Auntie Lomain was sitting in a chair with her back turned towards Addie. She was facing Nettal’s bed while holding onto her hand.
Only after Addie got all of that information from her spatial sense, did her eyes finally adjust to the darkness. Auntie was wearing a modest nightgown, and Addie could barely see the left side of her face. It looked like she had been crying.
“You know, Addie, when we first found Nettal and she was still alive, I was so grateful. But now that we know the full extent of her soul damage, I just want my little girl to wake up again.”
Addie didn’t know what to say, so she just remained quiet.
After a moment of silence, Auntie laughed. It was a sad laugh, one only given at the desperation and ridiculousness of the situation. She took a handkerchief out of one of her pockets and used it to wipe her face. Then, she turned halfway to look at Addie and beckoned her over.
In moments, a simple wooden chair grew out of the floor next to Auntie, and she waved at Addie to sit down.
“What am I supposed to do with you, child?” Auntie asked.
Addie got the feeling she wasn’t really supposed to answer the question, so instead she just sat there and curled her fingers around her skirt in tense anticipation.
“How do you go off and find a dragon in a single night? No, how do you get soul damage, recover, encounter inhuman monsters, and then top off the night by telling me you befriended a dragon?”
Auntie paused and her face turned upset. Then, she stood up and got in Addie’s face, pointing down at her. “You! Why you...” all of the tension released from Auntie at once, and she flopped bonelessly back into her chair, then covered her face with both hands. “Why do you remind me so much of my grandmother?”
“Is she the lady who bonded with all those birdies?”
“You remembered. Yes, that’s her. Do you remember what else I said about her?”
“You said one day she went on an adventure and never returned.”
“That’s right, Addie. She never came back. Your father and I never learned what happened to her.” Auntie sighed, “People like you, people like my grandmother, they live brightly. Addie, can you tell me what happens when someone who shines so brightly in your life, and brings so much happiness and true adventure everywhere she goes; what happens when someone like that disappears from your life?”
“I don’t know,” Addie replied.
“All of the light she shined on you is lost, revealing all of the darkness left in her absence.”
“Oh.” Addie didn’t want to make anyone sad. She didn’t want to go away and leave behind a bunch of darkness.
Squishy, up until now just observing the conversation, walked forward to Auntie and stood up on his hind legs. He placed his front paws on Auntie’s leg, and spoke, “Your grandmother didn’t leave behind darkness when she disappeared. She left you with memories full of true wonder and joy for life. Dwell not on what has been lost, but on what she gave you while she was here. It is up to those left behind to cherish her memory.”
At first, Addie wasn’t sure if Auntie could hear Squishy since she could only hear him over their shared soul bond. But, Auntie seemed to react to his words and tears began to stream down her face.
“You... I never expected to be lectured by a cat!” Auntie laughed, her mood already brightening.
Quietly, just a mumble really, Squishy said, “Not a cat.”
Auntie turned her head away from Squishy and grabbed onto Addie’s hand, “Addie, can you truly save Nettal?”
“Sen promised to help.”
“Sen, he’s the dragon you’ve been talking about?”
“Hmhm,” Addie vocalized as she nodded her head.
“Nettal, she’s... I’m afraid, Addie. I’m just afraid. You know what it’s like to be afraid, don’t you?”
Addie silently nodded her head.
“I can’t do anything more for her. I can’t heal her. She needs to heal her soul herself, but she doesn’t have the magic to even attempt it herself. Even if she did have magic, she can’t heal herself if she’s unconscious. We were still planning her bond initialization.” Auntie looked at Nettal’s sleeping form with a sad smile.
“Sen can heal her. He promised.”
“Take me to him.” Auntie turned back to Addie with all the seriousness she could muster. “I’ll carry Nettal. Let’s go meet this dragon.”
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It had been quite unexpected, in Addie’s opinion. She thought Auntie would yell at her and tell her to go back to bed. Instead, she got an Area Lord intent on following her into Realmspace to save her daughter.
“What am I supposed to do? Do we need to hold hands or something to go to Realmspace?”
“Not really. As long as you aren’t too far away I’ll bring both of us to Realmspace. Just stand next to me while Squishy and I focus.”
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Auntie was holding Nettal’s limp form in a princess carry. She also had an unlit oil lantern attached to a belt at her hip.
“This might take a while. Squishy and I need to concentrate.” Addie closed her eyes and started pulsing her magic in that familiar way, cycling it between herself and her partner over and over again, building it up. She had gotten a lot better at it, now, and she found her thoughts slowly drifting as she cycled her magic with the back of her mind.
She thought about the conversation with Auntie just a few minutes ago. Addie wasn’t sure if Auntie was right, or if Squishy was right. Maybe, both of them were right in different ways. At least, it made sense to Addie that people would be sad when you died. She was sad when Nettal’s light left Addie’s life. But Squishy was right too, she thought. Addie would certainly rather remember the good things that happened than the bad things after all. It wasn’t easy coming to an answer.
With just a few minutes of focus, eventually, the cycling magic became too much, and Addie had to put her full attention on it or else she would release it too early on accident.
Soon, the trio teleported out of reality and entered the familiar dark of Realmspace. Upon the transition, Auntie’s viollow started chattering wildly, the little bird not used to the overwhelming darkness of Realmspace.
Calmly, Addie walked a step closer to Auntie and turned the knob on the oil lamp for her, since she was using both hands to carry Nettal. She gasped at the sight of the twinkling floor, a lake of black glass reflecting the night sky. She seemed just as surprised by the sight as Addie had been the first time she saw it with her eyes.
“This is Realmspace?” Before Addie could answer, Auntie continued, “It’s beautiful.”
“Squishy used to live here. I think.” Addie stated simply.
“You think?”
“He doesn’t remember things from before our bond too well. He wasn’t smart then.”
“Interesting. Well, show me where the dragon is.”
Addie looked at her soul shell and focused all around it. But the compass needle was gone. She had remembered it disappearing after she entered the golden archway, but she didn’t realize it would be gone forever.
“Um. I’m not sure where Sen is anymore.”
“Why not?” Auntie looked over to Addie with a baffled expression.
“The stringy of fate on my soul shell is gone now.”
Auntie just looked confused.
“This was a waste of time, after all.” Auntie rolled her eyes. “Take me back.”
“No! Wait. Let’s at least try first!”
“Try what? Wandering around aimlessly?”
“No...” Addie looked at Squishy desperately. He always knew where to go.
He looked back at her with a blank expression.
“I use landmarks, foliage, and scents to figure out where to go. Realmspace has none of those things.”
Addie looked around in a panic, desperate to figure out what to do. Without any better ideas, she screamed at the top of her lungs, “Senefex Immortalis! Heart of Flaaaaaame!” She screamed it so hard and so long that she ran out of breath, and her throat felt raw. His name had been burned into her memory.
Throughout the black glassy ground, the twinkling stars vanished as one. Then, just as suddenly the stars reappeared as they grew in brightness, no longer just passively reflecting light, they began to shine as a source of light themselves.
Each star shone brighter and shifted its color from white to amber. Soon, all of the normally white twinkling stars had become thick droplets of molten gold. The droplets formed into one another, and the biggest drops soon turned into undulating puddles.
Addie stared at it in wonder and trailed her hand across the ground. It must have all been happening under the surface, she thought. The Realmstone felt just as smooth and chilled to the touch as ever.
The molten gold oozed out of the ground and up into the air, forming another glowing archway. The geometric patterns adorning the frame looked similar, but not quite the same as last time.
When the archway finished forming, Addie saw the giant cavern with the Sen’s hoard behind it. Addie quickly and easily stepped through the doorway with Squishy equally unfazed right behind her.
Looking behind her, Auntie seemed a lot less enthusiastic. She seemed to hesitate at the doorway, and Addie thought she might turn around right there, not willing to walk into the dragon’s den.
“Come on, Auntie! Sen won’t hurt you.”
Tentatively, Auntie stepped beyond the threshold with Nettal in her arms. With everyone now past the barrier, the golden archway immediately started flowing back into the ground—deconstructing in an exact mirroring of how it built itself in the first place.
Addie turned her head back toward the spacious cavern but didn’t see Sen anywhere yet. It didn’t take long, though. Soon, another archway formed, this time up in the air away from Addie and way bigger than the simple archway they had stepped through. The new archway forming in the center of the room was sized for a dragon.
Seeing it up in the air like that, Addie realized the cavern was even bigger than she first realized. That thought was only confirmed more when the archway finished building, and Sen flew into the cavern through it. Despite being bigger than a mansion, he still had plenty of space to fly.
His flight caused a localized storm, forcing Addie to put her hand in front of her face and shield her eyes. Sen must have noticed the humans’ discomfort, because a golden-tinged transparent dome materialized over them, protecting them from the wind.
The dragon landed close by, causing the ground to rumble. Somehow, not a single one of the precariously stacked magical trinkets, books, or gold shifted in the slightest. Auntie looked ready to run away or puke. Addie knew Sen wouldn’t hurt them, though.
Sen got comfortable, laying his gargantuan head down on his front legs. “You have returned, Addie. And this time, with two others.”
Auntie stepped forward and introduced herself, “I am Stella Lomain. Area Lord of the swamp.” She bowed her head slightly in greeting.
“I assume, then, the little one you are carrying is Nettal? Hmm. Yes, she does appear to have some level of soul damage. Place her on the ground so I may inspect her.” He seemed to dismiss Auntie, as he focused on Nettal.
Auntie tensed up, her knuckles going white. “You promise not to hurt her?”
“If I wanted to hurt any of you, you would already be ash.” Somehow, that didn’t reassure Addie at all. It didn’t seem to reassure Auntie, either, since that only made her face even paler.
Despite that, Auntie still managed to slowly lower Nettal down onto the ground in front of her.
The way Nettal’s body became gently locked in unseen magic reminded Addie of the first time Sen grabbed her up to inspect her. Slowly, Nettal floated up closer to the dragon’s face. He turned her this way and that for a bit, then simply placed the tip of a person-sized claw on Nettal’s chest.
Auntie tensed up even more, looking just about ready to leap up there and bring Nettal back to safety, but once she realized Sen was keeping his word and only gently touching Nettal, Auntie temporarily settled back down.
Auntie’s body language hadn’t gone unnoticed by Sen, either. As soon as Auntie had tensed up, Sen had paused and glanced at her until she settled down.
Sen’s eyes closed, the myriad scales on his eyelids catching the faint light as he contemplated the soul before him. There was a timeless quality to his silence, as he carefully weighed the soul in his grasp.
When at last he spoke, his voice echoed not just through the cavern but seemed to resonate with a profound depth that rumbled through Addie’s being. “As you said, this child bears the scars of a grievous assault upon her very essence,” Sen’s voice was a low rumble, each word patient and deliberate. “Such a wound is not to be taken lightly, and it speaks to the resilience of her spirit that she yet clings to life.”