Yesterday

Chapter Twelve

The mirror whirled with black mist. Tatia ran, disappearing into the last of the clear air. As Gaia drew a deep breath, the ebony fog sucked back, and the mercurial surface in front of her reflected her room.

"Did we really see her?" Gaia asked.

"That was my father's sister. She vanished many years ago, and the children she taught are stuck. Some have their basic magic barely unlocked; the rest are like you. Holding the energy as it beats within, wondering if they will every be a proper fairy, just like you are trying to understand what is missing." Oberon faced her and touched her chest where her ribs met her ribs above her abdomen.

Gaia slapped his hand away, before she began to pace.

"How do you know?" She glared at him as she whirled to turn back toward the mirror.

"Your line is strong. There have been many before you, and power gives you a glimmering aura. You glow with a lavender sheen."

"Balderdash!" Gaia shouted.

Oberon sighed. "You have so much to learn. But we need to find Tatia and how she was abducted. Did you hear anything from her? Even one word, would give us a clue."

"Earthquake." Gaia stopped. "Do you have them here?"

"Not as a rule. Only one. And recently at that," Oberon admitted.

"Tatia wasn't even missed for almost three days as we put things back to right once more. Only the passage from her rooms to the Garden of Musing remains stubbornly blocked," Oberon said.

"Why didn't I meet her?" Aumia said.

"Because you haven't been blessed with a child. Fairy and human are unlikely to have any. I haven't heard of a single halfling born anywhere in the fairy realm," Oberon explained. "She kept to herself. Not a sociable woman at all. Sour really."

"Wasn't she happy? Why?" Gaia asked.

"Father would never say. They're twins you see, and she was always kind with the children as she helped them unlock their magic."

"I suppose it doesn't matter really. What we need to do is get the rubble cleared. I think we need to see what is under it. Why she disappeared is connected to her discontent. She hasn't passed over. She's alive and trapped." Gaia pressed her fist to the spot Oberon had touched moments before. "I can feel it here, she wants to come home."

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"By all that's holy, magic or not, this is an impossible task."

King Ollen surveyed the fallen walls and the wilted flowers where they lay in broken pots between sandstone blocks tilted unnaturally. Water dripped between leaving muddy pools where soil littered the passage.

Oberon grunted as he put his back to a split block at the top of the pile and pushed his feet against the one behind it.

"Who did this. Or perhaps what is more the case." Ollen clapped his hands together, murmuring a strange set of syllables.

Pale yellow light shimmered over the debris, but nothing moved.

"Well now, that is unexpected." Oberon scrambled down. "Was that the cleansing spell?"

"There's magic at work here. And it is a dark as any I've ever felt." His father moved toward the rubble pile, touching the rock with the tips of his fingers.

Gaia nodded. "I feel it too. Much the same sensation as when the black mist appeared in the mirror. The same entity cast both spells. I am sure of it." She joined the fairy King where he stood studying the blockage.