Multiverse of Magic & Mistakes (Completed)

2.3.22 Chapter 22

St James Park, London, Earth, December 2019.

Before she was free to start another new life in another world, Vi had unfinished business to attend to back on Earth. And her best friend to see. It had been far, far too long.

"Vi!" Lily squealed, throwing her arms around her, "It's so damn good to see you... I can't believe you were part of a whole magic- battle..."

"It's really not as cool as it sounds.." replied Vi darkly, hugging Lily back. Her friend's faded-red hair tickled her cheek.

"You'll have to tell me about it later... I mean, if you want to of course..."

Violet turned to examine the Guardian's make-shift camp-site among the trees, ignoring Lily's statement. The last thing she wanted to do was talk about the battle, and re-live the trauma she had been trying to live with over the nine days since. There may be a time when she would be OK talking about it, Caeli had said, but it may be a very long time... or never.

Vi thought that Caeli had never gotten over her own ordeal, trying to stop the mages leaving the dessert all those decades ago... Nor had Lissa gotten over her own role in what had come to pass...

Vi followed Lily ducking into the tall blue tent at the centre of the make-shift camp.

It was bigger on the inside. Of course!

Caeli was already inside, talking closely with Oddit and Allen, a beautiful array of empty red crystals spread out before them.

After the battle, all of the spent crystals had been carefully rounded up and taken back to Earth, where the Guardians, (and Lily) had been working on how to remove the magic permeating Earth's atmosphere. Apparently, it had been a tricky, painstaking process. But shortly after Middy had brought them the first batch of red crystals and Allen had joined the team, a break though had been made.

Heart hammering in her chest in anticipation, Vi headed over.

"So, this is the ethereal hoover?" she asked Oddit the inventor, using the ridiculous moniker Lily had concocted. Oddit's bright laugh was very much at odds with the serious atmosphere inside the tent.

"I prefer the term 'equivalencer'" he replied, "But, yes, here is the first of my contraptions to pull out the magic, and eventually return Earth back to the way it was..."

Intrigued, Violet could not help but lean in closer, examining the 'equivalencer'. Sixty-four crystals, ranging in hue from deep vermillion to a light rose-gold, and of a range of sizes, and been placed into a four-by-four-by-four cube grid, and secured together, by what looks to be a long string of cord, with wooden rune-beads, similar to an extra-long mages necklace. Vi took a sharp breath and leaned in even closer. She could make out lots of copies of the same runes, those for pulling, and storage and stability. Interspersed among these were beads with the First Rune, that exact same symbol she had spotted around Bath so long ago now. And then there were the directional runes. Vi assumed they acted as a valve, preventing any power that flowed into the contraception from being able to flow out again. No diffusion was to be permitted here.

Finally, she leaned back, "That's amazing! Does it work?"

The Guardian gave Vi an oddly pained look, his eyes downcast.

"Not yet...we have so far, been unable to activate it.."

"Activate?"

Allen spoke up. "To suck power in, an injection of power is required to turn it on. We have not yet been successful..."

"What about a charged crystal?"

Oddit shook his head. "If only it were that simple. That was the first thing we tried. But like call's to like, and it cancels out... We're going to need a different source of energy..."