Page 50 of Celestia, Year Three

"I've pondered that for years, and never got a definite answer," Magnor admitted. "The Council must have had some type of influence."

"What if the Council's purpose was for Celestia to kill herself?"

We all stared at Harrison who rose up and walked to the opposite head of the table on the left. "If they knew or had a hunch of what Celestia was, what better way to get rid of her than to let her take her life and have no one to blame for her death? At her age and with the low crime rate in Versa, it wouldn't be possible to kill her and get away with it. Even with the increase in Hunters, everyone knew how strong Charlotte and Orlando were. No one would believe Celestia, even at her young age, would get killed so easily. Too messy."

"You're trying to say that the Council set up the whole town to bully Celestia until she killed herself? Celestia could have defended herself easily," Finn argued.

"But she wouldn't," I pointed out. Finn turned toward me, and I continued. "When you’re a kid and someone picks on you, are you immediately going to fight back with no one to support you? Support as in your parents being able to come in and defend you and have the teachers and principal hear both sides of the story. In Celestia's case, everyone was against her, and both her parents...or I should say all her parents, were too far away to do anything. It wasn't until Magnor had come into her life when people backed off."

"It's true. Celestia would have been put in the bad position automatically because the Principal would have already chosen sides. If they were bribed to bully her to the brink, no one would show their support," Orlando grumbled.

"So she'd kill herself, and they would continue to rule," Magnor concluded.

"But that didn't happen, and Magnor interfered before their plan could succeed. That meant they had to wait till she attempted to go to Aslan," Hellsin confirmed.

"Wait, but Othello is a part of the Council. Or...was? Does that mean he's in on it?" I asked, remembering when Celestia and I had spoken about it.

"Othello and Miolana are our insiders. They are essentially our eyes within the Council. However, now that Othello been dropped, I feel they're beginning to realize how strong Celestia will be when she unlocks her powers," Harrison explained.

"Unlocks her powers?" I asked.

"And Celestia is already pretty damn powerful in her unicorn form. There's even more? Also, do you think that's why she was chosen to do all the trials? Maybe it’s the Council’s way of seeing if they could break her down before she could gain enough knowledge of what she truly is?" Finn suggested.

Everyone was quiet for a moment before Charlotte, who'd been quiet for some time, spoke up.

"Being chosen by Mother Nature and having the combined powers from all five us, means Celestia can use every element and harbors a little bit of each of us. She's, of course, a unicorn shifter and took that from Harrison, but she has my magic power—if not more. She also has Orlando's ability to foster knowledge, especially magic spells, Hellsin's strength and agility, and Magnor's ability to adapt in any situation. Some of those abilities might seem common to you, but on a battlefield fighting a forsaken, all of those qualities are needed to conquer."

She then looked to me. "Celestia doesn't have all her powers unlocked. When she was a baby, she displayed power at a rapid pace, and we decided to lock half of her power within herself. Even with that lock, she ended up getting D.E.M, and that was how Sia was born."

"That means you're going to conduct an Awakening Ceremony sooner or later, right?" Finn asked. I'd heard about the ceremonies, but never knew why they were conducted. I assumed it was a ceremony done to acknowledge a shifter’s growth into adulthood or before they went to Aslan.

"Yes. We'll have to do it sooner rather than later if the Forsaken are after Celestia."

"What's the plan then? We need to go back to school for the sake of the others. Celestia doesn't say anything, but she's a bit antsy being away from the rest," I explained.

"We didn't leave them on good terms so to say. If we don't go back and 'fix it,' we may have some tension in our group," Finn elaborated.

Charlotte pondered for a bit and looked toward Orlando. "Are you able to grant them two weeks off? One next week and one a week or two before exams?"

"Yes. With Celestia's injury during the exam, I could get Harrison to make a report, exclude anything regarding the Darkness issue, and state she was injured and needs another week of recovery. Some of your team have to attend classes though. At least three." Orlando clarified.

"We can both go, and we'll talk with the others to rotate," I offered.

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Finn confirmed.

"Alright. Orion? Orlando will get you Odion's files, but I'd like you to come here to read them. They are valuable documents, and it's too risky to read them elsewhere," Charlotte ordered.

I nodded. "I understand."

"As for Celestia's Awakening Ceremony, she'll have it where she was born at least one week before your exams. That will give her enough time to recover."

"Is it an energy draining ceremony?" I asked.

Hellsin spoke up. "Yes. It involves all the individual's power leaving the shifter's body and combining into the locked power to make themselves whole. Once that step is complete, it re-enters the shifter. It takes a few days before the combined power settles."

Magnor stood up. "Which means Celestia will have limited magic. I think it would be wise if your whole team came for the event as protection. I doubt anything will happen, but with how the Forsaken have been acting up and appearing randomly, it's best to be safe rather than sorry."

"I approve of that. Any other suggestion?"

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