by Jada Fisher
Actually…maybe that wasn’t the most accurate statement, considering she had a friend who had lived through more than one era and she herself was trying to jump through her own trio of continuities.
Still, she had let her priorities get skewed and if she got the chance in the future, she was going to make sure that didn’t happen again.
“I promise,” she said. And she meant it with all her heart.
Her grandfather nodded and then sat back, regarding them with that same stern expression. “In that case, I hope you brought parchment, because you’ll need to write this down.”
7
Shifting the Balance
“And you’re sure you h-have the symbols r-right?” Athar asked, walking around the edge of the room they had cleared out in the library.
“By the Three, you’re like a mother hen and you’re not even courting her yet,” Ain grumbled, rolling his eyes as he lit even more candles.
“Who says he isn’t?” Eist asked, looking over the symbols on the floor herself.
She could feel Ain’s spine straighten behind her as he looked between the two. “Wait, what? You’re not in denial anymore? When did this happen? What changed?”
“Nothing changed,” Athar answered, amusement behind his attempt at a deadpan. “She’s just t-teasing you.”
“What? No…” Ain looked to her accusingly. “Since when did you get comfortable enough to joke about Athar’s undying love for you?”
Eist shrugged. “Probably right around the time all of your jokes got old.” He looked like he was going to retort further, but something strange caught Eist’s eye. “Dille?”
“Uh-huh?” the young woman responded, her head bent in concentration as she drew more runes on the floor.
This time, at least, it wasn’t made with blood collected from all the various dragon riders in their battle camp, but rather specific dried herbs and precious gems that she had crushed and mixed together in some sort of complicated ritual.
“Why are these symbols different from what we drew up?”
It had taken them five full days after speaking with Eist’s grandfather to put together everything they needed to make their trip. She’d had no idea that it would take so long for Dille to create the concentric spell circles she needed to send Eist where she needed to go. Apparently, she had been able to open the portal behind Farmad in battle because it had no destination, it was just an open hole into the stream of what was and what would be. Since Eist’s journey was much more specific and had multiple parts, there were a lot more steps that had to be taken care of.
Then there were supplies that Eist herself had to bring, such as weapons and food, and all the information that both her grandfather and Dille had given her.
Considering all the risk they were taking, and that they were literally meddling with history, their group had decided not to inform the council of what they were doing. Sure, maybe that would complicate things later, but that was only if Eist survived her journey and made it back.
Which definitely wouldn’t happen if Dille had accidentally messed up the runes.
“Uh, I needed to alter them.”
Eist didn’t care if she and her friend had been separated for decades, she knew when Dille was awkwardly trying to hide something. “Why did you need to alter them?”
“Because, uh…because the runes I used were to transport just one person, and we’re going to be transferring three.”
Eist’s eyebrows shot up. “Three?”
“Yeah,” Dille continued like it was a matter of course. “You. Fior. And…well, and me.”
Eist’s heart leapt into her throat and she found herself shaking her head. “No. No, you are absolutely not coming.”
“Why not?”
“Because if I don’t come back, I need you here to continue the fight.”
Dille looked up from the symbols for the first time. “If you don’t come back, then the fight is pretty much over. And I’m not sure how much I can channel through Fior and I’m really not willing to take that kind of risk.”
“I’m just not willing to risk—”
“Ladies, ladies,” Ain cut in. “Look, as much as I love you snarking at each other like the fearless leaders you are, this is stupid and a waste of time. Both of you go, with Fior, and both of you come back. The end.”
Eist narrowed her eyes at him. “And why do you think we should both go?”
“Because there’s safety in numbers, and you need someone to make sure you don’t dive headfirst off a cliff into danger.”
“Th-that’s true,” Athar pointed out. “If you hadn’t been trying to launch yourself into an open portal, then Dille would never have learned about this time thing anyway.”
“Yeah, and Fior would have just been left to hurtle through time on his own and never come back to me,” Eist snapped.
Dille sighed and stood, wiping her hands on her breeches. “Look, I know you’d like to take this all on your own. And I know after losing Yacrist you’re terrified of the same thing happening to any of us, but you’ve got to trust me. I’m coming whether you like it or not, and if you want to fight me on it, then we can forget our entire plan and find something else that doesn’t involve throwing you through magical portals.”
Eist looked at the determination across her three friends’ features. There were a whole lot of arguments she could probably use to brow-beat them into submission, but she could tell that this wasn’t going to be one of them.
“Alright. The three of us it is then.”
“Good. Now, do you mind grabbing Fior from the hall and trying to get him in here? He’s going to need to be in the smallest, center circle and I’ve got to paint some runes on him.”
Eist thought back to all the times they had tried to put salve on him when he was younger or scrub off dead scales that didn’t loosen with his shed. “You know he’s not going to like that, right?”
Something borderline wicked swept across Dille’s face as she smiled at Eist. “I have my ways.”
Eist didn’t doubt that and rushed to get her dragon.
While part of her was comforted by their plan, and how they had spent as much time as they could working on every detail, another part of her couldn’t help but wonder at how surreal the whole situation was.
She and her friends were literally preparing to leap through time and save eggs from being murdered by the Blight. They were going to see people they were never meant to see and learn things they probably shouldn’t ever know. They might never come back. They could end up in the slippery, winding nothingness that Dille struggled to describe every time she tried to explain her journey and never find their way out.
Or it could all go right, and they could save the world.
It was certainly a wide range of options.
“Hey there, my boy,” she said, calling to Fior out in the hall. He was cuddled with Gaius, the late hour being way past both of their normal sleeping routines, but his head picked up when he heard her voice. He gave a little chirp then stood, shaking off his sleepiness before trotting forward.
The room they had chosen for their ritual was smaller than the main library room but had larger doors. Eist guessed that it had once been used for storage rather than learning, but had later been changed to hold the outdated editions, incorrect healer journals, and ancient propaganda as they were phased out of the main room’s shelves. That would certainly explain why it was empty enough for them to have shoved almost everything to the outer edge so Dille could spend a solid day preparing the area.
Fior looked at the door uncertainly, cooing his concern, but she just lifted her hand and beckoned him closer. “Don’t worry. We checked to make sure you would fit. Just tuck your wings in and come’ere.”
He did as she asked, slowly sliding through the door like he was afraid it was a jaw that would bite down on him at any time. Once he was through, he seemed pleasantly surprised and did a bit of a circle-trot before settling down next to her.
/> “Don’t get too comfortable,” Eist warned him. “I need you to go to that center circle there and sit very, very still, okay? We’re going to go on another journey, and everything has to be perfect. Okay?”
He wuffled, looking from her to Dille to the boys and then back. Eist nodded encouragingly, still seeing her little boy behind his big, brindled face. With an especially sloppy lick across her cheek, he cantered forward and curled up as best he could inside the confines of the center circle.
“Uck, I think that’s gotten even worse now that he’s older,” Eist muttered, wiping her face on her sleeve.
“Probably,” Ain said through his chuckle.
Dille cut them off with a harsh shhh. “I need to concentrate.”
Even Fior seemed to hunker down at that, letting total quiet fall over the room. Eist took that opportunity to go and sit between where Athar and Ain were leaning against a table, watching their witch friend with curiosity. If there was a chance that she wasn’t going to see her friends again, then she wanted to spend as much time as she could close to them.
She didn’t think she would ever take them for granted again.
There were so many things that she wanted to say to them. So many words that she had never gotten out. Feelings that she had never prioritized. But she realized that now wasn’t the time to say them either. That would be a bit too much like saying good-bye when really, she was just saying ‘see ya in a bit’.
Or at least she hoped so.
Time seemed to pick up speed as she sat in contentment, enjoying their quiet company. Before she knew it, Dille was calling her to stand in a different circle from Fior, one that was connected by a small portion but angled off to the right. As soon as she was in place, the witch began to draw symbols across her skin with bright blue paste. It smelled strongly of flowers and mint, but it felt unnaturally cold when it touched her. Eist tried her best not to flinch and watched as her friend worked very ancient magic over her.
Her vision activated itself, the room growing brighter as Dille progressed. Eist watched the symbols go from blue to blinding gold in her vision, each and every rune causing a ribbon to form and stretch out farther than she could see until it looked like she was caught up in the most beautiful spiderweb that had ever existed. Glancing down, she saw the floor was much of the same, but instead of a web, it reminded her of those same roots she had seen on the battlefield, all interconnected under the ground, supporting everything.
“Oh… Dille,” she breathed as her eyes followed the glowing roots. They stretched as far as she could see in every direction. But the brightest of them were right under her feet, responding to the circles that were brilliant in her vision. The rest of them dulled, eventually only having the tiniest bit of shine on the edge of her perception.
She needed to fill those.
All of them.
Bring back the magic and fill them so full to bursting that the world never knew what it was like to be hungry again. To be drained of life and energy.
“Pretty, isn’t it?”
Eist nodded emphatically, unable to say anything under the fervor of determination building inside of her. Geez, magic really knew how to get her blood pumping, didn’t it? It almost made her wonder if she was under its influence more than she should, or if that was just what it was like to feel her reality be as strong and healthy as it was supposed to be.
“Alright, my turn,” Dille said, a soft smile on her face. She picked up her pack and then walked over to her own circle, painting the same runes all over herself. When she finally finished, she set the bowl on the ground and looked to Eist. “Ready?”
“Ready,” Eist said with a nod.
“I’m not sh-sh-sure I am,” Athar muttered, looking sheepishly at Eist. She offered a hand to him, and he bent down to press his face against her palm. It was a light touch, with hardly enough pressure to be even considered a caress, but his eyes fluttered closed.
“Uh, does anyone else feel like they’re peeping where they shouldn’t be?” Ain muttered.
Athar stood quickly and shuffled back to the side of the room to stand beside his friend. The white-haired young man just gave a shrug as he looked from Eist to Dille.
“What? We don’t have to make a to-do about this at all because you’re coming back. It’d be a waste of time to get all sappy.”
“Whatever you say,” Eist said with a shrug. But in a way, she understood him. Ain had lost so much with everything that had happened with his father. Saying good-bye would be admitting that he could lose them too, and she could see why he just didn’t want to do that.
“Just breathe deeply. Do you remember all your incantations and where you’re supposed to say them?”
Eist nodded again. “Spent the past week memorizing them. Seemed kinda important, ya know.”
“You’re not wrong,” Dille said with a weak laugh. “This’ll work.”
“I know,” Eist answered calmly. “I trust you.”
Dille’s smile grew slightly larger before settling. Drawing a deep breath, she closed her eyes and began reciting the words she’d written specifically for their spell.
Eist watched as the room slowly began to glow gold in her eyesight, the hair on her arms standing straight up. Energy started to whip around them, churning like wind and making her heart pound. Dutifully, she repeated the words that Dille had given her, remembering the beat and intonation that her witch friend had doggedly taught to her. They weren’t exactly easy words, borne from an ancient language that she didn’t speak, but Eist powered through them.
More energy picked up, and Eist’s heart truly began to thunder in her chest. She almost felt like she was levitating as it built up all around her, and she heard the slightest whimper from Fior at the edge of her perception.
It continued to crescendo, growing more and more and more until suddenly, everything blinked out of existence and the whole world was gone.
8
The Stuff of Legends
Eist fell through everything and nothing all at once. Her skin burned, her eyes stung, and her mind was overrun by the sheer magnitude of what it was and wasn’t comprehending.
She was moving quickly, almost too quickly to be real. Too fast to breathe, too fast to see. And yet she also knew that she wasn’t moving at all. She was a stationary object in a sheer avalanche of mystical force all around her.
It was hot, so hot. It was burning her down to her core until there was nothing left. She burned to ash and reformed and burned again, over and over, and yet her body never changed. She was and she wasn’t. Alive and unborn. Everything, nothing, and dipped in the raw, molten energy of it all.
And it was bright. So bright. When she tried to look around, it was as if everything she saw was seared into her eyes. Except she really didn’t see anything. It was just…energy. Pure. Unfiltered. Connecting everything in an intense web that she couldn’t really comprehend or perceive.
It seemed to last forever, and she wondered if she would ever land. If she would even remember what it was like to live if she did ever erupt from this impossible stream.
Ages passed. Time stood still. Stars were born and passed and burst out from their cores in miraculous explosions. It was freezing. It was burning.
And then, as suddenly as it had started, she was thrown out and upwards and downwards all at the same time until she was bouncing off the solid floor.
Her breath was knocked out of her body as the corner of a wall collided with her spine. She gasped, hardly remembering what breathing even felt like, when two loud thuds reverberated through the ground.
She blinked hazily to see Dille flying across the floor toward her. Eist’s arms went up, and she caught her friend. It didn’t really get rid of all of her force of impact, but it certainly helped.
“That does not get easier,” Dille rasped, her voice sounding alien and rough. Like she had forgotten how to speak. Did Eist even know how to speak? She didn’t even know.
She opened her mouth to
try, her cracked lips protesting, but she didn’t even have time to draw a breath before a blinding portal opened in the center of the room and a dark shape came shooting out of it.
Eist wrapped her arms around Dille with crushing force and threw them both violently to the side. They were barely out of the way before Fior slammed into the wall right where they had been, whining in confusion and distaste.
“Hey there,” Eist said, her voice grating out of her mouth. Oh goodness, she needed some water. As quickly as possible. “You okay, boy?”
Fior peeled himself off the wall, waddling over to her and offering his snoot to help her up. Eist held onto him for dear life and hauled herself to her feet.
Goodness, everything hurt. Her joints felt inflamed and tight while her muscles felt like they had been scraped off her body and haphazardly sewn back on. “Ugh, is this how you felt when you first landed?”
Dille shrugged before slowly rising to her own feet. “I can’t say. I didn’t land on my first trip.”
“How do ya mean?”
“Well, I was more…born.”
“Born?”
“Yeah, you know, out of my mother. And it wasn’t like I knew I was being born. I didn’t really get my memories back of you until toward the end of my time in the great war.”
“By the Three,” Eist muttered. “Confusing.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” She brushed her hair back and looked around. “So, as far as I can tell, we seem to be in the right place. This is the academy, I’m sure of that.”
Eist also surveyed the room they were in. It was relatively large and judging by the roots they had knocked across the floor, they were definitely in some sort of food cellar.
“We should probably get out of here before someone catches us and we end up in trouble before we even get started.”
