I knew Raiya had her secrets. She wasn’t always comfortable telling them to me, and I wasn’t always comfortable hearing them.
But was it possible Raiya was aware of what they were doing with her blood?
Anger hit me, hard and fast. “Just how much,” I muttered, “will she insist on keeping from me?”
If we’re going to continue to be together, we’re going to have to be more open with each other.
My hands curled into fists as I turned to Mary again. She was right about before—I didn’t want to hear that Raiya had betrayed me again from anyone else but her. “Is there any way we can talk to Raiya?”
“Alora and Aleia would be the best people to consult on that matter. While I am here, I am bound by the same laws of time and space that affect humans, same as you,” Mary told me.
“I’ll have to do that, then. We need some answers.”
Before Mary could respond, something unusual happened.
A whisper of a boom echoed through me, as there was a large shift in the ground beneath my feet, and I felt my consciousness ripple awkwardly through my skin.
Mary gripped onto my arm. “Are you okay?” she asked.
I glanced around and wondered if a small earthquake had bustled through the building. That was when I noticed.
Nothing was moving. Nothing.
There was no sound, there was no movement; there was only a silent stillness that seemed to stall all of humanity in between the seconds of time.
I saw shadows of light and shifting winds of different emotions, spirits, and demonic auras as they stayed hovered around other people.
“What happened?” I asked. “Is it a demon?” I glanced at Mary again, and then down at myself. There was no burning from the mark on my wrist.
Mary hurried toward a window. “No,” she whispered. “Look at the Time Tower.”
I glanced up at the tower’s famous sparkling white face. The second hand, always winding its way around in perpetual circles, had stopped. “It stopped.”
“It appears time has stopped,” Mary clarified.
“Why are we still able to move?”
“We are not bound by temporal means.” Mary gestured to my mark. “We are both servants of the Prince of Stars. As his ward, I do not live in the human realm in the same way as a human would. As a fallen Star, you face the same circumstances.”
“What happened? I mean, I know what happened. But why?” I glanced back up at the sky, looking for Alora’s star. In the winter evening, I could see it, shimmering out in flickering light. I turned back to Mary. “Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “This doesn’t happen very often.”
“It’s happened before?!”
“Sure it has.” Mary gave me a quick smile. “There are some days which are battles, and some battles require longer moments of sunshine to resolve themselves.”
I said nothing about that; obviously, it was some kind of secret joke between her and the rest of the universe.
“We should go find Aleia,” I said. “If it is a battle, then I want to go and fight.”
☼7☼
Time Stops
As much as I began to worry, I couldn’t help but admire the beauty in the stillness of the cityscape as I flew over it. With the time stop, rainbows of auras painted over the mundane, gathering in different clouds and curls of color, adding a layer of otherworldliness to my view.
“Awesome,” I muttered, looking down at the skyline underneath me. The feathers of my wings, once black and stubby, were now long, blood-colored flames. I imagined I looked like a true falling star as I sped through the time-frozen clouds of Apollo City.
Or maybe closer to a meteorite, I thought, just a bit deviously.
“You okay?” I called back to Mary, whose arms were tightly wound around my back, as we flew through the air.
“I’m fine,” Mary assured me, spitting some of her hair out of her mouth as the wind whipped through its wayward strands. “I could use a hair wrap about now, though.”
“I don’t think it’s Raiya’s style,” I said with a laugh. “But don’t worry, we’re almost back at Rachel’s.”
As I said it, the familiar sight of my favorite home away from home came into view. At first glance, the cozy brick, the ancient shutters, and the darkened window at the top didn’t seem like much. It seemed like an old building in an old district.
I half-expected Raiya’s light to flicker on as she stuck her head out the window in greeting.
What is going on with you, Raiya? Is this part of your doing? Or has something else going terribly, terribly wrong?
I didn’t believe in gambling; it seemed too much of a scam and too easy of a way to lose your money. But I would have bet millions something was wrong.
And I would have won.
Mary slid off my back just as Aleia came rushing out of the building. “Oh, good,” she exclaimed. “You’re here. Something’s wrong; something’s terribly, terribly wrong.”
Uncanny.
I felt shock push through me, launching out anger.
“What do you know?” Mary asked, before I could issue any angry demands.
“Take a look for yourself.” She pulled out her memory bubble, the small crystal ball I’d seen her take out hundreds of times as we fought battles and looked for Sinisters. Instantly, I knew she had a right to be concerned.
The small bubble had blackened on the inside, as if it had been punctured by darkness. The oozing shadow seemed to be consuming it …
As we watched, the dark matter inside reached the outside. Aleia shrieked and dropped it, then she grabbed her hands.
“It burns,” she moaned, and looked to see her hands, half-gloved like my own, were burnt with searing scars.
“Ouch.” I shuttered, before looking at the ball. It rolled away, leaving scorching marks along the road.
“Are you okay?” Mary asked, hurrying over.
“Can you heal her?” I asked Mary.
“No.” Mary shook her head sympathetically. “I came here to help Raiya, not Starry Knight. I am unable to transform into her other self.”
“It’s fine,” Aleia said, even if her voice caught in her throat some. “But I can’t touch it without getting burned.”
“I’ll seal it away!” I volunteered, whipping out my sword. “Surely that’ll be able to contain it.”
Before I was able to move, a new voice snapped out. “Stop it, boy, if you know what’s good for you.”
All of us turned to see Grandpa Odd, lurking in the doorway to Rachel’s Café.
It took a long moment for me to process his appearance, and even more so his words. My mouth dropped open and slammed shut several times before I managed to speak again. “You!”
The old man grinned at me as he gave me a mocking bow. “At your service, young Hamilton.” He arched a wrinkled brow at me. “Or should I say Almeisan, the Phoenix Star, who died of Fire and was reborn into Mercy?”
“You knew it was me?” I really, really hoped my voice didn’t squeak in shock.
“Of course.” A look of smugness passed onto his features. “I have to confess, I was worried that my beloved granddaughter might have revealed me even though I asked her not to. But I can see I was right to trust her to keep her word.”
Raiya.
“She knew?” I blustered. “She knew about you?”
“Naturally,” he assured me. “Who do you think it was that taught her how to fight?”
“So you’re one of us?” Aleia asked, speaking up, reminding me that other people were with us. “You’re a—”
“I know of the Celestial Kingdom,” Grandpa Odd said. “And I am here as an ambassador of sorts. I cannot reveal much more at this time.”
“If you’re from there, then why did Raiya have to go and see Alora?” I yelled, suddenly bitter and frustrated and angry.
“Who do you think it was that convinced her to go?” Grandpa Odd retorted. “She was v
ery adamant that there was no mercy left for her there, until she could earn it.”
“Mercy earned is not mercy,” I argued.
“I know that as well as you do,” he countered. “But you know Raiya. She is very stubborn. It’s no wonder to me why you like her; she is as legalistic as you, with all your lawyerspeak.”
For no clear reason, the old man’s comments sounded more like taunting than anything. (Maybe that was because he’d done little but make silly comments to me since I’d met him.)
I sputtered at his gall. “That’s—Raiya wouldn’t—she—”
“Hamilton!” Aleia, thankfully, interrupted me and my sputtering madness. “This is no time to worry about this. We need to take care—”
A small boom! lashed out from where Aleia’s memory bubble had rolled. Immediately, we all ducked, as a gray cloud swallowed up the area.
Ash choked me and burned my eyes; my wings wrapped around my face and arms as the wind of the explosion sent me staggering.
Fire spurted up from where the small orb had been. Squinting behind my hands, I looked over.
It was gone, with only malicious clouds wafting up from a pile of ashes. I shivered at the sight and turned away.
Later on, I would think about how many people in the world look for signs—signs of providence, signs of favor, signs of love. Very rarely do people ask for signs signaling evil is out there, and it is waiting; we don’t want to be reminded it is a force to be reckoned with in this life.
“What happened?” I asked, my ears ringing at the sound of my own voice.
“It exploded,” Grandpa Odd said from behind me. “It was poisoned.”
“Poisoned?” I glanced over at Aleia, who nodded.
“Yes,” Grandpa Odd answered. “It’s a good thing you didn’t use your sword on it, or you might have been poisoned, too.” He nodded toward the remnants of the crystal. “That’s a dangerous substance; it acts as a vacuum.”
“Huh?”
“The Master of the Void cannot ‘unmake’ creation,” Grandpa Odd said. “It’s a matter of physics and nature: Matter cannot be destroyed.”
“I remember thermodynamics,” I assured him. “What’s that got to do with this?”
“If you want to go against someone who made everything, and you cannot ‘unmake’ his creation, how do you win?” Grandpa Odd asked.
I frowned. “I don’t know.”
“You hide it. You crush it, you disfigure it, you crucify it. You smoosh it into a point of singularity, and use it as a point of victory, before cutting it off from the rest of creation.” Grandpa Odd pointed to where the orb had been. “That’s what the darkness does; it’s not darkness itself, but what it is used for.”
“That’s true,” Aleia said quietly.
We turned to look over at her. Aleia’s disposition was daunting, her normal cheeriness displaced by damaged sorrow.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Something must have happened to Alora,” Aleia said. “I can’t communicate with her anymore.”
“We need to get up there,” I declared. I shook my head, looking down at the ground, helpless. “I shouldn’t have let Raiya go. It was stupid. We could’ve just waited for Elektra and Asteropy to be captured, and then all of us could have gone.”
“There’s no need to despair,” Mary said. “Raiya will come back.”
“That’s not enough for me anymore. She could be in danger, too,” I said, terrified by the thought of living through that possibility.
Aleia pursed her lips together. “I agree with Hamilton,” she said. “With the memory bubble’s destruction, there’s no telling how much trouble Elektra and Asteropy will give us. When they came to this Realm, there was a restraint we pressed into them. They would have seen it as a curse,” she explained.
“I remember. Orpheus mentioned it before. He thought it was Starry Knight’s power,” I said, recalling the battle after Starry Knight and I had been captured by SWORD.
“It was my power, and Alora’s,” Aleia said. “If they manage to break both my power and hers, there’s no telling what kind of trouble we’ll be faced with.”
“What will happen?” I asked.
“Their full power will return. They’ll likely destroy Orpheus, too, if they get the chance.”
“Why?”
“He acts as a vessel—or he did, anyway—for their power,” Aleia said. “Much as they act as a power source for other demon monsters.”
“I see,” I said. “So they wouldn’t need him.”
“And they would get rid of him to gain his power. And then they could take souls from people, and be able to keep them.”
“What do you mean, keep them?”
“A human soul’s final fate is decided during the course of this life here on Earth.” Aleia frowned. “If the body dies, the soul goes to its resting place. With my power broken, Elektra and Asteropy would be able to take the Soulfire from humans and kill them, but still keep the Soulfire from leaving.”
“That’s not good,” Mary said.
“No, it’s not.” Aleia shook her head. “And I have no control over the passage of time without my orb.”
“The passage of Time is an enduring power,” Grandpa Odd said softly. He reached out and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Alora’s power should resume shortly.”
“That’s good to know,” I said.
“She might still run into trouble,” Aleia said. “We’ll need to go and help her.”
“Call St. Brendan,” Grandpa Odd said. “If Alora is in trouble and needs help, I’m sure he’ll be glad to lend his hand.”
“The Meallán doesn’t just come for no reason,” I recalled. “He has to pass by this way, doesn’t he?”
“That is the rule, yes,” Grandpa Odd said. “But with Time’s power unstable, chances are he’ll be able to get here sooner than usual.”
Aleia nodded. “I’ll go and summon him,” she said. “I might not have my orb, but I should still be able to contact him.” She turned and hurried off before I could say anything else.
I thought I saw a shiny sheen of tears in her eyes as she left, and I wondered if she was thinking of Orpheus or Alora, or both.
“We should check around the city, Hamilton,” Mary reminded me before I could call after Aleia.
“Yeah, I guess so. It wouldn’t be good to stay here when we could be looking for Asteropy or Elektra,” I agreed. I glanced over at Grandpa Odd. “So, how long have you known about me?”
“I’ve been waiting for you, actually,” he said with a smirk. “Just as I’d been waiting for Raiya.”
An odd feeling washed over me; I felt irritation surge inside of me, but I didn’t say anything. Raiya told me how Grandpa Odd had been the one to pick her up after her parents died, and how he had been the one who raised her before Rachel and Letty welcomed them into their home more than ten years before.
As much as I thought he was a grotesque, irritating old man, he was the one who had protected Raiya—and advised her—for her entire life on Earth. I owed him something for that. I supposed. Right?
“I must say, I didn’t expect your little dragon friend to be here, too. He was the surprise between the three of you.”
“Elysian?” I frowned. “That’s right. Where is he?”
As if to answer that question, my mark burned in pain.
“Never mind,” I said. “I’ll go and get him.”
“Just so you know, I wouldn’t worry about me if I were you, Hamilton,” Grandpa Odd assured me. “I’m just a silly old man, after all. There’s no need to think anyone would concern me about your identity.”
I snorted as my mark burned again, this time hotter and harder. “I’ll keep that in mind,” I told him. “But right now, I get to go see if either of the Sinisters just got a power boost.”
I grabbed Mary and carefully perched her on my back. “Come with me and help me look,” I said. “I know Raiya would appreciate your help. We’ll see if we can f
ind a Sinister before Alora’s power starts up again.”
“Alora is a fighter,” Mary said. “I’m sure she will be able to fight off what has come against her.”
“I agree,” I said. “I just hope it’s not Orpheus. Raiya will feel terrible if she caused Alora anymore pain, especially since she managed to rip through her power before.”
Mary tucked her head against my back. “We all make choices, Hamilton.”
“I know,” I said with a grimace, “but you just can’t live with some decisions.”
☼8☼
Asteropy
It didn’t take me long to drop Mary off. I put her down at Lakeview Observatory, in hopes that she would be able to check in on Logan. Time remained stopped between the seconds of my world as I headed off to find any sign of an active enemy.
They’ve been getting worse with each attack, but they have been good about waiting.
If there’s a downside to being good, I thought bitterly, it’s that you don’t need to change. If you don’t need to change once you reach perfection, you don’t have to wait, either.
Evil seemed to be really good at waiting to pick its battles.
As I passed through midtown, following the pulsating pain of the mark under my wrist, I finally saw Elysian.
“Elysian!” I called out.
He was transformed, the same as I was, but he was rolling on the ground and shaking.
Fear momentarily bit at me. Demons had managed to hurt both of us, significantly, before, and there was no Starry Knight to help us out this time.
I dropped to the ground beside his head and hurried over.
His head lolled back and forth, and I finally caught him between the nostrils. “Are you okay?!” I shouted down at him.
He puffed out a stream of mucus in reply.
“Ugh! Gross!” I lashed out. “Come on, Ely, don’t do that.”
“What else do you expect me to do when you’re grabbing at my face?” Elysian’s voice, deeper and gruffer than usual, was underscored with irritation.
“I suppose you’re fine then,” I muttered.