Phantoms of the Past Chapter 59- Blizzards, Blackbirds, and Bargains: Part 5
"Okay, what does this one say?" Hiro asked as he laid a leather worn book, open faced, in front of Baymax.
They were in the small library across from the hall, looking for clues. Mostly it was full of dusty old records and paper work, boring things like birth certificates and accounting books.
There were some magic scrolls, similar to the one Cardinist had given them, that looked promising, but Hiro found that Baymax couldn't translate those.
However Hiro did eventually find some history books. He discovered, with Baymax's help, that the kingdom was founded over a thousand years ago, when a comet had fell to earth.
They called it the moonstone, and legend said that if someone possessed great strength and will, the moonstone would grant that person great power, complete invulnerability, and the ability to control the ominous black rocks.
The catch was that the person would eventually be driven insane, and after many wars fighting for control over such power or using it to control others, a group of noble warriors swore to protect the world from such evil and hide the moonstone away, here in this remote icy land.
But that didn't stop the rocks. Those kept spreading independently of any person's direction, and building a city around such a destructive and unpredictable force led to a lot of lost.
So much so, that the noble brotherhood of warriors had started to adopt and then train the orphans who had lost their parents from first the previous wars and then from the rocks that would occasionally destroy their homes.
"Jeez, one wonders why they didn't just all leave sooner?" Hiro mused out loud after Baymax finished translating one such horrific disaster that had left the main gate destroyed and a nearby merchant and his stall crushed under the fallen debris.
"Many places suffer from environmental disasters. For example San Fansoyko has an average of over 1,200 earthquakes a year."
Hiro blinked, stunned by that fact. Sure San Fansoyko had an earthquake problem, it was a defining aspect of the city in a way, but most of them you couldn't feel and the architecture was designed to withstand quakes... mostly... well the newer buildings anyways... except when for the bigger quakes hit...
"Point taken."
That was when Hiro found the journal that he and Baymax were reading now. It has been left by the last king of Umbra.
"My beloved wife was taken from me today. The rocks destroy everything they touch. This curse upon the earth cannot be contained. I no longer believe that simply guarding the moonstone is enough to protect the world, to protect our people, our home... But how can such evil be stopped?"
"Wait. So the queen died?" Hiro interrupted. "Then who wrote the note? And why pretend to be a long dead queen, in an abandoned kingdom anyway?"
Baymax could only shrug in response.
"And why are they hiding from us? If they really just want to help us, why not come out and say 'hello'?"
"Perhaps they are afraid of us?"
"Huh..." Hiro mused over the suggestion. They did probably look intimidating in their armor, but it wasn't like they had other clothes to change into.
"Then what can we do to gain this person's trust and get some answers?" Hiro thought out loud.
That was when he heard the singing.
It sounded like a woman's voice.
He wandered back down the hallway to the dinning room. The singing was definitely coming there.
So he took a deep breath, flew open the door and rushed inside.
A woman was, not standing, but floating above the fire place stirring a pot of stew! She was glowing purple and had no feet. Her body ended with her dress and there was a crown upon her head.
She appeared to be just as surprised to discover Hiro as Hiro was surprised to find her.
"Oh hey there! Y-you're back" She exclaimed, with a nervous smile. "Did you find anything interesting in the library?"
She tried to hide the ladle in her hand behind her back as she said this, but the action was pointless as Hiro could clearly see through her as if she was made of glass.
"Hiiii.." Hiro awkwardly replied as he studied the mystery woman intensely. "I'm guessing you're the one who has been leaving all the food?"
"Oh did you like it!?" She woman asked with sudden excitement. "I wasn't sure what to serve as our food stores are so limited, and I've no idea what they eat in your kingdom. Oh, which kingdom are you from by the way?"
"Ummm... San Fansokyo?"
"Where's that?"
"America?"
"Oh wow you have traveled a long way, haven't you!?" The wide smile returned as she finished plating the soup.
Hiro did not return the smile.
"Wha- who are you?"
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't properly introduce myself." She straightened up, chin held high, and in a most regal voice continued, "I am her Royal Highness Queen Eleanor of Umbra, Guardian of the Moonstone, Ruler of the Dark Kingdom, and Current Ghostly Resident Of These Hallowed Halls."
She gave a deep bow, still holding the ladle in one hand, skirt drawn up in the other hand, and Hiro still couldn't see any feet beneath her as she continued to hover several inches off the floor.
Too dumbfounded to return the courtesy with his own bow, Hiro just stood there staring at her transfixed. Perhaps she sensed the awkward pause, she popped back up with another huge smile and said, "But you can just call me Ellie!"
------------------
Varian set the amber into the hastily built receptacle. His heart pounded in his ears. None of his friends yet knew what the amber really was, but Varian couldn't help but feel sick whenever he looked at.
Everyone had insisted that it wasn't his fault, but they didn't know the full details of the accident. If he explained what had happened, from beginning to end, would they still believe him to be innocent?
Deep down, he knew the answer would be yes. His friends were incredibly kind. They would say things like 'How could you predict how the rocks would react to the solution you made?' or 'Your dad loved you; he wouldn't want you to blame yourself.' But such rationalizations Varian had a hard time agreeing with.
He knew he had disobeyed his dad's orders. He knew he chose to continue with his experiments without having enough data first. Worse, he knew all of the atrocities he had committed in the name of what he called justice.
Sure, his newfound family forgave him for the accident, but would they forgive him for everything else? Could he? Could he forgive himself not just for his past, but also for dragging everyone into his mess?
Both Hiro and Tadashi were in danger, and he couldn't help but feel that familiar sinking feeling of guilt he'd grown so used to over the years.
He stuffed down his rising fear as he finished connecting the wires from the receptacle to the main control box. Now wasn't the time to focus on his past. His brothers needed him.
------------------
"Here we go. Welcome to the mirror room." The Enchanter said. She hovered just above the floor as she swept her arm in an arc to indicate the various mirrors of all shapes and sizes lined along the walls.
Tadashi looked around confused as he flew into what look like ancient Greek ruins floating in space from the outside. The inside however was dark and Gothic in it's interior. "Each mirror is a portal to another world." The Enchanter explained, as Tadashi tried to will himself back onto semisolid ground and stand upright once more.
"Find the correct mirror," She went on, "And you'll find your brother."
"Why should I trust you?" Tadashi asked.
"Have I given you a reason not to trust me?" The Enchanter replied.
"No, but why help me out? You don't know who I am and there's no benefit in it for you. So why?"
The mysterious lady raised a single eyebrow. "Isn't there?" After an uncomfortable beat she explained. "What good is it to me to have a lost human wondering aimlessly through out my domain crying all the time? You can see how annoying that could get, surely?"
"Well..."
"You're not the first person I've shown these mirrors to." She pressed on. "I've helped many a wondering soul to return to their realm. To find the correct portal, all you need to do is ask it to show you what you desire. If it responds by lighting up, then you just step through it."
"What I desire..." Tadashi mused. "So it can show me where Hiro is?"
"It could, buuut.." At this the Enchanter whirled around him with a false sense of concern on her face. "The mirrors only work one way. If your brother is trapped in another world, as you say, then you would both be stuck there with no way of returning to your home."
Stomach full of knots, and not entirely sure what to do, Tadashi called out to the empty air. "Oh mirrors, can you show me where to find my brother... Uh ... please?"
Two mirrors lit up the room. The first showed Varian and his friends still working on fixing the portal. He waved and called out to them, but they didn't respond back.
"They can't see the portal until you step through." The Enchanter explained simply.
Tadashi turned his attention to the second mirror. It was nothing more than a raging blizzard. Tadashi's heart dropped at the thought of Hiro lost in such a storm. He frantically searched but found no sign of the teen nor his pet robot.
"Are.. Are you sure the mirror isn't like broken or something? Cause I don't see Hiro."
"Who could see anything in that storm?" The Enchanter quipped. "I wouldn't worry. I'm sure he's found some shelter out there.. Somewhere..."
Tadashi really did not care for the woman's dismissive tone as she said this.
He turned back towards the portal that led back to his home and debated with himself. He could go back and work with his friends to reopen the portal. Give everyone one less person to search for; that would be the wisest course of action...
However, Tadashi knew he couldn't just leave if Hiro was in trouble. He'd have to risk it, and hope that Varian could find them both later.
He took a deep breath, marched over to the other mirror, and reached his hand out towards the white whirling blur that was in front of him. Then he paused.
"You wouldn't happen to have a anything warmer to wear, would you? Like a jacket, perhaps?"
The Enchanter only shrugged helplessly.
Tadashi fought the urge to roll his eyes. He pushed his hand against what should have been a glass surface. Instead, it gave way from under his applied pressure and rippled. It was like dipping your hand into ice cold water. He took another deep breath and steadied himself to take another step.
Only for the portal to start sucking him in. As if someone had grabbed his wrist and was pulling on it. He instinctively tried to back away but he was caught. He was going to yell for help but he found his call cut short as he was dragged all the way through.
The Enchanter stood there smiling at the empty space where Tadashi had once been.
I genuinely wonder if people realize how many projects get abandoned because the readership "wasn't there", when in reality, the readership just stayed silent. It's a big thing in trad pub that book series get discontinued because readers pirate the books or wait until the series is finished to buy a copy, leading the publisher to think that nobody actually wants the book enough to continue the series, but it happens with indie creators too.
I've discontinued a lot of free, online series because it's not worth putting 3-5 hours a week into posting a project for no readers. Sometimes I finish the series for me but just never post it again, other times I don't finish it at all because it feels more worthwhile to put my time into other things. Sometimes I hear from readers who are sad or upset that I didn't finish something they were liking, but the *reason* it never got finished is because I didn't know anyone liked it. If you like something, tell the creator, tell your friends, make some noise about it. If you would be sad if a story never finished, make that interest known because one of my biggest considerations before discontinuing a series is "will people miss this? Will I be letting people down" and 9/10 times, I come to the conclusion of "no, it doesn't even seem like anyone's reading this" only to learn after I've moved on that apparently someone was.
I've said this before in a different way, and this post said it so well. With real examples.
If you like something, tell people.
If you want more content from an artist or author, if you like their stuff, tell them. It will give them creative fuel to keep going. And often it gives them other resources as well.
Recommend a work to other people. Leave a comment or a review. It doesn't have to be long, just genuine, a sentence or two.
Not many people know that a book's success is judged by book reviews as well as sales. Review the book on Amazon or another site to help it pass the metric of success and be recognized by publishers and retailers.
If you’re experiencing homelessness, or finding yourself without a secure place to stay, you don’t have to navigate things on your own.
Depending on where you live, nonprofit organizations, groups, and government agencies exist and are often able to provide you with support and resources. There is nothing ever wrong with asking for support when you need it, with this as with everything else. Support might look like case management services that can help keep you organized, shelter and housing support, or help finding jobs or support to stay in school or get back into school.
In this new installment of their series for homeless or transient youth, Sassafras Patterdale fills you in on what these services can look like, navigating waitlists, how to advocate for yourself in them, and more.
If you’re experiencing homelessness, or finding yourself without a secure place to stay, you don’t have to navigate things on your own.
hi everyone bringing back a "lets all thank ao3 volunteers"
the Great AO3 Shutdown sucks but its not the volunteers fault. thank you fellow readers for your hard work. signed, a survivor of the 2023 hacker shutdown
use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.
use firefox instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).
use mega or proton drive instead of google drive.
get rid of bloatware
use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite
use vetted sites on r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH for free movies, books, games, etc.
use trakt or letterboxd instead of imdb.
use storygraph instead of goodreads.
use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions
use ground news to read unbiased news and find blind spots in news stories.
use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp
make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge
use search for a cause or ecosia to support the environment instead of google
use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)
use flashpoint to play archived online flash games
find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books
burn your music onto cds
use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe
use unroll.me to clean your email inboxes
use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, tuta, or proton mail instead of gmail
remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X
remove bloatware on samsung X
use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta
use NCH suite for free software like a file converter, image editor, video editors, pdf editor, etc.
feel free to add more alternatives, resources or advice in the reblogs or replies, and i'll add them to the main post <3
and make sure your comments are kind!!! “I love this so much!” and “this is amazing! I’m so excited for what happens next” are more likely to get your favorite fics updated than “when will we get the next chapter?”
That artist is the founder of Cara by the way (https://cara.app/zemotion/all).
Cara is the only art platform I have found that not only prohibits AI art from being uploaded on the site, but also offers their users to Glaze their art (which protects them from ai mimicry). They are also working on implementing Nightshade, which actively poisons ai training.
I have used Cara for a couple of months now, and I hope more people check it out. It's really nice. 💚
We need these kinds of places for artists, and it's also FREE (despite the staff paying out of their own pockets to keep it running).
Even if you're not an artist, I highly recommend signing up just to lurk because it's been such a lovely wholesome experience free of the noise and brainrot that comes with the ads and reels on instagram. As a writer I think it has a niche for connecting authors with cover designers and illustrators. I'm documenting my experience in this thread if anyone wants to follow along!
psa that there’s no reason to be shy or nervous abt commenting bc if an author genuinely did not want comments they would simply disable commenting on their end. if you have the capability to comment that means they’re welcome and that you should <3
