Aria

"Guardian?" I repeated. "Is it really you?"

His face was sallow and his skin stretched tight over his cheekbones. He had dark circles beneath his eyes and dry, cracked lips. He looked so defeated and so human. He was a far cry from the glowing, winged creature that Aria recalled meeting after her death.

He nodded his head slowly. "The first evil has had me locked up here for weeks. It's a heavily spelled room with no windows or doors. He's the only one who can get in or out, but he stopped coming to visit me to gloat a long while ago."

"He goes by Ezekiel now," I mumbled. "How did you know I was out here?"

"I could sense you, and I knew I needed to talk to you. We don't have much time, though, Aria Semble, for Ezekiel may appear at any moment. Rarely is there a time when he does not know what is going on in his own castle."

"What is it that you need me to know?" I asked urgently, stepping closer to the window. 

"The Creator isn't dead. Ezekiel did not kill his father. It's not possible. Just as it is not possible to kill Ezekiel. There must always be a balance between darkness and light, otherwise, the whole universe itself would unravel. Even Ezekiel is not foolish enough to play around with that. Just as Ezekiel carries all that is dark, the Creator carries the light. Ezekiel could trap the Creator, however; seal the Creator's soul and hide it away. You have to find the Creator. You have to find where the Creator is hidden, what he is trapped in. It may be the only thing strong enough to trap Ezekiel as well. Once you find the Creator, you can free him, and put Ezekiel in his place."

"You want me to do this all by myself? Guardian, I'm not sure I could."

"No, Aria Semble, I do not expect you to accomplish this all by yourself. First, you must free James. Go to the end of this hall, and open another window. His room is not protected by any spells, so if you use a spell to make it possible to pass through the window, he will be able to escape. Only free him once you have a sure fire way of escaping this place, though. No use freeing him only to then immediately be caught by Ezekiel. Once you have escaped this castle, you must find your way to the top of Mount Futriss on the edge of the Feldon forest. That is where you will find the rest of your group."

"What about freeing Caspian?" I asked. 

"Caspian is also here? I did not sense him."

"It's because he is being held in another heavily spelled section of the castle. I don't know how to get him out."

The Guardian shook his head. "If where he is is as heavily spelled as this room, then just like with me, there may not be anything you can do for him."

"But I-"

I broke off as my stomach gave a sudden lurch and black dots popped up before my eyes. A ringing noise grew in my ears, and I dropped to my knees, bringing my hands to my head. The screen, which had been in my hand, clattered to the floor. I could hear my grandmother and the Guardian calling my name, but it sounded distant. I choked, suddenly finding it impossible to draw air into my lungs as my heart gave a painful squeeze.

Am I having a heart attack? I thought in panic. 

Just as soon as it had started, though, everything stopped at once. I fell forward onto my hands, panting slightly, relieved to be pulling air into my lungs once more. I blinked a few times, unsure of what had just happened.

"Aria? Are you okay?" 

I sat back on my knees and scooped the screen up off of the floor, before getting to my feet.

"Aria, what exactly did you just feel?" the Guardian asked quietly.

"It was like my head and heart just simultaneously exploded. What was that?"

The Guardian's hollow eyes looked troubled and sad, and a silence settled between him and me. I frowned, wishing he would respond. 

"It means that the soul of the one you had a Tie with has left that person's body. It's an indication of the death of your telepathic partner."

"What?" I questioned, my mouth going dry.

"Caspian. If that is what you felt, it means that you have just experienced his death."

I let out a shaky breath, shaking my head. "No. No, you're wrong. And even if you aren't wrong, death isn't that big a deal. All my friends are dead when you think about it. Will, Christian, James, Axel, Carmen. You can't get your wings unless you're dead. And I died once. You easily brought me back. If Caspian is in the Upstairs I'll just travel back up there and get him-"

"Aria, I don't think you understand," the Guardian interrupted, his voice firm but still soothingly calm. "Vampyres don't go Upstairs when they die. Their souls are banished from entering that space again in death. That is what it means to be fallen."

I clenched my hands into fists, the edge of the screen digging into my skin. "But you removed Caspian's curse. You removed the bloodlust and the confinement to the night. You made it so that he could start aging again."

"I removed the aspects of the curse that make it a curse, but I didn't make him human. I don't have that ability. I'm not the Creator, I don't have his powers, I was never meant to be in charge like I am. He is still for all intents and purposes a vampyre. I'm so sorry, Aria. If I had been in the room when he died, I could have rescued his soul, done something to keep it from being lost to the dark place, but I wasn't there... I-"

I shook my head, backing away. My ears were ringing, and I could no longer hear what the Guardian was saying. My entire body was numb, so when I struck against the wall hard with the back of my head, I simply slid down it. My throat was tight, a lump as big as a stone sitting heavy within it. To my surprise, tears didn't come to my eyes, though. I'd been sending him messages mere moments ago. Just before the Guardian had called me over, I had been sending Caspian the daily dose of happy memories I sent him in hopes to help him through his time down in the dungeon while I walked and talked with my grandmother.

Cas?

I was used to getting nothing back in return by now, but this was different. Usually it just felt like I was talking to someone who was mute. Though Caspian could never reply, I could still feel him and his presence. There was nothing now. I felt as if I was calling out into the dark. I was utterly alone. I squeezed my eyes shut, wanting the world to disappear so that I wouldn't have to accept it.

"Keep your eyes closed."

I laughed. "Cas, I'm going to run into something."

He made an indignant noise. "I wouldn't be so careless with you. Just trust me. And come here."

He pulled me into his arms, wrapping me up in a tight embrace. I heard a ruffle of feathers. His wings opening. I could picture their inky black beauty without having to see them, the way the light danced off their surface and made it look as if tiny rainbows glimmered on their surface. Then, we were lifting up into the air, much like we had the first time he had gone flying with me. I smiled against his chest, my eyes still closed.

We had driven for hours to reach the tiny cottage that we were at now. Caspian had rented it as a surprise to celebrate our one year. He said that now he had something amazing he wanted to show me.

"Okay, open your eyes," he whispered.

I did as instructed and sucked in a breath. The sky all around us was lit with an array of beautiful, iridescent colours.

"The Northern Lights!" I exclaimed.

Caspian smiled down at me as I looked around us in awe. Blue, green, and purple flashed through the sky like sheets of silk blowing in the wind. It was a breathtaking display.

"It's so beautiful," I murmured.

"Yes," Caspian agreed. "You are."

I looked up at him. His wings beat steadily, matching the rhythm of his heart. The glow of the Northern Lights cast shadows across his angular face. I knew every line and crevice of his face by now, could draw it in my sleep. Despite this, my heart still leapt in my chest, the same way it had when I'd first fallen for him. His deep blue eyes bore into me, and I found myself inexplicably blushing. He leaned down and captured my lips with his own. I responded immediately, my lips coming apart in a little gasp. With my body pressed against his like this, I could feel as his heart beat began to speed up. I wrapped my legs around his waist to hold myself up as we hovered in the air, and wound my fingers into his hair. My eyelids had slipped closed, but I could still see the faint glow of the Lights as they continued to shine above us. I pulled myself closer to him, as if I could mould the two of us together into one. I'd spent the last year trying each day to kiss away his years of pain and loneliness, eliminate the hurt that he had felt for so long during his years roaming the boarder of my town. 'You are loved. You are so loved' each kiss said.

Caspian pulled away breathlessly. "I love you. More than I ever thought it was possible to. I want to be with you always. This life, and the next. I only want you."

I smiled up at him and placed my hands on his cheeks. "Let's go back to the cabin."

"You mean...?"

I nodded. "I do. I love you too."

He stared at me for a moment, his lips parted in surprise. Then, he leaned down and kissed me gently, like the touch of a raindrop clinging to the edge of a flower petal, and began lowering us back down to the ground.

My eyes flew open.

"Where is he?"

"Aria.."

"Where is he now? You said his soul had gone 'to the dark place'. What is 'the dark place'? Where?"

"Aria, you don't want to know-"

"Yes I do!" I shouted, slamming my fists against the stone floor.

The Guardian was silent for a moment. I couldn't see him through the window from my spot on the floor, but I didn't want to. I couldn't imagine looking at his face right now. I couldn't imagine looking at anyone's face. All I wanted was Caspian. No one else.

"There was a time when the Upstairs was all that there was. All souls went there upon death and the Creator would move the souls accordingly from there. As you know, a person can choose to stay on the first plain of the Upstairs and go on to earn their wings and act as a guardian angel. A person can also choose to pass on to the next plain. Depending on how they acted in life, they may end up in different places. The Creator might send someone who was cruel in life to a plain where his or her soul can be cleansed and he or she can learn about the importance of compassion. If the person was kind and compassionate in life, he might allow them to choose where they would like to spend their eternity. Eventually, all souls end up in what humans may call 'paradise'. The highest plain. Some souls have to just go through a few other plains of work before they can get there. When Ezekiel did what he did, however, and became the first vampyre, it created a rift in the universe. It opened up a crack between space, a dark, in-between place. There must always be a balance of light and dark. As soon as the dark was removed from the Upstairs, the universe had to compensate it by creating a new place of only darkness to sit in opposition to the light of the Upstairs. This place has been called many things over the millennia. Some believe that it is what religion views as Hell, others call it Purgatory. In ancient tongues, it was called Inferno in Latin, Helle in Anglo-saxon, Tartarus in Greek. Languages that have long been dead and lost to the world had words for it as well."

He made several guttural noises that ranged from sounds like someone choking to sounds that were closer to that which a bird or small rodent might make. I assumed that these were the ancient languages, and I could see why it was that they had been lost to the world.

"When the Creator discovered the rift he had opened up, the dark place he had allowed to come into existence in banishing Ezekiel, he dubbed the place 'Erebus'— which simply means darkness in Latin. He views it as the worst sin he has ever brought upon the universe, other than allowing Ezekiel to spread his disease."

"So that is where Caspian is? In the darkest place in the universe, the space between space? And it is some sort of place of torture?"

"It is far beyond torture. It is one thing to have one's body torn apart piece by piece. It is another to have one's soul torn apart."

"Throw me out."

"what?" the Guardian questioned.

I stood up once more and leaned on the wall, pressing my hands into the cool stone on either side of the window.

"I'll kill myself, and then you can throw me out of the Upstairs. Then, I'll let Ezekiel kill me, or I'll do it myself, and I'll be able to be with Cas-"

"Aria," the Guardian cried with a surprising amount of force. "No. Your soul would not end up with Caspian's, even if you got yourself into Erebus. Part of the torture of being there is that each and every soul that is there is there alone. Each soul sits in a slightly different parallel of Erebus, so that no two souls ever exist there at the same time. You would only be condemning yourself. No. You must go on living."

"I can't live without him though!" I screamed.

"Aria."

For a moment, I was confused. The Guardian's voice had suddenly gotten much higher. But no, it wasn't the Guardian who had spoken. I looked down at the screen in my hand. My grandmother. I had forgotten about her. I blinked down at her, breathing heavily.

"You must go on without him. To die now would be to dishonour him and the love he had for you. When you fought Jon he did everything in his power to protect you, and yet you still died once on him. To die again would be to throw everything he did for you back in his face."

"Does it matter if I honour him or not? Either way, I will never see him again. Ever. Not even after I die. I can't handle that, Grandma. I can't go an eternity never seeing him again. If I die, though, I can move on to the highest plain and be at peace. I won't have to miss him anymore. I won't have to hurt."

"It seems rather selfish that you would let yourself forget about him and be in peace while he is down in Erebus, suffering more than we could ever imagine."

"Shut up," I grunted.

"You spent two years with this boy and you claim to love him and yet now you are willing to give up at the first sign of difficulty."

"This is more than just a minor difficulty-"

"The Guardian is giving you an opportunity. With Caspian where he is, the only one who might be able to get him out is the Creator. The Guardian is asking that you be the one to find and free the Creator. I believe that freeing the Creator will certainly help put him in a mood to help you save Caspian."

My lip trembled. "But how? How can I go on some quest, travelling all over the world, without him? I'm just some human. He was a vampyre. I can't find the Creator without Cas."

"Yes, you can."

I shook my head. "I don't want to."

"You have to."

I wrapped my arms around myself and squeezed tight as if I could keep myself from falling apart if I held tight enough. 

"It may be the only chance to get him back, Aria."

I let out a shuddering breath.

"Okay. Where should I start?"