Chapter 14

“The Great Owl will see the reflection of itself in the gray clouds of eternity and will beg for the safety of its own nest.”

Crying Shadow’s teaching of the Great Owl

Translated by Erik Livingtree

Jo-Vanna and the
Great In-Between

1

“Jo-Laina,” the mirror said.

Whitney’s eyes were barely open, but somehow she was seeing herself in the mirror, which made no sense. She remembered the fight with Isolem and she could still feel the pain in her neck, her face, and the back of her throat was throbbing, so it must have been real, but she remembered no mirror. Her fingers began to dance.

“You did it Jo-Laina. Your mission is complete,” her reflection said to her.

The mirror must be a magic mirror because it seemed to have a mind of its own. Especially since I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing my hair like that, she thought to herself. The girl’s hair was braided into loops secured in the center of the back of her head and it gave her a feminine winged look, which contrasted the tenacity of her expression. Her tattoos were atrocious! She had little runes all over her face and neck. Whitney had no idea what they meant, but it was apparent that they had some kind of meaning. Dark green lines connecting on the bridge of her nosesurrounded her eyes. And then there were the scars. Her scars looked like they were from deep cuts.

As if your hair is any better! You look like a terpie doll! The girl thought back to her.

Whitney sat up and looked at the mirror. Despite the oddities of the girls appearance, there was no doubt she was seeing a weird version of her own face. But then the mirror did something that no mirror could possibly do. It helped her to her feet. It wasn’t making any sense because the girl standing before her had her face. She had seen it enough through Tommy’s eyes to know that much, but her face was altered with ink and scars. They were her eyes, however. There was no mistaking that. They were her eyes when she wasn’t piggybacking. She had never seen them for herself, and now that she was, she was intrigued. The shiny silver had an almost hypnotic effect.

Tommy would have recognized the girl right away. She was the girl he dreamed on so many nights. The image of Jo-Vanna plagued his sleep, and it was no wonder that he had mistaken Jo-Vanna for his sister, because they were identical twins, but it was Jo-Vanna that he dreamed of and not Whitney, nor was it the Jo-Laina version of Whitney.

The outfit the girl was wearing was also something she’d never be caught dead in. It looked ridiculous to Whitney. It was white from head to toe and stuck to her body like paint. Her boots were blue and had two sharp, black horns sticking out of them. The only other color differential there was were her weapons. She wore a belt around her waist with knives stuck to it. The blades were shiny black like the walls of Kat’s prison and the locks and shackles that were used to bind her, both of which, still clung to her wrists.

The girl had two swords crisscrossed behind her back. The hilts of both stuck above her shoulders, and the girl seemed very interested in the chains dangling from her wrist, but she didn’t mention them.

“Is it Halloween where you come from or something?” Whitney asked.

“Hallow-een?” the girl answered.

“Yeah, you know dress up like a warrior zombie and go around begging for candy!” Whitney said.

The girl’s eyebrows furled. “Have you forgotten so much that you don’t recognize your own twin sister?” she asked.

“No. I have a twin brother. Tommy! Is he okay?”

“Argimos,” the girl said with a fond smile. “His sacrifice will be forever remembered on the ribbon.”

“Sacrifice!” Whitney squealed. “He’s dead?”

“As much as so,” she answered. “Tso Tsa Min, as the Moog refer to them, cannot exist for long without their sights and sounds.”

“Look,” Whitney said. “I don’t know who you are or what you’re talking about, but I need to get back to my brother and my friends before it’s too late.”

Whitney turned around, but turning around was useless. She was no longer in Nethermore. She was surrounded by the grey of elephant’s skin. There were no walls or ceilings and even though she was standing upright, it didn’t seem like she was standing on anything. The world she existed in was nothing but grey.

The only remnants that remained from Nethermore were the shackles on her wrists. The chains dangled and rattled at her side as she turned around. Other than that, Nethermore had only been in her imagination.

“How do I get back?” Whitney asked.

“You don’t. You cannot return to them. If you had created a quintarin it might be possible, but the body you left there, no longer has a conscious mind for you to return to. Besides! Your mission is complete. You will return to the body you left in Messolin,” the girl informed her. “Your body there has a quintarin.”

“What is a quintarin?” Whitney asked, hoping she already knew.

“I can explain when we get home,” she answered. “Time is short and we have much to do. Resume your place as leader of the Prim and interrogate your prisoner like you planned.”

Isolem Treff was telling the truth. She wasn’t who she thought she was. At least that’s what this girl was suggesting. “I’m not going anywhere with you. I’m going back to my brother and my friends. Now answer my question. What is a quintarin?”

The girl opened her mouth, but quickly snapped it shut. She stood there for a second without saying anything, but her determined face was lined with frustration.

“If I am your leader than surely you cannot disobey my orders,” Whitney added.

“No. I cannot,” the girl said.

“Good. Answer my question,” Whitney said.

“It is a vessel that can be used to receive the essence of a Prim, but you should know this. You should know a lot of things that you seem to have forgotten over the past day.”

“The past day?” Whitney asked.

“Yes. The past day. You left Messolin yesterday. I am here with you today. Now you seem to know nothing.”

“That’s because you’re crazy. I was born on the planet Earth over sixteen years ago. Three days ago, I was at my home in Burnsville, Missouri. I was not in any place called Messolin.”

“Humph,” the girl said. “The queen suggested something like that was possible. We don’t know what happens when we send someone through both veils. Apparently not what we expected. We have sent Prim before, and others, but they never return. Quintarin or not, they simply don’t come back. You are the first. So you were born from a human?”