The Foolhardies 115 Abduction

I woke up with a start and felt the sweat pour down my cheeks like I'd been standing underneath rain.

Luca was at my side, shaking my shoulders as if that could help me relax from the pain that had sparked inside my brain after the elf forced me back into my body.

Azuma was there too, his eyes flitting between my and Luca in a questioning manner. Then his eyes drifted to the leafy packet between me and Luca and I heard him sigh in recognition. This sound was what brought my consciousness floating up to the surface of my mind.

Panting, I glanced up at Azuma and said, "Y-you know what this is?"

Azuma nodded. "I've seen Ardeen Spellweaver use it before whenever he wanted to enhance his senses before a battle began. It's very expensive. How did you get it?"

"Albert," I said. "He gave it to me."

"Without telling what it was used for?" Azuma asked skeptically.

"He hinted… but I didn't think it would be that cr-crazy…" I answered, placing both my hands over my face. "There was just so much happening…"

I felt a hand tap on my shoulder.

"You have a sense gift, Dean… Even I know how beneficial it is… but using a drug to enhance it without understanding the consequences… how very foolhardy of you," Azuma chuckled.

I glanced at him through the s.p.a.ce between my fingers. There was a warm smile playing on his pale lips. One I hadn't seen before in my sick instructor.

Azuma told Luca to help me up and that we would resume practice tonight as dawn was approaching.

Again, his choice of words jump-started my brain into working, and I got up quickly without Luca's help while my eyes darted for the nearest window facing west.

Yes, west not east. In the Fayne, the sun rose in the west and set in the east like a mirror opposite of Mudgard.

The western sky was turning purple. The sun would rise very soon.

"Luca… I don't know what, but I think something's happening to Ty…" I whispered.

Luca worriedly asked, "Do you think… do you think they're going to abduct him like they did me?"

He voiced the question that was also in my head.

"He's not fourteen," I said.

"Does that matter?" Luca asked.

"I… I don't know," I answered hesitantly.

There was only one way to resolve this. We needed to find Aura.

Luca and I trailed down the steps of the tower until we'd reached the first-floor entryway and found Aura seated on the lone wooden table there while in a heated discussion with Zarz and Varda about renovations.

When she saw the look on my face, she immediately dismissed the other two so we could have a private discussion.

Aura offered me a cup of elf tea before asking, "What's wrong?"

I spent the next five minutes explaining my vision to them as quickly as I could. Within this time, the sky had gone even lighter. But even with the coming time limit, both Aura and Luca needed time to process my explanation.

A full ten minutes had pa.s.sed between us before they both asked questions, and I did my best to answer. Eventually, Aura's face turned paler. Her brow's furrowed when she said, "You don't need to be fourteen to be taken. That usually only happens to kids whose parents gave up their children during child birth."

I glanced quickly at Luca and saw his face crunch up like he was in pain. I'm certain he was—at least the mental kind. It wasn't every day you get to hear confirmation from someone that your parents traded your life for someone else's—mine.

"Th-then what about Ty?" Luca asked, ignoring his own pain in concern for our friend.

I felt another swell of pride for my little brother. He really was one of a kind.

"You told me that Ty was having dreams… like premonitions, yes?" Aura asked for confirmation.

I nodded. "They were about the Foolhardies…"

"Well… I've heard of something similar happening before… a very long time ago when humans could still use…" Aura hesitated.

Her brow furrowed even more and I half-expected her to reveal some monstrous truth about Ty. I was right.

"It's been decades since the last recorded occurrence happened, mind you,  and that was a single instance that hadn't been seen in hundreds of years, and never again in this era," Aura explained quickly. "Not since Aleister Crowley…"

I'd heard that name before. It belonged to a 1900's occultist and self-professed magician who many believed was a fraud or, if you believed in the occult, was a dabbler in the dark arts.

"What does Crowley have to do with—"

I stopped myself, suddenly seeing the connection Aura was suggesting.

"No way…" I whispered. "Not Ty…"

"Prophetic dreams are the first sure sign of it…" Aura countered. "If they're real… and you said he described the tower and our other members perfectly?"

"Sure… but, Ty?" I nodded but remained skeptical. "And people said Crowley was a fraud…"

"Fairy propaganda to keep your human public from learning about the Fayne," Aura answered, das.h.i.+ng my one final hope as she did.

There was a hard slam on the wooden table, and we both turned to see Luca frowning at us.

"Can someone please explain to me what you two are babbling on about?" he asked, looking annoyed.

I shrugged. "Aura thinks Ty can do magic…"

That big reveal followed me all throughout my trip back to Mudgard.

My head reeled at the possibility of ancient humans actually possessing the gift to use the arcane arts and that Ty was some kind of chosen one who was blessed with this possibility. It was an insane thought to have because, well, because it was Ty. He was so ordinary, so normal, and it was insane to think such a huge thing was happening to him.

I opened my eyes to another weekday morning. The sun filtered in through the gaps in my window curtains, unusually bright compared to Idunn's golden light.

My mattress creaked as I got off it.

I rubbed my eyes clear and then put on the eyegla.s.ses I still wasn't used to. Then I spared a second to glance around my room.

It wasn't as bare as when I'd first found myself in the Fayne. Sure, there was barely enough stuff for someone to figure out who Dean Dapper was, but slowly, things were beginning to reappear.

The bookshelf wasn't empty anymore. Although it was filled with the old manila folders and reference books my dad used for his research on the Fayne. Now it was my research. I'd taken up the calling that was once his, and for a really oddball reason, I felt like we connected somehow.

The one chair in my room that once housed my lone photo had been replaced by a small beside table whose surface was crammed with a few more memories. My family trip to England, Luca winning his rookie of the year award, a photo of my first triumphant quiz bowl, and a recent shot of me, Arah and Ty after we'd finally seen Endgame together.

I picked up the photo of me and my friends and prayed to the spirits that they weren't about to get caught up in the mess Luca and I was in.

The door to my room flew open and aunt Lena stood there in her favorite blue ap.r.o.n.

"Breakfast's ready," she said.

She normally never came in to announce such a normal part of our day. Not unless she wanted to have a chat first, and breakfast was her way of preempting me.

"I can't… I promised to meet Ty and Arah before school," I lied.

Technically, it wasn't a lie. Meeting Ty and Arah before school was part of my daily routine.

Aunt Lena didn't look like she was backing off though.

"We need to talk, Dean," she said the words most teenagers dreaded. It was just so open-ended. Then she followed up with, "It's about your mom… come down to the kitchen when you've finished cleaning up, yeah?"

After dropping that bomb on me, aunt Lena vanished into the hallway.

It took me fifteen minutes to get ready, but once I had sufficiently mentally prepared myself, I scampered down the steps two at a time feeling eager to get this over with so I could look in on Ty.

The smell of cooked sausage wafted out of the kitchen, and an involuntary grumble came out of my stomach.

I sighed. "Guess it won't hurt to have breakfast, Dean…"

Aunt Lena was waiting for me by the tabletop counter. She directed me to sit on the opposite side of her so we would be faced to face with whatever she wanted to say.

Food was already on my plate. Scrambled eggs, toast, and a helping of sausages, all combining to create a smell that made my mouth water in antic.i.p.ation of that first bite.

But instead of digging in, I picked up the gla.s.s of apple juice beside my plate and downed it in one gulp. Nerves had crept up on me, and the taste of apple juice often served to calm them a bit.

"So… what about mom did you want to talk about?" I asked.

"Well," Aunt Lena hesitated. "Well, she's not getting any better, Dean…"

I knew that. Aura and I had visited enough times during the last few weeks to check mom's condition, and she'd hinted that mom seemed to be getting worse.

"The doctors think she might not get better…" aunt Lena said.

"They don't know everything… she might," I reasoned.

Aura had promised that she'd tasked the clan's best healers to help find a way to cure mom. She promised we'd figure out what was wrong with her.

"She might," aunt Lena conceded. "But the hospital doesn't think she will. They don't know what's happening to her and they don't think they can help her anymore."

Aunt Lena's hand reached out for mine but I pulled away. I stood up abruptly. I suddenly didn't want this conversation to continue.

She sighed. "I know a place that might be able to help her… or at the very least, keep her comfortable…"

"Keep her comfortable while she slowly dies inside, you mean…" I said hotly.

"It's not like that, Dean—"

—But I'd heard enough. I stormed out of the kitchen and made my way to the front door. Only, as soon as I opened it, I found Arah already in the motion of knocking on it.

My eyes searched her face and registered the distress on it.

"Arah, what's—"

"—Ty's missing…" she said quickly. "His mom called and said he didn't come home last night…"

I think I would have turned red at that moment as I remembered exactly where he was last night. Luckily, Arah seemed too distracted to notice my discomfort.

"I found his car idling on my street, Dean…" she revealed, her eyes bloodshot and frightened. "The driver's door had been left open..."

"No," I whispered.

It seemed I was too late to save someone again.