Chapter Twenty-Seven
Marcus stood from his spot next to the window when he saw the flash of Roz’s magic outside. He hurried out of the room where they’d been continuing to study the scrolls and down the hallway, meeting the Sentinels, Roz, and Bréagha as they walked through the large doors.
“There you are! We were starting to worry you all had gotten lost. Mary couldn’t even portal to you,” he exclaimed, the anxiety he felt very clear in his voice.
“It was only two days,” protested Roz.
“Try more like ten,” answered Marcus. The whole group gasped.
“I portaled to Stephen’s twice for meals and he never said anything,” exclaimed Roz.
“That was several days apart. He hasn’t seen you for days,” answered Marcus as he led them down the hallway to where the other Elders were waiting.
“It was only a couple hours for us,” stated Bréagha as they walked into the large room. Killian nodded. Marcus noticed that something had shifted between the two, both seemed more balanced.
“That clearing must’ve had some kind of time warp wrapped around it.
Some ancient magic kept me from being able to even find it,” answered Mary who was sitting by the fireplace, a cup of tea in one hand and a notebook in the other.
“Kat and I tried to portal up there but neither of us could find it.”
“And I had been through there several times over the years,” added Kat who sat next to Lily, her hair looking the same as the Record Keeper Elder’s with pencils and quills holding her long hair up in a bun.
“Must’ve been Petralyn and her Flower Keepers,” suggested Bréagha. Killian nodded in agreement.
“They had some very strong and ancient magic for sure,” agreed Killian.
“The who?” Marcus asked, frowning.
“The Flower Keepers,” answered Bréagha and Killian at the same time.
“Despite not wanting to parrot my friend, who?” asked Donegal as he walked out between two of the large shelves carrying two cups of tea. He handed one to Marcus and sat the other on the table in front of Mary. Bréagha looked up at Killian who raised an eyebrow.
“Um. When we got into the walled area, there was a courtyard, and a voice started speaking to us. When we said it was too dark and asked who was speaking, the roses fell off the vines as the vines moved to create an opening for the sun to shine through. Those roses turned into little rose fairy things, one of them said her name was Petralyn and they were Flower Keepers tasked with keeping the seeds safe for the Guardian,” explained Bréagha.
“Which leads to my question. How did you get inside?” Kat asked, leaning forward. She had tried multiple times and could never find a way through, making her eager to discover how they had succeeded.
“Um well, I just touched the door…and the scrollwork rearranged itself into some kind of sigil. Then when Killian stepped up to block a vine from hitting me the door just swung open,” said Bréagha.
“I tried to go over the wall, but the vines didn’t like that, so I got a large thorn through my foot.
” The entire group that had been with her winced as they pictured her bloody foot again.
“Once the two of them entered the door, several rose fairy things came out of the top and then to where I was sitting. They healed my foot completely and the gash that Liam got for getting too close to the door as well,” said Roz from the back of the group.
“That door wasn’t letting anyone but those two inside. ”
“Why those two?” asked Donegal curiously.
“Because she’s the Guardian and I’m her Sentinel,” responded Killian matter-of-factly. He was standing slightly behind Bréagha in his usual position, arms crossed against his chest, and feet shoulder-width apart.
“Her Sentinel,” questioned Aiden who was standing to the side. “What do you mean Her Sentinel?”
“Just what I said. Her Sentinel,” answered Killian.
“Apparently each Guardian will have their own Sentinel. I think it’s an important part of the ritual,” called Lily.
She held up the scroll she was studying.
“It says here that the Sentinel will be the counterpoint for the Guardian, it takes both halves to create the whole. Or something like that. These older scrolls are a little difficult to read, our ancestors liked to make their writing extra fancy.”
“Why don’t you tell us what happened from the moment you got to the clearing?
” Marcus stated, trying to make sense of everything.
Between the six of them, with some interjections from Sperwa for emphasis, they told the whole story.
Killian and Bréagha told everyone what happened when they were tested, and Marcus nodded.
“Shouldn’t all of this be written in our books?” asked Bréagha suddenly, remembering that everyone had a book that wrote their stories as it happens. Marcus nodded.
“Um, normally yes, but it seems like your all’s books are a few chapters behind,” he responded.
“Bréagha, your book and Roz’s, has updated up to the point where you two took your day off.
Killian and the rest are the day after.” He held up several books from his pile.
“Makes no sense. The only thing I can think is that the Garden has decided that too much knowledge isn’t good. ”
He had already noted several times the Garden had withheld information from them and could only assume it wasn’t the end of them discovering things as needed. It was exceptionally disconcerting.
“So you two were offered a way out, or a way to finish it quickly and you chose each other instead?” questioned Colin who had joined everyone in the seating area, watching his son.
He did seem a bit more balanced and grounded than he had the last few times he had seen him, like a layer of anxiety had been figured out.
“I don’t think it was a matter of choosing each other but trusting that together we could save the realms the right way.
It wasn’t like a declaration of undying love or eternal servitude,” clarified Bréagha.
“We just chose to trust each other and give up ultimate control for the sake of…well everything.”
The Elders all nodded but the Sentinels smirked.
There was far more to this pairing than the two were ready to admit just yet, but they could see the bond that had been forming slowly over time.
Killian pushed Bréagha to her limit and then beyond, not just to make her a good warrior but to make sure she could survive any battlefield since he knew he couldn’t keep her off it.
Bréagha pushed Killian out of his cold distant space, making him enjoy life like it was meant to be lived. Counterpoints indeed.
Aiden felt a small pang at not being Bréagha’s Sentinel but also recognized he wasn’t her true counterpoint; they were too alike and didn’t truly push each other the way her and Killian did.
He was proud and unbelievably happy for his friend, even when he grieved the position he had always held at her side.
“You are meant for another. Your path has already been decided,” whispered Bréagha as she came to stand next to Aiden, taking his hand. “Petralyn said so.”
He nodded and squeezed her hand to let her know he was okay. He leaned his head against hers like he had done so many times before, knowing it may very well be the last.
“Okay, well so did you find the seeds?” Donegal asked, bringing them back to the actual reason they’d all gone out there in the first place. Bréagha stepped forward and handed him one of the small metal boxes and Killian handed him the other one.
“Both of these boxes appeared once we got through the trials. I think the one that Killian had was the actual flower, I’m not sure what mine are, but it appeared in my hand, and a voice said it would be important too,” offered Bréagha as they opened the boxes and looked inside.
“Those seeds are for the Lunara tree, only grown in the Garden,” stated Kat.
“The same wood that makes her trunk and her wand,” observed Roz as she looked over Donegal’s shoulder at the contents of the box he held.
“That must be what the tree in the center of the flowers means. You’ll have to plant the tree as well as the flowers as part of the ritual,” said Lily as she looked down at the scrolls again that depicted an image of the ritual.
She had thought that the ritual would have to be by a Lunara tree but now she realized they would be planting a Lunara tree in every realm.
“Must be an anchor point to the Garden.”
Marcus nodded as he too looked at the seeds. “That makes sense. The flowers will hold a bit of the magic of each realm, but the tree itself will be an anchor to the Garden and its light. I fear that light will be needed by the time we get to the end of this.”
Killian looked over at his teammates and down at Bréagha who had moved back to his side after reassuring Aiden.
Something had definitely shifted between them during that test. He expected surrendering control to feel like standing unarmed in battle, but he only felt a peace he hadn’t ever had before.
Bréagha didn’t need someone to protect her, she needed someone to stand beside her and fight with her.
She didn’t need someone telling her what to do but someone who trusted she knew what she was doing.
He knew he would more than likely stumble a few times, but she wouldn’t hesitate to continue putting him back in his place.