“All of them?” I whispered.
A memory crept into my mind—of Adhara, the Goddess of Air telling me that Danu needed me.
“All of them.” He nodded. “And they sustain you. Or they did, rather. Because of these differences, we believe that were you to be cut off from Danu for too long, your magic would lessen but not die. Even without His Majesty's support, your magic would survive.”
“That's good to hear.” I glanced at Everan, who was frowning. “That's good, right?”
“Perhaps,” Everan murmured as he kept his stare on Salien. “Continue, Master Salien.”
Salien inclined his head to my husband before refocusing on me. “We also believe this changes your asha slightly. The Heart of Earth took a portion of your asha and your magic—more than you believe, I'm afraid. You did recover your asha—as will the Bargests—which is why you feel physically strong despite the depletion. The asha of all living creatures can heal itself as long as there is some asha remaining inside them. What it can't do is heal or reform itsmagic. Your asha healed faster than the Bargests because of who you are but it will be the same for you as it will be for them—your new asha will have no magic. Your magic has been diminished, Queen Amaranthine. I'm very sorry.”
“But...” I blinked. “No, I feel fine. My magic—” I realized that I hadn't tried to use my magic since helping the Heart of Earth. I switched into my second sight and auras bloomed around me. The very air sparkled with life. I sighed in relief. “It's still there.”
“I didn't say that you lost it,” Salien clarified. “I said it was diminished. I think that you'll find that you have less power than you did earlier today.”
I shouldn't have been surprised—I knew some of my magic had been taken with my asha and that it had been a significant amount. But I'd thought it was foundational—like power for my magic, not the magic itself. I didn't realize that it would diminish me considerably. I sat down heavily and stared at my hands, wondering just how much I had lost.
“You still have my power,” Everan said as he took one of my hands and rubbed it briskly. “And that of the others. Take some of ours and refresh yourself.”
“You give me strength, not magic,” I reminded him. “And if my magic has been weakened, the pieces of it that I've shared with you have as well. You've been diminished too, Ever.”
And there it was—the real reason I was bothered. I could deal with less magic but knowing that I had lessened the men I loved would tear at me.
“Then you cannot come into contact with another heart,” Everan said decisively.
“King Everan, she may be the only way we can protect and heal the Hearts of Danu,” King Dranalt protested.
“I will not have her risk her immortality to save Danu!” Everan snarled at the other king.
“My immortality,” I murmured.
I hadn't even thought of that. My Danutian magic was what made me immortal, if I lost all of it, I'd be fully Triari. Long-lived but not immortal. And all of my other men would lose their immortality too. Unless the Amaranthine Elixir was somehow separate. I couldn't know for sure.
“She would not lose her immortality,” Master Salien said gently. “It is not our magic that makes us immortal but our blood. We are still Sidhe without our magic and Queen Amaranthine will still be immortal without hers.”
I breathed out a sigh of relief. I'd never been so happy to be wrong.
“She would if it took all of her asha,” Everan argued. “Because then, she'd be dead.”
“At the moment, we're merely asking her to protect the other hearts, not heal them,” King Dranalt said.
“No,” Everan said again, even more firmly.
“The Heart of Air isn't damaged like that of Earth,” I added. “It won't be pulling on my asha. I should be able to control the process better.”
“You don't know that,” Everan argued. “Recall the way the Heart of Fire took the Ember. Elements are unpredictable.”
“Well, we have to do something,” I said softly.
“We agree with King Everan.” Master Salien waved his hand to include the other mages. “Protecting the hearts is not a solution. Queen Amaranthine, you empowered the Heart of Fire to withstand an attack but you didn't cut it off from Danu as you did Earth. That is both good and bad. Fire will have more strength to resist a theft but is still vulnerable because it's still connected to the mantle. Earth, however, is now cut off from us and can't be taken from but it will eventually die. We will soon begin to suffer from being separated from it as well. We each need all of our elements recharged by the hearts but especially those that compose most of our asha. With every heart that gets cut off from the exchange, we will weaken more. The danger, therefore, outweighs the benefits. It would be better to put our efforts toward finding the thief than protecting the hearts.”
“I don't understand how this even happened,” Princess Farinne whined. “We are constantly feeding Danu magic and she cycles it back to us. Why didn't the Heart of Earth simply refresh its magic from ours? And you said that all living things can replenish their asha so why can't the Hearts replenish theirs?”
“Asha and magic are not the same things, Your Highness,” Master Salien explained. “Your magic is rooted in your asha. Your asha is your life force and although it contains your magic, it is not magic itself. Magic cannot regrow itself as our asha can. The only time magic is created is during a Danutian pregnancy when it blooms within the babe's growing asha. But once that baby is born, they have all the magic they will ever receive. The Elemental Hearts, however, are not alive in the same way that we are. They were not grown in a womb, manifesting asha and magic in a mystical manner that only gods—those who grant the spark of life to unborn babes—can understand. Instead, we created the Hearts and we are not gods. So, they cannot rebuild their asha either. Their life force and magic are finite. When the thief stole asha and magic from the Heart of Earth, they took two precious and irreplaceable things.”
“So, the Heart of Earth took magic and asha from Queen Amaranthine?” Farinne asked as if she had just comprehended what had been taken from me.
“Yes,” Salien said gravely. “With the deficit caused by the theft, the Heart of Earth was in need of both magic and asha. Under such circumstances, it wouldn't have been able to control the flow and likely would have taken all of the asha of several Danutians. In short, it could have killed many people. That is why the heart cut itself off from us—to protect us. But when Queen Amaranthine attempted to heal the heart, she removed this protection, and the void caused by the theft sucked in her asha and magic to refill itself. Because it is the Heart of Earth, it could only take asha that held Earth magic or Her Majesty's universal magic. Taking other asha would mean accepting other elemental magic into itself and that would have killed the heart.”
