Previously: Driven by curiosity about a mysterious noise, seven-year-old Zeph and Aria ventured into the southern woods against their mother’s warning. Their search led them to a recent landslide where, lured by the desperate cries of an animal, they entered a dark cavern and came face-to-face with a magical and holy beast trapped in the rubble.
“What is that doing here!”
My surprised voice echoed back through the darkness. The creature’s piercing golden eyes kept a close watch on our every move, while its large and sharp beak seemed ready to cut off any unwanted movement. My legs did their best not to buckle from the surprise.
“That is an Argenthian, little brother,” she said, her voice thick with arrogance.
She threw me a smug smile. “Don’t you remember it from Dad’s book, _The Winged Wonders of the High Peaks_? I guess it was caught as the mountain collapsed.”
She motioned me to come closer so she could inspect the animal. Despite the massive shriek it gave earlier, it was unexpectedly calm right now.
As I drew nearer, I cautiously edged the sphere of light forward, watching for any sudden movement.
“What are you looking for?”
The question echoed through the cave, but no answer followed.
*Is she ignoring me or something?* My free hand balled into a fist. I asked the question again, but received no reply.
Cutting off the aether flowing into the light sphere, the cave turned completely dark again. The weight of the darkness returned immediately, making me question if getting my sister’s attention this way was worth it.
“Hey! What gives?”
Though her face was still barely visible, finally getting some acknowledgement was a mission success.
“I asked you something, and you didn’t answer. Guess the darkness is the only thing that gets your attention.”
*Was that a bit too far? Maybe I should say so...* My thoughts were interrupted as she grabbed my hand and pulled it forward.
“LIGHT!” she commanded.
Startled by her sudden command, I quickly conjured the light sphere back into existence.
As my sister turned back to the animal, she pointed to a dark spot under the debris.
“There, she is stuck. That is also why she was here and crying for help.”
As if sensing our intention was to help, the creature seemed to relax. A big smile spread across Aria’s face.
As we were looking for a way to free her, we couldn’t find any leverage, and the rubble was just too locked in place. A small cry pulled our attention to the animal’s head as it lay its head down, making it look like it was giving up, and signaling us to do the same.
“No! We will get you out of here. We will get help, ok?” Her hand petted the head of the beautiful creature as it lay there.
Dad’s books said you only ever saw these creatures soaring high above the mountain peaks. To see one on the ground, trapped and broken like this, felt both incredibly special and deeply tragic.
“Sis,” my voice optimistic. “Maybe if there is something that can help us further down the cave?”
Though it might have looked like a brave suggestion, my body protested the idea by nearly freezing.
“Y-y-yeah...” A hesitant voice came from behind me as I felt her grab my shirt.
Again, the familiar feeling of her hand grabbing my shirt was energizing. I had to play the part of the hero, so let’s do this.
“Ok, let’s g-go.” I took a deep breath and took the first step forward.
As we slowly set our first steps deeper into the cave, Sis gave a final look back at the holy creature.
“We will be back! I promise.”
Her voice betrayed her confidence with a large dose of anxiety.
“Uhm, Zeph...” a thin voice, laced with fear, softly echoed in the cave. “How far does this cave go? Shouldn’t we turn back?”
Looking over my shoulder, I saw she was actually scared. The shivers running through her body transferred to mine as she clamped down on my back, making it harder to move.
“Sis, I am here, you know.” I tried to say confidently, only to realize how scared I was myself.
A few paces further, a dim glow filtered through what looked like a perfectly carved doorway. As we passed through it, the narrow tunnel opened into a vast, strange room. The walls were lined with strange, black panels that hummed with a low energy. Tiny lights blinked on their surfaces in silent, rhythmic patterns, like captured stars. The floor wasn’t stone, but smooth, polished tiles of what looked like marble, cool and seamless beneath our boots.
A strange, nauseating pressure built around me. My senses, so accustomed to the normal flow of the world, felt overwhelmed by an eerie, unnatural coldness in the Aether. My eyes were pulled to the centerpiece of the room. There was a raised square platform. Upon it stood a strange, metallic frame, holding something impossible at its center. It almost looked like a sort of door or gate. One from the fantasy stories Dad had written. But this one was different.
The thing was a strange metallic frame, and at its center was something impossible: a dark purple, liquid-like substance that rippled and swirled. A steady stream of smoke rolled from the bottom of the structure and spread around the room until it dissipated into the air.
“Ugh.” A wave of dizziness washed through my head, the dark elemental aether in the room overwhelming our already high aether senses.
“Zeph?” Aria put her hand on my shoulder. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah. You felt it too, didn’t you?” I assumed as much from the way she was bent over, clutching her head with one hand.
Aria nodded. “Yeah. It almost felt like my head would explode.”
Our attention was captured by the gate, and the longer we watched, the more inviting it seemed. Though my body was being pulled towards it, my mind was a blur as I tried to work out what was going on. One thing was clear: this wasn’t good. *Or was it?* The strange pressure in the air made it impossible to think straight.
As I tried to find some sense of a steady mind, my perspective seemed to have changed. The gate was much closer suddenly. It was almost as if we walked towards it without knowing.
As I searched for my sister, I saw her slowly moving towards the structure, almost like she had no will of her own anymore.
*What is going on?* A thought shot through my mind before I pushed through any resistance, bolting for my sister. Something bad was about to happen, I could feel it. Nothing was ‘okay’ here, nothing felt ‘right’ here. We had to leave.
My feet dragged me forward as fast as I could, but the waves of dizziness became more intense the closer I got to this weird freakshow of a thing.
“SIS!” My shout pulled her out of her trance. She was just an inch from touching the strange, purple liquid that filled the gate’s center. Startled, she jumped back from the gate and tripped over her own feet.
Finally reaching her, I grabbed her tight and stood between her and the darkness I now felt pulling me towards its center. A wave of extreme dizziness hit me. I stumbled backwards, my arm flailed out for balance, and my hand skimmed the purple energy.
“ZEPH!”
Aria’s scream pulled my attention back, but it was too late. The gate was already reacting to my touch. A few seconds of silence were broken by soft shockwaves pulsing outward from the structure. The purple mass began to pulse with a blinding light. Bright white cracks, like a spiderweb on glass, fractured across its surface.
I looked down at my arm. A steady stream of bright white lightning now tethered my hand to the cracks in the gate. The soft pulsing shockwaves became more intense with every passing second. I tried to pull myself away from this thing, while Aria also pulled, but I was frozen in place.
The room went silent again, the connection broke, and for a split second, I thought we were safe. I rushed to grab my sister and jumped away from whatever was about to happen. But the moment I grabbed my sister, the gate exploded violently. The wave of force was silent and absolute. It slammed not into our bodies, but directly into our minds. The intense aether shock pulsing through the room assaulted our senses, bringing us to the verge of fainting.
A moment later, a large flash of light filled the room. A massive shockwave followed, emanating from the structure, and a burst of dark elemental aether bombarded every inch of the room.
As we fell off the raised platform, I twisted my body instinctively, landing on top of her to shield her from the impact. I felt a massive pressure pushing on my back. Not the pressure from the explosion, but something different. It was entering me, forcefully trying to mix with my internal aether. A burst of pure light erupted from my chest, only to be slowly twisted and consumed by a suffocating purple glow.
“NO!” I heard Aria shout as I felt her arms reach around my back, holding me tightly as if her life depended on it.
The initial force of the explosion faded, but the pressure inside me only kept building. A dark purple aura now filled the room, giving everything a soft, sickly illumination. Dust made visibility nearly zero, and the air was hard to breathe, making me feel weaker with every breath.
I felt myself being overwhelmed by coldness, something I had never felt before. Not a physical cold feeling, but when you are left alone in the dark, nothing around, nobody to hold you.
My vision turned darker with every passing second as the world around me grew silent. I didn’t know if my eyes were open or closed, though the thought didn’t even cross my mind anymore. The stillness, the coldness, the... darkness..., it surrounded me on all sides in an oddly comforting way.
I was not in the room anymore. There were no walls here. The only thing around me was darkness. It wasn’t depressing, it wasn’t cold anymore, for some reason it felt... normal. Without warning, the sound of what I imagined to be glass cracking caught my attention. Looking around into the darkness, small cracks of light appeared. With a burst, the cracks opened a hole in the wall of darkness. The light was blinding, but inviting. It was almost as if it was guiding me into its warmth, a familiar warmth.
As I came closer, I could swear I heard a voice calling out in desperation.
“*Stay with me*.”
“*Don’t leave me here alone.*”
“*Please come back.*”
I reached for the light, my hand slowly disappearing into its warm embrace. The closer I had gotten to the light, the more the darkness tried to pull me back. The struggle wasn’t painful; it wasn’t desperate. The allure of nothingness was strangely inviting; it felt easier to give in than to reach out. Still, I dared to touch the light, as the voice I heard was *too* familiar.
As my body melted completely into the light, a jolt ran through me from head to toe. My body felt like a battlefield of emotions, memories, voices, feelings, all blasting in like a tsunami. I could hear the scream of a familiar voice again—my sister’s voice. The realization pulled me back to reality, and my eyes shot open. For a fraction of a second, our eyes were locked onto each other. A sudden shockwave erupted between us as it felt like our internal aether collided, releasing all the energy between us.
Landing a short distance from my sister, I scrambled back to her with whatever strength I could muster. Sinking down beside her, I furiously checked for anything wrong with her physically. There were no visible wounds, and only some scratches on her arms from the fall. Realizing she was most likely just unconscious, I gently cradled her head in my lap, hoping it would bring some form of comfort as I tried to think about my next course of action.
“You were the one who pulled me back, weren’t you?” My exhaustion made my voice a bit rough. “I have to get you out of here. This is all my fault. I convinced you to go on this path.”
While my voice cracked a little and my eyes stung from the tears beginning to blur my vision, I decided I had to act. With the last of my strength, I picked up my sister and put her on my back. Slowly, I made for the door, hoping I could reach the big bird before I collapsed.
Reaching the door of the room, I was greeted with a breeze of fresh air. The air brushed against my face, and I felt a surge of hope that we might survive this yet. With an unsteady pace, I stumbled my way to the entrance of the cave.
“Was there always this much light?” I wondered, noticing the cave was much brighter as I rounded a corner.
The wind was now blowing fully into the cave. A much-needed blast of fresh air filled my lungs, giving me sweet relief from the dust and humidity behind me. The debris from the collapsed mountain was spread out over the clearing and even into the woods.
“Well... seems that blast did help the bird out of its cage,” I said, a pained chuckle leaving my lips.
I slowly made my way outside, collapsing to the ground as I cleared the cave into the clearing. With the last of my strength, I pulled my sister close, a wave of relief washing over me that we had survived.
“We’re safe,” I whispered, though I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince her or myself.
A sudden blast of wind and dust surrounded us as the Argenthian landed. The pure white feathers and golden eyes made the beast look as majestic as written in the stories of old and new. The animal made some soft, almost sad noises as it limped towards us on a broken leg and lay down next to me.
I was too tired to respond. I could only look up in surprise when this beautiful animal spread a wing over our heads as it came to rest.
*Was it protecting us? Will we survive? Will it be... here... later... Will... it* My thoughts drifted away, and the world became silent again as I passed out.
A sense of pressure on my chest flowed into my head as the feeling of warmth enveloping my body made me feel safe. The sense of sound returned as I slowly woke up from my slumber; the sound of my mother’s soft cries was the first thing my mind could process.
*What is going on?*
Opening my eyes, a voice rang through my head. Not my own voice, but a familiar voice. I looked to my right, seeing Mom sitting on a chair with her head in her hands. Her body jerked softly as she tried to breathe in between her cries. Looking past my mother, I locked eyes with my sister.
*I hope sis is alright.* Then, in a sudden flash, I remembered everything.
“Zeph?”, a thin, soft voice called out.
Before she could finish, the rest of her thought echoed in my head. My eyes shot open in surprise as I spoke her words for her.
“Did you just ask if I was alright?”
We were in shock, realizing we could hear each other’s thoughts. We knew what the other would be saying before they said it. We nearly jumped into an upright position when a jolt of pain shot through my side.
Mom watched, her face full of relief, as she saw we were awake. She tried to say something, but was surprised by both of us suddenly sitting in bed.
“Ouch!” both my sister and I shouted in unison. The sudden agony made me collapse back into the bed.
“Are you two okay?” Panic was audible in Mom’s voice as she immediately rushed to Aria’s side, who searched for what was causing the sudden pain.
Finding no wounds on Aria, she quickly turned to me and gasped when she saw a heavy bruise on my left side. She quickly called out for Dad to come upstairs as she tried to see how bad the bruise really was.
As Dad came inside and sat down next to Aria, Mom pushed on the bruise, making me and Aria both call out in pain.
*What is going on?* Aria’s voice rang through my head again.
Looking at my sister, she looked back with a scared face that I knew mirrored my own. I was feeling a fear I had never felt before. It wasn’t weird, but it felt like it wasn’t my fear.
*I don’t know. But don’t worry, I’m here.* I answered without using my voice.
The weird feeling of fear subsided somewhat, and my sister’s face told me enough to know my thoughts had also run through her head.
Author Notes
Whew, what an intense conclusion to the flashback! It was really important to me to show the foundation of Zeph and Aria’s bond—that loving family and the way they instinctively protect each other, even as kids. The events of this day will echo throughout their entire journey.
It really makes you wonder: is a bond forged in such chaos a blessing or a curse? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
Thank you so much for reading! We’re back in the present for Chapter 13 to continue the hunt for Jake and Michael. See you there!
Loving the journey? Subscribe to ensure you catch every new chapter as soon as it drops!
Want to know more about the world, characters, and
inspiration behind the stories? Visit the "Behind the Story"
section for exclusive content and a chance to get involved!