By the time I got over whatever the sickness was—the fever lasted for several days and none of the doctors could put a specific name to my symptoms, though they gave me medicine for general feverishness that seemed to help—there were three people that I knew more about than I ever really wanted to. Henry, Hazard, and Temp.
Henry visited the first day, Nerissa leading him by the hand. They came to my hospital room only a few hours after Luxa left the first morning, and though Nerissa pretended to be there to ask about my visions, it was a little obvious that her main reason was to drop Henry off. She had only asked a few questions and I had only given a few vague answers before she suddenly had to go eat lunch with a nameless important person, leaving Henry behind with clearly previously-given instructions to keep me company. I was actually grateful to Nerissa for this, because although we had about ten years between our ages, Henry was another guy and Henry was an Overlander.
     Hazard showed up out of nowhere one evening with a motley of creatures probably meant to cheer me up. There were two baby nibblers named Vector and Root that constantly muttered to each other, arguing about something while glancing repeatedly at me before hastily turning back to each other. A very small blonde flier fluttered in and hung upside down from the doorway, somehow finding a small groove in the stone to hold on to. Hazard said her name was Selene, and though she didn't say a word, her eyes never left my face. I don't think she ever blinked in the hours that Hazard spent in my room. It was only a little creepy. He also had a glass jar—an item that I recognized from my times exploring the museum full of Overland odds and ends—that was full of crawlers. Not the Underland, but the Overland kind: small and easily flattened by a newspaper.
     "Ripred got them for me." Hazard chattered excitedly. Though he was eight and well on his way to nine, he hadn't lost his love for creatures, and he could talk about them—or to them in various languages—for hours on end. "He said that even though they're crawlers, they aren't as smart because they haven't grown big enough and their brains are too small. You call them roaches, right? Or cock-cockaroaches. They can't speak crawler yet but I'm trying to teach them. Sometimes if I listen really close I think I hear them clicking back but I can't tell because they're soooo small."
     Even though Hazard talked nonstop about his friends, and asked question after question about Overland animals until my voice was hoarse from answering and I had a headache, I was very glad he came. He made me laugh—a lot.
     I suspect Luxa had something to do with Temp's visit because he's never been much of a talker. Yet when he arrived, he told me all about the current diplomatic situations between every one of the Underland species, including his own crawler...kingdom, which I found very (cough—boring—cough) interesting. Though he avoided discussing the current state of the fliers and humans, he told me about their past, and how they have been allies nearly since the first arrival of Sandwich.
And now they are enemies. Or even worse—nothing. They won't attack each other but they refuse to be allies. Other than the few who stayed behind, the fliers have alienated themselves from the humans to the point where there is no relationship—nothing—between them. Between us. Between Eris and I even though it was Eris who told us about their secret in the first place.
When my fever finally broke and the doctors were convinced that I'd had enough rest and could stand and walk without any danger of falling over again, they let me leave the hospital wing. It's evening, the time when most people are finding their way to bed, so the halls are empty. I wander through the halls aimlessly at first, unsure where to go and what to do and who to see and how to stay busy and when—if ever—Eris will come back because I miss him, and my insides prickle every time my shoes rasp against the stone floor and I think it might be the hiss of his voice.
     I find myself on the castle wall, looking out across Regalia and toward the Lost Garden in the distance, a small smudge of green illuminated by electric light. The white light is comforting to me, reminding me of home in New York City, hundreds or thousands of feet over my head.
     Though my family is no longer in New York, I can see them clearly. I can imagine them living there as if we'd never moved away. Boots riding her bike in the street in front of our old apartment. Lizzie playing traffic cop, rushing after Boots to keep her from going too far, waving at cars to slow down, apologetically helping a woman pick up her spilled groceries after Boots nearly knocked her over. I can see Mom and Dad too, healthy and happy, cooking dinner together in the kitchen. Mom rushing over to stop Dad before he can add too much spice to the chili. Grandma snoring softly in her bed, then jolting awake and calling for Simon to get her some root beer. I can see Mrs. Cormaci too, doing laundry and coming over to check the grate. Leaning down to watch the silvery smoke-like mist that means the air currents are active.
     I look up at the cavern above me when I hear the flutter of wings. For the briefest of milliseconds I'm hopeful that Eris has returned, but the hope is crushed by the sight of a chocolate-colored female flier named Demetri. She doesn't come down to the wall. She doesn't land near me to talk. She doesn't try to comfort me or see if I'm okay. Instead she flies slowly overhead, forming circles and figure-eights in the air with a hypnotic grace that brushes away all of my worries. It's strange how calming the movement is, and I couldn't explain it even if I tried.
     I watch her for several minutes, still thinking of my family. Mrs. Cormaci watches the silvery mist as well, though her laundry is already done. But the silver mist is acting strangely. The currents that are barely visible seem to be twisting and knotting themselves, looping over each other too erratically to be safe. Mrs. Cormaci steps away from the grate and somehow I don't think I'm imagining it anymore. I think that somewhere in my daydreaming I've slipped into a vision—but one that's happening while I'm awake. And now something even stranger is happening. The mist seems to be appearing all around me, not just in the image before my eyes. There's a strand to my left and a loop to my right, and a slight breeze brushes the hair on top of my head.
     A fist of panic clutches at my heart and before I can think about what I'm saying—before I can know what I'm doing—I scream, "DEMETRI, LAND!" I scramble backward toward the hallways behind me. The guards that are always there—but generally seem to be invisible and immovable—jerk upward and open their mouths, saying something to me that I can't focus on. "LAND!" I screaml louder, my voice cracking. "LAND NOW! NOW!!!"
     I grab the wrist of the guard closest to me and reach for the edge of the doorway, frantically trying to get a grip on something solid before it starts. But I am too late. My fingertips brush the stone and then my feet are no longer on the ground and I am flying just like that time last year when I went on a mission disguised as a picnic with nine others that turned into eleven.
In seconds everything turns dark. The currents seem to have blown out the torches in the city below, and the faint electric glow in the distance isn't enough to help with visibility. I close my eyes to remove the distraction and focus on echolocation. "DEMETRI?!" I yell, trying to find her shape in the rough outlines around me. For the moment I couldn't care less about myself. I remember what it did to the fliers when they got caught in the currents. It tore at their wings and twisting their bodies and drove them insane as they tried and failed to gain control of their flight.
"Here!" A faint voice calls from somewhere below me. I focus on it and find Demetri's shape on the ground next to a house, wings tucked tightly against her body. For a moment I can see her as clearly as if I were standing next to her. She's pressed tightly against the ground, the fur in top of her head and shoulders swaying back and forth, but farther down there seems to be almost no wind at all, the currents haven't reached that low, but they're close—too close—if they're able to blow out the torches hung just above the height of a doorway.
Then Demetri becomes blurry again, out-of-focus as the currents carry me away. I take a deep breath and see my surroundings, identifying where I am and where I'm heading. The currents themselves give off no shape or form that my echolocation can detect, but I can see the empty spaces just barely. The unmoving air is warmer than the currents, though the difference is nearly undetectable. This means that if I look very carefully, I can see where the pathways lead and how I can use them to get back to the castle wall.
Except for two problems:
1. I can't tell which direction each current is moving in, so that will be discovered solely through trial and error.
2. I've already left Regalia far behind.
Crap.