Things Lost and Found (a Waglington and Mianite fanfiction)

Chapter 20

Hi everyone! :D I'm posting early this week, because I'm going to be afk Thursday-Saturday. I wanted to be able to reply to any comments before I skip town. :) Also, how the heck did this book get to 5.1k views? O.o

I want to start posting a song with each chapter. I have a few chapters coming up with a specific song in mind. This week, the song is "Dare You to Move" by Switchfoot. It loosely ties in. I love this band; I got to see them in concert a few years ago. (Never stand 3 feet in front the speakers. RIP ears. x_x) So much fun! The lead singer came out in the audience at one point (much to the panic of the security guards). XD Okay, enough rambling. On with the story!

*KillerTom's POV*

"Let me see if I've got this straight," Matt said hesitantly. He started summarizing what Donella had just told us, marking each point off with a finger on his hand. "Wag's being an idiot ignoring his problem, hoping it will go away, and now he's been wounded and missing almost a whole day. Jordan pulled a prank that may or may not have done something to Wag. Tom's stressed out because one of his friends is MIA and another is recovering from a serious injury. Rythian and Avrae made it out of this dimension to safety, but some of the others are still alive in Ruxomar, hiding from Mianite patrols. And the Board won't lift a finger to help us," Matt concluded with a blank expression on his face. I think he was still trying to process everything we'd just heard. It was a lot to take in.

There were a few things Donella had conveniently left out though. "So, how exactly did you get here? The connection hasn't been stable enough for a lone wizard to make it through in a long time." I raised an eyebrow at her and waited for an answer. Akatena shook her head at me in annoyance that I was missing the point, but I maintained my gaze.

Donella had a brief mental discussion with her familiar. You could tell when she was doing that by her facial expression softening for no apparent reason. Donella may be tough as manyullyn, but she loves her deer familiar to pieces. Finishing whatever conversation they were having, Donella answered, "I called in a few favors Dianite owed me. He talked to Ianite, who seemed appreciative of my part in ending the war. He and Ianite opened a portal for me."

Phil was starting to pick up on Donella leaving things out too and asked a question of his own, "Dianite was dead when we left. How did he have enough power to help make a portal?"

"Because I brought him back," Donella answered in a clipped tone that let us know question time was over. I'd suspected Dianite was back when I picked up on his magic around her. I was sure there was quite the story there, though she was in no mood to tell it right now. Donella rubbed her left wrist under her coat sleeve before changing the topic, "So Rythian told me his side of the story, but he obviously missed a few things if he thought you were all dead. What happened?"

"We still don't remember the precise details, but the spell did not interact with the Tower Heart properly," Matt started—he was more talkative with alcohol in his system.

I interrupted him to add, "If that's what the spell was even meant to do. We barely knew those Crimson Cultists, and Andor warned us not to trust them. You should have let us examine that scroll before using it. We're lucky it didn't do worse damage." This was why Matthew and I weren't getting along lately.

Matt was glaring daggers at me from under his mask, but Phil—ever the peace-keeper of our family—put us back on topic before things could get more heated. "After searching for our friends turned up nothing, we started to rebuild and searched for a way to get our powers back, and we found one. The Tower Heart had shielded itself underneath the tower to prevent any further damage being done to it. We had to conduct a couple rituals to bring it back to full power. We now have our powers back within our town, and we can keep them for a few hours at a time outside that range."