A sequel to "Floating Stars"
Generations have come and gone in Natanstrelle. The people have been free to live without fear for almost a century, since the light magic's triumph over the darkness. However, hatred still lurks within the land; the Tro...
A strange darkness took over Beanni's vision as she stared into the prophetic smoke. At first she thought that there was something wrong, that something wasn't working. However, she could hear strange sounds that she knew did not come from the hut within Strelle Forest. There was a weird high-pitched beeping and something similar to breathing - steady breathing that inhaled and exhaled in a sequence that was too perfect to be real.
I can't move. Why can't I move? An outside thought penetrated the darkness.
"Oh Roger." Beanni heard a woman say in a sad whisper, towards her right. "You stupid, stupid man!" She heard anger lace its way into the woman's distraught voice. "Why did you not look where you were going? The driver said you stepped out in front of his car from nowhere. I told you, Roger. I told you. If you insist on wearing camouflage when you hunt you must take greater care..." Heavy sobs then took over, cutting the woman's words short. Beanni then heard a deep sigh and the woman continued through desperate bursts of sorrow. "What am I going to do? I can't live without you Roger..."
There is no time! A thought suddenly echoed in Beanni's mind. I must act now!
Sparkling white stars then appeared within her peripheral vision, they rapidly worked their way inwards and took over the darkness, until all she could see was white light. Seconds went by and the brightness dissolved. Beanni blinked her eyes a few times to make clear of what the smoke was now trying to show her. She was looking down at a hairy, bare chest, with strange looking tubes attached, they stretched out to the side towards a box displaying moving lines and changing numbers.
Suddenly, the moving lines flattened out and a long drawn out sound took over the steady beeping.
"Come on, Rachel." A deep, gentle voice made the vision turn away from Roger lying on the bed, and focus on a man standing in an open doorway. "It's time to go. Roger's gone."
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The vision then clouded over and Beanni drew herself from the smoke. She looked up at Genelle who stood over her.
"Well?" she said as she towered above the teen that sat uncomfortably on the dusty ground. "What did you see?"
Beanni scrunched up her face and shook her head.
"Not much," she began. "Ethan just revealed more of his journey, I think. The magic ended up in a man lying on a strange white bed with tubes and bright lights. The man was dying, I think, and the magic moved into a crying woman, called Rachel..." Beanni finished her explanation with a shrug, then waited for Genelle to show a sign of disappointment, or to make her go back to gazing, but her Fiosolim mother did neither. Instead, she knelt down beside her and Beanni could see a light of wonder within her eyes.
"Rachel? Did you say, Rachel?"
"Yes, why?"
"James, Astrid the First's father, his wife from the non-magical realm was called Rachel..." Genelle said with a smile curving her lips as she stared deep into Beanni's soul.
