Even with so much distance between us, and the emptiness in my chest, I could still pinpoint where my soul met Byn’s.
And that would have to be enough.
Closing my eyes, head still tilted toward the sky, I focused on that tiny glow of green buried deep in my chest. I used it to center myself around, keeping myself grounded to the present moment and not letting myziriliumoverpower me, but the other way around.
Weatherziriliumfelt like thunder in my veins—like pure power. I took a deep breath and swiftly severed the connection with it before the urge to use that power got the best of me.
The thunder ceased instantly, and as I opened my eyes, I watched as the clouds began to disperse within moments.
I was smiling to myself with pride when the first wave of exhaustion hit.
“Hey, Rayven?” I asked, my eyelids drooping.
“Yes?”heresponded, turning away from where he had been looking at the sky above.
“Catch,” I said, right before the next wave of bone-deep exhaustion hit, taking me into its dark abyss with it.
The sensation of falling followed me into my dreams.
***
I slept until late in the evening.
When I awoke, Matea and Rayven were—once again—arguing. Onlythistime it was over how much rest I neededin order tocarry on, since we were on a bit of a time crunch.
OnceI’ddiffused the situation between them and reassured them both that I was fine, that I had just pushed myself too hard, too quickly, wefocused on what our next steps were.
We were less than a day away from Hollis now, but if there were patrols at the border, we reasoned that there werelikely morearound the North’s capitol, too.
With this in mind, we divided the last of our rations, covered any traces of us we left in the small cave, and headed toward Hollis in the dead of night. We traveled by foot while it was dark and hopped from shadow to shadow during the day. There had beena number ofpatrol groups surrounding the outskirts of Hollis, but none of them seemed to be looking toward the swift, dark shadowsgliding byin the edges of their vision.
As we neared the edges of the town, I could feel the energy waningmore and morein mysun stones. I could only imagine Matea and Rayven were feeling it too. Not to mention, my moon stones were nearly depleted after the stormI’dwielded yesterday.
My theories were confirmed once we reached thevery faredges of Hollis, where we materialized and paused in a rundown, abandoned looking griffin stable.
“We’ll have to charge them now, before the sun sets,” Rayven said, slipping his left glove off and setting it on top of a rock in direct sunlight.
Matea and I followed suit, sliding our sun stone holding gloves off and setting them next to Drayven’s. Mine held five stones, while Matea’s held three—shadows, crystals, and plants, if I remembered correctly.
All nine stones were dim, drained of their color and so unlike the usual golden stones I was accustomed to seeing. Sun and moon stonesdidn’trequire a charge too often—it depended more on how often they were used. But even the moon stones on my other hand were dull without their silvery sheen.
“We’ll have to stay a little while after dark, too,” I mentioned while motioning to my moon stones.
“Right,” Rayven agreed, nodding.
I looked towards Matea, who had not yet said a word since we arrived, and noticed she was looking toward the tavern in the distance.
“Is that it?” I asked. Tammy’s Tavern—the place where my sister had seen a portrait of our mother after being told for years that she had died in the war.
The portrait that changed everything for her.
Matea nodded, and I could tell by her expression what it was she needed.
“Let’s go,” I said softly to her.
At that she turned to me, a quizzical look on her face.
“I want to see it, too,” I clarified.
