War of the Wisps

Anna gave the others space while Peter and Jeremy recovered. Physically, both young men just needed a little more food and rest. But Jeremy still wouldn’t speak, and when no one was talking to him, he would just stare into Halcyon. Anna found herself rubbing the bracelet that the Wisp normally stayed in, as if it didn’t fit quite right at the moment.

Peter, though, was back on his feet in no time. The day after he first woke up, he insisted on going outside to call Jarnvaror and tell the dragon what had happened. Jarnvaror showed up with four bronze dragons. The beasts seemed to think their cousin from the north needed an escort. Peter, now that they were in no hurry, was happy to chat with them. Andrew stayed by his side, answering any of the villagers who approached.

Anna sat against a tree outside the inn, watching Peter with the dragons. She couldn’t read their expressions, but their eyes were locked on the young man, unblinking. She found herself touching the gem on her wrist once more, thinking now of the Wisps inside. How many of them were there now? Thirty?

Of course, she didn’t command them. She’d tried to give Halcyon orders. That had nearly broken him. She was sure of it. And the others had only listened because it was the only way to help Halcyon. Now there were more of them. Nearly six times number she’d had when they flew south from the Iron Valley, even if they hadn’t converted all the other Wisps that night. If they wanted to do something themselves, Anna doubted she could stop them. She sighed.

“Are you alright?”

Anna looked over and saw Hannah walking up to her. “I’m alright,” she replied. “How is Jeremy doing?”

“Better,” the girl said. “He’s been a bit more responsive today. But…”

“He still won’t talk?” Anna asked. Hannah nodded. “I’m sorry,” Anna said. “I wish we could do more.”

“Do you think it would go faster if one of the other Wisps helped?” Hannah asked.

Anna shook her head. “Halcyon is… unique. When he calms the others down, they become focused on something, like he is. But they don’t become gentle or responsive the way he is. Besides,” she added, “I don’t think they’d listen to me.”

“Didn’t they when you saved my brother?” Hannah asked.

Anna shrugged. “It was Halcyon they wanted to save.”

“But they still listened, right?” Hannah said. “Maybe you could try again now.”

Anna blinked at her. “You think so? Wait, you mean right now?”

“Why not?” Hannah said.

Anna looked into the opal. There was no sign that that the milky white gem in her bracelet held any sort of magic. “I don’t know…” she said. “They aren’t the same.” Hannah sighed, and Anna turned to look at her. The girl had her brow furrowed, and she was staring at Anna like a puzzle. “What?” Anna asked.

“Well, why not at least try?” Hannah said. “I saw the other night. I bet if you asked your companions, they’d tell you, ‘you can do it.’” Hannah nodded toward Peter. “He did, and he was right, wasn’t he?”

Anna opened her mouth to deny it, to say that it really was all the Wisps. Then she closed her mouth and shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Well, why not try then? See if they’ll listen. And maybe, if they do, you can ask them to help my brother recover,” Hannah added, her voice a little too neutral. But she grinned at Anna, and Anna smiled back.

“Right. I’ll stop feeling sorry for myself, then,” she said. “I guess I’ll give it a shot…. You may want to back up though.” Still smiling, Hannah backed up several paces. Anna cupped her left hand over the opal and closed her eyes. “I need your help,” she whispered. She tried to feel it the same way she had back in the tunnels under the Iron Valley. She thought of Jeremy up in his bed with Halcyon, still soothing whatever experience he’d had with the Wisps.

These Wisps, Anna realized. More than half of the Wisps in her bracelet now were the ones who’d taken him. A thrill of fear ran through her at the thought, though she knew they weren’t really the same anymore. Were they?

Why did the Wisps take over people? In the books she’d read with Sol, there had been a lot of speculation over that question, but no one seemed to know the answer. And very few who were taken were in a state where they could explain what it had been like. Looking over the field, she knew that Peter, thanks to Halcyon, had never truly been taken. But Jeremy, even as lucky as he was to be recovering, couldn’t explain what happened. What did they do?

Her wrist began to tingle, and she opened her eyes. Her bracelet glowed turquoise. She felt the Wisps’ influence leaking out. She recognized the emotion they were feeling at once, though she wasn’t sure she’d ever heard a name for it. It reminded her of Sol. More than that it was the feeling she recalled whenever she was finally asked a question she knew the answer too. A mixture of confidence and eagerness, but restrained because she wasn’t quite sure how to put it into words.

Even at the thought, she felt an intense pressure in her head. She screwed her eyes shut by reflex, but rather than her vision going dark, there was light. The light of the sun, beaming down on her. All around her was a dark blur. The vision continued to shift, as if she was moving rapidly from one point to the next. She could feel the surroundings changing as if she was there. At the same time, she was sure she still felt the tree at her back.

Her head hurt with the buzzing noise. But she knew, now, that the Wisps were trying to tell her something. She forced herself to focus on these surroundings. As much as they changed, a few things remained consistent. Always, in the center of her vision was a high spire, dark against the bright sky. Always, it felt like there were walls to her sides, though the distance to them kept changing. Always she was surrounded by blurry figures. People. She was sure they were people. And always it was cold

She recognized other features that were less common as well. Two or three times, she was sure she caught the scent of salt. That she saw the sea. Sometimes, through the buzzing, she could hear something like a voice or voices. And twice she caught the image of small trees growing amongst the figures. Was there a ring around that second one? No, a fountain! “It’s a city!” Anna gasped. The excited buzzing in her head thrummed louder and louder. Then it dimmed, becoming calm again. A thread of contentment reached out of the bracelet. She opened her eyes and saw Hannah staring at her, a little worried.

“A city?” she asked. “What happened?”

Anna did her best to describe the vision, though the other girl only seemed confused by the attempt. But she seemed to catch on to Anna’s excitement a bit. “But they did listen to you?”

Anna nodded. “I think so. Not the whole time. But… when I… when I wanted to know what they… what they did to Jeremy, they showed me a city.”

“Will they help him?” Hannah asked.

“I don’t know,” Anna admitted. “They were… forceful with their answer, and they’ve only just let up.”

“What happened?” Andrew asked as he and Peter jogged up to the pair. “We saw the light and—”

“I was able to talk to the Wisps,” Anna said. “Sort of. They showed me a city.” She turned to Hannah. “Maybe they tried showing Jeremy, but didn’t know what they were doing. They were frustrated when they tried showing him, but they might have got some information through.”

“Oh no,” Hannah said. “I wanted to help my brother. Not to interrogate him.”

Anna shook her head. “I don’t… well, I do want to know what he saw. But that’s not what I mean. If they got something through to him, they’d want him to get well, too. Halcyon wants to heal him because he’s hurt. But the rest of them,” Anna held up her wrist, “may still want to help.”

Hannah looked worried for a moment. Then she set her jaw and nodded. “Right. We’ll hope this works. And I’m sure he’d be happy to answer your questions… after he rests up a bit more, first.”

“Hold on,” Andrew said. “What’s the plan?”

“I think it’s to heal Jeremy,” Peter said. He turned and called over to the dragons. “We’ve got to check on something. I’ll be back soon.”

The group rushed up to the room where Jeremy was with his father. Arden had been dozing in a chair at the foot of Jeremy’s bed. Jeremy had just been sitting and staring into the Wisp floating over him. But he turned when they opened the door and smiled at them.

Anna walked up to the side of the bed. She looked at him, but it took a while for the right words to come to her. “Jeremy,” she finally said. “We think we may have found a way to speed up your healing. But it will mean using more Wisps, and we’re not sure what will happen. Do you want to try it?”

The young man’s expression was vacant until she said the word Wisp. He frowned, turning back to Halcyon. Halcyon pulsed. His influence had taken some of the wind from Anna’s sails as she’d come into the room. She felt a little guilty about thinking of the young man before her as just a source of information. Even if he still couldn’t remember everything, she did want him to get better.

The young man smiled, and Anna wondered if Halcyon had passed the feeling along. “Is that a yes?” Anna asked.

Jeremy nodded.

Once more, Anna touched the opal on her wrist and tried to communicate her desire for help. It was much easier this time. The Wisps seemed to wake at once. She felt a rush as their excited influence began to leak out again. She started to panic at the thought of them overwhelming Jeremy. “Gentle, gentle,” she whispered, hoping the Wisps would understand what she meant.

They spent ten minutes sitting by the side of the bed, feeling the influence roll out of the bracelet and shift around them. Jeremy closed his eyes, his face strained as he reacted to it, then softening as Halcyon pulsed over him. Anna wished she could tell what he was feeling like she could the Wisps. But she had no idea what was happening.

As the other Wisps’ influence began to fade, Halcyon drifted down and rejoined them in Anna’s bracelet for the first time in days. Another minute later, and the magic seemed to have totally left. Jeremy still swayed a little in the bed, his eyes closed.

“Hey,” Hannah asked. “How do you feel?”

Jeremy gave a shuddering sigh. “Tired.”

Hannah and Arden both shot up, embracing him. Anna had to scramble not to get knocked over as they did. Jeremy hugged them back. “Ow. You’re hugging me too tight.”

“Let’s give them a moment,” Anna said.

The brothers followed her out of the room and down to the inn’s parlor. “So what exactly did you do with the Wisps?” Peter asked.

“I… I managed to get through to them,” she said. “They wanted to show me something. A city. It wasn’t all that clear, but once they had, they were willing to help more with Jeremy.”

“So is he himself again?” Andrew asked.

“I think so, mostly,” Anna said. “I don’t want to ask him what he remembers right away though.”

“Seems like a good idea,” Peter said.

“About this city, though. You didn’t recognize it?” Andrew asked.

Anna shook her head. “No. It was just a few elements that stood out. The city was cold. There was a tower, I think. Walls. Lots of people. Oh! And I’m pretty sure I saw a fountain with a tree like the one in the Crimson Wood.”

“Did there used to be a city there?” Peter asked.

“Probably,” Anna said. “But no one knows anything about the time before the Catastrophe.”

“I suppose we’re going to have to ask Sol when we get back to Woadrok.” Andrew said.

At the mention of the Archmage, Anna pulled out the little scroll Sol had handed her before. The others blinked down at it. “Wait, is that the note he gave us before?” Andrew asked. “What was it about?”

“She hasn’t opened it yet,” Peter noticed, nodding at the seal.

“Wait, really?” Andrew asked.

Anna shook her head. “There wasn’t time and then I was… distracted.”

Peter grinned. “We could take a look at it now.”

Anna nodded. She pulled the note out of her bag and unfolded it for both boys to see, then began to read it aloud.

Regarding the Crimson Wood:

1st lead: My cousins had no information for me. They’ve known of the fountain, but were never curious about it. Offered to talk with some local historians. Got back to me on the 16th. Working theory is that the fountain was built shortly after the Catastrophe by Elves looking to restore the High Elves’ magic. Counter theory is that it was made by the High Elves themselves, before the Catastrophe. Markings indicate connection to the lost race. Fountain’s purpose unclear. Speculation that it was made for the Wisps, as a way of storing magical power for the community and now attracts Wisps, or on a place of particularly strong natural magics. No theory has faced adequate testing, due to the danger of the Wisps and destroying the artifact itself. May need to conduct tests myself.

2nd Lead: Connection to High Elves clear. Other information: History books do not mention them often. Died out during the Catastrophe. Historian notes they had cities around the continent. There are five known ruins of their civilization. The Ryukyu capitol is built over one, as is Woadrok. The center of the Suvaran Desert, at the buried tower. Just on the other side of Tiger’s Pass, is the fourth. And Frostlake is the fifth. Other Wisp locations?

“Woadrok is built on ruins?” Peter asked.

“I think most of the big cities are,” Anna said.

“So, what exactly was he telling us with this?” Andrew asked.

“I think these were just the notes he’d taken on his research regarding the fountain in the Crimson Wood,” Anna said. “It’s probably everything he’d been able to find while we were off in Prohr.”

“So the Wisps are connected to the High Elves,” Andrew asked. “Have you heard of them before?”

Anna shrugged. “They’re mentioned in old histories that try and talk about the time before the Catastrophe. But everything is vague, and no one agrees. Some historians say they were the heroes who stopped it from destroying the world. Others say they caused it. And others say they had nothing to do with it. But no one from the time is clear.”

“But they have some connection to the Wisps,” Andrew said.

“Sounds like it,” she said. She read the end of the notes again, thinking of her vision. “And I think I know where we should go to find out what it was.”

“What do you mean?” Andrew asked.

“Wisp gather at some of these places. Tiger pass. Around the Suvaran desert.” She pointed to the last name on the list. The brothers exchanged a glance. “If the Wisps want to find a freezing city, I think we need to start at Frostlake.”