Atear slipped down my cheek as I beheld Nora’s unmoving state. Part of me couldn’t bear to say goodbye, and another was nudged by Melody’s statement. I thought of the scroll tucked in my pocket, the words on the page. Rising to my feet, the world quieted, like my destiny was unfolding. It didn’t make complete sense yet, but when I took a step away, Evenita stared at me with a smile. I walked toward the seer.
“How?” I asked, searching for understanding whilst battling the fresh, raw grief.
The sage woman delicately unclasped her necklace, one that held an array of crystals. They glowed beneath the sun, vibrant and radiant.
“I knew someone just like you once. Her determination survived generations.” She spoke with a fondness that brought another tear to my eye. “These were set aside, and I carried a portion with me. But they were always meant foryou.”
As she plucked the sapphire gem from the string, she said, “Water.”
I didn’t understand how expensive jewels had to do with anything regarding our cataclysmic circumstance.
She continued, separating the next stone from its facet. With the light blue pinched between her fingers, she said, “Sky,” before setting it in her palm.
Was she assigning an element to each stone?
“Flora,” she said as she plucked the emerald gem.
A spark of understanding lit within, but I couldn’t be certain…
The next crystal was pink, and when she said, “Fauna.” my theory was confirmed.
“Fire.” She removed the garnet. My heart picked up its rhythm, waiting for her to connect the dots for me because I certainly wasn’t getting there on my own. What did some of the origin magics have to do with these crystals, or this atrocious battle?
Her purple gaze lifted. “I’ve been holding onto something for you for a long, long time, child.”
The necklace was now bare, stripped of all its stones, but she raised her fingers and isolated a single strand of silver shimmer from her head then yanked from the root. She placed it among the bright collection of crystals. “Wind.”
At the same moment colored orbs of light lifted from the crystals and her single strand, the glittering silver of her hair faded to pure white. The sounds of war raged around us, screams of pain, cracking trees, clashing steel.
She let the crystals fall to the earth. They were nothing more than pretty rocks now as the light from each remained hovering. In smooth motions, she used her hands to encircle the magic, and whispered in a language I’d never heard, “Sor il vires streamas ignitas, absorbetualis potentia et ilos.”
The magic combined into a unified ball, a kaleidoscope of colors. She guided the collection of power and placed the fiery mass inside my chest. In the depths of my being, what had beenlaying dormant and asleep awoke with fierceness. I could feel the expanse of magic, sense the edges that contained it. My well was full. Around me, existence surged. No longer muted and quiet from fear, but whispering for help. Fully conscious. Fully present.
I blinked, adjusting to the newfound sense I’d gained. Her amethyst eyes somehow held less luster, seemed milkier. “I-I don’t know what to do with this.”
She smiled. “You will. And when you do,embrace it.” The old woman’s shoulders fell into a relaxed state. “Tell Alaina that it’s alright.” Evenita tilted her head back, closing her weary eyes. She inhaled deeply, like she could finally breathe. In the span of a few moments, the elderly woman aged at an accelerated rate. Fragments of dust drifted off her clothes, her hair, her skin. She began a deep exhale, giving herself over as less and less of her remained. With the final note of her breath, she stared at the sky where a single sparrow soared, and the last of her faded away, drifting on the gentle wind.
Not a trace of the seer remained. I stood alone, vaguely aware of the continuing battle. Dae released a fear-inducing roar that dragged me from my foggy state.
Jasper speared through the air toward Dae and the dark wielder, telling Tio, “Tell Alaina she’ll have to patch me up again!” before the gargoyle tucked in on himself like a cannonball, solidified to stone, and bashed into the member of The Eleven, cracking bones and ending the man. There were no dark wielders in sight now.
Staring at the scene, the infection that painted the once lush and green land in decay, the fallen wielder who left his dark mark on the world, a fragmented ball of stone amidst the oily writhing ground, and my ferocious love, I understood my purpose. Fear doused my spirit.
I needed to talk to Dae, and now that he didn’t have the dark wielder to contend with, we could—
Roots encircled my feet, closing over my ankles like a lasso, ripping me from where I stood. I slammed into the ground, landing on my back. Before I could get my bearings, a woman crawled atop me, pressing me against the ground.
Not just any woman. Val.
Branches wrapped around my wrists, and I wasn’t able to move. I tugged and strained, thorns tearing my skin, but they didn’t budge. More roots continued to gather, reinforcing themselves. Prone and splayed beneath her, I couldn’t fight back.
“I knew you would only cause problems. How does it feel to know you’ve lost?” She snickered, her face ugly as she did. “You thought you were so clever, but in the end, you were never going to defeat us. Iambetter than you.” She unsheathed a dagger at her side, the metal glinting under the sun. “I should have done this that night at the outpost.” With both hands clasped together over the hilt, she raised them above her head, ready to plunge it into my chest.
A black, blurring mass moved over me. The next second, no one was on top of me. Tio called my name, landing beside me, using his hunting knife to cut through the roots that bound me. I craned my neck to see Dae crushing the woman beneath his massive paws. His teeth clamped around her head, silencing her screams as he ripped it from her body. Blood spewed, and I flinched.
Tio cut me free. “I think we’re winning,” he said on a disbelieving breath. In the distant south, smoke barreled into the sky as legendary creatures swerved and dived, still dealing with the members down there.
He helped me to my feet, and Dae appeared at my side in his god-like human form. I threw myself into his arms. It felt like a lifetime ago that I had felt his touch.
