Chapter 13: Cana of the Silver Forest

Nia lay in the back seat of Mandie’s car, trying her hardest to be mad at the exorcist. It wasn’t working. After yesterday she knew for certain that Mandie didn’t trust her, she just didn’t know why. Though it wasn’t like Nia could blame her, she didn’t know anything about herself either. It still hurt though. Everything hurt.

Nia shook the thought away and sat up to look at the endless line of dark coloured evergreens outside the window. After last night’s job--which had apparently gone better than Mandie had expected--Alice, and by extension Nia, had been invited to come help with an ‘interesting’ job a few hours upstate. Alice said that she would join them if she could, then spent the whole night convincing Billie that she was going on a camping trip with some friends for a few days.

So now they were here, stuck in a car for three godless hours, driving to some haunted place to deal with some haunting thing. Great. Nia hated cars. She always had and always would, that was one things she knew. The thirty minute drive yesterday had been bad enough, but she had been confined to the back seat for more than two hours. She’d even fallen to level of boredom where she had counted the time, in seconds, just to see if she could keep in time with the clock.

She could. But now she was bored with that. Normally, she would’ve tried to focus on the job that was coming. Or, at least she felt that’s what she would’ve done. She didn’t know for sure. But there was a problem with that, Mandie wouldn’t tell her anything. Whether it was because she was just refusing to share ‘classified’ information with a ghost or legitimately didn’t know what the job was, she declined to share any information with Nia.

Nia sighed. With the boys in a different car and the two girls upfront quietly enjoying an audio book on lawyer angels, she was left with nothing to do. Actually, more accurately, she was left with exactly one thing to do that wouldn’t result in the destruction of anything. Test out the reach of her powers.

She flopped back onto the leather seats, letting her hair drape onto the floor. She would’ve prefered to find her range in her physical form, but having a physical body and being in a car sounded like a nightmare of its own. Besides, it would be good to know exactly what she could do like this.

She closed her eyes and let the familiar pressure of darkness wash over her. She sat for a moment, illuminated in the dark with some supernatural radiance. This was her world, her personal sphere of influence. She expanded her senses. There were Alice and Mandie. Not fully there, but definitely not missing. Alice had a golden luminance glittering through her opaque form, while Mandie was overflowing with striking green flames.

Nia expanded again. There was the car; cold, grey, metallic. Unliving was the only way she could describe things like these in her sensory mode. There was no good word for it, nothing that really got the point across. Machines weren’t like animals, or even plants, they were something different in their own little category. It was uncomfortable to feel but not really something you could complain about, like when you just can’t find a single comfortable spot on your bed so you just lay awake for hours on end. It was probably why she didn’t like being in cars.

She pushed past it and expanded again, this time feeling the edge of the forest around her. In complete contrast to the car it was alive, vibrant, green, healthy, breathing. Nia breathed in deeply, feeling the clean, untainted air swirl in her lungs. Something about this forest reminded her of her past. Either the way the air felt or how it smelled? All she could say was it was familiar. But why? What did it remind her of?

Nia slipped away from her senses to pull the memory from her mind. Trees. Just trees. That’s all she remembered. Though she did have to acknowledge that she wasn’t remembering these trees exactly, but there was no doubt in her mind they were trees form this forest. Or at least one nearby here. Oh well. She moved back to her senses and expanded the range again.

A brilliant light blue formed in the shadowy world she was putting together around herself, accompanied by two more flaxen flames. Gale and the cousins no doubt. They were in the car right behind them, valiantly trying to keep up with Mandie without going twenty-five mph over the speed limit. Nia smiled, at least at this rate she’d get to snoop around the reserve before Gale showed up.

It’s not that she hated Gale per se, she just hated what he was. She knew better than anyone that Purisons aren’t to be trusted. It wasn’t like she would go around for ever hating the guy just because he was raised by ghosts, but, for now at least, he hadn’t given her any reason to trust him.

She could tell Alice harbored a small crush on him though. It was clear enough by the emotions she unknowingly sent through their shared bond, she just hoped the feelings were genuine. If not, well, Gale would probably regret it very quickly after she was done with him.

Something shot through her sensory range, sending a flare of malice towards her. Nia hadn’t even realized she’d still been expanding her realm. By now she was a good thirty foot radius maintained around her, but she pulled back her powers. Whatever that was, it didn’t feel friendly, and she didn’t particularly feel like making angry when she couldn’t really fight back in any way.

She pulled herself off of the seat and searched avidly for any sign of spiritual movement in the forest, making sure to keep her realm pulled back to stretch of the road they were on. She couldn’t see anything out of place.

Nothing but dark green trees for miles, no strange spiritual lights, none of the orbs were acting up. Even Mandie hadn’t seemed to sense anything, not like Nia would’ve asked even if she could. She lay back down on the seat, it had probably just been some local spirit angry that she was infringing on their territory. Nothing to worry about.

Welcome back, Nia.

The voice rang out harshly in her head, hostility and hatred dripping off of every syllable. Nia shot off the seat, her energy flew over the forest in response, covering an area four times the size as before in an instant.

She could feel Mandie’s eyes on her. No doubt the exorcist had felt the surge in energy, but Nia couldn’t focus on that right now. She couldn’t even bring herself to breath, not after what she’d seen. Seen, not sensed. She hadn’t sensed anything, the forest was too quiet.

Nothing but trees for miles around, and yet she knew she hadn’t imagined it. The unmistakable flash of silver and grey. The animalistic figure had run along the forest for only a moment, then was gone again and there were only the greens of trees.

Nia knew what she had seen, and she was afraid to take another breath. Afraid because it would know where she was if she did.

It’ll be fun to play with you again.

She could hear the smile in the voice. The taunting cruelty that floated on everything that monster said.

I can’t wait to see how different you are this time.

She was here, the owner of memories, the spirit of despair, these were her grounds.

The silver wolf was here, and she would be coming for Nia.

***

“Welcome to the Bellingham Forest Reserve.” For all the thoughts weighing on Nia’s mind this guy was two hundred and fifty-six point three percent too cheerful. He had to be the happiest exorcist she had seen in a long time.

“My name is Luca, I’m an upper middle class exorcist and I’m the resident Tamer at this hotel. So, if there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask me,” he smiled, then prattled on about the rules and regulations of the reserve, laughing at some joke he made every now and again. Nia was too preoccupied to listen.

There was something out in that forest that had absolutely zero good intentions, and Nia wasn’t going to let herself be taken by surprise. Besides, whether she was watching the forest or listening to happy happy Luca, the only one who would know was Alice. And she was pretty sure Alice wouldn’t care either way. She knew she wouldn’t.

She did have to admit thought, there was something familiar with Luca. She wasn’t sure, but it was almost like she’d seem him before. She’d at least heard him speak. His tone of voice and word choice, she’d recognized them even before she’d set eyes on him. But there was just something about his wild hair, light green eyes, and tanned skin that pulled at her memories.

Not as badly as the forest though. The forest and the voice actually. Those two were connected for sure, Luca was just somewhere in the mix.

Nia looked around the clearing at the group of spiritualists. She knew better than to tell Mandie about these feelings, but she didn’t know if she should tell Alice or not. She had no reason not to tell the girl, and no reason to suspect that Alice would immediately turn to Mandie. But her main priority right now was to move the senior exorcists attention off of here.

She wasn’t sure it would work out, but so far she’d been lucky. Mandie hadn’t questioned her about what had happened the car earlier. Yet. It was coming though, Nia could feel Mandie searching for an inconspicuous way to confront her when she was in her physical form.

Nia had already told Alice that it was a bad idea to disturb any angry spirits with a summoning ritual so soon after they had arrived, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to stay like this for the whole job. Luca was a Tamer, meaning that Mandie had probably only brought them along so Alice could get training from someone who actually works with spirits.

Typical exorcists crap. He wouldn’t be able to teach her anything Nia couldn’t, but it’s not like she could just tell Mandie that.

Luca’s chirpy voice penetrated Nia’s wandering thoughts. Which was probably a good thing because this included her.

“Alice, you and I will be working on summoning spirits while the others are dealing with the job, alright?” Luca smiled, revealing perfect white teeth.

Again, a vision pulled on Nia’s memory. She’d seen his smile before, that she was certain of. But where? And how? That was the better question. How had she met him before? It should’ve been impossible…

“Uh,” Alice squeaked with hesitation. “But, um, I already know how to summon my spirit.”

“Mandie told me you know the basics, so really we’ll just work on clarifying your style. You know, strengthening your guys’s connection and what not,” he shrugged. “Pretty fun stuff if you ask me. Not really challenging either, but good practice.”

A bright smile crossed Alice’s face as she nodded in agreement. Nia didn’t know if it was just their shared bond, but she felt like smiling too. Even with everything that was running through her head with her memorised and the guardian of this forest, she felt inexplicably happy. It wasn’t like her at all. She really needed to get used to this bond before it started imprinting over her personality.

“So if everyone’s ready we can get to it,” Luca chirped. “Alice, can you wait for me by the entrance while I get everyone else settled?”

“Sure.” Alice walked back to where they had entered the property, Nia of course followed closely behind, and Luca took the rest of the group into the main building. They waited around by the entrance sign for Luca; Nia too distracted with her thoughts to bother talking with Alice. Not until she registered that the girl had asked her something, that is.

“What was that?” Nia asked.

“I asked if you were feeling all right?” Alice replied, her blue eyes looking over Nia with concern.

“Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?” In truth Nia didn’t feel all right, she felt very not right. Something was pulling at her memories, nagging at the back of her mind. She couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching her and the presence she had felt earlier more than spooked her a little. But she couldn’t tell Alice that, not without risking freaking her out as well. Nia could handle her problems, there was reason to involve Alice.

“Well, you kinda freaked out in the car, and you’re looking a little pale. I just want to make sure you’re not getting sick or anything,” Alice smiled warmly.

Nia laughed. “Trust me, if I was sick, you would know.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because either you’d be sick too or I’d be one hundred percent down for the count.” That wasn’t exactly true, but she didn’t want to worry Alice.

“Alright, but seriously, let me know if you don’t feel well. I don’t want you stressing yourself out.” It sounded like Alice had believed her for the most part, but it was clear she’d talked with Mandie about her powers on the way over. Maybe Nia should’ve been listening to what they were talking about instead of counting out two hours. Oh well.

Nia heard the front door to the main building open with a slight squeak. She looked over to the refurbished wooden building and saw Luca walking towards them.

“Look sharp, miles of smiles is heading our way.”

“Miles of smiles?” Alice didn’t understand until Luca walked up and tapped her on the shoulder.

“Ready to get to work?” He asked cheerfully.

“Luca?” Alice managed to ask before bursting out laughing.

Luca’s face fell from happiness to confusion, “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” Alice responded from them both, recovering faster than Nia thought she would’ve. “So, should we get to work?”

“Uh yeah, but we’ll need to leave the reserve before we actually do anything.” Luca walked through the front gate and headed back towards the direction of the city.

“Why’s that?” Alice asked, rushing to catch up with him, Nia followed closely behind, eager to get as far away from the forest as she could.

“One of the spirits on this reserve is extremely territorial. Normally it’s not a problem, I’d just train you outside of her domain, but she’s been acting up recently so I don’t want to risk it.”

“Is she what the rest of the group is here for?” Alice asked.

“Really we just needed Gale to come in a talk to her, but groups travel together so there was no way Mandie would let him come up here alone. Not that I blame her for watching out for him, but there really was no reason for all of you guys to come up here.”

Something wasn’t adding up. Why would they need Gale? Sure talking to ghosts would be his specialty, but Tamers could talk to ghosts too. “Couldn’t you just talk to the spirit?” Nia asked, Alice repeated her question.

Luca smiled, “Normally yeah. I’m actually here to calm her down and what not. But, for some reason, about a week ago she stopped listening to me,” Luca shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal.

“Odd?”

“Not really,” Luca paused as he motioned for them to cross the street. “She’d a powerful spirit, so she never really needed to listen to me in the first place. It’s not uncommon for them to get bored and stir up trouble for a little bit of fun. Same thing happened about six or seven years back, too.”

“What you do to fix it then?” Alice asked.

Nia wasn’t as interested in the topic, but she couldn’t tell why Alice was. Chances were that Luca hadn’t started working here till a few years ago, so it’s not like he would know. But she would’ve bet her life that they did the same thing they’d done this time: called up the closest Purison to fix the problem.

“I’m pretty sure they had a powerful Mage from the Oregon Hotel sent up here. I was hired right after so I’m not really sure, sorry.”

“It’s fine. I didn’t really expect you to know, I was just curious.” This didn’t strike Nia as something Alice would say, if she was being honest it seemed more like something she would say. Well, she guessed if Alice could affect her feelings then she could affect Alice’s.

“I could look into it if you would like?” Luca suggested.

“If you have the time, I don’t want to be a bother.” That was more like Alice.

“It wouldn’t be a bother at all,” he smiled brightly as he motioned them down a dirt path leading away from the road.

Nia adn’t really been paying attention, but she was much more at ease now. She guessed that whatever feeling it was she was picking up on was definitely connected to the forest. It made her uneasy, almost panicked. Though, now that they weren’t actually on the forest property that feeling was gone. The downside was that her memories seemed to be fading away too.

Luca didn’t look as familiar as she could’ve sworn he was before. She knew that earlier she’d been able to link him to a specific memory, but that was gone now. All that remained was a vague shadow of someone she may or may not’ve seen at some point before. Maybe he just looked a lot like someone she had known?

That wasn’t unlikely. People looked like their ancestors after all. That was the only explanation for her phantom memories. The only one she’d bet on.

The trees looked different too. She knew that they were essentially part of the same forest, but she couldn’t help but feel that they were friendlier in some unexplainable way. As they walked down the path Nia halfheartedly listened to what Luca was talking about, but always found her attention slipping back to the area around them.

It wasn’t as dark as the forest they had left. The trees were greener, the grass was fuller, the birds sang brighter, and animal scampered through the undergrowth. It was nice. Pleasant even. Bristling with natural energy and serenity. Devoid of even the slightest touch of spiritual energy.

That was a bit odd?

Luca stopped in the center of a large clearing. “We’re here,” he announced cheerfully, dragging Nia away from her thoughts. “Welcome to our Hotel’s training grounds. It’s not much, but it’s outside of our main spirit’s domain and it’s got an surplus of energy.”

Nia watched as Alice flexed her fingers, no doubt feeling the difference in the air. It was subtle, but even a novice like her would be able to sense the vitality in the surroundings. Alice closed her eyes, golden hair obscuring her features as her head dropped.

Nia watched as the energy in the clearing began to swirl around Alice. It was strong and controlled. Perfectly in synch with Alice’s own energy.

“Alright,” Luca whispered, being careful not to disrupt Alice’s concentration. “I was gonna let this wait a while, but go ahead and summon Nia. You’ve got the energy all set up, so there’s no point in not taking advantage of it.”

Finally. Nia had been itching to do something for ages. She knew they wouldn’t let her anywhere near the spirit, not with it being territorial and all. But she figure that Luca would’ve just been instructed to take Alice over forms. This was much better.

Though, she wasn’t sure if she felt comfortable being summoned so closely another spirits territory. Especially not with that spirit acting up. Definitely not with her memories on the fritz. She didn’t actually know what would happen if Alice summoned her, but she got the sudden feeling that nothing good would come of it.

“Hey Alice, I-” Nia’s voice was cut off as pure energy was poured into her body. A cold sensation flared through her, pulling her into the physical world. She could feel her bones forming, the muscles layering, the skin pooling along the surface.

She knew this feeling well. Give it few moments and the cold would be gone and her soul would be scorched by heat. She bit her lip as the energy flared. Right on cue. Just a few more seconds and it would be gone. The pain would be gone.

The energy subsided, leaving a warming pulse in her core. She held onto the power as her senses cleared. Alice’s power. It was warm and comforting, bright and soft. If Nia wanted she could lose herself in the flow of energy. More accurately, if she could she would. But the chains were holding her back. Nia let go. Forcing the clearing into focus.

She took a deep breath, the cool air soothed her lungs. She’d never get used to that. But there was nothing she could do about it.

Why was Luca looking at her like that?

“Got something to say?” Nia asked. She didn’t like people staring at her. It had always given her the creeps. He wasn’t even doing anything specifically creepy. Just looking at her, like he was trying to think of something.

“I’m just impressed at how smoothly that went.” He turned and smiled at Alice, but Nia had a feeling he was holding something back. “From the look of things you’ve already started to develop your own style.”

“My own style?”

Luca nodded, eager to praise Alice for what she’d done well while ignoring Nia all together. “Summoners create their own kind of summoning style as they resonate with their spirit. It strengthens the bond between you two and shows how well you guys get along. You guys must be a great pair if you’re progressing this quickly.”

“I’d say we compliment each other pretty well,” Alice said. “We’re not perfect, but whenever I’ve needed her she’s been there for me.”

“Well, that’s what makes the best teams. But there were still a few flaws in your summoning method.”

“Oh?”

“It’s only to be expected,” Luca clarified, “you’re a novice and you don’t have proper training. Even so, your errors are pretty minor and easily fixed.”

“What do I need to fix?” Alice asked.

Nia could name a few things, mostly that Alice’s energy control was more than lacking. Magic was all about minute control. Alice however, currently favoured that all out ‘throw as much magic as you can at it’ way of doing things. It worked, sure. But it placed a heavy strain on both of them that would give out after a while.

“Well, your control needs work. But we should start on your focus first.”

“Focus?” Nia questioned. “Alice’s focus was practically perfect. I think it’d be more beneficial to work on her control.”

“You’re right. Alice’s focus was practically perfect.”

“Then what’s the problem?” Nia countered.

“You’re the problem,” Luca replied calmly.

“What?” Alice asked.

Nia didn’t say anything. She took a step back. Had she been thinking of other things before Alice summoned her? Yes she had. She’d even tried to stop her, but that should’ve meant nothing. Not with the relationship Mandie had forced them into anyway.

Once Alice had her mind sent on something there was technically no way Nia could affect that decision. She couldn’t even stop her emotions from getting wholey affected by Alice, much less the choice to get pulled into the physical world.

“Control means absolute crap if you two aren’t focused on the same goal. It’ll be more beneficial to the both of you if I teach you to focus as one and harmonize with each other. You can learn control later.” Luca said.

He had a point. Normally Nia would’ve argued, but knowing that Alice would just take his side in the end and they would do what he said anyway took the fun out of it.

She crossed her arms and avoided his eyes, making sure not to look at Alice either. “What do we need to do?”

Luca smiled. “You two are going to sit here in absolute silence until your thoughts line up.”

“What?” Nia protested. Did he have any idea how hard that was? How long it would take? Even some of the best summoning pairs couldn’t line up their thoughts. Even with telepathy it was practically impossible.

“What are we trying to focus on?” Alice asked? Unaware of how difficult that task Luca had given them really was.

“You guys are going to focus on sending Nia back to the spiritual world, and I’m gonna sit here and taunt you. Sounds like fun, no?”

“No.” Nia retorted as Alice moved to sit on the sandy ground.

“Sucks to suck, not sit down and focus.”

Now he was just being mean. Nia didn’t feel that ‘miles of smiles’ was a good name anymore. More like ‘miles of dieles’. No, that was terrible. She’d think on it.

***

They’d been sitting here for almost an hour. An hour of complete silence. Well, silence except for Luca’s small comments designed to make them lose their focus. It seemed like every time they were starting to get on the right track he would say something like ‘The tedious automobile pales on top of the continued teapot’ or ‘Inside the patient beard exercises our witty potato’. Something that would normally be seen as absolute gibberish, except in this case it would throw them completely off and they would need to start back at square one.

Nia would like to say that she was good at focusing. That it was one of her specialties. But it wasn’t. Not even close. If anything, it was her weakness. She couldn’t remember any time in her life--or the past four years she remembers spending with Alice--that she’d been able to focus on one thing for more than ten minutes.

Alice wasn’t really helping either. If you had only ever talked with her you would think she was quiet and reserved. But Nia was in her head. She saw every tangent that went on inside of Alice’s mind. There were a lot.

No wonder she and Teresa got along so well. They were pretty much the same person, only Teresa vocalized her thoughts and Alice didn’t.

This wasn’t going to work. Nia had figured that out ages ago, but she wasn’t going to give up yet. Alice hadn’t given up, so neither would she. Though, that didn’t stop her from not giving one hundred percent of her effort.

Her feelings of familiarity had faded, in fact they were pretty much gone now. But Nia wasn’t one to just give up on those feelings. It had taken her barely any time at all to bring them back, not the greatest idea, but she was going to get to the bottom of it even if it killed her.

Tangent.

She’d started with the forest. She knew she’d been here before, that much was certain. She just didn’t know where, when or why. Those weren’t important, not yet anyway. She just needed to focus on what she knew were facts, the other stuff could come later.

The wolf. The deity of this land. She’d known Nia at one point or another, that much was clear. But were they friends? Enemies? It hadn’t sounded like they were on the best of terms. No, they definitely weren’t friends. That would make the wolf a threat.

There was no way Nia would voluntarily go back into the other forest. The Silver Forest. The name popped into her head. That was it, the Silver Forest. SIlver because of the wolf, because of the trees. That place was dangerous for spirits that didn’t submit to that deity’s will, meaning it would be dangerous for Nia. Would that put Alice in danger?

Tangent.

The more Nia thought, the worse she felt. A sinking feeling rose in her stomach and she could’ve sworn she’d heard some strange noises in the forest behind her. But there was no way, right? This part of the forest was outside of the wolf’s domain. Or was that why she felt so panicked? It was unlikely, but was it possible her domain stretched this far?

“Focus.” Luca snapped.

Nia clenched her teeth. He wasn’t helping he was only making it worse. “I’m trying.”

“No you’re not, you haven’t been trying for almost forty-five minutes.”

Nia exhaled heavily. Fighting with him would do no good, he was right after all. She hadn’t been trying. She’d gotten distracted. Why focus on being a spirit again when the forest is much more interesting? For all she knew her and Alice’s lives could be in immediate danger and no one knew. Focusing on potential threats seemed much more helpful than this.

Luca sighed, “Take a break.”

Nia was laying across the ground before the words were even out of his mouth. She needed to cool down. She didn’t know why she was getting so worked up. She just needed a few minutes to clear her mind, to not think about anything.

Alice wanted to talk to her, she could feel it. Luca probably wanted to talk to her too, but that was more of her intuition speaking than anything else. Talking to them wouldn’t help anything, it would probably just make it worse. She felt panicked, stressed, like any moment everything would come collapsing down around her.

She blocked them out. Nothing they could say would make her feel better anyway. Of course she’d brought this on herself this time. She’d been the one to pull at those memories. She should’ve just let them sit. Should’ve dealt with them later.

It was too late for that now.

Nia sat up. The forest was too quiet. She hadn’t noticed it earlier because of Luca and Alice, but now that she was blocked them out…

She closed her eyes and sensed out the surrounding area. Not a single living creature was nearby. There weren’t any spirits around either, not even the ones that just floated around aimlessly as glowing orbs. Something wasn’t right here. Why hadn’t she noticed before?

Was she slipping?

Nia went ridgid. Something was touching her shoulder. Not something heavy and warm, not something living. It was cold. Too cold. Too cold to be anything other than a spirit, but, she couldn’t feel any around here.

Her eyes shot open and a shiver flashed down her spin as something breathed cooly on her neck. She looked at her shoulder, there was nothing there. But she could still feel something holding onto her. The breathing moved closer to her ear, sending icy sparks across her skin.

Nia tried to move. She was stuck. She tried to call out to Alice for help, but something was blocking her. What was this? Why couldn’t she do anything?

Icicle like fingers wrapped around her other arm. Nia tensed up. There was only one thing she could do. Consequences be damned, she needed to escape whatever this was.

Something solid tapped her foot, snapping Nia out of the trance. She looked up into Luca’s warm emerald eyes, all traces of that thing gone. The cold still bit at her skin, but it was winter.

“Are you alright?”He looked more curious than concerned, but at least he sounded genuine.

Nia thought it over. Was she alright? Her memories had been failing her all day, now apparently her eyes were too. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t a problem with her. It was the forest. Did that make her okay? She didn’t think so. Not after what she had just felt.

“I…” Nia shook her head. She could still feel that creature’s grip. What even was something like that doing in a place like this? “I’m not sure.”

The hands grabbed Nia’s shoulders and pulled her backwards, she bumped into something solid and tried to pull away. But the creature just pulled her back.

Found you.

The voice was barely louder than a whisper, but it was unmistakeable.

The wolf was here.

Nia summoned what magic she could from the surrounding area. It wasn’t spiritual energy, but it would work. She channeled it through her body, building up enough heat energy to knock the invisible creature off of her. The hands vanished the instant she released her energy.

Nia shifted her weight as she fell backwards. In an instant she was on her feet, facing the direction the creature had come from. Instinctively, energy began to build up in her right hand. She focused the energy into her pointer and middle finger.

Magic was pouring through her. Filling her with radiating strength and reckless determination. She held up her fingers, then swung them towards the forest. She didn’t say a word, not a single thought went through her head, but a barrier of bright blue light shot up between her and the trees, blocking off half of the clearing.

Nia stood frozen for a moment. Had all that just happened? She took a ragged breath, the cold air burning in her lungs. She’d pushed herself too far. That wasn’t good. She dropped back to the ground, every ounce of magic gone from where it had been before.

She felt empty. Drained. And couldn’t manage to catch her breath. Alice and Luca weren’t saying anything. What could they?

Muffled laughter sounded behind Nia. Who the hell could be laughing at a time like this? Nia pulled her eyes off of the barrier and whirled around to glare at whoever it was. She paused. Someone was standing at the entrance to the clearing.

Nia didn’t know if the others could see the woman laughing quietly just across the clearing, but she certainly could. The bright yellow eyes, long grey hair, and pale, almost silver skin. This is what Nia had been afraid of.

“Well hello there,” her pleasant tone filled the forest. Alice and Luca turned to face her, still speechless. So they could see her, that was good. At least Nia knew she wasn’t hallucinating.

Luca took a hesitant step back, moving closer to Alice. “How did you get here?” He demanded. “You shouldn’t be able to leave your domain.”

She giggled into her hand. “Luca dear, I figured that you of all people would know,” the wolf fixed him with a questioning, playful gaze. “Nia noticed,” she teased, focusing directly on Nia.

She needed to move. Nia willed herself to do something. Anything. Protect Alice. Get as far away as she could. Fight back. Anything but sit there and do nothing. But she was frozen.  Her body wouldn’t listen to her.

She shouldn’t have used all the magic.

“Anyway,” Cana sang cheerfully, “I’m going to be taking her now.”

Author's Note

Comments, questions, concerns?
Is Luca too flat?