@amber_is_in_a_loop
"And, not to be pessimist or anything, but Esme'll appear any day now, and them coupled against us…"
"And, not to be pessimist or anything, but Esme'll appear any day now, and them coupled against us…"
“Equals a whole lot of trouble, yeah.”
(I decided to get this over with. Y'all might be gone by now, sorry)
"Sure does."
The voice came from the edge of the clearing. It was quiet, feminine, and hard as stone. And the dark eyes of the girl who spoke were even harder.
She stood watching them, shadows clinging to her shoulders and bony hands. The morning sunlight didn't seem as bright all of a sudden, and the birds no longer sang from the trees.
Esme stepped forward. "Heya, scumbags." Her voice was flat and dead. "Having a nice day?"
Nathan jumped to his feet. "Esme."
Isalda and Maddie both followed Nathan’s lead and stood up, “That’s Esme?” Isalda whispered to Maddie who nodded slightly.
She spread her hands. "The one and only. How ya doing, two-facer? Miss me?"
Crash got to his feet, his hackles raised. "Who's she?"
"Esme Saville," Luke answered, his expression resigned. "We kind of owe her a favor."
Nathan extended an arm by his side, signalling to the other two girls to keep back. "We knew you'd come by eventually."
(brb, sorry)
Maddie and Islada didn’t stay back, they moved and stood next to Nathan, Luke and Crash
(Okie, I’ve gotta go anyway, probably won’t be back on for the day, see ya tomorrow, hopefully)
(Cough, I'll just leave this here then)
"You're obviously unaware," Esme said, "just how serious I am about this. Celina is my friend, and I'd live my whole life again before I let her get hurt. Every second she's missing is a second she could be in danger, and I can't find her without help. Your help." She paused to take a breath. "But I guess I shouldn't have relied on you after all. You'll just run away, like everyone else."
Something in Nathan's jaw jumped. "We'll help you find her. Whatever it takes, we'll help you find her." How had she known what to say?
"Will you, though?" She came forward, her movements carelessly menacing. "You've tricked me once before. Why don't I just kill you now?" Her hand turned black, and smoke wreathed up from her fingers. "Or maybe I'll just brand you all and let the poison take you slowly. That sounds a lot more fun."
Luke stepped forward. "Hey, easy. We didn't have a choice when we left, otherwise we would have totally met up with you and helped you out. We're sorry, and we'll try to make up for it. But you should understand why we looked to our own first. We're still not sure if we're safe." He folded his arms, staring her down. "We'll help you, but you're not in charge of us. Right, guys?"
Nathan nodded silently. "If you hurt us, you won't find her. You said yourself that you need our help."
Esme stared at them stonily, thinking. "Fine. You get one more shot."
"Great." Luke relaxed and his face cleared, as if there was suddenly no animosity between them. "You've met Maddie, and seen Crash before, I think. This is Isalda, she's Maddie's friend. Crash, Isalda, this is Esme the shadow spirit."
Crash wrinkled his nose suspiciously, but lowered his hackles. "Hi."
"Hi," Esme replied, with equal unfriendliness.
Nathan fixed Esme. "How did you find us?"
"It wasn't hard. I've spent most of my life tracking people down, and your souls are pretty distinctive. Plus, Maddie was clumsy about closing up the portal she made. I un-stitched it and followed the trail here, no sweat. You'll be glad to hear that I covered your tracks so the others can't do what I did." She sat down on a boulder and started fiddling with her shoelaces. "So where are we, exactly? I can't see any landmarks."
Nathan exhaled deeply and sat down. "Crash's home dimension."
"The demon? Oh, well in that case we're fine for a while. Shadow spirits don't last long without humans around. We need their cities for food and shelter. It'll take a while for them to venture out this far."
Nathan nodded. "Good." He fiddled with a muddy stone. "Do you know how to find Celina?" He kept his gaze lowered.
"Sort of." She put her hand over her heart, then slowly pulled it away, drawing out what looked like a tiny blue and gold flame. "This is a bit of her aura. She gave it to me so I could find her no matter where I was. But lately it's stopped working. I know she's still alive, otherwise the flame would have died. But I think she's being hidden by someone powerful." She glanced at Luke and Nathan. "That's where you two come in. Ever heard of the Mortal Counteraction Theory?"
Nathan narrowed his eyes, "Vaguely. Remind me what it is?"
"Basically it means that sometimes humans have the ability to make magic stop working. The power of sheer will and determination can allow the normal laws of physics to override the laws of magic, as long as the human involved is stubborn enough and truly believes the magic won't work. From what I've seen of you, Luke could invoke the Counteraction Theory easily, and with a little practice I'll bet you could too. What I'm hoping is that we'll be able to find the being that's hiding Celina and you boys can break the spell long enough for me to rescue her."
Nathan looked at Luke questioningly. "I'll do it."
Luke shrugged and grinned crookedly. "That makes sense, in a weird way. I'm game."
Crash gathered the rabbit bones into his arms and stood up. "If you guys are leaving again, I'm not going with you. I have to protect my territory."
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