As I drift toward the light, I realize something is floating within it. No, not something, but someone – a person with six wings fanned behind her.
In the brilliant glow, I can't make out her face. But somehow, I know she's smiling.
"Finally you're here." Her warm voice blooms around me, chasing away the darkness. "Thank you for coming all this way."
Answer her. I must answer. But how when I don't have a mind to form words, let alone a mouth to speak them?
It doesn't matter. After all, some part of me must still exist – even if it's just this desperate, aching longing. This desire to close the distance between us.
So I use that wish, not my voice, to reach for her.
"Mom?"
~*~
So this was Tielos.
Meg still didn't know what to think about it. Yes, every wizard dreamed about going to Tielos, but she'd never expected it to happen like this. Tossed through the portal thanks to the Infernal Legion's machinations, not because she herself had become strong enough.
Well, no use navel-gazing about it. Focus on the task at hand – namely, scouting this Sunless Sea place.
Not that there was much to see. Though her eyes had adjusted after several hours, they still couldn't penetrate the sheer blackness. So Meg had cast a weak augmenting spell on Zenith's sword – not enough to help much in a fight, but its glow would at least keep them from running into walls.
Zenith led the group with his sword raised high, splashing eerie red highlights across the rock faces. Not exactly the pleasantest of atmospheres, but while at first Meg had jumped at the slightest hint of movement in her peripheral vision, she'd soon come to realize the four of them seemed to be the only living things around here. Even the water remained smooth as a mirror, without so much as a ripple.
Which was creepy in its own way, but Meg supposed she'd take it over being attacked by monsters.
So far, they seemed to be on a large island. The further they headed the narrower it became, until water surrounded them on both sides like they were crossing a stone bridge. How long they'd been scouting Meg couldn't say, especially with her phone out of commission.
But surely maintaining the spell ought to have taken some kind of toll on her by now, weak as it might be. Instead, the Levia thrummed strong and steady in her veins – stronger than she'd ever felt it, in fact.
All for the better. It meant she could support all three of the others if any danger came up. No need for another wizard, though Ryan had tried to whine his way into going with them.
"Say." When Darian spoke, her voice echoing off the cavern walls, Meg jolted. If it weren't for Lodo grabbing her arm, she might've tripped right over a crack in the ground.
A bit dramatic of a reaction, but still. None of them had exchanged so much as a word since they'd started scouting.
"Is something wrong, my liege?" Zenith tilted his head back at Darian.
"Never mind me." Darian rubbed her chin. "I was just thinking…."
"Does this area look familiar to you?" Lodo asked.
"No." Darian shook her head, then breathed out. "It's actually – it's about Theo."
Zenith stiffened. "Theo, my liege?"
"I wasn't the only one who saw it, was I?" Darian gazed up at the stalactites hanging from the ceiling. "Back in the Liminal...he grew six wings."
Meg's own memories were a panicked blur, like a half-forgotten nightmare. Yet one image stood out stark and clear: wings of pink light spreading behind Theo, glowing just as bright as the diagram beneath him.
Her skin prickled. If Darian had seen it too, she couldn't possibly dismiss it as a hallucination.
Trying to lighten the mood, Meg teased, "You sure it was six? It all happened too quickly for me to count."
"Oh, you know what I mean." Darian snorted. "On Earth it shouldn't be possible for any wizard to grow one pair of wings, let alone three."
"You don't need to tell me that." Meg kept her tone light, but her heart had begun racing. She knew as well as any wizard what it meant to grow wings. It was the culmination of their journey, proof they'd finally come into their power. With it, they transformed from human to seraphim and gained the right to enter a Fortress.
Only the rarest few wizards could ever hope for this honor, and only after decades of training. Yet Theo had grown wings before even reaching Tielos, with less than half a year's experience behind him.
All along, Meg had known there was more to Theo than met the eye. But she'd never imagined this.
"Sir Zenith, do you have any insights?" Darian asked.
Zenith shook his head. "Forgive me, my liege. I can remember nothing."
Hadn't he grown wings too? A stark white pair, like the blades swirling around him. But when Meg tried to focus on the image, it slipped away like sand through her fingers.
"That's all right." Darian gave a dismissive wave of her hand. Zenith turned back around, clearly intent on continuing forward.
But then Darian froze, her spine stiffening. "I wonder," she said, slow and careful, "if it had something to do with the Star of Miriel."
The skin on the back of Meg's neck prickled. "The Star of Miriel?"
"That's what Dr. Markov called the gem." Darian turned toward Meg, her eyes hard and serious. "It was the last thing he told me, before...before Greisen took his life. I'm sorry, I should have told you earlier."
So Gene Markov was indeed dead. Meg had already suspected as much, but the knowledge still settled like a cold stone in her gut.
"He set up the trap because the Infernal Legion threatened his family," Darian went on, uncharacteristically soft. "But in the end, he tried to help me."
Meg swallowed, her throat tight. Yet a curious kind of relief rippled through her. At the very least, Gene had tried to atone for his betrayal.
Even if she didn't have the slightest clue how to use the knowledge he'd given them. The Star of Miriel.
"Miriel," Lodo piped up. "Surely he couldn't mean Princess Miriel?"
"Know any other Miriels?" Darian said dryly.
Miriel, who had defeated the Demon Prince after a grueling hundred days' battle. Miriel, who had sacrificed her life to create the Fortresses. To Meg, it was a story as warm and familiar as Cinderella or Snow White, one Lodo had read to her every night as a little girl.
"Are you saying this crystal – Star – has something to do with her?"
"I don't know." Sighing, Darian ran a hand through her hair. "All this time I thought Miriel was just a story. But if this crystal was hers...if it has her Levia, then…."
Then maybe, just maybe, it had given Theo the power to grow six wings.
Lodo cleared his throat. "Well, this is fascinating and all, but not much use to our current predicament, I'm afraid. Let's study this crystal to our hearts' content once we finish up scouting, hmm?"
"Ah, right." Darian huffed a laugh. "You have a point there. Sir Zenith?"
Zenith nodded and lifted his sword again. The red glow danced off the gnarled columns in front of them.
Then a sound pierced the air, shattering the Sunless Sea's unnatural calm. A bloodcurdling shriek.
And if Meg wasn't mistaken, it came from behind them.
She threw a glance at Lodo, who nodded, and then at Darian and Zenith. Without another word, they took off running back to the others.