Chapter 55

Sylvi

Sara’s rage and Kim’s fear flooded my senses as we galloped down the empty road. They rode so close I couldn’t push it away, even if I’d wanted to. Flames danced before my eyes, but even the heavy droplets of rain that had begun to fall weren’t enough to quench them.

I saw Cat trying to hide our tracks with her magic. We’d left even more senseless deaths in our wake, and I could barely hold on to what remained of the light that had once filled my heart. Why had the forest wanted me to come? I was helpless against the darkness consuming this world, and I was sure even my elders wouldn’t have enough strength to heal it with their songs.

Had the gnomes been wrong when they told us that my tribe had defeated the darkness? I had thought it was true, and that that was the reason the forest asked me to come. But how could I heal this world when more darkness arose with every song I sang, consuming the light I had just brought back from the void? What was the point?

We must have stopped, but my vision went blurry. I could hear my friends speaking in loud voices, but I couldn’t make out their words. I’d made them worry again… I felt the wet ground under my feet. I didn’t remember coming down from Sara. Had someone helped me? Cat wrapped her arm around me. I leaned on her, and the last bits of my strength left me.

“What’s happening to her!?”

“I don’t know!”

“Do something!”

I was sure it was Cat who yelled it. She worried about me… Why? I was so useless. I’d failed them…

“Silvi…”

A white shape appeared in front of me, and I tried to smile. Sara… Somehow, she felt different now. There was light dancing in the void that had once filled her heart. I tried to reach out to her, but my arm fell to my side.

“I am sorry, I shouldn’t have taken you with me…”

“Do something!”

Cat’s worries filled the air, and the flicker of light I’d seen in Sara began to fade.

“No…”, I whispered.

I stumbled towards her and buried my face into her wet coat, trying to hold on to the remaining light.

In the dark night

a small star was born…

I sang quietly, putting what was left of my light into my song.