Never did she wish to be easily defined.
Princess Lethia's Cottage, The Floating Kingdom of Zephyr, Northern Ardeneon.
May 23
Everything is so scary when you can't see. Of course, Suzumi couldn't say that. She believed that people would only take pity on her if she did, and she hated that more than anything. She wanted to prove that she was capable, prove that she could do things with or without her eyesight.
After she hears River shut the door behind him, she lets out a breath and follows the exercise Dexter's mom had taught her two days prior, she didn't know why the lines kept leaving. But she knew something definitely wasn't right.
Opening her eyes she searches her pockets for her scroll touch. It's usually hard to reach sprites on scroll touches from two opposite sides of the world but she thought it was still worth the try.
No response. She stares at the scroll in disappointment wondering if she should just go back to Minerva. She quickly reminded herself that she couldn't, and she needed to be there, with the five.
She leaves the bathroom and heads to the kitchen to search for her glasses. Hoping she didn't pick up a knife instead.
Putting her glasses on everything becomes so much clearer—well as clear as it could be for her anyways. She lets out a sigh of relief, turning around to the pot of food.
"It's getting late" she murmurs to herself, wondering when the others would be back. She couldn't imagine staying in the same house alone with River for another 6 hours, just the thought of it made her itch.
.......
"Did you hear back from anyone?" River asks walking into Suzumi's room.
"Sure, head right in" She rolls her eyes.
"I'm not here to pick a fight" he groans "Everything is an issue with you"
"And I bet it's rainbows and unicorns with you" she chirps sarcastically.
"Did you hear back?" he pushes.
"No" she deadpans "You can leave now"
"Do you even care?" he asks. she did.
"You asked a question I answered, what does my presence or absence of empathy have to do with anything?" she looks up at him and he shakes his head disapprovingly "Is Phinius asleep?" she asks.
"It's 2AM of course he is."
"You can leave now" she motions to the door, and he sighs leaving. Just when she thought he was gone, he walks right back in.
"What?" Suzumi picks up a bottle of paint, reading the big bold letters on it as 'BLUE'
"I can't reach any of them" he tells her, worry seeping through.
She sighs tiredly, "Dexter?" she asks
"Oh"
"Yeah" she says "I already beeped him though" she decides to tell him.
"You did?"
"Yes, that's what I just said"
"So, what did he say, are they alright?" he asks.
"Dexter didn't answer, his brother Tahl did" she tells him.
"Dexter has a brother?" he asks as she plays with the paint on her canvas, and he sits on the bed.
"Crazy to think you're one of his best mates" Suzumi chuckles dryly "Have you even spoken to him since you left, or have you been avoiding him because of Skai?" she asks curiously.
"I'm not here to pick a fight, what did his brother say?"
"That Dexter was asleep; he said a lot more but that's confidential" she answers truthfully.
"Are the others with them?" River asks
"Not that I know of" she shrugs
"Suzumi" he pleads.
"I can try to see where they are" She sighs facing her canvas to the wall and giving him her full undivided attention.
"You can? How?"
"You ask so many questions, it's getting tiring, just get me one of their items each" she tells him.
He comes back with each of their pillows, and she walks over to her bed, sitting on it she takes one of the pillows from him and he sits beside her "That's for Emily" he tells her, and she nods closing her eyes, she smells the pillow, inhaling Emily's scent.
If the situation was different, she would have been ecstatic about jumping into a person's perspective. She loved doing it when she first developed the skills, it was the only way she could see colors, it was the only way her brother could teach her colors and things she couldn't learn in the institutions of the world due to her deficiency. This time it wasn't so fun. It was scary for her.
Focusing her energy on Emily's existence, she finds herself in a white room. All she could see was the floor, so she really wasn't so sure. Her hands are tied around a pole behind her, metal gripping her wrists uncomfortably, her feet are chained together in front of her, her eyes focused on them. She has a very unsettling feeling in her gut, she's scared, she's been crying.
she breaks out of it dropping the pillow instantly.
"W-what's wrong?" River stutters.
"Either Emily is dreaming that she's being held captive, or she's being held captive." she tells him.
"It could be a dream?" River asks her and she nods taking the next pillow from him.
"That's Skai's" he tells her, and she repeats what she did with Emily's pillow maintaining focus.
She's bawling tears, she'd been tortured, the room is white just like where Emily is, she can see Emily's tied feet in the distance but there are no chains on her unlike when she was in Emily's perspective, no metal holding her, just a loose rope, but it doesn't matter because she can't move, she can't focus.
"Suzumi are you okay?" River pulls her out of Skai's perspective.
She wipes the tears off her face and turns to face him, not sure how to tell him that his sister was going through a lot.
"Give me Elijah's" She reaches over grabbing Elijah's pillow, hoping and praying he isn't captured too, because he's the only one that could help them save Emily and Skai.
She focuses on Elijah's existence after sniffing his pillow, but his is proving to be more difficult than Emily and Skai's, his mind is guarded, she can't get in.
"Does Elijah sleep on this?" She asks River and he nods "Is there anything else? I need something with a stronger sense of him."
"I'll go check" he hesitantly stands up.
"Try this" he hands her a cloak. "He wears this often."
She takes the cloak and repeats the process, this time she manages to get in, just barely. She takes in the environment first, it's the same white room, so that led her to assume that they are all in the same place.
Unlike the previous perspectives in Elijah's perspective, she's not physically hurt, she's not crying, instead she's burning inside...with hate, she hates herself. She hates herself because she couldn't protect them.
'Who's there?' she hears Elijah's voice in his head. He knows she's there. She's not surprised, she'd been studying him, she expected it if anything.
'Suzumi' she tells him. 'Where are you?'
She needed to ask the important questions quickly.
'I think the great council has us' he responds.
'Are there any windows or doors in that room?' she asks.
'How do you know I'm in a room?' He begins to look around the room and she sees Skai and Emily at the corner of his eyes. Emily opposing him not so far off and Skai far off on his right
'No' he responds 'we were dropped from the ceiling, that's the only way out'
'That's impossible, Skai can't fly?' she asks.
'Skai can't do anything right now, they put her through a lot of pain, they've been coming every couple of hours to hurt her, I think it's because she could break the chains with her skills.'
'Elijah, can you teleport?' she asks him.
'Impossible, I need to move to do that, I'm in chains, they know I can teleport and see visions, they don't see it as much of a threat'
'I need you to give me some time, I'll look for a way' Suzumi assures him.
'You can't come for us' he warns me 'They'll take you too'
'Elijah I've been wanted for a long time.' she tells him firmly 'That doesn't faze me, I'm going to save you, even if I get caught myself in the process.'
She hears a sound coming from above and all sight is gone. Elijah had closed his eyes, soon she hears Skai screaming and she gets out of his head breathing heavily, River is patting her back holding a glass in front of her when she returns from Elijah's perspective.
She takes it carefully sniffing it. Water. She gulps it down after verifying.
"Does Zephyr have a library?" she asks River
"You want to read right now?" he asks in disbelief.
"No, you dimwit." she rolls her eyes "We need to find a way to save them, we can't just jump headfirst into danger."
"Yes, we can" he argues "We can't just wait"
"River we aren't waiting, we can't turn up at the great council without a plan"
"The great council?" River asks.
"Before Elijah left, he told me he saw something" Suzumi tells River "He was on Maver Island, he saw a man landing there, that's where they went right?" she asks.
"Yeah"
"He also suspects it's them so let's go there from the library, I might be able to trace the person that took them from there" she tells him.
"Are you sure you can go anywhere with your leg?" River asks
"I have to" she tells him.
.....
"That's it!" Suzumi breathes out finally coming to a solution.
"If we go in, we would no doubt get caught, and it will be all futile" she tells River.
"We got that genius" he grumbles.
"No listen" She flicks his head "I was so focused on where Elijah could teleport to, but I should've been focused on when"
"When?" River asks looking up at her confused.
"When he moves from place to place, he's kinetic right?" she poses the question, and he nods "What if he could move to another time frame by being static?"
"Are you saying time travel?" he asks taken aback.
"No Ladiston, I'm saying he should fly to moon" she looks at him in innocent rage.
He ignores her little jab "But for that to happen the entire building or place has to be static, everything is always moving"
"No, when I was in his head, I couldn't hear anything, all I could hear was Skai and Emily, the room is soundproof, as long as Elijah's body can believe that he is completely static, it could work" Suzumi explains further.
"So, it's mostly about mind space?" River asks and she nods "Okay so then what?
"If Elijah can get into another time frame, then it is possible he could teleport to present day and time somewhere else."
"And if he can't?" he asks her
"We better hope he does"
"Isn't traveling through time dangerous?" River asks again.
"As long as he doesn't alter the timeline, he'll be fine" Suzumi tells him.
"Are you sure about this?" he asks.
"Do you have a better idea?" She asks him instead.
"Fine" he responds. "Here" he hands her Elijah's cloak. "Tell him the plan"
Suzumi closes her eyes after smelling the cloak.
'Elijah' She calls out looking around his mind. It was beautiful. Stars everywhere. 'Elijah!' She yells in his head this time and his eyes open.
'Suzumi, you're back' he says with relief.
'I have an idea' she tells him.
'Hit me with it'
'You have to travel through time' she says.
'What?!'
'Hear me out, okay?' She explains her thought process to him quickly.
'They'll come for Skai soon, so when they leave, I'll try it out but if it doesn't work, don't come for us' he warns.
'Elijah, River will not listen to that and frankly neither will I' she tells him blankly 'So either you get out of there or we join you in there'
'Jeez' he says, and she hears an opening just like last time, Elijah immediately closed his eyes, soon Skai starts hearing screaming 'I'll check on you in 2 hours' She tells him before pulling out of his perspective.
"Is he going to do it?" River asks
"He's going to try." Suzumi notices princess Lethia beside River with Seraphinius asleep in her arms. "Blessed morning" she greets
She nods but Suzumi and River could sense her devastation "Are they okay?" princess Lethia asks.
"Yes" Suzumi lies "Just tied up" "I should try to get across to Dexter, tell him to stay inside" She brings up and they both nod.
She takes out her scroll touch beeping Dexter. He answers.
"Hey Dexter" she greets
"Hey" he whispers, "Is everything okay?" he asks, she could see a mop of hair near his face.
"Is that Tahl?" She asks and he hums.
"Everything fine?" Dexter asks.
"Not at all" She tells him truthfully "You can't leave your place, okay? None of you should leave, Maver island is being watched right now, the great council is on your tail" she tells him.
"What?" he asks confused.
"Please Dexter" Suzumi pleads "Tell your dad, if anything can protect you guys from them, it's him"
"This seems serious, did something happen?" he asks.
"Word just reached us in Zephyr, don't worry, just stay in till it blows over"