The Adventures of the Junior Phoenixes, Part 5: The Last Pendant

Chapter 22: The Road Ahead

Chapter 22

     Star arrived on the roof of the Morning Glory with Bria, Destíne, Sherman, and the gnomes. Bria’s eyes were red and puffy from crying. Sherman was placid and reserved. Only young Destíne was happy to be there (along with the gnomes, who were enthused to be among the other people).
     “What is this place?” she asked the others.
     “This is where Shade, Echo, and Jinx live,” Star said. “My house is right down the street.”
     “How quaint!” Destíne said, “This place is delightful!”
     “Yeah,” Star said, “It’s cool, I guess.”
     They entered the hatch down that led down to the apartments hidden inside the Morning Glory. When they reached the hallway to the three apartments they ran into Rain Fox and Teller.
     “Hey guys,” Star said.
     “Rain Fox!” Destíne called out. She ran up to Rain Fox and hugged her.
     “Yeah, she’s a hugger, all right,” Star chuckled.
     “Destíne!” Rain Fox smiled. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”
     “I was terribly worried about you!” Destíne said to Rain Fox, “And for you, Monsieur Teller!”
     “I’m glad you’re okay, Destíne,” Teller said. He looked at Sherman and Star. “You okay, Locke?”
     “A bit exhausted, physically and emotionally,” Sherman replied, “But keeping a good show of things. Star told us about Dan.”
     Bria sniffled at the mention of Dan’s name.
     “Yeah,” Teller said, “This has not been the best of days.”
     “We have news, too,” Rain Fox said, “But we’ll wait ‘til everyone’s back.”
     “Sounds good,” Sherman said.
     “I see you Destíne brought her posse with her. Where’s Echo?” Teller asked. “Are Jinx and Rouge with you?”
     “Nope,” Star said, “We’ll tell you what’s up when we get inside.”
     Teller opened the door and let the others go ahead of him inside the apartment. It was quiet within the place. Shade was sitting in his reclining chair while Spirit hovered near him at the window. They were the only two visible in the apartment.
     “Spirit!” Star cheered.
     “Star!” the ghost replied. She hovered over to the young vampire and went to embrace her but went right through her.
     “Oh, weird!” Star complained after Spirit went through her. “That was really weird!”
     “Oh, sorry,” Spirit said, “I keep forgetting that part.”
     Rain Fox tugged on Teller before they entered the apartment. “Do me a favor,” she whispered to him.
     “What?” Teller asked quietly.
     “Don’t mention the part about my father,” she said. “I’ll tell them when the time is right. We’ve gone through enough today. Let’s keep that tidbit close to the chest.”
     “Okay,” Teller said, “I won’t tell them.”
     “Especially not my sister,” Rain Fox whispered, “She’d be devastated.”
     “Got it,” Teller mumbled. The pair stepped into the apartment. Teller closed the door and locked it to be safe.
     Rain Fox and Destíne walked over towards the couch, followed by the gnomes. Destíne sat down, the gnomes clambering about her feet and grumbling with one another.  
     Shade stood up and greeted Sherman and Bria. Bria hugged him and wept a little again, to which Shade comforted her. “Sam’s in the bedroom. She’s been crying a lot. She’s doing better, though. She’d love to see you, Bria.”
     “Where’s my sister?” Rain Fox asked.
     “In the room with Sam,” Shade answered. “Where are the others?”
     “On their way,” Star answered. “Echo took Master Blessed and the others somewhere.”
     “Where’d she take them?” Shade asked.
     “Beats me,” Star answered. “She didn’t tell me. She just said it was somewhere safe.”
     Teller looked around the room and grunted. “Where is Dev?”
     “He went for a walk,” Shade said, “Then he talked to Spirit, then he told her he had something to do but he would be back soon.”
     “He seemed excited about it, though, whatever it is,” Spirit said.
     “I’ll see how Sam is doing,” Bria said. She walked to the bedroom, opened the door, and went inside.
     Teller walked to Sherman and hit him in the shoulder.
     “Good heavens!” Sherman shrieked. “What on Earth was that for?”
     “For not telling me you rigged this crazy hand to repel spells!” Teller replied. “You could have told me that!”
     “I told you Rider helped me put the hand together, didn’t I?” Sherman asked. “He constructed the hand out of wand wood (cherry, I believe) and I added the other magical elements. That hand is a stroke of genius, if you ask me. I’m still rather proud of that thing! I do hope it hasn’t done wrong by you.”
     Teller shook his head. “It’s done fine,” he grunted. “How about we take Teller through a tutorial before we send him out into the world with a crazy spell-repelling contraption strapped to his limb?”
     “Yes, of course,” Sherman said. “I guess I should have spent a little more time educating you in how it works more accurately.”
     The gnomes walked up to Teller and tugged on his pant leg.
     “What?” he asked them.
     Jim the big gnome pointed at his stomach and rubbed it. The others copied his motions, indicating that he and the other gnomes were hungry.
     “Ugh,” Teller grunted. “Where’s the house elf?”
     “Where is Mawl, by the way,” Rain Fox asked.
     “With Echo,” Star said.
     Out of the room came Sky Heart. She ran straight to her sister and embraced her in a sort of tackle-and-bearhug.
     “Good heavens, sis!” Rain Fox squealed, “You’re hurting me!”
     “Sorry,” Sky Heart apologized, “I was just glad to see you back!”
     The group hung around for a while. Teller and Sky Heart prepared a small snack for the gnomes, Star, and Destíne while they waited for Echo and the others to return. It was a while before Echo, Rouge, and Jinx returned.
     “Hey punks,” Jinx said when she entered the apartment, “We’re back.”
     Jinx walked over to the couch and sat down. Rouge and Echo walked over to where Sky Heart, Star, and Shade sat. Destíne and the gnomes were snacking on the treats Teller and Sky Heart had prepared. Sherman sat on a stool in front of the kitchen counter, tinkering with a few devices, with Spirit hovering near him. Mawl walked behind Rain Fox but when he saw dirty dishes in the sink he stopped and started to clean them. Bria and Sam stayed in the bedroom.
     “So?” Star asked, “Where did you end up taking Master Blessed and everyone else?”
     Echo smirked. “You’re gonna think I’m nuts for this,” she began, “But I took them to Misery Island.”
     “Misery Island?” Star asked. “Why the heck would you take them there?”
     “Because it made sense to me,” Echo answered. “When we found out about Graves’ little secret, we ended up on Misery Island. The place was abandoned and no one was there. The enchantments were still up, which meant that Muggles couldn’t see it. I figured it out: Since Jinx got taken there and we got in thanks to the Pendants and the Talk-Boxes that one time after Sam got kidnapped, we were let inside Leech’s protective charms. That means that whatever Secret-Keeping enchantments were on it, we were made Secret-Keepers of it since Leech technically died. So when me, Shade, Mared, Talon, Griffin, and Rouge got there, they were made Secret-Keepers, too. That means that anyone else I took in there would be Secret-Keepers. Hold on, I had this figured out.”
     “You mean no one else would know outside of those who were taken in?” Teller asked.
     “Something like that,” Echo replied. “None of the goons that hung around Leech are alive anymore, and none of the Embers had ever been there. That means that they can’t get in and only those who have been there before could get in. So no vampires, no Embers, and no Muggles could get in.”
     “Some people from the Ministry could get in there,” Sherman noted.
     “Yeah, but they’re not after the students or anyone else like the vampires or the Embers are,” Echo remarked. “Think about it: It’s a castle with thick walls, no way to get in unless you know the Secret, and it’s out of the way of the Embers. It’s the last place they’d think of looking.”
     “Nice,” Star said with a grin, “You’re right. That was pretty genius, Echo!”
     “Told you you’re not the only genius around here,” Echo said with a smile.
     “I thought it was freakin’ smart,” Rouge agreed, “Gives us a little comfort, y’know? At least we know where the others are now. Griffin is there, too. He’s gonna hang around Master Blessed and the students to watch over them.”
     “Where’s Ceddy?” Echo asked.
     “He went somewhere but he didn’t say where,” Spirit chimed in. “He said he would be back in a little while. I talked to him before I got here.”
     “It’s been a little while,” Teller noted, “Where is he?”
     “Was he okay?” Echo asked Spirit. “How was he doing?”
     “He’s doing okay, I guess,” Spirit answered. “He was pretty shaken up when I saw him, but after we talked he felt better. He seemed pretty excited about something. He just said he’d be back soon.”
     “He’ll be alright,” Rouge said, “Otherwise he’d be back by now.”
     “I hope he didn’t go tell his mom about his dad,” Echo said, “I thought we’d do that together. I know I’d need him if it was my mom who got killed.”
     “Where is your mother?” Shade asked.
     “Somewhere safe,” Echo answered, “And far away from here.”
     Rain Fox stepped in front of the group and cleared her throat. “I have to tell you all something,” she began. “I talked to Easter.”
     All eyes turned to Rain Fox at the mention of Easter’s name.
     “What happened?” Echo asked.
     “I had Teller take me somewhere private and far away so that I can talk to him,” Rain Fox answered.
     “Why’d you do that?” Star asked.
     “I needed to glean a few things from him,” Rain Fox explained.
     “What did you learn?” Sherman asked.
     “For starters,” Rain Fox began, “They do have Master Wolf and my father, along with a group of Wapanaki, teachers, and the Sons of Atlas. They had long planned their attack on the school. He told me before that he had plans set in motion to bring himself back; get back to human form. His attack on the school must have been part of that plan. He wants to make a trade. If we give him the Pendant of Darkness, he’ll release the others. If we give him the Pendant of Death, he’ll release my father. If we give him the Pendant of Light, he’ll release Master Wolf.”
     “Good Lord,” Jinx said, “As if we already don’t have enough pressure, geez.”
     “That’s not the whole of it,” Rain Fox continued, “He gave us three days; three sunsets from tonight’s, he said. We are to go back to Salem and give him the Pendants in three sunsets. That’s his ultimatum: Give him the Pendants or let them die.”
     “Three days,” Echo repeated.
     “That’s not all I learned, though,” Rain Fox kept going. “He knew about Fallborn being dead, along with Master Wind, but he didn’t know about Shade being back. That’s something we have to our advantage. He still thinks Shade is dead. He doesn’t know that the Pendant of Life is back. He also doesn’t know that we know about him having a Horcrux; otherwise he wouldn’t know that we were looking for it.”
     “MERLIN’S FLIPPIN’ BEARD!” Star shouted out loud. She scrambled to her feet and ran around frantic throughout the apartment. “Where’s my backpack? Where’d it go?”
     “What is your malfunction, child?” Sherman asked. “You’re making a lot of noise, you know!”
     “There it is!” Star yelled. She grabbed the backpack, which was next to the couch. She yanked it and dumped its contents on the floor.
     “What the bloody hell are you doing?” Sky Heart asked.
     “A-Ha!” Star cheered. She picked up the old book, Why We Are, and handed it to Rain Fox. “I found it!”
     “Found what?” Shade asked.
     “The Horcrux!” Star answered emphatically, “Duh!”
     “Is it in the book?” Teller asked.
     “Flippin’ A,” Rouge said, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
     “It isn’t IN the book, Teller,” Star revealed, “It IS the book.”
     Rain Fox immediately dropped the book onto the floor, treating it as though it burned her skin. “Oh God!” she gasped.
     “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Rouge repeated.
     Shade shook his head. “I feel ya, Rouge,” he said. “This whole time, this whole time it was right in front of us.”
     “That’s the book he wrote, huh?” Echo asked.
     “Yuppers,” Star said, “His stupid book about the Pendants. That stupid book we were lugging around with us, the one we all kept reading. We had it with us the whole stinkin’ time.”
     Everyone stared at the book as though it were going to spring to life.
     “Well?” Jinx asked. “How do we get rid of it?”
     “Fiendfyre,” Rouge answered.
     “None of us know how to conjure it,” Shade said.
     “Not to mention that’s what killed Fallborn,” Echo added. “I don’t want to be near that stuff ever again.”
     “The book Harry Potter gave me had some stuff in it about how to destroy them,” Star said. She ran back over to the pile of contents from her backpack and picked up the book Secrets of the Darkest Art from it. She flipped it open to a page she had earmarked and read from it. “Yeah! It says it has to be destroyed beyond magical repair.”
     “It means that it has to be utterly destroyed,” Sherman spoke, “Something has to happen to it that no magic could repair. You have to kill it, in a sense.”
     “Pretty much,” Rouge added. “I read a few things before on them. You have to kill it with something rare or powerful, I mean really rare or really powerful, or both.”
     “That’s it!” Spirit shouted. “That’s what they were looking for!”
     “Who?” Echo asked.
     “I told Dev that I thought the Embers were looking for something,” Spirit answered. “He thought they were looking for people, but I thought that wasn’t it! Of course! They were looking for the Horcrux!”
     “That makes sense,” Star added, “They knew we had it with us.”
     “How do you know that?” Echo asked.
     “Because the fake Digger saw it with us,” Star replied. “If he knew we had it, he would have told Easter and those losers about where it was. He saw me with it at Hogwarts. He must have thought we left it at the school during the attack.”
     “Well, that’s all hunky-dory,” Jinx said, “But that still doesn’t help getting rid of the thing.”
     Evening began to bear down upon the day as the group talked about what to do with the Horcrux and the search for the Fountain of Fair Fortune. Star ventured back into the Library of Light once more but Booker had no answers for her regarding the Fountain’s whereabouts. She told him about the Horcrux and he offered a few more books for her to read on them. An owl showed up right before Sherman complained about being hungry and Mawl began to prepare dinner for the group. The owl had a message for Echo.
     “It’s from Dev,” Shade said as he gave the message to Echo.
     Echo opened it and read it. “He said he’s fine and he’ll be back in the morning.”
     Star snuck up behind her and read it over her shoulder. “Aw, he loves you forever,” Star muttered, “How cute.” She stuck her tongue out in disgust.
     “Someday you’ll find a boy like him,” Echo told her.
     “Heck no,” Star said, “I don’t need a boy. I just need me and my wand, thank you very much.”
     Mawl prepared a fanciful dinner for the group. He kept Apparating and reappearing with chairs, plates, and silverware (which he insisted were gathered by lawful means) and he set the table pleasantly. Sam refused to leave the bedroom. Bria came out and brought a plate of dinner for her and ate it with her in the bedroom. Sky Heart joined them to keep them company. The others ate around the table. It was a somber, very quiet meal, despite the very tasty dish of prime rib and asparagus with mashed potatoes, a corn hash relish, and plum sauce, all made by Mawl.
     After dinner, the group settled in and started to divvy up the apartment according to where everyone was going to sleep. All agreed that Sam and Bria got the bedroom. Jinx also volunteered to sleep with them in the bedroom, along with Sky Heart. Teller volunteered to stay up and guard the place from the roof. Rouge went with Teller to the roof to help keep guard. Destíne and the gnomes took up the couch. Mawl crawled onto a cushioned chair and fell asleep after he cleaned all the dishes and charmed the table to a smaller size. Shade had his chair. Echo turned into a tiger and settled at Shade’s feet. Star came over and cuddled next to Echo. Echo growled at her at first but Star insisted on staying right where she was. Rain Fox sat across from the chair, between the couch and the chair, and leaned against the wall. She had her sword, Shade’s old sword, and looked at it closely. Sherman stayed up for a while tinkering with a few devices. He charmed a candle to stay lit and hover near him while he worked on his devices. Occasionally he grumbled something or a spark would shock him and he’d mutter obscenities. Spirit hovered near Sherman and watched him over his shoulder.
     “Shade,” Star spoke quietly as the others began to doze off.
     “Yeah, Starkid?” Shade asked.
     “What do we do next?” Star asked. “I mean, seriously, what do we do next?”
     “Well,” Shade replied, “That is a good question. We have to get to the Fountain of Fair Fortune. I need to find the cure to this Blackwell Toxin. We have to recover the last Pendant. We have to rescue Master Wolf and the others. We know all the things we need to do next but no clue as to where to go or who to talk to in order to get there.”
     “Yeah, that sucks,” Star said. “I mean, we know one person who was there, at least. Too bad he doesn’t remember how he got there.”
     “Who got where?” Rain Fox asked.
     “Booker,” Star answered. “Booker’s the guy in the Library of Light. He’s the knight from the story.”
     “Which story?” Rain Fox asked.
     Echo growled lowly.
     “He’s Sir Luckless,” Star answered. “You’ve read the story from Beedle’s tales, right? Booker was the original bearer of the Pendant of Light. The four original Pendant Bearers were the four people who were in the Fountain of Fair Fortune; the three witches and the Muggle knight. Booker was the knight. The Pendants came from the land that the Fountain of Fair Fortune is hidden in.”
     “She’s right,” Shade said, “Morgan le Fay said that the original Pendant Bearers were those four. We only found out recently that Booker was the original bearer of the Pendant of Light. Easter took it from him and bound him to the inside of it. He cursed him and trapped him inside the Library of Light.”
     “Wait a moment,” Rain Fox said, “You mean to tell me that the person inside of your Pendant is the knight from the story?”
     “That’s right,” Star answered.
     Echo growled. She sat up and transformed into her human form. Star had been leaning against her large tiger body but then fell over when Echo turned human again. “That’s it!”
     “What the flip?” Star jeered. “You could have warned somebody you were gonna do that.”
     Echo jumped up and stood. She took hold of the Pendant of Darkness and closed her eyes.
     “What are you doing?” Shade asked.
     “I don’t know if I ever told you guys about this,” Echo explained, “But I can talk to anyone who’s ever worn this Pendant before.”
     “I knew that,” Star said, “I knew that, right? Didn’t you tell us this? I thought you told me about it. I swear you told me about it. Am I rambling? I feel like I’m rambling.”
     “What are you doing exactly?” Shade asked.
     “If they’re the original bearers,” Echo said, “Then I can talk to her!”
     “Who?” Rain Fox asked.
     “Oh!” Star cheered, “The lady from the story!”
     “Beg your pardon?” Sherman asked from the kitchen.
     Echo’s Pendant began to glow. The light grew and then receded suddenly. Echo opened her eyes and saw, to her delight, Starling Govanjek and Dare Hyrcanian stood in front of her.
     “Hey, Tiger!” Starling’s said.
     “Ahoy, Sis,” Dare greeted her with a nod.
     “Holy smokes!” Star hollered and jumped.
     Shade, Rain Fox, and Star all stood behind Echo. “Hey guys,” Echo told the two ethereal representations of Dare Hyrcanian and Starling Govanjek.
     “Who are you talking to?” Sherman asked.
     “Starling and Dare,” Star said, “They’re standing right there.”
     “Oh, he can’t see us,” Starling said, “Only Pendant Bearers can see us.”
     “Oh,” Echo said, “That makes sense.”
     “I can see them,” Spirit said. “I can hear them, too.”
     “You look dreadful,” Dare said to Echo.
     “You don’t look so good yourself, brother,” Echo responded.
     “How is it he’s here?” Shade asked.
     “Oh my goodness!” Starling said, “Shade! You’re alive?”
     “That’s right,” Shade answered.
     “Good to see you again, Shade,” Dare spoke. “Sorry about all the bad business I put you through.”
     “It’s okay,” Shade replied, “And I’m glad I was right about you.”
     Dare smiled. “You were, weren’t you?”
     “Starling,” Echo said, “You said I could talk to anyone who’s ever worn the Pendant, right?”
     “Of course,” Starling answered.
     “I need to talk to- um,” Echo began.
     “Altheda,” Shade finished for Echo.
     “That one,” Echo pointed out, “I need to talk to Altheda, the original Pendant Bearer.”
     Starling smiled. “Now you’re getting somewhere, Tiger,” he said with a smile. “I’ll be back.” He vanished from sight.
     “So,” Dare spoke, “How are things?”
     Echo shrugged. “Not that good,” she answered her brother, “Things are kind of bad right now. Not good, to be honest.”
     “Oh,” Dare said, “I’m sorry to hear that. Keep your chin up, Sis. Good will triumph; It always does.”
     “Thanks, Dare,” Echo said.
     Suddenly a woman with flowing robes and a mean expression appeared in front of the group. A bright light emitted from the Pendant of Darkness, bathing the room in purple light. The four Pendant Bearers covered their eyes. When they looked again, they found themselves in the midst of a dark cathedral-like place. They didn’t recognize it at all. It was a great large building, the likes that one would see if they were in an ancient castle from the Medieval Age. The woman was frightening. Her lips were small and her nose was beaky. Her hair was streaked with white and her eyes were fierce. She wore traditional witch’s robes and did not look, pleased to be summoned.
     “I present Altheda,” Starling introduced her, “The original bearer of the Pendant of Darkness.”
     “Such a smattering of an introduction, young man,” Altheda said with a huff. “You should work on your posture. It’s all wrong, if you ask me.”
     “You’re Altheda?” Shade asked, “Altheda from the story?”
     “Madame Altheda, if you please, sir,” she corrected him, “And from what story do you refer to?”
     “The Fountain of Fair Fortune, ma’am,” Star answered.
     “Madame, not ma’am,” Altheda corrected her. “Only Muggles speak ‘ma’am’ to me. Such a lowly way of speaking. And that blithering Fountain story! Rubbish, the whole thing! Perish the thought of calling that a story! It’s an affront to myself and all who were involved! I’ve never heard anything more tragic than that watered-down telling of our most glorious adventure! Curses on Beedle the Bard! He deserves drawn and quartering from a couple of feral dragons, if you ask me! Simply appalling!”
     Star chuckled.
     “Are you laughing at me?” Altheda barked. “You think it is funny that our nearly-fatal foray into a land of danger and deadly foes is a matter of jest? How dare you! I will not have the most important moment of my life besmirched by some pitiful little witch with a terrible skin complexion and wild hair that looks as though it grew from a Yeti! So unbecoming of a witch! What do they teach these young people these days?”
     Star was surprised. “Hey!” she replied. “My hair doesn’t come from a Yeti!”
     Shade struggled to hide a chuckle. Rain Fox shook her head.
     “This is why I’ve been summoned?” Altheda asked, “To be mocked?”
     “No,” Rain Fox answered.
     Echo spoke up. “We need your help, Ms. Altheda.”
     “Madame Altheda,” Altheda corrected her.
     “Sorry, Madame,” Echo apologized. “We need help finding the Fountain of Fair Fortune.”
     “For what purpose?” Altheda asked.
     “A bunch of stuff,” Star answered.
     “Your butchery of the spoke language borders upon sadness and offense,” Altheda said of Star. “Now, let me ask again: Why do you need to know the location of the Fountain of Fair Fortune?”
     “Star’s right,” Echo answered, “We have a few things to do there. We need to find a cure for Shade, find a new Pendant there, and figure out how to use that to destroy Easter.”
     “Lazarus Easter?” Altheda asked. “He still exists?”
     “Yes,” Rain Fox spoke, “And as the Pendant Bearers, we’re tasked with defeating him, with finality if we can.”
     “All four of you are Pendant Bearers?” Altheda asked.
     The four nodded.
     Altheda cracked a wry smile. “This is unheard of, I must say,” she said, “For the four Pendant Bearers to be friends; it hasn’t happened in a long time. And as for Easter, that loathsome evil sorcerer, he deserves a taste of revenge served magically. He killed the only one of our member worthy of praise: Dear Sir Luckless. He was the best of us. It was his chivalry and bravery that kept us going throughout our adventure. He was humbled by us witches and yet he faced dangers any normal person, Muggle or not, would have cowed and shrank before. Not him, says I. Then Easter happened upon us. We defeated him, but he sought Luckless and vanquished him. We forsook our Pendants after that and gave them to others who would keep the standards of the Pendants. Our grief was too much. I sought Easter long ago, and with his own people as my army, we set battle against him: The Sons of Atlas and our Shadow Confederacy.”
     “Whoa,” Star said.
     “You created the Shadow Confederacy?” Rain Fox asked.
     “Of course, child,” Altheda spoke, “I understand it has withstood over the years in one incarnation or another. Well, that is beside the point. As much as I love to hear a plot being devised to force Easter into capitulation, and as touched as it is to hear that you seek a cure for whatever malady this young man suffers from, these are still means and ends but not purposes. I will ask this only once more, and if the answer is not satisfactory then I will leave your company. What purpose do you have in seeking the Fountain?”
     Star was about to speak when Echo turned and covered her mouth. “Hold on, Starkid,” Echo said, “Let’s wait a sec before we go spouting off again.”
     The four took a few moments of silence to think. Finally Rain Fox spoke.
     “I wish we had a better answer for you, Madame Altheda,” she began, “But this is the only one I can come up with: We want peace. You see, Easter’s plotting to reveal our world to the Muggles. He plans on bringing Morgan le Fay back from the Realm Beyond and giving her the keys to the kingdom, which is the entire world. He will be unstoppable and incredibly influential. We’ve been fighting him for years now and we’re so close to ending this war. Shade went to the Realm Beyond just to keep Easter from succeeding. Star died and was turned into a vampire while fighting his forces. Echo lost her mother and her brother. We’ve all lost friends and loved ones in this fight. We just got Shade back, Madame. He was poisoned and we love him and we don’t want to see him or anyone else die. I have a twin sister that I love dearly and friends and my father’s been captured by Easter, along with others who don’t deserve to die.”
     “These are my family, Madame Altheda,” Star spoke up, “And I love them. I died and Shade kinda died, and we don’t want to die anymore. Kinda sucks, really. But we are the only ones who could do what we do.”
     “We have a bond that is strong, Madame,” Shade said, “We intend on seeing this through.”
     “Until the very end,” Echo added. “We call ourselves the Junior Phoenixes, Madame, and we won’t stop until Easter is done and our friends are safe.”
     “That sounds a little cliché,” Star commented, “But it’s all true, honest.”
     Altheda looked at every one of them carefully. She looked at them up and down; looked at them with investigative eyes. She nodded at them with a smile. “I see it. I see it with my waking eyes. I see something strong. It isn’t just between you four. It exudes beyond you four; it goes out. I assume you have a circle of close friends around you.”
     “You assume correct, Madame,” Shade said.
     Altheda nodded. “The place is called the Shipwright’s Graveyard,” she revealed. “It lies in a location in the middle of the ocean, near the coast of a tropical shore in a place called the Devil’s Triangle. Within the Triangle is a small island chain called the Isles of the Road. Where the Isles point north is a Road, an underwater road. The Road leads to the Door. The closer to the Equinox, the Door rises with the sunrise and falls after only a few moments. It rises again at dusk and falls again only moments after. On the Equinox the Door opens and the Vines come forth and choose a person at random to enter in. I cannot imagine it is still as popular as it used to be, but it is dangerous and only we four came out alive. After we emerged, nevermore did any return to the Wall and the Road and the Door. You will find it. I must warn you: It is perilous and frightening. You must believe in yourselves, believe in what has guided you and brought you together. Hold on to it. It will keep you alive.”
     The four were speechless for a few moments. Finally Altheda spoke again to break the silence.
     “I hope you find fortune, children,” she said. “If you do not suffer its evils, I pray for your safe return. I also pray that you send Mestor Easterson to the hell he deserves.”
     Altheda faded away. The cathedral faded with her. The four found themselves inside of the apartment again. Sherman stood and stared at them. Starling and Dare remained, as well. Destíne continued to sleep. The gnomes snored next to her. The rest of the apartment was quiet. Star, Shade, Echo, and Rain Fox were quiet. Spirit had heard the whole thing. She hovered near the four of them with a smile.
     “Did that help?” Starling asked the group.
     “That was a lot of help, kid,” Echo answered. “Thank you.”
     “You’re welcome, Tiger,” Starling said with a big smile. “Anytime.”
     Dare approached his sister and grinned. “Be seein’ you, Sis,” he spoke. Within the next breath, both Starling and Dare vanished.
     The four Pendant Bearers took a collective deep breath. They looked at one another with renewed purpose.
     “I guess we have our heading,” Shade said finally.
     “We’re gonna need a boat,” Star said.
     “We’re gonna need supplies,” Echo said.
     “For now,” Rain Fox added, “We’re going to need sleep. I need rest. Today was long and emotional. Let’s revisit this in the morning, shall we?”
     “That sounds like a plan,” Echo said.
     “I hope you will all intimate what exactly happened just now,” Sherman said. “For now, I’m going to finish this. You will need some of this stuff, to be sure.” He resumed work on his devices once again.
     “You’re brilliant, Echo,” Star said, “Contacting that Altheda lady: You came up with idea all on your own?”
     “With a little help from you,” Echo answered. “You said that Booker was Luckless. I remembered that the previous Darkness Bearers were here inside the Pendant. I figured: What the heck? Why not try?”
     Rain Fox walked over to the couch and snuggled next to Destíne and the gnomes. Shade sat back down in his chair. Echo curled up at his feet, a tiger once again. Star lay down next to her. Sherman continued to tinker with his devices until he passed out with a screwdriver and a small ball-peen hammer in his hands. Spirit floated into the bedroom and slept-hovered next to Bria and Sam. They were laying side-by-side, comforted by one another. Jinx lay on the floor, her long legs sticking out of a blanket too small for her. Teller stood guard on the roof, vigilant over the place; his wand at the ready, his heart beating as normal, yet his mind on Rain Fox. He thought of her throughout the night.
     Rouge snored.