Through the tumult, a bright glow dances toward me, flitting between the streams of power, somehow finding the gaps between them and darting closer.
It’s the Celestial Star.
She dances between the streams of my power; her form glides fearlessly and glows brighter the nearer she gets to me.
I’m not sure how I can tell with so much certainty that she isn’t afraid of me. Or how I somehow know that she’s…
Happy.
Maybe it’s the soft humming sound she makes that—impossibly—I can hear clearly despite the violence of the storm around me.
A gentle song that reminds me of the first sparkle of starlight in the sky before the night falls and the brief calm as sunlight gives way to the moon.
She glides right up to my face, filling my view with her light, and for a moment, it’s like looking far beyond the dark sky and at the purest star.
Then she glides to my left, settling into the air above my shoulder, where she hovers.
The hum of her energy gives me the peace I need.
I take a deep breath, ignoring the chaos I’ve created around me, focusing once more on Erik.
I will hit my hammer to the ground as many times as it takes to bring him back.
Again, I raise the hammer, striking it down into the ground.
And again. Andagain.
At the corner of my eye, the stone statue of Erik’s father suddenly cracks, my power traveling from his feet to his head.
The stone begins to crumble.
But I don’t stop.
I can’t.
“Loyalty,” I scream into the storm. “Strength! Perseverance! Hope!”
I raise my hammer one more time, blocking out every doubt in my mind, but this time, I don’t shout.
“Erik the Vandawolf,” I whisper. “You will wake up and live.”
I let my hammer drop to the snow, and I drop with it, falling to my knees.
My power strikes the snow, multiple golden threads shooting up and across the air. Each one curls around Erik’s body, one around his chest, another around his neck, another around his legs, winding around and around him before sinking into his body where my power vanishes.
I watch him with all the hope he gave me, aware that behind me, Graviter Rex is slowly lowering himself to the ground, the Valkyries are also returning to the snow, and General Glass has retracted her wings.
While the final streams of my power fade, it seems we are all focused on Erik.
His body slowly lowers to the snow, his face turned toward me, but his hair falls across it.
The silence around me is unbearable as I refuse to let go of my hope, as IwillErik to breathe. To open his eyes.
But his chest doesn’t rise and fall.
His eyes don’t open.
He remains quiet and still where he lies in the snow.
