“Where is this?”
“You haven’t been here. Just as humans have their realm and the fae have theirs, this is where witches reside.”
“Is it always dark?” There was no light in the sky at all.
“Right now,” my reflection nodded. “They destroyed the sun. Too much power was channeled away from it, and it burnt out. The candles were their best solution.”
“How many more places am I going to see?” I turned directly to face her. I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could see. My reflection, which looked positively spooky as she glinted in the candlelight, knelt to pick up one of the burning candles. She turned, and I noticed another door I had missed before. This time, I opened it myself and stepped through, eager to leave the darkness. This place had trees as wide as buildings and grass that reached my thighs. “Giants?”
“And ogres,” she nodded. “They’re the same thing, really.”
“What’s wrong here?” Everything looked fine. It was twilight, but that alone didn’t suggest something wrong.
My reflection shook her head. “There are no more ogres. The realm itself is fine. The land wasn’t ruined.”
“What do you mean there are no- what happened?” I frowned.
“They were considered a threat. Other creatures thought they were too dangerous. When turmoil began, they were eliminated. It was the only time the other creatures agreed on anything before the rest of the realms were destroyed.”
I looked around the empty world. It seemed so peaceful but knowing why just made me feel sick. “Please… tell me how to fix this.” I failed to keep my voice from quivering as I spoke.
My reflection placed her hand on my shoulder, bringing my attention back to her. “You don’t fix it.”
Tears flooded from my eyes. “I have to!”
“No,” she shook her head. “You misunderstand. These things may come to pass, but you don’t fix them when they do. You must stop them before it gets to that.”
I felt like I was shaking from anger and fear, but something told me to trust her. She was so calm, in the face of a world so bleak and dead…
“What causes these things to happen?”
A small smile spread across her face as though I’d asked the right question. “This happens when there is no one to unite them all.”
I felt more confused at her words. So, was the realm of the fae not the only one to have lost a King or Queen? “I don’t understand.”
She looked around as something shifted. I felt a loud thud, and the ground seemed to vibrate beneath us. Without ever having experienced this before, I knew immediately that these were the steps of ogres. They were here; they were alive. Whatever pressure had been gripping my chest finally began to release its hold on me, but I still didn’t understand.
“They need a leader.”
I blinked. “Who? The ogres?”
She shook her head. “You are a culmination of your existence thus far, Spirit.” That was a mouthful. “No matter what occurs, you will go to extreme lengths to stop the suffering of the innocents. That is what will save the realms.”
Everything she said was confusing, and I felt like I only had a shallow understanding of what she was telling me. So, I could stop all of these awful things from happening, I just still didn’t know how.
“So, what does that mean for the prophecy?” I looked around the world at the ogres in the distance, and a small smile pulled at my face. There was no answer. I turned but didn’t see my reflection. “Hello?”
The world shifted one more time. It began to fade, and in its place, I saw the moonstone walls. There was no reflection in them this time. I walked forward and touched the wall, but there was nothing.
Where my reflection had been, there was a door once more, and this time I was positive it hadn’t been there before. I glanced around once more before turning the knob and stepping through it, finding myself back in the hallway again. I walked over to the moonstone walls, but there was no reflection at all.
21
Daath
We watched the door close behind Myrcedes as she entered the hall. I turned and sat on the top step of the staircase, and Syrion joined me. “How long was she in there last time?”
“An hour, I believe?” Syrion mused.
I nodded. “And how long do you take when you visit the Floor of Dreams?”
He paused, and I felt the white light surrounding him grow tense. “I lose track of time.”
We were both silent. He hadn’t told me he’d been going to the Floor of Dreams. It wasn’t hard to figure out, and he wasn’t going to any lengths to hide it. Still, the fact that he hadn’t come to me about it made it awkward to bring up.
“I don’t like not knowing what’s going on with my brother,” I confessed. I looked at him, but he didn’t return my gaze.
“I don’t like not telling you,” he said. “Honestly… I don’t.”
“Please, tell me what’s going on.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “Syrion…”
He reached up and placed his hand on mine, but he kept his eyes down. “I’m not ready to talk about… this.”
I hesitated before nodding, pulling my hand back from under his and running it through my hair.
As we sat in silence, I began to think about how easy it would be to comb through his thoughts, to find exactly what was going on. Once I knew, I could help him through it, and we could face
