Who was this voice? How could someone be here with me? It all faded so quickly I couldn’t tell.
I went from a cold sleep immediately into a painful fire. My chest burned and pulsed. My throat burned and the all too familiar taste of blood sat on my tongue. Wanting nothing more than to get rid of that taste, I tried to scream but nothing happened.
Then I felt my breath coming back to me. Then my vision returned. Loic was leaning above me, soaking wet and out of breath.
“Loic?”
“I got her.” He huffed looking down at me. “Chase.”
I looked seeing white hair resting just inside my vision. I was still in Mirror Image, still in Luna’s body. I did it! I woke myself up, I went back to where everyone was. I was relieved, proud even.
Chase came over with blankets for us both. My chest hurt, like each line of the patched scar was burning both on the surface and deep under my skin. Chase came over and held me down as I tried to move. I fought him in an instinctual panic, but once I moved a sharp pain ran through my chest, and I screamed. Loic came over and put his hand over my mouth.
"Rayne please bear with us. It's okay. Please don’t scream, I need you to focus on breathing."
I tried, but the pain got worse. I couldn't breathe. I wanted to scream but there was nothing left in my lungs. Chase gathered aura in his hands. Then it faded, and his fingertips began to turn grey. Was his curse affecting him? Loic pushed him back, and Loic used a similar aura, putting his hands on my chest where the pain came from. His palms felt warm against me and everything built up at once. I wanted so badly to turn over and throw up, but Loic held me down.
“Rayne. Calm down. I need to do this.” He leaned over and whispered in my ear. “Please Rayne, your soul was damaged in that attack and if you don’t let me heal you it can get worse.”
Heal my soul? How could he do that? What magic could possibly do that? I couldn’t stop it. It hurt, and everything wanted to come out but couldn’t.
After a few seconds I forced him away and turned over. I retched. The metallic taste vanished, and the pain faded a little. I finally caught my breath. I couldn’t manage to say anything before throwing up again.
Loic came over and placed his hands on me again, one on my back and two fingers where my neck met my chest. My skin got warm again, and my stomach settled. He pulled me back sitting up against him. My head rested on his chest and he held me still. He slowly petted my hair trying to calm me down as well.
"There, that should help for now. Just relax. I've got you."
I tried to talk, but I couldn't. My voice was lost to me. Loic picked me up and set me on a stone. That's when I noticed we were at the Light Weaver’s hall. We sat on a dry patch, surrounded in mud. I then saw the others were nearly knee-deep in mud around me. Due to me falling, my dress was covered brown from the mud. Loic was covered in a mix of mud and silver liquid.
"W-weavers?" I whimpered.
“Loic was gone so long while reaching you,” Chase said. He was coated in splotches of mud and lined with fatigued “Then you suddenly started teleporting into the silver glass too. After both of you vanished, we discovered you here. It seems the Mirror Stone brought you here.”
Why would the stone bring me here? Did it have to do with that voice I heard? ‘Ask them?’ Were the weavers ‘the them’ the voice mentioned? And what more would I need to ask them? How could I ask a question I didn’t even know?
Loic turned my head slightly to look at him. He brushed my hair from my face, watching me as if memorizing me.
"Did all of you come back?" Loic asked, seeming worried.
I wasn't sure what he meant. My mind did feel clouded, but otherwise, I felt the same as before. I looked away, still trying to regain myself. Loic glanced at Chase.
"That was too close. Way to close."
"And he didn't even aim. I'm afraid to see what happens when he plans his strike."
"We need a new plan, Chase."
"Yes. I will call on some old favors. I'll head back to the museum."
I looked at Chase's arm. His skin, from his fingers to his wrist, was now completely gray and beginning to crack. I must have made a scared sound, because he hid his skin with his sleeve and left through a mirror without looking back.
"He needs to stop doing that.” I sighed. “If his curse causes so much damage, he needs to stop coming after me." I retrained my voice to not sound as frustrated as I felt.
Loic looked at me. he wrapped his arms around me and stood holding me up against him, so we were both standing.
"Seemed he didn’t have much choice this time. You were in bad shape when you started teleporting.” His face creased with concern. “We almost lost you, Rayne. Do you even remember what happened?"
"Yes, I remember. I've never been so scared." Yet, I wasn't at the same time. I wasn't going to say that though. I still wasn't sure how to process the experience.
His narrow face turned hard. "Well I won't let it happen again. This is it."
I snapped back to focus and stared at him.
"What do you mean?"
"We are going to end this once and for all. Next time Rakesh shows himself, he's a dead man." His brown and gold eyes were dark, almost like Rakesh. His intent suffocated me. I looked at him and tried not to shake.
“Loic, how do you expect to do that? After everything you said he’s done, everything I’ve seen him do, you would need an army to even stand a chance!”
“I can get one.” He snapped. His face and stance unchanging.
Hearing Loic say that sent chills through me. Was he seriously planning to fight Rakesh again? What army could possibly stand up to the monsters that sided with Rakesh, who himself was the strongest and most terrifying person I had ever seen in my life? I thought about such a battle happening, and I started to cry. I wasn't sure why, really. Loic held me close and tried to calm me. But there was no way to calm me, I knew that. If what he said was true, and he was truly planning to build an army against Rakesh, things were going to get much worse.
TWELVE
♦
War
LOIC TOOK ME BACK to Isha’s home using the silver liquid that was left behind, mixed in the mud, leaving the Light Weavers forest behind us. I blinked and saw we were just inside the shield, not in Isha’s home. Could he have miss judged the exit because the liquid was mixed with mud? Loic slicked his hair back, pulling it away seeing his palm smeared with mud. He grunted and led me inside. He sat me down and went to another room Isha sighed and Isha sat by me. Her eyes brightened as she looked at me in relief. Her eyes were puffy and red. Then she hugged me.
"You’re all right, thank heaven. I thought we were going to lose you again."
"Again?" I muttered, not realizing her ear was close enough to hear me.
She stayed silent, winced. I knew what she meant, she meant losing Luna. Isha was better at remembering who I was, better than when we first met, but it still happened now.
"I’m sorry. I'm so glad you're safe though. I was so scared. I'm so sorry, Rayne." She choked on a sob.
“For what? It wasn’t your fault.” I slid over taking her hand in mine, not sure of what else to do.
“In a way, this is my fault. This is my home; the wellbeing of those inside is my responsibility. I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to protect you.” She bowed her head to me.
Loic jumped and bowed his own head slightly. I looked at both of them shocked. I had never seen Isha do this. She always seemed so tall and poised, and also soft and kind. Her rigid, shaking bow threw me off. I guessed it threw off Chase, too.
“Isha it’s fine. I’m fine.” I slid closer and went to hug her shoulder. “Chase and Loic took care of me.”
I spied the bruises on her neck and cringed. The black and red hand-shaped marks almost completely covered her delicate skin. Rakesh was a big man. I didn’t realize he was that big. She noticed me looking and sighed.
“Don’t worry
Rayne. Compared to everything else that has happened over the years, this barely hurts.” She forced a smile on her face.
"I'm glad you’re okay as well." I didn't say anything more. I didn't want to hurt her any more than I was already.
Loic reentered the room, now mostly mud free and relaxed beside me, raising his head back up. I could feel him brooding in silence. When his head snapped up, the atmosphere changed in that instant, Settling like a thick fog around him. I sensed his anger. Isha’s shoulders seemed to tense up as well. She must have felt the same thing I felt.
Loic looked at Isha. "Isha do you still have any contacts in the kingdom?"
Isha looked at him and nodded. Her answer seemed to be confirmed by Chase as he too reentered the room.
"Some of the knights have kept close by. I can call on them. They may have even noticed what happened by now."
"Good, call them,” he said shortly. “I'll head to the bar. I'm sure I can get some willing citizens on our side. Not everyone is afraid of Rakesh."
"Loic, what are you going to do?” Chase turned to Loic, his eyes squinting as if trying to intimidate him into talking.
He turned to me and patted my head.
"That last attack was the last straw.” Loic stood again and turned to face Chase.
“Loic,” Chase tried to interject.
“No Chase, I don’t want to play defense anymore. Rakesh has done too much to us. Our people are refugees, our royal family broken, and...” He looked down at me and took a breath before continuing. “He attacked Rayne, with his own magic. I consider that personal. I won’t let that happen again. We need to take the war to him. No more running. No more hiding."
"But Loic, he's too powerful!" I blurted before Chase had the chance to say anything.
Chase inhaled deeply and tapped his cane lightly against a cracked portion of the floor as if checking to see if any more of the floorboards would crumble apart.
“You know Loic, if I were a younger man, I’d be inclined to agree with you. But I have had many years thrown at me and with those years comes experience. One that comes to mind is one where we tried to gather an army once before, years ago…”
Loic’s eyes flashed. “But we never had a chance before!”
“And you think we have a chance now?”
Loic looked to everyone in the room, settling on me and Isha.
“Lady Isha, he’s never faced off against you before?”
She shook her head. “Not in a magical fight, no. I told him off verbally once when he disagreed with Elijah once,” She rubbed her chin in thought.
“Your light drove him away. Think about it, Chase! If he would have withstood Isha’s attack, he would have found Rayne after he hit her. Nothing would have stopped him.”
Chase scratched his temple and looked down at the main hall that had large chunks of wood missing or displaced. Rakesh’s attack had done so much damage, it was hard to visualize how much more power he could have.
“You might be on to something Loic,” Chase admitted.
“Last time I tried to find knights from the main unit. But what we need are light magic specialists.” Loic smiled. “We need to vanquish all the shadows.”
I listened to all of this but had more and more questions.
“So, what does that mean?” I asked.
Chase turned to me, sitting on a small chair near the bed where I and Isha sat.
"From what Loic said, it seems Rakesh has a weakness. One we haven’t been able to test on him until this last incident. Rakesh rarely does the dirty work himself these days. But if this power works on him the way it works on the Formless that he’s bound to, then it is our greatest asset. Light."
"Light?"
"Yeah. We use our aura abilities. Isha has one we can use, creating pure light. And it's a power you have as well."
Uncertainty filled me. "How can I have it?"
"When you defeated that Formless that first week, it was light you used, just like Isha. There are many in our world who can use that power. We can fight him with that. The only problem is Isha can only make light here in Mirror Image. And the others are in the same boat. But you can use it on the other side. This is a problem."
“Why? What’s the problem?” There was finally something I could do!
Isha looked at me and then to Loic.
"Rayne, what Chase means is you'll have to fight him if he's on that side."
"What!"
Loic stood. "No Isha. She's not fighting at all."
"She's the only one who can, Loic. We can't keep Rakesh here."
"I know that, but I'm not risking her life in this!” He clenched his fist and swing it partly, stopping to look at his curled fingers. “I have magic on that side as well. I will fight."
She smiled knowingly. "You are noble Loic, but something has to be done. Your magic isn’t as powerful as it used to be.”
Loic backed away from us, his hand hovered around the area on the side of his abdomen, between his chest and hip. where I knew he had that tattoo hidden. I thought back to how he said he was punished before Luna was attacked. Was all of that connected? That mark, and his punishment? Did it all have to do with his magic ability?
Isha sighed and continued her thought. “Your magic is barely at half power here, let alone on that side."
"No, I can fight. She's not getting put in danger!"
"Loic, we don't have a choice."
"We do have a choice! I'm making it this time."
"Loic…"
"No. I thought I didn't have a choice but to obey the last time; because of that, we lost Luna. I'm not about to let that happen again"
Isha glared at him. Without another word, she got up and slapped Loic across the face.
Everyone stood silent.
“This isn’t your choice to make,” she said fiercely. “Do you really believe that what happened to Luna was all your fault? Yes, King Elijah’s orders kept you from being at her side, and yes, you were a reckless kid back then sparking his rage to begin with, but what was my excuse? I couldn’t see my own daughter was in danger, I trusted everyone blindly and now she’s gone because of it. The king’s orders, your loyalty, my ignorance—they’re all to blame. So, for once could you not place this all on you to spare the feelings of others. You’re not some chosen hero who will win no matter how hard you charge in. If you handle this alone, you will die Loic.”
As I listened to the two of them, the stone pulsed. It was almost like it was speaking to me, urging me to fight. I was terrified, but I wasn't sure what to say. The pulse got stronger and I felt slightly more confident with each pulse. I stood and looked at the both of them.
"I'll do it."
"What! Rayne, no." Loic immediately objected.
"I said I'll do it, I'll fight! If you need me. I'll do it, there's too much that I love in both worlds to just sit around.” I sucked in a breath. “The life I’ve built over all this time here, the bonds I’ve made with all of you, I’d like to continue them,” I looked up at Loic and smiled at him. “I’d love to develop all of them further. I can’t just sit around and let all of you vanish. Sure, I’m terrified and weak, but I want to be stronger. I don’t want to be scared anymore.”
I took a deep breath and focused on the pulses inside my chest. I felt my aura just like when I made a shield and gathered it in my hands. Looking at my hands, the blue aura flickered. I tried to form it into a shape. I struggled but kept trying. “I don’t want to be a cracked china doll that sits in the back of the shelf for her own safety. If I can contribute and protect someone, then I want to do it!”
I finally managed to make a blade-like shape around my hands. Resting on my palm was a small spark of light, adding a glow to the blades. I stood to face Loic. My chest and stomach twisted from where the spike went through me, but I remained standing, holding in the urge to throw up. I pointed one of the blades at Loic and stared him square in the eye. He looked at
me and to my blade, seemingly in shock. “I want to help you, Loic. Please, tell me what I have to do!”
Loic stood silent. My breathing began feeling heavy. Isha braced my back with her hand as if helping me stay standing instead of urging me back on the bed. Chase froze in place, his cane on his lap as he sat in the chair. Loic stayed silent, looking at the blades. I could tell he wasn't happy. His face pinched and his brows tilted inward as he looked at me. Isha moved her hand and stood behind me, moving to hold my shoulder.
"Well, we can teach you how to protect yourself, and I can teach you how to use your light."
Loic huffed. “You’re all psychotic.”
“And you’re suicidal, thinking you can handle him alone.” Isha protested.
I butted in. “I know someone we can talk to about both of those problems. And Juliet won’t charge much.”
Loic’s chest twitched, trying to hide a small chuckle. But his eyes were still hard with fury. He took a deep breath and turned to me again, trying to quell his anger, but not entirely succeeding.
"Rayne, are you sure about this?"
"No. Loic. I'm not sure. But it has to be done, so I'll do it."
"I don't want—" He stopped and pulled his hair back in frustration.
"Loic. I know how you feel about this and honestly, I'm terrified. but if I don't do it, who will? If Rakesh beats all of you, I'm a sitting duck anyway. At least let me help increase our chances. If I have to fight alone I will. If I have to protect all of you and I have the ability too, then I will."
"You won’t."
I raised my chin. "Yes, I will Loic!"
He scratched his head and looked right at me. His eyes shifting like he was thinking of a way to come back at me. But then he looked away and gave up.
"Not alone, you won’t. "
I never expected him to cave that quickly. A part of me kind of wishes he hadn’t, that he would put my stupid stubborn side to rest.
"All right, if you insist on helping, I'll teach you more capoeira. You won’t always be able to rely on magic fully, so you'll have some hand to hand experience at least. Apart from giving you temporary memories, I’m not much of a magic teacher.” Loic shrugged. “That’s more Isha’s thing, I’ve always been able to just do it.”
Glass Souls (Reflection Book 1) Page 32