The three of them fell silent as they stared at the glowing rift. Sloane had been nervous about her mission to close the rifts ever since Kai had proposed the idea, but now she had seen the devastation it could cause, she felt terrified at the thought of going through it again.
‘I know Kai said we should be able to avoid damaging the world by transferring the energy from the old rift into a new one, but what happens to the other side of it?’’ Sloane asked. ‘If I stand on Ellysia and close that rift, what happens when it shuts here on Aeris?’
She looked in Jack’s direction, knowing he had been studying the rifts with Kai. Jack’s eyes were serious as he returned her gaze. ‘I have a theory about that,’ he said. ‘And when you opened the rift earlier today, I believe it proved I was correct.’
Jack glanced towards the rift before looking back at Sloane and Rhyn. ‘Did you notice that there was no destruction in the world on the other side of the rift you created?’ he asked.
Both Rhyn and Sloane nodded in response. ‘Yes, it seemed fine,’ Rhyn replied.
‘And when the rift to Earth was closed, your world was plunged into winter, but as far as we are aware Earth remained pretty much the same.’
‘So…’ Sloane prompted.
‘So I believe that the rifts have a stronger connection to one of the worlds that they lead to. That world acts as a kind of anchor, and any alteration of the rift results in a destruction of the balance in that world, which causes a cataclysmic change like what we saw today.’
Sloane looked away from him, trying to wrap her mind around what he was saying. ‘So only one world is affected when you close a rift,’ she said.
‘Yes,’ Jack nodded. ‘And if you open another rift on that world using the energy from the old one, the balance should be restored and any damage prevented.’
‘But how do we know which world is the anchor?’ Rhyn asked.
‘All the energy that makes up the rifts is located on that one side,’ Jack replied. ‘I took readings from the rift near the castellum, and only one side registers on my device. But it can also be seen with the naked eye. The orbs that surround the opening are brighter on one side of the rift than the other. The side with the brighter orbs is the one that holds the energy, and that can tell us which world is the anchor.’
'Interesting,' Sloane replied. She stood up and walked towards the rift. Rhyn followed her, keeping close to her side. She stared at the glowing orbs surrounding the opening, before stepping through it and into Ellysia.
Her eyes widened as she looked at the orbs on the other side of the rift and realised that Jack was right. They were far brighter in Rhyn’s world than they had been on Aeris.
‘So your world is the anchor,’ Sloane said to Rhyn.
He nodded as he stared at the rift, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. ‘I never noticed the difference before,’ he said. ‘It’s subtle, but it’s there.’
‘I think Jack is far more clever than we give him credit for,’ Sloane said.
'Yes,' Rhyn agreed. ‘Are you ready for this?’ he asked, turning away from the rift and looking at Sloane. The moon was bright on Ellysia tonight, and she could see the concern in his eyes clearly. He was worried, but she wasn’t sure if it was for her safety, or for the world around them. Either way, she didn’t blame him. It had nearly killed her to open the other rift earlier.
Sloane nodded though. ‘I needed to use some of my own energy to create that rift from nothing. But now I have the energy in front of me. All I need to do is transfer it from one rift to another. In theory, it should be easy.’
She looked back through the shimmering portal towards the fire that lit the clearing on Aeris. She could see Jack watching them from where he still sat, propped up against a tree. She gave him a thumbs up to let him know he had been right, and he smiled back at her through the opening.
‘Should I do it?’ Sloane asked quietly, her gaze still fixed on the other world. ‘Or should we wait and let the other Unfaih come back through the rift first?’
‘It will be much easier for them to return to the castellum through the World of the Woods,’ Rhyn replied. ‘We should do this now.’
‘What about Rowe and Esther?’ she asked, her eyes searching the other side of the rift for them.
‘Jack will tell them where we’ve gone. I’m sure they’d rather return through the woods too.’
Sloane nodded and lifted a hand in farewell to Jack, who was still watching them. He smiled and slowly raised his hand to wave in return.
Sloane let out a breath before she pulled the Braky’s piece of the Oblivion Stone out of her pocket. She lifted the stone from around her neck and joined all three parts of it together. They merged perfectly. She closed her hand around them and shut her eyes as she thrust the stones into the rift.
The sensation was somewhat different to before. The full power of the Oblivion Stone felt so much stronger, and the energy from the rift seemed to instinctively flow towards the three joined pieces. Sloane found it easy to gather the power within the stone, and it wasn’t long before the rift started to shrink around her hand. As the glowing orbs that rimmed the opening began to close in, the wind picked up, and it whipped at Sloane’s hair and clothes, just as it had done before.
She needed to start opening a new rift as quickly as possible. She gritted her teeth and stretched her arms out wide. She tried to control the pulse of energy that was surging from the rift into the stone and direct it to flow up her arm and through her body. She urged it to spread along her other arm and into her hand, which was reached out into the open air where she wanted to form a new rift.
As the rift continued to close in around the Oblivion Stone, the wind blew around her with more strength and lightning filled clouds spread overhead. But soon she felt the energy from the rift obeying her commands, and when it had travelled from one hand to the other, it burst from her fingertips and a new rift began to form.
It happened slowly at first, as she imagined burning a hole through the air and into another world. But then it began to expand more quickly until she could see glimpses of the land beyond. As the new rift grew larger, the winds died down, and Sloane sensed the skies clearing over her head. As she closed one rift and opened another at the same time, the balance of energy on Ellysia remained the same, and she felt confident she would not damage the beautiful world that surrounded her.
She flicked her eyes towards the rift to the World of the Woods, which continued to shrink further and further until all sight of Aeris had disappeared entirely. At the same time, she pushed a final surge of energy into the new rift until it had opened wide to a new world beyond.
Her hands both dropped to her sides and she looked around as she searched for any signs that another catastrophe was about to break loose. The wind was gone, the starry sky was clear of clouds, and the air was still briskly cold against her skin. The ground wasn’t shaking, and the mountain that loomed over them wasn’t erupting with fire. The world around her hadn’t changed, and she smiled with relief as she looked at Rhyn.
‘It worked,’ she said.
‘It did,’ he replied, drawing her into his arms. She hugged him tightly and rested her head against his chest as she stared at the new rift she’d created. She had no idea how to know where the opening would lead, but this time the rift had revealed a vast desert. Through the portal, Sloane could see a huge orange sun and several bright moons hanging low in the hazy sky. Sand the colour of midnight stretched to a distant horizon.
When they stepped back from their embrace, Rhyn smiled and took Sloane’s hand in his. ‘We should head back, so we can meet up with the others,’ he said.
Sloane frowned slightly at the thought of trekking back through the night though. Returning to the dark depths of the ravine to get back to the castellum was the last thing Sloane wanted to do after everything they had been through that day. But they had another rift to close, and they had two worlds to set right again.
Sloane gave h
is hand a squeeze, and the two of them started back across the damaged world that lay before them. The battle may have left deep scars on Ellysia and on Aeris, but already Sloane could feel them healing.
Chapter Thirty-One
It took days to transport all of the injured fighters to the rift, and more time still for all of the Unfaih to return back through the rift to their world. Both the humans and the Unfaih rejoiced together in their victory, but Sloane spent the entirety of that time a nervous wreck.
The first thing she had done upon returning to the castellum was to walk to the rift to Aeris and check which world it was anchored to. What she had seen was enough to bring her to her knees. The orbs around the rift were brighter on Aeris, which meant that if she wanted to close it, then she needed to be in the World of the Woods.
Rhyn had told her that they would come up with a solution once everything had calmed down after the battle. But Sloane knew that there was only one choice to be made. She couldn’t ask Rowe, Lorian or Esther to trap themselves on Aeris, and she wasn’t sure if it was safe for anyone other than her to try and close the rift. The risks of damaging either world were too great. She knew what she had to do.
They had received the all clear that every Unfaih had returned to Ellysia the previous night and the humans were safely back in their settlement on Aeris. Now that everyone was in their rightful place, Sloane knew that Rhyn would want to talk about how they were going to close the rift to the World of the Woods.
Sloane didn’t want to go through the pain of arguing over the inevitable with people though. She had already made up her mind, and there was every chance that she wouldn’t be able to go through with it if Rhyn or any of the others tried to stop her.
In her heart, she knew no other solution would work and that the rift remaining open only endangered more people. It was time for the gateway to Aeris to be closed, and once it was, she would be separated from Rhyn forever.
Sloane’s eyes misted with tears as she stood atop the battlements that surrounded the castellum to watch the suns rise one last time. Her fingers played with the Oblivion Stone in her pocket. She had the two pieces that Kai had joined together, leaving the Braky’s fragment on the table in her room. The two parts had been capable of creating a whole new rift. For what she was doing, they should be enough.
She tried not to think about anything but the task ahead of her. But it was impossible to pretend that there was nothing else on her mind. She couldn’t ignore the fact that she was about to part with a world she loved so much and a man who had captured her heart.
She heard footsteps and turned to find Kai making his way up the steps to meet her at the top of the wall. He gave her a sad smile as he approached, before leaning his arms down on the wall and staring out towards the suns that were cresting the horizon.
‘I’m going to miss you,’ he said, causing Sloane’s tears to start flowing more freely.
‘You know what I’m doing?’ she replied.
He nodded and turned to look at her again. ‘You’ve been good at keeping it quiet these last days, but I guessed your plan when I saw your reaction to the news that all the Unfaih had returned last night.’
She let out a pained breath and tried to hold back the tears. She had suffered many injuries before, but none felt as painful as what she was going through now.
‘You’re not the only one who can shut the rift, you know,’ he said. ‘Esther and Rowe both have Lorian’s blood running through their veins.’
Sloane nodded as she considered her two sisters. Esther had spent a thousand years stranded from her people, and Rowe was finally growing into the strong and capable woman that Sloane had always wanted her to be. Ellysia was as much their home as it was Sloane’s, and she couldn’t ask either one of them to part with it.
‘I can’t ask them to do that,’ she replied. ‘You know that.’
Kai let out a breath and nodded. ‘I understand.’
To Sloane’s surprise, Kai reached out and pulled her in for a hug. Kai never intentionally touched anyone, and the action seemed to break down another barrier within her heart, and she started crying in earnest.
‘I’ve never had many friends,’ Kai murmured. ‘But I’m glad that I’ve had you.’
Sloane nodded into his chest, trying to calm herself by taking deep breaths. ‘Me too,’ she replied.
When she stepped back, she wiped her tears away and stared up into Kai’s eyes. ‘I don’t think I can say goodbye to everyone,’ she said.
‘Are you sure that’s a good idea?’ he asked.
Their small group had gathered the previous night to celebrate the Brakys’ downfall. They had all been so happy, and that was how Sloane wanted to remember her friends. With smiles on their faces, not tears in their eyes.
When she thought of Rhyn and tried to imagine his reaction to her decision to leave, her heart started to break. She knew that if she attempted to tell him goodbye, she would never be able to go.
‘It’s the only way I’ll be able to get through this,’ Sloane replied.
She turned from Kai and looked out at the horizon. She breathed in the crisp mountain air and looked out across the frozen sea, knowing it would be the last time she could admire the world of Ellysia.
She gave Kai a brief nod as she blew her breath out. ‘I’m ready,’ she said.
‘You want to do this now?’ he asked.
‘If I don’t do this now, I’ll never be able to do it,’ Sloane replied.
Kai nodded solemnly before stepping back and allowing Sloane to lead the way back towards the steps. Sloane hesitated when she reached them though, pausing as she considered the long drop down to the courtyard below her.
‘Is everything all right, Sloane?’ Kai asked as he waited for her.
It felt like such a long time since Rhyn had first dared her to jump from the battlements and test the strength she had gained from the Liftsal and her Unfaih blood. She had been too afraid of the leap before, but as she stared at the drop, she felt a desperate need pulsing through her veins to fulfil the challenge she had been set.
‘Sloane?’ Kai prompted.
‘There’s something I have to do,’ she replied.
She had barely finished speaking when she stepped towards the edge of the wall and, taking a deep breath in, she jumped. Air rushed past her as her body plummeted, whipping against her clothes and flowing through her hair. The fall was quick, but each second that passed seemed to drag and leave her with too much space in her mind to rethink her decision to jump.
She hurtled towards the courtyard at a rapid pace, but she now knew what her body was capable of. She positioned herself perfectly as she dropped onto the icy ground and landed in a crouch. Her feet slammed against the hard courtyard floor, and her legs shuddered as they absorbed the impact.
She slowly stood tall, a sad smile lighting her lips as she gazed back up at the height she had dropped from. It was an impossible distance above her, but Rhyn had always believed she could accomplish anything. Now she believed it too.
‘You certainly know how to make an exit,’ Kai said, as he walked over from the base of the steps to meet her. ‘Not many Unfaih would attempt that,’ he added.
‘I’m not Unfaih,’ she replied, softly. ‘Well, not completely.’
‘No,’ he agreed. ‘You’re something extraordinary.’
She gave him a warm smile before she started walking towards the large wooden gates that led through the wall. Kai walked at her side, remaining silent as they made their way across the empty courtyard.
Sloane paused when she reached the gates and looked at her friend. She could barely meet his gaze, so she focused on the ground as she slowly unstrapped the sword from her waist and passed it to him.
‘I was going to leave this by the rift, so you would all know what I had done,’ she said. ‘But, since you’re here, I think it’s better if you give it back to Allirie for me.’
‘Do you want me to come with you?’ he asked, gesturing
towards the steps that led up to the rift.
Sloane shook her head. ‘It’s best if I do this alone.’
Kai gave her a sad smile and pulled her in for one last hug. ‘I miss you already,’ he said.
‘Me too,’ the words caught in her throat and she struggled to keep her eyes from filling with tears again.
When she let her arms drop from around Kai, Sloane turned and walked away without another look backwards. She could feel him watching her as she left, but she couldn’t bear to turn and see the sadness in his eyes.
As she started up the steps, her body became unnaturally heavy. Her legs felt like they had turned to stone and her breaths were coming in shorter. She paused when she was halfway up the stairs. She took the stone from her pocket and held it tightly in her hands, willing it to give her the strength to continue.
She closed her eyes and thought of the battles they’d fought and of the lives they’d lost. She remembered the people she was trying to protect. Leaving them was the hardest thing she had ever done, but knowing they would be safe and happy made it the easiest decision.
When she opened her eyes again, Sloane continued up the steps without hesitation. She needed to be strong until she had completed her task, and then she could fall apart.
She paused when she reached the small ledge that the rift was located on. It was glowing brightly against the early morning light. She took a step towards it but froze as Rhyn came through from the other side, his arms crossed over his chest.
‘You were just going to leave without saying goodbye?’ he asked.
Her heart pulsed quicker when she saw him blocking her path. Her whole body shook with every beat that rocked her chest. Just the sight of Rhyn was enough to make her crumble. But she needed to be resilient enough for the both of them.
‘I thought it would be easier this way,’ she said. She had always been so good at masking her emotions with a cold and calm indifference, but right now she was failing. Her words dripped with grief, and she knew that her eyes betrayed every ounce of her agony.
The Rift War Page 33