The Blade of Shattered Hope

“Atticus Higginbottom,” it said. They said. “We need to have a very serious talk.”

Sato had learned a lot about Tick’s sister. There wasn’t much else to do when you were stuck in a place that stretched to infinity in every direction with nothing to see but colored marble squares. They’d walked for awhile as they talked, but eventually had given up, deciding they were just as well off sitting and waiting for something to happen as they were wandering about aimlessly.

“I’m sure your sister is safe,” he said after a long lull in their conversation. “Somehow those bolts of lightning sent us somewhere else. Here. Maybe other places. Maybe totally random, I don’t know. But the more I think about it, the more I think it has to be something like that. If the lightning had been killing people, it would’ve left behind charred bodies.”

Lisa nodded absently, staring down at her finger as she traced the lines in the red marble square on which she sat cross-legged. “Charred bodies. Pleasant.”

“How much do you know about the Realitants?” Sato asked.

“Most of it,” she replied, looking up at him. She’d stopped crying, but her eyes were still puffy and red. “I tried to keep living my normal life and pretend it was just something for Tick, something I didn’t have to worry about. I have my friends, you know? I have my own life. My mom and dad tried hard not to put all their attention on Tick and his fancy Realitant stuff, but they couldn’t help it. I don’t really blame them. I was happy to kind of ignore it all. Guess I have no choice now.”

She pulled up her legs to wrap her arms around her knees. “This has something to do with Tick, right? It can’t be a coincidence that I’m his sister and was kidnapped and then sent here by a bolt of lightning.”

“I’m sure it has something to do with Tick and Mistress Jane,” Sato said. “Our boss had a meeting scheduled with her, and I’m sure it all went to pot right about then.”

“What’s really happening? I’ve never been in an earthquake before, but I’m pretty sure what I just went through wasn’t normal. Especially with all the lightning.”

Sato shook his head. “I don’t know. We’re not sure what happened to Jane after the crazy stuff in the Fourth Reality, but if she survived, I’m guessing she’s one ticked-off lady. And she has weird powers. She can do things with Chi’karda. For all we know, she’s messing things up pretty bad out there.”

“Yeah,” Lisa replied, her eyes staring at a spot in the distance. She looked slightly dazed. Sato had to remind himself that all of this was new to her, no matter how many times she’d heard about it. To really understand it, to really know, you had to experience stuff like this yourself.

They sat in silence for awhile. Then Lisa said, “I can’t imagine how scared Kayla is.” A tear trickled down her cheek. She sniffed and squeezed her nose with her thumb and forefinger. “I won’t be able to live if something bad happens to her.”

Sato couldn’t help but feel her sorrow. It made him think of the days and weeks and months he’d spent bawling his eyes out after Jane killed his parents. Why did there have to be so much evil in the world? Why couldn’t people like Jane realize the pain they inflicted or understand the end results on everyday lives? How was it possible to have such a complete absence of compassion? He couldn’t possibly hate Jane any more than he already did, but he felt his rage and thirst for revenge spring up anew.

“We’ll find your sister,” he said, hoping the promise didn’t sound too empty. “We’ll find your whole family, and we’ll make Jane pay for whatever she’s done. It’s the only thing I live for now.”

Lisa looked at him, her eyes red and wet and surrounded by dark, hollow circles on her face. “Thanks.”

Something hummed deeply behind Sato, and he noticed Lisa look sharply over his shoulder, surprise transforming her face. The floor vibrated slightly as well.

He spun around to see what had happened.

Mothball was standing there, looking as surprised as Sato felt.

It took a minute or so for Tick to gather himself, remembering that he’d seen many strange things since receiving his very first letter from Master George and that this was just the next in a long line of oddities. He pushed away the shock he felt, ignoring the impossibility of what he saw before him. So a big oval of silver-blue light was talking to him with hundreds of different faces mouthing the words. Big deal. He had to respond.

“How do you know my name?” he asked, proud that the words came out with no squeaks or stutters.

When the entity responded, its face started out as a teenage girl with long hair but had morphed into an old man by the time the short phrase was finished. “We have been observing you and your Realitant friends.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” said a woman who changed into a man.

Tick was completely fascinated. “What are you? I mean . . . who are you?”

The glowing apparition was quiet for a moment, though the faces continued to change at the same rapid pace. Finally, a wise-looking, ancient woman appeared to speak the words, “They call us the Haunce.”

Chapter 27

Soulikens

The entity paused after revealing its name, as if it wanted Tick to respond. But Tick had questions buzzing around his head like flies swarming a light bulb, and he couldn’t settle on just one. So he sat there, slack-jawed and silent.

“Do not be afraid,” the many-faced apparition said. “We are as close a thing to a ghost as you will ever see, but we are much kinder than the storybooks make us out to be. It takes considerable effort to gather ourselves into something strong enough to appear visually to those still alive. We would never do it simply to scare someone. It would be ridiculous.”

If Tick had flies buzzing a moment earlier, now they had become an army of bees. A ghost? Appear visually to those still alive? What was this thing?

He decided to make a statement that encompassed all of his confusion in three short words. “I don’t understand.”

A smile appeared on a girl’s face, glowing silvery blue. When the face transformed into a middle-aged man, the smile was still there. “We would not expect you to. Sit and listen. We will explain.”

Tick had never heard a better idea in his life. He nodded his head emphatically.

“Good.” The Haunce’s orb of light expanded then retracted, as if it had taken a deep breath. The ever-changing faces spoke. “We are here because terrible things have happened in the Realities over the last few hours. When it became apparent that we must reveal ourselves, we chose you. The reason for that choice is something we may not have time to explain, but we shall see.”