Isolation

by Tera Lyn Cortez

  “Ah-ha.” Xavier nodded. “This must have once belonged to Sarai, the lady of the portals we were just talking about. It was said that she created two items to be portal keys. I never saw this one, and don't know what happened to the other.”

  I marveled at its design, not quite ready to move on to the other items. Once more, my intuition led my thoughts, and I was shocked at how much knowledge I seemed to gain just from wearing a piece of jewelry.

  “I believe this ring is also meant to be my teacher. I think if I practice, I can glean how to make a portal just from wearing it!”

  Taryk raised his eyebrows, and Xavier shrugged. Nothing much seemed to ruffle his feathers.

  As we moved on to the next item in the chest, a familiar rumble shook through the mountain. Locking eyes, we jumped up and raced out the door of the vault to the front of the cabin where we had a view of the falls. The shaking floor jerked so sharply that Taryk lost his balance, slamming into the rock wall of the tunnel. He waved the two of us on as he got back to his feet.

  “I'm fine. I'm fine. Keep going!” Cradling his arm, he followed us, although at a much slower pace.

  For a brief moment, the rumbling ceased, and I thought we had reached the end of it. Once we skidded into the living room, it began again, stronger than before. The falls had no colors to the water, signaling this was not heralding the arrival of my mother as I had so briefly hoped.

  Furniture scooted along the floor and items in the cupboards rattled against the doors, some of them spilling open. The cacophony of pots and pans clanging made my ears ring.

  After a full minute of bone jarring shaking, the motion suddenly ceased. The silence left in its wake seemed unnatural. No figure exited the falls, so we knew that the attempt had been unsuccessful. But this was the most violent attack on the other side that we had witnessed so far, and no matter how we looked at it, it did not bode well.

  “Are you hurt bad?” Taryk still held his injured arm gingerly against his side, and blood stained the sleeve of his shirt. “Let me take a look.”

  “I'll be all right. We just need to clean it up and bandage it to keep it from bleeding any more. Other than being sore for a day or two, I don't think it's serious.”

  I took care of his injury while we debated what our next move should be.

  “We need to prepare to rescue my mother. We may not know where she is, but we know she needs our help. She would not still be gone otherwise.”

  “I agree. She probably needs our help,” Xavier said, “but we need to make a plan before we go charging off. If we don't know where she is, we are only endangering ourselves if we go running around the realms calling attention to our presence. We're not even sure we can get through the portals. Your mother is the only one who can access them.”

  “I can practice making a portal. We just need one of you to show me the place you think we should go.”

  Taryk grabbed my hand and held it tightly. “We'll help her. I promise. But we need to be smart about it.”

  As I was about to argue with him when I happened to glance out the window. The eerie mist was winding its way around the cabin wards again, and this time it looked incredibly dark. As it covered the top of the spells, it blocked out much of the sunlight shining down. The sky went from broad daylight to late evening twilight in a matter of minutes.

  “Something tells me they know someone is occupying the cabin, even if they have no idea who.”

  “I would be willing to bet they're looking for me,” Taryk said. “Whoever it is probably knows she pushed me through the portals, and they are assuming this is the place for me to be holed up.”

  “Ugh. We do not need this right now. What should we do?” I didn't want to focus on anything other than getting my mom from wherever she had been waylaid.

  “Ignore it.” Xavier had the best plan, it seemed. “They don't know we are here, and as long as none of us go outside, they will just be watching for any sign of someone coming or going. We are well protected, and I don't think we need to worry about this for now.”

  “I agree. I want to ask Celeste of there is any way for me to use the portals without being the reigning scribe. If not, I say we take this ring to the training room and see if I can figure it out.” I headed down the hall without waiting for them to respond.

  The guys didn't immediately follow me, and once I entered the study, I took the opportunity to sit for a minute and gather my thoughts. Perched in one of the comfortable chairs, I looked at the stone walls and all the history gathered here. I imagined my mother here, perusing the books or making potions, and the tears welled up again.

  My biggest fear was that I didn't have what it would take to help her or bring her back here. She was powerful in her own right, and if something had been able to capture her, and keep her contained, it had to be scary stuff. I might be powerful, but I'd barely begun to learn how to use it.

  At this point, it was like putting a kid with a brand-new driver’s permit in the driver’s seat of a precision race car. The potential existed, and there was every possibility this kid could become one of the best drivers in the world. However, if they've just started to learn, there was no conceivable way they would be able to make the car do all the things it was capable of, much less with any semblance of dexterity.

  And yet here I sat. Not only was I expected to drive, I needed to decide where we were going, and how we were getting there. I had a couple of good copilots, but, boy, did I feel the pressure.

  At that moment, I just let it all out. I had been trying so hard to hold it together and to convince myself I would be able to do this, easy peasy. People had begun to count on me before I had even been born, collecting artifacts and gathering magic to be passed down to me so I might have the power to prevail.

  My own mother had altered her life's path to prepare for my conception and birth. She had such faith in the visions shown to her that while she had barely begun her life, she traveled to another realm to conceive a child with a man she had never met. All because she believed the world needed her to do so.

  And here I was crying like a baby because I didn't have the faintest clue how I could be all the things the world needed me to be. Couldn't I just return to my little yellow house and pretend none of this had ever happened? I just wanted to feed the hummingbirds and read a book. No responsibilities to anyone other than myself.

  I had been lured here by the lifelong dream of knowing my mother. A dream which had been briefly realized. But I lost her because she had to save Taryk, who I'd also lost for doing something stupid. I just wasn't sure if I would be able to get her back, even with their help.

  And those fears were breaking me. They were eating away at the confidence I had built since coming here. Eroding the accomplishments I had gathered, and using my own doubts against me. I didn't feel twenty; I felt twelve. I didn't feel grown up. I felt like a little kid looking for an adult to guide them. I just wanted my mom!

  I leaned over, my elbows resting on my knees, my face buried in my hands and let the tears flow. My whole body shook with the force of the sobs. And I let it. Not that I had much of a choice, but I embraced it. I let the tears cleanse my mind and refresh my soul.

  As I sat up and lifted my face once more, I met Taryk's eyes. He knelt on the cold stone floor in front of me, silent. Waiting. Allowing me to find my way back by my own strength. Showing me without words, he knew I could do it.

  He knew what my soul needed before I did. I had to learn to have faith in myself. Would I find myself crawling out of a pit of despair again before all this was over? Probably. Probably more than once. But his presence in this moment showed me I had people waiting in the wings if I got in over my head.

  I slid to the floor next to him, and leaned in. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. We could do this. I could do this.

  Chapter Twenty

  Drying my tears on my sleeve, I took his hand as he helped me stand. “Thank you. For everything.”

  “No t
hanks needed. You may have the weight of the world resting on your shoulders, but Xavier and I will always be here to help. And once we get your mom back, she will help you carry the load as well. You are not alone in this.”

  I grabbed his face gently between my hands and smiled at him. “A thanks may not be necessary, but I want you to know how much I appreciate you. You don't have to help me, but you chose to. And I am thankful you made that choice.”

  Staring into his eyes, I thought for a brief moment, I might be about to get my first kiss, but Xavier chose that exact moment to join us. Loudly.

  “Are you two busy in here?”

  Taryk and I both laughed. “No, big brother. I am just finishing up a pity party. You are welcome to join us.”

  Xavier made a show of acting scared and backed away slowly with his hands in the air. “Oh no. If there are tears involved, I want no part of this.”

  “Shut up and get in here.” I practiced my magic and flung a pencil at him from the work bench.

  All three of us had a good laugh as it bounced off his head, and then I heard Celeste's muted chuckles as well. “You are getting better, my child.”

  I grinned. “Practice makes perfect, I suppose.”

  Xavier again made a show of his exaggerated hurt feelings, pouting and rubbing the side of his head. “At my expense.”

  I lifted my hand, pretending to launch something else at him, and he pretended to cower. “Gotcha!”

  “Celeste, all joking aside, is it possible for me to make use of the portals while not being the reigning scribe?”

  “I have never heard of an heiress attempting to use the portals before their invocation. It may be possible, but I cannot say for sure.”

  “Do you think it would be dangerous to try?”

  “I doubt any harm would come to you. However, if your mother is held captive, and they are watching the portals, it would give away the fact that there is indeed someone on this side who wishes to travel through them. I don't recommend you try it, except as a last resort. If you can make others it would benefit you greatly.”

  “Okay then. I shall learn to make portals on my own. Do you have any idea how to do so?”

  “Making portals is not a skill any scribe has ever been granted. I am afraid I cannot be of assistance with this matter. However, if anyone can do it, you will be the one.”

  “Thank you. I intend to make it happen.” Beckoning to the boys, I headed down the tunnel toward the training room. “Let’s see what I can do, huh?”

  As we walked through the path cut in the mountain, I began to get cold feet. While I was somewhat concerned I might not be able to make a portal at all, I worried even more that I would make one to somewhere we had no business being. Or one that would let in something that had no business being here on Earth.

  Standing in the center of the room, I looked at the guys. “Do either of you have any clue how to make a portal? Does it need to be in a wall like you would make a door?”

  “I think,” Xavier began, “that creating a portal is largely mental imagery. If it would make more sense in your head for you to imagine it as a doorway, then I think that will be the easiest way for you to create one.”

  “You need to picture in your mind the place you want to go,” Taryk suggested. “Try somewhere you know well that is close by and we know to be safe.”

  “Like the living room, or even the study,” Xavier recommended.

  Nodding my agreement, I stood for a moment and gathered my thoughts, and my courage. Closing my eyes, I took a few deep breaths. The room was so silent, you could have heard a cotton ball hit the floor. I opened my eyes, stared at the wall, and imagined a door to the living room there. Nothing.

  Walking over to it, I put the hand wearing the ring against the wall where I wanted the doorway to appear. Focusing on a small divot in the stone, I trained all my mental energy toward making a pass-through appear. Still the solid wall mocked me.

  I put both hands on the wall and closed my eyes. I let the coolness of the stone seep through my fingers as I memorized where each little mound and valley lay beneath my palms. Leaning forward, I rested my forehead on the rough wall and used every ounce of my psyche to project the portal I wanted to make.

  I focused on relaxing my muscles, starting with my shoulders and working down my back. I ensured that my knees weren't locked, and that I rested evenly on both feet. Murmuring softly, I asked the ring to create the portal to the living room and allow me the passage I sought.

  Running my hands against the natural stone of the mountain, I could tell that no doorway was opening. Opening my eyes, I growled in frustration. “WHY NOT?”

  “Ev, calm down. There was very little chance of you opening a portal to anywhere on your first try. You'll get it,” my brother said.

  Spinning around, I turned on him and let him have it. “Calm down? Are you kidding me? I don't have time to calm down, Xavier! My mother needs us, and the only way we can get to her is if I can learn how to do this!”

  Sinking to the floor, I put my head in my hands. “And I can't. I can't figure it out. My mother needs me, and I can't seem to make it work...”

  Xavier sat next to me on the floor and gave me a hug. “You will get it. I don't doubt you. It will be okay.”

  “I'm sorry. I'm sorry I yelled at you and I'm sorry I am such a pain in the ass. I don't try to be, it just comes naturally.” I gave him a small smile, hoping he would forgive my childish outburst.

  “Let's go back to the study and look for a book that might give us a clue. I know there are books about powerful people. Maybe there is information in one of them about the woman who the ring belonged, and we can get some help that way.”

  “That's an excellent idea, Xavier!”

  Taryk offered each of us a hand up, and we headed back up the tunnel. I wondered just how many miles I had walked back and forth down that tunnel in the short time I had been aware of its existence. Probably way more than I wanted to count.

  We returned to the study to confer with Celeste to see if she had any ideas about finding the book we were interested in reading. I needed to understand how to create a portal, and soon. Taryk knew of other passageways that could get us where we needed to go, but we felt it would be more dangerous than trying to use the ones in the waterfall.

  As I entered the study, a wave of dizziness swept through me. I felt strange and knew something was wrong with me. The feeling left me weak and disoriented, and I sat down hard in the nearest chair.

  “Guys!” I hollered. “Something isn’t right…” The sentence was barely out of my mouth when a stabbing pain between my ribs almost drove me off the chair and to my knees.

  “Ev… What’s wrong? What’s happening?” Taryk knelt beside me, as I tried to catch my breath.

  “I… don’t… know…” The pain was so intense, my vision began to blur, and I was seeing stars.

  “Oh hell…” Taryk was looking up, and as I followed his line of sight, I gasped.

  “Mom? … What is happening … Where are you?”

  She wasn’t really here. I was seeing an ethereal image of her real self. I didn't know how she managed to project herself to appear to us, but she was doing it.

  I gasped as the pain in my side intensified, and she grimaced, holding her hands in the same location I felt the pain. I reached toward her, trying to grab her hand as she doubled over.

  “Everleigh… I love you.” She was barely getting the words out through her pain, and tears streamed down her face. “You are my heiress. Today I pass the magic of our line to you. You are now the reigning scribe. Your potential is unlimited. There is nothing you cannot do.

  “Stay here until you have mastered your power. You will need every last drop to be victorious. You are now the most powerful being the world has ever seen. You will win this war.” She paused, gasping for breath and reaching her hands toward me. Her image began to fade as we looked on.

  “Mom… No… I love you. Please come back to me! I
can’t lose you now. I just got you back!” My body felt as if it had been lit on fire, and the bright light that suddenly filled the room caused me to cover my eyes. Tears flowed down my face. Of all the tears I had cried since coming to the cabin, these were the worst. “Nooooo…”

  I couldn’t even begin to process what had just happened. The pain was more than I could bear, but thankfully, only seconds later the blackness overtook everything else, and then there was nothing.

  THE END

  Thank you for reading book one of the Soul Scribe Trilogy. Watch for book two to be released in early fall 2019!

  I sincerely appreciate that you took your time to read my work! If you have enjoyed the book please consider leaving a review.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Tera Lyn Cortez has worn many different hats throughout her life: hospice CNA, booking assistant at the county jail, a district supervisor for UPS, plus Mom and Wife, to name a few. Being an author has always been on her bucket list!

  She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, five children, and multiple pets. When she's not writing, she's reading and spending time with her family!

  Visit her website or Facebook page to make a connection!

  http://www.teralyncortez.com/

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