Cinderella Dressed in Ashes

25 The Name of the Necklace

After her encounter with Alice Grimm, Shew thought she’d wake up in her room again, but she didn’t.

She woke up in the World Between Dreams.

She was standing in the middle of the poppy fields as a soft wind circled her with its tender touch. The world was beautiful again, and she longed to stay there forever. She stretched her arms to her sides and let her head fall back, inhaling her surroundings as the sun kissed her softly on the forehead.

It’s going to be alright, Shew. Nothing can go wrong as long as you’re here.

She wondered how the World Between Dreams was so much better than the dreams themselves. There was no hint of darkness, no implication of evil, and not the tiniest scent of malice. This was Shew’s personal and discreet wonderland, a place better than life and death, better than reality, a place of her own imagination—Loki’s imagination.

“You’re not paying attention, Shew.”

In the distance, she saw Loki, dressed in white like an angel, but also spattered with thin, almost invisible, lines of blood. The sun shone directly on his face. Shew couldn’t see it clearly. The light was too glaring, but she’d known him from his voice, from the way he walked, and from his scent. It wasn’t an evil scent this time. It was a weakened one, desperate and confused.

“Loki,” she said. “Why am I here again?”

“I’m trying to tell you something,” Loki’s voice was shattered like shards of glass lost in the air.

“I know,” she took a step forward.

“Don’t come near me,” he urged her. “I might look handsome from afar, not so much if you come closer and see my face.”

“Listen,” Shew stopped, arching her back a little as if her body disobeyed her, wanting to get closer to Loki. “I’ve seen what you have done, the children you killed. I remember you, Loki. I know about the darkness that’s weighing on your shoulders. But guess what, we’re all like that. We all have done bad things.”

“Not like me,” Loki said, his voice colorless, not evil, but dead as if his vocal cords were hollow pipes.

“No, you don’t understand. We’re all like you. You’re just making a big deal of it because you’re a half-angel. Everybody in Sorrow is like you, everybody in the world. None of us is pure goodness,” Shew shrugged. She thought she should be the last one giving him advice. In fact, she sometimes felt as guilty as he did.

“You’re talking too much,” Loki said. “I can’t hold this World Between Dreams for long. I’m bound to Carmilla through the Fleece. Anything I do, she sees. All but this World Between Dreams because it’s a special and private place deep within me,” Loki explained. “So don’t waste time, listen to me.”

She nodded obediently.

“Like I said, you’re not paying attention in this dream,” Loki said. “Did you read the necklace I gave you?”

“I tried, Loki,” she said. “Believe me, I tried, but it’s not making any sense. Why can’t you just say it?”

“Love is not about words, Shew,” Loki said. “If you can’t use your heart, mind and soul then love means nothing. It’s just like when Cerené showed you that her magic needed Heart, Brain, and Soul. If you use these things, you’ll be able to read the pendant on the necklace.”

“I’m trying, Loki,” Shew almost stomped her feet. “But it’s unreadable,” Shew felt a burning in her eyes. She was resisting tearing up. She raised the circle-shaped pendant on the necklace closer to inspect it. “It looks like an engraving, and I tried to read it in every which way.

“That’s because you’re only looking at what’s right in front of your eyes, Shew,” Loki said as his image began to fade. “We always think the truth lies just in front of us. It’s the same when we judge people by their looks, a building by its façade, and a book by its cover. If we only take the time and flip things around, we’ll see a clearer picture. You’re not looking at it deep enough. It’s much easier that you think.”

“Loki, you sound so…” Shew couldn’t believe this was the boy whose favorite phrase was ‘My name is Loki Blackstar and I’m here to kick your ass.’ So there is something else to the necklace that I’m not seeing? I promise you I’ll find it,” she took it off and placed it in the palm of her hand, still unsure about what he was hinting at.

When she raised her head back to ask him, Loki was gone. The World Between Dreams was ending for the second time, and she hadn’t made good use of it.

As it faded, it crossed her mind to flip the necklace on its back. That’s when she saw the flipside of the puzzle. Another indecipherable engraving:

The world spun around Shew, and she was ready to go back to the Dreamory, wondering if she’d meet Alice Grimm again. She wanted to ask her what the heck was going on.