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The void between worlds was not empty as Ali had expected. Instead, it teemed with impossible geometry and rivers of light that flowed like cosmic currents between realities. Her body—if she still had one in this place—felt weightless yet somehow more substantial than ever before.
The five keys orbited around her, creating a protective bubble that glowed with an intense blue light against the swirling chaos. The bubble shimmered with the same blue hue as her Alitousian heritage, encasing her in a sphere of safety. Through her newly awakened senses, Ali could feel the tidal patterns Archer had mapped, rippling not through water but through the fabric of reality itself.
“Focus,” she reminded herself, her voice strange in this place with no air. “Find Dad.”
She reached out with her consciousness, searching for the familiar signature that was Benjamin Blacksmith. The keys responded, their orbits shifting to point in a specific direction—or what passed for direction in this non-space. As the keys moved, the blue bubble surrounding Ali moved with them, carrying her through the void like a vessel of pure light. Ali followed their guidance, traveling through the emptiness not by walking but by willing her luminous blue transport forward.
Time had no meaning here. She could have been traveling for minutes or hours when she finally sensed it—a disturbance in the flowing energies, a pocket of stillness amid the constant movement. Within that stillness, a familiar presence.
“Dad,” she called out, her voice carrying through thought rather than sound.
The blue bubble around her illuminated a suspended form ahead—a man frozen in mid-motion, his features so achingly familiar that Ali felt tears form and float away from her eyes as glowing droplets. The blue light from her transit sphere cast an ethereal glow on his face. Benjamin Blacksmith hung suspended in the void, his expression one of surprise and determination, caught in the moment his crossing had failed.
Ali approached carefully, the keys glowing brighter as she neared her father. She could see now what had happened—Benjamin had attempted to create a portal without all five keys, using only the knowledge he’d pieced together from Ms. Greco’s book and the lighthouse records. The crossing had collapsed around him, trapping him in this in-between state.
“I’m here, Dad,” she said, reaching out to touch his suspended form. “I’m going to bring you home.”
The moment her fingers—glowing with Alitousian energy—touched her father’s frozen hand, a shock wave rippled through the void. Benjamin’s eyes, previously fixed and unseeing, suddenly focused on his daughter. Recognition dawned, followed by astonishment.
“Ali?” His voice was faint, as if coming from a great distance. “How—”
“Uncle Jack found me,” she explained, maintaining her hold on his hand as the keys circled faster around them both. “He showed me the truth—about Mom, about who I am.”
Understanding and sorrow passed across Benjamin’s features. “I was trying to reach her. Your mother. After all these years, she finally managed to send a signal through.”
“I know,” Ali said. “And now we’re going to get you out of here.”
She concentrated, willing the keys to create a stable portal. The five disks responded, their orbits widening to encompass both her and her father. But as the energy built, Ali sensed something wrong—a disturbance in the void around them, growing stronger.
“Something’s fighting against us,” she realized aloud. The blue protective bubble around them flickered, its sapphire glow dimming as dark tendrils of energy reached toward them from the surrounding chaos. The transit sphere that had carried her safely through the void was beginning to weaken.
Benjamin’s form began to fade, becoming transparent as the void pulled him back into suspension. “Ali,” he called weakly, “the lighthouse—it’s more than a doorway. It’s a beacon. Your mother—”
His voice cut off as his image grew fainter. The dark energy tendrils wrapped around the bubble, squeezing inward.
Ali fought against the encroaching darkness, channeling more of her awakening abilities into the keys. Blue light flared from her skin, pouring into the failing bubble, strengthening their transportation sphere. The blue bubble brightened momentarily, its walls thickening against the assault, but it wasn’t enough. Whatever force didn’t want her father freed was stronger than she had anticipated, and the bubble transit system was beginning to collapse.
In that moment of desperation, she remembered what Jan had said before she entered the portal: “The animals on the island—they’ve been trying to help you all along. Use that connection if you get lost.”
Closing her eyes, Ali reached out beyond the void, beyond the lighthouse, feeling for the island’s wildlife—the deer that had formed patterns in the clearing, the birds that had changed their migration routes, and most of all, for Muffin, whose loyalty had never wavered.
Instantly, she felt them—thousands of minds, simple yet powerful in their collective awareness. They had always known about the pathways between worlds, had always sensed the watchers from Alitous. Now they responded to her call, their energy flowing through the void to join with hers.
The keys absorbed this new power, their light intensifying within the blue bubble. The transit sphere pulsed with renewed energy, its color deepening to a rich azure with golden threads now weaving through its surface. The reinforced bubble pushed back against the darkness, and the dark tendrils recoiled, but still held fast to Benjamin’s fading form.
“It’s not enough,” Ali realized with growing panic. She needed something more.
As if in answer to her thought, a new presence touched her mind—familiar yet utterly unknown. The sense of connection was instant and profound, like recognizing a part of herself she’d never known was missing.
No voice spoke, but Ali felt a surge of power flow through her from somewhere beyond the void—from Alitous itself. The energy signature was unmistakably similar to her own awakening abilities, but vastly more refined and powerful. In that moment, Ali knew with absolute certainty: her mother was reaching out across the stars, lending her strength.
With this new power flowing through her, Ali focused once more on her father. The five keys responded instantly, their energy surging into the blue bubble until it blazed with brilliant blue-gold light, almost blinding in its intensity. The transit sphere expanded, its walls now impenetrable. The dark tendrils that had threatened them shattered like glass against the bubble’s surface, dissolving back into the void.
“Now!” Ali called, pulling her father toward her with all her strength. The blue bubble expanded to envelop him completely, welcoming him into its protective embrace. The keys spun faster around them inside their shared transit sphere, creating a tunnel of blue light that stretched back toward the lighthouse portal. The bubble began to move, carrying them both through the void.
Benjamin gasped as he was fully freed from suspension, color and substance returning to his form. “Ali, your eyes—they’re glowing like your mother’s.”
Ali had no time to process this as the void around them began to collapse inward. The pathway her uncle had opened wouldn’t remain stable much longer.
“We need to go now,” she urged, keeping a firm grip on her father’s hand. “Uncle Jack and the others are waiting.”
Together, they rushed through the tunnel of light, safely contained within their blue transit bubble as the keys led the way back to the lighthouse. The bubble moved with incredible speed, carrying them through the void like a celestial vehicle designed precisely for this journey between worlds. As they traveled, Ali felt the distant presence that had helped her—her mother—begin to fade.
“Wait!” she called out, reaching with her mind toward that retreating consciousness. “Don’t go!”
For a brief moment, the connection strengthened again. No words came through, but Ali received impressions—images of a woman with features like her own standing before a massive crystalline structure, her hands pressed against a glowing surface. The woman’s eyes shone with the same light that now flowed through Ali’s veins. Around her neck hung a pendant shaped like a peacock’s feather.
Then came a single, clear thought that wasn’t quite words: Soon.
The connection faded as Ali and her father approached the end of the light tunnel. Ahead, she could see the lighthouse lantern room, her friends and uncle maintaining the portal with the Simon device.
“Almost there,” she encouraged her father, who was growing stronger with each passing moment.
As they neared the exit, Benjamin squeezed her hand. “Your mother—she never abandoned us, Ali. She’s been watching over you your whole life. The peacock in the stained glass window—it was her way of staying connected.”
Ali nodded, tears streaming from her glowing eyes. “I know. I felt her just now. She helped us.”
“And I think,” Benjamin said, his voice stronger now, “she found a way to reach us again. That’s what I was trying to tell you before. The lighthouse isn’t just a doorway between worlds—it’s a beacon. A calling card to Alitous.”
They burst through the portal back into the lighthouse lantern room, collapsing onto the wooden floor as the tunnel of light collapsed behind them. The storm outside remained frozen, but Ali could sense its unnatural stasis beginning to fail.
“Dad!” she cried, throwing her arms around her father properly now that they were back in the physical world. Benjamin held her tightly, his grip strong despite his months in suspension.
Jack stepped forward, looking down at his brother-in-law with a mixture of relief and concern. “Benjamin. It’s been a long time.”
“Jack,” Benjamin nodded weakly. “You found her, just as we planned.”
Jan rushed to check Benjamin’s vital signs while the others gathered around, amazed at the success of their rescue mission. Cooper’s instruments were going wild, recording the residual energies from Ali’s crossing.
“I don’t understand,” Archer said, consulting his charts. “The convergence should have ended by now. What’s keeping the storm frozen?”
Jack’s expression grew serious as he looked from Ali to the stained glass window, where the peacock design still rippled with inner light. “It’s not over,” he said quietly. “Something else is coming through.”
Ali felt it too—a building pressure in the air, a sense of anticipation like the moment before lightning strikes. The blue-gold light under her skin pulsed in response, and the five keys, which had returned to her hands, began to glow once more.
The stained glass peacock’s eye flared suddenly, sending a beam of light across the room that illuminated the Simon device. The colored sections began to spin on their own, faster than before, matching the rhythm of Ali’s pulsing skin.
“What’s happening?” Brett asked, backing away from the window.
Benjamin struggled to sit up, his eyes fixed on the peacock design. “The beacon,” he whispered. “She’s found it. After all these years—she’s found the way back.”
“Who?” Jasper asked, though Ali suspected they all knew the answer.
“My mother,” Ali breathed, stepping toward the window as the peacock design began to transform. “She’s coming home.”
“Shadows of the Keeper” is written by Julie D’Aloiso in collaboration with Anthropic’s Claude AI. Each chapter is crafted through creative partnership, combining human storytelling with AI assistance.
© 2025 Julie D’Aloiso All rights reserved.
