“Zorgen has been most busy since last we checked in,” the fairy Keex began. “Since opening the Rift, he’s been doing everything in his power to keep it open, and to widen its scope. At first, it could only allow the passage of shades, imps, and jinn, the occasional demon traveling single-file... Not anymore. The Rift is now as wide as the entire valley around it. Demons and even the archdemons are now free to walk through it as if it’s nothing.

“Any witches and wizards who wander too close are no match for the power of the Rift. They can’t dent it, not with him alive. And he’s got plenty of help pouring through, too. The sorcerer has established a field of perpetual night surrounding the Rift. I risked my very life to get a close enough look—and nearly became imp food in doing so. Horrid things, those are... At any rate, he’s been keeping busy ever since leaving Redrune.”

“Leaving Redrune?” Kendrick echoed. This detail was enough to entice him to join the conversation. “Isn’t that where you two went to school?”

“Yes,” Sahni said guiltily.

Bellara shot him a remorseful, yet defensive look. “He was my former professor at the Academy.”

“Oh! Small world.” Kendrick couldn’t help but laugh. “I bet he taught you everything you know, huh?”

“The spell he used to open the Rift, to open a doorway between the Underworld and the Ecumene...” Bell couldn’t meet his gaze for this confession. “It’s a summoning spell. His goal was to summon the entire Underworld to the Ecumene, to blur the boundary completely and unite the two realms... I used a heavily modified, narrowed version of that spell to bring you here.”

His jaw dropped. “I... I just...” You truly are every bit the fool she needs you to be. The jinn’s taunt still echoed in his mind and clouded his thoughts with infernal darkness. At a loss for words, he dropped back to the ground in a sitting position. “Wow.” He shook his head. “So, the whole ‘bad guy’ in this situation, this, this Zorgen dude—the one who started all this mess that has cost so many lives here and cost you your homes... You copied his notes? And you thought nothing bad could come from that?”

“Bit awkward,” said Keex. “I’ll only be another moment or so. Do you mind if I...?”

Kendrick gave a wave. “Knock yourself out.”

“If I may,” said Sahni, “could you tell us one thing? Is there any word on an expected arrival date of the... you know...”

“The Dark Lord? Oh, I forgot to tell you the biggest news! Horrible news, but very informative—it’s planned for later this year. The solar eclipse. Supposedly, the dark aura boost is all that’s needed to let the big guy downstairs come skipping on through the portal.”

“It’s a certainty, then?”

Keex shrugged. “That’s what I’ve gleaned through all my eavesdropping. They’re all betting on the eclipse to be the big day. They plan to make Kanthos fall before then, and then it’s on to Varyngard. They aim to claim all of Creation in the name of the Underworld, to spite Aldiel above. And they’ll spare no human, fairy, orc, or elf that stands in their way. It seems these truly are the last days...” The fairy pointed at the jar in Sahni’s hand. “Are you going to finish those herbs, or...?”

She sighed. “All for you, as promised. Go right ahead, my fairy friend. Thank you for your help.”

“Fairy business associate—and thank you!” With that, Keex dove into the open jar, rolling around in the herbs at the bottom and making gleeful fairy noises. Sahni sealed the jar once more, putting it back into her bag.

After that, she buried her face in her hands and heaved a deep sigh. Kendrick couldn’t hear her crying; it was just a noise of exhaustion, something deeper than physical tiredness. He tried to tune out their noise and plan what he would do next. I know two fruits that grow in the woods, he thought. The mushplums, those green ones, those are good. And then the... berries. Something-berries. But only the ripe ones are safe to eat. Is it when they turn red? Or gold? I can’t remember... Whatever. I’ll just eat mushplums. Drink from streams. I can survive.

“The world hasn’t ended yet,” Bellara reassured her friend. “We will figure something out. We always do. I promise.” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the redhead put a comforting arm around Sahni’s shoulder. “And we know other witches and wizards are doing the same thing right now. We’re not alone in this fight. It’s going to be okay.”

It’s going to be okay, he’d told the person in the bed.

The memory of his unconscious flashback played across his mind’s eye. He was reminded of that heavy burden, being without comfort but trying to comfort someone who needed it, even dispensing half-truths to coax hope out of its hiding place. He wondered about the person he’d left back home. What they were doing in this very moment. Wherever they were, he hoped they were safe.

What’s happening in my world back home? Kendrick wondered. I’m sure it’s nothing as bad as this. But maybe it felt that way at the time.

“Kendrick,” said a voice. He snapped out of his daydream to see Bellara standing over him, one hand on her hip. “I wanted to talk about sending you home. And I wanted to apologize. Will you take a walk with me?”

He reluctantly met her gaze, a wave of guilt washing over him for reasons he didn’t understand. “Sure.”

They didn’t stray far from where Sahni sat. They wandered just off the beaten path and into the woods a short way. It was far enough away that they could have a private conversation and still keep eyes on her in case any other Underworld visitors appeared.

“I cannot tell you how sorry I am for dragging you into this,” Bellara began. “After living it for years now, being so desperate to escape—I forgot that there are people who’ve never known this world, billions, probably, who never have to know the horror of what we’ve gone through. It’s no excuse. But I lost sight of that. When we cast that spell, I envisioned some dumb, fearless, cocky brute stepping out of the portal, one who would be eager to slay whatever we told him to, and... you were none of those things. You were a real person with a home, a life, and I took you away from that. I never considered the full ramifications of what I was doing.

“And when you confronted me about it, I got defensive because of my own guilt. I knew what I’d done was wrong and I didn’t want to be reminded of it. So, I tried to make you feel bad, make you feel sorry for us, so that you’d do what I wanted you to do. So that you’d be the test subject for my little experiment, so that I could see if I was right, if you really could turn the tide of this invasion with the Psysword... I lost sight of everything else until today. I am truly, deeply sorry to you, Kendrick.

“So, in short, you don’t have to accept my apology or anything like that. I just thought you should know that I’m not totally oblivious to what I’ve done. And I’m going to talk to Sahni about gathering aura and trying to send you back home. I just... I have to warn you that with the invaders getting closer, and more numerous, all the time, we may have to lay low at first and find a safe place to try the spell. I think we were quite lucky it worked on our first try. I don’t want to put you in any more danger than I already have, so we may have to do a test run or two of your return spell. The aura spike will gather any invaders like moths to a flame, so we will have to be very careful and take many precautions, but—”

“Bellara, wait,” Kendrick interrupted.

She looked at him and caught her breath. “Sorry. Did you have a question?” For the smallest moment, she looked as if she had softened around her rough edges.

He shrugged. “Look, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s put this ‘Send Kendrick Back Home’ spell on hold for now, okay? I really appreciate what you’ve said, but—”

“No, no, Kendrick, really,” Bellara argued gently, “I owe that much to you. I do. You don’t have to convince me anymore. And don’t feel like you have to refuse my offer in order to seem polite—”

“Bell. Seriously.” He met her gaze and, feeling all weird about it, looked away to check on Sahni, who was now pacing back and forth by their belongings. “If we’re being realistic, I don’t think it’s a good idea. Trying the spell could attract a bunch of demons, like you said, and if you’re just doing a trial run, we’d be goners. If you rush the spell and then put me in the portal, I could get killed or cut in half or... I dunno... trapped in some pocket dimension or something. Plus, how can we gather that much aura safely when there’s a war like this going on? And on top of that, I thought about just ditching you anyway and striking out on my own, but I feel like I’d die of exposure, or eat the wrong berry or something and crap out my internal organs—something would get me, and I’d die in a stupid way all alone. So, that’s out of the question.

“At the end of the day, there’s a million selfish reasons for me not to ask you to send me home right now. But more than that...” He watched Sahni pace and pace as she tugged at her own blue hair. He thought of their towns, reduced to ruins by the Underworld invasion, their families slain or scattered—how no spell could ever send them back to the homes they once knew. “The biggest reason I want to stay is that... even if you sent me home safe and sound, I couldn’t live with myself knowing that I just abandoned this world because I was afraid.” Bellara was still staring at him, but she looked away when he looked back. “I may not be the hero the Ecumene needs. I may very well die screaming and pissing my pants before this is all over.” They both smirked at his dark joke. “But that’s better than living with that much regret.”

“What are you saying?”

He chuckled awkwardly. “Are you gonna make me spell it out for you or what? What do you think I’m saying, knucklehead?”

“Knucklehead?” She furrowed her brow. “Is that a word from your world? I don’t think it translates so well here.”

He held up his hands defensively. “No, no, it’s not a bad thing. It’s... Just think of it as me calling you dumb—”

“Hey—”

“—but in a friendly way! You know, as a term of endearment?” She squinted at him but still smirked anyway. “I’m saying I want to stay here in the Ecumene with you two.”

Her face hardened, solemn as she was capable of being. “Kendrick, do you really mean this? You don’t want to be sent home?”

He picked at a frayed thread at the burnt end of his tunic sleeve, brushed it off his fingers into the quickening breeze. “Not yet. Not while people here need me. Or at least need somebody. And if there’s any chance that that could be me one day, well... I at least need to know that I tried.”

Her eyes regarded him in that moment with something akin to respect, and it made pride surge within him. “That may be the most heroic thing you’ve said since I met you.” She held out her hand. “Partner?”

He reached out his hand but stopped just short of hers. “On one condition.”

“Name it.”

“I need full honesty and transparency going forward. I need to know what you know. Don’t hide anything else from me, and I won’t hold anything back on the battlefield against those monsters. Agreed?”

She shook his hand. “Agreed.”

They wordlessly agreed to rejoin Sahni on the main path, and as they walked, Kendrick felt hope welling back up inside him. He hoped that Bellara felt the same. He looked forward to telling Sahni the good news that they would not be parting ways in the near future, and he hoped that she, too, could share in their burgeoning optimism for things to come. The situation was far from perfect, but at least it was on the mend now.

“You’re lucky I’m sticking around, too,” Kendrick said after a while. “I saved your asses back there against that jinn.” He elbowed her playfully as they walked, laughing.

“You saved ours?” Bellara laughed along with him. “My spells w—and, and Sahni’s barriers...” She smiled and bowed her head. “No, you’re right. You did slay the jinn. That was your kill fair and square. Sahni, myself, and all denizens of the Ecumene owe you our thanks for your heroism.”

“Neat. Thanks.” He added, “That’s only gonna go straight to my head, though. I hope you know that.”

“I figured as much.”

As they met up again with Sahni and explained their discussion, and he watched her face light up with its usual cheer, and as she wrapped them both in an alarmingly tight hug, his thoughts drifted to the hateful last words of that jinn before he sent it back to the Underworld. You truly are every bit the fool she needs you to be. It had already accepted its fate; however, it must have wanted to drive a wedge between them as its final act of malice in this plane of existence.

Kendrick took solace in the fact that it ultimately failed.

He was in this now. Fully. They were all in this together.

No matter the darkness that lay ahead.