Chapter Text
Blades clanged against each other. Yuko fired off a spell, then brought her sword down on the grasping hand of a Dark Elf, severing it from their body.
She ended up back to back with Mo, the two of them wielding the magic that they knew better, deeper, more than any other elf, firing it at the armies amassing just outside of their little circle.
The Dark Elves must’ve figured out how to reproduce, she noted with a sneer as she took out five, ten, twenty of the little bastards, dressed in an ugly brown uniform, their cries sounding like no language Yuko had ever heard.
“The other elves are retreating!” Mo said through gritted teeth. “We need to move!”
Yuko’s magic faltered, then, for a second, then came back stronger as she felt it.
The presence. The magic.
Something she hadn’t felt in years.
“Mia…?” she said.
“What are you-?” Mo said, but Yuko shut him up, focusing her magic into a concentrated blast, drilling her way through the armies in the direction of Mia’s magic.
Then the feeling vanished.
Mo took her hand. “I know,” he said. “I felt her too.”
Yuko let herself grieve.
“We’re finishing this,” she said, wiping her face. “Right here, right now.” She dropped the barrier, letting the Muncs draw closer.
Mo winced in pain as a spear lanced his back, but he held out a rune.
Yuko took it.
They moved closer, faces near, breaths mingling…
Their magic exploded with the force of a supernova, decimating Drakon’s armies.
⚭
Mia adjusted the wooden plaque on her wall, making sure it was level. Then, one-handedly, she cast a levitation spell, keeping the plaque in place as she moved to get the sticky tack.
Finally, she stuck it in place and stepped back, releasing the spell.
The award that Bennett and Cass had given her fit perfectly in place among her posters and photos of the last couple years. A picture of her and Mo and Yuko at Carnevale, a picture of her friends at the Blushflower Princess Ball, a hundred pictures that Vincent and Paula and Violetta had taken whenever they stole her phone.
“Mia!” Franca shouted from the kitchen. “Lunch!”
Mia strapped her illusion bracelet on and headed downstairs. Mario was sitting at the table already, his eyes trained on the phone he was typing on.
“Who’re you texting?” Mia said, trying to lean over his shoulder and sneak a peek.
”None of your business,” Mario said.
Franca ladled some ribollita soup into a bowl and placed it in front of a different chair. “Mia, stop bothering him,” she said reproachfully, though there was a twinkle in her eye. “He needs space in order to win over Diane from his class.”
“Grandma!” Mario said, and Mia laughed, stealing a piece of bread from his plate and sitting down in front of her own bowl.
Renzo came in from teaching his horse riding lessons, wiping at his face with a rag. “Ay, these kids are going to be the death of me,” he muttered good-naturedly, pouring water into a glass and taking a long, slow sip.
“Oh, yay.” Mia mumbled sarcastically. “At least I’m not teaching.”
“Well, that’s what I wanted to ask you,” Renzo said, coming over and giving her a whiskery kiss on the head. “Since you’re not teaching, I wanted to ask if you could clean out the basement. I can’t get down those stairs with my bad back.”
“Sure!” Mia said.
“Thank you, libellula,” Renzo said. He turned to Franca. “Lunch smells good, but I think I’ll have to have it later.”
“Vabbè, vabbè.” Franca waved him off. “It’ll still be here later.”
Mia finished her soup as Renzo left, clapping his hands together to get the kids’ attention as the door swung shut.
She rinsed her bowl in the sink, then pushed open the basement door, heading down the stairs and pulling the cord to turn on the lights.
Oh.
Boxes sat stacked up against every wall, some labeled in Renzo’s shaky scrawl and some in her aunt Annie’s neat handwriting.
Against the far wall, a tower of boxes loomed.
Clothes - Leo + Alessia
Kitchenware - Leo + Alessia
Souvenirs - Leo + Alessia - FOR MIA
Mia choked on her grief. She knew her house back in America was gone. Aunt Annie had been taking care of it in between her shifts at the hospital in America, and evidently mailing the stuff back.
But to see proof of it-
Mia turned away, towards the boxes labeled with Renzo’s handwriting instead.
Clothes Age 4-7 - ANNIE
Mia pried open the tote lid and looked inside. The clothes obviously hadn’t been touched in years, and Mia tugged the tote to the bottom of the stairs. They’d probably be able to sell those, or donate them.
The next box was labeled Cecily - Sewing Machine FRAGILE and Mia carefully lifted it. She remembered Renzo offering the machine to Paula, who was supposed to come at the end of the summer, along with Vincent and Violetta.
As she worked, she could feel the boxes from her old house at the back of her neck, like they were watching her.
As she shuffled a rusted bike to the bottom of the stairs (she thought that either spells or Mario would be able to fix it up), she suddenly couldn’t take it.
Mia shaped a cut spell in her hand and sliced open the tape on the box labeled Souvenirs.
And there they were.
Mia could remember a lot of these trinkets being on shelves. Snowglobes and statues, pressed pennies and keychains. She teared up at a framed photo of her and her parents, blue light rippling over their faces, the Georgia Aquarium in the background.
But in the center of the cardboard box, taking up most of the space, was something Mia had never seen.
She pulled it out.
It was a golden box, maybe a cubic foot. Swirls were etched into the metal, reminding Mia weirdly of Centopia. Small loops of leather were dangling out of the top of the box, like handles. Three of them.
Mia felt her eyes brim with tears.
She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t sit here looking at memories of her old life. Especially not with so many questions about her parents.
She had never dared to think them before. She hadn’t wanted to think about her parents like that. But… there was definitely something they had been hiding from her.
When Vincent, Paula, and Violetta had come with her to Centopia, they had found a tower that didn’t let any magic cross its threshold. The other three had been able to enter, but not Mia.
She was the only human with magic. She was the only one to gain the “secondary form” in Centopia, with the pink hair and wings. She was the only one able to work the bracelet.
Her parents had written the book about Centopia. When Mia was younger, she had thought that her parents had made up the whole story, but that couldn’t be right. There was a history to Elarion, a story that had never appeared in the brief overview of Centopia given in the book. Whatever was happening in the world, it was clear Centopia was only a piece of the puzzle.
And then, of course-
The leviathan’s heart.
Ygraine’s heart.
No matter which way she looked at it, there was no good way to understand how her parents had gotten it.
Had they found it? Had a portal opened to bring the heart to Earth, and Leo and Alessia, out on a walk, had stumbled upon it? How would they know what it did? How would they know it could store power like it did, like the Dark Elves did?
And every other possibility was just as awful.
Mia scrubbed at her tears, blinking in the dim light of the basement.
Her bracelet was glowing pink.
Mia swallowed harshly, shoving the golden box back into the cardboard and heading upstairs.
She needed to get out of this dimension for a while, even if it meant facing off against another stupid Dark Elf.
“Mia, you good?” Mario said, looking up from his phone.
Mia didn’t trust herself to speak, so she just nodded, jerking her thumb robotically upstairs as she hustled past him.
Mario must’ve seen the bracelet glowing, because he didn’t press, but his eyes still followed her upstairs as she climbed to her attic bedroom.
Her book was sitting on her nightstand, and Mia hesitated for a fraction of a second.
The swirls of metal edging the cover…they looked like the swirls on the box downstairs.
Mia flipped the cover open.
Paging past the carefully detailed notes about different locations, then the oracles that Mia had already solved, small drawings of her adventures.
She exhaled a bit as she saw the runes floating in the pink magic, turning the book a bit to see the reflection in the mirror.
She pressed her bracelet.
“Hi Mia. Say your password.”
“The earth will rise beneath the storm, and magic once lost gains a new form.” Mia recited.
The magic swirled around her.
Mia flew through the golden dimension. Golden, like the book and the box.
She darted through a rip in the sky and into… Centopia?
No, it definitely was Centopia. But it was raining.
Mia had never seen it rain before. It turned the air from the normal, Centopian-cinnamon smell, to a more sugary scent.
She headed towards the palace, landing on the steps and pushing open the door.
“Whoa,” she said. “What the heck happened in here?”
The throne room was filled with elves, and also stuff. They were sorting it into little piles, teacups hovering next to some of them, Phuddle navigating a little serving cart around with food on it.
“Hey, Mia!” he said, trotting over with his cart in tow. “We’re doing some cleaning!”
“I see that,” Mia said. “Where are Mo and Yuko?”
Phuddle scoffed. “Upstairs,” he said. “In the storage room with the king and queen. They said I could come, but I can’t get my cart up the stairs!”
He kicked at it with his little hoof, and Mia chuckled. “I’ll help,” she said, casting a spell and lifting the cart easily into the air, buoyed by a cloud of pink magic. “Lead the way?”
Phuddle scampered over to the hallway, then up the stairs. Mia followed, fluttering over the heads of elves.
Mia had been up the stairs before. Mostly to get to Mo’s room. But she hadn’t really thought about the fact that the stairs continued upward, spiraling around in a wide arc that bordered the large hole in the ceiling of the palace, the one that allowed the balloon throne to enter and exit.
Phuddle trotted onward, easily leaping from step to step. Mia carefully navigated the little cart so that it didn’t bump into any walls.
“I made it!” Phuddle sang into the open air as he reached the top of the steps. Mia climbed the last few and found herself in a dark room, lit by a couple light spells and four elven glows.
“Oh, there you are, Phuddle,” Raynor said. He spread his wings and fluttered over the piles of clutter that were scattered across the floor. “And Mia! How wonderful to see you!”
There was a loud crash from the far corner, the one lit by cherry-red and dandelion-yellow glows. “Mia’s here?” Yuko‘s voice hollered.
Mia kinda failed at holding in her laughter, carefully setting Phuddle’s cart down. She hadn’t made it two steps towards Mo and Yuko before she was being tackled by the two of them.
“Jeez, give a girl some warning!” Mia laughed, hugging them back. “You guys don’t need to pounce on me, I was only gone for a couple days!”
“Felt like three months,” Mo grumbled. “You promised you’d be back within two Earth days, and Phuddle says it’s been five!”
“It was a hypothesis!” Phuddle called from where he was serving Mayla tea.
“Well, it’s been four and a half,” Mia said. “And you guys know I can’t promise anything when this bracelet is involved.”
Yuko stood, and pulled the two of them up after her. Mia swallowed at the sight of her face.
Yuko still had her scar from Midos’s poison. It was healed over, but the flesh was still pitted and pale from the fatal blow.
The permanent reminder that Yuko had been their second choice.
Yuko must’ve seen her looking, because she rubbed the back of her hand against her scar. “You’re helping us clean the storage room then?” she asked Mia, barreling straight past the conversation topic. “Wow, Mia, thanks, Mia, you’re such a good friend, Mia!”
“I just escaped doing this to my grandpa’s basement!” Mia complained good-naturedly as Yuko and Mo led her through the towering piles of stuff. She reached out and snagged a hand-carved flute. “What’s this?”
“Not sure,” Yuko said. She put it to her lips and tried to play it, but all that came out was a harsh squeak, and Mia snickered. “Think Polytheus will want it?”
Mo pursed his lips. “Eh, not sure,” he said. “He really only wants magic stuff, and we’ve got tons of that here.”
Mia snickered, envisioning Polytheus as a thrift store worker- then laughed again when she realized how much he would hate that. “Well, where should I start?”
“Over here!” Yuko said. “We’ve got a pile for trash, a pile for Polytheus, and a pile for Phuddle. If you see something you think we should keep, just clean it up and move it to the clean side of the storage room.” She gestured at the portion of the storage room where Mia could actually see the floor, as well as Raynor and Mayla’s ocean-blue and lavender glows moving around.
“Ready?” Mo said, putting his hand in the middle of the circle. Mia and Yuko followed, and all three of their rings glowed brightly.
“Break!” Mia chirped.
They got to work.
Mia had never known there was so much stuff in the elven kingdom. There were boxes of old, mysterious looking tools and pages of old herbs and remedies, both of which she placed into Phuddle’s pile. Broken weapons and armor went in the trash, including the trophies from hard-won battles, like a cracked Munc spear.
As she worked her way towards the back of the room, her eyes caught on a large rectangular object, covered by a sheet. She blinked at it in the dim light, wondering what was underneath it.
Broken water glares went into the trash, and a stack of woven baskets were moved to the clean side of the room. There was a sky blue blanket with runes woven into it: For my favorite little Cherished. Love, Cora.
“What’s a Cherished?” she said out loud.
She hadn’t really been talking to anyone, but Mo popped out, holding a golden scepter. “What’d you say?”
“Oh- I saw this.” Mia showed him the runes. “I don’t know what a Cherished is.”
“Really?” Mo said. “You and Onchao- you guys are Cherished. Or I thought you were. The connection that isn’t romantic or platonic.”
“Like your family?” Mia asked. “Wait, that makes sense. I’ve always thought of Onchao as my brother.” Elves didn’t have siblings, though, based on how they grew up, so it made a lot of sense if they had a different word, one for a chosen family.
“I think that’s right.” Mo shrugged, eyeing the scepter. “Mom, where’s this supposed to go?”
Mayla wove through the stacks of items, coming to a stop next to them. “What is it, Mo?” she asked.
Then her eyes settled on the scepter in Mo’s hands, and she stiffened. “Oh- I was wondering where that was!” she said, scooping it from his hands. “It- it was- a gift! Yes, a gift from the previous ruler.”
She tucked it into the crook of her arm and offered them a smile. “Thank you for your help, my dears. Keep at it!”
Mayla vanished between the piles of things again.
Mia and Mo shrugged at each other and went back to work. Mia kept scooping rolled-up blueprints into a basket, figuring they’d probably have to go through them before they let Phuddle get his hooves on them.
Finally, she grabbed the corner of a sheet, whisking it off of a large, ornate portrait.
“Whoa…” she breathed. Two figures, decked in golden robes, stood together, fingers intertwined. “Mo? Who’s this?”
Mo picked his way through the piles of stuff, Yuko hot on his heels. “Oh, whoa, I’ve never seen this painting before. They’re two old Centopian kings, King Filo and King Ani.”
“They don’t look very happy,” Yuko observed.
Mo shook his head. “Filo died before the painting was completed,” he said in a hushed voice. “I don’t remember how. Ani never smiled again. He chose an heir, trained them well, and stepped down. There’s a palace where royalty are supposed to retire to, on Iriditopia, but Ani wouldn’t go without Filo. He just spent the rest of his life, alone, wandering the world.”
Mia’s eyes trailed to where their fingers were interlocked, Ani gripping Filo like he could keep him here if he just held on tight enough.
She swallowed thickly.
“Let’s keep cleaning,” she said, moving away from the picture. “What’s up next, Phuddle?”
Behind them, preserved in paint, half-hidden by the neckline of King Filo’s robe, a small sun mark glittered in the dark.
⚭
Finally, Mo sighed, brushing the dust from his clothes. “I think we’re done for the day,” he said. “Come on, I think they made biscuits earlier.”
As they descended the stairs, the sounds of the crater outside were suddenly audible again, and Mia snapped her fingers as a thought came to her.
“It’s raining,” she said. “Does it rain here? Have I just always missed that?”
Mo shrugged, and Yuko pursed her lips. “It doesn’t rain that often,” she said. “But I think the Guardian unicorns are having an argument or something. The Flank River is flooding, and the volcano’s been smoking and rumbling all day.”
“Hope it’s not something we’re gonna have to solve,” Mia said. “Though, knowing our luck, it probably is.”
“Well, what does the oracle say?” Mo asked.
“The earth will rise beneath the storm, and power once lost gains new form,” Mia recited.
“‘Power once lost’,” Mo mused as they entered the kitchens. “I wonder if that means we’ll be able to fix the leviathans?”
“Skies, I hope so,” Yuko said. “We still need to figure out how to purify Rosal’s heart.”
“And Ygraine’s,” Mia said. It was a shame Midos had taken back the one he had originally arrived with. And the one Rixel had brought, the one that had been lost in time for a while, was gone as well, taken by Gargona in her attack on the elven crater.
Mo pulled out three teacups and a funky-looking kettle from the top of a shelf. “Have you had moonflower tea, Mia?” he asked. “I know my mom likes it.”
Mia thought back. “I don’t…think so?” she said. “What’s it taste like?”
“You’ll see!” Yuko said. “Normally I don’t like it, but after working in that stupidly hot storage room, it’ll be perfect.”
They sat comfortably for a couple minutes in silence, listening to the kettle boil under the force of Mo’s cherry-red heating spell. Mia was prepared for it to whistle, but when it was finished, it simply let out a low hum, and Mo released his spell in a puff of reddish smoke.
He poured the tea into each cup, then passed one to Yuko and one to Mia, the perfect picture of elven etiquette. Mia forced down her grin at the thought of the boy who had hid behind curtains and started a food fight to get out of his protocol lessons.
“Would you like sugarbee honey in yours?” he asked.
“Ooh, yes please!” Yuko said.
Mia shrugged. “Why not? Thank you, Mo.”
Mo tipped a small bottle over their drinks, and a semi-translucent teal liquid poured out in large dollops, just like the honey Mia was used to.
Yuko grinned. “There’s an old elves’ tale about sugarbee honey,” she told Mia. “On Haventopia, Queen Zinnia used to say that if you ate foods made with their nectar or honey with someone else, your shared spells would become stronger. Since the bees worked together to make the honey, it helps you work together too.”
“Does it work?” Mia asked, peering into her cup.
“Nah,” Yuko said. “I think she told us that to get us to sit together and have tea.”
“And behave for once,” Mo snickered. He took a sip of his tea and grinned at them.
Mia took a sip- and blanched.
“What?” Mo asked. “Is it not good?”
“It’s fine,” Mia reassured him. “I just wasn’t expecting it to be…cold?”
It wasn’t really cold. Mia could feel the actual temperature of the tea on her tongue, but the taste was like spearmint, but without the mint. Just…strange.
“It’s not my favorite, either,” Yuko said. “Good when it’s hot out, though.”
“So, Mia, what-” Mo started to say, but the crater shook.
Mia had a terrified, panicked moment where she imagined that Midos was back, taking over Fetlock Peak, ready to attack the crater. Their teacups went tipping and rolling away, Mia’s shattering on the ground.
Everything rumbled and cracked, the windows flashing lightning, thunder rolling. Yuko darted across the table and yanked Mo and Mia towards her, a shield blooming over all of them.
They trembled, huddling close together.
And then…
And then it was over.
“What was that?” Mia whispered into the quiet, the empty stillness. “What happened?”
Yuko released her shield, and they all shakily stood.
Mia suddenly flinched, violently. “The unicorns!” she gasped. “We’ve gotta go check on Onchao!”
She shoved open the kitchen doors and zipped through the halls, past all the elves helping each other up, past the toppled piles of stuff, and out into the pouring rain.
Mo and Yuko were right behind her, and the three of them soared down towards the unicorn meadow.
The empty unicorn meadow.
“They’re not here!” Mia said, fisting her hands anxiously in her hair. “Onchao! Lyria! Ono!”
Mo landed near her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We’ll find them,” he said.
Yuko drummed her fingers against her leg as she thought. “The Ferngrass herd also grazes by Blackwood Forest, right?” she said. “Are they out there?”
“Can’t hurt to check,” Mo said reasonably.
He tucked Mia’s wet hair out of her face, behind her ear. “Are you okay?”
Mia swallowed and nodded.
“Alright.”
They flew towards Blackwood Forest.
As they approached, Mia could feel her racing heart begin to slow as blurry pale shapes resolved themselves into unicorns. Ono and Onchao were standing together off to the side, while the rest of the Ferngrass herd huddled together in a mass.
Mia landed. “Onchao!” she said, throwing her arms around him. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”
“Me too, Mia!” he nickered, nuzzling her. Then he blinked. “What was that earthquake? Did it come from the elven crater?”
“Not us,” Mia said.
“It was Guardian magic,” Ono said.
Mia and Onchao both turned to him. “Guardian magic?” Mia parroted.
Ono looked- sad, scared, grieving. “Yes. The storm, the seas, the volcano, the earthquakes, it’s all the work of the Elemental Guardians.”
“But why?” Mia pressed. “Why are they doing this?”
Ono ducked his head.
The ground began to shake again, cracks forming, all centered in a specific spot nearby. Yuko darted towards it, but Mo grabbed her wrist. “No way,” he said. “Not again.”
Yuko swallowed sheepishly and cast a bubble over the crack- just as the earth split wide.
Something dragged itself, shambling, to the surface. It was sickly and unnatural, the coat hanging in pieces from its skin, a cracked horn jutting from its forehead. Lightning flashed, illuminating an auburn coat, a scraggly, leaf-filled mane.
“Is that…” Yuko whispered, releasing her spell in shock.
“Please, no,” Mo said, pressing a shaky hand to his chest.
Mia felt her face crumple. “The Earth Unicorn.”
The Earth Unicorn turned, and Mia felt nausea rising in her throat.
One eye was normal, green and brown- but the other- it was just a socket, dripping blue blood, mixing with the pale foam pooling over the Earth Unicorn’s lips.
Her eye landed on Onchao. “Prince!” she said, stumbling towards him. Her voice was addled, thick with pain. “Prince Onchao, please- please heal me. She- she said you couldn’t, but she has to be wrong sometimes-”
Ono stepped in front of Onchao, forcing the Earth Unicorn to stop.
“You know it’s time,” he said gently. “You’ve known.”
“I can’t leave you like this!” The Earth Unicorn protested. “I know what I said, but I can’t just- can’t just give up!”
Mia shoved down her revulsion, coming up to the Earth Unicorn. “Please,” she said.
The Earth Unicorn seemed to have trouble recognizing her.
Mia swallowed. “The Truth Unicorn wouldn’t have wanted this,” she continued. “She loved you. She wouldn’t want you to be in pain.”
Ono nickered in agreement. “She’s waiting for you,” he said. “She’s waiting with the celestials.”
Everything was silent. The Earth Unicorn’s ragged breathing echoed through the clearing.
“Not- not yet,” she rasped suddenly. “I want- I want my children.”
Mia stiffened. She had missed her own mom’s final moments, in the hours following that car crash. “I’ll get them,” she said. “Sato, Yolika, and Balanda, right? Anyone else?”
The Earth Unicorn huffed out a denial, and Mia swallowed heavily, swiping at her eyes.
She wouldn’t let another child lose their mom. Not without saying goodbye.
“Mia!” Mo and Yuko called after her, but Mia was already dodging between trees, wishing she was like Simo, able to clamber through the trees easily.
Then she spotted them. “Sato! Yolika! Balanda!” she gasped, breathing heavily as she landed in the clearing. “Come quick!”
“What’s wrong, Mia?” Balanda asked, nosing at her.
“It’s your mom,” Mia said.
“Mom?” Yolika said. “She’s back?”
Mia choked on her next words. “She’s- she’s dying.”
It was like lightning from the storm above had struck them. “No,” Sato said. “No, she can’t be.”
“She wants to see you,” Mia said. “Please.”
“Get on,” Balanda said. “We’ll take a shortcut.”
Mia climbed on Balanda’s back, and Balanda and Sato faced the way Mia had come.
Balanda looked around. “Yolika?” she said.
Yolika, standing a little ways away, tossed her leaf-like mane and stamped her hoof. “No!” she said. “I won’t go! I don’t want-” Her voice grew small. “I don’t want to see her like that.”
Balanda plodded over to her. “‘Lika,” she said quietly. “I can’t make you go. But- but if she is-” the word “dying” hung in the air. “If she is, do you really not want to say goodbye?”
Yolika’s eyes watered. Then she said, “Alright. I’ll come.”
Balanda turned and stomped her hoof.
Pink flowers began to bloom, clearing the way for the four of them, a tunnel of blossoms leading out to where the Ferngrass herd was gathered.
“Oh, my babies,” the Earth Unicorn wept as they galloped into view. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s alright, Mom,” Balanda said, even as she was crying. Mia slid off her back. “We’ll be okay.”
They crowded in, not caring about the gruesome appearance of the Earth Unicorn, and suddenly Mia could imagine them as foals, huddled around their mother, the Guardian, so sure that she would never die.
Mia stumbled backwards into Onchao’s flank, and he put his wing around her comfortingly.
Mo and Yuko were standing by Lyria’s sides, her eyes looking dewy as Ono stepped forward.
“It’s time,” he said.
The Earth Unicorn’s children stepped backwards.
“From the earth you come, to the earth you return,” Ono said. He nickered something, a name untranslateable, something that sounded like the grinding of stones, the growing of plants, the rumble of the earth.
The Earth Unicorn’s true name.
“Guardian of the Earth,” Ono said. “Member of the Cliffway herd and chosen for Oriel and Osyth’s court. May you step into the great beyond, may you be welcomed by the celestials, by those you have loved and those you have lost. Your friends, your family, your herd will miss you dearly.”
He bowed his head and touched his horn to the Earth Unicorn’s heaving chest.
She began to fade, a gossamer kind of ending, the pain clearing from her face.
And then she was gone, leaving nothing but a horn lying innocently in the dirt.
Then it began to grow.
Like a time-lapsed video, a sprout erupted from the horn, rising first to Mia’s hip, then to her shoulder, then taller than Onchao, Ono, taller than the trees of the Blackwood Forest. The leaves glimmered with a subtle hue, and Yuko whispered, “Is that a narese tree?”
The rain increased, the volcano rumbling in the distance.
“Mia,” Mo said. “Mia, what just- I thought the Earth Unicorn-”
Mia choked on her grief. She hadn’t thought about the fact that Mo and Yuko wouldn’t know what had just happened. About the fact that they hadn’t heard the prayer.
“She- she died,” Mia said, the words tasting awful. “The venom from the Munc snakes killed her.”
Yuko’s face went pale. Mo put a hand over his mouth.
“I need my court,” Ono said. “We must choose a new Earth Unicorn.”
“Dear,” Lyria said, her voice gentle but steely. “It’s been less than a minute. Let us process, please.”
Ono huffed. “I know. I wish we could wait until after the mourning procession, but we can’t. The sun is setting soon.”
He raised his horn into the sky.
A rainbow cut through the clouds, the same way one had on the day Onchao had been born. Calling the members of the Unicorn Court.
Mia stumbled into Mo and Yuko’s arms. “They have to choose a new Earth Unicorn by the time the sun sets,” she translated, looking up at the stormy sky, the gray-blue darkness making it impossible to tell the time.
“But that’s-” Yuko scribbled something quick into the air, the rune for time. A small sphere appeared above her fist, like a diorama of the skies. The moon and sun were almost level with each other, the sun a hair away from touching the horizon. “That’s soon,” she said. “Do they have time? Is it okay?”
The skies began to clear as the Wind Unicorn descended from the clouds. It looked devastated, but not surprised. Bowing to Ono, it took its place at his side.
Small stars chimed a mourning tune as the Star Unicorn landed. She was openly weeping, her tears falling like diamonds as she approached the Earth Unicorn’s tree.
Mia swallowed down her tears and kept a tight hold on Mo and Yuko’s hands.
“Ono!” a voice called, and Mia turned.
The Crystal Unicorn was galloping towards them, and he skidded to a stop and butted his head against Ono’s neck.
“Piar!” Ono greeted, but the name almost seemed- overgrown, in a way. Crystallized and cracked down the seams from the power it bore. A true name, but one that hadn’t held that amount of magic for very long.
The Wind Unicorn’s horn glowed gold, and a cloud floated the Water Unicorn down as well. She nickered sadly at the Earth Unicorn’s tree. “Goodbye, old friend,” she said. “I’ll miss you.”
The Fire Unicorn cantered up, the Stone Unicorn close behind him. They both kept their eyes on the tree, but took their places with the rest of the court.
Finally, the Ice Unicorn arrived. “Are we waiting for…anyone else, your majesty?” he asked Ono.
Ono huffed, then shook his head. “No. Neither of them will have time to make it before the sun sets.” He turned to Balanda. “Balanda of the Blackwood Forest herd,” he said. “Do you wish to become a member of the Unicorn Court?”
Balanda looked at her siblings. “Should I?” she asked in a low voice. “I don’t want to replace Mom, and I don’t want to leave you guys.”
“You won’t leave us!” Sato said. “You’d just be a little different!”
“You could be a big sister to everyone else, not just us,” Yolika offered quietly. “I think they’ll need it.”
Balanda looked around at the gathered court. “Is this right?” she asked. “Can I really do this?”
The Star Unicorn stepped forward. “Balanda?” she said.
There was no answer.
“Balanda, I know what you’ve wished for,” said the Star Unicorn, the Unicorn of Wishes. “I know how much you love your siblings, how you want to do what’s right for them. And you know that I don’t grant wishes if the asker can do it themself. You can protect Sato and Yolika. You can protect Tessandra. You can protect not just Blackwood Forest, but all of Centopia.”
Balanda still didn’t seem convinced. “What if I get something wrong?” she asked.
“Then you make that mistake,” the Crystal Unicorn said, “and we help you fix it.”
“You don’t even want to know how many pinguines I froze when I first received my powers,” the Ice Unicorn said. “But the Fire Unicorn was there to help me melt the ice, and Queen Ovaze, King Ono’s sister and the Unicorn of Life when I was chosen, helped the pinguines feel better.”
“You see?” the Water Unicorn said kindly. “We are not separate entities. We are a court, a team. I understand you are used to the isolation after Panthea’s rule, but it will remain no longer.”
“I agree,” Ono said. “With both unicorns of Life and Death, and a full, ten-member court, Centopia will heal from the damage inflicted by Drakon’s forces. I swear it.”
“So, Balanda, do you accept your role as the Earth Unicorn?” the Fire Unicorn asked.
“I do.” Balanda said.
Ono leveled his horn at her.
A silver light shone from his silver horn, swirling around Balanda.
She began to change, her pink coat now patterned with green and brown swirls, and her mane extending to a waterfall of blossoms cascading over her neck. As a final touch, her horn glowed a gleaming silver.
“Welcome, Balanda, our new Unicorn of Earth, to the Unicorn Court.” Ono said.
“Congratulations, Balanda,” Mia said, the name tasting heavy on her tongue. “The Earth Unicorn.”
“Thank you, Mia,” Balanda said. “And it seems you have to go.”
Mia looked down. Her bracelet was glowing a rosy pink, and Mia shrugged. “I guess I do.” She hugged Onchao, then Lyria goodbye.
“See you guys!” she said, waving to Mo and Yuko.
“Really?” Yuko said. “You’re just gonna leave? Without translating?”
“I really gotta get back,” Mia said. “I need to talk to my grandpa.” She pressed her bracelet. “Bye, guys!”
⚭
Gargona stood in the wreckage of Panthea’s courtyard, surveying the troops of Muncs. The elves had managed to take out quite a few of her units during Midos’s grand plan. The Fang and Claw Units remained her two biggest, but the Scale Unit had less than two dozen soldiers, and the Tail Unit was down to only three soldiers.
Plus, the Dragons that lived in the top of Fetlock Peak were now even more territorial. Before, they hadn’t cared that Midos, Gargona, and the Muncs lived at the base of the mountain, but now they were swooping and roaring angrily at any Munc who dared approach. Gargona had been forced to use her leviathan heart and turn a battalion invisible so that they could approach Midos’s old hideout and scavenge for pieces of things he had left behind.
That’s all it was, really. Scavenging. Gargona was not awarded anything by Lord Drakon, not anymore. She was standing in Panthea’s ruins, using the heart left behind by Rixel and the troops left behind by Midos.
Didn’t matter. She already had a plan.
From within her robes, she pulled out four unicorn horns, ones she had managed to steal from a unicorn herd, and barked, “Claw Unit, at attention!”
They snapped upright.
“Divide into four groups,” she commanded. “Take one horn each and bury it along the outskirts of the Morbitrus Badlands, where the healthy soil meets our dead earth.” Then she held up her leviathan heart, where a rune blazed. “Carve this rune into the trunk of the tree that grows.”
In the heart, there was a straight line up, with a curve to the left and three dots along the curve.
Each group took a horn and marched off among the labyrinth of stone pillars.
Gargona turned her attention to Panthea’s palace. If she could get this place fixed up, she could begin enacting her plan.
When she brought back both royal horns to Dystopia, Lord Drakon would beg for her to rejoin his ranks.
⚭
Mia soared back through the golden dimension, her bracelet tugging her back to the human world, and appeared with a small bounce on her bed.
The book, lying open on her bed, shimmered and became a picture of the Earth Unicorn’s narese tree, small unicorns gathered by the base.
Mia closed her book and hid her wings.
“Grandpa Renzo?” she said, pushing open the door. Renzo stood by the fence to the paddock, watching a student trot around on their new horse, Pepino.
“Mia?” Renzo said. He tucked her under his arm. “What’s wrong?”
Mia swallowed. “I thought I could clean the basement, Grandpa, but I was wrong. There’s so much stuff.”
“Ah, that’s alright,” Renzo said. “You don’t have to do it all today. We’ll work on it, okay?”
Mia nodded, listing into his side. “Love you, Grandpa.”
“Love you too, libellula.”