Book of Darkness
Chapter 3: Vanished!
“You say Pixel’s gone?”
Helaine and Score were sitting in the main room of Shanara’s castle on Rawn, both of them looking tired and worn-out. They’d spent the better part of the past five hours combing Dondar for signs of Pixel, using their powers to their maximum extent to try and sense him, somewhere.
They’d had no luck.
Now they were on Rawn, looking ready to drop. Shanara looked at her young friends and bit her lip, concerned. They were tired, and worried, and neither were good if they were going to have to go up against some evil entity to get Pixel back. If there was a Pixel to get back.
“That’s right,” Score said, nodding. He looked down at the cup of liquid in his hand, and sipped slowly. He didn’t know what it was, but he was too preoccupied to change it to something more familiar. “Five hours ago. We’ve been searching for him ever since.”
Shanara felt as worried as the two magic-users before her looked. “So you want me to scry, and see if I can locate him on another world?” she asked.
“Could you?” Helaine asked. “I’m not good enough at that – Pixel was better. But you’re an expert. Besides, the two of us aren’t up to par right now.”
“Ask no more,” replied Shanara, flashing them a smile. She turned towards her scrying pool, tossing her bright pink hair over her shoulder in the process. She reached out and swatted a sleeping red panda on the head. “Wake up, you idiot. We’ve got work to do.”
Blink, the red panda and Shanara’s familiar, raised his head and glared at her. “Why’d you go and wake me up? I was having a lovely dream. There was food, and more food, and I didn’t have to do any work…”
“Pixel’s missing,” snapped Shanara. “Get off your lazy ass and help me. We have to try and find him.”
With those words, Shanara didn’t even need to threaten Blink to get him to move. He had grown just as fond of the Chosen Three as Shanara, and most of the people who’s lives they touched, had. He leapt into Shanara’s arms, and both of them fixed their gazes on the scrying pool.
Score drained the cup, and set it on the table next to the couch he and Helaine were both sitting on. “I hope they find something,” he said softly, glancing over at Helaine. Then he did a double-take, and his eyes widened slightly. “Hey, Helaine – you’re not crying, are you?”
Helaine reached up and wiped away the tears that were beginning to trickle from her eyes. “No,” she said thickly, in a way that clearing meant otherwise. “I’m just…well, the three of us have hardly ever been separated for any great length of time in the last four years.”
“He’s only been gone for a few hours,” Score said, even though he knew that those few hours had felt like a few years.
“But all those other times we’ve been split up,” Helaine continued, “we’ve always known where we each were. This time…we don’t have a clue. We don’t know if he’s safe, or upset, or injured, or…or…” Her throat tightened. Score and Pixel were her family, and she couldn’t lose either of them.
Score moved closer and wrapped his arms around her. “Shh,” he said, stroking her hair gently. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay. We’ve been in more dangerous situations than this before. We’ll find Pixel, and then everything will be fine. It’ll be fine.”
Helaine clung to him, and pressed her face against his chest. “I’m scared,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t be, but I am. We can’t lose him, Score. We just can’t.”
“I know,” Score said. “I know.”
Shanara walked over to them then, and cleared her throat. Helaine immediately pulled away from Score, and wiped at her eyes, making out like she had something caught in it. “Well?” she asked brusquely.
The Wizard of Shapes wasn’t fooled – she’d heard Helaine’s emotional breakdown. But if the younger girl wanted to make like she wasn’t upset or scared, fine. It might help with what she had to tell her.
“I don’t know where Pixel is,” Shanara said bluntly, not sugar-coating it at all. “He’s nowhere in the entire Diadem.”
“Then someone is blocking your magic?” Score inquired.
“If someone were, I’d sense it,” Shanara replied. “There’s nothing. Pixel, according to my power, and my power never lies, is not alive anywhere on this plane.”
Helaine covered her mouth and choked back a sob before she could stop herself. Score reached over and clutched her hand, almost unconsciously.
“Relax,” Shanara said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean anything. If he were dead, there’d still be some residual traces of his magic. He went through a Portal on Dondar, but never came out of it. Which could mean only one thing.”
“What?” Score asked.
“He’s in the Inter-Realm,” Shanara replied grimly. “In which case, he may very well be lost to us. But it’s not a sure thing yet.”
“What’s the Inter-Realm?” Helaine asked.
“An entirely different plane of existence,” a new voice said. “No mortal can go there and return to this plane the way they were, unless they are very powerful and very lucky.”
As one, Score, Helaine, and Shanara turned to look at Oracle.
