I had no idea how to create a pocket, but we had spent many rotations pouring over Cyrus’s maps as everyone was evacuated, and I at least knew Minatsol better than I knew Topia.
“This is a little different to creating a normal pocket in Topia,” Cyrus explained, drawing away from his position holding back the crowd so that he could stand beside me. “In Topia, you’re just folding the land around you to jump from one spot to another. Here, you’re lining up two worlds, two different lands, one on top of each other. You’ll use the same process on Adeline’s mortal glass, so consider this … practise.”
I scoffed. “Right. Practise.”
“Clear your mind, Will.” Coen spoke from behind me. “It needs to be completely clear, or your destination will be confused.”
“Visualise the map of Minatsol,” Siret instructed. “All those lines, tracks, boundaries, roads … if you’re having trouble, just look at your feet.”
I cracked open one of my eyes, noticing the maps that someone had laid at my feet before closing it again. I had stared at those maps enough that they were imprinted on the backs of my eyelids, but I still cast several more glances down as I slowly constructed the map inside my head. I was in awe of the gods, suddenly, and their easy use of pockets. After almost twenty excruciating clicks, I called for my energy, basking in the welcoming rush of heat that flooded through me. I was operating at full power, I could tell. It was different to what “full power” had once felt like to me. It was less full, less wild, and less all-encompassing. I didn’t exactly think that this was worse, though. There was something about my lowered power levels that made me feel more in control, more of a master over my energy as opposed to my energy being the master of me.
I began to layer the map of Topia over the map of Minatsol in my head as the power within me swirled, almost as though it watched my thoughts, waiting to jump into action. It took me another twenty or so clicks, but I soon had both maps drawn in their entirety, and I began to carefully shift them into position. My concentration and energy began to wane then, but I continued slowly, not daring to rush the process until the spot where I stood lined up exactly with the point on the map that was an empty valley in the centre of Topia. We had all agreed that an unpopulated area would be best. The gods had not yet been warned of what was about to happen, since we hadn’t wanted to chance any of them tipping off Staviti. We wanted to give them time to gather their defences, though, so we were dropping the armies far from any of their residences.
When the two points on my mental maps were lined up, I stood there struggling to breathe, waiting for further instruction.
“Good.” Yael was the one to whisper, and I knew that they were all monitoring my mind. “Now press the maps into one, but make sure that you do it in the place where you want the pocket. If you press in more places than one, you will open up holes in the world.”
I did as he said, feeling the prickle of sweat forming along my brow as I bit the inside of my cheek, pressing the point on the map of Topia into the place where I was standing in Minatsol. The maps didn’t resist at all, melting together through the spot where I pressed them as heavy, hot power exploded out of me, rippling across the ground beneath my feet. I blinked my eyes open as a wave of forceful energy passed across my face and the air before me rippled and wavered. An arm slung about my waist, jerking me back, and I realised that I’d been moments from being pulled into the pocket I had created.
I stumbled as Rome steadied me, his other arm wrapping around me fiercely, and I could tell that he was still reeling from the fact that I’d almost been sucked into my own portal. We stared up at the barely visible barrier before us, and a small sense of awe filled me as I took in the sheer size of the pocket I had created. It spanned the entire length of the dock, visible by the faint ripple of colour, as though we were staring at the world through clear glass, only barely discernible.
The people gathered around us began to cheer, the sheer noise of their reaction shocking me, but as suddenly as it had risen, it died off, and then rose again with a new tenor. They weren’t cheering anymore, but screaming. Cyrus’s voice began to boom over their noise, calling for calm and order, but I paid no attention to any of them, because I had just spotted movement on the other side of the water. Atop the hill leading down from Soldel, bodies were appearing. Their numbers doubled and then tripled, basically tumbling over each other in their haste to get to Blesswood. They were armed, now, but not with any traditional kind of weaponry. They held fence posts, rakes, pikes, whips … objects that they had clearly looted from the towns and cities that they passed through.
“Stand aside for the guards!” a voice shouted, and the arms around my waist tightened, drawing me back as a line of uniformed men and women began to form right behind the barrier I had created.
A last line of defence.
“W-we need to get to the other side,” I stuttered out, panic suddenly seizing me.
“This side is under control.” Abil agreed, before surprising me by leading the way out. “Everyone, with me.”
We followed him to the steps leading up to the main gate of Blesswood, and the people who had been gathered on the steps to watch the goings-on below scattered out of our way, finding footing on the mountain beside our pathway. They shouted out things to us as we passed: blessings, well-wishes, and pleas for us to save their lives. For just a moment, I marvelled over the sight of dwellers and sols mixing, side by side, united in their shared terror of what their “Creator” had done to their world.
We reached the top of the stairs, and once again the people parted to let us through. Abil and Adeline were leading the way, Cyrus and Emmy close behind them. Rome and I were next in the procession, with the other Abcurses behind us, and the remaining Original Gods bringing up the rear. So it caused quite a pile-up when I suddenly halted at the gates, my eyes riveted to the tree in the courtyard where I had first seen Coen and Siret.
I sucked in a deep breath, glancing behind me, reaching for them, and they came to me quickly, their expressions matching the sudden welling of feeling inside my chest. They caught my hands and drew me forward, past the tree, past the reminder of my past: our beginning.
When we reached the other side of Blesswood, my legs were aching from running and my arms were aching from Coen and Siret pulling me along, urging me always to go faster. For once, they weren’t slowing down for me. We didn’t have the time for that. We had been right about the armies reaching Blesswood at the same time, because the people gathered on the edges of the forest were already panicking. They couldn’t see the approaching servers themselves, but I heard them yelling to each other that those who had found refuge in the arena had spotted the servers approaching on the other side of the forest.
Cyrus cleared an area for me again, and this time I had the added barrier of the Abcurses fanning out around me, facing the crowd. They didn’t need to face the same way as me because they could see out of my eyes and read my thoughts if they wanted to. The bigger threat to me in that moment was the people gathered and the threat of their panic morphing into an actual riot.
“Just close your eyes and focus,” Coen shouted to me. “Block them all out.”
I nodded, and Cyrus stepped between the Abcurses to lay out the maps for me again.
“You’ve got this, Willa.” He rested his hand on my shoulder until Yael barked something at him—even though he was facing the other way. Cyrus rolled his eyes, removed his hand, and retreated back behind the Abcurse wall of defence.
I glanced down at the map, quickly familiarising myself just as the tops of the trees in the distance began to shake, causing fear to ball up into a tight knot in the back of my throat. I raised my shaking hands higher, closing my eyes and working to quieten the noise around me. I repeated the same process as before, but it wasn’t as easy as the last time. My energy waned quicker, my legs becoming weak, the shake in my arms growing more violent. The maps were taking longer, too. It was almost as if the easy imagery that I had managed to conjure earlier was now slipping away. I began to doubt myself, and the accuracy of my maps, only to open my eyes and check the maps on the ground and find that I hadn’t made a mistake at all. I was preparing to push the two maps together when the noise around me suddenly rose higher, and my eyes snapped open. I could see them through the trees.
With my eyes open, I returned to the vision in my mind, finding the two points on the map and pressing it inwards … except it didn’t move. Instead,Imoved. My legs buckled, and I stumbled forward, catching myself on my hands and knees, the maps crumpling beneath my palms.
“No!” I croaked out, when I sensed the Abcurses about to descend on me. “I can … do this.”
I reached into my pocket, pulling out the vial that Jakan had sent to me. I uncorked it as the blurs of colour and movement through the trees grew proper form. They were about to reach us, and the gods were struggling to hold back the line of guards who were trying to push forward, to drag me away from the danger. I tipped the vial to my lips and emptied it, feeling some of the energy of Topia fill me even as the cool water washed across my tongue. I raised my hands again, the shaking dying down to a tremor, and I took the map by the two points, slamming them together. My pathway rent through the air with an actualcrackingsound, and the ground split beneath my knees, forming spidery cracks all around me. I tossed out my arms, my palms facing behind me, and screamed out an order to the frantic mass of people behind me.
“Be calm!”
The quiet was deafening, but I didn’t have a chance to check behind me because the first server was upon us, pitchfork raised high, blank eyes focussed directly on my face.
