Midnight grinned, standing up. “So? Ready to continue?” he asked.
“You still haven’t said what we’re doing next,” Caleb said, following Midnight outside.
“Working on Time Magic,” Midnight said, hopping up onto his crate tower and resuming a cross-legged sitting position. “Stand in front of me.”
Caleb took his position, looking up at his teacher. “How do I do this right?” he asked. “Also…” he looked around, gesturing at the space, “time’s already slowed. Can I really slow time again inside of a place where time’s already slowed down?”
Midnight chuckled. “Fair question,” he said. “And no, you can’t. But you can still use the same techniques. They’ll impact your body the same way they would otherwise.” Midnight mused for a moment, staring off into the distance. “I shouldn’t say you can’t slow time down further. Technically, you will. It’ll just only be for you — Personal Time Magic instead of Locational. Of course, I’ll follow you into Time-state, and Ingrid’s special, so it won’t seem like anything’s changed.”
“If I learn how to do this right,” Caleb said, “that means it won’t really affect me much, right?”
“It might affect you more than usual, actually,” Midnight said. He stretched out his arms. “It’s because of this place. Stacking slowed time atop slowed time… that can wreak havoc on a Human body.”
“Um… so… should we just… not, then?” Caleb asked, suddenly feeling very nervous.
“What, chickening out on me now?” Midnight asked with a smirk. “You can come back from the effects. You’ll only ever be slowing time down for yourself for a few seconds. Remember what I said before?”
“Efficiency,” Caleb said, nodding. “Use it sparingly and in very brief bursts.”
“Exactly. So let’s start with just getting you familiar with the technique. First of all, you need to calm your mind. That might be difficult. You’ve got a very overactive mind, Greyson.”
“How can you tell?”
Midnight chuckled. “You always have questions. You always have something to say. And even when you’re silent, I can tell by your eyes. Always thinking a million thoughts. Must be pretty noisy in that head of yours. You need to quiet it all down. If you can’t do that, then Time Magic might never truly work for you.”
“But… how do I do that?” Caleb asked. “I don’t mean just right now, but in the heat of battle. When there’s so much going on and I have to react at a moment’s notice, how do I take the time to quiet my mind?”
“If you get used to it, you won’t have to take time to do it,” Midnight said. “Just like your current methods of slowing time, this will become second nature, to the point where you don’t even think about it. You just do it. Plus, I’ll teach you how to be a fighter — not just the skills, but the mindset. If you’re thinking a lot in a fight, you’re almost always going about it the wrong way. We’ll get to that. For now… close your eyes.”
Caleb did as instructed. With the gloom and darkness shrouding all of Midnight Bridge, closing his eyes left him with not even the faintest trace of light. It was as if it was pitch black outside.
“Now, listen to my voice,” Midnight said slowly. “Breathe in, gently. Take your time. Make sure it’s a full and steady breath.”
Caleb had to take a few tries to get it right. His lungs and head seemed like the parts of his body that struggled the most to adapt to the pressure of altered time. Breathing usually came shaky and ragged, unless he focused, and even then, it was a challenge. Finally, he got it, and held the breath for one count, then two.
“Now, let it out,” Midnight said. “Take your time. Slow and steady is the key here.”
Caleb was starting to wish he’d taken Chelsea up on her offer to teach him her breathing exercises. She’d talked a lot about them, techniques she’d learned from her grandmother, and had shown off their impact to Caleb. Caleb, the longtime swimmer, prided himself in his lung capacity.
Chelsea, who only barely knew how to swim, could hold her breath nearly twice as long as Caleb. And she could take far more steady and calm breaths than he could.
He always found that so funny. Chelsea had such an intense and fiery personality, and yet she had such calm control over her breathing when she put her mind to it.
“Continue breathing like that,” Midnight said. “In and out, nice and easy. Let your mind quiet down until there’s only the sound of my voice, and the sound of your breathing.”
Caleb’s first ten inhales and exhales were rough and challenging. But over time, he got used to it. His breaths became steadier, stronger. His lungs started to feel more flexible, as if they’d been crushed for a long time under a large weight and were only just now free of it. Midnight said very little, only occasionally criticizing Caleb for a poor breath. Even then, Caleb’s teacher had a much calmer and softer voice than he usually did.
“Good,” Midnight said softly. “Keep breathing like that, but now… think about how it feels when you personally slow time. What’s that kind of pressure like? How does it differ from the Locational pressure? Don’t actually slow time yet. Just think about it. Let your body remember what it feels like.”
Caleb did as instructed, thinking on the acute pressure he’d felt so many times before. It started to come to him, centered on his chest and his head.
“That’s right, focus,” Midnight said. Somehow his usual gruff exterior had melted away into something soothing, and Caleb felt calm and attentive. “Now, try and make those sensations real. Leave behind your old conventions for slowing down time. Take that feeling and make it real.”
Caleb kept his focus entirely on those sensations, and it started to feel more and more real.
And then… he started to feel strange. His light-headedness changed to pain. It was more than the pressure of a strong headache. It extended downward, to his eyes, until it became profoundly uncomfortable. Suddenly, all Caleb could feel was an intense pain centered in his eyes, a stabbing, a burning, until he felt a wetness running down his cheeks. He clenched his teeth over a scream, and for a moment, his ears ringing, he couldn’t hear a thing. When sound suddenly came back to him…
“Caleb, stop!” Midnight shouted. “Bring it back!” His voice turned panicked as he screamed for his assistant. “Ingrid! Hurry!”
Caleb opened his eyes, but he could barely see. He dropped to his knees, clutching his head, gritting his teeth. Desperate, he reached up a hand to wipe away his tears, wishing the pain away.
But what he felt running down his face was thick and sticky, not at all like tears.
He wasn’t crying.
His eyes were bleeding.
Chapter 37: The Radiant King
— G —
The man in black led the way, one hand tightly clamped on Ben’s arms to keep them pinned behind his back. Shana was frustrated at their predicament as she followed along, but she was also keeping her eyes peeled, taking in the castle around her.
After scraping away the gold to find the blue crystal beneath, Shana felt like she was seeing the castle more clearly. The bright light all around seemed to Shana like it was manufactured in order to hide the fake nature of the gold covering up everything. When she passed close to walls, she could see now where the cracks were, where the blue crystal beneath attempted to shine through.
“The Radiant King” was what Annabelle had called him. It seemed like he had stolen the castle, rather than built it himself. He’d painted over what the castle once was and masked it further with his “radiance.”
Shana was growing more and more suspicious of the man who, in her dream, had claimed he was trying to save the universe from darkness.
“How much farther?” Shana asked, glaring at the man in black.
“Just another floor,” the man said, his icy voice unnerving Shana. “The King’s throne is at the castle’s highest point.”
It had seemed like these stairs led all the way to the roof, but as they climbed one more floor, Shan
a realized that wasn’t the case. Instead, it led to a waiting chamber, a large space with several other halls and stairs branching off from it. A hearth in the center of the floor glowed orange with smoldering coals, and a black grand piano in the corner was a welcome break from the intense golden glow of the castle. Wide stairs on the far side of the chamber led up, and that’s where Void took them.
They climbed, emerging into a glass dome threaded with gold that served to intensify the light coming in from above and around. Shana covered her eyes, squinting through the gaps between her fingers.
“Void, you didn’t give our guests any eye protection,” came the warm voice of the Radiant King. “They aren’t accustomed to the Radiant Palace yet. They could lose their eyesight if we don’t offer proper hospitality.”
“Apologies, my King,” Void said. Shana felt something pressed into her hand, and looking at it, she saw a pair of darkly tinted sunglasses. She put them on, and immediately her eyes felt immense relief. Finally, she could see the domed throne room clearly.
A white carpet led along the golden floor up to a stage, on which two thrones were set. On either side of the carpet were six golden pillars, spaced evenly up to the stage. Shana was surprised to see that there were quite a few people here besides Void. Standing at the foot of the stage were three individuals dressed in black, like Void was, as if that black attire was a uniform. Void joined them, bringing the number to four.
On the first step up to the stage were six people, dressed in similar uniforms to those of the men and women in black, only these six’s uniforms were white, with golden buttons and ornamentation. On the backs of their gloves were golden emblems resembling a crown encircled by ten stars.
Finally, there were the two thrones. In the one on the left sat the Radiant King, much as Shana had seen him in her dream. He was dressed all in gold, and even with her sunglasses on, his face shown with such light that Shana couldn’t discern any features. To his left, the second throne was suspiciously empty.
To the King’s right stood a person. Shana couldn’t tell if they were a man or a woman, though she assumed a man by the person’s height, broad shoulders, and generally bulky, powerful appearance. But given that the person was decked out from head to toe in golden armor that covered all of their skin and even their entire face, Shana couldn’t be certain.
“Welcome,” said the Radiant King, spreading his hands wide, “to the Radiant Palace. Dreamer, I have searched long and hard for you.”
“Dreamer?” Kathryn asked.
“He means me,” Shana said, pursing her lips. “So? What do you want from me?”
“But I thought I already told you,” the King said. “I need your help to save the universe.”
“Say what now?” Kathryn asked, staring from the King to Shana and back and forth again.
“He says that darkness is closing in on all of creation,” Shana said, making an effort to avoid a sarcastic tone. “He can stop it, but he also needs the Dreamer’s Heart that Annabelle and the spider lady were talking about. That comes from me.”
“You’re going to take out her heart?” Kathryn asked. “That would kill her!”
“Don’t be a fool,” came the voice of the spider woman. What Shana had heard before as a disembodied voice now came from one of the four black-clothed individuals at the base of the stage. The woman — who Shana remembered the King and Annabelle calling Neith — could have been Void’s sister. She had pale skin, and her eyes and hair were dark as the night sky. She had a healthier complexion than Void, though, and her voice didn’t have that frightening frigidity to it. Still, her tone was not friendly, carrying a clear air of contempt. “The Dreamer’s Heart doesn’t need to be removed. In fact, that would be extremely counterproductive.”
“Neith, be kind to our guests,” the King said. “But that is correct. To separate the Dreamer’s Heart from the Dreamer herself would eliminate all of its power. That is why I need you, Dreamer.”
“I have a name,” Shana said.
“Of course,” the King said, nodding. Shana got the sense that he was smiling. “Shana. Will you help me?”
“I’d like to know what helping you means,” Shana said. “I have a lot of questions, and I’m concerned about my friends, and all of those kidnapped children in the grove.”
“There is nothing to be concerned about,” the King said. “Your friends will be safe and comfortable here.”
Shana noticed the King didn’t mention all of the tied up kids back in the forest.
“I think we’d rather go home than stay here,” Kathryn said, folding her arms across her chest.
“That would be… quite strange,” the King said. His voice conveyed puzzlement, as if he had to think carefully to find the right words. “I can understand your desire to return home. But for me to work together with Shana, she would have to stay by my side. Surely you wouldn’t want to leave her behind?”
“What does that work involve?” Shias asked. “What kind of danger is threatening the entire universe and everything in it?”
“The Endless Night,” the King said, his tone emphasizing the ominous air of those three words. “Eternal darkness is encroaching upon creation, blotting out the light. Ever since we Eternals took our place here in the Palace, we have helped slow its advance. But we have been unsuccessful at stopping it. In time, the Endless Night will come, and it will end all light and life forever.”
Eternals? Radiant King? Void? There were some weird names being thrown around, and it all sounded very suspicious to Shana. So these people called themselves Eternals — were they some kind of supernatural beings? They looked human enough to Shana, aside from the King and the armored guard at his side.
Couple that with the façade that Shana had uncovered about the entire “Radiant Palace,” and her distrust only grew.
“How is Shana the key to stopping it?” Shias asked.
“The Dreamer’s Heart is powerful,” the King said. “When Shana is awakened to her abilities as the Dreamer, she can alter reality itself, and dispel the seemingly indestructible. There is, to my knowledge, no other way to conquer the Endless Night.”
Alter reality itself? That sounded… kind of cool to Shana. But also far too vague.
“How do I go about awakening to my abilities?” Shana asked.
“Through training,” the King said. “I will take you under my wing and teach you all I know, train you in magic you haven’t even imagined.”
“So what happens to everyone you’ve kidnapped?” Shana asked.
“Ah,” the King said. “Well… ‘kidnapped’ is an awfully strong word. And it wasn’t I who did it. Surely you heard Annabelle tell you all about it. They’re her friends. She’s tremendously lonely, you see.”
Well, that’s a load of bull.
“It seemed to me more that Annabelle was being threatened,” Shana said. “Like you’d taken her from her home and forced her to lie about what was happening in that grove. So what’s the truth?”
The King sighed. “Annabelle, dear, your imagination seems to have run amuck again,” he said, beckoning to his left.
Out from behind the second throne came Annabelle. Compared to the uniformed servants of the King, and the King himself, she looked remarkably plain in her white dress and bare feet. As she stepped out, she kept her head bowed, not daring to look up.
“It appears you told some terrible lies to our guests,” the King said. He pointed at Shana and her friends. “Why don’t you apologize and tell them the truth?”
“Hold on a second,” Shana said, glaring as she took a step forward. “You’re gonna bully a little girl? What’s the matter with you?”
“How dare you speak to —” Neith started to say, glaring daggers at Shana, but the King interrupted her.
“Our honored guest has the right to speak her mind,” the King said. “She can learn tact and respect in time. After all, we’ve only just met. You can’t expect a budding partnership to bloom immediately. Shana, my dea
r —”
“I’m not your ‘dear’,” Shana said.
“Right, of course,” the King said, not missing a beat. “Shana. I can understand how this must look. But Annabelle lost her parents long ago. She lost her sisters. She came into my care, and I have done my best for her, but…” The King sighed. “She has struggled with her new environment. She spins a great many tales of what she wishes were true, but what she really needs are friends. That’s part of why I hoped you and your friends would all stay here in the Palace. Dear Annabelle could use some friends closer to her age.”
Lost her sisters?
Shana looked to Annabelle, at the girl’s crestfallen expression.
No. Annabelle had talked about Maribelle and the Last Home. She’d given Shana a specific message for her, about how Annabelle had been taken by the Radiant King.
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