Keelia’s parents (Eliza and Helbry) surprised her by having all her friends over that day. Keelia tried to celebrate her and Alvis’s ‘coming of age”, but it didn’t feel right. Celebration? While countless Guardians of Crecklington were suffering? Celebration, when the Shen Drar were stealing, killing, and turning helpless children into Crypja? It didn’t feel right at all. “Keelia? Are you OK?” Keelia saw Rachel sitting down next to her.

                “No,” Keelia said honestly.

                “What’s wrong?” Rachel asked.

                “Just stressed, I guess,” Keelia answered. She was stressed. They still hadn’t found the antidote for the Crypja, and the dulled colors were spreading, quickly. The rest of her friends sat down at the table. Everie and Alvis sat on either side of her, which felt kind of weird. Brinely tapped a spoon on a glass when he came down the stairs to get a ‘really exciting project’.

                “I have a wonderful announcement!” he said loudly, “Last night, Keelia and I were upstairs in my room testing different theories about Crypja cure. We are a step closer!” Keelia’s head cleared rapidly and her head shot up. A cure? Or, one step closer to one?

                “What?” Delisa asked. Everybody was at the edge of their seats, waiting for a reply. Brinely held the suspense.

                “Brinely!” Keelia pleaded.

                “Emotions!” he cried, “last night, Keelia trained all her anger on my key. It affected me! It felt normal for a little bit, because I used to get angry all the time! But then it intensified, and it hurt! If we find the right emotions and mix them together, I think that we can destroy the keys, freeing the Crypja!” Brinely said. Keelia got up.

                “There’s only one way to find out! Let’s go and try it on the boy at the Alie’s house!” Keelia said, and lifted herself out of her chair. Everie stood up and took her arm.

                “Keelia, you never had his key! You said that it turned to ash when you tried to pull him out of the battle. We’ll have to get another,” Everie said to the group. Keelia’s hands pulled into fists. How had she lost the key belonging to the boy?

                “Oh! I think I know where we could get a key!” said Rachel, “I’m sure that Golsvon has one! That was always their back up plan if people caught them. They would slip on the necklace. If they were placed into a prison, they would starve themselves to death, turn into a Crypja and bust themselves out!”  They filed out of the house and jumped onto a trolley. They made it to the dungeons a few minutes later. The prisons looked far too friendly to be housing criminals. The Guardians were very strict, and only gave them ten minutes under heavy surveillance.

                Golsvon was sitting in a chair, his face was slightly paler than the last time they had seen him, and he definitely looked hungry. He looked up and smiled. “Come to beg me for the cure again?”

                “No,” Jililian walked up to him and looked at him closely. They could all see the thin metal chain around his neck. Jililian quickly ripped it off his neck. He made a grab for it, but Brinely got there first and pushed his arm away. The Guardians came in to tell them their time was up, and Rachel walked near at the end of the line. She turned back and told Golsvon.

                “You shouldn’t trust people as much as you do. I’m sorry, uncle. But I’ll never become my mother, ever.”

                They sat down beside the door, looking into the power-proof (talent resistant) glass, to see if their theory was right. At first, Rachel tried sadness, but not a hint was left behind on Golsvon, then Keelia tried too. She thought of how the tears welled up in Johanna’s eyes when the palace broke down, and the King and Queen died. She thought of how sad Everie’s face looked when she first refused his proposal. Her mind flipped from his face to the cries and sobs of the Guardian children who had lost parents or siblings. Keelia opened her eyes to stare at Golsvon, tears were streaming down his face. And Keelia could have sworn that she heard something muffled in his cell. “I’m sorry.”

                “Come on,” said Keelia, “I have an idea on how to get more inside eyes, but it involves visiting your brothers, Rachel.” Rachel shuddered then nodded in agreement. They decided to meet the next day at midday near the market.

                When Keelia got to her room that night, she opened Everie’s box again. The smooth metal ring glittered out at her; a small sapphire was placed in the middle. It was small and delicate. Keelia smiled sadly, and, filled with hope, slipped it on. Her door opened and she quickly slid it off again. Helbry and Eliza walked in. “Hey kiddo!” Helbry said lovingly.

                “Laurelin stopped by earlier. She told us about you and Alvis,” Eliza said, tears in her eyes.

                “We love you so much, Keelia. I know that we don’t say that enough, but we really do! And we wanted you to know that you are welcome to move out and live with them, or stay with us. Either is just as acceptable to us, okay?” Helbry said. They wrapped her in a hug, and then Helbry noticed the box on the table. “Who’s that from?” he asked.

                “Um, Everie dropped it by before you all came down this morning,” Keelia replied, dreading the conversation that was bound to happen at that moment. “He- might have asked me to marry him, you know, now that I’m seventeen, and that’s the age everybody here gets married,” she blurted it out.

                “What did you say?” Eliza asked, smiling giddily. That was not the answer that she expected.

                “I said yes, sort of…”  Keelia said.

                “Sort of? What’s that supposed to mean?” Helbry asked.

                “Well, I asked him not to tell anybody, especially our friends,” Keelia answered.

                “Well, that was very mature of you, Keelia. You made the right decision. He asked us last night. So put that ring on and be happy!” Eliza hugged her, and she scooted closer to her parents.

                “It just… doesn’t feel like it should be happening, with everything going on, you know?” Keelia whispered.

                “It’ll be fine. Everybody is going to be so happy for you. I didn’t realize that you didn’t know about the ‘coming of age’ thing. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner, we don’t usually have to explain those kinds of things to people,” said Helbry, gently hugging her as well.

                “Good luck telling Brinely, Cligan, and Alvis about it. Brothers can be very overprotective sometimes, and you’ve got four of them!” Eliza laughed. They let her go to bed, and Keelia slept deeply, the small sapphire glowing faintly in the moonlight on her finger. She wouldn’t let this distract her, she needed to focus.

---

                The next afternoon, they made their way to Rachel’s house. Mrs. Bare wasn’t at home (hallelujah), and Rachel led them to the kitchen. They heard bickering upstairs, and it was clear that Jonathan and Isaac were having a heated discussion. Isaac came downstairs, face red and jaw clenched, and Jonathan came running after him. “You can’t be serious! How can you just leave them? They keep us alive! If you leave the Shen Drar, then Mom will KILL you!”

                “No, she can’t, remember? Rachel stole our keys!” Isaac pointed out. By that time, Jonathan and Isaac were standing right in front of the large party of friends, and still didn’t realize the others were there. The bickering went on for some time before Isaac yelled.

                “I don’t care if you won’t join! Just because we’re twins, doesn’t mean that we have to do the exact same things all the time. I’m leaving the Shen Drar and going to find Rachel. If she doesn’t believe me then I’ll fight them anyway! Didn’t you see what they did to the Guardians? They’re ruining Nivara!” Isaace turned to walk away and came face to face with Rachel, Keelia, Alvis, Jililian, Everie, Brinely and Delisa. Jonathan’s eyes turned wide and Isaac didn’t move. “How long were you listening?” Isaac asked.

                “Long enough!” Rachel laughed and hugged Isaac tightly, and his face was red when he hugged her back. “You’re really leaving the Shen Drar?” Rachel asked. Brinely had Jonathan in his grip, and wasn’t letting him get away.

                “Yes, but I need help convincing him,” Isaac pointed his thumb at Jonathan, and he scowled at his brother.

                “We may be able to,” Delisa assured him.

                “Good luck with that!” Jonathan grumbled. Brinely tossed Jonathan’s key to Keelia and Jonathan gaped.

                “Which emotions should we use?” she asked. Everie suggested regret, Delisa suggested love, and Rachel suggested a mix of sadness and anger. They decided to do a mix of sadness and regret. Keelia trained her focus at the key. She replayed all the memories that she’d used on Golsvon and then played one of the strongest regrets she had: coming to Crecklington, Nivara. She replayed all the sadness to make the regret clear then opened her eyes. Jonathan looked stunned, sad, and regretful.

                “How did you-?” he stuttered, and then shook his head, “I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but, would I be able to join you?” Rachel strangled her little brothers in a hug that made the three of them gasp for breath by the end.

                “You will be doing nothing of the sort, boys,” Rachel spun around. Mrs. Bare was standing in the doorway, looking stern and furious. Her hair was pulled into a tight bun and her dress was black, like always.

                “Mother,” Rachel growled in frustration, “guys, get out of here. I’ll knock her out so we can get away.”

                “I’d love to see you tr-” Mrs. Bare began. Everie grabbed Keelia out of the way as Rachel shot a wave of water at her mother. The blast was so hard it knocked her to the ground. They all ran out of the building and into the street, then turned and ran to Counselor Alie’s house. Hadassah was the one who opened the door. She took one look at Keelia and the others, then attempted to slam the door.

                “Hadassah?!” Keelia blocked the door, “what’s gotten into you? It’s me!”

                “Exactly! You haven’t talked to me since, I can’t even remember! I thought that we were friends!” she said. Laurelin rushed in.

                “What’s going on? Keelia! Happy late Birthday, sweetheart, I’m sorry we didn’t stop by. We had to visit the dryads. Hadassah, let the others in!” Laurelin said kindly, but firm. Hadassah let the others in with a grumble and dashed toward the woods. Laurelin and Keelia both sighed and the group sat down at the table, waiting for Jian to arrive. When he did, Keelia and her friends explained their situation. At the end of the explanation, Jian nodded.

                “Emotions do make sense, because they’re taken when you die… I think. But it will be finding the right one. There are thousands of specific emotions. I want all of you, Laurelin and I included, to name the best emotion we’ve ever experienced,” he said. Everybody said the emotion of love. Everie and Keelia looked at each other. She shook her head, now was not the time to say that they might get married. She was not going to focus on it until the Shen Drar were defeated.

                “The only thing about love that concerns me is that it is different for each person. It would be the feeling of an embrace, or sledding in snowstorms. All love comes in different shapes,” Laurelin warned, “so if you heal one Crypja, it won’t necessarily be the same for the next. Light-hearted as they were, they all knew how much work had to be done.