Midnight

A summer breeze drifted lazily through the open window, flirting with the drapes, and curling about the bed post, passing on to gently ruffle Triah’s tight curls sprawled across her pillow. She sighed as she stared at the red, glaring numbers above her bedside table. Normally, sitting still, starring at an object was not something that the energetic Triah normally did, but this was different. In exactly 2 ½ minutes she would turn 15. This was something that needed her full attention. Most people would not understand this strange obsession with her birthday. You turned a year older. Every week you turn a week older, every day you turn a day older. Who cares? Triah did. To her, a birthday was more than just a remembrance of the day you were born. And with little reason to doubt. Every year at exactly midnight on her birthday, a strange feeling passed over her. A flash of light and into darkness, feelings that were not her own engulfed her. Hope, desire, anger, suffering, loss, mourning, love, hate, life, death, and many more consumed her from the inside, filling up her every nerve, bursting from within, tearing her soul apart, and then…. nothing. As quickly as it had started, the feeling left. Then came the inescapable longing to know what had happened, and why she felt those things, but try as she might, she could explain nothing.

This year Triah was determined to capture and record her experiences more accurately, to aid her in her search for an explanation. Finally the clock changed. Only a minute more until midnight!  Triah scrawled excitedly in her miniature notepad she was using to record her experience. The moment lingered on, pausing idly, as if to taunt her. Finally the seconds until midnight were ticking down. Triah got her notepad and pencil ready and started counting under her breath. 4…3…2…1….

She was engulfed in a sea of blackness, tossing, turning, floating, yet not in a panicked way. She felt entirely at home, in a way that she never felt in her corner house in the quiet suburban neighborhood she lived in. She felt entirely understood by the misty black haze, if it was possible to be understood by a fog. Then a shape appeared before her. It was a large circle with an intricate wooden design inside, made out of what she thought looked like wood, although a very strange wood if that. She reached out to it and firmly grasped it in her hands. Odd, she thought. It felt almost warm, quite unlike the cut and polished wood it looked like. And then it all dissolved. Triah recognized she was now in her room again… not that we ever left of course! The analytical side of her mind told her. It would have been simply impossible for you to leave the house at midnight and transport to this “place”, let alone do it smoothly and quickly! Yet for some reason she was having a difficult time convincing herself of the logical explanation she knew that there must have been.

Little did Triah know that in the time that she felt most alone and misunderstood, two others felt the exact same way.

Summons

“Euuurggghhh” Drissicilla groaned. “Why does the sun have to be so bright?” She groggily opened her eyes, almost as if to find why she hadn’t received an answer to her question. Her feet somehow managed to find the floor, causing her body to start shaking off the heavy drawls of sleep that hung thickly around her. As the world came into picture, the last night came flooding back. The blackness… the structure… She shook her head in an effort to toss the thoughts off. It was a dream. A weird dream, but a dream none the less. All throughout her morning she tried to shake the feeling her dream had given her off. But she was without luck. Finally she sat down at lunch, thoroughly exhausted. She looked over at the wall on the opposite end of the lunch hall. She had never noticed the interesting stonework over there. Funny she thought. The stone inlay looks just like that figure. The one from my-

“CILLA!” A loud voice from across the table snapped her back to reality with a sudden jolt.

“What?” She answered

“We were just saying that we love your necklace! Its so unique!”

“What necklace?”

“The one you’re wearing! Duhhh”

“But I’m not wearing a-“ Driscilla clutched her throat. A thin chain lay softly around her neck. She followed the chain down to a charm strung on her necklace. It was a beautiful medallion. A thick circle edge with five spindles spiraling inward toward a magnificent green gem. She held the charm in her hand for a couple seconds before it sunk in. Having never seen the strange yet captivating necklace before, she was at first surprised to feel familiar with the design. Then it hit her. The design was the same as the figure in her dream. Preposterous! She told herself. Yet she didn’t believe her own words. She had been seeing this hidden figure everywhere today, subtly hidden into the most ordinary designs, and then in this new found necklace. There was no two ways about it. Her dream was certainly not a dream. Yet what it was Driscilla had no idea.

*****

Gathering

Nothing quickly became something as Emielle’s surroundings came into focus. She was in a small oval shaped room, dimly lit by what looked to be a floating aqua orb. She blinked. Floating?! This must be another strange dream of hers.

“It’s not a dream Emielle” A deep voice sounded around her.

“Who’s there? What do you want? And… who says my name is Emielle!”

“Do not try and pretend. We know…”

“Know what?! I have no secrets to hide!” Emielle paused, waiting for the strange voice to respond “Answer me! Who are you?! Where am I?! Let me out!!” she broke off almost in hysterics. “Answer me!!!” Several minutes of frustration went by before Emielle heard a sound that was not her own.

“Hello? Is someone there?” Emielle turned to see where the voice had come from. To her right she saw another girl that looked about her age. The girl looked calm and placid, especially for someone who just appeared in a small dark room, strapped into a chair.

“Yes, I’m here” Emielle finally answered.

“Oh good!” the girl answered “I was beginning to worry that I was the only one here. I don’t like being alone, much.”

“You don’t like being alone? That’s the least of our problems! How are we going to get out of here, for one thing!”

“I’m sure someone will come along eventually. In the mean time what’s your name?”

Emielle sighed. There was no convincing this girl that they were in a situation. “Emielle.”

“Nice to meet you Emielle. My name is Drisscilla.”

“Drisscilla.” Emielle repeated under her breath. Why did that name sound so familiar? It wasn’t a very common name, she had never even heard of it before that moment for that matter. Yet, for some reason, it sounded as if she had known a Drisscilla all her life.

“Hello!” Drisscilla said suddenly. “Who are you?” Emielle looked over to see who she was talking to and spotted another girl on the other side of Drisscilla looking just as confused as she herself must have looked at first.

“What happened? Where am I? Who are you?”

“Ease up on the questions!” said Emielle “We don’t know anything more than you do, except our names.”

“Yes” commented Drisscilla “We do know our names. I am Drisscilla, and she’s Emielle. Who are you?”

“Triah.” Drisscilla opened her mouth to say something, but before she could fit in another well mannered introduction Emielle interrupted.

“Well now that we’ve all agreed on each others names, let’s started figuring out how to get out of here.”

“I think that we have to figure out how we got into here before deciding on how to get out.” Triah said

“Fine” answered Emielle impatiently “I was at the library trying to find out more about this strange necklace I found in my room this morning. I opened an old looking book that looked a lot like my necklace and ended up here.”

“That’s weird” said Triah “That’s exactly what happened to me. Driscilla”

“Wha-? Oh yes. That’s what happened to me as well.” The girls puzzled over prior events and how to get out of the small room for quite some time with nothing eventful happening. Then they stumbled upon an important topic.

“Do you still have your charm necklace?” Emielle asked the others

“Yes” They wearily answered.

“Get them out. If this is anything like any of the fantasy novels I’ve ever read, then they definitely have something to do with our problem.” The girls proceeded to get the charms out, but as the charms left their pockets something quite peculiar happened. The charms began to hum gently and the jewels in the center began to glow. The closer the charms got together the more violently they began to hum and the brighter the glow became, until a giant flash of light came.

Moralo

Triah glanced around. She was back in the library like before she had left. She sighed, and realized becoming acclimated to her surroundings after suddenly appearing in a different place after extreme light or darkness was getting easier and easier. She also realized that there was no way that this was a dream. It was all far too connected and detailed to be a dream. She stopped as she tried to figure out her next move. Returning home was unimportant for now, as long as she was back by dark her parents didn’t mind. So where would she go? She needed to think over all the past events but at the same time find new information. Most importantly though, she needed to analyze the charm necklace that she still had clutched in her hand. After mulling it over for a few minutes, she decided that she was due for a visit to Chez de Moralo- a local historic landmark that Triah was a frequent visitor to. The place was practically a library on the weird and unexplained- two words the pretty much summed up Triah’s predicament.

Fifteen minutes later Triah was at the doorstep of one of the oldest and creepiest houses in the country. Everything from the crumbling slanted roof to the old iron gate said Do Not Enter; despite the cheery ‘Come inside we’re OPEN’ sign that hung in the window. One of the most intriguing things in Triah’s opinion was the odd shape of the house. The house was a circle, even more odd for the time period than it is today. Barely registering the strange house’s outside, Triah opened the door and went inside.

“Back again so soon Triah?” said the old plump lady at the entrance “Have time for a spot of tea before rummaging through those old dusty files again?”

“Sorry Matilda” Triah answered “Today I'm kind of in a hurry.”

“Okay dear. If you need anything I’ll be here knitting. I'm almost done this scarf you know!”

“Ok” Triah dashed upstairs, clearly knowing exactly where she was heading, despite the seemingly endless chain of old and dusty rooms. After turning down dozens of hallways and climbing several staircases Triah opened a small side door, which most people would have passed over, thinking it was just another section of the wall. Aside from Matilda and her deceased husband Harry, Triah didn’t think that anyone else even knew the room existed. Not that the room was of any special importance. It wasn’t a library or a study or any other place that you would think to look for reliable information. It was a scullery maid’s cupboard complete with extra uniforms and an extra tray. But what really interested Triah was a discovery she made a couple years ago. One of the side panel boards could be easily pried open to reveal several books and scattered sheets of paper most of which were the maid’s diaries. Triah found these books to be very important. They gave a fairly accurate description of the goings on and the secrets of the Chez de Moralo, most importantly because they did not cover up any of the not as glamorous parts of the former occupants lives. The part that interested Triah the most today was the fact that mentioned that Monsieur Moralo practiced some form of ancient mystical magic and frequently used to make others do his bidding. When she mentioned her findings to Matilda, she brushed them off as rumors that the poor maids used to amuse themselves. But Triah was not discouraged so lightly. She decided that the truth about the house was out there somewhere; she just had to find it.

After about half an hour of re-reading, Triah was flushed with excitement. There were so many similarities between the rumors of Moralo’s doings and her own experiences in the past day or so. Most intriguing was a supposed pendant that Moralo kept with him. The maid described it as …a small circular object incrusted with what looked like an emerald…The similarities were too much for her too stand. A circular pendant with an emerald in the center?! Triah looked down at the object in her hand in awe. This might as well be the same object as Moralo’s. But what now? She had found out more about the possible background of the mysterious object, but where could she go from there? As she stared at the charm some more a spider crawled up her arm and began traveling along the charm’s spindles until it reached the center…. Then it hit her.

Triah raced along the hallways and down the stairs as fast as her legs would take her. Finally she saw Matilda. “Matilda!” She called breathlessly “Matilda! Do you have the blueprints for this house?”

“I might have some down in my office…. I'm guessing you would like me to go check?”

“Please and thank you!” Triah caught her breath as she thought about her sudden conclusion.  How could I not have seen it before? She asked herself. The house itself was practically a copy of the ancient medallion. She had even noted the similarities in the description of the medallion from the diary to the layout of the house in some old notes she had written about her discovery. After what seemed like an eternity to the impatient Triah, Matilda turned up with the blue prints.

“There you go” she said “The original blueprints along with the late 1920’s remodel.”

“Thanks a ton!”

After leaving the front room, Triah examined the blue prints carefully. They matched the charm perfectly. The most obvious thing to do decided Triah is to try and match up the medallion with the blueprints. Then, someplace to go should pop out at me. After quickly lining the medallion up with the blueprints, Triah decided to go to the middle of the old house, the most obvious place. After thoroughly scouring the middle room for some clue as to what to do next, Triah decided to try something else. She carefully examined the medallion. Then something she hadn’t noticed before appeared. There was an obvious engraving on one of the spindles: SMC. Scullery Maid Cabinet! She looked more closely at the spindles of the charm more closely. Shapes and figures started popping out. A book- that’s where the library is! Triah hurriedly spun the medallion around so that it re-aligned in the proper place. That’s when she saw it Something that difinitely was not on the paper before.

Puzzled

A single silver set of silvery lines shone prominently in the dreary darkness. “That’s odd” stated Drisscilla to herself. She was looking down at the blueprints to the old abandoned house that had once belonged to her grandparents. Over the blueprints, she had placed a charm covering up all the passages on the prints except for one. Looking at the passage more closely, she tried to figure out where it was and what it led to. The task was not as easy as it sounded however. Drisscilla had no idea where the place even was or if she had ever been in there. She decided that the only way to find out was to go look around where the passage opened. After crossing through several hallways and musty rooms she came upon the place where the passage supposedly opened. In front of her stood a blank wall. She glanced around, as if she expected a door to appear out of thin air. Nothing happened. “This is going to be much more difficult than I imagined” Drisscilla said drearily. She started by examining the wall more closely.

It was a large section of wall, the upper half painted what was probably once an elegant French blue, while the lower half was covered in a dark wood paneling. Void of any portraits or dusty chandeliers that one might expect of a wall in an old house, the wall stood solemnly in front of Drisscilla. She sighed. Not even a dusty old chandelier to try and pull to open a secret door like in the movies…Then it hit her. Let alone some missing dusty chandelier, the wall was missing dust! Every other part of the decrepit old house was covered in 35 years of mold dust and mildew. Every part except this part! This wall looked just as it had looked many years ago before old age and lack of care had set in.

Drisscilla traced her fingers around the edges of the wall where the dust seemed suspiciously absent and then stepped back. Then, instead of the sudden doorway Drisscilla expected, a small, round indent appeared in the wall. Instinctively, Drisscilla took out her charm and placed it against the depression. It fit perfectly. She drew her hand back and waited. Once again she was disappointed, and no door appeared in front of her. Instead, black script started appearing at the top of the wall as if an invisible hand was using the wall as a notepad. Drisscilla hurriedly started to read the old fashioned writing.

Read about a spider

Taking the planets in his journey

Have you a year to spend

Take the days to travel

You will journey everywhere

She sat down completely bewildered. All this work to read a poem? And not even a nice poem. It didn’t flow at all. There must be something more. She read the poems several more times, and then got out a notepad to try her best effort at decrypting the ancient poem. After several hours of intense brain work and starring at the poem it all snapped together. She then stood up and proceeded to open the door that led to what Drisscilla could only imagine.

“Hello and sit down” Said a strange woman ushering Triah, Drisccilla, and Emielle to sit. “I am Tamiako, advisor of the fifth legion. I am here to explain what has been happening to you lately, and answer any questions you might have. Now, before you start asking the many questions I know you all must have, and yes I will answer, let me explain the history and major parts, and then you can nit-pick me for the details. Alright?” The girls nodded silently, in awe of the matter a fact and business like nature of the woman.

“First of all, the realm you are in right now is called the For-realm. The realm you have lived in all your lives is called the Ner-realm. Learn the difference. Now, many years ago- far many more than your human ‘history’ dates back, the masters of the For and Ner realms decided to create a group of defenders, sworn to protect the links between the realms. The links between the worlds are nothing more than certain spots that, when opened, allow travel between worlds. The people of each realm, traveled freely back and forth to share knowledge and trade goods and that sort of thing and for a time everything seemed well and good. Then came the Kratyrian war, named after the powerful attempted ruler Kratyr. This ruler thought that the Ner Realm was unworthy of associating with the For Realm. Kratyr did everything possible to deteriorate the condition of the Ner Realm until everything the people of Ner had once known was gone. They were forced to rebuild their civilization from the ground up. All they had left of the past were their memories and overtime the memories of what they once had had were lost or turned into legends and myths, not to be taken seriously. Those in the For Realm who opposed Kratyr did everything they could to assist the fight, but then Kratyr did the unthinkable. He destroyed all known links between the realms and then made it impossible for either a Worian or a Nerian to travel through any link that might have been missed. This devastated the Forian attempts to help the Ner Realm. Soon after the links were broken Kratyr was defeated in the For Realm, but it was too late for the Ner Realm. Without the links connecting them, the worlds were completely cut off from each other. The worlds were now truly separate each existing side by side without ever contacting. The story then goes on to say that the group that had been protecting the links disbanded, as there were no links left for them to guard. But I know the real story, and soon so will you. After Kratyr was defeated, the group decided to investigate what was left of the links to see if there was any hope of salvaging the damaged portals. What they found was beyond their wildest hopes and dreams.” Tamiako paused for what the girls assumed was for dramatic effect, but there was really no need, for they were hanging on to her every word.

“In the confusion and chaos taking place during the Kratyrian War, Kratyr himself missed a couple of small, out of the way portals. Kratyr decided it did not make much of a difference though because of the charm he put, to keep any Nerians or Forians from passing through the portals. The surprise came when the group found out they could still travel between the realms. They suspected the reasoning behind it was that they were such a mix of both the realms’ races that they didn’t fully qualify as either. After discussing the development in great length, they decided not to bring their realization to the king, for fear that if the information got into the wrong hands one of Kratyr’s old followers could wreck havoc. Instead, the group went underground, renaming themselves ‘The Fifth Legion’. They continued protecting the remaining links and to this day the group has been carrying out their new soul purpose; to reunite the realms.” A couple moments of silence passed by before someone spoke.

“That was wonderfully informative and everything,” Emielle began “But what does it have to do with our strange dreams, and these charms, and…. Us?!” Emielle paused looking up at the smiling Tamiako. Silence filled the air as Tamiako did not answer immediately.

“Wait.” Triah said “Your story can’t be all true. We passed through the links!” Tamiako sat, still smiling and looking at them. “Unless….”

“Yes, Triah. You girls are three fifths of the fifth legion.”