Pearl managed to remain conscious while Mrs. Harry carried her back through the door. On their way back, they were met by Mrs. Rose, who had finally figured out that the male assailant was not coming.
'I'll help,' she said as she saw Pearl and immediately did. She held Pearl and continued where she had left off in her healing. Back then, given the circumstances and time constraints, she was unable to completely heal Pearl.
Pearl felt the familiar heat of Mrs. Rose's touch and immediately relaxed, she was lifted bridal style from the floor. As she lay in Mrs Rose's arms, the fatigue set in and she slipped in and out of consciousness. She couldn't help thinking of how grateful she was for Mrs. Rose's ability. An ability she had once hated and associated primarily with pain. Only now could she see how useful it truly was.
The doorknob clicked and turned, blindingly bright light spewed into the dark hall from the library. It was finally over.
Pearl woke up disoriented and confused from a nightmare of Premonition choking her with a wicked snarl on her face. Her partner stood to the side clapping and laughing.
'Very impressive, but what will you do now?' He asked again and again in between wicked peals of cackling laughter.
Her breathing was ragged and shaky, it took a while for her to realize that it was just a dream. Her eyes focused on Mrs. Rose's face, there was a worried look on it.
'Calm down. Breathe' Rose spoke calmly, her arm outstretched. Pearl deliberately evened out her breathing and tried to calm down. As she relaxed, she felt herself drop onto the bed with a thud, suddenly realizing that she had been floating about a foot in mid-air.
'It's all right. You're safe now' Mrs. Rose assured Pearl. Pearl nodded and calmly evaluated her surroundings. In a moment, she was sure of where she was, one of the rooms in the library.
'Pearl, now that you are awake, I want to ask, what were you doing in there?' Her first question was met with an unsettling silence. 'Were you planning on going to Legandanl?' Mrs. Rose asked, she paused thoughtfully and continued.
'Have you said goodbye to Ophelia?'
'That's my business' Pearl suddenly snapped. It had been a very long day for Pearl, and Mrs. Rose questioning the morality of her actions was the last thing she needed.
'The rules there are different from the rules here. You may not get the chance to speak to her again. Don't waste what little time you have and don't make her suffer because of your selfishness' Mrs. Rose pulled no punches, she tried desperately to make Pearl understand.
'You have no idea what I have had to go through these past few months.' Pearl burst out without thinking, she composed herself and continued 'Please, you're not my mother so don't try to act like it.' This time, Pearl checked herself. Her voice was calm and cool, devoid of emotion.
'Think bigger than yourself Pearl. You're better than this.' Mrs. Rose implored.
An inappropriate response swelled in Pearl's chest and was about to spew out her mouth when the soft, clear voice of the old librarian interjected.
'There is a way to see Legandanl without going there' Mrs Harry spoke up from where she watched their conversation at the door, 'Pearl, would you like me to take you?'.
'What's the difference? I have to go there anyway, whether I like the view or not' Pearl mumbled under her breath, chuckling mirthlessly.
'You're not the only one in a situation that they wish they could change. You should know that' Mrs. Harry spoke sternly.
Pearl's heart softened. Perhaps she was too harsh, she chanced a glance at Mrs Rose and could see her face was a rock-solid wall, separating whatever she felt on the inside from any prying eyes.
'I'm wanted elsewhere' Mrs Rose abruptly said then walked out, shortly after that Mrs Harry also exited the room, leaving Pearl alone with her thoughts.
A little while later, when Pearl came to Mrs. Harry's study, she was thinking differently. She had decided she would go see Legandanl. In fact, she felt so different now that she wanted to apologize to Mrs. Rose for her misbehaviour but she wasn't around.
Mrs. Harry didn't need to be told. One look into Pearl's eyes and she knew, Pearl had decided to see the city that she would soon be relocating to. She had come to terms with her situation.
'I don't want to leave yet.' Pearl started, 'I only want to see it.' Mrs. Harry smiled. It seemed Pearl had reached stage five, acceptance.
'Tomorrow' came Mrs. Harry's one-word reply.
'Tomorrow' Pearl agreed, then closed the door to the study.
Pearl got home and realized there was a lot of preparation to be done. She had been so focused on herself and how she felt, trying to bargain or avoid the inevitable, that she had completely neglected to inform or at least prepare those around her for what would now be her sudden disappearance. How would she tell Ophelia?
Ophelia was asleep on the dining table when Pearl came back, postponing their painful yet unavoidable conversation by a day. Pearl was thankful for it, she was ready for the day to end. She peered down to look at the face of Ophelia, her cousin, friend and sister only to see that it was tear-streaked and there were teardrops on the table.
Ophelia had been crying.
'Why?' she asked no one in particular, she thought it could be her fault. Was it something she had done? Once again, she was brought to bear with her actions and their possible consequences.
'It's unfortunate' she sighed, looking again at her sleeping cousin, there was no time to prepare Ophelia for the coming shock of her relocation. Pearl felt very powerless and small like people and forces beyond her had stolen her life from her.
She turned to the kitchen to prepare something for herself to eat but ran into her mother. A stand-off ensued between them. Those harsh, unforgiving eyes bored straight into Pearl's soul but she was too stubborn to look away, to give in, to relent. Pearl held her gaze. A very uncomfortable silence settled between them and the air grew tense. Her mother walked out without a word and Pearl scoffed. She prepared something for herself to eat and then went to sleep.
Very early the next day, before Ophelia woke up, Pearl snuck out through the portal in her bedroom. The sheer size of the portal hall intimidated her at first. Granted, she had been in the portal hall countless times before, but always with Mrs. Rose. Now, for the first time, not only was she in here alone, she had to navigate to the library through the portal hall, all on her own.
Her fears were proven right because, in mere moments, she was completely lost. She saw a lot of different portals, in some, she saw different time zones, seasons and even different types of creatures. The amount and diversity of portals shocked her because she had never explored the hall. Pearl ventured to step through one portal only to find herself in a farther portion of the portal hall, directly before a large door that towered above her and made her feel very small.
'What are you doing there?' A male voice called out to her. On turning around, her eyes met with the most beautiful creature she had ever seen, it was definitely not human, it had wings like a majestic eagle, great and white, unlike hers that looked like that of an insect in comparison.
'I'm lost' came her soft reply, her voice subconsciously lowered due to timidity.
'Ah, I can help you. This is Lilac's domain of the Portal Lords' He chirped cheerfully.
'I see, of course, thanks' Pearl had pretended to understand, then it occurred to her, 'And how may I see Lilac?'
'That would be most difficult. You see she is not in the meeting of the Portal Lords today' He replied regrettably, 'By the way, my name is-', he stopped himself, thought for a while then resumed, 'Aaron'.
This name puzzled Pearl who would have thought that a being such as himself obviously from another sector of their dimension or whatever would have a complex, hardly pronounceable name.
'And why isn't she at the meeting, Aaron?' Pearl asked.
'It is her punishment, but I mustn't say any more.' He stopped, looked at the door before them then led Pearl to a separate part of the portal hall, glancing behind him as though he was afraid of being overheard.
'Where are we going?' Pearl finally asked, after walking with him for a while.
'I am taking you to a place we can talk in private, deep within the reaches of the purple portal master's domain', His response exasperated Pearl, but she was slowly coming to terms with the fact that directions in a place such as this would be incomprehensible to her.
They got somewhere where the blueness of the hall was tinged with just a bit of purple, hardly noticeable but for the fact that they had come from a place where the walls were a deeper bluish hue.
'I will tell you, young one, why Lilac, the portal lord, is under punishment.' Pearl really didn't have time for this, she knew that she had an appointment that day, besides who was this strange man to accuse Mrs Harry anyway. As these thoughts flashed through her mind, she remembered the version of Mrs. Harry that she had seen just the day before, when she said those words, how powerful she had been. What reduced that great lady to the frail old woman she had known all her life?
Curiosity got the better of her and she nodded, 'Go on'.
'Lilac of the Portal Lords was bestowed the grand honour of watching over the Portal built by Blue, the grand portal maker and master.' When he observed Pearl's confusion, he explained.
'A portal maker is a faerie with the ability to create portals, when one has it, it is usually small scale and limited but when this ability is paired with the sovereignty granted by the Almighty, such a person becomes a Portal Master, one of immense power. Portal Lords are the watchers of portals, given the sovereignty by the Almighty. Of all the portal lords, I only know blue to be a portal master.'
'They're that rare?' Pearl asked with trepidation, wondering what would happen were her male captor given the sovereignty.
'Yes, portal makers are very rare, they are a real threat, but only if they are strong. Otherwise, they are little more than a nuisance. This is because of the immense amount of energy it takes to create portals and the sovereignty of the portal lords. One cannot enter into a portal or the domain of a portal lord without their knowledge.'
'Wow', Pearl said in awe, truly impressed.
'Anyway, Lilac broke a law, she got involved in a fight that didn't concern her, in another domain.' Aaron continued.
'But why is that a law? She was only helping the fight' Pearl immediately reached the correct conclusion that Lilac would never fight on the opposing team.
'She caused massive devastation to the terrain' He continued as though he hadn't heard her question. 'And threatened the very fabric of both her dimension and the one she had intruded. She left the mortals in her care defenseless and by entering another dimension, strained it to its limits with the combined energy of two portal lords. And all this damage was done due to emotional attachments' He concluded.
'You can't mean that' Pearl replied, shocked by the level of assault on Mrs Harry's character. It certainly couldn't be. Right?
'I pity the mortals under her care, she was duly and harshly punished too. As a portal Lord, an enforcer of the law, she should have known better than to break it. I speak only the truth, young one, you will do well to believe me.' He said then suddenly turned away and went back in the direction they had come from, leaving Pearl to ponder on the veritability of his account.
'Wait! I still need to know where to find her…' She was once again alone and lost.
The walls around her seemed to close in on her as she realized the sheer magnitude of the glassy blue hall. She may never get out. She may be doomed to wander in here for all time. Mrs. Harry would never know, after all, she had been stripped of her ability and was still serving out her sentence. She glanced about her at the kaleidoscope of portals, each one leading to a place vastly different from the others. There was one to somewhere just above a pool, it seemed familiar to her and the more she looked, the more certain she was that she had seen the place sometime before. Suddenly, the realization hit her, it was the stream that ran close to their house. There was no time to waste, disregarding the possibility of getting soaked, she bounded out of that portal and sprung out of the stream on the other side, perfectly dry. After looking about to ensure she went unnoticed, she started the journey to the library.
...….
Present Day
After this point, the writing is barely legible and the book stops abruptly. Pearl was unable to continue. Pearl went on to see Legandanl but after that, all her attempts to describe what she saw were barely intelligible. Ophelia closed the book. She knew what happened from there. The remarkable change in Pearl's countenance, the new light in her eyes, that must have been after she saw Legandanl. It must have impacted her, in a way that Ophelia could not now define, but she knew when Pearl came back that day that their time together would soon come to an end.
'Or a new beginning' she commented smiling, from the realization that it hadn't come to an end after all.