The next few weeks passed in much the same routine with no real progress on teaching Astyr to perform like an Alfar or on teaching Glin to treat people with respect. The only exception to the latter was Jenny of all people. She had kept up her campaign to win him over and he had begun to be friendly with her although it wasn't clear whether that was because he genuinely liked her or because she had simply worn him down. Whichever it was, he greeted her pleasantly whenever he saw her and was often found sitting with her at lunch and in class. They weren't exactly a couple but that was pretty much how everyone else viewed the situation.
Astyr on the other hand was feeling frustrated with her inability to do what Laure was asking of her. She was standing out on the balcony enjoying what little sunlight there was on the first day of the Christmas holidays thinking about her failure. What made it even worse was that she knew she could do it because she already had once on the night that her grandmother had tried to kill her. If it wasn't for that Astyr was sure that Laure would have given up by now.
Astyr let her mind wander back to the night of Gunnar's birthday when the attack had happened. She had felt the pulse of power coming from Gunnar as his body started the regeneration process and while everyone else had been absorbed with Gunnar she had felt another pulse coming from the house that she had mistaken for an echo. When Grima fell to the ground in pain, Astyr looked back to the house to see the queen and her royal guard coming through the walls of the house out onto the patio.
Astyr closed her eyes in concentration now to think carefully about everything that had happened after that.
She clearly saw in her perfect memory how Queen Elianna had her hand raised towards Grima. As soon as Astyr realized that that was the reason for Grima's pain she let her instincts take over. She had stepped in front of Grima with the sole thought of protecting her. Astyr put her hands out in front of her in a gesture of defense and she could feel the power trying to get through. Astyr thought very hard about the next moments when her shield of sorts had failed and the power had started to overtake her starting with her hands. There had been a tingly, numb feeling that crept up her arms and she could see clearly now in hindsight that what she had felt had been the energy that her grandmother was using in the attack seeping into her through her hands.
Astyr kept her eyes closed and put her hands out in front of her again reaching towards the weak rays of sunlight streaming onto the balcony. She cleared her mind of everything but the feeling she had felt that night and she began to feel a small tingle again in her fingers. She forced herself to stay focused on that feeling and to not let her mind think about the sunlight in terms of energy or heat; to feel only that tingling sensation and to let it move further up her hands.
It was getting easier for her now and the feeling was almost to her shoulders when she started to hear someone saying her name. It sounded like they were very far away so she just ignored it and continued her experiment. She was feeling slightly euphoric now because she knew that she was doing what had seemed so impossible these past few weeks and she opened her eyes because she knew with certainty that she would have no problem keeping it up now.
The sight that met her eyes nearly broke that resolve, however. Her arms were crawling with blue sparks and she could feel her hair floating around her and see the ends of the long strands waving gently in front of her face.
Glin for some reason was running along the roof of the loggia as if he had climbed out his window to get across to her balcony quickly. He was shouting her name but it still sounded far away and dreamy to Astyr. She turned his way to look at him just as he was about to jump over the wrought iron railing of the balcony, but all of a sudden he was slammed back onto the shingles behind him.
There was shouting from the patio below and Astyr looked down to see Tyr and Grima. Astyr's father had his arm out towards Glin and he appeared to be holding the Alfar prince with some force. Grima meanwhile took a running leap up to the other end of the balcony. She sailed over the railing gracefully and landed lightly on her feet. Grima said something to Astyr about not worrying but Astyr couldn't make it out clearly. She tried to ask her to repeat it but Grima had already gone inside through the doors to the game room, calling out for Laure.
After a moment Grima returned with Laure behind her hastily pulling a jacket on. Laure took one look at Astyr and her mouth dropped open in surprise.
Astyr was beginning to feel a little nervous. Isn't this what they had all been trying to get her to do for weeks now? Why did they not look pleased to see that she had figured it out? Had she somehow done it wrong? She looked down at herself to take in the effects of the energy she had absorbed. The thought crossed her mind that Laure had never looked like this when she had demonstrated for Astyr how to do it. Astyr had blue sparks all over her body, her pajamas were stuck tightly to her skin, and her hair was flying around despite the lack of wind. Some of the blue sparks were jumping towards the wrought iron of the railing. Astyr started to reach out towards the metal but Laure and Grima both shouted at her loudly telling her to stop.
Tyr had jumped up to the roof and was standing with Glin watching in horror, unable to do anything to help his daughter who seemed to be stuck in the middle of a vortex of pure energy. Hakon and Gunnar were watching from the French doors that led to their room but had been warned not to come out by Grima.
Glin turned to Tyr, still upset at being thrown back by him and spoke loudly over the sound of rushing air and sizzling energy that was coming from Astyr. "Laure and I have to get close to her. We should be able to draw off some of the energy and discharge it. Stay back!"
Tyr nodded his agreement and moved back to the gable that was over the window to Glin's apartment as Glin jumped nimbly to the balcony to land beside Laure. He quickly explained to her his plan and she nodded her understanding. They sent Grima inside for shelter and then slowly started to approach the now panicked Astyr.
"What's wrong with me?" Astyr tried to ask but her words were lost in the noise around her. Laure saw the fear in her eyes and made soothing gestures with her hands to try to keep Astyr calm.
While Laure worked to keep Astyr stable, Glin shouted loudly at her, "We're going to try to take some of the power away!" He also used hand gestures to help her understand what they were about to try and Astyr nodded to let him know she was okay with the plan.
Glin and Laure approached slowly with their hands out in front of them and they both began to take in some of the energy that was swirling around her. She could feel the air pressure drop as the tension that had been pressing into her from all sides let up the slightest bit. Glin reached a hand out to the side and a strong, white light shot out from his palm. Laure copied him and they were channeling the energy away from Astyr and sending it out as light in staggering amounts. After several minutes the air stopped swirling and the blue sparks went away and Astyr could hear normally again.
Glin and Laure stopped the lights and stepped back away from her looking at her with matching serious expressions on their faces.
"What do you think you were doing?" Glin shouted at her angrily.
Astyr looked at him for a moment like she didn't understand the question. "Why are you still shouting at me?" She asked him, barely managing to not shout back. "I was only trying to do what Laure has been teaching me ever since she got here."
"Laure has not been teaching you how to kill yourself!" He said back, matching her tone. "You could have blown up this entire house. Did you not stop to think before you put us all in danger?"
Tyr had joined them at this point and he stepped in between his daughter and Glin. "Stop yelling at her, Glin. She obviously wasn't trying to do that and I doubt that she understands exactly what happened. Laure, do you want to give us all an explanation?"
Everyone turned to Laure expectantly but she had a blank look on her face. "Um, I, er, I think," she started hesitantly, "I think that Astyr just drew in too much power and since she doesn't use energy there was no place for it all to go?" There was a clear rise in her voice at the end making her statement sound like a question and Laure turned to Grima for help or any other suggestion.
Grima added her own thoughts to the conversation. "I think you're right, Laure, but how did she absorb so much energy so quickly? Sunlight certainly carries enough radiation to provide that kind of power but we know from studies that our bodies can only process a limited percentage of that. How on earth could she have managed in such a short time to have processed anywhere near enough to cause a display like that?"
That led to a heated debate between the two of them that both Glin and Tyr were drawn into on the nature of electricity, radiation, and the organic compounds present in the bodies of both Aesir and Alfar but Astyr stopped hearing their words clearly because their voices were growing faint. Her vision was also starting to go gray at the edges and the last thing she saw before losing consciousness was Hakon pushing past everyone in a rush to reach her before she hit the ground.
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