23. ~Kai~
~Kai~
Vorzyr whistled as he took in my lab within the caves a few miles from Maven Academy.
“This is an impressive set up,” I heard him say, as I brought one of the copies of Ariana’s Unity Council test into being, then levitated the golden scroll in front of me in the center of the room, ready for us to get down to work.
I snuck a glance at Ariana who was also looking around, but then she drew close to the site of my latest experiment that involved her.
Sure enough, she zeroed in on trace elements of her magic present in one of the beakers, obviously feeling it. She frowned in thought for several moments, trying to gauge the overall picture, then she looked out at me. “You need a stabilizing agent.”
“Excuse me?”
She rolled her eyes. “Please, Kai. It’s clear that you were trying to find a way to create a shield against my magic in a much broader way than the anti-magical mind melding ability you developed to protect yourself from my energy surges during sex, when I let go—and Nyx’s allure.
When you told me you wanted to experiment more with that ability with me via some down and dirty fucking, it did cross my mind that it was about more than that for you. ”
“Right, well, it didn’t work. I’ve tried a couple of other things since. Using drops of your blood which I obtained after V cut you during our session outside Polaris. Even that didn’t work. And, there’s no stabilizing agent to Celestial magic, so that’s also off the table.”
“You’re looking at this puzzle purely from a magical lens.
There’s more involved with Celestial magic.
I don’t even know the whole deal there because of all the secrecy involved and the severe lack of information available on anything Celestial, hence us having to come here to figure out that test and see if it’s tied into the subconscious symbols I’ve been drawing every now and then with my shadow weaving.
But one thing I’m certain of is that one stabilizing agent is will. ”
“Will?” V asked, turning from checking out everything and coming to us, folding his arms across his chest as he stood between me and Ariana, settling in.
“Essentially, what I will of my magic. My intent,” Ariana told us.
I frowned. “You’re saying that could be captured somehow? Fashioned into my spellwork and potions, as the missing ingredient?”
“Yes, there’s a way. I can provide it to you. In fact, I want to. It’s a really good idea to have a failsafe, something that could stand a very strong chance of being able to cut into my power.”
“What about Ryker Morgan?” V asked, clearly concerned about me creating something that could best her power. Even as a failsafe, he didn’t seem on board.
For me, I was on board only as a failsafe.
Unfortunately, there really did have to be one. She was the only being on the planet who that didn’t currently apply to.
And as much as I cared about her, as deep as my feelings ran, it still worried me.
The fact was, there always needed to be contingencies for everyone and everything.
It was how we protected ourselves, how we survived.
And, for Ariana, it would give her peace of mind to know something like that existed.
Whether Vorzyr could admit it or not, it was— of course!
It was still relatively new information and there’d been a great deal to absorb lately, too, that it hadn’t immediately occurred to me. And it should have. I was deeply immersed in Ari and our foursome and maybe it was starting to soften and compromise that more calculating part of me. Fuck.
“Primal Celestial Resonance,” I spoke, eyeing Vorzyr. “We need to apply that as well.”
“Kai, I don’t think—”
“You were able to dominate an attack of Celestial magic, force it back, make it submit. With a drop of your blood, I could replicate that effect.”
He looked to Ari. “This is a risk. You know that, yes? To have Kai create something that can impact your power?”
“I know where you’re coming from, but it’s actually just the thing I need before I take back my full power. A safeguard that will give me peace of mind.”
Exactly.
“V, I can also destroy what I create.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes. I swear it.”
“Okay. Fine, do what you need with my new ability.”
“The test first, then we’ll get to the rest.”
I turned my attention back to the levitating golden scroll and the two of them gathered around to observe.
I called my magic just to the fingertips of my right hand.
“The precision you can pull off with your magic… it’s out of this world,” Ariana told me.
I eyed her. “Complimenting me again? I could definitely get used to this, sweetheart.”
“I’m serious, Kai.”
“I’ll teach you then.”
“You will?”
“If you want.”
“I do. Thank you.”
Wow. That was another major step for her.
I smiled, then focused on the scroll, carefully running my fingertips of magic over the surface, pulling out what was hidden within and essentially working on translating it from the energy the Unity Council had stored it as, to actual readable results.
In moments, symbols, sigils, and glyphs began floating from it like swirling smoke—fortunately not that Celestial one that had infected me. It possessed the magical signature of Hugh Clayborne, the leader of the Unity Council. No surprise there.
As Vorzyr looked on in awe, and Ariana shifted her weight nervously, I finished pulling out everything within.
And then I made my power flare to both hands and I swept them around what I’d extricated until they were all contained within a large levitating rose-gold sphere, the symbols and glyphs, and even bits and pieces of ancient text now, swirling rapidly as I crafted a spell to interpret it all.
It didn’t take more than a few moments for legible information to generate.
I reported the first thing that I was able to discern, as the rest continued to be deciphered by my spell, bit by bit.
“They definitely clocked that you’re not at full power.
” I winced. “They also registered instability. It has them concerned, according to this. But, because they don’t understand Celestial magic, they weren’t able to determine that the cause is merely you not being united as a whole with your power.
They’re concerned it’s something else far beyond that.
” I rolled my eyes. “The ignorance is as frustrating as it is disturbing.”
“Another reason why they shouldn’t have tested her against her fucking will,” V muttered.
“Agreed,” I said. And then I was jolting as something else was deciphered.
“What is it?” Ari asked, noticing.
“Interference.”
“What?” V pressed.
“They registered some interference within you, to you, impacting your magic.”
“That could just be my natural connection to the Celestial Plane and the True Celestials there.”
“Perhaps.”
Before I could speak more to it, a sigil flamed and grew larger and brighter, making itself much more prominent.
It was a radiant jagged broken circle, tendrils of energy unraveling from its edges and reinforcing a sense of disruption. There was a dark, eerie glow surrounding it, giving off a feeling of foreboding.
“That’s it!” Ariana cried. “That’s what I kept drawing with my shadow weaving, the thing I haven’t been able to replicate ever since I registered it on a conscious level. It wouldn’t even let me doodle it on a piece of paper, something was… something was stopping me, an unknown force.”
“Like the True Celestials?” Vorzyr asked.
“Has to be,” I said. “There’s no other force stronger than her, able to influence her in any way.” I swallowed hard as I stared at the mark and placed it from the great deal of knowledge I’d acquired over the years from ancient texts. “You’re certain it was this symbol?” I asked her.
“Yes. Why? Do you recognize it?”
I grimaced. “I do.”
“And?”
“I’m not liking that look all over your face,” Vorzyr told me.
“It’s called a Rift Mark,” I informed them. “Essentially, it’s a warning of an impending rift between planes, realms, that sort of thing. It signals a tear, possibly allowing something dangerous to slip through. Dimensional instability is forthcoming, if this is to be believed.”
“That could explain why there was a shift in the balance that my family felt.” She came forward, studying the scroll. “Anything else your spell picked up?”
“They also registered a potential for darkness within you. According to this, you are susceptible to magical corruption, despite many believing that wouldn’t be possible because you’re a literal angel.
But, as I said, they also registered interference, so this could be linked to the source of that interference—that being what’s susceptible, not you.
As for the potential for darkness, that could also be misinterpreted.
Fear, which you were carrying so heavily until recently toward your own power and nature can be read in a negative way during tests like these as the same as darkness potential.
It can easily be misconstrued, especially when testing a being they have very little knowledge of, a being who has never existed before. ”
“Fuck,” V grunted, not liking any of this.
Neither was I. Telling Ariana all of this, it worried me something fierce that it would have her regressing back into her whole repression thing, then even pulling away from us and every other fucking thing. All over again.
I couldn’t stand the thought of it.
And I was having to strain more than I normally ever would to keep my focus and not let those emotions disrupt my spell or impact the control of my magic as a whole.
Before I could get another word out, Nyx teleported in, a fuckload of urgency coming off him.
“I heard you guys, I was listening from a distance as I approached. This… interference… it’s the True Celestials.
” He eyed me. “It explains why you had such trouble when you were experimenting with her magic. It had shifted in a way, like you’d thought, because the Celestial Plane has some greater hold on her now. ”