Moira wasn't sure if she had fallen asleep or not. She hadn't moved from her hunched sitting position, but the inky black sky seemed to be showing the faintest tinge of blue, and Angela's soft snores were drifting from her shoulder, which had gone numb from the pressure of the girl's head. Shaking her head to try to bring herself into full alertness, Moira lightly shoved Angela, pushing her sleeping form off her shoulder to wake her up.
Rather than jolting awake like Moira expected, Angela flopped down to the grass, her head lolling to the side. Moira's eyes widened, and she leaned over her friend, panic racing through her mind.
"Ange?" she called, her hands gripping the theurgist's shoulders. "Ange, wake up!" She shook the girl lightly, her fingers digging into the scratchy fabric of her robe.
Angela's eyes blinked open and Moira let out a long sigh as she sat back on her heels. "Moira?" she murmured, rubbing sleep from her eyes. "What's wrong?"
"You scared me, Ange. I thought…"
"I told you, I'm fine."
Her statement was quickly contradicted by a fit of hacking coughs that left her gasping for breath, Moira's hand rubbing circles on her back.
When she could finally speak again, she muttered, "Would you believe me if I told you it was allergies?"
Moira, conflicted by worry and annoyance, barely restrained herself from smacking the girl upside the head. "We need to get you help."
"From who?"
Moira faltered. "We, uh, we have to find the monks, right? Cave of Solitude, the headmaster said? It looks like we might be near Shoshun Village… maybe…"
"I thought it was pretty established by now that we are definitely not in Mooshu," Angela pointed out, pounding once on her chest and clearing her throat.
"Where else could we be? Do you know anywhere else in the Spiral that looks like this?"
"No, but what if…" Angela trailed off, seeming to consider her next words carefully. "What if we aren't in the Spiral anymore?"
This time, Moira did smack the theurgist, illness be damned. "Oh, yeah, sure, we've just left the universe."
"I don't know, Moi! It was just an idea!"
"Well, it's not like I know either!"
Silence fell between the two girls, quickly broken by a sigh.
"I'm sorry," Moira said. "It's just… I'm so confused. First we fall out of the sky, and now there aren't any stars, and doesn't it seem like night is too short? It's already getting light again, but do you see a sun anywhere? Did you see a moon anywhere last night? What in the name of Bartleby is going on?"
"I'm as confused as you," Angela admitted, a helpless look crossing her face.
"And what about you? You were strong enough to heal me but just now you were about to cough up a lung! Are you getting better or worse? And why?" Moira fretted, her fingers tangling themselves in her hair.
Her whole body slowed to a stop when Angela put her hands on her shoulders. "I don't know, Moira. Sometimes we just have to accept that we don't know things. But sitting here won't give us answers, will it?"
"No," Moira replied quietly, unsure of whether the question was rhetorical or not.
"No," Angela agreed, "it won't, so we need to do something-go somewhere-right?"
For lack of a better response, Moira nodded.
Angela stood up, brushing herself off, and offered a hand to Moira. "Well, c'mon then."
They walked toward the horizon, where the outline of a small village was just visible against the brightening sky. Neither girl looked back, unwilling to lay eyes on the motionless forms of the guards again. At one point, it occurred to Moira that she hadn't attempted to simply teleport back to her house-or the Jade Palace, if they were, in fact, in Mooshu-and she stopped walking in order to focus.
"Moira?" Angela asked, stopped a few steps ahead of her. "What are you doing?"
Moira kept her eyes closed, trying to feel for the thread of direction that tied her to those anchor points, but she came up with nothing. The thread seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. Opening her eyes, she shook her head and caught up with Angela. "Nothing," she said as she brushed past. She flinched from the brief contact of skin on skin where their hands had met, and turned back in worry. "Ange?"
The theurgist looked at her, genuine curiosity written across her face. "Yeah?"
"You're freezing."
Angela's eyebrows furrowed slightly, and then she let out a short laugh. "We can't all be as warm-blooded as a pyromancer."
Moira stepped close again, gripping Angela's hand between her own and shuddering at the coolness that seeped into her. "No, you're not cold: you're freezing. Can't you feel it?"
Eyes wide, Angela shook her head, a frown settling across her features again. "No. If anything, I'm a little warm, actually."
Moira bit her lip, contemplating whether or not to push the subject further. In the end, she dropped Angela's hand and took a few steps back, turning toward the line of bamboo trees. She didn't say anything, but she hadn't needed to, as Angela followed suit, falling into step behind her. They walked in silence for a long time, but it was far from the comfortable silence they were used to. The last two days had been nothing but tension for Moira, both from anxiety while Angela was asleep and awkwardness when she was awake. Moira was afraid, she realized, but not for the reasons she should be. Yes, ending up in a strange place was scary, and yes, the idea that Angela could still be dying by the second was scary, but those fears had settled into the back of her mind-an almost comfortable presence rather than a nagging thought. The fear at the front of her mind was brought on by the awkward tension between the two girls.
They were never particularly awkward around each other, even when they had only just met. Despite not knowing her name, Moira had only ever been enthusiastic and bubbly around Angela, playing up the friendly side of her personality to seem welcoming. As time wore on and the girls had grown closer, however, the title of 'sunshine', so to speak, was shifted to Angela and her relentless audacity, and Moira easily fell back into her subdued and studious nature. There was hardly silence between them; even in situations where there should have been, the lack of words had been compensated with looks and gestures, much to the chagrin of their superiors. And, if ever there was true silence, not punctuated by communication of any sort, it was never anything but a cozy break from contact: a comforting pause wherein neither had to speak to know the other was thinking about them. It was not a silence neither knew what to say but a silence where they knew neither had to say anything.
The silence now, however, was suffocating. Moira could feel it edging into her nerves, prickling against her skin, and settling in her stomach. She didn't know what to say, she didn't know what to say, dear stars above what could she say?
In the end, she said nothing, letting the silence live on until they came to the edge of a dirt road.
"Where is everyone?" Angela asked, looking up and down the road, her face scrunching up.
Moira thought back to Angela's earlier words, frowning. "Should there be anyone? I thought you said we were the only creatures here."
"I thought we were, but now there's energy everywhere, and it's not like the usual nature energy… It's not spread out. It's all around, like there should be people here, like I could reach out and…" the theurgist trailed off, extending one hand in front of her, only to close her fist around the air. "Touch them," she finished, a defeated tone creeping into her voice.
"There's no one there," Moira stated simply, dumbfounded by Angela's actions.
Turning with a glare that was far less intimidating than it was likely meant to be, Angela retorted, "Yeah, I kinda got that."
Picking up on the hint of melancholy behind the bitten out words, Moira breathed deeply, pushing her own fear and disappointment further down. "C'mon," she said, taking Angela's hand lightly in her own and pulling forwards as she walked. "Let's keep going."
At scattered intervals throughout their trek, Angela would flinch, whipping her head around and searching for something that was inevitably not there. Each time she would roll her neck and readjust her shoulders, squirming in an attempt to shake off Moira's glances and, the pyromancer assumed, the feeling of being surrounded. Angela's explanation of life energy had been shocking to Moira, but the more she thought about it, the more sense it began to make.
Angela had always had a penchant for knowing when someone was approaching; the girl was virtually impossible to startle or catch by surprise, much to the disappointment of Moira's playful side. But, Moira remembered, it had come in handy as well: Angela's sixth sense allowed them plenty of time to cover their tracks before Moira's parents or a teacher came across them and their innocent expressions, making them the perfect partners in crime. Or, near-perfect, given that Angela generally took both the role of lookout and perpetrator, since Moira's conscience refused to let her enjoy the acts of mischief in the careless way the theurgist did.
"Moi," the girl whined, tugging at her braids as she swayed playfully, a pout tugging at her lips. "We won't get caught, I promise!"
"Ange," Moira replied in an equally whiny tone. "I can't just… I'm not going to…" She sputtered, her words failing her.
"We're just going to wrap some houses in vines, it's not like it's permanent! I'll even leave the doors and windows uncovered."
"Why do you need me for this? I-I've got a test to study for and-"
"Oh, like you don't already know everything that's on the test. Come on, Moi! You know I need my partner-in-crime!"
"I'm not going to participate in crime!"
"My partner-in-totally-legal-mischief?"
Moira smacked the theurgist lightly across the arm. Later, though not that she would ever admit it, watching Angela wrap the houses of Triton Avenue in plant life had been an exciting adrenaline rush.
As the two girls entered the small marketplace of the Jade Palace, both worn out by their walk from what had actually been Hametsu Village-not Shoshun, as Moira had thought, but, hey, she'd only been to Mooshu once on vacation about ten years earlier, so the fact that she knew any village names was pretty impressive, she thought-Angela's face seemed to fall further. At Moira's questioning look, she sighed.
"I don't know why I thought it'd be any different here. There's no one, just like everywhere else."
Moira pursed her lips, glancing around the area. Marketplace stalls were still set up, small flags and signs fluttering in the soft breeze. Small stacks of gold were spread haphazardly across the counters, as though abandoned mid-payment. It was almost like life had been carrying on as usual when everyone vanished, seemingly in an instant.
Moira tore her gaze away from the abandoned carts, forcing her mind back to the situation at hand and trying to pretend she didn't notice Angela's labored breathing and hunched posture beside her. For someone who devoted their life to studying the magic of helping others, she seemed to never care about getting help for herself, getting defensive and embarrassed when she showed signs of weakness, no matter how many times Moira assured her it wasn't anything to be ashamed of.
"So, you know which way the Cave of Solitude is, right?" Moira finally asked.
Angela looked up at her with an empty expression. "Yeah, but what's the point? No one will be there, either."
Moira breathed a sigh, her heart twinging at the sight of her friend so defeated. "Well, maybe this was all some weird fluke, yeah? We've got to warn people about what happened in Mooshu. Where's the Spiral Door again? It's that building, right?" Moira pointed down the road as she spoke, trying to keep her voice light and upbeat.
Angela followed her finger, the blank look still plastered to her face. "Could it really be that simple?" she said, her voice almost a whisper.
"Why not?" Moira chirped, painfully aware of the role reversal from their childhood. She'd only ever had to be the cheerful, optimistic one once before: when she'd been coaxing Angela out of her castle after the disastrous visit to Celestia.
The theurgist's head cocked to the side, a look of curiosity ghosting over her features, but she didn't speak.
Moira continued, subtly nudging the girl forward with a hand in her back as she spoke. "I mean, there's no reason the Spiral Door shouldn't work, right? So we got here by falling out of the sky-you did that and the world didn't fall apart or anything." She babbled on, spewing words that she didn't fully believe, her attention on the shrinking distance between them and the building ahead. "Sure, some weird stuff is happening, but weird stuff happens all the time in the Spiral. Maybe we're on the road to discovering the next big bad! Or maybe it has something to do with whatever is going down in Polaris… who knows! But I know one thing: anytime there's something wild going on, there's always refuge to seek in other worlds. The Spiral Door is always open, ready to lead us to adventure!" She internally cringed at how much she sounded like some motivational speaker, but couldn't bring herself to stop until they had reached the door.
When they finally did, Moira let herself breathe, though she did not remove her hand from Angela's back. Taking advantage of the theurgist's state of confusion, Moira turned to her, placing a hand on each of her shoulders and sliding the door open with her foot as she led her inside. Once she had pulled the door shut behind them, she released Angela, feeling mostly confident that the girl wouldn't bolt away.
It was darker in the Spiral Chamber than she'd expected, she noticed as she searched Angela's face for signs of emergence from the mood. It was light outside, and she was sure the place had had windows the last time she was here, but the area in her periphery was pitch black, only a soft glow illuminating her friend's face. Angela let out a soft gasp, and Moira suddenly noticed that the girl's eyes were not staring blankly ahead but rather over her shoulder.
As she breathed a sigh of relief at Angela's coherence, Moira's mind began processing everything she'd taken in, and she turned around slowly, following Angela's gaze.
"That's not the Spiral Door," she said simply, unable to form an intelligent thought as she gaped at the enormous crystal cluster at the center of the otherwise black room.
