Chapter Eighteen—In the Dark

It was so dark. So cold.

Jessamine had no influence over these territories of the void.

Did another?

She didn’t know.

The void was a magical plain so vast, so endless it couldn’t be comprehended—even by her. As a jinni, she was well aware of her predicament.

One of little hope.

She knew what she had been doing when she left her territory to search for Shiro’s aural tether. As an isekai, Shiro’s tether was unique. His aura was powerful. Sensing it—ever so slightly, she had followed, thinking she would be able to return to her own territory where her door in and out existed through her lamp.

But she had lost her way.

In a panic, she had searched for it, before realizing that she had probably ventured further into the void away from where she needed to be.

At least she was able to send her magic to the tether she believed was Shiro. But had it been enough? Enough to save his life from that poison?

She didn’t know.

In the dark she wept.

For Shiro.

But also for herself.

There were some jinni who had gone mad, lost to the void for ages, only to return as mad spirits—monsters with terrible magic.

Would that happen to her?

Wandering about the void was too dangerous. There were other spirits here, and her own portion was lost to her.

She waited.

Waited in the dark.

For Shiro to come and find her.

She wept.

How long had it been? It was impossible to tell here. There was no night and no day. Jessamine could not conjure such a magical reality outside of the root of her lamp.

Even if she was to be lost forever, if her only success was that she had saved Shiro’s life, then…

Then that will have been enough…

She wept.

Even here, in this vast darkness, there was light, and yet no source from which the light came. That was the reality of her void. She could not curl in on herself and sleep—remain dormant until someone found her.

She was awake, and though she could sleep, her reality was one of a human’s existence—even in the void. A jinni, often referred to as a spirit, had aspects of the spirits, but were not spirits.

Even here, Jessamine had a physical form.

But in her inability to conjure any sort of magical reality, she could not change her dress. She wore the green dress Shiro had bought her.

It did nothing against the coldness of the void as she curled in on herself, like an infant.

She wept.

Shiro panicked for a time as he had no connection to Debaku. But he thought he heard Ali, speaking. It was as if his voice were all around him.

“Shiro?” he said, the sound of his tone undulating and muffled—like he was underwater.

Calming himself, Shiro glanced about. There was nothing. It was a dark void, though there was some light, it came from nowhere in particular.

Shiro did not know how that was possible.

“Shiro!”

He whirled and found Debaku, his grey-blue snake eyes staring through him. Here, in this dark place, that glance actually comforted him.

“Debaku!” he called. Then he paused. “This place is…”

“It is the void,” he said. “Many spirits live here, and it is where the jinni reside within their lamps.”

Shiro glanced about.

Debaku appeared as his normal self, in his black pantaloons, jacket and turban. But there was a bright light in his inner core with short… strings?

“This is my aural tether,” Debaku said, gesturing to himself. Then he looked up along the tether that stretched as far as Shiro’s eye could see. “This tether,” he said. “This one is my path back—back to the physical realm of our existence.”

Shiro looked up at his tether, finding that it was not a pale whiteness, but rather gold. “Why is… why is mine different?”

Debaku studied him.

“There are many mysteries to the void, Shiro, and many mysteries to the beings who occupy it.”

He didn’t know what to make of that.

“Why are you here, Shiro?”

Looking up at Debaku, who was floating, suspended in the nothingness as if he were swimming under water, he said, “I am searching for Jessamine.”

The Black Cobra of Mar’a Thul nodded. “And so you must quest out in search of her aural tether, Shiro. Your eyes can be of use, but only if you find her. You must quest outward with your magic—with your mind and your soul.”

“I… I can try,” he said, feeling confused.

Thinking to himself, he realized that Debaku must have done this dozens of times at least, if not hundreds, in search of the jinni Archaemenes.

“Do not distract yourself, Shiro. Search. Search for the one you care about. Find Jessamine.”

His voice echoed all around Shiro.

“I cannot help you,” he said. “I am here to guide you only.”

“Why can you not help me?”

“I have no connection to Jessamine,” he said. “Finding her would be like finding a single grain of sand within the sea. “You have a connection to her. You are aurally drawn to her—as she is with you.”

Shiro nodded.

Closing his eyes, he… quested out, searching for her, trying to… feel for her?

“Yes,” Debaku said. “That is the way! Continue! Quest for your connection to Jessamine.”

And so the isekai quested.