My hands were trembling as I reached out for the silver acorn. The Elven Queen watched me with gentle eyes, her body completely relaxed as she sat in her bed. Hesitantly, I glanced over my shoulder at my companions. Jakob had a slight frown on his face, his body tensing slightly and he stood protectively close to me. Fynn had his back to the bed and was watching the flickering light of the candles on the wall. I wished he would turned and smile at me, give me some indication that I was not about to do something stupid. The face that concerned me the most was Will. His lips were pursed tightly together, as if her were biting back a warning he was unable to express. His eyes were wide with fear, and I could see his hand twitching as if he wanted to snatch the acorn from the Queen before I could touch it. Still, he made no movement to act on any of these impulses, and so I reached out and brushed the silver acorn with the tips of my fingers.
It felt as if someone had pushed me, and I clenched my eyes shut until the free-falling emotion had passed. Before I opened my eyes, I had the feeling that I was no longer standing in the Elven Queen’s bedchamber. The air felt much cooler and damp against my skin, and a breeze stirred through my hair and white robe. I no longer felt the presence of my friends either, but I did not think that I was alone. Cautiously, I cracked an eye open and the shock of my surroundings made me open both eyes wide.
There was nothing but darkness around me, darkness pinpricked with tiny white and gold lights. I blinked rapidly to clear my vision, but nothing changed. There were no trees, no buildings or people, not a single feature to break up the landscape. I raised my eyes to what I believed was the sky, and found it as empty as the rest of the strange place. I couldn’t even tell where the sky ended and the ground began. Glancing at my feet, I could see so far below me that I though perhaps I was flying. I moved my hands in front of my face to make sure that I hadn’t changed along with the landscape, but the only thing that was different was the silver acorn clenched in my marked palm. The strange marking that Ruella had given me what felt like years ago tingled with the magic of the acorn, but I could not feel the spirits within me to answer any summons I might make. Swallowing hard, I turned full circle and noticed that one of the white lights in the darkness was growing brighter. I stared at it in fascination, the only changing thing in this strange place, until the glow became overwhelming and I was forced to cover my eyes. When the light subsided, a figure hovered before me, bathed in white light. I knew I had seen her before, in the forest with the wolf to guide me, and I smiled in spite of myself. Some of the fear drained away, and the face that resembled my own echoed my grin.
“Be welcome,” she said in my voice.
I shrugged aside the strangeness of speaking to myself and did my best to curtsey. The white figure laughed, a more musical laugh than my own, and drifted closer to me.
“You have changed much since we last spoke,” she said. “I am please with you.”
“Thank you,” I replied, straightening. I held up the acorn to her. “Could you tell me how I can use this to stop the war between the Huryl and the Dyrel? The Huryl King is dead, but I don’t think the war will stop.”
The figure shook her head. “No, not yet. It is not the human war that brings you here, Leila. I brought you here for a much more important task.”
I frowned. “You brought me here? But it was an accident. I just followed a marsh spirit and the next thing I knew, I was in this world surrounded by war. If I wasn’t supposed to end the war, why does each side think I can?”
“That was to keep you safe.”
I laughed. “I don’t think I was very safe. The Huryl wanted me dead, and probably still do. I was shot by an arrow, lost in the desert, possessed by the spirits, captured by an army!”
“But you were safe the entire time. You would not have died from any of those situations.”
“I’m glad you’re letting me know this now,” I snapped, thinking of Clothis. She died to save me, but if I had never been in danger, had her death been in vain? She should be with me now, standing with Jakob and Fynn and Will in the Elven Queen’s bedchamber, not buried under the rubble of a demolished city. I felt tears come into my eyes and I angrily wiped them away.
“You were brought here to save me and my children,” the figure continued, ignoring the spite in my voice. “Without you, the three worlds would disappear forever. We need you, Leila, to balance the three world again.”
“Balance the three worlds?” I repeated. “How do I do that?”
The figure smiled gently, like a grandparent to a child. “I am old, Leila, and my strength is failing. I have been searching for centuries to find the right person to help me, someone who is kind and fair, but also strong of heart and mind. I scattered some of my children into the far-worlds to search for someone, and they found you. Leila, you must take this burden from me. You are the only one who can do it.”
I stared at her as the realization of her words sunk in. “You want me to take over your power?”
The figure nodded. “I am the one who sustains the three worlds, the worlds given to my children, the elves, the faerie, and the spirits. Should I fail, their magic would fade at they would die. The balance of the worlds would be torn apart. Please, Leila, my children need you. They already trust you with their powers and have been united within you. All that remains is for you to accept my final gift.”
She stretched out one pale arm and extended her hand towards me. The gesture was so reminiscent of the Elven Queen, that I nearly accepted the hand without a second thought. I did pause as the impact of what the white figure was offering made its way through my mind. If I took on this burden, I would never see my home world again. I would effectively be a prisoner in this strange place, unable to see my parents. I would be responsible for the well-being of three whole worlds! On the other hand, my parents already believed me dead, if the vision Mattis had shown me had a grain of truth, and they would move on with their lives as they had when Nathan passed away. Perhaps my death will bring them back together, and they’ll find the happiness they lost when Nathan and I were born. I would remain in this world that had become more of a home to me than my own world had ever been.
The white figure smiled at me, as the Elven Queen had done, and waited for my response.