CHAPTER 9: THE PROMISED PARADISE
Puck's wings beat frantically against the alpine air. Each stroke carried him shorter distances, his delicate membranes struggling to find purchase in the thin atmosphere. He dipped and wobbled, struggling to stay afloat.
"I can't—" His tiny voice sounded breathless as he dropped several feet. "The air feels wrong."
Eleanor cupped her hands beneath him as he spiraled down, catching his tiny form before he could fall further. His feet felt cold against her palm, his usual pink glow dimmed to a pale rose. She lifted him to her shoulder, where he huddled against her neck.
"Your wings are frosting over." She brushed ice crystals from the delicate membranes. The thin tissue between the veins had grown stiff and brittle in the biting wind.
"I never knew air could be so empty." Puck shivered.
He'd been trying all morning to fly for a better vantage point with the same results. Eleanor's feet were numb, her sandals offering protection from rocks but not from the biting cold.
The wind howled through the rocky crags, driving an icy wind against them. To their left and right, snowy peaks touched the clouds, much closer than felt comfortable. Eleanor pulled her dress tighter around herself, trying to shield Puck from the worst of the blast. Her stomach growled — a harsh reminder of their situation.
She dug through their makeshift pack, counting their remaining supplies. Three wrinkled berries. A handful of nuts. Some dried grass they'd been using for kindling. No water left.
The mountain landscape offered little comfort. Patches of scraggly lichen clung to the weathered stone. A few hardy flowers poked through cracks in the rock, their stems bent low against the constant wind. No trees. No shelter. Just endless gray stone stretching toward clouds that seemed close enough to touch.
"We need to find food soon." Eleanor's voice was hoarse from the dry air. She passed Puck one of the smaller berries, watching as he struggled to warm it between his tiny hands before eating.
"Your glow's so dim." She touched his wing gently. "Does it hurt?"
"Just tired." Puck pressed closer to her neck. "Like swimming through nothing. Can't catch the air right."
Eleanor shifted her weight, stones crunching beneath her sandals.
"Maybe we should go back to the weald." Her voice cracked. "At least there we had food, shelter—"
Puck's glow flickered, a mix of purple and sickly yellow. He remained silent, wings trembling against her neck.
"Remember what Bellanotta told us?" His voice was barely audible above the wind. "She said the Sister's would test us three times. The First Sister tested our hearts. The Second Sister tested our minds."
"And the third?"
"She said..." Puck's antennae drooped. "The Third Sister tests our will."
The wind died slowly, leaving them in an eerie stillness. Eleanor could hear her own heartbeat, feel Puck's tiny form pressed against her skin.
"The Valley's real, Eleanor. Bellanotta wouldn't lie." His glow strengthened slightly, pink bleeding back into the edges. "And if we turn back now..."
Eleanor touched the spot where their bond had manifested, a warmth blooming in her chest. The dream-test from the second sister flashed through her mind. She'd chosen reality with Puck over the comfort of illusion.
She squared her shoulders, feeling Puck's answering surge of determination through their connection, the invisible tether growing stronger the more she focused on it. His glow brightened to a steady pink, warming her neck where he perched.
"You're right." She pulled their last berry from the pack, splitting it carefully. "We didn't come this far to give up."
A shadow fell across Eleanor's face. The air grew thick, charged with an energy that made her skin prickle. Puck's glow shifted to a wan yellow as they both looked up.
Where barren mountainside had stretched moments before, ancient stone walls now rose impossibly high into the clouds. Weathered granite blocks larger than houses fit together with impossible precision, their surfaces etched with symbols that seemed to writhe and shift when Eleanor tried to focus on them.
"The Third Sister," Puck whispered, his voice trembling.
The labyrinth sprawled across the mountainside, its entrance a dark maw flanked by towering pillars. Mist curled around the base, obscuring where paths might lead. The walls seemed to absorb light, creating depths of shadow that shouldn't exist in daylight.
Eleanor's throat went dry.
"It wasn't here before. We would have seen it."
"Look." Puck's glow brightened slightly as he pointed with one tiny hand.
Above the entrance, words appeared to carve themselves into the stone: "The Promised Paradise." Eleanor felt deeply disturbed. It was the first thing she'd been able to read since she'd woken up in the empty house all those weeks ago.
The air grew heavier, pressing against them like a physical force. Eleanor's legs trembled, every instinct screaming to run. But where the First Sister had tested their hearts through combat, and the Second through dreams, this challenge demanded they step willingly into the unknown.
Puck's glow slowly shifted from fearful yellow to determined pink, warming Eleanor's neck. She felt their bond pulse stronger, their shared courage building between them.
She reached up to cup him in her palm.
"I'm here," he said softly, voice steady despite his trembling wings.
The labyrinth loomed before them, patient and eternal as the mountain itself. Eleanor took a deep breath, feeling Puck's answering surge of determination through their connection. Ever since she'd awoken with Puck in that dusty room so long ago, incredible things had been happening to her everyday.
What was one more impossible thing?
Eleanor marched beneath the vaulted entrance, Puck perched upon her shoulder as the drifting mountain fog gradually enveloped them.
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Eleanor stumbled, her hand trailing along the endless stone walls. The light hadn't changed in... hours? Days? The gray sameness pressed against her like a physical weight. Above, clouds churned in patterns that defied nature, neither brightening nor darkening, leaving them suspended in perpetual twilight.
Her fingers scraped against her wool blanket as she checked their satchel again. The familiar motion brought no comfort. Just like the last dozen times, nothing materialized in its depths. Her tongue felt thick, stuck to the roof of her mouth. When had they last had water?
"Eleanor." Puck's voice cracked. His pink glow had faded to barely a flicker, casting weak shadows that danced across the weathered stone. "You need to rest."
She slid down the wall, legs trembling beneath her. The rough granite scraped her back through her dress. Her stomach twisted, a hollow ache that made thinking difficult.
"I could..." Puck's wings beat erratically as he hovered before her face. "I could try flying up. Maybe I could see—" His voice wavered, fear threading through his forced bravery.
Eleanor reached for him with shaking hands. The motion sent the maze spinning around her, walls blurring into an endless gray void. She couldn't tell if her vision was actually dimming or if the strange light was playing tricks on her mind.
"You can't fly high enough in this air. You should save your strength instead of trying again," she croaked, voice raw. "We both should."
Puck landed on her shoulder, his tiny form trembling with exhaustion. His glow pulsed weakly, barely bright enough to cast shadows across the ancient stones. Through their bond, she felt his desperate need to help warring with bone-deep weariness.
The maze stretched endlessly in every direction, identical passages branching and twisting until direction lost all meaning. Eleanor pressed her forehead against her knees, trying to remember which turn they'd taken last. But time had become as fluid as the mist that clung to their feet, memories blending together like watercolors in the rain.
Puck's wings hummed at a higher pitch than usual, their sheer edges catching what little light remained. His glow intensified, pushing back against the endless gray as determination overtook exhaustion. Each beat of his tiny wings stirred the mist around them.
"Just a quick look," he insisted, rising from her shoulder. His antennae twitched with nervous energy. "I'll stay within sight—"
The warning crashed through Eleanor's fog-addled mind like ice water. Bellanotta's words echoed with crystal clarity: "Whatever happens, you must not separate. The third sister tests bonds by breaking them."
"Puck, no!" Eleanor's muscles screamed as she lurched forward. Time stretched like syrup, each second an eternity as her fingers reached for his trailing glow. The wool dress tangled around her legs, slowing her desperate grab.
She felt the whisper of his downy coating brush her fingertips. The sensation registered with painful clarity — soft, warm, alive. Then nothing but empty air as Puck slipped beyond her grasp.
The world snapped back to normal speed. Eleanor sprawled against the stone, palms empty, watching helplessly as Puck's pink glow disappeared into the maze's twisted heights.
"PUCK!" Her voice cracked, bouncing off endless walls until the echo became a chorus of loss.
She yelled until her throat burned from screaming his name.
The maze pressed closer, walls that had been weathered granite now gleaming with an oily sheen. Shadows writhed at the corners of her vision, stretching into impossible shapes. Without Puck's warm glow, the eternal twilight took on a sickly cast that made her stomach heave.
She rose and stumbled into a run, the half formed idea of chasing after him taking over.
She stumbled left, then right, each turn identical to the last. Her hands scraped against stone that felt too warm, too alive under her fingers. The walls seemed to pulse with each ragged breath she took. Or was that just her vision swimming from exhaustion?
"Please!" Her voice was reedy a whisper now. The maze swallowed even that, leaving nothing but the sound of her feet scraping against stone and her own thundering heartbeat.
Eleanor's knees buckled. She caught herself against a wall, the rough surface pulling against her palms. The bond that had hummed constant reassurance in her chest since the cave now stretched thin and silent, a missing tooth she couldn't stop probing with her tongue.
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The solitude crashed over her like a physical weight. No gentle wing-beats. No bell-like voice offering wisdom or jokes. No pink glow pushing back the darkness. Just Eleanor, alone in an endless maze that seemed to breathe around her.
Her legs gave out completely. She flowed down the wall, wool dress bunching with her slow slide towards the ground. The silence pressed against her eardrums until they ached. Even her gasping breaths seemed muffled, as if the maze was slowly consuming every sound, every bit of warmth, every trace of hope she had left.
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Puck battled against another violent gust, his wings straining in air too thin to provide proper lift. The maze walls stretched endlessly upward, their weathered faces smooth as glass where they weren't broken by deep fissures and ancient, skeletal plant life. Wind howled through these cracks, creating an eerie whistle that seemed to mock his efforts to stay airborne.
His glow flickered a fragile shade as another downdraft slammed him against rough stone. Tiny legs scrabbled for purchase on the ancient surface. The bitter cold cut through his downy coating, numbing his wings until each beat felt like lifting lead weights.
"Eleanor!" His voice cracked, barely carrying past his own antennae in the thin atmosphere. The maze's twisting passages caught his call, distorting it into something alien and wrong.
He pushed off from the wall, fighting to gain altitude. His natural bioluminescence cast weird shadows across the granite faces, turning innocent cracks into leering expressions. The wind changed direction without warning, sending him tumbling end over end through frigid air.
The bond in his chest pulled taut, stretched paper-thin by distance. Panic flared as he realized he could no longer sense which direction led back to Eleanor. His glow shifted rapidly, painting the surrounding walls in pulses of fearful light.
Eventually, Puck's wings gave out.
He dropped several body-lengths before catching himself, every muscle trembling from exertion. The maze loomed impossibly huge around his tiny form, its walls now seeming to lean inward as if preparing to swallow him whole.
His frantic circles grew tighter as the reality of their separation sank in. Each passage looked identical to the last, offering no clue which way he'd come. The wind's cry took on an almost gleeful edge as it battered his exhausted form between the towering walls.
The bond thrummed warning in his chest. They'd been apart for ages. He'd never been away from her this long, not ever, not since they'd first met.
His glow dimmed to a bare flicker, matching the growing hollowness where Eleanor's presence should be. The maze's shadows crept closer, eager to claim the failing light.
Puck carried on because there wasn't any alternative. He buzzed erratically, hardly able to focus on where he was going until his head gently met another stone wall, bouncing him off.
Another dead end.
Turn back. Left passage. Right passage.
The maze walls pressed closer with each frantic beat of his wings.
A flash — waking alone in that dusty room. No memories. No name. Just emptiness and silence pressing in from all sides.
He darted down another corridor.
Wrong way.
The bond stretched thinner. His glow cast wild shadows that chased him like hungry ghosts.
That first terrible moment of consciousness — floating in a void without anchor or purpose. Until Eleanor's presence had given him meaning, given him self.
The wind changed pitch.
A new sound threaded through the howling — the distant rush of water. Puck's wings locked mid-beat.
Water.
The memory slammed into him — Eleanor thrashing in the current, her terror clear as the rapids tried to tear her away. His own helplessness as he'd watched her go under again and again and again.
The sound grew louder.
His glow pulsed frantic purple-yellow. Another turn and suddenly the labyrinth had parted to reveal a narrow gorge, where icy water churned far below.
The same ravine.
The same river.
"Eleanor!" He called desperately, voice lost in the water's roar.
Movement caught his eye.
Across the ravine, standing where Eleanor had once stood on the fateful day was a familiar silhouette.
It stood at the edge of the precipice, looking too much like her. Eleanor's shape, but wrong somehow. Too pale. Too still. The shadow-Eleanor turned, revealing a face smooth as river stone where features should be.
That first morning alone flashed again — drifting through empty rooms calling for anyone, anything to answer. The crushing weight of solitude pressing in until Eleanor's presence had finally broken through, like the very first dawn after an eternity of night.
He was caught in the horrifying wrongness of being here again, on opposite sides of this terrible ravine, facing the worst mistake he'd ever made.
Her on that side, him on this one.
The shadow-thing reached for him with hands like smoke.
Puck fled back into the maze, his glow barely piercing the darkness as the sound of rushing water echoed from every direction. The bond stretched flimsy in his chest, a fragile thread leading somewhere into the endless stone corridors.
Alone again.
Lost again.
The maze's walls leaned closer, eager to swallow his failing light.
He burst through another turn and found himself floating at the precipice of the river once more, the faceless Eleanor right where he'd left her.
He fled in panic.
He returned again.
No matter how much he tried to leave this place the walls seemed to twist and turn, forcing him back to this spot, forcing him to return to the worst moment of his entire life.
"Please," he cried. "Please, no. Anywhere else but this."
Eleanor stood on the other side of the ravine, her non-face turned towards him accusingly. The thundering rapids echoed between them.
The shadow-Eleanor's head tilted.
"Why did you leave me, Puck?" The voice was Eleanor's but hollow, like sound traveling through layers of fabric, the acoustics muffled and distorted by the time it reached the other side.
Puck's glow flickered uncertain as he choked on a sob.
"I didn't mean to, I just wanted to help! I was just trying to help!"
"But you always want to help, don't you?" Shadow-Eleanor's fingers trailed ripples through the air. "Even when I don't ask for it. Even when it makes things worse."
The bond in his chest pulled painfully tight. His wings drooped as memories flooded back — that first terrible moment of awareness. Floating alone in empty space. No name. No past. Nothing but the crushing weight of his own existence.
"You're not real," Puck whispered, but his glow dimmed to barely a flicker.
"I gave you everything." The shadow's voice sharpened. "A name. A purpose. What did you give me except more problems to solve?"
"That's not—" His protest died as the shadow shifted, pointing down to the teeming white waters below. He looked down, feeling faint and saw Eleanor struggling in the rapids, reaching for help he couldn't provide.
"You couldn't even save me from drowning." The words struck like physical blows. "What good is a friend who can't help when it matters?"
"Please stop," Puck begged. He couldn't look away from the awful vision, caught reliving his worst nightmare.
"Why? Because the truth hurts?" Shadow-Eleanor's laugh echoed wrong off the maze walls. "Face it — you're nothing without me. Just a nameless nothing floating in the dark."
The feeling overwhelmed him and he cried out in terror. That yawning, gaping, black, endless nothing. Being alive but so utterly alone. That endless moment before Eleanor had given him meaning.
The absolute terror of being conscious but empty.
Through the void within, a tiny glimmer remained. Just a gossamer strand of amber light, a bond so delicate yet more tangible than all else.
He took one breath, two. He tore his gaze away from the rapids to look at the faceless version of his partner. It was wrong.
He wasn't alone.
He had Eleanor.
"You're right," Puck's voice cracked. His glow stabilized to steady purple. "I was nothing before her. I woke up alone and scared and hollow inside. But Eleanor..." The bond hummed in his chest, a reminder of what was real. He watched as the image of Eleanor drowning in the rapids slowly faded. He took a deep breath and stared straight at the Shade on the other side of the ravine. "Eleanor made me somebody. She gave me a name and a purpose and..." His voice broke. "And I need her. I need her so much it terrifies me."
"Then stay with me here." Shadow-Eleanor's form rippled like smoke. "Where it's safe. Where you can't fail me again."
Puck's glow flickered between purple and pink. The bond in his chest pulled, reminding him of his partner, lost somewhere in the maze.
"I won't."
"But you want to." The shadow's voice turned gentle, coaxing. "I see how scared you are every time we face something new. How much you worry about losing me. Stay here where nothing can hurt us."
"That's not protection." Puck's voice strengthened. "Real protection means helping Eleanor grow stronger, not keeping her trapped."
"Even if it means watching her suffer? Watching her fail?" Shadow-Eleanor gestured to the rapids below. "You couldn't save me then. What makes you think you can save me now?"
"Because I never stopped trying!" Puck's glow stabilized to steady pink. "Even when I couldn't pull you from the water, I kept looking for another way. That's what real friendship means! It doesn't mean being perfect, it means never giving up!"
The shadow's form wavered.
"Pretty words won't change what you are — too small, too weak to truly help."
"Maybe." Puck lifted his chin. "But I'd rather fail at trying than succeed at being nothing."
Shadow-Eleanor's blank face started to resolve into features. A wide nose, full lips, brown cheeks with high cheekbones.
"I'll never leave you." Puck felt the bond swell within him.
Eleanor's dark, beautiful eyes, so full of her feelings; windows into her intelligent soul.
"I'll never stop trying!"
Eleanor's hair, silky waves of the darkest chestnut, tied into braids that every hair seemed determined to escape.
"Jump! We can do it this time, Eleanor! Jump!"
She jumped.
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Eleanor's feet pounded against stone. Each breath burned. Sweat or tears — she couldn't tell anymore — blurred the endless walls into smears of gray.
Left. Right. Dead end.
Back. Turn. Another dead end.
The maze twisted, straggling roots grabbing at her clothes like desperate fingers. Her legs trembled, muscles screaming for rest. But Puck was gone. She had to find him.
Right. Left. Forward.
The first splash hit her boots. Water. Just a puddle. Keep running.
More splashes. Deeper now. The sound grew, a familiar roar that made her stomach clench.
The maze opened to a clearing. Eleanor stumbled to a halt, heart hammering against her ribs. She was on the edge of the ravine once more. Below her stretched the river. That river. Its white waters churned against familiar jagged rocks.
"Lost something?" A silky voice purred.
The huntress emerged from the shadows looking just as she had all those weeks ago, steel claws gleaming. Her orange eyes fixed on Eleanor with predatory focus. Perrserker, Eleanor had since learned. That's what this beast was called.
"He left you." The Pokemon's words sliced through Eleanor's racing thoughts. "Just like everyone else."
"No." Eleanor's voice cracked. "Puck wouldn't—"
"Wouldn't he?" The Perrserker circled closer. "A weak little human who can't even swim. What use are you to him?"
Eleanor backed away, boots catching on the lip of the cliff's edge, making her almost tumble into the nothingness below. The cold water sent shivers up her spine and she stepped towards the beast, away from the deadly water's call.
"He's probably halfway to the Valley already." The Perrserker's cruel smile widened. "Smart little fairy, finally realizing what a burden you are."
The words wounded more than any claw or tooth. Eleanor's chest tightened, each breath coming shorter than the last.
"Face it, child." The Perrserker's claws traced patterns in the air. "You don't belong here. Not in our world. Not anywhere."
Eleanor's hands curled into fists, her voice barely a whisper.
"You're wrong."
"What was that, little girl?" Perrserker's tail lashed.
"I said you're wrong." Eleanor lifted her chin. "About everything."
Her voice grew to a shout, some untapped well of strength giving her volume until she began to drown out the roaring sound of the white water behind her.
"Everyone thinks they know what's best for me! Things keep happening and I never get to choose, no one ever asks me what I want. I never asked to wake up here! I never asked to live with my Dad! It just happens and I have to deal with it." Her voice steadied with each word. "The men at the house. My father leaving. Even—" She swallowed hard. "Even Mom getting sick. I never get to choose."
The rushing water below seemed to pause, holding its breath.
"But Puck?" A smile crept across her face. "Puck let me choose him. Every time, he's always asked. I named him. I promised to protect him. And he—" Her voice caught. "He chose me back."
"Pretty words." Perrserker's claws clicked against stone. "But look across the river."
Eleanor's heart stopped. There, on the far bank, Puck hovered, his glow pulsed with distress as he watched her on the other side.
The sight of him made the bond in her chest sing, even as her legs threatened to give out at the water's edge. Her feet remained frozen to the ground, terror of the rushing current warring with her need to reach him.
"Some protector you are." Perrserker's words dripped with mockery. "Can't even cross a little river to save your friend."
"I'm done letting fear choose for me." Eleanor's nails bit into her palms. Her voice rose, steady and clear. "I'm done being powerless."
She stared at the churning water, her whole body shaking.
"Puck and I made a promise. We chose each other. And no river, no monster, no fear is going to break that choice."
Eleanor stepped to the edge. The water roared below, but for the first time, its sound didn't freeze her blood. She fixed her eyes on Puck's glowing form across the gap.
One breath. Two.
She leapt.
Time slowed, the world blurring around her. Wind caught her hair, finally tugging it free from its braids. The bond in her chest blazed bright as a star, pulling her toward Puck like a compass finding true north. For one perfect moment, she wasn't falling — she was flying.
Like Puck.
She landed softly on the other side.
"You did it!" His glow shifted to brilliant gold. "You actually—"
The maze dissolved around them like morning mist.
Eleanor and Puck didn't even have time to embrace before they were shielding their eyes from a blinding light. Blinking and disoriented, they reached for each other, unwilling to be separated again. They would face whatever challenge came next as a team.
Their vision cleared and they found themselves standing on the edge of a tall, stony cliffside. Sunlight poured down on the spot where they stood, revealing a green valley that stretched beyond imagination. Ancient trees towered below, their leaves shimmering with an otherworldly light. Crystal pools dotted emerald meadows where blankets of flowers bloomed. The air itself seemed to sparkle, carrying the sweet scent of eternal spring.
"The Valley of Annwn," Puck whispered, landing on Eleanor's shoulder. His wings trembled against her neck.
Eleanor reached up, her fingertips barely brushing his downy fuzz. Together they stood at the threshold of their new beginning.
It was real.
They'd arrived.