At least with Chumbler in the room, Kitty had someone to talk to that wasn’t me while we waited for whoever Kitty had contacted. I was really thirsty, but I didn’t have the energy to get up, and no one else in the room had the baseline of common decency to consider that I might need water. I waited with my head resting on my forearms on the table until anyone else showed up.

When teachers from Rising Shards sent us a way back from the void, it arrived in the form of a laser like array similar to the beams that came out of the machine my parents used to leave. The pattern and color of the lasers that appeared in the living room looked just like the kind the teachers used, which gave me a spark of hope this might finally be over. A pedestal appeared, as did an intense Caya Kilander, who had her wrist blade drawn and charged.

“Yay! We’ve been waiting forever!” Kitty said before Caya charged at her. Kitty got her own bloodsaber out, igniting her blade and blocking Caya’s attack. “I love when you show up swinging.”

The two traded strikes with their bloodsabers, matching each other blow for blow. I was surprised Kitty was keeping up with Caya so well, but then I remembered she was a champion of some kind in the fighting obsessed country Haven. When the two hit a stalemate, they both put their blades down.

“Now that you’re done with your hit first think later dealie, you wanna hear what happened or what?” Kitty asked. “I didn’t have anything to do with it, soooooo maybe don’t try hitting me? Or do, I dug it. I always like fighting you, you know, meow! Quack! Quack quack, HONK, meow meo—”

“Shut up,” Caya said. “This is over, Kitty. One of my students and four of yours are now missing.”

“But I found this one!” Kitty said, gesturing to me. “Aren’t you going to comfort her? I know comfort isn’t really your thing.”

If I had any energy, I’d be terrified of Caya in that moment. I’d broken probably a ton of rules sneaking into the void, and I realized I was probably going to get punished for it. She stood by me, not even slightly winded from sparring with Kitty.

“Are you alright, Faleur?” Caya asked.

“No.” I said.

Caya nodded. “We need to get out of here. How many did you have with you, Kitty?”

“I think there was like fifteen?” Kitty said. “I was definitely keeping both eyes on all of them. Well, until a bunch snuck off. There’s…let’s see, three more down in the basement. Or the lobby I mean. Whatever. And these three here! Honk!”

“Two of those are from RS.” Caya said.

“Well. Still. I saved your other student before you could, so nyah.” Kitty said.

“Go get your other kids while I tend to Faleur.” Caya said. “Now.”

Kitty giggled as she left. Caya looked me over. I muttered my way through an explanation of what had happened. Caya nodded through it, seemingly not surprised by any of it.

“Did you know 09 was going to do this?” I asked. She was on that secret mission from Caya, so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t getting triple-crossed or something.

Caya sighed. “I wanted her to follow Ovie’s group, but I didn’t think…running into the people she did was not part of the plan. And now that plan is completely up in smoke. I didn’t think…she’d make the choices she did. I’m sorry. And when I found your retention sprite, I should have been more diligent destroying any trace of it. I assumed it was just pulled from the memory trials in the temples, but…”

“You didn’t account for me being dumb enough to chase it on my own, it’s OK.” I said. “I’m not going to get expelled for this, am I?” If this stupid trip got me expelled and into Wildfire Hearts, away from Oka and all my friends, I’d feel like the biggest idiot in the whole world and the entirety of the void, too.

“No,” Caya said and left it at that. She informed me she didn’t have the proper equipment to sufficiently look me over post beast tendency and began preparing the pedestal to bring us someplace safe that apparently wasn’t just back home, which was where I really wanted to go. Caya got some pictures of the room. Once Kitty was back (somehow Elisa Burwell, Chellsi, and Mikeila-Keila were along for this ride with Kitty), Caya gave us all rosin to scrape on our fangs and brought the princess throne with as we left Void Station Spero.

I wasn’t sure where we’d end up next, but I was greeted with walls covered in metal tech and wires and cables. The halls were thin, and Caya led our group through them. She had Kitty and the other students wait in the first room we passed, which was filled with fishing poles and tons of fishing related tools. She had me follow her down the halls while they waited.

“Are you just going to leave the blood and stuff back there?” I asked. I didn’t want some poor staff at the hotel in Spero to have to clean up after me, or think they stumbled on a gruesome murder or something.

“I’ve arranged for an investigation of it, they handle clean up as well,” Caya said. “If you feel faint, tell me.”

“My tummy hurts a bit,” I said. I was so tired. I felt like I had just been on a very long car ride, that same distant exhaustion. That, plus weird soreness all over.

“That’s normal for what you went through.” Caya said.

“Can you call Oka from here?” I asked. “I think…talking to her would help a lot right now.”

“You can talk to her when we get back,” Caya said.

“She’s at theater camp still,” I said. “Do you think it would ruin her weekend to find out about this?”

“Don’t worry about that now.” Caya said.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“This is a separate station in the void I’ve been prepping,” Caya said. “For days like today.”

Caya brought me to her station’s showering area and let me clean up as she got me a fresh set of clothes. I expected to see scars on my body from what had happened, but there weren’t any. Everything seemed to be where I left it last, but it was an unnerving feeling that just a bit ago, my body was in a completely different state. Once I was rinsed off, I got into the clothes Caya brought (a standard Rising Shards uniform), and she brought me to what seemed like a doctor’s office. I had to lie down as Caya scanned me with instruments.

“Before we can bring you home, we have to make sure the beast tendency is fully suppressed.” Caya said. “For your safety and that of those around you.”

“What…is the beast tendency?” I asked. “Is that going to happen to me again?”

Caya brushed her hair back. “It’s a forced transformation Cani can experience under a specific set of circumstances. It’s an Endoran transformation, obviously, and needs a specific concoction of Elka ingested to induce. It’s unpredictable and dangerous.”

That must have been what Mom had stabbed into me. Caya handed me a paper cup filled with liquid.

“Drink this.” Caya said.

I obliged, downing the contents of the paper cup in a few gulps. It tasted kind of like citrus soda, but thicker. “What is this?”

“Medicine, that should counteract anything they put into you,” Caya said. “It probably helped a great amount that you've been taking anti-Elka medicine the last few weeks already. You’re going to need to rest for a few days, but I’m not seeing anything immediately concerning.”

“That’s good,” I said. I didn’t really feel good about it, and Caya’s vague explanation didn’t help much, but what she said next made me feel better.

“Ready to go home?”

* * *

Upon returning to Rising Shards, I was immediately brought to the nurse’s office to rest. I wanted to sleep, but my eyes wouldn’t shut. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep though, because as soon as I was under the covers of one of the infirmary beds, I realized someone else was in the room with me.

Stella looked like a ghost, pale and sickly. Her whole body seemed to shake as she took trembling steps towards me.

I spoke without thinking as she stopped before the bed, looking like she thought I was the ghost. “Stella, that’s not really our parents, right? That was just some void thing?”

Stella didn’t say anything.

“Please let it be some void thing.” I said. “Stella, it’s not them. It was an Endoran trick.”

If she told me that, it would be so much better. If she confirmed my theory, my rock-solid theory, that this was just an attack of some random group of Endorans, ones that impersonated my parents and got 09 and the others in on it. Stella sat down on the bed. She started to reach out to me but froze. She put her hand down, as her tears told me the truth. “I’m sorry.” Her voice was ragged.

“No,” I begged. “Stella, it’s not, it can’t be them…”

“Zeta, I’m so sorry.” Stella said.

I told her I was sorry too, but my voice was barely more functional than hers. The apologies we spoke blended together like paints mixing, where we both basically said the same thing as we clung to each other, both of us needing the comfort of the other sister’s hug. It was a fresh wound for me, but a reopened one for Stella.

I hated myself for it, but I traced the day back a few steps as my head rested on Stella’s shoulder.

“If you just told me…I wouldn’t have gone.” I said.

“I’m sorry.” Stella said.

Then we went back to our apologies mixing together like paint until our voices were completely shot.