Page 64 of Tangled Power
Her gaze shifted away from her work setting up the forge to Arie. “You haven’t seen how tired I’ve been after finishing the weapons for the Osten and Vesten Points.”
“Ah, but you finished them. That’s my point. You have more strength than you know.”
Not wanting to talk about this further without Luc present, Rose called him over. “Can you watch us? Arie asked that you join.”
Luc shrugged. “Sure.”
“Alright, let’s get started.”
They didn’t have to wait long with the Vesten god fanning the flame of the makeshift forge. The fire burned so hot Rose wasn’t sure she could stand close enough to work. “Could we tone it down a little, oh Lord of Flame?”
Luc coughed to cover what she was sure was a laugh.
“Hmph,” Arie said as he pulled back the heat.
Rose sank into her magic. She was getting faster. In this case, she wasn’t sure if it was the strength of Arie’s power or that she had been using her abilities regularly for the last few weeks.
She felt the flame and reached for it with her power as she fell into the rhythm, working the metal before her. Her ethereal magic sprawled around them. With Luc and Arie present, it seemed unsure of where to go. The pull from Luc was always strong. But he hadn’t agreed to be evaluated—Arie had. Rose sent her magic spiraling toward the black bird. His magic smelled of the forest floor and summer rain. It was like a run through the woods on a hot day, ending with a dive into a cool pond.
Fire flared around her—maybe not a cool pond, but relaxing into a hot spring. That suited the heat of his magic better.
Her magic sank into Arie’s bird form, searching for the heart of his power. Flames guided her forward. They were warm but not hot—she could walk through this fire and not burn. It kept her on track, pushing her toward a goal, a memory.
She finally arrived at an immense fire, though she stood in a hallway of flame already. Carter’s magic may have been a cozy campfire in the woods, but Arie’s inferno could only loosely be labeled as a bonfire. It was huge and untamed. It spat and hissed as it sent sparks in all directions. One landed in her palm.
The fire touched her skin, but she knew she was safe.
She peered at the spark. It didn’t go out once it touched her. It kept flaring. A scene played out in the dying light’s yellows, reds, and oranges. Rose blew on it, coaxing it to burn brighter. The flame expanded, bringing the scene to life.
Three stone tablessat in the depths of a mountain cavern.
A test for each remaining god to claim the vial, holding their magic, atop them.
Aterra’s failure…the results more devastating than Zrak had led Arie to believe. A mountain explosion—a volcanic eruption from wild and unbalanced magic. Flashes of red cascaded—Arie and Aurora barely made it out of the cavern as it filled. Aterra, as usual, slipping away beneath the earth…
Later. The scene flashed to something new.
Arie shook his head as he and Aurora arrived at the crater that used to be Mount Bury. No matter how often they returned to it, it always looked sad. Jagged features dotted the crater’s bottom. A single larger formation reached up in the center. This must be the external representation of the cavern in the heart of the mountain.
“I can’t believe the test failed so spectacularly,” he said.
“I don’t know if we can consider it a failure. It did point out that one of us was striving for imbalance. That is what Zrak intended.”
“I guess…” Arie started.
“We can’t give up.” Aurora took his hand and squeezed it. “I know you’re disheartened that we haven’t been able to find Aterra, but we can’t stop looking.”
Arie nodded, though he wasn’t sure he agreed. If Aterra didn’t want to be found, he wouldn’t be found. Arie wasn’t surewhat they could do about it. He would follow Aurora anywhere, though, and she knew it. “Humans and fae used to come from all over the continent to the temple atop Mount Bury. What have we done to it?”
Aurora conceded the point. “I’m not sure we could have expected such a violent explosion from the test.”
“Is there nothing we can do to make this better? Aterra would be the one—” He cut himself off at the thought. Aterra’s earth magic would have been precisely what they needed to clean up this mess. Too bad he was also the one who’d caused it.
Contemplating his words, Aurora searched the crater. She seemed to find what she was looking for as she said, “I think I can do something.” She stepped away from him and focused on whatever she had identified.
Arie peered into it with her, trying to see what she was looking at. Ah, he saw some water droplets. Barely. A mountain spring must have found its way into the bottom of the barren and desolate crater.
She called her water. Aurora was calm and commanding as she drew more than droplets from the springs beneath the mountain. They stood on the crater’s edge, and the water filled the empty basin before Arie’s eyes, covering all of the rock features.
