Chapter Seventy-Five

Chapter Seventy-Five

Hanna and DJ trudged through the snow side by side. Ace was ahead of them. He did not seem to mind the lag as long as they were still following. Light was ever so faintly returning to the mountain. Sunrise was not far off. Their path took them around the ruins of the castle. When they reached the other side, DJ caught a glimpse of a large ice wall holding back snow. He paused to stare at it. The semi-circle of ice created a protective, sloped berm around what was left of the castle. He turned to Hanna. “Did you do this?” 

Hanna glanced at the wall, but kept walking. “Yeah. The explosion triggered an avalanche and I didn’t want the castle to get buried.” 

His eyes widened. “You stopped it?” 

“Yeah.” She continued walking. 

DJ easily caught up with Hanna and they walked together in comfortable silence. He thought about the amount of magical energy required to create a barrier that large. He also thought about what he saw at the North Pole. The fountains of water shooting into the sky and the geyser, all completely frozen into solid walls, crystalline structures, and jagged pillars of ice sparkling in the sunlight. The carnage on the screens during her solo battle for her life. The blizzard in the arena while he was fighting his EO. DJ had worked, fought, and trained with plenty of talented elementalists. He had seen walls of earth, storms of lightning, pillars of fire, and currents of water bent to a user’s will enough times to know such astounding feats were possible. He himself conjured a room-sized tornado. Even so, he had difficulty remembering the last time he saw anything that matched the scale of Hanna’s ice ability. She didn’t use it often, but when she did there was certainly plenty of aftermath. Come to think of it, she didn’t use her wings much either. She walked more than she flew. Sometimes he forgot she had them with the way she kept the black feathers tucked to her back. As if hiding them. A faint glow caught his attention. The gemstone embedded in the hilt of Hanna’s sword shimmered. 

“Do you think there was any truth to EDJ’s portal comments?” Hanna asked, breaking the silence. “Or was he lying again?” 

“Who knows.” DJ sighed. “It’s EO, after all. I wouldn’t put anything past him. Did he have anything to say about our new friends?” 

“He called them wacko and crazy, if that counts for anything.”

“That’s not surprising,” he commented. “He likes to resort to name calling when he has no real power.” Seeing her frown, he added, “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think they would go to all this trouble of convincing us to join them if they planned to vaporize us with a faulty portal.”

Hanna snorted with a wry smile. “Then you have more faith than I do.” 

“There are a lot of unknowns with this venture,” he said, attempting to cheer her up. “The one thing we do have is enthusiasm!” 

DJ smiled, but Hanna still seemed to be bothered by something. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. 

“Hm?” 

“I…” She took a breath. “I fell asleep earlier. I put us both in danger… again.” 

“I fell asleep too,” DJ answered with patience. “I was only planning on resting a while.” He shrugged and adjusted his hold on the mirror. “Don’t worry about it.” 

Hanna worried about it anyway. She worried about putting her friends in danger. She worried about leaving EDJ behind with Jester. She worried about Ace’s truthfulness and motives. She worried about Shard getting out again. She worried about Lui. What was waiting for them in this other dimension? What was she supposed to expect from a world she had never been to? What if they got there and Lui ended up being somewhere else entirely? Was he okay? He had been in the mirror for so long already. How were they going to save him with her constant mistakes? What if they couldn’t get to him in time? What if… “What if this is the wrong choice?” she asked, voice trembling. She stopped and looked to her friend for reassurance. 

DJ also stopped and turned to her. “Then we readjust and make a better one.” He tilted his head. “You’re going to have to make a choice one way or the other so make it and be done with it.”

“And what about consequences?” she asked. “Am I supposed to ignore those?” 

“Of course not. You take them into account when you can. But every single choice you make will have repercussions you didn’t anticipate so there’s no sense dwelling on them. Indecision is corrosive. Doubt will paralyze you in the seconds that call for action.” The way he spoke made Hanna think these were perhaps lessons he had already learned the hard way. DJ watched her anxious eyes dart back and forth as she frowned at the snow. Father, help her. Guide her to You. Grant her troubled heart peace. Help her see the Light. “Mistakes will happen,” he continued gently. “No matter how hard we try to avoid them. Dwelling on them does not change the past, but don’t give up. You have to keep moving forward. It’s the only way to keep going.” DJ looked over his shoulder to see Ace standing at the top of the ridge, watching them. He turned to Hanna. “Lui is waiting for us. What’s it going to be? Are you in or out?” 

“I’m in,” Hanna answered. She resumed walking through the snow toward Ace and DJ followed. 

They met Ace at the top of the ridge. True to his word, there was an odd energy presence nearby, but no visible sign that anything was different. 

“Is everyone ready to go?” Ace asked. DJ and Hanna both nodded. “Good. May I see the mirror?” He held out a hand. Hanna bristled and shot DJ a wary look. 

“I’ve got it right here,” the Original answered. He held the mirror up, but did not yet hand it over. “Do you need it?” 

“Yes,” Ace said with a hint of annoyance. “It acts as a link for the portal. It will help us determine Lui’s exact location. It shouldn't get anymore complicated than that.” 

“Ok.” DJ handed the glass object over with care. “Here you go. Please be careful with him.” 

Ace took the mirror and inspected it. He waved a hand over the glass and frowned. After a moment, Ace turned to Hanna. “I have a serious question… How far are you willing to go to save this friend of yours?”

Hanna’s eyes narrowed. “To the ends of the earth,” she immediately answered. 

“That’s a start,” he said with a nod. “You’ll have to go a little farther than that. We already knew he was stuck in Thorae, we just didn’t know where… exactly… We’ll be entering the easternmost point. Lui is trapped on the western coast.”

“Meaning it’s going to be a long trip!” Jester said loudly as he rejoined the group, seemingly from out of nowhere. EDJ was not with him. “We’ll have to cross an entire Syndicate-infested continent! My favorite!” 

Ace turned his attention back to Hanna. “Are you willing to go that far to rescue him?” 

“If it means saving his life, I’ll go as far as I have to,” she answered without hesitation. 

“And you?” Ace turned to DJ. 

The Original nodded. “Anything it takes to rescue him.”

“I will hold you both to that,” Ace said with a nod. “Jester, do the honors.” He handed off the mirror to his brother. 

Jester took the object with a wide grin. “Stand back, everyone! Here we go!” He raised the mirror and a beam of blue and white light shot out from the glass and into the rift. A swirling blue vortex appeared in front of the group. DJ and Hanna stared at the portal in wide-eyed wonder. Ace and Jester were business as usual. They had seen their fair share of portals. “Buckle up, Dorothy! It’s gonna be a bumpy ride! I can’t keep it open forever so hurry it up!” Ace jumped through the portal first without waiting for anyone. 

DJ was about to follow, but stopped. He turned to Hanna. Doubt still plagued her. “Hey,” he said softly, getting her attention. He offered a tired, hopeful smile. “Everything’s going to be ok. We’re going to save Lui. Whatever it takes.” He held out an open hand. “Always Hope.” 

Lui’s waiting. Hanna looked him in the eye and gave a brave smile. “Always Hope,” she repeated, accepting the offered hand. They entered the portal, leaving Earth behind. 

“Finally,” Jester muttered before jumping through himself and closing the portal behind him.