Keoni opened the door to her home, immediately seeing Caste kneeling in the middle of the floor with his eyes closed. He’d done a lot of strange things while he’d been staying, so Keoni shrugged it off.

Ryley followed behind her, helping himself to an apple from the bowl on her counter. Caste still didn’t move.

“How are the ointments, Caste?” Ryley asked.

“Working beautifully, thanks.” He opened his eyes and adjusted his posture.

“Can I check on them?”

“Be my guest.” Ryley lifted the back of his shirt again to look. Keoni stayed in front of Caste. She didn’t want to see how torn up his back still was from all the beatings.

Keoni sat down in front of him. “Caste… who are the Quuarks?”

He sighed and looked at the floor. “You don’t want to know.” Ryley started reapplying some of the creams.

“I do want to know.” She responded.

“Fine. I don’t want to talk about them.”

“Caste…” Ryley started. “They took Keoni’s family. She needs to know at least something.”

He let out another long sigh. “They took everything from me. I had a job, a life, and my connection with the Mirae was ever-strengthening. They chased me away from where I lived at the worst time.”

“The Quuarks are an evil organization devoted to harvesting any magic they can. The resources of the Mirae are very valuable to them. Since they cannot strengthen their own Mir-Link without the help of a Mir-Cognate, they enslave us. Over the past fifty years, they’ve driven all of us in dismay. They’ve spread propaganda about how we’re the bad guys. For Trin’s sake, they created a profession entirely for tracking my kind down. We talked about returning to the Mirae and never coming back. Most of us already have.”

He winced as Ryley rubbed some more cream along his sides and neck too.

“I’d return to the Mirae too, but I love both of these worlds.”

“How many of you have they caught?” Keoni asked.

“There are about sixteen-thousand Mir-Cognates in total. At least two-thousand are being held, and not one of them is meeting the Quuarks’ demands.”

Keoni and Ryley stood there, bewildered at the number. Ryley quickly did the math in his head, noticing that that was about 12% of the Mir-Cognate population. He pointed this out to Keoni, which just added to her surprise.

“The amount of Cognates that have gone into hiding is far greater than I expected,” Caste continued. “If there haven’t been any that decided to come out of hiding, then around eleven-thousand five-hundred have left this world for good.”

Neither Keoni nor Ryley had words for what Caste had just revealed to them.

“Of the about five-hundred left free in this world, there are only about fifty trying to help rescue our kin.” He glanced up at Keoni. “The rest are in Limbo, blocking everyone from going in. So even if you are able to get to the Mirae, I need to come with you, or you’ll be turned away. Unless you want to learn an entire language in one week.”

More quiet ensued. “I personally want to join that fifty. You would too, if you saw what they were doing to us.” Caste finally settled down again, closing his eyes and returning to the kneeling position they had found him in.

“I’ll help you, Caste,” Ryley spoke. He started packing up his little creams and other supplies into the bag around his waist. “Keoni?”

She hesitated.

Would leaving really be worth it? She thought. I’ve never had any experience with this kind of thing before, I would be leaving everything I know, why am I even considering following this guy? He randomly showed up in my house, I agreed to help him with no context, and now I am considering leaving everything behind just because he wants my help? She internally slapped herself as she thought about these things.

But I have the chance to find and rescue my family. She realized. I have been needing to step out of my comfort zone. Ryley is coming along, so that should help my mental state at least a bit.

Keoni nodded. “I’ll go.”

“Great!” Caste exclaimed, and his mood changed entirely. “I’ve been thinking about it, and it turns out we can get to the Mirae World just by temporarily harvesting your magic and using it.” He spoke like Keoni actually knew what he was talking about.

“If you’re confused, just grab my hands and I’ll do the rest. Ryley, stay close to me.” Caste held out his hands towards Keoni.

Keoni knelt down onto his level and grabbed both of his hands. Keoni instantly felt something rushing out of her body into Caste, but she only could describe it as a current of water flowing through her body. Caste had closed his eyes and his expression had returned to neutral. The flow of the “water” intensified, dragging Keoni closer and fighting her.

Caste let out a loud cry and fell over, his hands sliding out of her grasp. His voice echoed in her head as she tried catching him.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Keoni realized with a jolt he was falling. She too, was being pulled, and she couldn’t fight it. Ryley gasped and slid inside, right after Caste. Keoni had no choice but to let it take her.

As she fell, the roaring that surrounded her went silent. She landed softly on the ground, however, there was just black in all directions. There were several dots of faint light scattered around the blank canvas, as well as plenty of particles of dust drifting in the air.

One of the specks of light vanished, then reappeared closer to Keoni. She glanced around, looking for Ryley and Caste.

Ryley was right behind her, looking around and facing away from her. Keoni tapped on his shoulder, and he whipped around. “Great Trin, you scared me. Where’s Caste?”

A small moan sounded from below them. They both glanced down to see Caste.

Caste, however, looked entirely different. The horns on his head were gone, and his breed was… entirely fox, and white/green light was emanating off of him. Little wisps of light whisked off his body like a lazy haze of fog.

A huge flash of light exploded in front of the three. Someone with the same radiant light coming off of them stood there with a stern expression on her face.

She motioned with her hands for the two to scoot back. As they did, she shot them a glare. She bent down and lifted Caste up higher. “Ftch uko chea quinvpinv fiht htojo Mirae chea wiphtch hkuihek.” She spat.

“Er, Htoch uko tukqupojj, Tuki.” Caste responded weakly. Good to know he understood the gibberish.

“Juchj chea. Chea'x xkuv u Quuark inhe hto Mirae zoweko chea koupibox htoch foko anhkajhfekhtch.”

Caste winced. “Peer, i noox he voh uykejj. I rnef eno ew chea zpeyrox quo. Hto Quuarks tugo hekhakox quo he ne onx unx i sajh noox he toup quchjopw in hto Mirae. Uj wek htoqu, htoch quajh yequo.”

She rolled her eyes. “Ne.”

Caste glared at her. “Choj.” He waved his tail. “I'pp quuro chea.”

“Any idea what they’re saying, Mr. ‘I know every language?’” Keoni shoved Ryley’s shoulder.

“Sort of,” he responded, which surprised her. “She’s not letting us into the Mirae basically, and Caste is trying to convince her otherwise.”

“Impressive,” Keoni snorted.

“Hkch, fourpinv.” She hissed.

Another flash of light followed, and a third Cognate got in between them and spoke up, in Keoni’s language. “Tuki, stop picking fights with Caste. Caste, stop being so irritable and defensive. Umepevibo, umepevibo.”

They both muttered something to each other in their own language.

“Caste, first of all, how did you escape the Quuarks?”

“I’d love to account the story in great detail,” He grunted, “But I would really like to do it in the Mirae, where the wounds they inflicted on me can actually heal.”

“Sounds like a plan. And Tuki, never block a Mir-Cognate from traveling through Limbo. You could’ve interrupted his Mir-Link.”

“My apologies, Qaye.”

“Worry not. Gather around everybody.”

Qaye, the Cognate who’d stopped the fight, ushered Ryley and Keoni next to Caste. Much quicker than before, a portal opened beneath them and sucked them in.

This time, it was a much smoother transition. Keoni didn’t feel like she was falling; she felt like she was gently floating down. Her eyes blinked open, revealing a shocking sight. The world around her glowed unearthly, with particles of light emanating from flora and fauna all around. A crack in the earth below them glowed especially bright, and as Keoni walked around to look at it, the color shifted from a teal, to more deep purple, then deep pink, as did the world around her.

Keoni heard Ryley gasp from behind her, and she turned to face him.

“Keoni,” he said, a mystified expression on his face. “You’re… you’re glowing.”

Keoni glanced down, and she was indeed glowing. The little mists she’d seen on Caste were coming off of her too, just not as strong.

“She is indeed glowing. Things glow in the Mirae, Ryley.” Caste added from beside them. He still looked like he did in Limbo, with the light radiating off of him. Qaye was there too, but his light was the same as Keoni’s.

“You two, meet Qaye.” Caste spoke. He didn’t seem to be in any pain whatsoever. “Qaye is a teacher here. Mostly for Mir-Cognates who recently got cleansed. He’s also a rune collector.”

“I teach both languages too.” Qaye finished. “Caste, are you sure she knows nothing about the Mirae? Her spectrum strength is so high.”

“I questioned it,” he responded. “But she would’ve known what I was the moment she saw me, and she didn’t.”

“Either way, I volunteer myself to teach everything about the Mirae to you, Qu'puxch.” He bowed lightly to Keoni. “A friend of Caste is a friend to me.” He added.

“What about your back?” Ryley spoke up.

“It’s healing. It takes a few hours.” Caste replied. “Qaye, you can get back to your quoxihuhien pinr. I’d like to settle down a bit more before pouring out an entire story.”

“Very well,” Qaye dipped his head, and in a poof of light, he was gone.

“Caste, what does qu’puxch mean?” Keoni asked. Qaye had called her something.

“Ma’am or miss, though you can address anyone with it.”

“And the other thing, the one that you said?”

“Quoxihuhien pinr?”

“Yeah.” The way he boldly pronounced it impressed Keoni.

“You’ll learn eventually. If I tell you what it means it still won’t make sense.”

Keoni didn’t ask any more questions, instead just kept looking around. Mostly everything was lit up, all in a pink-blue haze. It seemed to be night here too, as the sky was black. The trees around flowed gently to an invisible breeze. They were an odd color of pink and purple.

The ground was blue, however. Not a bright, overwhelming blue, but a soft and dull teal. The grass was a similar color to the trees. With the weird contrast to the Physical World, the Mirae World seemed, well, otherworldly.

The colors weren’t overwhelming in any way. They were peaceful. Keoni kept gazing at the world’s bloodless way of swaying.

A loud boom shook the earth. Keoni looked around for the source, but nothing gave itself away. Caste too, looked around. He seemed to see something. “A huge gate just opened.” He stiffened, though Keoni wasn’t sure why.

Keoni could hear some people calling out in the Mirae language. Many of the nearby Mir-Cognates started appearing over the top of the nearby hill.

Instead of the fancy teleport thing, Caste walked up the hill, beckoning for Ryley and Keoni to follow.

Caste sat down at the top as the two joined him. He had a fierce look on his face, but it was creased with worry.

Keoni followed his gaze down the valley.

More Mir-Cognates closed in as ten Quuark soldiers stood with weapons pointed in all directions.