*draft*
Hot air blew on her cheek as she looked into the darkness. She sensed herself moving at great speed, though she reposed. In the distance, she could see a speck of color. Curiously, she rose and watched as the image took the hazy shape of a woman—a woman with crazy puffs of hair atop her Dwarvish head. Essenia stretched toward her. "To me Ara Nightstar." Then, as quickly as the vision had come, Ara felt a tugging at her back as Essenia shrank to nothingness and Ara's soul retreated into her body. She sat up with a jerk and peered into the deep black that had claimed her room.
Pulling herself up, she gathered the covers under her chin. Essenia had summoned part of her soul. She was sure of it. Shutting her eyes and closing her hand around her Nightstar, Ara called, "Essenia." Immediately she found herself amongst innumerable specks of light, one in particular floating for her palm. She grasped it and felt herself drawn to Essenia.
She found herself in Essenia's little quarters, Essenia pacing impatiently across her leaf-strewn floor. "About time you came. I've been trying to contact you for hours." Stunned, Ara stared at Essenia's knowing eyes. "We'll I can't see you, but I can feel your soul's presence. I'd have to be a halfwit not to recognize you."
Essenia grasped her hands behind her back and continued pacing. "My dreams have been troubled as of late." She shook her head as if to clear away a bad image. "I see Jarrer inside an elvish prison. Innumerous hosts of Kanovians gathering like a hurricane on the horizon. Assassin's conniving for your life." Shock filled Ara as Essenia's bright eyes drilled into hers. Essenia couldn't' see her, could she? "You have the power to defeat all these foes, but you're not mobilizing them."
"What power?" Ara asked fruitlessly, for though Essenia might be wise enough to 'see' Ara, no wisdom could make Ara be heard.
Essenia gestured to the fire crackling in her fireplace. "There's more than one way to put out a fire." With that Essenia dismissed her with a quick flick of her wrist.
Ara's physical eyes opened and she looked down. She opened her clenched fist, half expecting to see Essenia's star, but she'd already left the Nightstar's Realm. Though a chill filled the night, sweat beading on her anxious forehead as she threw back the covers. She paced the cold floor in her nightclothes, much the same way Essenia had done moments before. "More than one way to put out a fire," she mumbled to herself. "What does that mean, Essenia?"
She connected with Kodan, resting in the stables, and told him what had transpired. "How many ways are there to put out a fire?" he prodded.
"Let's see. I've licked my fingers, pinched a candle wick and listened to the sizzle before. I've dumped water or sand on campfires. The really big fires—like when a house or part of the forest catch fire—mostly burned out only after they'd consumed all the fuel."
"So what does that have to do with the Kanovians?"
Ara thought back to Essenia's words—assassins, Kanovians, and the Elves. Suddenly, Ara understood. "Bomin, Tenan, Cohen, Zacar—all of them are sitting here. Waiting. Like tools growing rusty on a worktable. "
"We have many advantages in Bondell. But what if we could do more?" She started pacing in her excitement. "The trek across Nonae will put a strain on the Kanovians. Use our tools. Delay them. It shouldn't be hard. After all, Torzac would have a supply chain that stretches all across Nonae! It will be winter soon." Ara relayed remembrances of winters when her family had barely been able to reach the barn because the snow was so deep. "If we delay the Kanovians long enough, they won't be able to make it up the canyon. They'll have to turn back or wait it out. And then Bomin will have time to finish building his wall!"
