2)A Surprise Visit
Ring!
-Ugh, what time is it? Who would be calling me at…-
A quick look at the clock confirmed her answer:
-3 in the morning…?-
Ring!! Ring!!
Raye picked up the telephone
"Yeah? Hello? Hello? Oh…"
It was the door.
"Hello? Who's there?" Raye asked, peering through the widow.
"Hey Raye? It's me, Cho. Can you open the door please? We've got to talk."
With surprise, Raye opened the door, staring at the entrance of her house. Cho Chang was here. Cho Chang was another close friend of Raye's, but one she rarely saw, currently living in London. But her living quarters were in quite a different part of London. Cho lived on a plane of existence where the mystical arts were a part of everyday life. She rarely visited them, because the means of crossing the diasaal line were hard enough even with an invitation from the mortal side.
"Hi! Umm, Cho, nice to see you? Do you know what time it is?"
"Yeah I do, and it is nice to see you Raye, I've missed you and the girls a lot, but there's something I have to talk to you about."
Raye was startled at this statement, there were other ways of contacting her if something came up. With her dreams lately, Raye didn't need anything else worrying her.
"You've been having dreams lately, you tried to contact Seoak, am I not correct?"
Raye stared open mouthed at Cho. She shook her head up and down to indicate she had.
"And you've already relayed this information to the other 4, have you not?"
Again, she shook her head, but this time in the negative.
"Oh RAYE! Why not? You know that you need to contact them and make sure they know what's going on in the mystical world at all times! Especially after what happened!"
-What is she talking about?- Raye thought to herself.- Nothing happened; I got absolutely no response….. Although it was a little strange, it wasn't anything to cross the diasaal line for and give me a heart attack. Anyways…-
"How do you know that I've been having dreams? And that I was trying to contact the stars?"
"The eclipse of the third moon …"
-Oh yeah, I forgot about that-.
"… so everyone was out celebrating, and a pale light came shooting out from the diasaal line, and that's how we know someone's trying to contact Seoak and the stars, you know that we can see the sender's essence and Seoak's response. We know your essence Raye; you are one of the few who can still communicate with him from the mortal realm."
It had been so long since she was last in Ulai, she'd forgotten a lot about the activities that went on there.
"You didn't get a response did you Raye?"
Raye was silent for a few moments, trying calm down the pounding in her heart. Reluctantly she answered quietly.
"No."
Cho looked like she was about to cry.
"None at all?"
Raye shook her head.
"I thought that you would have maybe gotten something, I thought maybe we were mistaken…'
"What is it? Cho...Cho…Cho! You need to explain to me what's going on! Why are you so upset? What did you see?"
"Seoak didn't send a response, it was..." she shuddered as she spoke
"… It was something else, something that didn't cross the diasaal line back to you. It was the mark of death, of Kremin, the black flame burning the white rose to ashes."
-Who? What? What does this have to do with me? That doesn't sound too bad, why should I be worried? Why should I worry the rest of the girls? We haven't dealt with anything really bad in more than 7 years. Not since we had that trouble with Galaxia…-
Cho broke into her thoughts once more
"You are the one that always helped us Raye; you are the one that has the dreams to warn of us danger! You and the girls always aid us in our fights against the dark powers!"
"Wait a minute, you always seem to do a good job too ya know, if you hadn't helped us out with Reubeus and the Dead Moon Circus…"
"This is scary for us Raye, Kremin was connected with the dark moon centuries ago. He was one of the ruling families in the dark moon, he used terror as a tool among the galaxies, and he was able to travel from one plane to another with little effort at all. We thought he was gone with Beryl… THIS is why you need to contact the other girls. Find out what your dream means and help us."
-My dream… that's right. But how am I supposed to help them? If I can't even get an answer from Seoak, how am I supposed to find out what they mean? What's happened to him? Why didn't this Kremin disappear when Beryl did? Why hadn't I heard about him before this?-
Raye's head hurt from thinking. She looked at Cho, and sighed sympathetically. She had known Cho since she was little, and not always during the most peaceful of times. Raye could remember only a few precious moments when they were both free from fighting off something threatening the fate of the universe. Although Serena was her best friend, Raye knew that she also had an extremely close tie with Cho. She smiled at her.
"Cho, I know things look scary right now, but so far it's only been a sign. We are not going to solve anything by sitting here and worrying. Take a deep breath; I'll make a warm cup of relaxation tea for you, and then we should get some sleep. Tomorrow… tomorrow we'll start sorting out what this all means."
"And tell the girls." Cho replied quietly, but much more calmly.
Raye smiled "and go see what those four troublemakers are up to."