Veil of Shadow and Rain ✓ [TSC #1]

Chapter 35 - The Right Dimenson

Wren stood up from the ground, brushing dust off her shirt. 'The portal lets us out when it wants to,' she said, remembering the High King's words. 'Dammit. We aren't going to get anything done if it just randomly decides to suck us in or not.'

'What were you saying about the prophecy, Carrots?' Jake said, sitting on the bed opposite Wren. Wren shrugged.

'I dunno ... it was pretty long. Something about bonds of the darkest and the one known to defeat shall not be broken .. that would be me, I suppose. And there was something about - about ... exile...'

'You're in exile?' Jake said, thunderstruck.

'Why would I be in exile? It's just what the prophecy claimed ... and there was something about crysanthemum petals.'

'Crysanthemum petals?' Ladislaya said incredulously.

'Yeah, what are you going to do with it, make tea or something?' Jake cried.

'I feel like the prophecy was saying the other will be sent into exile by the one who came into existence,' Wren said, sounding troubled. 'At least, that's what I think it means.'

'A prophecy about you and Nicaea?' Jake said. 'Wild.'

'Anyway,' Wren said, 'you said you were in the eighteenth century?'

'That I was,' confirmed Jake.

'And Ladislaya, you were in London?'

'What's London?' frowned Ladislaya.

'A state - kingdom - whatever - in the ordinary world. In United Kingdom.'

'United Kingdom?' Jake said, sounding impressed. 'Sounds fancy. So is there like, a palace of unity there?'

'What - no!' Wren said. 'Forget it. Question is: why did the portal send us to where it sent us?'

'No idea. Maybe it can just drop us wherever it wants,' Ladislaya said.

'In the past?' Jake said, raising an eyebrow.

Wren lay back in her bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to piece it all together. The Perilous, who might or mightn't work with Nicaea. The fire. Was Nicaea behind all this? If she wasn't, who was?

There were many possibilities.

The High King could be.

Or.

Lucian Ailwood.

Wren was frustrated at playing this game. She didn't want to anymore. But she had to keep going from where she started. She didn't come here for nothing.

'Look,' she said, turning around in her bed to look at Jake and Ladislaya, interrupting their deep discussion of the long list of possibilities why they were dropped off in where they were, 'I'm certain the Perilous works for or with Nicaea.'

Before either of them could interrupt, Wren began rambling. 'First of all, the fire in the corridor. This -' she shook her head not knowing why she did so, 'this is too much of a coincidence. You both and I know that Lucian was there the time of the fire. So, I have two theories.'

She held up a finger, tapping on it with the other. 'Theory number one: Lucian could have been the one who set the fire. And here's the proof. He said he heard Nicaea and his father talking in the dungeons back in his home -'

'Hold up,' Jake interrupted, wagging a finger. 'First of all; he didn't say it was Nicaea and his father talking. It was his father and someone talking.'