Searah opened her eyes and let her tears fall onto the unmoving form that had been Teraous. His hand was still loosely wrapped around her wrist and the knife they had both held lay upon the ground. Around her, feelings of shock and surprise where working their way through the crowd, they had not expected her to do it, and they had not seen that it had been Teraous hands that had pushed the blade into his own side. Searah looked up and saw the Belfarian looking down at her, an appraising look upon her face.
'You, you have more strength than I gave you credit for' she said quietly, and Searah had to shake her head to push away one of the Belfarian's spirits drifting closer to her face.
'And now, no one else dies?' Searah called across the narrow distance, her voice sounding stronger than she felt.
'Everyone dies, Searah, in their own time and in their own ways, but not today, and not by my hands. Your friends are safe.' It was a lie, and Searah knew it, knew it to her very soul.
'And what of me?' Searah asked.
'You will be sent away.'
'Away. Where?'
The Belfarian grinned, a harsh, wide smile. 'Away' was all she said.
Searah put a hand up to her forehead, leaving a streak of blood in her dirty-blonde hair. The pain was still rushing across her temples, and she felt weak and drained. She tried to steady her breathing. Searah knew that, if she was going to make one final push, one final attempt to rid the world of the evil ghost that had infested her mother's body that it would have to be soon, it would have to be now. But as she knelt on the cold earth, her spirits moving in front her like a talisman, the tall, imposing figure of her enemy stood between her and the rest of the world, she didn't know if she had the strength to do what she knew she had to, to do what only she in all the Territories could do. Through all the pain, the horror and the heartache, she felt a pull at the back of her mind and, almost instinctively, reacted to it. For an odd moment she felt like she was seeing the whole battlefield, broken, discarded stone and rock littering the ground, the Belfarian walking towards her and the people gathered behind her, some lying motionless on the floor, some sat beside the dead, some standing, watching their masters slow move forward. She closed her eyes and could still see the scene in front of her. The Belfarian was reaching her arms out towards Searah, her own eyes closed and a look of concentration on her familiar face.
'Graegfolde,' she said to Searah as her fingers began to twitch, 'remember that word, you will need it. Say it, say it over and over again and you might stand a chance.'
Searah stood up, unsteady on her feet, her head pounding, her chest rising and falling with every heavy, laboured breath.
'Brad se burg dor,' the Belfarian started to chant, 'forthgan se midweg. Brad se burg dor, fothgan se midweg.' she said over and over again, her fingers moving in a strange, intricate pattern through the air. Between her outstretched hands, something was starting to move. Searah couldn't see it properly, like it was both there and not there, part of the world and yet separate from it. It grew both darker and lighter, and the very fabric of the world around started to swirl and shake, vibrate and pulse. Suddenly, the air between the Belfarian's shaking hands rent apart and a blast of power, air, heat, light and strength burst from its centre. Searah felt it wash over her like water, smothering every sense, but she did not move. All around, the spirits of those still standing billowed and tumbled away, pushed backwards by the force released by the Belfarian, Searah felt her own spirits washed away and saw them blown backwards in the buffeting air, finally coming to rest almost out of sight. They did not return, however, instead they and the spirits of all those around spread out in what looked like an imaginary circle, seemingly afraid to come any closer to the unnatural hole that had opened up in the world at the command of the creature which stood at their very centre. Searah felt something pull her forwards, and at first she thought it was magic pulling her towards this new atrocity, but then she realised that it was the swirling, vibrating, renting mass of darkness and light that was pulling her forwards. All around her rocks and dust were starting to move and swirl, blocking out everything around them, turning the world into a strange, blurred half real shapes that shifted in the gloom.
'Remember Searah,' the Belfarian shouted, 'Graegfolde, say it loudly in your mind and with your lips and maybe you will live to see another day. Another day, but not here.'
Searah jumped forward, launching herself at the outstretched arms of the Belfarian. She crashed with all her weight into her mothers arms and the world around them exploded. The noise burst in her ears, there was a blinding, all encompassing white light and Searah felt herself flung backwards, sideways, round and over, but she kept hold of the Belfarian's arms, her mother's arms, and together they were enveloped by the whiteness.
They opened their eyes together, and for a moment it looked like they couldn't see. Then the world resolved itself around them, the swirling choking dust still surrounding them and the shapes of men, women and broken shards of stone and wall shimmered in the distance somehow unreal, yet very much there. Searah, now standing tall, her cloak rippling in the winds that surrounded them, smiled.
'What happened?' the Belfarian asked.
'I don't know,' Searah said, half lying, 'but what ever it was you were trying to do hasn't worked.'
'But it must, it has, I can still feel,' she looked panicked now, and for the first time Searah saw what she thought must be something of her mother upon the Belfarian's face. 'It hasn't closed, I can still feel the power draining.'
'What hasn't closed?' Searah asked, taking a few steps backwards, one hand in her pocket, the other loose by her side.
'The Gateway. The words I...the Gateway opened, I gave you the key and the Gateway opened.'
'Gateway to where?' Searah asked.
'Anywhere, everywhere. Everywhere that is else. The Gateway between worlds, the doorway away from here.'
'What do you mean?' asked Searah, stalling for more time, a look of concentration on her face as she looked intensely at the Belfarian.
'Don't you know your history?' the Belfarian spat angrily. 'The Gods created this world and many others. Some are locked, I can't, I never could, but others, other can be seen, you can get there with the right words, the right power, the right keys. But its still open, I can feel the power draining, its still there so why can't I - ' but Searah cut across her.
'I can see it' she said, and her voice was barely more than a whisper carried on the swirling winds around them. 'I know. I understand.'
'What?' said the Belfarian, 'What can you see, I -' but again she cut short.
Searah reached her hands forward and seemed to pull at the air. The Belfarian shook, shimmered and, for a moment, seemed to blur in front of her.
'What are you doing?' the Belfarian shouted.
'I see what you are. All of you, so much to hold together, so much to hold in one place. It's almost too much, and all it takes is one thing to stop it all.'
'What are you talking about, what is going on?'
Searah smiled and pulled from her pocket a small, metallic ball, both smooth and etched, with a large piece missing from one side.
'The Coldstone!' the Belfarian cried. 'I've been searching, it is mine!' and with the last word she made a pulling motion in the air, but nothing happened, the Coldstone did not move.
'You have no power here. This is our world, not yours.'
'What is this?' the Belfarian repeated, fear starting to grow in her expression.
'Call it my little skill' Searah smiled, looking directly into the Belfarian's blackened eyes. 'The magic, the magic might have come from you, but this? This is my real power, and this came from my mother.' the Belfarian shimmered again, and huge globs of blackness dripped from the Belfarian's deadened hair.
'A memory?' the Belfarian asked. 'An illusion?'
'Maybe a little of both,' Searah replied, 'happening in our heads, controlled by me.'
'But you can't be doing this. How are you doing this?'
'You're right, I haven't the strength for this. You've hurt me, tortured me, near killed me and forced me into the mind of a man who wanted nothing more than to die, rather than face more time in the Territories with you. I haven't the strength left to do this. But I'm not alone.'
From behind her, the grey-brown dust started to thicken, and swirling shapes started to form. From out of the darkness, the dust and the blurred world around them, Reacca and Kaytee emerged, both holding on to a small shard of metallic stone.
'Good plan Sarry' Grinned Kaytee, her layers and layers of multi-coloured clothes whipping and thrashing in the strong winds, tall and triumphant shining in the light from her own spirits.
'Don't call her that,' smiled Reacca, her long black hair blowing out behind her, 'let's have a bit of respect for the situation.'
'For months I've been worrying about this, about you,' Searah said, turning back to the Belfarian who's outline seemed to be shifting and changing, pulling itself apart, 'wondering if this frankly stupid plan could work, what would happen once I actually managed to get you here, worrying about whether I could make it look right, hold you for long enough to figure out what to do. And you know what?' Searah asked, walking towards her, pity and concern on her face. 'Even a few moments ago I had no idea what was going to happen. But now I know. Now I know what I need to do. And all it takes is one thing. One simple thing.' Searah stopped walking and stood next to the blackened, failing figure of the Belfarian.
'What are you doing? What one thing?'
Searah smiled once more, and this time it was a gentle, calm smile. She lent forward, raising one hand as she did so, and whispered a single word into the Belfarian's ear. 'Truth.'
Searah's hand glowed a bright, leaf green and she touched the Belfarian's gently upon the cheek. The Belfarian's body exploded. She was thrown backwards in a violent, churning, rolling mass of black and green and blue and gold. The mass seemed to be suspended in mid air and the human shapes within it seemed to move and shift, combine and break apart. A blood curdling scream came from the centre of the twirling, writhing mass but the scream didn't come from one voice, but what sounded like four separate, connected voices howling out in pain and fear. Black, green, blue and gold coiled round and around each other, the black snaking in and out, trying to hold them all together, but every time the black forced its way inside, the green chased it down, fought its way through and pushed the blackness out and away. The blue wrapped itself around the gold, pushing it further and further away from the black, away from the swirling mass of energy and life and soul and power. As the gold moved further and further away, it started to take form, started to merge into a shape that looked very familiar to Searah. With one final push the gold shape was thrown from the mass, and landed in a heap upon the ground, a woman, thin, naked and cold, with dirty-blonde hair.
But the green and blue forms continued to push and swirl and fight, hitting again and again at the shapeless black mass beneath them, instinctively fighting against the darkness, like metal against magnets. Searah felt something snap in the real world, and the arm she must still be holding onto twitched. The golden woman laying on the floor heaved, and the blackness lurched. Searah cast her mind forward, and looked back at her friends.
'She's used it all, there's no more magic left in her' Searah said.
'That horrible thing,' replied Reacca, looking shocked, 'that weird hole your mother cast was still going when you grabbed her, I think its still going now.'
'But then what's powering it?' Kaytee asked.
The black mass lurched again and Searah realised what must be happening. What ever it was that the Belfarian had created needed power to stay open, so it had latched itself to the nearest thing with any amount of power left, the coiling, writhing mass of disembodied soul that was the Belfarian. It was pulling at it, draining it, killing it. Searah stepped forward and tried to make a lunge at the green and blue swirling masses still attacking the black, but they skipped and pulled out of her reach.
'Help me' Searah called over her shoulder and Reacca and Kaytee came running over. They reached out their hands, then suddenly pulled away, each girl crying out in pain and surprise. The balls of burning light had attached themselves to their outstretched fingers and were spiralling up their arms, round and round and round leaving lines of colour and blood upon their skin.
'Let go!' Searah cried.
'I can't get it off!' Shouted Kaytee.
'Close your eyes, let go of the Coldstone shard.'
Both girls closed their eyes, Reacca shaking her head as if trying to flick away flies, Kaytee pulling, tearing, falling backwards. The next second they both vanished, leaving in their wake an after image burned into Searah's eyes. A green glow in the shape of Reacca, and a blue glow in the shape of Kaytee.
Searah turned back and saw the black smoke of the Belfarian trying to pull away from something that seemed to have hold of it, trying with everything it had to escape. Searah looked at it and snarled. Putting the Coldstone back in her pocket she raised her hands, summoned all the strength, power and magic she had left within her and screamed at the top of her voice.
'Scufan!'
The pushing force smashed into the black smoke like the last crash of a waterfall and its resistance broke, throwing it backwards into the void, and throwing Searah away, smashing her down against her back. The world, the world she had created in her mind and drawn the Belfarian into, vanished, and the real world enveloped her, pushing her aching head away into unconsciousness.