Hi guys, I'm back. Sorry for the wait. I've been quite busy, my bro's b'day and all. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter.

The lights are still off, and I can't get to sleep. Every time I close my eyes I see Pitch's topaz ones. He haunts me even here with Cory. I roll over trying to get comfortable. The only way I can relax is if I stop breathing. I tried it for a while, but it didn't work that well, seeing as you have to breathe to stay alive. Maybe Cory's still awake. I could talk until I fall asleep mid sentence.

"Cory?" I whisper loudly. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah" comes his short answer.

"Okay"

"Why?" His question doesn't suprise me. Why am I keeping him awake? Is it still a good idea to talk? Should I tell him about Pitch? No, I won't. I don't want him to worry.

"I was just wondering."

"Well, it's sorta hard to get to sleep when you're busy dancing in your sleep." Was I really that loud? I thought I was being discreet.

"I'm so sorry about that."

"It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does! I'm such a bad friend, keeping you awake when you want to sleep."

"Don't worry." He reaches out a hand to touch my ice cold fingers. "I'll stay awake as long as I want to. Then I'll start to ignore you."

"Why would you want to stay awake?"

"To see you." He says it so casually, like it's an obvious answer. My face begins to heat up. How can he see me in this dark? His hand closes around mine and with one tug, I'm on the cold floor. "Now you won't make as much noise if you're going to move around."

"How clever of you sir."

"Who said you were my friend?"

"Oh" I feel really weird. I don't know why.

"You are though. You're probably the best friend I've had in this place. The others don't understand me. They think that if I go outside, I'll run away to my sister. She has a debt to pay off. With Pitch of course." Cory has a sister? I realise I don't know that much about him, really.

"What's her name?" He pauses as if it's some top secret information.

"Forest. She's Mother Nature somehow."

"Somehow?" I stare at him quizzically through the dark.

"She's just not the Mother Nature type." The subject is closed and the silence is deafening.

"Does your quiet mean that you want to go to sleep?"

"No. I'm going to keep talking to you." He sounds childish. I probably do too.

"So what do you want to talk about?"

"Nothing, anything, it doesn't really matter. Wait, what was the crystal that you put in my hand?" I remember now. The alexandrite.

"It was a pleochronic gem. Alexandrite to be exact."

"Pleo-what?" He can't even say the word.

"Ple-o-chro-nic." I spell it out slowly.

"And what the hell is that?" I'm so happy that I get to explain. I don't think wanting to explain a word so desperately is normal. I'm not normal, in my defence.

"It means that either under certain lighting or certain viewing angles, the crystal appears to change colours. That's what pleochronic means."

"Great, now in English?"

"The rock changes colours when you move it." I'm not sure why he didn't get my first explanation. Nessa did, when she was 10. "Or if you have different lighting."

"Is it changing colours now?" He holds up the large crystal and squints, trying to detect the change of colour. "Get your rock to give us some light."

"I could do it myself." I'm not actually sure if I can, but it's worth a try. I lift my hands up and concentrate on the glass chandelier that hangs from the ceiling. Glass is made from sand, and sand has all sorts of minerals in it, so I'm assuming that the glass will be able to hold light. Light that I give it anyway. I push all my energy into reaching the glass, then I use my reasoning techniques to argue in my mind with the clear material, trying to get it to stop talking to me. I never had to deal with the voices before. Maybe it's something to do with how tired I am. I finally get the light bulbs to stop telling me about how long they've been sitting there by striking a deal. If I get them down from the ceiling tomorrow morning, I get to keep the light there for the whole time I'm awake. Then they'll switch off so the light doesn't drain me of energy. They apparently can't hold onto light for very long. The bulbs flicker, then turn on. The room lights up and I suddenly look around to see that I'm really high up. I must be standing up, but I can't feel anything under my feet. I'm not floating though, I notice by looking down at my toes.

"Spinel!" I feel myself falling and I land with a jolt on my feet. I feel a crack and I can't stand up. Cory runs over and grabs me just before I fall. He scoops me up and places me up onto the couch. "I heard a snap! Does it feel like you hurt your ankles in any way?"

"What the heck just happened?"

"You were flying."

"No I wasn't. I saw the wood underneath my feet."

"You weren't standing on anything."

"Yes I was! I saw it!"

"You're so dumb!"

"How?" My feet start to throb and I try to wiggle my toes. It sends excruciating pain up my leg and into my exhausted brain.

"You weren't standing on anything. I saw you!"

"But-" Cory wraps his arms around me and embraces me in a tight hug.

"Don't you ever scare me like that!"

"How were you scared? I wasn't. It was fun, until it hurt." He hits me lightly on my shoulder.

"You floated up until your head brushed the ceiling, and then you fell. I'm surprised all you did was hurt your feet." I look up to the roof and realise how high it actually was, how high up I was. Despite myself, I give a little wave to the light bulbs and they flicker in response. "You're such an idiot." He adds in my ear.

"Hey!" I tackle him to the floor and pin his flailing arms to his sides. "I'm not an idiot. I brought back the light!"

"Yes you did." A laugh comes from the doorway and I turn my head to see North and the others standing there.

"Why'd the lights go out?" Bunny asks.

"They were sick of being up there. They threw a huge tantrum and managed to blow every light bulb in the process." Everyone stares at me. "What? Ever heard of a strike?"

"How can you communicate with the lights? They're not alive and they don't talk." Jack's comment seems to offend the glass and we're stuck in darkness again.

"He didn't mean it!" I yell to the roof. The lights turn back on and I feel a wave of pride wash over me. I managed to fix something without seriously hurting myself. "Glass is made of sand and sand is a whole lot of minerals," I say, repeating the reasoning I had told myself." So I guess that gives me partial control over them?"

"That's great!" Tooth cries. "Now you can fix everything."

"Maybe not." I do not want to be their handyman. North chuckles and walks over to me, the little kid trapped on the couch.

"What happened?" Jack asks, looking at Cory's face.

"She was floating up to the roof, then when the lights came back on she fell. I think there's some sort of fracture. Her left ankle is bruised, but her right is really swollen." Doctor Cory. I'll add that to the list of things I didn't know about him.

"Where's my rock?" I look around for him, but I can't see him anywhere. I begin to panic. Where could he have gone? Something cold brushes against my leg and I grab it. There he is.

"I can make something to aid your recovery." His little face wrinkles into a smile. I just nod. My ankle is making it hard to think. It's very painful. My rock spins his fingers round and around in circles until a bandage forms from his fingers. It's woven with threads of platinum to keep it heavy and gold to make it softer. I'm not sure how it's going to help. I won't be able to walk properly. I feel warm and cold fingers on my ankle and I watch closely at what Jack and Cory are doing. I have a memory of Nessa bandaging up my wrist after I fell off the bars at a gymnastics competition. I said it was fun on the way down, but when I lost a whole mark for my fall, it wasn't as fun. I could've dominated in the bars. She took me to the hospital the next day to tell me that my wrist was broken. Nessa panicked more than I did. Now it's my foot that's injured, and once again it was fun on the way down. Cory wraps his hand around my ankle and takes the bandage out of the rock's offering hands. He wraps it around and around and around until it feels secure, then looks around for something to stick the end down.

"Spinel, are you okay?" Tooth asks with the tone of a worried mother.

"You must will the bandages to aid you, or it will not work." My rock instructs me while I try over and over again to seal the open end. Finally I push the end together with the wrapped up part and they mould together. The whole thing shifts the slightest bit when I move my foot. It feels so cool. There's pressure, sure, but it looks and feels like a really comfy boot. I try to stand, but my ankle can't take the weight of my body and I fall back onto the couch.

"Jack, do you think I can fly like you?" I ask.

"I think it's a possibility. Why?"

"I'm gonna visit Nessa!"

"She might not be able to see you." I suddenly remember the dream I had when I got lost in the forest, and I realise that Jack is right. But I'm wiling to risk it to see Nessa again. I miss her so much.

"She can see you though!" Maybe it's not impossible.

"That's because she believes in me."

"Me too."

"She thinks you're dead." How straightforward.

"That's still belief."

"Come with me." Jack scoops me up in his arms and carries me out of the room.

"Where are we going?"

"To visit Nessa"

"Now?"

"Yes"

"Can't we just bring her back here?"

"We still have to go back and get her." Jack makes a good point, but I can argue with him for as long as I want. I will have the last word.

"Why can't I stay at the workshop?" I ask as we take off into the freezing cold air. I still haven't changed my clothes since I got here.

"Because I'm not sure where Ness lives."

"But you went there to visit us before."

"That was because I was bored. I didn't notice where I was."