Yerim was afraid, but being afraid wasn’t really a change for her. Her life was filled with frightening, unfamiliar things. Usually there was someone to take care of her, to help her understand that the scary things weren’t that scary after all. Those people had been Joohyun and Seungwan for the past seventeen years, though most recently Sooyoung had been her main source of comfort.

    But as she sat there in her cell, hugging her knees, rocking back and forth in bed, there was no one to take care of her. Yerim was all alone, and every one of her fears was unflinchingly real. She’d come to that conclusion after lots of tears and pillow-muffled sobs.

    On a surface level, life in prison wasn’t really so bad. She was fed three meals a day, her bed and bathroom were clean, and they even gave her books to read. There weren’t any bars, just four white walls and a single locked door. The lights were turned off for twelve hours of the day, but there was a lamp by her bed that she could use if she wanted to read. Everything was delivered by Jennifer, Joohyun’s younger daughter. Jennifer spoke very little when she brought things for Yerim, but that was fine, as long as that horrible Cade didn’t have to be there.

    But she was on Blackstar. Even thinking of the name of Geulim Ja’s planet made her want to pull the covers over her head and cry. She’d seen the nightmare unfolding on Earth, the horrible acts Geulim Ja’s minions did on his behalf. A million worries ran through her head, haunting the back of her mind day in and day out, even when she wasn’t thinking about them. She worried for her sisters and for Sooyoung, wondered what they were doing now, if they were safe. She worried about what would happen next, if the Earth was truly going to be destroyed. She worried for herself, and what Geulim Ja planned for her. Most of all she worried about Cade, with the evil in his eyes and the darkness in his soul and the creepy, evil way he looked at her.

About eight “days” into her captivity, Yerim sat on her bed, reading a book about a little girl named Vin who had the power to control metals. Vin was an orphan, and had grown up on the streets for most of her life. That was okay, though, because it made her strong and fearless. With the help of her friends, she was even able to beat the tyrannical Lord Ruler.

When Yerim finished the book, she found herself crying again. That wasn’t really an uncommon occurrence nowadays. This episode of sobs happened because Vin reminded her so much of Sooyoung. Brave, strong and willing to defend those who needed to be protected. A real hero. Why couldn’t Yerim be like that?

Fortunately, tears tended to make her sleepy, so she found herself drifting off not long after. She dimmed her lamp, but left it lit just enough to keep the room out of shadow. This whole planet was bathed in darkness; light was too precious to extinguish, even while she slept.

As usual, Yerim clutched her pillow, pretending that the small cushion was Sooyoung’s torso. She imagined Sooyoung’s sweet voice whispering to her, telling her that everything would be alright, that there was nothing to be afraid of...

A brilliant twinkle of gold danced against her eyelids, and Yerim shot up in bed. She darted her head around, heart pounding in her chest, a wave of warmth running across her.

“H-hello?” she whispered to the empty room, drawing the covers up to her nose.

That golden twinkle continued to thrum within her, starting in her right earlobe and radiating outward to cover her whole body. Yerim took hold of her Vis - something that felt almost wrong to her, as Joohyun had constantly warned that Vis wasn’t replenishable on Blackstar - and reached out with it, tried to touch that mysterious sheen. She tried to communicate, send out a message to speak with that beautiful presence, but she was unable to. So instead she observed. The apparition was playful and light, like a summer breeze in a large, open garden. So familiar, so warm, so comforting that Yerim couldn’t help but smile, her first smile since she’d come to Blackstar.

At that moment, there was a soft click, and her door opened. A brown-haired girl wearing a thin leather jacket and black leggings walked in. She was grimacing as if she’d just eaten something foul, but Yerim had seen Jennifer enough to know that she always looked like that.

The brunette shut the door behind her, then folded her arms and leaned against it. She gave an appraising stare, the kind that made Yerim want to crawl under the blankets and hide.

No. I have to be strong, Yerim thought to herself, remembering the battle at the Galactic Lounge on Earth, how she and Sooyoung had worked together to save Moonbyul.

With some difficulty, Yerim met Jennifer’s eyes. The mean-looking girl raised a single eyebrow, as if she was surprised that Yerim hadn’t immediately submitted.

The staring contest lasted for several dragging, nervous seconds. Yerim wanted to say something, but she wasn’t confident enough to do so. Maintaining eye contact was hard enough on its own. What could she say, anyway?

Thankfully, Jennifer spoke first.

“All right. What’s going on?” she asked, already sounding fed up. Like her default facial expression, that wasn’t unusual, either.

Yerim blinked. Was Jennifer asking about the golden light?

“Uh,” she said slowly, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Jennifer rolled her eyes. “You’re a bad liar. There’s no way you didn’t feel that.”

Yerim stayed quiet and continued to give Jennifer that same suspicious glare. Mostly because it was probably what Sooyoung would do.

After a moment, Jennifer’s frown deepened, and she sighed. “Fine, play dumb. It doesn’t matter. We know two Representations just landed on the planet.”

Yerim was unable to maintain her blank expression any longer, eyes widening as she inhaled sharply through her nose.

“Ah, ,” Jennifer muttered, scratching the back of her head, “You didn’t know that.”

“No,” Yerim said softly, “I didn’t.”

“Well, whatever,” the brunette said, though she looked anxious, like she shouldn’t have given away that information. “It doesn’t matter. Whoever they are, they aren’t gonna get far. Not with Cade around.”

Yerim didn’t answer. Her mind was elsewhere. That presence she felt, that shining bit of gold that continued to thrum within her… it had to be Sooyoung. And the only other Representations who knew the location of Blackstar were-

“Me and Jisoo sensed them when they touched down,” Jennifer said suddenly. Yerim could barely hear; Jennifer’s voice was whisper-quiet. “One of them is either Seungwan or my mom. That doesn’t surprise me. Dad told us they’d come to get you. But there’s… someone else there.”

Jennifer flinched slightly, mouth tightening, and drew her arms tighter around her torso. She didn’t look casual or relaxed anymore. She looked scared.

“Is that the woman who was with you in the Astral Plane, near Earth?” Jennifer asked in a whisper. Then, without waiting for an answer, “It had to be her. Her Vis was so unique. Like a mixture of yours and… something else. Something I’ve never seen before.”

Yerim had a faint idea of what Jennifer was talking about. Whenever Sooyoung used Yerim’s Vis, it seemed as though she was kind of adding to an already existing store of Astral energy. A shining, gilded power that Yerim had dismissed as a byproduct of creating a Charm. Joohyun had always said creating the artifacts was tricky, that the results were unpredictable, but seeing that Sooyoung managed to get to Blackstar without a connection to the Charm made Yerim think that there might be something else going on.

“I know you’re not gonna answer me, and that’s fine,” Jennifer said, uncrossing her arms and putting a hand on the doorknob. “I just came here to warn you that if my dad wants information from you, it’ll be Cade that comes to get it.”

    Terror slammed into Yerim like a falling meteor. She clung to the golden spark that lived within her, holding it like a shield against the mortal fear threatening to tear her down.

    Sooyoung wouldn’t be afraid of him. Sooyoung would fight. Sooyoung would be brave.

    Jennifer opened the door, revealing the shadowy hallway beyond. Before leaving, she turned her head slightly, showing just a glimpse of the side of her face. When she spoke, Yerim almost couldn’t hear her; Jennifer’s voice was less than a whisper, and the blonde was so scared that her own pulse threatened to deafen her.

    “We’ll try our best to convince him not to do it. Cade’s cocky anyway, probably thinks he can handle those two without any more intel. But we won’t be able to stop him if he comes to interrogate you.”

    Final words hanging in the air, Jennifer left, shutting the door softly behind her.

    Yerim continued to sit on her bed, clutching her blankets and staring at the wall ahead of her. Dismay rising, approaching full-blown panic, she knew she had to find a way to contact Sooyoung right now. Could she possibly be reached through the earring, now that they were both on the same planet?

With all of her might, feeling her Vis drain palpably as she did it, she threw herself toward the golden light. The winds of Blackstar’s evil force tried to repel her, but she fought, hands balling into tight fists and sweat prickling her forehead from exertion.

    She felt something. A transition of awareness, a change in the consistency of that presence. In the darkness of her tightly shut eyelids, yellow blobs shaped themselves like sentient floaters, forming a portrait. Long hair blown in every direction by velocity, full cheeks ripe with color, eyes blazing with new attention. It was a blend of youthful and mature qualities, as if someone had taken the best characteristics of a person from every age and mixed them into the perfect face. A face that Yerim would be able to recognize anywhere.

 Knowing that her time was limited, Yerim threw aside the shock of seeing Sooyoung and released a psychic plea:

Please hurry, Sooyoung! Before Cade gets here!

Yerim’s grip on their link was beginning to slip; she held on by the tips of her fingers, savoring every moment that she was able to touch the mellow comfort of her Sooyoung. The mystical phantom of Sooyoung’s presence extended an arm. Automatically, Yerim mimicked the movement, reaching her hand out in the potent darkness.

Somehow, in a moment of peaking, impossible intimacy, their hands met. The connection deepened.

Sooyoung’s voice rang out like the notes of a lullaby. A beautiful melody, sung only for Yerim, a private serenade that brought her peace for the first time in weeks.

I’m coming, Yeri, Sooyoung said. I won’t let him hurt you. I promise, my love.

Sooyoung was gone as soon as she finished speaking. The hum of her presence remained, but Yerim knew that her own stores of Vis weren’t enough to create another bond.

Drained yet contented, Yerim lay back on her bed. In terms of reality, not much had changed. She was still in prison. Knowing that Sooyoung was out there, though, visible, tangible, audible… that had brought an unshakable assurance to the blonde. Whatever happened tomorrow, she could endure it. She would be strong. Because her savior was on the way.

As Yerim melted into the caress of a restful sleep, she thought only of Park Sooyoung’s promise.

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I meant for this to be part of chapter 23, but it was a bit longer than I wanted it to be, so I decided to just give Yeri another interlude!

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