*
The remaining few metres of the way back to the Passage were spent in silence. When the Five – or, well, they were with six - arrived at the Entrance, they were unhappily surprised.
An Warlock Spirit was blocking the path, probably one that snuck away from the battle earlier and waited for them at the Entrance.
“This is where the road ends for you, Guardians,” the Warlock Spirit said while raising his arm and pointing with his index finger toward the teenagers.
“Surrender now or you’ll be separated. And you all know what separation means for the Bond of Light...
...Game over.” He laughed.
“We’re not afraid of you,” Thomas said. “It’s just one against at least two. We can take you out within a second.”
“Attack me, and I will enter the Entrance, Guardian,” the Spirit said threatening. “This means that one of you won’t be able to return through the Entrance and shall have to travel through the Twilight Forest on their own, where they will be found by the Shadow Walkers roaming the forest... You have no choice but to surrender.”
Thomas grimaced. “I’m never going to surrender, and especially not to someone who’s way beneath my dignity.”
He took a step forward, causing the Warlock Spirit to glide backward closer to the Entrance, but it didn’t enter.
“What’s the point, anyway? I mean- it’s not like we have to go through the Secret Passage. We can get back to the Valley through the Twilight Forest if we want to. We’ve done it before.”
The English-born teenager’s eyes darkened as they stared angrily at the Warlock. “You have no kind of control over us.”
“You think I don’t, boy?” the Evil Spirit said, still gliding further toward the Entrance. “This Entrance remains open until six life sources will have passed. It cannot be manually closed. And when I enter, the Magic barrier your Queen has created around her lands to protect her from evil, will be gone. Darkness shall be able to destroy everything good in the Fantasy Valley, and the gates shall always be open! Then you shall have no place left to run to, and no place left to hide! And now you’re trying to tell me I hadn’t any kind of control over you!”
Thomas swallowed. The Warlock actually did have a point there. But he couldn’t back away now. He would just have to bluff him and his friends a way out of it.
“Bring it on, then,” he said confidently. “Show me what you’ve got.”
The nineteen-year-old pulled out his sword and ran forward, while roaring loudly. But just at the moment he was about to lash out at the Warlock, the Spirit dodged his attack and disappeared into the Entrance.
“Oh, screw it! Antonio, take James and Bella through the Passage and make sure that they reach the Palace! The injured first!”
“But Thomas-” Antonio protested.
“Do as I say, Antonio! Trust me!”
Antonio didn’t ask more questions. He just simply grabbed James’s healthy arm, without letting go of Bella, and ran through the Entrance, with Violina after them. James made loud protests at first, but they faded out as soon as they had entered the Passage.
“Thomas, what are we going to do now? Only one of us can pass! This isn’t going to work!” Samira exclaimed.
“It’s just a matter of time before the Shadow Walkers get here, so we have to act quick and concrete,” Thomas mumbled. “Samira, step onto my hand.”
“What?” Samira asked. “Thomas, please talk louder, I can’t understand what you’re saying.”
Thomas simply stuck his hand out toward the Pixie on his shoulder. “Sit down,” he said.
Samira did what she was told.
Thomas started to run toward the entrance, and pushed Samira slightly against his chest. “I hope this works, and that it won’t kick one of us out,” he said. “There we go!”
He ran through the Entrance, which instantly started to close. Thomas ran as fast as he could to stay ahead of the bending trees, and it eventually worked.
When he entered the Queen’s Valley, he nearly tripped over a tree root and stumbled forward across the open place.
Antonio and Bella weren’t there, but James was. “I sent Antonio ahead with Bella,” he said. “Come on. Let’s go.”
The Bond of Light arrived at the Queen’s Palace without any further problems. When they entered, Violina was waiting for them in the hallway.
“The Queen is expecting you in a different room this time,” she said. “Follow me.”
The room they entered was decorated in the same style as the living room, but seemed to have a much warmer feeling, due to the floor being from spruce wood planks.
A king size bed stood in the middle of the room, and someone familiar to the teenagers was lying in it.
“Bella! You’re awake!” Samira said as she fluttered toward her, while still carrying the flowers. “You’ve still got them!” Bella responded. “I’m glad to see you’re okay, Sam.”
“So are we to see that you are as well,” Antonio said with a crooked smile on his face, as he fluffed Bella’s hair.
“Ouch, Antonio, that hurts,” Bella moaned. “Please be careful.”
“Oh, sorry, Jingle Bells. I thought you would’ve already recovered.”
“She might still feel pain in her leg and head for the next few days,” Queen Eloine said, who had suddenly seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
“And there is a chance that her leg won’t be strong enough to carry him today. Especially not when you’ll be climbing the mountain, so I’d advice that you spend the night here, and see how it goes tomorrow morning.”
“If you’ve got the time, could you please examine James?” Thomas said. “He has been hit by some kind of Magic spell.” James was leaning on the Brit’s shoulder.
“I will, boys. But I can’t say if it’s anything bad or not before any symptoms show up, so I’ll have to give it an hour or two before I can examine him,” Queen Eloine said. “I suggest that you have dinner together with me and sleep here. If I can watch it progress throughout the evening, I can come up with an quicker solution. For now... Samira, will you come over here and bring me one of the three flowers?”
Samira dropped one flower on Bella’s bed and fluttered with the other one to Queen Eloine.
“Your Majesty, can you show me how I am supposed to use the flower?”
The Queen nodded. “Come with me to the living room, there I will show you. Bella, I’d suggest that you try to sleep and take some rest. It’s been a long day; we’ll wake you up before dinner.”
The four teenagers and left Bella alone, who immediately sank down on her pillow and closed her eyes.
In the living room, Queen Eloine walked toward a medicine cabin and got some sort of golden bowl out of it. It had been decorated with tiny emeralds and sapphires; she took the flower from Samira, put it inside the bowl, before setting it on the table.
“Now, Samira, I want you to concentrate on the flower’s energy,” Queen Eloine said. Samira landed on the table and spread her arms.
Nothing happened at fist, and Samira was starting to get worried it wouldn’t work. But Queen Eloine kept encouraging her to keep going. And suddenly, the flower started to glow, and so did Samira. She got lifted off the ground as a trail of sparkles surrounded her.
A white flash filled the room, but it didn’t knock everyone back, like the one that changed Samira at first.
The white light faded out, and Samira was sitting on the table. She had been turned back into her old self.
She gasped happily while looking at her hands, jumped up from the table and hugged James and Thomas. “Guys! We did it!” she cheered loudly.
“Samira, I am so proud of you! I knew you could do it!” James said, holding his sister’s shoulders and smiling at her. “And now all of this is out of the way... I’m thirsty; I’m going to refill our water sacks at the moat outside.”
He grabbed the leather shoulder bag Thomas had dropped on his chair earlier that day and left th
e room. “I’m back before you know it,” he said.
Samira waited for about a minute after James had left the room before leaving as well. “I might better go and look after him. We still don’t know what he was hit by.”
At the moat, James was digging around in the bag which he had hung around his shoulder to find one of the water sacks.
But right as he pulled one out of the bag and wanted to squat to fill it, his hands started to shake. It felt like they were asleep; it was a cold and tingly feeling, that quickly spread across his body, causing him to lose all muscle control.
James’s fingertips first turned white, and then blue. The same kind of colour appeared underneath his eyes, forming a strange pattern across his head.
James winced and staggered, but tried to stay on his feet and not to fall into the water, with his feet at the absolute edge of the moat. But he quickly lost control of the muscles in his legs; his knees buckled and he fell forward into the water.
Fairy Flu
“JAMES! NO!”
Samira sprinted toward the moat, where James had just disappeared underneath the water’s surface. She knelt down at the water’s shore, bending over until her head was under water, in hopes of finding her brother, but she had no such luck.
“Dang it!” Samira said as she pulled her head back up to breathe. “It’s a whole lot deeper than I was hoping it’d be down there.” And without any further hesitation, she took a deep breath and dove into the cold water. Luckily, James hadn’t sunk down too far, so Samira was able to get to him quickly.
She grabbed him, and held on to him tightly while swimming back to the surface and dragging the two of them back on land.
As quick as she could, Samira got to her knees and looked at James to examine him. The redhead was extremely cold, with a bunch of blue marks going all around his face and fingertips.
“Oh no,” Samira mumbled; she knew that whatever this was, it wasn’t good. She stood up, got her brother in her arms as careful as she could, and started to run back to the Palace.
“Samira! Violina!” the eighteen-year-old shouted, while quickening her pace. Antonio, Thomas, Violina and Queen Eloine approached him from the other side of the hallway.
“What’s wrong, Samira?” Violina asked.
“Something’s wrong with James,” Samira replied with a very concerned look in her eyes, which immediately reflected on her friends’ faces.
Queen Eloine gently pushed Thomas and Antonio aside and stepped forward.
“Come with me,” she said. “We’ll need to put him on the examination table.”
They all returned to the room where Bella was sleeping, who woke up as soon as she heard the nervously mumbling voices and footsteps entering the room.
“What happened?” she mumbled, still sleep-charged, but nobody answered or even looked at her. The Queen used her Magic to let a steel examination table roll toward them by itself.
Bella slowly managed got out of bed, and tried to stand on the leg that had been broken. It hurt a little, but she was able reach the others while half walking and half hopping, where she managed to cling onto Antonio’s shoulder.
“What happened?” she whispered. Antonio turned his head and looked at the teenager clamping onto his shoulder, and then moved his arm around the girl’s shoulder.
“It’s James,” Antonio said. “He’s quite the unluckiest lad in the world, currently.”
Samira carefully laid the red-haired teenager down on the cold steel table. It was clear that James could feel the cold, because he winced for a second before becoming motionless again.
His chest rose slowly yet naturally, but the blue marks were still there.
“Can you tell what’s wrong with him, Your Majesty?” Thomas asked. “It better be quick. I don’t think he looks too well.”
Queen Eloine stared at James, and carefully hovered a hand over his chest.
“It looks like a strange mutation of the Fairy Flu,” she said, while her blue eyes kept looking at James with a concerned look. “This is not good.”
“What- what do you mean by that?” Samira exclaimed, almost sounding desperate. Her eyes flashed from the Fairy Queen in front of her to her little brother on the table.
“I mean that normally, the first stage doesn’t occur until 72 hours after being cursed,” Queen Eloine said. “For James, it took hardly an hour.”
“W-what?” Samira almost had to squeeze the word out of her throat.
“It means if we don’t act now, James could be dead in less than a day,” Queen Eloine said. There was sadness in her voice.
“No! We can’t let that happen!” Samira shouted, as tears started to sting her eyes again.
“There must be something you can do! Like- the flowers! Can’t you use those to heal him?”
“Samira, as much as I’d like to see your brother back in full health, this won’t be an easy job. The Magic that was used to curse your brother is stronger than any fairy Magic we’ve ever experienced before,” Violina said. “Where did he get hit?”
“He was hit right in the chest,” Thomas mumbled. “Please don’t tell me that that makes it worse.”
“It does,” Queen Eloine said. “The heart and the head are the worst places to be hit with Magic... It’s the hardest to remove the source from a vital organ.”
She tilted her head and looked at Samira. “Samira, you are going to help me save your brother.”
Samira stared at the Queen, not knowing what to say or do. “But how would you expect me to help you?” she finally asked, hoping not to sound disrespectful. “I lost all my magical potential when the curse was lifted!”
Queen Eloine smiled. “No, I certainly believe you haven’t. Don’t you remember what Akilah told you?”
She walked away and left the room, but returned shortly.
“A long time ago, Akilah told me to hang on to this necklace until I’d find someone who it belonged to. She never mentioned who, but I believe I do now.” She returned to the teenagers while carrying a silver-coloured satin pillow with a beautiful necklace on it. It was a long chain, with a single gemstone in the exact middle. It was a pink, rhombus-shaped diamond that was glowing softly. On the silver surrounding that kept the diamond secure to the, the word “Loyalty” had been engraved.
“Please, take it. It belongs to you,” Queen Eloine said.
Samira’s hand slowly reached out for the necklace to pick it up. Once her fingertips touched it, she felt some kind of connection being created between her and the energy that was sealed inside the stone. But it didn’t feel new; it felt like it had always been a part of her.
“Come on, Sammy, let me help you with that,” Bella mumbled from behind Samira when he saw her struggle to get the lock of the necklace to lock around her neck, and took the two threads from her to do it for her; apparently, Bella’s leg had now grown strong enough to carry her weight again.
As soon as the necklace was hanging securely around Samira’s neck, the pink stone’s glow became even brighter, creating a similar scene as to what had happened to Bella and Thomas.
“Samira Riverdale,” Akilah’s voice echoed around the room.
“Guard this stone with your life. It represents your power; to heal the sick and injured. All you have to do is believe, like you did when you believed in yourself when you removed the Fairy Curse which had been casted on your own soul.
When it comes to it, this energy could save one’s life. Believe in yourself, Samira. Stay loyal to your friends, and to yourself. By doing so, you’ll unleash your Guardian’s Totem; Loyalty.”
Samira’s feet touched the ground, and the light of the stone dimmed again to the way it had been before.
The girl stared with unbelieving eyes at the stone, which rested peacefully on her chest; she touched it carefully with her fingertips.
“So... You knew this all along?” Samira said, while raising her head, directing to the Queen.
Queen Eloine smiled. “Of cours
e I did. All of this has been foretold, remember?” she replied. “Together with the powers within the flower and the Magic that’s contained within that stone and within your soul, I might be able to heal him. We might be able to heal him.”
“...Might?” Bella mumbled, leaning on Antonio’s arm once again. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that Samira needs training on how to use her powers, but I fear that James doesn’t have enough time for that,” Queen Eloine replied. “As I said before, the first stage had showed upon him within less than an hour. That’s three days – or 71 hours – early for humans. This means that the second stage shall begin before midnight.”
“How many stages are there?” Antonio asked, while slight confusion was showing in the nineteen-year-old’s eyes.
“Four,” Queen Eloine replied. “The later the stage, the longer it lasts, but it also gets more painful as the stage progresses.”
“Is there nothing you can do?” Samira said. Her eyebrows were curled in a worried frown which had a certain angle which most likely no one’s eyebrows had ever been at before, and the worry in her eyes was so great that it was almost literally heartbreaking to see the girl’s face.
Samira fell forward on her knees, clasping her hands together. ”I am begging you, Queen Eloine,” she said.
“I beg you, please teach me how I can help him. He’s my brother. I couldn’t imagine a life without him.”
Violina covered her mouth as her expression changed. She stared at Samira in something the eighteen-year old first mistook for confusion and worry, but seconds later she realised that there was pity in the fixie’s eyes. Pity and fear.
The Queen gave the teenager that had just knelt in front of her and desperately begged her to save the injured boy on the examination table a disappointed look. But it wasn’t Samira whom the disappointment had been directed toward.
“This has never happened before,” she whispered. “Only once. And she promised us all...” Queen Eloine walked past the teenagers and returned to the still unconscious – or perhaps sleeping – James. She gently stroke the boy’s red hair, before walking over to the window, where she held still.
Queen Eloine stared out of the window for a few seconds more, before finally speaking up again. “She promised us all that she would never do it again.”
“Who? And what?” Samira asked, feeling slightly bewildered, but didn’t approach the Queen. In fact, everyone remained where they were, as if frozen in place. Except for the Queen, who sighed deeply and turned around to face the teenagers.
“I’m sure you all know the tale how the first Bond of Light was chosen,” she said. “And, of course you know what happened after this first Generation had fallen. A part of the Spirits lives in them, in their souls. Waiting to be set free and to return to their former bodies when the Light has been returned – or the Keepers’ body whose soul they are connected to dies. Then their souls shall separate again.”
The Queen fell silent again, perhaps waiting for one of Antonio’s witty comments, but none came.
“The Almighty Spirit, Akilah, was the one who’d set it all up. Quickly, before discussing it with her brothers and sisters. She was able to take their shattered pieces and send them off to Earth... but she’d added a preference for the kind of soul the pieces would choose.
The Guardians took the Sources of Light with them to Lunaria, and when the fifth Source was activated, the Spirits who created the Life Sources connected themselves to the souls of the Guardians, making them “immortal.” Which they weren’t really, of course, because they could be killed – just as easily as any regular human.
But it prevented them from aging and so a natural death, because the Spirits don’t age either, of course.
But the little “quirk” Akilah had decided to add, was that every single Generation required two blood-relatives. In the case of the First Generation, it were Rikki and Gabriel – the little sister and the older, overprotective brother.
Rikki unfortunately died before her brother, leaving Gabriel behind heart-broken and grieving, unable to keep his mind on the quest.
This became his undoing in the end.
It angered all of us Keepers after we heard Gabe’s cries for his little sister. We went to find Akilah, hoping to receive an explanation, which she gave us.
She thought the strength of a family bond alone would be strong enough to complete the quest, but unfortunately, the girl was too young.
Never since then, a Guardian younger than Rikki had been chosen, nor had any people who were in any kind of relation been.”
“How old was Rikki when she died?” Samira asked out of curiosity.
“Thirteen and a half,” Queen Eloine said. “She mentioned the half part once. We put an Age Line around the selection of Guardians. The Age Line is fourteen, though no one really agreed with Guardians of that young, but Akilah was convinced that the Innocence of Children is the strongest kind of magical weapon that we could possibly have.”
The Queen fell silent, as the candles threw dark shadows on her beautiful face. The sun had started to set, and had already disappeared behind the trees.
“I think it’s most rational if we begin James’s healing process right now, Samira,” Queen Eloine said while she walked back to her former spot. She walked toward the girl and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“I shall do what I can to heal him, and won’t stop until I’ve given everything, Samira. I promise.” She then shifted her attention toward Bella, Thomas and Antonio. “I insist you three wait outside, and perhaps have some rest. Violina shall show you your rooms.”
“But- can’t we stay?” Thomas mumbled. “We’ve-”
His sentence got cut off by Samira, who suddenly was standing right next to him. She smiled, but it wasn’t a smile of happiness, but of pity. “I know what you mean, Thomas. But it’s best if you waited outside.
I’m worried about him, just like you guys are. But there’s nothing you can do.
Thomas? Do you trust me?”
“Of course I do, Samira, why wouldn’t I?” Thomas replied, slightly confused.
“Then leave,” Samira said. “Leave, get yourself some dry clothes, have some sleep. I’ll keep healing James until he’s completely back to normal. I promise.”
She opened her arms, and Thomas walked into them. He was surprised that he wasn’t grossed-out by the wet clothing Samira was wearing; instead, he wanted to hold her tighter – and probably even kiss her. But he knew she wouldn’t accept his kiss – let alone answer it.
“Samira, I should get you and your brother some dry clothing,” Violina said. “I think we have some clothes for you and your brother that have belonged to former Guardians. I’ll get you to them straight away, and I’ll put those you’re wearing now outside to dry. We absolutely can’t afford to take the risk that James is going to catch a cold as well, which he’s most likely to get if he keeps wearing those wet and ripped things. And so do you.”
Violina escorted Thomas, Antonio and Bella out of the room, leaving Samira and Queen Eloine alone with James. The fixie returned shortly with a tunic and trousers that were identical to the ones James was wearing, plus a pair of fluffy grey socks and white underwear.
“Just give me his shoes, cape and gloves, and I’ll be out of here,” she said with a broad smile, but it was obvious that she wasn’t truly happy.
“Just a moment,” Queen Eloine said. She quickly made a circling motion over James’s clothing and then pointed with that same flat hand toward the clothes Violina was carrying.
The clothes glowed shortly, and the next thing that happened, was that Violina now was suddenly carrying James’s wet clothes, and James was dressed in the new, dry clothes.
“Simple swapping spell,” Queen Eloine explained to Samira. “Avoids embarrassing situations... if you know what I mean.”
This statement of the Queen caused Samira to laugh. “Works like a charm,” she said.
But she knew that
this wasn’t the moment for goofing around. Her best friend and little brother was dying, and the fate of his life was in her hands.
Her clumsy, tiny hands. How was she supposed to save him? Like she’d saved herself earlier that day? Samira didn’t even know how she’d pulled that off, so how could she possibly repeat that?
It was as if Queen Eloine possessed the power to read minds (which she probably did, but you can never know for sure). She smiled warmly and comfortingly at Samira, and laid a hand on the young girl’s shoulder.
“Do not fret about him, Samira,” she said. “He is in pain, but he will be all right. All you have to do is believe he will; the first step of using Magic.”
“But- I don’t know how to believe...” Samira mumbled. “In... something... impossible. Except when...”
“Except when?”
“Except whenever it involved a plan of James’s,” Samira replied, and moved her hand subconsciously toward James’s, to hold it.
It still felt as cold as it did before.
“He- even when we were young, he was able to do the impossible. I wasn’t, and I still am not. I- I’m nothing like him, I can’t do this.”
“Samira... Believe,” the Queen said. “Just feel it in your heart. Will you try it for me? If you won’t try it for me, then please try it for James. He’s relying on you, Samira, and only you can save him.
He’ll die either way if you don’t try. You saw how devastated your friends are, and you can feel your own devastation in your heart... So... Do it for him, do it for your friends...”
This made Samira think twice, and smiled at the Queen. “All right,” she said. “I promise I will try to save you, James.”
Something like a little squeeze in her hand came from James’s side and a little smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, causing Samira’s heart to go on a flutter.
She could do it, and he was trying to encourage her. But- he was unconscious, right?
“Is- Is he awake?”
“He’s between asleep and awake, currently,” Queen Eloine said. “I bet that he heard your heartbreaking beg as well... It’s one of the first effects of the second Stage. We must hurry.”
“Let’s begin, then,” Samira said. “Where do I have to place the bowl with the flowers?”
“One at a time, Samira,” Queen Eloine said. “We have to make a potion out of the flowers and mix that with your healing powers.”
“How do we make the right potion?” Samira asked.
“Like this,” Queen Eloine said, taking one of the flowers out of the bowl Samira was holding, and crunching it in her fist.
A golden, smooth liquid poured out of the flower; all that remained was a yellow powder, which Queen Eloine allowed to fall back into the bowl. The other flower remained intact.
“It’s easier if he drinks this,” Queen Eloine said. “That way, it’ll stay in his system longer. But we’ll have to use the second flower as well tomorrow.
Now, it’s up to you.”
Queen Eloine handed the bowl to Samira, who carefully accepted it. She stared at the golden liquid that looked smooth and as if it was actually liquid gold; but of course it couldn’t be.
“What should I do?” Samira said. “Just- use my powers while helping James drink this?”
Queen Eloine gave her an elegant nod. “Exactly.”
Samira looked at the Queen, feeling overwhelmed and not sure what to do. “...How do I use my powers?”
“Concentrate,” Queen Eloine said encouragingly. “Each magical being has their own way of activating their Magic. When do you feel the strongest? As in a feeling like you can take on the whole world.”
Samira didn’t hesitate. “When I’m singing,” she said. “Singing gives me confidence.”
Queen Eloine smiled warmly. “Then I’d suggest you choose a song that has a deep meaning to you and your brother, and sing it to him while helping him drink, if he’s able,” she said. “Even if nothing happens magical-wise, you’ll be able to communicate with your brother’s sub-consciousness.”
Samira nodded at the Queen; the smile that appeared on her face reflected faith and confidence. She was slightly hesitant at first, but started to sing the lullaby their parents used to sing to them when they were younger, while Queen Eloine propped up James’s head with care and opened his mouth. The song had been written by their father; before each of their births, he’d written a lullaby that was meant just for them. Their mother continued to sing the lullabies after he’d passed away.
“Little boy, don’t you fear,
Know that I’ll always be here with you,
Keep you close in my heart,
Where you’ve been from the start
Close your eyes, go to sleep
Let your worries fade away
Let them fall, let them go
Like the clouds on a rainy day”
She carefully started to pour the liquid into her brother’s mouth; he was swallowing it, and this encouraged Samira to keep singing.
“Little boy, know that you
Will always hold the key to my heart
I love you, my little boy
You fill my heart with joy
Close your eyes, go to sleep
Know that I will be here
By your side, through night and day
To keep the monsters far away”
Samira couldn’t describe what happened as she sang; the pendant around her neck started to glow, and seemed to add extra power to the golden liquid that she was pouring down her brother’s throat.
He looked a bit better, yet the blue marks were still there.
“That was beautiful, Samira,” Queen Eloine said, as she carefully laid James’s head back down on the table. “We should let him rest for tonight, and check back on his condition tomorrow morning. Then, we’ll decide whether he’ll need another healing session or not.
You and your friends should rest as well. You need to regain strength.”
While the Queen and Samira left the room, Samira looked back once more, at the boy who laid there on the cold metal table, as silent as the dead.
But she knew he wasn’t. He was going to be okay, thanks to her; but despite that, she knew it wasn’t just because of her. It was due to the little smile and the hand-squeezing that Samira felt confident that James would be strong enough to survive.