The Obsidian Void

Sixteen: A Shimmer of Hope

"What do you mean you can't?" Quinn asked, nearly spilling the tea down himself.

"Believe me, if I could have, I would have done so six years ago." Celeste explained, trying her best to calm the three of them down. "It's not because I don't want to- far from it- I physically cannot perform the spell again."

"But why not?" Moridaì asked her.

Celeste signed and stared into her tea. "The spell was far too powerful for me. I wasn't experienced enough to perform it safely. It quite literally burned my magic out."

"You just... don't have magic anymore?"

Celeste nodded. "I was too eager, I didn't consider the risk. No matter what I try, I am unable to perform any magic alone anymore."

"Then what do we do now?" Moridaì asked. "We have travelled all this way, and you cannot help us?"

"Now, I didn't say that." Celeste smiled, rising from her chair and sweeping a book into her hands, ignoring the scraps of parchment that fluttered to the floor. "I did actually have a plan, but I couldn't figure out a way to do it on my own." She set the book down on the table and turned it so the trio could read. The page was filled with long rambling paragraphs and indecipherable symbols. When no one said anything for a moment, Celeste continued.

"The general idea is that there's supposedly this magic staff that can allow anyone to cast any spell, regardless of their personal magical capability. Hypothetically, it would allow me to cast the banishing spell despite my lack of magic."

"What's this staff called?" Artemis asked, completely incapable of reading the text of the book.

"It goes by quite a few names, but one of the more common ones is the Dusk Staff. After its creator, Alistair Duscryn."

"Oh, I know that name!" Quinn beamed, "Didn't he invent the first safe teleportation spell?"

"That's the guy!"

"Teleporting is not safe?" Moridaì asked him.

"Not for most creatures. The early versions of those spells had a really high mortality rate."

"So we just have to find the Dusk Staff and bring it back to you!" Artemis asked Celeste, trying to bring the conversation back on track.

"Not quite." Celeste admitted. "The banishment spell can't be cast inside my protection charms, and if I leave these charms for even a moment I will likely be captured."

"That quick?" Quinn said. Moridaì nodded in confirmation. Lord Cassion could be fast. Especially if he were attempting to catch someone.

"I need one of you three to do it." Celeste continued. "I have the incantation written down- I warn you, it's quite long. Take it with you, find the staff, get under the open sky as soon as you can and cast it straight away."

Artemis nodded slowly, "Where is this staff?"

"Alistair's old tower. I'll mark it on a map for you. Be careful, a lot of people have gone missing trying to retrieve it, but if you three made it here from Tuviera, I'm not sure you need to worry too much. Still, expect some shenanigans."

"Would it be too much of a problem for us to wait until tomorrow?" Moridaì asked, "It has gotten quite late, and I fear that travelling in the dark would be... ill advised"

"I completely agree. You can all stay here for tonight." Celeste said, "I'll get to work on a salad for you all, try and get comfy."

Quinn gathered up a pile of books from around the room and perched on the end of Celeste's bed, immediately throwing himself into them in an attempt to absorb as many facts about magic as he could. Moridaì stood by the window, enjoying the cool evening breeze. Artemis joined her mother in putting together a fruit salad, quietly laughing and joking with her, fully aware of how insane it was that these events were even transpiring at all.

***

"Your majesty!"

"Quinn, please, just Celeste will be enough."

Quinn blushed awkwardly as he dug around in his bag. "There's something cool I wanted to show you."

"Wait." Artemis said, suddenly jolting upright from the book she'd been invested in a moment ago. "No, don't you dare."

Celeste simply laughed through a mouthful of fruit salad, taking the little purple notebook that Quinn had pressed into her hands. She flicked it open curiously.

"Oh!" She squealed, "This is adorable! You two were thorough weren't you?"

"Funnily enough, that's almost exactly what Monty said."

Celeste grinned as she looked through the pages of near-illegible children's handwriting. Of course her Artie of all children would take part in an investigation to find her. Why was she ever surprised?

Quinn watched her flip through the book and smiled. He absent-mindedly began leaning on Artemis' shoulder. Artemis considered shuffling to the side so he slipped, but she decided she quite liked him being there. When she was certain her mother wasn't looking, she snuck a tiny kiss onto his forehead, causing him to briefly turn into a tomato.

Celeste set the book to one side and looked over to the window, where Moridaì was still staring blankly outside. She slowly rose to her feet and stood next to them, leaning against the window frame.

"The stars are beautiful tonight, no?"

Moridaì didn't respond, instead they just continued to stare.

"Are you feeling alright?" Celeste continued.

"Mrs Celeste?" Moridaì asked her, tipping their head to the side. "May I inquire about something?"

"Of course!"

Moridaì looked at her, "I have always wondered, why is it that your spell did not work on me? I was not banished like the others, why did that happen?"

Celeste laughed and gazed up at the stars. "Well Moridaì, the reason for that is quite simple." She smiled at them, "That is the way I intended for the spell to work."

"What do you mean?"

Celeste laughed again. "Do you know why it took so long to write that banishment spell?"

"Because you had to send every Somnus to the Obsidian Void. With so many creatures to banish, the spell must have been very complex."

"No, no... Large scale spells are not complicated, Moridaì. Difficult to perform, yes, but not to create." She looked down at her hands. "No, to cast a spell but bigger you only have to write the equivalent of "The Spell but Bigger", the complicated part is making that spell do something else entirely."

"And what was that something?" Moridaì asked her.

"I didn't want to just banish the Somnii, you see, I wanted to banish the Somnii that were hurting people. Granted, there was quite a lot of overlap between the two, but I knew it couldn't be all of them. The laws of probability wouldn't allow it." She smiled at Moridaì, "I wrote the spell specifically to overlook Somnii like you, to spare you from a fate that you didn't deserve."

"You put in so much extra time and effort, and all you got back from it was me..."

"Moridaì..." Celeste said, gently clasping their hands, "Even if you were the lone Somnus that was spared from banishment, I would not have wasted a single moment working on that spell.. Besides, I'm not sure you are the only one anyway..."

"Really?"

"It's unlikely, perhaps, but it isn't impossible. Maybe they didn't run away like you did, but they very well might still be out there. Maybe the Void will even end up a little less full this time around, who knows?"

Moridaì let their wings flutter slightly. "Thank you, Mrs Celeste. I think... I think that you must have been a very good Queen."

Their words drawled slightly; clearly they were getting tired. Celeste gently took their arm and led them to a spot on the floor that she'd covered with cushions and old clothes and other soft things, and she watched as Moridaì slowly approached it and curled up, near-silently purring from the comfort.

Today had been a long day for them. For all of them. A nice, peaceful sleep was certainly in order.