“Even if the crimbal were creatures of High Magic, which they are not, how would they have the means to breach the Wall? Surely it’s monitored from the First Realm?” Jack asks.
“The most plausible theory is that the High King Ælfwig sent the crimbal himself.” The General answers.
Goosebumps flurry up my legs. Nissa’s grandfather is the crimbal’s Master?
Quince interlaces her fingers through mine, taking up the narrative in her clear voice. “The vision of Emily alerted High King Ælfwig, as it did us, that there was an extremely powerful Halfling on the cusp of her Changing with enough strength to wield Nissa’s weapons. He knew what such an event could mean for us. He rightly guessed that we would act quickly to find and recruit her to our cause.”
“So Ælfwig sent the crimbal to murder her.” Kaillen’s tone matches the anger in his eyes.
Ian nods. “We believe he sent them to neutralize the potential threat of our return by preventing Lady Alvey from opening the Doorway for us.”
I try to ignore the words ‘murder’ and ‘neutralize’. Something niggles at the back of my mind… “Wait!” I suddenly remember. “I thought the crimbal came to take my mom’s wings.”
“We must have been wrong. The crimbal were instructed to subdue a maiden and return with her wings. They would have been hunting an aura of High Magic. They obviously attacked the wrong maiden, as your wings had not yet emerged.”
“They will be desperate to redeem themselves and recover Lady Alvey at any cost,” Marcus interjects, “or risk harsh punishment.”
“That is our fear.” Ian is grim. “If they can capture and kill her, they would be able to return to Ælfwig with her wings as proof and receive whatever reward he promised them.”
“They can’t hope to attack us in the Vineyard,” Lady Kaye says. “We’re too well protected.”
“It’s unlikely they would risk such a suicidal mission,” Ian agrees. “Which is why Drake believes they plan to ambush us as we approach the Doorway. Every day we wait is another day they have to formulate an attack. It’s in our best interest to prepare Lady Emily to open the Doorway as quickly as possible.”
“Then the only question left to ask regards Lady Emily. How long will her training take? When can we hope to attempt the opening?” Marcus doesn’t believe in beating any bushes, apparently.
Quince speaks. “According to Drake, Lady Emily’s natural abilities are nothing short of miraculous. She’s able to wield the weapons using her raw power. It’s only her lack of familiarity and control with Blaze and Keen that must be addressed before she can attempt to open the Doorway. At present, she becomes too easily overwhelmed.”
The Fae turn to me.
Several seconds pass before I realize they’re waiting for me to say something. “Don’t look at me! I don’t know how long it will take for me to learn ‘familiarity and control’. And I haven’t done any ‘wielding’ with the weapons. Sometimes they appear when I want them, but I don’t know how or where from. Yesterday at the diner energy started rushing into me through all the weapons at once. It was awful.” Even though I’m taking measured slow breaths so I won’t hyperventilate, pins and needles prickle around my lips. “Just how big is this Doorway? Do I really need to use Blaze and Keen and all three weapons? That would be a ton of power.”
“I understand your misgivings, Lady,” the General says. “However, every ounce of energy you can access through all three weapons will be necessary to counteract the enchantment on the Doorway and hold it open long enough for us to pass through to the First Realm.”
Why is he so calm? How can they all be so calm?
“The weapons only increase your ability to channel elemental energy. Once you learn how to recognize and access your masculine and feminine Sight you’ll be able to wield them.”
“My Sight?”
“Lady Emily,” Ian says, “we won’t force you to do something you’re not willing or capable of doing.”
“Remember, you won’t be alone,” Quince adds. “We’ll be with you, and Drake will be there to help and guide you.”
I know their words are meant to comfort, but they don’t. “You won’t force me? Really?” I challenge. “None of this has been my decision.”
“Lady?”
“It hasn’t. I took Mom’s Blaze from her wings so those crimbal wouldn’t hack her to bits. Then you people show up after we haven’t seen or heard from you in years and the next thing I know my family and I are stuffed in the back of a van driving to the Pacific. So it isn’t really true that you aren’t going to force me to do something I’m not willing to do.”
Ian looks at me from under gruff eyebrows. The Fae are silent.
An enormous headache gathers at the top of my skull. Is that what happened? Was it crimbal who came to get Mom? Why do I keep catching glimpses of a stretcher and three men in EMT uniforms? I try to pin the memory down but it’s gone in a flash of pain behind my right eye.
It doesn’t matter. Something doesn’t add up. I don’t know exactly how, but I’m definitely being manipulated. “Not for nothing, but there’re some major holes in your story. I don’t trust any of you. Especially not your Mediator Drake. He’s creepy as hell. And especially not after finding out you plan to take my brothers and sister back to the First Realm without even asking me first.”
“That isn’t accurate, Lady,” Ian says. “We merely welcomed them to join us, as we welcome you.”
I have a moment where I know the things I’m about to say aren’t rational, but they’ve formed themselves into legitimate sounding sentences held together with accusation rather than logic and they can’t wait to leap from my mouth: “Why would you even say that to them? They’re children. They belong at home with me. Of course they want to go to Faerieland, they don’t know any better! We’re going to go home and live normal lives.”
“No one is forcing them to go anywhere, Lady,” Ian replies. “The choice would, of course, be theirs.”
“No. It’s not theirs. They can’t make choices like that. If you had any real concern for them you would never have suggested it.”
“Emily, Dear. I understand you’re upset, but I’m not sure exactly what you’re upset about.”
I flex my knuckles at Quince’s reasonable, patient tone. She’s patronizing me. “I’m upset because you’re a bunch of selfish, irresponsible imposters. You don’t care about us. You don’t care about my mom. You don’t care about anyone or anything except getting back to your stupid First Realm!”
My tantrum deafens the grove into breath-holding stillness.
“Emily.” Ian kneels in front of me. I shrink back from his touch. “You’ve been hurt. You’re hurting now. I understand you’re frightened.”
The next person who says they ‘understand’ anything is going to get throat punched. “I’m not frightened, General. I’m pissed. You can’t just show up and ruin our lives.”
“What is it about your life right now that you’re so afraid of losing?” At least Marcus doesn’t pretend to walk on eggshells. “Is it the fear that comes with having a mother ill and unreachable? Is it the pressure of running a household and parenting your siblings? The loss of your childhood?”
Oh. I hate him. Is that how they’re going to spin this? They’re rescuing me from my over-stressed life?
“If you cared so much about my ‘hurt’ or the ‘loss of my childhood’, why is it that you waited to show up until the exact moment you saw a vision and found out I could be useful to you?” My words drop as perfectly formed ice cubes and skate across the frozen tension in the grove.
“You’re wrong, Emily. We have the utmost concern for your well being…”
“You don’t act like it,” I spit. “Jacob, Aidan, and Claire are everything to me. I’m not immortal. What if I fail? What if I die trying to break the Seal tomorrow? The Queen died when she sco
rched out her own Blaze. My brothers and sister would be alone. And what if I don’t die? What then? Jacob wants to leave. No matter what I do my family will never be the same!”
A sonic boom whiplashes through the grove. Ian stumbles back like he’s been struck. Astonished cries erupt in unison around me.
What happened?
“You saw that, Marcus, didn’t you?” General Ian exclaims.
Marcus nods, eyes wide.
Saw what?
“We all saw it,” Quince stands, backing away from me. “This is why she will not fail.”
“She’s insolent and ignorant. She has no idea what she’s doing.” Marcus insults with his words, but awe lights his expression.
“We’re here to teach her, Marcus.” Ian says.
I’m alone on my mossy log now. Whatever just happened cleared a wide swath around me.
“What’s going on?” I’m spooked.
“You summoned a Dragon, Emily.” Quince’s voice is soft, wary. She keeps her distance. “An apparition, yes, but a very powerful one.”
A Dragon?
“Even I could see it Emily, and I’m not Fae.” Gabe speaks for the first time since the council began. He walks over, pulling me up from the log. “You don’t need to worry about failing. You are beast.”
“You don’t need to worry about losing your bond with your family, either,” Kaillen says. “Not even death could sever such powerful Connections.”
Have they all gone mad?
“I’m amazed it took a vision for us to realize her capabilities,” Jack says. “We sensed her potential awaken years ago. How did we not know the extent of her strength until now?”
“Because she’s been hiding,” Quince says as if she’s piecing together a puzzle. “Very strategically hiding behind the most elaborate fortress for a very long time. Hiding even from herself. But her secrets grew too large for her body to contain and her fortress began to crumble. Her power began leaking out. That’s what caused Sandra’s wings to emerge. That’s how the crimbal tracked her. When she absorbed Sandra’s wings, the combined energy of their Blaze set Emily’s own Changing in motion.”
A chill snakes up my spine. The only warmth in my body rests in the small patch of skin where Gabe’s fingers touch my arm. I made Mom’s wings come out that night? Suddenly, all the secrets I don’t remember burying overwhelm me with fear.
“I’m just a girl.” My voice cracks.
“You can save us.” Lady Kaye pleads.
I’m desperately alone. “I can’t save anyone.”
“You can restore our Connections.” Quince says.
“What does that even mean? What Connections are you talking about?”
“It’s a singularity of this Realm, Lady.” I watch General Ian struggle to find words he thinks I’ll understand. “In the First Realm, Connections are more than just emotions attaching people to things or other people. Our Connections are an organic physical link, binding us to each other. They don’t form accidentally, nor are they something we’re born with. They’re a contract, an agreement we make with each other by choice, not by birth. When we were banished to this Realm, our Connections and our ability to Connect were severed. It is this loss that drives us more than anything to return to our home. It is your ability to Connect we envy. We’re at your mercy.”
I can’t wrap my mind around what he’s saying.
“She has Keen, General.” Kaillen holds my gaze while he speaks. “Show her.”
“Wait!” I’m suddenly nervous I’m going to let them all down, that I won’t be able to see whatever it is Kaillen wants the General to show me. “Maybe we can start tomorrow. I have a really bad headache.”
“Don’t be nervous about your Sight, Dear,” Quince soothes. “We already know you can use Keen or you wouldn’t be able to activate the weapons.”
“I don’t even know how that happens!” I blurt.
“If you’re quiet, M’Lady,” Marcus forces politeness into his words, “we’ll explain how it happens.”
“Emily, you know both maidens and elves manipulate elemental energy in the First Realm,” Quince begins. “The difference lies in how we access that power. Maidens are given the gift of Blaze at our Changings. Blaze activates the growth of our wings, where we store subatomic energy. It also opens our Inner Eye, which we use to See that energy and weave our Intentions into reality.”
“Elves don’t have wings, so we must reach outside ourselves for our power,” Ian takes over. “We must grab hold of external elements in order to manipulate molecules and atoms and turn our Intention into reality.”
“At his Changing, an elf’s mother and father give him a Spark and Flame which combine to form Keen and open his Mind’s Eye,” Kaillen explains. “He also receives a medallion as a practice tool. It contains a small portion of elemental energy.” He pulls a chain with a small medallion from under his shirt. “An elf Sees the elemental energy with his Mind’s Eye. With years of practice using Keen, he’s able to move beyond the medallion to grasp and manipulate elements in nature. The medallion becomes a focal point for his Sight.”
“So Blaze and Keen are both ways of Seeing elemental energy, which maidens store in their wings and See with their Inner Eye, and elves get from nature and See with their Mind’s Eye. Is that right?”
“Exactly right.” Quince sounds proud.
Ian pulls a glittering necklace from his pocket. “Drake asked me to give this to you.”
I’ve never seen anything like it. The links of the chain are flat and thick, made of a material that looks like polished sea-glass. They fit together seamlessly, reflecting the late-morning light as one sinuous piece. Each end is finished with a silver clasp. The chains join to a platinum circle engraved with the wild boar passant. A single chain dangles from the circle bearing a crystal orb. Inside the orb is a dandelion seed gone to puff, dizzy with innumerable delicate crystallites all perfectly arrayed around the faintest spark at their center.
“May I, Lady?” Ian asks.
I lift the hair off my neck so he can fasten the clasps. The chain is shorter than I expected, the crystal orb rests in the hollow of my throat just above the dip in my collarbone. I run a fingertip along the smooth chain. The clasp at the top of my spine is arctic.
“Are you ready to See, Lady?” Ian asks.
I can’t find my voice. I squeeze his hand to let him know I’m ready.
“Close your eyes, Emily. Picture a Spark at the medallion’s center. Pull it inside your body. Let it warm you, let it make you glow.”
Twenty-Eight
Oh. THIS. I smile inside. I know this. The medallion warms at my throat. With the smallest movement I breathe in, watching with a twinge of excitement as the Spark sucks back into my body. I follow eagerly, slipping into my place at the center of the infinite pinpoints of light radiating outward from the center of my chest.
This time I don’t panic or resist the unseen force when it yanks me…
… down …
...I’m falling …
…I’m shrinking …
… I’m with the Spark inside myself…
…brilliant light streams from me.
…Light surrounds me.
…Light IS me.
I am Light.
THIS is my Mind’s Eye.
I float, bathed in streaming color, full of Space, encompassing and transcending Time, aware in every direction. I stretch outward with my senses, leaving the confines of my body, gliding past edges, tasting my surroundings on the tip of my consciousness. First experimentally, then probing, now expanding in all directions. My giggles fizz around me, ebullient bubbles disseminating through me until I’m vapor thin, stretched out across the grove.
Ian’s hand grips mine from a vast distance, anchoring my physical body to the ground. His words aren’t sound; they’re a rhythmic v
ibration traveling on waves through me.
The vibrations coalesce into a shimmering lens. Making the smallest adjustment in my Focus I can match the rhythm of his words, and…
Ohhhh. I can See…
…myriad ribbons of light flow from the center of my physical body to each person in the grove. More ribbons flow from my center outside the grove, stretching strong and thick away. At the other end of the ribbons the people I love resonate: Jacob, Aidan, Claire, and Mom. These are my Connections. I want to explore.
Drifting outside my skin I let this new world distract me from my fear and confusion. It’s a sensory experience on steroids—I See with my ears, my tongue, even my sense of smell.
I examine the undulating ribbons of light, moving along each Connection’s length, matching the distinct voices with my own pulsing music. I pass through several, savoring the vibrancy and strength swirling around me. It’s easy to identify the unique flavors that belong to Aidan, Jacob, and Claire.
The ribbon flowing to and from Gabe is thick like blood pumping through healthy arteries. The spot where our ribbons meet emits a faint spark.
The ribbons connecting me to the Fae are thin and feeble compared to those that link me to my family and Gabe. A braid bridges the space between Quince and me, while my attachments to Ian and the others are thready, washed-out in the sunlight.
Except Kaillen. My Connection with Kaillen thrums, a just-plucked guitar string. It too sparks faintly, but not in the middle like Gabe’s. This spark is so close to Kaillen’s chest I’m surprised it doesn’t singe his clothes.
That’s when I notice.
There are no pathways of light linking any of the Fae to each other. None at all. In fact, they each have only one complete Connection. To me. Many short beams of light extend from their bodies, but go nowhere. They just hang impotently in the air a few feet out.
Riven: Young Adult Fantasy Novel (My Myth Trilogy Book 1) Page 18