Chapter Chapter Twenty-One

I wake up slowly. My arms are stiff. I open my eyes and blink in the harsh light. Where am I? I hear people talking. “Gstalt is close. We don’t have time for her to wake up. We have to fight now. That Banishee is destroying my men. They’ll die soon.”

“Just wait Alex!” A woman yells as she slams the door. “Man he’s gotten annoying since I made Elder. I used to think he was cute.”

“You think anything that moves is cute.” Penny giggles.

I look over and see a woman with long wavy black hair pulled into a ponytail. Gold jewelry twines her hair and folds on her golden shoulders. She’s wearing a flowing red body suit that cuts off just below her butt. Sandals are strapped to her feet. She turns her head and grins at me, revealing stunningly white teeth that show off her fire red eyes. “Look who finally woke up.”

“Moria.” I croak as I breathe at her, relieved to see her.

She’s a vision of loveliness as she walks over to me. She puts her hand on my forehead. “Looks like your fever broke.” She cocks her head. “Callia, when did your eyes turn lilac?”

I give her a confused look. “What are you talking about?”

“What happened to you?” Allie demands as she gets up, just noticing my eyes. “Did the Spirit do this?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. If you’re talking about what just happened to my body, it was The Magic. I don’t know how else to describe it.” All four of them sit on the edge of my bed as I tell them what happened.

“What did Lee mean by The Magic?” Mary asks. They’re all dressed exactly as Moria, likely wanting to get changed into something less revealing.

“I don’t know. Is there something stronger than Spirits?” I ask as I sit up. I pull the stone from my chest, and they stare wearily at it. “What I want to know, is why is it forbidding me to fight Gstalt?”

“Maybe it wants you to take out the bigger target?” Moria suggests. “I’d send my strongest warrior after the strongest fighter any day.”

I nod. “Maybe.”

Moria pulls out the Fire Elemental Stone. “What’s weird is that I’ve never created these before, and yet I had a sudden desire to right after you got here. It’s like my brain automatically knew what to do.” She says as she holds the stone out to me. As if acting on instinct, I touch it to the other stones, it automatically absorbing the others.

The girls suddenly scream as they fall on the floor. Alarmed, I quickly jump up and start trying to help them up. Their eyes are unfocused. “Help!” I yell as my body starts going numb again. I fall to the ground; my energy being drained. An elemental stone begins forming outside of my chest. I try to stop it but it’s pulling lilac blood from my veins already. I scream in agony as I fall forward. I hear the other girls follow me. I reach for Allie’s hand, she’s the closest to me.

“Callia.” Allie gasps. I soon feel Moria’s hand on me, then Penny’s, followed by Mary. “What do we do?” They beg at the same time.

“I don’t know.” I say between sharp breaths. “My magic has never acted outside of my control before.”

We look up as we see a multicolored light fill the room. Our stones have morphed into one giant stone, filling with our magic. Are the Spirits taking away our magic? Then in a blink it’s gone. We shield our eyes as a bright light explodes, followed by the sound of glass shattering.

I look at Allie to see if she’s alright. I gasp. Her eyes are pure blue. Mary’s are silver, Penny’s a mossy green, and Moria is pure molten lava red. “What happened?” I demand, feeling my strength coming back.

“Hi girls.” A voice behind us says.

We scream as we leap back. “Lee!” I hiss at him as I try to catch my breath. I hear pounding on the door as the girls try to push away from Lee.

“Are you alive?” Moria demands as she holds Allie.

He shakes his head. “Sadly, no. I’m here because I was sworn as Callia’s protector. Apparently, that oath is still viable in death. I’m here to let you five know what happened. The Magic is very upset with the Spirits for interfering with mortal life. Therefore, you five are now Liaisons between them and the mortal world. Your jobs are to keep both worlds in check. After you beat Morticious in this realm, you get to take on the Spirits.”

“What?” I croak as I try to stand but Lee is gone.

I fall to my knees the second the door opens. Garth is flanked by Alaric and Arin. They’re wearing red shorts and no shirts. Garth is at my side in a flash as he tries to help me to my feet. “Callia, you shouldn’t be out of bed. The Healer said your magic was fluctuating. Likely due to the huge physical stress you’ve been under.”

I shake my head. “No! It wasn’t that.” I gasp as I’m still trying to catch my breath.

Allie stands. “Callia, I saw it. I saw those ribbons. As much as your story told me not to touch them my body still did it.”

“Same here.” The other girls croak while Garth helps me sit on the edge of the bed.

“Why do I feel so much magic in here?” Alaric hisses as he steps away from me. “It’s so strong that I can’t sense anything else but it.”

“How can you feel that?” Penny demands as she stands.

He folds his arms. “One of the ways I track someone is by their magical makeup. Every magical being has a very unique “scent” I suppose you can say. I’m ten times more sensitive to others magic because of this. The magic I’m sensing off of Callia, is insanely higher than I have ever felt off of her. Her body also feels different in my sense, as well as you girls. What happened here?”

The other girls sit next to me as I start off from what happened in the cave. “We have no idea what The Magic is. I’ve never heard of it.”

“I’ll start doing some research.” Allie says as she stands. “There has got to be something to help us. Maybe we can find why Morticious was banished.”

“Wait!” Moria says as she grabs Allie’s arm. “Did you say Morticious?”

Allie nods. “That’s what Callia said his name is.”

Moria looks at me. “You faced him and lived?”

I nod. “Believe me, it was by a hair.” Even if I had been at full strength it would have been a close call.

She puts her other hand on my shoulder. “Count yourself lucky then. I learned about Morticious in school. He once was the strongest Lava Spirit. It is said he’s where the Lava Gods originate from. One day he killed the original Water Spirit. There was no warning. He was banished as a result. It’s been known a long time in my clan that he was screaming that he was innocent when he was banished. They didn’t listen to him, so he’s sworn revenge. He’s tried three times prior to come through, but no one had strong enough magic to make it happen. While in banishment he’s killed three Spirits.”

“So, you’re telling me, that thing is strong enough to kill a Spirit?” I demand.

“I don’t think he is now Callia.” Mary said quickly. “You were severely drained the last time you fought him. You weren’t at full strength.”

“Yes,” I say quickly, “however neither was he. We also just found out he literally had just entered our world when he fought you and Penny. His magic will take several days to fully come into this world.” Which means by now, he’s at full strength.

“It still won’t be at the level in the Spirit World.” Allie says soothingly.

“Still,” I groan, “exactly how strong is Morticious?”

Moria hesitates before answering. “The strongest Lava Spirit ever recorded.”

I flop on the bed. “I’ll take Morticious. Girls, you get Gstalt.”

“How?” Every single person in the room yelled.

I point to the ceiling, “I have no idea, but you heard Lee. Plus, since Moria explained exactly how powerful this thing has the potential to be, he’s going to kick my butt.” My hand flops down as I think how to fight him.

“Hold it!” Garth says quickly. “What about Gstalt? Obviously, Callia is the only one that even has a shot of killing Morticious.”

I look at Moria, who has a grin on her face. “Moria, do you want to look into something for me?”

She nods as she gets up. “I’ll look into and see what Lee meant by our new roles.”

“Check to see if you can find anything about The Magic.” I say quickly as I sit up.

She nods as Allie gets up with her. “I’ll go too and find out more about Morticious. If a Spirit was killed, and he said he’s innocent, that might be exactly the thing to trigger The Magic, if it is higher than a Spirit.”

I nod, “You do that. I need to bathe.” I stand up, followed by Penny and Mary.

Mary explains. “We’re still worried about you Callia. You were unconscious for three days. You need someone to keep an eye on you.”

“Wait, what?” I demand as I am nearly floored in shock. “Three days?”

“Do you know what a miracle it was just for your fever to break?” Penny demands. “The Healer thought it was going to kill you.”

“Even Moria couldn’t predict what was going to happen to you Callia.” Mary takes my arm. “We’re keeping an eye on you and that’s final.”

“I wasn’t going to argue.” I gasp. What did that Spirit do to me?

We stagger, well I do, out of the room and head through the hollowed-out mountain. Steam is coming from the walls. Molten lava is seen through cracks but are held in place by diamond glass. The magma is providing a fantastic light source as we make our way down the halls.

Once we reach the center of the mountain, we head straight down several flights of stairs. In the very bottom of the mountain are steam baths. A wall of thickly red crystal separates the men from the woman. I step into a room with stone benches and strip. I walk out into the warm water and moan as I lean back in the pool. My aching muscles really needed this. I sink my head below the water and close my eyes.

“Callia!” A voice yells as they rip me out of the water. I open my eyes and see Moria staring at me wide eyed.

“What?” I gasp as I try to wake up. I look down and see lilac water surrounding me. Moria is surrounded by lava red. I jump to my feet. “What is this?”

Moria looks down. “Oh thank the Gods.” She says as she sits down. “I thought you had died.”

“Perks of being a progeny of a Water Demigod.” I sigh. “Now why am I leaking?”

Moria giggles. “You’re not leaking Callia. Sit down. You still need to rest.” I hear water being moved. I look over and see Allie with the other girls. They’re making their way to my end of the pool. “We found something.”

“Why are you still dressed Moria?” Penny giggles.

“Because someone was sleeping underwater.” Moria says as she nudges me. She quickly strips and throws her soaking wet clothes out of the water. She lets her long hair cascade down as she relaxes.

Allie starts. “Morticious died due to murdering a Water Spirit named Midra.” I pale as she says this. “He claimed he was innocent, but the Elemental Spirits wouldn’t listen to him and banished him. Apparently he was an insane murderer since he killed three other Spirits after he was banished. The last one was named Glidia.”

My body starts trembling. It wasn’t a dream. Allie doesn’t seem to notice my state of panic. “Moria’s found out something from The Magic, with the help of Lee.”

She nods. “Lee pointed out that no known young text contains anything about The Magic. However, since Lava Gods are hoarders, I was able to find something. It’s so old it originates in our original text. When we were first created. Now, I never knew how to read the damn thing before, but apparently I do now.”

She moves me in front of her and starts braiding my hair as she talks. Moria does this when something big is going on. It helps her mind to focus and stay on track. “Now, The Magic is the source of all Magic. As it expands so does our magic. The Spirits are assigned as guardians of it and directs it through the right channels for us to use. One of the safe ways The Magic put in place, so mortals do not abuse the magic, is that the Spirits create and control the Elemental stones. Mortals, however, can use the magic from many different Spirits. Spirits need the actual Element; mortals can create it.

“My assumption is that the Spirits did something to make The Magic believe that it was not living up to the Guardian role. That has to be why they created us. There is not any history I can find of Liaisons between the Spirits and Mortals and The Magic. However, I got Lee to talk. We’re taking the role over of the Elemental Stone Guardians. What pushed their decision was mostly their belief that they feel the punishment was too harsh for the Wind Gods, due to Mako’s failure. It’s also the reason why it looks like we’re leaking.” Moria motions to the other girls who has water near them changing to their color of magic, “So, as far to my understanding, we’re essentially made up of magic now. Didn’t you girls feel it? Your body changing.” She shudders as we nod. “My magic has definitely changed. What about everyone else?”

Allie looks at me and my paling self. “Callia, what’s wrong? You look like you swallowed your tongue.”

“The Spirits, they’re trying to take over The Magic.” I breathe, remembering my dream. It wasn’t a dream though. My dreams have never been this accurate.

“What do you mean?” Moria asks.

I quickly tell them about my dream and what I had seen. “This can’t be real. This has never happened to me…” I trail off as I remember some of the dreams I’ve had since I’ve died. “No, it’s happened before. This has been happening since Gstalt summoned me.” I say this as I think about the images I saw when I fell asleep in the bathhouse with Mary. I share that dream with them, honestly a little more scared now that I realize it was real.

“And you didn’t tell me!” Mary hisses.

“I thought it was a dream!” I cry. “I didn’t realize I was actually seeing what happened to Mako.”

“So if Mako was murdered by Arwen, who is also dead, where is that stone?” Mary groans. “I wish it was like that time we lost my ball Callia. Then we could try a locating spell.”

I think about it. “Maybe we could.”

She shakes her head. “Mako created the stone. We need his blood.”

“Moria just said we took over control of the Elemental Stones right?” I fold my arms as I feel her nod. “Then we might as well try it.” Besides, if that’s the case I can get my stone back from them. And all the other Elemental Stones I filled before I died. I don’t like even the remote possibility that that dream is accurate.

Moria puts her head on my shoulder. “Callia, did you need to be near Gstalt to drain his magic?”

I shake my head. “Since I’ve been influenced by his magic so much no. Why?”

“Why don’t us girls and you give it a go again?” Moria suggests. “We can create the stones and do it again. Is there a way that we can do it ourselves?”

I nod. “The only reason I was the one to do it last time, is because no one else was strong enough, or as familiar with his magic as I was. Since you girls are stronger, and know how to fight his magic, you can give it a shot.”

Moria nods. “Good, because I just know the minute we try draining Gstalt, Morticious is going to be here faster than a biting fore snake.”

I shudder. I’ve dealt with one of those things. They move so fast when they strike, it doesn’t appear they’ve moved. The only reason you know they moved is the bite mark they left behind. “Then I’ll take care of him when he shows. However, once Gstalt is taken care of we need to find a new vessel for Dark Magic.”

“I can take care of that.” I turn my head while the other girls scream and cover themselves at the male’s voice. It’s Lee staring at us as he giggles.

“Get out of here!” Mary yells as she splashes water at him. It goes right through him.

I roll my eyes as Lee laughs. “I’m a ghost darling, what do you think I’m going to do?” Lee looks at me. “The Magic already has someone who they want to take over. The second you drain Gstalt smash the stones.”

“What?” All five of us yell. I quickly jump in. “It’ll release it as wild magic Lee. That’s too dangerous.”

He nods. “The Magic will take care of it. They have a God of Darkness in mind.”

“Is it you?” Allie asks wistfully.

Lee shakes his head. “Got to be alive darling. You do know this individual, and you share something in common that all of you share.” He vanishes at that point.

“Well that was helpful.” I huff. I turn to Mary. “Let’s try it.”

Mary nods as she holds my hand. We close our eyes and focus on our desired prize. “Gods and Spirits bring to us what was lost. Wind Mother guide it to our hands. Bring back the Elemental Wind Stone.”