They told her the day was clear, as predicted. Just as the sun broke over the horizon, they made their brief goodbyes, each Rask, Ral and Verne giving her a long embrace before leaving to get into position. Rask ruffled her hair and she made sure her scowl sat on her face long enough for him to see. The Freerunner laughed.

“Nilda and your mother will be watching over you, I’m sure of it,” he murmured as he gave her one last hug. “Stay safe, little moon.”

“And you will watch over my brother,” she said.

“I swear it. Forever and always.”

Aris started making her way up to the roof before she gave in and called the whole thing off. Laell told her when she could see the three of them leave the safe area, meaning she had to start.

A cold chill had set into her bones. She had a kind of detached fascination - both identifying and acknowledging that she was scared and anxious, yet she couldn’t quite remember the last time she felt either. A warm hand covered hers and she started. It was Camaz who stood next to her.

“Is it too cold? Do you need a blanket?”

She felt the chill thaw out slightly. The knowledge that her brother, her childhood guardian and her lover were gone affected her more than she thought. For a moment she thought she was alone again. But that wasn’t true.

“A c-cloak, here,” Laell almost immediately draped something around her.

“Thank you. It’s fine as long as you’ll be here with me.”

Camaz made no reply but stayed right by her side even as she made her way to the middle of the enchanting circle. As Laell, Gardlo and the Librarian made their last checks, making the runes glimmer around her in the ‘space’ she could see, Aris rummaged around her cloth belt and pulled out the folded up handkerchief she always kept tucked in there. She held it out approximately where she thought Camaz would be.

“If I die, I want you to give this to Verne,” she said. Her voice sounded hollow. “It’s his. He’ll want it back.”

“You can’t die because I’m not going to do that for you,” Camaz replied. “So you’re going to have to do it yourself. Honestly I thought I taught you better than that.”

She thought she heard a smile in his voice. She lowered the handkerchief and smiled back.

“When this is all over and I get my lighthouse back, we can sit and have a nice soup and sandwich. I’ll even let you have some of that wine.”

“Your musty old cellar wine?”

“It’s a fine vintage, not that you young people know anything about it,” Camaz scoffed. They joked for a few more moments about his eclectic food pantry until Gardlo cleared his throat and indicated that it was time.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Before moving away so Aris could start, Camaz squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. “It will be alright, little moon,” he said. “I promised you.”

Aris nodded. She heard his steps as he carefully stepped away from the enchanting circle. Then she turned to frown at the ground.

Twice she had turned to smoke form, according to everyone around her. Both were under times of great duress… perhaps she should worry that it wasn’t going to work. How did she do it the last two times?

How did she turn into Shade form? How did she turn back into her physical form? It was all second nature to her. Turning into Shade form was almost comforting, like hiding away in a shadowy corner where no one can hurt her. Smoke form, as far as she could remember, was nothing like that. It was during a time when she needed to reach out and punch something. It was a broiling storm of frustration spilling out.

She thought of Doran’s gemstone eyes leering down at her, his own smoke form that hung in the air. She imagined reaching out to him to clutch at his gemstone eyes…

She heard a gasp and when she turned she saw a confusing blur of solute colors.

“Go, Aris, don’t get confused,” she heard Camaz say.

Oh, it worked. Aris tried to clear her mind and follow what her mentor said. Where was she supposed to go?

Up. To the darkness.

To the Gate in the sky. To Mind.

Go.

CAMAZ

He caught her before she could hit the ground as strangely solid looking smoke spilled out from Aris’s face. He tried hard not to destroy any of the runes on the ground.

The dark smoke swirled and bubbled in the air above her body as if it was trying to figure out what it was.

“Go, Aris, don’t get confused,” he said.

The mass of smoke stilled for a few moments, then painstakingly slowly it started to drift upwards. The streak of smoke from her face thinned and thinned until there was no more connection between the two. Aris’s face looked as gray as ash and it tore at him.

“She’s barely alive,” he couldn’t help saying. This has happened before.

“W-we need to keep her here,” Laell said gently. Camaz looked down, surprised to see that he was ready to pick up his ward and carry her back down to the room. He reluctantly set her back down and covered her with the cloak Laell got her as best he could.

Again, she looked like a corpse in the middle of an enchanting circle. Again, he wondered if he could have been a better person for her. He had joked about the food and wine to make himself feel better, honestly.

He looked up at the mass of smoke swimming its way to the giant Gate and felt the despair punch through his stomach as what was previously a slight bulge in the thin dark line yawned open and something that looked like a moist eyeball rolled forward to reveal a bright white iris. A giant eye opened up in the sky and stared down at them.

No, it turned and stared at the smoke form of Aris swimming through the air. The eye opened wider, and wider and then a chorus of unholy voices filled the air.

“That does not look good,” Gardlo whispered next to him.

“On the contrary, Professor, getting a reaction out of that thing is what we want,” Camaz said. He looked back up at the giant eye. He had sent Aris to the center of the storm, front and center in front of a raging beast.

He had to believe this was the right thing to do.