Void Of Stars (Part 2) - [Collab with Annie Persson]

I closed my eyes, and jumped into the wormhole.

Slowly, I lifted my eyelids and looked around to see where I was. A mountain, the four golden towers of the palace with its responsibilities and burdens nowhere in sight. Oak trees filled the mountain-base, dipping into flatlands and not rising again until the range of hills in the distance.

My mind floated, aware that I was somewhere at last where I didn't have to hide myself. There was something odd about the setting, but I let it go, not wanting to ruin the moment.

I twisted, and searched the mountain-top for Hope – she was the only person who would've created a wormhole in the palace. But I wondered why it hadn't disappeared, as her others always did the moment she walked through them.

“The Source is gone!” Hope wailed beside me. Her hand jerked upwards, then stopped, but I knew her too well to miss it, even in the darkness.

“What do you mean?” I sighed. Why did she have to hide things from me?

“Nothing,” she said quickly. I could see her head working, trying to find a way to cover herself, and I was curious.

“What's the Source?”

Then she changed. Suddenly she was weak and pale. “Look up, Faith,” she whispered, taking her my hand uncertainly. I looked up, and realised what made the scene look odd.

The stars were gone.

I found myself on the floor before I realised I'd fallen. Hope struggled to pick me up, and instead pushed me to a sitting position and sat down beside me.

“But – but – but – but,” I stuttered. My words mirrored my thoughts.

“Just a few minutes ago. I watched the sun disappear, then the stars went, one by one.” I could see that Hope was trying to be confident, more like herself, for my sake. Despite the situation, I smiled. She was acting my older sister at last.

I got myself together and spoke. “What do we – what's the Source?” I changed my question out of worry that the original one would be met with a blank stare or shrug. Anything but uncertainty.

“Isn't it obvious?” Hope held her hand up to the moon to find the direction home.

I sighed. Of course it was obvious, but I wanted her to admit that she'd been hiding something. “Hope.”

“Alright. It's the Source of magic, and I've kept it from you. There, happy?” She turned and walked away. I paused to think for a moment, then ran to catch up with her.

“Why aren't you opening a wormhole?” I asked. My sister's walk slows, and I can see her growing paler in the moonlight as she abandons her pretence of strength. I should've told her not to bother in the first place; it's always exhausting, pretending to be something you're not.

“The Source is gone, Faith. I won't be able to manage one.”

“But -”

“No buts.”

I sighed. “Okay then. If we can't open a wormhole, how are we getting back to the palace?” I asked, dreading the answer. Hope just glanced at me without answering, and tilted her head towards the landscape in front of us. Walk.

Far off into the thick forest, I saw a large clearing. I squinted, just making out a circle of wall filled with log houses – and on the border of the forest, the tips of two golden towers showed. “I can't walk that! That's – twenty, thirty miles.” Hope kept silent as I spluttered.

“We don't have another option,” she said when I'd finished.

She speeded up, and we walked down the mountain in silence for about an hour – the mountain path was relatively easy, but trapped in the palace as I often was (and Hope not having to walk anywhere with her wormholes), we had to take multiple breaks.

“Hope -”

My sister stopped walking and turned to me. “Shut up. Do you have any idea what's happened?”

I was tired and confused, but away from my parent's rules of not losing my temper, it was too easy to lose it.

“So your magic is gone – big deal,” I said, with more acid than I'd thought I held.

Hope paled, and we continued walking in silence. I should've been more worried about her, but I was preoccupied with inward guilty giggles at the thought that I'd done something wrong for once.

“How would you like to lose a family member?” She spat at last.

There was silence again as I contemplated what she'd said. I'd just got used to clambering over boulders and not tripping over protruding rocks when the scene changed, and we were stumbling over roots with a roof of leaves above us.

How would you like to lose a family member reverberated around my head. The only thing I could think of was that her magic had been part of her, as she'd said. The stars had given her it, so losing the stars – suddenly I was desperate to comfort my sister, and when we stopped again, I reached out to hug her, but she pushed me away, and put a finger to her lip. Shh.

A rustle of movement behind a holly bush. I hide behind my sister, unsure of the danger but knowing that she would protect me.

A boy, roughly Hope's age (15), with thick muddy-blond hair, hopped out of the holly bush. He was looking at the ground with gritted teeth, his face red. He didn't seem to see us, although we were barely three meters in front of him.

Despite not wanting to declare my magic to a stranger, I felt compelled to help him. Slowly, I separated his string and severed most of his pain, absorbing it into myself. He looked up.

***

I stared at the boy in front of me. He didn’t look very clean, so he must be from Nix’s village.

“Who are you?” I said, trying to keep the tremble out of my voice. He looked at Faith, ignoring me completely.

“I said, who are you?” I repeated, and this time he looked up at me.

“She’s the princess, isn’t she?” He asked, his voice rough like gravel but not too deep. I rolled my eyes.

“She’s not the only princess.” I said, my hand on my hip, “And you still haven’t answered my question. Who. Are. You?” Again, he looked at Faith, but this time he glanced back at me.

“I’m Rastor. You must be Faith.” He said, nodding to the girl in question. I couldn’t believe this guy. I turned to look at Faith and saw her staring at the stranger like he was some miracle boy.

“Y-yes, I’m Faith.” She said, not breaking eye contact. I sighed.

“And I’m her older sister, Hope. Now, where do you come from, Rastor? Is there a village near here?” I stepped in front of Faith, shielding her from Rastor and making him look at me instead. He reluctantly met my eyes and raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, there’s one about an hour’s walk away. I can help you find it if you want.” He offered, shrugging.

“No, I think-” I started, but Faith cut me off.

“That w-would be really nice, actually.” I whirled around and glared at her, but she just shrugged and made a face at me. “He obviously knows the area better, Hope. Come on, loosen up a bit.” She walked past me, standing closer to Rastor. I sighed and rolled my eyes again, but reluctantly followed them.

As I followed Rastor and Faith, they chatted about everything and nothing, constantly looking at each other. Rastor led us through the forest for a while, but the trees eventually thinned out and became meadows. I started recognising the landscape, thinking about the twisted old tree in the field next to us and how there was a similar one near Nix’s village. Then I noticed the field. The exact same one Nix and I sometimes practice in. I caught up with Rastor and Faith and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Rastor, what’s this village called?” I asked, changing my pace so I could walk between Rastor and Faith.

“Please, call me Ras.” He said, and I raised one of my eyebrows.

“Hmm, that’s a strange name for a village.” I said sarcastically, looking at ‘Ras’ from the corner of my eye. He chuckled and smiled weirdly, only using half of his mouth and it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought when I first heard it. No, the village we’re going to is called Duffrin.”

“I knew it!” I said quietly to myself, striding confidently ahead. I needed to talk to Nix about the Source disappearing. He’ll probably know more about it than I do.

When I got to the outskirts of Duffrin, I weaved my way along the familiar path to Nix’s house, stopping only once to avoid a group of sheep running across the road. I found Nix’s door, the dot harder to notice in the almost complete darkness. I knocked and bounced on my toes, waiting for the door to open.

When Dena’s face appeared, I sighed in relief. She ushered me inside, closing the door softly behind me. There was a little alcove that hid the door and anyone standing near it, so when I walked into the main room in the house, Nix saw me and stood up from the table to greet me.

“I was wondering if you would make it.” he said, reaching for my hand, but then thinking better of it. His hand dropped awkwardly to his side, but I extended mine and he smiled at me gratefully. He led me to the table, where his father had a book on the table. I sat in the chair next to Nix. Dena sat on my other side.

“Do you know how it happened?” I asked, looking between Dena and Nix. Dena looked down and Nix shook his head.

“But who could’ve done this and how did they do it?” I asked more to myself than anyone else. Dena looked up and fiddled with her sleeves.

“Well, once, a long time ago, there were ancient writings that told of a way to destroy, but at the same time strengthen, the powers given to us through the sun and stars. Apparently, there is only one type of magic that has the potency to take the Sources. They’re usually referred to as AVs.” Dena let me think about what those letters could stand for, but my expression must’ve betrayed me. Dena smiled gently and continued.

“It stands for Absolute Void. It means whoever is and AV has all the powers ever created and can do things no other void-user can. Things like stealing the Sources.” When I looked at Nix to verify them, he nodded and sighed.

“Those writings were thought to have been lost when magic was banned,” Dena continued, “but then this happened. Someone must’ve found them, found an AV, and decided they wanted to rule the world. There were some documents that were specifically hidden though, the ones that explain the costs of stealing the Sources, like how the stealer loses all their power and the fact that the world will slowly start to disappear.” I frowned, trying to follow Nix’s words. Something doesn't add up.

“But how do you guys know this?” I asked, looking from Dena to Nix. But it was Nix’s father that responded.

“Because our ancestors wrote them.”

***

“W-what are they t-talking about in there?” I asked Ras, sitting on the bed in the room he'd given me and Hope for the night. He shrugged.

“I don't know. Probably some boring grown-up stuff.”

“B-but Hope's n-not a grown-up,” I stuttered. I hadn't stuttered since I was eight – why now?

“It's not our problem.” He was still looking at me, and I fixed my eyes on my swinging legs, blushing.

“N-no. I suppose n-not.” Stop stuttering, I said to myself. You look like an idiot. He smiled.

“I'm not going to eat you, you know,” he said. I smiled weakly, not trusting myself to answer.

There was an awkward silence for a few minutes.

“What's it like in the palace?”

I could've told him of the glamour, the luxury – but that wasn't what the palace meant to me, so I told him my truth.

“C-constricting. B-borders everywhere and you can't be your own person. You're not allowed to act or even think by yourself.” I forgot my stutter in the remembrance. He gave me a lopsided, sympathetic smile.

“What was y-your childhood l-like?” I asked.

He thought a moment before answering. “Similar to yours, but poorer.”

I smiled. We had something in common.

Then I felt something, a sort of whisper in my head, and I wasn't half as nervous anymore. I lifted my head and gaped at him. “You're – you're an EV too?”

Suddenly his attitude changed. He stood up and said, “We should probably see what they're talking about now.” When he was at the door, he paused, and looked back with a cute lopsided smile (Cute? Faith what are you thinking?). “Well?”

I stood up and followed him out, wondering why he had changed. He took your nervousness – you know how these things work. He's nervous for two now, I reassured myself.

Ras led me to the main room, where we found Hope, a strange boy about her age with dark-blue eyes, black hair and freckles, an older man who could've been the boy's father, and – Dena? My thoughts were drawn away from her when I realised there was an argument going on. I stepped back into a little alcove by the front door and pulled Ras in with me.

“That wasn't supposed to upset you,” the boy with navy eyes said. His voice was level, and if he was angry, he wasn't showing it. It was only my sister who was openly heated. Her golden eyes burned with a fire that made me miss the sun.

“You try to fool me into believing that the Source is limiting our magic instead of providing it. You tell me that everything I've believed in is a lie. You say that you've lied to me since we were children and you didn't expect it to upset me?” Hope snapped at him. I'd never seen her this angry before.

The boy gritted his teeth, but all he said is, “Trust me.”

“How am I supposed to trust you?” Her voice wavered and became higher in pitch. “I don't know if you're lying now or were lying then, but whichever way, you've still lied.”

The boy took a deep breath, but her anger was infectious. “How am I supposed to prove to you that I'm telling the truth?” He said in an attempt at calmness.

I looked at Ras, and nodded. He nodded back.

I felt my way into Hope's mind, separating her string gently, hoping she doesn't feel me as I do it. After I located her anger, I began coaxing it slowly towards me. I closed my eyes to concentrate, taking a deliberate breath before continuing. You know the cost of doing this. You should be willing to pay it, I reprimand myself.

I watched as most of her anger unthreaded, and left her mind. I hope Ras is doing the same with the other boy.

I felt the anger joining me before I opened my eyes and saw it leaving Hope, and I struggled to swallow it. Telling myself that it wasn't my anger didn't help at all.

My sister turned to me with a worried expression. “How did you do that?” She asked. She wasn't angry anymore, just confused.

“He's telling the truth, Hope,” I said gently. “Why don't you trust him?”

“Because – because - well, you've proved he's right now anyway.” She turned to the boy, and held out her hand in apology. He took it, and held it for a moment, unsure whether he should shake it or not. They exchanged a glance, and he let it drop awkwardly, and stepped towards me.

“Hi,” he said, shifting his eyes uncomfortably back to my sister. “Hope's told me a lot about you. I'm Nix.” Hope gave him a glance, and his string shifted as he tried to relax and lose his awkward formality.

“Should I help with that?” Ras asked from behind me.

“No thanks Ras,” Nix says, smiling. “The introductions are done now, so it wouldn't be much help, but thanks for offering to be the pack-horse.” They both chuckle, but Ras' seems strange – like he's already absorbed Nix' nervousness.

“So. What do we do now?” Hope asks.

[Co-written by Annie Persson. She wrote the part between the '*'s]