Young Writers Society

“Unbelievable…” Rae muttered as she gazed into the portal, “Uncanny!” She shouted out the door to her crafts room, “Love, you must come see what’s made its way in sight of the portal!” She looked back to make sure it was still there before quickly vanishing and reappearing in Delphinia’s study. “Delphinia,” She gave a sudden gasp and put her hand to her heart. She turned from her desk to face Rae.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that! Please walk around this castle like a normal person! What do you want? I’m busy.”

“The portal, it’s-”

“Love, I don’t want to hear about the portal. Nothing but vulgarity and violence in a species that is much lesser than human.” She waved her hand and sat back at her desk.

“No, it’s not. I've seen the people there, they have feelings, they love and they hurt-”

“Well, I have walked among them. They aren’t anything special. I don’t want to hear about this. The time I spent in their world was not pleasant.” Delphinia bit her bottom lip and lowered her head.

“There’s a child,” Rae walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder, “a child who looks just like you. It’s nothing, I just thought you would find that interesting.”

“A child…” She spoke softly and absent mindedly. “Tell me, about how old would you say this child is?”

“I haven’t a clue. The picture was a bit foggy and it only faced me momentarily. I don’t know, they looked young. Come take a look, it might still be there. Hurry, you know how quickly everything moves there.”

“Alright. I’ll go look.” She smiled at Rae and allowed her to lead the way to her craft room.

“You know, teleporting is a lot quicker.”

“And you know that magic can be very unstable, plus teleporting makes me feel like I’m walking in gelatin”

“Yes, Love, I’m aware. Ok good, it’s still here! Take a look.” Rae motioned to the portal. “Oh give me a second, it’s getting foggy. She added some herbs to the small fire that was burning just below and the picture instantly cleared up. Delphinia could easily make out her features in this person on the other end.

“Oh my god…” she mouthed, unable to form words. “Oh, it is.”

“Pretty interesting, right? I wonder if there’s anyone there who looks like me.” Tears appeared in Delphinia’s eyes but she remained silent. “What do you think it’s doing in that alleyway? I mean, I’m not totally familiar with their habits, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t common for them to just sit in alleys.” Delphinia still didn’t speak. A single tear traveled down her cheek, as Rae turned to her. “Darling why are you crying?” She brushed the tear away with her thumb.

Delphinia swallowed and exhaled a shaky breath. "Just thinking, if we had a baby," she sighed. "Nothing. It's silly."

"It's not silly." She wrapped her arms around Delphinia, who continued to cry. "One day, darling, we will have a child. I promise. We're still young. There's plenty of time."

Max decided that whatever strange feeling or connection he was feeling for the alley could wait until tomorrow. It was getting late and he'd already been sitting there a good two hours. "Alright. Time to go," he said aloud to himself. He hopped on his bike and pedaled to the apartment he and his father shared.

As he unlocked the door, he opened and closed it very slowly in his attempt to just slip in unnoticed. It didn't work. "Where the hell have you been?" His father asked as he took a swig from a bottle in a paper bag.

Max sighed dejectedly. "I was just walking around."

“Whatever. There’s dinner on the stove. It’s ramen with some vegetables cut up in it. It’s not great now, I made it about an hour ago, but I’m sure the veggies are still good.” He turned back to the TV and turned up the volume. Max didn’t bother getting dinner, he went straight to his room.

He laid on his bed and attempted to make sense of the strange connection he felt to that alley and how when he finally got there he felt like he was waiting for something, he felt unfulfilled. He also got the strange feeling that someone was watching him, someone he was supposed to trust. For some reason he just started riding a completely different direction, to a city he’d never been to instead of home. He hadn’t even realized it until he got there. He hadn’t even realized that he had ridden his bike an entire hour. The mood he got was eerie but he couldn’t bring himself to leave.

"Darling, you haven't been yourself all day," Rae said as she slipped under the velvety covers next to Delphinia.

"I know. I'm sorry." She turned to her side to avoid eye contact.

"Is this about you wanting a baby?"

She tried to decide what to say. "Yes." It was close enough to the truth, but she still felt guilty, as well she should.

"Do you want to start thinking about this now?"

"No. No, we can't adopt, and I don't want to go through the pain of childbirth," she had to stop herself from saying "again".

"I could carry it."

"Who would be the father?"

"I don't know."

"I want a baby, but not like this. Not yet."

"Alright, Del, we can wait."

Delphinia nodded and switched off the lamp. "Goodnight," she said formally.

"Goodnight," Rae purred in response. She draped an arm over her and squeezed her tight. Delphinia allowed herself to melt into Rae's embrace, for it might be the last time for a while. The next morning she would come clean. Time was of the essence, and she needed her baby back.

The next morning when Delphinia awoke Rae wasn't in bed. She hurriedly put on her slippers and a robe and rushed off to find her. She came to the dining room, where Rae was setting their places. "You know we have servants who do that."

"I know, just trying to busy myself."

"Oh. Breakfast smells wonderful."

"Indeed," Rae agreed awkwardly. It was clear to both that something was off.

They were both finally seated, Rae began eating but Delphinia found herself too sick so lift the spoon. She pushed her bowl of oatmeal as well as the plate of fruit aside. "Raena," she began. Rae looked up and saw the worry in her eyes. She put down her spoon and folded her hands in her lap.

"Yes dear?"

"I need to come clean." She closed her eyes and took in a few deep breaths. "When I was in that other world, I was there, for a very long time. I thought you had abandoned me."

"Yes I know, and I'm so sorry you had to go through that. But you know now that I would never do that to you."

"Yes, well, while I was there, I met a man, his name was Thomas. Thomas and I got very close. Now, I told him that I was with someone but he never treated it like it was serious. Well after about a month, we got very, very drunk, and he," she shut her eyes tight to try and keep the tears from spilling, she opened them and blinked a few times, "he kissed me, well we'd kissed before but it was different this time. I was vulnerable and it had been an entire month since you were supposed to open the portal. I missed you.” She looked down at her lap and smoothed down her dress. “I got pregnant and had the child." Rae gasped like she'd been stabbed in the stomach. "Please, let me finish. As soon as I had the chance, I ran. I went to the alley and hid out for as long as I could, until the portal finally opened again. I felt sick and relieved. You hadn't forgotten me," she said excitedly, "but, you hadn't forgotten me," she repeated in a darker tone. Rae said nothing, she merely looked at Delphinia with a pained expression. "Darling, you have every right to be mad and to hate me, but I need your help. We need to get it back. The child that you saw through the portal, that's ours. That's our baby. We need to get it back." Still Rae said nothing. "Time is of the essence, Love. Every second we wait is so many more in that world. Please speak to me. I need my child. Please."

Rae swallowed and closed her eyes. "You had sex, with a man, and had a baby. Then you kept it a secret from me, your wife. You had a child this whole time. You kept this a secret for months. Were you ever planning on telling me or are you only doing it now because you want it back?" Rae's usually composed nature was coming undone.

"Rae we have to leave immediately, every second counts. Time moves too fast there. It's already been a month there! I know, we need to have this conversation, but right now we need to save our baby from that squalor."

"It's not a goddamn baby anymore!" She banged her hand on the table. "If you would have brought it back with you, then it would still be a baby. We would have a baby. We could have been taking care of it this whole time." She covered her face with her hands.

"I was scared," Delphinia declared sharply. "I thought you'd abandoned me, and I didn't want to take care of a baby without you. I wanted to go back for it once I knew, but you said you couldn't keep the portal open much longer. All these variables fell in line perfectly, so I lost my baby, and I never told you."

"I can't believe you cheated on me and never told me about any of this."

"I can't either, but now I need to make this right, as right as I possibly can. I need to go get them back."

Rae nodded. She managed to put her anger aside momentarily. "I need to get enough supplies to open the portal and keep it open. Enough for just one person to squeeze in is already a lot. You can't be gone for more than ten minutes or I'll have to close it and I might not be able to go back for you for a while."

"You don't have enough supplies already?" Delphinia sucked on the side of her cheek nervously.

"No. It's fine though, opening the portal consists mostly of common herbs. The only thing I may have trouble getting is the dragon's blood gem. The one I currently use doesn't have much magic left, certainly not enough to open the portal all the way, much less keep it open."

Delphinia sighed. "Alright. I'll send some servants to go find some, in the mean time someone will be setting up a room for the child. Oh let's see, what else?" Suddenly her eyes widened and she looked up at Rae. "What if it doesn't want to live with us?"

Rae dismissively waved her hand. "What child doesn't want to be heir to a throne?"

"What if it has things in the other world it wants to bring?"

"Things can be replaced."

"But what if it gets homesick? What if it just doesn't want to be with us? We don't know a thing about the child. We, we don't even know how old it is." Delphinia was frantic and began playing nervously with the cloth napkin in her lap.

"We'll figure this out all in due time." She put her hand over Delphinia's. "This doesn't mean I'm to forgive you. I won't for a while, but this is important, so I'll set that aside. We can talk about all of this when the child if safe, with us." Delphinia gave her a thankful smile.

“I hope it hasn’t given up on me. I hope it doesn’t hate me. Do you think Thomas has told them about me?”

“How should I know? I’ve only heard of him today.” With that she left the room.

“It’s so not fair that she can vanish that easily,” Delphinia muttered to herself.

It had been about a month and a half since Max felt that strange connection to that alley. He still felt compelled to go there but he knew it made no sense. There was no logical reason that he would be drawn here, but for some reason he felt that it had something to do with his mother, which also made no sense because his father told him that she was dead. He would ask him about her, because he couldn’t shake this feeling that, well he wasn’t sure what this feeling was, but he needed to hear about her. It was one courageous day that he decided to bring her up.

Very timidly he approached his father who was watching television, as usual. “Dad,” he said with a very nervous voice.

“What,” he replied disinterestedly.

“Can, can I talk to you? And, and, c, could you turn off the TV?” He sat a seat away from him on the faded blue sofa, and looked down at his hands. He fiddled with his fingers anxiously.

His father groaned and muted the television. “What’s up?”

“Well, I want to you about mom.”

“She’s dead,” he said coldly and reached for the remote.

“Well, can you at least tell about how she used to be? I, I don’t know I just feel like I should know something about her. I feel like, well I don't know. I feel like I just need to hear about her.”

He sighed and turned off the TV. “I met her at bar, she was the most beautiful woman there, and she looked a lot like you,”

“Gee, thanks Dad,” he joked.

“It’s true. She was kind and intelligent, she had strong opinions and deep emotions. She said she was already in a relationship but I figured if this girlfriend let her come all the way the America without her she didn’t appreciate her as much as I could. That was another thing, she wasn’t from here. I think she was French. Well, actually, she might have been Hispanic. Her name sounded Spanish-y. She had the funniest sense of humor, I swear. She was always so amazed by everything. We started getting really friendly, but she would always remind me that she had to remain faithful.”

“Mom was a lesbian?”

“Obviously not, she was just in a relationship with another woman who she loved very much. She talked about her sometimes. Anyway, I didn’t know your mother long, but I was totally in love with her. She died giving birth to you. This is pretty much all stuff you’ve already heard.”

“Isn’t there anything else? Any little things about her? Like, I don’t know, did she by any chance have any connection to a little town called Tempe?”

He tensed up. “That’s where we met.”

“Oh, anything else you can tell me about it?”

“No. I don’t want to talk about her. She abandoned us.”

“She died, it’s not her fault," Max defended. His father remained quiet.

“Yes… Yes, you’re right. She’s dead. That’s not her fault.”

“So you can’t tell me anything more?”

“No. We weren’t close.” He looked at Max. “You just… Sometimes you look just like her. It’s like, you’re a constant reminder of what could have been.” Max blushed, although he said it with affection, Max was sure that that wasn’t particularly a good thing. “She was,” his voice cracked, “so beautiful. I thought we were in love, but she left,” because of you, he thought but refrained from saying it aloud.

“Thank you for talking about this with me, Dad. I appreciate it.” His father merely smiled and nodded. Max hadn’t expected the conversation to go so smoothly. He could be very distant and mean, especially when it came to talking about Max’s mother. He felt better, closer to his father even, but there was still so much left unanswered.

It wasn’t more than an hour later that the respected young son of one of the maids came back with a sizable piece of dragon’s blood gem. It would be enough to open the portal, but they still needed more, much more if they wanted to keep it open for long enough to find Max and convince him to come back.

“This is wonderful, yes Darius, you’ve done a wonderful job. You will be rewarded handsomely. However, this still isn’t enough. Where did you get this piece? Was there more among it?” Rae inspected the stone, looking at every side. She found no flaws in the uncut gem.

“I’m afraid not. I got it from a merchant; that was the last of it he had.” Darius, although he had no obligation and wasn’t regularly paid, always helped out with things in the kingdom.

“I see. And did you ask him where he acquired it?”

“I did. He said it was a family heirloom.”

“Unfortunate. Oh well. Thank you for your help, Darius.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, madam, what is so urgent about this spell that it must be done as soon as possible?”

Rae considered telling him. He’d always been a good friend to her. She decided that she wouldn’t tell him the whole truth, but she was dying to spill some of it. “Can you keep a secret, Darius?”

“You know I can. You’ve been telling them to me since before I was old enough to comprehend what you were saying.”

“Well,” She looked around to make sure no one else was nearby, “We’re going to open up the portal to the other world again.”

“Really? After what happened last time? What with Queen Monsel’s nervous breakdown?”

“Yes. There’s something very important we need to retrieve. This time, however, we need to keep the portal open for at least ten minutes, that’s why we need so much of everything.”

“May I ask what you’re retrieving?”

“No you may not,” they shared a secretive smile.

“Alright, well I wish you the best of luck, although,” He paused and decided it was best left unsaid, “Never mind, I’m sure it isn’t important.”

“No, please share what’s on your mind,” Rae encouraged.

“Well, won’t Queen Monsel have some kind of post traumatic stress? She seemed very shaken up last time she went in.”

Rae took a moment to consider this. “I hadn’t thought about that, but yes it’s very likely. Oh, I hadn’t even considered,” her voice faded. “I’ll have to talk to her, make sure she’s okay going in. I would love to visit that world but sadly I have to make sure the portal stays open.”

“Perhaps you could send someone else to retrieve whatever it is you’re looking for?” Darius suggested.

“It would be best if Delphinia brought it back, it would trust her more, I think.”

“Are we talking about some sort of animal?”

“No, well in a way. But no, it’s not an animal.”

“So it’s another person?”

“Darius, you really shouldn’t be all invested in the royal business. Go be a normal child, go to a concert and flirt with girls.” She waved a dismissive hand at him.

“You know me, my life’s been dedicated to you and Queen Monsel since I was born. I have nothing better to do with it.” He smiled and shrugged. Rae rolled her eyes.

“Even still, I don’t think you should be up to date with our latest dramatics.”

“It’s not like I’m going to tell anyone. You two have been too good to me and my family. I truly mean it when I say that you and the queen have my very life in your hands. I’m am a proud knight who will gladly defend my liege,” he furrowed his eyebrows, “liege...es” he added awkwardly.

“That’s very noble of you, Darius, but you’re just a child and we would never ask you to spare your life. Me and Delphinia would gladly shed blood for anyone in this kingdom, especially those we consider family. I do have one thing to ask you though.”

Darius’s face brightened. “Yes, what is it?”

“Very soon we may have a very important, er, guest coming to stay with us, this is unrelated to the portal, who may be in need of service and companionship. How would you feel about working with us? You would finally get the wages you deserve instead of, well, the nothing we have been paying you. I'm afraid all the others don't have time for the kind of attention our guest will probably be needing.”

“Yes of course, m'lady. How soon will this guest be arriving?" Thought were racing through his head. There hadn’t been a guest at the kingdom in years! He would do his very best and impress Rae and the Queen. Finally he would have a chance to give something back to them.

“They should be here by the end of the day, but keep in mind, this guest is very… unfamiliar with all of this. They don’t come from royalty.”

“I see. Well rest assured, I’ll put forth my utmost effort in this. Until that time comes I’ll be off looking for more dragon’s blood.”

“Thank you Darius.”

They worked for hours straight with no breaks to get everything ready. All the herbs were dried and in the small pot where they were to be burned. Every piece of dragon’s blood stone they were able to gather was waiting to be put in. It still wasn’t enough. Close, but not enough. They had even gone as far as to send out a kingdomwide message that anyone with any of the gem would be paid three times what it’s worth if they brought it in immediately. It was getting late and they had their hearts set on bringing Max back before the day was over. They had only enough of everything to keep it open for about five minutes, would would be barely three hours there. It would have to be enough time.

“Alright Darling, I’m going to start up the portal. are you positively sure you’re ready to go back in there?”“Yes of course, if it means getting my child.” She smiled pensively.

“And you remember where the apartment is?”

“I believe so.”

“Okay. This is it. Hurry back love. And get ready to jump.” She struck a match and looked towards Delphinia. She nodded and with that the fire was lit and the portal was up. Delphinia was able to hop through it.

Delphinia quickly realized that if she tried to reach the apartment on foot she would barely get there by the time the portal closed up. Judging from the position of the sun, she thought it was about five in the afternoon. She stepped from the alley into the light of day, where a biker who wasn’t paying attention was able to crash into her. The biker fell off his bike and Delphinia was knocked to the ground.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” Max quickly hopped to his feet and brushed himself off before pulling his bike off of the woman he’d just mowed down. As soon as he saw her face, the empty searching feeling in his gut disappeared. They stared back at each other in awe. "I’m, I’m Max,” he said distantly.

Delphinia smiled as tears filled her eyes. “Hi Max,” she said with a cracking voice. “I’m your mom.” In that moment his world shattered. “I understand that,” she took Max’s hand as she got up from the road, “this must all be very confusing to you. I don’t know what Thomas has told you, but I’m not a bad person. I just want my son back. You need to come with me, right now.”

“What? Where would we be going?”

She looked to the side back to the ally and smiled awkwardly. “Back to my world.”

“I, I can’t just leave. I can’t just leave!” he looked around and ran a hand through his hair. “I need time to think about this, I, I don’t even know who you are! I’m so confused. Your world? Are you going to kidnap me?"

“Come to the alley.” She quickly ran back to the far back wall and stuck her head through the portal. It was an interesting sensation. Her bottom half was moving a mile a minute and the top was almost completely stationary. “Rae, get out here, now.” She went back to Max. “My wife is coming out here to talk to you.

“Darius!” Rae screamed at the Top of her lungs. He heard her from the kitchen which was considerably far from her craft room. Instantly he began running. “Darius!” She yelled again. He practically ran face first into her door.

“I’m here my liege!” he said out of breath.

“Keep this portal open for as long as you can.” Which out any other instructions she jumped through.

“I’m here, love!”

“Holy shit,” Max said. “S, sorry, I’m just… holy shit.”

“Rae, this is Max, our son.”

“Hello Max,” she smiled sweetly and held out her hand. very timidly he shook it.

“He needs a little convincing,” Delphinia explained.

“Oh alright. Well, your mother is a queen. You’d be heir to a throne. There are a lot of people really excited to meet you, and we would love you with all of our hearts. If that doesn’t sound as pleasing as your current life, well then you don’t have to come with us, but we’ve been working very hard to meet you. We want you to be with your mother. Well, mothers.” She smiled again. The gears were turning very slowly in his brain. trying to comprehend this all at once was too much. “If you want, you could just stay with us for a week, which would be about ten months in this world. Would you want to do that?”

“This, this is all too crazy. I can’t go with you. My dad would, well he’d notice I was gone. Ten months?”

“We really just want the chance to get to know you, Max. Less than one year is all we ask, and it will only feel like a week to you. After seven days, you can decide if you want to stay or go back. Isn’t it worth it to check it out? Are you really happy here?”

He looked down to the ground. “No,” he admitted. “My dad doesn’t care about me, I don’t have any friends. No one will miss me.” he smiled, “Mom.” tears of joy spilled down Delphinia’s cheeks.

“We must go back, now. We don’t have much time left. We can talk about this more once we’re in our world, but our time is dwindling here. Will you come with us, son?”

He covered his face with his hands and then clasped them together, “This is all way too weird. This is crazy. I can’t just go through some magical portal with two women I don’t even know!”

“We’re worth the chance, Max,” Rae said, “I promise we are.”

“Alright. I’ll go with you. I’ll leave my home for a year,” his voice cracked. “I can’t let you two leave, not knowing what could have been.”

Delphinia and Rae exchanged ecstatic looks, both of them were crying. “Come, our world is just through there.” She pointed to the portal. “Time to go home.”