In the throne room of Castle Daventry, King Graham and Queen Valanice were seated on their thrones, awaiting any people in need of help to approach them, while at the same time nervously contemplating what their children and loved ones had gotten into.
Rosella had vanished from her room scarcely fifteen minutes ago, leaving only a note with the words, "We will return soon," scrawled on it.
Both Graham and Valanice were frightened by this. Still, since Rosella had a knack for getting out of any trouble that she got herself into and there didn't appear to be anything they could do, the king and queen elected to wait for the princess's return in the hopes that it would be as soon as her note said it would be.
Presently, a sonorous noise filled the throne room and a glowing yellow doorway opened in its center. As used as they were to such strange magical phenomena, Graham and his wife gaped speechlessly at the opening as a figure stepped though the doorway. It wasn't their daughter, Rosella, however – it was their son, Alexander.
"Mother! Father!" he exclaimed. "The device worked! I know where to go to find Cassima and Edgar now! Cassima's parents are with me and Rosella's found Edgar's parents, now all we need is you! Are you ready?"
Although Graham and Valanice both had no idea what their son was talking about, they felt that there would be time for explanations later. They did understand that their son was on the brink of finding a way to bring Cassima and Edgar home as well as a way to stop Shadrack, and for the moment, that was all they needed to know.
"I always am," Graham said, setting his crown aside and donning his adventurer's cap.
"I hope this works…" Valanice said nervously as they followed their son through the luminous portal.
"Cassima?"
"Oh, hello, Edgar," Cassima said, looking at the image of the prince's bodiless head.
"What's going on?"
Cassima smiled.
"I solved that sorcerer's riddle. He told me that Shadrack has one major obsession that might turn out to be his Achilles' heel. In fact, he said that Shadrack may have placed all his power within a single piece somehow connected to that obsession."
Edgar felt even more outraged than he had been when the physician gave him a copper in exchange for his sight, hearing, ability to walk and magic powers.
"That's the information that I spent all that time collecting those trinkets for?" he yelled.
"At least we have an idea how we can defeat him, which is more than we had before," Cassima said levelly. "I'm returning to Kolyma. Are you ready to go there, too?"
Still angry but slightly calmer, Edgar nodded.
"Yes, Cassima. I'm ready."
"Remember – try to think of me as well as Kolyma. That should land us in the same era and location."
"Right," Edgar agreed.
Cassima shut her eyes and focused on Kolyma – it was much easier remembering a land she had just been to. The trick was combining it with the image of Edgar. After a few tries, though, she was able to picture both clearly as if they were right in front of her eyes.
Edgar had a similar experience, and within moments, both of them had vanished from their respective lands.
Just as Edgar was fading, however, the door to the room he was in burst open and Aubrey ran in, holding a small, furry, fluttering creature in his hand.
"Edgar! Wait!" Aubrey cried. "Is this little fellow yours…?"
It was too late. Edgar was gone. The pygmy griffin in Aubrey's grasp let out an anguished wail of loss.
"I guess you are his, aren't you?" Aubrey asked the tiny creature. "Looks like I'll have more things to accomplish today than I first thought…"
Cassima felt herself standing on a grassy piece of land. She opened her eyes to find that not only had she successfully returned to the plateau in Kolyma, but that Edgar had made it there safely as well. For a moment, she was unable to do anything but gape ecstatically at him.
"What?" Edgar asked.
"We've finally made it to the same place at the same time," she cried. The dream from the night before last hadn't been just a dream after all – it had been a vision. "And it was just by thinking of each other! If we can do that, it shouldn't be any problem at all to get home! All we'll have to do is think of Alexander and Rosella, and we'll be home in an instant!"
"But we do have to confront Shadrack first," Edgar reminded her. Cassima immediately grew quiet and serious.
"Indeed," she said. "And the only way to get to him before he gets to Edward has to be through these pendants…but they didn't work when we tried interlocking them."
"They didn't work because we wouldn't let them," Edgar said. "We were too afraid of what they would do. We have to trust them…and each other."
Cassima looked anxiously at Edgar. She couldn't argue with what he said; they had both deliberately held back when the pendants were trying to merge their minds, and had consequently landed in the wrong locations. If they wanted to end up in the right place and time, they would have to let the pendants do what they were designed to do – as unpleasant as that seemed.
"Well…are you ready?" Cassima asked.
"If you are, so am I," Edgar said.
He held out his pendant, which Cassima linked with her own. Once again there was a bright, swirling light and those whispers on the borders of their minds. This time, however, neither Cassima nor Edgar fought against this strange, unearthly force. With nothing holding them back, the power created by the united pendants proceeded to entwine the duo's thoughts, twisting them tighter until both felt as if they were suffocating.
Then, with a rush like a tidal wave, their minds had combined into one. Cassima could feel the anxiety Edgar felt regarding Rosella, his fear of not being accepted by her and his feeling of being an outcast all his life, yet at the same time a deep sense of love and devotion towards her, and how he fervently hoped this journey would somehow prove himself worthy of her love.
At the same time, Edgar realized that as determined and fearless as Cassima appeared, inside she was just as nervous and uncertain as he was, ceaselessly worrying and wondering how they could possibly defeat Shadrack, wondering how her family was faring in her absence, wondering what Alexander would think of her once he discovered that she had kissed Edgar…
As deep and personal as their thoughts and memories were, they slowly became aware that they weren't being subjected to all of each other's thoughts. They were only experiencing what they had thought since the moment they had put on the pendants. Any previous experiences were unreachable for both of them, and perhaps it was just as well – neither Cassima nor Edgar felt they could withstand everything the other had ever thought being suddenly crammed into their own minds.
Everything that had gone through their heads since they donned the pendants was now spreading outward, their thoughts interlocking like ripples from the opposite ends of a pond. At the same time, a powerful burst of energy was released, a mental pulse radiating through space and time, causing everyone they had met over the course of their journey to pause suddenly, as if they had heard a familiar voice calling their name.
Alexander felt the pulse as he was gathering his family together, and he felt his connection to Cassima grow even stronger. Rosella felt it as she was nervously waiting for her brother's return, and felt that she knew exactly where Edgar was and where he was heading. Numerous other people and creatures felt it as well. Some merely shrugged the sensation off, but others instinctively knew what it was and what it meant – something of great importance was about to take place.
As their thoughts were racing back and forth, a deep sense of calm and understanding came over Cassima and Edgar. Everything became crystal clear. Nothing was confusing any longer, and for one fleeting instant, they could almost understand what King Neptune meant when he spoke of the Great Story – how the purpose of Evil was not to attempt to eclipse Good, but to provide balance to the Story, and how the role Good played was one that served merely to restore the balance between the two whenever Evil became more prevalent.
There would always be agents of Evil in the world, but at the same time, there would always be agents of Good to counteract their actions. Each individual had their own role to play in the Great Story, some on the side of Good, some on the side of Evil, and some in-between the two, serving as either aides or obstacles for one side or the other. It was no curse to be Evil, just as it was no curse to be Good. It was just the way things were written, and every triumph of Good over Evil or vice versa was merely another chapter in the Great Story.
Then the feeling was gone, with only a flicker of a memory left in its place, leaving Cassima and Edgar alone in the middle of the blinding glow. Together, they began to picture Daventry the way Alexander and Rosella had described it to them, while visualizing Shadrack and all he embodied at the same time. Their combined thoughts made the image that much clearer and vivid, and when Edgar opened the slit in the air, both of them could picture Daventry as if they had known it all their lives, and as unclear as their image of Shadrack was, somehow his face seemed familiar as well. In their hearts, they knew that they wouldn't fail now. They couldn't fail.
Edgar squinted nervously into the dark, starry opening.
"Do you want me to lead the way?" he asked.
Cassima smirked.
"Whatever happened to 'ladies first?'"
"Sorry," Edgar said, stepping aside. "Go in whenever you're ready, your Highness."
Cassima approached the dark opening. Just as she was about to step through it, however, she turned to Edgar with what seemed like more than humor in her smile.
"You can call me Cassie, Edgar."
Edgar stared at her as she pulled her pendant loose from his and vanished through the opening with a bursting arabesque of sparks and light. When the dazzling display vanished, he could see the slit beginning to close. He quickly leaped through after her, to a time long before either of them had been born, in a land neither of them had ever seen, where the future for both of their worlds would remain secure – as long as they succeeded.
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