‘Take my gift and don’t shy away from living your life…it’s the only one you have. And when you’re ready, move the obelisk to Innangard.’

The red-hooded figure stepped out of a small lockbridge—a portal that looked like a small burn on the page that was reality. She held a sheathed katana in her left hand, and closed her fist over her heart as she looked over the property ahead.

     A pale-yellow farmhouse with white shutters nestled to the right of a gravel driveway. To the opposite was a workshop with long-timbered walls, which interlocked at the corners. Beyond towered a windmill, but what caught her focus was a weathervane in front of the house. Its design was black iron with a raven alighting to perch on the cardinal headings.

     She pulled her hood down, revealing the Japanese heritage displayed in the olive tone of her cheeks. A somber longing filled her subdued brown eyes. She pulled her black braid out from the back of her cloak, then smiled fondly at the raven. I’m home, Dad, she thought.

     She glanced down to a strobing light, a metal pendant clipped into the braid of her katana’s handgrip, then back to the workshop. That’s the last place I saw it. Over a year ago. Her thoughts elongated as she pressed her closed fist against her chest. Beneath her cloak, a red scarf coiled around her torso. She shook her head. Has it been so long—already?

     The lockbridge closed as she made her way down the drive, a cabin in another world disappearing as its blue-singed frame twisted closed without a sound. She made her way to the workshop, pulling the door open to reveal a darkened forge. Light shone through horizontal slits in the walls, but more pronounced was the strobing in the back corner. She raised her katana, observing the pendant in a synchronized blink. Which of us was supposed to be tracking what exactly?

     From the ceiling, a chain descended and doubled back again. She pulled, the chain cycling its path to open a skylight and illuminate the interior. A brick furnace sat to one side with a large anvil placed in front of it.

     The back corner was occupied by a six-foot pillar—the obelisk. Five stacked cubes made up its central column, while an additional one abutted each side around the center cube. Some of cube-edges glowed as it hovered in place.

     She reached out and touched its surface, tracing her hand down to the strobing point. It looked like a light but was actually a small hollow—a divot where the surface was damaged. Odd.

     “Did you get lost, Mioko?” a voice asked from behind.

     Mioko spun, her hand wrapping around her sword grip before finding a tall figure in the doorway. Her tension dissipated once she saw who it was. “Mom. I didn’t hear you coming.”

     Mom harrumphed, folding her bulky arms over her lamellar armor. “You’re different. Since when do you carry a weapon?”

     Mioko nodded. “It’s been a long—”

     “Year. Yeah, I know. That’s a long time to wait for answers.” She studied Mioko, who looked away. “You’re not still sulking, are you? I knew you were soft, but that would border on pathetic.”

     “Can we not talk about him?”

     “Why? Dead is dead. Talking doesn’t change that. But fine. Let’s talk about Solbrand. Where is it?”

     Mioko blinked. “What?”

     “Don’t play dumb. The shoe doesn’t fit. What did you do with the sword that Brandrrafn left you? It didn’t go to me, so that means it went to you.”

     Mioko looked at her katana, raising it slightly. “You mean Nightfall?”

     Mom rolled her eyes and marched over to a nearby table, shoving Mioko aside to look at a row of books. “I’m not interested in some Vanidr trinket.”

     Mioko noticed the sword sheathed on Mom’s back, then looked her up and down. Why is she wearing all that?

     Mom tossed a book over her shoulder.

     Mioko ducked, then retrieved it and each that followed. “What are you doing? Stop this!”

     Mom paused and turned back. “Why are you even here?”

     Mioko glared before setting the books on another workbench. “Dad’s note,” she said, nodding towards the obelisk. “He said that I need to bring this to Innangard.”

     “Inside the fence?”

     “What?”

     Mom shook her head. “Forget it. Probably nothing. Brandrrafn was always fond of his secrets. Where are they now? This note.”

     Mioko chuckled. “Seriously? After what you just did with his books? I’m not about to give you anything else of his.”

     Mom knocked on a book that Mioko hadn’t seen her holding. “You know what I think? I bet Solbrand was hidden with that portal magic. One of you hid it in another world. So, all this time, you’ve either been trying to locate it or you’ve been hiding it on Brandrrafn’s behalf.”

     “That’s just not true! I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I left because I couldn’t face this place! So, stop acting like you know what I’ve been through. You couldn’t possibly understand!” Mioko’s eyes welled up and her katana rattled, the scabbard clinched at her side.

     Mom leaned back against the table as she sized her up. “Seems like you came across a backbone along the way.” She shrugged, then raised the book to face Mioko. “The Brothers Grimm. This is the one y’all always read together, right?”

     Mioko’s gaze firmed. “I think we’re done here. I’ll just get my things and go.”

     Mom raised her finger. “You won’t be leaving with that… or at all for that matter.”

     “You can’t keep me here, Hnoss.”

     “What’s the one about the girl and the wolf? That’s the one you two spent so much time on, right?” Hnoss opened the book and scanned through the titles. Her dirty-blond hair was pulled into a tight bun, her dark eyes set into fair skin and a look of disdain. “Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow-White… Oh, Hansel and Gretel. That sounds right. I’ll have a look there first. If she doesn’t tell me what I want to know, I’ll just kill everyone and move on to the next. Eventually, someone will know something.”

     Mioko’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”

     “Sure, I will—now, that you’ve enabled the obelisk for me.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

     Mioko turned away, then felt a sharp pain in her wrist. She pulled, seeing Hnoss gripping her arm. “Stop it! You’re hurting me!”

     Hnoss yanked her closer, where Mioko head-butted her. She retaliated with a gut punch, then flung her out the door.

     Mioko rolled to a stop, rising as Hnoss stepped out and threw the anvil at her. She fell backwards as the black mass passed over, then sprung up again where a sword entered her abdomen. She shrieked and bowed as she clutched the blade.

     “You should’ve just given me what I asked for,” Hnoss hissed. “Brandrrafn babied you too much. Made you soft. Made you weak.”

     Mioko lifted her head, meeting the scorn in Hnoss’s eyes. She glared and gritted her teeth as blood ran from her nose.

     “I will fi—”

     Mioko spit in her face, then grimaced as Hnoss fell through the ground. The blade withdrew, pulling her to her knees where she watched Hnoss fall away. A lockspace had opened—a portal that locked two nearby spaces together, framing them within an oval of green singe.

     Hnoss exited the connecting lockspace in the sky—ousting above the farmhouse, where she crashed through the roof to land inside.

     Mioko looked down to her blood-soaked hands and focused on breathing. She kept one hand covering the wound on her stomach, which did nothing for the opening in her back.

     Hnoss yelled.

     Mioko looked towards the house before willing another lockbridge to open beside her. She stumbled through, ousting into a forest, where she collapsed on a trail of white stones. She blacked out.

----------------------------------------

     Mioko awoke to the prodding of a stick. She swatted at the annoyance but otherwise focused on the ache radiating through her body. Her throat was dry, which made the taste of blood all the more unsavory.

     “Is it dead, Hansel?”

     “I don’t think so,” Hansel replied. “Just stay behind me.”

     Mioko looked up from the ball she was curled into and squinted at the two blurred figures. The kids were small and thin, Gretel peeking around from behind Hansel.

     “You need to get out of here,” Mioko croaked. “She’s coming for you.”

     The two kids backpedaled as Mioko reached towards them, Gretel screeching. “It’s a monster! Hurry, Hansel. Let’s be away.”

     “We should tell a grownup,” Hansel said. “They’ll know what to do.” The two turned and fled along the trail of white stones.

     Mioko looked at their fleeing forms, then to her blood crusted hand. She tried to push herself up, but her arm quivered. Another lockbridge opened beside her and she rolled into it, descending to plop onto a blue mat-covered floor. She looked down the long room of Valor Hall, where punching bags hung along one wall.

     “Em…” She coughed. “Emeric!” she yelled.

     A man rushed around a corner to see her prone form as she rolled onto her back. Blood crusted her hands, arms and lips.

     “What happened?” Emeric asked, then fled before returning with medical supplies.

     “Hnoss… she’s gone crazy.”

     “Hnoss did this?” He pulled clothing away from the wound, shaking his head.

     Then—Mioko went still.

     A moment later, her eyes shot open, her pupils expanding to snuff out her brown irises. She inhaled and screamed.

     Emeric leaned away from her with an empty syringe in hand.

     Mioko clutched at her chest and pulled at the cloth covering as flame seeped through her skin. Tissue burned away and her scream quickly muted. Her chest cavity opened and her heart dangled from veins that were colored a dull silver. She shot to her feet and ran to burst through a nearby bathroom door. She spun the knobs on the sink, but no water emerged.

     Mioko looked back towards Emeric who still sat in the same position. Her entire being screamed for relief as she backed into a wall, her mouth open and howling, yet not eliciting a sound. She hugged herself, trying to smother the fire as she looked down, the flames turning blue as the tissue regenerated. An electric blue wrapped around her dilated pupils. She blacked out.

     Mioko screamed, curled her arms over her chest and rolled off a table. She hit the ground with a muted tha-thump as the blue matting cushioned her fall. It smelled of vinyl… and old sweat—that deep stuff that no amount scrubbing could remove.

     Emeric was at her side and trying to help her up only for her to meet his gaze, then shove him away.

     “Get off me! Dammit, Em! I came here for help. Not to have you finish me off.”

     “I am sorry,” Emeric replied with a French accent. He had short hair, a five o’clock shadow, and kind eyes. He shook his head. “I could not have known that you would go up in flames.”

     “What else did you expect when you set someone on fire?”

     Emeric returned a flat stare. “I gave you a shot of epinephrine—adrenaline. That fire was your trick. Not mine.”

     Mioko pushed herself into a kneeling position and sat back onto her ankles. Her breathing was ragged as she clutched at the unbroken skin of her chest. She looked at him as he tossed her a plastic bag with a vial and packaging information.

     “You came here for refuge, no? Then it does not make sense that I would harm you.”

     “But…you just sat there while I was on fire. Why didn’t you help me?”

     “What was there to help you with? You screamed, then passed out in the bathroom… somehow managing to run through the door, turn on the water, and pass out before I even knew you moved from here to there.”

     Mioko shook her head. “But the water… the water wasn’t working. Nothing came out.”

     “I think… maybe your heart was the culprit.”

     Mioko withdrew, trying to cinch a coat that she wasn’t wearing. She closed her eyes and fled from Emeric’s suggestion even while he continued talking.

     A moment later, she flinched as she felt a weight settle on her shoulders, opening her eyes to find that Emeric had wrapped a blanket around her—something she could pull closed.

Emeric sighed. “Why would Hnoss do something like this?”

     Mioko wiped her cheeks with the blanket as unbidden tears fled her eyes. She shook her head. “She… she said I had a sword. That or we hid it from her. But I don’t know what she was talking about. Or why she was so mad about it.”

     “You mean Nightfall?”

     Mioko shook her head. “No. It was something else. Solbrand… I think. Did he say anything to you about it?”

     “No. Brandrrafn was very deliberate in giving and withholding information. If we do not know about it, there is a reason for it.”

     “Well, why would Hnoss know about something that he didn’t tell us about?”

     “Likely something from before I set up their refuge in Haeliheim. Might be related to them fleeing in the first place.”

     “Wait, fleeing? From where? From what?”

     “From who,” Emeric corrected. “He did not tell you this?”

     “No. Nothing.”

     Emeric nodded and raised a finger, before leaving and returning with a book. “He said I would know when to give this to you. Though I doubt it will be much use to you right now.”

     Mioko yanked it from him, then ran her hand over the roughly hewn leather cover. The center of the cover had a logo. It was a raven with outstretched wings, the wingtips flitting as flames.

     ‘But why’s it burning up?’ she heard her younger self ask Brandrrafn.

     ‘Oh, it’s not… Fire’s what it’s made of,’ he had replied.

     Mioko oriented the book to open it…but it didn’t. She turned it over, tried to pry the corners apart, then looked back to Emeric. “Is this a joke?”

     Emeric shook his head. “No, but I was afraid of as much. He told me it will only open for you and only if necessary.”

     “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

     Emeric shrugged. “Remember to not shoot your messenger. The fact that these are raised questions means that your dad believed the answers were too dangerous to know.”

     Mioko closed her eyes and nodded. “You’re right.” She stood abruptly and retrieved her katana.

     Emeric rose with her. “Wait. Where will you go?”

     “Hnoss is after this Solbrand… something Dad wanted to keep secret. She threatened to destroy story worlds if I didn’t give it to her. So, I need to warn the people in those stories. Then I need to figure out how to keep Solbrand away from her.”

     Emeric nodded. “Just be careful, yes?”

     Mioko opened a lockbridge and looked back. “I will. Thanks, Em. For everything.”

     She departed.