What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything.
-Vincent Van Gogh
The Great Council Headquarters, Ardeneon.
May 24
After the marinators leave the room, Elijah stretches his legs forward to touch Emily's. if he was going to do this. He was not leaving them behind.
"Skai, I need you to grab onto my hand" Elijah whispers out to her, and she grunts.
"Skai please, I need you to" He pleads. He knew the great council was listening in on them so he couldn't give out any information on what they were doing.
Skai seems to get the memo and begins crawling over painfully. Elijah's second biggest worry at that moment was that Emily might not fall through the portal with them, his biggest was that they might not be able to create the portal.
After about 7 minutes of painful crawling Skai grabs onto his hand.
"Can you see if you can hold Emily's ankle?" He asks her "See if her ankle is fine from the chains?" Skai lifts a brow up at him in disbelief "because you know it would be hard for her to go anywhere we go if you don't check it, I mean they can't keep us locked up forever" he adds hoping she would catch on.
Realization seems to set in her eyes and Skai struggles to grab onto Emily's ankle, but she does, Emily looks up at them jerking awake.
"Remember when we were on earth?" Elijah starts "Before we got tangled up in this rubbish, back then we had no worries"
"We'd play games, watch movies and prepare for tests" Emily adds helping him out, knowing he was trying to pass a message.
"Yeah" Elijah laughs dryly "We'd play games like freeze tag, where no one would move as soon as they got caught, should we play it here?" he asks, "For old times' sake?"
"B-but we c-can't we're all-all h-h-holding each other" Skai manages to sputter out.
"Then I guess we're all it" Elijah tells Skai. "Remember, we could only move when we were taken out of the scary box" he adds in.
"Oh" realization seems to hit Skai "L-let's pl-play"
They all stay still holding on to each other. Elijah closes his eyes thinking of the time before he left the living room. When they were all safe.
It wasn't working. He sucks in a heavy breath and settles in the stars that cloud his mind. They always made him feel static, he stays in one position and the stars stop twinkling, they're all frozen. This time he doesn't think about the time he wants to get to; he thinks about time itself reminding himself that to accomplish something, you must understand it, his soul needed to understand the essence of time.
Suddenly he falls, a loud scream escapes his lungs and just like they were holding each other in the room they were locked in, they fall through a portal holding each other that way.
"Ow" Elijah groans as he hits his tail bone on a cold hard surface. He looks around them and portals are everywhere; they're sat at the edge of what looks like a huge never-ending ice rink.
"Where are we?" Emily breathes out.
"Not where we're supposed to be, that's for sure" Elijah sighs.
"I feel...fine" Skai stands up suddenly full of energy. "How do we know this isn't one of the Great council's tricks?"
"No, I did this" Elijah sighs "I was supposed to take us to the cottage, sorry guys"
"Skai, can you try to free us?" Emily asks and Skai nods creating a huge gust of wind and using it to break through Elijah's chains and Emily's metal cuffs.
The wind was so powerful that it pushes them back and they almost fall into a portal, quickly Elijah stands up, pulling Emily towards him and Skai falls to the ground.
"Skai are you okay?" Emily screams and they run over to her.
"T-the p-pain" she chokes out.
"She must've overexerted herself" Elijah sighs.
"Emily, can you help get Skai on my back? Let's get out of here" He ushers squatting on the ice, and she complies.
"I think we should look around" Emily points out.
"Skai is hurt sunshine" Elijah tells her, "We need to get her somewhere safe"
"N-no, Let's check it out" Skai pushes and he sighs.
"How are we sure that we are actually here and it's not our minds?" Elijah asks and Emily pinches him "Owww" He winces. "The hell was that for?"
"We're really here" she confirms ignoring his pain.
"I wish we had water" Skai breathes out exhausted.
"Hang in there" Elijah tells her as they walk further down the rink. "I've seen many crazy things since we got here but nothing like this" it was like they were a dot in a void of even more dots.
As they get deeper into the rink, they begin to see stop watches, clocks, alarm clocks different forms of time telling instruments floating in the air, amidst portals, some inside the portals, in the distance Both Emily and Elijah see a figure, but it's not clear who.
'You're in the rink of time?!' Elijah hears Suzumi's voice in his head.
'What?' He asks back.
'You're inside the rink of time, or at least it looks like it' she says.
'You can see what I see?' he asks her confused.
'Perspective shifting' she says "You have to be careful not to fall in the portals"
'Got that' Elijah responds, and he feels her presence leave his mind.
"We're in the rink of time" he tells Emily and Skai.
"You sure?" Emily asks skeptically.
"I guess so" he shrugs.
"You were trying to travel through time earlier, right?" Emily asks and he nods
"What if to do that you have to stop by the rink of time, like a bus stop" she surmises.
"Maybe" Elijah looks around, trying to catch the figure he had seen before again, the figure was gone.
"We should get out of here. Skai are you okay?" Elijah asks and there's no response.
"Is she okay?" He asks Emily and she begins to check Skai's breathing, her pulse and what not.
"She's asleep...or unconscious" Emily concludes.
"Let's get back, I'll figure out a way back here, next time we will come with a plan."
.....
They change course and slowly walk around the portals to the side of the rink. The gravity in the rink is low, but high enough to walk on, it felt regulated.
Elijah pulls Emily closer to him as they stand at the edge of the rink. "Hold onto Skai" he tells her and jumps.
Imagining the cottage living room at the present time, the portal opens and they land with a soft thud.
........
Back at the library River, princess Lethia, Seraphinius and Suzumi are still sitting in wait.
"The rink of time?" River asks Suzumi "Are you sure?"
"Must I repeat things?" she asks, and River rolls his eyes. As long as his friends were fine, he was fine.
On a completely unrelated note, he couldn't wait for Suzumi to leave.
"I'll have guards at your cottage" princess Lethia offers standing up handing Seraphinius to Suzumi, and River shakes his head
"That would only draw attention towards us" he tells her, and she sighs in thought.
"I'll be working on a security measure till I can get you and Skai back" she ruffles his hair. The statement took River back for a second 'you and Skai' he wasn't her child, why would she try to get him back?
She catches the confusion on his face thinking he was upset she didn't mention his friends. "And your friends till we work out their living situation" she adds. "Whatever you kids want"
River stands up hugging her. "Thank you" he breathes out.
"Little tides" she laughs a little bit.
"I'll see you after noon, I'm sure Skai will be sleeping when they get back." She leaves the library.
Remembering how they didn't even call her over and how she beeped him knowing something was wrong and rushed over to them brings a small smile to his face. He couldn't help but think how lucky Skai was to have a mother like her.
Suzumi begins to clear the table with Seraphinius in her arms and River reaches out to take the little sprite from her to which she agrees.
"Shall we?" He asks her and she nods, they head for the door leaving the library.
......
"What do you want again?" Suzumi asks as River walks into her room without knocking. "I could have been naked"
"Uh okay" he trails off "I can't sleep, and I have questions" he sits on her bed.
"Go away" she groans "You're giving me a headache"
"I haven't even started, princess" River winks, there was something so exhilarating to him about ticking her off.
"Ew, don't call me that" she warns. Her telling him not to do it only made him want to do it more.
"Okay, princess"
"Can't you just go to sleep like your friends? It's 6AM" she asks irritated.
"Why did you leave Minerva?" he asks instead, and she ignores him. "I want an answer, princess" he taunts.
"We don't always get what we want."
"Look I just need to understand, you joined sprites on the run, left your safe home, it's not adding up" he pushes.
"Try subtraction" she rolls her eyes "You learnt that on earth, right?"
"Haha very funny" River responds sarcastically.
"Who are you?" he asks, and she stands up walking over to him from her little art station.
She grabs his chin with one hand and with the other she reaches into her pocket for something. She draws a knife out and presses it against his neck.
"Are you out of your mind?" he asks her, and she bends to eye level with him.
"You don't even know" she smiles sweetly closing her eyes.
"For someone who hates me, you sure come around me a lot" she opens her eyes letting go of him.
"Did you just jump in my head?" he asks in disbelief.
"No, I shifted to your perspective" she shrugs playing with the knife. "You want answers?" she asks, "Let's go for a swim."
........
"You're not going to freeze me to death, are you?" River asks her and she shrugs jumping in the lake. The only lake in Zephyr...which is off limits.
"If I was going to do that, I would have done it back at the cottage" she looks around and he sighs getting into the water. "Scoping for witnesses" she informs him.
"Wait what?" He asks alarmed.
"Chill out, it's a joke" she laughs heartily.
"Jokes are meant to be funny" He eyes her.
"Well, it's funny to me" she shrugs. "And they are when the person on the receiving end isn't so uptight"
"I am not uptight" River defends "Are you ready to answer my questions now?" he asks, and she shrugs.
"Why?" He asks again.
"Elijah and I both see things, the day we met for the first time, we saw something." She starts to explain "As you know Elijah sees warnings, I on the other hand I see people's future, pasts, emotions and perspectives, my skills are all about seeing, except the ice thing." She floats on her back in the water.
"Well?" River asks.
"Elijah saw a terrible fate, the world as we know it was disappearing, the mountains were crashing, the skies went black, Zephyr and Nefeli came down, sprites were running and dying... he seemed out of it when I pulled him out of the vision." she says "I on the other hand, in my vision I saw him smiling, it was his wedding day, the world was alright, the next flash I saw he was being awarded for world peace, then he pulled me out."
"So, what does that mean?" He asks tempted to also ask why Elijah didn't tell them?
"We don't know, that's why he asked I come along, the world I live in is on the line, hell I don't wanna die" she floats to face River in the water.
"We're hoping his vision doesn't come to pass, from what he has told me so far his visions don't always come to pass, he can change the timeline, alter it or push it off for some time." She adds.
River didn't know Elijah had visions that often to have a statistic of some sort on them.
"Oh" he pauses
"Don't blame Elijah for not telling you guys, I asked him to keep it lowkey till we figure it out, so you can't tell anyone...I only told you because you're being such a pain."
"Hmm" he hums "Are you in my head again?" he asks wary.
"No, I can feel the disappointment from over here" she says trying to wipe water off her glasses with her wet hand.
"That dumb, princess" River taunts "Just take them off"
"I told you to stop calling me that" she grunts kicking his leg under water.
"Where's the fun in listening to you?" he asks, and she rolls her eyes.
"There's someone here" she whispers swimming closer to him and closing his mouth looking around.
He pulls her closer pulling them underwater to the bottom of the lake subtly creating a bubble around them.
He licks her hand, and she jumps back in disgust evident as daylight.
"What the hell River" she squeals, and he hushes her.
"Are you trying to get us caught?" He asks and she shoots some demonic daggers at him.
"You clearly are" she hisses "Let go of me" she wiggles out of his hold, and he shrugs pushing her out of the bubble then quickly pulling her back teasingly.
"You sure about that princess?" he asks, and she huffs.
They wait there for about 10 minutes in complete silence, she was starting to lean on him, which River didn't expect considering her nature.
"You think it's safe to go up now?" He asks her but he gets no response.
"Suzumi" He looks down at her only to find her asleep. He flicks her forehead, and she groans waking up.
"River what the hell" she punches him.
"Let's go home, princess" he taunts "I think the person is gone"
"Next time, the knife is going through your neck." She says.
"Sure, princess" he chuckles lowly.