by Jack Knight
Several weeks after they had returned from the portal, Xion fell into bed, so weary from all his practice that he could barely move and fell into a deep sleep almost immediately.
His dream slowly faded in and out for several minutes before he could actually see anything. It was as if he had to try harder to see this dream than he ever had before.
He saw two figures leaning against a large rock that had broken through the ground from beneath, cracks spread out from the base of the rock, some of them opened up to endless darkness beneath the earth.
The two figures were panting for breath and covered in sweat. It took Xion a while for the dream to clear enough for him to recognize Xara and Ava. Xara had a red sword in her hand, the sword that he had dropped in the Five Hells, her thin black blade was sheathed at her hip. Ava held only her dagger. Both of them looked completely exhausted, but unharmed.
“Gods, this place sucks,” Xara laughed.
“Just a few demons,” Ava panted. “It’s nothing.”
“Are you kidding me?” Xara asked. “We’ve been here a couple of hours and we almost died like fifty times.”
A couple of hours? They had been there for weeks, Xion wondered if he had seen into the past for the first time. Maybe that was why he had such difficulty seeing it.
“Don’t worry about it,” Ava said calmly, trying to catch her breath. “Xion and Sapphire will get us out of here.”
“What about Warren?” Xara laughed.
Ava rolled her eyes. “He’ll make a bunch of jokes about ‘friendship’ and read a few books.”
Xara shook her head with a smile on her face. “You should be nicer to him. He’s really smart.”
“My question is,” Ava changed the subject, “why can’t I use magic?”
“Magic is tied to nature. There is no nature in this plane, just darkness and fire,” Xara explained. “I don’t think we can use magic here at all.”
Ava groaned. “This really puts a damper on my day.”
Xara laughed. “If Xion does get us out, he’s going to be stronger than I am.”
“What do you mean?” Ava asked.
“Time moves differently in different planes of existence. I’m almost certain that time moves slower in the Hells than on our plane. If we’re trapped here for five days, he might have a year to practice magic. If my little brother surpasses me, I’m going to be really upset.”
Ava shook her head. “Is that really your priority right now?”
“Kind of, yeah,” Xara admitted.
Ava glared at her with such fury that Xion would have run for cover, had it been him. Xara only laughed. Xion realized that if two people had to be locked in the Five Hells, it should have been them. They were both skilled with their respective weapons, even without magic. Ava would not let the fact that she was there depress her, it would just make her angry and give her more drive to get out. Xara would refuse to be affected by anything at all, even Ava.
“So, what exactly do we do now?” Xara asked.
A large, circular shadow grew on the ground next to them. It had come from nowhere, and there was nothing that could be casting it, but they both watched it as if they had been expecting it to appear. Once it reached five feet across, Tenebris leapt out of it. As Tenebris landed on the ground beside them, the shadow she had emerged from faded into red rock.
“Stay alive until they can get us out,” Ava answered calmly as she pet Tenebris. “We just need some way to communicate with the others.”
“Why do you think I came along?” Xara asked. She looked excited, like she had been waiting for this topic to come up.
Ava narrowed her eyes. “What does that mean?” she asked.
“Oh, come on,” Xara grinned. “Xion’s dreams!”
Ava sighed deeply and looked like she was trying to restrain herself with great difficulty. “Full and complete explanation. Now.”
Xara sighed, like Ava had disappointed her. “Xion has had dreams of Draxis, right? And, then he had dreams of Paarathax, right?”
Ava nodded. “And?”
“The Eye, the thing that we both have that makes it so that we see things in our dreams, Xion sees the present. I’m sure it still works even in another plane…” she sounded unsure when she finished, but shook her head as if it didn’t matter. “Probably, anyway. But, the point is, he sees other dragons.”
Ava looked at her like she was being stupid. “You think Paarathax is a dragon?”
“No, but he was talking to a dragon, right?” Xara pointed out.
Ava hesitated. “You aren’t a full dragon, your mother was half, how do you know it’ll work with you?”
“Oh, I don’t,” Xara admitted, her smile returned. “Just thought it was worth a shot.”
“You and your brother are both idiots.”
Xion woke slowly, as if coming out of the dream was just as difficult as going into it. He sat up and looked around the dark room. The torches had gone out, and the window was open to the dark night. He could see the others asleep in their beds, and hear Aurum snoring quietly at the foot of his own.
He snapped his fingers, pushing the magic out without a second thought, and every torch blazed to life in an instant.
“Wake up!” Xion called loudly.
Sapphire and Laira jerked awake quickly. Warren did not even flinch.
“What’s wrong?” Sapphire asked. She could have been awake the entire time, she was so alert Xion would not have been surprised to find out she was just pretending to sleep.
Laira, on the other hand, looked ready to murder him. “I’m getting really tired of everyone needing less sleep than me,” she groaned and laid back down.
“I saw Ava and Xara,” Xion told them.
Laira sprang back up, and Sapphire ran to Warren’s bed to shake him awake.
Once everyone was paying attention, Xion told them everything he had seen. Laira hung on every word, as if she could sustain herself forever on what Ava said. Xion decided to leave out the part about Ava not believing in Warren, he did not feel that anyone needed to hear that.
“So, if we get them out quickly, it’ll be like they were in there for a day or two. That’s great!” Sapphire cheered.
“It sounds like they’re going to be in constant danger,” Laira argued.
Xion nodded. “Xara said they had been there for a couple hours, but without magic every second is a chance something bad could happen.” He hesitated and took a deep breath before saying, “I’m sorry to do this to you, Warren, but it really sounds like we need to get them out as soon as possible.”
Warren stood and bowed to him dramatically. “In the name of saving Ava and Xara, I will begrudgingly sacrifice myself to marry the most beautiful woman in Ustama. But, you owe me big time.”
“What a gallant hero, you are, Warren,” Sapphire giggled.
“It’s all in the name of friendship,” Warren grinned as he sat back down on his bed.
“Joking aside,” Xion insisted, “you understand what that will mean for you, right?”
“You can’t flirt with every girl you meet anymore,” Sapphire pointed out. Xion could not tell if she were actually warning him, or if she was just teasing.
“Oh, the things I give up to save my friends,” Warren feigned distress.
Xion could not help but laugh. This time it felt less hollow. Seeing that Ava and Xara were not suffering had given him actual hope. He did not like the way that they were going to have to go about it, but it really seemed like they could save Ava and Xara.
“Alright, so the plan now is,” Laira summed up, “Xion tells the kings to jump off a cliff, Warren marries the Myst, we all go find the fey, we ignore that the evil king of the dragons is raising an army of vampires and werewolves, and we hope that someone can just suddenly come up with a plan to get Ava out of the Hells?”
The way that Laira said it all at once, it made it sound like a horrible plan. Each part of it more hopeless and dismal than the last. Even so, Xion smiled.
“Yeah, that sounds right,” he said brightly. He felt better than he had in weeks.
“I know I’m not going to like the answer, but what about me?” Laira demanded.
“What do you mean?” Sapphire asked.
“You sent me back before you fought The Hand. Are you taking me with you when you all go to find these fey?”
Xion felt his heart clench with sadness. She was right. Traveling between cities was still dangerous, and they did not know how far they would have to go to find the fey court. He wanted to say that she could come along, but he knew that Ava would skin him alive if he let something bad happen to Laira while she was trapped on another plane.
Laira must have seen the answer on Xion’s face, because she sighed and laid back down on her bed. “I kinda figured,” she lamented.
“I’m sorry,” Xion said honestly, “but it’s not safe out there.” He looked at Sapphire and Warren seriously, and they both nodded at him, agreeing it was the right thing to do. “I promise,” he insisted, “we’ll get them both back.”
“You’d better,” was all Laira said in reply.
Xion looked out the window, down on the forest. He did not want to break another promise. He had no idea what was waiting for him this time, but he was going to do everything in his power to bring back his sister and his first friend.
Across the link, Aurum’s voice called out, stronger and more certain than he had ever heard from her before. You will.