Chapter 57 Seren
Chapter fifty-seven
Seren
Our combined mágik, bolstered by the blessing of the Celestial Goddesses, was a sight to behold. It was like nothing we had ever seen. Like nothing anyone had seen in generations.
Glittering silver and gold light rippled across our bodies from head to toe giving us the effect of having been coated in dripping mágik. The power of the moon and the sun danced behind our eyes and flitted through the growing dark of dusk.
I wielded my newly strengthened powers in every spare moment. Ayla trained with me, just as hungry as I was to explore the bounds of our new abilities. We knew, too, that the days were racing by. Soon we would have to face Lady Adiran.
Time was precious, and not a moment could be wasted.
Harkin and Théo aided us too, giving advice on how to summon and utilize our mágik most efficiently.
We had a few accidents along the way, unused to the expanded bounds of our abilities.
I lashed out with a glittering silver wave.
I raised my arms above my head, and the water followed.
The tide to my moon. It rushed toward Ayla, a looming wall, but with a wave of her flaming hands, it erupted into steam.
The heat was a balm to our frosted bones.
“Oh Goddesses, do that again,” I laughed. “The heat is delectable.”
I flopped on my back, and Ayla followed.
“Ready?” I asked.
“Ready,” she confirmed.
I summoned the wave again, sending it high into the sky above us. Ayla reached for it again, but her flame spurred past it. She sat up, tongue between her teeth as she wrestled for control. “I’m losing it!”
“You’ve got it—” I began, but it was too late.
Her mágik caught hold of a copse of trees, spitting white flames setting them ablaze.
“Fuck…” I summoned another wave, pushing it hard to quench the flames, but it was far too large. In my panic, I managed to put out the fire but not before first drenching myself and my friends in a deluge of freezing water.
“Seren!” Ayla groaned.
“You’re the one who lit the forest on fire!” I shot back.
We dissolved into a fit of giggles, laughing through the chattering of our teeth.
Changing our clothes as quickly as possible, we trembled in the frigid air as our garments began to ice over with rapidity. We huddled close to one another around a much smaller, more controlled fire, and resolved to hold off any further attempts at mágik until the following day.
The next night, I attempted to harden my silver-white moon mágik into a tangible thing, something that could be used as an additional limb.
I overcompensated, intending to nudge a boulder to the side and instead creating a blade of pure energy.
It reached much farther than I anticipated, effectively slicing Ayla’s tent into ribbons.
“Damn it!” I shouted. “Sorry, Ayla…”
I was thoroughly chagrined, outwardly cringing, and entirely grateful that my cousin had not been inside the tent. There might have been a very different outcome.
Ayla only stared in horror before bursting out in hysterical laughter. I joined her, to the dismay of the rest of the group.
We sorted through the tent, rescuing her pack, which had remained largely unscathed, while Safiya looked on hopefully.
“Théo, can I share your tent?” Ayla batted her lashes at him, hands clasped together as if she were a small child begging for an extra slice of pie.
He rolled his eyes playfully. “Of course. What’s mine is yours.”
The disappointment was visible on Safiya’s face when Ayla settled her things in Théo’s tent, choosing to bunk with her best friend over her former lover.
When the stars emerged on our final journeying night, I settled in to contact Lady Adiran. I had spent the previous nights entering the dreams of my companions with varying levels of success, but I practiced again and again, knowing it was vital that I master my ability.
In the chaos that was the journey back to Acsilla, I had not even had the time to properly consider the words Harkin had whispered to me as I waded through the embrace of unconsciousness. His quiet confession that he loved me.
When I did pause to let his words wash over me, I was filled with such budding hope. My heart was full to bursting, and I wanted desperately to express my feelings to him in turn. Every time I thought I might find the chance, another setback with my dream mágik derailed my plans.
My first attempts with the others had proven fruitless. I found myself, time and again, a viewer in my friend's dreams, when I needed to be able to communicate with them.
Fortunately, Théo had stored a veritable library in his pack. He sorted through the tomes and papers which had aided us in our search for the Drakány shrine until he finally settled on a thin book, bound in leather.
“The most detailed description of moon mágik,” he told me, “was kept in the royal archive. In it were accounts of moon mágik wielders throughout history and the abilities they had attained.”
“Did they describe the dreams?” I asked.
“One section described a wielder who had access to the dreams of others. Just here, see.” Théo pointed to the page, fingers running over the worn parchment.
I read this passage over and over again, studying the techniques they had used to enter the dreams of another.
The most important aspect of this mágik was detailed visualization. I could not simply wish my way inside the mind of another person, and I could not rely on physical touch to anchor me to my intended subject—though it certainly helped.
I practiced for hours on end, sacrificing my own sleep as I pictured my companions in great detail. I found it was not enough to use their countenance alone. That method would prove inadequate when it came to contacting Lady Adiran, as I had never met the woman in the waking world.
It was a combination of things that worked in the end. I focused on the physical descriptions, personality, and goals of the subject while also maintaining an overarching intention of two minds becoming one.
I was able to breach Harkin’s dreams first, curled up together in the soft warmth of our tent.
Ayla came next, and the others quickly followed.
I even practiced on people far away to ensure my skills were satisfactory.
I successfully entered the dreams of Guardian Horvat, my former commander, and Lili Barta, one of my fellow Guardians.
I knew they would never consider the mágik at play.
They would simply imagine they had dreamed of someone they once knew, if they remembered me at all.
But it was Harkin I came back to, after every long night on the road. The Sarkhona Draum had changed me. The Goddesses had chosen me, had pushed me that last little bit, and I wanted to hold on tight to it—that warm, trusting, wanting ache in my chest.
I thought of Harkin and his love—the deep well of it that he could not hide, not from me. There was no more doubt, and no more hesitancy; I knew what distraction would draw our villain to us.
It was too soon, and I knew I would be met with disapproval, but it was what I wanted. I hoped Harkin would want it too.
“Harkin?” I murmured, drawing close in the circle of his arms.
He was warm and sweet and so, so sleepy. “Hmm?”
“Dream with me?”
“Always.”
I placed one last kiss upon his parted lips, and then I dreamed.