Breaking The News

---Indigo---

Instinctively, I glanced to Aaron. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, and his eyes became ringed with red again. He looked away from Rachel. I opened my mouth to answer, but the lump in my throat prevented me from forming a coherent sentence. Rachel figured it out with one look at Aaron's distraught expression and the tears welling up in my eyes. Her eyes widened in shock.

"No. No. Katherine, our warrior, the best swordswoman in all of Crystallea…" Rachel swayed slightly. "You're lying. Indigo, tell me you're lying."

I shook my head sadly. "I wish I was," I whispered, my voice cracking. Rachel clapped her hands over her mouth as a sob escaped her lips.

"What happened? How? Where is she?" Rachel choked out the questions between her tears.

I didn't even know where to start, or how to tell her. "It's a long story. Katherine sacrificed herself to complete the prophecy."

Rachel took a shuddering breath to steady herself, but how could she possibly be okay after hearing the news? How could any of us be okay? After all those life-or-death situations, after believing that everything would be okay after defeating Lord Victor, we still lost another person.

Rachel's teary gaze met mine. "After we've come this far, after everything that happened…We have to bring Katherine home, Indigo. Whatever is left of her—we have to bring her home."

I began to nod, then shook my head. "We can't. She's gone. It's…a little complicated"

"What—?"

"Rachel. Did you come in just to find us?" Aaron finally spoke. His voice was dead, flat, and hoarse, with no sign of the boy he was before.

Rachel looked to him and nodded, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "Yes. I have to tell you guys about the battle outside. There were too many Evils and our forces were being overwhelmed, so I ordered our troops to retreat. We didn't go far, though, because I didn't want you guys to be without reinforcements. The Evils were pursuing us when giant portals suddenly appeared, all over the battlefield and the path. One appeared right between us and the pursuing Evils. It seemed to lead to a town. All the Evils charged directly into the portals, and we could see and hear them terrorizing the townspeople there.

"Just as we were unsure of whether we should enter the portal to help, there was a huge flash of purple light. Then we saw someone leading about a hundred people and fighting against the Evils. Guess who it was." Rachel paused. I shook my head to indicate I had no guesses for her. "Madeline!"

"Madeline?" My jaws dropped in surprise. We hadn't seen the sorceress since we parted ways at Goldhedge. "She was at the town?"

"Yeah! Remember how Lionel said forces across Crystallea were prepared to fight against Lord Victor? The people Madeline were leading was one of the self-organized militias around the kingdom. They happened to be at the town when the portal, so Madeline helped kill the Evils before coming through the portal to help us. With Madeline and a new group of fighters, we turned the tide. We won, Indigo." Some happiness returned to Rachel's eyes amid the tears. "She's outside right now directing the rest of the forces to deal with the aftermath."

I managed a small smile of relief. The war was over. We accomplished our mission. We did it.

"Rachel, how is Lucian?" Aaron suddenly asked. Upon hearing Lucian's name, Rachel's eyes dimmed considerably. My heart sank.

"What happened to Lucian?" I had no idea what happened in the battle outside. Clearly, Aaron and Rachel knew something I didn't.

"He…" Rachel looked down on the ground. Aaron paled. "When I found him, he was in a terrible condition. He was caught in that explosion. God, there was so much blood. He almost didn't make it."

"Almost?" I caught the keyword. "So Lucian is…okay now?"

Rachel paused before speaking. "He's alive. He's still in a bad condition and unconscious. I did all that I could with my healing magic, but…he lost both legs from the knee down."

The news hit us like a thunderbolt. Aaron staggered, and I caught his arm before he could fall. "But he's alive," Aaron managed to say. "Lucian is alive."

"Yes." Rachel wiped away a few tears with the back of her hand. "He's alive."

Aaron deflated, as if all the fight had gone out of him. "He's alive…thank the heavens…Lucian is alive…"

I was relieved as well. I didn't even want to think about what would've happened if Rachel told us that Lucian was dead. I didn't think Aaron could handle the deaths of the girl he liked and his best friend at the same time. I didn't think I could deal with losing two of our friends in one day either. But speaking of our friends…

"Where's Lionel?" I asked. "Is he also outside?"

"No, he came in with Aaron and Katherine. You haven't seen him?" Rachel locked her eyes on Aaron. "Aaron, where's Lionel?"

My heart filled with dread again, fearing for the worst. I was almost afraid to look at Aaron. My heart pounded in my ears. 'Please. Please don't tell me that Lionel is—'

"Lionel, he..." Aaron swallowed hard. He avoided my gaze. "On our way to the throne room, we were trapped in a room full of booby-trapped tiles. One of them released an entire pack of Evils before we were able to find the mechanism for the exit. Lionel stayed behind and sealed the room to make sure they wouldn't come after Katherine and me."

My world spun. It had been hours since Katherine and Aaron first came into the throne room. To think that Lionel was fighting an entire pack of Evils by himself, without the aid of magic…I didn't dare finish the thought. I grabbed Aaron's shoulders. "Why didn't you say so sooner?! Where is the room? Where is Lionel?"

"Does anyone have explosives?" Aaron ignored my hysterical questions and addressed the soldiers that Rachel led in. "If not, a couple of you should try to find Lord Victor's storeroom and grab some. We'll have to blow up stone to get to Lionel."

While several people went in search of explosives, Aaron led the rest of us to the booby-trap room. A trail of blood splatters led the way down a flight of stone stairs that ended in a solid gray wall of stone. I ran up to the wall and pounded on the stone. "Lio! It's Indigo! Lio, can you hear me? Can you open the door?"

There was no response. I was panicking. I feared what I would find once we entered the room. It seemed like years before we got the explosives. Aaron shouted at the wall. "Lionel! We're going to blow up the wall. Stand back!"

He waited a full minute before nodding for the soldiers to activate the explosives. With a loud boom! a hole was blasted into the stone. I charged through before the dust even settled. Aaron shouted something about the tiles after me, but I didn't hear. All I saw was Lionel slumped against the wall to my right, covered from head to toe in blood and open wounds. His head drooped to his chest. His sword was by his side, still grasped tightly in his hand. Piles of monster dust surrounded him. A few feet above and to his left was a lever that was still waiting to be pushed up.