskin then, it would have been her. Instead, it took all of us working as a team to stop Shatterskin and his minions the Shrieks.

  I used to call Ruta, Mr. Grumpy Head. I hate to think what he might have called me. But over time we have both overcome our initial distrust. Now I would trust Ruta with anything. Not only is he the healer in our group, but he can also do things no one else can do. I’ve never seen it, but I understand that he travels through the trees—not the way we do as we walk through a forest, or sometimes through the overstory. No, Ruta becomes part of the trees. Somehow Ruta changes his physical presence into a form of energy that moves through the roots, trunks, and branches of trees.

  When he is with us, he travels our way. However, on his own, he can move much faster. I know very little about Ruta’s background. Was his village the only village with beings like him? He never visits anyone of his own kind, at least as far as I know. On the other hand, traveling by tree, maybe he does. How would I know?

  Although Beru had a hometown to return to, her family wasn’t there. They had left at the first sign of trouble, and since then no one has heard from them. That means neither Beru or Ruta have a family, perhaps that is one reason they are so happy being together.

  I wiggled my fingers at Ruta and winked. This time he humphed. But he didn’t fool me. He loved it.

  “I know it looks like we are stopping you, but instead we are simply keeping you company,” Beru said, her entire face lighting up with her smile.

  “That’s what I mean. You’re keeping me company while planning is going on, aren’t you? Admit it.”

  Beru is a terrible liar, so I directed my question at her. This time she just smiled back at me.

  “You really are just keeping me company?”

  “Yep. We are in the dark as much as you are, so we thought, why not spend some quality tim
e together?

  “Oh, and Niko said since there are no more meetings today, there will be classes after lunch.”

  I grimaced. I was right. There was an ulterior motive for the two of them showing up. Classes. I haven’t been in classes since returning from Eiddwen. Sometimes I love my classes. Sometimes I don’t. But I know they are essential.

  Although I have become more skilled at some of the magic I used to know, I have a long way to go. Besides, if we were going to go after Abbadon, I had to be in better physical shape than I am. It is a long trek across the country.

  The atrium roof slid back, and we all glanced up to see a beautiful dragon drop down into the garden. Within seconds the dragon morphed into Suzanne. It never got old watching her do that. But Suzanne had told me once that although it looked easy and effortless, it wasn’t. There was always a moment of pain during the transition. Now that I know that, I wince every time she shifts. Suzanne never does.

  I hadn’t known that Suzanne left the Castle. But then, do I expect to know everything about everyone all the time? Yes. I pretty much do. Besides I thought she was with Garth and Anne.

  “No, Link took them to Leif and Sarah,” Suzanne pushed into my head. “I needed to get outside.”

  Telepathy was something I had gotten used to using, although I still have to remind myself not to let everyone know what I am thinking. However, for the most part, I have everything shut off except the channel we all kept open to communicate with one another.

  I felt that there was another reason Suzanne had gone out with the dragons, but there was no point in asking her now. Sooner or later we would all find out.

  “Is everyone coming to lunch?” I asked Suzanne.

  Instead of answering, she gestured with her head, looking for a moment almost like a bird, to the other side of the atrium where the other members of our team were slowly filing in. It seemed as if everyone was coming to lunch except for the five meeting in secret.

  I slipped the picture of Abbadon into the pocket of my tunic. Since everyone had seen the picture already, there was no reason to flash it around and ruin everyone’s appetite. During this past year, I had learned to enjoy every minute we weren’t off fighting Abbadon’s monsters.

  From the look on everyone’s face, they agreed. Garth and Anne had come to the Castle for a reason, and once we found out what that was, it was likely we wouldn’t have much time for simple pleasures like having lunch together.

  Abbadon Five

  During lunch, Aki told me to come to her classroom first. That was probably to give my lunch enough time to settle before heading to the practice yard with Niko. Niko’s training sessions were never easy, and sometimes they were downright brutal.

  Beru walked me to Aki’s studio just as she did the first time when I had no idea what I would find there. That seemed like years ago, even though it had been less than a year since I came through the portal between the two dimensions.

  As always, Beru said she’d see me later and let me walk into the studio on my own. Aki wasn’t there yet, so I sat down and waited. There was no tea table set in the center of the room, so I figured it wasn’t going to be a storytelling day.

  Either way, it was okay with me. I enjoyed Aki’s lessons. The first time I saw her, Aki was floating into the room a few inches off the floor. Brilliant person that I am, I called her Miss Floaty until I learned her real name. It turned out that she could levitate, and come and go at will. Two amazing skills. One minute she will be there, and the next—poof—gone.

  Other members of our team can transport themselves somewhere in the blink of an eye, like Zeid. But I didn’t think that was what Aki was doing.

  Maybe it was because I never knew her to end up somewhere else. I thought perhaps she didn’t go anywhere at all, just became invisible. That was my new theory, and I hoped at some point to be able to test it. But Aki was another one who kept to herself.

  Aki had never mentioned family. And if she had friends outside of our team, I didn’t know of them. Within the team, I suspect that she and Professor Link are having a thing. I don’t know what kind of thing the two of them are having though. Maybe they are just best friends.

  However, I suspected it was more than that. I had caught Link watching Aki in a way that seemed much more intense than colleagues. Aki is harder to read, but once I saw them standing in the hallway together, and there were definitely some sparks flying between them.

  Perhaps they are waiting for more peaceful times before allowing themselves an open romantic relationship like the one between Zeid and me. Peaceful times will only come when we have stopped Abbadon. That is one thing everyone is clear about. How to stop him was the part that wasn’t clear.

  Waiting for Aki, I dropped into one of the many stretches that she had taught me. Many of the stretches are yoga stretches, and others are ones I have never seen before. All of them are both painful and pleasurable at the same time. I know that flexibility is a crucial component of strength and endurance. Being flexible means I will not be fighting against my own stiff and unyielding muscles, wasting energy.

  I was in the middle of a stretch when I felt the air shift in the room. I looked up, and there was Aki, floating just inches off the floor, appearing out of nowhere.

  Taking a chance that Aki would be in the mood for talking, I asked her, “Is that something that all your people can do, or is it a magical skill that belongs only to you?”

  “Are you asking if you could learn how to do it?” Aki countered, skillfully leading me away from learning more about her.

  I tried it again. “Yes, I would like to learn how. Is it possible? Or is it only people like you who can do it?”

  Aki did something she rarely does. She laughed. “Nice try, Kara Beth. But all I am going to say in answer to your question is, yes, perhaps you could learn how to do it. As for my people, that will remain a mystery to you for a bit longer.

  “However, I don’t want to waste time on that kind of training for now. If it happens, it happens. Right now you can put into your belief system that it’s possible. Imagine yourself levitating. Then when the time is right, perhaps the solution to how to do it will present itself to you.

  “Today, let’s quickly review your flexibility routine, and then I want to go over the story I told you about the two bored brothers on the spaceship.”

  My pulse quickened. I had hoped to ask Aki a few questions about that story. Maybe this would be the day that it happened.

  It turned out that it wasn’t. Although I had retained much of the flexibility that Aki had pushed me into, there were a few parts of my body that had reverted to stiffness. That meant extra time stretching.

  I hadn’t noticed how stiff I had become. Probably from sitting as much as we had been. In one particularly difficult stretch, Aki stood on my back to push me past the point that wouldn’t yield.

  Once I got over wanting to scream at her to get off, I noticed that the pressure of her standing on my back kept changing. One minute she would be so light, I didn’t think she was there, and another she was heavier than I thought Zeid would be if he were standing on me.

  I was doing my best to relax through all that, so it didn’t dawn on me right away that she was not only helping me stretch, she was also demonstrating something about her ability to levitate. Was she defying gravity? Or was something lifting her off of me? Or did this have something to do with her ability to flash out of being present?

  “What if all three of those things went together?” I heard Aki ask me.

  Before I left to train with Niko, Aki took both my hands in hers and said, “You are letting your self-importance begin to fade away. This is good. Keep going. Get lighter.”

  Even before she released my hands, she faded away. As she did, I could feel the touch of her hands lighten, and then she was gone.

&nbs
p; Beru was standing in the doorway waiting for me. I hadn’t heard her arrive. For the first time, it occurred to me that perhaps she could do what Aki was doing.

  Beru, as always, read what I was thinking and said, “Sometimes. Now let’s get going. You know how Niko hates being kept waiting. Besides, Zeid is waiting too.”

  That was enough for me. I reached for Beru’s hand, and we giggled our way to Niko’s.

  I wasn’t kidding about enjoying every moment. When I had seen Beru frozen in time and space, I thought I would die. I will be forever grateful to Garth, Anne, and Suzanne for opening a portal to where they were and freeing them.

  I wasn’t planning to let a moment of good times with Beru slip away from me ever again. If it meant skipping down the hall together, then that was what we were going to do.

  Maybe we could beat Abbadon by being happy. Well, probably not. But at least I didn’t want to let him take my happiness away.

  Abbadon Six

  The training with Niko turned out to be a little less brutal than I was anticipating. As usual, Zeid was with me, which always makes it more enjoyable, even though Zeid never backs down and I never win. After each defeat, either Zeid or Niko laughs at me and reminds me that even though I didn’t win, I learned, which is winning. Right.

  However, I do have to admit that I appreciate that neither of them treats me as if I am incapable of winning. Someday I will. I’m still clumsy, and I don’t think that will ever change. But I can get better, and that’s all that Niko asks of us.

  Watching Niko demonstrate what he wanted us to do was always mind-blowing. Besides being able to do everything with ease, he is easy to look at too. He is a bronze statue that moves like a gazelle. Yes, that had been my name for him at first—the Gazelle man.