No word came from Cleora for two weeks. Keres sent missives down to the academy to see if there was any news. While she and Vera sat up late into the evening, discussing solutions. Neither had ever heard of magic being stolen before. Vera had heard of there being a mental block on powers, but that definitely wasn’t what Kerrigan was experiencing. She couldn’t even feel her powers, and she’d always had perfect control before.
Throughout the day, Kerrigan tried various techniques that they considered, but to no avail. Eventually, they agreed that if they didn’t hear from Cleora in another couple of days, they would go down to the academy themselves to see what they could find.
The worst of it all was Fordham. He left before she woke up in the morning to hike through the hills. He came back with game for dinner and an even broodier expression on his face. By the time her trials with Keres and Vera were completed, he had gone off to bed alone.
No one had specifically said that they shouldn’t share a room together. Though Vera had a look of disapproval on her face. Kerrigan couldn’t force herself past the closed door when he’d already shut it in her face and shut her out. He needed time to process, but she wanted to be there to help him get through it. This was the same male who had gone off to break his curse alone for months rather than confide in her. She knew how his mind worked, but it didn’t make it any easier.
It was the middle of the third week when a clatter of horses sounded up the long trail to Vera’s house. Keres paled and came immediately to her feet.
“I’m going to check to see who it is,” she said and then disappeared.
A looming unease settled over the whole house, as if they were waiting for Vulsan to appear and exact revenge for their disappearance. Keres had assured them that she’d taken every precaution in getting them out. It didn’t mean that he wouldn’t still discover their destination. Considering the blood bind he had on Keres … the last thing they wanted was for him to show up.
“Someone is here,” Fordham said, appearing in the center of the living room and making Vera jump.
“I will never get used to that,” she said with a hand on her heart.
“I saw the dust trail when I was scavenging,” Fordham continued. His shadows curled around him, retreating into him slower and slower with each new jump.
“How far away were you?” Kerrigan asked with alarm.
He’d been testing out his jumping each day. Sometimes, Keres went off with him. Kerrigan hadn’t learned what exactly these lessons entailed, but she couldn’t help but be jealous that Fordham wanted to spend time with her mother and not her.
“Not far,” he said easily. “A mile at most.”
Kerrigan nearly choked. A mile would have rendered him useless before becoming Daijan. Now, he managed it with ease. He wasn’t even breathing hard.
“Can we focus? I might have to jump you all out if it’s Vulsan.” He crossed his arms over his broad chest. “I haven’t worked with moving multiple people at once.”
“Slow down,” Vera said. “Let’s see who it is first before you get all dramatic.”
Fordham looked ready to argue with her when Keres’s voice came from outside. “We’re in the clear.”
His shoulders dropped with a sigh. Relief that it wasn’t the danger he had been anticipating. Kerrigan wanted to reach out and reassure him the way she had so many times, but he just took a step toward the door.
Keres strode in a moment later with a dusty Cleora and Danae behind her. “Our visitors have arrived.”
Cleora brushed off the shoulders of her cloak while Danae coughed around a mouthful of dust and waved at Kerrigan.
“We found something,” Danae said without preamble.
Cleora glared at the girl. “Danae.”
“Sorry. I’m allergic to something around here. Thought I would get to the point.”
“What did you find?” Kerrigan asked eagerly.
“Maybe nothing. It’s been incredibly difficult, wading through the magical volumes without alerting others to what we were specifically looking for,” Cleora said. “The cataloging at the academy is really a travesty. I should have someone reported for the idiocy of it all.”
“Cleora,” Keres said softly.
Cleora went silent and nodded. “My apologies. Not why we’re here. I’m sure none of you care about how card catalogs even work.”
“I have interest in that,” Vera said.
Cleora bowed deeply. “We’d be happy to have you come off the mountain and join the academy anytime you please.”
“Cleora,” Keres repeated. “Do you have information? We’ve been working with Kerrigan to see if we can ascertain what the problem seems to be, but we’ve gotten no further than that it isn’t a mental block or a binding, and neither of us has seen anything of its like.”
“Yes, yes,” Cleora said.
She reached into the leather pouch she had at her side and withdrew an old, crumbling book. The blue cover was tattered and barely legible. The pages were brown with age and torn across the edges. The binding looked as if it had been reattached more than once. As if at some point, the book had been meant to be preserved, but over time, it had been lost to the stacks of the academy.
“This was a stroke of luck,” Cleora said. She glanced at Danae begrudgingly. “Danae found it behind a much larger book.”
Danae beamed. “I didn’t know what it was. It didn’t even have a catalog number.”
“I’ve been painstakingly translating it into the common tongue.”
“What language is it in?” Keres asked.
Cleora sighed. “Ancient Alfheim.”
Fordham’s eyebrows rose. “Ancient Fae?”
Cleora nodded. “Indeed. It looks like one of their dead languages.”
“May I?” he asked, holding his hand out.
It looked like the last thing she wanted to do was give up her treasure, but reluctantly, she handed it over. Fordham cracked the binding carefully. He actually laughed when he looked inside. A noise she hadn’t heard in so long. His eyes finally slipped to Kerrigan’s.
“How rusty is your Ancient Fae?”
Kerrigan looked over his shoulder. Her eyes widened in shock. “That’s our Ancient Fae language.”
“You recognize it?” Cleora asked with excitement in her voice.
“It’s my native tongue,” he admitted. “My father believed that there was too much magic left in the ancient’s language to give it up for a more common tongue. So, I learned this first and common second. I admit, I haven’t had much use for it over the years.”
“Well, you have one today,” Keres said. “Even I don’t speak Ancient Alfheim.”
“Does this mean that Alfheim and Alandria are connected?” Fordham asked slowly. “Could our people have come from here?”
Keres sighed. “Much of Alfheim was lost in the wars. To that, I’m sorry, I don’t know.”
Vera raised her hands. “I was a child during the war and left before it ended. I know little about Fae here or there. Only the Leifs of Emporia.”
Fordham nodded resolutely. “Which page is it? I can do a full translation, if you’d like.”
Cleora took the book back and opened to a page near the middle. “I got as far as magic restoration and decided I needed to show you this in person.”
“Thank you,” Keres said. “We were going to come to you in a day or two if we hadn’t heard anything.”
Cleora flushed. “It is a great privilege to be able to help.”
“We should copy out the translation,” Vera said.
“I can do it,” Danae said, jumping to be included.
Vera went with Danae in search of paper and set her up at the table. Fordham sank into the seat next to her and began to read aloud from the old, smudged book. It was a slow process. Even with him fluent in the language, there were discrepancies between what Fordham had learned as a child and what someone who had lived when Ancient Alfheim was common.
“Well,” Fordham said after the translation was as complete as possible, “This is as good as I can put together. And some of it …” He paused, as if unhappy that he had to suggest this. “Well, some of it I’m not certain of.”
“Let me see,” Keres said. Danae passed her the paper with the translation on it. “Most of this seems rudimentary. A full moon, an Alfheim crystal, and a pool of blessed water.” Her eyebrows rose. “Thirteen to undo what was done. Is that thirteen people or the power of thirteen?”
Fordham shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“I’m not sure the Fae would have considered that one person could have the power of many,” Vera said softly.
Keres met her gaze and nodded. “I don’t think we should include anyone else in this. And just hope that our combined powers will suffice. What is the rest of this?”
Fordham frowned as he took the paper back. “It’s about the circle of thirteen itself from the original ritual. They call it the Star in a Constellation. Apparently, when it was done back during ancient times, it was used as a means of protection. It wasn’t punishment, as what was done to Kerrigan. Rather, it was a way to hold back magical ailments and curses or sometimes done to children who had expressed magic before they had the means to control what they had been given. Sometimes, it was done to volatile individuals, but it seemed to be with their consent.”
“And then bastardized,” Vera said with distaste.
“Yes,” he said with a broody expression on his face. “The reversal spell is called a Star Release. Much of it describes the need to be in touch with nature and the cosmos as well as self. There’s even breathing and stretching practices recommended to empty the mind for the person receiving their magic again.”
“Receiving?” Kerrigan asked. “Like it’s been kept elsewhere?”
Fordham glanced back at the original again. “From how it reads, they make it seem as if your magic is more of a part of your life force. The energy of a star housed in a physical host. And when the magic is removed to be returned to the cosmos, it is but a star in a constellation.”
“Flowery,” Vera quipped.
“Beautiful,” Danae whispered.
“And so, when I draw it back into me, it’s taking it from the universe?” Kerrigan asked in disbelief.
“Once the Star Release is triggered, your energy is once again in touch with nature, the moon, and the stars and can be received into the host,” he translated. “In short, yes. We are all but vessels of the power of the universe. Any push or pull of the magic from our bodies is only done from the divine right of our connection with the world around us.”
“Could I pull back … more than I was originally given?” Kerrigan asked carefully.
Fordham frowned. “Possibly. Though I wouldn’t recommend it.” His eyes lifted to meet Keres’s for a second before retreating. “Taking more power than what is bestowed would be the same bastardization of your rights with nature as what was physically stolen from you. You might push yourself out of alignment.”
“Right,” Kerrigan said with a gulp. “Out of alignment with the cosmos sounds like a bad thing.”
“Indeed,” Vera agreed.
“When is the next full moon?” Keres asked.
“Three days,” Cleora said. “I used to have a standing appointment for the full moon. I keep it on my calendar now.”
Kerrigan smiled at her. “I miss our sessions.”
“So do I.”
“Three days,” Keres said with a resigned sigh. “We’ll have to get everything ready before then. I don’t see another alternative. We can’t wait here another month.”
Unless it didn’t work.
She didn’t have to say it. The uncomfortable buzz in the room said it all. They’d have one shot at this. If they had to wait another month to try, then it might never happen.