The Twelve Stars

Chapter 12

"What do we do now, Ragnar?" Finn asked. We sat on the wooden floor of the loft, my legs hanging over the threshold of the open shutters while Finn had his back against the rafter with his arms wrapped around his legs. "We were going to ask the Norns about you. But now that we know, where do we go from here?"

"Call me Callyk," I said. Ragnar was just not sitting right with me at that moment. I hadn't fully accepted it. And I don't think Finn had either. "As for the Norns. There is still one question we need to ask them." Our eyes met. "How do we switch back? Touching the Stone didn't work. Maybe we missed something. I bet the Norns will know."

Finn's eyes turned serious. "Do you really want that?" he asked. "I mean, you would have to wield Darkness again. Isn't that what lead you to run away in the first place?"

"I'd rather it be me than you," I admitted. Before Finn could object, a figure appeared running up to us in the distance. They were waving to us, trying to get our attention. It was Robyn. She spoke up when she was in hearing range, being below us.

"Callyk? Finn?" she called.

She wore a long, dark green tunic that reached to her knees, passing over her knee-lengthened boots, and clasped by a leather girdle around her waist, the hemline cross stitched together. In her haste to get to us, strands of her red hair had started to come loose from the bun she had tied it into. We looked down to see her looking back at us with a hand over her eyes. As happy as I was to see her, something was wrong.

"Robyn?" I asked. She looked anxious. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"It's the Allcron Stone!" she said.

"The Allcron Stone?" Finn repeated, concerned.

"It's better if you see for yourselves," she answered. Finn was at the stairs before I could register the urgency of the situation. Already on my feet, I followed suit. Robyn picked up her pace once we caught up to her. "I was just practising Rune Magick," she explained. "When the Allcron Stone inexplicably began to glow. At first I thought it was a tracking beacon. That the Empire might have tampered with it to set off if ever stolen."

Last night, Elder Harald had suggested that he keep the Allcron Stone at his domicile and let Huginn guard it. Quentin and I had our doubts at first, but decided to trust him after Robyn reassured us that she would be there overnight practising Rune Magick. Being on the outskirts of the village district, it took longer than usual to reach the first cluster of residents at the bottom of the hill. Elder Harald's domicile was not too far now.

"I hoped it would fade. Instead, it started to expand, it's glow pulsating throughout the room until it was blinded in blue light. Just as quickly, it shrank and morphed until it became..." We meandered through the village district and exited at the village square, only fully understanding what she was describing to us until we approached the door to Elder Harald's domicile. "That," she finished. We slowed down into a walk, myself in front.

While I couldn't yet see what Robyn had described, there was indeed a faint glow which emerged through the glass windows, being indistinguishable at first. Robyn opened the door and lead us inside. Her explanation became clear when we saw the vortex ourselves, occupying the living space of the domicile we stood in last night. At least, that's what it took the embodiment of. I edged nearer, curious.

"What is it?" Finn asked. Huginn's squawk drew our attention from its hypnotizing magical properties.

"A portal to Yggdrasil," Elder Harald spoke. He stood on the other end.

"But how?" Robyn asked. In answer he held up one of her Rune Stones.

"You must have activated the Raidho Rune," he explained. "Consider me impressed."