The Adventures of the Junior Phoenixes, Part 5: The Last Pendant

Chapter 7: The Return

Chapter 7

Shade stood behind the battlements of the highest tower in the castle that Morgan le Fay made her abode in the Realm Beyond. The dark mountains behind the castle rose sheer and mightily behind him while the beautiful gardens below within the castle walls were colorful and vibrant. Of the many places he had walked among in the Realm Beyond, the Castle of Morgan le Fay was the most fantastic. Gargoyles and statues of fantastic beasts of various shapes, forms, and sizes poked their visages out from among the castle walls and steeples. Spears adorned with long shrouds and banners stood upon the capitals of the parapets. A soft, gentle wind gave life to the banners and shrouds, letting them wave weakly in the ever-present sunshine.

There were no nights, no evenings in the Realm Beyond. There was no sensation of hotness, no burn that would come from the Sun because the Sun was merely a representation of the mighty power that gave it light. There was no passing of seasons or dying of leaves to mark autumn from spring. Everything in the Realm Beyond was in a perpetual spring; green and lush, except where the leaves were red and violet, strange trees that were teeming with life and yet bore the colors of the autumn. A few of them were in the garden of Morgan le Fay. She said that they bore magical fruit, and that they had few relative species in the Mortal Coils.

He remarked the beauty of the red and violet of the trees below. The trees brought him little comfort, however, as he looked beyond the castle walls and stared into the abyss between the castle walls and the great cliffs that stood before them.

"So," Shade spoke after several moments of awkward silence, "I'm still dying."

Morgan le Fay nodded. Her long yellow gown draped from her shoulders and pooled around her pale bare feet. She wore an expression of sadness upon her face. "I'm afraid so, my dear Shade."

Shade nodded in response. "That's rather disappointing," he said. "I step through the Veil to die and come to find out, 'Hey, bro! You're still dying!' Kind of puts a damper on things: A dying guy in the undying land of paradise. Go figure."

"It need not be so drastic," Morgan le Fay spoke. "The Blackwell Toxin still courses within your body. Do you not feel its effects even now?"

A pain in his side flared, as if on cue. Shade winced, then looked at Morgan le Fay as though she had wounded him. He winced again, then took a deep breath. He stood up straight, his left arm going to where the knife had pierced him. "Is that what that is?" Shade asked. "The Blackwell Toxin is what's hurting me, isn't it?"

Morgan le Fay nodded. "It has stopped its spread throughout your body because it requires time to do so. In the Realm Beyond, time does not exist. Therefore, since it has no time in order to spread, it is focused there in your left abdomen. The Blackwell Toxin would have been fatal to any normal person, but you're someone exceptional, my dear Shade."

"But Graves, or Leech, or whatever," Shade pondered, "said that a person would die within a few minutes from the Blackwell Toxin."

"A normal person does not normally have a talisman like the Pendant of Life around their neck, do they?" Morgan le Fay retorted. "The Pendant of Life can stave off the fatal effects of the Blackwell Toxin for a time."

"Huh," Shade uttered. "So it keeps me from dying when I step through the Veil and it keeps me from dying from the Blackwell Toxin. Neat."

"It doesn't keep you from dying from the effects of the Blackwell Toxin," Morgan corrected him, "But it does delay the time it takes to ravage you."

"How long?" Shade asked. "How long do I have?"

"Here, it would take a hundred lifetimes," Morgan answered, "In the Mortal Coils, it would kill you within a few weeks."