Murderer

"What do you mean?" Aurora nearly dropped the teacup in her hand..

The magic dying was a problem, but it was very hard for a the Empress to wrap her mind around it. Her friend dying—now that was something she could envision but certainly did not want to.

"You mean like actual dying or just being very sad?"

Brinn pressed her lips together. "Actual dying. Magic is part of what gives the Gifted their longevity. Without it our lives could easily shorten to be more like humans…Ew. No offense!" The she-elf seemed less than apologetic about the prospect of being more like the two people with which she dined.

"I will choose not to be mad only because I know you are in shock…" Aurora cut her eyes at her friend.

"The magic cannot just…die…can it? That would mean it was alive." Devrim felt like there was a missing piece to the puzzle.

"It lives but not in the sense that it is alive. It runs through all magical creatures and ties them together. Renat or Junayd might be able to explain it to you. I am sure they felt a semblance of the pull when they were transformed." Brinn could not really describe the connection with words, but now that it was confirmed missing, she knew something invaluable had been lost.

What Brinn had hoped was just sickness was in fact a much bigger problem, and the idea scared her much more than she was willing to admit. Losing the magic was losing part of herself.

"Take heart, Brinn," Aurora reached over to rub the elve's back. "I don't think Hanna would come here if nothing could be done. Surely she has a plan."

"Unless she just wants help getting the other Fates down," Devrim thought aloud, receiving a sharp gaze from his wife in response. "But, uh, I am sure it is more than that. Didn't Justum tell Hanna to get the humans? There was something mentioned about restarting the magic...a seed?"

The fiery-haired Empress nodded emphatically, happy that Devrim had redeemed himself with the latter part of his statement. "That's right," she chirped. "She told Justum that she would find the seed."

"The seed is a myth told to children who dream of adventure. Hanna must have been delirious..." Brinn clicked her tongue.

"Well, until Hanna awakens, we should see if we can figure out exactly what we are dealing with." Aurora polished off a small doughy biscuit and pushed away her plate. After Hanna's news the Empress had almost no appetite, but not eating would cause problems as well.

"We could get Dania's opinion on the water. I know Phileas has at least one barrel from the Land of Magic that he has been holding on to." Devrim had overheard the physician mention that he had not been using the water as much both because the elves were late on the next shipment and because the water had lost some of its potency.

Aurora nodded. "I was already thinking that. We should gather the royal family and other magical creatures in the palace and brief them on this. Really, we should gather the whole Council. Humans may not have magic, but we are certainly affected by it. Of course, Junayd and Nurlan will need to join..."

"Quite a meeting," Brinn counted just how many would be present.

"Is there anyone you would leave out?" Aurora arched her brow.

"Not really. While I don't think the general public needs to know that we are basically defenseless in the Land of Magic, I do see a need for our allies to be informed. We might even want to add Eliana and Jaymes into the mix." Brinn tucked her red hair behind her ears. She liked the little boy and his older sister very much.

But Aurora declined. "I think Dania can convey the information to them and let us know if either of her siblings have anything to add. Jaymes is still quite young and I am not sure how much we should really burden him with all of this."

The young man had just seemed to be finding his spot at the University, and the Empress did not want to upend his life once again. By leaving Eliana out of the meeting as well, Jaymes would not feel like it was a slight against him.

"Once we are all gathered, if Hanna is still not awake, I would very much like to hear the story of the seed." Aurora knew that most every human myth or legend had some grain of truth somewhere at the heart of it. Why should an elven one be any different?

It took a large part of the morning for everyone to be notified and assembled for the meeting. Having been up very late the night before, all were sluggish and slightly confused by the secrecy required.

They had at first come to meet at the Council's room, but there was simply not enough space for all the chairs around the table, and so they adjourned to the war room.

It felt ominous to be back in the place where Aurora had first planned to defend herself against the gnomes, but it was easy to secure, and--as far as she knew--none of the strange tunnels in the walls led to this particular area. It was a blind spot for anyone wanting to spy.

Having recently woken, Hanna was laid out on a couch which had been brought in for her comfort. The others stood or sat around the long table trying to make sense of why they had been called together. They would find out soon enough.

The one good thing about the delay in gathering was that Dania, with the eager help of Mairwen and Gela, was able to finish her analysis to present it to the company. Once he they were all seated, the lovely scientist stood to present her findings.

"I have looked carefully at the water which Doctor Phileas provided." Dania hesitated, seeing the surprised faces of many of the people in the room. "This is my first time going near any magical water since I returned. I have no interest in returning to my previous research!"

"There is no need to defend yourself," Aurora comforted her. After a month of trials, it was easy to see why the scientist might be wary of being called in to look at the very thing which had brought down so many others. "We genuinely need your help. After this, you never have to look at the water again."

The female scientist relaxed slightly. She trusted the Empress would not lie to her, but other than the two members who had traveled with her from the Great Lake, she knew nothing of the Council at all. Perhaps they had a different aim.

Shaking off the gloomy thoughts, Dania decided just to give what she had found. "The water which the doctor gave is almost entirely lacking the luminescent sheen which characterized the water from the Great Lake. I thought maybe he had cut it with some regular water to make it last longer, but he assures me this is not the case. The magic...is all but gone."

"Gone?" Zan repeated. He had spoken to Hanna briefly, so his words were more for clarification than surprise.

"Gone," Dania repeated. "According to the doctor, the barrel was one delivered by the elves right after Her Majesty arrived in the Land of Magic. It is possible that someone tampered with it..."

"I don't think that is the case," Hanna interrupted. "Though I had hoped water that was not directly connected to the source might be spared...It seems I was wrong."

"I don't understand. Why would the healing water be losing its magic?" Councilman Ezer furrowed his brow. He had only minimal contact with magic itself, but he had seen more than once what the water could do.

"The magic is dying," Hanna told them bluntly. "At the Mystic Spires, it is already dead."

There was an uproar of overlapping comments from both humans and their allies.

"Dead?" Renat gasped.

"What does she mean?" Nurlan bent over and asked his counterpart.

"We must go to the Spires to see this for ourselves!" Alaron immediately wanted to jump into action.

Alvar and Gandr looked to Brinn for answers, but she could only corroborate what she had heard.

Everyone was whipped into a frenzy. For a moment, Aurora was afraid they might actually riot.

At last Councilman Metehan stood and quieted the group. "We are all quite concerned, Fate Hanna, as you can see. I thought the Fates and the magic they possessed was immortal." His face became tense. "What kind of enemy can murder something so powerful?"

Hanna's colorless eyes dropped under the man's gaze. "I don't know," she answered at last.

"I think I do," Dania held her chin up despite the tears in the corners of her eyes. "I murdered the magic. It was me..."