Princess of Wind

Chapter 19: What Happens Next

When the blinding light disappeared from around Marion she was left facing the familiar site of the home of the royal family of Terrasen. Even more, it seemed to be the Tarresen of her time rather than the one of years past, as the Rifthold she had visited had been.

"Where are we?" Eira whispered to Marion, her eyes tracking the people who were starting to move towards them.

"Orynth, the capital of Terrasen, the land that I and all of my friends come from," Marion responded, eying the crowd growing a bit too large for her liking, "we should get to the palace, who knows how long we've been gone for."

"Sounds good," Eira said, her shadows flickering around her and moving across the ground, as if they were exploring the new land.

"By the way," Marion said, while pulling Eira away from the growing crowd and towards a shortcut to the palace, "what were you doing with your shadows when we disappeared?"

"I was trying to send a warning to my father," Eira said, following close behind Marion as they turned from the dark alleyway and onto the main road leading up to the palace. "I don't know if it reached him in time, but any clue we can give them as to where we are is a good thing."

"Smart idea," Marion said.

"Thanks," Eira responded, "now all we can do is hope that it works."

"That and figuring out a way to actually get back to them again," Marion said.

"Your friend, Elea, seemed to have a pretty good idea about what was causing this," Eira said, "perhaps she will find an answer."

"If it has to do with word marks Elea or her mother, Aelin, are our best bet," Marion responded, "which is why it might actually be useful for us to be here. After all, Aunt Aelin has had years of experience and knowledge of wyrd portals that Elea simply hasn't had time to learn yet."

"If that's so, then perhaps she could be the one to open the portal."

"Exactly," Marion said, picking up her pace as the passed through the palace gates, the guards recognizing her and giving a mixture of shocked expressions and respectful nods of acknowledgment, "come on, with the sun's position it looks to be lunch time, so I know where everyone will be."

"Where's that?"

"Taking lunch in Aunt Aelin's study," Marion said, leading Eira through the winding palace hallways, "they always do that when they are working on a particularly important or tough problem."

As Marion predicted, the court of Terrasen was in fact sitting in Aelin's study when Marion and Eira burst through the doors. There was a moment of silence as the two groups stared at each other before Marion found herself wrapped in her parent's tight embrace.

"Marion," her mother said, pulling back enough that she could look over Marion's body for signs of injury, "are you hurt? Where are the others, are they alright?"

"I'm fine mom, so is everyone else," Marion said, before mumbling, "they're just trapped in another world."

"Where," Aelin asked, moving across the room, "Do you know what world you were taken into?"

"Ayden's home world," Marion said, "His family took us in when we appeared in their world, and they were helping us find a way to return back here."

"Interesting," Aelin said, "I assume that your friend is a member of that world."

"She is," Marion said, "this is Eira, my friend and the daughter of one of the people who is helping us open portals to return home."

"It is wonderful to meet you Eira," Elide said, giving Eira a warm smile, "I wish it could have been under better circumstances, but for right now I do believe that we have a rather pressing problem to solve."

"Indeed we do," Marion said, "and I believe that the first steps to that would be filling you in on everything that we have learned."

With that the members of the room returned to their previous seats, while Marion and Eira sat on an empty couch. When the room was silent Marion began the story of everything that had happened in the past few weeks. Her story was only broken up by bits and pieces that Eira added from her memories of Ayden's disseverance ten years earlier and the research that was done then.

"If these are wyrd portals between realms," Aelin said, once Marion had finished, "the lock must have something to do with it. After all, this world should have been sealed off from all others years ago."

"Did Elea mention finding anything about that in her research?" Rowan asked.

"I don't know," Marion said, "I didn't talk with her much once she started, and we were only in the city a few days before the portal brought Eira and I here. The only thing I know she was going off of would be the portals that teleported us as well as her previous knowledge."

"So it's possible that she finds a connection, but it's also possible that she won't," Aelin said, "We need to be as prepared as possible to find a way to open the portal here or at least for a temporary link with Elea."

"I'll go ask the librarians if they know anything," Lysandra said, "I need to stretch my legs after sitting all afternoon."

"I'll go to," Aedion said, "my legs are cramping and it will go faster with two people asking around."

"That works," Aelin said, "while you do that we will work with what we have here."

Thus began a cycle of reading, creating theories, arguing over them, and revising that would take up the next few days. As time passed an answer seemed to grow closer and closer, yet it simply refused to be found.

An idea about how the portal would need to be formed was created, however it required to things: one a definite way out of this world, one that was unlikely as it seemed only the randoms portals that kept popping up were able to do this, and two, a person who fell into the nameless category, as it seemed to be the key to dealing with the lock before.

With Aelin's current state and the fact the only other person who carried the nameless mark was in another world, it seemed unlikely that they would be able to break out of this world and teleport into another, yet that didn't stop them.

One of the librarians found a near ancient book that had apparently survived the burnings by Adarlan by a forgetful apprentice checking out the book and forgetting to return it. It was this book that Marion was reading as she sat in one of the corners of Aelin's study, half paying attention to the conversation the queen was having with her closest friends.

It was in this place that something began to shift around her, changing the very essence of the world itself. Marion sat frozen as a wave of what felt like whispers of freedom and lands beyond her imagination spread through the room and into the world beyond.

It was in that moment when it seemed like everyone was held in trance by the feeling that a sharp scream burst through. Marion was snapped back into reality to see Aelin bent over in pain, clutching her swollen belly. In the mere second it took off to see what was happening Rowan had made it to her side, and was now bracing Aelin before she could completely collapse onto the stone floors.

"Fireheart, what's going on," Rowan said, his brow furled in worry at her sudden state.

"My magic," Aelin gasped, her hands balling into fists as she slowly sank further onto her knees as sparks began to fly around her, "it... it's coming back," she gasped in a short painful breath, "it's all coming back."