Elinora

Olaf was the only one that didn’t cry but deep down I saw it.. I saw it in his eyes, he was the one that loved this city the most. The city, the academy, his students all that he had worked for in his life. I could never fathom what he might have felt at that moment. Even long after everyone else had left the deck to their quarters, Olafs still stood there, his eyes fixed on the sky.

It was only sometime later that we arrived in Ruthna, a city that served the purpose of connecting Alos with the Ennald Kingdom. At the time most of us were busy passing on the news and getting everyone into safety. While Edwin and Olaf had made an arrangement with king Ennaald VI to temporarily grant everyone shelter here. 

We weren’t told much but to wait for further instructions, without our small group being an exception of course. The mood grew pretty somber then, as the weight of the situation hit everyone for the first time in full force. No one knew what to do from here on out and about fifteen minutes later mom called us. 

Together we made our way into some kind of underground bunker. It was stationed on the far end of Ruthna’s central park and looked like a dead end. Just some steps that led inside a wall. Nothing too original but it worked I guess. Once there the present council members started to discuss what to do next, completely ignoring us. I was sure mom and Olaf only wanted us there so they could keep an eye on us.

Three hours later and they could still not agree on anything. I had to say that, at least in my head, I always pictured those council meetings much more exciting than they turned out to actually be. Even Lyn, who usually couldn't get enough of such assemblies, started to get tired and Kat had been sleeping soundly for an hour when two more members came crashing through the door.

A man around mom’s age, with blond hair and a fairly sturdy body together with a woman that could have been Kat’s mom.

“Leona, Gren?” Edwin said as the rest of us turned around to look at their out-of-breath faces.

“Have… you… seen… it already?” Gren said with wide eyes scanning the room. He stopped looking at us for a few seconds, then shook his head and continued, “Gates. They open up everywhere.”

Olaf’s eyes narrowed, “Gates? Could it-”

“Yes, I was there. I saw it,” Leona interrupted him while helping Gren and herself to a chair, “I was close by when the anomaly started, It was somewhere around those old ruins…. Crestfall ruins.”

“I got your message then and headed right back here. They have started to appear all over.”

Gren and Leona then started to give a closer recap of what they saw exactly. It turned out that Olaf’s suspicion about the anomaly being caused by seal-breaking magic was very right and whilst Zere’s shrine amidst Crestfall city was gone, destroyed long before the city itself was forgotten, it left no doubt in us as to who or why this was happening now.

How Jenna accomplished what she did was a mystery still, but the fact that gates from a different realm started to open, suggested that the bound that sealed the Goddess had weakened drastically already. The only positive outcome of this was that Arine seemed to be unaffected by it - for now. 

After giving a brief explanation about Arines circumstances, Gren and Leona came to a terrifying conclusion. Without a physical body, Zeres could only exist a short time in this world, to bypass this limit she’d need a physical body. 

From then on out the arguing stopped, the already limited amount of options we had shrunk even further. And with a few days at best before the seal broke, we had to act fast. What I didn’t expect was what Edwin said next. Least of all, how many of them would agree.

Mom and Olaf were against it of course, but as more and more members, including those who couldn't be there physically casted their vote, I lost it. I grabbed Arines hand and as our friends blocked Edwin , Gren, and Leona from stopping us, we ran to the door as fast as we could only to be blocked by a certain teacher. A teacher I had grown so fond of.

When Arine looked up at him, her eyes told it all. I couldn’t believe it myself, not after all we were going through together. And now he was the one to finalize Arine’s fate? My blood was boiling, putting all my energy into one point I prepared to just blast him away and then… of course, nothing. Having completely forgotten my magiclessness at that moment I now had to stand there and watch as they would take Arine away from me.

“This is ridiculous.” Mr. Sirius said as he held us all together within one large rune circle, “now, don’t waste this chance.”

There was barely enough time for me to compute his words before all six of us were teleported outward inside a large clearing.

“Hey, look at that,” Lyn said, pointing towards a large wall.

Riley was the first to click, “is that… IS THAT THE CITY WALL?”

All of us were speechless, most of all Arine, “but how...”

As it slowly dawned on us what Mr. Sirus did, Arine broke out into tears, “he… he saved me.”

“Hey, ehh,” Lyn interrupted our emotional realization of what Mr. Sirus did for us, “we should probably start moving”

“Yeah, they’ll be after us soon enough. I don’t think Mr. Sirus stands much chance against them.'' Emily added.

Following her advice, we stopped wasting any more time and started our journey towards Crestfall city as this was our only option to save Arine anyway. On our way, we told Lyn and the others everything that they still might have missed. We have kept so many things secret from them, even after they helped not only rescue Arine but me as well, that it was time now to come clean.

Telling me them was easier than I had expected, maybe it was because they already knew a lot or because they had seen some stuff first hand so it wasn’t as unbelievable as it sounded anymore. Anyway, I was glad that we were all on the same page now.

A few questions still remained but those were answered rather easily, one of them was from Kat, “Ok, so you have promised a Goddess to rescue her sister, who is also a Goddess and this is the one that looks like Arine?” 

“Yep.”

“I still don’t get why they wanted to seal her.”

“Uhhh, uhhh, let me explain please,“ came rather too enthusiastic from Emily, “Because, Zeres can only exist a short while without a physical body, right? So if they sealed Arine, Zeres wouldn’t have a body and poof, she’d be gone after a while.”

Kat thought about her response for a while before, she asked the next one, “Ok, that makes sense but why wouldn’t she just use another vessel?”

Emily was about to respond, but Lyn was faster this time, “I don’t think it’s so easy. If I remember right, for possession magic of any form you have to find a person that is compatible with you. And well...”

Arine never said a word during the whole conversation, but as soon as Lyn started her explanation for why she was the perfect fit to be possessed, she squeezed my hand even harder than before. Hearing it while being so close to her was painful for me, too. I couldn’t imagine what she must have felt so I quickly changed the topic, “Hey, could we maybe not talk about Arine?”

The conversation died down quickly after and I felt kinda bad for killing the mood but at least Arine relaxed again

We walked for a few more hours, mostly in silence, before we all agreed to take a short rest. Lyn pulled out a map she got from somewhere in the air and plotted our route from here on. Judging by our progress so far, it would have taken us another 3 weeks to get to Crestfall. 

Mostly because there was a gigantic ocean separating us from the other country.  There were a few ideas here and there, the most notable one came from Emily as her family stood in direct contact with the company that built most of the airships we saw in Alos.

Ultimately though, it didn’t matter. There wasn’t enough time and even if we had that ship, we still would be missing a captain… and a crew… and a license to dock and…. yeah.

None of us had any idea how to deal with those issues. Least of all the most pressing one; time. If there was a way for us to use teleportation magic there could have been a way, however as it stood none of us could, and then, transporting so many people at once required a lot of power. Power we didn’t had.

Why did everything had to be so friggin hard? The easiest task of all, travel to Crestfall, and we’ve failed already. The only positive thing I saw was that I was very successful in repressing whatever would happen once we actually arrived. If we ever did of course.

More than three hours later and we still stood at square one. And while everyone else was busy thinking of at least something, Kat had taken to bash her head against a tree for the last half an hour. Some people really do have tough skulls, huh? 

While watching Kat in awe, a strange bluish light started to emerge from far within the forest. Not soon after the others started noticing too and we formed a protective wall around Arine.

“Do you know what this is, Lyn?” Riley asked while Kat prepared a fire spell in her hands much to Lyn’s dismay.

“Kat! Are you trying to burn the forest down?“

“Well, noooo? But what if that’s a monster just waiting to attack us?”

“Or maybe the council found us and they want to take Arine?” Emily chimed in and Arine instantly flinched on that notion.

“Still, you can’t be so reckless. Let us handle this for now,” she looked towards Emily and Riley, getting an affirming nod from both, “And you stay close to Arine and Eli.”

Arine then mumbled something about also being able to fight, however as she was way too quiet no one heard her and Kat placed a small fire barrier above us… or well, tried.

Seeing her struggle so much, I offered up some help, “ehm, Kat is everything alright?”

“Yes. Just. One. Moment. There!” She said and a, from what I could tell, pretty basic barrier appeared before us.

Ready to enter battle now we watched with great care as the light slowly diminished, replaced by the rattle of leaves and branches. One, no, two people were slowly walking towards us and every step made me more nervous. Taking a step forward and placed myself in front of Ari, if it really came down to a fight I wasn’t much use right now, but if they wanted to seal her, they’d have to seal me first! 

“Be ready!” Lyn shouted and I was amazed at how focused she could stay while everyone else was on edge with their rune spells prepared only waiting for her signal to shoot.

A signal that never came when the first person stepped out of the bushes with raised arms, “I’m happy to see that you have practiced your defense magic a bit.” He said and before I could stop her, Arine ran through Kat’s let’s be honest more improvised barrier and started to hug him.

“Oho, that’s quite the surprise, what did I receive that for?”

“Mr. Sirus, Miss co direc--,” after a stern gaze from her, Lyn quickly adjusted, “Eli’s mom, what are you doing here and how did you find us?”

“I am sorry it took so long but on top of making sure that they couldn’t trace our magic back here, we couldn’t convince them on another plan.”

After Arine separated from Mr. Sirus, Mom herself put her in a tight embrace, “Don’t worry, I’m not letting them do this.”

Being able to relax a bit, knowing that we’d be safe for now we shared with Mom and Mr. Sirus our plans so far… or lack thereof. Of course, since both of them were able to use teleportation magic our plans just got a way lot easier. Taking us all to Crestfall would have still been way too much for both of them, still. The only mage capable of such a deed was Olaf but since he was busy dealing with some other pressing matters, like organizing new homes for the people and distracting the council, he was out of the question for now.

At least mom’s and Mr. Sirus could easily get us across the Ocean, although we had to watch not to get into a battle too soon after, as their magic would take a while to regenerate, it still simplified things by a lot.

We walked the whole night, or day, hard to tell as the sky stayed the same looming purple it had for quite a while now. With a rather simple time spell, Riley was able to confirm that we indeed had been traveling for more than sixteen-hours by the time we arrived at our destination, an old abandoned train station.

The station used to be a maintenance stop, but since a new, more efficient route had been built since then, this station had slowly been reclaimed by nature. It had a nice touch to it and would serve two purposes for us now. The first one was being a shelter to get some sleep without being in the open or risk being found by the council. And the other more important one; this train station was connected with another one close to the ocean side, where Mom and Mr. Sirus would then teleport us.

Taking turns keeping watch just in case, Ari and I decided to explore the ruin a bit once our turn came where we found a small sea that had formed underneath the station. We sat there for a while, listening to the sound of water slowly dropping down into the small sea. 

It made me think, “Hey Ari? What do you think of Mr. Sirus?” I don’t know why exactly but when I thought back about how she held him so tight back then. It made sense I guess, he saved her life in a way. Yet this felt different, it felt like there was more than gratitude.

She stayed silent and I was ready to drop the topic, when she suddenly answered me, “He reminds me of my father.”

“Ari?”

“No, it’s ok. I’m sure he thinks the same way, have you noticed how he and your mother are almost always by our side?”

“Yes, I thought that was just because he’s one of the teachers?”

“Maybe. But I like to think that he also, in a way, thinks of me as his daughter. It makes me feel a little better about my family, that they are not all gone you know? Do you think it’s weird?”

I had to smile when she said that. It does explain some things, “no, no I don’t think it's weird.”

“Do you think he buys me a new shallofin, once everything is back to normal?”

“What’s with the one I bought you?”

“It drowned.”

“Oh, I didn’t know they could drown.”

“The plushy ones can.” I loved her a little more in that moment. Hopefully, I could tell her someday. “Anyway, let’s get back to the others.”

We woke them and a little walk later we stood at the coast, overlooking that vast ocean. Following moms and Mr. Sirus instructions, we… well most of us anyway, gathered out magic, letting it flow through us and sharing it amongst each other.

Experiencing this again was something else. It had been so long since I last felt this great and because I knew that this feeling of euphoria would only last so long, I cherished every moment. 

The nauseous feeling returned, sweeping our feet from the ground and we were sent crashing, a lot more violently than I thought, down on the other side of the ocean. A short delay later Mom and Mr. Sirus arrived a lot more gracefully than we did. 

Pushing Riley, who conveniently landed right on top of me, away, I quickly checked our environment to make sure there was no immediate threat. It was impossible to see from so far away, but as we now stood in the epicenter of this violent storm it was unmistakable.

Far above, just beneath the purple cloud, where black lightning terrorized the sky, a prison of chains held something in cheek. A prison which cracks started to affect the whole sky, revealing another dimension, dark and devoid of any semblance of hope, its only purpose to hold one entity for all eternity.

“I started to wonder when you would show up.” A voice said from behind but none of us could pay it any attention as another crack appeared. One that showed the horrifying counterpart to an eye I had gotten to love so much. The eye of a Goddess.