He nodded.
“What was that?” I had to know and didn’t care if speaking to Leigh was going to give Margot more insecurities.
“At first it was only in small places. A little at a time so that I wouldn’t pick up on it. It progressed in the past couple of hours and now it’s like a vacuum cleaner, wiping everything I created clean.” He sounded worried. “I don’t know how to stop it.”
“Are we going to die if it reaches this place?”
“I don’t know. You might not. There’s a loophole created in the Virtual Realm. If you die in this one, it will transport you back to where you came from.”
“So we’ll go back to Revera?” Natalie asked.
“We opt out,” Max said at the same time Natalie asked her question. He was leaning against a pillar that was right in the middle of the room, which reminded me of a basement.
“As easy as that,” Leigh said, “and yes, you guys will go back to Revera.” He looked at Natalie.
“We don’t know what’s in Revera. They’ll kill Max if we go back now.” Margot started to freak out.
“What will happen to you?” I had to know.
Leigh just looked at me.
I knew the answer. He was part of the Virtual Realm and he would die. I didn’t like it and looked around. The room was dark with only a dim light that illuminated the place. There were no windows. “Where are we?”
Leigh looked over his shoulder and I saw a bed. “The safest place at the moment but I don’t know for how long.”
“Guess?” I said.
“Two hours maximum.”
I set my watch to count down two hours. “That’s all we need.”
“Need for what?” Natalie asked.
“Chastity?” Leigh squinted.
“I’m not going to sit here and wait for the entire Virtual Realm to be destroyed. Are they here for what I think they are?”
“Yes, and it’s a terrible idea.”
“Leigh, help me and stop wasting time.”
He took a deep breath.
“Is there a way we can stop this from spreading?”
“There might be. But I still think you are going to waste your time..”
“How?”
“The only thing I can think of is that they must have reached the Basilisk Orb.”
I looked at him with raised eyes. “It has the power to do all of this, Chas.”
“But you said…”
“I know, if they find it, they’ll wipe out the entire Revera and change it into the second Oblivion.”
“What are you talking about?” Margot asked. “If they’re already at the Basilisk Orb, we’re screwed.”
“Not entirely,” Leigh said and gave a huge sigh.
I knew he was going to tell them about the twin that Selene used to carry and was hiding now for safekeeping.
“There’s a twin Orb that is just as powerful as the Basilisk Orb.”
“What?” all three of them yelled in unison.
“It’s small, and Selene used to carry it around her neck.” He looked at me. “It’s in the form of an angel, Chas. The angel’s carrying the Orb. It resembles a pearl, if the Shadow Casters find it, they’ll use their power to change it into the dark.”
“Where is it, Leigh?” I glanced at my watch. Ten minutes had passed.
“In her vault.”
“How do we get into her vault?”
“It’s a waste of time, Chastity.”
“You said nobody knows about it.” I didn’t care anymore about our secret meetings in my dream.
“One does, Lord Crane.” My grandfather.
“How?”
“I don’t know that part. He’ll tell the Shadow Casters, but they need a Light Caster to open Revera for them.
Dingle.
“I told you before, Chas, it’s not him.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“That look on your face spoke a thousand words, one in particular.”
“You have a suspicion of who it is?” Margot asked.
“No, she doesn’t.”
“Then tell me the reason why it isn’t him?”
“He’s not what you think he is, okay. He is fighting for the greater good Chastity. It’s someone else.”
“Who, Leigh?”
“I don’t know.”
“We’re wasting time,” Margot grunted.
“What do I do when I get the pendant?”
He shook his head.
“Leigh, please.”
“Light Casters won’t be able to save the Orb anymore. Only a Shadow Caster can revert it back to the light.”
“So we’re going to die,” Margot said.
The children started to whimper, they were scared. The Oblivion was no place for them.
I felt Leigh’s eyes on me but I couldn’t look at him. I knew what he was thinking. I was thinking it too and they would repay me with everlasting darkness.
I looked at the children again and Shades’ voice from the day Margot accused me of stealing her pendant jumped into my mind. It was a hopeless case from the beginning to be honest.
The Oblivion was no place for any of them.
I took a deep breath and looked at Leigh.
“No.” Leigh shook his head and stared at me.
“It’s going to be okay. If it’s to save Revera, I can do that.”
“What are you talking about?” Margot and Natalie asked at the same time.
“Chas, it’s a one way ticket straight to Oblivion.”
“I’m going to be fine. After all it’s where I really belong Leigh.”
“What?” Margot yelled. “You are a Shadow Caster?”
“Easy, Margot. Right now Chas is the only one that can save your ass.” Leigh spoke through clenched teeth and she backed off. “I can’t let you do this.”
“It’s not your choice Leigh. I can’t let Revera turn into the Oblivion. Think about the children, about everyone you care about.”
“I am.”
My eyebrows knitted as the butterflies in my stomach went wild. Still, he could mean it in a friendly way.
“No,” Max said. “I saw your dust, it’s gold, Chas.”
“It’ll change, Max. Sooner or later. It will change,” I said.
“You can choose, Chastity,” Leigh reminded me.
“Not anymore. I have to revert the twin Orb back to light. I can do that.”
He shook his head again and looked away.
“What do I need to do?” I asked. He didn’t answer, just stared at the floor.
“Leigh, what do I need to do?” I asked again.
“Please, if Chastity can stop this, we need to give it a try, Leigh,” Natalie whispered.
“I’ll go with you.” Max started to push himself up against the wall.
“Are you insane? You can’t even walk properly.”
“She’s going to need help. I’m the best fighter against Shadow Casters. She can’t do it alone.” He looked at me. “It’ll be just like old times.”
“No,” Margot interrupted. “You can’t. She’s a Shadow Caster, Max.”
“Not yet. She needs help,” Max said through gritted teeth.
Margot looked away. I felt like I could punch her in the face. “Fine, I’ll do it.”
“Hell no. I know how you feel about Shadow Casters. She wouldn’t get a chance if she left the Virtual Realm.”
“I promise I’ll help her. I swear it on Mom and Dad’s grave. If you think I want to live inside the Oblivion, you’ve made a huge mistake,” she said.
Max and Margot stared at one another. “Okay.”
“Now what do we need to do, Leigh?” Margot asked.
“Do you have a pen and paper?”
Natalie took some paper from her back pocket and handed it to him. None of us had a pen so he took a piece of twig and the ash from the fires he stoked at night and started to scribble something on it.
He drew a map too. It was Selene’s quarters and wher
e we could find the safe. He even put the combination of the safe onto the piece of paper. How the hell did he know all of this?
Then when he was done, he told us about all the secret passages into her quarters. There was a passageway that was built behind the walls. All of this information was crazy and I couldn’t stop wondering how he knew about it.
He mostly spoke to Margot and she kept nodding her head as he carried on.
“Once they get to the Basilisk Orb, they have to break the enchantment that is protecting the Orb, hiding it’s light. So you will see the tower engulfed in light from Selene’s room. If no light emanates from the tower, then come back. It’s a lost cause because someone will already have the twin Orb, and it will be too late. But if light still emanates from the tower then go to the safe. It has to be inside her vault.”
“You’re not sure?”
“90% sure.” The corners of his lips tugged slightly upwards. “If you find the pendant with the twin Orb, you can revert it back to light with your dark sand. All you have to do is think about the things that made you the happiest and turn the dark, Chas.”
“What?”
“It’s not so hard, but it’s crucial that you have to make every happy thought a sad one.”
I didn’t understand what he meant, but I knew when the time came, it would make sense.
“It’s the only way it will work.”
“What if Selene has it with her?” I had to know.
“She doesn’t. I promise you that. She’ll be at the cathedral with the Basilisk Orb as the Shadow Casters will have taken her already.”
“How do you know this? And don’t give me that sappy story of, I’d tell you but then I’d have to kill you.”
He smiled.
“I needed her help to create the Virtual Realm and I saw plenty of things, especially around the Basilisk. So you can trust me.”
I nodded. “I do.”
“Okay, I’ll draw the gateway back to Revera. Remember what I said, Margot, and be safe.”
She smiled and nodded.
He took more ash in his fingers and started drawing symbols on the wall. I didn’t know that walls could work too, but this was the Virtual Realm.
Natalie got up and wrapped her arms around me. “You are seriously one insane girl and whatever reason you are doing this for, thank you.”
I smiled at her. She knew that it was because of Leigh. I couldn’t let him die, be wiped out, not exist. Even if he wasn’t real, he was real to me.
“If I don’t see you again, know that you’re the bravest girl I’ve ever met.”
“I hope you find Charlie.”
She giggled.
“I’ll keep my eye out for him, I’m sure he’s okay, Nat.”
She nodded and hugged me again. “Be safe.”
For what that was worth, it felt good hearing it. Even though she knew what I was, she still wanted me to be safe.
“Hey, little Nightmare,” Max said as he steadied himself against the wall. “She promised that she won’t attack, but if she does I won’t hunt you down for the first three years okay.”
“Max,” Margot said.
“It was a joke,” he said and Margot rolled her eyes. “She promised. She’ll fight with you to the end. I can promise you that.”
“Okay, just stay alive. You’ll get help soon. I promise.”
He chuckled and slid back down the wall.
“It’s time,” Leigh said and I looked at Margot.
“After you,” Margot said.
Guess I’ll have to take my chances. One thing was sure, she didn’t want her brother to die or live inside the Oblivion, and we shared the same feelings for Leigh, even though he didn’t share hers.
“Remember what I said, make sure your dust is dark.”
I nodded. I had no idea how I was going to master that one. My dark dust never flowed, and to do it on the first try, while having good thoughts, just didn’t make sense. But I needed to find a way to save Revera – and the guy that made my knees weak whenever he was near.
“Got it, happy thoughts, dark dust. If I don’t…”
He put his finger on my mouth making my heart beat faster. “Shhhh, you’ll do it, I know you will.” He wrapped his arms around me and I could feel his lips brushing my hair. “Just stay safe, okay?”
I nodded.
I broke the hug and walked through the opening fast. I knew that it could be the last time we would ever see each other, but I just couldn’t look back. I would’ve done something stupid like kiss him or something and then he could reject me.
A couple of seconds later Margot walked through the opening too with the piece of paper in her hands.
Neither of us said a word about my departure from Leigh, or hers for that matter.
I looked around and saw we were inside the building that had Selene’s private quarters on the top floor.
None of us knew where the twin Basilisk Orb was, but I prayed that she didn’t have it with her.
The entrance to the building was empty. The lights were dimmed and the colors seemed all wrong. Revera’s colors were bright, made you think of magic, and this was just so ordinary, like the colors I’d grown up with.
“We need to hurry, the light is already going out.”
“Lead the way,” I said as we ran up the stairs.
“First, the cathedral.”
She watched out the window and we could see the cathedral. Light still streamed from the tower. The light was faint, but it was there. We could still do this.
When we made it to the room down the hallway to the left, she looked at the map again and the sketch of the room Leigh had told us about.
There was no opening like he’d said, only paintings, so we started lifting them.
“This one is molded to the wall,” Margot said.
It was one of the last ones and I helped her tear the canvas apart.
To our surprise there was an opening, but it was so small that I didn’t think either of us would be able to fit.
“You ever experience the dislocated transformation?”
“The what?” I asked.
“Time for a crash course. You need to put your golden sand to the test, one last time.”
I sighed. “Okay, what is it I have to do?”
“Think…..small.” Her golden dust flowed from her hands and she sprinkled it all over herself. She smiled and at first nothing happened. She just looked like a girl having fun in her golden dust. Then she started to shrink, and shrink.
I had to close and open my eyes a couple of times as I watched. She stopped when she was the height of my knee.
“Your turn Chas,” she said in a squeaky voice. I sucked in my lips trying not to burst out laughing and thought the word “small” over and over in my mind. My sand accumulated inside my palm and I sprinkled it over me, while concentrating on the word. When I opened my hands, I hadn’t shrunk one bit.
“What am I doing wrong?”
“Did you think about being small?”
“Yes, over and over inside my mind.”
“The word or the size?”
“Is there a difference?”
“Yes, Chas. The word will not do anything.” She sounded hilarious as if she’d sucked in some helium. “You need to think about what you would look like small, and stop thinking about it when you reach the size you want to be.”
“Okay, let’s try this again.”
I thought about this room but bigger. In my mind the paintings were huge, what they would look like to a toddler.
My dust started to flow once more and I sprinkled it on top of my head with thoughts of the big painting.
My body shifted and I grew a head smaller. A yelp left my lips and there was another pull. I was now another head shorter. With the third shift, I was Margot’s size and I dusted off all the sand that was still on my body. I stopped shrinking and we immediately removed the shredded canvas from the painting that covered the opening and climbed inside.
She took a left as she gazed down at the paper and crawled again to a dead end. She gazed down at the paper again and took a right.
We even had to climb upwards through one of the tunnels which was hard, my hands and legs ached when we reached the top.
We reached a turn, and a huge furry body blocked the middle of the duct and a low grunting sound came from his core.
“Shades?” I asked and he laughed inside my head. “Now is not the time. What are you doing here?”
“I hid, the minute the Casters came for Selene. I was trying to help her escape but it didn’t work.”
“Is she still inside her quarters?” I whispered.
“No, they took her and the Basilisk Orb to the cathedral’s tower.”
Margot gave me a look.
“She’s not here?” I tried to push Shades out of the way.
“Not so fast tiny tots. There are two Shadow Casters guarding her safe. Why do you think I’m still hiding? They have orders to destroy Anitules on sight if they find them.”
“Charlie?”
“The bird is fine. He’s hiding with all the other smaller animals up there.” His gaze went up above us and I wished I could see through the pipes at what he meant, but I was tiny girl, not super girl, and didn’t have x-ray vision.
“There are two Casters guarding the safe.”
“GREAT!”
“So what, we attack their shins?”
“We need to get out of here, before we can grow big again, so I suggest someone acts as a distraction while the other one transforms back to their normal size.
“Urgh, you two are going to give me a headache. I’ll distract.” Shades sounded annoyed.
“You sure?”
“No, but it’s the only way to shut the two of you and those ridiculous voices up.”
“Mr. Grey will distract,” I translated.
The cat didn’t think twice and jumped back down into the room.
“Catch me if you can,” I heard him say and the two idiots ran after him. They weren’t very smart.
Margot jumped down first and I followed. I had to admit, being this small had its perks, but this wasn’t one of those times. The landing was hard and I cried out.
Margot was almost back to her original size.
“Chas, are you okay?”
I sucked in a breath and tried to damper my grunts. “I think I hurt my ankle.”
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