I heard North's command to summon the Guardians. This is serious. I turned back to look at Kachi. I was still holding him in my arms. He clung to my jacket, burying his face into it. He was trembling now, shaking. I gently pulled him from my chest and looked into his eyes. They were full of tears… and pain. I pulled him close again, hugging him.
"I'm sorry Kachi… I'm so sorry." I don't know what happened, I still don't know what this Nihil is or how it got into the House… but what I do know is that we're both okay… mostly. Kachi is shaken, hurt… but alive. "I'll protect you Kachi, I'll keep you safe." I was compelled to say those words. I wanted to make him feel safe, feel okay. I wanted to see him smile.
He looked up and let go of my chest. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Instead of getting up and leaving though, he wrapped his arms around my neck and rested his head on my shoulder. "Thank you Jack… you saved my life." He whispered, still chocked up in tears. "It was foolish to think I could stop Nihil… Thank you… Thank you so much" He pressed harder into my shoulder and held on tighter.
I wrapped my arms around his back. "I will keep you safe Kachi, don't worry." I could feel him smile into my shoulder. I guess it's okay I didn't get to see it. His crying slowed, but he still held on tight, and I held onto him, not wanting to let go.
I heard North walk into the room. He cleared his throat. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything." He said, smiling as he did.
I wished we could have had more time in the silence. "You okay with getting up?" I ask Kachi.
Kachi nodded on my shoulder and stood up with me, letting go of each other. I saw his face. His eyes were red and puffed, his cheeks were damp with tears, and his hair was a little messy. I straightened it up the best I could and gave him a big smile. He gave me a faint smile and turned to North.
"I'm sorry." Kachi said while wiping his eyes.
I was about to say something when North walked up to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Is okay, you have gone through much, more than anyone should. Your home…" North paused.
"Is gone… along with all my work… all that time, waste, devoured by Nihil." Kachi said while looking to the ground.
"Yes, a terrible tragedy. Worry not though! The other Guardians are coming, we have meeting when they all come." North said as he turned around, walking to the door and turning to face us once more and continued "You will stay here though, Kachi."
"But…" Kachi began to say but stopped, really having no way to protest.
"Nonsense. You stay here. You have helped us all, it is our turn to help you. Jack, I am putting Kachi under your care for the time being." He looked at us both as we turned to each other. "I take it you won't object?"
I looked at Kachi and smiled; he turned around and looked back at me.
"No… not at all." Kachi said… and smiled.
It took sometime before the Guardians assembeled. Sandy arrived riding a golden eagle, while Tooth flew in with her usual entourage of fairies. Bunny burst through the door.
"What is it this time North?" he asked, totally unaware of mine of Kachis presence.
"Is great threat friend."
"Worse than Pitch?" Tooth asked, also unaware of our presence.
Sandy wasn't unaware though, he was looking at both of us. Well, more staring at Kachi, quizzically. He tugged on Norths robe and upon getting his direction pointed to us both. The other Guardians finally saw us.
"Kachi, what are you doing here?" Tooth ask as she flew up to us both. I was standing very close to Kachi, my hand on his shoulder, giving him support.
"It's…" Kachi trailed off,
"Yeah mate? What's wrong." Bunny moved over to us both. Soon all the Guardians gathered around us.
Kachi looked around at them all, he was about to say something but didn't, instead looking back onto the floor.
"Kachi? I've never seen you this distressed."
"It's Nihil." I finally said aloud. I looked at everyone; they all had a horrified look on their face.
"What about it?" Bunny asked, worry showing on his face.
"It attacked the House of Words." I said
"Wh… What?" Tooth asked.
"It devoured the House of Words… it's gone…" Kachi finally said.
"How? How did it get in? It was so well guarded?" Tooth inquired.
"I… I don't know. It must have slipped in… I must have been distracted…" Kachi said. "Now that I think about it… this must have happened when…" He looked at me, not wanting to say it out loud, but I knew what he was going to say. He was going to say it must have happened when I convinced him to go out and have fun, that's when this Nihil thing came into the building and… devoured everything.
"When what?" She asked.
"When I c-" I began to say but was cut off.
"No Jack, it's not your fault." He interjected.
"What do you mean?" North said, finally speaking.
"This all happened after I convinced him to leave the House… this Nihil must have entered after that." I said.
"Jack…" North responded.
"No Jack, Nihil has been trying to enter the House for as long as it's been created. I just let my guard down. It's not your fault, it's mine."
"No Kachi, it's mine."
"Would you two pipe down?" Bunny said. "It's N'ither of your faults."
"Yes, we're not here to point the finger, we're here to find a solution." Tooth added.
I looked at Kachi who in turn looked at me. I mouthed 'I'm sorry' to him and all he did was nod. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and pulled him close.
"So… what do we do?" North asked aloud.
"I… don't know." Bunny replied.
"I haven't the faintest clue."
Everyone turned to Sandy who in response shrugged his shoulders.
Kachi cleared his throat and everyone turned to him. "The only good thing out of this is now Nihil is trapped within the dimension. Only my Portals and North's snow globes are able to enter that world. However, the longer Nihil is in that world… alone, the longer it has to work against us and come up with a plan all of its own."
"What do we do?" North asked.
"Simple, we have to find a way to contain Nihil further…" Kachi said, moving out of my grip. "However, there is very little you all can do besides give me support. Any and all attempts that you 5 would make against it would be futile… while Nihil is all of our enemy, only I am able to contain it."
"And why is that?" I asked "Why can't we help."
"Because… because we opposites… just as easily as Nihil was able to suck up my Home I can just as easily fill that void. We oppose each other in that regard. I fill the minds of people, and Nihil empties them."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Think of a person as a cup, and empty cup. I am what fills that cup Jack. I weigh a person down with knowledge by inspiring them to learn, thus filling them to the brim as best as I can. Nihil is the opposite. It takes what I fill and removes it, emptying the glass, lightening the load. It's a constant battle between the both of us."
"What is this battle for?" I really had no idea.
"Humanity. Just as you all protect the children of this world, I protect all of humanity from Nihil, from what it has become. It now wants nothing more than to suck the knowledge out of everyone, leaving only a void… only Nihil. It had… another purpose before… but now it's lost. This is its new purpose, it is the void, it is the end. I am there to fill that void, weakening it."
"Then… why was it overpowering you at the House?" it was a question that had to be asked. Why couldn't he protect everything?
"… it gained the upper hand. It caught me by surprise and was already draining my power. If I was there the moment it entered I would have been able to stop it… but it already devoured too much. I only had so much left to stop it, it wasn't enough."
"So how do you stop it now?" North asked.
"… I don't know… but I'll come up with something. That House doubled as storage for not just knowledge, but power. Much power. I'll have to work hard to regain what was lost… but I will eventually. It's what I do."
"Do you have the time?" I asked. "I thought the longer we waited the more powerful Nihil got."
"That's wrong." He responded. "Nihil is not getting any stronger. It has nothing to feed on. It devoured what I had stored, but there is nothing more to feed on within the House. It will come up with a plan, but it won't get stronger."
"What will you do though? Your power is gone, the House devoured." Tooth said.
"My power is not gone. What you may not have realized is that the books within the House was not my power, they were just copies of it. I am the Spark, not the books. I am what inspires people to learn, not those musty tomes of knowledge. I am what causes people to write, read, and learn, not a book." As he said this, his robe turned back from black to blue, the words become visible once more. "Those books were there in case anything ever happened to me. But now they're gone, but not the knowledge, because all of it is stored here." He pointed at his head. "Nihil may have gotten the upper hand… but has not won."
