The Event Horizon.
Delilah clung to that name.
That’s where I am. No matter how strange things get, I’m still there.
The others are here with me, somewhere. I need to find them.
But first…
“Hey.”
It was No One, all wild golden curls and the brightest blue eyes. “Are you paying attention?”
There’s that question again.
“I am,” Delilah said.
She’d turned the Key in the lock Terevalde had given her. And then…
Then what?
Where did he go?
No One was here. But Terevalde was nowhere to be seen.
Wait…
Delilah took a step back. There wasn’t ground to step on, she was floating in the void, but she did so reflexively.
No One was gone.
She was all alone.
In the distance, she heard No One, giggling softly. “I’m the one you’re looking for,” she whispered.
Terevalde said the same thing.
Does that mean I’m looking for one or the other? Or am I looking for both of them?
Who can I trust?
Delilah was sitting on a grassy hill. Below her flowed a lazy river that glittered in the sunlight. Spread between her and Alice was a blanket, a picnic basket in the middle, and all sorts of food and drinks.
Wait…
“Alice?” “Delilah?”
The girls spoke at the same time, staring at each other.
“Finally,” Alice said with a sigh. “Here I thought I was all alone out here. Wherever the heck here is.”
“You got separated from the others?” Delilah asked.
Alice nodded. “There was a —”
She started to speak, but Delilah held up her hand, cutting her off. “Hold on,” she said, cocking her head to the side, studying Alice’s face. “You’re not…”
“Not what?” Alice asked, mimicking Delilah’s head-tilt. “Is something wrong?”
Yeah. You’re definitely not.
Delilah stood up, and Alice mimicked the action. When Delilah started sprinting for the river, Alice sprinted after her, wordlessly. She was faster than Delilah, of course she was, and tackled her to the ground.
Both girls fell through the ground, into a tumble of falling leaves and flower petals. There was no sign of a ground to land on below, but the fall was slow, as if some kind of powerful updraft buoyed them, controlling their descent.
“What are you running from?” Alice asked, an edge in her voice.
“You!” Delilah said, pushing Alice away. Alice let go, tumbling end-over-end into the storm of leaves and flower petals…
And disappeared.
Delilah landed suddenly, bouncing on springy, soft ground. After several bounces, she steadied herself. Was she…
She looked down. Then all around.
She was sitting on a giant pillow. A pillow the size of a house. The leaves were gone, but flower petals — iris petals — were scattered all over the pillow.
The iris petals began to wilt. Fast, too fast, astonishingly fast.
Delilah leapt to her feet, but her feet were stuck fast. The pillow was sucking her in, turning to mush beneath her feet, and she was sliding down, sinking, drowning —
Delilah let out a sigh and lowered her drink. It was a lovely cocktail of —
Wait. What?
There it was again. The disorientation. The sudden shifts. Delilah had been sucked into them before, but now she was starting to get a sense of it.
She sat outside a café, underneath an umbrella, with a cold juice cocktail set on the table before her. The glass glistened with beads of condensation that slowly dripped to the table, forming a small puddle.
It was a hot day. The juice and the shade were welcome reprieves.
But…
“Keybearer.” Terevalde’s voice, lovely and warm. “You must find your way. You must find the right way.”
“Which way is the right way?” Delilah asked, turning around.
Terevalde wasn’t there.
In fact, there wasn’t anyone here. The café was empty, inside and out. The wide main street that ran beside the café was devoid of cars, the sidewalks devoid of pedestrians. No birds sang. No bugs buzzed.
There wasn’t even the slightest breeze.
Silent. Silent save for any sound Delilah made, which seemed louder, far too loud, now that she recognized the emptiness and silence of this otherwise pleasant town.
She stood. Her chair scraped against the stone, far too loud. She winced. When she picked up her glass, it was soaked with water, and when she raised it to her lips…
It was empty.
She was so thirsty.
She set her glass down slowly, carefully, so as not to make too much noise. Once that was done, she scanned the town, looking at everything in sight.
Clothing stores. Designer boutiques. A cleared, grassy park. Apartment buildings. An arching torii gate.
There. That was where Delilah ran, her feet pounding the pavement, the sound so loud in her ears. But she felt the urgency, and that Japanese-style shrine gate reminded her of stories Chelsea and Gwen had told of their time in Shadowland.
This wasn’t Shadowland. But that gate was the one thing that stood out from the others. The one possibility, in Delilah’s mind, of a marker, a symbol, showing her the way.
Where else was she to go?
The town was still so quiet. Only Delilah’s footsteps, her breathing, the rustle of her clothing, punctuated the silence.
She raced across the park, across another street, and passed beneath the gate.
Just as she did, she noticed out of the corner of her eyes that there were lanterns hanging from either side of the gate.
They burned with black flames.
A second later, Delilah was upside-down, wildly disoriented by the bizarre room she found herself in. Every single surface was checkered, black-and-white, in a garish, psychedelic pattern that made it nearly impossible to distinguish between floor, walls, ceiling, or furniture. Wasn’t there a door somewhere? Wasn’t there any kind of escape?
“Hey,” said No One.
Delilah whirled around. But the girl wasn’t there.
Neither was the bizarre room.
Delilah floated upside down in a void. Before things changed again, Delilah ran through her memory, focusing hard to remember the sequence of events leading to this point.
“You cannot solve this riddle.”
Terevalde’s voice. Delilah whirled around, but there wasn’t anyone here.
She was alone.
“The answer is one that cannot be found.” Terevalde’s voice again, disembodied, coming from somewhere Delilah couldn’t find. “Seek, and you shall never find. But you must find me, Keybearer. Or neither of us will —”
“Hey,” said No One, appearing before Delilah as just a face, her golden curls radiating like an aura. “You’re supposed to find me.”
Is it one or the other? Or is it both?
No One was gone. Delilah flipped, gravity reversing on her, and her feet hit hard against soft, shifting ground. A hot, dry wind whipped at her, and she looked around to find a wasteland. Sand in all directions, flat and brittle, picked up by the wind to scrape against steadily degrading ruins.
Delilah ran. To see as much of this place as she could, to see anything that might guide her way, she ran, and ran, and ran.
The wind picked up. It did not want Delilah to come this way.
Then I must be on the right track.
How often had she lived her life that way? She had the reputation of being a goody two shoes, of being the perfect child, ahead of the game and always doing the right thing.
But she was constantly fighting the tide. Fighting to be more than just her age, fighting to be more than a child, fighting to be something, to go places of importance.
Fighting to be useful.
That often meant fighting against what people expected of her, and even what they told her she could or couldn’t do.
Age was such a limiter.
Delilah had always fought against that limiter.
Her fight had for so long been in secret, but ever since being whisked away to the Enchanted Dominion, she’d been able to fight in the open. She’d faced all sorts of terrors and opposition.
No one else thought of Delilah as a rebel. No one else looked at her that way.
But she knew who and what she was. She knew all it had taken her to get where she was now.
She knew that she wouldn’t have made it this far if she’d let her age hold her back. If she’d obeyed the winds that blew against her.
This wind was nothing.
Delilah broke through, tumbled and then righted herself, slipping in through a doorway in a swiftly degrading ruin that seemed like it had once been the keep of a grand castle.
She found herself in an extravagant ballroom. The winds were gone, the ruins were gone. This place was so beautiful, with a dozen crystal chandeliers, golden lights, polished floors, and stained glass windows. The most marvelous buffet was laid out to the side, and there was so much space to dance.
But there were no dancers.
Music played from an orchestra, and it was lovely music to dance to, but while there was a stage, and a piano and other instruments atop it…
No one was playing. The instruments weren’t playing themselves, either. Music was coming from elsewhere, from all around, but not from them.
Why is every place so empty?
Delilah had noticed that before, but the longer she went through these constantly shifting scenes, the more it stood out. Especially when she ended up in a grand ballroom like this, a place that begged to be populated, to be filled with light and life and laughter.
Standing in that place, Delilah longed to dance.
And for a moment, she began to move on. But then…
She smiled. To heck with it. If the answer couldn’t be found here, then she’d just need to try all sorts of things. This journey was strange enough — how strange was one girl dancing alone in a grand ballroom?
So she danced. She followed the music, smiling the more she went on. It brought her back to Revue Palace, to taking the stage and using music to battle against the Sons of Night and Jormungand in the Revue of the Night. That had been an affair fraught with peril and danger, and yet…
She’d had so much fun.
Music was a love she didn’t much talk about or share with others. But when she had the time, or when the right song came on in the right place, well —
She couldn’t help but dance.
“Hey,” said No One.
Delilah kept dancing.
“I said, hey.”
Delilah continued to dance, not replying.
“Hey!”
The solo dance continued.
No One huffed. “Listen when someone talks to you!”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Delilah said, turning about and facing No One. “I didn’t realize you were talking to me.”
“Who else would I be talking to?” No One asked, tears glistening in her eyes.
“Hmm,” Delilah mused for a moment, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Well, I thought you might be talking to the other dancers.”
“What other dancers?”
Delilah spun in a circle, gesturing all around her. “Everywhere!” she said, smiling. “I thought maybe you could actually see them.”
“I can’t see someone who isn’t here,” No One said, pouting.
“Hmm.” Delilah placed her hands on her hips. Then, she knelt and held out her hand to the little girl. “Would you like to dance with me?”
“That’s not what I was hey-ing you about!” No One said, glaring.
“Oh.” Delilah stood, hands on her hips. “Okay, then. What did you want?”
“You found me!” No One grinned, spreading her arms wide. “Aren’t you proud of yourself?”
“Hmm.” Delilah tapped her chin thoughtfully.
“Will you stop hmm-ing?”
“Well, it’s just…” Delilah spread her hands in a helpless gesture, “I didn’t find you. It seems like you found me.”
“But you… I…” No One stammered, speechless. “Oh, what do you know!”
“Are you really asking?” Delilah asked. “Because it’s a long list, and that’s not me bragging.”
“It was a rhetorical question!” No One was quite beside herself at this point. “Why are you acting so weird?”
“Well, this whole place is weird,” Delilah said. She knelt down to talk to the girl at eye level. “And let’s be honest — I really wasn’t getting anywhere. When I found this lovely ballroom and heard the music, I just couldn’t help myself. I had to dance!” She held out her hand. “Won’t you dance with me?”
“No!” No One said, glaring at her.
“Please?” Delilah asked sweetly, keeping her hand held out, waiting.
“No!” No One practically screamed that one word.
And she was gone.
Delilah pursed her lips as she stood.
Well. She’s a bit brattier than I thought.
There’s a story there. But how am I going to find it out?
Do I even need to focus on that? I need to find Terevalde…
Her hand went to the Key around her neck.
I wonder if the Lingering Will can find me here. It came from the Void, from beyond this world, so surely it can reach into the end of the world. But only if it knows I’m here…
And where is everyone else? I can’t play this game forever. I have to find the end. I thought if I tried something different, I might get some clues —
And it was pretty fun. But…
She sighed. “Now what?”
And then she wasn’t in the ballroom anymore. She was on a bridge.
Upside-down.
Above her was an ocean, whirling around a pale crystal. In front of her, behind her, all around her was a forest of stone trees, their sandy leaves shaking and sloughing off excess debris.
Delilah started across the bridge, but the bridge suddenly, without any warning at all, bucked like a wild bronco. Delilah was thrown, and she was falling up, up, up towards the crystal, towards the ocean.
She spun, righted herself, and grasped for the crystal.
It slipped through her fingers. As if it were nothing but air.
Waters enfolded her, like chill, soaking fingers, dragging her into their whirling depths. Delilah sucked in a breath just before she went under, and was tossed and thrown about for a full circle around the crystal.
The water spat her out onto a soft, matted floor. There was no water here. A fire crackled in a hearth in the center of the floor, its heat dissipating the moisture and cold that clung to Delilah’s clothes and skin.
On the other side of the fire was a bronze statue of a samurai warrior. He was kneeling, a silver sword laid bare across his legs.
His eyes followed Delilah’s every movement as she slowly stood.
Before Delilah could process that, before she could react, the statue stood, swinging its silver sword. Delilah threw up her hands even as she backstepped furiously, hoping to dodge…
“Cease this madness,” came the warm, sweet voice of Terevalde, calm despite the words he’d used.
The silver sword stopped just in time, the very edge of its blade frigid against the skin of Delilah’s neck.
The samurai statue withdrew his sword. Knelt.
And was gone.
“It doesn’t end here, Keybearer,” Terevalde said. Where he was, Delilah couldn’t see.
And that could only mean one thing.
I still haven’t found him.
She ran. Leapt across the fire rather than ran around it, simply because she wanted to.
I don’t understand this place at all. I don’t understand this game, or whatever it is.
But I have to find him. That’s what I came here for.
Only…
“Hey.”
Delilah closed a sliding door behind her and turned. There was No One — well, just her face again, her hair swirling around it, gleaming like a halo.
“Hello,” Delilah said, smiling. “Can you show me the right way?”
“You wouldn’t trust me,” No One said. And then she was gone.
“I might if you’d tell me more about yourself,” Delilah said. “If only I understood you…”
No One laughed derisively, her only reply.
Delilah sighed, took another step out onto the crane of a massive construction vehicle. She clung to a support pole for balance as the crane swept round, hundreds of feet over a city street below. It was swinging towards a crystalline balcony with pearly doors, inside an inviting golden glow.
But, the closer she got, the more Delilah realized the crane wasn’t going to quite reach it. Could she jump?
Did she dare?
She did.
The crane swung round, and Delilah leapt across the gap, flailing for the edge of the balcony, for anything to grasp hold of…
Her fingers caught fabric. Silk curtains tore free from their holdings, and Delilah flopped onto the carpeted floor of an ostentatious master suite, its four-poster king-sized bed set upon a stage, its pillows and quilt covered in a spread of rose petals.
Honeymoon suite?
Then I definitely need to clear out.
Delilah ran, for some reason still clutching the silk curtains. She was halfway to the door…
And stepped onto a crunchy, fragile surface. She stopped in her tracks.
She stood upon a white slope, perfectly rounded, not a blemish in its surface, save where Delilah’s foot had cracked through to a gooey membrane underneath.
Delilah was standing on a gigantic egg. And she’d just cracked it.
Instinct called out a warning, and Delilah leapt back, the silk sheets in her hands now a large silver shield on her arm. As she tumbled through the air, the crack split wider, and then the whole egg burst, firing thin white plates of shrapnel in every direction. Delilah blocked several whirring pieces with her shield, then looked to see what emerged from the egg.
A toad. A giant red toad, covered in mottled warts, its crimson eyes bulging, with massive metallic wings that gleamed in the sunlight, and a long forked tail bristling with barbed spines.
The toad croaked once, a comical yet booming Ribbit!
It snapped its tail, which cracked like a whip and flung forth a thousand barbed spines, each one a spear longer than Delilah was tall, wickedly pointed at the ends. Delilah raised her shield, braced for impact…
A soft impact buffeted her arm, and she fell backwards onto a bouncy, feathered mattress.
“Pillow fight!”
No One hurled another pillow as she cheered out those two words. Delilah rolled out of the way, grabbed a pillow of her own, and flung it back at her. It hit No One smack in the face, and No One staggered, windmilling her arms for balance. Delilah threw another pillow, but No One ducked under that, grinning. “Psych!” she said, throwing two pillows in quick succession. Delilah caught one, but the second one hit, and she went falling backwards off of the bed.
She landed on a slick, icy slope, and immediately started sliding down at a breakneck pace — backwards. She still had the two pillows, and as she turned herself about and saw where she was heading, she hastily assembled both pillows as a shield to cushion her landing.
It was a success! Instead of crashing against a hard, angular glacier, she softened the blow considerably and rolled to her feet, unhurt.
She took a moment, taking a breath and letting it out.
Okay. I just keep getting pushed around. How do I flip the script? Because at this rate, I’m just going to keep tumbling down the rabbit hole.
Ahead of her, stuck blade-first into the ice, was a familiar silver sword. Its bearer, the bronze samurai statue, was nowhere to be seen.
Delilah didn’t approach with caution, but instead sprinted for the sword. She grabbed it, pulled it free, and wheeled about.
There was the bronze samurai, bearing down on her. She spun in a circle and flung the sword as far as she could.
Into an icy, raging ocean.
The samurai statue charged past her and dove into the ocean with splendid form and a massive splash. Glaciers immediately formed up, ramming against each other. The ground shuddered and Delilah struggled for balance as ice closed over where the samurai had dove in.
Fire crackled in a hearth.
Delilah looked up, and found herself back in the matted-floor room where she’d first met the samurai.
On the opposite side of the hearth was Terevalde. He knelt just like the samurai had, looking very composed, and yet… there was a bit of a haggard quality to his face. Like he hadn’t been eating or sleeping well for an awfully long time. He maintained his poise, but he couldn’t disguise the thinness of his face, or the fact that his clothes were a couple of sizes too big for him.
“Is this it?” Delilah asked. “Did I find you?”
Terevalde looked up at her. “You did,” he said. There was a smile in his voice, yet his expression was grave. He stood slowly, hesitantly, and Delilah hurried over to help him up. “Thank you,” he said, graciously accepting her assistance. “It seems my strength isn’t what it used to be.”
“What happens now?” Delilah asked.
“Now…” Terevalde started, trailing off. He looked up, a faraway look in his eyes. “I… leave this place. If the Keybearer is here, looking for me, I have no other recourse. I must follow you. And yet… why have you come for me?”
“I think the explanation should wait until you get some proper food and rest,” Delilah said, struggling with Terevalde’s weight. He wasn’t particularly heavy, but the longer he stood, the more he relied on her, until he was only standing because of her meager strength. “And I… well, I was wondering about No One.”
“That girl…” Terevalde had a sad look in his eyes. “You were worried about her?”
“I… yeah,” Delilah said. “Or maybe I just… want to know. Who is she? Isn’t there any way I can help her, or…?”
Once again, there was a faint smile in Terevalde’s voice that didn’t show on his face. “Then you already have,” he said. “Now. It is over.”
Delilah was alone. Terevalde was gone. All around her, nothing but the dark, endless void.
“Hey.”
Delilah turned. She was upside-down, and No One was, too, seated across from her, sipping her tea.
“Hello,” Delilah said with a smile.
“Make sure you’re paying attention,” No One said. She pushed the tea cup and saucer, and they glided over to Delilah. “You’re not gonna want to miss what comes next.”
Delilah took a sip of the tea. It was delightfully warm, with a honey-like fragrance.
And then it was over.
She stood outside the Event Horizon, in that strange place where all the shattering of the world beyond was silent, where waves crashed against invisible walls on all sides but never touched them.
She wasn’t alone. Isabelle, Maribelle, Sarabelle, and Marcus were all here.
Alice was here.
And Terevalde was, too. Delilah once again struggled with his weight, but in an instant Alice was there helping.
“I thought you’d stopped trying to do everything by yourself,” Alice said, casting a meaningful look Delilah’s way.
Delilah smiled apologetically. “This time… I don’t think I had much of a choice.”
Together they helped Terevalde, walking with the others back along the silver road that led back to the shore.
In her mind, Delilah thought she could still hear, ever so faintly, No One, giggling playfully.