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“First, we drop Heba off with my family in the Yukon. Can you and Brigid teleport us there or whatever we call this walking between worlds…so coolby the way,” he couldn’t resist adding.
“We can,” Brigid said with a smile.
“Then, should we gather more strength in numbers to help us search and potentially fight our way out of the Celestial Realm while we’re home?” Ben asked the group at large.
“We cannot keep a portal open for too long,” Sai said.
“It drains our powers to teleport, as you say, so frequently in such a short period of time. We will have enough strength to allow the three of you through and to open it back up for you to return with the one you seek. It will take all of our combined concentration to do so. We will not be able to help you with the search or join the fight ourselves. We must guard the portal against any other travelers between realms.”
“No reinforcements then,” Ben surmised.
“I’m afraid not,” Sai said. “But you can always change the players, if one or two of you want to stay behind and have someone else go in your place.”
“We’re in this together,” Ere interjected. “We know what we’re looking for; others do not. It’s up to the three of us to find Shai and bring him home.”
“Then, let us not delay a moment longer,” Sai said.
As he spoke, a portal to another realm opened, and one by one, Ben, Ere, Sorin carrying Heba who gripped her box, and Brigid, then Sai stepped inside.
Chapter Sixteen
“Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.”
—Voltaire
Traveling via worm hole, or whatever magical portal that was created by the combined powers of a sea dragon and a faerie queen, was…an out of body experience.
Literally.
It felt like, in the couple seconds Ben took to step from one realm to another, an infinite possibility of himself was made known to him.
Like a split personality to the exponential of infinity.
In those ephemeral moments, he was conscious of all of the choices he had made in his life, in his past life or lives, and all of the countless choices he had yet to make. They led to infinite permutations of the future. Perhaps some common themes cut throughout these possibilities, but there were also innumerable divergent paths.
From one breath to the next, he was in and out of the portal. When he stepped out, he stepped directly into the family room of the house that his parents and grandparents shared.
Only Tal was home, it seemed. Sitting at the dining table with a younger man who seemed familiar to Ben, but whose name he couldn’t recall.
Matthew? Mark?
He was here on the weekends working in Tal’s shop. Once in a while they might have crossed paths, for Ben was always underfoot to partake of Mama Bear’s cooking, especially on Sundays. But they’d never exchanged words.
Tal and his apprentice paused in the middle of what appeared to be a light lunch and looked toward the sudden commotion—namely, that six people just appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the house.
“Benjamin,” Tal greeted, knowing exactly what was going on despite his blindness, as always.
“Ere and Sorin,” he named in turn.
Then, he cocked his head slightly to assess the strangers, his brilliant turquoise eyes appearing to see without truly seeing.
Or, perhaps he saw better than anyone else.
“Two women and a man. We have not met before.”
Ben made the introductions while he kept his eyes on the young human sitting with Tal, who stared back at them with some awe, but not shock. As if he saw people materialize out of thin air all the time.
“And your friend, Uncle Tal?” Ben finally asked.
