Chapter 31: The Lost Legend

The lost legend

 

Baltimore, Maryland

 

                May rolled in the bed and looked at the clock. It was two am. She sat up and looked at Hailey who slept next to her, curled into a ball. May smiled at how well her younger sister slept. May had tried to get a decent rest, but the sleep refused to grace her tonight; she kept imagining how would her parents react once they came home. Would they greet her, happy that she was alive? Maybe they’d take her for a ghost who returned to haunt them or they would simply chase her away and call a fraud. Surely it would be quite a traumatic experience for both of them.

                May sighed. Either way, she had to face her mom and dad tomorrow. She gave up on her attempts to fall asleep tonight, deciding that doing something useful would be a good therapy right now.

May went downstairs and roamed around the house, finding every detail just as she had remembered it. The glimpse of the moon from the kitchen window made May’s thoughts wandertowards the Callesmere Empire; she would never see two moons dancing around each other again. May smiled to herself, touching the sapphire necklace, she was wearing. It appeared that after tonight the threat of Aedain declaring a war upon humanity would cease to exist. Messing with the demon’s plans brought May some satisfaction and made her mood considerably better.

May grabbed a mop and dipped it in a water-filled bucket. She began humming some melody she picked up recently from Eren and started washing the tiles in the kitchen, making them shine. The monotonous movements with the mop made her thoughts drift away from the pressing issue of meeting her parents tomorrow and shifted towards her friends in the Callesmere Empire. She sincerely hoped that after Aedain realized he couldn’t get the Spear, he would set Eren free.

May felt pain in her heart, when she thought about the boy, she had abandoned. With every passing minute the pain of parting was stronger, till she realized, that it wasn’t quite it. May stopped mopping and straightened her back. There was definitely a burning sensation in the vicinity of her heart, but it wasn’t emotional �" it was physical. She looked down and gazed at her chest. The sapphire resting between her breasts seemed to be brighter than usual �" or was it her imagination? May slowly touched the gem and almost immediately pulled her fingers back, feeling the strange sensation. Then, she hesitantly closed the sapphire in her palm. There was no doubt about it �" the crystal was warm, not of the temperature of her body, but considerably warmer. And it pulsed.

“Oh, crap,” May muttered, slamming her hand against her forehead.

She was an idiot, she was positive she was one. The sapphire necklace was a memento after Eren, her only link to the boy, but because of that May completely ignored the tiny detail, that it was a magical item. Now the pendant was painfully reminding the girl of its true nature, as it was getting hotter.

I need to take the damn thing off, May thought, and grabbed the golden chain.

“Ouch!” she exclaimed as a bolt of electricity shot through her body.

The girl touched the chain again, but the artifact shocked her again, this time it was even more painfully.

“Electricity…” May was talking to herself as she searched for some isolator to take the necklace off. If it was shocking her, she needed something like rubber… The girl hastily grabbed a pair of thick rubber gloves, used for scrubbing things, and put them on. Geared up, she attempted to take the pendant off once more.

May gasped from the sharp pain, when her whole body felt like it was on fire. She realized, that the laws of physics didn’t apply to the magical artifacts. Nevertheless, she wasn’t giving up in her attempts to remove the damn thing. Unfortunately, all her efforts were fruitless no matter how hard she tried. May even stood on her hands so that the gravity would do its job, but that didn’t help either �" the necklace was constantly refusing to leave her neck. With every attempt to get rid of it, it shocked the girl stronger and stronger, till the pain was unbearable and May gave up on trying.

The girl leant against the wall, resigned. She couldn’t take the necklace off, but there was something else that was worrying her even more; the gem’s pulsing got more distinct and its temperature rose, now nearly burning May’s skin.

Not knowing what to do, the girl headed towards the stairs, wanting to get Hailey to help. But, when she made a few steps more, the sapphire began pulsing violently and got so hot that May stumbled back, hissing from the pain. As she made a few steps back, the horrible sensation subsided.

“What the heck do you want from me?” May asked the gem, but it was silent, as expected from a stone.

Carefully, the girl made a step forward, but the sapphire began burning her again. May instantly corrected her mistake and stepped back. She furrowed her brows, turned around and made a few more steps in the opposite direction than where the stairs was. The gem was getting cooler, but the blue glow grew stronger. She made one step more and the glow subsided, while the temperature rose. May attempted turning left and the sapphire cooled again.

“It’s like a game.” She guessed, discovering that the pendant was reacting accordingly to where she went, as though it wanted to guide her somewhere. But where?

Guided by the changes in the gem’s temperature and the glow, May made her way through the hallway, then down the basement stairs and continued the walk between the all-present antiques stored there. With each step the sapphire was glowing more, now shining like a torchlight. The girl was so absorbed by following the necklace’s directions, that she didn’t pay much attention to where she was going.

Then, she found herself in a dead end. No matter where she wanted to go, the sapphire was burning her. The girl looked in front of herself. She was standing in front of a ceramic sculpture. It was two meters tall and depicted a man, a warrior. The man’s face was solemn, determined. The sculpture was very detailed, showing each braid in his long beard, each detail of his heavy-looking armor. It was an amazing piece of art, one of best things her dad managed to buy. May stepped closer to the sculpture and ran her fingers over it. The flow of time showed on the ceramic surface, it was rough, but seemed fragile at the same time.

May knocked on the sculpture and heard a hollow sound, as though the inside of the sculpture was empty.

“No kidding,” she muttered, feeling excitement rising in her chest. It was as though she was about to discover something �" the pendant brought her here not without a reason. She doubted that it wanted the sculpture itself, but if it was hollow… In movies precious items were often hidden inside the sculptures.

May winced from pain, as the sapphire pulsated again, as though hurrying her.

“Here comes nothing!” the girl said and began pushing the sculpture. The piece of ceramic swayed before it fell from its pedestal, shattering into pieces.

May bent over the mess and searched for the mysterious object which was supposed to be hidden. To her surprise, something really was there. Holding her breath, she reached out for something, which looked like a piece of wood, like a pole. She tugged it, but it was heavy. May grabbed it with her both hands and gasped, staring at what she was holding.

A spear.

She was holding a perfectly preserved spear. It was unbelievable, but the wooden pole wasn’t rotten and there wasn’t even a trace of rust on the long pike, which looked like it was still razor-sharp. The weapon was six feet long and heavy, so May put it aside.

Another thing caught the girl’s attention. She picked up one of the pieces of the shattered sculpture. The shards had drawings on the inside, like someone put a comic story inside the sculpture. More and more intrigued, May gazed at one of the pictures. She saw the figure of a bearded man, wielding a spear, and fighting a dragon which was attacking him. May knelt on the floor and began putting the pieces together, looking at the drawings. Another fragments depicted fighting men and fantastic creatures of all shapes imaginable, some looking strangely familiar.

“It must be a joke,” May whispered to herself and began arranging the ceramic pieces on the ground, the way the cracks were fitting each other. It took her some time, but puzzles were always her strength. Once done, she sat on her heels and looked at the ancient comic story.

There were pictures showing ships sailing through the vast see, then a battle with the monstrous creatures. The most of attention was drawn to the man from the sculpture and the dragon. May saw the scenes of their fight, their death and the funeral. Then followed the pictures of two men hiding the spear in the ceramic sculpture. The next images were strange: May could make out the characteristic triangular mirror and the sapphire necklace.

The girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath, keeping her cool. She knew this story, the one depicted on the ceramic pieces. She heard it from Baltar and every single detail matched. She glanced at the spear.

“No way,” she muttered. “I found the Dragonslayer’s Spear.”

May was sitting motionless, staring at the broken statue and the spear, who turned out to be the very same weapon, Aedain was looking for. To think that it was in her own basement all the time… Unbelievable. However, May had to admit, that the guardians were quite creative, hiding the Spear inside a sculpture.

It was a disturbing coincidence that May had to be the one to find the damn thing. Her bad luck for attracting all kinds of suspicious artifacts seemed to be almost supernatural.

Thinking that now, when she found the Spear, the pendant won’t bug her anymore, she stood up and was about to run upstairs, away from magical spears. However, the burning pain on her chest prevented her from doing so. Every step away from the Spear meant torture. Resigned, May returned to the weapon and lifted it. Holding  the pole tightly, she began walking. To her surprise, the sapphire did nothing to stop her. The girl ran upstairs.

“HAILEY!” she yelled.

Hailey who were standing at top of the stairs, probably woken up by the commotion, stared at May �" the girl looked agitated and was holding a six-feet long spear in her hands.

“May, what do you need that for?” Hailey asked, yawning.

May looked at her sister.

“Please help me,” she whimpered. “I can’t free myself from that thing!”

Hailey jumped onto their feet, alarmed, and ran downstairs. Perhaps other people would take it for a joke, but Hailey had already some experience with magical items snatching away May from their house and wasn’t going to ignore a potentially dangerous situation. She hurried to May and gripped the pole with her both hands.

“Let go off it,” she said and May did as Hailey said; she flexed her fingers.

But, when the younger girl was taking the Spear away, the sapphire necklace shocked May, making her bend in half from the pain.

“May, what’s happening?!” Hailey cried, scared.

May reached her hand towards the Spear.

“Give it back,” she managed to utter, barely able to speak from the pain, that was getting more intense.

Hailey quickly returned the spear to May. Once her fingers entwined the pole, pain vanished without a trace. May straightened her back and leaned on the spear like on a staff.

“I can’t leave it,” she stated the obvious, terrified by the situation.

Hailey looked like they were on brink of panicking.

“What should we do?!” the younger girl exclaimed. She took a couple of deep breaths and managed to calm herself. “I’ll think of something. I always do.”

Soon both sisters were sitting in the living room, brainstorming. May was getting gloomier, as none of them came to a conclusion, which made sense. The whole time she was sitting with the fix-feet long spear on her lap.

“Maybe we should call dad,” Hailey suggested as she ran out of the ideas. “If someone can know a thing about magical items, it’s him.”

May nodded. She wished to avoid this at all costs, but there was no other way.

“Right, let’s ca…” May stopped in midsentence when she felt the pendant warming up again, just like before. Alarmed, she clutched it and felt it pulsing slightly. The sensation was faint, but she knew, that it was about to get stronger and more painful soon. Her breathing hitched; she was scared of what the artifact would want from her this time. Then, she felt a stab of pain.

Hailey fell silent, as May whimpered, pressing her hand to the chest.

“May, what’s happening?” the younger girl asked nervously, standing up.

May winced, feeling the necklace burning her skin.

“I think it wants to go somewhere,” she uttered; May didn’t expect that the burning would intensify so quickly.

 “Where?” Hailey asked quietly.

May opened her mouth to answer, but then the excruciating pain shot through her body. She felt her sister yank her up.

“Which way?” Hailey asked.

The sapphire’s glow lead the way, as May, supported by her sister, made her way towards the basement. The pain was still present, as though urging the girl to hurry up, but it lessened as she was moving in the right direction. The two of them went into basement  filled with chests and antiques. The gem nearly pulled May towards the far corner of the room, to the place, where a particular crate was.

May and the Hailey inhaled sharply, knowing, what was in the chest. Hailey opened it with shaking hands.

“No!” the younger girl cried, hiding her face in her palms.

May felt her heart sink when she took a look inside the chest. The triangular mirror laid inside, but it didn’t look like a mirror at all. The girl couldn’t see her reflection in it; instead she saw white mist, swirling as though it was alive. The surface of the mirror looked like a veil and that was precisely what the white mist was �" the Veil separating the worlds. The passageway was open.

Hailey  was staring at the mirror too. She bit his lower lip, glancing at May.

“I think, that the necklace wants to travel to the other side,” May said quietly.

Hailey shook her head, her blonde lock flying around her head.

“No, you can’t go! You just came back, don’t leave!” Hailey clutched May’s arm, desperation in her eyes.

May smiled faintly, but the smile became replaced with a grimace of pain as the sapphire necklace was urging her to carry the spear to the world beyond the Veil. If she wanted the pain to stop, she had to leave home and head back to the world of the Callesmere Empire. If only… if only she could see mom and dad once again, only one time… talk to them, hear their voices… have the chance to say goodbye.

Fighting with the overwhelming, burning pain, May gave Hailey one more smile, not wanting her little sister to remember her with a scowl.

“Hailey, listen, you have to take good care of our parents,” May said, holding back her tears with all her willpower. “And don’t cry, it’s not like I’m dead.”

Hailey wiped the tears from her face and nodded. A miserable sob shook her body, but she flexed her fingers, freeing May’s arm. Her lips were shivering, but she smiled too, determined to see her older sister off with a smile.

“I… I love you, sis. Stay alive,” Hailey whispered.

“I love you too, Hailey,” May said, taking a step towards the mirror. She winced when the pain intensified, as if the necklace was hurrying her to get to the other side already.

“I will come back to you,” May said to Hailey and jumped.