“Is he still in Baris with your mother, then?” Rakel asked.
Phile’s smile grew sad. “He died. It’s why I started traveling. I wanted to see what these people that he had such great dreams for were like. He would have loved you.”
Rakel blinked. “Me?”
“Yes. You are everything magic users should be.”
“Powerful?”
“No. Compassionate, responsible, and aware of the effects your magic has on those around you,” Phile said.
Rakel shut her eyes and basked in the warmth Phile’s words brought to her fingers and chest. “I’m honored that you see that in me…Phile…” She paused, then opened her eyes to meet Phile’s gaze, a shadow still haunting her. “Even if we win, I fear Verglas will one day be torn apart because of the mirror. Rumors of the mirror will outlive us.”
“You can’t save the world, Little Wolf. It’s valiant of you to want to try, but you should be content knowing what you’ve prevented already.”
Rakel’s thoughts swirled around her—the knowledge that her magic lived in the ice structures she built, the memory of pushing magic into the Chosen magic user. She was different. Love was a part of everything she’d ever done, even before there were people—friends, a family, a nation—to love.I’m not like Tenebris, and I will prove it.
“What if I could do something to stop it?” Rakel clasped her hands together as she warmed up to the idea. “What if I could make it so no creature of darkness, no evil magic could enter Verglas?”
“How?”
“When I face Tenebris during the last battle…what if I pushed my magic into the very earth—the way I build it into my ice walls. It would repel those with dark magic—like Tenebris. He can’t touch my ice—I witnessed it myself in our last fight.”
“It would take a ridiculous amount of magic to secure the entire country,” Phile said, raising an eyebrow.
“But I have it. Sunnira called me a monster, and she may be right. I have never run dry.”
Phile placed her hands on her shoulders and squeezed. “Rakel, you’lldie. At the very least, you’ll fall unconscious and never wake up.”
Rakel tried to give her a brave smile. “I know. But Verglas would be safe. No one would be able to get to that stupid mirror…and my magic would protect Verglas’s boundaries much longer than I could.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Phile said. “General Halvor will find a way.”
“Anything less than this will be a temporary fix.”
Phile rubbed her forehead. “We haven’t searched for anyone who can break the mirror. There must be someone on this continent who can do it.”
“Phile,” Rakel said, interrupting her friend. “That mirror is a thousand times more evil and vile than Tenebris. It needs to be taken care of.”
Phile exhaled and shrank in size. She tilted her head and studied Rakel. “I…This is…Is this what you want?”
Rakel nodded.
“You’ll have to kill him—and possibly his officers. There’s no way around it.”
Rakel grimaced and pushed away the worry that her sacrifice might make her even more like Tenebris than she already was. “I know it’s wrong, but?—”
“No,” Phile interrupted her, her dark eyes glowing with anger. “What Tenebris and his army are doing is wrong. Killing and war are unfortunate realities because of the brokenness of mankind, but the slaughter of innocents is evil. To stop them—if it is within your power—is right.”
“I still wish I could avoid spilling blood—it is not an action I can take back or forget.” Rakel spoke slowly, trying to explain her heart.
“Allowing Tenebris and his ilk to live is far more terrible than killing them and ending their rampage.”
Rakel was silent.
“Can you really kill Tenebris?”
She tried to take a breath, but it felt like she wasn’t taking in enough air. “I believe I must.”
