The Forgotten Light

62. Fairlight

She felt like she was in a game of dominoes - all she had to do was stumble once and the rest of the world would collapse.

First Akio, then Ritael, now Kendra. Who was she if she watched her friends die and couldn't do anything?

She didn't know what day it had been, but since she lost another person, she was a wreck. She didn't want to eat, didn't want to drink, didn't want to talk to anyone. She had cried in the silence of the night, because only there, among the darkness, no one could see her tears. Invicta already knew enough about her weaknesses, and she didn't want to reveal them to the slaves just yet. Not after what Kendra had conveyed in her last words. Since she was their hope, she couldn't show how broken she was.

Inside, she felt an emptiness, as if something inside her had died along with Kendra. She had lost her sense of joy for the smallest good things; she had no longer been comforted by Aryanele's voice behind the wall, which had, after all, made it clear that Fairlight was not alone, the light of the stone had failed to cheer her up, and it was, after all, a sign that any darkness could be lightened.

She paused washing the glass for a moment and reached for the glowing pebble, which she had tucked deep in her pocket. She used to feel gratitude and hatred for it at the same time. It gave her the longed-for light she so desperately needed in the soul-destroying darkness in which she was locked, but at the same time she couldn't stand it, because, after all, it belonged to Invicta.

Now she looked at him in the light of the setting sun and felt absolutely nothing; no admiration, no relief, no disgust, no hostility.

She might as well not need it.

She threw it indifferently on the floor and grabbed a dry cloth. She went back to cleaning the glass, and then something caught her attention. She squinted, focusing her gaze on the sky above the castle, and felt the feeling of despair be replaced by utter surprise.

High above, a dark circle began to form. It grew slowly, revealing the starry sky of another world.

What could it have been? Were more Invicta falling to Earth, or was the world coming to an end?

A light flashed from the opening in the sky, as if a powerful thunderbolt, and fell straight into the castle, striking with a bang that made the ground shake.

Fairlight supported herself against the glass to keep her balance as the floor under her feet literally jumped. She looked around the corridor with fear that everything was about to collapse. Then it started raining silvery rain from the portal.

No, it wasn't rain. When she focused her gaze, she saw that it was falling figures.

She moved away from the glass with trepidation and suddenly heard a soft clatter, and then some light that she noticed out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She turned in that direction and looked in amazement at the scintillam rock jumping down the hallway. It was headed toward an unlit corridor that led to the door of the room where the King's office was located.

Since the crystal was rushing on its own in that direction, it meant that there was another such stone there that was pulling it towards itself.

Fairlight moved silently after it, and just as it was about to turn into a dark corridor, she stopped it with her foot. The tunnel was dark, and because of the bracelet on her arm, she couldn't see through its darkness. She reached for a stone, lifting it high to chase away the darkness.

"Who's there?" she asked. Her voice sounded strange, which was probably the reason for not speaking for two days.

"If you want to live, leave," a voice whispered.