Winter Moon (Jelsa)

Chapter 31: Jack

"Hey, take a look at this report! It's from a few hours ago," Rapunzel held up a file for me to see.

"What's it about?" I asked, taking the papers from her.

"Read it yourself," Rapunzel said helpfully and continued digging through one of the shelves.

I read through the report. It described the death of one of the Arendelle ambassadors. Pabbie, head of the trolls had been murdered by his own tribe. They had mutinied from the Elites and declared allegiance to Pitch, and when Pabbie had refused to join them, he had been killed. I had read a few similar reports like this. Across the continent, groups of magic-users who were Elites or at least allied with them, had been leaving and siding with Pitch. 

Solen was doing his best to hide it from the public, but he couldn't keep Pitch under wraps forever.

With a sigh, I set the report back on the shelf and continued to leaf through papers, searching for anything that would help me end Pitch.

~ ~ ~

We ended up back in the library to find Astrid and Hiccup. Merida and Elsa were missing, but we figured they were still out. Besides, there was a few hours before our set rendezvous time.

"We found nothing," Hiccup informed Rapunzel and me.

"Figures," Rapunzel grumbled. 

"This is interesting," Astrid pointed towards a page in the book she was reading.

Eagerly, we crowded around her, peeking over her shoulder and studying the passage.

Soul magic is a long and complex science that not even the Elites understand fully. Soul magic can be wielded by any magic-user because soul is universal.

Our biggest breakthrough in using soul magic is the soul bond. It is a very difficult and complicated spell, but if it is done correctly, it can have great benefits.

The soul bond, simply explained, is a connection between two souls. It bridges two people together and combines their lifeforces. A practitioner of soul magic, Amelia Kim, describes two soul-bonded people as, "soulmates, whether romantic or platonic, your soul-bonded will quickly start to mean everything to you because you are literally sharing your souls and your life with them."

Not much is known about soul bonds. There have only been two attempts with very powerful magical people. The first attempt was a success. The two magic-users grew extremely powerful and wielded extraordinary abilities. The others, however, died during the binding process.

I stopped reading. Soul magic was complicated stuff.

"Soul magic," Rapunzel contemplated. 

"Cool, but that's not going to help us stop Pitch," I pointed out.

"Unfortunately," Hiccup added.

"We've only got two leads," I drummed my fingers on the table. "The temple in the Dawn Sector and the mystery building in the Day Sector where Elsa was. The only times we've ever discovered something is when we've gone outside and done something. Not to mention Pitch was basically in control during both those instances."

"So Pitch decides what we get to know and when," Astrid sighed.

"We've been playing his game," I said, "and I intend on changing that."

"Jack," Rapunzel bit her lip, and I knew she was about to say something I wouldn't like. "We're not heroes. We can't run around saving the world and killing gods. It just doesn't work that way."

"We don't have a choice," I snapped. "It's not like we can go for help. The Elites are in chaos. Everyone's taking sides. Nonmagical people don't stand much of a chance. Even if we told the Elites, they would probably kill Elsa's parents. Don't you understand? Only we can fix this."

Rapunzel scowled but nodded. "I just don't want anyone to get hurt."

"We made a pact," Astrid reminded her. "We won't let each other get hurt."

"Don't worry," I grinned. "We won't actually be fighting Pitch ourselves. I have a plan to lure him out and from there, the Elites should be able to finish him off."

"Let's hear it," Hiccup learned forward.

I grinned and told them my plan.