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“Life means Water, and creation means Earth.. Flames obviously means Fire magic. Oh! I bet illuminate means Light magic! And darkness obviously represents Dark magic.. But what about the rest? What trait is earned? Aren’t mages born with magic?”

Thinking on it a few minutes, Maevis spoke; “Will must refer to Tank, so we have Shaman, Wind, Tamer, Manic, and Ether left to match. Do we have extra paper to write on?”

Skye grabbed a blank sheet from a tiny stack with a checked-out expression in her eyes. As she set the paper down, with an eerie tone to her voice, Skye said; “Ether is chaos.”

Maevis and Marie shared a concern glance before Marie asked; “What makes you think that?”

Skye shook her head with obvious unease; “I just know it.. It’s the final element, I know it.”

Maevis flashed a questioning look at her friend, but didn’t press her further. It wasn’t something she felt Skye would elaborate on in front of Marie. While she was helping them out with deciphering the legend, there were certain things she was better off not knowing; for her own safety.

Skye had made two columns: one for the words, and one for the traits. She filled in the words from the legend in the left column, but only wrote down the traits that they had all agreed on so far. The others would be matched as they discussed and agreed.

Looking at the list, Skye thought hard on which word could correlate to each trait. ‘Madness or nightmare might be for Manic.. Probably madness; I think nightmare is for something else.. where have I heard nightmare before? Ack! That’s gonna drive me insane! Tis at the tip of me tongue!’

.....

Skye looked up at Maevis; “Why does nightmare stick out to me? It’s ringin’ a bell, but it just won’t come to me.. Does it mean anythin’ to you?”

Maevis racked her brain, but she couldn’t think of anything. It did poke at something in the back of her mind, but it was too deep to tell. ‘Maybe Nicolas will know? He should be back from his trip back soon.. I hope everything went alright. Tidas worked awfully hard on the treaty between the Fae Kingdom and Alcon. By the gods, I hope it went well..’

Squinting as her eyes darted between the legend and her sheet, Skye spoke with focus; “So the top part says that the bond tames the nightmare.. The ‘N’ and the ‘T’ are capitalized. All the key words are, I think.. The bond Tames the Nightmare, then the Nightmare becomes cherished? ...Is the ‘Nightmare’ a person, maybe?”

“But the second part.. ‘When Chaos ensnares the Cherished, and the Nightmare is Unleashed, only the Bond shall Tame it’.. I think based off of this, Nightmare goes to Tamer magic. What do ye two think?”

Marie and Maevis shared a surprised looked before nodding. With that one down, only Manic, Wind, and Shaman remained. Skye told them that she thought Manic might go to Madness, based off of what was left. It’s didn’t really pair with Gift or Earned.

“All that’s left is Shaman and Wind.. They don’t really match what’s left though. How can Wind magic be Gifted or Earned? I’d say the same for Shaman magic, but I suppose it’s kinda like you’re giving a gift when you heal people,” Maevis sounded like she was questioning more than stating.

“How is Wind magic ‘Earned’, though? Mages are generally born with their magic. When someone develops another trait later, then they’re considered a Shepherd-”

“That’s it!” Skye had cut Marie off as she was speaking.

Flipping through one of the research books, Skye went to a section titled: Interpretation. It listed what a researcher had postulated what each phrase meant. He’d written down that ‘Creation is Earned’ might mean a Shepherd that wielded either Earth or Shaman magic. His theory was that eleven different mages pooled their magic into the ‘keys’ for them to become the Catalyst. It was too radical of an idea that one person could possess all the different traits by themselves and be the Catalyst. As far off as he was, that insight led Skye to her conclusion.

“I think that Shaman matches to Earned,” Skye stated before showing Marie and Maevis the entry.

Examining it, Marie quirked an eyebrow at her; “Ok, this does make sense.. But then, how does one gift a Wind trait? Oh! Maybe it’s like in some of our books! There’s some kind of temple, or ancient civilization you have to find that’ll have a rune stone or the like in it?! What an adventure!”

Skye stifled a laugh, but Maevis outright chuckled; “I think you might be reading too many fantasy novels there, Marie.”

Marie looked at Maevis with utter seriousness on her face; “There’s no such thing as too many books.”

“Aye! I can agree to that! Although Ima not as bad anymore.. Me ‘still to read’ pile is beginnin’ to become atrociously large, but I just don’t have the time for entertainment readin’ lately,” Skye sighed wearily as her face drooped a bit.

“Ha! Like studying isn’t entertaining? I love to learn!” Marie nearly yelled in her excitement.

“I usually do too, but not when it’s over three months straight. Ever since we came back for spendin’ Yuletide with me parents, it’s been nothin’ but trainin’ and studyin’ for me,” Skye replied a bit grimly.

The three women went off on a tangent discussion before circling back to the issue at hand. Skye went back over the entirety of the legend. From the talk she’d had with Magnus about the meanings behind their last names, to the current progress of assigning the traits. The three then discussed the second half of the first part.

As Marie read it, a terrible hollow pain spread throughout her heart. The part about ‘Lost Kin’ made her palms sweat and her hands to shake. Running her index finger lightly over the words, Marie spoke with heartache in her voice; “I think the Lost Kin is Richard..”

It was the first time in forever that anyone had dared to mention the king’s brother’s name. Marie usually worded herself to when she never had to speak his name. Skye couldn’t tell if it was because of hate or heartbreak, but she was willing to bet it was the latter. Even after everything Tidas’ uncle had put her through, Marie had still never spoken an ill word about her husband, other than about his traitorous actions. It made Skye wonder if she still harbored love for him somewhere deep down, but pushed the thought aside. It wasn’t her place to pry into the heart of another.

“Why?” Maevis asked briskly.

“Because ‘Lost’ is exactly how I would describe him..”

Skye or Maevis didn’t comment, they simply listened. Marie told them of how happy they were up until a year before his betrayal. He liked to gamble, but was never excessive in any way. Over the year’s time he turned into a completely different person. He not only became cold and distant, but took mistress after Mistress and paraded around town with them.

Instead of ridiculing him, most nobles tried to pin it on her. She had just gotten pregnant when his attitude became almost dangerous, with his random outbursts and screaming. Talking to Magnus about it wasn’t a good idea since most of his rantings centered around how much of a better ruler he would’ve been compared to Magnus. It was dangerous talk, especially for a prince..

Skye could tell that she really didn’t want to talk about her ex-husband. Marie was usually an extremely private person, never revealing too many personal feelings and thoughts. Talking to the wrong person could be deadly at court..

After Marie explained herself, Maevis began to speak; “I agree that he’s the best candidate, but we don’t everything. Look: a piece has been torn off. Until we know what the missing piece says, because it specifically pertains to the Bond, I don’t want to speculate on the bits we can’t see.”

Marie nodded; “True, but I don’t know.. Something is telling me that this has something to do with Richard..”

Skye sighed heavily; “I agree with Marie. He took the spear with him afterwards. If it was an opportunistic attempted killin’, then he most likely would’ve dropped the spear when he attacked Marco right before he fled. I think there’s more goin’ on there, too.. Why would he attack Marco? Didn’t he pass other guards and servants as he left? Why didn’t he attack them? I think somethin’ else happened that Marco never talked about..”

Marie quirked a suspicious eyebrow; “What makes you think that?”

Skye’s expression was contemplative as she crossed her arms; “Honestly, the entire situation always seemed.. off to me. Me father told me it happened late at night. What was Marco doin’ out of bed then at ten, eleven years old? I know each of the MacArthur lads had either nannies or guardians with them at all times until they were twelve, so where was his? It’s just, fishy is all..”

As the night turned into early morning hours, the three continued to discuss the legend, and the Crowned Prince. After Skye’s breakdown, Marie and Maevis both agreed with her; there was more to Marco’s story than he was telling. Not sure what to do on that front, they continued to discuss and compare the Catalyst legend to others each knew off the tops of their heads.

The only one that Skye didn’t get much information on was the Dragon’s Legacy from Sai, and the full version of the Catalyst legend that resides in the Fae Kingdom. It was agreed that after the Highland issuess were resolved, Maevis would request permission for Marie and Skye to visit the actual Fae Kingdom...

************

By the time Skye got back to her quarters, Peggy was waking up for the day. She’d gotten a hefty scolding from her for stay up so late before she’d collapsed onto her bed. She hadn’t even cared enough to put on any sleeping clothes. She’d simply brushed her teeth, stripped, and climbed into bed.

‘I guess this is what it means to be over-tired.. Me stupid brain won’t turn off! So annoyin’. Why can’t I just drift off?!’

As if on cue, Zazzy climbed into the bed, and snuggled up against Skye. Her soft, trilly-purr sound was soothing like a cat’s. It calmed her mother to the point that she could finally drift off to sleep. Right as she went to nod off, Skye told Zazzy that she loved her, and that they would spend some time together very soon.

Understanding her mother’s promise, Zazzy’s purr became so strong that it was literally vibrating the bed. The gentle lull from the noise and motion sent Skye into a sleep so deep that she didn’t even wake up when Zazzy smacked her in her stomach with her tail. She was a very squirmy sleeper.

When Peggy tried to wake her up just four hours later, it was almost worse than trying to get the depressed version of her out of bed. She had completely wrapped herself up into the blanket, and tucked in the edges so Peggy couldn’t get a good grip and fling her out of it. Seeing as the situations were so similar, Peggy did exactly what her father had done...