Milk had been given the bed, and Mul and Flim were left with no option but to share the small couch together. Both boys grumbled at the prospect of a disquieting sleep, but neither blamed Milk for it.
Ms Togami had tucked them in for the evening, and they had fallen into a quick, deep and dreamless sleep - thanks, in no small part, to Madam Prostasia’s special tea.
…
Milk woke to the sound of something moving furtively in the guest room. A strand of moonlight caught a thin figure, as it moved towards the door. Milk froze, frightened that the Sku-Zo had returned. Her eyes and her mind were still foggy with sleep, but she managed to raise her head imperceptibly, just in time to see the figure depart the room, like smoke up a chimney.
The door closed silently behind it.
Milk slipped out of the bed, quickly putting on her shoes and grabbing her back-pack. She followed behind the figure, down the stairs and into the lounge. As she reached the foot of the stairs, she saw the front-door close.
Whoever it was had seemingly escaped.
She didn’t know quite why she felt so suddenly compelled to leave the safety of the house. It definitely wasn’t her business if Madam Prostasia’s house was vulnerable to thieves. But somehow, she knew she had to follow the dark figure – No matter what.
She pushed the door open, and stood at the threshold. It was cold outside. A rush of warm air moved past her and into the night. She could see the figure, fifty meters ahead of her, traversing the quiet square that unfolded into the yawning darkness. She took off after it, across the square, into the unknown.
The figure turned down an alley and she followed.
Milk was nimble, and though the ground was wet and the cobbled stones loose in places, she made no sound as she pursued the shadow. She was almost upon it when it rounded a smaller passage behind a row of ancient shops. The passage was littered with waste, and felt dank, but somehow warmer than she liked. She thought she had the figure trapped in a dead end, as it ducked behind an old bed frame.
But just like that, it was gone.
She spun wildly, looking for a clue to the figure’s whereabouts. But there was nothing to see but a solid brick wall some four meters high, and a row off locked doors.
“Why are you following me?” Said a voice from behind her.
She swung around, giving out a startled scream and found herself face to face with Mul.
“I’m a massive fan of late night tag,” she said sarcastically.
Mul didn’t laugh.
She was used to Mul’s face from school – even if he’d largely ignored her. She was accustomed to him being sad, even lonely. But in the darkness of night, he looked thin and drawn out, like an evil wizard tapped too long into the dark thread. His usually bright eyes, were puffy and red as though he’d been crying.
“Why are you leaving Mul? Couldn’t you be bothered to say goodbye?”
“I’m not staying with that woman. Madam Prostasia. She’s a bad omen. If that beast from the school is coming for us, I think it’ll know that I’m with her.”
“You don’t know that though…you…”
“I feel it!” He screamed. “Okay? I feel it so strongly that it’s all I can see…I want to get back home. I want to see my friends. I want to see my aunty…I don’t want to…” He said, almost revealing his heart.
“You don’t want to die,” she finished.
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“You can forget about me, and forget we ever met. I don’t know you and I don’t owe you a damn thing. I just met you for the first time yesterday.”
She stopped talking, stopped moving and stared deep into Mul’s teary eyes for a long moment. Then at length she spoke, taking him by the shoulders.
“Mulberry Gnat. First Year Junior, School of Magical stuff. Loner. Owner of an unnamed match. You’re right,” she admitted, shaking her head trying to loose the right words.
“Dammit Mul, I want to know you. I don’t have many friends. Most people don’t even like me because of … well you know. Except for Flim, he likes me. But that’s only because he feels sorry for me and he doesn’t know…”
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t belong here Milk. You heard the Madam. She said it was coming for me. Doesn’t that freak you out. Like doesn’t being around me make you scared?”
“I’d be more scared if you weren’t here.”
Mul blushed so hard not even the darkness could conceal it.
“Madam Prostasia seems to know more than she’s telling us,” He said, trying to change the subject.
“Isn’t it enough to know that the whole Universe is in Peril?”
“No. It’s not. I wan’t to know why she knows that and what that even means. How is it in Peril? What’s the big secret?”
“Please, come back to Madam’s house. We can ask her. We can talk about it.”
“Yeah right. I don’t think she’ll let me leave a second time. This is my chance. I’m going back home, and then I’m getting off this planet.”
“How are you going to do that Mul?”
“I’m not completely useless. I have my magic just like you do,” he said defensively.
“So where are we going?”
“You can’t come Milk. It’s not safe.”
“I haven’t got anywhere else to be. My family live in Spain - it’s not really somewhere I can just go, at least not at my level of skill. And Ms Togami will look after Flim; get him back home if she can.”
“What about Dibs?”
“Have you really never had a Match before? What rock did you crawl out from under?”
“Fero,” she said swinging her arm around in a in a low arc with her fingers outstretched. With a small pop of light, Dibs appeared in her arms, and to her surprise so to did Mul’s match, who tumbled out of Milk’s arms onto the wet floor.
“Grrrr,” Mul’s Match growled, gnashing its round teeth at him.
Mul seemed suddenly guilty for leaving his Match behind.
“You know you should apologise to your little guy there,” Milk said, a small grin creeping over her lips.
“I’m sorry okay. I’m sorry little dude for leaving you and for not being able to come up with a name. And I’m sorry Milk for running away. You’ve been so nice to me.”
She scratched her head innocently and smiled.
“It’s nothing Mul. That’s what friends do.”
“I have to get out of here now. My time is sort of limited.”
“Where are we going?” She smiled.
“You really want to come with me?”
“Yes I really do.”
“Well, there’s only one way to get where I’m going. So this is your last chance to back out. Because if you get hurt, don’t blame me.”
“You’re so galant.”
He took the backpack from his shoulders, placed it on the floor and rummaged around for a moment, retrieving what looked like a wilted daisy from its depths.
“Oh no,” he said, rummaging some more. “I’ve lost the other piece. The sun stone. I must have dropped it.”
“What does that mean?”
“We need light and we need it right now. Blue-white light - as close to daylight as we can get it.”
“I haven’t learnt how to conjure sunlight yet, I only know Fos, not IliFos. Do you know it?”
“No…I really need to pay more attention in Spells, because honestly, I’m feeling pretty useless.”
As Mul was starting to panic, his Match prodded his leg with its bulbous head, causing Mul to look down.
“Hey buddy. What’s up?”
Mul used one chubby foot to point at its own face and made the sort of sound one would make when trying to suggest something quite obvious.
“Oh…yeah. Of course. He’s a spirit of the Fos.”
“You only just remembered that?” Milk said in disbelief.
“He’s been my match for three weeks. Give a new guy a break.”
Mul held the daisy out to his match so that it could get good and close look at it. His Match’s eyes began to flicker like a candle in a distant hall, but for a brief moment nothing else seemed to happen. Then a light began to dance eagerly around its pupil, growing in degrees until the soft yellow light transformed into a deep, dusty blue like a Robin’s egg. The passageway around them began to glow, and then with a flash of photons, the light – which burned like the surface of a star trapped in a bottle – was gone leaving the four of them in an even blacker darkness.
It was more than enough for the Pyli.
The excitations within the molecular juices of the daisy’s three, tiny, scraggly leaves, caused a massive vibrational disturbance within the cells. The daisy jiggled, and turned, and grew and shrank. It bobbed and danced and began to float. Within the plant a sudden rocket-fuelled photosynthesis exploded with unmatched energy.
The Pyli - the portal - opened.
“Umm!” Milk screamed. “It’s a Pyli! Why didn’t we use this before!?”
“It’s complicated!” He yelled back. “But we don’t have time for a detailed explanation. Just jump in.”
The four of them did just that.
A deep thunderous boom erupted from the void. The four of them were drawn into the daisy. The Pyli closed with a wet slap – but not before Papa Omega entered it, right behind them.