The Island With No Parallel

Necklace (edited)

Yunara tried to imagine why Cadri would come to her with such urgency this morning when she summoned her to the garden.

She found her sitting on a bench beside a rose bush, looking more nervous than she'd ever seen her. Cadri's hands writhed in her lap anxiously, her eyes staring blanking at the ground. Even as Yunara approached, she didn't seem to notice her.

She had to clear her throat for Cadri to finally turn her head in surprise.

"Oh, Yunara. I didn't even see you standing there. Please, sit down."

"What happened?" Yunara asked.

"It's Renen. I think he's in trouble."

"In what kind of trouble?" she asked in bewilderment. Could this have to do with the concerns she expressed the night before? She knew that Cadri worried for her uncle's influence on Renen, but she didn't think he was capable of getting into anything dangerous.

"Something's wrong, Yunara. I just know it. He's gone too far."

"What are you talking about?"

Cadri fixed on her with watery chocolate eyes. "Take this." She reached for her chest, taking out a necklace that had been under the collar of her dress. She took it off and held it up for Yunara to see. The pendant of the necklace was large, about as wide as a thumb, and of an oval shape. The pendant looked to be made of silver, with three small circular emerald stones in the center.

Yunara's eyes widened. "Princess, I-I can't. A pendant so valuable in my hands? It isn't proper--"

"Yunara, you're the only person I can trust with this. I took it from Uncle."

Her eyes widened even further. "You took this from him?"

"Yes, and you must promise me you'll never let him have it."

She could barely believe what she was hearing. The princess was only sixteen, a little younger than Yunara, and would never steal. And yet the urgency in her eyes made it seem as if this single pendant was worth the consequences. There was more to this. "Why?" Yunara asked.

"You wouldn't understand. But you have to promise that you won't let anyone else have it. Renen's been talking with our uncle, and they're planning something together. And this pendant is evidence of it. You have to protect it."

What could the princess be talking about? She was starting to feel like maybe Cadri was becoming a little paranoid about her uncle. Perhaps her worry about her growingly distant brother was making her easily upset.

Just then, Cadri's eyes widened with fear. Yunara turned around to see Prince Renen looking through his bedroom window, up in the castle. His black eyes were like steel, glaring right at Yunara and Cadri. She felt his gaze hit the necklace in her hand. Quickly, she put it around her neck. He left the window running.

"We have to hurry," said Cadri, getting up and grabbing Yunara's arm. "Please believe me, Yunara. If uncle had that necklace, it means that he's a part of the Aracs. And I think he's convinced Renen to be part of them, too. You need to understand. He'll kill to have that necklace back."

The Aracs. Just the mention of the cult filled Yunara's mind with memories of her rough childhood running from them. In Crila, they made life there a miserable because of the cult members that used people as the offerings in their dealings with... the Dark Ones.

"There's a parallel point not too far from here," Yunara offered. "We might be able to lose them on Earth."

Caorfi was a world sister to the one called Earth. They paralleled each other, side by side, though the inhabitants of Earth were none the wiser. However, Caorfians had discovered that between both worlds were millions of hidden portals, scattered throughout, that connected the paralleling realms.