"Abigail and I were chosen by the Silver Ravens' arch-mage, Zorander, to be the ones entering Jackdaw's mind. She was the elf who established the first generation of the Silver Ravens, and she was completely insane, she wouldn't speak to anyone and her eyes looked absolutely empty, without a trace of living light. Because of her inability to talk, we had to go further to recover the lyrics of the Song of Silver. The song that would save Kintargo.
Zorander was the one holding the spell, the ritual. I knew how to play the song with my lute since I had the sheets, but I missed the lyrics. And Abby was the bravest of all rogues, my best friend, a sister. The perfect one to come with me and go through Jackdaw's screwed up mind.
Zorander, Vivi and the other mages prepared the runes. The ground was full of circles containing the smallest blue shinning runes. Jackdaw was lying down in the middle of a big circle. There were two more circles, one on each side of her unconscious body. I guessed those were for Abby and I to sit in. Last but not least, Zorander was sitting at Jackdaw's feet, in the middle of a rune circle as well. We saw all of this when we entered the room with Vivi. We took our clothes off and stood naked right in front of Zorander. Vivi carried the clothes out the room and sealed the door with magic so no one would interrupt during our incursion inside Jackdaw's mind, otherwise we could die right there, in-between her thoughts and emotions, and probably the arch-mage would die as well.
Zorander was looking at our direction, but he was looking at something that we were not able to see. He was lost in his magic, he wasn't staring at us.
Blue runes started to appear on our skin, the same runes as the ones in the circles. They were glowing. Little by little, our bodies were covered in shimmering signals. We knew what to do. Each of us sat in the middle of an empty circle. I grabbed Jackdaw's right hand, and Abby grabbed her left hand. We exhaled, and even with my eyes closed, I could feel behind my eyelids how the runes glowed furiously, consuming every bit of shadow in the room. The light concentrated on Jackdaw's body, and suddenly, we were rushed in a sea of total darkness.
And then there was light again. Sun rays of dusk caressed the landscape. A forest. A wide path. The trees were really tall, the leaves were vivid green. We stood there, naked, in the middle of that path. Holding hands. And I saw her. The petite silhouette of a girl embraced by floating silver hair. She was quite far away from us. Then a scream, a loud crying, was coming very fast towards us. I felt like the sound wanted to annihilate us, just like a whole army running over our bodies. Abby also heard it coming, and she ran behind the protection of a tree. I couldn't move. I couldn't take the slightest breath. But I also felt like I wanted to embrace that terrifying shout. I stood there, waiting for it to take me to wherever it came from. The sound surrounded the whole forest and I shivered. I swear I could feel how something was aching deep inside my soul. I felt Jackdaw's crying for help.
Absolute silence, and the figure at the end of the path started to run. The only thing my body urged me to do was run towards her direction. I obeyed. Abby's footsteps were following mine. I knew that one of her concerns was that she didn't want me to be in danger, but I couldn't even speak to assure her I was convinced about this. I only ran.
So we ran fast. We could've been running for days or weeks, only the Gods know how much time we spent following what seemed an everlasting path between the woods. But we reached the end. The forest disappeared and instead, we found ourselves contemplating what seemed to be a peaceful, happy city, enjoying the constant flow of people passing by, going on with their lives. It was the city we were fighting for. We were standing in front of a sunbathed Kintargo.
Sun rays covered the buildings in golden light. The sky was flooded with shades of pink, orange and yellow. The streets were crowded, but we heard its noise as if we were underwater. All faces and shapes were blurry and translucent, it was impossible to recognize if they were men or women, children or elders. There was one recognizable figure, though. Her silver locks floated around her petite silhouette just like before. As soon as I saw her, I started following her again; she hadn't stopped moving. We walked along with the flow of the crowd, not interfering at all. It felt like swimming. The connection between Abby and I intensified with every step we took, I could feel it flowing through our held hands. There, that was our only weapon against fear.
We found ourselves entering an enormous park. Exotic vegetation grew there, the colors were stunning. At first glance, it looked like a painting. As soon as we entered the place, I felt the presence of the moon in the sky. It was full, watching over us. Its light felt like a guidance, striking right on top of a fountain located just in the middle of the park. The silver-haired girl was gone. Abby approached the fountain and climbed on top of it. The center part of it grew a few meters up to the dark blue sky, following the moonlight. I felt like I needed to be next to her, like I was urged to, like it was a warning coming from who knows where. I climbed the first step of the fountain and it shrunk back to its original size and shape. Later on, from the center of it, steps that went down started to appear. Abby was the first one to start walking down, and I followed. We ended up inside a room. There were more steps going down on our left and a short corridor with a shut door on our right. There was a window right in front of us. Abby started walking towards it as she had been hypnotized, and I had to blink twice to confirm what I was actually observing. There wasn't a wall in front of us, neither a window, just an immense gap in the ground and Abby was about to step inside. She was too far away for me to hold her arm and keep her from falling, so I called her name with a desperate scream. She stepped back immediately, while realizing what she was doing. She got closer, we held hands tightly and took a deep breath at the same time. A warm breeze went through the room and slightly opened the door in the end of the corridor. That had to be the right way. We walked in and the most gorgeous garden appeared. We were amazed by its colors and the beauty of nature. But in the blink of an eye, the floor vanished and we were falling down. It was a matter of seconds. And the city was underneath us, bathed in silver light. I didn't feel the rush of the fall, or the fear of hitting the ground. I looked at Abby. She felt no fear either. It was our city, it wouldn't harm us. And just when it seemed that we both had this thought, we stopped falling and started running. A huge mansion appeared in the distance, right in front of us. Its gates were shut and it seemed like they wouldn't open no matter how close we were. But my legs didn't stop, I wasn't tired. In fact, I had the sensation we were going faster and faster. As if we wanted to run through it. I could feel my muscles fortifying, this is how strong we were. And we ran through the gates, not doubting at any moment, as if the fall had empowered us.
After passing through the immense doors, we stopped just before crashing against the tallest stairs I've ever seen, right in the middle of the hall. This wasn't an illusion. It wasn't like the window from before. It was real. There was no way we could jump high enough to climb those stairs. We took it as a message, that wasn't the path we had to follow. We looked through the hall, trying to spot our next step. There were plenty of doors inside this room, but only one was barely opened, the other ones were closed. That was our way, our guiding key. As we entered the doorway, the room started to form, like it didn't exist before we appeared. It was a theatre. It built itself as we were going in. Like any other theatre, it had a stage. There was a piano on stage, and the figure we had been chasing all this time was sitting on the stool in front of it, facing the instrument. She could not see us, but I knew that somehow she felt us coming. She was waiting for us. She was ready.
Daylight filled the room, even though I couldn't find any source of light. I was walking towards the stage, and as I did, Jackdaw started playing the first notes of the Song of Silver. When I was close enough to see her well, I noticed that the keyboard was way longer that it should, just like two pianos merged in one. Also, there was another stool right next to Jackdaw's. So I sat down, and I realized Abby was there, sitting on a chair by the piano's side. She placed one hand on top of it, and with the other she handed me a few papers. A sheet. She had found the lyrics of the Song of Silver. Many emotions bursted inside my chest. I started playing the piano, I knew what was next. Jackdaw and I sang the Song of Silver. But this all happened inside her mind, so the right thing to say is that she decided to teach us the lyrics. The sound of our voices joined the delicate melody of the notes released with the touch of our fingertips. The music flowed from us, carrying a message of hope and determination.
When the song ended, the silver-haired elf stared straight at me and smiled peacefully. She had been released of her sorrow. She was freed along with those lyrics.
The only thing I remember right after seeing her smile is coming back to consciousness in the room where it all started, with all the glowing runes fading away and Abigail smiling at me the same way Jackdaw did."
