In the end, I couldn't recall what I wanted to write. After tapping the back of the pen against the notebook an inordinate number of times, annoying Ani, I flipped the notebook shut and grabbed the cat charm hanging on the zipper to seal the notebook and pen back into my backpack. Flinging it loosely over my shoulder, I stepped outside my room to where Cove was reading on the couch. Catching my gaze, he lifted the cover of the book, Zenith Online, with a wink.
My backpack thumped on the floor by the door, where Cove's sat, and I collapsed on the couch next to him, snatching the ribbon Cove had been using as a toy and flinging it out into the open air, casting for cats. Ani was the first to take the bait, circling around the back of the couch to pounce as we chatted, waiting for permission to head home.
Agartha felt like a gilded prison, and after the attitudes of Ninelithe and Persephoenix, as well as the events of yesterday, I couldn't wait to get home and read on my couch with a cup of coffee to my side. To breathe in the musty scent of my ancient books with that faint hint of vanilla. Ember would have joked that it was another sign that my soul was as old as the books I liked to read. Well, if she ever met any Agarthins, she wouldn't have room to say that anymore.
A voice that sounded suspiciously like my sister popped up in my head, reminding me that my attitude towards the uneducated, and my sister's taste in books, was borderline the Agarthian's attitude, but I tossed the thought carelessly to the side. I glanced to my right and found myself trying to discern the words on the page, curious. My eyes were drawn to a near-paragraph-length note at the bottom of the page he was reading, citing the fairy tale inspiration for the segment of the text. The faint scent of wood and chemicals drifted from the page, a hallmark indicating the newness of it.
For some reason, those thoughts brought to mind a question I'd forgotten to ask in the midst of the confusion yesterday.
"How did you understand Agarthian?" They'd been hidden from the rest of the world for thousands of years; I doubted there was even a magical learning guide for the language.
Cove looked up from his book and snapped it shut, setting it off to the side. "Right. You couldn't?"
Was I supposed to? "No."
"Have you had any language difficulties in the worlds before?"
I recalled a peculiar conversation with Sky we'd had after learning I could understand the language in Heirs without thinking. "It's spacetime magic?"
Cove looked a little relieved by my question. "Yup. I don't have to think about it at all. I just…know." His lips quirked up before I could speak up. "Asking me to explain how I do it would be like asking me how I breathe. It just happens."
Interesting. Perhaps it was just another difference in our power. Still, if I could understand the text and words in Heirs, why couldn't I here? The logic didn't match.
Cove read the thought on my face, and his shoulders lifted into a shrug. "Maybe you're thinking too hard about it."
Asking me not to think about it was like asking someone not to look. It only made it worse.
He smiled sheepishly. "It's like reading in a dream. If you focus too hard on reading, the letters are meaningless. You just know."
'Like reading in a dream.' Deams of the past, present, and future. It was interesting how often that word popped up when discussing spaciotemporal magic.
There was nothing in our immediate vicinity to practice on, so I let the topic lie. Our guides came in a brief time later, as blunt and cold-blooded as ever.
"It is time for you to leave."
I bit back a scathing comment, recalling our precarious position and our guide's now-evident distaste for me after I'd blackmailed them yesterday. There was a time and a place, and this far from the portal was neither.
On our way to the newly minted portal, Cove reluctantly and doubtfully said, "We'll fix the portal while we're there."
Persephoenix fixed her gaze on him, her violet eyes cold as ice. "Leave it."
He backed off.
"Why?" I asked, tired of this.
Ninelithe and Persephoenix glanced at me, then at each other. "That is not for you to know," Ninelithe responded, his voice clipped. I leaned my head against the window and sighed, longing for my couch and my books once more. Though being home meant I was one day closer to our next world.
This time, as we walked through the dark bowels of the earth, our path was conspicuously empty and devoid of Agarthians. Cove and I exchanged uneasy gazes as we walked, our eyes darting to ensure our familiars hadn't run off again.
Our guides hefted open the door and stepped aside to allow us entry. In sync and in measured and rehearsed tones, they said, "Remember what we discussed yesterday." Their hands lifted to the doors.
"Thank you for your guidance," Cove told them.
"It was a very enlightening visit." I agreed neutrally. Ninelithe and Persephoenix's brows pinched as they scowled, slamming the door shut behind us.
"You should go ahead." Cove offered, gesturing to the silver platform since we were now limited to one transfer at a time. "I'll go last to ensure Ani and Ranch make it out pawsitivly purrfectly."
I hesitated, remembering our theory of a trap from yesterday. I decided to trust in our conclusion that it would be too difficult and useless to set up a trap on the other side for us alone. "Very well."
"I'll cat-ch ya on the other side," Cojve said, gently setting Ranch on the floor.
I nodded, lifting a hand in goodbye as I pulled myself along the thread binding this portal to the one in Chicago, watching as the walls shifted from the beautifully crafted inlaid walls to neutral drywall.