Chapter 6 - Time To Go

Rayne slammed her bedroom door. She paced back and forth, toying with the ribbon behind her ear.

Outside her window, the sky grew dark. It had been bright and beautiful before dinner, but now it was beginning to rain. She slumped into her reading nook and turned her head so she could listen to the pitter-patter of rain on the circular window.

It was like the weather in the East was mirroring her emotions. She snorted at the idea, and a thin smile spread across her lips.

They didn’t get it and refused to even try to understand. That was the part that hurt the most.

Rayne sat there for a long while, just thinking and watching her distorted reflection in the rain-splotched window.

Rayne blinked away the tears building up in her eyes, and when she did, her reflection in the glass became clear. She saw her silver eyes and the determination furrowing her brow, and that was how she knew.

She didn’t have to prove it to her parents. She needed to prove it to herself—that she could do it, that she could become an Explorer and step up to her grandfather’s legacy.

Rayne wiped the tears away and went over to her bookshelf. She grabbed every book that might offer her some wisdom or reference to the journey she was about to embark upon. She put the stack of books on her desk and started going through the boxes of things she had yet to unpack.

She was taking inventory, checking to see how much money she had, how much she would need to convert to salts, just in case. She sat down at the desk and pulled out a few blank sheets of parchment.

Dipping her fountain pen into a bottle of ink, she began to plan.

She was going to need tools, new clothes, boots, and a ferry ticket. She swore to herself as the costs began to add up, and worry stirred in the base of her stomach.

Once she made it to Volthum, she would have to find a ride in the city to take her to the valley, and once she was there, well . . . she would be all alone, and the only way to get out would be by her strength and determination.

Rayne sat back in her chair, massaging her fingers. Her brain hurt from all the calculations and thinking she’d been doing, but she wasn’t done just yet.

She dipped her pen and took another sheet of parchment, then began to write a letter. She wrote it first and foremost because it was the smart thing to do. The truth was, if anything bad happened in the valley, it would likely be the end of her. There would be no way to get a message out if she was hurt or stranded.

She detailed where she was going, when, and how to find her, and when she had finished the technical aspects, she wrote how much she loved them.

The thought caused her to pause, and she swallowed hard. This letter could be the last words her parents would ever receive from her.

She didn’t hate them, but she wondered if her decision would cause them to hate her.

She hesitated again.

Was it worth it? Was this dream worth sacrificing everything? She folded the letter with trembling fingers and placed it on her desk.

She’d imagined this moment a million, million times. The moment when her grand adventure would begin. The moment she would start writing her own story, the story that a young girl in the future may read and be inspired by. Rayne had expected feelings of excitement and anticipation, a symphony playing in the background as she went off into the world to fulfill her destiny.

But now she was there, and she felt hollow.

***

“Wake up, wake up. It is the morning time,” Dustbunny chanted as he marched back and forth inside the cave. 

Rayne’s eyes opened slowly. She pressed a hand to the back of her neck, grimacing at the painful ache she’d obtained from sleeping on solid stone and her tough pack.

The fire had been reduced to a few smoldering coals. A thin trail of smoke trickled up from the remnants and faded away.

“Oh, look who’s awake,” David said, his mouth half-full of granola bar. Rayne frowned and checked her backpack.

“Stop stealing my things,” she grumbled sleepily. Her cloak was folded next to her, and she wrapped herself up tight, wishing she could hide within it. For whatever reason, she found it a little embarrassing that David had been watching her sleep and that he’d been so close.

“Well, no promises,” David said, dusting the granola off his fingers. “So, what’s the plan, cap’n? We still headed to the dragon’s cave?”

“No.” Rayne shook her head with a frustrated sigh, a sick feeling in her stomach. “Our deal was that I help you retrieve your sword and in turn you accompany me to the cave. I failed to hold up my end of the bargain, so there’s no reason for you to risk your life.”

“I’ve never needed a reason for that.” David grinned.

“This is true,” Dustbunny agreed.

“You know what I’m saying,” Rayne said. Despite how little she knew about David, he was probably one of her only friends in the East. The idea of continuing the journey alone made her uneasy.

 

“You don’t have to come.”

“Hmm,” David mused, rubbing his chin. He gestured to Dust. “Let me confer with my partner real quick.”

They huddled up in the back of the cave. She tried to hear what they were saying but couldn’t make out their words. After a minute or so of discussion, they both nodded, shook on it, and turned back to face her.

David cleared his throat. “Having conferred, we have decided that we will go with you to the dragon’s cave and help you find whatever it is you’re looking for. If, of course, you’ll have us.”

“Why would you choose to come with me?” Rayne asked, her brow furrowing.

David shrugged. “We wish to support you in your coming of age, angsty teen moment, all right? And who knows, maybe there’s something in the dragon’s cave that I’m looking for as well.” His eyes flashed in the dim light of the glowing embers.

“Yes!” Dustbunny smiled. “I want souvenirs.”

“All right, then.” Rayne tried to keep her face impassive, but she felt great relief, and her shoulders relaxed. “Let’s get going.”

***

Despite the morning soreness, Rayne felt good, confident that things were finally going to go her way. She trudged through the snow once more with newfound determination.

They climbed rocks and walked along narrow cliff ledges while Dustbunny sat in the rucksack and cheered them on. One hour turned into two, and the cold morning air gave way to a little bit of sunshine beaming through the overcast sky.

“We’re almost there.” Rayne grunted as she reached down and helped pull David up and over the final ledge. When she turned around, breathing hard, they were there, at the top of the mountain. 

The peak was right in front of them, and so was the entrance to a cave that could be none other than the dragon’s lair.

“We did it!” Dustbunny exclaimed, and Rayne smiled, because they had. She had. She had made it.

But there was something strange about the mountain’s peak. 

Something that didn’t feel quite right. She started forward, and her excitement gave way to a sense of unease.

She hadn’t noticed them at first glance, but as she drew closer to the cave entrance, the things in the snow became noticeable. They were scattered all about.

Rayne knelt beside a small lump in the snow, and there was a teddy bear, worn and frozen and falling apart. Just a few feet away was what looked like a grandfather clock, ice covering the glass, its polish and sheen long since gone.

“All right.” David swallowed. “This is kinda freaky, even for me.”

“Doesn’t feel right.” Dustbunny frowned, his ears drooping.

There were pieces of what appeared to be buildings, stacks of brick and wood. A rusty car was perched on a rock. Weapons and toys and things from almost everywhere and everywhen were scattered about.

“The Breaking,” Rayne whispered. “Do you think these things are remnants, items that appeared when . . . you know.”

“They’re lost things,” David said, and he turned around to face the whole of the valley that surrounded them. “This is just a valley of lost things.”

“Then I guess the question is, what else will we find?” Rayne reached toward the bear, then hesitated. Something about the scene felt wrong.

“Hopefully, we’ll find what we’re looking for,” he muttered.

Rayne left the teddy bear behind and made her way toward the cave entrance. It loomed over her like a gaping maw, ready to swallow her up in icy darkness.

If what they’d encountered in the snow was strange, then the dragon’s lair was stranger still. Gold and jewels lay scattered about the entrance, and amid it all were dozens of ancient banners.

They were stuck into the ground, their colors faded, their threads untwining. They reminded Rayne of the memorial cemetery at the edge of the valley.

“These are Alkanian banners.” Rayne scanned several of them, running her fingers along the frozen tapestries. Then she reached one that didn’t look like the others. “This is a bakiri banner.”

“A bakiri,” David said, walking over to stand beside her. “You ever seen one?”

“No.” She shook her head. “They went into hiding after the Breaking—the ones that weren’t in the city when it disappeared, anyway. They’re probably hiding away in sea caves or something.”

They walked a little farther into the cave and were met with ancient armor rusting away to nothing beneath the elements. David knelt and picked up a helmet. It had a long gash across where the soldier’s face would have been.

Rayne stood over the piles of armor, wondering just what it was these men and women had faced before the world was broken. What it was like to fight those monsters. What it was like to die by their hand.

She swallowed hard and pulled her cloak tight before venturing deeper into the cave.

The floor was flat and polished so smooth that she could almost see her reflection. Her boots tapped on the stone as she walked, and a gold coin skittered away with little clinks when she accidentally kicked it.

The walls were rough, and embedded into them were glowing crystals of every shape and color, speckles of a rainbow leading them deeper into the darkness.

“Wow . . .” Rayne whispered when she saw them, because they weren’t just crystals.

They were magic incarnate.

The fear and trepidation left Rayne, and she leaned in close to examine one of the crystals. They were here, and there were so many of them. If she touched one . . .

She could feel it. It was like a hum, a sound in the background of her mind that made her feel light, relaxed, like a tingling of energy that touched the tip of her finger, flowed into her core, and spread out to the rest of her body. It was a feeling she’d never felt before, but for some reason, it was natural; it was how things were supposed to be.

That connection flowed through her and into the stone beneath her feet. It began to connect in every direction, and the farther it went, the more at peace Rayne felt, and the stronger the hum and the feeling became. She could feel the magic within, drawing her deeper into the cavern, toward—

“Are you okay?” David asked, raising an eyebrow. All at once, the feeling was gone, and Rayne was left blinking, a feeling of emptiness inside her. It was like she was missing something.

“Yes.” She took a deep breath. “Yes, I’m fine. I—” She shook herself and smiled. “Do you know what this is, David?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “A glowing magical rock.”

“I like glowing magical rocks,” Dustbunny said.

“Well, I don’t care for them all that much because—”

“No, no, you just need to feel it.” Rayne grabbed David’s hand and pressed his fingers to the crystal. 

David tried to pull back, but no sooner had his fingers touched the crystal than it began to glow brighter and brighter before bursting into a thousand pieces.

“Geezums!” David yelped, shaking his hand. “Dang it, they do this every time.”

“What was that?” Rayne flinched in shock, her brow furrowed in confusion. “Why did that happen? That’s not . . . I’ve never heard of that happening before. Never.”

“Yeah, well . . .” David massaged his fingers, little drops of blood welling up where the sharp pieces had cut into his skin. “Every time I mess with magic, this is what it does. I don’t think it likes me very much.”

“Normally, I’m the one who handles the magic stuff.” Dustbunny held up his floating hands. “’Cause I’m part magic.”

“Then I wonder why you don’t explode.” David chuckled, and Dustbunny’s face blanched for a second.

“It’s because Dust isn’t an accumulator,” Rayne said, still looking at the shattered pieces of crystal on the ground. “Crystals like these are accumulators, magic incarnate, and they act like a . . .” She searched for the phrasing. 

“A store of energy, or a battery, like you have in Old York. It’s something that receives and expels magical energy, whereas magical creatures simply absorb it. Just like you and I inhale oxygen and our bodies use it to live.”

“Uh-huh . . .” David’s eyes were a little glazed over. “Remind me again how you’re a magical know-it-all.”

“I’m not a . . .” She trailed off, grumbling, and reached into her pack for her grandfather’s journal. “I’ve studied these things because I’m looking for the Oasis Spark.”

“The who what now?” David cocked his head.

Rayne flipped the journal to the last page and took a deep breath. This was her journal, but she felt like she could trust David. She needed his help, and . . . well, she wouldn’t have made it this far without him.

“Look,” she said, moving closer to show him her grandfather’s sketch of the Oasis. “Do you know what this is?”

Something flashed in David’s eyes. He glanced back at Dustbunny, and the little gormaden’s ears drooped ever so slightly.

“Tell me about it,” David said. “The crystal, I mean.”

“It’s called the Oasis.” Rayne pointed to one of the glowing crystals in the wall. “It was an accumulator, similar to one of these, but it was huge, so huge that it could draw in enough magical energy to power the entire city of Alkania.

“Now, we don’t really know what caused the Breaking, but what we do know is that it must’ve been an unprecedented release of magical energy in a chaotic and uncontrolled format. So something happened in Alkania as the bakiri were trying to take over the city, and the Oasis was destroyed."

“But what if there was a piece of it left?” She referenced the journal, excitement and hope building. She was so close. 

“What if there was just a tiny piece, a spark, if you will. What if it still existed? Where would it be? It would have to be here, in this cavern.”

David smirked. “Huh, you really are a nerd.”

Rayne just rolled her eyes.

“But this crystal thing is what you’re going to use to get into the Explorer’s Guild, isn’t it?” David posited.

“Exactly.” Rayne nodded. “And just think about what the guild could do with it, the things they could learn. David, it could be a huge breakthrough, and maybe we could finally take the Broken World and begin putting it back together.”

“But all of this”—David gestured around—“is just to get into the guild, right?”

“I mean, yeah,” Rayne said slowly. “But I feel like there’s more to it. Perhaps it’s because of my grandfather, but I think he was onto something, and I think the Explorer’s Guild can help me find out what it was. Why do you ask?”

“I’m just asking,” David huffed defensively. “And you lost my sword, so I feel like I’m allowed to ask.”

Rayne fell quiet as she walked a little farther into the cave. She glanced back at David and Dust, an exasperated frown on her face, and also a twinge of guilt.

Dustbunny pointed out little trinkets here and there, and David picked them up and brandished them for his friend. He knelt and picked up a golden locket on a golden chain, then tried to put it on Dustbunny’s head, but it would only fit around his ears.

“Hey, David,” Rayne called to him, and her voice was soft. Maybe it was the cold, or maybe it was the moment, like reaching out and crossing a horizon.

“Oh, hey,” he said, standing up quickly. He showed her the locket. It was polished and ornate and certainly worth a considerable amount. “Sorry, we were just picking up next month’s rent.”

“I never thanked you,” Rayne said suddenly.

“Oh, come on, I was joking about the sword thing,” he said.

“I know it was a joke,” she replied, noticing his scraped fingers and bandaged hand. “But you don’t have to be here. This whole thing is . . .” She shook her head. “It’s all my own selfish ambition, but I believe in it, and I don’t think I could have made it this far without you. So . . . thank you.”

“Yeah.” David looked around and shrugged. “Thanks for that. I mean, you’re welcome.”

“He is very welcome,” Dustbunny said.

“And thank you too,” Rayne said, reaching out and rubbing Dust’s head. She took a deep breath, and it felt like a weight was gone, one she hadn’t realized she’d borne. 

“Now let’s go.”