THE KEEPERS RISE

Chapter 17 - Crack of Dawn - Part 2

*Remember to click the play button to listen to the soundtrack as you read!*

Chalchiuitl reluctantly left Velda's body, letting her touch the ground again, and she ran to Will'ym's side, breathless. He was completely unresponsive, like Councilor Quin had been. She could only hope he'd wake up as quickly as the kathumis had. After a minute or so, this appeared to not be the case. She hesitantly put a hand on his chest and felt a heartbeat, but it wasn't promising. Will'ym, are you in there? she thought to him.

After a moment, his mind replied. Velda. He paused, collecting his thoughts. I guess I'm not dead yet.

She laughed weakly. Not yet.

There was a long, deafening silence as Will'ym came to. Eventually, he sat up, leaning back on his hands, and looked blearily at her. "Thank you," he choked out.

Velda sighed in relief and smiled through a few tears. "Welcome back."

He slowly stood, leaning heavily against a precarious stack of chairs. "What have we gotten ourselves into?" he murmured, studying the ground.

Velda disentangled herself from her cloak and warily stood with him. "We're going to get out of it," she said firmly. "The fates are counting on us." As she eyed his trembling legs, she added, "You should be careful, you could pass out again any second. You remember how Quin was."

From Will'ym's stone, Kov said, "We both need a break, Keeper. I fought Dameon with you, and it took much of my strength to keep him at bay."

Will'ym stared narrowly out the window as stars shot past, and his attention eventually drifted to the bird logo on the podium. "No, we have to get control of the ship as soon as possible," he insisted, walking a few paces into the room. His legs abruptly buckled under him, and Velda jumped forward to support his torso, which was as high as she could reach. He reluctantly accepted her help, and they made their way back to the bridge together.

Will'ym shuffled past the bridge doors, and Velda adjusted her grip around his chest, scanning the room. Ozul and Ivy were there, already fiddling with a control panel with a surprising amount of vigor. "Are you two all right?" Will'ym asked as he approached.

"Oh, he got you too?" Ozul asked casually.

Will'ym blinked at him, at a loss for words. In a sudden burst of indignance, he sputtered, "What are you talking about?"

"Dameon gave me and Ivy his spiel and used me to unlock the ship's controls," he explained matter-of-factly. "Then I just caught him off-guard and took care of him." Ozul wrinkled his nose and backed away from the control panel, tail flicking near his head and mussing his hair. "I have no idea what to do now, though. I just build starships, I don't fly them, and this one is much more complicated than I'm used to."

"Wait, the controls are unlocked?" Will'ym brightened and started tapping around the panel, leaving Velda's side.

Velda crept curiously into Ozul's mind and found a strange sight. Dameon's barriers lay prostrate, beaten down in all directions. They were far from gone, but the Councilor had no chance of getting his control back. Velda quickly used magic to remove Dameon's influence, and Light magic swirled out of Ozul and dissipated. It was much easier to clear a weaker connection, especially with her seemingly limitless energy reserve. She'd grown to like it. "Oh," Ozul smiled, realizing what she had done. "Thanks, Velda."

Will'ym glanced back at her with suspicion. "Your eyes are glowing and your stone isn't."

Velda looked down at her ring in confusion. "That's weird." She whipped out her magic stream, making sure it was still there, but its strength paled in comparison to what she had now.