Portals & Realms

Chapter 14 - Fallen Down

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When she woke up, she was in pain, and that's all she could remember. She had no clue what she had dreamt about last night, or when she had fallen asleep, all she could recall was pain all in her arms, legs, and head. Her eyes flashed open so quickly, the world seemed hesitant to even welcome her. All she could remember was everyone yelling, the flowers, and then the long lecture and explanation Asra had tried to present.
"If the flowers say safety, then that means someone other than Ghost must've saved her life right?" Asra had said.
"Or it could be Ghost trying to deter us from rescuing her!"
"It's highly unlikely he had any time to do so or even set that up. He had no clue there would be that many people in his home besides her." He had ended the conversation there, and she had gone to the guest room to sleep...
"Finally someone else is awake," Ramille said from her corner of the room Mae had told them about the first night they were there. Since Asra's shop was two story, they had managed to find the guest room quite easily due to the fact it was one of the three rooms on the upstairs level. The bed was also a king sized one, so the two people who had been chosen to sleep on it were Sif, who had transformed into Vetomo for the night, and Elvadoer. Ramille had slept in the far left corner of the room next to a table where everyone had put their things, pillows stacked around her and a blanket tossed around. She had a book in her hands as well.
"What time is it?" Perri asked and stretched her arms, throwing off her blanket as well. She slept at the very front of the bed, which was good during part of the night until one of Vetomo's two long tails nearly scared her to death at two in the morning.
"It's around six in the morning or something. The sun hasn't even come out yet though," she sighed and looked back at her book. "Do you know what 'Atardecer' means?"
"It means Sunset in Spanish I think," Perri answered and then yawned. She looked to the bed and saw that Vetomo was no longer there, but the slightly twitching form of Sif was instead. He was nearly about to fall off of the bed, but she could only hope he would roll to the other side and not fall, OR touch Elvadoer. Otherwise she would wig out and probably hit him harder then how hard she fell for cotton candy hair next door.
Ramille stood up and looked around, then watched as Perri silently stood up and grabbed something off the small table by the corner of the room. "Perri?"
"I'm going after her."
"Then I'm coming with you."
Perri turned around and looked at her friend in the eyes, and then something dawned on her. She kept that thought front and center, and smiled a little bit at her."Alright, all you need to do is grab my hand and I'll take us there. We are going to get her back today."
The door opened and Asra opened it, hands out. He stared Perri directly in the eyes and then back at Ramille. "Nope. You two are not going back there right now. Not on my watch."
Perri gaped her mouth at him, brows furrowed in an annoyed gaze. "We have to get Mae back Asra. If she is really stuck there, then we need to save her."
"Not until we discuss it with everyone else. If you two just go floundering in there, you know what could happen? You could die or worse, get separated and have no way of communication."
Ramille and Perri side-eyed each other, which then made them side-eye each other more. Asra raised an eyebrow at them, tapping his foot impatiently. "Wait, why are you side-eyeing me?" Perri asked and then turned towards her, now confused.
"Wait.. oh I forgot to tell you that I managed to talk to someone in my dreams. I don't know who though but they were more than willing to help us. They said their name was... something that started with a D and ended in a R" Ramille answered innocently, obviously relishing in their surprised faces.
Asra left the door hanging open and took a step forward, opening his mouth to talk before Perri interrupted. "You didn't bother to tell us THIS?"
Ramille shrugged, looking down at Perri. "Meh, you guys didn't tell me that Dante was stuck with a mass murderer guy and that you've been able to talk to him before when that was in pretty dire importance too."
"That's cold," Sif commented from his hiding place in the room.
"Shut up Sif."
"Shutting up..."
Perri groaned, realizing she had no good comeback to use at the time. Even her usual heathen or food insult was not going to help. "Fine. That's fair. But seriously, what did this person look like?"
"You're not worried about the fact that Ramille has shown no signs of magic before this? That this came out of nowhere?" Asra questioned, looking at Ramille strangely. It was as if he was trying to find the answers in her.
"You assumed I didn't have any magic?"
"Yikes," Sif and Elvadoer said at the same time, watching as everything went down.
"Please do me a favor Elvadoer and be quiet for a minute," Asra commented, looking past Ramille's shoulder.
"Technically," she started, nudging Sif, "he said it at the same time."
"Well you know what they say, great minds think alike."
"Please just ZIP IT," Ramille snapped in a high pitched voice and then coughed, clearing her throat. She looked back at Perri and began doing hand motions. "It wasn't a person, but more like a tall huge dragon... thing. It had really long ears and twisted horns and HUGE wings but like, really sparkly wings. And it had white dashed around it like a piebald, but less.... piebald-y. He did me a spook at first I'll tell you that much."
Elvadoer leaned forward a bit, now on her knees. "You're talking about a character Ethan used to rant about all the time in our Sophomore year. Mae also would talk about how he was one of the best villains out there too. He supposedly has the power to make people obey him at will."
Perri looked back at her nervously, an anxious expression on her face, which mimicked Asra's. "Well... I-if he has that sort of power then there must be a good reason for him to attempt to contact Ramille, right? If he does happen to be a good guy, then maybe he can defeat Ghost with his 'obey me roar growl hiss' powers? Right?"
"I didn't contact him on purpose, and he seemed just as surprised to find me there."
"Perhaps there is an outside force we are unaware of that is tying you and more together, like a link of some sorts for communications. Maybe there is another powerful being out there who can rival Ghost, but is in need of your help!"
"That probably is just Portal, since she is the one who can make these Portals and such when she has her full power. Maybe she used some of it to connect you to this scary dragon dude for assistance."
"Didn't Mae somehow get in contact with Ein too...? And he is a mass murderer?" Asra questioned, looking at Perri with a doubtful face.
"Well technically speaking," Sif interjected, "he never directly killed anyone, but used someone else to kill someone. Which actually didn't work whatsoever because Irene brought Aaron back and he bada-bing bada-boom Ein away. He just... manipulated and controlled people. Mass murderer isn't really an appropriate title.. He's just evil."
"So smart, but not dangerous?"
"No no, still very risky to be around Elvadoer, but physical fighting was not his strongest skill in season 4, though he kicked a ten foot wolf monster in the face and propelled him back almost fifteen feet most likely in season 6..."
"So physically powerful and has the ability to magic like Asra, right?"
"He has to create potions using unique materials to be able to harness that power he creates. Unlike the evil grape who just possessed Katelyn and... what's his face and Travis.." Perri continued, trying to remember all the little details that Mae had rambled to her about all those years ago, and then just recently when she binge watched all of them in less than a week, pulling at least two all nighters and running solely on 24-hour energy pills and guacamole.
"Listen. He didn't seem dangerous. Scary? Yes. But he didn't talk like he had any negative intents or even seemed to talk in a way that could manipulate a lie to make me think otherwise. He seemed.. generally worried and would yell at himself instead of me. Then again he knew he was going crazy but what did we expect?" Ramille interjected again, trying to continue her explanation of what she had heard. "He asked me why everyone was gone and he seemed scared because he didn't know where he was."
Perri crossed her arms. "Where were you exactly?"
"A small cave that was cornered by sharp rocks and had tally marks on the walls."
So not the memory cave, that's good. This means Ghost did not have control over where they were... so he has to be a good guy and Portal knows him.. "Did you see Portal anywhere?"
"Portal?" Asra asked.
"Yeah. She's Ghost's rival I suppose. Like yin and yang. Perri freed her from Ghost's realm when Mae was left behind," Sif spoke quietly, but the room quieted down to hear him speak. "She was equal size to Ghost's demonic self, and I think she was her actual self.. but I don't know. She created the portals to bring us here to stop Ghost."
"Which means she is the one that sent the Arcana to send warnings and messages about fears and deaths.. so she was really trying to warn Mae about Ghost's forms and.."
"She was going to choke to death.. in every single one of our switch-a-roonies we all saw someone that showed us how we could die. Our weaknesses.." Perri continued, thinking. "But then why didn't I get one?"
"Because you don't have a chance of dying," Vetomo spoke and suddenly he was materialized above the group, staring down at them. "I was shown something before coming here, though brief. I was in a guillotine, my head being chopped straight off. I have a chance of dying too."
"No one is dying," Elvadoer spoke. "Alright listen up, here's the game plan. We spend a day or two researching on how to do a rescue mission in a realm, then we try and decipher what everything means, all while you and Ramille attempt communication methods, and then we get back home."
"What about Dante?"
"Dante is with Mae right now is what I can only assume. I need to contact him as fast as possible," Perri responded.
"Good," Asra commented, putting a hand on Elvadoer's shoulder, "let's get to work!"