“Hey, that is not funny. I know you think you’re being so funny, but you’re not.” Hazel pouted exaggeratingly. “It could really happen, you know! You wouldn’t be laughing if you had your eyebrows singed off.”
“Don’t worry, little witch.” Jayce said, this time all seriousness as he looked at her over the dusty tome he had been reading through. “You were able to send it away, anyways. Everything was fine.”
Everything was definitely not fine, she thought to herself. Hazel could not stand the thought of putting either of them into any more danger than they already were. And the truth was, if they went into battle against the dark spirit with her at their side, she knew she would only be a liability if she couldn’t find a way to control her wayward powers.
Helplessness hit her as she looked over the same spells and rituals for the third time, still not finding anything that would help them when they so desperately needed. Every else for the trip they would be taking all too soon was prepared. They could live for days and days off of the land and had all they would need to track the dark spirit through the dense forest, although she still wasn’t convinced that tracking Eidolon was the smartest course of action. Actually, she was one hundred percent sure. And the worst part was that they desperately needed the edge of magic. Time magic.
A sudden thought shot through her and she perked up where she was sitting.
“Wait a minute. I have an idea.” Hazel began, aware there would probably be arguments against it, but she charged forward anyways. “The Mother Guardian –.”
“No.”
“But you don’t even know what I was going to say!” Hazel said after Jayce had so rudely interrupted her.
“Yes, I do, and no, she won’t help us. You know that, little witch. She forbade us from even considering the idea, I believe.”
“But she doesn’t even have to know. I can just say I’ve been thinking about time magic since I…well, since I met you, and wanted to do some more research.”
“She will see straight through that, Hazel.”
“Then, I’ll just deny it. But what else have we got?” she asked with a sigh of frustration.
Both men looked at each other before finally shrugging in defeat.
“Fantastic!” She said, hope rising inside herself, “I’ll talk to her right away.”
“How will you do that,” Nika asked, “if you leave we will…uh, change.” Hazel tried to look past the gross understatement.
“Wait,” Jayce interrupted before she could answer, “I remember. Elizabeth said you would know how to contact her if we thought of something new. What is it, some sort of communication spell?” he asked, suddenly intrigued.
Hazel just shook her head, unable to keep the grin off of her face as she reached into her pocket, waving the devise at them.
“Actually, it’s called a cell phone.”
Chapter 16
The following morning found them all waiting impatiently for the Mother Guardian’s reply. It had been surprising to Hazel how accommodating she had been during their conversation, even going so far as to offer to bring over an old book of spells that contained information on time magic that she had, and an object she thought might be instructional for Hazel.
Jayce had been suspicious, but Hazel had explained to him that Elizabeth had been trying to get her interested in research for years believing that it would help her to tap into the well of magic hidden deep within. He had just shrugged, accepting her explanation at the time, but now that she was waiting on the edge of her seat even she couldn’t stem the trickle of doubts that threatened to break through her façade of calm.
At least she had one success, she thought, a spark of excitement flowering through her. Yesterday, they had tried the test a final time, and for the first time in her life she had conjured exactly what she had meant to. A tiny, delicate snow drop had formed in Nika’s outstretched hand and she would never forget the look of wonder on his face as it had bloomed blight and as silver as his eyes into a tiny metallic sparrow that had flown into the air.
The glimmering creature had winged around his head several times before raining down in a shower of soft silvery feathers, as soft as down. It had been the most beautiful, and the most complex magic she had ever been able to wield. She just tried to ignore the fact that the only reason it had worked in the first place was because she had basically had her tongue down Nika’s throat the whole time.