Page 14 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 7

“Just checking,” Fiona asked tightly.

“Perhaps if you do the thing with your hand, Fifi?” Charlie suggested.

He mimicked what she did when she turned back time to help Grayson. She brightened and nodded, but the brightness did not reach his eyes. She positioned herself in front of the wall of stars and reached forward, but not close enough that her fingertips brushed the surface. If they did, she would be pulled into Nightvallen. She braced herself, drew in a large breath, and turned her hand clockwise. Nothing happened.

“I don’t think the movement alone is going to do anything. Are you trying to move time at all?” Eyros asked.

“Not helping,” Fiona gritted out.

She wiped her hands on the fronts of her thighs before she attempted the turning again. Charlie could see the strain on her face. He swore he almost felt her power in the very air, but the field of stars did not change. No glow appeared on the gate. They certainly didn’t see the future staring back at them through the gate.

“It’s not working!” Fiona threw up her hands again and paced. “I don’t understand! When I helped Grayson it was so natural. I knew what to do. But now? Nothing is working with this gate.”

“But didn’t you say you thought this being the Nightvallen gate would help you?” Eyros offered.

“I thought it might! I didn’t actually know. I don’t actually know anything,” she said with a grimace.

Eyros said, “Well, perhaps if you think on it–”

“I have thought of something else!” Fiona had walked nearly around the entirety of the gate when Eyros spoke. She glared at him. “The gate to Solace glows–”

“We aren’t going to touch that gate–”

“Eyros, just because we open that gate doesn’t mean you’re going to… to…” Fiona flapped her arms.

“Die a horrible death? Oh, but, Wyvern, we do know that happens to me one time I go there,” Eyros corrected her. “And I can think of no reason why I would ever go there, but for you asking me to open that gate. So it's not going to happen.”

Fiona rolled her lips as he clearly tried to formulate an argument that would get around Eyros’ objections to a Second Death. “But you’re not with Elgar. And we all know that you have to be with him for that to occur–”

“On the contrary, what could very well happen is that we open the gate to Solace, some nasties come tumbling through, grab me, and yank me over to the other side,” Eyros described. “Elgar would immediately hear my cry of help and insist on coming to my aid. As would the rest of my people here, which would ensure a vast number of them died with me on Solace’s plains.”

Fiona brushed one booted foot over the smooth stone slab. “That is a risk. I will give you that though it’s quite a fabled one–”

“Hardly, I know from your little minds that Seeyr is–or will be–held there as an eyeless wonder in her own Spire! Do you suppose she’s there now?” Eyros let out a bitter bark of laughter.

Fiona’s brow furrowed. “Seeyr… That’s right. She’s in her own city even if she isn’t Mistress of it exactly.”

“What’s going on in that head of yours, Fifi?” Charlie asked.

“It might be why her gate is glowing in my vision.” Fiona made a circling motion over her eyes.

“Ah, but the Kaly gate isn’t, is it?” Eyros asked.

“No, but Kaly isn’t there, are they? The slices are there, but Kaly isn’t,” Fiona pointed out.

“I don’t see why that matters. Kaly is Kaly!” Eyros growled.

“No, they aren’t. They really, really aren’t.” Fiona shook her head. Biting her lower lip, she stared at the Nightvallen gate. “But, then again, Daemon is in Nightvallen so shouldn’t his gate be glowing too, shouldn’t it? Unless…”

“I think you are hallucinating this glow! It’s a trick of the light. Nothing more,” Eyros insisted.

“But what if it’s not?” Fiona’s silver eyes were on Eyros. “What if there’s a reason only Seeyr’s gate will work to do this thing?”

“You have no proof that there’s anything special with the gate other than the glowing, which could be psychosomatic or something!” Eyros insisted.

“I didn’t realize it was the gate to Solace until you told me,” Fiona reminded him.

“So how could the glowing be psychosomatic, Eyros? The glow must mean something.”