Episode 178 - Regumnians

Episode 178 - Regumnians
I barely had time to recover from what was happening when I realized who was standing in front of me. Luke and Tobias, the same ones who had said we would always be together, and who three weeks ago, when we crossed from Regum to Earth, disappeared without a trace. Looking at them, I felt a cocktail of emotions that didn't let me think clearly. I remembered how they had disappeared, and I felt furious, disappointed, but I was also relieved to see them alive, and happy to have them by my side when I needed them most.

Ness - Where have you been?

That was all I managed to say before a loud crash was heard in the distance.

Luke - Shit...

The crash echoed throughout the apartment, raising dust from the ceiling. The crack, which had stopped, began to throb again, louder, like a heartbeat demanding attention. This time it didn't exert a physical attraction; it seemed to be something different, something that made me feel the need to approach.

Joe - What the hell was that?

Luke stared at the window, his jaw clenched.

Luke - It's spreading. The breach might not be the only one in this city now that we're here.

I took a step forward, my voice high, trembling with anger.

Ness - Don't change the subject. Three weeks, Luke, Tobias. Three weeks. Even Kris disappeared from her house.

Tobias let go of me and lowered his gaze to the floor. He looked older, tired, as if those weeks had etched years into his life.

Tobias - When... we cross the portal... we don't return to the same day, nor to the same moment as you. Actually, we returned days before you even started your trip.

Joe's flames flickered, his suspicion burning hotter than his hands.

Joe - Convenient. You disappeared and now you appear just as the breach opens? How do we know it's really you?

Luke turned, his blue glow dimming, sweat trickling down his temple.

Luke - Because if it weren't us... You would have left here already. That crash outside? It's Regum testing the limits. We barely made it back in time.

The rift throbbed again, the void beyond shifted, as if something were stirring in the darkness. My scar throbbed, and I felt the voice pressing against my skull once more: You belong to us. So much was happening that it wasn't easy to make a concrete decision. I looked at everyone; we were together again, once again embroiled in another problem.

Ness - Another adventure to follow?

Tobias - No... This seems to be the end. It seems that Regum will finally be brought under control, and the prophecy will finally be fulfilled.

Joe - Explain yourselves. And don't say we don't have time.

Luke looked at Tobias, then at me, and his gaze quickly redirected to Joe, although he was still focused on the earring he was wearing on his hand. Luke's fingers tightened around the pendant; the gleam pulsed faintly as if it were alive. His voice was low, strained.

Luke - We didn't vanish. When we returned and you hadn't even reached the village, we had to hide. When we saw you arrive, you have no idea what we had to endure to avoid going with you, to not speak to you.

Joe's flames burned, casting jagged shadows on the walls.

Joe - What do you mean?

Ness - If you had spoken to us when we didn't know who you were... Perhaps we would never have entered Regum.

Tobias raised his head, his gaze downcast but steady.

Tobias - When you finally left, the day after you disappeared, we approached Kris and explained everything that had happened to us.

The rift pulsed again, louder, the void beyond shifting like a restless tide. My scar was burning, and it seemed that Regum didn't want us to know what had happened to them.

Tobias - While we were with him, the first breach opened. We did everything we could to close it, but our magic wasn't enough.

Joe - So...

Luke - Kris remembered seeing Mercavian talking to someone from outside the village once, a hermit who had lived alone for a very long time, and no one knew where he came from or how long he had lived there.

Ness - From where...? Was he a Regumnian?

Luke - Yes.

Tobias - Kris and I went to look for him. Although we wanted to wait for you to return, we couldn't. Regum was expanding, and we didn't know when you would appear.

The room seemed to shrink as we understood Tobias's words. The rift pulsed again, the void beyond pressing down on us like a tide.

Joe - A hermit? And you just trusted him?

Luke's jaw tightened, his hand still clutching the pendant.

Luke - We had no choice. He knew things about Regum that no one else did. He spoke of the prophecy, of the barrier breaking; not in centuries, but now. And when we told him what had happened, he told us another prophecy, not the one we'd been told.

I felt a tightness in my chest, my scar burning even more.

Ness - What do you mean?

Tobias's voice was low, almost trembling.

Tobias - Regum doesn't just leak. It seeks anchors in this world, and once it finds them... it won't stop.

Joe - Wait, back up. What did you say about the prophecy?

Luke - He showed us the books, where the records of the original prophecies were kept, the council of wise men who advised the queen centuries ago; he had all the records preserved, unaltered.

Ness - And the truth was what prevented them from returning all this time?

Luke - Partly... We also found this pendant, which is an accessory that helped us contain the breaches, but there are still many things we can't find, things we don't know how to find...

Tobias - To stop this, we have to return to Regum, to a place forbidden by ancient books and teachings, a place where no one should be.

Joe - And why didn't you come back sooner so we could all come back together? Why wait until it got to this point?

Luke - Because it wouldn't let us get close. Whatever it was, we couldn't get too close to you without feeling an immense pain in our chests, a magnetic pull away from you, or severe headaches. We don't even know if we can truly return to Regum.

Ness - Mixxi... Mixxi was here today.

Tobias - Mixxi? We haven't heard anything from her or anyone else. We haven't had any contact with Regum other than the people we managed to talk to.

Ness - What? She spoke to us through the mirror today.

I pointed to the mirror and noticed something strange about it. We saw our reflection, but the mirror looked hollow, as if there were something in it, as if it were a simple door and not a mirror.

Ness - It resembles the portal to the world where Mercavian was trapped.

To be continued..