"According to our investigation, it's one of the original Pleiades landing sites,“ I shared. “But that is all we know. I’m hoping you can tell me more about what relics might have been there, and if I can cleanse the ley lines. They’re feeding Lyra, and we are hoping that will weaken her.”
"Porco diavolo," Luciana muttered as she stood and went to a bookcase behind her. She grabbed an old book and flipped it open. "I thought you knew that when the original Pleiades sisters were cast down from the heavens, their original landing sites created the most powerful ley line junctures. It’s the location where their magic first anchored to the planetary ley line network."
"Sweet fucking Christ," I breathed. "Lyra found the source. No wonder she was able to establish this parasitic connection to my babies. Hijacking the location gave her the power to do the impossible."
The projection flickered and changed. There were faint golden threads trying to push back against the darkness. My gut told me the ley lines themselves were fighting the infection.
"The site is trying to heal itself," I whispered, awe and horror doing a complicated dance in my chest. "Maybe we don't have to do anything."
Luciana made a noise in the back of her throat. "It can't heal while Lyra has the artifacts and is still feeding off the original magic. Those relics are anchors for the network."
"Which means someone needs to get up there and perform a cleansing ritual," Thalia said.
Nina leaned her head closer to mine and looked at Luciana. "We need to understand how she managed to corrupt a sacredsite in the first place. Does she have a connection to the Pleiades magic now?"
Luciana's expression grew thoughtful as she considered Nina's question. "The corruption... it stems from the relic,piccola. Lyra’s taint has changed the relics anchoring the site. That is infecting the ley lines because it's where the Pleiades energy first touched earth in this region. She's using the sacred connection as a conduit, poisoning it to create a direct line to your family's power."
"But why contaminate the ley lines at all?" Nina pressed. "What does that accomplish?"
"She can’t help it. Everything she touches turns bad like her. Think of it like an infection spreading through blood vessels," Luciana explained. "She could obtain all of the power if this goes unchecked. All of the sacred sites across continents are connected. If she can corrupt enough of them, she creates a network of tainted magic that feeds directly into her power base..." She didn’t need to finish that thought to get her point across about how bad that would be.
Thalia's face went pale. "That's why she kept me there so long. She needed someone with Pleiades blood to help establish the initial connection."
"Exactly," Luciana confirmed. "And the cleansing... it requires someone who can sense the original sacred frequencies. The contamination has to be removed layer by layer. Like peeling an infected wound clean before it can heal."
"Someone with Pleiades blood needs to assess the site," I observed. There were only a couple of people who had that.
"You aren’t going, Phoebe," Aidon said. “It’s too dangerous.”
“We'll find another way," Mom said firmly. "There has to be an alternative that doesn't involve unnecessary risks."
"I could go," Thalia volunteered quietly. "I have Pleiades blood. The power did not go to me, but I am descended from the original sisters."
Aidon's power rippled through the room in dark waves. "Not alone. If Lyra has left magical guardians or traps?—"
"She probably has," Nina interrupted, her young voice carrying surprising conviction. "I’ve been watching, and I think the corruption is weakest just before dawn. It would make sense because that’s when the ley lines naturally purge themselves. If we time it right, any defenses she's left will be at their lowest power."
"Murtagh and I could escort Thalia," Tseki offered from the doorway. "We know how to navigate corrupted magical sites without triggering defensive spells."
"Aspetta un momento," Luciana said suddenly, her eyes lighting up as she flipped through what looked like an ancient tome on her end of the video call. "Prego. There are ways to cleanse ley lines from a distance. Remote purification techniques that don't require physical presence at the contaminated site."
"What kind of techniques?" I asked, leaning forward despite my awkward pregnant bulk.
Luciana's fingers traced across the page as she read. "Anchor purification rituals. You place specially consecrated objects at the corrupted site. Magical beacons that can channel cleansing energy from hundreds of miles away. But more importantly, they can also extract samples of the magical residue for analysis."
"We could figure out exactly how Lyra managed to corrupt a sacred site. Tseki could fly in and place them, and we won’t have to go there ourselves," Nina suggested, her young voice sharp with interest.
"Better than that," Luciana continued, her excitement building. "These anchors can cleanse and create a magical early warning system. If Lyra tries to draw power from that site again, the purified ley lines will reject her corrupted magic and alert us immediately."
The projection above my belly suddenly shifted, showing what looked like detailed placement diagrams. Leave it to my unborn children to provide a fucking magical PowerPoint presentation.
“Dios mio, your babies are powerful,” Luciana blurted.
"And they’re smart,” Jean-Marc boasted. “They're showing us exactly when the site will be most accessible and where to place the anchors."
"I feel like the universe is going to pull the rug out from under us. We’ve never been given a way to clean up her mess. And now we can turn her corrupted site into a trap? Seems too good to be true,” I muttered.
Nana snorted. "Oh, honey, pessimism doesn't suit you nearly as well as that pregnancy glow."
