Chapter 259: Go the distance

The moment the twister reaches us, both Kirri and the barge noticeably lift up a bit, as it attempts to suck them off the river.

Even if I would allow my feet to dangle off the front edge of the barge right now, they wouldn’t even touch the silver stardust.

Then Kirri crests the next wave, and for a moment... she hovers.

Thankfully, either due to our sheer weight, the shimmering, protective bubble surrounding us, or both, in the end the twister is unable to truly lift her off the river, and she glides back down into the next trough.

Just as I’m about to sigh in relief, however, the protective bubble trembles, and, apparently unable to bear the pressure, shrinks.

As the sources of the bubble—Kaitlynn’s cuties—are concentrated on the barge in the rear, it naturally shrinks backwards, exposing only Kirri’s prow to the elements.

And perched on Kirri’s prow, like always, is Koko.

Koko scrambles for purchase with her claws and tail, but the sudden suction overwhelms her grip. Letting out a loud shriek, she’s sucked straight up.

I reflexively send my tendrils after her, but I’m too far and she’s moving too fast, so I can only watch, wide-eyed, as she shoots up into the twister.

“Koko!” Kirri shouts, desperation in her voice.

Before I can formulate as much as a thought, my pseudo-daughter stretches her wings.

That’s all it takes. Her wings pass through the protective bubble, and catch the incredible updraft. This time, when her hull leaves the river, it doesn’t come back down, pulling us all soaring upwards.

“Oh dear,” Suri chimes behind me with a muffled sigh.

“Hold on!” I shout over the wind. “Keep the shield intact!”

Exposed to the full extent of the twister’s might, the shimmering bubble trembles and shrinks further, until it covers only the barge. Thankfully, Kaitlynn’s still here, safely wrapped up in Shelly’s vines, which by now have anchored us all down onto the barge.

While in the back we’re still sheltered from the winds and hail—for now—Kirri is now fully exposed to the elements. Her mast trembles with the forces exerted on her sail, and her wings shake from how badly they’re being buffeted.

One of the white, feather-like leaves covering her wings comes loose and bounces off our shield, right in front of me.

Despite all that, Kirri is doing a great job holding us all steady as we go round and round in the spinning winds.

No easy feat, judging by the way Koko is tumbling through the air above us, backlit by some bright light farther away.

In the distance, beyond the Bloodborn, lightning flashes. Squinting, I try to catch a glimpse of what we’re being sucked towards, and when I make it out, my heart clenches.

At the upper end of the twister is a massive ball of lightning.

The heart of the storm...

Of course, it’s not real lightning. It’s just the interpretation my metaphor provides. Looking at it, however, there’s no doubt in my mind that if we get sucked in there, we’re all dead, torn to shreds by the dense ball of boiling chaos.

“Kirri,” I yell over the roar of the twister. “We have to break out of this twister before we reach the top, you hear me?!”

“You want to abandon Koko?!” she shouts back furiously.

The question hits me like a punch in the stomach.

Koko was the first friend I made on this whole adventure. If she hadn’t found me in the Realm of Darkness when she did... If she hadn’t lead a rebellion against Elder Ori to convince the Bloodborn to help me hunt the Lantern King... If she hadn’t been there to mediate between Kirri and I...

I never would have made it here. I never would have gotten to meet Kaitlynn again.

Glancing back over my shoulder, I shoot my blue angel an apologetic smile. She meets my gaze, looking a little bewildered, and not sure what I’m trying to convey.

She’ll understand in a bit.

I turn back to the front. “Abandon her?” I yell back. “What are you nuts?! I’m saying we need to catch up, and fast!”

“Good!” Kirri replies. “How?”

I shake my head, helpless. “I can’t help you this time; I’ve no idea how to navigate a twister as a boat-bird.”

“We’re all going to die, aren’t we?” Suri chimes soberly behind me.

“But that doesn’t matter,” I continue, ignoring her. “Because I know you can do it! All I can tell you, is that you have to go faster!”

Seeming to take the words to heart, Kirri starts beating her wings.

“That’s it, Kirri,” Kaitlynn yells. “It’s up to you now!”

Little by little, despite the barge she’s dragging behind her, Kirri starts to close in on the still-tumbling Bloodborn, either not caring or not noticing as more and more feathers snap off from her wings.

“KOKO!” she yells. “KOKO, I’M COMING!”

“Kirri?!” a faint squeak replies. “Where are you?”

Shit, she can’t see us—of course she can’t, she’s blind—and she can’t tune in either, because we’re not in a Realm. There’s no fabric to listen to!

No wonder she’s still tumbling.

“WE’RE OVER HERE, KOKO!” I yell at the top of my lungs. “FOLLOW MY VOICE!”

“THIS WAY, KOKO!” Kaitlynn shouts from behind me, quickly catching on.

Soon, all of her cuties are making a racket, howling or yowling or rumbling or whatever.

It takes a couple of seconds, wherein Koko’s ears swivel around wildly while she tumbles, but finally, she manages to stabilise herself, facing us, and begins to flap our way.

“That’s it, Koko!” I shout, my voice starting to sound hoarse, despite the fact that my spiritform can’t really tire like that. “Keep going!”

Koko keeps flapping her wings. Despite the occasional, accidental roll, she makes good headway. At the same time, each heavy beat of Kirri’s increasingly tattered wings brings us a bit closer as well.

Finally, Koko comes within reach.

The moment I suspect I can get to her, I stretch out a thick bundle of tendrils. However, right as they get close to her, there’s a blinding flash of light, followed by a thunderous boom and a searing pain where my tendrils got disintegrated by a bolt of pure chaos.

When my vision clears, Koko is no longer flapping.

Because she’s already touched down on Kirri’s prow!

Oh thank Goddess!

However, my excitement is tempered by the searing ache left by that bolt just now. Those flashes used to occur in the distance, but as I look up at the heart of the storm, I find that it is now way too close for comfort.

Stunned, I glance back down at the thin ribbon of silver that leads to the glowing white Realm in the distance.

Frankly, it’d be such a detour to get back to it, we’d probably be better off flying straight for the Realm from here instead.

Before that’s an option, though, we’ll need to somehow manage to get out of here alive, and if I dropped the metaphor now, we’d be flying blind!

And there wouldn’t be anyone calling out for us to provide a direction.

I swallow, in a futile effort to get some spittle down my hoarse throat. “Get us out of here, Kirri!”

“I’m trying!”

And indeed, Kirri seems to be flapping her mangled wings for all her worth, but it’s just not working. With each circle we make in the twister, we get sucked a little closer to annihilation.

The pressure around us only increases as we do. The shield trembles and starts shrinking further, its edges touching upon the barge.

Desperate to avoid another incident, I throw some of my own Espir into the fray, and the bubble stabilises.

Splitting my focus like this may not have been my brightest idea, however. My world narrows to the shield and the metaphor, and it’s taking all the concentration I can muster to contain the cracks in both, and not let them shatter.

My vision dims, and there’s a ringing in my ears.

Suri chimes something behind me, but I can’t make out the words. They’re probably less annoying like this, anyway.

At the very least they’re less annoying than the repeated, shrill whistling coming from behind me.

There’s a strange cadence to it, that comes in threes and keeps repeating as we go round and round, getting closer and closer to the pretty bright light in the cen—

Suddenly, everything goes still. There’s no more howling or roaring. No more creaking of wood and rope. No more wind and hail buffeting the shield.

Whu...?

I dimly realise the pressure on my metaphor is gone. Blinking, I allow my focus to widen a bit again, until I notice Kirri’s torn sail hanging still, mid-billow, amidst unmoving pellets of hail, all lit by a bright bolt of lightning frozen mid-crawl.

What the hell?!

Only then do I make out the massive black wing slowly spreading out to cover the sky beyond the storm. Several long seconds later, it finally comes to a brief halt.

And then, with an almost casual motion, it sweeps across the sky, and brushes away the storm.

I watch, slack-jawed, as the awe-inspiring heart of the storm is treated like nothing more than a layer of dust on a shelf, and unceremoniously yeeted out my metaphor’s range.

Holy shit.

Having performed Her miracle, the wing retracts to the distant, brightly-glowing Realm.

And just like that, we’re once again floating under a calm sky of twinkling stars.

Kirri spreads her tattered wings and quietly glides down to the placid river of silver light.

There’s barely even a ripple as we touch down.

“Well done, Kaitlynn,” Suri chimes warmly.

Bemused, I turn around, only to find Kaitlynn wide-eyed, tears still streaming down her cheeks, still clutching the bird whistle.

The one Goddess had provided for us to signal her with when we’d reached the outer membrane of the Realm of Imagination.

She-she used it to sound out an SOS!

“You’re a genius!” I exclaim, shakily getting up and making my way over for a hug.

Kaitlynn laughs through her tears, hiccupping as she shakily returns the embrace.

It takes a while for us all to calm down again. Thankfully, we have that time, as the Realm of Imagination is still some distance away.

After the momentous events earlier, an almost reverent silence naturally settles over us.

I sit next to Kaitlynn now, holding her hand, pondering as Kirri lazily sails up the river of stardust.

Frankly, what happened just now still has me shell-shocked.

I knew Goddess was stronger than me, but somewhere deep down, I’d believed I’d closed the gap a little. That little nugget of pride is now utterly crushed.

Only now do I understand how big the gap between Goddess and me still is.

How big is her Espir Pool, exactly? 50.000 motes? 100.000?!

The thing that I find oddest, really, is how big the gap between her and Bhattis. I mean, he’s the Apex of the second-highest Realm; how can he be so much weaker than her?

Unless... that’s by design!

The best place to grow stronger, strong enough to one day take on Goddess, would naturally be the Realm of Glory. A steady stream of Ascendants with dense Essence would provide the best nourishment of all, after all.

However, the way the Tournament of Ascension is set up, the Ascendants never fight Bhat—well, usually—only each other. And then the strongest one is sent up.

The spilt Essence, in turn, is funnelled mainly to the eggs below the stands.

Which means the growth of the raptors is choked off!

Their society flourishes, sure, but for someone capable of challenging Goddess to arise seems next to impossible. Which is probably the whole point.

Only now does it make sense to me that she allows some Ascendants to make their way up at all. That way, rather than empowering Bhat—or some other Apex—they either get rehabilitated, or their Essence empowers her.

It seems like she put more thought into the whole thing than I gave her credit for.

I only snap out of my reverie when we finally make it all the way to the outer membrane. It took a bit longer than expected, because due to its size, the Realm of Imagination seemed closer than it was, but I’m still doing relatively all right on Espir.

From up close, it’s easy to tell this is by far the largest Realm I’ve ever visited.

Just when I open my mouth to request Kaitlynn blow on the bird whistle, a swirling portal appears at the top of the river.

I guess she kept an eye on us. Makes sense.

“So,” Kirri starts. “Should I just..?”

“Yeah, hon,” I reply, my voice a little rough with sudden emotion. “Go ahead and enter.”

And with that, we sail inside, our journey at long last complete.

Author's note:

Back at last. It's been a while, eh?

I felt like I had to make the final crossing kinda momentous. Did I pull it off? ;)

Either way, thanks for reading! ^^