Remember

Episode Six: The Gateway

Chapter Three

Early in the morning on the day of the escape, before the sun had the chance to peek its rays over the horizon, Merletoph's house was bustling with preparation. Everyone was working together to pack traveling bags for those who were leaving for a new world, and Merletoph was giving instructions on what to take from the house and what to leave behind for when he (ideally) came back with Sha'i. Talking in hushed, strained voices, everyone felt the same pressure. The thought of any part of the plan going badly loomed over them like a cloud.

Dimentio's plot to bring Blumiere with them was the leading cause of the party's stress. Less than twelve hours ago, at exactly 6:55 p.m., Dimentio cloaked Blumiere's signature and instructed him to leave his room in the castle immediately. Dimentio had hoped that in the five minutes between then and his morning meeting with his father at 7:00, no one would notice the absence of Blumiere's signature. Thankfully, when Aldrik met him last night, he made no mention of Blumiere.

Half an hour later, when Dimentio had checked back at the castle under his cloak of invisibility, he saw King Basile pacing about with a grave expression on his face, and knew that Blumiere's disappearance had been discovered. After that, Dimentio warned everyone at Merletoph's (which at the time did not include Timpani) to stay in the safety of the invisible house, just in case Basile or any of the other tribesmen passed by them in their search. Upon hearing this, Blumiere had insisted he find Timpani so he could ensure she traveled to Merletoph's safely the next morning. Despite Merletoph and Dimentio strongly advising against this, Blumiere had disappeared without listening to their arguments. Both the sage and his grandson were surprised to see Blumiere and Timpani reappear in Merletoph's living room at about midnight, the human woman staggering after her first interdimensional traveling experience. No one had expected Timpani to agree to come with them, so they began to pack a bag for her, too.

Currently, at 6:40 a.m., and having slept less than an hour during the night, Dimentio was preparing for the second part of his plan. Amid the bustle in Merletoph's living room, he approached Blumiere and gave him a small nod, indicating that he was ready. Blumiere returned the nod, and Dimentio couldn't help but notice that his cousin looked a little sick to his stomach.

"The plan will work," Dimentio said with a confidence he didn't feel. Blumiere had little reason to trust him, and he was essentially placing his life in his young cousin's hands, so Dimentio couldn't blame him for being worried.

"Run the plan by me again. One more time, before you leave." Timpani had been hovering near Blumiere from the second they got here. Dimentio couldn't guess why she was so attached to him now when she'd been so willing to stay behind last night. He could sense she was asking him about his plan in order to sift through it for possible discrepancies. Unlike Blumiere, the only reason Timpani could have to trust him is that he was responsible for Ronan and Kathleen's safety, but her life was not in Dimentio's hands, so the reason for her worry must be tied to Blumiere.

Blumiere must have told her something special, he decided. A secret, maybe. There was something different about her from the last time he'd seen her, he could tell. Then again, Dimentio could sense a difference in himself this morning, and perhaps that was why he was so keen to pick it up in the others. Ever since he'd begun planning his escape from his father—no, ever since he'd stared at his own face in the mirror, his own, real face, his silly, flippant facade had begun to crack. He felt he must take this whole process very seriously.

"Blumiere and I will leave at 6:50–"

"Would you take your mask off, please?" Timpani cut in.

Dimentio bristled from behind his protective covering. He couldn't imagine why, but he was running out of time to explain. Lifting his mask off of his face, he turned his eyes to the ground and continued in a quieter voice. "At 6:50, we'll teleport—"

"You'll what? Look up here, I can't hear you."

"Be patient with him, please," Dimentio heard Merletoph say from the kitchen where he was sifting through the contents in a drawer. Timpani looked back at him, and through gestures and facial expressions they had some unspoken conversation, though it wasn't in sign language, so Dimentio couldn't understand what they were saying. He figured maybe Merletoph was telling her he was dumb.

"Continue," Timpani said once she had finished her silent conversation.

Dimentio tried to speak louder this time. "I found a place on the other side of the world for us to teleport to, far from the direction of the World Door that Kathleen is taking us to. At 6:50–" and it was 6:45 now, he noted "—Blumiere and I will teleport there. His signature will uncloak at 6:55. When it does," Dimentio explained, because he noticed Timpani looked confused, "all of his family will be able to tell where he is, because they'll be able to sense his signature. So they'll come looking. But by the time they get there, I'll have cloaked Blumiere's signature again, and Blumiere will come back here. I will teleport back to the castle, where my father must meet me to cloak my signature. And he must, so I am not discovered by the other members of the Tribe of Darkness. Because he must do this, he will have to give up searching for Blumiere. He'll have to come up with a reason for doing so, a reason to stop searching for the King's son." Dimentio swallowed, wanting to look away from Timpani or hide his face again. "He will probably suspect I have something to do with Blumiere going missing, but because he must return to the search, he will not have any time to…" He swallowed again, finding it hard to continue. Countless memories of laying paralyzed on the hot black roof of the castle surfaced in his mind. "To… To ask questions. Aha."

Blumiere narrowed his eyes and donned a strange expression. Expressions were something Dimentio was still learning to interpret, but for some reason, this expression of Blumiere's gave him the feeling that his cousin understood Dimentio's personal stake in the matter. Blumiere's life was in his hands, but Dimentio's life would forever be in his father's.

Maybe that will change now, Dimentio thought to himself, but he immediately dismissed it. It was dangerous to hope for something like that.

Timpani leaned in a little closer to him. "How old are you?" she asked.

"Eight." He wasn't sure why that was a relevant question.

Her crystal blue eyes widened and she looked over her shoulder at Merletoph again. Merletoph nodded.

"We need to leave," Dimentio told Blumiere, not wanting his interaction with Timpani to drag on any longer than necessary. A glance at Merletoph's wall clock told him it was 6:49, about 30 seconds away from 6:50.

As Blumiere nodded, Timpani grabbed onto his arm. "Please, stay safe," she murmured to him, but Dimentio could hear her words clearly. "I couldn't bear to lose you. Especially not now."

"I'll be back in a heartbeat," he told her, touching his forehead to hers.

Dimentio could not have felt more disgusted. Was it necessary for them to do this right in front of him? While Timpani was distracted with Blumiere, Dimentio put his mask back on, safely concealing his face once again. He rubbed at the bottom of his poncho impatiently. Didn't Blumiere understand how urgent this was?

At last, his cousin broke away from Timpani. "We need to hurry," he told Dimentio, but Dimentio already knew that.

Grasping onto Blumiere's wrist, Dimentio said, "I will take us there. I'll teleport us both." Before Blumiere had the chance to comply, Dimentio focused on the location he'd picked, and sent both himself and Blumiere there via his teleportation.

Wind whipped around them as they touched down on the rocky surface of a butte hundreds of kilometers away from the castle. The surrounding area was dotted with other buttes and foothills and a nearby mountain range cluttered the horizon. The buttes and hills rose up out of a dense coniferous forest that stretched as far as the two magicians could see.

Dimentio had found this place yesterday by continuously teleporting to the furthest location he could see on the horizon. He'd reached the mountain range in about three minutes, deciding the hills and trees provided enough cover that it would take his father and King Basile (as well as anyone else searching for Blumiere) a good amount of time to look everywhere.

Blumiere brushed his hair away from his face, trying to keep it out of his eyes as he turned in a circle, scanning the area. "Where are we?" he asked. "I can't see the castle anywhere."

"We're far away," Dimentio said. "Far enough that you cannot feel the signatures of those back at the castle."

As if just realizing this, Blumiere gasped. "I can't feel anyone's soul signature! Not even father's."

Dimentio nodded in agreement, though he didn't tell Blumiere that one signature still stuck out in his mind. But he knew Blumiere would never be able to sense Merletoph, and Dimentio wasn't quite sure how the old sage's signature still managed to shine so brightly when they were so far away, so he felt it best not to bring it up.

"How long until my signature will uncloak?" Blumiere's voice was laced with worry.

"Approximately three minutes."

"How do you know that exactly?"

Dimentio turned to look up at Blumiere, his eyes narrowing from behind his mask. "I learned to count the time. I had to, aha ha."

He assumed the expression on Blumiere's face meant he didn't believe him, and once again Dimentio was reminded that his cousin's fate was largely dependent upon him. So he tried to explain it as best he could.

"How do you think I managed to have my signature cloaked at exactly the same time every morning and evening? My father couldn't call for me. I had to be ready."

Blumiere grunted in reply, and then said, "So, what do you need me to do?"

"Teleport back to Merletoph's house as soon as I tell you to. Can you do that?" He knew Blumiere had much less experience with teleportation than he did.

"I… I can," Blumiere said, but he sounded much more uncertain.

Dimentio's heart pounded. If his plan didn't work because Blumiere couldn't get away, they were in trouble. "Just picture Merletoph's living room in your mind. You were there all morning."

"I can do it," Blumiere retorted, more confident this time. "Just tell me when to go, and I'll go."

"In about two minutes now, your signature will uncloak. Since we're so far away from the castle, it should take a while before anyone feels the signal. My father will probably feel it first, but he might not tell your father until he feels it for himself."

"Because...Aldrik is the wielder of the Dark Prognosticus?" Blumiere asked. He sounded as if he were still trying to wrap his mind around it. "Well, what if he comes and finds us before we can leave? And he tries to kill me?" The fear in Blumiere's eyes was unmistakable.

Dimentio had thought of these possibilities already, and unfortunately, his answers were only desperate assumptions. He had solutions, but only for himself, and he realized that if his father did make it here before Dimentio could cloak his signature again, Blumiere's chances of escape were dangerously slim. "He can't risk killing you here," Dimentio said at last, "because he can't risk King Basile seeing him do it. That's why he never tried to kill you himself before. He wanted the humans to do it. And they almost succeeded, aha ha ha."

"Don't laugh," Blumiere said. "This is not funny. One wrong move could cause the destruction of your entire plan."

Dimentio fell silent. He didn't know how to explain that he wasn't laughing because it was funny. He was laughing because one wrong move could destroy his entire plan. But, he gathered, that wasn't a normal reason to laugh. And probably not a 'nice' one, either. "One minute left," was what he finally said, brushing his mind's wonderings away. "Give me your wrists."

A shaking hand was extended down toward Dimentio. Blumiere didn't say anything else, and neither did Dimentio. He just counted away the seconds, hearing the perpetual ticking of the clock inside his mind.

Fifty-five, fifty-four, fifty-three…

He took Blumiere's extended hand and reached for the other one as well, hovering a little off the ground so Blumiere wouldn't have to crouch down.

Forty-eight, forty-seven, forty-six…

With his thumbs, he found the pulse in Blumiere's wrists. His heart was pounding at an irregular rate. It was hard to miss.

Forty, thirty-nine, thirty-eight…

Blumiere was looking exceedingly nauseous. Dimentio didn't have the time or confidence to try and convince him that his plan would work.

Twenty-six, twenty-five, twenty-four…

A gust of wind tugged at Dimentio's heels and whipped Blumiere's hair into his eyes. The pointed ends of Dimentio's hat were flung sideways, nearly taking it off of his head.

"Ten, nine, eight..." he began to speak the numbers aloud, hoping it might help Blumiere prepare. His cousin only paled considerably as he spoke.

Another gust of wind hit. This one rattled through the trees, reaching the top of the butte with a howling ferocity. It tore at Dimentio's hat, and this time, it flung it right off of his head. His mask, which was attached to the brim of his hat, veered sideways and clattered to the ground right next to Dimentio's feet. The hat, being much lighter, was carried over the edge of the butte and into the trees.

Keeping his focus, Dimentio locked his uncovered eyes with Blumiere's, begging him silently not to move. "Three, two, one."

A burst of Blumiere's soul signature filled the forefront of Dimentio's mind. He pressed his thumbs more firmly into his cousin's wrists and counted one heartbeat, two heartbeats, three. Then he released the spell. It took five more seconds for the cloaking magic to fully travel from Dimentio to Blumiere, but the effect was instantaneous. Grimacing, Blumiere gritted his teeth against the pain.

"Go!" Dimentio said as soon as he was finished. Blumiere disappeared without leaving any further trace of his signature. Swiftly, Dimentio swooped down and picked up his mask, before he disappeared himself, leaving behind a completely empty butte. Dimentio covered himself with a cloak of invisibility and began a frantic search for his hat.

Diving over the edge of the butte where it disappeared, he scanned the trees, trying to spot any hint of purple or yellow among the green pine needles. He had five minutes—less than that, now—to find it before going to meet his father. And if he came without his hat, his father would ask questions, or—

He had never felt panic quite like he did when he realized what might happen if his hat were left behind here. If someone other than his father found it, it would be proof. Proof of his existence. He was about to dive deeper into the trees when he was alerted of a new presence nearby. One that sent chills down his spine.

Aldrik was on top of the butte directly behind him, and though Dimentio could not see him, he could tell his father was scanning the horizon. Invisible though he was, he dared not move, and he listened very carefully to hear if his father was saying anything.

"He must be here somewhere." The words floated on the wind to reach Dimentio's ears. Aldrik continued to speak as if he were in conversation with someone. "I will find him. No, he will die, and it must be before Basile arrives. Be quiet! I know what is best for my son!"

Heart pounding, Dimentio peeked his head up so he could see the top of the butte again. His father was the only one there. So who was he talking to? Aldrik turned suddenly in his direction, so Dimentio dipped lower again, trying to keep his breathing quiet. As he backed away into the trees, he finally caught sight of his hat, tucked away between a bush and a tree trunk. He snagged it quickly. As soon as he touched it, it became invisible, hidden just as the rest of his clothes were.

"You shouldn't have done that."

Dimentio nearly dropped his hat as his body jolted in surprise. Aldrik's voice was much closer and clearer now. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw his father standing at the edge of the butte, looking down in his direction. But his gaze passed right over Dimentio, still scanning the trees. He continued speaking.

"You cannot make this decision yourself. I will kill Blumiere, and then you will have no choice but to obey me."

Aldrik may not have been speaking to his son, but Dimentio feared the words as if they were meant for him. Frozen in place, the young magician repeated his father's words in his mind. "You cannot make this decision yourself...you will have no choice but to obey me."

"Darkness or light...it is your decision alone." He recalled Merletoph's words, but they were a mere mumble underneath Aldrik's harsh growl.

Maybe he couldn't make the decision for himself. Maybe it was a terrible idea to leave his father behind. He would probably never find his mother, and that was probably for the best, anyway. She'd probably found some other young boy to be her son. And she probably wouldn't recognize him—

Basile was here. Dimentio felt his signature just before he saw him on top of the butte, right behind his father.

"Aldrik. You felt it too?"

Basile sounded as though he had not slept since Blumiere was discovered missing last night. It also occurred to Dimentio that Basile had arrived nearly two full minutes after his father, which gave him an idea of just how powerful Aldrik's magic was compared to Basile's.

"Yes. He is here, somewhere."

The irritation in Aldrik's voice was nearly imperceptible, but Dimentio caught it. Then, his father's voice softened.

"Allow me to go back to the castle, my King. I will gather the others and bring them here so we can all search together."

Basile, who was already scouring the other end of the butte, gave an affirmative reply that Dimentio couldn't quite hear. His father disappeared.

Dimentio was still hovering above the ground, invisible to the world, clutching his hat in one hand and his mask in the other. It took him a few seconds to realize that his father wasn't just going to gather the others. He was using that as his excuse. And that meant his father was probably waiting for him on the roof of the castle right now.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

The clock inside of his mind neared 6:59. He was never this late, and he was always, always there before his father. Fumbling with his hat, he tried to shove it onto his head in the correct manner, but since it was invisible, he couldn't tell which part of the brim was supposed to sit on his forehead. He tried to feel for the loops that his mask would attach to. There were four of them, two on the top and one on each side that the corresponding hooks on his mask would attach to. His fingers brushed two...three, but where was the fourth?

Finally, he just decided to fit his mask into whatever loops were present. He tugged the mask over his face, shifting it, feeling that it was definitely wrong, but knowing that it would have to do. He had just over thirty seconds left.

Envisioning the black roof tiles, he allowed his teleportation to carry him away, still invisible, from the forest and the butte.

Sure enough, Aldrik was already on top of the roof, looking a mixture of furious and anxious. Dimentio stared at him for a moment, still invisible, but the way his father's eyes narrowed suddenly, he knew Aldrik had seen the tiny dimensional ripples that had appeared when Dimentio arrived.

"Where have you been?"

Dimentio knew his father was addressing him this time. Shifting his mask one more time, he let go of his invisibility spell.

"Why does it matter where I've been? You never care about where I go."

He saw fury spark a red flame in his father's blue eyes. Dimentio had never been one to hold back snark, and Aldrik usually only responded with irritation as long as Dimentio still obeyed him. This time, however, he could sense he'd made a wrong move. As Aldrik grabbed Dimentio's thin wrists, he knelt down, pulling the much smaller boy down through the air so he was hovering just above the roof. Dimentio winced; his father's grip was tight, and his thumbs pressed deeply into the tender skin on his wrists.

Ten seconds, the clock inside of Dimentio's mind warned, but that was the least of his worries. The look in his father's eyes was murderous, and he still hadn't said anything to him since his initial question. Dimentio couldn't find anything to say to him, either. He didn't know if his father was waiting for a better answer or waiting for the seconds to pass so he could administer the spell. Either way, Dimentio opted for closing his eyes. Some part of him hated seeing his father like this, and he knew Aldrik couldn't tell what he was doing behind his mask.

Tick. Tick. Tick. The cloaking spell hit him like a deluge of rainwater, a shocking cold that bolted up his arms and through his body. He noticed at once that this was not the usual cloaking spell. His feet clunked onto the roof tiles as the magic he used to fly tapered and disappeared. He experienced tunnel vision in his mind's eye as the soul signatures around him blinked out like stars until the only thing he was aware of was the rapid beating of his own heart. Suddenly there was nothing inside of him, nothing except his own flesh and blood. He felt disgustingly human.

His father had not just taken away his soul signature. He had taken everything.

"For now, you will be going nowhere," Aldrik said at last. And then, to further Dimentio's horror, he continued, "And you will especially not be going anywhere with Merletoph, or Blumiere, or any of the humans you've chosen to show your face to." With that, he let go of Dimentio's wrists and tore the mask from his face so violently that Dimentio stumbled backward and, without any magic to prevent his fall, landed on his back on the jagged roof tiles. He gasped in pain, the air sucked from his lungs.

"What do you suppose was the point of taking your signature away every damned day of your life if you were going to show your face to anyone you wished? To give proof of your existence to anyone besides the two of us? Not anymore, boy. You exist for one purpose. And you will fulfill it."

Dimentio could say nothing, partially because he was still gasping for breath, but mostly because he didn't want to give his father so much as the time of day. He couldn't ignore the blatant, unobscured red glow in Aldrik's eyes. Dimentio had no doubt left in his mind that his father was being influenced by the Dark Prognosticus.

With a snarl, Aldrik threw the mask down onto the black roof tiles and spat one more sentence at his son. "And now, because of your carelessness, I must eliminate those who have seen your face." With that, he disappeared, and Dimentio was left alone on the roof.

He knows. That was the only thought that surfaced in Dimentio's mind. He knows we're trying to escape. After that, his mind was flooded by countless other realizations and questions.

He thinks we're heading in a different direction. But he knows we're leaving together. Has he been watching me? Does he know I'm going to find mother? Does he hate mother now? Does he never want to see her again?

He began to wonder again about his father's motives.

He wanted to keep me a secret for a reason. And it wasn't just because he was trying to hide me from King Basile. I have a purpose. That's what he said. I exist for one purpose. Could it have something to do with the Dark Prognosticus…?

Has father lived his entire life following what the Dark Prognosticus says…?

No. No, he suddenly realized, his father hadn't been following the Dark Prognosticus. Or, at least, not always. What was it he'd said when Dimentio had overheard him at the butte?

"You cannot make this choice yourself. I will kill Blumiere, and then you will have to obey me."

Had he been talking to the Dark Prognosticus? Did the Dark Prognosticus not want him to kill Blumiere?

Why…?

Why, why would his father want to kill Blumiere, and why would the Dark Prognosticus want to save him? It was too much for Dimentio to ponder. He needed to talk to Merletoph, but—

Merletoph? As soon as Dimentio thought about the sage, there was a nagging sensation in the back of his mind. He focused on it, feeling within a sort of light.

The back of his throat stung. It was Merletoph's soul signature. He could feel it. Even though his father had taken everything else away from him, Merletoph's light still shone through. And he could tell that Merletoph was still at his home. He was waiting for him.

But there's no way for me to get there, he realized, and his heart grew heavy again. Unless I walk there. But he didn't know how far his weak legs could carry him. And how was he to get off of this roof?

I have to try. And he had to do it fast. Aldrik could come back at any moment and start following the correct trail. Everyone else was in danger, and Dimentio was the only one who knew.

Pushing himself up to his feet, he wobbled around the roof, looking for a place where he could drop down to the ground. The roof was composed of many spires and tiers, and from his position, the only way down would lead him to a lower portion of the roof. It would not be pleasant to fall from his height onto the hard roof tiles, so he would have to think of another way.

To his right, one of the castle's towers reached up from a different section of the roof below him. From where he was standing, he could see a window a little way down the wall of the tower. Shaped like a square at the bottom and arched at the top, there was a single bar that split it down the middle. Thin though it was, Dimentio knew he was small enough to squeeze through it and into the castle if he could get to it. It was close enough to his section of the roof that he could jump down and land on the windowsill, which was wide enough that he would be able to stand on it, but Dimentio was unsure of how well he could balance, especially in his current condition.

Sitting down on the edge of the roof, he scooted as close as he could to the wall of the tower. From here, he could reach his foot out to touch the top of the window. There was a tiny ledge of jutting stones that surrounded it. If he could grip that with his hands, he might be able to swing down and land on the windowsill relatively easily.

Of course, the matter would be grabbing the ledge, and he could not reach it with his hands from where he was sitting. That meant he would need to fall a few centimeters off of the roof first, then grab the ledge, and then land on the windowsill.

It was possible, but it was also very possible that he would kill himself trying. It was a long fall onto the hard roof tiles beneath him. But Merletoph's light in the back of his mind urged him onward. He had to go warn them. They needed to leave this world.

Pushing himself off of the roof, he reached for the top of the window. His fingers found the ledge there, but he realized too late that the ledge was not wide enough to hold onto. His hands slipped just as his feet landed on the edge of the windowsill. Losing his balance, he began to fall backward, but he thrust a hand forward to grab the bar that divided the window in two. As his hand closed around it, he pulled himself closer and hugged his arms around the bar. Feeling weaker than ever, Dimentio could not get his legs to stop shaking.

This would be so much easier if he could fly.

After taking a moment to catch his breath, Dimentio slipped inside the castle and landed noiselessly on the staircase inside the tower. He couldn't help but smile. He'd been inside this tower before. Of course, it had been underneath a cloak of invisibility, and he'd stayed as close to the ceiling as he could manage, but he thought he knew how to get to the main entrance from here.

And, if Aldrik's plan was working, there would be no one in the castle who could find him.