Chapter Seven: The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin
Guardians of the Twilight Lands -- The Sixth Book of Unexpected Enlightenment
The door opened, and in walked Zoë Forest. Her hair was a dark forest green and dripping from the sudden rain. She came and sat beside Rachel on the bed, one hand resting on her tiger-spotted quoll—an orange beast with white polka dots, vaguely the size of a possum—that watched bright-eyed from her shoulder. Rachel recalled a quoll familiar gave its master the gift of lucid dreaming and that this one bore the incongruous name of Aardvark.
Zoë did not seem to notice the eight-foot-tall man with gigantic black wings sitting beside the bed. She opened her mouth to speak, but Rachel stopped her by touching her hand.
“Don’t be afraid, Zoë,” she said, “but the Raven wants to talk to you.”
A boy now sat on the Raven’s chair beside the bed. He had tattoos on his face, and one shoulder was hunched and raised above the other. He smiled at her, a toothy smile.
“Hello, Zoë Moth.”
Zoë looked at him and blinked. Confused, she blurted out, “Nikau? How did you get out of the Tower? Or, wait. Didn’t I save you? But if so, why are you still hunched?”
“I’m not really Nikau,” the boy replied. “I look like Nikau, so that you will feel calmer. I want to talk to you about your memories, and the changes they are causing in your appearance.”
“Um…” Zoë swallowed. “Okay ...”
“I am the Guardian,” said the boy, “The protector of this world. I can make you an object that will lock your appearance as it should be. I shall cause it to be extremely hard to detect, even by the strongest sorcerers.”
Zoë frowned. “You look like Nikau but you’re not. That is really weird.”
The Raven stood and rippled, turning back into his eight-foot-tall, winged form. Zoë tensed noticeably. The quoll ran from her left shoulder to her right and back again.
The Raven asked, “Is this better?”
“No.” Zoë shook her head.
Jariel actually rolled his eyes.
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