COF 3: The Fallen Dynasty

16 | Alliance (I)

Elred pursed her lips, sat down with her legs crossed on the mud, and crossed her arms. What's with the attitude? Reeca shook her head and went back to the job at hand. She still had to ask Elred about that powerful blast from the plateau after all this.

As soon as the noise died down in the musty bunker, Reeca shut her eyes again and sank in the trail dimension. Immediate trails swirling in and out bled from everything—the rocks, the soil, the air—forming one messy painting of bright colors and flickering lights. Elred's silver trail wove around her in a tight coil as if it's trying to protect something. Perhaps that's how glamours work?

Farther. Reeca took a deep breath and sent her senses farther from the room. Trees, clouds, and territories blurred in her mind's eye. Soon, she was seeing the island spread out in its winding patterns below her like a rug. Now, closer.

Guilt gnawed at the pit of her stomach as she searched for the beacon she placed on Xanthy's cloaker back in Drodham. It wasn't an upgrade at the very least. Reeca placed a beacon inside Xanthy's cloaker that would respond to a specific signal Reeca would send, showing Reeca where the Virtakios was.

Reeca gritted her teeth. Just like her mother, Reeca was now making a choice and she chose to protect the island, no matter the cost, even if it was her friendship with Xanthy. With her magic, Reeca sent out pulses in all directions. The trails around her quivered and drew away from the pulses with a light shriek. Looking at the haze of colors made Reeca's head light and her stomach swirl. It's hard to tell where she was or what it was she was looking at.

Focus. Try harder.

Her senses took her past patches of land nestled among walls of trees and bushes. Forest? Metallic trails, stone trails, and even those of dagrines and other riding animals blared in and out of Reeca's periphery. She needed something familiar. Something...

A flash caught her eye. North.

Reeca cleared her throat in the physical world and sent another pulse to latch into that specific trail that would not shirk away from it. Forward. The trail sped through cobbled roads, dark alleys, hulking galleries, and grand statues until it brought Reeca into a wall of blazing light.

In the physical world, Reeca felt her neck recoil like she was averting her eyes from the bright light. The beacon that possessed Xanthy's trail pulsed beyond Reeca's reach. Faster. Reeca widened her senses, grasping the beacon with her mind. Then, with a surge of her weaving energy, she tore a doorway into Xanthy's trail through the cloaker.

Reeca felt her form stand up and grasp the maximizer under her palm. Her magic blazed under her fingertips as she took the device's trail and melded it together with the doorway she tore through Xanthy's cloaker. Then, her voice worked on its own, chanting a rysteme spell that would connect her weaving energy, the maximizer, and the map in one fluid line.

Elred's job, then, was to make the mirror reflect all the trails in the island and represent them on the map. As Reeca chanted, Xanthy's trail bounced and zipped with an erratic pattern. Reeca could've sworn she heard screaming, too. Lots of it. What in Pidmena's name was Xanthy doing?

The last lines of the rysteme spell bled out of Reeca's lips when a rush of heat and power plowed through Reeca. It was just like the plateau came for her again. She stumbled back as she wheezed for air. Her throat dried up; her vision danced with blinding light.

"Elred!" Reeca rasped through her clenched jaw. "Fire up the mirror!"

Fabric rustled. Then, mechanical whirring filled the bunker. The torrent of magic ebbed from Reeca's limbs, leaving them feeling like pudding. Slowly, Reeca staggered up, swaying slightly that Elred had to grip her by the elbows to steady her.

The mirror glowed with several bright dots on spots across the map. A laugh shook Reeca's shoulders. One. Two. Then a barrage of giggles. It worked! How in Rudik's name did it work? Oh, gods.

No matter how superficial it sounded, Reeca theorized that once she connected the Virtakios to the maximizer, Reeca would be able to send a pulse across the island. A flush of great power like that of the Virtakios multiplied a thousand-fold by the maximizer would entice other objects of power to respond in their own kind. Those responses of power would then reveal their locations and if Reeca would use a shard fairy to take account of all the trails in the island and take note of the great pulses of trails, then they would have unlocked the secret of the thrones' whereabouts.

No matter how hidden they were.

Reeca massaged her temples. Still, she didn't realize that the Virtakios could knock a dagrine dead. She raked her throbbing eyes towards the mirror and noted the locations on the map.

"What does it say? It's just lights," Elred squinted at the map beside Reeca. She had to tamp down her amusement. Of course, Elred wouldn't be able to read it. Not when Reeca wove the parchment to show her what she wrote to no one but her. Ingenious. Perfect for gathering her cards.

The lights started flickering off. Quick. Reeca scanned the lights, the borders, the map itself. Three in Edgerift. Two in Flaron. Drodham where the Soul Spells were. Two in Akaron. Depandes. Ardgate. Gulstead. Jehnasson. Calca. Three more in Zoriago. There's one in the Commons in Cardina, too?

"What is this?" Reeca breathed as her eyes counted the number of flickering dots on the map. "There's too many. There are only twelve thrones after every race including humans and the Lantegian throne. Why are there seventeen lights?"

"Figure that out later," Elred hissed. The shard fairy had her eyes trained to the ceiling. "Destroy everything. They're here."

Reeca wrenched her eyes back towards the map. "Let me memorize it," she bit her lip as she peered at the map. Come on. Come on.

The ceiling shook. Debris pelted them from above. Lights began flickering off. No, not yet. Not yet. Not yet!

"Reeca! Memorize faster!" Elred raised her arms and cast some sort of glass netting on the bulging ceiling. Were they...were they digging?

"Reeca! Destroy it!"

With a yell, Reeca drove her fist into the mirror. Weaving energy flew off her knuckles and sped through the mirror, the map, and the maximizer. The subsequent explosion drove Reeca and Elred off their feet as the scent of burned glass and charred metal wafted in the air. That's when a part of the ceiling gave way to the light from outside, dunking sludge on the floor a few feet from Reeca.

A cheerful, masculine voice chuckled from the hole. The figure stepped into the hole with the sun turning him into a silhouette. "Oh, the Queen will surely promote me to the Deputy in Rabante when she hears that I'm the one who captured the rebels."

From beside Reeca, Elred dusted off her sleeves as she stood up. "Shut it, Brutus."