Rapidly approaching Kali from a swarm of bees, Kala stops her motorcycle right next to Kali. “We have an issue. Pupu ran off into a guardian’s gate. I need you to trace her.”

Looking up from weaving a spell, Kali displays a look of shocked disbelief followed by a sigh. “Well that is a problem. I haven’t finished weaving her clothes so I can’t trace her. Can’t your bees find her through her pheromones?”

Tapping her chin as she stares into emptiness, Kala thinks out loud, surprising Kali.. “Hmmm, if my bees can’t trace or sense her, she must be in a region where I do not know the bees... or maybe she is beyond the realm of Efervance…I need to find a tracker…”

Scoffing at Kala’s words, Kali startles Kala out of her thinking. “You ARE a tracker! Only person better at tracking spontaneously is Cer, so that is a moot agenda. You better find Pupu before Cer comes out of Nothing. We’ve seen Cer survive worse than Nothing, so you better get to it. I need to hold this barrier while the others port people to safety. Go do your job and find and protect Pupu. We each have a role to play..”

Ignoring Kali’s last words with preoccupation, Kala hops back on her motorcycle and her bees begin to swarm around her. “There is one person that might be able to find her. I’m headed to The Mecca. I’ll see you back at the ruins of Aisling. Light a candle when everyone is ready to be escorted into The Mecca. May your Mystic never waver!”

With immense heat radiating from the speed of the swarm, Kala and the swarm implode into thin air.

Grinning with a stunned reaction of admiration, Kali sighs with amusement. “Huh… so that’s how she travels across vast spaces without a feline. I wonder how that works.”

-Break-

“I can SEEEE you…” yells Punkin as she emanates a radiant aura. “You said you’d never leave me.”

“Pupu? How’d you get in here? Where is Baba?” Asks Cer, confused and astounded.

“I jumpeded in the kitty door! I wanna go home. So Yam-Yam brought me home… where is my house?” asks Punkin, as she looks around in the darkness. “It’s scary daddy. I don’t like it in here.”

“It’s okay Pupu. Come to me. This is Nothing. The space can’t hurt you. Your light is strong. Come, meet an old friend of mine.” Cer says while beckoning Punkin to approach.

“SHE IS SO PWETTY! I am Pupu!” squeals Punkin with excitement as she runs towards Nin.

Reaching up, Punkin strokes Nin’s short copper and red hair. “Oh no, you are sad. Why are you crying?”

Surprised by the revelation, Cer is taken aback by not being able to perceive that Nin had been shedding tears. I can see auras, but I could not see the mana of her tears. Where is her magic?

Trying to keep from shedding more tears, Nin takes in a deep breath and exhales before answering Punkin. “I was lonely. I missed your dad and only wanted to matter to one person. But your dad left. So I have been sad for many years. When we lose things we get sad.”

Raising her hand to speak, Punkin interjects Nin. “Oooh ooh. A long time ago, I lost my pet rock. I was very sad. I yelleded at daddy for throwing it at some birds that were trying to have dinner with the bees.”

Punkin then moves in and embraces Nin as she strokes the back of Nin’s head. “We all lose things. We are sad sometimes. But we are never alone. That’s what Arwyn tells me. I think she sees ghosts.”

Offering a half forced smile, Nin responds. “This is different. When you get older, you sometimes lose the things right in front of you. The sadness is too much and it is too scary to hope for change, so you hide in sadness and anger. It becomes who you are. It makes us dark inside.”

“You are sooo PWETTY! Nobody wants to lose you.” yells Punkin as she pinches Nin’s cheeks. “Baba Kala does this to me when she misses me. I miss you.”

Looking down in sadness, Nin realizes she feels home for the first time in a long time. “How can you miss me when you just met me? How could you show me kindness when I just tried to kill you all and devour you into my loneliness?”

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Interjecting, Cer responds in an effort to offer comfort and consolation. “I understand you were lo…..”

Before Cer could finish the sentence, Punkin chimes in with an embrace so tight that Nin could not focus on Cer’s words. “I askeded daddy how he misses me when I am right in front of him. I miss you because I love you. Daddy said we spend time with each other so we don’t miss each other. So we can stay here with you. You don’t have to eat us. I can share my bread with you. You are not alone anymore. ”

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Nin responds. “You can’t stay here. This darkness will consume us all. The chaos witch told me how to get your dad in exchange for my magic. I can’t leave here. If I do, I will die because I have no magic left. My life is bound to the demon Vorax and drives my Mystic. My seed and it is consuming Nothing, so I will die anyway. You two need to leave before you become Nothing too.”

“Come home with us. I won’t leave you.” responds Punkin as she holds onto Nin tighter.

As Punkin sheds a tear on Nin’s shoulder, a bright purple and white aura washes over Nin and Nin’s aura becomes an intense red with white.

Suddenly a rush of light emanates from Nin and her tears fill with mana.

“Did you just restore my magic?” asks Nin in disbelief.

“That’s impossible…” interrupts Cer. “Magic cannot be created out of Nothing.”

Studying the flow of mana moving between Punkin and Nin, Cer uses Clarity’s insight and hypothesizes, “I see, she just helped you connect your Mystic with her Mana. You always had magic- you just did not have mana to source you and your Mystic was cut off by Vorax. Magic is never created or destroyed, only disconnected, transformed, or transferred. It cannot be made out of Nothing. Inside Nothing, the rules are different. Not only can we reconnect Magic, but we can create it. We need to still rid of Vorax’s essence.”

Emanating from Cer’s chest, Clarity chimes in, “It will need a source. Nothing is a void, a vacuum, and yet it still exists against its very nature of our understanding. Because it is used to describe the absence of anything, it exists. So you can use its source to draw mana from. It is Chaos Magic.”

Puzzled by what she is hearing, Punkin focuses on the last words Clarity spoke. “Daddy made the Nothing. So is daddy chaos witch?”

Looking up with a terrifyingly defeated expression, Nin warns Cer and Punkin of the danger that lies ahead. “The chaos witch will come for me to collect her debt. She came for others before me. She is cunning, cleaver, and charming. She is also full of resentment. She will devour the world- she consumes much more than I ever did as Voraxl. You have to stop her. Only chaos can fight chaos.”

Looking mortified from her imagining a witch taking bites out of the world, Punkin yells. “Nooo hurting people! Daddy, can you stop her from eating us?”

Pulling Punkin off Nin, Cer hugs Punkin to comfort her. “That isn’t what she meant. She meant that the witch will eat our magic.”

Giggling at Cer’s words, Punkin imagines an ugly witch eating snowballs and balls of dust and light.

Ignoring Punkin’s giggles, Nin warns Cer and Punkin. “She can read our seeds. She knows what motivates us and uses it to bargain with us. She is a Jinn. You must stop her from bartering for our magic.”

“Let’s go get her!” yells Punkin as her affect changes from giggles to an attitude of determination. “Uhh how do we get out again?”

“If it really is void, let me try something.” responds Cer while raising the arm with prayer beads and tapping hand signs with Cer’s other hand.

Feeling the air and darkness vibrate, Punkin jumps into Nin’s arms. “Hold me! Daddy made the darkness mad!”

Without warning, the darkness is vacuumed into the prayer beads, leaving Cer gasping for air from the amount of energy it took to draw the darkness inward.

“I am still alive. I cannot feel Vorax!” exclaims Nin, as she sheds tears onto the ground- sprouting grass as soon as her tears hit the floor.

“I figured Vorax ate enough Nothing to become Nothing or part of it. So I just absorbed Vorax into my beads and Vorax took the Nothing with it.”

“YOU ATE NOTHING?” screams Punkin as she digs into her pocket. “You hungry? When I eat nothing, I get hungry.”

“I sealed it. I didn’t eat it.” responds Cer before turning to Nin to speak to her. “Head to the Athenaeum and help the others evacuate. It’s the least you can do to atone for the pain and suffering you caused. The others will welcome you there and then you find your way to The Mecca. It is the beautiful city of the newfound wholeness. People will not recognize you because we only saw the demon that possessed you. We are off to find the chaos witch. Do you know what she looks like or how to find her?”

Closing her eyes to hide her concerns, Nin reopens her eyes and looks directly at Cer. “She is a shapeshifter. I do not know her native form. She takes on many forms. I know she is headed to the Efatas.”

Realizing the signs and implications, Cer turns to Punkin and asks, “Where is Miyas. Where did she go?”

“I dunno. I left her. She said she was looking for the chaos witch so she didn’t want to help our friends save people.” shrugs Punkin.

Reaching for Punkin, Cer sets Punkin on the ground out of Nin’s arms. “Come, we need to start heading south to Efatas. If Miyas is the chaos witch, we need to catch up to her.”

“How do you suppose you will do that?” Nin asks with deep curiosity.

Tilting their heads up to smell the air, Cer and Punkin look at each other with raised eyebrows before Punkin shrugs her shoulders. “I can’t smell her here. I smell Yam-Yam and Styxie.”

Shrugging, Cer admits smelling no sign of Miyas either. “Guess we will have to do this the hard way and walk. We will go find the chaos witch together.”

Bending down to give Punkin a kiss on her forehead, Nin pinches both of Punkin’s cheeks. “I will see you later, home. Thank you for loving me, even when I couldn’t love myself. That is the strongest magic ever.”

Grabbing a vial out of her pocket, Nin sheds some tears into the vial and hands it to Cer. “I do not know how potent they will be for Mana, but the Mystic is strong now that Pupu has helped me restore my will. Use these when you feel depleted and defeated. They heal. It was one of the last gifts Claira taught me before you two were a thing. The pain I felt losing you was equal to the joy I felt when I thought I could be with you. Now my pain and darkness is gone, I can only imagine how potent my tears are now to heal.”

Accepting her gift, Cer places the vial into a small box and places it in Cer’s pocket. “Thank you. You have a far journey ahead to meet the others. We have our own paths to take now. May Mana flow in your favor and May your Mystic never Waver.”

Excited to be back with her father despite the long journey ahead, Punkin grabs Cer’s hand. “Let’s go! We will find the chaos witch and maybe she can be our friend and stop eating people.”

Forcing a smile and trying to appreciate the limited time with Punkin, Cer agrees. “Yes, maybe we can stop her and she will be our friend.” Or maybe she will do whatever it takes to consume you. You are the exact opposite of whatever she is. Your magic brings order in all this chaos. Your magic shows us where and how we belong. Don’t ever change your Mystic essence, whatever happens, Pupu. Know you will never be alone as long as your light sees the light in others.