Lux
Lux was familiar with pain. She was friends with it by now, but the pulsing in the vein running along her temple beat in an opposite rhythm of the ache in her chest. It was angry and throbbing, sending waves of nausea through her stomach and turning her mouth sour. She touched her forehead, and her fingers came away sticky with half dried blood.
"You're awake."
Working up enough moisture to speak was a chore, but after a long measure of silence, she replied, "My eyes are open, and I'm seeing double."
"I can work with that. Better than unconscious or dead."
She rolled to her side, sticks and leaves poking through the thin fabric of her top. She was still in the woods, but from the darkness and quiet, they were deep within the forest and far from her friends. The light. She rocketed to a sitting position, regretting the decision but fighting through the surge of tipsiness.
"Your friends need you, but you are not yet capable of helping them."
"Who are you?" she asked, squinting to try to make outlines in the blackness. Something shifted and clammy hands gripped her face. Lux remained motionless while the stranger prodded at the head wound.
"It doesn't matter right now. Declan will find you soon, and you need to know how to stop the ward breaker before it kills the young Guardian and Sylph." She pulled away, and for a moment, Lux thought she'd left her, but the stranger took her hand in hers.
"How did I end up here? Did you hit me?"
"No! I would never hurt you. The culprit was a low-hanging branch. You hit it rather hard; I was quite impressed with your speed."
Something about her voice reminded Lux of someone she knew, but she couldn't say who. "Why didn't you get one of my friends? They were close." I'd also like to know what you were doing lurking about.
The woman chuckled. "Maybe one day I will answer that question, but today, I am here to give you a gift." She pressed something hard and wrapped in cloth into Lux's hands. "I have waited for you for a very long time. They think you are broken and have been searching for ways to fix you. The truth is that you are special, perhaps the only one of your kind in existence. And so you require something unique to harness your power."
Lux gripped the object in her hand. "Is this my Channeling stone?"
"Lux!" Declan's frantic shout reverberated through the trees. "Lux!"
"Whatever has happened to his unflappable nature?" the woman mused.
"You know him?" The woman had called him by name.
"Be quick," she said, ignoring the question.
Lux unwrapped the channeling stone, her throat squeezing closed as her trembling fingers pulled away the last layer. Light was absent in this place, but it glimmered- creating its own glow in the gloom. Twisting her hand from side to side, she examined it, noticing it was translucent and hanging on a chain. "It's shaped like a key..." She reached for it, holding her breath, fear of failing again almost paralyzing her.
"Trust in yourself, Lux."
Nodding, though she couldn't be seen, she grabbed the stone. Like every channeling stone she'd held, it was warm to the touch, but it wasn't painful. Instead, the heat radiated up her arm and spread through her body. It was like soaking in a hot bath after a long day of training. She closed her eyes- a vision of it moving inside of her, seeking the fissures created by wild magic and sealing them closed.
YOU ARE READING
The Opal Witch
Fantasy[Completed] Lux's senior year of high school had been carefully mapped out since her freshman year. Snag the lead in the school play, chalk up a few more volunteer hours, and ace her AP English class. Maybe even get her first kiss out of the way bef...
