Free

Cressida

The stories don't stop there. They carry on flowing out into the open, as though they've been waiting to be shared for the longest time. Not just Sky's stories: mine, Iris's, everything we've kept to ourselves for our whole lives are shared with two people we hardly know. Yet somehow I don't feel self-conscious. I don't hold back.

With the stories comes layers and layers of emotion. I think sharing the pain we each carry within us is too much to handle. We cry a million tears, all of us. With every tale we tell, a little piece of the armour Sky hides behind disappears, until I can see her for who she is for the first time. Someone lost and broken, but under the smokescreen of anger and hate, she really is a very sweet person.

I think I've realised for the first time that all three of us want the same thing: to be free. Iris from her mother. Sky from her past and the darkness it brings her. Me from my future. We're more alike than I ever dreamed.

Once we start talking about ourselves, we can't stop. It's as if the walls between us have somehow come crashing down. We talk about our lives before we started looking for Orbis, our family, friends. Our futures, what we plan to do when we get there. Even just little things about ourselves that we've never shared with anyone before. And after each story, I feel us coming a little closer, the threads between us pulled a little bit tighter. It feels like we've travelled a hundred miles in just a few hours. We're talking and listening so hard that we almost miss it when the sun crawls through the sky until it's directly above us, bringing a thousand new possibilities with it. I feel it warm my shoulders through my wet clothes, still drenched from the flood Sky caused.

"It's noon," I gasp. Sky hands me the mirror and I trail my fingers across its cool surface, standing up. "How does it work, exactly?"

Iris straightens up too, helping Sky to her feet. "Just hold it out to the sunlight and let the glass catch the rays of light. Wherever the light is reflected becomes a portal to wherever you need to go. Then all we have to do is step through it."

"How are you feeling? I ask Sky. She gives me a faint smile.

"The wound is completely healed," she says. "As for everything else...? It's still painful. But I feel a lot better."

The three of us grin at each other.

"So, what are you going to do when you get to Orbis?" Iris asks Sky. "Are you trying to find a way to get rid of your powers forever?"

Sky shakes her head without hesitation. "I don't want to get rid of my power, I want to be able to control it. To be free to use it my own way." She looks thoughtfully at Iris. "Why? Do you want to get rid of yours?"

Iris laughs. "My power may have caused me a lot of pain, but it's the only thing I have," she replies. "In fact, my magic has always helped me through the pain, if that makes sense. It reminded me I was special, when I was lead to believe I was nothing. I can't give it up."

"Ready?" I ask them. They nod, and I hold the mirror out to the sun. The light is reflected onto the ground before us, and starts to shimmer until it doesn't look solid at all, but more like mist. It widens and widens until we have to step back to avoid tumbling headfirst down it. We look at each other, as though for reassurance, then we jump together.

What follows is something between floating and falling. I think it would be almost impossible to describe. We tumble into the sparkling mist, the world suddenly a blur of dazing colour. The scream that sprang to my lips dies away and I start to enjoy it: the sense of elation and freedom as we surrender completely to the portal, letting it pull us in every direction. At one point it feels like we're falling upwards. All at once, I am beyond fear. There's nothing for me to lose. I let my body relax into the air, laughing as we fall.