Page 261 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
“Worst is we die trying. If we don’t, we’re dead anyway!”
Ben held up the sword, and Hallie flinched back. He pointed it at the Gate. “Can we use this one?”
Hallie shook her head. “It’s connected to the Aurora Gate.”
Nodding reluctantly and setting the sword aside, he held out a glowing hand. “What do we do about the guardian then? I can create the sword itself, but bonding it…we’ll need a soul.”
Her. Her sacrifice would save them all, would save Kase.
She would be the guardian, but first, they needed to create the Gate. “I don’t know what to do, but I’ll use the words of power and force my power into you again. You take it and…and…”
“I’ll figure it out,” he said firmly, still holding out his hand.
And oddly enough, she trusted that he would.
She grasped it and poured her power into him. “Avali anora ess nah!”
The Gate of the Essence.
“Another one!” Ben shouted.
“Ess anora ana kar vali!”
Essence Time, bring forth Gates.
Nothing.
“Again!”
“Avali crea ess, toro ano!”
The Essence of Creation Gate, Toro heal.
At this point, she was just going to throw all the possible words she could at it and hope one of the combinations worked.
What was she missing? She’d discovered that the words of power were often more literal, and the inflection had to be correct.
She wracked her brain for the answer, but in the chaos, it was difficult to do so. She didn’t need to create fire. She needed something stronger, something powerful enough to create the center of timelines, a connection to the soul of the land and everyone who inhabited it.
Words of power combined with Vasa allowed Chronals to access their innate power. Hallie didn’t have Vasa, and she barely had any words of power, yet something in her gut told her she was doing the right thing. Something told her that the ruin of this Chronal gate was the reason everything was happening. Without it, the melody—the song—was incomplete.
A song.
Singing.
Saldr had said that for more complex spells, singing was required.
That was it.
Without thinking much further than that, she put the words to one of the tunes from the bonfire celebration. “Avali crea ess, Toro ano…”
She didn’t stop singing it, not until the light pouring from her tinged blue. Probably not good. She’d let her soul slip into it. Too much and she’d hemorrhage, but maybe that was the point. How could one not sacrifice their very essence to create something so powerful?
She was the Essence of Time. She could do this. She might very well be theonlyone who could.
“Head down, Skibs!”
She looked up to find a jet of black and purple power winnowing straight for her. The flame wall was gone.
