It didn’t matter if Iwassomething. What mattered is if IbelievedI could become it. I had a long road ahead of me, but at the very least, I wanted to try.
Who was I? I still needed time to figure that out.
We didn’t speak of it after that. I stuffed myself with more potato soup, and Arthur asked, “Do we have any idea where the remaining Crystals of Harmony might be?”
“None whatsoever,” Bapa mused, speaking around his pipe.
“Is there a magical object we could use to find it?” Arthur wondered. “A powerful fae artifact that can hide or locate strong magical items?”
“Not that I could think of. There is Milonna’s Cauldron, but it wouldn’t be very helpful to you,” Babcia said.
“What’s that?” I asked, ears perking up at the name of my goddess.
“It is a cauldron of gold that contains infinite treasure, one that was created by Milonna. The Miriamic Coven calls it the Crock of Death,” Babcia said. “We kept it for centuries, but it was stolen from us by the witches during the Great Supernatural War. Wherever the cauldron is now, it’s certainly within the confines of Octavia Falls.”
That wasn’t anywhere I wanted to go. I’d been to Octavia Falls once to visit Hattie, in order to exorcise the leshane from Ethan. It’d been a perilous trip, and I had no intentions of going back.
“Ifwe could get the cauldron back from the witches, could we use it to find the Crystals?” Arthur asked.
“Unfortunately not,” Bapa said. “The Crock of Death cannot be used by a fae. We can only guard what’s inside of it, not take whatever lies within.”
“We also cannot hide anything inside of it, either, only other supernaturals can. So I doubt that whoever had the last two stones would place them there,” Babcia added.
“Well, I’m sure some witch somewhere got their use out of it,” Arthur said. “Though it’d be nice if they gave it back.”
“Doubtful,” Bapa replied. “The witches will keep anything that they could use against us. That cauldron is long gone.”
This felt like a lot of dead ends. Arthur continued to theorize with our grandparents on possible locations of the last two Crystals of Harmony, though we didn’t get anywhere. We estimated that they had to be somewhere in Malovia, but even that was unsure.
I didn’t return to the university until after dark. Arthur went with me through the city streets, to protect me. We didn’t part until we were nearly at my dorm room door.
When I got back to my dormitory, I saw Delmare, Odette, and Kiara standing outside of it. They’d cleaned up from the battle, and were holding their weapons that contained the Crystals of Harmony.
Their faces were apprehensive, as if they expected an explosion out of me. But I took a calming breath and didn’t mention what I knew had to be on their minds.
“What’s up?” I asked. “Did you find somewhere the Crystals can hide?”
“Yes, and we think we’ve found the right place, but we need your help,” Kiara said. “Edinmyre is the safest place for them, and in our opinion, there’s no better location than your hearthfire. If we store the Crystals there, Gabby won’t be able to find them. As the Worldweaver, you’re the only person who is able to take us there physically. No one else can open portals to our homeland, so therefore, no one will be able to retrieve the Crystals if we hide them there.”
That was a good idea. Delmare winced, and put a couple of fingers to her face. I turned to her in concern. “Are you all right?”
“I’ll be fine,” Delmare gasped, but I knew better. The burn that the dragon stone had inflicted upon her during battle was slowly healing, due to Kiara’s potions. But I wasn’t so sure it wouldn’t leave a scar.
Using the dragon stone to protect Stefan had almost killed Delmare during the battle. That couldn’t happen again. We had to learn how to use the Crystals— but first, we needed to hide them.
“Let’s go,” I said, and I opened my dormitory door. I got my sword out of the closet, and the four of us sat on the floor. We closed our eyes, and began the meditation to Edinmyre.
The trance didn’t take long, since by now we were all practiced. In moments, we’d meditated our spirits into the faerie land, along with our weapons. We stood before the cottage that I’d created with my illusion magic. The cottage was as cozy and warm as ever, with the smell of blueberry pancakes wafting over me.
I wanted to stay there and hide away from the world forever, but knew I couldn’t. We were on a mission.
“Where should we store them?” Kiara asked.
I tapped a finger to my lips, then imagined what would be the perfect place to store weapons. I hurried down the cottage hallway, and threw open one of the doors. Inside was a stone armory, torches burning on the walls. My hearthfire always created any room you needed, whenever you needed it.
“We leave them here,” I said. “Even if Gabby manages to find my hearthfire, she won’t be able to get into this room. It’ll vanish once I close the door, and become open to us again once we need to practice with the Crystals of Harmony. I don’t think we should touch them again until we figure out how to use them. It’s too dangerous.”
The girls nodded. I placed my sword on its display, and the wolven stone glimmered in the firelight as I stepped away. Odette mounted her axe on the wall, while Delmare slipped the dagger into a glass case, and Kiara leaned the priestess staff against a corner.
