From The Other Side

Chapter Nine

(This was written primarily on my phone) A/N: Big thanks to those who have read this far! I genuinely cannot believe we're at 70 reads!

"I'll take a wild ass guess that we lost the book?" Mari joked.

"It's that obvious, huh?" Sierra responded, "Some siblings hug, while mine tries to take over galaxies, you know?"

I could tell she was hurt. She's loosing hope in Rae's ability to be a better person, while now loosing hope in her ability to protect us.

"Pack your bags girls, we're going to find her! It's questing time!"

Oh god, she gets grief motivated. 

"Will do," Mari sighed, obviously intimidated by Sierra's sudden change in tone, "but what the hell are we doing with the book?"

"The thing is 2000 years old, those bindings sure as hell aren't going to stay. Find a few of the pages, preferably the ones that include a spell, trap her, possibly kidnap her, something of the like."

Blunt and tact, there's the girl I know and love. Note to self, strap in, we're going sister-hunting.

After I'd managed to take the dress off, I had one concern. How the hell does one find a magical book?

And that's when I noticed the first one. A small piece of paper, written in symbols, which I assumed to be Sierra's native language. She was right when she said the book had shitty bindings. Depending on where Raegan went, we might have been able to find her paper trail (a literal one in this case), and execute (once again, another shitty pun), Sierra's plan, and learn goddess-eese afterward. Symbols are annoying, trust me.

Sierra glanced at me, giving me a side eye.

"It's not goddess-eese"

"Oh great you're telepathic now!"

"Always have been."

Sierra took the paper from my hand

"It's only a quarter of the spell. Should do us good though."

She calmed herself before translating;

Tracking spell

Requires:

At that point I stopped tuning in, because she was listing off herbs I could have found at the local trader joe's.

What stood out was,

Breath from a dragon,

How does one bottle air, from a nonexistent being?

Lightning,

and some kind of weird crystal, which was to be used for tracking the subject in question.

Of course, the paper only gave us the requirements, and not the directions and incantation, which Sierra explained to be fairly important.

"Please tell me we have music in the chariot..." Mari joked, to which Sierra was not amused, but nodded her head in approval to, while Mari had gotten Sixx:Am's This is Gonna Hurt in her head, humming.

In her defense, Sierra's dad DID look like Nikki Sixx.

Once again, we trudged our asses into the chariot. We were informed that we'd be headed to a cave, which I was not amused by. She said it was for "finding crystals and herbs". Bitch, I know you're trying not to scare us with dragons. We all know there's going to be dragons.

"So. I figured I'd give you a history lesson, because this'll be a long ride." She paused, "Welcome to the kingdom of Arithea, and to the Arithiean dimension."

My eyes widened. Another self note, the language really ISN'T called goddess-eese. Is that being dimension-ist?

"I'm not actually sixteen. I'm 416. Which makes me pretty young, considering my grandparents are easily in the 1600s, and my parents are 800 something, which in your ages, would be 30, so me posing as a 16 year old, works."

Damn, she's old.

"I'm tenth in line in my family. We've been a dynasty since the dawn of this dimension. The hunters. We established our military, which is typically lead by the king, while the queen deals with other political manners. The queen's job is similar to what you call "President"."

I took in that information.

"Of course we have military ranks, once again, similar to yours. Ours are led in sectors, based on duties. The three main groups are attackers, defensemen, and general management, which is like your 911, in the sense that they work in healing and citizen-related activities. Each has it's own general, but the king can veto any major decision made."

This feels like a double presidency.

"We don't deal with other dimensions. We haven't since the first generation. This is the second time we've been allowed to make contact." She continued,"We both know you're waiting for the part about Rae, aren't you?"

We nodded.

"We're the first pair of siblings since the first generation. Since then, siblings were bad luck. Royal families produce one heir, said heir finds someone to be wedded to, or in some cases, weddings are arranged, such as my parents. Siblings are virtually impossible here. The last time we had siblings in a generation, the same thing happened. The defection of one."

This suddenly feels like an arc of Naruto.

"Her military is different. She's the only ruler. They base ranks on tattoos, like the ones in that book." She sighed, tears rimming her eyes, "We're almost there."

She's crying. 

She still loves her sister, after all that's happened. I looked over again at Sierra's face, seeing the tearstains and red, puffy eyes that came with crying. You almost couldn't see it through her hood. I assumed she had orders to kill Rae, and even if she didn't, Rae'd still be executed for treason.

"I'm also guessing you're wondering why I'm crying over a defector, huh?"

I sighed.

"She's my sister. We grew up together. It's a bond I can't break."

Something told me that's not the only reason she's crying.

"And my family. Sure, she's a traitor. That's not the only reason she wanted to leave. My mother didn't approve of her friend. My mother just happens to be a homophobe, and a transphobe. She calls it traditionalism. I call it hate."

Well, I hit the nail on the head.

"My father is accepting. He knows I'm bisexual. He cares. I'm afraid for myself. That I'll be like her, if my mom finds out. It may seem petty, being 416, and still worrying." She finished.

"We're here for you, Sierra. You aren't her. You'll never be."

And with that, we arrived at the cave.