“Doesn’t matter,” Aster said, shrugging his shoulders.
“What a stupid rule,” I muttered, keeping my voice low to make sure no one else heard. I didn’t want to offend a herd of Minotaur’s. Aster’s fighting skills were impressive, but we were seriously outnumbered.
“So, that would have meant you wouldn’t have been able to speak to this mage?”
He nodded.
“Exactly that. So, luckily, Aunt Stava is still around and still the leader,” he said, sounding more thankful than anything else.
“Oh, little bull,” Aunt Stava said before letting out a low chuckle. Both Aster and I nearly broke our necks looking across the fire to her, not realizing she had returned, and how long she had been standing there.
“You are lucky indeed,” she said, winking.
“But did I hear you speaking of the Way Weaver?”
“You know I did,” he replied wryly. He obviously knew his aunt well enough to know she had been eavesdropping.
“Then, lucky for you, the Way Weaver lives, but she is unwell and very old,” Aunt Stava said, taking a stick and poking at the fire to break up the logs, making sparks dance in the air. Then she tossed a few more logs on there, making it crackle.
“She is one of the first Minotaur’s to settle in Theïkós. She knows the old magic, the kind that can bend distance if the will is strong enough,” Aster said, turning to face me.
I frowned.
“You mean she can open a portal or something?”
He met my eyes then, his expression steady.
“Exactly that.”
The words hit me like a jolt. A portal. Another tear through space and time. I’d seen what the last one did to our world, how it ripped reality apart, destroyed everything in its path. Changed lives forever. Was it really wise to open another?
But even as fear coiled through me, I knew that this might be our only hope. We didn’t have time to waste, and if something like this could help us, then it was worth the risk. If something went wrong with it, then it was just something else to fix. After stopping Atlas from killing his brother first, of course.
“But will she really help us? I mean, won’t opening another portal just cause the same issues as the last Rift?”
Aster smiled widely before shaking his head.
“It doesn’t work like that, and besides, she doesn’t need convincing. She owes me.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Owes you? That sounds ominous.”
His grin widened. “I saved her apprentice once. Her niece. After that, she told me she’d repay the debt if I ever asked, and well, I can’t think of anything else I would rather ask for.”
Stava scoffed at this and grumbled. “What about a mate, so I will have some little hooves to patter around me, eh?”
Aster rolled his eyes and pointed out the obvious, “One thing at a time, Aunt, yeah?”
She rolled her eyes and huffed, her breath puffing out of her nose, making the ring there vibrate.
“And you think she can do it safely? Without opening another Rift?”
“We don’t fully understand the Rift. It’s different. But the Way Weaver’s portals are smaller. Controlled. It will get us close enough to the castle, and the Way Weaver will be there to close it instantly once we are through.”
I glanced toward the herd, where Minotaurs were settling down to rest.
“Then let’s talk to her before we lose any more time.”
