Chapter Fifty-Two: The Path to Calcoon
The next few days passed with an increasingly familiar routine.
Every night, after they'd eaten lunch, Amelia would meditate with the group before traveling again. Then, after dinner, they would all meditate again and Xaphile would teach Ella the basics of Martial Arts after they finished. Thankfully, they'd gotten out of the mountains after the first few nights, and because of it the climate had changed.
Everything was still a bit colder than it had been in the south, but it was more of a late winter chill than anything else.
Unfortunately, tensions were running on a high between Gus and Sinmir, for reasons known only to themselves.
They didn't seem to like each other very much, and it didn't go unnoticed by Xaphile, Ella, or Amelia, but since none of them really knew how to bring up the hostile atmosphere between the two, they left it alone.
Vrael, on the other hand, seemed to be perfectly content with simply spreading his cheer to everyone.
His addition to their group had been nothing short of a good idea since he was sharp, quick-witted, and very observant. He knew when to intervene and when not to intervene, and his smile could dispel some of the attitude going on between the older guys.
He and Amelia had occasionally gone into very in-depth conversations along the road, talking about things like magic ability, spells, odd enchantments on everyday items, and the mysteries their own abilities could create.
She seemed to really enjoy chatting about magic with someone who understood it.
Fact was, though, that aside from the cheerful halfling, everyone was stressed out, but none of them were as stressed as Xaphile.
He didn't understand the way Ella was acting around him. Her usual brusque attitude was still present, but for some reason, she was practically being nice, and it was bizarre.
Amelia seemed to notice his mood a few times over the week, but she didn't speak up about it since she'd been pretty reserved after that one and only attempt to repel her from his mind.
He had a feeling it was because of the memories she'd glimpsed.
After the fifth night of traveling, however, Gus finally struck up a conversation with him, which he only half paid attention to.
Or rather, didn't pay any attention to at all since he was still too busy wondering by what Ella had meant to hear any of it.
"I'm okay... even if you are a monster."
"She won't win."
"I won't lose. I don't know how."
What the hell did all of that mean? he dazedly wondered, staring off into space. It doesn't make sense.
"Come on, lad!" Gus finally snapped, jarring him with an elbow to knock his head from the clouds. "Where's your mind gone to? Have you not heard a word I've said?"
Xaphile regarded him with an apologetic glance.
"Sorry..." he muttered. "There are other things on my mind."
Gus quirked an angular brow.
"We're only a day's distance away from the Silver Forests of Calcoon," he noted. "I'm giving you a warning, kid... you're going to see things that will most likely crush you beyond repair. Keep a firm grip on your mind."
Xaphile didn't even blink, choosing instead to look at the starry sky above.
The moon was bright, washing them in pale silver light.
"Been there, done that," he quietly retorted. "Nothing new."
Gus tensed, then reached out and grasped his arm, but after a moment he deflated and let go.
"Do as you like," he sourly muttered, spurring his horse and trotting on ahead. "Don't say I did not warn you."
Xaphile didn't bother responding to that blatant warning, merely shrugged it off and tried not to think, as usual.
They'd already eaten lunch and were nearing the time they usually stopped for dinner and sleep, but somehow, the pine forests around them had turned into forests of aspen, evergreen, and birch. The weird part was that all of them had spotted white bark, even the evergreens.
Leafed limbs arched overhead, throwing long shadows along the ground, interspersed in dappled moonlight. Odd creaks and groans filled the treetops, and the soft moan of the wind through the branches was constant.
It was peaceful here.
For some reason, the further into these woods they went, the calmer he seemed to feel, and by the time they settled down for the night he felt oddly at ease.
They tethered their horses in a thick patch of grass and got the campfire going, then Vrael tried his hand at preparing their dinner, and once they'd all eaten, the meditation routine began the way it usually did, with Ella struggling and Xaphile playing his music.
He still had trouble slipping into Theta around the others, though.
Amelia eventually turned to look at him halfway through with dismayed eyes.
"If everything goes well once we reach Calcoon, I'll teach you privately, like before," she quietly assured him, nodding towards his pack. "Put your harp away and relax. I've seen that you have a lot of trouble with meditation around too many people, but for some that can be normal."
"Sorry," he muttered, feeling a bit bad for disappointing her. "I'll try to focus more."
"It's all right, Phil," she said warmly. "Just rest."
Xaphile sighed and gave in, slowly standing up.
Tail flicking, he turned to head over to his pack, but a strange pulsing sensation swept through him just as he took a step forward.
He froze in the same moment that Amelia let out a stricken gasp, and his hair stood on end when he looked over his shoulder to see Ella sitting still as a statue and glowing with a familiar azure luminescence.
A pang swept through his entire body and he shivered, eyes blank as he observed the clear blue waves of light radiating around her body. Amelia and the others, similarly, seemed just as stunned.
His chest throbbed and he began to feel weak at the knees as his consciousness bled away from him, fading into the tendrils of light.
Almost robotically, he stepped forward until he was standing just beyond the wall of luminescence and lifted his hand.
"Phil, don't!" Amelia squeaked, making him pause. "Don't touch it! If you interfere with magical discharge, it could harm you!"
His ears flicked, but he couldn't quite process the warning: mind blank, he stepped through the haze of blue and closed his eyes as his hair reversed gravity.
It was like going underwater.
Amelia jumped and covered her mouth when he opened his eyes and continued forward, heading towards the source of the ache within his chest.
She sat before him, hair drifting around like strands of liquid silver, and his eyes, void of all reason, remained locked onto the side of her pale throat.
A strange glow was pulsing there, throbbing in unison with his heartbeat.
He crouched down.
She didn't even seem to be aware of how close he was.
Lifting a clawed hand, he leaned forward and numbly set it against the glowing tooth scars on the side of her neck. His strength fled so he leaned forward, resting his weight against her, and somehow called his mind back just enough to realize he was in pain.
Whatever this was, it was hurting.
Badly.
Still holding the side of her neck, he tried to speak, but his body sagged, forcing his chin to rest on her shoulder.
"Ella," he weakly breathed into her ear, trembling a little. "Stop... please... I don't know how, but you're hurting me."
It happened instantly.
One second, they were suffused in the brilliantly glittering blue aura... the next, it vanished and she straightened up with a violent shiver. His hair, which had been drifting above him like a dark cloud, cascaded down against his back and even across her shoulders in a glossy wave.
Blinking rapidly, Ella tried to get her bearings before she froze, noticing the pressure of his body.
She hesitantly lifted a hand and touched her neck, stiffening when she felt his claws there, then her fingers moved further and touched his hand.
Thankfully, his strength had begun to return, and once he was able, he pushed away.
"What just happened?" she demanded, clutching her neck and whirling to look at him over her shoulder; she blinked at him in confusion, then she glanced at the others. "What did he do to me while I was meditating? I wasn't aware of anything at all."
Amelia closed her gaping mouth with a snap.
"I... I think you somehow just tapped into and expelled his magic from your body," she breathed, eyes gleaming with shock and utter amazement. "It had to have been because of the mark. Through it, you somehow used his magic. Incredible! This is an incredible discovery!"
Ella scowled, then shook her head.
"If I did, I don't remember how..." she muttered, then paused and turned around, staring straight at him. "Are you well?"
"Huh?" he croaked, staring at her with dizzy eyes.
"Are you well?" she repeated.
"I'm kinda tired, actually," he rasped, shaking his head. "Whatever you just did wiped me out."
"I think we should halt for today," Sinmir finally muttered, getting to his feet and cracking his back. "I've seen enough magic to know that tampering with it like that can be dangerous."
"I agree," Vrael calmly noted, eyeing Xaphile's presumably gaunt features with worried eyes. "We should stop for now."
"Then let's all get settled in for the day," Amelia sweetly told them, getting up and dusting the back of her trousers off. "We can continue this tomorrow night."
Then, with a smile, she bounced towards her sleeping bag and sat down, pulling a book out of her pack. Sinmir and Vrael both shared a look before getting up and following suit, and Gus, noticing their arrival, glanced up from the stick he was whittling.
His green eyes flicked from person to person, then darted to where Ella and Xaphile were sitting before narrowing slightly.
"What did I do?" Ella quietly demanded. "I don't remember anything that just happened."
"I don't know," Xaphile told her just as softly, closing his eyes for a moment. "All I know is that you suddenly started glowing like I do when I try to tap into my magic, and whatever you were doing started to hurt and make me tired."
She stiffened, then abruptly shook her head.
"I'm sorry," she growled, taking him by surprise. "I didn't mean to do it."
He shrugged, then stood up on wobbly knees and looked down at her.
"I'm not sure what to do with all this," he muttered. "I can't even properly meditate with other people around me. Everyone keeps saying I'm some sort of powerful creature, but I honestly don't think it's true. As I am now, magic is... probably impossible."
"Then do nothing," Ella snorted, giving him shrug before lifting a gloved hand. "In fact, maybe it would be better to wait until we make it to the Queens of the Sky to continue teaching you magic."
"What? Why?"
"Amelia is trying to school you in the way humans learn magic, which could be different than the way of the Fae. For now, leave well enough alone, Xaphile."
He nodded, glancing up when the edge of the rising sun slid above the horizon.
The deep green trees were instantly illuminated from above with a soft golden light.
It was a breathtaking sight.
"I used to love sunrises," he quietly said to nobody.
Ella turned and looked at him, brows furrowing, then followed his gaze.
Early morning mist drifted around them, carried on a gentle breeze, and the moist air clung to them.
As he stood there, something deep within him pulsed and a voice filled his ears.
"Big brother..."
His mind went blank and he slowly lifted a hand, touching his forehead when it throbbed.
The pain made him wince and squint one eye, but then it was gone... just like that.
"Weird," he muttered after a moment, making Ella glance at him. "This place just keep getting weirder and weirder."
She blinked.
"Something wrong?"
"It's nothing, really."
The last thing he wanted was to make her think he was going nuts.
Ella gave him a scrutinizing glance, then nodded and lifted her eyes to the sun.
"I'm too taxed to try sparring with you today," she grumpily muttered, finally getting to her feet and turning to face him. "I'm sure you feel the same. We are drawing nearer to the edge of the Silver Rain forests, and if what Gus told us is true, once we enter them... we must be on guard."
He merely looked at her.
Wordlessly, Ella walked past him and lay down, scowling to herself, and not long after, he returned to his own sleeping bag, and Gus snuffed the fire.
That day, everyone slept deeply, but Xaphile had another odd dream. Throughout the night, he saw vague visions of his mother... of that long-ago funeral, with the sound of his father weeping alone upstairs later that night.
But there was something missing.
Something in his dream was missing, something important, and he couldn't, for the life of him, recall what it was.
When he woke up the next night, he felt very unsatisfied since the missing part of it plagued him greatly. He felt like he was forgetting something important.
Then again, the stress of everything going on around him was probably a good explanation for his mental instability.
He took it as his mind trying to latch onto something familiar in his sleep and let it go.
That night while they were traveling, Gus abruptly looked up from the map near the lunch hour and pulled his horse to a halt, turning and looking back at all of them with anxiety.
"Stop your horses," he commanded, watching as the group did so. "We're just outside the border of Calcoon... and I must have a word with you, Ella."
"Speak, Octavius," the girl firmly rapped out. "You have my ear."
"I do not desire to go any further," he explained, making all of them stiffen. "And I will advise you only one last time not to venture into these woods. I will not abandon you, and I will follow where you lead... but terrible things await all of us in the forests ahead."
Ella frowned, looking highly disturbed by the fear in the man's eyes.
"Gus... I've made my choice," she said softly, urging her steed forward and setting a hand on his arm with a gentle glance. "We will ride on. I know you say you've been here before... but this time, we're all with you. As long as we stand together, you have nothing to fear."
He swallowed, then nodded, reluctantly giving in.
"So be it," the blonde man breathed, lifting his hand and pointing at the darkness ahead. "The magic barrier is one kilometer ahead... we'll breach it soon if we keep going."
Ella nodded, then turned to look at the others. Amelia seemed a bit nervous, Sinmir had no expression whatsoever on his face, Vrael looked quite eager to see what lay beyond, and Xaphile didn't really know what sort of expression he had since her stare lingered on him the longest.
"We'll be arriving to Calcoon soon," she called, finally looking away, much to his relief. "Amelia, do you know where the ruler of the east happens to dwell? The forests themselves look enormous on the map, and I'm afraid I don't know which city is the capital."
"Based on what my father told me," Amelia said, "the queen of Calcoon supposedly lives in Gwyradyll Hollow, which is near a huge body of freshwater in the mid-regions of the rain forest."
"I've steered us to where we need to go based on those very rumors," Gus grunted with a small shudder. "All we need to do is move."
"Then let's move out," Ella muttered, shaking her head. "You said the barrier is a kilometer ahead of us... but what comes after?"
"You won't like it," Gus said bluntly, not mincing any words at all. "Brace yourself, all of you. I wasn't able to take another step past the barrier the last time I was here. The things it made me see were too awful for me to take."
Ella frowned, peering ahead of him at the trees.
The path they were on was made of dirt, and lining it were rows of trees with strange silver trunks and even stranger pale blue leaves. All of them looked at the odd plants with confused and amazed expressions, but none of them were as stunned as Xaphile.
"They look like lily petals," he breathed, staring at the leaves in awe. "Damn... this is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen."
And it was.
However, when Gus finally stopped again and reigned his horse to a halt, the others did so as well with expressions of confusion. Ella raised her brows when he dismounted and led his steed over to a small ravine, tying the creature to a tree within distance of the liquid.
"Tie your horses," he ordered, lifting his jade green eyes in dismay. "I can definitely tell you one thing based on what I've heard of primordial fae: they despise the captivity and domestication of animals. If we ride in there on horses, they might attack us."
Ella frowned, but did as she was told, followed by the others.
"So, we're taking our belongings with us on foot," Sinmir grunted, rolling his shoulders. "I'm loathe to leave Malachite here, but I guess there's no other choice."
Lifting the edge of his horned Viking-like helmet and scratching his head, he led his gorgeous black horse over the ravine and tied it to the tree. The others slowly followed suit, taking a few moments to grab some necessary supplies. Xaphile sighed once he hefted his backpack.
Tucking his hair into his shirt and tugging his hood up to hide his horns, he waited with a dazed expression for the others to ready themselves. While they were doing that, Ella walked up and stood beside Gus, following his gaze down the road.
"Why do you fear this barrier so much?" Xaphile heard her say. "I've never seen you this way... I am worried for you."
"Terrible things," Gus whispered. "It will try to show you your worst nightmares. Steel your mind before attempting to step forward, my lady. Please."
Xaphile frowned when a strange pang of emotion that didn't belong to him swept through his entire body. Turning slightly, he glanced at Ella and saw her staring at the road ahead, but aside from her clenched fists, there was nothing that visibly betrayed her inner feelings.
"I'm ready!" Amelia called, hefting her own bag and trotting over. "Vrael and I have gathered our things, and it would seem that Lord Sinmir has also finished readying himself."
"Let's just go," Sinmir grunted. "I am growing very weary."
Xaphile glanced back and forth... but then, they all began to walk down the road. It was strange.
The further he went, the more he began to notice a strange electrical charge in the air. His head spun a little, so he tilted it, trying to clear his muffled ears.
A strange pulse of energy beat within him.
His vision went fuzzy.
His steady steps faltered and then sped up again repeatedly.
His heart fluttered sickeningly.
What he felt was dread... and the further he walked, the stronger it grew.
What's the matter with me? he asked himself. Why am I so jumpy?
He tried to walk normally, but his feet were listening to the feeling inside his gut.
His steps were out of rhythm: they missed, they dragged, and they didn't want to go any closer.
"Something..." he rasped, trying to look at everyone else and failing. "Something is wrong."
"Xaphy..." someone quietly whispered, making his heart skip a beat. "Xaphy... "
His footsteps halted... and he slowly looked ahead of him.
Everything came into focus.
There she was.
Ella.
Not the doppelganger, but the real thing... his Ella.
She stood not even a hundred feet away, glowing brightly and looking at him with her braided white hair billowing around.
Breath catching in his throat, his heart slammed against his chest with a beat so strong it actually hurt, and he tried to bolt to her side.
After the third step he took... right before his very eyes, the entire universe itself ripped apart.
In one sickening moment, everything began to shimmer, as if it had all been nothing but a reflection in a bowl of water that had suddenly been disturbed. The trees twisted and the road seemed to curl in on itself.
However, in all of this twisted horror, all of this hallucinatory madness, he looked ahead and saw her standing still with her hand held out to him.
Xaphile didn't know why... but in that moment, he thought she was alive and that he was about to lose her a second time, which made his rationality snap.
"ELLA!" he wailed. "ELLA!"
The moment he screamed her name, someone gripped his wrist, trying to hold him back.
Frantically, he struggled... then managed to tear himself away.
Bolting at top speed, as everything began to spiral in his vision. He felt shaky as the adrenaline surged through his veins, making his stomach twist even though he was moving as fast as he could go.
"Phil, stop!" a distant voice cried. "Don't! You mustn't go off alone!"
The closer he got to Ella Richardson's shade, the more the universe around him distorted. The road itself suddenly swooped uphill, feeling more soft and twisted than a piece of taffy... but still, he ran as fast as he could.
He put on an extra burst of speed when his love spread her arms, not even caring that the universe receded with him as he raced the wave of distortion. When he came to the edge of where she was standing, he let out an agonized cry and leapt forward.
The sound of his shoes on the dirt stopped, and there was nothing left beneath his feet.
"ELLAAAAAA!" he roared, flying towards her with an outstretched hand. His voice echoed everywhere as the world around him disintegrated. She vanished with a smile, and with a flash of blinding light, agony erased him.
Then, he was frozen solid.
Still, utterly still... unable to move, unable to do more than slowly move his eyes. He shifted his slow-motion gaze from nothing, to nothing, to nothing more. He was buried in cotton, cloud, whiteness all around him. It didn't touch him.
Nothing touched him.
He was floating in a void empty of everything, completely naked and exposed as his long black hair billowed around, arms and legs held stretched out by an unseen force.
He felt like a butterfly caught in a spiderweb.
But then, he began to go limp and he fell forward, down... down into the blinding light.
His senses distorted...
But then... he heard music.
Church music... voices...
His eyes opened and he found himself staring at a dark door.
Around him was a familiar hallway, within a familiar house.
He stood there, recognizing the Richardson family home... but instead of the familiar white door decorated with pink flowers that served as the barrier to Ella's room, the door itself was pitch black.
He stood, frozen, watching with his heart in his throat as it slowly opened.
The sound of ghostly laughter filled his ears in a surreal manner... the door creaked open, revealing nothing but darkness beyond. His heart pulsed madly in his ears, but he still stared straight ahead.
Something was coming.
Something was running out of the darkness.
He could see a moving shadow in the black.
He watched as it tore at him... but then, it erupted out of the door and engulfed him.
Xaphile's eyes closed as a howling wind momentarily filled his ears and tore through his hair, but upon covering his face with both hands to shield his eyes, everything fell quiet. He stood there, not understanding what was going on... until he heard it.
"Xaphy...?" a familiar voice asked, making him stiffen; shoulders locking up, he slowly lowered his hands, heart skipping beats like a child playing hopscotch.
"No..." he whispered, hair standing on end. "I... I'm dreaming again... I have to be."
Ever so slowly, he turned and looked over his shoulder.
And there she was.
"Xaphy?" Ella Richardson breathed, looking at him with a shaken expression. "X-Xaphy... um, you... you have... h-horns... and... a tail..."
He stared at her, slowly shaking his head.
His eyes, larger than they'd ever been, filled with stricken tears.
"No," he croaked, taking a step back when she hesitantly began to move towards him. "You're not Ella."
"Xaphy, what are you saying?" she asked, looking around with confused eyes. "Where... are we? What's going on?"
"You're not real!" he choked, lifting his hands and clutching his hair. "You're not real!"
"What are you saying?!" Ella asked, still moving towards him. "Of course I'm real!"
"You're not real!" he squeaked, tears roaring down his cheeks like a burst dam. "You're not my Ella."
"X-Xaphy..." Ella weakly stammered. "What's... happened to you?! Your eyes... your hands... you... what happened to you?!"
"I... I'm not human anymore," he jerkily rapped out. "I... I can't... Ella, no..."
When she was only a few feet away, his knees buckled and he looked up at her. She stared down at him, looking stunned, confused, and afraid... but then, her own face screwed up and she clenched her fists, staring down at him as though she were about to cry.
"Xaphile, talk to me!" she whispered. "What's wrong?! Don't you love me anymore? Is that it? I mean... it's you... right? This is you? Even though you look... weird... it's definitely you!"
He couldn't respond. Mouth hanging open, he sat there shivering violently.
"Xaphy! Answer me!" she cried, clutching the hem of her green turtleneck with both hands. "What did I do to make you mad?!"
His heart shattered into a million pieces.
"You died," he squeaked. "You're not real! You died, Ella! You're not alive anymore! And neither am I... because a few months after you died... I did, too."
After he said it, he hugged himself and burst into tears, squeezing his eyes shut.
This was impossible.
It had to be another dream... anything but reality.
But then, he heard rapid footsteps and her arms embraced him. He stiffened, still unable to get control of himself. She was right there... he could feel her. Could smell her shampoo... the lavender and baby's breath brand.
"Please don't cry," she whimpered, squeezing him when he continued sobbing. "I don't get what's going on, but... but... please, just don't cry! I hate it!"
When she let out a sniff and something wet landed on his shoulder, he decided he didn't care.
It didn't matter if this was a dream.
"Ella," he breathed, lifting his arms and wrapping her up in an embrace. "Ella... don't cry."
"Xaphy," she whispered. "Where are we?"
"I don't know anymore," he groaned, hands threading through her long white hair. "I've got you... oh, God... don't think... just, don't question things. For now, stay with me... okay?"
She shivered violently.
"Xaphy... what happened to you?
"I lost you," he croaked. "If this is real, I've finally found you again."
"What do you mean?" she asked. "I don't understand."
"It's okay, you don't need to," he sighed, hugging her more securely. "Nobody's ever going to take you away again. I've got you now, okay? I'm not going to let you go."
"I don't understand what's going on. Xaphile, what's happening?"
"A lot," he choked, giving a small laugh through his tears. "So much, Ella... so much, but even now, I can't stop thinking about you. I love you more than anything else in the world. I can't let go. Stay with me."
"I'm not going anywhere, you big dummy," she sniffed, burying her face in his shoulder. "You, me, and Mom... let's just go home. I don't like it here. It's dark and creepy."
"No, let's stay like this for a bit longer," he murmured, rubbing his eyes and rocking her back and forth. "Its been so long since I've held you like this."
"Xaphy, we were just dancing in the snow," she murmured, frowning slightly, but when he looked at her through watery eyes, she sighed. "I don't really understand... but... I can wait."
He laughed and stood up, pulling her to her feet and hugging her tightly. Just as he pulled back and turned to look around, the sound of a gunshot filled the air.
He felt the jerk that went through her entire body.
He felt blood land on the side of his face. His arm. His hand.
The hand that she'd just been holding.
Everything went grey as her body tilted past him; he turned his head and watched with numbness in his stomach as she fell heavily on her stomach with her arms lying limply at her sides. Ella lay there on the ground, a gunshot wound in her back, eyes wide with agony.
She looked up at him, stunned, mouth open and trembling.
He fell to his knees, feeling the blood drain from his face, and with shaking hands he crawled over, frantically pawing at her shirt. He dragged her into his arms, staring at her face.
"X-Xaphy," she whimpered, mouth quivering. "W-what...?"
"Ella," he squeaked. "Ella!"
"My back... am I going to die?"
"No," he cried, jerking her close to his chest and squeezing her. "You're not. You can't. Not again. Stay with me. Please."
"My back hurts," she whispered into his ear, breath trembling. "This pain... why is it... familiar?"
"Shhh...." he hissed. "Don't talk!"
"Xaphile... I... I love you."
He was just about to tell her he loved her, too, when her arms slowly went slack. His expression went blank when an odd limpness overtook her body... and as he held her, her head slid backwards, revealing that she was staring off into space with dilated pupils.
He froze and his heart skipped a beat.
"Ella...?" he croaked, shaking her. "Ella... Ella!"
She didn't respond.
A trickle of blood slid from her mouth.
Staring at her blank face in horror and agony, his mouth opened and he tried to scream, but no sound came out. The hole where his heart had once been ripped open wider and he felt like his emotions had imploded into it, leaving behind pure physical agony. It crippled him.
He couldn't breathe.
Couldn't scream.
His face screwed up, but he couldn't draw in enough air to cry out. He shakily fell over on the ground, holding her close, huddling up around her.
And, finally, the tears came through.
Silent, breathless, they streamed out of him without a single sob. His lungs had been winded by the weight of the agony that had engulfed him. He was paralyzed with grief, all he could do was lie there.
He wept.
Alone in the dark... with the body of his beloved lying limply beside him, he wept.
His body heaved, and hyperventilated as he cried, so much so that he barely noticed when a strangely familiar itch filled his head. A violet color filled an odd void behind his eyes.
"Xaphile..." someone whispered. "Oh gods... what sort of horror are you seeing to make you feel this way? Shhh... everything is okay..."
"No..." he sobbed. "She's dead... I couldn't save her... I let her die again. I can't take it anymore. I can't live like this!"
"Stop crying!" the voice begged. "Stop it! Please! What you're seeing isn't real! It isn't real, Phil!"
He couldn't stop even if he wanted to.
Shaking all over, he remained curled up, clutching his long ears in an effort to drown everything out, but then, with a flash of violet light, someone intruded on the darkness. He felt two hands touch his head, but he didn't look up... not even when he heard a muffled intake of breath.
"Phil," Ella's voice whispered, making his shivering fall still; slowly tilting his head up, he spotted her through eyes blurred with tears. "Xaphile, please... come to your senses."
"Ella?" he hicupped, shakily lifting his hands and blindly touching her body; to his shock, she was breathing and very much still alive. "ELLA!"
Lunging upright, he threw his arms around her, breathing going out of control.
"Oi! What are you doing?!" she squawked. "Let go!"
"No!" he wailed, sobbing against her shoulder with quivering arms. "Please..."
Her arms wrapped around him in a somewhat startled manner, but then that hold tightened.
"Let's get you out of here," she growled. "Come."
The moment she started walking, with a violet flash of light, everything began to dissolve.
The world around them began to break away into pieces, and she held onto him tightly.
She looked over her shoulder.
Behind them, the body of Ella Richardson slowly faded away.
Slowly, his vision began to churn and a myriad of silver forests slid into his view. Eyes stained and still blurry with tears, he held onto the one clutching him. Clarity soon filled his mind, and he realized what was going on. It was like waking up from an extremely bad dream.
Slowly, his shivering abated... and the one embracing him pulled back.
"Are you well?" Ella carefully demanded, giving him a subdued glance. "I..."
She trailed off, not knowing what to say.
He merely looked at her.
He said nothing for the longest time... just sat there, looking at her... brokenly. Clenching her jaw, she leaned forward again and tugged him into yet another embrace, patting his back for several minutes.
"Stop looking at me like that," she muttered. "I, too, saw things that broke my heart... things from my own past. Every single one of us did... you aren't alone with your feelings."
"What?" he finally rasped. "What do you mean?"
"Just look around you," Ella muttered, pulling away a second time and jerking a thumb behind her. "We all... suffered from the effects of the magic barrier."
Following her thumb, he looked over her shoulder.
To his surprise, Amelia was huddled up against a tree, crying hysterically. Vrael was trying his hardest to soothe her, but the elf looked rather shaken up behind the eyes. Gus was sitting in the center of the dirt road, hands pressed against his eyes and trembling jaw clenched.
Even Sinmir was upset... the giant was letting loose a string of curses and angrily pacing back and forth, muscles bunched up. Ella's hand touched his cheek and gently turned his head to face her again. Her own eyes were swimming with tears, but an angry mask covered them.
"You weren't the only one suffering this time," she stated simply. "We all were. We all saw things we shouldn't have needed to... but we can't let those things break us."
"What did you see?" he rasped, staring at her eyes. "How did you end up in my nightmare?"
Her face twisted and she looked away, then glared at him.
"I watched my father die before my eyes, again," she hissed. "I watched my home and my town burn to the ground, and heard the screams... of people I loved. I heard many voices... and all of them were angry. They said to me... that everything was my fault... and I... I believed them."
"I... I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It was the strength of your pain that brought me out of the nightmare. It punctured through the vision and dragged me into yours."
She was obviously fighting back tears, but she steeled herself and stood up.
Then she held out her hand.
"Come," she snapped. "Take my hand... we've made it past the barrier. We'll rest here until everyone has calmed down enough to continue on."
He swallowed, then glanced at her hand before hesitantly taking it.
With a mighty tug, she helped him to his his feet and gently dusted off his shirt.
After a moment, however, he gave into his weakness. Stepping forward, he pulled her into an embrace.She stilled beneath his touch.
"What... are you doing...?" she carefully ground out.
"I don't care who its from," he shakily retorted, "but what I need right now is a hug."
Ella seemed startled.
But then, to his surprise, her arms came up around him without protest.
She hugged him as tight as she could.