Hello, everyone! This will be the final chapter in Book 4's story. I have more notes after the main content for explanations about Book 5. So, let's get started.
DISCLAIMER: The 'Amulet' series is created and illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi, and published by 'Scholastic'. The author owns any original characters and custom elements included into the story.
Onward!
Caleb wandered through a mental fog, lost in an endless valley of white clouds and chilling air. It was nice, but it was only a temporary reprieve from the harsher things outside.
"You always come back, don't you?"
Voices Caleb knew came through the mist, as if they were just out of view. He didn't want to hear them, so he kept walking to get away from them. There were more voices wherever he stopped to listen.
"He always comes back."
Caleb turned away from his father's comments, not wanting to think about the world he was not able to return to.
"She wanted you to stay with her family. She lied to my face about you."
Max Griffin's accusation made the mist swirl around Caleb for a moment. He started to run instead of walking and the mist turned darker and colder in response. The mist soon became tendrils of shadow, briefly splitting to reveal glowing orbs of light. At some point, the shadows grew thick and strong enough to grab Caleb by his arms and legs and hold him in place.
"Hello, Caleb," that shadowy voice said again. "I'm glad to finally meet you face-to-face."
The tendrils tightened, and then suddenly snapped back and let Caleb go. His subsequent fall was cushioned by more mist, white clouds acting like a full-body pillow to keep him safe. He felt a hand squeeze his cheeks tenderly, like Miranda, his mother, used to do when he was a young boy. Caleb held on to this point of happiness as the mist cleared away.
When Caleb came fully back to the real world, he was greeted by a pair of men wearing facemasks and gray-and-blue uniforms. They were scrutinizing him in a larger space like he was a defective robot or badly prepared meal. Their hands briefly touched his cheeks, bringing him to a waking state even faster.
"He's awake," the older man with grey eyes said from Caleb's left. He then told the younger, green-eyed man to Caleb's right, "Notify the Stonekeeper. We need to get to the next patient before they turn." The younger man nodded and left. The older man spent one more moment to look Caleb over one last time before he left Caleb's side as well.
Caleb was not able to get the people's attention before they were gone. Sitting upright took more effort than normal, and Caleb's head felt woozy when he had finished. He looked around and saw he was sitting on a simple cot resting a few feet off the ground via metal poles on each of its four corners. He was wearing the same clothes he remembered from the garden, but they did not carry a scent after being worn for so long. He was no longer in the outdoor garden, either; the canvas walls of a giant brown tent shielded him from the outside air and light.
There were many other cots in the tent with Caleb. But there weren't people in the other beds, just statues. All of them had blankets placed over them to cover everything below their faces. Those faces were very detailed, their expressions all coldly neutral with their eyes frozen open. They looked straight above themselves without pupils, nor any reaction to outside stimuli.
"Hello?" Caleb looked around at the beds, each one having a statue in place of an actual patient. "What's going on?" None of the statues answered. There was a silence hanging in the large tent, an oppressive silence where speaking felt like a bad thing to do. Caleb had not felt this silence for years, ever since…
Ever since the funeral of David Hayes.
Caleb managed to calm himself down before his panic grew too strong. Still, his heart was racing as he remembered bits and snippets of that day. It had been cloudy, and he had been forced to wear black clothing even though he did not like those colors. Then there had been the funeral, the first time he had really noticed Emily, Navin, and Karen as a family. They had been grieving the loss of their father and husband, someone they had loved and was suddenly taken from them forever.
Caleb had not liked that day. He still didn't like it now, years later. He did not like being around dead people, or people turned into statues. The teenager started to slowly move off the bed, not trusting his body to handle running as fast as he wanted to. Before he could get off the bed entirely, he saw a flap near the end of the tent closer to him be lifted open. The "nurse" that had left earlier came back in, and with him was a bearded man with a hard face beneath his wide-brimmed hat.
All three of them, the only living people in a tent full of petrified men and women, stared at each other for a second. Then the bearded man cleared his throat, and his eyes softened. "Leave us, please," he said to the nurse. The blue-wearing man nodded and quickly exited without a moment's protest.
"You are Caleb, yes?" asked the bearded man once they were alone. The teenager nodded, and the man walked up to Caleb's bed with somber steps. When he was at the bed's side, he gently placed one of his gloved hands over Caleb's. Standing up as he was, the man literally got to Caleb's level by kneeling by the bed.
"My name is Vigo Light." The man raised a hand to tap a familiar stone hanging around his neck. "I am a Stonekeeper, but I am also a former member of the Guardian Council and a friend of Silas Charnon."
Several important bits of information were given to Caleb in that brief introduction. Instead of selecting one of them to talk about, Caleb went with a far simpler reason for why this man was not a total stranger. "You were in the garden," he said. "With Trellis."
"Yes, the elf prince. We have been able to help you after Max's influence went away." Vigo looked at the beds around them, and the lifeless statues resting on them. "But we did not realize Max had influenced so much of this city. With him gone, all these people died nearly at once."
"They're all dead?" Caleb swallowed, cold sweat running down his back as his fear tried, and failed, to break through his self-control. "That's insane," he whispered.
"It's a lot to take in for all of us," agreed Vigo. "About forty percent of Cielis's population is gone, and we're still finding bodies inside houses or backrooms." He let that fact hang in silence as well, taking close watch of Caleb's growing and receding levels of panic. The teenager looked at the bodies again, imagining them as alive, living people. How had it felt when they changed? Painful? Was it over in a flash?
Caleb turned his focus to another question, and turned his face back to face Vigo. "There was another Stonekeeper with Max," he told Vigo. "A girl named Emily. Where is she?"
"Emily?" Vigo nodded in understanding. "She's fine, she's recovering from her trials now. She had gone into the catacombs beneath Cielis, along with Max. She was able to get out of there with her own power. We have since discussed, briefly, what we have both experienced. We will need to meet later to make plans for what's to come." Vigo blinked, seeming to shift topics in his head. "How much do you know about what's happened, Caleb?"
"Nothing beyond what I've seen for myself. Did I miss something important?"
"A few things, yes." Vigo sighed, his hat slipping a bit forward atop his head. "But the biggest news is of the Guardian Council. Long story short, they were killed before you, Emily, and the rest of your friends ever came here."
Caleb's throat felt dry. "They're… gone?" he rasped. "Was it the elves? Or someone else?"
"The elves are clear suspects for the murders, but no one knows for sure. Max probably created spectral copies of the Council members, keeping their faces hidden behind masks. The guards he had taken over were made into stone simulacrums; copies he controlled through thought. He made the entire trials, and filled it with copies of former Stonekeeper initiates, all to get to the Mother Stone."
Caleb's eyebrows began to drop into a confused frown. Corbett had mentioned that stone, and how powerful it was. "If Max can do all that," Caleb asked Vigo, "why couldn't he get the stone on his own?"
"Travelling in the catacombs is not safe at any time. Max could not replicate the Grouls that live there."
"Woah, wait, the what that live there?"
"Grouls," repeated Vigo, pronouncing the word like "ghouls". "Emaciated creatures that see in the dark, with large claws and fangs to rip apart intruders. They move in large packs and prefer to ambush their prey. Thankfully, they have only been found beneath Cielis."
Caleb shuddered, his brain popping the image of an Arachnopod up from his memories. Another predator that lived in the darkness was in this world, and this one was beneath Cielis? "You sure they won't come up and eat us all?" he hastily asked Vigo.
"There's too much sunlight up here, even in the alleyways and backstreets. They won't come up from the lower layers. I speak from experience."
Caleb needed a moment to remember Vigo saying he was a "former" member of the Council. Trusting the older man's words, he then asked Vigo, "What else has happened?"
"Everyone arrested and sent to Yarboro Prison has been freed. No one who was imprisoned turned into a statue after Max left. That includes Trellis and his brother, of course."
Caleb sighed in relief. "Good to hear they are free." Funny, I didn't think that way a few weeks ago. But I didn't know they were against the Elven King before, either. "Are they around here right now?"
"No, they left to find their own quarters after Trellis, Emily, and I briefly told our stories to each other. I hope they won't cause any trouble; the people here are still very suspicious of elves in general."
"Okay. Anything else?"
"Two robots belonging to Silas Charnon wanted to see you earlier." A smile graced Vigo's aged features. "You probably know them by their names, Coglsey and Miskit."
"They're alive? That's great!" Caleb beamed with spontaneous joy, squeezing Vigo's hand as he sat up ramrod straight. "I thought the wyverns had killed them!"
"They were nearly food for its nestlings." Vigo chuckled at the memory of his encounters with the two machines. "But I rescued them, and they were very helpful in getting me up to speed with your quest. Silas's programming skills were master class up until the end."
Vigo's eyes grew misty, but he blinked the tears away. After a period of solace between the two men, remembering Silas Charnon and his legacy, Vigo started on a new topic. "You can stay in your prior bedchambers near the Council's meeting halls. Or we can arrange temporary lodging elsewhere for you."
It did not take Caleb long to make his choice. "I'll head back up to the Council halls," he said, "If it's safe to go up there, that is."
"Max and his cohorts are gone, Caleb. You are safe now." Vigo lightly squeezed Caleb's hand to emphasize his point. The action caused Caleb to look at the older man's hand and breathe a bit calmer. Looking back up at Vigo's face, the two shared another brief smile. And then Vigo let Caleb's hand go and exited to his next task, closing the tent flap behind him.
The sense of Caleb being safe left with him, at least to Caleb's mind. But he eventually got up to leave the tent as well. He felt his clothes press against his skin and felt eager to change them into fresher ones. And despite all the sleep, willing or not, he had experienced over the past days, he felt eager to rest his mind more than his body.
Caleb did not get to the flap before it was pushed aside again. Four members of Cielis's air crew, still dressed in the dark uniforms from the airship docks, brought in an ossified corpse and placed it by an empty bed near the door's entrance. As the corpse was gently placed atop the covers, the former person's features were shown to Caleb. A small gasp escaped his mouth as he recognized the face of Milo the officer, even without the man's glasses.
One of the crew members locked eyes with Caleb, revealing a deep pool of sadness beneath their stoic demeanor. This got the other three to look at Caleb as well, two men and one woman, none of whom Caleb recognized. They all had dirt on their wrinkled coats and pants, probably from working so long to find so many transformed people and bring them to this resting place.
The first man looked back at Milo. "Damn shame," was all he said before he and his colleagues quietly moved the bedcovers from beneath Milo's petrified body and over his legs, waist, and chest. One of the other men then briefly took off his own cap and pressed it against his chest. Then they all walked out again, sharing the same silence and sorrow at the loss of a friend.
Caleb looked at Milo's final form, tried and failed to come up with a word of goodbye, and walked out of the room, lifting the flap as he exited. He came into the city of Cielis at nighttime, but with very few lights on. Still, the sky was clear, producing a literal silver lining that allowed Caleb to see some stars far beyond Alledia's atmosphere.
Caleb began walking into the city, not so eager to go to sleep anymore.
Under cover of darkness, the streets of Cielis displayed small points of light from metal lampposts, and from inside some of the houses. The points in the windows were signs of living, breathing people, life returned from darkness to its proper places. Yarboro Prison had been nearly completely cleared in the wake of Max Griffin's departure; led by Leon Redbeard and Vigo, everyone who had been imprisoned under false pretenses or charges was allowed to return to their homes and families.
The problems these people now faced were easily noticeable. The lack of living people in the city made the streets larger than Caleb had first assumed. Now that he wasn't running and hiding for his life, he got to see just how empty the city had become. The suburban neighborhood he called home on Earth didn't have much activity at some points in a typical day, but the people there were still often out and about. Here, the fear and loss kept everyone inside, in closed spaces they could feel safe in.
"Fear silenced this city. Fear of elves, of Stonekeepers, of anything that the corrupt Guardian Council hates. Fear led to this."
Corbett had said that. The level of accuracy he was showing in his statements scared Caleb the more he thought about it. Corbett had been right about many things, seeming to have known what was coming long before anyone chose to deal with it.
And now that Corbett and the elves were gone, how much longer did Cielis have left in isolation? Could the elves cross the Golbez Cycle, braving the risks of that great storm system, and send this city crashing back to the planet's surface? After so long, they would finally complete their destruction of this place. The Guardian Council was no longer here to stop them; they knew that for a fact.
The elves also had the Mother Stone, the source of power for all Stonekeepers in Alledia. Max could use it to create monsters or destroy hundreds of people at once. Maybe thousands if he was pushed to it. Crimes like those he had heard on the television over his life back on Earth.
Is Earth safe?
Caleb felt his chest tighten, his breath growing shorter as his level of panic climbed higher and higher. He stopped below a lamppost while wrapping his hand around the object's metal exterior. He needed to get off the streets, he figured, try to find some safe place to think this over. Maybe with people he could talk with and get advice from.
He looked up to the sky, and something up there caught his attention. Two birds, one bright green and one bright pink, flew by and around each other in the sky. The lights they cast shone across Cielis, illuminating the buildings beneath them. Caleb saw them soar and fly, like great birds of human myth, and felt his heart soar with them. The pink bird he knew was Emily's; no one else had that color with their amulet. The green bird was probably Vigo's as his amulet had that color light when he used it.
"Oh, Emily," Caleb whispered as the birds flew in opposing directions before coming at each other and passing by wingtip to wingtip, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't help you when it mattered."
"You shouldn't be talking to yourself in the dark," someone said from the shadows.
Caleb whirled around to look at where the speaker was approximately coming from. The speaker came into view without hesitation, showing themselves to be Trellis. He didn't sport any new scars, but he looked worn out and his clothes were stained with a few blotches of dirt or dried liquid. His eyes also glinted in that same alien manner, proof he was still very much alive.
Caleb relaxed slightly. He remembered the gladness he had shown to Vigo, and he believed it himself. He was happy that Trellis and Luger were released from Yarboro Prison. But where was Luger, then?
"Why are you here, Trellis?" Caleb asked. He tried to ask it calmly, but the state of his throat meant his words came out with a weary tone.
"Emily is with Vigo, and they don't need me." Trellis nodded towards the soaring birds conjured by those two Stonekeepers. "They're discussing their next steps, or they were until recently. The young boy Navin is doing the same with your robot friends. Luger is dealing with his own issues, of which there are many. It seems only my goals are clear and do not need counselling."
Trellis clenched his fist and looked to the sky around Cielis. "The Elf King must be stopped before he conquers Alledia," he swore. "Or this world will fall to ruin."
"The King seems to be everywhere," Caleb remarked scornfully. "Even here, in Cielis, he had people working under him."
"His agents aren't everywhere," Trellis rebutted as he stared at Caleb. "Just where we least expected it." He said it like that was the obvious clue. A glint in his otherworldly eyes suggested to Caleb that Trellis felt he was standing by one such "enemy". Caleb somewhat agreed with Trellis' opinion, but he did not want to accept it as truth.
Am I a threat to Emily and her family?
Can I go back to Earth like this? What if I hurt my family and friends?
Is Earth safe?
"Trellis, I… I'm not…" Words failed when Caleb needed them, and he was not able to fully voice his opinion. This angered him, but he did not want to snap. He did not see the need to cause an argument by getting loud.
Trellis seized the chance to egg Caleb on. "You aren't under Max's control now, but I saw you when you were. There are similarities between your normal self and others who were being Max's puppet."
Caleb shut his eyes, almost putting his hands over his ears. His attempts to block out the feelings of that Voice in his head, the blazing light of Max's amulet, failed. "Don't use that word," he moaned, "please."
"You prefer "Tool"? "Toy"? Maybe even "Slave"?"" Every additional option, every word used to describe the part Caleb had played in Max's manipulation, made the human's anger grow harder to contain. "Anything to not make your betrayal any less sickening to your family?"
"Trellis," hissed Caleb, pleading for respite, "please stop." Stop before I pop a gasket and make you hate me even more than you already do.
"I will not stop until you drop your childish attitude," Trellis said just as loudly as before. "You are an older brother to Emily and Navin; brothers do not hide from their fears."
"I am NOT their BROTHER!" Caleb roared through clenched teeth. He spun to face Trellis face-to-face, his anger overflowing, his filters broken through. "I'm not related to them in any way, whatsoever! Damn it, Trellis, I just wanted to help them be happy after their father died. I didn't sign up for any of this hero crap!"
The elf's ears twitched, his eyes widening slightly as he saw Caleb's feelings unhinged for the first time. But he kept listening because Caleb kept talking.
"I, Caleb Morrison, want the Hayes to be happy with themselves and their lives because they have suffered too much already." The teenager slapped a hand to his chest, and then clenched it into a tight fist. "But now, thanks to Max, I've become their worst enemy! They trusted me back in Gondoa Mountain, and I've spat on their trust by helping Max escape with the Mother Stone. I'm a criminal, Trellis! Where am I supposed to go from here?!"
Caleb ended his question with his hands placed before his body, palms facing up. A pleading gesture. Trellis looked at Caleb and his posture, not backing down or glancing away. He steadied his own expression into a resting frown—the face Caleb had most often seen from him—and spoke his next words like a schoolteacher providing a firm lecture to a student.
"It should be obvious, Caleb. You climb out of this hole of misery and yell just like that against your enemies." A beat later, he added, "It's good to see you still know what you originally wanted when you entered this war. Lose that, and you lose yourself."
Caleb's anger burned hot, but he had enough brain cells left to recognize what he was being told. It was like the advice given from his track teammates; Don't give up, push yourself to succeed. But Trellis was adding something else, a sense of emotion that Caleb did not like to show.
Just like Caleb did not want to reveal his vulnerability, he also didn't like to be involved in angry situations. Alledia was forcing him to change that, to show how he really felt and be confident about himself. Like he was growing up, by force or by instinct.
Caleb's shoulders tensed, so he flexed them as he took Trellis's words to heart. "You've experienced these feelings yourself, then?" he asked the elf with forced calmness.
Trellis nodded. "I still am. I always will. And every time I fall back in that hole, I force myself to climb back out."
Caleb couldn't keep looking Trellis in the eye. He turned his gaze to the nearest patch of street lit up by lamps. His heart thudded against his chest, like he was getting ready for another long run.
"It's late," Trellis announced. "Go and sleep. Tomorrow will be better for us."
Caleb looked back at the elf in time to see him turn around and walk back into the darkness. Leaving just as easily as he had appeared.
Trellis wants me to get better. He sees some part of himself in me. Caleb smiled in momentary amazement. Will wonders never cease?
Contrary to what Caleb had expected, he crossed paths with Emily as he was walking back up to the Council chambers. He had thought Emily would go right back to her actual family. She must know the truth, considering what Max had told him before he had hypnotized him with his amulet.
The Stonekeeper and Caleb exchanged brief greetings as they walked between patches of light. Emily was wearing her travelling clothes from on the Luna Moth, rather than whatever she had for the Council's tests. After they exchanged hellos, they stayed quiet until they reached the lower area of the former Guardian Council's residence. Now it was their home, too, at least until they chose to leave.
"Those birds in the sky were very nice, Emily," Caleb said as the pair walked towards one of the lavish elevator doors.
"Thanks," she replied with a nod and a smile. "Vigo was doing it as a tribute to the Stonekeepers who have been killed in this war." Her smile receded and dried into worry. "There's a lot more people who've been hurt than I first thought."
The elevator door opened. The pair got inside, and Emily pushed the button for the topmost residence.
"This is a whole new world," Caleb told the girl as the elevator's doors closed. "We don't know a lot of things here."
The elevator started up with a short jerk. Unseen gears and weights moved to raise the elevator car to its new destination.
Emily clenched her gloved fists. "I heard about what Max did to you," she told Caleb. "I'm sorry."
Caleb let out a shaky breath. So, the secret was out. "It's not your fault—"
"No, it is my fault," interrupted Emily. "Part of it, at least. I'm a Stonekeeper, too. I should have noticed this." Emily rubbed a hand over her hair, pushing it back like the stressed teenager she was. "Max played us all like fiddles, and we just let it happen."
"We couldn't have seen this coming." Caleb looked at the amulet hanging from Emily's neck. "Your amulet's powers were reduced, remember? Maybe that was part of Max's schemes."
"Maybe." Emily did not sound convinced. "It's so annoying to face all these issues," she complained. "I just want us all to go home, but we're too involved in things now to just leave."
Caleb noticed Emily did not say what "things" they were involved in. He figured the answer was obvious; it was probably like what he had been thinking about recently.
Is Earth safe?
"Emily?" The girl raised her head to look at Caleb, her red hair waving slightly as she did so. "Do you think someone else you know from Earth would have enjoyed doing this more if they were here instead of us?"
Emily said, "Probably," but did not look certain. Then she smiled before stating, "Well, Navin seems to like it here. He's living his wildest dreams."
Caleb nodded as he recalled Navin's dynamic personality and interests, and the way Navin had taken command of different things like he was several years older. "Yeah, how many kids his age can say they're a, uh, 'Commander' of an army?"
The two shared a momentary smile, thinking of happier times. Then they fell quiet. The silence between them was significant, only broken by the elevator stopped moving and the doors opened.
"Caleb," Emily finally said while she walked out of the elevator into the connected hallway, "About what Max did, you don't need to blame yourself for that."
"But if Max wants to hurt you, he could use me to do it." Caleb stopped walking, unable to keep moving against his growing worries. He felt his hand start to shake as he pressed it against his head. He rubbed his eyes to clear out phantom spots, leftover pictures of that all-consuming light.
"Emily, I'm afraid I'd… I would do it. I'd hurt you and your family." He felt tears forming in his eyes, which he rapidly blinked away. Emily still saw how Caleb looked, and she shook her own head.
"I won't let that happen," Emily proclaimed. "I won't let the elves win this war. I'm not as smart as Max, but I'll get as strong as him."
Emily's determination was something Caleb was delighted to see, but he did not smile. The girl's desire to get better as a person and a "Stonekeeper" proved she had not been lost to her grief since her father's death. Beneath that misery was a girl wanting to reach her goal, no matter of the odds.
Caleb thought that way when he was running and exercising, but he tuned his emotions out in the process. Emily instead used her emotions as a catalyst, fuel for the fire, but had to bear the grief as extra weight. Who was the better person?
Caleb took a few steps closer to Emily. "Just remember who's helping you do it, Emily," he told her. "You aren't alone."
Emily smirked, and then giggled. "Funny." She brushed her red hair back from her face again, some of the strands having slipped back down over her forehead. "Navin said the same thing to me after we came out of the catacombs. And Mom's probably going to say it to me the next time she sees me get all depressed."
"Moms do that," Caleb agreed. "That proves they care for you." He followed Emily down the hallway, the pair walking slowly, not willing to leave the current moment. "I know my mom cares for me," Caleb continued, "She's probably worried sick. It's been weeks, maybe months, and I… well…"
"I know. We all know." Emily nodded to Caleb, still smiling, still being strong. "We all will help each other through this. That's what families do."
"Am I still part of this family, Emily?" Please say yes, please say yes, please—
"Of course you are. It'll take more than hypnosis to break our friendship."
"I…" Caleb bit back his automatic response, telling himself to take the compliment as she said it. "Thank you, Emily."
She pushed open the chamber doors. "Let's get some sleep," she advised as they stepped into the room. But when they did, they found the chamber was lit up by several small lamps, one by each bed. Navin and Karen were conversing with Cogsley and Miskit, split between two beds. All of them turned to look at the new arrivals, and none of them looked ready to go to sleep soon.
"Hi, Caleb!" Navin greeted. He sounded upbeat, like what had happened did not affect him so greatly as his sister. Karen also looked attentive as she sat by her son, any fatigue she felt not showing on her face.
"Laddie! Yer alive!" Cogsley quickly stepped up from the bed when he saw Caleb. "I hear ye've been through as wild a ride as we have!"
Caleb waved to the orange and pink robots while he and Emily went to the two beds. "Glad to see you, too," he told Cogsley. Then he noticed a small, winged creature with Cogsley. "Who's, uh, the guy on your shoulder?"
"Dagno!" The creature squeaked out a name, like a bird trained to say certain words. But it quickly became clear to Caleb that this was a reptile instead of a bird. It almost seemed like a dragon; that was a surprise.
"Don't mind 'im, e's a chatterbox." Cogsley wiggled the shoulder "Dagno" was on, and the creature quickly shifted its posture to accommodate. "Thinks I'm his mama, which proves e's scatterbrained as a robot without a central cogitator."
Caleb turned to Miskit, silently asking for more information. "We were brought to a wyvern's nest," the robotic rabbit explained, "and left to be eaten by the chicks. While we were there, Dagno's egg hatched and he… Well, I think Dagno imprinted on Cogsley as its parent. The mother wyvern wasn't around to protest."
"Vigo Light had told me he rescued you from a nest." Caleb nodded as he saw the story coming together. "He also said you had updated him on Silas and our quest."
"Ah, good, then we can skip that bit of explanation." Miskit seemed genuinely happy to get past that point; since it was about his old master and creator, it certainly caused him some grief to talk about. "So, after that, we—"
"Excuse me," interrupted Karen while leaning slightly forward, "but I think we can save the stories for tomorrow. We all need to rest, even the robots. It has been a very busy day."
"I totally agree, Mom," said Navin. "But maybe we'll get a chance to relax now."
"Maybe," Emily concurred. "I hope so." With that, everyone made themselves ready to sleep or power down for the night. Lights were turned off, covers fluffed, bedtime rituals done, and privacy given where necessary. Once everyone was in their beds, or by power outlets, the room became almost completely silent.
As Caleb lay beneath his assigned bed's covers, he reached into the pockets of the clothes he still wore on him. He found what he was looking for after a bit of searching, bringing it up above his face so he could focus on it. The black feather, the mark of the "Corvid" group, was still in his keeping.
The Corvid are still out there. Maybe Corbett will reach them. Maybe they'll learn from him what's going on. Caleb didn't like how uncertain his hopes had gotten. Everything here was uncertain to him. He didn't like that.
When he ran, Caleb focused on his movements, his body, and his immediate surroundings. When he was at work or in class, he focused on listening, taking notes, and paying attention. He wanted to view the world through a small lens; Alledia had taken that lens and smashed it before forcing his actual eyes to look at a bigger picture.
One thing he did know for sure was that he was in this for the long haul. Like it or not, he was committed. The path ahead was winding and long, but he could see the end. He wanted to reach that end, and that already gave him some spark of confidence to try to do so.
Trellis' words came back to him as his eyes drifted closed. "Every time I fall in that hole, I force myself to climb out." Words to live by, for sure.
[END OF BOOK A4]
Alright, that's all for this book. Thanks for taking the time to read it!
As for going on to Book 5, I am (again) unable to tell you when that will get started. I can say here that I am going to include more worldbuilding elements along with the primary storyline. "Prince of the Elves" has big deviations between Emily and Navin's progress, and there's also mention of Prince Trellis's background. Having Caleb, my OC, be included in this means I will be cutting some things out to put new things in. If your favorite character is not mentioned much, or at all, I apologize in advance.
Okay, now I've got work to do. Any feedback, comments, and/or constructive criticism is appreciated, as always.
Draconos is taking off!
