Chapter 12

The room had gone silent at my declaration. Everyone was looking at me wide-eyed, until Tarja shot up from her chair at the speed of light, nearly knocking Rhys and the table over as she did so, and pulled me into a hug.

“You are the hero this country’s been waiting for all along,” said Tarja, “Riley Newman, you’re like the second Oktu himself!”

“Uh, who?” I croaked, “Tarja, you’re choking me!”

Tarja let go of me, still clutching my hands in her own, smiling.

“Oktu is the legendary Wyvern that destroyed the Essence Cleanser and brought in the Second Era,” said Rhys, who had been watching the two of us from the table with a smile on her face, “It’s a legendary story Tarja used to read…”

Rhys stopped talking and looked down at the table, almost like she was embarrassed by something. I was still trying to process the words that had come out of her mouth, since none of them made any sense to me.

“You do mean it, right Riley?” Tarja asked, “You’ll end all of this? You’ll save them?”

Tarja’s voice moved me. She sounded so much like a kid begging their parent to buy something for them. The hope in her voice was so much for me, it was as if she was fuelling my own determination.

“I promise you, Tarja,” I said, “I’ll make sure we end this horrible game, and we’ll free the Runners from the possession gems! I promise!”

“That’s the spirit!” said Katie, “I don’t know how much help I can be, but I’ll do what I can!”

“You went from ‘unsure’ to ‘determined’ pretty quickly,” said Rhys, “But hey, I’m cool with it. We’re gonna make Xeastea history!”

“So, we know where the temples are,” I said, motioning to the map Tarja had left on the table, “We have the map so we know how to get to them, we know we’re getting choices of weapons, Felice and use me as a puppet to fight these guys. What else do we need to know?”

“It’s not that simple,” said Tarja, “Taking the gems off is one thing - the problem is keeping them off.”

“Huh?” said Katie, “What, there’s no cool-down timing before they can be put back under?”

“Uh, no, I think,” said Tarja, “The gems could just be re-attached… unless…”

Tarja’s eyes closed, like she was thinking hard, then she went wide-eyed and looked at me.

“Soul-binding! That’s it!” the elf yelled, causing me to lean back a little as she suddenly seemed overjoyed.

“What’s it?” I asked, “Soul binding? Like what Felice and I can do?”

“No, no!” said Tarja, “Soul-binding is a… well, it’s an outlawed spell, but it might work here. The spell binds a person’s free will to the life force of the caster, which also grants immunity from other control spells or objects, like the gems!”

“I can only imagine why something like that is outlawed.” Katie said, “So if we get the gems off these guys chests - bearing in mind they might not have these gems on them at all - we cast this spell, and they can never get possessed again?”

“That’s right,” said Tarja, “Which means they’ll be saved!”

“I guess we know what’s happening now,” said Katie, “Tomorrow, we’re gonna end all of this crap!”

The finer details of the plan were something we couldn’t really focus on - the Runners were too unpredictable to plan out their every move - but the idea was there, and that was what we needed; Katie and I needed to get to the five temples in the regions of the island and wash our faces in the fountains within. Once we did all of them, we returned to the arena where we first started, and that was it, we were allowed to go back to our world.

Before Tarja and Rhys went to leave the room, Tarja gave Katie and I a hug and kissed us both on the cheek.

“For luck.” she said. Then she was gone with Rhys right behind her.

“Well… looks like we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, don’t we?” I said, “Tomorrow, we fight instead of run.”

“You make it sound so poetic,” said Katie, “But hey, I’m down for it. Maybe we can actually make a difference.”

“Here’s to hope,” I said, “Now, let’s get some sleep. We have a plan to enact.”

Katie took one of the nightgowns from the dresser - a short pale pink one - and went to the bathroom to change, while I changed in the bedroom with a pure blue nightgown that went down to my ankles.

“Do you think we can really do this?” Felice asked, “We could save them all?”

“I hope so,” I said, “Though they’re definitely not going to make this easy for us. Honestly, some of them might have to be killed, if we can’t save them.”

“No!” Felice’s sudden shout caused me to flinch a little, “We have to save them, moor-acu! We can’t abandon them like that, don’t even we can leave them to die!”

“Okay, okay!” I said, holding up my arms like Felice was about to fist-fight me, “You seem pretty sure about these guys. Do you think you knew them or something? Like, when you were alive?”

Felice’s eyes sparkled, like she had just realized something.

“Yes, yes I think I did,” said Felice, “Kydro, Xelsa, Killian, Zippy…”

“Zippy?” I said, “You mean Zappiel?”

“Uh, yeah!” said Felice, “That’s what I meant, Zappiel!”

Something caught my eye; Felice flinched a little when I said Zappiel’s name. I was just about to ask her about that when Katie came back into the room, wearing her new nightgown. Felice vanished, apparently done talking.

“As it turns out, changing clothes with one arm takes a little practice,” said Katie, “When we have to get dressed in the morning, you’re gonna need to help me.”

“Sure, no problem.” I said as we made our way to the bed. I wasn’t too awkward about sleeping with someone else in the same bed; Diane had done the same thing sometimes when we were little kids, especially when there were bad storms.

I started thinking of Diane and my mother again. Before, whenever I thought of them, I would want to start crying. Now, I was feeling something very different - hope.

Hope that I was going to see them again soon.

I fell asleep holding onto that hope.

I awoke, once again, to Tarja gently nudging me awake and whisking me away to the bathroom, as Katie was taken out of my room by a different elf with blonde hair.

I was more than ready to go through the motions of being pampered by Tarja, but something was different. Tarja had much more of a pep in her step, was precise and delicate when it came to washing my hair and waxing my legs - though it still hurt like hell and I was cussing her out by the end of it, the elf just smiled at me, like she was in a haze or something.

Eventually, Tarja took me back to the bedroom and went to leave, but stopped and hugged me one last time before she left.

“Hope.” the elf whispered in my ear. I smiled and nodded right back, allowing Tarja to leave with a smile plastered on her face. I couldn’t help but smile as well.

I hurried to get dressed - a white peasant top that went down to my mid-thighs, cinched in my waist with a belt that had small bags attached, brown pants, and knee-high lace-up boots - tied my hair back so it wouldn’t get in my eyes, and took a look at myself in the full-length mirror.

“Looking good, moor-acu!” Felice said, also taking a look at herself in the mirror, or at least copying my poses. I laughed and said, “You don’t look half bad yourself!”

Felice laughed, but stopped when there was a knock at the door. I stepped over and opened it, nearly gasping and taking a step back when I realized it was Sallaena.

“Good morning, Riley,” said Sallaena, “Before I escort you to the portal that will take you back to the hunting grounds, I’m here to give you a special reward for partaking in the Control Point Ball.”

“Okay cool,” I said, “What is it?”

“This.” Sallaena said as she took off the sword that had been clipped to the belt on her waist and held it out to me, “A sword, for potentials. Enjoy it.”

“Uh, thank you.” I said as I took the sword and clipped it on my cinching belt. Sallaena smiled, filling me with dread.

“Allow me to escort you and Katherine to the portal,” said Sallaena, “If you’ll follow me.”

She spoke as though it were a statement, not a question, and I was in no position to argue with her, not that I wanted to in the first place. I made sure the sheath was secure, no chance of the thing falling off, and we made our way to Katie’s room.

Katie seemed okay, maybe a little bored, when she stepped out of her room, wearing clothes that were pretty similar to mine, except her top was black instead of white.

“You got a full sword?!” said Katie, “Nice! I got this cool looking dagger!”

She took a moment to pull her own weapon from its sheath and show it off - silver-colored, serrated, brown handle, simple but deadly and effective in close range.

“Nice.” I said as Katie re-sheathed her own blade, “That might come in handy.”

Sallaena snorted a bit, then slapped her chest like she was coughing. Of course, Katie and I could tell that she was stifling a laugh, but there wasn’t much we could do or say about it.

Sallaena led us to the end of the hallway, then stopped us in front of two big guards in armor.

“These two are going to tie your hands together, so you don’t get any ideas,” said Sallaena, “Since we did just give you weapons and all.”

Katie looked like she was about to say something, but a subtle nudge from me stopped her from talking, and we stuck our hands out. The guards tied my hands together, then tied Katie’s one hand to her side before we were led through the winding hallways of the castle to the outdoors, a bright, sunny day.

I didn’t really have time to enjoy the sun on my face as Katie and I were dragged through he castle grounds to a stone plate, where a swirling vortex of miss-mashing colors awaited us.

“This portal will take you to a forest in Menap Island,” said Sallaena, “From there, what you do until the Runners find you is up to you.”

“Bold of you to assume we won’t find them first.” said Katie.

“I don’t know why you would want to do that,” said Sallaena as she untied our hands and motioned for us to step into the portal, “But to each their own. Good luck, girls.”

“Thank you.” I said. Sallaena smiled at me like a predator cornering her prey, then she walked away as Katie and I stepped up to the portal.

“So, let’s put on a show,” said Katie, “Since everyone in this crappy country can watch us apparently, let’s give them something to watch, shall we?”

“Damn right,” I said, “Let’s make a difference!”

Katie took my hand, we both took a deep breath, and we stepped through the portal together.

Just like last time, it was like my stomach had been thrown from my body as I was sent spinning. When the spinning stopped, I took a moment to stay on my feet and let my insides catch up with me, then I noticed Katie on her knees.

“You okay?” I asked as I helped her up.

“Turns out, motion sickness gets worse when you don’t have both arms to keep you steady,” said Katie, “I’m good though. So, where exactly are we?”

I took a moment to look around. The two of us had come out into a clearing in a forest. Surrounding us were thick trees, vines, and bushes, and the forest floor when I stepped on it was slightly wet, which was the clue I needed as I pulled the map out and unfolded it.

“I think we’re near the swamp,” I said as Katie and Felice, recently appeared, looked over my shoulder at the map, “Here it is: Krozon’s Swamp. A temple’s in the area, so we’re already on the right track, we just need to find it and get to it.”

“Didn’t Tarja say the Runners are split between the regions?” said Katie, “That means one of them is gonna be running around there trying to kill us.”

“And that means whoever he is, he’s gonna get his gem removed first,” I said, “Let’s hope it’s one of the easier ones.”

“I don’t think any of them are going to be easy,” said Katie, “We should really -“

Katie stopped dead in her tracks when we heard a rumbling behind us. When we turned to look, it was as though the air itself ripped in half to reveal a swirling, rumbling vortex.

“What the hell?!” said Katie, “What’s going on?!”

“Someone’s coming through!” said Felice, “You two need to get back now!”

I grabbed Katie’s hand and the two of us rushed away as a blinding flash of light erupted from the portal, then dimmed.

When my eyesight came back, I gasped in shock when we realized who had come through - none other than Rhys Rivera, the tall dark-haired broad orc-lady herself, just with her hood up so her face was a bit more concealed than usual.

Rhys shook her head clear, looked up at us with her long bangs still covering her left eye, smiled, and said, “What’s up guys, want some help?”