All my love,
Drosselmeyer
P.S. Please remind Mr. Monde of the words that we shared while in the mortal realm. A gift such as he has is meant to be shared.
Alex looked up from the paper and blinked in confusion. Celesta was leaning back in her chair, watching him and chewing slowly. “What does this mean?”
She held the bag out to him. “It means you should have a piece of chocolate.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m being serious, Celesta.”
“So am I. Chocolate solves a world of problems. When it can’t, it at least makes them more palatable.” When he made no move to take the bag from her hands, she reached in and pulled out a dark brown square.
“What does he mean about the mirror? I thought we were looking for him because he was the one who could make gates; why are we wasting time looking for pieces of one that’s already broken? Can’t he just make a new one?” The questions were spilling out of him as fast as he could think of them. He normally would never say so much aloud at once, preferring instead to mull over the problems before voicing his thoughts.
It had been less than a day and already the loquacious pixie was starting to rub off on him.
Celesta wiggled the chocolate back and forth in front of him. “Take the chocolate,” she whispered, deepening her voice and drawing out each word.
With a frustrated growl, he swiped the sweet from her hand. “Fine, I’ll eat the blasted chocolate. Now will you tell me what all of this means?” He shoved it into his mouth.
Immediately his tongue was filled with the rich, slightly bitter sweetness. There was a hint of something spicy–cinnamon, perhaps–though he lacked the culinary experience to say for sure. It was definitely the best chocolate he had ever tasted.
But Alex wasn’t about to say anything confirming the fact. He crossed his arms and gave Celesta his best intimidating glare.
From the smug smile she gave him, he gathered that she suspected the truth. Celesta pulled another chocolate from the bag, this time taking a bite from the corner rather than popping the whole thing in her mouth.
“See? Don’t you feel better now?”
“I feel like I’m still waiting for the answers.”
Celesta set down the sweets and sighed. “I can’t answer all your questions, because I’m not completely sure of all the answers myself. I’ll have to write to Drosselmeyer and ask for some more information.”
Alex absently rubbed the fingers of his left hand, trying to work some of the stiffness out. “Why not just ask him to make another gate?”
“It’s not that simple. Drosselmeyer is the only one who can make gates to other realms, in part because of the amount and complexity of magic involved. In order for the gates to bring someone back to Faerie, he needs to enchant the gate–usually a mirror, since glass works best with the music–with magic from each of the Courts. Until they’re disenchanted, the mirror shards will still have the magic intact and can be used to restore the gateway to your realm.”
“Can’t he just do that again?”
“If he were only interested in getting to Faerie, yes.” Celesta fiddled with the edge of the paper bag and bit her lip, and he found himself distracted by a small crumb of chocolate left on her chin. “But the real issue, I would imagine, comes in getting you back.”
He tore his attention away from the offending crumb. “Why?”
“In order to set the destination, he would need a piece of magic from there–a heart song powerful and passionate enough to reach across the realms.”
“And?”
“And yours was the first one we’ve heard in centuries. You said it yourself; there is no magic in your realm, or at least, not in the way that we know it. If you’re here, how are we supposed to get it to send you back? The gateway was made using your music, which means we need to rebuild it if we're going to send you home.”
Alex breathed slowly through his nose, doing his best to shove all of his frustrations aside. What he needed right now was a clear head. No good strategy was ever developed while angry. “So, we need to find the mirror shards?”
“That’s what Drosselmeyer said.”
“How exactly do we do that?”
“That’s the part I’m unsure of.” Celesta’s brows drew together. “I’m not entirely sure how it works in the first place, since I’ve never been able to use creative magic. Hopefully Drosselmeyer will be able to tell us more. If he’s in Summer, I should be able to get a message to him.” She pushed back from the table and stood. “Until we hear back, I have some friends that live on the outside of town that I’m sure would be happy to let us stay for a while. And we should get a change of clothes. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to be wearing something clean.”
Alex grunted noncommittally and followed her example. After weeks spent wearing the same uniform, a day’s worth of dirt seemed like nothing. He pushed his seat into the table and winced as his fingers struggled to grip the back of the chair.
