I started to ask who she was talking about, but then my tired brain finished catching up with recent events. Two bright little balls, each a formerly devoured Starsown, began rising from the ground. They shifted through several different colors, before settling on a soft orange.
“Stell?” they asked in unison as they floated in front of us, one in front of Merada and one in front of Breena. “Are you Stell? Are you both Stell?”
“Yes,” Breena said in a trembling voice, and Merada nodded furiously, still crying silently. “I’m Stell. So is she. We… we know you. We know you,” the fairy repeated happily. “Family. You’re both family.”
“We are!” the ball in front of Breena said. It had a young, feminine voice. “Your parents let us play with you when you got big enough. Your sister loved to show you off.”
“Betel,” Breena said, blinking furiously. “You’re my cousin, Betel.”
“Vega,” Merada said to the other one floating in front of her. “Ye be her twin sister. I just learned about ye.”
“Two Satellites already?” Vega finally spoke up. “And both at this stage? That’s fantastic, Stell! I mean, Breena-Stell and Merada-Stell!”
“Thank you,” Breena said, blinking.
“We knew she’d grow up to be strong,” Betel said as she bobbed in the air. “That was our hope. That you’d get away to somewhere safe, and thrive. And carry the hopes and dreams for the rest of us.”
“Thank ye,” Merada said, more tears sparkling in her eyes. “I hated that I left ye behind.”
“What do you mean?” Vega said as she bobbed backwards. “We made you leave. Don’t you remember? You were the youngest. Our brightest hope. We had to make sure you’d get away, or our race would go extinct completely.”
“But we didn’t hope for this,” Betel said, and the little light sounded like she was shedding tears of her own. “We never dared to believe that you’d free us. That you’d kill part of an Umbra one day.”
“I didn’t either,” Breena said, blinking and beaming happily. A quick glance told me the pink-haired woman was shedding tears of her own. “I had help, though,” she said, peering at me and squeezing my hand. “Both times. Right, Wes?”
“Eh, I was around,” I shrugged, not wanting to intrude on the moment. “But both times, one of you did most of the work. My main job was encouragement.”
“That… makes sense,” Betel said carefully, floating in front of me. “Nice to meet you, Wes. Thank you for taking care of our Stell.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, almost too tired to remember my manners.
“Still, though, this is unprecedented, Stell!” Betel turned back to Breena and Merada. “Killing even part of an Umbra all by yourself is unheard of! The Earthborn of old probably couldn’t even do it!”
“Thank you, Betel,” Breena answered with a smile. Merada was watching Vega, who was hovering closer to her newly reunited cousin. “But I just said I had help.”
“Yes!” the orange light bobbed. “And it’s incredible both of your Satellites partnered so effortlessly! You two are working together so well! If you can just keep hiding for a little longer, you might become strong enough to escape Cavus for good!”
“Hmm?” Merada looked away from Vega to regard her other newly rescued cousin. But Vega answered her anyway.
“She means that Cavus is too spread out from chasing the rest of you, which was another great idea, Stell. We’re really proud of how you survived. We’re so glad you never went through what we did.”
The little ball shuddered for a moment, and we all shuddered with her.
“And if you’ve both gotten this strong, you two might be able to escape,” Vega continued, as if she was still trying to put the experience behind her. “You might gain enough power to get somewhere Cavus can’t find you. And maybe there’s a way to bring the rest of Stell with you.”
“Really?” I asked, curious. “Her portal powers can do that?”
I still didn’t fully understand how they worked, but based on what I learned from Stell, Starsown constructed their portal networks over time. And I wasn’t sure how much of the magic travel system depended on Stell instead of Avalon.
“They… might,” Betel answered cautiously. “After all, beating part of an Umbra was supposed to be impossible, too.”
“Meh,” Merada shrugged, some of her inner fire rekindling. “Might be easier to just put the boogeyman down for good.”
“We’d have to,” Breena said as she took a deep breath. “Betel, Vega, I can’t describe how happy I am over your freedom, and I know Merada feels the same. But we can’t settle for it, either. We want to keep these worlds. And we want the rest of our family back.”
The two little orbs hovered silently for a moment.
“Oh dear,” Vega began. “She doesn’t remember after all.”
“Oh, aye, I do,” Merada answered confidently. “I remember all of it now. That beastie showed me a hundred nightmares all at once. Would have overwhelmed me, but for the gentleman right here.” Her hand moved from my back to give my palm a squeeze. “Made me feel strong again, when I thought I’d lost everything.”
“What?” Betel said, hovering a little closer to me.
“It’s true,” Breena said with a smile of her own. “He was there for me, too.”
“That’s…” Stell’s cousin struggled for words. “That’s great. That’s kind of you, young sir, to support Stell this way. To… be there for these parts of her, in her time of need. Especially against an Umbra. That’s really, really brave of you…”
“Thank you?” I said cautiously, sensing the little orb’s discomfort.
“... but you should probably stop now,” the little light finished. “It’s not appropriate, and it’s going to be the horribly graphic death of you.”
“Betel!” the other light hissed. Breena and Merada started blinking in unison as they stared at her.
“I’m sorry!” Betel replied, sounding apologetically blunt. “But he’s not a Starsown! He’s getting in over his head, and he wouldn’t know how this whole thing works anyway! I’m just trying to keep him from getting killed!”
The two Satellites beside me gasped in unison.
“You don’t need to be so direct about it!” Vega whispered, as if I wasn’t sitting right there.
And hadn’t helped save both their lives.
“Just so you guys know,” I said with a sigh. “I’m unaware of whatever cultural taboo prevents your people from receiving help from a non-Starsown. I apologize if it somehow offended you.” I tried to keep the edge out of my voice, because I was definitely feeling offended myself right now. “But I would appreciate it if you guys didn’t disapprove so openly of my aiding Stell. It’s getting old.”
“What?” Breena said, giving me a confused look. “How can it already be old?”
“Lucima was a bit more discreet about it,” I answered her. “But I still got the message.”
“Look, don’t get us wrong,” Betel began defensively. “You’re an Earthborn, right? I’m pretty sure you are.”
I gave the ball of light a patient nod. She seemed encouraged by it.
“I thought so. Look, it’s amazing that you’re even willing to try. You do your ancestors proud. I mean that. Really,” she insisted. “And it’s obvious you’re trying to be some kind of hero for Stell. But you have to stop. You can’t be like the Earthborn you probably heard stories about. It will literally kill you. I’m serious.”
“Do go on,” I said dryly, trying to remind myself that there were lots of guys that were hated by their girlfriend’s family before eventually making them come around. Gonna be a real trip when I finally meet her dad or brothers, I thought quietly to myself.
“What do you mean, ‘do go on’?” Betel asked in a baffled voice. “You should already know your limits! They were beaten into your world from orbit! It went down in history as one of the most brazen war crimes ever committed! We made an uproar in the Council on your b
ehalf! Your genetic memory shouldn’t even let you have the desire to get involved into this!” She flew a quick circle around me, much like Breena usually did when she was examining me. “It’s dangerous for you to try and Rise at all! Especially this far! You could hit your limit and die at any moment! And you’re still not enough to even threaten Cavus!”
She really does sound worried about me, I decided. I’ll give her that much.
“On second thought,” I replied carefully to her. “I was probably being unnecessarily modest earlier. But it sounds like you both saw less of me than Lucima did.”
“Okay,” Betel replied, as if she wasn’t expecting me to argue with her and was trying to be patient about it. “I admit that we couldn’t see anything at all until the very end. And we’re impressed that you even dared to help with the killing blow, and I swear we’re not trying to mock you about it…”
“Wait,” Vega spoke up again. “Did he just say Lucima’s name?”
“Yes,” I replied calmly. “Twice now, to be exact. Stell’s older sister, right? Is that one you used to babysit Stell with?” I tried not to glare as I name-dropped. “Or was it Astremee?”
“We met Lucima already, Betel,” Breena exclaimed. Merada looked like she was having trouble deciding if she was happy or mad, and gradually settling for being both at once. “This is the second time we killed part of Cavus, and Wes traded blows with him both times. But long before all of that, Wes battled Cavus on his own and freed Astremee.”
The little orb on my left gasped, an even odder sound than hearing her speak.
“That was him?” Betel asked in a small voice. “But… how? That’s impossible!”
Breena sighed.
“You have no idea how often I tell Wes that something is impossible. At least weekly, if I had to guess, or daily. Probably several times a day. And I usually don’t have time to tell him before he finishes doing the impossible thing.”
“Stell,” Betel began, still trying to sound like the responsible older cousin. “I mean, Breena-Stell. You don’t understand. An Earthborn doing something like that would probably have to use the Soulcurrent. They can’t do that anymore. Part of their downfall was using it as much as they did.”
“The ones that do, always die,” Vega said softly. “Like the Earthborn that chased Cavus with it long ago.”
“Right. And he was the first one to be able to use it in probably millions of years. He set back Cavus’s plans back by dozens of void-decades and cost him a wealth of time and resources. But he still died.”
“Name,” I interrupted, my vision tunneling around the Starsown’s light.
“What?” she asked.
“Name and appearance. What was his name? And what did he look like?”
“We only got to see him briefly,” Betel said. “We usually…” the little light somehow swallowed. “We usually couldn’t see or hear anything when we were trapped inside.”
“I don’t care,” I said, sounding far more harsh than I meant to. My fatigue was coming back in a series of pounding waves. “What do you remember seeing? What was his name? Did he look like me at all?”
“He was much bigger,” the little light I was bullying said softly, sounding scared and confused. “He had more Rises than you as well, which should have killed him. But he had red hair, like yours. And eyes that burned when he stared, like yours. And he was angry. He said he wanted Cavus to stay away from his planet, and his family, and his son. But none of us knew what he was talking about. We didn’t even realize he was an Earthborn until he fired off the Soulcurrent, and before any of us knew what was happening, he was chasing Cavus through the Pathways and burning himself out by blasting the Umbra over and over. I… what’s wrong?”
My hands found my face. I leaned forward and found I couldn’t say anything.
“John,” Breena said softly.
“He said that word,” Vega’s voice said. “What does it mean? Is it a name?”
I shouldn’t have needed it. There was already a mountain of evidence announcing the fate of John Malcolm. I’d had over a dozen opportunities to find closure over his death. Cavus had practically said it himself. And it was the death of his earthly body that finished off my father anyway.
But it broke me all the same.
I hadn’t wanted to admit it, but a tiny part of me had come up with a wild hope while the rest of me wasn’t watching. That maybe my dad’s projected body had escaped, and was hiding somewhere until he could finish regenerating his original one. I didn’t even know if that was possible, but I had seen too many miracles to give up on a hope that big. I thought I’d find him hiding in a Pathway one day, and I’d bring him out, and then the two of us would beat Cavus and Rhodes together, so that none of their people could hurt anyone again. We’d free Stell’s worlds, and then I’d find a way to bring him back to Earth. We’d clear his name somehow, and everyone would take back all the things they said about him, and Mom, and Rachel, and Davelone’s family would stand up and say that they knew he never could have done what people said he did. Then he’d reunite with my mother, and pull her out of the funk she’d been in since his death, and be there for my sister again, by helping her with her projects and telling jokes that always made her groan, and swapping ideas for her campaigns. Then, at the very end, he’d tell me he was proud of me, that yes, I really had done it, and that I wouldn’t have to fight on my own anymore, and that he would be there to help me figure things out from now on.
That part of me didn’t care that it was being unreasonable. It missed my dad, and since we were still one body short, it thought it had an excuse to fantasize.
But when Cavus’ former victims spoke, that part of me knew it had to die.
I sagged into my own hands. Voices droned all around me. I didn’t care what they said anymore. But two of them wouldn’t stop saying my name. I finally looked back up.
“Wes?” Stell’s Satellites asked. “Are you alright?”
“No,” I said. “I’m sorry, ladies. You were right. I really am a lot more tired than I thought.”
The two little lights in front of me stopped bobbing for a moment.
“Son,” one of the twins said. “He said he had a son. I didn’t realize…”
“We’re sorry,” the other orb said. “We should have been thanking you for what you’ve done for Stell, instead of warning you away. Forgive us. Please.”
I turned to look at the other two people in front of me, who had also gone through hell but hadn’t gotten to keep their bodies on their way out. Breena had said that they would regenerate in time, though she didn’t know how long it would take. Months, maybe. Centuries or thousands of years, just as likely. As I looked back at the Starsown, who were so badly damaged, they didn’t have eyes to match my gaze, my anger and pain found some small measure of grace to share with the other broken people in front of me.
“Yeah,” I said. “Everybody’s had a rough time recently. Let’s… call it even.” I looked at the little balls, and remembered how Lucima hadn’t been able to talk for long. “Do you guys need to rest too, or something?”
The two lights bobbed reluctantly.
“We don’t want to go,” Betel admitted. “But staying in a world like this taxes us. We’re going to need to hole up in a Pathway somewhere for a while, until we’re healthy enough to travel. I don’t know how long it’s going to be, and we won’t be able to talk to you until we’re a lot better. But… I hope you stay safe. I love you, Stell,” the little light said with a tremor in its voice. “It’s so good to see you safe, and healthy, and…” I felt Betel turn her attention toward me. “Happy. And I’m glad you found someone willing to fight so hard on your behalf. I’m sorry I didn’t respect that sooner.”
“Me, too,” the other light said. “I love you, Stell. And thank you, Wes.”
Breena and Merada said reluctant goodbyes to their newly rediscovered cousins. The two disembodied Starsown drifted away, promising to return. I directed them toward the Pa
thway we had used to travel to this world, since we had cleared it of Cavus and Malus control, and because Lucima might still be resting there as well. They nodded, and departed quickly, hovering momentarily for one last glance at us. And then they were gone.
There was nothing else left for us here. All we could do now was wait for the Icons to show up, since they were our ride home anyway. A message through our mental links told us that the other battles were over, and that the Icons were on their way to retrieve us. A few of our people had been wounded, but there had been no deaths, probably because the attack’s main purpose was to kill me with a dragon and transport Merada to Cavus. I told myself I’d go over the report when I wasn’t feeling so tired.
Breena and Merada took turns asking if I was alright. They grieved for me, even though they were coming off of the biggest victory of their multi-bodied life, and technically, I had received nothing but confirmation of news I should have already accepted. They rubbed my back through my chain mail and told me they were grateful for me. Merada repeated that she loved me. Breena kept opening her mouth wordlessly, and always looked frustrated afterwards.
Finally, the Icons arrived. Merada spoke on our behalf, announcing our victory and confirming the earlier reports for me. She informed the demigods that I had secured a great victory for the world once more, but was so fatigued that I couldn’t even talk, and should be taken back as quickly and comfortably as possible.
They agreed without asking any questions, and I wish I had kissed Merada for that.
But I passed out before I got the chance.
Chapter 8: My Seas Weep
“You okay, son?” a deep, familiar voice asked as I sat up on the couch. “You hit your head pretty hard in last night’s game.”
Lighting Distant Shores (Challenger's Call Book 4) Page 11