Sonya stood in the Time Tower’s bookshop, staring at the shelf before her.
Eighty years…
That number stuck with her, weighed so heavily upon her. And yet, after so much time, time she struggled to fathom…
It’s still here.
She could look, but she hesitated to touch. There on the shelf were several copies of a book, a book that had “Sonya Marlow” printed at the bottom of the cover in small print, and at the top, the title: Restfully Lies the Radiant Rose.
I spent so long struggling with the title.
Memories flooded back to her — memories that seemed much nearer than they actually were. Countless hours spent dreaming of her story, of taking notes, brainstorming. Writing her first draft, then discarding the whole thing and starting over from scratch. Rewriting that second draft a dozen more times. Sharing it with her friends, her teachers, her parents, her little brother.
It had had such a small release. Just getting it published, with a title, a cover illustration, and in stores, in people’s hands, in her own hands… that had been incredible. A dream come true.
And then…
She finally picked up the book — her book — and opened it to the last page of the story. After the final line, below that, a few words, a promise from her to the readers and to herself: “To be continued in Volume II: Sundering Skies above Starless Seas.”
Her book on the shelf here was just the first part of a larger story, a story that meant so much to her. She’d even started writing the second book, before…
Before I was called away.
The Enchanted Dominion was no secret to the people of Renault. There were doors in the Time Tower’s underground level, each of which led to different Locations, though those Locations were constantly changing due to the Dominion’s nature. They didn’t have an easy route to Cartographer’s Waystation like Grimoire did.
Sonya had been having strange dreams, and along with those, she’d sometimes found herself writing things that she knew didn’t come from her. But they were clues, clues that had drawn her to the Dominion.
And in the Dominion, after passing through several Locations and learning just a few things about why she was here…
Olivia.
Olivia had appeared, as the Sealed Vessel.
It’s been eighty years since then. At least fifty that I spent in the Fault Line Dungeon. All that time, because of Wasuryu’s effect on me, not aging.
But people remember me. They think of me. My home is gone, my family’s gone, but…
She closed her book, staring at the cover. Looked up at the shelf, at the small banner across the top that proudly displayed her name.
It’s like…
“Hello,” a small, nervous voice said. Sonya looked aside, at a short girl about her age, ducking her head, wringing her hands nervously. She had short blonde hair and large-framed glasses that reminded Sonya a bit of Fae’s.
“Hello,” Sonya said hesitantly. Why was a stranger talking to her?
“I, um, I…” the girl started, taking several furtive glances at Sonya, but never looking at her for long.
“Did you want to look at it?” Sonya asked, holding out her book. There were plenty of copies, so the girl could have picked up a different one, but why else would she be staring at Sonya?
The girl shook her head. “I just, um… you… look like her.” She winced, simultaneously letting out a sigh, as if she was relieved but scared at the same time.
“Like…?” Sonya asked, waiting.
“Sonya Marlow,” the girl said. “I mean, I don’t, I don’t really know, I just know from pictures, but just, you really look like her, so I thought maybe you were a, um, fan, maybe?” She shut her eyes tight, as if expecting a harsh rejection.
Sonya gritted her teeth, struggling for words. She didn’t want to talk to a stranger. She didn’t want someone to just come up to her and talk about how she looked.
But she also saw just how nervous and embarrassed and shy this girl was. How much it had taken for her to talk to Sonya at all, let alone say what she wanted to say. And she seemed like she had a lot more she’d like to say, if she could work up the courage.
“You… could say that,” Sonya finally said, placing her book on the shelf. “So you like it?”
The girl’s eyes snapped open, wide with excitement, and she nodded faster than Sonya thought it was possible to nod, over and over. “I love it so much! It…” She paused, and then ducked her head, embarrassed. “It means everything to me. I’ve read it forty-three times. Ever since the first, I knew it was something special, and it… oh, this sounds so silly, but I —”
“It doesn’t sound silly at all,” Sonya said. “Go ahead.”
The girl hesitated, not looking up, but after a moment, continued. “I… really love stories. I love fantasy, and there are so many characters and stories that have spoken to my heart. But this is…” She pulled a copy of Sonya’s book off the shelf and held it reverently. “This resonated with me so perfectly. I laugh, I cry, I feel everything these characters go through so deeply, and I…” She sighed, placing the book back on the shelf. “I’ve stared at the final page, at the title for the next book, so many times. I keep thinking about what will come next. I… it’s stupid. I’m too young to have ever met Sonya. But… I miss her. I wish… I wish, by some miracle, she’d come back. That she could finish what she started. You… the way you look like her, it’s… comforting. It… makes me feel like she’s not really gone. I’d… like to think that’s true.”
While the girl had been talking, Sonya had slowly turned away. She wished she had Olivia’s hood, so she could more easily hide her face. She took a deep breath, then let it out. “Thank you,” she said softly, in a whisper.
“Hmm?” the girl asked, looking up.
“It’s nothing,” Sonya said, shaking her head. “I… I need to go. But… it was nice hearing from a fellow fan. I… I love it, too.”
“T-thank you,” the girl said. “You’re the first person I’ve been able to talk to like this who hasn’t made fun of me or dismissed it.”
“Don’t give up,” Sonya said. The girl looked up questioningly. “Miracles… sometimes do happen.” She nodded, starting to walk away. “Thanks for talking.”
The girl didn’t follow her, and Sonya was grateful for that. She couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. But something was different about these tears. There was sorrow, yes, and regret, too. But in the midst of all of that…
There was happiness.
——
Olivia sat on the steps outside the Time Tower. Her clothes protected her from the cold, but still allowed her to feel it, which was important to her.
She’d always found the cold comforting.
Her breath misted the air as she gazed out at the streets of Renault. The city that had been her home, that she had risked her life to protect.
It was a stranger to her now.
And yet…
Why does something still call to me about this place? And why…
She bowed her hooded head. She thought of her brother, of the one memory — not just a fact, but a proper memory — she’d regained today.
Why did you memorialize me? And why can’t I…?
Footsteps sounded. There were many footsteps around here, with such a busy city, but these footsteps she recognized as approaching her. A moment later, the footsteps stopped, and someone sat down next to her.
Slowly, Olivia looked up.
Seated beside her was Neptune. She sat to Olivia’s left, so her blue hair obscured her face from view. It was only when Neptune turned her head to look at Olivia that Olivia saw the left side of her face, the one visible eye, the same color as her hair.
“You’re not going to the Second Concert Hall?” Neptune asked.
Neptune was so unlike her sisters. Mercury and Jupiter were so energetic — in Olivia’s mind they were close to, and often crossed the line, of being wildly hyperactive. But Neptune had a cool, calm, thoughtful demeanor. And her voice, deeper than her sisters, had a soothing, smooth resonance.
She didn’t talk very much. Rather like Olivia, she realized. But when she did speak, there was something comforting about hearing her voice.
“Not yet,” Olivia said, looking away.
Silence — comfortable, peaceful silence — passed between them.
“Have you regained any of your memories?” Neptune finally asked.
Olivia nodded. “Just one. Everything else… I know so much about myself, but it’s like reading a book about me. Facts, not memories. When we passed by my old home, I was able to recover one memory.” She smiled, though there was also a heavy sorrow in her heart at the memory. “It’s a simple thing, just me practicing viola at home. But my brother’s there. He’s smiling, listening and watching so intently. He calls it a ‘private concert’.” She laughed, just a little, very softly. “That’s… all. All I remembered. But…”
“It’s a good memory,” Neptune said.
Olivia nodded. Silence returned between them.
“Memories also bring context,” Olivia said. “I… I could picture my parents and brother. I knew so much about them. But I didn’t feel anything for them. Now that I remember that one moment with my brother, though… I can feel his love for me. And my love for him. I love him, and he’s…” But she stopped, leaving the rest unsaid. There was a strange weight to her eyes, of tears begging to be shed, and yet… she couldn’t.
Snow fell gently on the city. All around them, the world turned, people continued about their business, and Olivia and Neptune sat together outside the Time Tower.
“I’m sure it will take some time,” Neptune said. “But… when you’re ready. When it feels okay. I’d love to hear you play. And I’d love to play with you, too.”
Olivia ducked her head. “Yes,” she said softly. “When… I’m ready. I… think I might like that, too.”
——
Fae’s body sat in the Time Tower’s lobby, across from the door to the Echo of Truth. She’d found it, but Fae herself had asked that the Sojourner wait, that they not bother the others yet. Mercury, Neptune, Jupiter, Madeline, Toryu, and Ciel had agreed. Mercury and Jupiter sat on the floor, playing some silly rhythm game with their hands. Madeline was drawing and talking with Ciel. Toryu seemed to be dozing, puffing on his pipe.
Sonya had gone into the bookshop, and Olivia sat outside.
Those two needed time.
Fae didn’t hesitate to give it to them. Where she did hesitate was in the waiting. Because a part of her felt like…
I should go to them. I should talk to them. But…
She looked down at herself, her body, sitting so still, so calmly.
…it’s still so hard. Even more so when I’ve been able to talk to them myself when inside the Echoes of Truth. To then hear my words repeated, despite her best efforts, in a flatter, more robotic way, just doesn’t feel right. Would I be able to get what I want to say across to them?
But as she looked out the window, she could barely see Olivia. And beside her… Neptune.
Fae managed a small smile.
That’s perfect. Mercury or Jupiter would be way too much. But Neptune will know what to say.
Not for the first time, Fae was grateful she wasn’t on this journey alone. But this time, it was for someone else’s sake.
Fae considered talking to the Sojourner. She thought she should, but…
She never initiates anything. I can only see her when we talk, but I have to talk to her first. And I…
…have no idea what to say.
We’re getting so close to the end. To the Orphan of the Dawn, where hopefully she’ll be able to rejoin the rest of her soul and I can have my body back.
I don’t have to talk to her. But…
She’d seen it on Folly’s Stair. The sorrow, the deep concern that the Sojourner tried to hide, because she didn’t want to burden Fae more than she already was. And all of that sorrow had been for Fae.
She’s completely selfless. I… can’t even grasp that. She split a part of her soul and trapped it inside a locket in order to give her a chance of saving me from Wasuryu’s plans for me.
And even so, she never wanted it to go this way.
Does she…
…feel guilty? Like it’s her fault that things ended up like this? That Wasuryu came after me and the others, that he caused so much pain and heartache for the three of us?
Fae bowed her head. “Sojourner… you don’t need to say anything,” she said. “I just… you didn’t do anything wrong. None of this… is your fault. I want you to know that. That’s… all.”
Silence was her response. But Fae thought she felt something, like a tense knot being subtly loosened.
“Hey, they’re back!” Mercury said, hopping to her feet and smiling. Along came Sonya, Olivia, and Neptune. “Everything okay?”
“I really don’t think ‘okay’ is the right word,” Neptune said.
“But we’re ready,” Sonya said. Next to her, Olivia nodded.
Together Fae, Olivia, and Sonya opened the door and entered the fifth Echo of Truth.
Fae, separated from her body once again, walked on her own between Olivia and Sonya. The Echoes of Truth were moments of freedom, but it was a freedom she mustn’t waste. As light slowly illuminated the mosaics on the room’s walls, floor, and ceiling, the three girls took it all in.
Water. The oceans formed a gorgeous painting of waves all around, an expansive ocean, here and there crashing dramatically against lone, rocky outcroppings. There was no major landmass in sight.
On the floor was an image of what lay beneath the waters. Fae stared, trying hard to understand what she saw.
Underneath the waves was a spherical cage, and locked within it…
Was a heart.
The heart beat normally, like any other heart. But it was locked inside its cage, hidden in the darkness beneath the waves.
Above, on the ceiling, was a conflicted sky. Half was swirling storm clouds, conjuring up a terrifying maelstrom. But half was sunshine, light, beauty.
“It’s… symbolic,” Olivia said. “Isn’t it?”
“That would be my first guess,” Sonya said. She had her notebook out and was swiftly scrawling notes. “I can’t make sense of it as something literal. But I can’t make sense of it as representing something else, either.”
“Fae?” Olivia asked.
“I’m here,” Fae said. “But… I don’t understand, either. Something about it, though… it’s like… it’s about me. Or it touches me somehow. But… I can’t see it. I can’t put it into words.”
“You think it’s about you?” Sonya asked. “With how the other Echoes were, I thought it might be about the Orphan of the Dawn. But then… some have been about us, haven’t they?”
“We haven’t been able to fully understand everything in these rooms,” Olivia said. “Maybe… once we have all of the pieces… it’ll make sense?”
“I hope so,” Fae said. But she said it quietly, because she only half felt that.
Part of her didn’t want to know what this might mean.
“I… don’t want you to worry,” Olivia said. “Fae, I’m not leaving this journey behind. I’ll see all of it through, to the end. I hope you weren’t worried after… everything we learned today.”
“It’s still so much to process,” Sonya said. “But I did learn one thing.” She smiled, just a little bit. “I… even though I don’t have my old house, and my family is gone… I still have a home here in Renault. Even though eighty years have gone by… there’s still a place for me, and not just anywhere, but here. There’s going to be so much to adjust to, so much to learn, but… I know I have somewhere to go back to.” She looked at Fae as if she could actually see her. “I was terrified to come here, to learn the truth. And while it came with a lot of pain… I’m not afraid anymore.” She held up her hand, and a flickering, flame-like aura played across her fingers. “I think I’m even learning not to be afraid of myself anymore.”
While Sonya had found hope, Olivia said nothing. She seemed uncertain, struggling with something she wouldn’t — or couldn’t — put into words.
Fae knew, because she knew that face, that expression, that body language. She was the same way, so very often.
It’s hard to talk about things, hard to make sense of everything in my mind and my heart. And to share that with others? That’s another level more difficult.
Olivia slowly looked up, and her gaze rested on Fae. And then her eyes slowly widened.
“I…” she started, staring.
“I can see you!” Sonya said, staring at Fae the same as Olivia.
“You can?” Fae asked, looking from Sonya to Olivia and back again.
“Yes!” Olivia and Sonya said.
Fae looked down at herself, and realized it was the same for her. She could see herself, too! And while her first instinct was to be excited, that swiftly faded, because…
“Why?” she asked, staring at her hands. “Why now? Why here? What does it…”
But her question trailed off, because in front of her was something else. Floating in the air before her, materializing from nothing…
Was a mirror.
Not just any mirror, but a mirror she knew well. It was the mirror that connected her to the Dreamer’s Heart.
To Shana.
“What…?” Sonya asked, staring.
Fae reached out, nervously. But when her fingers touched the mirror’s handle and she felt the cool metal on her skin, her heart leapt within her. She could touch it! She could hold it!
And in the mirror’s surface, she saw…
“Fae?” came the excited, but very confused, voice of Shana. She was staring from inside the mirror, eyes wide. Behind her was a dreamlike landscape, swirls of color and light and clouds. “Fae, can you see me? Can you hear me? Is it… really you?”
“I… I can,” Fae said, stunned. “Shana… where are you? How is this…?”
“You should step back, Shana,” came a soothing female voice that Fae didn’t recognize. “I do believe their time has finally come.”
“Um, okay,” Shana said, stepping back. Altair leapt into her arms and she petted him while she stared anxiously at the mirror. “So… wait, what do you mean?”
“I mean they’ll join you momentarily,” the soothing voice said.
“Join you?” Fae asked.
And then…
Well, she wasn’t sure what happened.
One moment, she, Sonya, and Olivia were inside the Echo of Truth. And the next — had the air blurred? Had they moved? It had all happened so fast, so impossibly, that Fae didn’t understand it — they were somewhere else.
Somewhere bright. She, Olivia, and Sonya stood atop clouds as if they were solid ground. The air was magenta with rays of golden light shining here and there. All around them, in and among the thick clouds, was a city — houses were everywhere, as were people.
Fae only had a moment to take it in, because almost as soon as she arrived, Shana leapt forward, hugging her tight.
“It’s really you!” Shana cried, her cheek so warm against Fae’s. “I can touch you, I can see you, it’s you!” Squirming between them, Altair poked his head up and licked Fae’s nose, and all at once…
Fae crumbled.
Her sister’s embrace, the little dog’s little kiss, together made her knees weak, and she collapsed, Shana dropping with her. All of Fae’s questions, for the moment, were chased away as she buried her face into her little sister’s shoulder and cried.