I apologise for yet another long period of waiting between chapters, but it's now time to start that final stretch toward home.
Chapter 15 - Finding the Way
"Get him inside."
Shaken away from the tremendous outpouring of their misery, everyone looked over shockingly at Hex as he verbally cut through the empty silence that followed in the wake of Ben's last moments alive. Most of them wore scandalised expressions, displaying their uncomfortable feelings in reaction to the nature in which he had spoken abruptly. Helen in particular walked right up to him to give him a piece of her mind.
"Give them a few minutes," she snapped. "I know you've probably seen a lot by now, but Ben's just died."
Hex slowly rounded on her, glaring point-blank. "If we waste our time on grief, then there will be no way to help him. A few minutes may be all we have."
Hope looked at him, curiosity emanating from behind the tears in her eyes. "What do you mean, Uncle?"
"The Creation spell is completed. Therefore it has done its work and is gone from his body," Hex answered her. "We must get Benjamin in the house immediately."
Hope's eyes widened. She realised what he was intending. "The basement!" she exclaimed.
Hex nodded. Everyone around them remained confused, glancing between each other and wondering what the two were talking about. Kevin chose to bring the question out into the open.
"Erm, what's so special about a basement?"
"No time to explain," Hope said quickly, her spirit rejuvenating rapidly as Hex's largely unspoken idea took hold of her. "Someone help me get him up."
Buoyed by the inspiration of the sorceress who had just moments prior been consumed in grief, Manny hurried forward and gathered Ben into his four arms as Hope stood back up, wiping her eyes clean. Seeing that his niece had regained her initiative, Hex crossed the road and gestured to her and the Tetramand to follow him. Nonplussed, wrapped up in their astonishment, the others stared dumbly at the three as they began to make their way over the lawn towards the house.
The first to go after them was Gwen. Pulling away from Kevin, she started into a run and called the Omnitrix to fly up from the ground into her hands as she went past Sandra. Flinching, the heartbroken mother clambered to her feet and jogged after her niece. Kevin and Helen shared a puzzled glance, again questioning what was going on, before they both felt a knee-jerking reaction and rushed to join their partners. As the rest cluelessly began to follow, Hex reached the front of the house. At an unbidden command, almost as if it had been trained to recognise the presence of its master, the door flew open and allowed him entrance. He led the small procession through until he came to what appeared to be a solid wall. Pressing his hand firmly against the surface, he proclaimed, "I, Hex of Ledgerdomain and of Earth, decree that this door be unsealed. Aperi firmamentum! Quod praecipiotibi!"
His order was responded to with a sharp crack as a tiny hole appeared in the wall just above his head. A second later, two separate lines split away from the hole, the cracking sound prolonging like a repeating echo as they travelled horizontally along the wall for a short distance before strongly ploughing downward all the way to the floor. The cracking stopped instantly as the area of the wall framed inside the lines paled and seemed to shimmer like glass before it evaporated, revealing a darkened stairway behind it.
"A dual lock with the English and mystic languages," Gwen said aloud, sounding hollowly impressed. "I'd never have guessed you'd use that method."
Hex and Hope glanced at her uncaringly, dismissing her comment as an attempt to lighten her guilt. Gwen recoiled under their stony impassive gazes, withdrawing a step back. Moving on to ignore her completely, Hex proceeded down the stairs. Manny saw this as a cue to keep going and cautiously followed, using great care to plant his feet securely with every step he took while maintaining a firm hold on Ben. Hope, noticing his efforts, stayed two steps behind him to ensure he had the space in which to navigate. Her guilt threatening to swallow her up again, suspecting she was likely to receive similar treatment if she looked to any of the gathering behind her, a humbled Gwen entered the stairway and led the others in.
The stairway took them all to a room that, lacking the filtering of natural light, appeared even darker than the passage they had just walked through.
"How come we didn't know about this place?" Kevin asked once he came in and gave it a quick survey. "We've been in this house before and never had a hint this was here."
"The reason why you've never discovered this place during your few unwarranted intrusions is because I rarely use it," Hex answered simply.
"Oh."
Deciding Kevin's single-worded response was the end of the conversation, Hex raised his staff and tapped it back to the floor. The dark room suddenly lit up, the formerly shadowed walls igniting with a brilliant light that covered every inch with its luminescence. To the amazement of everyone but him and Hope, they found themselves in a medieval-styled laboratory filled to the brim with shelves of conical flasks, test tubes, vials and beakers, most of them looking as though they had been emptied of their contents long ago and were never replenished.
His urgency driving him, Hex walked past the shelves to the farthest side of the room. The others followed, going on to find him in a small chamber just beyond the corner of the final shelf. Within the chamber stood a lone, empty polished stone tub set into the floor. Hex turned to Manny, directing the Tetramand to place Ben inside the tub. Manny nodded, stepping over to it and started to lower Ben in.
"Hope, the potion," Hex instructed his niece.
Hope darted back into the main room, the concerned eyes of everyone watching as she flitted amongst the shelves. She returned to the chamber holding a conical flask containing an opaque, golden yellow liquid in her hands and she ran over to the side of the tub, kneeling down as she uncorked the flask. There, in front of her, the others spotted the small socket designed to fit in the thin cylindrical top of the flask. Hope jammed the tip into the socket and watched with bated breath as the liquid sloshed and slipped through the connection.
"This is the last one you know, Uncle," she said, glancing up at Hex with a sliver of fear.
"I know," Hex replied. "Making this our only chance."
Before anyone else could ask them what they meant, their attention was brought back to Ben in the tub when Julie pointed to it with a yelp. The golden liquid from the flask had reappeared, seeping back into sight from underneath Ben. Rising gradually, it first coated Ben in its expanse, then soaked him as it flooded over him. When it assumed the height where they knew that his body should be being lifted up by it, Sandra and Gwen shrieked with alarm when it did not happen and Ben stayed at the bottom. Hex raised his hand to halt them.
"Do not worry. It is how this is supposed to work," he regarded their panic.
Still unsure, the two glanced at Hope, who nodded back at them reassuringly as she plucked the empty flask out of the socket and stood up to look on as the liquid finished its course, reaching the top of the tub.
Hex sighed in relief, confirming the task was done, and he turned to the gathering to finally explain his actions. "As you've no doubt realised from your experiences with your 'mad scientist' movies, this is my laboratory and potions vault." Without waiting for a reply, he continued on. "Before my brother Spellbinder made his last stand against Adwaita, I endeavoured to move every potion and spellbook I could here to Earth to keep it out of our enemy's hands. Any I couldn't, I locked away in another dimension."
"So what's that got to do with Ben?" Helen asked.
"The potion we've just used is called Adhucannos. Its main form of use is to keep a person in stasis while they're awaiting medical attention, and prevent their body from being affected by the development of time and the deterioration of health."
Kevin's eyes bulged as his mind leaped towards the first interpretation he made of the sorceror's words. "You mean it can stop people from ageing?"
Unamused, Hex retorted flatly, "The potion itself only lasts three days and it is not easy to make. One minute step wrong, and it could wind up killing you." He turned, facing each person in the room and gave them a commanding stare to let them know what he would say next was important, his eyes falling on Gwen last. "It is impossible to stop a Creation spell from accomplishing its work, but that does not mean it's irreversible after its completion."
"But nothing can bring back the dead," Gwen argued. "It says so in Charmcaster's spellbook."
"Nothing that is known," Hex spoke back to her fiercely. "But there are thousands of myths and legends throughout millennia, stories of artifacts and talismans that can grant a single desire. If the universes have learned anything from the true concept of discovery, it's that some of those legends and myths may be real."
"That's a big gamble, Hex," Max interjected. "It could lead to a lot of false hopes if we don't find anything."
Dropping his glare as he circled away from Gwen to address the Plumber, Hex said, "One, if I am correct, we will all be willing to take."
Hope immediately answered, nodding fervently. Sandra and Max duplicated her reply a split-second later, followed by Kevin, Helen, Manny, Julie, Kai, Ship, Alan, Azmuth and finally Gwen.
"In that case, we now have a little under three days left to us to obtain whatever we can find," Hex concluded. "So, all of you, back upstairs to my library. We have reading to do."
:*:
As all the others had done when they had entered the library, Hope selected a book that appeared promising from off of a random shelf, sat down on one of the chairs Hex had conjured up for them to use, and started to read. Midway through the first chapter, her eyes blurred. She shook off the sudden sense of drowsiness, unaware that the fatigue she fought against during the battle with Ghostfreak was again catching up to her, and forced herself to read on. She got past two more sentences before the drowsiness returned. Attempting to throw it off for another time was the final thing she could visibly recall as it overcame her and she fell asleep.
Hope awoke with a start. Feeling uneasy, she looked around the library as it immediately seemed to feel like it was filled with a lesser amount of people than there was supposed to be. She found her senses confirmed when she saw that the only ones in the room besides her were Hex, Gwen, Kevin and Max. Rubbing her eyes, she moved to get up. She stalled for a moment, only noticing then the blanket that was draped over her form. Carefully unwrapping and pulling it away from her as she stood and left it folded up on the chair, she asked out loud the first question that was on her mind.
"How long was I out?"
Kevin, drawing his eyes from the book he was reading, glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.
"About ten hours," he answered.
Hope's eyes quaked with surprised fury. Ten hours?!, she screamed in her mind. Though the words had not come bursting out physically from her mouth, her face burned as if they had. Sensing her turmoil, Hex hastened to calm her.
"Your energy was greatly depleted in fighting Ghostfreak and you sustained further injury when you should have been recovering from your battle with Adwaita," he said. "Your body required immense rest."
Hope found her eyes moving and centring on Gwen before she could even think. "And what about her?" she countered, putting a strong emphasis on the direct mention of her rival. Gwen flinched at once, realising only she could be the person Hope's vitriol was targeted at, and she gazed back at her with a forlorn look that Hope determined to be part guilt and part confusion. Before she could offer any returning words, Hex interceded on her behalf.
"Gwendolyn's powers were exhausted and she sustained injuries of her own, that is true, but you were drained far greater than she was and you fought when you should have been recovering while she was in her prime."
"And she did rest," Max chose to add. "She fell asleep not long after you. Out for eight hours."
Hope regarded the two men's words, considering them carefully. After moments of indecision, she faced Gwen a second time, glaring at her with blank monotony. She sighed, conceding the point, and addressed the other matter of concern to her.
"Where has everyone else gone?"
"Azmuth went back to Galvan with the Omnitrix; he plans to hide it again in the event that we fail. Sandra was called to the hospital; Carl was recently cleared to leave, now that the doctors are assured from their observations that he will be fine. She is going to explain everything to him and, following that, they will return here," Hex informed her. "Everyone else was ordered to go home by Max once their fatigue had become prominent enough that it was hindering their work. They are all presumably recuperating at present."
Sincere understanding sparkling in her eyes, Hope nodded in response. All of Ben's friends had volunteered to put their lives on the line to protect her from Ghostfreak and his army of creations. They deserved, no, they had more than earned an indefinite period of rest. She turned back to her chair, searching for the book she had been reading before she dozed off and found it perched on the seat to the right. Behind her, Max and Hex exhaled quietly, knowing that a potential altercation had just been prevented.
Quiet reigned throughout the room as the five within it resumed their perusal of Hex's library. Then, like a shot, Kevin jumped up, exclaiming loudly, "I think I found something!", and he went over to Hex, pointing out the page he had been struggling to translate. "I only get some of the words, but most of it - - -
Hex acted indifferently at first, as he treated what Kevin had discovered with mild interest. When he had translated the beginning paragraph, his eyes widened ecstatically and he took to the next one with studious rapture. As he came to the third, he lifted the book straight out of Kevin's grasp, gaining the complete attention of Max, Gwen and Hope. The three of them and Kevin watched as he turned to the next page. There, his gaze narrowed; Hope recognised it as the telltale sign that her uncle had gone from aroused curiosity into intensive focus. Finally, he looked up, confidence brewing in his eyes.
"Kevin, I believe you have found our answer," Hex stated as he flipped it back to the previous page and read it aloud. "The Totem of Life. Said in legend to be located in an abandoned temple in the Nàjaaltik dimension, the totem can grant to any individual their single greatest wish, be it immortality, eternal youth or the restoration of life."
"Sounds like the Holy Grail or the Fountain of Youth," Max commented offhandedly.
"It may be the Totem was the inspiration for those myths," Hex agreed. "We have another such similar story in Ledgerdomain."
"The Locket of Eternal Life," Hope breathed in stunned recognition.
"Yes," her uncle responded. "That story also mentioned the Nàjaaltik dimension. And in more recent history, a great adventuring philosopher, inspired by the tale, spent his life in search of the Locket for decades, eventually led his final expedition to that place. None returned." Slowly, Hex raised his head in contemplation and turned to Gwen, Kevin and Max. "Hope and I will examine this further. In case this ends up not being the solution, the rest of you will remain here and continue searching for one."
Gwen and Max nodded and resumed their research. Kevin gave his assent also and moved over to the bookshelf to pick out another. Hex and Hope, leaving them to their reading, withdrew from the room.
:*:
An hour later, Hex and Hope returned, startling the other three with their quiet re-entry. Their abrupt reactions were put to a swift end as they withheld the renewed expressions of dedication on their faces.
"Good news?" Max guessed.
"Yes," Hex affirmed, going on to explain. "Hope and I both travelled the metaphysical plane in search of the Nàjaaltik dimension. We have located it and ensured the temple's existence. Afterwards, I set to translating the instructions in the book for getting to the temple."
"There's a trick, isn't there?" Kevin enquired. "There's always a trick."
"There is," Hex answered. "Three, to be precise. First, we cannot simply teleport to the temple itself; we can only access Nàjaaltik through its dimensional gateway and make our own way there. Second, only three people truthfully professing to be wanting the same wish are permitted entry into the temple, no more, no less. And third, these three must take on the trials of the temple."
"What are the trials?" Gwen asked.
"The writing did not specify," Hex replied. "It only says that if even one trial is failed, the three will not be granted the Totem and be disbarred from the temple forever."
"Well, nobody said that getting the thing that can grant any wish you want would be easy," Kevin shrugged nonchalantly.
"Nothing is ever easy," Hex retorted as he gave a sheet of paper to Hope. Kevin and Gwen noticed, as she folded it in half and put it in her satchel, there was what looked to them to be a fresh set of handwriting on it.
"What's that?" Kevin asked Hex.
"A second copy of the translated instructions, as well as reminders of what to expect in Nàjaaltik," the sorceror answered. "To no surprise of mine, Hope has volunteered to lead the mission."
A faint impulse left over from her once-resolute belief that Ben and her rival could never be in a relationship flickering from somewhere hidden inside her, Gwen moved instinctively to object. Recognition of the gesture from the various times Gwen tried to implore something from her in the battles they faced as enemies drew Hope to snap a fierce, silencing glare at her. The action making her remember for the umpteenth time in the past few hours of what her decisions had led to, Gwen trembled involuntarily with another dosage of guilt, allowing the tumult of her emotions to overwhelm her, and she fell back behind Kevin.
Hex chose to reservedly pretend the near-confrontation had not been about to happen and he went on, his eyes keeping watch between the two girls. "As I explained, the team requires a minimum of three members so that entrance to the temple can be attained. Will anyone here be willing to join her and follow her leadership, or do we have to wait until any of the others have finished recuperating to volunteer?"
"No, I'll go," Kevin spoke up. "What about you, Max?"
Eyeing the younger man with regret, the elderly Plumber replied impassively. "I can't. Protocol states one established commanding officer in the time of a skirmish must stay at their post until they have debriefed the Commission with the details of the battle. Since you're already volunteering, that leaves only me."
Kevin nodded, understanding clearly from the way the man was holding himself that he wished it were otherwise. Wishing to show his acceptance of the refusal, he halted instantly as a small sound made itself known to him and he spun around with knowing apprehension, having already identified the source from the very first stammering of noise.
"Let me go," Gwen pleaded quietly, drawing mixed stares from the other occupants of the room. She returned the concern from Max, the curiosity of Hex and the simmering rage of Hope, with a nervous but bold display of determination. "Please. I have to make this right."
His apprehension solidifying, Kevin glanced cautiously towards Hope. Within moments, Hex and Max followed his gaze with taut, neutral expressions. Gwen's nervousness grew; she knew what that meant. Whether she would go or not depended entirely upon her rival's word. Any thought of resistance she planned to have in the moment faded as she forced herself to wait, predicting that if she did or said anything that would set Charmcaster off, then the sorceress would outright deny her.
Hope stood quietly, listening inwardly as her differing opinions battled out their argument and she deliberated between them hotly. The first of the opinions, brought about in a furious snap when Gwen voiced her request, was a volatile mix of her anger and grief screaming out that Gwen did not deserve anything for all she had instigated herself and in working with Ghostfreak. The second opinion, born wholly from the changed woman she had become from the self-entitled teenage brat that hated Gwen with a passion, reasoned that Gwen for all her mistakes never wanted to hurt Ben to begin with, that she only wanted Ben to be safe. The third attempted to compromise with the first and second, stating what Gwen had done was indeed wrong but she had committed all her actions because she did not understand the truth, thought all of her friends and family were standing against her and, under that impression, had turned desperate. The fourth and final seemed to agree with the second opinion, reminding the first that the very moment Gwen regained her identity in the battle, she chose to aid Hope in defeating Ghostfreak.
A loud sigh escaped from Hope's physical lips as the fourth opinion made her realise that by joining her to fight Ghostfreak, Gwen had already set herself on the path of correcting her mistakes. From memory, she recalled the many times Gwen offered her a chance to take the right path through the years, only for her to abuse or reject them. She looked Gwen in the eye again. Searching inside the girl's mind, she sensed that Gwen still did not see the love she and Ben shared as genuine and that her volunteering was solely so she could help reverse what she rightly saw as the worst, most horrible act she had ever done.
Maybe, Hope thought, it was time for her to be the one to try showing Gwen the truth and help her see the light. Maybe it was time she was the one to start granting second chances.
"Okay," she answered. Gwen brightened with immense relief. Seeing this change, Hope turned to Max. "We need some supplies. A full day's worth, at best."
"I've got some sleeping bags in the Rustbucket," he replied. "Gonna have to go to the nearest store for food and water. I kinda tapped the fridge and cupboards out on the last trip."
"Just be as quick as you can," Hope said. "We might need the rest of the time the Adhucannos allows us in case we run into trouble."
Nodding in agreement with her, Max hurried out of the room. Hope directed her attention back to Gwen and Kevin when they all heard the ignition of the Rustbucket's engine as Max drove off. "The two of you, tell your families you'll be coming with me. We'll be leaving after he brings everything back with him."
Rather than argue with her about the facts they handled alien invasions, entanglements with recurring nemeses, and monster attacks without informing their parents on a regular basis, the two went to do what was ordered of them. Gwen's phone call to her family was short in length but was clearly heartwrenching for her in Hope's eyes as after Gwen appeared to have finished, tears spilled uncontrollably from her eyes and she retreated into a corner, her back turned to the rest of the library. Kevin, standing not so far away from her, spared a look of deep worry for his girlfriend while he continued to speak to his mother. Hope took to her own private task, mentally contacting all those who had been sent home by Max to let them know about the mission. Receiving heartwarming wishes of good luck from all of them, she moved on to informing Carl and Sandra of the situation in the same way. Finishing there, she gazed across the room, left with nothing else to do for the duration of Max's temporary absence. Hex was steadfast in searching for alternate solutions in the event the mission did not go well, looking pensive as he went through page after page. Kevin was still conversing with his mother.
Gwen had not moved. Part of Hope wanted to go to her and find out what had transpired between her and her parents over the phone, but she sensed Gwen was much too gripped in a wave of despair to listen to anyone, let alone her former archrival. Deciding from that that there really was nothing she could attend to there, she suddenly knew where it was that she belonged.
"I'll be downstairs if anyone needs me. Let me know when Max is back."
:*:
The loud roar of the Rustbucket pulling to a dwindling stop outside an hour and a half later was apparently only heard by those in the library as Hope did not return when the noise was presenting itself. The front door of the house was opened and then shut, and Max appeared dragging two rucksacks behind him, one slightly larger than the other. Putting them down gently on the floor, he clapped his hands clean and exhaled tiresomely.
"Three sleeping bags and some camping equipment," he pointed to the larger rucksack and then to the other one. "Packaged and tinned food. Six one-litre bottles of water. Some hot chocolate."
"Excellent," Hex said, leaving his research aside. "Then we can get the mission underway."
Max replied with an agreeing gesture and glanced at Kevin and Gwen in turn before he noticed Hope was nowhere in sight. "Where's Hope?" he asked.
"Downstairs. I'll go get her," Kevin answered.
Not waiting for a permissive response, he left the library, made his way to the open secret door in the wall, went down the stairway and across the laboratory floor. Entering the chamber, he found Hope standing by the tub, peering down beneath the golden waters of the Adhucannos that kept Ben's body in stasis. At first she appeared stoic, but upon closer observation, Kevin could see two things that betrayed that image. Her hands, gripped around the rimmed edge of the tub, were quivering sporadically, jerking as if they wanted to move but Hope forbade them from ever budging. The second thing was given away by the gleaming of the potion; reflected in its light, her cheeks displayed tearwater, both dried and fresh, in streaks lining all over her face.
Somehow, in spite of all the silence of his approach, Hope knew he was there. "Is it time?" she asked, startling him.
"Yeah, Max just got back with everything you asked for," he replied slowly.
Deftly, Hope nodded but let herself lapse back into quiet. Kevin urged himself to look from her to the tub and back again.
"Hey, this is going to work," he said, trying to inspire courage in her.
"I want it to. I need it to," Hope sobbed. "If we fail, I can't see my life anywhere past this. No ambitions. No wishes for a happy future."
Kevin faltered and he tried to recall another time when he had seen Charmcaster so genuinely vulnerable. After some thinking, he realised the only other time was when she had to let her father go after attempting to resurrect him. Within that revelation, he guessed she was probably comparing that situation with their current one. Swallowing, he ignored the first reaction he had, which was to highlight the differences between the two, mainly the part involving sacrificing other people. Instead, he tried to summon more conviction into his voice and he spoke to her again.
"Then you've got to put everything in this to make sure it doesn't end that way. Don't stand still, thinking a good life's going to come to you. Don't run away when things are going bad. Life's a gamble, Hope, it always is. So you've gotta keep fighting, if not for yourself, then for the people who love you. For Ben."
Sombrely, Hope turned towards him fully, her miserable face altered with a tiny smile. "Are you speaking from experience?" she finally replied.
"Yeah, kinda," Kevin shrugged. "Life keeps on moving, developing I guess. So does relationships. Gwen and I have had to work through a lot and, with all of this, I'm betting there's a lot more on the way for us."
"I'm sorry you have to go through that," Hope said despondently.
"And I'm sorry you have to go through this," Kevin reciprocated.
"Thank you, but we're going through this. All of us are hurting," she corrected him. "And it's up to us to put an end to it. Let's go."
Kevin nodded once and headed back to the stairs. Beginning to follow him, Hope stopped and turned around, remembering she had been momentarily neglectful about something she was planning to say ever since she had walked into the chamber. Again, the sight of Ben lying at the bottom of the tub filled the entirety of her vision, although this time it did not glue her to the spot as much as her return to the chamber had.
"I love you," she said with all the feeling she was able to muster, and then she departed from the chamber, hurrying to catch up with Kevin.
:*:
Up at the library, all was not well. Sandra had finally come back from the hospital with a recovered Carl in tow. Having already been told of the mission beforehand by Hope, the only reaction she had openly on display was the seething resentment about the idea that Gwen would be an active part of it. Hope sighed, knowing that like her, the woman's anger and grief was leading her to take her fury out on Gwen, and she moved over to Sandra and gently took her aside. First letting Sandra understand that emotionally she was feeling the same way as her, Hope gradually went on to explain that Gwen needed a chance to show she was truly remorseful for everything she had done and was desperate in wanting to set things right.
"You gave me a chance to prove myself to you and Carl about my place in Ben's life," she reminded her. "I'm not saying you should be one of the people to give it to her, that's up to you. All I'm asking is for you to let others offer it."
Sandra shifted her eyes over to Gwen, the emotions swirling in them changing in a blink to hatred as she glared at her niece. In her mind though, she looked back to the battle, remembering how stunned she had been to come across Hope and Gwen fighting side by side against Ghostfreak. Even then as she stood there listening to her son's girlfriend telling her the reason why Gwen was being given a place on the team, Sandra could not fathom how easily Hope could adjust to working together with Gwen. Knowing a lot from the stories Ben had regaled her with about the girls' formerly turbulent rivalry, it was so strange to even attempt to reconcile how rapidly they could become steadfast allies and then, at the snap of a finger, return to being enemies again. It was, of course, sensibly logical when it came to matters of survival, but not everything fit into that description.
Especially not this, she noted to herself. But, forcing her attention back onto Hope, she looked deeper into the younger woman's pleading gaze. Her emotions changed again, forming into a want to understand the situation as Hope saw it, but as it tried to evolve into a full-fledged honest desire, she realised there was nothing inside her she could found it with.
Sandra opened her mouth, attempting to say that she could never condone what Hope was asking of her, but as she had with the want to understand, she could not find the resolve to create the words. Because she knew to say the words as she intended would crush Hope's faith in her.
Throwing a helpless glance Carl's way, she silently begged her husband for advice. Ready to answer her, Carl looked away from her and Hope and let his eyes fall on Gwen. His mind was made up in an instant. He gave a single nod to his wife, confessing his own approval. At first she denied that he was supporting the whole thing and scoffed at his choice with a distressed sigh, still interpreting everything to not be making sense. Then she remembered what Hope had said at the start; she didn't have to give Gwen another chance, she just had to let others do it and not stand in the way.
Finally, she said to Hope, "Alright. If you're sure."
"I am," Hope nodded in return, beaming with glad relief.
Sandra smiled warmly, seeing that she had responded in a way the both of them could accept.
Also thankful that her aunt had in some way given her blessing, Gwen rushed into making herself useful and strapped the smaller rucksack around her shoulders. Watching the apparent lifting of her spirits, Kevin grinned slightly and hoisted the larger one up on his back.
Hope stepped over to them. "Ready?" she asked. They nodded in reply. "Uncle Hex," she motioned to the sorceror. Hex bowed his head and called forth the portal.
"Remember, this will not take you directly to the temple. It will only take you through the dimensional gateway, where you will meet the first challenge," he warned them. "Good luck and come back safely, all of you."
"We won't do anything rash, Uncle. I'll make sure we don't," Hope promised.
Hex smirked wistfully. "There used to be a time where I would not believe a claim like that from you so readily."
"I had to grow up, and realise just who it was that was standing in front of me every time the two of us fought against him," Hope replied. "And the three of us are going to work as a team to get him back, that I also promise."
"I know you will," a familiar voice piped up. Hope's eyes glimmered with heartfelt warmth and courage as she recognised the person. Knowing in her heart and mind that it was Sandra, she smiled and walked across the threshold of the portal with her spirits high, disappearing from the sight of her wellwishers. Quietly, Kevin followed her in. Stopping upon getting the feeling everyone's eyes were now turned to her, Gwen breathed in and out to relieve some of the pressure that sensation was creating. The peace it gave her lasted only a fleeting few seconds. She paused, readying for the journey that was lying ahead of her, and then she pushed stiffly forward and crossed over after the others.
Chapter 16 is already partway complete. It won't be as long away as the wait for this chapter was.
