The Tale of Tara and Emiko

XXXX. Kailey

"Zia?!" Cliff cried. "I thought-we thought-"

"It was only Tara and Emiko that were here? Well, we thought wrong," I said. "Figure that out later. What's going on? Where are they?"

"In the middle of a forest. No one could find them unless they're looking," Zia replied.

"Why are they there?"

"Selene's fighting them. Trying to steal their Spirits or something with this really sketchy shadow magic. I'm not surprised, honestly. She tormented this other girl in eighth grade, caused her to move away from here, I'm not surprised she's at it again. I couldn't do much against whatever demonic powers that sadist has, but now that she's taken Emiko out I think we might need some backup, and Tara had mentioned something about you."

"How'd you get here?" Cliff wondered at the same time I asked "By 'taken out', do you mean unconscious or dead?"

"Unconscious, thank the Ancients. And as for how I got here-" she gestured to a swirling portal floating a few yards behind her. "I found it off the black market. It's a one-time use thing, so we better hurry."

Upon stepping through the whirling gateway, which closed with a small implosion, I instantly started taking in as much of the scene as possible. There used to be trees everywhere, but the fight had obliterated most of them. Emiko's unconscious form was now in Zia's arms, and Cliff casted healing charm after healing charm on her. Tara was cowering behind the pitiful remnants of a tree, sending weak bursts of flame up at the sky.

No, not at the sky. At Selene.

Her swan wings were tinged with otherworldly black goop, festering and writhing, and it looked like she was throwing pure shadow at Tara. As I watched in shock, the darkness boomeranged back, rivulets of glowing energy flowing through it.

Zia was right. She is taking their Spirits.

I sent a burst of energy at Selene, causing her to falter in her attacks and drop a few feet.

"Lumin," she drawled.

"Milsty," I hissed.

"Stay out of this, girl. You don't know what's going on. I don't want you getting hurt."

"I know exactly what's going on, and-"

"No you DON'T!" Selene's words exploded from her mouth as she threw a dagger of smoke at Tara. A cloud of light enveloped the projectile, creating a sort of miniscule supernova as it snuffed out.

"Really?" I sighed, flying up to meet Selene as fast as possible, my wings now a brilliant purple under the sun. A spectral, crystalline dagger solidified in my hand, and I used it to parry her attacks, made with her own dagger of darkness.

"You know, I was just going to leave you alone. I wouldn't want to get in trouble for pedicide....but the boss did say he wanted some strong Spirits, and why should I settle for a pathetic fire rabbit when I can have an elemental dragon?" She laughed maniacally. "Why, there's nothing I couldn't do with you!"

It's the shadows, I realized. They reek of the void. I sliced at Selene's arm, trying to get a closer look at her wings. Darkness was visible in the cracks between the feathers, gurgling as it consumed the flow of energy I assumed belonged to Tara and Emiko. This was worse than I thought.

I yelped, gasping as a white-hot lance of pain sliced through my left wing. Selene cackled as I fell.

"I told you to stay out of this," she hissed with pride.

Somehow I managed to fall into one of the few surviving trees, the branches barely cushioning my fall. My eyes caught on a hair-thin needle whistling through the air. I threw up my hands, a barrier surrounding me.

The shadow veered away, faster than I could think, spearing Cliff through his shoulder and pinning him to a nearby tree.

"Oops," Selene said playfully. "You know, you should really stop trying now. Just give up. More people are going to get hurt, you know. Unless you don't care about them? Hm, maybe next time I'll aim for the head. Faster death, you kno-"

I was inches away from Selene, throwing bolt after bolt of energy at her, striking too fast for her to react, no pauses in my relentless torrent. It didn't matter how long it took. All I wanted to do was make her feel pain, all the pain and more for hurting my brother, because she deserved it, because no one hurts my baby brother-

"KAILEY!" Zia's voice broke through my thoughts. "Stop! You're going to kill her!"

Taking advantage of my sudden pause, Selene tried to summon one last burst of darkness to finish me off. It might have worked, but her concentration was already destroyed, her power thinning. She only managed to produce a weak wisp of smoke.

I wish I could've told you Cliff was able to fully snap me out of the madness in my mind.

I overreacted.

Lashed out.

A flash of light enveloped Selene, blinding the both of us.

Even after blinking the spots from my eyes, it still took me a moment to register what had been done. What I had done.

Selene stared in shock, a swirling silver crystal I'd never seen anything like before protruding from her chest, the blood already slithering its way outwards to claim the fabric of her shirt as rightful territory no one would want to steal. The corruption was caked so heavily on her wings, causing her to keel over backwards, her body curving in a graceful arc as she fell.

The shadows trailed behind her, grabbing onto her wings and spreading to the rest of her body, enveloping her as the stolen power ripped through the sky. My eyes caught a brief flash of the infinite expanse of the void before the tear in space and time closed, trapping Selene inside, the shadows returning to their homeland.

You never realize how tired you are until everything is over.

I fell, the exhaustion welcoming me with open arms.

I woke up in a different tree a while later. The sun was still high in the sky, so I hadn't lost too much time, but time was still lost. Mochi was prodding my face with his paw.

That was one terrible charm that girl Emiko cast. What was she trying to hide, a pebble? When I didn't respond, he sighed. What happened up there? he asked. Where's Selene?

"The corruption overtook her, dragging her back with it to the void." Not a lie, just not the whole truth.

They said she was dead, Mochi thought.

"She might as well be."

I'll go tell them you're alright. Feel free to stay here if you wish.

I nodded, watching Mochi scamper down the tree trunk. Tara was, for the most part, unharmed. Thankfully. Emiko was unconscious, but still breathing. Cliff had eased the spike out of his shoulder and was examining it like a new toy on Christmas day, somehow oblivious to the blood dripping down his arm like rainwater. Somehow, I knew the cycle finally was over. Tara and Emiko were safe.

This wasn't perfect, as most things are. There are moments I'd like to go back and redo. I was fully aware that there was a chance lives could be lost when I chose to take on this task. A life was lost, and I'm not entirely sure she deserved it. But I'm going to take this happy ending while I still can.

Here's to many more.