Holy War: Two Worlds and an In- Between

Chapter 16: Magic

That night, I had a dream. I was back in the opening with Whisper. He was looking at me with pain and anguish as though he had done something wrong. His eyes were dark, and his skin was deeply pale.

"Whisper what's wrong?" I asked walking towards him.

"Diana," he choked, "Run, hide, disappear, it doesn't matter just don't stay where you are! Whatever you do, don't use magic! "

"What, why? Whisper please explain!" I begged, but he never responded. Instead, he disappeared.

***

I woke up the next morning and was glad to see that the sun was coming out. This time, it was a deep lilac with light pink cotton candy floating in front of a red sun. Jack was still asleep in the living room. He gave me the only bedroom in the house with its uncomfortable bed made of straw and cotton.

I felt a bit guilty when I would wake up and find Jack asleep on the floor of a cramped living room. I did argue for him to allow me to sleep in the living room, mostly due to the itchiness of the setup, or at least take turns with me, but he wouldn't hear of it.

In time, I chalked the night up to just a bad dream, but I still felt as though I should have told someone about it. I went outside to find two sets of folded clothes on the top step, and a bar of soap. I looked around for a source of that miracle, but the field was as empty as always. I squeezed my eyebrows together as my eyes searched the grounds.

"Allioni!" I called.

The boy appeared on a boulder right in the middle of the field with a steaming cup of tea in his hands, and a new change of clothes. His hair also changed to a darker shade of purple, and his glasses were fogged over with steam.

"You called?" He asked sitting his cup down on a tiny saucer.

"Yeah," I confirmed approaching the stone, "I see you've figured out your magic," I cringed a bit at my choice of words.

"I did indeed. It seems as though something is triggering all of our magic," he informed me.

I folded my arms over my chest as I heard Jack mumbling incoherently behind me. He stood beside me rubbing his eyes, and looking at Allioni with the utmost confusion.

"Do you think that I could be the trigger?" I asked shifting my weight between my feet.

"I don't think so," Allioni responded, "otherwise all of our powers would have been reinstated from the moment we stepped foot in Alexandria."

I let out a small sigh of relief that I wasn't the cause of any of that mess. Allioni caught Jack up to speed on what we were talking about.

"Now, you two need to change so we can have our first lesson," Allioni explained after the fact, "you can shower in the river."

We both gave each other a look. The oh so awkward look you give when you don't know how to say that you don't want to bathe in a river. Never the less, we did. We took turns, obviously, neither of us wanted to go the awkward route of bathing at the same time.

We later returned to the field to find that Allioni was standing right in the middle. We walked over to him in our all new clothes.

"We're ready," I sighed. The length of my long and slack stretchy pants were a bit distracting but were better than my three day old dirty sweats.

"Jack," Allioni commanded, "step away from Diana," silence fell over us as we looked at each other.

"Why?" Jack asked.

"Because, we are going to try something that I've only ever seen in books," he explained.

Jack shook his head in worry, and I folded my arms, "What?" Jack asked.

"We're going to turn your dark energy into dark energy," Allioni responded. We were all quiet for a while. There was a certain discomfort on Jack's face that translated to discomfort through my entire body.

"Wait, I have to say something," I explained to them the dream I had. They both shared a look but assured me that we would address it later.

Jack stepped away to a further side of the field twiddling his thumbs on the way. I started to worry about the whole magic thing. Because of everything going on, I hadn't really taken time to pay attention to everything. Getting from sunrise to sundown was hard enough, especially since I was starting to miss my brother, and become increasingly curious about my parents.

"Diana, I need you to sit here, fold your legs over each other, close your eyes, and breath," Allioni instructed pointing to the ground.

I followed his instructions, still thinking of Whisper's warning. I sat with my legs crossed and my eyes closed. I took a deep breath in, and let everything fall away. At that moment, that moment where my eyes were squeezed shut, I saw everything. I could see the rabbit hopping behind a bush in the forest. I could see the sparrows in the trees. I could hear the sun whispering to the trees. I felt life.

"Diana," Jack called in a choked voice, but I didn't respond. How could I? "I told you we shouldn't have done this."

I felt something else. Something overwhelmingly powerful. Something beautiful. It was Allioni, actually, it was his heart. His heart would beat slowly, and softly as though something was keeping it back. I listened to it as though I could hear his soul through his beating heart, but I couldn't figure out why.

"Diana ..." Jack called again. That time, I opened my eyes. I was still wrapped in the light that I was during meditation, but I could no longer see everything.

Instead, I saw the field covered with one side having red roses and the other having white roses much like the rose garden at grandma's house in my dream. Just like the roses at grandma's in my dreams, this one had a row of black roses down the middle. In the white stood Allioni, in the red stood Jack, and me, I stood in the black. The in between.

I swallowed a lump in my throat, "Allioni ..." I choked, "did I do this." I could see Jack's chest moving rapidly.

"Yes," he responded dryly adjusting his glasses, "you're more powerful than I initially thought."

"What does this mean Allioni?" Jack asked.

"It means we better find our team soon," he responded looking down at the roses.

"Why man? Just spit it out!" Jack screamed.

"Because Diana will soon become more and more dangerous," Allioni explained, "even more dangerous than you."

The earth began to rumble beneath us. I saw panic take over Jack's face. Allioni remained calm, but after I saw into his heart, I knew when he was hiding something.

What do you think is gonna happen next?