"Fear not! Our word is our bond! We shall return!"—Ingus
Unease twisted Refia's stomach and left her hands clammy. To calm herself, she turned a stone over and over in her hands and it cast bluish reflections against the metal walls while she sat on a balcony of sorts that led down to the main floor via large, "LED-lit" stairs.
She wasn't sure how much she liked the labs, but at least it was quiet and she never grew bored with all the alien sights to take in. The stone caught the light from the whirring machines in the center of the large room that looked like a huge ship, being circular and made entirely from metal.
It took them a few weeks to construct the machine that would take Refia back in time. Given that it required months of hard labor to complete a simple flying ship in her time, it came as a shock that she already sat facing a time-traveling invention. Osmond had mentioned something about unused technology and spare pieces, but never explained where he got them from.
"Did they ever explain where it came from?" Osmond asked, waddling up the ground below. He gestured to the stone.
"They just said it was a gift left by someone who knew I would come."
"I ran a scan on it," Osmond said, flopping onto the chair beside her, "and I'm allowed to do that, by the way. It dates back hundreds of years, to before the fall of Palm Brinks They say it still has power from when it was chipped off its mother."
"Its mother? In Palm Brinks?"
"Oh, no. I meant the time of Palm Brinks. Its actual origin appears to be some place in the west in… what was it called again? Ur?"
Refia's blood chilled. "A tiny little village on the Floating Continent?"
"Sounds about right."
"Not in Ur, then, but next door in the cave just outside the village border." Refia swallowed, looking back at the piece in her hands. "The Wind Crystal. It's all that remains of the Wind Crystal."
Osmond nodded.
You'll fix it, they whispered. It'll be fine. You'll make it so that it was fine. They sounded different than Refia remembered. Their words were more of a plea than a comfort.
How was she supposed to keep Luneth from disappearing? There were no recorded details of why he went missing, only that it happened.
"Are you ready for the test drive?" Osmond asked, breaking her reverie. Refia nodded. There wasn't much for her to do this time. Better to get back to where she could make a difference. Get back to Ingus, Luneth, and Arc. Maybe they still had Ruby. Maybe they were all back in Norune. She found it odd what the Crystals chose to keep from her in this time compared to other information that they shared freely.
"And by test drive," Osmond added, "I guess I mean the only drive. Can't exactly take anything back once we press the button. It's gonna get a little bumpy, looks like. Simulators estimate some turbulence."
"I think I can handle it."
"Hey." He grabbed the edge of her fingers as she stood, stopping her. "Enjoy it, will ya? You only get to jump through time so often."
Refia remembered her arrival in the future and grimaced. "I'll do my best."
Osmond let her go again and clapped his hands together. "Let's get it fired up. I hope you don't have a weak stomach as the thing isn't exactly a time spell. Might see some weird things, lose a couple of inches. Your descendents will owe me for this, by the way. Line hundred and fifty-two in the contract you signed yesterday. I assume you don't have enough at the moment to pay me, so I'll be generous and give you a half-dozen generations or so to earn up a million gilda. Shouldn't be too hard. Step right up here, please…"
Osmond gestured her toward a round circle on the ground, which was surrounded by black poles. "You better stand in just the right spot. Here, take half a step toward me. I assume you don't want to lose any digits in this? No? Okay, hold your hands tightly to your side. Don't let even a hair fall outside the glowing green circle. Ready?" He held up a device with buttons dotting the surface. "And-"
The lab vanished.
The cave holding the Wind Crystal was smaller than Sara expected. Or, the walkway was. It was less a room and more a large cavern with platforms leading up to each other.
"Why us?" Sara asked, pacing around the room, the click of her shoes echoing through the cavern. The ledges made her nervous, as she couldn't see to the bottom, but she was getting used to it. "Why summon us and not the Warriors of Light?"
Because they're beyond our reach, a voice whispered softly in her mind. We can speak with them but cannot pull them anywhere.
Ingus had spoken of hearing voices once or twice, but she didn't think much of it at the time. After all, she wasn't a Warrior of Light.
"It's up to us, then?" Sara asked. The Crystals wanted her and Desch to fight whomever came. The thought was a little daunting, the idea of being pitted against a force she knew nothing about. But also comforting in that it meant that Sara had the confidence of her gods.
"Of course it is!"
Sara raised an eyebrow at Desch, who lounged lazily beside the Crystal. He was the one to find her and drag her along.
"How long did you say it might take?" Sara asked, still pacing. She hated waiting.
"Honestly, I think I miscalculated because I didn't think we would get here before him. The Crystals can summon those they trust, right?" He directed that last bit to the Crystal itself. "Yeah. They can pull in who they want—that was the big flashy thing that happened to us when I found you—and we were a couple of days behind the perpetrator, so…"
"What?"
"I didn't account for the fact that transportation is instantaneous," Desch said. "It might be a few more hours. Depending on his method of travel. Could also be days. Could be moments."
"That's very helpful, thanks."
"Hey," Desch said with a shrug, "could be worse!"
"How?"
"I could be stuck with someone that wasn't drop-dead gorgeous."
Sara wrinkled her nose. "Thanks, but I'm taken."
"Ingus?"
"Yes – how do you know him?"
Desch shrugged. "We were about to get eaten by dragons. But then we got out together and I gave him and his friends a spell they needed. I must say, good choice. Ingus is a skilled swordsman and red mage. And almost as attractive as I am."
Sara shoved those thoughts away. "Dragons?"
"Yup."
"And you're an Ancient?"
Desch furrowed his eyebrows. "I think so. It's hard to tell sometimes, though."
"What does that mean?"
"Ah," Desch straightened. "It's a little complicated. But-"
"Excuse me," a rough voice said. Sara froze and a man joined them, clothed in strange, brown robes. "I didn't expect company."
Him, the Crystals whispered, urgent.
Without another word, Sara charged a wind spell and Desch leaped forward, sword appearing out of nowhere.
The man whipped a small, wooden hammer into the air and it made a deafening crack. Desch shouted in alarm and grabbed his side.
Sara released a blast of wind at the man, forcing him down. Charged a cure.
Desch unleashed a thunder and the man threw out a purple-tinged version of lightning. The air exploded with light upon the two colliding and crackling sounded. Sara loosed her cure on Desch.
"Thanks!" he called out, whipping the strange device from the man's hands with a slash of his sword. It clattered to the ground and the man pulled a dagger from his belt.
Sara gusted wind along the ground, pushing the strange device toward her. She may not know how to activate that loud noise that it made, but she could at least get it away from him.
Metal sang as Desch engaged the man, blades clanging against each other. Sara powered another cure, ready to heal Desch at a moment's notice. The Crystals knew, there wasn't exactly much else she could do here. Aero would only throw them both off-balance, and it was pretty even-grounded as it was. Better not to risk changing it up.
Who was this man? The magic he used wasn't Crystal-borne. Even the air tasted strange after he charged it with his crack of lightning.
The dagger flew from the man's hand and Desch pinned him to the ground, blade against the man's throat. Neither of the two breathed heavily like normal humans would after such an intense fight. Sara changed her cure to another aero.
"Who are you?" Desch asked, voice low and harsh. All sense of his easy-going self from before vanished. "And what are you doing here?"
The man laid limp beneath him, staring lazily back up. He glanced to Sara and she bit her tongue against a flinch. His eyes were hard and blood-red. "This is pointless," the man said, voice echoing as if there were two people speaking at once. He raised a hand and light burst forth, blinding Sara. She jerked her hands before her eyes.
Desch cried out, but Sara couldn't see why. She pulled a knife from a holster on her leg.
Booted steps came closer and she tensed, pointing her dagger despite her shut eyes. The steps paused. "You really think-?" the double-voice started.
She interrupted him with a slash. Her vision cleared slightly as she opened her eyes again, but she stumbled and barely grazed his chest. He didn't react, even as his coat turned red. He slapped the dagger from her hand and grabbed her by the throat.
Sara choked.
"Stupid girl," he said, smirking as though her attack amused him, even as his grip tightened. "Did you really think after last time that you could do anything to stop this? This is a war of the gods, not a silly dispute between nations."
Sara strained against the man's hands, gasping desperately for air.
"I'll admit," he continued, "You've managed to prove an annoyance. I will allow you some credit. Not everyone has the guts to charge in, armed with nothing but the wind and a tiny knife. But you're still nothing compared to some of the other rats on my tail."
She needed to speak, to chant, to heal herself. But that was impossible without the use of her voice.
"How silly," the man said. "You remind me a lot of those children I had to take out the other day. I think you know them. In this land, they're called 'Protectors of the Crystals.' Cruel, isn't it? Titles made up to give courage to infants forced to fight a losing battle. They're not even here now, and there's nothing they can do to save these overgrown chunks of rock."
Sara made a strangled sound. "In—!"
"Don't worry about them," he said, constricting his grip further and cutting her off. "They're not dead, unfortunately. If I'd had just a little longer, I could have gotten rid of Ingus for good. But alas."
He released her then and threw her to the ground with impossible force. She hit stone and rolled a short way, arms crunching beneath her. She screamed, pain flaring in both those arms.
Didn't breathe for a moment, part of her expecting to topple into the abyss below. She didn't.
"Don't worry," the man said. "The pain won't last long. Soon, the Void will swallow everything. Pain, fear, sorrow… I can't understand why humans won't accept their fate…"
Sara gasped a chant and a weak cure sprung to life in her unbroken arm. Choked out a sob as she pressed the cure to her broken arm. The burning pain subsided. She managed a few more words before the air shattered with a bang and something bit her leg.
"Silence!" the man snapped. "This moment is very important."
Bleeding hole in her leg. She felt light-headed, and a little bit sick. Glanced between the man and her leg, head feeling ten pounds heavier. Where was Desch?
There was so much blood. It felt so surreal, that she was here now. That she was dying. She could have stayed in Sasune, or in Ur. The odds of her coming right here, at the same time… How did it happen like this?
She looked to the Crystal. The man touched it with a bare palm, his glove removed. The light in the room seemed to flicker, then it started to die. She glanced about as the light faded. Desch lay motionless on the other side of the room. The entire platform was strewn with broken rock.
I'm sorry, she thought as she tried another cure. Her tongue felt thick and the words caught in her throat. I guess you made a mistake depending on us.
Osmond's device threw Refia through space.
Her vision blurred and, much like before, she thought she could see the moon and all the stars in their entirety for just a moment before blinding, golden sunlight filled her vision and Refia slammed into a stone wall.
"Ow…"
She blinked spots out of her vision and used the wall to steady her against the disorientation caused by the trip. Crystal voices rushed into her head, blending together into a cacophony of panic. Refia couldn't make out their words.
Stumbling in the wave of dizziness caused by her trip, Refia found people milling around her and pushing carts full of produce and other market goods. Some bore insignias on their chests depicting a bird behind crossed blades.
Saronia.
Refia trudged along despite the stars in her eyes and the churning in her stomach. Now that she knew where she was, she had to get to the Cave of Tides. The connection to the Crystals proved difficult to decipher, but Refia caught mentions of Ingus and Arc. They were on the way here.
Fingers straining against the wall, Refia stopped a passing pedestrian. "Pardon me," she said, trying to stand straighter. It was a dark-skinned, gaunt man, looking to be in his late 30s with a big bush of hair on his head. "Do you know where I can board a ship for Amur?"
"Amur? You barely look fit to stand, kid. Maybe I can arrange for a room at an inn?"
"No," she said, teeth gritting. "I need a ship, and I need it now. And a side of numbing herbs might also be appreciated."
The Crystals pinpointed the Cave of Tides to be the point where Luneth disappeared and she didn't have a lot of time.
Refia accepted a potion from the man before making her way through the streets. She wobbled a lot, and more tradesmen and travelers tried stopping her, some offering more medicine, money to find an inn, or a ride. She just ignored them, using a couple of well-timed spells to show that she was still plenty capable of defending herself.
"Update?" Refia asked.
The others are on their way. Ingus and Arc approaching fastest, but they might not make it in time. Luneth and his friends are held up in Saronia, caring for an injured Crystal-bearer.
"Crystal bearer?" she repeated, finding the docks. The ship she needed was ready to depart soon.
Not a Warrior, but one who was chosen to wield select powers as bestowed upon them by the Atlamillia, our sisters. Arc is still recovering, but he's stabile. Ingus is better. Luneth… grows hard to see.
"What does that mean?" Some of the sailors looked at her and Refia stopped talking out loud. What's he doing?
He's discovering who he really is. It was risky to choose such a one as him, but we had no choice. He's giving in to his fae side, which puts him out of our reach and into the control of the fae realm.
Are the fae bad?
No. But they're separate from us. It's not often that we work together, even in matters like this.
So there was something wrong with Luneth. I need to rest – I'll speak with you again once I wake up.
Very well. The rest of their words swam in Refia's ears as she stopped focusing and took a cot on the ship. Sleep took over faster than shutting her eyes.