Chapter 37: By Air or By Water?
"It is the first of November, Remi..." Anemo whispered. "Rest now. You have been standing by the boys inside the ether wall for a whole week."
"A week?"
Remi remained flat on Shehrazad’s thick carpet, lifting her head with great effort to look around. Shehrazad’s courtyard looked like a battlefield after an army’s retreat. It was clear that all their living anchors—both cats and humans—were completely exhausted. Tea and coffee cups, plates with leftover food, abandoned blankets, and ropes soaked in cedar resin lay scattered across the stone mosaic floor.
"How? How did you manage to watch over us for so many days?" Remi asked. "Your wrist looks terrible, Anemo. Thank you for staying by my side."
"We took turns untying ourselves from the anchoring bond, Remi," Anemo replied. "We all had our own needs to take care of, but we worked perfectly together as a team."
"Right now, we are all just a bunch of happy convalescents" Dr. Hazem joked. "We will recover bit by bit. The hardest and worst part is behind us. Let us drink to that, friends!"
Shehrazad, who was still holding her grandchildren close, stiffened at first, then frowned at the doctor’s words.
"What do you mean, drink?"
"Drink water, Shehrazad! Carefully, just to rehydrate ourselves!"
***
After about twelve hours of deep, restful sleep spent recovering in various corners of Shehrazad’s spacious house, a video call with Dublin was absolutely necessary.
Professor Simoon, who was over in the House of the Winds alongside the furry ones and Fleur, was eager to hear the latest news from Cairo.
"If I could, I would teleport right through this screen to be with you!" he said, framing himself perfectly in front of the laptop camera like a TV newsreader. "I am so glad the boy returned safely, but now we must focus on our own mission!"
"Yes, father ," Anemo said. "We have exactly fifty days left until the winter solstice. If it were up to me, I would buy the return tickets this very second, but look at Remi! Do you really think we are allowed to fly with her in this condition?"
On the other side of the call, Sirocco arched his back, as if a shiver had run down his spine. Wanting to show his loyalty and support, he chimed in loudly:
"Miss Remi! Stay strong!"
But Mistral quietly stopped him before he could launch into a silly speech:
"Shh, little one! Let the grown-ups talk!"
Remi gave a short, tired meow toward the screen, grateful for the little cat's loyalty. Although the laptop camera only showed a white cat with large eyes and dark circles that were invisible to humans—but easily felt by other felines—the exhaustion from the ether wall still clouded her gaze.
"I am fine, Sirocco, thank you," she communicated through the telepathic bond shared by the felines. "But Anemo is right, Professor. If I tried to get on a plane right now, airport rules and bureaucracy would lock me up in another absurd quarantine, and I might miss this very last portal. Oh," she sighed from the depths of her feline soul, "if only you knew how easy it was to shift from one form to another back in the days of Amarna... Meritmut and Meritbastet could transform in the blink of an eye. They didn't have to wait for astronomical portals."
Professor Simoon adjusted his glasses, his expression turning serious. To his right, in the living room of the House of the Winds in Dublin, Aeolus could be seen checking some official documents on the phone Remi had left behind for them. Based on that information, the little library mouse quickly analysed the situation and joined the conversation:
"Anemo, Lady Shehrazad, did you say the mirror is completely repaired? If so, in my opinion, that will be our salvation!"
"Absolutely not!" Anemo snapped, alarmed by the suggestion. "How could I put Remi at such a risk? Grandfather, say something! Remi is still a cat and..."
"Yes," the white cat interrupted Anemo, "I know what you are going to say. Cats are afraid of water. But I... I am not just any cat. I am Remi Storm!"
Fleur, who was doing an excellent job translating between the animals and Professor Simoon, wiped away a stray tear that had crept halfway down her cheek. Clearing her throat, which was a little raspy with emotion, she translated Remi’s words before adding quietly to herself:
"You are forced to choose between two extremely risky choices again, Miss Remi. Fifty days sounds like a long time, but..."
Anemo panted, absentmindedly rubbing his bandaged wrist. He remembered the nightmare they had faced before the equinox all too well.
"How could I forget, Grandfather? Remi had every single document in perfect order: her microchip, her European pet passport, up-to-date rabies vaccines, and a validated antibody test. And yet, because of one single, suspicious sneeze at customs, the Egyptian authorities threw her straight into quarantine for fourteen days!"
"Exactly," the professor agreed from the other end of the line. "Because of those two lost weeks in the Cairo quarantine, Remi missed the transformation portal during the equinox. If it hadn't been for that sneeze, she would be human by now, and we wouldn't be in this race against time before the solstice. The Cats' Cave in Ireland is waiting for her grand transformation, but we cannot play around with the law now."
Dr. Hazem joined the discussion, setting his water cup down on the table:
"As a doctor, I must tell you that her feline body is extremely weak right now. She is still having bouts of fever after a week spent inside the ether wall; the stress of a flight would completely break her down."
"The biggest problem isn't just her fragile health," Professor Simoon added, "it is Ireland's brutal laws for animals arriving from outside the European Union. Because of the fourteen days in quarantine here in Cairo and the week in the ether wall, her official health certificate has expired. For the European travel zone, that document is only valid for ten days from the date it is issued."
Anemo ran a hand through his hair, realising how critical the situation had become.
"Does that mean we have to redo all her medical tests from scratch?"
"Precisely," Dr. Hazem confirmed, looking at the laptop screen. "And it's not just a matter of getting a simple stamp. Irish customs strictly require a serological test for rabies antibody titers. Even if we draw her blood tomorrow, international protocol states clearly: after a new blood test, a cat coming from Egypt must wait through a mandatory three-month monitoring period before being allowed onto a commercial flight to Dublin."
A heavy silence fell over the room. Fifty days until the winter solstice suddenly felt like a completely impossible deadline to meet by legal means.
"Three months?" Remi sighed in a panic, sending her thoughts through the Collar of the Two Skies straight to Anemo. "In three months, the portal will be closed forever! I say we forget about planes. Let us start preparing to enter the mirror right away!"
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