Rain drizzled, and the sky was gray. Everie Wackson stood in front of a gravestone engraved with the words of his only love.

                After the funeral, the Musictons of Crecklington, Nivara, had played together by her gravestone, and the colors of Nivara were returned. Straten had been put into a prison, along with Mrs. Bare. Rachel moved in with Master Brinalds until they could find a place of their own to stay in.  Everie stood in the rain, not bothering to use an umbrella and stared at the words. She can’t really be gone, his mind thundered. Tears were flowing freely now. They had all sung the Nightingale’s Song at her funeral. A song that hadn’t been sung for hundreds of years. The song had been sung by a singer who gave her emotions to save her family. Now the song was sung for whoever gave their emotions up.  The words left small holes where she should have been.

                Thunder cracked and Everie knelt before his love’s gravestone. It felt too abrupt, like something more should have happened before. Something that would have prevented her from having to sacrifice herself. Straten had picked an unexpected time. Everie felt a slender, dainty hand rest on his shoulder. He didn’t look at the person behind him. He didn’t want to talk to anybody right now. His shoulders slumped and he closed his heavy eyes. Everie hadn’t slept since she died. He had barely left this spot since it happened. “Everie,” Jililian’s voice said softly beside his ear, “Dad is getting worried about you. We all are.” He shrugged off her hand.

                “Leave me alone, Jililian” he said. He didn’t say it harshly, but he didn’t make any effort to sound like anything either. His love was gone, and there was nothing he could do. It made Everie feel hopeless and unwanted. A week before her death, on her birthday, Everie Wackson had asked Keelia Alie to marry him. She hadn’t refused, and it gave him hope that after the Crypja were healed, they could live peacefully together. They could have a family.  The antidote for the Crypja could only be the most powerful Musicton, and that so happened to be his girl. His Keelia. Jililian sighed and left him alone. His best friend, Alvis Alie, Keelia’s twin, sat down beside him on the concrete walkway beside the gravestone.

                “I miss her too, Everie,” Alvis said.

                “I just can’t believe that she’s actually dead. It doesn’t make sense,” Everie said angrily. His sadness was slowly turning into hatred at himself for not being able to save her. Her pale lifeless body kept coming into his mind. Her blank eyes, staring at nothing, kept haunting him. He had cradled that dead body and cried over it along with his friends. When he had told the others about how they would have married, it made people pity him even more. He hated being pitied, but he let them.

                “I found this in Master Brinalds’ library. It’s about emotions. I tabbed a page. Go home and look at it. There may be a way to-” Alvis started, but Everie was already dully flipped to the tabbed page. It said:

Land of Emotions?

     Many experts have theories that state what happens to those who give up their emotions. Some people give up their emotions as an act of justice, or for others who have none. Only two people have done this in all of Nivaran history. 

     There has been a theory around for many centuries that those two people could perhaps be able to be set free from a world in the void. Many expeditions have been made to find this world, but none have ever returned to their starting position. The last voyage to this land was made two hundred years ago, by Farvedore Boventora. Nobody has been able to recover his body from the void until two years ago, when he entered Nivara shaken and unstable. He now dwells in a special house for the Shattered in the palace of Crecklington. 

     Any further expeditions to the Void World are prohibited.

                Everie’s head lifted. If they could find this world, they could bring Keelia back. They could get married, have kids. And moreover, she would be alive. She’d be back. Everie and Alvis looked at each other. With determination in his heart, Everie Wackson said.

                “Let’s go get the others. We have a lot to do.”