The five of them stood together in their pillars of light but just like a year before one of the podiums was empty. A muted yellow light that should have been bright and vibrant remained. Her stone floated within it but it was filled with an inky black energy within. They could still remember seeing her body fade into the same light.
Kathryn, Seth and Cal looked at the pair of them and then back to Ley who even without features, they could feel their regret. None of them could imagine being in their shoes and none them would be quick to volunteer that.
“What do you mean?” Jack asked. “What happened to Sarah?”
“When she was felled by the blade of Hawk it severed the connection that she had with with myself and this place. Her soul is gone and I cannot see it, however I believe I know where it is trapped. Within the realm of my twin. A mirrored version of this.”
“Why does your twin have her soul?” Marco asked.
Ley looked at him and shook their head, “To keep. A trophy maybe. To prove their superiority over me.”
“Her soul is trapped. Like a trophy,” Marco said evenly, the red of his pillar shading his eyes a very dark color. “This is your twin doing this. Your problem that your dropped on us here! And now Sarah’s soul is trapped! Bring her back Ley!”
Silence hung in the air and Marco turned around hitting the edge of his pillar hard. None of them had ever seen him outburst like that before. “I’m sorry but I cannot. I have no more access to my twin’s dimension then they or their knights have access to this one.”
“So what happens to her there? Is she even aware of what’s going on around her? Is she alive?” Marco asked.
“She is alive. And aware. But trapped, likely on a podium in which you stand now.”
“There has to be something we can do!” Jack said again and this his voice broke. “Anything.”
Ley took a step back and folded their arms. Looking down the glow of their body was still. Their eyes closed thinking and then something like a rippled shifted through them. They looked at the pair of red and green knights intently, “Perhaps there is an option.”
“What is it?” Marco asked turning around to face him. He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a slow breath before meeting their eyes.
Ley raised their hands and created two squares both empty of color. “These are the inner dimensions of myself and my twin. They are like pockets of space only we and those we allow can enter.” They tapped one box and it opened, they tapped the other and it flashed black. “But with the appropriate key I can enter.” They created a red stone similar to Marco’s and the other box opened.
“What does that mean?” Cal asked. “We need to get a key to enter the other dimension?”
Ley nodded, “We would need the stone of one of my twin’s knights. With that I could enter that dimension and bring Sarah’s soul back to hear. Reunite her with her stone. Bring her back..”
Jack blinked quickly and then laughed clapping his hands together, “Is it that simple? That’s easy. Let’s go to work!”
Seth shook his head, “Except there’s the big red flag. We need one of the black knight’s stone’s to get there.”
“We just get one then,” Jack said almost stubbornly. “What’s even the problem?”
“Because the last time we fought them as all six of us, we lost.” Seth told him. “We’re stronger together and we still lost. So now we’re objectively weaker than them and we need to take on of their stones.”
“So if we go to fight one them right now we’re risking someone else getting taken?” Cal asked.
“Pretty much,” Seth replied.
“Fuck!” Jack shouted kicking at the pillar of light he occupied. “So you’re saying we’re fucked no matter what we do?”
“I am sorry,” Ley replied.
“There has to be something,” Cal said. “She can’t be trapped there.”
“The odds are against us,” Marco said. “But if we can find one. Just one. We can beat them and take their stone and do this.”
“And kill them,” Cal said.
“I didn’t say that,” Marco said glancing at him. “But if we have to I won’t hold back. Not anymore.”
But Kathryn had been thinking and the option seemed to be too good to be true in her mind. It didn’t sound feasible or even worth considering but she was going to be damned if she let one of her friends stay dead because of this. No matter how crazy the idea she had to try it for them at least.
“For us to do this, how much time would we need?”
“In your span of time, within a week at the very most. The sooner the better.”
She nodded biting her lip, “How similar are you and your twin?”
“We were once part of the same whole.”
“So the same then,” she said and they nodded. “How would this process work? Saving her soul, I mean?”
Ley tilted their head to the side in thought, she’d seen more emotion out of the celestial tonight than she had since knowing them in the entirety of their time together. Finally, the celestial righted themselves and said, “Using one of their stones as a window I would channel her soul through it and back into her own stone. With that she would be reborn here, in this place, and then appear back on your planet.”
“And you bring one of the black knight’s here? Like invite them into your dimension.”
That question seemed to catch them off guard but they nodded, “Feasibly yes.”
“What are you thinking Kat? That we drag one of them here?” Cal asked. “I don’t think doing that is really likely considering things. They’re not exactly our friends here.”
“I know. Trust me I know. But. There’s something that I want to try. Specifically, about the one who helped us at the end. The orange one. I think, I think I know him.”
The Harlequin Library 