It was Marge’s seventeenth birthday. The seven of us, including Rosalie, had gathered around outside in front of the manor, enjoying our picnic. Honestly, the boys and I didn’t even have to show up and Marge would’ve still been perfectly content, probably even more so, having Rosalie’s attention all to herself.

  “And so I said to her, what next?” Maverick said dramatically as everyone else laughed. Honestly, I was confused how that was the punchline. He was telling a story about the time he helped pick up a lady’s bag after she dropped it. Thinking about it, that in itself was weird…

  “I bet she had a blonde dog,” Aidan nodded.

  “And summertime in the house, right?” Finn laughed.

  “What are you talking about?” I frowned, everything making less and less sense. Was this some sort of inside joke I wasn’t a part of? Or did Meridians just have a strange sense of humor?

  Zephyr turned to me, his eyes completely devoid of light—his expression blank, soulless, even. “It’s because you don’t belong here. You’ll never understand.”

  “W-what?” I shivered before turning to the others. They were all staring at me with the same blank expression. Everyone except Rosalie, who simply smiled at me sinisterly.

  “I see hell in your future. And that’s exactly where you belong, usurper.”

  The ground beneath me collapsed as I fell into a void. I was sinking and sinking, but before the void could completely cover me, four pairs of hands reached out to grab me.

  I sat up in bed, my heart pounding as I took in several shaky breaths. Right… Marge’s birthday party was a few days ago. And I most certainly didn’t get swallowed by the void then! I wondered what time it was.

  Actually… where was I? This wasn’t my room.

  I could see a faint light coming from behind what I assumed were curtains. I pried them open to reveal sunlight. I looked around the room and noted the queen-size bed I was previously sleeping on, which was covered in a red comforter. The carpet was a soft red color, and the furniture was cherry brown.

  “Maverick…?” I called out, hoping he would hear me. “Sylvis?” I waved to the ceiling as if there were a camera there that she was watching me from. Now that I'd thought about it, how did she watch us? And from what angle?

  I was about to use Ether Recollection on the bed to maybe see how I got here, when there was a knock on the door. Whoever knocked didn’t bother to wait for my reply and walked right in. “Oh good, you’re awake.” She smiled, and I completely froze in my spot.

  Lumi ran in past Zuri, who had just greeted me, nearly knocking the tray she was carrying out of her hands. “Ella!” She tackled me backwards onto the bed.

  “L-Lumi? Zuri? What are you doing here? Where am I?” I asked, wishing I felt as excited to see Lumi as she was to see me. Something didn’t feel right.

  “You’re at the Magus of Historia’s institute.” Zuri smiled before placing the tray on the bedside table. I could smell something similar to pancakes and meat, and my stomach began to rumble.

  “How did I get here?” I asked, also wondering how long I had been here.

  “The Master brought you here.”

  “How?” I certainly didn’t remember seeing her. Had she kidnapped me in my sleep? How had she gotten into the manor?! I doubted Sylvis would let anyone from the Magus of Historia in after what happened with Zephyr.

  “Last night when you and Aidan were out visiting his sister—”

  “She kidnapped me while I was visiting the sick?! Wow, that’s a whole other level of cruel.” I shook my head.

  “You were away from the manor, so it was the perfect time.” Zuri bit her lip as she held back a smile.

  “What about Aidan?” I asked.

  “Oh, he’s probably back at the manor by now. We didn’t need him.” She shook her head. She made him sound so insignificant…

  Lumi was still holding onto me, even as I desperately tried to reach for my breakfast. Thankfully, Zuri held up the tray to me so I could grab it. “You’re going to love it here!” Lumi beamed at me. “The three of us can be a family!”

  My grip on the plate tightened. I still had no idea why I was brought here. Or when I would be going back. I missed Zuri and Lumi too, but I definitely didn’t have plans to stay here any longer than necessary.

  “Why am I here?” I asked, the plate snapping in two as Lumi quickly backed away. Crap! I didn’t think I was putting that much pressure on it! I moved to place a hand on her, but she backed away more. Zuri sat between us and placed her hand on Lumi the same way I had tried to, except Lumi had actually let her.

  “About that…” Zuri offered a hesitant smile to me. If she was upset at me for startling Lumi, she didn’t show it. “I think it’s better if Master explains that herself.”

  “Then take me to her,” I demanded.

  “She’s kind of busy—”

  “No, she’s not. She had time to kidnap me here, so she has time to explain why she kidnapped me.” I crossed my arms.

  Zuri laughed, and it felt as if any tension in the room faded away. She shook her head before smiling at me. “You’ve grown quite confident since we last saw each other, haven’t you?”

  “You seem quite different yourself.”

  She bit her lip and turned away from me. “R-right! You wanted to see Master, didn’t you? If she doesn’t have time, I’m sure she can just make some time. You’re our very important guest after all!” And there was her guard back up…

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Lumi and Zuri led me down the halls of the Magus of Historia. The walls were brown, almost the exact opposite of the manor’s. Instead of windows lining the hall, it was candelabras hanging from the walls. Despite how dark it was, it did feel rather cozy. I could understand why the two of them seemed so relaxed and comfortable here. I also noticed that Lumi’s ears were pointed—something that must have been covered by magic back on Earth.

  There was something in me that was tempted to use my Ether Recollection on Zuri. I glanced down at my hands, expecting them to react to the ether around me, but they didn’t. I mean, I wasn’t using magic, so I don’t know what I was expecting. I glanced back up at Zuri’s back, watching her long auburn hair swish back and forth with each step. Right, using my Talent now would be wrong. It was strange having so much power, and having to balance it so that I wasn’t misusing it like how I almost had.

  Why did I even have that thought to begin with? It left me feeling sick.

  “Ella!” A familiar voice called out to me. What was worse, it sounded similar to Finn’s voice, so I momentarily felt excited…before realizing it was Dimitri.

  “Oh, hi,” I said awkwardly. I wanted to ask if he knew why I was here, but he obviously wasn’t going to answer that either.

  “It’s great that you finally took time out of your day to visit us—”

  “Oh, don’t act dumb.” Zuri crossed her arms. “Don’t even pretend you don’t know that the only reason she’s here is because Master wished it so.”

  “…She is?”

  Zuri’s arms dropped as her eyes widened. “You didn’t know?”

  “No, she didn’t tell me. It was probably because I only recently rejoined.” Right… He had “left,” supposedly. Left. He joined us just to betray us when it actually mattered! And then he left with his literal tail between his legs and didn’t get to join in on our trauma! Talk about a lucky dog.

  “What a time to leave,” Zuri mumbled, or I thought she mumbled at least. I glanced between the two of them, trying to get an idea of what was going on, but between Zuri’s uptight body language and Dimitri’s perfect posture that revealed nothing, I wouldn’t learn anything anytime soon. Still better than using my Talent on them, I supposed.

  We continued walking, and I watched Lumi this time. It just hit me that I had learned what had happened to her family back in Vafir… When do I tell her? Do I even tell her? That almost seemed like a breach of privacy, which I supposed was all the more reason to tell her. Well, now certainly wasn’t the time to tell her.

  Zuri stopped in front of a door and knocked on it. The door opened, and I could see the Master’s eye—the one that wasn’t covered. And then the door immediately shut.

  “Oh, no you don’t!” I shouted as I shoved Zuri aside and repeatedly knocked on the door as loudly and obnoxiously as I could manage. Finally, the door swung open, allowing the four of us in.

  The Master was dressed in what appeared to be a purple sundress. Her outfit was much more relaxed than what I had last seen her in, but she still wore the mask over one of her eyes.

  “I was going to speak to you later,” the Master said with annoyance clear in her voice. “I thought I had made that clear, Zuri?”

  “Hm? Had you? Oops.” Zuri smiled innocently

  The Master groaned as she sighed. “Elaina, the reason I brought you here is to help us stop Inanis.”

  “Inanis?” I asked. Great, I had been kidnapped to help them stop some rando. Where’s the way out?

  “The one who lives in the void. Think of Inanis as the void’s consciousness. Am I correct in assuming that woman who you work with hasn’t come up with anything?”

  “You mean your mother?” I snapped back.

  “That shell of a being is not and never was my mother.” She crossed her arms.

  I sighed. They obviously had some sort of history. “Sylvis is coming up with a way to purify the ether to remove the void.”

  “And how does she hope to achieve that?” I could’ve sworn I heard her chuckle…

  “By using the conduit.”

  The Master’s one eyebrow that I could see raised in amusement as she nodded her head in approval. “Not bad. Except it won’t work.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because so long as Sylvis lives, so does Inanis. Ah, but you don’t trust me, do you? I’ll let you hear it straight from the pegasus’ mouth, then.”

  “Huh—” Before I could finish what I was saying, the Master grabbed my hand, and we were suddenly teleported somewhere else. I wasn’t happy that the nauseous sensation returned with it.

  Fields of green stretched as far as the eye could see. Tiny lakes were scattered in the distance, but there didn’t appear to be any trees. Instead, there were tiny saplings across the land. It was completely silent, outside of the occasional gust of wind that swept across me. But there was something odd in the air… The ether felt… heavy, almost. Like there was something polluting it.

  The void.

  “Elaina, meet N.” The Master gestured to the woman in front of me, whom I had completely missed. She appeared similar to an older version of Sylvis, but she wore her hair down instead. She also wore a long white gown that looked like it was made of fleece. That had to be warm… There appeared to be a short cape behind her exposed shoulders.

  “N?” I asked, a little confused by the name.

  “I’m but a fragment of Alina. It would be misleading to call myself that. I was perfectly content going without a name, but Sorine here insisted on one. So I adopted the name N,” the lady spoke as the master, or I guess Sorine, tried to shush her.

  “Don’t ever use that name around anyone else, understand?” Sorine threatened.

  “Okay, okay. …But why the big secret? Are you afraid of teasing? The nicknames? It’s because it sounds like a boy’s name, isn’t it?” I couldn’t help but tease her.

  “No. I’m not afraid of something as benign as teasing.” Her voice was unusually hostile. It made me wonder what was so sacred about her name. Still… She reminded me of Sylvis just then.

  “Did we come here to discuss my previous incarnation’s poor taste in names? No, I think not. Let’s get back to business, shall we?” N said.

  “Please.”

  “When Alina made that contract with Inanis, the deal was simple: a life for a life. So long as Alina—or rather, her fragments—exist, so too does the void, Inanis.”

  “So that’s why you want to kill Sylvis!” I snapped at Sorine before turning back to N. “But that would mean killing you as well.”

  “I’ve accepted my death ever since we split. Our existence is an unnatural one—one that should never have happened.”

  “Thank you,” Sorine said pointedly.

  I shook my head. “There has to be another way. I don’t want to kill Sylvis!”

  “There is no other way,” N answered. “I’ve spent my entire existence trying to find a solution. L, another fragment of Alina, didn’t survive the split. Her ether rejoined with her continent, and all life has grown chaotic. Sylvis is not unaware of this. Still… They seem to have found a new way to live, however chaotic. Perhaps living with the void is possible. If you want to live that way…”

  I didn’t know what to say—what to think. I wanted to save the world just as much as everyone else—I have nothing else going on, for Pete’s sake—but I certainly didn’t want Sylvis to die.

  “Elaina.” N took a few steps towards me and placed my hands in hers. They were soft, not unlike mine. Despite appearing much older than Sylvis, her face was free of wrinkles. “I know it’s not the same, but Sylvis and I are fragments of the same person. We may have faltered when we were whole, but I assure you, Alina wouldn’t have wanted this for her people. You can remove us from the world without feeling guilty.”

  “Of course I’m going to feel guilty!” I pulled my hands back from her, shocked she would even say such a thing. “You two are living beings!”

  “Living beings who defy the laws of existence.” Sorine crossed her arms. “When you stop and think about it, they’re an anomaly. Unnatural. Shouldn’t. Exist,” she said the last part slowly. It was clear how she felt on this matter…

  “Why did you choose me?” I snapped at Sorine.

  “Because you’re an Ethereal—you’re strong. Also, you know where Meridia’s conduit is.”

  The conduit… Sylvis had explained to me that each of Alina’s fragments had a conduit—a device that helps connect their power to their continent. When Zephyr had tried to destroy Meridia’s, Sylvis lost her physical form and the ether she was comprised of compiled in the manor.

  Everything about this still felt wrong. But at the same time, I had a feeling Sorine wouldn’t let me go so easily. Sylvis still didn’t have a concrete plan for purifying the ether, and N seemed convinced it wouldn’t work regardless.

  “Fine. But we save Sylvis for last,” I said.

  “Second to last. N will be last,” Sorine spoke with an authority in her voice, as if reminding me that she was in charge. We’ll just see about that.