Page 20 of The Erion Triad

“It makes sense, given that we should not be here in the first instance.” Juliran swiped the edge of the building. The bricks swished away, revealed black clouds before they settled back. “Black clouds. The same that came from the crystal.”

“The same keeping our world and our mate hostage,” Zaen said.

Juliran kicked a dead, broken bush. The twigs lost substance, swirling into wisps of smoke before reforming as though he hadn’t touched them. “How are we meant to get her out of here if everything is made from this?”

“You’re right, Juliran. Everything here is constructed from these clouds. They make this reality for her. She obviously thinks that this is all real and is accepting it. There can only be one reason for it. Deep down, she must know what has happened to her, but she’s so desperate to believe this is the truth, she’s deeply rooted to this reality,” Kyel said.

“She looked at us on a few occasions as though there was more, but then she became confused and lost her train of thought,” Zaen said.

“The entity is keeping her locked in her mind. I wonder how long she can keep it up before it all becomes too much for her. She looks exhausted,” Juliran said.

“She does,” Zaen said. “We’ve gone along with it so far, but it’s not getting us anywhere. She keeps on shutting down.”

Kyel turned and paced. He stopped, hanging his head. “We have not been good enough mates to her. We’ve not thought to give her what she so obviously needs. It’s no wonder she shuts us out.”

Juliran’s stomach dropped with the sickening realization. He thought he had done everything possible, but the reality was the opposite.

“Then we have to be better mates,” Juliran said.

“And how do you propose we do that? I have done everything I can think of,” Kyel said.

“Not everything. Only what we wanted to do. Look at our parents as an example. They know everything there is to know about each other. Our mother knows what either of our fathers think before they open their mouths,” Juliran said.

To his surprise, Zaen chuckled, “Drives them up the wall.”

“But what do we know of Lucie? What have we asked her? What has she volunteered about herself?’ Kyel said, eyes blazing. “We are all guilty. Me the most.”

Juliran rested his hand on Kyel’s shoulder, “How can you say that, brother? We were all caught up in the excitement of bringing hope back to our Homeland. We all made the mistake of thinking of her as just our mate, and notLucie.”

“What do you suggest?’ Zaen asked.

“That we get to know her. That we stop treating her as a mate, and treat her as, well... Lucie,” Juliran said. “If the mate bond is strong enough, it will take care of the rest.”

“And what of the entity that has her trapped here?” Zaen said. “It has a strong hold on her, using her energy field just as it tried with the other human females. We must find out how to end this. If we can’t stop its power in Lucie’s mind, what must it be doing to our Homeland out there?”

Juliran shook his head. “I do not know, brother. But I suspect that if Lucie can beat it, then it will have no power at all. It lost all power when the other Triads’ mates managed to beat it.”

Kyel’s mouth downturned, his eyes tightening. “We don’t know how or why they did it, though. We just need to support Lucie for now. Rediscover her, knowing that if we do not do our jobs as mates, our Homeland is doomed.”

“We will have to change our approach. Show her what she means to us. Listen to her instead of trying to force a connection. Maybe if we’d done that from the start, we wouldn’t be here,” Juliran said.

Zaen ploughed his fingers through his hair. “We were desperate, brother. We weren’t thinking clearly. We acted as though she was a female Negarian mate, not a human, but now we have a clear direction. Not all is lost.”

“Let’s hope she doesn’t reject us here as she has in our reality,” Kyel growled.

Juliran didn’t answer him, but he had to believe Kyel was right. Everything else had failed. Lucie was loved—she just didn’t know it or even worse, didn’t return it. That thought left a hollow in his stomach he didn’t think would ever be filled.

Their surroundings blurred and began to disintegrate. Muted colors broke down to black clouds.

“What’s happening?” Juliran asked.

There was no time to answer before the world around them went black. There wasn’t even a jolt beneath his feet before the black surface reformed and they stood in front of a line of merchant buildings. Night had given way to daylight in a cloudy, yet blue sky. The temperature was pleasant, but not as warm as he was used to. Vehicles traversed the black surface and again they had to run towards the lighter colored pathway to avoid being hit.

There was movement inside one of the buildings containing small, harmless looking furry creatures behind a transparent window. A shadow darted within the building. It was Lucie. Her pretty, yet tired and drawn face smiled at a furry animal with long ears. She picked it up, hugged it to her chest and petted its head before she placed it into a cage and started to clean the contents of the dirtied cage she’d taken it from.

“She can’t be working at another job. She has one already!” Zaen said.

“Yet, here she is,” Juliran said.

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