Sassy's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

The entity came closer. Sassy watched the light bend around it. A dark shape rose from the ground, sharp as broken glass, stars burning inside its chest. The seeker's hand went limp in his. Her eyes rolled back. Her spirit was slipping again, halfway out of her body, pulled toward the thing that hunted her. "Hold on," Sassy said. He pressed both hands over her heart. "You're not gone yet. Stay in your skin." She breathed, but barely. Half of her was here. Half was reaching for the deep water. If the entity touched her before he rooted her, she would be lost for good. Big Lez stepped between them and the shape. He planted his feet in the dirt. "You root her," he said. "I'll slow it down." He said it plainly, the way he had vouched for Sassy to the opossum. No fear in his voice. Just work to be done. Sassy had no fire medicine left, no water strong enough. He had only what grew nearby. He tore leaves from the garden box and crushed them in his palm. He remembered the willow's grief, how it calmed only when someone named it out loud. This spirit was grieving too. It wanted to go home to the deep, and part of the seeker wanted to follow. So he did not pull. He leaned close and spoke the truth. "You're afraid," he said. "You saw something with no face. I know. I opened that door. This is my mistake, not yours." He rubbed the crushed leaves under her nose. "But you have a body here. It's warm. It's yours. Come all the way in." Behind him a cold ring of light split the air. A jagged gate opened between the stalls, cracked with pink and blue fire, a black spiral at its heart. The entity turned toward it. The gate was the door. It wanted through. The seeker gasped. Her spine bent. Her fingers dug into Sassy's arms. Then, all at once, weight returned to her. Her eyes cleared. She was fully awake, fully inside herself. Rooted. "I'm here," she whispered. "I'm all the way here." The entity felt it. The half-open spirit had been its bridge. Now that door in her was shut. It could not reach her. It swung toward the fractured gate instead and stepped through the spiral of light. The gate collapsed behind it with a crack that shook the stalls. The market went quiet. Sassy sagged. His seeker lived, whole, both halves of her home at last. The rite could go on. But he had seen where the entity went. Through the gate. Toward the deep water and the door he had opened. Big Lez looked at the empty air where the ring had burned. "It didn't leave for good," Lez said. "It went to find the door. Same one you opened." He turned to Sassy. "Now you have to close it."