Darren seized my wrists, and he stared into my eyes with deadly seriousness. “Do. Not. Do. Anything.”
I recoiled from the steel in his voice. “Okay, okay,” I conceded.
In a few minutes, Darren had levered the weapon rack off of us and helped me regain my feet. We put the weapons back, and I thanked my lucky stars once more that none of them were sharpened. Despite the prodigious amounts of wood and metal that had been sent flying around the room, I was dismayed to see that the goblet still sat unmoved in the center of the training circle.
“So, um…maybe I should learn some control,” I said.
“I think that would be a grand idea, Sir Calvin,” said Darren.
“All right,” I said. “One more try. I’ll keep it simple. I promise.”
“Perhaps I should bolt everything in the room to the ground first,” Darren suggested.
“Side note: why didn’t somebody already do that? Clearly it’s a necessary precaution,” I said. “But no, I promise. I’ll keep it small. I just want to try one thing.”
Darren hesitated, and I could almost see him debating the merits of waiting outside. Finally he nodded, but he did move to stand directly behind me. It was the best I was going to get.
I held out my hands once more. This was an idea I’d had back in my room when I was researching super powers. I reached down into myself again, contacting the magic that was now within me. I looked at the cup, and I tried to envision the air below it. I felt like I could see it. Maybe I was imagining it, maybe not, but I reached for the image. I tried holding it, imagined pinching it in place, holding it still and making it as hard as a plate.
Slowly, I imagined the plate lifting upward.
Before my eyes, the cup began to rise in the air. An inch. Two. A foot.
I couldn’t concentrate any longer. I started laughing uncontrollably with excitement. The image in my mind broke. The cup fell to the ground and tipped to its side.
“I did it!” I said, turning to Darren. “I lifted it!”
Darren stepped forward. Gone was the wary caution; he grinned at me like a kid on Christmas morning once more. “I saw it!”
“I basically have the Force.”
Darren’s brows furrowed, but then he smiled and said, “Of course, Sir Calvin.”
I clapped him on the shoulder. “There you go. I’ll be darned if I’m going to take a year at this. Give me a week, and I’ll be tornado’ing the head off of…what’s the bad guy’s name again?”
But before Darren could answer, I heard the clank of a latch and the groaning of the large iron door swinging open. Barius stood in the doorway.
He bowed. “The others are waking.”
CALVIN
I RAN THROUGH RUNEHOLD, UP the stairwell and into the hallway. The closest door was open, and Sarah was standing outside of it. Cara was with her.
“Calvin,” she said, looking confused. “We’re back already.”
“I know,” I said. “We — ”
“I was naked,” she said angrily.
“Yeah, they did that,” I said. “We’re going — ”
“Why are we back here already?”
“I’m trying to tell you!” I said.
“Tell her what?” said a voice from behind me.
I turned. Blade was just emerging from his own room with one of the Runegard — I thought his name might be Samuel?
“We don’t come to Midrealm when we’re summoned,” I said, smiling. “We come here every time we sleep.”
Silence reigned for a long moment.
“What?” shouted Blade.
“I know, right?” I said excitedly. Then I realized he wasn’t smiling.
“I’m not coming here every day!” screamed Sarah.
“Dude, they can’t do this to us!” said Miles.
I balked, confused. “What do you mean?”
Raven emerged from around a corner, looking around with frightened eyes. Barius was with her. “What’s all the yelling about? And why are we back already?”
Sarah turned, pointing an accusing finger at me. “Calvin just told us that we’re going to come to Midrealm every time we go to sleep.”
I held up my hands defensively. “Hey, it’s not my fault!” I said angrily. “That’s just the way it works. Sheesh. I thought you guys would be excited.”
Sarah rounded on me in fury. “Excited? You’re the only one who wants to be here, Calvin!”
I noticed all of the Runegard looking at us uncomfortably. Darren was averting his eyes. Cara was studying Sarah with a simmering anger.
I stepped closer. “Sarah,” I said in a low voice. “Maybe we should talk about this privately. You know, let everyone chill out.”
Sarah looked around, barely-contained anger still plain on her face. But she saw the Runegard. She saw them looking at us with a mixture of disappointment, anger and resentment. Everyone but me was shocked and dismayed that they’d have to spend so much time in Midrealm — but to our Runegard, Midrealm was home. It was like traveling to a foreign country and talking about how much you hated it, out on the street where the locals could hear you. I saw the recognition cross Sarah’s face, and her fury lessened.
“Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath. “Obviously we’re all a little…surprised.”
“Surprised?” snorted Blade. “Pissed straight off is more like it.”
Sarah cut him off with a sharp look — something I’d never seen someone do to Blade before. “Let’s go check on Tess,” she said. “She’s the only one who’s not here yet.”
I sighed with relief. That was a good idea, and it would let us remove ourselves from the presence of the Runegard in case Blade or Miles started mouthing off again.
We went down the hallway toward the last closed door. The last of the Runegard who’d been with us during the battle was standing guard outside it. I nodded to her, then started to reach forward and open the door. Sarah slapped my hand away.
“Hey!” I cried, nursing my wrist.
“You can’t go in yet, Calvin,” she said exasperatedly. “Remember when you woke up?”
Oh. Right. I was naked. “Riiight,” I said, suddenly blushing. “Maybe…maybe you and Raven should go first.”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “Oh, thank you so much for the idea.” She turned to Cara. “Do you and the others mind waiting out here?”
Cara’s eyes were still smoldering, but she nodded her assent. “Of course, my Lady.”
“Thank you,” Sarah said. It didn’t sound commanding or arrogant at all, despite the fact that she was clearly in charge. Instead, I heard an apology in her tone. She was trying to tell Cara she was sorry for the way she’d spoken earlier. And as I watched, Cara relaxed visibly, her anger abating.
Yeah, Sarah was definitely good at this.
Sarah and Raven disappeared into the room. The rest of us waited around awkwardly. Miles was staring at the floor. Blade paced like an animal, then settled for leaning on the wall. He picked at the sleeves of his outfit irritably, fuming. I noticed that his outfit had red trim where mine had white. Miles’ was blue. It looked like we each had different colors based on the element that was the source of our power.
Sarah and Raven reemerged, and between them walked Tess. I double-checked my theory. Yup: Sarah’s collar was brown, Raven’s a pale yellow, while Tess had one of salmon pink. Each belt held an elemental symbol as well. We looked like a superhero team, but with more personalization.
Tess looked scared and nervous, one of her eyes hidden as always behind her long hair and the other roving the hallway anxiously. She balked at the sight of us, but Sarah helped prod her out into the hallway.
“It’s about time the lot of you woke.”
Greystone had snuck up on us unannounced, arriving just as Tess emerged from the room with the others.
“Greystone,” Sarah said with a nod. She left it at that, but I could see her annoyance beginning to build again.
“Yes, Lady Sarah,” he said respectfu
lly. “Welcome back.”
“Thank you,” she grated.
“Hey, man, we need to talk about this arrangement,” Miles began.
Greystone held up a hand to ward him off. “I am certain you all, the skinny one especially, have a plethora of questions that will drive me batty and cause me to pull out what little remains of my hair. However, may I suggest that we make our way to the great hall first? I’m aware I look strikingly good for my age, but my bones are still old and would prefer to sit.”
Sarah took a deep breath, probably restraining herself from snapping back with the first, second or third things that came to her mind. “Yes, of course,” she said. “Please. Lead the way.”
Greystone bowed, somehow managing to make it look sarcastic, and headed down a stairwell. We followed. When we finally emerged into the great hall, the others were struck dumb with wonder just inside the doorway.
I looked around at their wondering faces. “I know, right?” I said with a smile. “I couldn’t believe it when they showed me around.”
“How long have you been here?” Raven asked.
“About two hours,” I said. “But they wouldn’t give me the grand tour until you all woke up.”
“Where did you fall asleep?” Sarah asked with concern.
“Don’t worry, I passed out in bed,” I said. “My parents probably won’t even notice if I’m back in a coma or whatever.”
“Yeah, maybe we should start talking about that,” Miles said in annoyance. “Is that going to happen every time we come here?”
“If I can persuade you to cross the last thirty feet to your seats,” Greystone said with restrained annoyance, “we can discuss all this and more.”
No one else seemed to want to put one foot in front of the other, so I led the way. Upon closer inspection, I noticed the chairs each had a symbol carved into them, just like our belts. I found the one that looked like an air stream and sat down in it. The others found their seats, and in a moment we were all sitting around the table, with a Runegard standing behind each of us. Sarah was sitting with her back ramrod straight, while Raven slouched in her seat. Blade actually propped his feet up on the table. Greystone settled in his own chair, the worn-out one I’d seen when I’d first come to the great hall.
“So let’s talk,” I began. “We come here every day, yeah?”
“That is correct,” Greystone said with a nod. “When you sleep on True Earth, you awaken in Midrealm. When you sleep in Midrealm, you return to True Earth. This will be the state of things for the rest of your lives, short though they will almost certainly be.”
“So if we spend a sixteen-hour day here, we’ll sleep for sixteen hours back home?” Miles said.
“That is correct,” Greystone said again.
“No,” said Sarah forcefully. “That’s not going to work. I’m not giving up my life for this.”
Greystone snorted. “We’re not unused to new Realm Keepers feeling this way. We have a…system of sorts. There is a potion I have devised that will induce instant slumber. For as long as you wish, you may take it when you want to return to True Earth. Of course, you may not always wish to use it.”
“We will,” Sarah insisted. “We’ve got real lives back home that we’ve got to maintain.”
“And what do you think this is?” Greystone said acidly. “Playtime?”
“Regardless,” said Sarah angrily. “We’re taking the sleeping potion.”
“Of course,” Greystone said dismissively. “As I said, you may do so whenever you want.”
“What about our bodies back home?” Raven said anxiously. “Are we going to go into comas every time?”
“Your bodies will enter a period of deep sleep, yes,” Greystone said. “We have learned much from past Realm Keepers. At first when you travel here, your heart will slow considerably and your breathing will be shallow. It can cause distress to those around you, but it will lessen with time. Eventually it will be no different from the way you slept before you became Realm Keepers. But,” he said sharply, “you cannot be roused while you sleep on True Earth.”
“What happens if we are?” asked Tess quietly, speaking up for the first time.
“Nothing,” said Greystone irritably. “I say cannot, not must not. No force on Earth — neither True Earth nor Midrealm — can wake you now when you slumber. Shaking you, shouting at you, a bucket of cold water, falling out of bed. I could fling you from the top of Morrowdust’s tallest tower, which would not necessarily displease me.” His eyes darted to Blade. Blade made a rude gesture. “But it would be useless. You will not wake until you sleep once more in the other world.”
Sarah groaned. “Our parents are going to be worried sick.”
“Blame Destiny,” said Greystone angrily. “I certainly didn’t ask for a bunch of Realm Keepers who haven’t even completed their journey to adulthood.”
“I have a question,” said Tess.
We turned to her, surprised..
“It’s day time,” she said quietly.
Miles glanced out the window. “Uh…so?”
But I realized what Tess was saying. “It’s night on True Earth, but it’s day time here,” I said. “Why?”
Greystone looked at Tess carefully, a little smile on his face. “Beware the quiet ones!” he said with a chuckle. “For their eyes are keen, and little escapes them. Yes, Lady Tess. This is another truth of Midrealm. This world was created as a mirror to your own,” he explained. “Much that you know works in reverse here. When the sun is risen on True Earth, it is night in Midrealm. Our sun rises in what would be the West to you, and sets in the East — though we renamed the directions long ago, as soon as we discovered it. But if you saw Midrealm on a great map, you would recognize True Earth in it, only turned around. The seasons are the same; when True Earth is in the dead of winter, here it is summer.”
We were nearing the end of fall — school had only started a couple of months ago — so that meant it was almost summer here in Midrealm. But something didn’t add up.
“Wait, that doesn’t totally make sense,” I said. “I mean, I get a mirror world, but a change in directions like that would mean the world is spinning the opposite direction. Aside from how that would have happened without throwing everyone into space with a planetary shift, that’s not even technically a ‘mirror’ of True Earth. It’s more like a reverse. And that still wouldn’t even make sense unless the whole universe is doing the same thing, and we’re all spinning backwards toward the Big Bang — ”
“Chaos take us all!” snapped Greystone, shutting me up. “Cease your endless prattling, or I’ll box your voice again.”
“I’m just saying — ”
“No, dude, he’s right,” said Blade, looking at me not with anger but with dead earnestness. “Just…just seriously. Shut up.”
Greystone sighed, looking utterly displeased that he’d accidentally sided with Blade in an argument, and answered me grudgingly. “Midrealm was created through magic. In magic, intention equals causation. This is the first thing you must all learn about your new powers. They are nearly limitless, but only within the bounds of your own intention. If that intention is scattered, unfocused, you will not be able to control the gifts you possess.”
He leaned back in his chair and produced his pipe. A flame sparked inside it with a snap of his fingers, and he began to puff it before he went on. “The mages who created Midrealm had mastered their intention to such a degree that reality itself was putty to their minds. So no, I do not know the answer to your questions of planets and stars and galaxies. I have been asked them before. I have never known the answers. Because Midrealm was intended to be a mirror of True Earth. And so it is a mirror. It is as simple as that.”
I opened my mouth, but I closed it again at Sarah’s annoyed look. I settled for staring into my lap and muttering, “Well, that is just an entirely incomplete and unsatisfactory explanation.”
“Getting back to something that’s actually important,” said Rav
en, glaring at me. “If we’re awake all the time, when do we rest? I mean, are we just destined to never sleep again for the rest of our lives?”
“Do you feel rested now?” Greystone asked.
I thought about it. I hadn’t bothered to take stock of myself since arriving in Midrealm. Now that I did, I realized I wasn’t tired. I was refreshed, even.
“I feel fine,” Miles said. He sounded suspicious, as if it were a trick question.
“Your minds are the only things moving between the worlds,” Greystone said. “Your bodies are fully at rest. Your consciousness travels from one body to the other. But when it arrives in that body, it is fully rested. You will never lack for sleep as long as you have spent enough time in the other world. In fact, if you are determined to spend your full days on True Earth, then in Midrealm you can expect to be quite well-rested at all times. Your bodies will sleep for sixteen hours at a time. Though I reiterate,” he said, with a knowing look in his eye, “that may not always be possible.”
“It’ll have to be, at least for now,” Sarah said insistently. “We’re not stopping our lives on True Earth.”
Greystone held up his hands, shrugging as if conceding a point. I got the feeling he wasn’t, really, but was just biding his time.
“So,” said Tess, speaking up once more from across the table, “what’s next? What do we do now?”
“Well, there are some matters of little importance to you and the fate of the worlds, but of great importance to ceremony and tradition,” Greystone said. He glanced at Sarah. “I am sure you will all have many more questions in time, but unless there is anything especially urgent, I’ll proceed.”
Sarah nodded. “Go ahead, I guess. You don’t need my permission.”
“Sure he does,” I said. “You’re our fearless leader.”
Sarah glared at me. “I’m nobody’s leader.”
“Oh, of course not,” said Blade impudently. “You just give orders, it’s not your fault if we obey them.”
“I’m not…I’m not forcing anybody to do anything,” Sarah said, almost desperate. “Guys, I’m not.” She looked around at all of us. I could only look back at her and shake my head. “I’m not,” she said again, quietly.
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