Starlight, Starbright

Chapter 16

I was right. Alana wasn’t happy to see me. Even when London was almost in ruins, she still had a spunky spirit. “You!” she growled when she opened the door and brought out a firearm. “I can and will fire this thing!” Maybe spunky was putting it lightly.

“Hi, Alana,” I grinned. Lucy and Irene were exchanging glances behind my back, probably wondering if I was insane. Which I was. Not that it truly mattered at this point. “I’m not dead!” I waved my hands in a happy manner.

“So I can see,” Alana kept the gun pointed at me.

“Look, I need a favor,” I said quickly.

“And why should I do this favor for you?”

“Because it’s the end of the world, you idiotic bookworm!” I gently slapped her upside the head. “Now, I need your assistance. Are you going to grant it?”

Alana gritted her teeth and turned away from me. “Miss Zora . . .” Lucy whispered.

“Alright, fine. You win, Alana. We’re leaving.” I angrily turned away and raised my hand to snap wings back onto the backs of my companions.

“Wait! Zora, wait!” I turned back around to find Alana raising her hands. She dropped her head, then looked up and grinned. “What is it you need?”

“Thank you! I knew there was a reason I befriended you a few years ago.” I put my arm around Alana’s shoulders as we entered what was left of her library of a house.

 

It took hours, but we eventually came up with some sort of information that could help.

“Hey, listen to this!” Alana’s head popped up from behind a pile of books. “According to this old account from a medieval alchemist, we could possibly restore all of what was destroyed, and that might buy us time.”

“Alchemy?!” I felt my heart drop.

“Yeah, why not? It’s the same basic principles of magic,” Alana scanned the page.

“Yeah, no. Magic is creating something, possibly out of thin air, if need be. Magic is an extension of the soul. Alchemy is science. It uses the compounds out of every molecule and atom. It processes the original form, breaks it down, then builds it up in a new shape. It has a rule called Equivalent Exchange, to be given, something must be taken. It is not the same thing!!” I was shaking.

“Okay, we get it. Jeesh, just calm down, would you?” Alana shook her head before diving back into her ancient volumes.

“I’m trying,” I muttered and unclenched my fists. “You have to remember that I’m a whole lot older than you are. I’ve lost a lot of people.”

The room became solemn again as the others continued reading. “All the same,” I murmured. I gently clapped my hands and touched the floor. The house instantly restored itself.

“What the. . .” I heard a crash from Alana’s fortress. “How in the world did my house just get fixed?”

“Alchemy,” I muttered, staring at my hands. Usually, when someone performs alchemy, they needed a sort of circle. But since I had magic, I didn’t.

“What?! I thought you didn’t like alchemy!” Alana climbed out of her collapsed book towers.

“Did you ever think of why I hate alchemy?”

“Because it’s a cheap imitation of magic?”

“No, because I’ve lost someone to the stupid rules of alchemy. But if I can save someone using it, then so be it.” I made my way outside.

“Wait! But what about the whole Equivalence thing?” Alana raced after me, Lucy and Irene trailing, seeming to sense my dread.

“I’ll have to ignore it. You know what they say, right? Rules were made to be broken.” I grinned and shot up into the air.

To spread the alchemic power of restoration, I would have to fly. It would spread it faster in the air than on the ground since dirt isn’t exactly a brilliant conductor of energy of any sort. I closed my eyes and clapped my hands. A ball of energy began to form below me as wind blew in from all corners of the earth. “Here goes nothing,” I muttered. And I let it go.