(Shoutout to Lysalei! This is draft #27. I literally had nothing but one letter on this draft 😂.)

———

Raven waits.

And waits.

And waits even more.

Sitting at the magical barrier gets a bit boring when no one shows up. There isn’t much to do on this side of the boundary. Sprion is very much a wasteland. Nothing like the Lillia side.

It gets so bad that she begins to count the number of bees and butterflies that flit around the pastel flowers in Lillia. She gets up to thirteen.

“She still hasn’t shown up?” A voice startles Raven. Ebony appeared in a puff of black dust right beside her. Don’t even start with trying to teleport inside the barrier. A witch’s magic doesn’t work on the barrier or within it.

“Nope. Not yet. But she will.” Raven didn’t sound as confident as she hoped. It’s difficult to trust a fairy when every witch is taught to never take a fairy’s word. But Calla felt different.

“Hopefully she has more info on both of your hands being able to go through the barrier,” Ebony comments, looking disinterestedly at her black nails. “Imagine the chaos of a fairy in Sprion.”

Glancing at the sunny Lillia, the place she is supposed to hate, she finds herself uttering something without even meaning to. “Or a witch in Lillia.”

Ebony’s gaze is sharp, Raven now having her full attention. “Rave, you really think they would allow you in Lillia? They would just throw you back out here.”

She never gets to answer because out of the lively shrubbery comes Calla stumbling through. Even though her feet are firmly grounded, her wings flutter fast.

“Raven! I’m so sorry I’m late!” Ebony rolls her eyes, but Raven believes the apology. “It’s ok.”

They face one another. The white shimmery barrier between them, distorting the image of the other.

“What’d you manage to figure out?” Ebony questions, her tone harsh. Calla flinches, clearly not familiar with negativity. “The council was not quite clear on the moon. All I was able to get is that it magnifies the truth.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Raven mutters under her breath. Magnifies the truth? Are all fairies that cryptic? Though Calla appears to also be confused by the wording.

Her wings flap frantically, unevenly. No wonder fairies can’t lie. Their wings give them away. Raven’s never been so happy to not have two big cumbersome flight risks on her back.

“They did say to me that nothing should be able to pass through the border. No matter the moon.”

“So whatever happened to us, they don’t know anything about it. Or don’t want to expose,” Raven talks aloud, trying to process it. All they ever knew and maybe even the fairy council could be a lie.

“We’re on our own,” Calla confirms. She rubs her upper arm, uneasy at the thought of her statement. Raven and Ebony are unbothered by being alone. Probably the product of living in Sprion. Outside the bubble, it’s every witch for themselves.

Glancing up at the night sky, which is a bit harder in Sprion, Ebony asks, “Have you guys tried again? It was about this time yesterday that you were able to go through.”

With neither of them having done that, both step up to the barrier. Raven feels the pull towards Lillia. Does Calla feel the same?

She raises her hand and Calla mirrors her. At the same time, their fingertips touch the wall, not repelled like they should be. Instead, when they push harder, they pass into each other’s worlds.

Her hand tingles where it went through it. It’s not unpleasant. Just strange. Like tiny sparks zipping in her bloodstream.

Even with just her fingers on the other side, Saracen could feel the difference in Lillia. The air felt lighter in some way. The atmosphere in Sprion is heavy. Humid. In other words, not nice.

Calla appears to also be feeling the difference from the distorted look on her face.

To test their limits, Raven pushes onward. While her hand took a good amount of effort, the rest of her arm easily slips through the barrier. Like it was a sharp stone cutting flesh.

“Raven? I think you should pull back,” Ebony warns, head switching between staring at the moon and Raven. Worry etched in her expressions.

Without knowledge on how they are doing it, Ebony is right. Fighting against the innate feeling guiding her to go further, Raven begins to pull back. Except she can’t.

Almost in a panic, Raven attempts to fling herself back, but her body only goes further into Lillia. Calla grabs the hand that is inside and brings her fully in. Raven teeters and trips onto the ground. Instead of the cold hard ground, her knees are cushioned by lush grass.

It’s easier to breathe.

It’s freaking bright, almost blinding her.

She’s in Lillia.

“Raven!” She cranes her neck and she sees Ebony. Someone she has always seen clearly, now apart from her, with the border between them.

“Why’d you do that?” Ebony yells at Calla.

“We don’t know how we have the ability to break the barrier! What if it’s the position of the moon? We don’t know what would happen if one of us is partially in the dome!” She shouts back, startling Raven. This is the first time she heard the fairy raise her voice above a normal volume.

Calla gets her hand under Raven’s arm and hauls her up with surprising amount of force. Her friend is panicked on the other side, but something in Raven is settled. It takes her a second to realize that pull isn’t there anymore. This is where she’ll get her answers. “Ebony, can you tell my mom that I’m at yours?”

“What are you planning to do?”

“Well, you know the saying in Sprion,” Raven says, meeting Ebony’s eyes, hoping to indicate her sureness. “If you want something done, you do it yourself,” they repeat in tandem.

Calla steps up next to Raven. “I’ll look after her.”

Looking between the two, they couldn’t appear more different from one another. Calla and Ebony, mirrors of opposites. Pale yellow and dark grey. A fairy and a witch. Their gaze seemed to say more than what was spoken out loud.

Once Ebony is satisfied with whatever that silent conversation was about, her attention is back to Raven.

“Be careful out there.”