Chapter 144: Chapter 151: Welcome Back.

I followed Rafi through the ominous hallways that felt more like distant memories than reality, until eventually, she stopped right in front of a large door. “Here it is!” She cheered

The massive doors towered in front of me, giving off an intensity that made me almost afraid to open them. “Here what is?” I muttered. Even though the scenery was peaceful and sunny, it looked like the entrance to a boss battle.

Using what looked like all of her weight as leverage, she grabbed a large ringed handle and dragged open one of the doors. Despite its obvious weight, there was no sound when it moved. “You’ll see.” She said with a smile, pulling my hand and yanking me past her, shoving me further into the room from behind.

“See what? You still haven’t told me why I’m here.” I turned to look back to look at her, but she was gone. “H-hey… Rafi?”

The air around me was warm and had a soft glow to it. “Have we met?” A voice echoed from within the grand building.

I turned my eyes to see a young girl with beautiful blue hair, the color of flickering stars. It gently waved around her silver and gold dress under her pale blue hat, which stood out from the rest of her clothes.

It was tall, and pointed, lined with fur, and had strings of coins gently wrapped around it. She was so different from the other two… And yet… Her voice… and that hat, they were the same. And that hat was the one thing they all seemed to have in common, aside from the name of course.

“S-sorry, you’ll have to forgive me…” She nervously moved a strand of hair behind her ear. “I-I haven’t had company in a long time.”

I cautiously stepped forward. “You’re also named Rafi?”

She took off her hat, letting me get a better look at her face. It was covered in freckles, unlike the perfect skin of the other two, and her eyes were both hazel. She smiled like a tomboy who had just made her first friend after coming to a big city. “Not… TOO disappointing I hope.”

I let out a puff of air, smiling back. ‘This only gets more confusing.’ “No, nothing like that.” Her appearance was strikingly dissimilar to her “sisters,” but her face was nearly identical to that of the little one. Her voice didn’t have a shadowy echo, but besides that, it was the same. “Hard to be disappointed when you're too confused to have expectations,” I muttered, my eyes wandering to the massive columns surrounding us.

The building was like a massive cathedral, but it was empty, and rather than an altar, a massive stone slab rested, elevated above everything else under a giant window. As I walked up the steps to get closer to her I turned my eyes back towards hers. “Your uh… Sister, she sent me here. I think you’re supposed to help me.” ‘Dead silence for so long and when she comes back she is as hectic as ever…’

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She tilted her head. “Well, I don't know if I can, but I’ll do my best if you need help.”

‘Well… She doesn’t act like the other two, that’s for sure.’

She turned to the giant stone slab and rested her hand on it. In a flash the stone blocks moved, magic spiraled around them and the warm glow that enveloped me became more intense. A soft pale blue thread started connecting me to the stone, like the first strands of cotton candy, slowly weaving into a see-through web. everything suddenly stopped as she pulled her hand and turned around again. “Oh, sorry. You know my name, but what’s yours?”

“I’m—” I paused for a moment. ‘Why do I want to give my earth name?’ “Well, my Parents named me Siyasavide, Siya for short. Your sister gave me a few new ones though.”

She turned back to the stone slab and it lit up again, before once again letting it go dark. “My sister… Gave you a new name?”

Everything went dark and suddenly the day turned to night, four moons shining high in the sky, each one perfectly seen through the windows. Still, the warm glow in the air remained.

“So we decided to make you a Riftwalker…” Her gaze stared at me like a child picking out a pet at a store. It wasn’t bad at first, but her eyes went blank as she lost herself in her thoughts.

“Rafi?”

“Sorry. It’s just that, whenever two of us agree on something the third is pulled along with that decision by our shared… Well, it’s not important. It’s extremely rare those two agree on anything.” Suddenly the mood shifted from a joyous occasion to that of a funeral. The sunlight from the windows started to fade ever so slightly as if clouds had begun to cover it. “The last time they agreed, it was when they decided they would never again knight another Riftwalker… The names my sisters gave you, what are they? Th-that is if you don’t mind telling me. I know they aren’t always nice.”

‘She’s so precious…’ She was just slightly taller than me but acted like a shy little girl who was only worried about other people. At least that was my impression of her. I cleared my throat. “Right, uhm. Well, I was called Scatha, but I think that was as a joke, because when she knighted me or whatever she called me Ina.”

‘So something about me changed their minds huh? I can’t say I’m disappointed.’

“She called you a dog?” Rafi’s jaw dropped, and she quickly moved her hands to cover her gaping mouth. “One that was abused and thrown away!” Her surprise and pity quickly turned to anger. “It was the little one wasn’t it!”

‘As much as I’d like to get in the middle of a sibling quarrel…’ “Uh, it was, but can we focus, please? I don't want to be rude, just that I’m a bit nervous, and also don’t really care what people call me.”

She took a deep breath, letting it out as she shook her head. “Sorry, sorry… Right. So you are knight Ina then. Ok, come closer, stand by my side.”

The slab began to glow, the stones shifting, and this time I was finally able to see what they would reveal. The whole temple opened up around us to perfectly show the bright full moon. It was so large I thought it would swallow me up.

“Here. I’ll write your name in this book.”

Suddenly the stone moved again, revealing two books the size of my magic tome. One was the color of the bright moon before me. The other was darker though, and I could feel a chill coming from its pages.

She grabbed the first one, floating it over to us with magic and plopping it in front of her. It flipped open, and countless names flooded its pages until we reached the end. Several pages had been torn, but the previous page was still unfinished as if every blank page was removed on purpose.

“Well, this awkward. I’m supposed to start a new page but I guess my sister ripped them all out,” She laughed nervously. “It wouldn’t be right to put your name on any of these other pages.”

“What about the other book?”

She slowly looked towards it. “Trust me… You don’t want your name in that one…”

After a brief pause, she looked back down to the torn pages and then slapped herself in the face with both hands. “Well, just how special do you think you are?” She flipped the pages to the front cover of the book. On the inside, there was a list of only 7 names.

Wulfred, King of Spirits.

Leonia, Watcher in the Dark.

Thorn, The black blade.

Sonnen, the shy.

Rafi, the which of Ice and snow.

Rafi, of the fourth moon.

Rafi, Queen of the Abyss

‘Three of the same name…’