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I am Ayla Everton, daughter of Willa, Zara, and many more of the Sanguis coven. I fear I may be the last of us, and I need your help to make sure our legacy doesn’t end here.
At that, I felt red hot power pulse through me like unstoppable, uncontainable magma, boundless with life and energy, just like the forest. Protecting. Warning. Rageful. There was so much potent energy that spoke of generations of my kind, all layered together to channel through me. Just a single pulse, but it was far more welcoming than anything I’d felt before. I was once more acutely aware of how little time I had.
I know that you’ve been doing the same thing for a very long time, but I ask that you try something new. Something I think will ensure that our coven lives on.
A long, excruciating silence, before a single thought rose from it. Maybe thought wasn’t the best word, as it wasn’t quite conscious, but it wasn’t spoken, and it wasn’t musical, either. It just…was.
How?
I wish to call on all three parts of you but differently than before. No obfuscation. No glamour.Opening my mind further,I tried to project the whole conversation I'd had with Darla as quickly as I could. Much like a magic swap, I hoped there was no correlative to how actual time worked in our reality.
I couldn’t quite tell, at least not right away, but when I opened my eyes again, I could hear weapons being primed in the distance. Shit, we had a minute, maybe less now.
Closing my eyes again, I wished the relic just toworkwith me, for the sake of so many lives.
I didn’t know if it was my conversation with Darla, or my final plea to not let any more blood spill, but another warm, soothing pulse came from the relic.
Yes.
Begin.
We help.
I didn’t know what “we” meant, but I also didn’t care. I almost cheered, but I couldn’t waste a second to celebrate. Instead, I pushed my magic into the relic, delving into its enchanted depths like nothing I’d ever done before.
The relic’s energy spread out in bands of shimmering, ephemeral light. Like tangible tendrils of music, they wrapped around me and everything in existence, connecting all things in a way I'd never sensed before. It was beautiful, and I'd have loved to stay there, observing the majesty of it all, but there just wasn’t time.
Looking below, I saw what the ley lines of our territory beneath us could only be, shining in brilliant gold through the ground, not quite as blinding as the sun but certainly resplendent in their presentation. I was enraptured by their beauty, but I didn’t let myself linger, instead reaching out for one of the shimmering bands of magic from the relic.
You will shield, protect all of our nation from harm,I directed, mentally wrapping the strand of light around one of the golden ley lines. Sure enough, a flash of blue, more like a wavethan anything else, flowed out from where the two connected to wash over the entire fort.
Well, that was certainly encouraging. Grabbing another, I moved toward another connection.You shall neutralize any harm that the shield cannot deflect. Let no hair nor hide come to harm.
Just like the first, a wave of illumination went out as the relic joined with the ley line, but this time it was a verdant green instead of blue.
Finally, the last one. The trickiest one.
You, my friend, shall amplify all under our banner. In all regards, from strength to magic, your blessing will be abundance.
Holding my breath, I joined the final one to the central helix that the ley lines under the fort connected to. I largely suspected that was the whole reason Canid had been built there, as the power that naturally laid within the land wasn’t something our nation would want the enemy to possess.
I only had to wait a beat before a soft, pink light flowed throughout the fort, letting me know that it was done. Despite the odds, I’d gotten the relic to work.
An explosion sounded from above our heads, but when I looked up, I saw the fiery missile that'd been aimed at us had collided with what seemed to be mere air, confirming that the shield was indeed working.
Hell yeah.
However, my moment of celebration was cut short. One moment I was standing there, reveling in the fact that all of the hard work, all of the pain, and all of the loss wasn’t going to go to waste. It was at the last second, sure, but I'd gotten the relic to work, and the proof was in the pudding.
But the next moment? The next, something hit me like a force of bricks. My vision scrambled, and it took me a solidsecond to realize that somehow, an enemy fae had gotten through everything I’d managed to erect, tackling me right off the wall I'd been standing on. He let go and flew off the moment I was over the edge, sending me careening to the ground.
It was certainly not the best position to be in, and I knew I'd mere seconds before I went splat.
There was a good chance I'd survive such a fall with a healer’s help, but even with all my power, there wasn’t much to do about a skull-first landing. If I wanted to survive, I needed to change how my body was angled.
There wasn’t enough time to summon a spell to right me. There wasn’t really even time to call for help. So, with the only second I had left, I shifted in full view of Fort Canid.
Then I ate dirt.
