The Ten Guardians: Sacrifice©

Chapter Four: A Little Help from My Friends

“If we are going to pull this off, we will need more provisions and probably a pack horse to carry them all. Do you not agree?” Izreea asked Jonathan, the small blue bird on her shoulder.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Jonathon staring at her for a few moments before the bird turned its gaze to the shop clerk a few feet away, who was busy stocking a shelf with various odds and ends.

Izreea was in the largest shop in town, which the humans called an ‘emporium’ since they carried a wide variety of goods. She continued to rummage through the store with a pencil and paper, writing down the number and letter associated with the aisle, the item in the aisle, and the quantity she desired.

She walked close to a pair of shoppers discussing the purchase of a rug and loudly spoke.

“Do you think a donkey could keep up with their horses? I know so little of such animals.”

Jonathan again stared at her intently as if he wanted to say something, then flew over to a rug stitched with the image of a knight riding a war horse in its center. The two shoppers noticed the exchange and clapped their hands at the assumed trick.

“Ah, a horse it is, then!” Izreea said with a flourishing curtsy before moving to another section of the store.

The bird returned to her shoulder as she entered the store’s clothing section. Knowing she would need some cloaks, she searched for one made of the finest silk.

“This is a nice material. Should we go with this one?”

She jumped as the bird angrily replied.

“No, Izreea! Of course, you shouldn’t get a velvet cloak! The thing would repel water like a dry sponge! Of course, they will need a pack horse. They will be traveling for weeks if not months! And a donkey … I, I, just can’t!”

Suppressing the smile that wanted to creep across her face, she feigned ignorance.

“Well, I was just asking. You don’t need to get so upset about simple questions.”

“I hate it when you ask me questions in front of people, so they can gawk at the talking bird! And you just happen to block all mental communication at the same time? Bah! You are not innocent, woman, and you know it!”

She openly grinned no longer restraining her amusement before replying dryly, “You added coloring to my shampoo again.”

Jonathan froze momentarily, then started doing a hopping dance on Izreea’s shoulder which he knew she thought was adorable, trying to soften her up.

“Maybe … how did you know?” he asked.

“Jareth used it first,” Izreea whispered.

After a moment’s pause, they both laughed out loud! Jonathan’s laugh had the occasional chirp in it, which made it all the more endearing. She once again wished she could cure him of his magical malady, but the solution had eluded her for almost four years now. This chain of thought sobered her amusement and reminded her of the task at hand.

She quickly picked out a sturdy traveler’s cloak and wrote down its inventory code on her extensive list of supplies, with a quantity of two. She went to the front of the store and handed the piece of paper to Dalton, the store manager.

“Hello, Mrs. Bruno. Did you find everything alright?” He asked politely.

“Yes, thank you, Dalton. I know the store closes shortly, but is there any way you can have one of your boys deliver these items tonight? It is quite an urgent journey that Jareth and I are taking. We wanted to leave first thing in the morning.”

“There is an after-hours delivery fee, but we can have the supplies delivered this evening. Is this journey for official School business?” Dalton asked.

“I’m not quite sure what you mean…” Izreea responded.

“Well, should I collect payment on arrival tonight or bill the supplies to the school’s account at the end of the week?”

After a pause, Izreea politely requested the list of supplies back from Dalton, added the code for a pound of taffy candy to the list, which she had memorized from several previous purchases, and then returned the paper.

“Official school business, absolutely. Just leave the supplies with our gardener at the house. He is expecting them and will cart them over to the school’s stables, where our horses are housed. Thank you, Dalton.”

“Happy to help,” he said with a smile as he turned with the list in hand to collect the supplies.

Izreea exited the emporium to find that the sun was slipping over the horizon. While adjusting her satchel, she turned her gaze towards the castle, feeling for the life force of her husband, but he was shielded from her. Sensing her prodding and recognizing the cause, Jonathan rubbed his cheek against hers in support.

“He’ll be alright. They shielded the room because of the boy,” Jonathan said softly.

Izreea absentmindedly reached a hand up and rubbed his back before replying.

“Yes, I know. I’m more concerned about the Jackal’s glyph, but it will fade in a few weeks.” Izreea let out a long sigh before shaking the moment off. “Alright, are you ready to have some fun, Jonathan?” she asked.

“Our definitions of fun are nothing alike. Mine usually lacks the whole ‘get caught and go to prison’ aspect, or in your case, deportation,” he replied as he pulled his cheek away from hers.

“Don’t be such a baby chick,” Izreea scolded, which earned her a satisfying hiss of dislike from Jonathan.

“Jareth is calling … I’ll meet you at the wall,” he said flatly before pecking her ear once, hard, then vanishing before she could swat at him.

“The ungrateful fowl,” she muttered as she headed towards the castle a few blocks away, rubbing her ear.

There were still a few shoppers wandering amongst the street vendors, popping in and out of stores, but the daily market was coming to a close. She pulled the hood of her cloak up to limit recognition as she walked. She was not afraid of being recognized, but she was in a hurry, and as the ambassador of her people for Dule Van, she did not want to offend anyone by avoiding friendly conversation.

She approached the castle entrance, but instead of turning to enter the castle, she continued past the two sentries until she reached the corner and turned right along the outer wall. This side of the castle was a public garden with a walking path. A person taking a stroll in the school’s garden was nothing out of the ordinary, although it was a little late to be out walking alone. The garden was beautiful, always well stocked with desert flowers that were magically enhanced to bloom year-round, and always well-tended by the Nature Kentor. With the fading light, she could see the occasional flower began to emit a form of bioluminescence, enough to light the winding path of the garden.

Walking along the wall, she reached into her pocket and withdrew a silver amulet on a matching chain. Jonathan had told her the amulet had something to do with different worlds or dimensions and slipping unnoticed between them. One side of the coin held the original symbol of the school, a book bearing the emblem of a balance scale. This was the symbol for the school until after the war, at which point the symbol was changed to the rune “Defender,” set in the center of a hollow sun. The other side of the coin was blank.

Jonathan belonged to the knowledge Kentor, which focused on expanding the understanding of magic through research. According to him, the symbol on the coin represented the study of knowledge and the pursuit of justice, although most of the magi at that time used their influence in politics.

Izreea remembered the task at hand and entered the wick, the state of mind where the powers of the earth were accessible to her people. She had been told it was similar to what humans do, such as gaining the use of magic and enhancing the senses. However, for her people, the wick also connected them to the earth’s life force. The colors of the world were more vibrant, enhancing the luminescent plants, so their lights danced around her, amplifying their glow tenfold. She could feel the plants, sensing their movements in the slight breeze. She could feel them beginning to close their petals as the sun disappeared over the horizon.

The moment Izreea had entered the wick, the blank side of the medallion had come alive with a purple glow. The symbol of a closed door appeared on the face of it, etched in the same shade of purple. As Izreea stood there staring at the image, she was startled by a sudden crackle of electricity, the unnecessary flare of an egotistical mind, as Jonathan appeared in the air beside her. He perched himself on her shoulder without saying a word.

He must still be upset over the baby chick comment, she thought to herself while growling at the obnoxious lightning.

They had already rehearsed what needed to be done, so exchanging words was unnecessary. While staying in the wick, Izreea placed the amulet around her neck, and the world immediately became blurred as if there was an exact duplicate of the world, but not perfectly in alignment. The two worlds slowly moved opposite each other, almost like someone’s vision was coming into focus after a nasty blow to the head. Yet, the two worlds constantly overcorrected and went blurry after becoming clear. Izreea also felt changes happening to her body as she began to feel weightless. Glancing down at her hand, she noticed it matched the blurred effect of the world around her, and since Jonathan was touching her body, he had also become etheric.

Having practiced on other walls at home, she confidently walked through the castle’s outer wall and into a library. The room was massive and housed tens of thousands of books and scrolls. Dozens of students dotted throughout the library at desks and on soft chairs, studying. The occasional professor walked among them, answering questions. A separate section was reserved for the Elders in the back, cordoned off from the rest of the library by two tall bookshelves so students would leave them to their personal time.

Izreea held her breath and waited to be noticed, but she saw no reaction from anyone around her. Although they were not visible in their current state, Izreea knew they could still be heard, so she opened her mind to Jonathan’s for mental communication. Having one’s mind open to another does allow some emotions to pass between the two participants, and as she opened her mind, she was greeted with his apathy. Apparently, she had struck a nerve with the baby chick comment. She did feel some sense of remorse at that thought, which Jonathan was able to detect, and his discontentment ebbed slightly.

Izreea had spent some time in the upper portion of the castle, where the meeting rooms, offices, and the medical wing were located. However, she had come to the school already trained in magic and rarely visited the lower portions of the castle where the classrooms were. Because of this, they had agreed that Jonathan would be their guide once inside.

Although Jonathan could have spoken to Izreea telepathically, he was either more upset with her than she had realized or just too lazy. So instead, she received the image of the library’s main entrance and assumed that she needed to head in that direction. She took the most direct route, walking through rows of books, and even people, until she was halfway to the entrance, at which point she walked through a tall bookshelf and made a sharp intake of breath at the sight of a creature directly to her right. She thought it was a lycanthrope, but it was walking on two legs and wearing clothes, two things she had never seen with a lycanthrope.

After a moment, she realized this was a female kanidian and nothing to be alarmed about. Her people had traded with kanidians often enough, but she knew little about them other than what was shared in passing conversation. There was history between their people regarding the civil war that fractured the dardwain empire, but that was long ago, and history had never been one of Izreea’s interests when growing up. She remembered they were as close to nature as her people but had a more nomadic culture. They also considered themselves to be the guardians of the few remaining elder trees in existence, the first trees created in this world.

The kanidian was standing alone in the center of two rows of books. She was well-muscled and easily seven feet in height, with short black fur all over her body. Her face looked like that of a human and a canine mixed, with a protruding mouth and wide-set golden eyes. Her limbs were longer than most humans, and her legs had a slight bow to the knee.  She held a book in her hands with thick fingernails. A pair of spectacles was on her face, custom-made to fit the wider bridge of a snout and wide-set eyes. She wore a standard white robe with a purple sash at the waist.

At the moment, the kanidian was holding a book in her left hand and was frozen mid-turn of a page with her right while staring at Izreea intently. Izreea froze, thinking they had been discovered, and stared directly back at the taller creature. After a few moments, she noticed the kanidian’s eyes were searching the area, and her nostrils were flaring slightly. She had not seen her yet but must have heard her gasp and could possibly pick up her scent.

“Why have we stopped?” Jonathan mentally asked with a tinge of impatience, and it was at that point, he started to pay attention to his surroundings.

Glancing at the kanidian, he quickly summarized the situation. “I’ll distract her. Go to the hallway and wait for me,” Jonathan said before lifting from Izreea’s shoulder, instantly losing the ethereal benefits of the amulet.

As he snapped into view, the creature locked its golden eyes on Jonathan while placing the book on the shelf. The creature peeled its lips back to reveal a set of canine teeth.

“Go, Izreea,” Jonathan calmly said to her mind.

Izreea darted through the bookshelf in front of her, heading towards the library’s entrance. After a few more rows of books, she entered an open area just before the exit. She rushed through the closed doors, stepped to the right, and stopped. Knowing she could not lean against any of the walls in her current form, she stood in the center of the hall with her face in her hands, breathing as quietly as possible.

After a moment, she looked around to find herself in a long hallway that she vaguely recognized as where the older student’s classrooms were held. They were all empty at the moment as classes were done for the day, but an occasional student walked the hallway.

Realizing they were still connected mentally, Izreea reached out to Jonathan to let him know where she was. Rather than responding, she just felt the impression of “patience.” Such a response is and always will be, annoying. However, she also realized that there was no emotion of panic or fear from him either, which she would have associated with a bird being eaten alive by a bipedal canine.

 With that in mind, she decided to take his advice on patience and began pacing the hallway, about twenty paces down each side of the library entrance. She absentmindedly dodged students as they walked down the hallway, although she would have gone through them unnoticed.

Her foot caught on something, and the next thing she knew, she was lying face down on the floor of the hallway. She began to panic momentarily, fearing she would be lost forever as she tumbled toward the earth’s center. When nothing happened, Izreea pondered why her body couldn’t go through the floor like it had gone through the walls. Then she shrugged off the moment, sat up, and looked around to find the object of her misfortune.

A cube on the ground about the size of a plum, glowing the same color as the medallion around her neck. She reached over and picked it up. The cube was a lot heavier than she imagined it to be. It was opaque on all sides except for the bottom, which had the same image as the back of the medallion, a closed door.

As she stared into the cube, she began to see the outline of a face and quiet whispering in the back of her mind. The whispering sounded like a thousand voices overlapped, all trying to speak at the same time. The words were indistinguishable, but there was a sense of frustration and desperation in the whispers. She felt her mind being probed, her memories being sifted through.

Through the whispers, which she now realized had grown considerably in volume, she heard the concerned voice of Jonathan in the back of her mind asking where she was.

“Yes, I’m here,” she mentally said, breaking her gaze from the cube.

It hurt slightly to blink because her eyes had dried out. She must have been looking at that cube for several minutes without blinking. Izreea wiped the excess water from her recovering eyes, then realized she was still seated on the floor. Looking around, she could see the occasional student walking the hallway, and there was no sign of Jonathan.

“Where are you?” She asked him silently.

“Are you sure you’re alright? I’ve been saying your name for several minutes and couldn’t find you because of the amulet’s effect,” he responded.

“I tripped on something. Where are you? I’ll show it to you.”

“That’s alright. I’ll look at it later,” Jonathan responded.

That last part was a little confusing for Izreea. She assumed this was a significant turn of events, and with Jonathan’s history in research, she thought he would have been more enthusiastic about finding something in the ethereal world. With a shrug, she put the item in her pocket.

“Alright, where are you? We are running out of time,” she thought to him.

Jonathan gruffly began barking directions, one right after the other, with barely a pause between each instruction. He spoke so quickly that Izreea was sprinting to stay caught up. She darted down hallways and up and down staircases for several minutes, always running to keep up. Eventually, she was instructed to run through a door, but she recognized the door and instead stopped. As the ambassador of her people, she greeted visiting dignitaries from royal families at this door on the school’s second floor. They should be in the basement looking for some sort of dungeon, nowhere near the main entrance.

“I thought we needed to get to the basem-” she started to say before she was cut off.

“Run through the doors! Quickly! Before you get caught!” Jonathan screamed with open disgust in her mind.

Izreea could feel the magic of wards on the door and knew they would trigger if she went through them. She also knew that none of this was part of the plans they had gone over and repeatedly practiced for the last two days, and Jonathan was definitely not acting like himself. He was typically sarcastic and rude, but open contempt and demanding behaviors were not his style. She even felt hatred behind his words. Izreea decided this wasn’t Jonathan, or something was seriously wrong with him. Jareth needed her help, or he would never get out of this castle with that boy, and she would not let that happen.

Izreea slammed a mental door on her mind blocking all communication and started retracing her steps down to the library. Eventually, she found her way back to the library entrance but didn’t know where to go from there. All she knew was she needed to get down to the basement somehow.

“What if I went through the floor?” she asked herself.

With this thought in her mind, she wondered why she didn’t fall through the earth the moment she became ethereal. Why didn’t she go through the floor when she tripped over the cube?

Izreea was lost in this castle and desperately needed to get to the basement. She knelt on the floor and began to feel the stones. She couldn’t feel the textures because of her ethereal state, but it was still solid wherever she pressed against the floor. She began pushing harder on the floor, but it wouldn’t budge. She eventually realized tears of frustration were starting to well up in her eyes. While she knelt on all fours, she noticed a single tear fall from her cheek. The moment it left her body, it became material again and landed on the floor of the castle.

A few moments later, Izreea noticed a shadow looming over her, and a furry arm reached through her body to touch the teardrop on the floor. The arm appearing out of her chest was understandably alarming, making her jump to her feet with a scream, stifled as she clamped a hand over her mouth. Standing right in front of her, staring in the direction of the small noises she had made, was the kanidian from the library.

Izreea was about to turn and run when the kanidian whispered to her in a husky feminine voice.

“Izreea, do not be afraid.”

Izreea quickly looked up and down the hallway to ensure no students were around before cautiously responding.

“What do you want?”

“Jonathan hasn’t been able to reach you for quite some time, and he asked me to help find you,” The kanidian replied.

Feeling skeptical, Izreea cautiously replied, “Why did he think you would be able to find me?”

In what appeared to be natural patience, the creature explained.

“I am kanidian, my dear. My hearing, vision, and sense of smell are stronger than humans, and birds, for that matter,” the last part was said with a small chuckle. “I found you because I could hear your breathing, and once I was close enough, I could smell the teardrop on the floor.”

“Do you know why Jonathan tried to get me to leave the castle without helping my husband?” Izreea asked.

The kanidian paused thoughtfully for a few moments before replying.

“What I do know is you are lost in a large castle and are trying to enter a restricted area without permission. You are worried about your mate and feel betrayed by someone close to you. I also know Jonathan did not betray you and wishes to help his brother. I am not sure why someone would pretend to be him, but I can take you to the real Jonathan if you follow me.”

Feeling overwhelmed but determined to do all she could to help Jareth, Izreea sighed deeply before responding.

“What is your name?” she asked.

“Jaya,” the taller kanidian said with a small smile.

Izreea knew she was lost and did not dare risk opening her mind to Jonathan for fear it wasn’t the real Jonathan.

“Well, I don’t think I have much of a choice at the moment anyway,” Izreea said softly.

Jaya gave a knowing nod as if she expected no less. “Come, we must hurry,” she said, walking down the hall.

Jaya walked east down the hallway with her long-pointed ears twisted behind her, most likely listening for Izreea’s breathing to see if she was following. Izreea followed at Jaya’s side in silence for several minutes as they wound through the hallways. Jaya greeted the occasional passerby courteously in her husky voice, never slowing her steady pace.

Eventually, they stopped at a standard bedroom door in what appeared to be a guest wing of the castle. The door opened to reveal a large room with a large bed, an ornate sofa, a desk, and a small table with four chairs. In addition to the furniture, dried herbs hung with hooks and wires from the ceiling, and several books on various surfaces throughout the room. Perched on the mantel above the fireplace was Jonathan. The moment he saw Jaya, he let out a shrill chirp.

“Did you find her, Seeker?” he asked with a mix of irritation and genuine concern.

“Yes, she is here,” Jaya said with a gesture to the exact location Izreea was standing, proving once again that her hearing was superb.

“Where on earth have you been!?” he shouted. It sounded more like a statement than a question, but concern was still apparent in his voice.

Izreea still felt a lingering apprehension from her last communication with what she thought was Jonathan. However, his concern did appear to be genuine, which caught her off guard since they did not always have the smoothest of interactions. The time Izreea took to process all of this was too long for Jonathan, so he continued in a less concerned and more annoyed tone.

“What happened to ‘wait in the hall for me’? Why have you blocked our telepathic connection? Are you hurt?”

“Slow down, Jonathan,” Jaya interjected. “She has had quite a scare and may need a moment. Someone impersonated you and tried to put a stop to your plans.”

After a few moments of silence, Jonathan stretched his wings as far as they would go while still standing on the fireplace. He then let out a long sigh as he tucked his wings back into place and started over.

“I’m sorry, Izreea, I didn’t know. Please … take your time…” He finished with an awkward tone of voice, almost as if he was going to say more but thought better of it.

It was probably instructions on how she should take her time or what to say to him first when she was ready, but in the end, he was able to hold his tongue. Izreea did not want to argue anymore and had no choice but to trust that this was the real Jonathan.

“I’m not sure why you could not find me, Jonathan. I was pacing the hallway outside the library waiting for you when I tripped over something,” Izreea said as she pulled the object out of her pocket.

Jonathan must have forgotten about the advice of being patient and his statement on “take your time” since he practically shouted at her.

“You tripped on something while wearing the amulet?”

Izreea was already starting to look at the cube in her hand and immediately began to hear the whispering in the back of her mind as before. She quickly closed her eyes, and the whispering stopped. She placed the item back in her pocket and opened her eyes again.

“Yes, when I look at it, I hear whispering, so I am keeping it in my pocket.” She said quietly.

“Izreea, very few things in this world are perpetually in an ethereal state, and none of them should be messed with. I suppose it is too dangerous to leave lying around a magic school with experimenting students. Hold onto it, but please do not look at it again until we finish the task at hand. Then, we’ll deal with it.”

“Alright, I won’t,” Izreea said with a touch of impatience.

“I’m sorry I interrupted. Please continue,” Jonathan said sincerely.

 “I have no idea how long I was looking at the item, but eventually, the whispering stopped, and I heard your voice. You said you had been trying to contact me for some time and that I needed to come and find you. You led me through the castle to the ceremonial entrance on the second floor and wanted me to run through those doors, which would have led me outside.

“I knew I needed to find my way to the basement, but when I voiced my concern, you demanded that I run through the doorway. I then blocked all communication and returned to the library since that was the only place I knew how to find. That is when Jaya found me.”

As Izreea concluded her story, there was a long pause where no one spoke. After a moment, Jonathan let out a long bird-like whistle.

“Izreea, believe me, I did not try to talk you into going out the main entrance. Furthermore, there would have been no harm in you doing so as you could have just turned right around and gone back into the building.”

“But there were wards all over the entrance. I could feel them,” Izreea said defensively.

Jonathan cocked his head to the side as if pondering the thought.

“There have never been wards there before, no one even uses those doors, and most people with ill intent aren’t going to use the front entrance. There could have been some sort of illusion, but I have no way of knowing. Regardless I’m sorry for what happened.”

Izreea continued to feel distrustful of Jonathan, and she couldn’t figure out why. She had known him for decades before he became a bird, and they got along quite well. Their relationship had been a little strained since he had become a bird, but she never once felt she was in danger. His apology was sincere, though, and she still had no choice if she wanted to help Jareth.

“That’s alright. What do we do now, though?” Isreea asked.

“Well, we still need to reach the basement to find the interrogation room. Go ahead and take off the amulet, then I can land on your shoulder and become ethereal with you,” Jonathan replied.

Jaya had been standing quietly to one side during this exchange.

“I will be coming along as well,” She said in a motherly tone that meant there was no point in arguing with her.

“As you wish, Seeker,” Jonathan said without a hint of guile.

Izreea had no idea what a Seeker was, but Jonathan’s immediate deferment to her will was a surprise. Jonathan never deferred to anyone if he could help it, at least not without prodding or bribery. This either meant he had fully intended to bring her along and was tricking her into thinking it was her idea, or he truly held such high esteem for her.

Putting the thoughts aside for the moment, Izreea turned to Jaya. “Will we be holding hands then so you can be ethereal as well?” she asked.

Jaya’s face suddenly got all scrunched up, and her ears wiggled slightly from side to side. Izreea couldn’t decide if she was angry or amused by what she had said. Before either of them could say anything, Jonathan spoke up with a polite tone of voice.

“Izreea, Seekers can walk unseen anytime they wish, so you will not need to hold hands. However, we still need to lead her since she does not know that section of the castle yet.”

“Actually, Jonathan, I have been to your interrogation room on several occasions to study the runes on the door, so I know the way,” stated Jaya.

“What do you mean? How on earth did you find it?” Jonathan blurted out.

“Master Sparrow, I read about the room in the library and asked the council’s permission to see the room, and my request was granted. Jaya stated in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.”

The double insult of being called the name of a bird and its representation of the youngest body of students in the school was like a slap in the face to Jonathan. His feathers bristled back, and he began hopping in anger from one foot to the other. Then after a moment, he quietly spoke.

“Well said, Madam.”

Jaya laughed out loud at this, which sounded much more human than Izreea expected from her canine face. Jonathan did not skip a beat and looked in the direction he believed Izreea was standing and asked her to remove the amulet. She removed the amulet, placing it in her other pocket, and immediately was physical again. She suddenly felt frail and hungry. Izreea realized that the physical toll of using magic for this long would still affect her, but she could not feel the effect before because she wasn’t in a physical body.

Jaya seemed to have been prepared for this moment because she immediately handed her a flask of water and a plate with several pieces of dried meat and fresh berries. Jaya led Izreea to the couch and sat her down to have a bite to eat.

“Thank you, Jaya … er, Seeker,” Izreea said.

“You are right, Jonathan. She is quite lovely. Your brother is indeed a lucky man,” Jaya said to Jonathan, ignoring the corrected title.

Jonathan said nothing, but Izreea had known him long enough to interpret his bird-like movements as embarrassment. He said nothing as Jaya sat on the bed and read a book while Izreea took a few moments to eat her food. Izreea finished the food and felt much better.

“Thank you, I needed that,” she said as she set the plate on the desk, but she was looking at Jonathan for the last part with an appreciative smile.

Without responding, Jonathan flew over to her shoulder as she entered the wick and placed the amulet around her neck. Immediately the two of them became ethereal again. Izreea looked down to see a faint purple glow emanating from the cube on the ground. It had fallen out of her pocket when she removed the amulet, and she could not see it until she had put it back on.

Jonathan softly whispered, “Oh no,” from her shoulder as he looked at the cube.

Jaya’s superb hearing must have overheard him. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

Izreea then remembered that Jaya couldn’t see them or the cube on the ground. Izreea was about to explain what happened, but Jonathan spoke first.

“I just see the cube on the ground, nothing to worry about. Izreea, can you keep your eyes closed and pi-“

“Master Jonathan,” Jaya Interrupted firmly. “I believe the source of Izreea’s earlier confusion and misfortune came from that cube, the same cube you want to bring with us on our journey. There are many hours until the sun rises to fulfill your purpose in this castle. Please tell us what you know about this cube.”

 “Of course, Seeker,” Jonathan replied.

There was again a tone of perfect obedience when Jonathan spoke to the seeker as if he held her in the highest esteem. As he told the tale of the cube, he spoke in almost a hypnotic tone, like he was reliving a memory.

“I recognize the cube from a past experiment I did a long time ago involving a portal to reach another dimension separate from our own.” He paused for a moment. Izreea wanted to interrupt him and ask him what he meant by “another world,” but his voice was so solemn and sad … that she remained silent and waited for him to continue.

“I worked with another mage on the project, a woman named Katerina. She was of the Nature Kentor and could work spells through stones and minerals. She felt she could work the magic through a cube made of the purest gold, using the mineral as a catalyst for the spell so it wasn’t as taxing on the body. I was more comfortable working with the ethereal world, so we decided to use a cube of gold that we made ethereal to combine our strengths,” Jonathan said.

That must be what the cube at my feet is, Izreea thought to herself.

She looked at it on the ground and did not hear any of the voices like before when she was holding it, and there was no face in it this time. There must be something that happens when you are touching and looking at it simultaneously, and just one or the other isn’t enough.

Jonathan continued speaking, but his voice was becoming firmer, and he was speaking faster, almost as if he realized he was divulging much more than he wanted to.

“Essentially, the experiment worked, and we opened a gate to this other … place. However, the opening on the other side of the gate was in the center of a massive oval chamber filled with these humanoid entities. They were a countless mass of millions of individuals floating in the air around us as high and low as we could see. Their hair and robes acted like they were underwater, constantly flowing in a mirror of their movements like an echo chasing someone’s voice. From the expression on their faces, I sensed that they were trapped in some way. I felt nothing but complete despair.

“We were noticed by those closest to us, and their faces immediately transformed into a psychotic sense of desperation, the dangerous kind of desperation where I knew they would do anything and everything to escape through our portal, even kill us if we were in their way. With desperate pleas for help, a few hundred rushed towards us, all intent on coming through our portal any way they could. We weren’t about to let a population of strange unknown entities enter our world, so we immediately began closing the portal by reversing the magic we had used to open it.”

Jonathan stopped talking, and a heavy silence fell over the room. After a moment, Izreea noticed a single tear falling from her shoulder where Jonathan was still perched. She didn’t know birds could cry. After a few moments, Jonathan continued.

“I was obsessed with closing the portal as fast as I could. I was so focused on it that I didn’t notice that Kat wasn’t at my side. I finished reversing the spells and turned in haste to see how close the ethereal people were to the closing portal. Then, I realized that Kat had been holding back hundreds of these entities with a barrier spell over the portal. The barrier had massive dents and bubbles from the entities throwing themselves at it.

“The portal was almost closed when one of the entities reached its hand through the portal and touched the barrier, just touched it, and it shattered. The blow must have knocked Kat unconscious because she fell limp. The hand grabbed her by the arm and yanked her through the barrier into their realm just before the portal closed.”

After several minutes of silence, Jaya spoke in her husky mothering voice.

“Jonathan, have you shared this burden with anyone else?”

“I reported what happened to the council, and they forbid any rescue attempt, fearing the release of those entities into our world. I have not spoken of it since.”

Izreea could no longer resist comforting the poor bird and gently reached her hand to her shoulder and stroked his back. To her surprise, he didn’t resist the touch but leaned fully into it, welcoming the gesture.

Jaya continued. “Then be at peace, my child. You are no longer alone in your sorrow. I do not answer to your council. In due time we shall right this wrong together.”

There was a prophetic tone to Jaya’s words, as if the words were being etched on Jonathan’s soul as she spoke.

Jonathan was immediately comforted and softly whispered, “Thank you.”

Izreea was still puzzled at what a Seeker was and why Jonathan was so respectful of her, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on those thoughts as they had a job to do. Jonathan must have had the same impression because, with renewed energy, he took over.

“Okay, Izreea, go ahead and pick up the cube and put it back in your pocket, but make sure you keep your eyes closed when you pick it up. I have no idea why it works that way, but from your story, it appears that is the safest way to handle the cube.”

Izreea closed her eyes and bent forward to pick up the cube. She missed the first time and jammed her fingers on the floor, but eventually, she managed to grope around, find the cube, and place it in her pocket.

Rubbing her jammed fingers, she muttered to herself, “Why can I walk through walls, but I can’t move through the floor?”

Jonathan heard her and thought she was addressing him, so he answered the question.

“Jareth had to explain that one to me since it is a matter of the mind. He said that we subconsciously fear falling through the earth, so our mind creates boundaries of what we can and can’t do, even when we are ethereal. In time you’ll get over your fear and then be able to move any which way you like,” he said.

“You mean I’ll be able to float up in the air as well?” Izreea asked.

“Yes, certainly, that was my favorite part of being ethereal, well before I could fly as a bird,” he replied.

For a human, that would have been the end of the conversation until they had simply practiced and learned the ability. Izreea was not a human. She was a dardwain. Her people lived in a city underwater, and moving up and down in the water was as simple as altering their body density and commanding it to rise or fall.

Calling on the wick, Izreea requested the ability to become light as a cloud. Although she remained ethereal, she instantly floated a foot off the ground. She was trying to trick her mind with the safety of rising and falling at will as if she were in the ocean. Izreea imagined she was surrounded by water and commanded her body to move down, and it worked. As her body began to sink through the floor, she looked around for the seeker, but Jaya was nowhere to be found. Izreea decided she did not have time to deal with Jaya missing. Nothing had gone according to plan, and she was tired and stressed from this entire experience. She just wanted the task to be finished so Jareth would be safe.

“Jonathan, take me to the dungeon in the most direct route,” she commanded.

Jonathan must have felt the irritation in her voice as she spoke because he complied without additional comment. “Turn left slightly and go forward at a slight downward angle of about … eighty paces. I don’t want to go too far in case we pass it,” he said.

They were moving the pace of a fast walk through ceilings, bedrooms, storerooms, classrooms, walls, hallways, and floors. They saw students and Elders alike, mostly asleep or studying. There was one room with four awake students, which was certainly against the rules since it was after lights out. They stood in a circle, bouncing balls of what appeared to be fire and ice off of their elbows and feet, never letting them touch the ground. Jonathan adjusted their course only once, and they reached the dungeon wall in a few minutes.

“I wish you had been able to do that from the beginning,” Jonathan muttered under his breath, appearing to have forgotten that his beak was mere inches from Izreea’s ear.

She thought about pointing out that all of this was his idea, and he was the one that had taught her how to do this in the first place, but she could already see the potentially explosive direction such an argument could go in, so she wisely let the comment slide.

“Leave her be,” a voice called from the darkness.

Izreea was so startled she almost screamed, but she realized in time that it was the voice of Jaya. Izreea tried peering into the darkness for the source of the seeker’s voice when she had to cover her eyes from the light of a fireplace that burst into existence. She dropped her arm as her eyes adjusted to the new light and took a second look around the room.

The fireplace was directly across from her, with a large red rug and an armchair in front of it. A large door was standing ajar to their left, covered in inactive runes. The only other thing in the room was a small table and four chairs.

Jaya was still nowhere to be seen, even though it must have been her that lit the fire. Izreea was searching the room for the third time when she noticed the smallest shadow by the wall begin to shimmer. Jaya stepped into the room as if she had been walking through the wall, detaching herself from the shadow as she entered, as if the shadow had depth to it.

The seeker was a shadow walker. Izreea had only seen a few shadow walkers in her lifetime, and they all had lived off the blood of the living, or at least preferred raw flesh like an animal. Humans call them Revenants and Lycanthropes and believe they can be infected through contact, which is a complete load of crock. The dardwain call them Lost Ones, believing they went mad from being cut off from the connection of nature because of their evil deeds in life.

It was obvious to all who knew her that Jaya was neither of these dark things nor was she evil in any sense of the word. There was an earthly motherliness to her that defied the existence of evil.

Jaya suddenly stepped forward, pulling a small sack from a pocket in her white robe as she did so. The bag was the size of a standard coin purse and glowed slightly from a single large rune that stretched across most of the bag. She quickly unlaced the drawstring, opened it, then held it out in front of her in their general direction.

“Izreea, this bag can hold your ethereal object in place so it won’t fall out when you become physical again. Please place the stone in the bag, then put the entire bag in your pocket,” Jaya said calmly.

“Is that … Elder Gordan’s bag, Seeker?” asked Jonathan with a small chuckle.

“I felt our need was far more important, and his room was on the way to the dungeon,” she replied without a trace of humor.

“You mean his storage room of magical junk with a bed in it?” Jonathan said softly.

“We all have our issues, Jonathan,” Jaya said reproachfully.

Without looking down, Izreea reached into her pocket and grabbed the cube. Holding it in her hand so she could see where she was dropping it without looking into the cube, she carefully opened her hand to drop the cube into the bag. The impression of the cube hitting the bottom of the coin bag was very physical, and Jaya quickly tied the drawstring tight.

Izreea canceled the cloud spell so her feet would float back to the dungeon’s floor before removing the amulet to become physical again. She immediately felt a little weaker, but this was minimal compared to the last time she had removed the amulet. Jaya handed her the bag, and Izreea quickly tied it to the sash at her waist and tucked the dangling bag into her pocket.

“Alright, Izreea, you know what to do,” Jonathan said.

With a small nod of affirmation, they immediately went to their assigned sections of the room and began weaving spells. They were to cover every inch of the room with disabling spells that interlaced and connected like a trail of oil on the ground when touched by fire. They were to use anything that would prevent magi from casting spells without causing severe or permanent harm and somehow leave everyone unconscious. She and Jonathan had already planned what spells they would use and divided them based on their strengths.

Izreea was to lay many of the spells involving plants, insects, and fumes. Jonathan would handle light, sound, and weather-related spells. They also needed a protective spell in the center, something very strong that could resist all of the magic spells around it and large enough for two people to stand side by side.

Jonathan landed on the ground to cast his spells. They took no movements or commands from him; the spells just emanated from him as he cast them. He would walk in circles around his work, inspecting it as he looked for flaws.

Izreea, on the other hand, decided to draw her spells with her finger as she worked. It wasn’t necessary by any means, but it helped her concentrate and limited mistakes.

As they worked, Izreea glanced over and noticed that Jaya had taken a seat in the armchair by the fireplace, her head about two feet above the back of the chair. With a small smile, Izreea cast an enchantment on the rug, and the edge under Jaya’s feet lifted up to create a footstool.

“Why thank you, Izreea,” Jaya said without turning her head. Izreea had no idea how she knew it was her that had cast the spell instead of Jonathan.

They continued their task for several hours, working as fast and carefully as possible. The last thing they worked on was the center barrier, making sure it was durable and custom designed to protect those inside from all the traps they had laid. Then they placed the arranged trigger word over the barrier spell and carefully connected the closest traps to the barrier. Everything was sealed with a strong seal. The moment the barrier activated, every spell in the room would chain react as designed.

They finished just about the time Jareth and his ward were planning on waking. The only concern was the spells were visible to any Magi who knew what to look for. They could have used bending spells to hide their work, but unlike the dormant spells they had just cast, which were waiting to be activated, the bending spells would have to already be active to do their job. Active bending spells would act as a beacon to anyone with an interest in this room. Jareth will have to act quickly if trained magi come for the boy, but nothing could be done about it.

Jaya sensed they were finished and came to her feet. She appeared to have been dozing. It was obvious that she could see the spells around them. Looking around the room, she gave a satisfying nod of approval with a small smile.

“If you wish, I can use the light and shadows from the fireplace to hide your spells without detection. If someone trained in magic looked hard enough, they could see through the disguise, but it should buy Jareth and the boy a few moments if they are attacked.”

Izreea looked at Jonathan, who was perched on the back of one of the chairs at the table. He just bristled his shoulders, which was his equivalent of a shrug. “Hopefully, none of these spells will be needed, but that sounds like a great addition to the plan. I’ll make sure I notify Jareth when we communicate next,” he said.

Jaya added, “As long as the fire is lit, the spells will remain unseen until the keyword is used. So, we must keep the fire lit. Will that be a problem?”

“The staff will be here soon to bring food and light the fire. Most rooms in the school have enchanted fireplaces anyway, so they shouldn’t question if a fire is already lit here. This is a magic school, after all,” Jonathan replied.

“Very well then,” Jaya said.

With a single nod of her head, all of the magic in the room was hidden from sight. There seemed to be a few denser shadows than typical from the fireplace, but it was not noticeable unless you were looking for it. Izreea did not want to admit it, but she was extremely surprised at how easily Jaya covered that many spells with a simple head nod. Maybe she would ask the seeker to teach her that trick.

“Alright, I need to cancel the spell on the bedroom door where Jareth and the … boy are at. I put a doozy of a seal on the spell to keep the bumbling creature from escaping in the night, and I don’t want Jareth to spend the energy on severing it since he may be fighting magi during their escape. I’ll meet you outside, Izreea,” Jonathan said before disappearing.

Jaya and Izreea heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Jaya disappeared into the closest shadow without a word, and Izreea entered the wick and slipped the amulet over her head. Izreea vanished from sight just as two castle staff entered the room, each bearing a tray of food and one holding a water pitcher. As they set up the table, Izreea held her breath, walked through the open door, and ascended the stairs.

At this time of day, only a few staff members walked the halls, mostly with trays of food or the occasional laundry bag. Izreea thought about following the hall to an exit but decided she didn’t care which end of the castle she exited since she could always walk around the outer wall if she came out on the wrong side. She picked a direction she believed would take her to the stables and began walking in a direct line through all obstacles in her path.