Dreams shrouded in an ethereal, murky mist, Caleb was able to make out make out Danielle's figure in the dark cave. He was aware of something else too. A humanoid beast, black as tar and oozing swirling shadows, crept up behind the girl. As Danielle moved closer to him, so, too, did the beast. Inky clouds poured off the being, a thick goo like saliva before a meal. Danielle touched Caleb, but before all faded, Caleb saw the beast's claws, slicing with a sinister speed
It missed.
The lancing pain of his ring yanked him from sleep. Caleb's screams were those one one burned alive, unceasing as the pain shattered him. Alexander slammed into the room. "What's wrong?" His eyes were delirious, his voice thick from sleep. Flicking on the light, he looked to Caleb, who was curled into a ball. His right hand was clutched close to his chest.
With quiet surety, Alexander bent at Caleb's side and ran a hand over Caleb's head. Caleb whimpered as Alexander wiped sweat away. "Caleb," Alexander said sternly. "I can't help you if you don't talk to me."
"The--ring," he managed. Caleb's right hand was trembling, his breaths came in ragged gasps.
Caleb's eyes were screwed shut, but even through the dreadful agony, he knew that Alexander had Hopped. The experience was akin to swinging with eyes closed; the world grew dizzy and Caleb's stomach somersaulted. They landed on a manicured, grassy hill where birds twittered in cool, morning air. Caleb lifted his eyes, squinting against the sunlight, and looked down on the James Estate.
"Why—" he grunted against another nauseating wave of discomfort "—are we here?"
Kneeling at Caleb's side, Alexander spoke in a soft, almost apologetic, tone. "I can manage Ringlock. This...whatever is happening isn't Ringlock, and Rhea's our only resource." With a grunt, Alexander scooped Caleb off the grass. "She already knows about Danielle. IF she doesn't ask, don't share. If she does...lie."
Caleb nodded, but the motion was too much for his exhausted body. Stars swam through his vision. Soon they were at the front door, Alexander red-faced and sweating under Caleb's nearly dead weight.
Titus answered, and Caleb was only mildly embarrassed, but Titus didn't seem to care. "I'll go get my mom," he said, bolting into the house.
"I thought the rings could only take you to the moment you left," Caleb muttered. "The last time we were here was when you picked me up..."
Alexander wriggled his fingers against Caleb's thigh. "Restrictions on the rings were implemented for a reason—on newer models."
Moments later, Rhea James appeared at the top of the staircase. Though ascending with speed, she didn't seem to lose any of her supernatural poise. With a wave, she motioned to Alexander. "I'll have you follow me." The words were careful, beckoning without inviting.
Alexander stepped inside the Estate and left the door wide open as he followed Rhea down the hallway. Though Caleb knew Alexander was tiring from carrying him, Caleb couldn't walk by himself.
Alexander's footfalls thumped against the marble but deadened once he'd stepped onto plush carpet and walked down the hallway identical to the one they'd gone down on Caleb's first visit to the Estate. Rhea led them to an office, large and well-kept. A wicked pulse of his ring staved off any question Caleb had.
Lights flickered on and Rhea leaned against her desk. Her gaze, imperious and authoritative though it was, held no malice. Alexander set Caleb in one of the chairs facing Rhea. "I was about to come see you," she said. Then, extending her own hand, said, "May I?"
Caleb capitulated, setting his right hand in hers. The glowing, comfortable light of the office glinted off the golden band. "Ringlock," she muttered to no one in particular. "I might say it is good to see you, but under the circumstances..." She let Caleb's hand fall with a rueful smile and looked to Alexander.
Without provocation, Alexander spoke. "We were training, and instead of a Void cut, this." The lie was fluid, genuine enough to be convincing. Alexander didn't even bat an eyelash, and Caleb might have believed the man had Caleb not been the one to experience the entire previous evening himself.
Rhea clucked her tongue in distaste. "Titus already told me what happened. There is no need to lie."
Alexander shrugged. "You know I don't trust you."
The smile Rhea gave was sad. "Why do you insist on perpetuating a narrative in which I'm the evil one?"
"I never said you were evil." But Alexander had grown slightly rosy around the ears.
"And yet you maintain a lie because you think I'm out to harm you, This, here, now, isn't an interrogation or battle. Let's lay aside our vendettas and torches for a moment."
Alexander sneered but said nothing more on the topic. "I'm not the one who experienced it." Alexander gestured at Caleb. "You go ahead."
Rhea shook her head. "Caleb and I will discuss it while I'm observing him for a bit, but we need privacy. You're free to wait in the garden. I'll have someone bring out some scones."
Looking ready to tell Rhea just where she could shove those scones, Alexander took a calming breath. "I'm not hungry."
"Some coffee, then? You look tired."
His withering look could have burned anyone but Rhea. "I'll show myself out," he grumbled when Rhea began to offer an escort. An attempted bracing look to Caleb before he passed from view didn't inspire much confidence.
The door clicked shut and Rhea stood still for a few moments. Caleb stared at the place Alexander had previously occupied, wondering if he ought to have run away. Then his ring seared again and with his sudden hiss, Rhea seemed to return to life, her reverie shattered.
"If you'll follow me, I'd like to take you to the lab. We'll have a much better ability to observe you in there." Proffering her arm to Caleb, he took it.
The woman known as Queen of Time was sturdy and held Caleb up without struggle. Together they limped down the hallway. "Alexander and I have quite the past," she said eventually. This wasn't the way Caleb had expected Rhea James to start a conversation.
He said nothing, mostly because he didn't think he could form a coherent response.
"He married my sister," she said.
Caleb grunted.
"Ringlock doesn't just occur during training," she went on. "Someone has to try and take your ring, and I want to know who that was." They ventured to the far end of the Estate, to the stairs that led downward. A few lab techs worked in the corner, but Caleb was unable to see what that was before a clear window shifted to an opaque screen.
"No one tried to take my ring," Caleb said eventually.
Rhea stopped. "Now Caleb, Alexander has a long history of lying to me. There's no need to continue the tradition." Leading Caleb to the same room in which Rhea had first administered the Dream Toxin, she said, "I'm not sure you're being very forthcoming."
Caleb wasn't allowed to respond before Rhea left him in the room alone. She returned moments later with a small needle—the same black liquid as Dream Toxin within.
"You're not going to inject me with that," Caleb protested, but it was feeble. He was against the wall.
"This won't put you into the Void. It's only going to put you asleep for a few minutes so I can take a look at your memory. I need to see what you did."
Caleb's teeth chattered as she sat him in the chair. The pain from his ring was forgotten. "Deep breath," she urged, then plunged the sharp point into the crook of his arm. Caleb grit his teeth, but in less than two heartbeats, he swam in darkness.
+++
Nothing could be done for the Ringlock other than time and patience. The matter of how it came to pass, how Caleb had entered the Void physically—and escaped—was the point of this foray into the boy's mind. She'd been patience incarnate since Titus told her the events this morning. She'd prepared herself to wait longer, as her father had taught her. Patience is a virtue of authority. They will come to you.
Rhea wasn't going to blurt out her theories, frantic and fearful. She wouldn't prove too eager to solve this. She was playing a long game, and her resolve was an ally she wouldn't alienate.
The serum which Rhea James injected Caleb with was similar, but not identical, to the sleeping draught she developed for Natalee. The girl was a special case, wholly different from the Voidsick she spent hours with, sifting through memories and thoughts. What she was doing with Caleb, now, was akin to that process—as long as his ring didn't block her out. Placing her palms to Caleb's Rhea let her eyes fall closed, establishing the connection.
Within Caleb's thoughts, Rhea sifted through the memories, using her own ring to Hop back to reach the party. A mere bystander, Rhea experienced only vague senses within the memory scape. She observed the way Caleb spoke to the girl, Danielle. His heartbeat was distant and disconnected, the subtle flutter of his ring in her vicinity faint. No girl had ever given Caleb her phone number. Rhea tried not to pity his excitement.
The memories moved on, the evening passing until the moment Caleb's ring yanked the two into the Void. Rhea halted the memory, moved backward. Watched again. Slowed the recollection to fragmentary instants. Rhea was only able to focus Danielle's scowl-covered face when Caleb's hand touched her forearm.
A faint, golden glow did not come from Caleb's ring, as expected.
Danielle was, in fact, the one exuding the tiniest burst of light.
And then Rhea saw the Void for the first time. Dark, shrouded in a misty cloud, Rhea understood why Caleb had described it as a cave.
Letting the memory move forward, Rhea's own ring mimicked the angry pulse of Caleb's as it latched on, unwilling to be stolen. The ring fluttered like a bird, panicked at some unseen predator.
Caleb wasn't aware of the danger; Rhea knew it in the way his heart remained steady. But Rhea saw it.
The beast he once saw in the Nightmare she'd induced. The one Carter had tried to raise and failed in doing. Long and lanky, the beast was somewhere between woman and serpent, all shadows dripping like melting ice. Stalking behind Danielle, Rhea watched as the beast slid long, scaly fingers against the fabric of the girl's shirt. None of its four eyes focused on Caleb.
Danielle was the focus, the prey to this lioness on the prowl.
The beast—was thisLoss?—leapt at Danielle, but the funnel of a Hop distorted the memory.
Rhea watched it all again.
Shivered.
Why did this monster want Danielle?
Rhea released her grip on Caleb's head. He would have a bruise. From her pocket, Rhea produced a new bottle and syringe.
She waited only three seconds before Caleb's eyes snapped open.
+++
"Lean back," Rhea said as Caleb shot forward. She'd been inside his head, tinkering around, and the violation of it sent disgusted shivers down Caleb's spine. He'd known her intentions, known what she wanted to see, but he'd been confined in darkness.
"Who was with you?" Rhea asked.
"When?" Caleb asked.
"In the Void."
She had to have seen that for herself. Why was she asking? "Danielle," he responded, when Rhea's probing eyes told him not to lie.
"And who is Danielle?" Rhea crossed her arms now, taking a step backward from Caleb. She didn't seem angry.
"She's just a girl I met."
"And who is Danielle?" Rhea crossed her arms now, taking a step backward from Caleb. She didn't seem angry.
"She's just a girl I met," Caleb replied.
Rhea sniffed. "Ringlock is an unfortunate prognosis for a Timewalker," she said moments later. "As I'm sure Alexander explained, it is not easily reversed. Despite the years of the ring's existence, Ringlock is still a mystery. It's rare, and the only known remedy is time itself. You'll have to wait for the ring to release its hold."
Caleb said nothing. She hadn't asked a question of him, and his bring still remained foggy from the imposed sleep, even as adrenaline pushed him to run, to jump, to dosomething.
She asked one more question: "How did Danielle get into the Void with you?"
"I don't know," Caleb replied. "Didn't you see?"
She tsked. "Whatever lurks in the Void wants Danielle. It wasn't youthat caused the Hop. She did. I want to know why."
Caleb remembered the beast had been in the very first experience with the Void. "No one gets stuck in the Void," he said, unsure why. Though Alexander didn't believe it, Caleb wanted to. The thought was too disturbing. To be locked away in darkness? He shivered.
"We lie to hide the truth from people. That is a lie told to keep the truth hidden." Rhea rubbed her hands together. "It's a bit chilly in here," she said, as if she hadn't been the one to cause icy fear to bloom in Caleb's chest.
He had questions, but for some reason he couldn't ask them.
"Entering the Void is impossible, except for when a guide is available." She crossed her arms, and stood with her legs shoulder width apart. "It seems—and your memory corroborates this—that Danielle is somehow a guide to the Void. Your ring saved you both, but I don't know how."
Caleb didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say.
When Rhea squatted, she was face-to-face with Caleb. "I want you to get to know this girl. Befriend her, love her, whatever. Know her and eventually you'll reveal your abilities. I want to know the extent of her connection to the Void. Bring her to me, and we can help her."
The last sentence set a stone in Caleb's gut. "How can she help?" he finally said.
"That is unimportant."
"Can't you just get her yourself?" Caleb asked. That seemed the logical thing to do. Especially if she was connected to the Void.
"There are plenty of reasons why you are better suited for this, reasons I am not required to tell you." Rhea's voice was soft. "The Void leaks are getting worse every day, but when you control time, you don't feel so rushed.
Caleb stared at Rhea. What did that even mean?
"You were the one to meet her. You'll be the one to investigate her further. I don't need to be."
"But we erased her memory," Caleb said. "She gave me her number, but she won't be able to remember some random kid she met at a party she doesn't remember being at."
Rhea shrugged. "If she was so inclined to give you her phone number after a few minutes of talking, I'm sure she would be inclined to get to know you. No matter how you got her phone number."
Caleb's heart continued to pound. He wasn't sure if it was the adrenaline coursing through his veins, or what Rhea was asking him to do. His stomach swooped.
"Do we have a deal, Caleb?" She extended her hand.
"Yes." It felt wrong, duplicitous and conniving, but Caleb shook Rhea's hand.
"You're free to go," she said.
"But what about the pain?"
"It'll wear out within the week. You can still Hop, but try to keep it to a minimum. When you take Danielle to the places of her wildest dreams, don't go too wild." She tapped her wrist Holo, and a moment later Peggy entered the room to escort Caleb out. Peggy said nothing, and she kept a few paces ahead of Caleb. She led him to Alexander, who was feeding bits of bread to sparrows in the rose garden.
"What happened?" Alexander stood up and looked Caleb over, as if appraising whether he'd been tortured or not.
"Let's talk about it later," Caleb muttered. Except, he wasn't sure if he should. Alexander might outright refuse.
Together they Hopped back home.