'In case this is how we all die I'd like to make it clear I never liked any of you,' Calen said half-joking, any humour in the sentence coming from fear.

Oriliagh looked down. 'I love you, Serpantha, Larpskendya – I love you both, honestly.'

'Let's not do goodbyes just yet,' Serpantha forced a smile. 'Now let's go to where I want to meet my sorry excuse for a father.'

Calen trembled.

'Relax, my father has no feud with you, you aren't in as much danger. You should be OK,' Serpantha said gently to her.

'If you have calculated this correctly we just have to kill him and then we can figure out our way home, right?' Calen didn't look at him. 'We have a chance we can do this.'

Serpantha began leading them down the base to where he knew he had to go. 'Don't let yourself get cocky – only ignorant people get cocky. You wouldn't be the first in your family to die because she got cocky.'

'We have a chance; we just have to kill him.'

'You always seem to forget Yemi.' Heiki said, quickly enough so that Serpantha couldn't speak first, but slow enough to make it seem absent-minded as opposed to an emotional attack.

'Nguyen said it before I could.'

'So?' Calen was too exhausted to react to Heiki's comment. 'He doesn't know anything – I won't be naïve enough to believe he's too young to be a threat, but he is the child who played with butterflies and couldn't comprehend a basic threat.'

'Until my father got hold of him.' Serpantha reminded. 'My father only cares about Yemi's magic, therefore we can't say if he's even conscious, and if he is, we can't say if Yemi is still there somewhere.'

Calen's stomach turned. 'What do you plan to do about it – him?'

'Hope, pray, those kinds of useless things, it's all we can do but, if my father used what I knew to gain Yemi's affection, then part of Yemi is still in there, which gives us a small chance. Brainwashed children can be very dangerous though, Calen, especially if they have Yemi's power.'

'I get it.'

'I only bring these things up so you don't make these mistakes yourself.'

'Stop acting like you care.'

The room they entered was instantly claustrophobic, and had a transparent slime-like substance on the floor dripping towards the exit.

'Lyrai was here,' Serpantha said, looking to her blood on the floor. 'We eliminated the human problem, now we just try to rid ourselves of this.'

'What can I do?' Heiki asked.

'I'll let you know in time.' Serpantha said bleakly.

'Lyrai has saved Volüsa, hasn't she?' Venibilles asked, trying to sound calm.

Serpantha hesitated. 'We have no time to check, we can assume Lyrai got her away.'

A bright light filled the room, and Serpantha was the only one who didn't move or shield his eyes.

When the light cleared, Safeke stood there, a smug smile on his face, and Serpantha fought his urge to attempt to punch it off his face. He couldn't make a normal or casual entrance; he had to enter in a beam of light, the conceited, pretentious bastard.

Serpantha looked him in the eyes. 'Talking time, this room makes all our magic useless for now, we're in stalemate.'

'Oh? You think so?' Safeke looked to Oriliagh and his face broke into a grin.

Oriliagh ran to him, and took his head in her hands, and kissed him. Safeke's hands went from her shoulders slowly down to her waist, down her hips and then eventually to her upper thighs.

'Not now,' Oriliagh giggled.

'Someone fell right into the trap Oriliagh led you to.' Safeke explained.

Calen glared to Serpantha. 'What was that you said about being cocky?'

'I…' Serpantha began.

'You just doomed us all, congratulations.'

Serpantha looked to his mother, who refused to return his desperate gaze. He returned his composure the best he could. 'We still remain in stalemate, we aren't dead yet.'

'If you were stupid enough to fall for all this then yes you are,' Safeke stood proudly as Oriliagh moved to stand behind him, looking to him from behind. 'Earth, all this, it was all a distraction for you while I raised Yemi, so you would be too distracted here to stop me. You don't stand a chance, just surrender.'

'No.' Serpantha replied shakily. 'You can't kill those here who had no involvement – Rachel, Heiki, Zina, my son, and even Calen.'

'You're right,' Safeke agreed. 'But then Larpskendya shared his magic with Zina, so I have to leak it from her too, sadly. If you want to save your son's life he is welcome to join us.'

'If that truly is Zina.'

Venibilles said nervously, 'I've heard enough to not want to be raised by you, especially if you kill my father!'

'Then he dies – it is the same for Rachel and Heiki, both of you are welcome to join our little family.' Safeke looked to Rachel. 'You remind me of Oriliagh when she was younger. You look so much like her.'

'Touch her and I will kill you and die trying.' Heiki snapped.

Safeke appraised her. 'Ah, yes, you would be difficult. You're more man than woman but you are capable of having children, I suppose, your one redeeming trait, even if you do look like that.'

'Just let them go,' Serpantha implored him. 'Leave them to die on Earth; they won't leave their planet again.'

'No.'

Oriliagh was still carrying a foot long blade, and she slowly raised it, as if disturbing the air too much would create too much noise. She took in a silent breath of air as she drew the blade back, readying the blade to go through the back of his skull – a quick death he should know nothing about. No one reacted, in case Safeke was alerted by their reactions. Blinking away the water in her eyes, Oriliagh went to strike.

Safeke turned around in a movement too swift to follow; he had been able to take her hand to stop the impact. For a few seconds, in which Oriliagh would have sworn her heart stopped beating, they locked eyes, not moving, saying nothing. Not a single expression crossed Safeke's face, whereas Oriliagh flicked between guilt, anger and sadness.

'I always knew you were playing for both sides,' Safeke said bitterly, as if he had been struck. He took the knife from her hand. 'That way no matter who won you would be safe and content.'

Tears brushed her face. 'You've always been so angry. Please, I just want you to be happy…to be at peace.'

'Do you love me, sister?'

'Yes,' Oriliagh said immediately. 'More than anything. Don't be stupid. Of course I do.'

'Then let us again rule Orin Fen, have everything – but it won't work with them. I gave them a long life Oriliagh I gave them everything I could.'

Oriliagh took a moment to calm herself. 'Will this finally make you happy? I don't want you hurting my children ever again.'

'Oriliagh we can do this,' Safeke took her hands. 'We only need each other, remember? And everyone dies – don't miss your children sister be happy for the time you got with them.'

Oriliagh nodded, and the two slowly drew their lips together. Then Oriliagh put her head over his shoulder, holding him, and looking to Serpantha she mouthed. 'Run. Get out.'

Serpantha nodded numbly, still bewildered, too dazed to process what was happening, but his instincts quickly too over. As Oriliagh distracted her brother by kissing him and whispering to him, Serpantha pulled his son towards him and said, barely audible, 'Go to the white hole and go home. You can live normally now.'

Venibilles shook his head. 'I came here to help you fight.'

'I only brought you all so I could send you back and you could have normal lives, unlike Volüsa who merely stayed in the past. If you go back there he can't hurt you.'

Within seconds, Venibilles, Heiki and Rachel were forced to make their way out of the room, and once outside they shifted away in unison. Calen looked to Serpantha in shock, and Larpskendya didn't take his eyes off Zina, who was clinging to him. This was it. No secret plan, no means of escape – the best they could do was hope the children survived by going home, hope that Safeke would let them grow old and die normally. But Venibilles was valuable to Safeke, and Serpantha knew his father would enjoy raising Venibilles as his own – one final act of spite to Serpantha. He couldn't let that happen.

Safeke turned to see the three children gone, and Oriliagh braced herself for his reaction. It didn't come. No one dared to breathe a word until Safeke did. He said eventually, 'I don't care for them. They may go. Now there are two ways we can do this, you can continue trying to fight me, or we can use the nice, traditional way, as we have with your siblings.'

'There isn't a nice way to do any of this,' Serpantha replied evenly. 'However, we will co-operate.'

'What?' Calen exclaimed. 'I have nothing to do with this – and I'm not co-operating.'

'Calen this was always going to happen, just make this easier on yourself.' Serpantha said quietly.

'Are we ready?' Safeke asked cheerily.

Without awaiting a response, he shifted them all away from Earth in one sweep of power.

Venibilles remained ahead of Rachel and Heiki as they both shifted and flew away from Earth frantically, towards the visible white hole not too far from the upper layer of Earth's atmosphere, and Rachel and Heiki locked hands as they entered it. Whiteness and silence surrounded them, as they all looked around emptily to each other.

'Now we just find a way home.' Venibilles murmured glumly.

Heiki let out a breath of air in frustration. 'You are new this aren't you? I'm not leaving the people I love to die.'

'We have to.'

'Venibilles is right.' Rachel added.

'Rach, Veni, I doubt if Safeke will make this easy for us either, and we can travel around in time until we find a way to beat him.'

'Never call me 'Veni' again, and screwing around with time isn't our business.' Venibilles insisted. 'Besides what can we do? How do you plan to kill him?'

'If he comes near me I'll castrate him for one,' Heiki raised her blade. 'Man like that shouldn't be allowed to have children.'

'What do we do?' Rachel asked, trying to get Heiki to focus.

'Memories,' Heiki said. 'We should be able to enter them – basically try to walk through the wall.'

Heiki ignored their puzzled looks, and walked forward to the wall of the white hole, hoping they would follow.

When Heiki could see again she was in a place she didn't recognise, not that she expected too anyway. Had Safeke set this up? Is this why he let them get away?

She waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, and when they did she saw a torch on the floor, and decided to light it on fire and carry it forward with her through the winding stone corridors. Upon reaching a staircase, Heiki decided to climb upward, to find a broken door, intricate patterns still engraved on what remained of it. At first Heiki didn't realise what the room was, but when she nearly walked into a large bed she assumed it must be some kind of bed chamber – it looked medieval, it had clearly once been beautiful. On the bed the sheets were half rotted, but Heiki could make out the red and black patterned snakes on the duvet, and they still had their silken feel.

'Fancy,' she murmured.

'Heiki?'

'…Veni?'

Heiki raised the torch and walked towards his voice, until she reached him sat in the corner and gave him a hand up. 'I told you not to call me that. Where's Rachel?'

'I don't know. Where are we?'

'I don't know.'

'Great.'

A scream ran out from above them.

'Rachel!' Heiki ran instantly towards the sound, barely checking to see if Venibilles had followed.

They met outside, it seemed to be around midday, and the reason behind Rachel's outburst became clear immediately. High Witches flooded the sky, and Rachel watched wordlessly from the balcony of the castle.

Heiki tried to reassure her. 'This is a memory Rachel it's fine, we're just on some planet that's being invaded.'

'This is Ithrea!' Rachel snapped.

'Oh.' Heiki regained herself. 'It's still the past, this doesn't matter right now. We need to go back further.'

Rachel's eyes swept the planet, using her magic to make her eyes see further and catch the detail of what was going on. The people of Ithrea rode wolves and horses into battle, with crossbows and swords, all led by a skinny girl riding a wolf, a long red braid down her back.

Fengal, Rachel considered sadly, wondering if being born on the planet made it easier or harder to cope with. Rachel's eyes then moved to the two figures who had materialized on the battlefield. Volüsa stood in her many layered golden dress, next to a man she recognised as Morpeth. For a moment, Rachel forgot it was just a memory, and her heart pounded in relief. It was only when she realized that this was the memory of his and everyone on Ithrea's deaths that she couldn't watch Morpeth trying to convince Volüsa to leave any longer. She wanted to go speak to him more than anything, he would know what to do and say, but most importantly she would get to see him again. Once Volüsa left Morpeth moved swiftly to Trimak, mounting the horse next to him, ready to ride into battle.

'I suppose this is it, old friend?'

'What makes you think that?' Morpeth replied with a shallow laugh. 'I don't go out without a fight you know that much about me by now.'

Trimak smiled. 'Since we're going out together – I'll make you a deal.'

'What would that be?'

'Which ever one of us dies last wins.'

Rachel looked away. 'We need to go back further then – how?'

'I'm not sure.' Heiki admitted. 'I can only think to return to the white hole.'

'Or we could use magic. Safeke did why can't we? Between us we should be able to use the energy the white hole already has. Right?'

'Magic isn't a case of closing your eyes and wishing Venibilles, you should know that you're a Wizard.' Heiki snapped.

'If this is just a memory contained within the white hole surely we can navigate it though – if this is just people's memories of history.' Venibilles insisted. 'Just try – if not we try something else what's the big deal?'

Rachel nodded. 'Go with his idea, I don't want to be in this place any longer.'

'It's a nice place in fairness; bed's got snakes embodied on it, looks pretty good.' Heiki mused. 'It's just rotted, that's all.'

'This is a place thousands of children died to build.' Rachel shouted to her. 'And you're complementing the décor?' Rachel's voice returned to normal. 'Everything nice on this world is tainted, even that bed. Children alive and dead stayed in that bed as I did when I was taken and you want to admire the way it looks?'

'I'm going home.' Venibilles shifted away before either girl could say anything. Shifting in unison wordlessly, it didn't take them long to catch up with Venibilles, and see the white hole opening in the upper atmosphere of the world. Heiki shouted after him, but he ignored her words, and used the white hole to travel home. Heiki and Rachel had no choice but to follow.

Rachel landed, feeling sick, and as angry as she was a Heiki she was glad the two of them had not been separated, and that Venibilles was only a few feet away from them. And they were on Orin Fen, and Venibilles was home. As bittersweet as it was, tears of relief brushed his face, and he wanted nothing more than to let his mother hold him, to see his little sister, to eat the meal Owlola had been preparing before they left, even if it was well into night time now.

His relief was interrupted by too figures rushing down the steps, one of which he recognised. It was just a memory, and they had gone too far back. The two figures made there way down the steps on the outside of the building, and eventually crossed the garden, where the three of them could here there words.

'—in the middle of the night.' said the witch, small and frail, her hair naturally dark but with streaks that had been artificially lightened.

A younger Serpantha led her forward, and Venibilles, Heiki and Rachel naturally followed behind the Witch, curious to what was going on.

'Exactly, everyone is asleep we won't get in trouble.' Serpantha answered her, his voice different; he spoke not with the accent he had learnt to speak English with, but with his natural rich Orin Fenian voice, even if what they said was being translated.

Eventually the two came to steps leading down to underground floors, and the Witch said, 'Why are we here? You could get a snack without me Serpantha; I'm going back to bed before we get noticed.'

'No, trust me, I found something down here you will want to see.'

'What is so secret down here that you are afraid of father catching us?'

Serpantha didn't answer, but merely continued down the steps, and the witch followed, using the golden handrail along to side to assist her path, and lifting her plain white loose night dress with her other hand.

When they entered the room, they were shin deep in water.

The Witch lifted her gown above the water. 'I don't care if you found Attgar himself down here, I'm not continuing in cold water.'

'No, come on, I'm ruining good clothes here you can replace what you're wearing.'

Venibilles knew where he was, but Rachel and Heiki took in the scenery, shelves of wrapped and stored food, all chilled in the natural low temperature of the below ground room that seemed to go on forever. Fillets of meat, fruit, bread, fish, and other food products were all wrapped and stored on the shelves, high enough so the water would not reach them.

'Why is this place flooded?' Heiki asked.

'It always floods.' Venibilles replied.

'Not quite what I asked but you get points for trying.'

Rachel began, 'So we went too far back, shouldn't we try and get to the—'

'Having fun?' a new voice came from behind them, and everyone flinched. Safeke.

'We're just getting something to eat.' Serpantha said calmly.

'Good.' Safeke replied. 'I thought you were going to continue onward and go through my personal belongings.'

'Gods forbid.' Serpantha said matter-of-factly.

Safeke narrowed his gaze. 'Áraliná do you really need something more to eat? It looks like you've been asleep anyway.'

Áraliná said nothing.

'You're right,' Serpantha stood in front of his sister. 'She's already had her weekly piece of dried fruit.'

'Serpantha stop it.' Áraliná said anxiously. 'We should just go.'

'What were you doing down here?' Safeke asked her. 'I didn't think you would be so easily led astray by your brother, to the point of allowing him to drag you here into the cold and wet storage in the middle of the night.'

'It isn't that bad.' Áraliná replied weakly.

'Leave.'

Áraliná complied, and walked forward, carefully placing each step, until she was nearly at the exit, and slipped on a form of weed growth on the floor, into the cold water, causing her to let out a small scream in shock. She could have sworn it hadn't been there before. It wouldn't surprise her if this was her father's doing, but she was too tired to care.

'I thought it wasn't that bad.' Safeke commented.

Serpantha pushed past him to help his sister up, her nightgown now wet and clinging to her slight frame. Serpantha took off his overcoat and wrapped her in it, and Áraliná didn't react.

'Come on.' He said, walking them both forward.

'I want to have a word with you after you escort her to bed. Áraliná I shall talk with you in the morning.' Safeke instructed him.

Serpantha kept walking with his sister. 'Can't you just punch me in the face now and have it over with? And leave Áraliná alone, I'll tell her how useless, worthless and fat she is for you – it should save you time.'

'What was he going to find?' Heiki pondered to herself. 'What would make him so angry?'

Venibilles shrugged. 'Never been down there.'

Heiki ignored the scene unfolding before them, and ran as fast as she could through the water, forcing Rachel and Venibilles to follow her.

'Heiki! What if we get stuck here we should leave.' Venibilles called after her.

'In a memory?' Heiki wanted to slap him. 'Stop being stupid and just follow me.'

The three of them came to a rotted wooden door, which opened with ease, as if it had nothing to hide.

Inside the room were crates of old belongings, nothing seemed significant, but Heiki immediately began searching for whatever Serpantha found, and the others quickly followed suit.

Heiki found a crate with old, worn looking jewellery and clothing, one of which had Rakafae inscribed onto it, and when Heiki turned it over she saw Safeke inscribed on the other side. It was a child sized bracelet, and there was nothing odd about that except that Serpantha said the name Rakafae came from his mother's side. They couldn't have been married as children, surely? Heiki was willing to ignore it until she came across an identical with Oriliagh inscribed onto it. She quietly slipped the bracelets into her pocket, hoping she would be able to take things from a memory.

At the bottom of that same crate was a two foot long sword, slightly curved, with a heavily decorated handle, the patterns on it matching the worn ones on the oldest parts of the building. The blade itself was something Heiki recognised, but she couldn't remember where.

'Guys…' Heiki said, holding the sword up.

'That's old.' Venibilles said. 'Really old, I've never seen an intact one.'

'Yeah that's great – now tell us what it is.'

'A sword.' Venibilles replied, matching her sarcasm.

'Venibilles!'

'It's something only cast a long time ago.' Venibilles explained. 'The swords we have now have spells to damage the opponent, but these things would kill you outright. They disappeared when materials wore out, and they all got used in battle until they all were lost.'

Heiki smiled. 'Let's see if we can find some more. I think we found our answer.'