Departure

“Promise me to take me with you.” Saesquar said.

“What? Why should we?” Sonja was incredulous. “You’ve been nothing but trouble!”

“I’m helping you out here.” Saesquar complained.

“You’re also the one that put us in this situation in the first place!” Sonja pointed out.

“What do you even want in our world?” Tom asked. “You’d stand out like a sore thumb.”

“I want to get out of this world. I want to get out from beneath my mother’s thumb.”

“I thought your mother is in a coma.” Ralf crossed his arms. “You’ve been doing what you want for quite some time now.”

“She might wake up some day. And then she’ll continue to try and kill me.”

“That’s not our problem.”

“Indeed.” The sword managed a sound that sounded like a sigh and at the same time like a chime. “But your problem is a saint that doesn’t know how to get you home.”

“And you won’t teach us unless I promise to take you with me.” Nia sighed. “Demanding that is really not helping your case, you know?”

“I can guess, but I you probably would’ve just rammed me into a stone here after getting the information and left. Am I right or am I right?”

“You’re not wrong,” she admitted. “But fine. I’ll bring you into my world. It doesn’t have any magic, so you might cease to exist.”

Saesquar was silent and didn’t answer immeditately. “I’ll take that risk.”

“Is that really a good idea?” Tina asked.

“It’s the best I can do. Let’s get you home.” Nia gave them a sad smile. She wondered, if earth, if her country, her house would still feel like a home to her.

“Okay. I trust your decision.” Tina nodded, as did the rest.

“So, how do we get home?” Nia looked at the sword.

“You’ll have to do a reverse Summoning.”

“A what now?”

“A reverse summoning. You’re still connected to your old world. Follow that connection and summon yourself back into it.”

Nia thought back to her ID. She wasn’t sure whether she was still connected to her old world. At least she didn’t feel like it.

She took a deep breath and looked at the monastery. Despite all that happened, this was somewhat her birthplace. Or rather, her rebirthplace. Part of her would probably always stay connected to this world.

Her gaze wandered to the absolutely black sky. the shadow of the planet above blocked even the stars that should be there. There world seemed empty like that. Threatening. Lonely.

She closed her eyes and recalled her old world, the places she visited there. She imagined herself back in that place. And then she tried to find the connection of herself, of her things, to that place.

She found a very thin strand and had problems utilizing it. Without any idea how to do a reverse summoning, she turned to the sword again: “How do you summon someone? Or rather how do you reverse summon someone?”

“A summon is a magical call. It is a call for the soul itself, for certain characteristics embedded in that soul. And a reverse summon would be to have your world call you back.”

“And how can you make a world call someone back?”

“The easiest way would be to contact the god of that world and make them do it.”

“That’s really not helpful.”

“Don’t worry. You just have to pray, Nia.” Tina sounded really cheerful.

No thank you. Nia rolled her eyes. Time to get creative. She looked for the connection again. Let’s form a tunnel and hope it works.

“Oh Luaria, my goddess of light,
please learn of my plight.
my adventure in this world is finished
and my desire to stay here is diminished
therefore I implore you to open
a way back home with these words spoken.
Let the connection I feel be the guide
and take us home on a pleasant ride.”

Nia felt her magic react. It latched onto the connection and widened it into a tunnel. A tunnel between worlds. It presented as a glowing sphere in front of them that illuminated the central garden of the monastery where Nia had been stabbed by Qiin.

“It worked?” Saesquar sounded incredulous.

“Are you sure it worked?” Tina sounded skeptical. “That wasn’t a prayer to our god.”

“It may be your god, but there is actually more than one religion in our world and thus either no or a lot of gods.” Nia sighed.

“Wait. You don’t have a god you believe in?” Saesquar sounded surprised. “Then where do you get all your power from?”

“I have no idea. You tell me.”

Saesquar didn’t answer.

“Well, should we go home?” Ralf walked toward the glowing sphere.

“Okay.” Sonja took Tom’s hand and looked at him. They seemed both uneasy, but stepped into the light together.

“Then let’s hope this leads home.” Tina sighed and put a hand on Nia’s head. “Even if not. Thank you for trying. Good luck to us.” The older woman walked into the light, leaving Nia alone in the monastery.

She looked back once more. A single monk stood in the doors that led to the inside. Brother Renard was still here. He didn’t say anything, he just stood there and watched.

Nia had nothing to say to him. From how he had reacted toward her, she got the impression, that he was in on the whole thing. Though maybe he was the only one of them that was still loyal to Luaria.

I’m not going to miss this place.

She grabbed hard onto the sword and stepped into the light herself.