Mixing Magic [Draft 2]: Chapter 12.2

They traveled northwest, away from Nikka. Nobody spoke; Tel’s hooves clopped along behind and the wagon creaked, but the forest itself was eerily silent and Ayda sensed a disquiet from the trees.

The sun had sunk beneath the treetops when the wagon stopped alongside a gully. A wide, flat outcropping hung over it. Ayda dipped into her magical vision and recognized it as a ley point. So Nadra’s base wasn’t in Arvania — it had to be Neleluna. She supposed that made sense, since that was the Shades’ kingdom.

The sleek-furred leader created the portal, and the wagon trundled through. Sound stopped, nothingness enclosed them, and then they were through. Ayda flew to the top of her cage, craning to see ahead of them. She gasped.

A castle loomed, tall and foreboding, made of a polished stone that seemed to suck light in. It was a single tower with a circular wall around it, jutting up from the forest like an arrow sticking out of a wound.

And Ayda had never heard of it. Something like this… it had to be famous. She knew they were close to a small city, and she knew that city had had nothing like this nearby when she’d passed through it with her parents last. Had Nadra built it in these few short weeks?

She swallowed. They were headed directly towards the entrance, where the portcullis was already raised. Welcoming them.

Madeline was helped out of the wagon and Tel was untethered. His head hung low and his sides were lathered with sweat after trotting behind the wagon, hobbled, for so long.

One of the Shades used his tail to take Ayda’s cage by the handle at the top and lift it. It swayed sickeningly. She jiggled the lock, something she hadn’t dared do in the wagon but it held firm. What would happen if they didn’t let her out? The knife in her boot pressed into her ankle. Could she use it to pick the lock?

They climbed stone steps, crossed a courtyard, and reached huge wooden doors, which two more Shades slowly pushed open.

The stone room was large, and intricate carvings adorned the equidistant pillars that supported the high ceiling. A grand wooden staircase curved along the wall to reach the next floor. In the center of the room was a wide, circular table. At that table were two chairs, and in one sat a woman.

The woman in the chariot back in Crescent Moon. Nadra. Here, in her own domain, she was dressed immaculately, wearing a red dress that was cut low in the front and a necklace with a strange charm shaped like a well. The Well? Her black hair was done up in a neat bun. A thin sword hung at her side.

She was poring over what looked like a series of maps and notes, strewn across the marble table. She hardly glanced up as they came in.

“Ah, good, you’re here,” Nadra said, distracted. Then she paused and shook her head, looking up at the prisoners and their guards as if just remembering who they were. “It is you. I’ve found you. At last.” A weight seemed to lift from her shoulders.

“What are you going to do with me?” Madeline was trembling.

Nadra blinked. “Do with you? Why, child, I don’t want to do anything with you. I need your help, and I owe you an explanation.” She stood up. “Cya!”

The commanding Shade snapped to attention.

“Loose them. Let the fairy out too.”

Ayda’s hand went to her bracelet. The Shade swung her cage forward, and a second later Ayda was free. She darted out before Nadra could change her mind, flying high near the ceiling. She only relaxed when she could see the whole room laid out before her. Below her, Madeline and Tel’s bonds were severed with a few flicks of a Shade’s claws.

She could dive down, get Madeline to activate the talisman, and seize the element of surprise. But some instinct held her back. Not yet.

Tel stretched his wings and Ayda heard him hiss in pain. The ropes had left welts that cut deep into his wings and legs.

Nadra looked at him, and something flickered in her eyes. “What are your names?”

“Madeline.”

Ayda flew down so she was only a few feet above Madeline. “Ayda. He’s Tel. And why do you care?”

Nadra didn’t answer. “Cya, have someone take our guest Tel to the accommodations and tend to his injuries. Ayda, go with him. I would speak to Madeline alone.”

“No,” Ayda said. “I want to hear your ‘explanation.’ And don’t pretend we’re guests.” She eased backwards and whispered to Tel. “It’s okay, you can go. If this works, we’ll come get you in a few minutes.”

Tel flicked his ears in acceptance.

Nadra sighed. “Very well. I’ve brought you here forcibly. For an essential purpose, and I shall do my best to be courteous, but I suppose asking the same of you would be too much.” She nodded to Cya, and Tel was led away.

Ayda balled her hands into fists. The nerve Nadra had, after what she’d done. Her fury was tempered by sympathy for Tel. The poor pegasus looked miserable. Hopefully he would actually get some care.

“Have a seat,” Nadra said brusquely, sweeping the maps off the table. Madeline glanced at Ayda, then sat down. Ayda landed next to her. At any moment, she could touch her wrist to Madeline’s. Madeline would activate the talisman, Ayda would shoot forward, and it would all be over.

But Nadra seemed to want to talk. And despite the revulsion Ayda felt every time she looked at the woman, she was curious. What possible reason could this woman have to justify herself? If they waited longer, maybe Nadra’s guard would be let down. She had already dismissed the other Shades.

“If I may ask, what on earth were you doing in Northern Arvania?” Nadra sat poised in that chair like it was a throne. “My sources tell me you were under guard in Vjorin.”

“I was trying to get home,” Madeline said, voice choked. Was she acting? “We hoped that trying it from the ley point I came through would give me a stronger connection.”

Nadra tsked. “Wouldn’t have mattered. There’s no magic there to anchor the portal anyway. Surely you realized that was the problem?”

Madeline said nothing.

The realization dawned on the stately woman. “Oh, but there is magic there. My magic. What I left when I teleported here from Earth. Clever, very clever, but there are better ways of making anchoring a portal easier.”

She waved a hand. “What am I saying? None of that matters. What matters now is why you’re here.” She laced her fingers together and leaned forward. “What do you both of you know about magic? Have they taught you much, Madeline?”

“Some,” Madeline hedged.

“Plenty,” Ayda said. “We can both see magic, and we know you’ve been stealing it. What is it you want, Madeline’s magic?”

Nadra’s eyes flashed. “Don’t get ahead of me. Do you understand why there is no magic on Earth?”

“Something went wrong,” Madeline said. “We were cut off from the Well. They say you did it, but… but why?”

“It was an accident.” Nadra closed her eyes as if in pain, but anger gathered on her face. “I was — I am — a scientist. My experiments were revolutionary. I was changing the world, and far more than any bureaucrat could. But the unicorns — and others, all small-minded and set in their ways — feared me. I had to isolate myself, create servants to protect me.”

Those would be the Shades. The people she was now making commit atrocities.

“It ended at the Well,” Nadra continued. “I was conducting an experiment and had insufficient protection. The unicorns broke through my defenses. We fought, but a spell I cast reacted with the experiment unexpectedly. Earth’s link broke. It was chaos, and in the confusion they cast a spell that sealed me into an inter-dimensional prison.”

Madeline shook her head. “How did you get out? And how are you still alive? It’s been thousands of years.”

Nadra barked a short laugh. “Time is different in pocket dimensions. It’s been twenty years for me.”

“So what?” Ayda folded her arms. “You escaped and now you’re continuing, business as normal. This is business as normal?”

“No,” Nadra snapped. “I am setting right what went wrong. Fixing what I broke.”

“You’re trying to connect Earth to the Well again.” Madeline’s head shot up and she sat back at the realization. “That’s why you need so much magic.”

“Yes,” Nadra said softly. “And I will need your magic — the only other human magic currently in existence — as a guide for the spell. In five days, we will travel to the Well together and put things right.” Was that a tear in her eye? She had to be lying. There was no way she could actually do something like that.

“You’re insane,” Madeline whispered.

Nadra shot to her feet, slapping the table with a crack that echoed through the room. “Think about it, Madeline. I know my Shades took a talisman bag from you. I know you’ve been using the powers you’ve been denied your whole life. You’ll lose them when you go home. Your magic will fade until it is gone, dispersed, and you are empty, just how every other human in existence is living right now. Except for you and me. Can you really deny them the right to their magic?”

She started pacing. “But it’s more than that. You’ve advanced so far — your technology will take me a lifetime of study to understand — and it’s still not enough. I’ve seen your poverty. Your hatred, your wars.”

“And you think magic can stop those?” Ayda was incredulous.

Nadra shot her a glance, as if just remembering she was in the room. “Applied carefully? Yes. Magic and technology together are the heart of progress, of innovation.”

“Carefully?” Madeline shook her head. “Every human being on the planet suddenly discovers they have magic and can teleport to other worlds? It would cause chaos.”

“I will guide you through it.”

Ayda gave a wild laugh. “Like you ‘guided’ us by taking over two of the three Kingdoms? You just want power.”

Nadra met Ayda’s eyes. “I need the magic to fuel the spell I will use.”

“And so you used innocent Shades to take it.”

“Yes. How else could I get enough? I didn’t know my servants would continue on after I was gone. Finding that I could still use them was a stroke of luck.”

“Those are people you’re controlling. You’re getting them killed!”

“Casualties of war,” Nadra snapped. “I’ve gone to every length to minimize casualties. Do you have any idea the logistical problems involved in keeping the entire populations of dozens of cities and towns under guard? I couldn’t have them talking. I could have killed them. But I didn’t. Those who died died because your governments told them to fight back instead of surrendering.”

“What did you think they were going to do when you invaded their homes?” Ayda was shouting now. She seized Madeline’s arm and slid to her magical vision, but the girl didn’t activate the talisman.

Come on! She shot a pleading glance at Madeline. Madeline looked at her, hesitation in her eyes. Shadows, was she actually considering Nadra’s plan?

Then her eyes hardened. Power surged through the girl, and the talisman blazed to life.

Ayda shot forward. Nadra stumbled back, eyes widening, but Ayda was already too close, stretching out to touch Nadra, to grab her arm and hang on —

A curved wall blossomed before her, translucent and purple-tinged but still all too solid. She slammed into it and fell, dazed, to the bottom of the sphere that enclosed her.

I — I failed. She pushed herself up, gasping for breath. I didn’t even touch her, and it’s over.

Nadra stood right in front of her sphere with a raised eyebrow, brushing back a single lock of hair. Behind Ayda, Madeline was encased in a similar sphere.

“Clever,” Nadra approved, looking at Madeline. “Smart of you to hide it on the fairy. Clumsily executed — do you really think I would had the guards leave if I wasn’t confidant I could defend myself? — but clever in concept. Except…” she studied Ayda’s wrist for a moment, analyzing the magic in the talisman, “it would never have worked anyway.”

With a wave of the hand, she dismissed the sphere around Madeline. The girl righted her chair and sat back down, blushing. “What do you mean?”

She should sound more terrified, an irrational part of Ayda thought. We’ve failed…

Without warning, Nadra dismissed the sphere around Ayda. Ayda fell, but Nadra snatched her out of the air, pinning her arms to her sides.

Every muscle in Ayda’s body stiffened, and she started hyperventilating. Nadra’s long fingers held her firmly, crumpling her wings and constricting her chest. A primal terror began to take over, and her vision clouded. I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, she could snap me like a twig —

“Oh, calm down, I’m not going to hurt you,” Nadra sighed. Slowly, Ayda forced herself to breathe normally, though she hated just how helpless she was. You never grabbed a fairy, never.

“But you see?” Nadra pulled Ayda’s arm out and eased the talisman off of it. Nothing happened. The talisman was certainly working — Ayda could see it. And Nadra was touching it But it wasn’t affecting Nadra’s magic.

That was the final blow. Everything had gone wrong. How had Ayda been so confident?

“So you do know the natural way to mix magic,” Nadra approved, examining the talisman more closely. “I’m guessing you tried this one one of my Shades? One I sent after you at Crescent Moon?”

Their lack of response seemed to be answer enough for her. “I had to override their magic when I took control, of course. Make them more like my servants of old. But this — ” she gestured to herself and the kaleidoscope of magic within — “this isn’t unnatural. Magic was meant to be mixed. It’s all the same source, after all. One Well, one power.”

“Yes,” Madeline said. “But you’re stealing it.”

“I hate you,” Ayda whispered.

“I’m sorry?” Nadra said.

“I hate you to the stars and back.” Ayda struggled in Nadra’s grip. “First you took my family. Burned my home, and all before I even knew I cared. And then you came for Crescent Moon. Stopped Madeline from going home. Made Cinder kill. Have you seen the refugees? Thousands of people, all driven out like me. Children sleeping alone in some stars-forgotten cave because you took their families and and forced them to flee. What could possibly justify that?”

For a moment, something like remorse flickered in Nadra’s eyes. Then a shutter slammed down and they grew cold. “The salvation of a world. And I tire of you. This matter is between me and Madeline alone. Guards!”

Two Shades entered.

“Put the fairy with the pegasus,” she ordered. “But first…”

Ayda looked up at her, frozen, eyes watering from the brilliance of her magic.

“I’m sorry. But I truly need every drop of magic I can get.” A ghostly tendril shot out of Nadra’s chest and sank into Ayda. Nadra threw back her head and sucked in a sharp breath.

Ayda screamed as her magic drained out of her, screamed until she faded into unconsciousness.