Elegy for a Star

Tess’ throat was so tight she struggled to breathe. Her chest rose and fell and she tried to keep herself from hyperventilating. Tess had to hug herself. This wasn’t happening. Joyona didn’t make it? Joyona was the toughest of them all, how could she not have made it?

Gwen was tearful, but simply hung her head. Mairaela however, the Summer Fey was wracked with heaving sobs, covering her face in her hands and bawling into her palms. Even Miren looked haunted, her face damp with tears. She’d never known the Winter Fey to have such little composure.

Tess couldn’t believe it herself. Just moments ago, they were invincible. Joyona, especially, was invincible. This just wasn’t possible.

“Did you get her lost soul?” Mairaela asked Miren.

Miren’s eyes went wide in realization and she shook her head, “No, I-... it never showed up!”

“Then she’s alive!” Mairaela shouted with renewed vigor, “We have to go get her!”

Wydwen, sitting down beside the group, shattered that hope, “The portals to the second trials have closed.”

“She was dead, Mairaela,” Miren assured her Courtish counterpart, “I promise… I-.. I checked. Maybe I didn’t stay long enough to see the Lost Soul form.”

Mairaela looked like a ghost of her former self, eyes red and wet, hands shaking. “N-no,” Mairaela stammered, “She’s alive. I know it. I know she is.”

“Even if she was,” Wydwen explained, “She is trapped in that world forever.”

“I-... hate you,” Mairaela hissed, looking at Wydwen, “You and your fucking trials. I have been constantly degraded, haunted… and now you-... you trapped Joyona?” She had to curse through clenched teeth, “We are never taking you out of here. All we have to do is kill you to end this. That’s what we should have done at the start.”

“You know Joyona wouldn’t have wanted that,” Tess said softly.

“Don’t talk about her like she’s dead!” Mairaela screamed at her.

Miren insisted, “She is, Mairaela. Believe me… she was… her body was-...”

Gwen shot her a vicious glare just as Tess reached over to squeeze the Winter Fey’s shoulder a bit roughly. Miren paused, nodding her head.

“I have done what I could,” Wydwen spoke with an unintentional purr, “I warned each one of you about the second trials. Mairaela, I willed the device out of you to spare you further hum-...”

“You think I want to hear about that now?” Mairaela asked incredulously.

“Mairaela, Joyona didn’t make it, so we need to finish this place and get home,” Gwen said, quickly changing topics before reaching over to touch Mairaela’s back. The Summer Fey shook and jerked away from Gwendolyn. She was so vulnerable, shaking her head.

“I don’t believe you,” Mairaela said softly, “I don’t believe any of you. I know... she’s-...” The Summer Fey began to choke on her words. She shook her head still, refusing to hear or give the truth any consideration.

Tess looked down at her feet for a moment. She was quiet. They all were; grieving individually in their own way. Well, as best they could given the situation.

The four of them broke apart, sitting separately among the upside down tower. Mairaela sat by a chandelier that jutted upward like a candelabra, but the others were resting against the stony walls. Except Miren. The Winter Fey stood, turned so that her back was to the others. Tess could see her shaking now and then. She was crying as much as anyone. Tess thought it was touching that Miren was so upset about someone she knew so briefly. She didn’t know that Miren and Joyona had that sort of connection.

An hour of this silence passed by. Tess was staring at the furniture upon the ceiling when Miren spoke up.

“I-... I can’t keep it to myself,” Miren said softly, “I thought I could. I’m so ashamed, but I need to tell you all what really happened.”

This caught their attention. Gwen and Tess looked over. Mairaela sat with her head hanging between her raised knees. She didn’t budge, but she was listening as much as anyone.

“It was me,” Miren said wearily, guiltily, wiping tears from her eyes. Her words were shaky, her arms wrapped around her midsection for comfort, “Joyona died saving me.”

Gwen looked back to the floor, but Tess watched Miren closely.

“There was a storm that we had to push through, and I got lost. Joyona rescued me,” Miren’s voice wavered and she briefly broke down into choking sobs. Her words were tight, disturbed by desperate breaths and genuine distress, “When we got through it, there was one more monster.

“It-... She killed her, but-... it was because of me,” Miren’s lips quivered, eyes squeezing shut, “I just had to leave. I couldn’t-... I tried…”

“The thing is still alive?” Gwen asked.

Miren paused. She nodded as though she was only just then remembering it.

There were a few more seconds of silence before Gwendolyn spoke up, “We need to go. Let’s finish the Trials and go back home.”

Miren pushed herself off of the wall. Tess stood up.

Mairaela didn’t budge.

Gwendolyn gave her a couple seconds before snapping, “Now.” Her anger was clear in her tone. Tess could only imagine what Gwen was thinking. If she knew Gwen at all, it was guilt that was tearing at her. The once-knight took too much upon herself.

Tess was experiencing a wave of guilt herself. Everyone else dealt with horrific challenges and torment. Tess’ Trial was hedonistic and decadent. It was pure pleasure. Why did the Trials make this distinction?

The guilt squeezing away at Tess’ heart was more of a Trial than what she actually faced within the portal.

Gwendolyn trudged toward the still unmoving Mairaela. Once Gwen was standing over her, the Summer Fey slowly rose.

Filled with sorrow and mournfulness, the four of them—plus Wydwen—continued on to the next floor.

“Ready for the third Trials?” Wydwen asked just as easily as he’d done last time.

None of them disagreed, at least, and Wydwen must have taken that for affirmation. The white light washed over them and Tess was whisked away someplace else. She wondered for the briefest moment if that would be the last time she saw one of them, just like before, when it had unknowingly been the last time she’d seen Joyona.

Tess found herself standing on a stony floor. To one side was an expansive, brass rod, 8 feet at its widest portion, slowly tapering to a small lens at the bottom. It stuck out of the side of the building, aimed at the sky. Tess was drawn to it, her bare feet padding along the stones. When she reached it, and its upturned lens, she peered through.

It took a moment for her vision to focus, but through the device she saw an empty darkness, speckled with stars. They were so much clearer. Larger. Closer.

Among them, noticed only by the absence of them, was a great void. The Black Sun. It was far away, though. Further away than she’d ever seen. It wasn’t here yet.

“Hey,” came a voice from behind her.

Tess spun around, only to see a green-eyed, pale woman with dark brown hair. She was wrapped in a bright red cloak, wearing leathers underneath.

“Who are you?” Tess asked, trying to quell her sudden panic.

The woman reached out, offering a hand, “Oh, we’ve met. Name’s Krahe.”