“Okay,” Norna continued. “Brenna, you will need to tap into a deeper part of yourself in order to reach the power that will call to the other magic. Once you do, it will come rushing to you, and you will need to direct it toward Celeste.”
“Like a conduit?” Brenna asked. She remembered how Freya had acted as a conduit before and wasn’t sure that she knew how to do it.
“Yes. All you need to do is guide it, and the dark sorcery will do the rest.”
“The sorcery is corrupt now, though,” Cai said. “It isn’t like when we were first able to contain it and put it within someone at no risk to themselves. What if this ends up killing my sister?”
“The part of it within Brenna has not been altered. When it meets with its counterpart, it will return to its pure form. It will not harm Celeste.”
“You sure about that?” Cai’s eyes were stern, and he was visibly wary. He would not allow anything to hurt his sister.
“Yes, I am sure.” Norna took Brenna’s hand and sat down on the ground, facing her. “You will all want to back up a bit, especially the children.
Cai picked up Tara; Button dangled from her hand in the air. The others stepped back except for Celeste.
“I am going to enact a spell with words that will allow you to reach into the depths of yourself to find the dark sorcery within you. It will feel as though you are both sleeping and awake at the same time. When you find it, you must grab it and bring it to the surface. Once it is there, the rest of the dark sorcery will come. Then it is up to you to release it and guide it toward Celeste. Do you understand?”
Brenna nodded her head. In theory, she understood the directions that were just told to her, but it still all sounded nebulous and crazy.
“Close your eyes,” Norna said.
Brenna did as she was instructed and began to hear Norna’s words chanting softly, almost like the thrumming of distant thunder. The feeling that Norna described to her of being asleep and awake at the same time fell over her, and she felt as though she was taking a swirling fall into her own mind. It almost felt as if she were looking at herself from outside her own body. She took a moment to explore the curious feeling and then searched around inside herself for the dark sorcery. It was like a game of hide and seek, mentally looking in corners of her psyche, hoping to locate some shining power hidden inside a crevice or alcove. Which she did.
Brenna grabbed hold of the small, bubbling spot of dark sorcery inside her and pulled. She felt it rise through her and then out from her fingertip as though she were pulling out a thorn. The others watched as a rippling ball of purplish energy formed in Brenna’s outstretched palm. It was so small, and some of them became nervous that it would not be enough to tame all of the plague-ridden magic that would meet with it. Brenna opened her eyes once she felt the magic outside of her and concentrated on drawing the dark sorcery to it. Norna was right, within a single moment, the sorcery came rushing into the forest with the plague following at its heels. Brenna’s pupils dilated, and she pressed against the energy in the air with all her might, throwing the small ball of magic in her hand toward Celeste, who stood unwavering beside her. The dark sorcery immediately chased after the little ball of light and met with it merely inches before it collided with Celeste’s chest. She fell backward, and Cai quickly handed Tara to Lopt as he ran to catch his sister before she hit the ground. There was no sign of the dark sorcery or the plague in the air.
“Celeste!” Cai shouted as he gently rubbed his sister's face. “Celeste, wake up!”
The others gathered around them to see what had happened.
“Is she okay?” Leif asked Norna.
Before Norna could answer, Celeste opened her eyes and looked at her brother.
“Did it work?” he asked.
“It worked,” Norna answered. “The dark sorcery healed itself as it became whole. The plague is gone, and Celeste is now the keeper of this ancient magic.”
Cai helped his sister to her feet, and the others smiled and hugged each other, rejoicing in the moment of victory that had saved the realms.
“We will need to go back and tend to our worlds,” Cai said. “They will need some rebuilding, and the people will need some care to recover from the damage the plague caused.”
Brenna sat silently on the ground as tears began to run down her face. “What of my world? Is it gone now?”
Norna nodded her head one slow, single time. “Yes. The mortal world and all of its inhabitants have been destroyed by this action. Acts of great power must always have a cost to balance them.”
Brenna stood up and wiped the tears from her face. “I want to go there and see it for myself.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Lopt and Celeste returned to Alfheim with Astra and Cai to assess the damage that had been done by the plague and help the light elves rebuild their city and their lives. The boy and his mother returned with them, but the other three children remained with Norna and Leif in the forest. Tara was adamant that she and Button should go with Cai back to Alfheim, but since Gretel’s siblings had decided not to continue living with the boy and his mother, Cai thought it best that they were all safe and cared for in the forest until he had a look at the situation on Alfheim. Brynlee was old enough now to look after her brother and sister herself, so once Cai had deemed Alfheim as safe for them to return to, he would come back to fetch the three of them. Brynlee was fine with staying in the forest; she liked being anywhere that she could stare at Erik from a distance. Which meant she was none too happy when she heard that he would be leaving with some of the others to go back to what was once New York City.
“I don’t understand why you would want to go back there,” she said to Erik as he was preparing to leave. “There’s nothing left there anyway.”
“You are most likely right,” he said as he smiled at the girl. “But Brenna wants to see what has happened to her home, and Brandt, Colby, Jerrik, and I will accompany her there.”
“Why do you all have to go?” She tried not to sound like a whiny “almost-adult” girl, but she knew she did anyway.
“Because Brenna is our friend, and Earth was our home for a time .” He put his hand on Brynlee’s shoulder, and she felt the warmth from his touch run all the way down to her feet. “We’ll be back soon. Keep Leif and his rebellious girlfriend out of trouble while I’m gone,” he said. He leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and she thought she would die right there on the spot.
“I will,” she said as her cheeks filled with flushed color.
“Careful there,” Jerrik said as Erik walked up toward them. He patted Erik on the back and grinned at him. “I think she has a crush on you, try not to break her.”
“Nah,” Erik said, laughing. “She’s just a girl.”
“Actually, I think I heard her say that she turns eighteen in a couple of days.”
“Who’d you hear that from?”
“Her,” Jerrik chuckled. “I think she was trying to say it loud enough so that you would know too.”
“Are we all ready?” Brandt asked as he walked up with Colby and Brenna.
The guys nodded.
“I’m still not sure why we are going to look at this devastation if Norna said it’s something we can fix anyway,” Colby said.