<5> “Then how do we stop it!?” Gianna growled. “A palatable sacrifice! That’s all that can stop her!” Drethko insisted. “Palatable!?” Rainier, Summer, and Vivine moved as quickly as they dared, but finally made it back to the others despite the ever-increasing pull of the portal. “Now what?!” Vivine called. “I don’t know!” Gianna cried back. “The portal needs ‘a palatable sacrifice’, whatever that is! It’s not gonna stop until it gets it!” Rainier was just about to usher Summer through the portal to leave the room, when he hesitated at Gianna’s words. Briefly, he locked eyes with Summer, and the two of them embraced when he looked back at the mage. “Just before Summer was taken, I was… I was informed of some stupid prophecy by a fortune teller!” the warrior called. Athilis and Vivine both rolled their eyes, but he had Gianna’s attention. “What did she say!?” His grip tightened on Summer. “The time is nigh, the void hungers for its due, its sacrifice. When the moon vanishes, the portal will open and will not close until its hunger is satiated. A bargain has been struck, and… the pale elf will be taken from this world.” A long moment of silence, only cut by the whooshing, growing portal, fell among them all. Among them, Drethko glared angrily at Summer. “SEE!? You’ll kill us all if you don’t get your ass over there, and fast!” Summer looked up at her adoptive father… conviction in her eyes, then took a step back. “I… I think I gotta do this!” But Rainier’s returned gaze was… shattered. “Summer, [i]no[/i], you will [i]NOT[/i]!” “I don’t think we have a choice!” she cried back, furrowing her brow. “If I don’t, a lot more people are gonna die! If it can just be me….” Without reverence for their moment of gravitas, the opportunistic Drethko threw Gianna and Athilis off of him when they were distracted. All five of them lunged for him, but he wasted not even a second shoving past Rainier and Summer, then diving headlong through the exit portal. “SHIT!” Vivine swore, clutching her daggers. “When I find him again…!” “I don’t think that’s our biggest concern right now, Mom!” Athilis called. The portal’s humming intensified, and the five of them were feeling its pull even more strongly from the edge of the room. The group began to bicker. Summer was hell bent on going back to the portal, but both Rainier and Vivine started trying to hold her back. Athilis desperately tried to talk her out of it, though Summer still didn’t really know who either of the elves were. And throughout it all, Gianna looked over at the portal, then down at her own pale, nearly white-skinned hand. No one noticed until she was halfway there, but it was Athilis who looked back and saw Gianna willingly letting the portal pull her away. “NO!” he cried. Both he and Vivine tried to make a break for her, but in the blink of an eye she melted into the swirling void energies, and was gone. Instantly, the portal ceased its growth and suction both. Summer watched the whole thing happen in horror. “What!? Why did she do that!?” Dumbfounded, Rainier shook his head and clung to Summer. “Families do stupid things for each other… they always have.” In that moment, it clicked for Summer. “Families? That was… was that-” “-your sister,” Rainier said simply, watching as Vivine and Athilis both bolted to the portal, though neither of them dared to touch it as its perimeter stabilized. “I thought they were lying at first, but… I think that’s your mother and brother, too.” Summer looked over at the two of them as they frantically circled the portal. Athilis raised a hand and tried to use some kind of void spell in an effort to breach the portal, but his magic didn’t seem to faze it. Despite the fact that she was still stark naked, Summer suddenly jerked away from Rainier and broke into a swift stride across the room. Any pleas from Rainier fell on deaf ears, and while the warrior sure didn’t know much about magic, she was certain that someone was in deep, deep trouble, be it Gianna or even the jackass, Landon. Neither of the elves noticed Summer until she stood right before the portal, drew her arm back, then boldly plunged it straight into the glowing mass. “Gianna!” she called, looking over at a stunned Athilis and Vivine. “That’s… that’s her name, right!?” They nodded. She looked back at the mass and shifted her stance. “Gianna! If you can hear me, grab my hand! I dunno where you are, or if you’re there or not, but I’m right here! We all are! I-AGH!” Her feet suddenly left the ground, but both Athilis and Vivine grabbed her by the waist, tripling her weight and keeping the portal from drawing her in, too. Summer didn’t quite have the courage to stick more than her arm in, but after a moment she swore she felt… [i]something[/i] touch it… but it didn’t feel like normal skin. With her arm in the portal, all three elves felt its draw intensify, but to add just that much more security, Rainier rushed up behind them, jabbed one sword in the ground, and latched onto Vivine’s hand with his other. The blood elf and human made eye contact, then nodded before refocusing on Summer. * * * * * Gianna screamed when she first fell through, but went quiet when she found herself floating out in the open of the most obscure, magical landscape she’d ever witnessed. Black, blue, and violet colors twisted and turned in mysterious ways far off in the distance. A single, round circle of lighter purple appeared to be where the zone ended far on the horizon, but much too far out of reach. An identical mass hung in the air where she’d come from, and if nothing else, at least Gianna could breathe normally. There were no masses of land or rock, there was no gravity to speak of, and she had nothing but the clothes on her back to defend herself with. “Hello there….”