A long time had passed since their disastrous detour to the village of Tornbie, so many days, in fact, that it was now nothing but an odd memory, one of many Kendrick had collected in the Ecumene. Many parts of their old routine were restored; they toured new towns and villages, did their part to repel invasions, sent evil spirits back to the Underworld, and healed the injured. They received a great deal of praise and free accommodations as thanks most anywhere they went. On their down time, they trained or meditated to hone their combat skills or aural control.

The one thing that was most different was Kendrick’s aura. Where before it had been a tender sprout and then a promising seedling, it was now a flourishing, sturdy tree stretching skyward with no end in sight. Bellara eventually grew annoyed with measuring it, as she felt it fed too much into his ego and made his training sloppy. She put a stop to regular aura checks once he breached the {300} mark.

“I’m almost strong enough to take down a demon all by myself now,” he boasted one morning over breakfast.

“I really wouldn’t try that if I were you,” she snipped back at him. “Humility is a desirable trait for a reason, you know. Run out there recklessly and your days of heroism will be over. As far as I’m concerned, congratulating you over and over again will only make you more likely to lose focus and get killed.”

“Very well done, Kendrick, truly,” Sahni whispered in his ear.

“Sahni! What did I just say?”

“Sorry! It just... it really is pretty impressive.” Kendrick grinned and flexed his biceps for no reason other than to show off; his bodily muscles had also started gaining some definition with his physical training of late.

Bellara groaned loudly and rolled her eyes. “It’ll all be worth it, Bell. Just keep telling yourself that. It’ll all be worth it.”

That day, on their way out of a town where they loaded up with more supplies and parted with the last of their coins, it started to rain. Sprinkles at first gave way to heavier, more insistent droplets that pelted them like the sky was trying to get their attention, and before long, it was as though the floodgates of the Overworld had been flung open to release a deluge upon them.

“We might have to camp out until this passes, yeah?” Kendrick shouted over the din of the downpour. “Do you guys know a drying spell or... or a drying spell, maybe? Something like that?”

“No time!” Bellara yelled back. “I wouldn’t have stopped for breakfast, but Sahni says that walking while eating makes her stomach hurt.”

“It does!” the blue-haired witch protested.

“We should really learn to eat on the go. The solar eclipse will take place in just ten days, and we're still nearly 100 sunstrides to Havon. That’s a lot of ground left to cover. We’ve been slower going ever since Tornbie.”

“I have an idea.” Sahni held up a finger. “Parto reig ambala!”

Whoosh. A transparent aural barrier went up around the three of them, shielding them from the onslaught of precipitation. It pummeled the surface of the forcefield and flowed down the sides in sheets like rain down glass.

“Are you sure... that’s wise?” Bellara asked, shaking the water out of her hair. She rung out her tunic as they walked.

“I need only keep my finger up like this. I’ve made it strong enough to block the rain, nothing else, so it’ll only take a few aura at a time. At least until the weather clears up?”

The redhead relented. “Very well then.”

Kendrick idly played with the Psysword in his sheath, drawing it and then replacing it again. The sheath was made specifically for an aural blade, Sahni had explained—it was magnetized orkanite that fit perfectly with the Psysword’s orkanite hilt. All he had to do was place it against the metal sheath mouth and it would clip into place; removing it required some force, but it was loose enough that he could draw it with relative ease. It fit so well with his weapon that he hardly remembered a time before it, when one of the witches would have to hand him the weapon from one of their bags.

He was so distracted with his fidgeting, and so pleased with it, that he didn’t see the smooth, wet stone embedded in the dirt road ahead. It didn’t even fully register that he had slipped on it until the back of his head slammed into the ground below him. By that point, the darkness surprised him like a clap of thunder and then all was gone.

***

“Kendrick, are you all right?” a voice asked him.

He opened his eyes and saw a dimly lit room. It was pouring outside, copious rain falling so hard that it was slapping against the glass windows behind him. The white room once more.

“It’s going to be okay,” said the voice. He turned to find the source of it—a young woman lying in a bed.

He could see her face.

She had shoulder-length straw-colored hair, blue eyes, and a spattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. A pair of thick-rimmed eyeglasses sat folded on a table next to the bed.

“Is this real?” he asked her. “Is this... my past? My world? A memory?”

“Well, the fact that you’re asking me this question should give you a clue, right?” she replied with a patient, knowing smile.

“So... I’m dreaming?”

“Now you’re catching on.” She nodded. “You know, this isn’t even the same dream anymore. We’ve kinda done this a few times now and had different conversations. You don’t even remember those?”

He shook his head. “Sorry.”

She shrugged. “It’s okay. You hit your head really hard, didn’t you? Something about the Psysword and then it was raining... Kind of like it’s raining right here, huh?”

“Did I know you? I mean... before? I knew you, right? You’re the person in the white room, in my bed, in my car... It’s all you, isn’t it?”

Another shrug. “For all you know, I could have been a barmaid you met a long time ago here in the Ecumene.”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re not very helpful.”

That earned him a coy smirk from her. “Well, I’m not even really real, am I? I’m a product of your mind. Of you. So what does that say about how you view yourself?”

“I need to get out of here,” he said all of a sudden. “This is not good. I... I feel like I’ve been here for a while. Hours, maybe.”

“That’s what you need, is it?” Her playful, quippy demeanor was gone in an instant. Now her eyes were burning two accusatory holes through him. “Well, I needed you here. And you left me all alone in this bed. After all we’ve been through, you just leave me?”

He opened his lips to say her name and it felt as though his mouth were stuffed with cotton, and his ears, too. There was only the vague vibration of her name in his head that he couldn’t quite decipher.

“Kendrick,” she said, eyes wide with worry. “They’ve been trying to get in this entire time. You know that, right?” All of the sound was sucked out of the room like a sudden vacuum. “They’re here.”

The door shattered open.

***

He opened his eyes again and saw dark, roiling clouds overhead, but at least he was dry. The rain had stopped while he was under.

“Mmm,” was what came out when he tried to call for the witches. His limbs were less than cooperative with moving, tingly with disuse. “Hmm?”

“Bell,” Sahni gasped. “Bell, is that him? Kendrick!” Suddenly, Sahni was on top of him, wrapping him in a startlingly tight hug. “Oh, I’m so sorry. Kendrick, is it okay if I hug you right now?”

“Mmm-hmm,” he answered, befuddled. She wrapped him in an even tighter hug and when she pulled back, he saw there were tears in her eyes.

“I told you,” Sahni said weepily. “I saw him move yesterday at supper, remember? Before the healing? I knew he'd wake up!”

“So,” said Bellara. She towered over them, hands on her hips. Though she was not as open about it, he could see tears in her eyes as well. “You finally decided to rejoin us, eh?”

“How...” he groaned. The more he woke up, the more his whole body ached. ”H-… how...”

“By the grace of Aldiel and the healing powers of Sahni, that’s how,” said Bellara. “Not a moment too soon, either.”

“No... How... long...?” He mustered all the strength in his body to raise his head ever so slightly, and in doing so, realized that he was in a makeshift bed in a cart drawn by a horse. The animal whinnied nervously. When Kendrick looked up, he saw why. “Wherr... are we? Whoa...”

Muddied black-and-gray clouds whorled in the sky around a central point like a slow-moving hurricane. The epicenter was in the distance, such that the full extent of the maelstrom was not completely visible, but they were approaching something angry.

Bellara discreetly dried her eyes and cleared her throat. “You’ve been out for over two days now, Kendrick. We’re still another day’s hike from the Rift. The good news is we have a horse and a cart now for faster transport.” His stomach flooded with what felt like ice water. “Half a day to Havon, then another half into Dawnfall Valley. Zorgen is waiting for us down there. Seven days until the eclipse.” She crouched slightly to get on his level; there were bags under her eyes, and little red veins peeking out from underneath her eyelids. “Welcome to the end of everything, my friend. Are you ready to help us stop it?”

He sat up fully, despite his whole body feeling like one big bruise. “Course not... You?”

She laughed nervously, her voice laden with stress and exhaustion. “No. I don’t suppose anyone is. But here we go all the same.”

“Perhaps Aldiel awoke you for a reason,” said Sahni. “Oh, Kendrick, I can scarcely believe how far you’ve come! We brought you here for what we’re about to do tomorrow—stopping Zorgen before he completes his mission to bring about the unthinkable. I can help heal you a little bit more, but your aura has remained well over {300}—I checked!”

“Good,” said Kendrick. A portion of his strength was starting to return. If he truly had been comatose for that many days, he owed this renewed vigor to the magic of aural healing. “No time to waste. Let’s go.”

Bellara grinned. “He just woke up and he’s already itching for a fight. Now that’s the heart of a warrior!” With immense effort, and a witch’s hand in each of his, he swung his legs over the side of the cart and stood on shaking legs. “You know, it’s still a good distance away. You can ride awhile longer if you’d like.”

“I won’t do any good in a fight sitting on my ass,” Kendrick replied. “Let’s go.”

She gave him a nod of respect. “The horse could use a little rest. Onward, then—and be careful, Kendrick.”

“I will.”

And so they marched onward. Onward toward the foreboding dark aura that emanated from the raging Rift.

They marched onward to victory.

Or to certain death.