Her Heart, His obsession

13. The Sphere of Time

The healer coven were sitting in silence in the meeting room. They were staring intently at Athena who was conjuring her "sphere of time" from her cabin in Australia. It needed great concentration because of the many enchantments around her cabin present in the forest. This was the hard part. Once she could get through those tightly sealed centuries old enchantments, she could then easily use counter spells to break her cabin's defences. She had put up those spells after all. It was her work.

Suddenly a red light was emitted and a massive sphere with the size of a football appeared in the middle of the table. It was an amazing find that Athena had come across in her camping trips in north Alaska.

She still remembered that day when she and her fellow werewolf trainees at Alaska's free academy had made overnight stay at a sacred native american site in one of their annual camping trips. Just similar to the day she had found Dante near that steam, she had felt a strong pull to the site. She had spent so much energy to conjure the sphere from deep underground that she had lost consciousness. Her best friend, Donavan had found her hours after and it had taken various emergency remedies to wake her up the following morning. After all she was only 14 back then. Now she was a fully trained witch who had reached the age of maturity. No one needed to nurse her back from weakness.

As the sphere appeared Athena stood up from her seat and addressed her coven; "lets make a start to our meeting. Let me introduce you to my most valuable possession. This is the "sphere of time". Some of you would be familiar with the Native American legends and know exactly why I say this, isn't that right Tattiana."

As Athena addressed her, Tattiana rose from her seat and sighed. She turned to look at all the healers at the table. "Yes, I sadly know about the sphere. The sphere was created centuries ago by a native american tribe. it was guarded by different elders in various territories overtime . It's one of the most dangerous weapons of all if it falls in the hands of Dante. It has many uses that are unknown. sky is the limit to what it can do. At one point it also belonged to Ronas the conquerer."

Tattiana now had a distant look in her eyes "My grandmother told me the story of how her grandparents had been part of the group who had ambushed the castle of spears and had stolen the sphere when Ronas was away in battle. not many survived from that mission but those who did, travelled to Alaska and helped conceal the object deep inside the earth. But I would like to know Athena why you conjured this sphere from its hiding place. a lot of warlocks and witches lost their lives to retrieve the sphere from Ronas. what are we planning to use it for?" And an anxious Tattiana sat down and listened intently to Athena's response along with the others.

"When I found this sphere in Alaska, I made a wish that i never would have to use it. The reason I conjured it was because I did not want it to fall in the wrong hands. We need to guard this with our lives."

All nodded their heads. "But what is the purpose of this sphere for now? How can this forbidden object help our mission? Mariana asked impatiently

"Well, as Tattiana explained, it's uses are unknown. Its definitely a multipurpose weapon. By the time it was in Ronas's possession, there was only one application that was unveiled by him. Amongst the many things, this sphere can do, locating people with specific emotions and powers Is one."

"you may argue that we can use monitoring spells to locate people but they don't always work this accurately in getting you the exact position of the target and their emotions. Also there is no concealing spell that can work against this sphere."

This may look like one simple sphere but it is a deadly weapon. Ronas used it for his personal gain and a lot of people suffered.

Ronas gathered an army of strongest bloodlines of mythical creatures. This is why Dante has some of the most powerful commanders and enforcers in his possession. We are not only fighting against Dante. we are fighting against the descendants of Ronas's army who chose to reside in Arkansas and now are serving him unconditionally. But not all are loyal to him as you can see Alexandra and I as living proof that there is hope for some Arkansans to have a conscious and use their powers for good. Now back to your question. We will of course use the sphere to locate the people we want to rescue in the territories we will visit in turn. however before we commence our rescue mission the sphere will be useful to us for something even more urgent. for recruiting."

Athena paused and looked in the eyes of everyone. the same people she was now going to reveal Dante's message to. she wouldn't blame them if they even resigned from this mission after hearing Dante's threats or rather promises.

"I know that the original plan meant only for me and Tattiana to go to the battle fronts but now i believe We all need to use our gifts for our mission and also we need recruits."

She sighed heavily and continued "I know our protocol states that we must never endanger innocents and only use our fighting skills for self defence. Technically we shouldn't be recruiting but times have changed. Dante would pick the ones who oppose him one by one and we have better chance of rescuing innocents if we have more fighters and those we recruit have better chance of survival."

All seemed surprised now. Mariana sounded every one's question "but why the sudden change of heart."

Athena had to tell them " it seems Dante is now too powerful and also he has big plans."

Athena was hesitant to disclose the next piece of information. "He sent me a vision last night."

Athena waved her hand and the images and voices Dante had sent her way last night was now hovering around the healers.

" he is sitting at the throne of the castle of spears. No, no, it can't be true. That castle is gone. You must be mistaken Athena." Alexandra was now pleading with nothing but disbelief and horror in her eyes. After all she was an Arkansan. She was the expert in the dark past of her home land.

It was Elena and then Eliza who stood up and went to comfort her at the other side of the table. Each one touched her shoulders and tried to calm her. After taking deep breaths she started to calm down and Elena and Eliza made their way back to their seats.

All healers were now completely quiet looking at Athena expectantly to continue. The information was clear. The threat was deadlier than ever.

Athena was relieved to feel no waves of fear in the room. It was clear that no one was going to abandon the mission. The waves of emotion coming her way from her coven could only be described as determination. Even the waves from Alexandra were the same but mixed with emotions of anger.

"Very well, lets start with locating our first recruits. They are a pack of four freedom fighters. All members are half werewolf-half warlock. The leader of the pack is called Evelina. The members of her pack are Ethan, Lydia and Keith. she calls her pack "the trio" there were rumours that they had managed to survive the Dante's attack on Quebec. It is so hard to track them because as you know they are shifters too."

Athena opened her arms "now lets hold hands and concentrate hard. Don't let go. Try to have the description of the trio in your mind. We are looking for four half-werewolf half warlock individuals with a very strong bond."

Athena started repeating the ancient spells she had spent three years studying in Australia . The books mentioned that the more the sphere was used by someone or a group, the easier the locating would be. There was even warnings that the process could take hours depending on the strength of the ones using the sphere. But her coven of healers seemed to be more powerful than she could hope for. There was a blue light suddenly and a location was revealed in the sphere. As the information registered, her heart suddenly started to beat harder. They were in Alaska."