We headed to the front of the cabin to check the journal at about the same time my mother came walking through the falls. I stared out the window for tense seconds as she made her way across the clearing and through the cabin door.
“Taryk is fine. He is at his family home and staying with his sister. I warned him of the dream you had and reminded him to be on the lookout for anything we might consider concerning, or even just out of the ordinary.”
I sank into a kitchen chair with relief, still worried, but feeling better now that I knew she had actually laid eyes on him and he was unharmed. I looked at Xavier and nodded, wanting to see the look on my mother’s face when she was able to hear his voice out loud for the first time.
“It sounds like it was worth the trip then, wasn't it?” Simultaneously lifting my mother off her feet with his magic as he spoke, she stared at him in wonder, then back at me.
“How?” She grinned widely as she rushed to throw her arms around him, and he and I just laughed.
“Everleigh was able to unlock my magic, and in doing so she allowed me the use of my voice as well.”
“It is a welcome surprise, since I did not fully remove the curse.” For a moment I thought she might inquire why not, but she moved immediately on to the next subject.
“I think it would be a good time for you and me to work together in the training room to see how your scribe magic is impacted by your bond with Taryk and his magic. While there are many things you won't be able to fully access until you have turned twenty-one, and even more that you won't have access to at all until your invocation, I think it will be best for all of us to see where we stand.”
Thanks to the energy I had expended removing the lock on Xavier's magic, I had to beg a moment for refueling, causing him to tease me about my appetite again.
“Hey. I could have just left you as you were, and then maybe I wouldn't be starving right now!” Both of us laughed, and I headed for the cupboards.
This time, we were all hungry, and my mom agreed to a quick meal before we worked on my magic.
Xavier and I took turns filling her in on what we had been up to during her absence while we ate. Seated around the table, I tried hard not to notice the empty fourth chair. He had only occupied it for a short time, but his absence was weighing on me. I couldn't help but wonder what Taryk was doing as we ate without him.
I sat at the table visualizing our threads, and easily identified that all of his were still meshed with mine. Following them, and reaching out just to see if I could, I felt him, though barely. Whether caused by the distance, or something else, I could hardly make contact. I knew exactly when he felt me there, however, because he slammed a shield up, and then there was just darkness.
Chapter Fifteen
Knowing that we really had no clue how long I had to practice my scribe magic with my mom, we headed to the training room to make the most of what we did have. She was the only person on Earth who could show me the magic, although I had Celeste to ask questions.
Which reminded me, I still hadn't spoken with her about the dream, and I was unsure if she had been listening while I recounted the nightmare to Xavier and my mother. I'd have to remember to check in with her once we were finished in the training room.
Trying to learn my scribe magic proved to be a little more difficult simply because it continued to come online a little at a time, trickling into me as I aged. We elected not to attempt a transfer of knowledge, because my mother couldn’t be sure if I would accidentally turn it into a transfer of power as well.
My Fae magic had proven to be powerful beyond my wildest imagination. While Xavier had shared the knowledge of how to use most of it, there was still quite a disconnect between the knowledge and the practice. But I was working on it. I had no doubt that, given enough time, I would be able to master it. That day loomed a long way off though, and I still feared our time to go forth into battle with the dark mage would come before I was ready.
Based on what we were able to cobble together during this latest training session, it seemed I was able to operate much of my scribe magic just by following my instincts. I felt lucky that they appeared to be on the money, because the more my mom and I tried to learn from each other, the more we realized that my scribe abilities were so different from hers that she couldn't teach me very much about the use of them.
She was unable to see the threads since they could only be visualized by the Chosen, and many of my abilities already far surpassed hers thanks to my Fae side being so powerful. Much of what she would need to teach me would come after my invocation, when the full scribe powers became available to me. Even then, there may be very little that I needed her help with if I continued to use my intuition as my guide.
Agreeing that I would be better served by working to master the Fae side of my magic, we walked into the study. I needed to talk to Celeste about how prescience had worked for her and see whether or not the dream might have been more than just a nightmare.
“Celeste? Do you have the energy to talk with me for a bit? We'd like to get your input on the nightmare I had.”
“I can converse with you for a while. How can I be of assistance?”
After confirming that she had heard my description of the dream when I told the others about it, I fleshed out a few of the details for her, and waited for her opinion.
“I cannot say for sure whether this was a vision of the future. I never once had a physical manifestation of any of my visions, aside from an occasional headache if they went on too long. Since your mother returned to Taryk and ensured that he was not incarcerated at the time of the dream, we do know it could not have been a vision of current events. I think it would be best to research whether the Fae have a similar ability to see into the future and ascertain if what you experienced more closely matches their version.”
My mother nodded as I agreed. Certainly Xavier would have some idea. “I will ask Xavier to see if he knows anything that might help.”
“In the meantime, I will research here and see if I can find any information that will be useful.”
“Celeste, I can't thank you enough for all your help. It means the world to me, and I appreciate you so.”
“Ah, you are welcome, child. I'm grateful to be of service, and to know that my choice to remain here for you is turning out to be the correct one.”
Leaving the study, I felt I needed some motherly advice.
“I don't know what to think about my bond with Taryk. Do you think he’ll be back, Mom?” I felt torn between wanting her to say absolutely and definitely not. I supposed in a way, he held the distinction of being my first crush, even if it had been pushed a little faster than I had anticipated. And while I wasn’t quite brokenhearted, I was certainly hurting and sad.
“I don’t know” was her best response. “It looks like we will have to wait and see.”
“What if I am discovered through him? We are bonded, and if they follow the trail back from him, they will discover me, and it’s pretty obvious now that I’m your daughter.”
She simply smiled serenely. “We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Xavier's knowledge was both helpful and not. As he explained, the Fae in their realm are all different. Each individual’s magic is unique, and while many of the skills and abilities were similar, no two were exactly alike.
“You and I are siblings and may carry a great number of similar abilities. However, each of us will use those skills differently. Let's use the training room, and I will show you some examples of exactly what I mean.”
Reversing direction, the three of us returned to the study, and walked down the long hall.
As we passed the two closed doors, my mother gestured at one of them. “When Xavier is finished with his demonstration, Everleigh, I have some things to show you.”
I nodded, curious, and we headed on.
Stopping near the center of the room, Xavier called up a shield. “You can see my shield, correct?�
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I nodded. “Yes. It looks like a bubble. Almost wet with how shiny it is, even though it is see-through and not totally obvious.”
“Now, I want you to pull up your shield and hold it.”
Nodding again, I did exactly as he asked, and my mother looked confused. “Can you not shield, Everleigh? I thought that was something you pretty much mastered.”
I looked at Xavier; now I was confused. He just smiled.
Summoning a sword from the wall of weapons, he sent it straight toward me, causing my mother to gasp. It bounced off harmlessly, and she just stared. “My shield is visible to the naked eye, if you know what you are looking for. Yours is completely and totally imperceptible.”
My mom walked toward me, one hand held out until she hit the invisible wall that was my shield. “May I?”
I grinned at her and made sure I did what I could to be ready for whatever she had coming. The two of us had never attempted to use our magic on each other, and my curiosity about how they would interact grew stronger by the second.
I didn't feel anything at first, and just watched her warily. I didn't doubt her strength, but knew she also had the brains to back up her brawn, and if a way through my defenses existed, she would find them.
My instincts kept her out of my bubble. As she paced the perimeter of my shield looking for cracks in my defenses, I became aware of an inaudible and almost undetectable vibration.
Mere seconds before the attack hit, I adjusted my shield from the half dome that I had started with, to a completely enclosed sphere, protecting me from every angle. The force of the blow rattled my teeth and knocked me off balance somewhat, but because I had been able to sense it coming, I did not lose my concentration and maintained the shield flawlessly.
Feeling pretty please with my performance, I grinned, and waved at her cheekily. That lasted all of two seconds. When the mat floor inside my little bubble tilted, I found myself flat on my back.
Concentration gone, she was right next to me with her arm on my forehead in a nanosecond. “You lose.”
I sat up and stare at her, shocked. “Damn it. How did you do that?” I glared at Xavier as he laughed at me from the edge of the room.
“Your shield's sole purpose is to keep things out. You must always be aware of what is in there with you that can also be used against you. The smaller the shield is, the less things you need to worry about that can be a problem. Also, you must learn to hold it no matter what. Practice it until it is second nature, and it does not require your concentration to maintain.”
She reached out and helped me to my feet. “So in this case, I should have used the floor line as a guide and had the shield follow it, instead of making the bubble that included it.” That hadn't occurred to me before, and I added it to the ever-growing list of things I needed to work on.
“Let’s head back, so I can show you what is in your inheritance from your father, if you'd like to see it?”
I felt both excitement and sadness at the prospect of what we were about to see. I couldn't imagine, as a parent, knowing your child would be out there somewhere, and never look upon their face searching for similarities. He knew when I was created that I would be born long after his soul passed from this world, and yet he still agreed to give me life. It gave me chills just thinking about all the timelines that had been put into motion to prepare for my birth.
Stopping at one of the two doors, my mom placed her hand in an indentation to the left. The stone glowed briefly, and the heavy wood swung open silently as if the hinges were oiled regularly.
Xavier made as if to keep on walking down the hallway, and I called him back. “Please, don't go. I want you to see this too.” He hesitated. “If you want to, that is. If not, I understand.”
“I just didn't want to intrude...” he returned to where we stood in the open doorway.
“I have not opened this door in many years. Some of the items your father sent with me when I left his realm and asked me to save them for you. Some he sent later by delivery and asked me to bring them here when I came. The last few items I picked up during my final visit to Amarys, and most of them are just remnants of the realm to give you an idea of what it was like.”
She gestured for me to enter first, and I stepped over the threshold, looking around in awe as the room was illuminated. The room was good sized, although not huge, and resembled the study in a lot of ways.
Rarely did I find myself speechless, but at that moment, I couldn't have gotten any words out if my life depended on it. Xavier didn't seem able to find his voice either.
Along one wall were shelves holding beautiful flowers, frozen in time. The displays of wooden bases with glass domes reminded of the one in a fairy tale my adopted mother had read to me when I was a child. In that story it held a rose, but these held exotic blooms I didn't recognize.
Gesturing to Xavier, I encouraged him to enter the room. “Come on in. Look around. Feel free. You're welcome to look at anything you want.”
He walked slowly to one of the most beautiful flowers in the collection. A huge coral colored bloom. “These were my mother's favorite. She had a botanist create them just for her, and they only grew within the confines of our palace.” He looked at my mother questioningly.
“This particular bloom came from the large bush near the west gate. The farthest reaches of the palace went untouched for quite some time after the mages attacked.”
I picked up the case. “Take it. Consider it yours. It's lovely, and I want you to have it to remind you of her.”
He just shook his head. “Leave it here for now, where it is safe. It may be the very last one in existence, and I want it to be protected. Thank you. At some point in the future, perhaps it will be safe to remove it from this room.”
My mother went to a large crate near the center and lifted a scroll on top of it. Handing it to me, she explained that my father had written this letter for the daughter they would bring into this world before she had even arrived at the palace. He elected to write it after the visionary had paid him the first visit.
All I could do was stare at it for a moment. Tied with a white ribbon, the parchment had aged, turning yellow and ragged at the edges, but the bow remained as pristine as newly fallen snow.
Fingering the ends of the silk, I marveled at how soft it was. It seemed surreal to me that this had actually been written to me before I had ever been conceived. That this man knew I would be coming into the world without him, and he had things to say to me even then.
Unrolling it gently, I gazed upon the handwriting without even reading the words at first. My father had not only touched this scroll but had written these words intended for my eyes only.
I read though it silently. I would share the message in a minute, but for a moment, I wanted to hold onto the only connection that had ever been made between the two of us and absorb it.
A passage near the end caught my attention, and I couldn't help but read it aloud. “... located deep within the tunnels below the castle you will find a room that can be revealed by you and you alone. It will recognize your magic as my firstborn child. Many things will await you there. I know from the visionary who has come to tell me our story that I will not be here. I am aware of many other pieces to the puzzle, but not all, and I will not write them here for I fear it could change the course of the future in ways we could never imagine.”
I looked up to see both Xavier and my mom waiting for me to go on. “I will say that I know it will be difficult for you to journey here, but I want you to know that room is so well protected, it will still exist even if the castle has crumbled around it. You must find it. Items wait for you that will turn the tides of the coming war in your favor.”
I couldn't imagine what could possibly be there, but we needed to make our way there to find out. Reading a little farther, the closing passage brought tears to my eyes.
While I know that our physical bodies will not walk these realms during the same time, know that I shall
love you for the remainder of my time here, and when the time comes for our souls to find each other in the hereafter, I will love you even more then. You will triumph over the evil that is growing. I have done everything in my power to help you along the way. Watch for those signs and listen to your intuition. Believe in yourself, go forth, conquer the darkness and bring light back to the realms.
With shaking hands, I held the letter out to my mother and Xavier, but both of them shook their heads. After catching my breath, my mother showed me a few of the other items, and we agreed to go eat again before digging into the crates any further. Some of them had never been opened and she didn't know what was in them either.
I needed to collect myself. I just wanted to sit on the couch for a few minutes and watch the sunlight play off the waterfalls. Once I had re-centered and grounded my emotions, we would move forward. Considering the life I had lived before coming to this cabin, it was safe to say this had me overwhelmed. People had believed in me before I had ever been born.
I needed to believe in myself with just as much conviction.
Chapter Sixteen
As we left the training room, I did a double take at how dark it looked outside. It shouldn’t be that dark at midday. Assuming we were in for a storm, I peeked out the window, shocked to see the swirling mist was everywhere. I could see the precise outline of the cabin’s wards as the mist pressed against them on all sides, from every angle.
Turning to my mother, I gestured out the window. “It’s back! The mist has us surrounded!”
She hadn’t had an opportunity to see the mist in person yet. “The windows are warded, and whatever has sent the mist cannot tell we are in here. We are protected visually as well as magically, and there are alarms if the wards are breached. For the moment, I think we should just keep an eye on it, and I will see if I can figure out who sent it.”
We settled into the living room, which had the biggest windows, to observe. My mother checked the waterfalls occasionally to make sure no issues developed with the portals, and we watched as the mist swirled around the barrier, seeming to look for a crack in the armor.
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