MONOCHROMATIC BALANCE

"Make me."He said.

I was about to make a move, but then took a deep breath and said,"Listen, I don't want to fight you, or anyone, I just need you to come with me because your world and countless others will be in danger if you stayed here."

"You think I don't know about those monsters that crawl into my world through portals and gates? I have single handedly saved my world ten times in the last three weeks and you are telling me to leave it? How would I know it would be safer? Or that you aren't one of the monsters?"He asked.

I wanted to show him my gem, but figured he might already know of it since it glowed along with my eyes when he insulted my world, and would possibly relate it to the wizards he probably faced in the monster raids, so I said,"You'll just have to trust me."

He walked closer and stood right in front of me then said,"I don't..."

Then at that moment, I fell through the ground, through my own shadow...

***

"Araclara, meno-chest, interpret your words to me right now, as you spoke to us before..."

Alexa looked at Corma as the spell began its effects even before she was done declaring it, then smiled, till the book began flipping again, back to the hundredth and ninety fifth page.

Then her notebook also flipped back to the first page and the words on it began lifting off the surface of the paper like a relief carving, till they got to the world ' forven ', then a voice read it and interpreted it as, ' get rid of, despise or disown '.

The two girls looked at each other as it continued in that sequence to the word ' blakka ' to interpret it as, ' will, desire and want ', then finally went to the word ' yodai ' and interpreted it as, ' to set free '.

The surprising part was that the last word, on the book, was yode, but it mentioned it as yodai, it changed it into an intransitive verb, for some reason.

Alexa looked at the gem then widened her eyes and said,"I think your gem is trying to teach you how to unlock its power."

"Yes, but how?"Corma asked.

"These three words, get rid of, desire and to set free, it actually makes a complete English sentence; Get rid of desire to set free, to set your gem free."

"Where did you get the gem part from?"

"Just think about it...what do you want the most?"

"To defeat Diana and go back home."

"Exactly, you have to let go."

"What?"

"Let go of your desire to go back home, forget your love for your father and your friends and school, even of your familiars."

"What are you saying? Do you even hear yourself?! You're telling me to..."

"Set yourself free to set your gem free."

"Please, leave."Corma said.

"Corma, I..."

"I said go! Please."

Alexa nodded, then left, then Corma burst into tears on the floor, as a black cat and a white raven came to her side...

***

Maame slowly climbed the stairs of a white house, as the droplets of water in the creaking walls and floors floated out of their old homes, and into the still air.

She held her veil, tightly around herself, then got to the floodlight at the top, then took a deep breath, looking at the turquoise waves below her, then jumped off.

The water raised up in a reversed whirlpool like manner which she dove into then went below and began swimming as a school of herrings which swam in a spiral around her, then spread out.

She swam below underwater arches and through cracks, where she toyed with some of the creatures rudely telling her to leave, then, laughing, she picked up a strand of red dulse algae aka palmaria palmata then the water around her, twisted it into a finger trap like sleeve and placed it on her left arm with several, long and woven strands hanging and flowing almost as beautifully as her own hair, while several different colours of algae, coral and shells also floated in the currents to garnish her all around.

Then she spun in the water and called out, and a shrieking sound came about, as a hippocampus swam closer.

She placed her head gently on its own, then she pushed it's head down playfully, then swam backwards while laughing and it swam after her.

Going with a school of dolphins and the seahorse, she twirled out of the ocean, with spirals of water following her multicoloured body, then splashed with a monstrous wave and submerged again, then hugged the hippocampus while slowly spinning in the water, then rose above surface, while the water parted and propelled her forward, with a school of flying fish around her, the hippocampus swam upside down, looking at her curiously, as she raised her hands and a wave lifted her into the air.

The wave washed her onto a small island.

From there, her laughter was short-lived as she stood up, with the water evaporating from her body.

She got to the edge and propped herself on her elbow and looked at the window of the room she shared with Apollo, then sighed and said,"Apollo, what happened to us?"

There, he was playing with their three developing children, then looked out the window and caught her eye for a moment then smiled and closed the windows.

Her countenance fell as she was washed over by a wave of her own doing...

***

I fell into a dark place, then floated in the air for a second, before falling on my back again.

I grunted as I was lifted into the air by appendages made of nothing but shadows.

I asked,"Where am I?!"

"You're in the shadow realm."He said, from right behind me.

I hadn't even sensed him move, it was like he was everywhere.

I yelled as fire burst forth from my body, burning the shadows with the white light then I landed with a safety roll.

I heard the unsheathing of a sword and looked back but saw nothing, it was like, everything here was with the opposite light effects as in my ...realm? I guess.

The brighter the light was in my realm, the darker the shadow was for its counterpart there.

I was looking around when I sensed movement at my back and swiped my arm as a liquid knife made contact with a shadow sword, sending sparks as if hitting real metal.

Before I could react, another came from behind me.

I blasted lightning behind me, then used a sword made of ice to spin the sword out of his grip, behind me, then threw him over my shoulder and onto the floor then placed my sword on his neck, as the core of the sword got ionised and began producing light.

I then said,"I don't want to hurt you."

He grinned and I yelled when I was hit in the back with something hard...the shadow of a throne, while in the normal realm, the whole throne was thrown onto my shadow, which remained without my body blocking the sun's light, violating the laws of Physics.

I fell down and he vanished from below me as he thrusted a sword at me but a thin stream of water rammed into it, knocking it off course and splitting into droplets, which all spread out, attacking he and the shadows all around the both of us.

I slowly stood up as he yelled, then I felt weird, as I began to choke, it felt like he was crushing my insides as I coughed out black blood, probably black since everything was black.

I asked,"What are you doing to me?!"

"Shadow suffocation, I like to call it, I use the shadows and absence of light within an object to crush it to dust and i make it slow..."

I yelled then vanished.

He chuckled and said,"Playing hide and seek, in my realm?"

I appeared behind him then said,"I wasn't hiding, I was just bringing reinforcements."

The shadows around began vanishing as a bright, white light shone through the endless realm.

The man frowned as the light lady, waked before me, with a sphere of pure light in her hand.

She then grinned and said,"Lord Christian."

He also said,"Giopha."

"Wait..."I said,"...you know each other?"

"Oh, we know much more than each other's identities."

"We know enough to want to finish the job, right here, right now."He said.

I looked between them, knowing it wouldn't be a fair fight as they were in his realm, he clearly had the upper hand, a hand as up as the stratosphere.

I was about to speak, but the woman said,"Leave, I have work to do."

I vanished.

It took me a while to find the multiverse I was used to as the shadow realm was a multiverse on its own, a whole sky scraper of them, and it turned out, there were more, for each of us, apparently.

I appeared back in the mansion and met the others then Dollovan asked,"So, where is he?"

"Giopha said she'd handle it."I said.

Before another word came out, something weird happened...

"What the?!"I yelled,"I'm totally monochrome!"

We all looked at each other, the different shades of colour on our bodies and everything else, became one continuous one.

"I look totally two dimensional!"Yokkan yelled.

Nisha slapped his head hard as he yelled, then asked,"Does that feel two dimensional?"

He grunted but I said,"Calm down guys, I knew it, she was in danger, now light and dark are out of balance."

"I don't think they are..."Dollovan said,"...in fact, I think they're more in balance than they usually are."

"What is going on in there?"I asked.

I vanished and appeared a second later, with my eyes widened.

"What is it?"Toyoran asked.

"Is it bad?"Jonita asked.

"Tell us!"Dolores yelled.

We all looked at the usually timid child, then she ran into her brother's embrace, as I took a deep breath then said,"They're fine, in fact, I think Giopha has replaced her husband."

"What?"Dollovan asked.

"They're doing stuff, which is weird to watch and even weirder to talk about... they're making out."

Crowd gasp.

"What does making out mean?"Dolores asked.

We looked at her, then suddenly remembered all the important things we had to do, so left, one by one, leaving only Yokkan with the child.

She looked at him, sweetly wanting an answer, and he was shivering violently, what was he going to say?

I looked at my palm, it was so evenly toned, no matter what angle I turned it to, it looked like a splotch of brown paint finger painted by a three year old in a bathroom with no sense of smell.

I then groaned and asked,"How long is this going to take?!"

I vanished then reappeared...they were gone, and why did the shadow realm have the same colouration of our normal realm?

I went back home then looked at a drop of water, which looked sea blue despite being about five millimeters thick, I tried to look at my reflection then wondered if there was a realm for reflections too, they could be for Giopha, who controlled light and appearance.

I tried searching for it and found them... getting married.

"Come on! You guys just met!"I yelled.

"But we're in love."They both said with googly eyes.

The mirror breaker and shadow slaver acted as their priest and fleet girl then I sighed, it was time for some damage control.

Christian was looking at the priest and saying his vows when he had a thought,' What if she tries to make our children love the light more than the dark? '

The same thing happened to Giopha as she thought,' How would we get children of we aren't of the same species? '

They looked at each other then said,"We're officially through."In unison.

Giopha removed the black opal ring Chris gave her and threw it to the floor.

Chris also removed the diamond pin Giopha gave him and crushed it to dust, using the miniscule zones of light absorption within the clear cut stone.

They eventually began competing over who was more over the other by getting rid of the thousands of memorabilia they had given each other in the twenty seconds they had dated.

When they were finally done, I placed my arms on their shoulders and pulled them together and said,"Giopha, Christian, let's go home."

Chris pulled back and said,"No! There is no way I am living right besides that thing who tried to steal my heart!"

"Same here..."Giopha said.

I sighed, there was only one solution.

There was a punching sound, right before a thud, then the entire realm returned to normalcy, so as all the other, how many realms.