Chapter 9

The Falls

Applause was the first sound Meredith heard. Stepping out of the white they had entered, she took a moment for her vision to correct itself enough to see. The sound was recognizable, though, and she figured they had to have done something right. The pressure around her and the others’ shoulders confirmed that thought without a doubt. They were pulled in, and Meredith finally blinked enough to get a handle on where she was.

Their trio was back inside the front hall of the Abyssal Palace. It was still lit with the same kind of flames, unforgiving and foreboding, but Meredith didn’t feel scared. She had endured its trial and came out the other side. Ahead of her, the doors to the palace were wide open, signifying that they had finished. Hung around their necks was Amelia, the sense of pride in the commander evident in the way she squeezed them.

“Commander…we made it through the trial. Please don’t kill us now,” Emil wheezed out. If anything, that made Amelia hug them tighter, but she still managed to release them seconds later. Her eyes were shimmering.

“How much more mature you all look.”

“Oh please, it’s been, what, a few hours at worst?” Vivian said, cocking her hips to the side while rolling her eyes at the commander. “Nothing happened while we were gone, did it?”

“Other than my protégés kicking ass, no.” Meredith cracked a smile at how happy Amelia sounded for the lot of them. It didn’t hurt that Amelia genuinely considered the three of them as successors to her. “I was worried, you know.”

“Commander, with so much on the line, we’d never let you down,” Meredith said. She put a hand across her chest, bowing in assurance while the commander watched her carefully. “This is our fight, too, and now, we’re ready to take it to them.”

“So, you have your answers? Done pitying yourself?”

“Yes.” Meredith split from the group, walking towards the hall that would take them out of there. She turned her head back, a smirk stretching her lips. “I’m done running. I’m done crying. Point me at the Order.”

After her statement was left in the air, Amelia laughed, slapping to her forehead. “Well, would you look at that. Glad to have you back in action, Guardian Childs. Want me to make you a commander before we go off to war?”

“No thanks. I’m good,” Meredith admitted. Amelia sounded like she wasn’t going to take no for an answer, taking the teen in a headlock and giving her a sharp noogie. Meredith shouted for her to let go, but neither Vivian nor Emil moved to help. They were both doubled over with laughter. “Okay, I get it, but how about not? I don’t deserve that yet, commander!”

“Aw, but who else will I put in charge besides Emily?”

“Plenty of others, like whoever’s in Flare Squad.”

“How about captain, then?” Vivian put forward. Meredith glared at her for the suggestion. “That way you can make all three of us captains.”

“Whoa, now, I never said I wanted to be a Guardian! But it’s not…a bad idea…”

“Don’t be an idiot, Emil. What else are you going to do? Go home to mom and dad?”

Meredith was pretty sure Vivian had clairvoyance of the moment, as the second she’d said those words to Emil, footsteps came down the front hall, calling for Amelia with urgency. When one of the Guardians that had come with them stopped in front of their party he saluted and made his announcement. “Transmission from Lacardia, sir!”

“Transmission? I thought I told no one to contact over open communications…” The Guardian appeared as bewildered as Amelia, but the commander took the whole issue in stride. With a jerk of her head, she indicated for all of them to walk on. “We’ll take it in transit, whatever this is about. With any luck, Taylor and Tempest Squad will have some answers by the time we’re back in Lumarina.”

“Lumarina, huh?” The scattered thoughts of her hometown brought Meredith to thinking about the falls that were near to it. Walking along, she caught up to the commander. “Sir, even if there’s a way over the falls…how do we intend to get through it without breaking apart?”

“No idea, but your parents have been helping us tirelessly reinforce the few skyships we have, and if the theory of your magic being the code cracker is correct, then we’ll have to rely on you. For now, we need to prove the theory’s right.” Amelia slapped her on the back, carrying her out of the palace and back under the starry sky. Their skyship was hardly a journey away, though Meredith wished it was longer as her stomach tumbled upon start-up. It was easier to bear than usual, but still, Meredith kept herself seated as Amelia brought up the communication line to Lacardia. “Well, this is a surprise Madam Minister.”

“My apologies for using the open communication, commander, but I had little time to make sure this message got to you,” called the voice of Emil’s mother. Said boy stepped over to the screen, watching his mother like he expected her to address him. She did exactly that. “Emil, you left so fast, I’d expected a goodbye of sorts.”

“Like you said, mom: we have little time. I couldn’t stay home,” he told her. She nodded with pursed lips, understanding and agreeing with his conclusion. “What’s going on in Lacardia?”

“Raymond Childs is in the country.”

“My brother?!” Meredith asked. She stood with her shock, putting off the nausea in her gut to address the woman before her. “Why?”

“I couldn’t say, but I know you had asked me to keep a lookout, Emil. I can only guess they’re putting out a wide net to find the remaining Weapons. They’ll find none here,” she answered Meredith. Knowing her brother was out there, doing grunt work for Marcus, Meredith found her hands balling. He was so loyal to the man that he was forced to be a simple tool. “It’s a smart play. He wasn’t involved in the attack on Lacardia or directly involved in the destruction of Corps Castle. We can do nothing to hinder him here. Perhaps that was counted upon. I’m sorry that I don’t know more.”

“It’s enough, mom. We know they’re still looking. That gives us a chance. Sorry I can’t come home yet, but…”

“You come home when you’re ready,” she said. It appeared difficult for her to say that, but she put a smile on her face to indicate her sincerity all the same. “There’s a lot to do yet. Commander, you give the word, and Lacardia will be ready to mobilize. Your Guardians yet wait for your newest orders.”

“Good to know, minister. Keep Lacardia in tiptop shape.”

The screen blipped out, ending the conversation. No one on the skyship’s bridge addressed what had just been shared with them. None of it altered their course. If anything, Meredith figured that it solidified the choices they’d made for moving forward. Finding Rico was quickly becoming a far more prominent decision than anything else Amelia could have realized.

“What’s going on in that brain of yours?” Vivian asked, sidling up to Meredith with a knowing expression. She hated it when Vivian could actually read her, but she supposed the blonde thought the same of her.

“I’m thinking it’s imperative we find Rico, and not just for the ideas we’ve already thought of,” Meredith told her. It was obvious that both Amelia and Emil were listening to her discussion, and she made certain to articulate her reasons for thinking so as clearly as possible. “He might know of a way to separate souls, sure, and that’s more important than ever. The less souls Marcus has, the less power he has. I mean, there has to be reason he’s collecting so many, even those with such common magics as Eddie’s.”

“Eddie wasn’t that common,” Emil told her. “Multi-element Magic is rare.”

“Sure, but he could have easily made that up with another common set of souls. Heck, Cynthia alone uses ice magic, right? I think he’s needed a collection of souls inside him for whatever he’s planning, and if we get rid of them…”

“Gives us a chance at ending his dumb ambitions,” Vivian reasoned. Light had come back through the windows, the skyship fully leaving the domain of the alchemic settlement. Already, Lumarina was visible, and they weren’t the only ones heading for it. “What’s the second reason we need to find Rico?”

“Because he found a Legendary Weapon, himself.” She didn’t need to explain what that meant, but she did clarify. “I can’t do it, not over a whole world’s worth of space, but he and Marcus have found them in the past. I figure, wherever that last one is, if me and Rico combine our souls for a moment, we can find it.”

“Long shot, but it’ll be worth it. Let’s see what our comrades have found. Take us down!” Amelia’s order was absolute. The skyship’s nose turned downward, for her parents’ garage, leaving no room for the other skyship to make its descent. Amelia didn’t care, especially when it was noted that the other skyship was planning to land on the outskirts. “Keep the ship running. If we need to get moving, then we need to be ready.”

“Sir!” the two onboard said, while their commander swept from the bridge. The trio moved aside to allow her to pass, cramped in the small space of a skyship that was lesser than the Defender, but followed her out right away.

In the garage, her parents were waiting, with her father examining the ship for any maintenance that may have needed to be performed. Meredith let her eyes wander to the hull of the skyship, even as her feet followed her commander, and she noticed the special plating crafted to resist damage from impact and water. Despite not having shared plans until recently, it was obvious they had been thinking about the possibilities of the falls causing issues for their skyships. The process of it fascinated her, but Meredith had to force her gaze from it as she tore into the street with Amelia.

Outside the Corps building was the familiar crowd, mostly comprised of Clive and Victor. The latter watched his daughter, but Vivian didn’t pay him the time of day. The ones they were waiting for were dashing down the length of cobblestone road for them, waving. Amelia lifted her voice.

“Find anything?”

“Hit the jackpot, sir!” Jay called out. Emily was with him as Brynn led the pack. Taking up the far rear was the duo of Bruce and Trent along with Sal and Kenny, the last two looking winded. “We went to the archipelago and-”

“It’s gone,” Brynn reported. She didn’t salute like the Guardians flanking her, but cut right to the chase. Amelia far preferred it over the formalities. Her protégés stopped at her side, and Meredith locked gazes with Brynn. The pink-haired girl’s lips twitched, seeing the purpose now instilled inside her eyes. “The islands have been almost entirely eaten away by the falls.”

“We tried to see over the other side. Had the archipelago just dropped off the map, or was it destroyed?” Emily continued. “We couldn’t see the other side, but we found this wall that rebuffed us.”

“More like we-”

“We tried to sail through it,” Brynn elaborated, cutting Jay off once more. He didn’t look happy, but other than some coarse mutterings he just decided to let his female companions take the show. “However, it was like a mist thick as death. A shield of thoughts and feelings that pushed us away, and when we came out the other end…we were back where we started.”

“So…there’s no way through…” Amelia said. Her sigh was heavy, and her fingers rubbed to her temples. Meredith didn’t think that was the right answer, her head turning towards the other side of town, where the falls were visibly approaching Lumarina. “How can you say we hit the jackpot then?”

“When we were lost in that mist, for a moment, it felt like we could…sense something. Those sorts of thoughts and feelings were pushing us away, protecting us or something else,” came Brynn’s answer. Meredith started to step backwards, closer to the falls. Her Soul Vision came on, narrowing in on the oppressive flood. Brynn was still talking, but starting to fade the closer she got to that roar. “I’m not sure if it’s a roadway or something directly on the other side, but it almost felt like we were put on some sort of dimensional path before we were redirected.”

“Could be the world’s soul trying to protect itself, right?” Vivian put forth. No one knew.

But Meredith tried.

She didn’t know she was doing it, but her hands were stretched out, grasping at what lay far beyond their meager reach. Her soul spread forth, calm as the sea surrounding her home, but with the ferocity of that which she was trying to pierce. The closer it got, the more familiar it felt. She had experienced this before: the wails of many souls, trapped in a churning vacuum. It was just like what she had experienced at the Gash, or similar enough. The veil of souls that was there wasn’t as strong or all-consuming. They felt…communicable.

What’s past you? Can I reach through you?

Stolen novel; please report.

Her question was unanswered, no matter how hard she pushed. Her feet moved of their own accord, taking her forward slowly, as if distance would make all the difference. In that storm of souls, she knew there had to be a way to get through it and see what was beyond. If the soul of the world wasn’t beyond Marcus’s reach, then at least talking with this wasn’t beyond hers. Her brow furrowed, and she felt the sweat upon it in her consideration.

The closer her soul felt, the more that veil tried to rebuff her and send her back. It wanted to echo inside her and drive her mad, just as the Gash had, but she wasn’t letting it. She pushed back, her soul screaming with her intentions. Let me through you! Let me see what’s beyond your pain!

The souls there, aimless and wandering, faltered. They heard her, and to Meredith, there was the feeling of many of those souls attaching to her, feeding into her. Beyond her sight, a pathway opened up to a land beyond, under a sunrise clearer and more beautiful than any Meredith had seen. It didn’t last long, catching only a glimpse of the greenery that lay there, but it was enough to confirm what the others had surmised.

You may pass…friend…help us…

The earnest plea faded with the crashing water of the falls, and Meredith’s Soul Vision slipped away. She buckled, dropping to her knees as she sucked in air to recover that which she’d lost.

“Mera!” Emil caught her before the rest of her body slumped. She gasped and reached up to clutch at her chest. The torment inside had ended, though it hadn’t hurt as much as she expected it to. Something else was quickly taking its place: a giddy feeling about knowing what was beyond that torment. “You okay?”

“I’m…I’m fine…” Meredith pulled herself up by his shoulder, wiping away her sweat to grin at the boy. “There is something there, beyond the veil.”

“You saw something?” Amelia asked, cutting off the rest of her conversation with Brynn to approach her. A hand was on Meredith’s back, insisting that she share all that she knew. “Is Rico there?”

“I have no idea,” Meredith admitted. She was still a bit unsteady on her feet, but pulled herself tall. “But I made a path. It let me through and off the edge of the falls there’s something. If Rico isn’t found here, then he’s definitely there.”

“And what will you do once you’ve found the lout?” Victor’s question disallowed any good feelings they may have found. His arm was in a sling, Meredith noticed, but he still stood with the stature of someone who believed himself in charge. Vivian glowered at her father, but he dismissed her, as always. “It took how many pathetic children to bring down the man? What will you do if he refuses your offer, Chavez?”

“Rico wouldn’t do that!” Emil protested. He let go of Meredith to confront the man, standing a full head shorter than him. “Rico made mistakes, and so did I, but the one thing none of us could deny was that Rico wanted what was best for the world, and he would never condone Marcus’s methods. I don’t know what’s in his head all the time, but he would help us. He would never go against us.”

“And so, what?” Victor asked. He was upon Emil, casting a looming shadow over the teen. Emil stood his ground. “Even if you get him on your side, you’re nothing but weak, little mutts. Pups who have barely left the den. The one you put so much stock in is barely standing and you would rely on weaklings like that.”

“Last I checked, father, you were the one with an embarrassing loss to Marcus,” Vivian said. She was coming down the street to join them now, pushing Emil back so that she could get in between the two. “This isn’t your place to intervene.”

“If not mine, then whose?” Father and daughter glared at one another, neither choosing to relent at the other’s force of will. “In the month since the Corps fell, Chavez has had nothing to show for it. No Weapon, and no victory over Marcus’s so-called ‘New Corps’. Yet you think you make a difference? You don’t even know that anything you’re attempting will succeed. Weak.”

“Victor, I’d recommend keeping your mouth shut,” Amelia threatened. She was incensed, walking forward to confront the man before Vivian threw her arm out to stop the advance.

“No, father, you’re the one who’s weak, unable to keep a check on your pride,” the blonde spoke. “This isn’t your Corps and it never will be. We don’t need your kind. We’ll fight this battle ourselves and prove what we stand for.”

“And what will you fight it with? Hm? Well, Viv, surely you’ve thought about how you don’t have a weapon.” Her father’s jeers silenced the others that were awaiting orders. Meredith adjusted the angle of her body to watch Vivian, waiting to see how she’d respond. Her father bent low. “Of course, you haven’t. You’ve relied on my bow so much that you’re nothing without it. You’ve always been nothing without me.”

Vivian didn’t hesitate. Her fingers glowed and she slashed down. The air glowed red with enchantment, the crescent strip impacting with her father’s chest and sending him to the ground. He gagged, landing on his broken arm when he hit the cobblestones. His daughter stood above him, a sneer on her face.

“My magic is mine!” she declared. “My friends are choices I’ve made. What I’m to do now is my own choice. Mine. They’ve nothing to do with you, father. Now shut up. We’re stopping Marcus, and you can sit down and watch, or you can follow orders.”

“Viv…”

“Hey, asshat,” Meredith shouted, tromping over to throw her arm around her friend, “how about you start calling your daughter by her actual name? She’s only Viv to us, because she earned it. You haven’t earned anything.”

“Okay, girls, I think we’re quite done berating Lacroix,” Amelia said. Her hands wrapped themselves around the girls’ shoulders, prying them away from the man who was a cross between enraged and confused. There was nothing else they needed to say to him, and Amelia wheeled them back to where they had started. “Now, Childs, you think you can get us through?”

“I can try at the very least, and I’m pretty sure I’d be the only one able to. Though I think we’ll want to try from the former archipelago. If we manage to get on the other side…”

“Fully agreed. Engines are primed and ready.”

“Orders, sir?” Emily requested, she and the rest of Tempest Squad saluting. Amelia stopped before them, leveling her gaze on everyone gathered with them, from the students of Lacardia poking their head out to Clive and his small band of men. She smirked.

“We’re nearing the end here, people. Those of us going to the place beyond the falls will find Rico, and find the Weapon to keep it far out of Marcus’s hands.”

“Maybe we can toss it over the falls…” Emil muttered from the corner of his lips. Vivian snorted at the suggestion. Amelia continued on as if never interrupted.

“However, we have no idea where battle awaits us, so we need to be ready if the fight for this world comes to us. Taylor, go back to the Metropolis. Make sure the Home Guard is ready, because if we fail, those falls will drive more and more people to the center of the world. Captain Clive, I need you and the remaining Guardians to make sure communications are open in a last-ditch effort. Lacardians, you’re doing the same as Taylor. Go home and get ready. Tempest Squad, with us. If the Order wants to stand in our way, you’re still the best offensive force I have.

“Are we agreed?”

“Sir!” The salutes and shouts rang out, understanding and prepared for what lay ahead. Meredith found her clenched fists pulling themselves to her chest. She spun, nodding to Brynn as the girl turned away, and winking to Conrad and the rest of A-Class. They were surprised by her, but Conrad grinned back. They were done with doubting.

“Childs! Move it or lose it!”

“Yes, commander,” Meredith said. She wished she could say more to everyone else, to thank them for having stuck by her this far. Instead, she resigned herself to imparting as much as she could with her eyes and smiles. Doing all she could, Meredith followed her commander back inside the garage, to where her parents were waiting and the engine of the skyship was continually humming.

“The reinforcement for pressure is still holding well, commander, but I can’t promise anything on our welded cannons,” her father said to Amelia. The woman waved him off.

“You’ve done enough, Mr. Childs. I’m sure it’ll all hold just fine. Leave the rest to your daughter.”

Her reminder that Meredith would be going with them made her parents look to her. She wanted to say even more to the pair of them, but Meredith stepped forward for but a mere second to give what final address she could. “I’ve got this, and I’ll get Ray. You two should get to the Metropolis. I don’t think we’ll be needing Lumarina anymore, and there’s no telling.”

Her parents had no words to say, or they were deliberating which were the right ones. As always, her mother beat her father to the punch. “Fight hard, Mera.”

“I will. Love you both!” Meredith shouted. Not willing to risk another barking command from Amelia, she ran towards the ramp of the skyship, and with one more wave, disappeared inside. The moment she was on the ship, the ramp closed up, and she squeezed through to the small bridge where her companions and Tempest Squad were gathered. Emily clapped a hand on her, a small blue glow on her body to keep the nausea at bay. The skyship lifted.

“Sal, soon as we’re clear in the air, you go full-speed at that place, understood? No more waiting around.”

“Your orders, commander,” Sal responded. Meredith could tell she loved the idea, her grin almost face-splitting as she flicked switches on her console. Next to her, Kenny was boisterously chuckling.

The skyship rattled and shook a bit while it rose, clearing the top of the garage and sending a flock of black birds soaring to the heavens. Meredith stood back, letting Tempest Squad and the other Guardian duo do the work they had to. She felt the force of acceleration jerk her behind the nape of her neck when their vehicle shot forward, zooming across the ocean with all the speed it could muster. Meredith knew it wouldn’t take them long to reach their goal, not with how small the sea had become, and she decided to breathe and prepare herself for her duty.

“Mera, you sure this is going to work?” Emil asked her, his voice a whisper that was afraid of disturbing her. “Like, you won’t fracture your soul like Marcus, will you?”

“This is Mera. She always manages to make it work, even if by dumb luck.”

“Thanks for the compliment, Viv,” Meredith responded, rolling her eyes. “I’ll be fine, Emil. I’m not forcing anything from those souls. We’re just talking. Just like Rico.”

“If you say so…” Meredith decided to assure him with a wink, and went back to getting ready.

Everything slowed around her, even if the skyship was moving faster than ever, the evident strain of the engine audible to Meredith’s ears. All else was drowned in the sentiments of the souls that existed around her. Her Soul Vision expanded, touching to their goal as they drew near. Amelia was saying something to her, but she didn’t listen, focusing on what was right in front of her.

Please let me pass. Me and my friends.

Her request was heard; she could sense it in the shifting of souls that surrounded the edge of their world. They were mulling it over, surprised to have been offered a choice, of all things. Their howling rage and weeping flooded Meredith, but she stood against it despite the rebellion of her body. All of those souls were crying inside her, while she touched to them, asking them to gently move aside. Bit by bit, they were. The skyship buckled, jarring her body, but Meredith yet remained connected.

Why are you in pain…?

Because we are used.

The confession confused Meredith. Used by what? By whom? Marcus? She didn’t know, but it made her realize the truth of that veil of souls as their prow proceeded into the mist.

“Hold tight, everyone! We’re entering the unknown! Be ready for everything!”

Amelia’s orders had everyone but Meredith hold tight to something. She was too busy peering into that mist of souls, hardly even registering the fact that gallons of water, or what felt like it, were suddenly crushing the top of their skyship. The souls were more important, their lights thanking her one by one as they moved aside, obeying her simple request.

You’re the world’s soul…or part of it, aren’t you? she asked of them. None of them took a break from their gratitude to answer, but for one. It sounded like a woman, but Meredith couldn’t be sure.

We are what is siphoned to guard this world from what it once was.

What does that mean?

More silence before the declarative answer came. You will understand, I promise. Restore the pillars, and free us from our duty. Guide us gently.

Free us…

They were all joined in this, melding their call for freedom with their gratitude. The skyship shook again, and Meredith fell to her knees, feeling the magic leaving her body. There was another thump at Vivian hitting the floor while they slid deeper into the mist. The haze was clearing to Meredith, the last of the souls parting.

“What’s…going on…?” Vivian panted, sounding as if she was drained of all energy. She wasn’t the only one. “It’s like my magic is…weak?”

“Feels like I’m being squeezed here,” Jay commented. Meredith couldn’t understand why they were all reacting so. Bruce and Trent were in a corner of the bridge, clasping to something with wild eyes while Emily barely remained upright against the walls. “Like I’m sliding through a tube to another place.”

“Childs, tell me we’re almost out!”

Meredith couldn’t obey her commander, too focused on the road ahead. Light shined, assaulting her eyes. She screamed from the pressure inside her soul, worried that she’d lied to Emil and that it was, in fact, fracturing, but the pain stopped as soon as it started, and with the last of her strength, her calls to the souls came to an end. They wrenched themselves apart, the mist with them, and the pounding feeling came ended. There was naught but silence, and the skyship sailed on through.

Jay’s description was right, that feeling of being pressed through a tube upon her breast while they finally traveled out of the mist. The others were on the ground, slumped and drained, but Meredith shakily stood, glancing through the window of the bridge and shuffling forward.

“Would you look at that…?” she breathed. Next to her, Sal heard and glanced up, her mouth dropping in awe.

“What a sight…It’s like a whole other world…”

That, it most certainly was.

Before them was an expansive green field. At first glance, it appeared to be uninhabited, but small structures could be seen from their height, and Meredith was sure that if she had the energy to put her magic to use, she’d see many people there. The plains rolled over into a mountainside, and an even larger ocean than Meredith had ever remembered seeing. It felt glorious and free.

Wanting to get a closer look, Meredith leaned over the console to stare up at where they had come from. The falls still existed, dropping all the way down to the surface, but vanishing in obscurity above that ocean. There appeared to be the mouths of a cave dotting different places in the falls, and Meredith was filled with a certain wanderlust to explore all of it. Whether it was some new dimension or another planet, or an extension of their own that she never even knew existed, Meredith was unsure, but it all excited her. She whipped back to all those with her, nearly collapsed on the floor.

“Guys, you have to look at this!” They didn’t, barely able to get up as the skyship continued floating forward. It baffled her, seeing them so drained of energy. She put her Vision back on, careful to not expend too much of her own, and she tumbled into the console at what she saw. Their souls were wildly fluctuating in their energy, between full magic power and near empty. “What the hell?”

An alarm went off in the bridge, and before Sal could make adjustments, the skyship crashed into something. The hull creaked and groaned, and Meredith could swear she heard something snapping. The engine choked and panic rose. After a few more sputters, the skyship suddenly stopped. Meredith scrambled over to the engine room door, opening it to find that a side of the room had been sheared off, taking a piece of the engine with it. Just past that, it looked like the skyship had hit a barrier of sorts, which she quickly reasoned was one last bulwark of souls she hadn’t anticipated.

The skyship plummeted.

Screams came from Vivian and Emil, while Meredith felt her own body being sent into a sudden freefall. The rushing waterfall outside was visible to her as she tumbled inside the engine room, unable to stop herself. A cave below was fast approaching, and Meredith tried to reach for it with her soul, but found she could hardly concentrate.

Come on, Mera! Think! Do something!

Her cry was heard, and the skyship suddenly stopped. Her body was lifted upward, hitting the ceiling of the room before falling down and rolling along the ground. She was about to fall out of the skyship, when she felt something soft stop her from doing so. Simultaneously, the vehicle grated against something hard. Meredith gave a little cough and looked up, recognizing they were stopped at the mouth of the cave she’d seen, the skyship suspended and pulled over until it rested on the bedrock that formed the footing for the cave entrance. Then she stared up to her savior.

“Welcome to the other world, trial girl.” Meredith grinned.

“That’s Guardian Girl,” she wheezed out, rolling away from his foot before she cast her smile up at her fellow soul-user. “Found you, Rico.”