The Wisps danced in the air, their mouths sucking it like the void… and they disappeared, leaving behind the afterglow of their blue flames – the glitter and shimmer that remained in this reality, like a trace left by their ethereal bodies.
Tiyan knew this was the place. The dark night around them seemed to catch at their clothes with the wind, which began to blow again with renewed strength, the wail of the gusts piercing his ears with mournful dirges.
The wind knew.
This was the place where two realities met, a door to the faerie realm. A hole in the world. A gateway to horror.
And he had to silence his fear, which wailed like the wind, and pass through.
He remembered how he had toyed for a moment in his house with the idea of not going. To leave Mina and try to save himself. What chance did he have? He will die with Mina. Mina is already lost.
But these were wrong thoughts, thoughts of a lost man who had replaced his heart with cowardice. He may not have been a hero, but he would never leave his sister to die.
He felt Ona more than he saw her, as she put her hand on his arm and squeezed. Her presence, even though they had known each other so briefly, was a poultice on a weeping wound. She taught him that the weak can win. And that fear doesn’t define us.
Noyd’s memory suddenly slipped into his mind and he thought of the promise. When, if. Though he promised her he would return, he knew – and she knew too – that it wasn’t up to him. But when he returns, he will make up for all the mistakes. He will give her back the years they have lost. Love her as she deserves. And be the friend he always was – but more.
“So here we are,” Ona said. That was enough. He hadn’t expected her to come with him. Surely she had her own business to also had suffering sister and he understood that she had a mission too.
And since she hadn’t tried to force him to fulfil his promise to her, he wouldn’t do that to her.
“I am afraid,” Tiyan admitted, and it was honest and natural.
Ona laughed bitterly.
“We all are.”
Tiyan approached the place where the Wisps had disappeared. His hand reached out. Cautiously he moved closer and his hand passed through the soft barrier. A tiny blue spark of energy enveloped his hand and began to creep up. Tiyan quickly removed his hand and the sparks dispersed, sinking to the ground where they fell.
“You must know something,” Ona’s voice was doubtful. Hollow and silent.
He turned to her, his gaze curious. The barrier behind him became more visible, like a glass, like a face of water.
“I know… you burn, Tiyan,” he could clearly see how hard it was for her. But not for him… not as hard as he thought when he started his journey. He had burned many times in his dreams. So many times in the last few nights. He didn’t feel the flames, but he set the world on fire and watched in horror as he burned it to a cinder. “When you sleep. The Fae…”
He swallowed a hard bile. Perhaps Ona thought he might abandon his mission. He sensed her will to speak. Explain. Try to find common sense.
“They want something from me, don’t they?”
Ona looked at him, a well-hidden worry on her painted face. Her eyes… they changed colour again. Now they were blue and green at the same time. Strange.
Just like him.
“Yes, Tiyan. They want you. And when the Fae want something, it’s never good.”
“Maybe I am not good,” Tiyan chuckled darkly and a shiver ran down his spine. How easily he accepts the reality that a mortal enemy of humanity wants him – for whatever purpose. That he burns – really burns, not only in his dreams. A casual thought. An unimportant detail.
The barrier behind him began to move, sending water-like tendrils in his direction.
“Now it’s too late to think about whether I’m good or not,” he said, the darkness creeping back into his voice. “But I am not a coward.”
“No,” Ona looked at him, intensely. “No, you are not.”
He felt unreal. The unreal world he was going into wanted him, desired him like a dark lover. And he was going to submit.
His hand met the shadowed vines. They were slowly drawing him closer, hungry, so hungry. He felt his breathing stop and his feet carry him closer. He suddenly caught a scent of pine, so real, as if it had come straight from his past, when everything was simpler and the sun didn’t shine on the frozen land.
He was already facing the glass-like structure of the now fully visible door to Ain’asel.
He didn’t turn to Ona. Ona didn’t expect him to.
Do not turn back.
Never.
He said this to himself so many times that he believed that if he turned back, he would lose all strength and run, run as fast as he could and hide under branches – like a coward.
Which he was not.
One step.
Two steps.
You can still turn back. You can still save yourself, as you always have.
No.
His face met the gate, his body sucked in, like a rock sinking into the dark lake. He disappeared, devoured by the maw of another world.
Ona looked at the vanishing gate with hope and doubt. She looked long. As if to find an answer in the afterglow of light it left behind – just like the Wisps.
Until reality didn’t force her to set up camp and think about her risky plan to free Isnan. She was only a week of walk from Arelt.
Good luck, Tiyan.
Do not let them use you.
Do not let them kill you.
We all have our dark scores to settle.