A Ride of Peril(26)

Draven's voice broke me out of my reverie. "We now have a plan going forward."

Bijarki sat up straight, shifting his attention to the Druid, who stood up, hands in his pockets. We all listened, while digging into our breakfast.

"The Daughter was kind enough to find the fire protection spell we needed to reach Mount Zur through Mount Inon," Draven continued. "She also deciphered a couple more useful tricks, including a concealment spell, which will come in handy when we get to Mount Zur. We can now go and get Sverik out, hopefully without getting ourselves killed in the process."

"I have to say, I love your optimism," Phoenix interjected with a sarcastic grin. 

Draven nodded and gave him a friendly smirk.

"That being said, there is absolutely no point in all of us being focused on the same thing. Due to the high-risk nature of this mission, we will split into three groups to gain maximum efficiency and cover more ground. Serena, Hansa, and I will go to Mount Zur and retrieve Sverik," Draven said.

"What about us? Me?" Jovi asked, his mouth full.

"You, Anjani, and Bijarki will reach out to the Lamias on the western bank of the River Pyros, where a large settlement of these creatures is rumored to exist," Draven replied. "Lamias are solitary by nature, and the Pyros settlement is considered to be the only organized group since they were first banished from the Druid society thousands of years ago."

"What shall we do once we get there?" Bijarki replied.

"I'm convinced their leaders can be reasoned with, given the circumstances. The Lamias have quite the bone to pick with Azazel since he's killed off the Druids -leaving them with no mates and on the brink of extinction."

Bijarki nodded in agreement and exchanged glances with Jovi and Anjani, while Draven looked at me, Aida, and Phoenix.

"I need the Oracles to stay here, beneath the safety of the shield. You must keep working on your visions, as you've made impeccable progress so far," he said.

I couldn't help but feel a tinge of pride.

"You can conjure your visions without any herbal or physical aids, and you've also extended their length. You can now focus on specific topics. We need all the information that you can gather regarding Azazel and his Destroyers. Once we bring Sverik back, we'll be able to rally more rogue forces against the former Druid. We cannot walk blindly into battle."

"How do we get visions of specific topics, though?" Aida asked. "I've barely managed to hold a vision for more than five minutes. How do I pick what I want to see?"

"Think of the world as a library," Draven replied. "Space, time, and matter compressed into moments. Little books on shelves. This is what I learned from Elissa, years ago. Once an Oracle can control the way in which the vision occurs and its length, it's only a matter of practice and focus before specific timelines can be tapped into. She used to tell me that all she had to do was close her eyes, imagine herself inside a massive library, and think of a specific topic as if it were a book on a shelf belonging to a certain person or a certain year."

It didn't sound difficult, but given the efforts we'd made to have visions in the first place, the three of us knew we were in for quite the ride.

"Field will stay with you," Draven added. "His wings and fighting skills will come in handy, especially if the Daughter decides to go beyond the protective shield."

"I'm not leaving Phoenix's side again," the Daughter shot back.

A smile lifted the corner of Draven's mouth, but he responded with a simple nod and looked over the translated spells, written down in a pocket journal with pale brown pages and black ink. He flipped through the pages and looked up.

"We can gather most of the ingredients for these spells ourselves," he said to Serena. "But there's one specific item that the Dearghs will provide."

"I have to ask," Serena replied. "In our world, witches are born with the ability to conjure magic and to control the elements. It's hereditary. How can we use the swamp witches' magic without their abilities?"

"This isn't your world." Draven smiled. "There are spells in Eritopia that can be achieved with the power of the word. There are formulas, there are ingredients, and, if performed correctly, there is magic. Eritopian magic isn't genetic, at least not as far as the swamp witches are concerned. Druids are different. We are born with it, indeed. But the swamp witches tapped into something ancient of Eritopia, and it took them millennia to develop the craft they needed to use it. They weren't born witches, which is why they preserved their knowledge in that book in the first place. They hoped someday someone would pick it up and start over."