The Nightscape

Mummy's Girl

Lyra said it with confidence, staring off into the forest with a bored look. The reactions ranged from incredulous to rolled eyes to downright hopeful. She waited a moment for people to respond. 

"You say that like it's going to be easy." Guy answered after a moment, quite gruffly. Lyra shrugged. 

"It was done before, and by people who weren't given extra power. Why couldn't we do it?" She answered. Jason sat back and sighed. 

"If anything, us having powers given to us by him is more of a liability. We don't know how it works, what if he can take it back?" Jason argued. "If that happened, we'd fail, he'd be furious, and we'd most likely be slain." He pointed out. Anya sighed. 

"I mean, it's a definite risk, but also, how much do we care? Who here actually wants to be immortal for the rest of time? I know that I, for one, think the idea of being around forever frankly terrifying." She confessed. 

"And should he get too out of hand, as the only ones who can feasibly stop him, isn't it up to us anyway? No matter what the cost?" Lyra suggested. Effie gave her a rather wry look. 

"Of course you thinking that returning him to the temple is the best way to go about things." She said. Guy flinched a little, still unused to hearing her speak. When Lyra gave her a sharp, questioning look, she sighed and continued. "Well, you were the only one here who didn't want to heal the rift and open the temple. If we do that, there's a good chance the rift opens up again and we're all thrown back into the human world. You're the only one who has reason to go back there." She accused Lyra. The girl bristled, and then Anya interrupted. 

"That isn't true. I still have my mother and my stepdad in the human world, and I would love more than anything to see them again. Besides, even if that's all true, which we really don't know because we barely know what happened the first time he was sealed in the temple, that isn't the worst thing, is it?" Anya pointed out. Finn nodded. 

"I agree with them. I would rather be returned to the human world than live here under the hand of a tyrant. And the losses of life would be far lower this time, especially if we could give out a decent warning beforehand." He said, rubbing his forehead thoughtfully. 

"Alright, if we put aside all the moral implications and assume that it's an option, just for the sake of argument, do we even know how to go about it? I mean, the last time Zidros was locked away was hundreds of years ago, and no one could even remember that he was in there, much less how it was done. It doesn't seem to be particularly intuitive." Anya reasoned. Lyra gave her a wry look. 

"Who's side are you on, here?" She asked, before suddenly stopping and frowning. 

"I'm on the side of making the best plan possible with as many contingency plans as possible, because otherwise this will end in disaster- Lyra, what's wrong?" She questioned, reaching out to touch her friend on the shoulder. Lyra brushed her off, distracted. 

"I- uh- I'm fine, I just remembered something. It might be nothing, but when I was about to place my hand on the altar, the remnants of the purple clan attacked. Hayden seemed surprised that they were even still around, and they were determined to stop me opening the temple. They said something about me knowing better, and then when my mother found me after the rift was healed-" She talked through, trying to put the pieces together in her mind. 

"You met your mother?" Anya asked, frowning and clearly worried for a friend. Lyra took the offered hand and squeezed it with a sad smile. 

"Yeah, she helped me get back to the group I went with and then ditched me. Again. I guess with everything that happened, it didn't really seem important enough to bring up." She explained.