“Oh, wow,” Ava gasped. She dropped my hand and came to a halt. “What is that?”
“Oh, that?” Eddie said, like he passed by it every day. “It’s the Mirror of Ingress.”
“It’shuge!” Ava said breathlessly. “I wish you could see this, Charlie. The mirror spans all the way to the sky, and disappears into the illusion. It’s so long, I can’t even see the end of it, and is wider than a skyscraper.”
“It contributes to the illusion,” Eddie explained. “It helps make the city seem bigger, and provides us passage in and out of Forevermore.”
“It’s aportal!” Kallie squeaked.
Ava gasped. She took my hand and guided my fingers to the mirror. It felt like warm, thick water, and was smoother than the robe I wore. Ava ran her fingers across the mirror, and I felt the ripples from her touch.
Eddie laughed, like our amazement amused him. “It’s like you’ve never seen a portal before.”
“It’s not exactly common at the Institute,” Marcus deadpanned.
Ava turned to Eddie. “You guys actually come to the surface?”
“Sometimes,” he admitted. “Though it’s very rare.”
“How come no one has ever noticed you before?” she questioned. “Everyone thinks the Elves are extinct.”
“We only leave when we have to,” he said. “We’re able to cast illusions to disguise ourselves, but it’s a complicated spell, and one that doesn’t hold very long. With so few of us, we can’t risk getting caught, so we typically only leave through the mirror to bring resources back to Forevermore.”
“So, I could’ve met an Elf before and never known it,” Ava mused.
“It’s possible, but very unlikely,” Eddie said. “Let’s keep going. We’re almost to the palace.”
The stone street beneath us sloped upward, and I heard the trickle of a stream beneath us as we passed over a bridge. A beautiful bird song drifted through the wind.
“Your illusions are impressive,” Ava complimented Eddie. Ava had thrown herself into so much Elven research this semester that I could tell the city fascinated her. “What other magic do the Elves possess? There’s so very little written about your people.”
“Our magic is very versatile,” Eddie explained. “Like the Fae, we come from Edinmyre, so our magic is similar.”
“Your illusions don’t hold, though,” Kallie observed. “They don’t become solid. I can feel it.”
“Yes,” Eddie confirmed. “Our illusion magic works well on the senses, but we cannot bring those illusions into reality like the fae can. Our greatest attribute is the ability to block or transfer someone else’s magic. That’s why noxite is so effective at blocking magical powers.”
“What do you mean?” Ava asked. “What does noxite have to do with the Elves?”
“Oh, you don’t know?” Eddie replied, like it was common knowledge around here. “Darke Island was the site of the Elven genocide. During the Great Supernatural War, we fled to the Island for refuge. We were hunted down and slaughtered. As the blood of the slaughtered Elves leaked into the soil, it transformed the minerals on the island and infused them with our magic. Noxite is only found on Darke Island because it’s the only place that has seen so much Elven blood. Luckily, noxite doesn’t work on us, because itcomesfrom us.”
Wow. That was a lot to take in.
“Other powers… let’s see…” Eddie mused. “We can adopt powers that aren’t our own.”
“Adopt them how?” Kallie asked curiously.
“If we have magic to draw from, we can make it our own,” Eddie said. “Take a dragon shifter, for example. If one happened to be nearby, I could take his magic and become a dragon myself— but only for the period in which I am siphoning his magic.”
“That sounds dangerous, and actually quite terrifying,” Marcus remarked.
Eddie chuckled. “Why do you think the fae tried so hard to kill us during the Great Supernatural War? We are somewhat of a magical conduit, and that’s why they were afraid of us. They didn’t like that we had the power to end bonds, either, because they feared we might sever bonds to their mates. But that power is so rare, you’d have to practically be a demigod to perform it. Even most Grand Masters can’t do it.”
“Grand Masters?” I asked.
“Another thing you should know about Elves is that some of us are gifted with a unique power, something that’s different from all other Elves,” Eddie explained. “Our Grand Masters are those who possess these special gifts— such as mind reading.”
“You don’t have a special gift?” I asked.
