With Fear or Without

65- Into the Unknown

Afterschool, Cleo and her friends stood outside their usual gate, talking in short bursts.

"Feels weird not going... anywhere," Charlie said, playing with a pendant on one of their necklaces. The gesture made Cleo think of Rowana, as many things did now. It tugged at her heart and made her sigh.

"Yeah," Andy said back. She stared at the ground as she walked, crushing leaves and dried greenery under her boots. "Wonder when we're going back. I've been thinking about what the rest of the city is like."

"What do you mean?" Charlie asked.

Andy stopped pacing and shrugged. "The whole place can't be just hallways, right? There's probably a huge city somewhere. A place even bigger and weirder than the rebellion's place."

"I suppose..."

Cleo was thinking about the events of the day, the weird dream and encounters she had. She was about to tell her friends about meeting a certain someone when a figure across the street caught her eye.

Charlie spoke up before Cleo could find the words.

"Is that Remie across the street?"

Andy whirled around and Cleo scrambled to her feet. Past cars inching back and forth on the street, a familiar figure with shining white hair waved to them.

"Should we go talk to her?" Charlie asked.

Cleo was already on the move. The whole weekend, she was flip flopping between worry, guilt, and anger towards her friends from the Goldari rebellion. But most of all, she feared they would be accused of being allies with Maedrian. Who knows what would happen if they were.

She stepped onto the street, her friends right on her heels. She glanced back and forth before weaving through the cars that were going as fast as snails in the afterschool traffic.

Remie was waiting for them on the other sidewalk, looking like a ton of weight had been placed on either of her shoulders. Her hair was placed back with a simple black headband. She regarded them kindly, like old friends reuniting.

Cleo hesitated on the edge of the sidewalk, a thousand things going through her mind- most of them unintelligible. Then she rushed forwards and threw her arms around Remie. After a stunned moment, Remie relaxed and returned the embrace.

She whispered in Cleo's ear, "Couldn't go two days without me, huh?"

Something not altogether unpleasant twisted in Cleo's stomach and she pulled back, an embarrassed smile across her face. She didn't quite meet Remie's eyes when she said, "I was worried about you." For some reason every other emotion that was mixed with it had become distant and unimportant. Then she added, "All of you."

Next to her, Andy interrupted their little reunion. "What happened? Is everything okay?"

Remie's eyes lingered on Cleo for just a moment before she turned to answer the question.

"Yeah, you could say that. It definitely could have gone worse, that's for sure."

"So," Andy continued, "what's going on now?"

"Well, we can talk more about that later. I'm really not supposed to be talking to you much," Remie admitted. "I had to practically beg to be the one to come find you, too."

"What do you mean?" Cleo asked.

"I'm here to bring you guys in for an investigation."

"Ah."

Remie grinned. "Don't worry, it'll be fine. You have nothing to hide."

"There's something I have to tell you first." The words fell out of Cleo's mouth before she could stop them.

Remie raised her eyebrows. Andy and Charlie turned to her in slightly concerned question.

"I had a dream."

When Cleo paused, Remie tilted her head forward. "...Yeah?"

"Hope. I... um, I met them."

Andy and Charlie both erupted in questions.

"When did this happen?"

"They're real? What're they like?"

"Well most of that's not important at the moment," Cleo said, grinning at the outbursts. "But she did tell me... The others are alive."

Everything was still for a heartbeat, even the sounds of afterschool rush seemed to halt.

Remie blinked. "The others? What do you...?" Her bewildered expression silently translated the remaining words.

Cleo nodded.

"Ben... June... They're alive?"

Cleo nodded again. "That's what they told me."

"Well, what actually happened to them?" Andy asked Remie, who was too distracted to hear.

Remie rubbed her face with one hand. She mumbled absently, her voice distant and her eyes searching the air around her. "Alive? How is that even... Oh... Cassian, but..."

"Remie?" Cleo asked, bringing her back to the moment.

"Yeah, I just..." She refocused. "Okay, we can't talk about this now, we have to go, but..."

"But... what?"
Remie looked straight at Cleo, a determined, raging fire beginning to roar behind her eyes.

"We have to find them. And there's only one place they could be."

They stayed, eyes locked. The world melted away. For a brief, perfect moment, Cleo could imagine she was back at the ball, following Remie around on the dance floor. Before everything went wrong.

"In Ferelleam."

There it was again. Ferelleam, Fear's realm. The word shattered Cleo's internal paradise, but it couldn't clear the drive from Remie's eyes. Nor could it stop that drive from spreading like wildfire into Cleo's heart. She nodded.

Remie smiled. A big, reckless and exciting smile. She addressed all three of them when she said, "Whatever happens, you're still on our side. You always have been, and you always will be. I know we've lied to you, and that was a mistake. You'd be right not to trust us anymore. But you're in it now. So I have to ask...

"Will you help us track down Maedrian Silver? Will you help us stop her?"

Cleo looked at her friends immediately. The trio shared a knowing look, driven by fear, by regret, by ambition, by desperation. But it was also determined, strong, stubborn.

This time, they didn't need a room to discuss.

They all knew the answer.