Chapter 19
CHAPTER 19
We were the first of our friend group to make it to the cafeteria, so we claimed our table and started eating. The rest of them trickled in slowly, until finally our table was the loudest one in the room, everyone asking about our trip to Atlantis, and us catching up on everything that had happened while we had been gone.
“We might have a lead on the ley line mystery,” I announced. The chatter around table quieted. “We discovered that the Atlantean ley lines were present, but slightly lessened. We theorized that there was a magical dam somewhere. So Professor Akhtar, Aiden, and I went to Easter Island to get a reading, and then they threw the numbers into math equations that made my head spin.”
Everyone laughed.
“So where is it?” Una asked, leaning forward eagerly.
“In the middle of Australia.”
Silence met that declaration.
“But why?” Rhiannon said quietly.
“I have no idea. That’s what we plan on finding out.”
Aiden added, “Professor Akhtar is writing a report to present to Headmistress Blackthorn, requesting permission to go and check it out.”
“You know…” Hazel said quietly.
We all turned to look at her, and she flushed a dark green.
“Or maybe it’s nothing,” she said, flustered.
“Any ideas, no matter how far-fetched, could be useful,” I said encouragingly. “What is it?”
“Well, I just remembered that Paige was going to Australia over winter break. She was telling me about it in the library after exams before she left.” Hazel bit her lip. “She was really excited about it. She even had a tan in January! But she hasn’t been herself since she got back.”
“Invasion of the body-snatchers!” Bruce exclaimed loudly, and then apologized, “Sorry for interrupting. Please continue.”
“I don’t think she’s been replaced,” I said thoughtfully. “But she has been quiet since the holidays. I was concerned about that, actually. I’d hoped she would have been friendlier, especially since she’d been warming up to us after Clarissa’s return.”
“She’s been keeping to herself and spending a lot of time in the library,” Una said. “Even more than you!”
“And that’s saying something,” I joked, but sobered quickly. “Maybe she saw something when she was there, and it upset her.”
“Maybe she was the cause of it,” Bruce said. When we all looked at him skeptically, he added, “What? Just because it would take a massive amount of power that one witch couldn’t possibly wield, doesn’t mean that she didn’t have help while she was down there.”
“Right.” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “There are no wrong answers at this point, only theories. And who knows, maybe one of those theories will spark the truth.” It was good to remind myself as well as everyone else. “Who wants to come with me to find her and ask about her vacation?”
Pretty much everyone wanted to come, but it was agreed that too many people would seem like we were ganging up on her. I chose Hazel, since she had been the one that Paige had told about her trip before the holidays.
“Where do you think she’ll be?” I asked, getting up from the table with my dinner tray.
Hazel shrugged. “Library, probably. Like I said, she’s been there pretty much every time I’ve seen her outside of class.”
“Great place to start. Do you have any homework to work on? We’ll ask to join her at her table.”
“I always have homework,” Hazel said dryly. “Either mine, or marking for Professor Calderwood.”
I winced in sympathy. “I know what you mean. I usually get my marking done during my office hours, because nobody comes to see me unless there’s a test coming up.”
“I’m always busy, even if there aren’t any students. My professor has me setting up for labs for the other classes. It takes forever to do everything, so I understand why he needs the help, but I really wish he took more than one student. There’s certainly more than enough work to go around. Maybe two, or even three, student teachers would be awesome.” Hazel sighed.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were stretched so thin,” I said sympathetically. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Do you know a duplication spell?” Hazel joked. “No, I’ll be okay. I get a bit doom-and-gloom when I’m tired. The best thing you can do for me is clear up this ley line mystery. The boost in energy will help.”
“On it!” I said, giving a salute.
We reached the library, and looked around for Paige. She was sitting at the biggest desk, library books spread out around her.
“I should really focus on Qualitative Spellcraft,” I said. “It’s been a while since I really had the chance to sink my teeth into that course.”
“Do you have an essay?” Hazel asked.
“No, but I like to read ahead on the coursework so I can come up with questions in advance of the lectures.”
“Nerd,” Hazel said around a cough, but she smiled at me. “I have to work on my thesis a bit. Professor Calderwood said that he wants to read my outline in two weeks.”
“Oh, ouch.” I wondered when Professor Akhtar would want to see mine. I still wasn’t sure how to frame my research into the nexus points and what caused the ley lines. “Actually,” I said slowly. “I think that new way of looking at the ley lines might help me with my thesis. The spiral, no, what was it that Aiden called it?” I frowned as I put my books down next to Paige. “The Golden Ratio! That might have more to do with the ley lines than we realize.”
Paige jumped at my words. “What are you talking about?” she asked.
“My thesis is on where the ley lines come from, right? Well, I think I might have had a breakthrough! I need to check to see if any other research has been done, cross-referencing the Golden Ratio.” I groaned. “Ugh, math!”
“That’s exciting,” Paige said quietly. “The Golden Ratio is like exponential growth, isn’t it?”
My eyebrows rose. “I hadn’t thought of it like that. But yes, I think you’re right! Professor Akhtar and Aiden were doing something with exponents and calculus in order to find the magnitudes of magic at the nexus points.” I leaned in. “It went completely over my head.”
Hazel chuckled. “I think you’re going to have to understand a bit more math for your thesis.”
I nodded solemnly. “Hence my, ‘ugh, math,’ comment from earlier.” I hopped off the edge of the table. “Okay, I’m going to need help finding what I need. See you girls hopefully in this century.” I looked around for my favorite librarian, Mr. Brecken.
While I was getting my books, I knew Hazel would gently open the conversation to the holidays and what she had done.
Mr. Brecken was very helpful, and I quickly had two books on the calculations of the ley lines. He didn’t think there was anything to do with the Golden Ratio, but he would keep thinking about it and put any books aside for me if he came up with them.
“I’m a little sick of being here, to be honest,” Hazel was saying as I approached the table again. “What about you, Paige? How were your holidays? I remember you saying you were going to Australia?”
“Oh, Australia!” I exclaimed, dropping into my seat. “I’ve always wanted to visit! There’s a phoenix sanctuary in the middle of the desert. Did you see it?”
Paige shook her head and bent over her books silently.
Hazel and I exchanged glances.
“What’s wrong?” I asked quietly. “Did something happen on your trip? Who did you go with? Do we need to send them a nasty curse?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Paige said. “Just drop it.”
“You’re our friend. If you’re hurting, we’d like to try to help,” I pushed. “Did something happen to the ley lines while you were there?”
All of a sudden, Paige burst into tears.
Alarmed, I hugged her around her shoulders. “It’s okay,” I murmured.
Hazel magicked a handkerchief and handed it over. Paige buried her face in it.
I frowned, confused.
What was going on?
Paige was usually so in control of her emotions.
“What happened while you were in Australia? Did you see someone do something? Were you threatened? Whatever it is, the school can help you.”
“You don’t understand!” Paige wailed.
Mr. Brecken came over to shush her, but when he saw the crying girl, backed away again.
“I’ve got this,” I mouthed at him, waving him away.
He nodded.
I refocused my attention on Paige, rubbing her shoulders. “Help us understand.”
She gulped and hiccupped. “You’re going to hate me.”
“I mean, considering the first time I met you, you accused my missing roommate and best friend of murder, and I’m your friend now…” I trailed off. “It can’t be worse than that, right?”
Paige gave a watery laugh. “You’d be surprised.”
“Did you kill someone?” I whispered.
“No. At least, I hope not.” She swallowed. “God, I screwed up so bad.” A fresh wave of tears flowed down her cheeks.
“Deep breaths,” I advised. “Start at the beginning.”
Paige followed my advice, inhaling deeply for a moment. “Okay. I just…” She looked from Hazel to me. “Please help?”
“I’ll do my best.”
“It all started last semester. I’m taking a prophecy class, and we’re studying ancient myths and prophecies, most of which were centuries old. For my independent study, I chose to compare and contrast world-ending prophecies, and how we’ve integrated that trope into genre fiction in today’s cultures.” Paige sniffled.
“That sounds fascinating!” I said encouragingly.
“It was.” She shot me a watery smile. “I dug deeper into the list of prophecies, and found some really fascinating ones, including one from two thousand years ago, the Gràineileachd.” She shuddered.
“What language is that?” I asked when she paused.
“It’s Gaelic. Means ‘abomination’. He was described quite vividly.” Paige wiped her eyes. “He’s this giant demon god, and according to the prophecy I found, he wakes every two thousand years when his chains loosen, ready to wreak havoc all over the world.” She took another deep breath. “I showed my professor what I’d found, and he laughed. Said it was a myth. But everything I had found showed that this giant had risen two thousand years ago. The magical community had managed to bind him deep within the Earth, but that it wouldn’t be sufficient, that his chains would need to be reinforced regularly.”
“I’ve never heard of this giant,” I said, a knot of anxiety filling my chest. “How can the chains be reinforced if nobody knows about him?”
“Exactly what I thought,” Paige said. “So I did more research. The last time he woke up, he was in South America. He rose from the Ultima Esperanza Fjord and ate everything in the area. That’s why there’s a desert there now.”
“Holy shit,” Hazel said, her eyes wide. “That’s in Chile.”
I remembered that her family had emigrated from Chile in the 600s. I wondered if this was related.
“The fjord is in Patagonia, but the Chilean side of it,” Paige explained. “The magical community tried to bind him using the ley lines, but he fought back. He snapped them, and that’s what plunged Europe into the Dark Ages. It took a long time for magic to come back.”
“How do you know this?” I asked.
“I’ll show you the book I found. It was in a French school.” Her smile turned lopsided. “I told you I dug deep.”
“But my family found ley lines in Canada when they left Chile, and when they got to Ireland, the ley lines were fine,” Hazel said, frowning.
“The Dark Ages had a low level of magic. You told me that your ancestors were okay with the amount of magic, not that the ley lines were fine,” I reminded her.
“Semantics,” Hazel said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
“I don’t think it is,” I said slowly. “I think that the ley lines were majorly drained after dealing with the giant, but that there was a lot of ambient magic around, so your family was healthy.”
“I agree,” Paige said. “Anyway, after the attempt to bind him, he went off and wreaked havoc in the rest of the world. I traced the destruction, which finally stopped in Australia. I assume that was where the magical community caught him.”
“And killed him, right?” Hazel asked, hanging on Paige’s every word.
“Well…” Paige hesitated.
“You think he’s still alive,” I said. “Why did you think that?”
“You don’t describe someone as a god because you can kill them,” Paige said dryly. “But I wasn’t sure.”
“That’s why you went to Australia?” I asked. “To find out for sure?”
“Right.” Her tears started again, and she gripped the edge of the table so tightly that her knuckles turned white. “I followed the pull of the magic all the way to a cave system, called Lasseter, in Australia’s Northern Territory. I managed to find the magical entrance. It led to a tunnel that went down and down. I… I…”
“You found him,” I said softly.
“He was so big, Siobhan,” Paige whimpered. “You don’t understand. I came at him from his head… His hair was so long, it had grown down the passageway I was in. I thought it was a new type of spider web at first, but it wasn’t sticky or anything. And then I got to the top of the head. It was the height of the academy at least, and he was lying down! If he woke up, he’d destroy Australia just by sitting up!”
“What did you do?” I asked through my hands pressed over my mouth.
“I had brought a caging spell with me, but I wasn’t sure it would be strong enough, so I used the diamond from my grandmother’s engagement ring as a focus.” Paige shivered. “It worked really well. There’s a nexus point nearby, at Ayers Rock, and I pulled on that. I filtered the ley lines through the diamond to boost their power and wove them into a cage around him.”
“And then what?” Hazel asked. “What did you do next?”
“Where’s the diamond now?” I squeaked.
“I left it there,” Paige said. “I didn’t think it was a good idea to take it, in case that broke the cage spell.” To Hazel, she said, “I came back here.”
“Well, that explains where the ley lines went,” I said, sitting back with a shake of my head. “Was the giant even waking up?”
“I didn’t stick around to find out!” Paige exclaimed. “I figured out that my spell was the reason that the ley lines vanished, but I don’t understand why! Diamonds are supposed to amplify, not remove.”
I took a deep breath to control my impatience. “There’s a limited amount of magic in the ley lines. It has to come from somewhere, right? Matter is never created or destroyed without a balance in the universe. Even the simplest chemical reaction will balance, producing heat. So you used the diamond to amplify the ley lines, and they had to get that magic from somewhere. A magical dam, indeed.”