Sophia wasn't resting. Oh, she was far from resting. How could she rest when, after two weeks, she was hearing news of Rhys for the first time?
He was alive—indeed, in Nexoria. There was no doubt that he was in Nexoria.
Moreover, anyone could be a member of the Brotherhood, of the Twelve: Aisling, Rhys, Lady Lívia, Solveig...
"As long as I don't try to practice, I can't rule out that I might be among them," she thought.
Sophia sat in her own living quarters, in the changing room. She hadn't even turned off the hologram of her exact double. She sat there, watching her double seated as well.
Then, as she had heard from Aisling, she began to practice with her eyes closed. She emptied her mind, as she had few anchors regarding Nexoria. She relaxed, waiting for an image that seemed certain to appear on its own.
As if she hadn't just regretted nagging Aisling for weeks to try crossing into Nexoria. As if she hadn't just minutes ago considered the crossing dangerous. She didn't want to bring memories over. Oh no! She wanted to go to Nexoria to find Rhys—and bring him home.
Sophia was almost about to give up her practice attempt when she saw a reflection, a water surface. A face appeared in it.
"Kaelen," she thought she recognized the face.
She was disappointed not to see Rhys in the water mirror. Sophia seemed to glide through the air like a light, bodiless thought. She floated closer to the water surface to get a better look at least at Kaelen.
Then suddenly, her body grew heavy again. She felt only the sensation of plunging into the river's quite cool water.
"What are you doing, girl?" Kaelen snapped in alarm.
Sophia splashed him thoroughly as well.
The girl didn't answer. She gasped for air, flailing her hands desperately in the water.
As soon as she felt solid ground beneath her feet again, she still stood there, facing Kaelen—flustered.
"What are you doing, girl?" Kaelen asked again.
Seeing that she hadn't meant to frighten anyone, the boy's tone grew friendlier.
Sophia suddenly couldn't find an acceptable explanation for why she was in the river fully clothed. Instead, she introduced herself politely.
"Well… um… I'm Sophia. And you're… Kaelen, right?"
The boy flinched at the name.
"Sophia? I don't know you, and I've never known a girl by that name."
"But you are Kaelen, right?" Sophia insisted.
"No," the boy replied quickly.
No matter how strange the girl's appearance was, the unknown boy reached out his hand to help the unfortunate Sophia out of the river.
The girl noticed he was gripping something in his left hand inside his thick vest pocket.
"Almost scared of me?" she marveled, as if the boy's fear weren't justified. As if it were completely normal to have someone fall into the river out of nowhere right in front of you.
"Do you often fall into rivers in front of strangers?" the boy teased.
"No, this is the first time," the girl replied so seriously that even the stranger helping her out of the river laughed.
"Come on, sit down and dry off," the boy invited now more friendly.
"So you really are Kaelen," Sophia tried for the third time.
Why would she be having an experience with a stranger during practice?
"No," came the terse reply again.
"Then can I at least know your name?"
"I'm Kaleb. Who's Kaelen to you? Doesn't seem like you know him well if you confused him with me," he remarked.
"Someone I'm looking for. You don't know Rhys either?" Sophia bombarded Kaleb with further questions.
She believed she hadn't ended up in the river aimlessly. Why here, exactly, she would find out soon enough.
"No. But I do know someone named Kaelen."
"And where can I find him?" the girl asked eagerly.
"Nowhere anymore. They almost found his clothes here, where we're standing."
The boy pointed toward the bridge.
"Look at that oak! His clothes were there. They say he drowned."
Sophia had already squeezed the river water out of her thoroughly soaked light green skirt. She sat down next to Kaleb on a large clump of grass. She didn't care that the grass might touch her skirt. She had bigger problems. She had crossed into Nexoria, and she still had no solid anchor to know whether she had arrived at the right time. She was here because of Rhys. She didn't know whether Rhys was already here, or still here. The fact that he belonged to the Twelve hadn't yet touched her soul.
"Now I'm certain I arrived at one of the points after Mirael and Kaelen disappeared," she thought. "Kaleb didn't know anything about Rhys, but he knew Kaelen. That was good. After all, Rhys was Kaelen… Eh… If I learn something about Kaelen, about Nexoria, the others will be happy there anyway."
Now she studied Kaleb more carefully. He sat to her right. He looked just as curious and confused as she had.
Kaleb wasn't dressed like Rhys had been in that performance at the peristyle. Rhys's clothes had been shabby. Sophia had described that outfit as dreadful that evening. That attire had looked purely practical. Kaleb's clothes, by contrast, were pointlessly ornate. In Sophia's world, motifs like these didn't even appear on clothes.
"Maybe that means something too," she pondered.
Sophia didn't pay attention to Kaleb's facial features, nor his deep green eyes or black hair. Only what could provide information for her world mattered.
Kaleb was studying Sophia with equal curiosity. The situation was beginning to feel uncomfortable for the girl.
"Could you tell me about Kaelen?" she asked.
It was better to talk to this unknown boy than to stare at each other silently, full of curiosity.
"He disappeared the day that power took—or killed—Mirael."
"No power took him; it was a carriage. He had a concussion because someone or something attacked them."
"Them?" Kaleb was surprised.
Now the boy showed real curiosity about Kaelen for the first time.
"Yes. Mirael and Kaelen."
"Ah, that confirms what my father's shepherds said!"
"What did they say?"
"That he was in love with that girl, and when that power took—or killed—Mirael, Kaelen drowned himself in the river out of grief."
Sophia shook her head laughingly.
"Kaelen wasn't in love with Mirael. They were in a team."
"What kind of team?" Kaleb asked curiously.
Sophia didn't know how much she could reveal about the Twelve and the Brotherhood to the boy.
"Ah, a long and strange, indeed incredible story."
She didn't escape so easily. Kaleb flashed a cheerful but slightly mocking smile.
"Even stranger than you falling out of nowhere into the river? Right in front of me?"
"Not stranger than that. But my appearance also has to do with that team, with the other story."
"And you'll tell me?"
"Of course. They came here from somewhere—perhaps the same way I did. They were looking for a symbol at Drakthor's. They needed it for something."
"So they were thieves," Kaleb exclaimed indignantly.
He stepped a little away from Sophia and checked his pockets—not even discreetly.
"They weren't thieves, and neither am I," Sophia said offended.
From the boy's gesture, she understood what Kaleb thought of her now.
"Quite a confusing story. I hope you understand why I've become wary of you," he asked.
Sophia understood. Then she told him what she knew about the Twelve and the Society. Kaleb listened attentively.
"Good. That really is a strange and incredible story, as you presented it. Now I want to know more about you before I take you to my family. If you can't go back to your own time, to your world, as you came, you'll need somewhere to sleep and eat. You can't just tell them at home that Nexoria was unfriendly to you."
Sophia was startled. She hadn't considered that she might not be able to return home from Nexoria. She was now truly glad that Kaleb was here with her.
"As I said, my name is Sophia. We belong to the same Brotherhood, the Twelve, and all we know about it is what I just told you. We have unusual abilities. Mirael and the others wanted to solve something… maybe. We're looking for Rhys. And of course, we want to find out what Mirael and the others did."
"Apart from stealing the jewel," Kaleb interjected irritably.
"We don't know much about that symbol either. But, as I said, we're certainly not thieves."
"Good! I can't help with the jewel theft anyway, but you can come to my family. My sister is perhaps three years older than you; my younger sister might be your age."
"I'll try to go home first. Could you sit back near the water so I can see your reflection?"
This was Sophia's only idea for getting home right now.
Kaleb laughed.
"You didn't see my reflection in your world either, but you got here. Sophia, if I were in your place—if I had plunged into the river in your world and received an invitation from you—I would first see your world. Only then would I go home to Nexoria."
The girl thought about it. If she checked Nexoria, it was information for the others. They'd be happy. Although, she could interrogate Kaleb right here as well.
"So, will you accept the invitation?" Kaleb invited again.
Sophia nodded seriously. She accepted. She would meet Kaleb's family. She would see how people live here.
"You're right. But I can't see everything. Can you tell me a bit about Nexoria?" she asked kindly.
"Of course. If in exchange, you tell me about your world."
"I was born over four thousand years after the Gauls' victory."
"Great. So you came from the future. The Gauls' victory was only two thousand years ago here."
"And two thousand years after the Great Massacre, led by Drakthor," Sophia added.
Kaleb raised an eyebrow.
"No massacre happened here."
"Perhaps Mirael and Kaelen prevented it," Sophia concluded far too suddenly and confidently.
"Maybe it just hasn't happened yet," the boy thought.
They were silent for a long while.
"The fact that you're here would interest my parents, but mainly Drakthor," Kaleb concluded.
Sophia looked at him suspiciously. Perhaps Kaleb would reveal her secret too. Perhaps it would be better to practice here by the river until she could return to her own world.