“I couldn’t find you, Papa. Then someone in a cloak took Mama!” Tears stream down the boy’s snot-filled face as Calder hugs him tightly as if he might vanish. He lifts his tiny form into his arms, feeling that same connection with the child he lost so long ago.
This cannot be real. I have no other children.
“You don’t know who took your mother?” Calder asks, already sensing the evil force hunting them.
The little boy rubs his tiny forearm under his nose. “They laughed when they took Mama.” He buries his face into Calder’s tunic.
He holds the young boy, reveling in the foreign warmth clutching his heart. “We will find your Mama,” Calder promises.
After setting him carefully back on the floor and taking his small hand, they abandon the room in favor of navigating the empty corridors.
Dammit, I will protect him even if he is not real.
Taunting laughter echoes off the cold walls. As the young child clings to his leg again, he recognizes a heightened panic rush through him.
The safety of this boy is everything.
I cannot let her have him—not this time.
Calder leads them through the Keep without a set direction. He has no sense of what he must accomplish to end this nightmare. Theonly action he can take is to trust his gut instincts. Allowing them to usher him around each fork in their path.
As they near the dungeons, a monstrous statue of Makt looms over them, eliciting a scream from the boy. Calder turns him away, pressing his face into his chest so he can no longer witness the god’s manipulative smile.
“He makes me want to scream, too.” He ruffles the boy’s mahogany hair. “What is your name?”
“Ludo.” He whispers as if it’s a secret.
“Let’s keep moving to find your Momma, Ludo.”
When he opens the dungeon door, he uncovers a young girl–likely the same age as Ludo. Her sobs shatter his icy heart as she tears across the room, fleeing from a cloaked figure surrounded by a black void.
Calder’s internal dread intensifies at the sight of the little girl whose curls bounce with every step. He rushes in, scoops her up, and slams the door on the creature.
“Papa! You found me!” She hugs his neck, leaving his heart a mess of emotions he can’t identify. “The void took Mama!” She pants into his shoulder as if she has been running the course of her young life.
A sudden realization grips him.Why are they calling me Papa?
The little girl’s facial features are hauntingly familiar. Even her curls twirl in such a way that he cannot deny.
His mouth dries at the sight.
Could these be Aura and I’s future…No, I am sure they are not. That is not the purpose of this trial.
“What is your name?” He cannot help himself.
“Addie.”
“Addie, we must get to safety. You and Ludo stay close.”
He holds her tiny figure against his side while Ludo takes his hand.
With all the confusion, he has managed to turn them around. Somehow, the corridors change, rematerializing until he is sure he has entered an endless hallway.
Calder cannot shake the feeling that this is real as he leads them through the ever-changing foyers.
No, these children are a figment of my mind.His ongoing chant ceases to feel genuine, especially as their warm, trembling bodies seem undeniably real.
Addie’s determined expression sends a chill down his spine. He knows that look, and he dares not speak aloud whose expression that belongs to.
