I wanted to scream.
No matter how far I ran, I couldn't escape this never-ending realm of ebbing and flowing red nebulas and whirling stars. The rolling black dunes of the Dark were absent, replaced by an unstirring sea that stretched from horizon to horizon, and though the water rippled as I ran across it—disturbing the reflection of the star-speckled sky—I never fell below the surface. There was no escape.
But the worst part was that aside from my appearance mirrored in the pool beneath me, I was utterly and completely alone in this world.
"Hello?" I yelled. My voice echoed far and wide with no answer, and I was about ready to tear my hair out in frustration. I slowed to a stop, and the rippling sea became as still as a mirror. At my feet, Skye Rhee glared up at me. Her eyes were feral and dark, her clothes tattered and her hair a mess. I fell to my knees on the water so we could get a better look at each other. Last time I'd seen her, she had that faint white glow within her pupils, but that Light was now absent. I bunched up my hands into fists, and she did, too.
I was dead. We both were.
Dead dead.
When I couldn't stand to see my frazzled reflection anymore, I looked upward instead. The tremendous black void I'd gotten used to was now filled with color. Was this where dead ghosts went? I didn't see my friends here anywhere. Amongst the nebula clouds, a serpent of pulsating, dancing crimson light swam amongst the stars. Every once in a while, a flash of white or gold would glisten through the red like embers. I sighed, entranced by the ribbons in the sky. Somehow, the flickering stars looked more colorful, more vibrant, and more alive to me...
"Hello, Skye."
I nearly leaped out of my spectral skin when a voice piped up.
Another ghost sat cross-legged atop the water's surface, yards away. Weird. He wasn't there before. He looked young, but his outfit consisting of a simple, baggy tunic, woolen pants, and leather boots looked dated, practically medieval looking. He kept his face turned downward, and I couldn't see his eyes through his ginger hair. A halo hovered above his head, like Tamzi and the ghosts of Aḫ-ḫur, but his halo was lux-red and fizzled and sparked like an unstable electric current.
I approached the boy. "Hi?"
He didn't answer. He just kept staring up at the stars reflected in the pool, enrapt in silent conversation with the un-feeling specks.
I squinted at his round, freckled face—a face that I'd last seen dying in Tamzi's arms. "You're Albrecht!"
At that, the boy finally looked from the water, and I drew back in shock. His eyes—his father's eyes—had been replaced by two glowing pearls of lux. His tone was as flat as the water as he said, "Albrecht Blackburne. I know."
"I'm—"
"Skye Rhee." He looked back to the water. "I know."
With nothing else to do, I sat beside him. He didn't acknowledge me. His red eyes never once blinked. "You died," I said.
"Albrecht Blackburne died," said the boy. Albrecht lifted his hands from his lap and examined his palms, as if noticing them for the first time. "I am still here. I've always been here. Since the beginning."
"Okay..." I searched the two skies we seemed to hover between. The stars continued to roll past us. "And where is here?"
"This is the nether sky."
I frowned. That cleared nothing up. "And is the nether sky part of the Dark? How do I get back to After from here?"
Could I get back to After?
Albrecht's red eyes turned in their sockets. I assumed he was staring at me, but his expressionless face was unreadable. He leaned forward and touched a single finger to the water. At his touch, a ripple spread across the mirror's surface and the image in the water changed.
As if I was hovering millions of miles in the sky, I saw a walled city of black skyscrapers far below Albrecht and me. "That's After!" I breathed.
The lux-eyed ghost nodded. "It's been a long time since I last saw this part of the realm of the dead."
Beyond the city, an endless desert stretched on forever and ever, past Crow's submarine and even beyond the ruins of Aḫ-ḫur. Ice filled me. I wasn't in the Dark anymore. I was in a completely separate realm, watching from afar like an outsider.
Albrecht pointed to the floating semi-circle sun above After. From my vantage point, it looked so tiny—like just another nugget of lux scavenged from beneath the sands. "This all used to be black, until you awoke me."
"You see through the stars," I murmured to the boy. Then I scrutinized his red glowing eyes that regarded me back. "No, You...You are the stars."
Albrecht nodded slowly. "Albrecht Blackburne's soul died right before Aḫ-ḫur's sun burst. And just before his soul could completely wither away, it was pulled up here into the vacuum created—into the nebula. And he became a part of it. Of me." He swept a pale freckled hand across the sea, and from either horizon, I saw the entire realm of the dead below us. "I see everything. This part..." He pointed at After and Aḫ-ḫur. "I haven't been able to see it in a very long time."
I raised my scarred arm to the lux proxy. "You did this. You gave me these powers. And Blackburne and Crow, too." I traced the webbing lines of shimmering white skin extending down my arm. Nearly every other ghost that came in contact with live lux perished instantly, save for three ghosts who were left scarred. "Why? Why us? Why these powers?"
"The king and the knight were an accident," the boy answered. "They happened in a moment of...fear." Those lux orbs flashed.
He touched the water again. Another ripple made the surface shimmer, and the image depicted changed. Now all I saw was my home, terrorized by a behemoth. I was too high up to see the ghosts of After, but I could see the blinded behemoth lying amongst a nest of felled skyscrapers, waiting for its eyes to heal so it could resume its rampage.
"Why don't you do anything?" I said. "You're lux. You're them!" I gestured to all the stars above—each one a ball of live lux.
"I stay up here. That's how it is." He spoke so matter-of-factly. "But you," he said. "You can stop him. You can set everything right. You were chosen, Skye. I have plans for you. You and the two others."
"Chosen?" I repeated. "I don't understand." My scar stung. Blackburne and Crow were the only other ghosts who shared the same scars. "What plans do you have in mind, exactly? Your father is going to kill everyone. And...and Crow's gone," I told Albrecht through a lump in my throat.
"That's a shame. Tamzi talked to me often. I liked to listen."
I clasped my hands over my chest where my heart lay still. "Albrecht," I said to the lux proxy. "What can I do? I'm dead. Blackburne killed me. Just like he killed you."
"I know." The boy didn't move, yet the entire sea tremored as he watched the behemoth lay siege to its own kingdom. "And I'm...angry."
There was an audible crack. A white fracture cut across one of Albrecht's eyes. A single tear rolled down his face. The real Albrecht broke through—the boy who died centuries ago, alone in a dark pit. The boy hunched over and buried his head in his hands. Sobs racked his body. And then he was just a teenage boy, just a few years younger than I was when I died. He must've been so lonely. "Weh mir..." he sighed. His red halo fizzled some more. The water vibrated, dispelling the apparition of After. "Weh..."
I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tight. The boy went stock-still. The rippling water calmed. After a few hiccups, the boy leaned into me. The two of us—the only two souls in the realm—held onto each other.
"I stay up here," Albrecht repeated in my ear. "But I can send you back. You have to stop my father. You have to make everything right again."
"How, Albrecht?"
"You already have everything you need. How do you think you are even here in the nebula in the first place?" The proxy smiled as a breath of wind tussled his ginger hair. "You're the first soul to ever meet me in person. Anchored souls truly are volatile."
The sea surrounding us stretched on for infinity. The entire realm of the dead was at my feet. And even more floating suns were scattered across the desert, illuminating parts of the realm—parts that never had to deal with centuries of darkness and a plague of shadows.
And I wanted to see it all. But ribbons of luxlight coiled underneath my skin. I had a monster to deal with first. I glared at Blackburne, so far below me. I'd made a promise to Crow.
Time for a rematch.
"Okay. I'm ready. Send me back to After."
"I just need one thing in return," the proxy whispered as the water stilled. "Don't forget me. Don't forget that I'm still here."
I smiled at Albrecht, the lonely soul that just wanted to be remembered, even after death. That was all anything really wanted. "I won't forget you, Albrecht," I said to him.
The crack in his eye healed. Albrecht's somber expression melted away, becoming stoic.
"Then," said the crystal proxy. "Wake up, Skye."
What planet are you on?
What constellation?
You're floating like a ghost
Out into the unknown
What planet are you on?
Cosmic phenomenon
Stars by the millions
Oh holy, golden sun
To the gates of Babylon