"No need," Edgar murmured. "We're tired. Let's crash here, for now."

When Edgar stopped speaking, the whole Temple became made of ice.

"We should probably take a nap first," Raegan said.

"The world is about to end and you want to take a nap?" Jeff asked.

"Don't be absurd," Raegan replied. "Earth is not about to end and KI doesn't even exist. But we all need our beauty sleep, especially Ryan."

I seconded this, but I didn't want to sleep on the ice. Thankfully, only the temple had frozen over, so we slept amongst the dunes of the beach. 

We didn't see Alice anywhere, but we assumed she either left along with the goddess, or was nurturing Jake and leaving from the same magic circle from which they came.

Jeff, Raegan and Edgar would take turns waking up and paying attention to threats.

I was glad they didn't ask me to. Not only was I exhausted, but I started dreaming as soon as I fell asleep.

In my dream I was Vitaly, just like the last time.

I couldn't remember what it was, but I knew something horrible must have just happened. I could feel it.

Somebody died. I couldn't bring myself to think about it. It was too painful.

I looked around. I was in KI, near the Temple. I just had a crazy idea about the Empty Mirror.

A name came to mind. Jono Mitchell. And then I could contact the New Faith. Of course, behind their bigoted exterior, they could understand.

Leaving clues, somebody else would be able to look for the Empty Mirror, I thought. Samuel's son, if he won't be killed. I swore to myself I was going to help him.

I had to move fast. I knew somebody wanted to kidnap me.

I was scared out of my mind and terrified of them. But they weren't the Reapers.

They were the Awakened.

I woke up, sweating.

Raegan was sleeping like an angel, while Jeff and Edgar were already awake.

"Don't you need some rest?" I asked a pale and nervous Jeff.

"No, I don't," he replied. "I'll only be able to rest once we finish the quest. I can understand why you or Raegan would want to sleep — you almost died yesterday and she has seen her father's ghost. I'm the only one who doesn't have anything to lose."

I wanted to ask him what he meant, but I knew.

Raegan often thought of the past. I had a chance for my future since I had just left behind a place where I didn't belong.

Jeff, however, only had this moment. Avenging his father's memory, looking for the Empty Mirror — this was all he had ever had.

"Jeff is right, let's go to the Ice Palace," Edgar said.

"No," Raegan retorted. "Breakfast first."

"I think I should call the shots," I pointed out. "I almost died yesterday. Those wounds don't magically disappear, you know that right? I barely have strength to walk. Breakfast it is."

Breakfast didn't mean the same thing it meant in Brighton, sandwiches and orange juice that I bought at Morrisons. And it didn't mean what it meant back at the Academy either — whatever we chose from the little buffet Mister Winter prepared, usually toast, jam, fruit and cereal.

Breakfast on KI meant Raegan picking strange berries and fruit and Edgar telling her whether they were poisonous using the knowledge of what you shouldn't eat on Earth. And we had to trust the same rules worked for this fairytale world.

"Raegan told me the story of the sequel of the Ice Palace and for once, I already knew it too," Jeff said enthusiastically. "It's set in the palace, the place where Tyr goes to live after his happily ever after in the other story. It was popular outside mythology books, with the title A Dragon and Two Princesses. I didn't know it was based in the same fictional world."

"I can't say I have heard of it," I replied.

"While we're eating, I'll tell you," Edgar told me gruffly.

"It's like you're taking me to a movie theatre," I teased him.

"I don't know what it is, but it sounds like a date," Raegan arched an eyebrow. Jeff elbowed her.

Before we settled somewhere for breakfast, I found a shed with clothes on the inside. I didn't know why they were abandoned there, but my friends and I agreed it seemed as if every location for the story was there for the travellers. We all changed some of our clothes, the tattered ones, and I finally got to wear trousers again.

Since it was tight, jet black trousers that clashed with my usual grunge look, Raegan couldn't stop laughing when I wore them, but I thought it didn't look that bad.

Edgar told me in a nearly emotionless tone the story of Two Princesses and a Dragon. It wasn't like going to a movie theatre. The story was about two princesses. They went to pray to Tyr's palace to win the favour of the prince they both liked. Following the gods' rules, one of them won his hand in marriage after she won a duel.

Then, things escalated quickly. After the princess started to notice how much of a jerk her new husband was, she turned him into a dragon.

The two princesses became best friends and started living together with the prince still disguised as a dragon. Or something like that.

"I hope we won't have to meet the dragon," Raegan pointed out.

She must have said it to improve my low morale, since Edgar finally opened the portal after we were done eating. The landscape was snowy and there was an ice palace in the distance.

"Now that we know this is fictional world, that exists only because of mythology," Edgar said. "We have to move accordingly. The steps we make, the clues we follow... it's unlike any other quest. It's like living inside your favourite story."

"I thought your favourite books were our textbooks," I joked. "Do you reckon there's a parallel world set in each one of them?"

"Shut up Griswold," Edgar said. 

We walked closer to the Ice Palace. A building twice the size of the biggest theatre, and made entirely of ice. It looked like a fairy-tale castle gone wrong, with icy towers of different heights.

We didn't have the right clothes.

"Well," I said. "We have no other choice but to go inside."

The floor was very slippery and cold. Everything about it screamed that it was a bad idea.

"At least the Blasted Tower was kind of easy," Raegan commented.

"It wasn't. Jono Mitchell did not let us go because he wasn't taking his job seriously," I commented. "It was the love for his son that moved him to help us."

Thinking of Jono Mitchell reminded me of my nightmare, but it didn't seem the right time to say it out loud. I'd just pay attention, in case the Awakened crossed our paths again.

"My element is water," Raegan said. "And ice is solidified water. There must be something I can do for those molecules."

After her Mudra, the ground looked less slippery. Raegan put one foot in front of the other and started walking. She looked so confident that I couldn't help but imitate her.

But I must warn you. If you don't have a very good reason to walk on ice, don't.

It was less slippery, but walking on it required a lot of balance. I put one foot in the wrong position and I almost crashed it with my whole body weight. The pain almost made me puke. I don't know how, but I managed to get back on track.

And at that moment, I saw an Arcane in a corner of the room. It was shaped like a lamp, with a veil covering the lampshade. It didn't have an expression, but it oozed its feelings, and it appeared angry.

"Is this Arcane dead?" I asked. The way the quest worked, it must have helped the people who went there before Samuel did.

"Yes, the Arcane is dead," an older woman said, stepping out from behind the lampshade. "What imprecise, coarse language, child."

"Why," Edgar elbowed me. "That's what I tell you all the time."

"I'm not a child," I whispered.

"Josephine Aleksy," the woman introduced herself. "I have allies that move between worlds, so I followed you at the same time they did. I'm here to warn you your friend from school and his girlfriend have cut his bonds, and he's trying to ambush you here."

"Way to ruin the surprise!" Jake commented, as he appeared from a dark corner. He didn't sound too defeated. Alice was walking behind him, like a hostage. "It doesn't matter. Even without my magic, I have skills the others can't think of."

I gritted my teeth. Jake was more ruthless than the rest of us --- that was true. The way he'd grabbed the sword from the altar and stabbed me near the heart, in cold blood... None of us would have done that to him.

"Josephine," I told the old woman. "Can you take on Jake while we look for the hint?" I was feeling angry, and a little uneasy at the thought of the Awakened. What if they were Josephine's allies? They were certainly the only people who could move between worlds and who had followed us I could think of. Still, I couldn't tell my dream to the others in front of the woman.

In the meantime, Jake used the sword he'd stolen from the temple to attack Josephine, who, thankfully, seemed to have learned martial arts and was holding her own.

If the lighthouse didn't have a lot of furniture, this building was completely empty. There was only us, Jake and Alice, Josephine Aleksy, the lamp and the ice.

"I don't know how and I don't know why," I reasoned out loud. "I don't know how else Josephine would have followed us if it wasn't for her friends, but she would have."

I turned around to face her. "We're supposed to find the hint through you."

"Maybe you're clever after all," Josephine said, very teacher-like. With a move, she hit Jake behind his neck, and he went crumbling on the ground.

"An Arcane to help us, a spirit back from the dead, they both want to protect the world," I added. "But there must have been someone else, someone from the world. Someone who lives in the place that we're saving. Someone alive. It had to be one of the Awakened, and they chose a cynical one to see if we would surpass every test."

"Smart words. Indeed, that's the way it is. Except, you are wrong about one thing. I do not know anyone called the Awakened."

I wanted to ask what she meant, when I felt a sword grazing my neck. "Now, now, let's not make any sudden move," Jake said. He'd recovered while I was talking to Josephine.

"Alice, stop him!" Raegan yelled. "I don't know how... just do something!"

Alice looked at us sheepishly. "But I don't have my magic here..." The attempt was so pathetic, even the dead Veiled Lamp looked mortified.

I used the Mudra for hurting people --- it was a less intense version of the killing one, since the killing one finished off its victims through hurting them.

When Jake fell on the ice, and he abandoned his sword, I knelt until I was on top of him. I grabbed the hilt of the sword, even though it was big and clumsy in my hand.

"Why did you become one of them?" I yelled. "I know that it was because you weren't chosen for the quest. It was your pride speaking!"

He got up, and his movement made me buckle on my knees. I landed with a thud, and the ice cracked a little under my weight.

"Ah, Ryan," he said. "You wanted to have your moment, but I'll tell you a secret. We all want it. But you can't fathom the number of times I thought joining their side was my calling. I've been practising magic for much longer than you have. I have already been on quests, spoken to people. You're new to this. I was shocked the cards picked you --- you're going to doom us all."

I was so humiliated a few tears probably stained my face.

"You're just angry Ryan is more talented than you've ever been," Jeff growled. "I wonder if jealousy, perhaps towards me, was what made you join the Reapers. It's not a good reason to get killed, and it's certainly not a good reason to get your girlfriend killed."

"Shut up!" Jake was enraged. "You know nothing about my reasons!"

My legs were hurting, but I managed to get back on my feet.

"You really are an idiot," I told him. "If you were thinking clearly, you'd realise the best thing was letting us proceed with the quest so we would find the Empty Mirror and give it to the Reapers. If you have spied on us long enough to know that we are, in fact, planning not to give it to the Reapers, you should have ambushed at the very end of the quest and tried to take the Mirror from me. Over my dead body."

"So if I was you, I wouldn't pick up the sword," I added, for it was what he was doing. "Go back home. Wait for us to do what we need to do, and we'll talk. If anything, not to endanger Alice."

I imagined Jake had a reason for being here, unless his jealousy spoke louder than his alliances. Still, in that moment, I didn't care much for it.

Jeff sat down. I hadn't noticed because I'd been hurt the most, but Jeff was still limping. His leg might never fully recover.

My friends and I gathered around him. Alice and Jake had the decency to stay a few feet away.

"The hints," Edgar said. "They were never getting us closer to the Empty Mirror, were they?"

"Well, we seem to be following a path," Jeff winced. "Which I hope is the right path."

"Right. But in every place we go to, we learn something, don't we? And it's not about the Empty Mirror. It's either about ourselves or this world, the world of KI around us. There is something Vitaly wants us to know, with his clues."

"And this time," Edgar added. "I don't think we should look for the hint."

He spoke louder, and turned to Josephine. "I know what is happening here. There is something Vitaly Malinov swore he'd never reveal that he wants us to know. Am I correct, Josephine Aleksi? The clues were all leading up to that."

"That is true, Wollstonecraft," the woman replied. "But it's still not enough to pass my test. Before you get to the Empty Mirror, I'd like to know how much you're willing to sacrifice. You see, with your four different upbringings, I have a theory. You don't know enough about love to want love. And you don't know enough about it to know you want what is more than enough. Love is my third clue."

"The love Vitaly felt for Samuel?" I wondered.

"The love you feel for the quest, as opposed to the love you feel for your friends," Josephine said, and moved her hands. The floor of the Palace split in two, and Alice and Jake found themselves a few feet away from us.

"I will kill them," Josephine said. "Unless someone takes their place and decides to stay behind."

Josephine didn't know who she was dealing with. Even though Jake had betrayed me, I wouldn't want to see anyone killed if I could prevent it. I'd seen senseless death before, when such an unpredictable thing as an accident had taken my mother from me. And Alice... I didn't believe she was a coward. She was just showing an ounce of loyalty to Jake, something I might have done with someone that I loved. When it came to people like Alice, my friends... then it wasn't even a question — I would have done it without hesitation.

"Take me," I exclaimed. "Let them go, back home where they belong, and take me instead."

"This is not the answer I was looking for," Josephine said. "You have to learn how to let go of things... or people. At the very least the traitorous ones. Though I suppose it is a lesson I will teach to McIntosh, Tanaka and Wollstonecraft."

"No, wait," Edgar added soberly. "Don't take Ryan! Take me. I am more than willing to make the sacrifice."

Josephine's mouth opened up in a little o.

"Please, don't do it!" I exclaimed.

"Edgar Wollstonecraft," Jopsehine said, and I felt like my heart was tearing into a little million pieces. "Please, take your friend's place. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten."

Edgar looked at her with a defiant look in her eyes. He looked glowing — in the literal sense. As if his bravery was making him shine from the inside out. 

"I am sorry for how I behaved," Edgar whispered to me. "I can't push everyone away."

Still, my heart was in my throat. I didn't fully believe that the old lady was going to kill him, but we had no idea what else she would do to him.

"We can still kill her," I said. "The Awakened are bad people. They are the ones who kidnapped Vitaly Malinov! I dreamt about it."

I was whispering in hurried tones so Josephine wouldn't hear. But Edgar shook his head. "She said she didn't know them, and I trust her. It wouldn't make sense to lie after she was the one who mentioned her mysterious allies."

I couldn't believe he was putting up resistance. "Stop," I hissed. "Edgar. You can't do this!"

"This is the only way she'll let us go, and you know it. The clue was what the clues were all about, and I paid the price."

There were so many things I wanted to say. That we still didn't know a damn about the mysteries this quest hid, so he shouldn't have to sacrifice. That maybe I wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed but I couldn't understand what Aleksi was trying to tell me.

That I would save the world, and come back for him.

But Josephine welcomed Edgar at her side. Thankfully, she didn't kill him on the spot. I hoped her words were theoretical, just a way to make us choose.

"Thank you for saving me," Jake said. "Even though you'll pay the price for it."

As he was lunging on the ice to reach for the sword, I saw Jeff tried to make a Mudra. His mouth quirked in pain. It seemed the pain from his bad leg was exacerbating the pain from his spells

"The tonic," Raegan called to him, and threw him a bottle. I didn't know Jeff had asked her to safe-keep it.

Thankfully, Jeff froze it mid-air with a spell and caught it. Then, in one go, he finished the whole ampoule.

"Jake," Raegan said. "I'm sorry. Alice, tell Mister Winter I changed your boyfriend's memories and to find someone who can bring them back. He should still be turned in as a spy and face punishment."

"What?" Jake explained, as Raegan performed the Mudra. Before he could find the hilt of his sword, Jake looked around, confused and dazed. Alice took him away, whispering soothing things to him. I hoped they were finally leaving KI.

When I looked back at Jeff, I saw him falling backwards. He looked almost dead.

"He's exhausted!" Raegan exclaimed, which I thought was a hopeful remark. "The other ampoule!"

I took from my jacket the ampoule with the green liquid.

I opened Jeff's mouth and tried to make him drink. It wasn't an easy task, but if he could drink at least some of it, he would get his strength back.

I managed to make him swallow part of the liquid.

Jeff opened his eyes. But he looked... wrong. He had a confused expression on his face.

"What's up, Jeff?" I asked. "Are you still tired?"

I handed him the ampoule. He drank all of it.

"Yeah, but that's not the problem," he said. "It acted strangely. I got my memories back... the ones from last year's quest."

We held our breath. I wanted to cry at the idea that Josephine had portaled Edgar away while we were busy battling Jake. Not only I didn't know if I'd ever see him again --- he also wouldn't be here to hear Jeff confirm if his paranoia had a reason to exist. Jeff looked very sad, and he had black circles around his eyes from exhaustion.

"Come on, Jeff," I pleaded. "You can tell us what's wrong."

He took a deep breath.

"It's Jake who jinxed me," he said. "And he's also the one who took my memory of it. It's true, what he said. He's been on the bad side for long, for longer than we even knew there was a bad side. I... I think he wanted to kill me, when I was harmless and powerless in the temple with him. But then Edgar stormed in and opened the door, and asked us why we were taking so long."

"Then," I couldn't help but let out a few tears. "Edgar was wrong, for once. He did act in time, back then. He couldn't spare you the pain, but he saved your life..."

I felt a hand being placed on my shoulders. "Do not worry," Josephine Aleksy said. "The choice was more important than you'll ever know, but you didn't lose Edgar. I didn't kill him."

She studied me closely. "You're Ryan Barnes, are you? I have a message from you from an Enchanter you knew back in your old life."

"I didn't know any Enchanter in my old life," I almost laughed at the surreality. Then, I thought better of it. "Risa?"

"No, I am afraid not. This Enchanter was a man. He wanted to tell you that you have to decide your place in the world yourself --- as a kid, he's always wondered why he couldn't live amongst humans. He admired humans. Their technology, their art, their music, they way they create with the hearts what they cannot create with the aether. He wanted to be an artist, but it's not a wise career in the Aether Realm.

But one day, he learned how to stand up to bad people. He had an abusive stepfather, and he left home. For years, he swore he'd never let anyone else close again, and that he'd start over between two realms. Blend in the background, like he always did. But he vowed to bring change, from the inside. No child was ever going to suffer what he suffered if he could see to it.

He vowed to become a teacher, a helper of the forgotten children, something of his own making that no one noticed."

"Jordan Bates!" I exclaimed. "Risa's stepfather, and none other than my uncle. He'd told me he'd always been interested in the Aether Realm and tried to go there from time to time. Apparently, it was a lie! He is an Enchanter."

"Moral of the story?" Raegan asked.

"I am a being of two worlds, and I have to decide myself in which one I belong," I said, thinking of Jake's words. "And it's probably a warning to stand up to my own stepfather, and solve the Sphinx's riddle in the future."

Jeff grinned. "That way, you'd have even more power."

"But wait..." I looked at Josephine and frowned. "How do you know all this? Who are you, exactly?"