by Regan Claire
*Those would be the creepy Nothing Monsters. We’ve found a way to destroy them
Instead of telling him, I showed him what we’d been doing. It was getting too difficult to hold a conversation down.
-Will it work with any energy, or only all six combined?
*Dunno. Lemme know if you find out. We need a way to close this portal or we all die. Tell Etta. Have to go.
I ducked just as some sort of large limb reached out for me. Ezra dusted it while I was down, and we continued the dance for what seemed like forever. There was no need to relay my conversation with Alexander; we’d discovered that while connected, we could hear each other's communications through the gems. Things did get easier when Alexander let me know that any type of energy would work, so Ezra and I were able to conserve a bit more once we stopped doing a combo of all six. I stuck to the four regular elements while Ezra used Spirit and Death. This way we were Gathering the resources around us at an even pace, and not pulling too much of any single element. We were still wearing down, and I was getting worried about our longevity if we didn’t move out of the primo monster-spot, but the only way down was literally a portal to another world. It made our would-be escape a little more difficult.
“We need to get out of here, Ezra!” I shouted over the sounds of our fighting.
“How?” he asked, not slowing his movement in the least as he bashed one, then two monsters in their heads before working his way down their bodies.
“I need more elements, can your Loa bring me some?”
Instantly I felt more energy, which I Gathered then created a sloping Shield starting at our feet and ending over the water.
“Can you hold that Shield long enough?”
I could hold a Shield forever, but I knew Ezra was talking about my concentration. It was hard to remember to breathe, let alone keep an energy Shield solid enough to walk on.
“I can hold it longer than we can hold this position,” I told him. As if to accentuate my point, something wrapped solidly around my waist and I could almost feel my atoms disintegrate before I jabbed my spike into it and freed myself. Ezra finished the sucker that had grabbed me while I ducked down.
We both moved onto the Shield without another word. I kept it solid so we wouldn’t be tempted to look down at the glowing chasm beneath our feet, and we slowly made our way further and further from the lock. I didn’t bother putting back the bits of Shield that had been eaten by the Nothing beasts. It didn’t take much time to realize we probably weren’t going to make it out of this, but I wasn’t worried about it. I didn’t have room to worry about it. My body and mind were solely focused on infusing my energy into the monsters, then destroying them. Trying to keep us alive was more of a byproduct of that, because we had to stay alive to destroy the beasts. Or we had to destroy the beasts to stay alive. My world view was too narrow to think of a difference between those.
It seemed to take hours for each inch that we gained, and Ezra and I were both slowing down. It occurred to me that I saw light near us, and it wasn’t from the sun over our head.
The army of Ethnos had come to us.
*Alexander, tell me you’re in the rescue party
-I would not call this a ‘party,’ Lady. Etta needs to get to the lock. She believes she knows a way to somewhat close the portal. If you would, stay there. We are coming your way. If you can expand your Shield platform, we can get enough people to you to help.
Ezra and I both doubled our efforts, energized by the idea that an end was in sight. An end we still weren’t certain we should believe in. He brought as many Loa as he could for me to Gather, and I worked on rebuilding and widening the Shield. I say “we” because at this point we were so closely melded that our thoughts were synced. There was no him or me, only us. We cleared a circle around us, and it grew wider as our fighting reached a new level of harmony. Ezra moved faster, taking charge of most of the physical fighting, while I held the Shield together and infused energy into our opponents to weaken them. Not that I wasn’t contributing to their dusting. I’d taken my spike and molded it into a dozen small balls, then Bent those to smash into the weak spots of the monsters. I had to make sure I hurled the projectiles instead of controlling them completely with Air energy, because the energy would die as soon as it got close to its target.
Soon another circle of space was nearby, and I noticed several more surrounding the platform at the top of the portal. They each represented areas that the Ethnos were fighting in, pushing their way towards the center to keep a clear space in order for Etta to work.
We also started moving towards the center again, and I didn’t comment about how this was our second time making a return trip. We reached the top again much more quickly, and our clear spot merged with the one next to ours and the one next to theirs, until the entire top was clear of monstrosities.
*What’s the plan, Alexander?
-Etta is laying the Runes now
I turned to look, and saw Etta kneeling in the center of the glowing lock, hands rested on both of her knees and her eyes closed as if gathering her will. My attention was dragged back to a particularly lanky varmint that had gotten around Ezra, and when I finally turned back again Etta was tracing a large symbol where she’d been sitting. The rune glowed red, and it was then that I noticed the trail of blood pouring from her wrists. When she was done marking the symbol, she knelt down on top of it as she had before. The glowing rune rose in the air and covered her in the blood-stained light while she held her hands outwards as if in offering.
Her wrists too were glowing, but not the red of her blood like the rune was. It glowed with an array of bright colors, settling finally on greys, greens, and browns. I was glad that Ezra was able to hold our junk down, because I stood transfixed as vines poured out of her wounds. Vines that grew thicker than the thickest tree and flowed out and over the edge of the platform, ignoring my Shield that was attached to the sides.
I felt Ezra stumble, and had to pay attention to the things trying to kill us for a while, rather than the woman trying to save us. The beasts must have known what we were attempting, because they surged forward. Our demon-free circle was getting smaller as we all retreated closer and closer to the center, yet none of us dared enter the space directly next to Etta. We could all see the coils of vines continuing to flow over the portal, and after a few minutes I thought I saw the light from it begin to dim. Ezra and I fell back into a haze of fighting. My movements were getting sloppy. Maintaining the Shield was becoming difficult and I was having a hard time healing the damage to my body.
So slowly that I thought I was imagining things, the number of Nothing-creatures began to lessen. Our circle of safety grew larger until it covered my entire Shield. There was still fighting going on, but I was able to turn back and look at Etta and what she’d been doing.
But Etta was nearly covered by the vines she had born. I saw them still moving, so I looked at the sides of the portal only to see it mostly covered. Etta was somehow creating a barrier that could effectively close the portal and was immune to the corrosive quality of the creatures on the other side of it. I walked into a clear spot right in front of Etta. Some of the vines were grey and looked like stone. Etta, likewise, had taken up the same color.
The pieces of her that I could see under the thickly twisting vines, that is. All that was exposed was her eyes and her arms from the elbow to wrist. But those were unmoving, frozen as stone.
“Do you know what she’s doing?” I asked Ezra, since he joined me and was standing to my side.
“No idea, other than providing a blockade around the portal. I don’t think she’s closing it, just preventing whatever is on the other side from coming here,” he said.
Alexander joined us as well, though his head stayed respectfully bowed. “You are correct in that assumption, Ezra. Etta is casting one of the few ancient runes that the Elfennol never cast out. She is creating a Haven.”
Ezra seemed satisfied by that answer, and bowed his h
ead as well.
“Are you going to make me ask what that means?”
“It is something that has always been done sparingly. No Haven remain today that I know of since humans long ago destroyed all of them, thinking they were nothing more than sacred groves worshipped by Druids or the like. Haven is shaped by the will of the Ethnos who create it, and acts as the ultimate sacrifice in protecting an area and having their Spirit energy become one with the world. An Ethnos exchanges their life-force — all the energy that they would use through the years — and creates a physical representation of that Spirit. It was once popular when an Ethnos reached the end of their lifespan, since a Haven can last forever if nurtured properly. But it fell out of favor when the humans population boomed and they started destroying them all. With the amount of knowledge we have lost, this was the only thing Etta could think of that could work.”
“Is it permanent? We’re safe now?” I asked.
“It is unlikely, though we will provide all the care we can to sustain her Haven. She hoped it would at least buy you time to discover a more permanent solution. It was clear something had to be done immediately.”
I let that absorb. Etta had basically sacrificed herself for a plan she wasn’t even certain would work, because it was the only way she could think of to save her people.
It made me wish I’d known her better, because someone who would do that was someone worth knowing and remembering.
The vines suddenly stopped moving, causing panic to rise in my throat before I realized it was because the portal was completely closed off. When I walked to the edge, I could see there were still places where light barely shone through, but I saw no creatures coming through. I turned and grinned at Ezra, whose expression matched mine perfectly. We grabbed each other in a hug and allowed relief to wash through our bodies.
We’d made it.
Ezra pulled away and looked down at me with his arms still wrapped around me. “Your army is still fighting against those creatures, and there’s no telling how many escaped. Our job isn’t finished yet.”
I looked at him, taking in his battered appearance and the light shining from his green eyes. He was right, we weren’t finished yet. But I knew, whatever the next step was, he’d be right there beside me. I smiled, then stood on tiptoe and kissed him gently. “Then let’s get to work, shall we?”
Epilogue
It was an appropriate day to say goodbye — on my birthday. The year after I turned eighteen, my entire existence had been turned upside down. Under normal circumstances, it would have been a hard year to top.
I had a feeling nineteen was about to blow eighteen out of the water, though.
“I don’t want to do this, Ezra,” I told him, clutching his hand while we walked up to the small gathering of people on top of the portal.
“I know, Della.” He stopped me. “Maybe we should do it tomorrow instead. I think the opening will —”
I sighed, then started to walk again. “No, we can’t risk it. There will be other birthdays.” I didn’t say what we were both thinking. We hoped there would be other birthdays.
In the months that followed the day the portal opened, chaos had broken out pretty much everywhere. Human news channels chalked it up to climate change, which I suppose was our fault since most of our cover-ups were things like “tsunami wipes out town.” Human casualties were too high for comfort, but we were getting the hang of protecting the human population without them being any the wiser. Still, those casualties and those of the Dunamis and Ethnos who were losing their lives to this fight, were keeping me up during the few hours I had to sleep each day. Days and nights were spent either tracking down and destroying the monsters, or trying to find a way to permanently close the portal. Well, back when we thought permanently closing the portal would solve all our problems, that is. Nothing-beasts were finding other ways into our realm. Ian postulated that the barrier between our worlds had been damaged by the portal opening, because they were coming more and more frequently as time passed. Either way, it was a problem that we could only come up with one solution for.
A solution that nobody liked, but since we couldn’t think of an alternative we didn’t really have much choice. We’d been waiting weeks for the right time. Occasionally, Etta’s Haven would have a small gap open up. There wasn’t too much concern since we had so many people stationed there — not only to guard, but also to sustain Etta in her protection of our world — and they typically closed again within a day or two. A couple of hours ago, we heard that another one of these gaps had opened, and our plan relied on our going through the portal before it closed again. Everyone and everything that we needed were already here.
The small crowd, my family, turned toward us as we approached. We’d had dozens of small gates erected all over the world for quicker transportation. Each one led to the portal. Alexander had brought my family through the newest one to say goodbye. It was their first time being at the portal, but they didn’t seem curious about the strange surroundings. None of them even gave Etta a second glance, though her lonely figure was only feet away from where we stood. The mood was so grim when they looked at me that it would have made a funeral look like a good time. I looked at Ezra, and after he gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and a respectful nod to my family, he walked over to the edge of the portal platform and started to talk to Alexander — probably discussing the supplies that were being sent over and double checking those who had volunteered to come with us weren’t having second thoughts.
Aunt Ellis lunged from her position next to Connor and wrapped me in a hug. “I’m going to miss you so much! You’re sure this is the only way?”
I pulled back and nodded my head. “Yeah. We can’t let things go on like this.”
Uncle Connor stepped forward and put his arm over his wife’s shoulder. “We know, Della. We just don’t like seeing you have to sacrifice even more. You’ve given up too much already.”
My left hand automatically went up and twisted my father’s cracked armlet around on my bicep. “There’s still a lot more to lose if we don’t do this.”
Connor reached forward and pulled me in his own hug. “We are so proud of you, Della. I know Gabby and Derek would have been, too,” he said, basically talking into my hair he was holding me so tightly.
Tears clogged my throat. My father’s death was still a bleeding wound on my heart. I knew him for such a short time, but I’d mourn him for the rest of my life.
When Uncle Connor let me go, I walked over to Cash. My cousin looked harder than he did the first time I’d met him. This year had changed him as much as it had changed me, and I could see the evidence of that in his eyes.
“I can’t believe you’re leaving. You don’t even know if the portal will allow you to cross the other way, or if you can ever come home once you do,” Cash said. We’d had this same discussion before, and he was right. There were no guarantees that we would even make it to the other side.
But we had to try.
The only way to save this world was by healing the other one.
“There’s really not much of a choice, Cash.”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I know, I’m just afraid. Aren’t you?”
“Terrified. I’m so scared that I can hardly see straight.” I closed my eyes, overwhelmed for a second by it all. When I opened them again, Cash looked resolved.
“If anyone can do this and remain intact, it’s you Della. You’ve got this.” He smiled at me and was even able to make it look halfway genuine.
“Here, I got you this.” He held up a badly wrapped present. It was small and in the shape of a book.
I grabbed it and smiled, then turned the package over in my hands before looking at him. “This is the best birthday present I’ve ever had!”
“You haven’t even opened it yet. Have you ever even had a birthday present before?”
I chuckled, then shook my head. “Nope.”
He smiled. “We had a party planned. Mo
m even baked you a cake.”
Tears started flowing silently from my eyes through my smile. “Really?” I looked down at the present in my hands and realized what I’d said before was a lie.
The best birthday present I ever received had been him and everything else in my life this last year. I handed the unopened present back to him.
“Wha—”
“Hold onto it for me, will you? We don’t know what it’s going to be like over there. I’ll open it when I get back.” The smile was gone from my face now.
“I’m considering that a promise, Della,” my cousin said, eyes fierce and voice somber.
I reached over and hugged him. When did I turn into someone so huggy? “That’s definitely a promise, Cash. I’ll come home again.”
Ezra walked over to us when we parted. “Ready?”
I looked over at the people I loved most in this world. It had taken me eighteen years to find them. Eighteen years to find out who I was and where I belonged.
“Yeah, I’m ready.” I grabbed Ezra’s hand and walked towards Alexander and the path that had been created down to the portal’s temporary opening. Three dozen Ethnos were waiting there, all willing to sacrifice their life for me. All willing to give up everything they knew to save everything they loved. I looked them each in the eye, humbled by their bravery and the loyalty I saw in their gaze.
I looked over at Alexander and resisted the urge to leave him with last minute instructions. We’d already gone over everything, in detail, numerous times. He saluted me with the guardian symbol, and while I walked hand in hand with Ezra through the giant crack in the rootlike structure of Etta’s Haven, I promised myself that the people we led through the portal would find their way back again. The goodbye’s uttered today wouldn’t be forever. Even if it takes another eighteen years, I’d bring everyone home again.
