Chapter 7

"I gotta say, I never thought I'd live to see the day you came back to Magix."

I rolled my eyes and continued to sip my coffee. Snow was falling lightly (not a rare occurrence for Magix in late January), so the streets were mostly devoid of people, probably opting for a teleportation spell so they wouldn't have to be outside for too long. I desperately wished I could be one of them; being in Southern California for the last few years, I hadn't been exposed to snow of any amount. Even with my dark blue jacket and gloves, I felt like an ice pop.

Riven, of course, seemed completely oblivious to the cold. His gloveless hand gripped his own coffee cup with no problem, and there was a strip of bare skin between the end of his jeans and his sneakers constantly getting battered with snow. It made me colder just looking at it.

"So," he continued, "do I finally get the inside scoop on whatever's driving you out of your mind? First Baltor's old death certificate, and now we're going to look through the old files on the damage he did to the dimension? C'mon, Bloom, the investigators themselves weren't as curious about all this as you are - what has you paranoid?"

"I'm not paranoid. I just need to get access to some files and spells that aren't available on Earth."

"But why all of the old files on Baltor? The man's dead."

"I know he is!" I snapped, my tone a bit colder than I'd meant. Riven raised an eyebrow and I took a deep breath. "Look, there's just some stuff going on back on Earth, and even though it should be impossible, if by some crazy twist of fate it's what I think... I don't know. It'll mean something, but I just don't know what."

"Our lives seem to run on the impossible," Riven muttered. He paused for a moment, then turned to look at me. "Would this be a good or bad something?"

I gave a small laugh. "It could range from extreme coincidence to telekinesis for all I know. But what I do know is that the resources in the Magix Library should help me understand it more than I do now."

"Speaking of things I don't understand," he said as we rounded the corner of the street. "Do you care to explain to me what's with your newfound coffee obsession? I mean I know it's been a while since you had a magic espresso shot, but did you really need to get two coffees?"

I smirked and glanced at the other cup in my hand. "Oh, it's not for me."

Riven gave me his classic 'yeah, right' smile. "Then who-"

"Bloom!"

Riven stopped smiling. I started.

The woman sitting on the front steps of the Magix Library was almost unrecognizable. Baggy, tomboy clothes had been replaced by a long, deep purple fitted jacket with gold embroidery on the bottom, black leggings, and brown ankle boots. She had on eyeliner and red lipstick, and her fingernails had been painted a purple color to match her jacket. In fact, the only thing that reminded me of the old Musa was the fact that her hair was short again, barely brushing her shoulders.

That, and the look on her face when she saw Riven.

"What is he doing here?" Musa asked. She reached to take her coffee from my hand, watching Riven as though he were a wild animal ready to pounce.

"You invited her?" Riven said at the same time, his neutral face now looking annoyed.

Musa's eyes narrowed. "I'm one of her best friends. What's your excuse; finally hoping to make a move after all these years?"

"For your information, Bloom and I have been talking on and off for the last few months. But don't worry; now that you're here, you can consider me gone."

"Both of you stop it!" I yelled. I used my now free hand to grab Riven's wrist, keeping him in place. "I asked both of you to come because I need both your guys' help! But if you both keep acting like ten year olds, we won't be able to accomplish anything."

"You could've asked someone else!" Musa and Riven both said at the same time. They glanced at each other in momentary shock, which turned to distaste when they remembered they weren't supposed to be getting along.

I sighed. "No, I couldn't have. Since he fought with us in the battle against Baltor, Riven's one of the only people who can get the files I need in the archive without raising suspicion. And while he gets it, Musa and I will be in the spells section, looking for a locator."

"You need two people to find a locator spell?" Riven's look was withering, and Musa crossed her arms over her chest.

"Look, if Bloom needs both of our help, I think the least we can do is try to give it to her. Unless you're that bitter that you really can't stand being in the same enormous building as me for a couple of hours?" She stared him down pointedly, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Of course, even trying to make peace she has to make sure that she's the winner - the 'bigger person' putting it all behind her to help me. Why did I ever think this was a good idea?

But there'd be time to work on my secret agenda later. "If either one of you changes your mind, you can leave," I said. "But I need you both. And it's freezing out here, so I'm going inside." I turned on my heel and started walking up the steps without looking to see who was following me.

In the foyer of the library, I took off my gloves and stuffed them in my pockets, unable to resist staring in awe at the sheer size of this place. I'd been gone so long, I'd forgotten how magic can be used to make some pretty spectacular feats of architecture. A slight pang of sadness hit me in the stomach without warning, and I frowned. Everything about today had been like that - wonderful and painful at the same time.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and turned around to see Musa and Riven behind me, standing a good distance apart from each other. "We're in," he said.

I smiled, then turned to Riven and explained again which testimony files I wanted. After giving me a strange look at my request, he shrugged and headed off down the right-hand hallway, disappearing from sight.

As soon as he was gone, Musa linked her arm through mine, looking a lot happier now, as if some bad smell had just been aired out from the room. "So why do you need a locator spell?" she asked me, as we headed in the other direction, towards the spell archives.

I bit my bottom lip. "It's... a long story," I said.

She stopped short in the middle of the hallway, looking me in the eye. "Bloom. I was overjoyed to hear that you were coming back, and you know I'll always help you with whatever you need, but I think I deserve an explanation. Don't you?" I sighed, because she was right, of course.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to figure out the best way to explain this. "There's this guy, back on Earth, and..."

Of course, I should've known better than to start like that. "Are you dating someone?" she all but shrieked. A few passersby glared at her, and she grinned sheepishly for a moment, apparently having forgotten we were in a library. Embarrassed, I tugged on her arm and started walking again.

"Yes," I said finally, when we were a good distance away and people weren't giving us funny looks anymore. "I guess you could say I am."

"Okay, I need details, pronto." We stepped into a wide, well-lit chamber practically overflowing with books; except for the librarian, tucked away behind a desk in the back corner, it was all but deserted.

We started to work on the shelves, and I began to explain the new great mystery in my life. "Well, he moved to California from New York, and we met when he started working at my publishing house. He's an author... we've been dating for a month now..."

Musa smirked. "What, I don't even get a name?"

I bit back a smile. "His name is Thomas. Thomas Crowell."

"I suppose a picture would be too much to ask for?" Laughing, I dug my phone out of my pocket and clicked a few buttons, pulling up the picture of the two of us at the cafe that was my screensaver. "Ooh, cute," she said, her entire face lighting up with the intensity of her grin. She was still smiling as she handed me back my phone. "I approve."

"Do you really?" I turned my back to her slightly, intently examining the spine of a book to avoid meeting her eyes. "I mean... I don't know why I just said that.

I've been feeling weird all day, ever since I set foot past the barrier. Being back here... it's a lot of memories, good and bad. And I just don't know how to feel about everything anymore." I sighed. "I'm not making any sense, am I?"

"I get it," she said. Her voice was softer, more subdued, and even though I wasn't looking at her I knew the wide smile had disappeared from her face. "But people change, B. High school's over. We grew up. Magix isn't home anymore." I flinched when I realized how close this topic must've cut for her too - especially on top of seeing Riven again. For the first time, I started to wonder if maybe I'd been wrong in trying to push them back together.

Pulling down another book from the shelf and flipping through it, I tried to change the subject. "Anyway, when I first met Thomas, I struggled with my attraction for a while. Partly because my boss kept trying to push us together - you'd like her, I think - but also because it just felt weird, dating someone else. For the longest time, I thought I would be the Queen of Eraklyon some day. And it's not that I regret any of the decisions I made, but... I don't know. If I couldn't make a relationship that lasted three years and survived multiple disasters work out, why would something new have any better chance?"

"I don't think the problem there was with you, sweetie," she said definitively, sounding much more like herself again. "If what you had with Sky was really real, he wouldn't have moved on so quickly." She rolled her eyes. "For the life of me, I'll never understand what he sees in Diaspro. She's all looks and no substance."

I tensed, the mention of the princess of Isis bringing my thoughts back to the other reason I was here. Stop thinking about that, I told myself. Riven's getting the testimony now. All you can do is wait and see.

"I mean no disrespect to the future king of Eraklyon, but something about the two of you never quite sat right with me." I blinked a couple times, realizing Musa had kept going while I'd tuned out. "He's like the stereotypical Prince Charming, the white knight dashing in to save the damsel in distress. Didn't you say that's how you met, even - when he and the other guys saved you from that troll the Trix sicced on you in Gardenia?" I giggled at the memory. "He's a good guy, and a great friend, but you're not the kind of girl who needs someone to rescue her all the time. You deserve someone who'll treat you like an equal."

My mouth was hanging open slightly, and I quickly snapped it closed before she noticed. How had she figured all this out, when I hadn't even been able to diagnose why Sky and I hadn't worked out? It was so strange, hearing her words and feeling in my bones that they were true, even if I'd never thought of it that way before.

"I don't know any more about this guy than his name and what he looks like, but you sound happy, Bloom. And if he makes you happy, then that's all that matters."

I smiled softly, turning to face her for the first time since showing her Thomas's picture. "Thanks, Musa. That means a lot."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she clucked her tongue. "But you're not getting off that easy, though. Obviously everything's not rainbows and roses, or you wouldn't need a spell from the magic archives. Do you think he's cheating on you? Because if so, we may as well stop looking through these books and you can take me back to Earth. I'll knock some sense into him."

We both started laughing until the librarian glared at us. I'd missed Musa more than I'd realized. "Trust me, I'd knock his senseless self all the way to Solaria if that was the case."

"So if that's not it, then..."

I sighed. "Well... on top of the thing Riven's getting for me-" I noticed she didn't flinch at Riven's name this time, a positive sign "I think there's something that happened between him and his family. He hates talking about them, Musa, and I mean hates. He tenses up and changes the subject if I even ask about something as simple as hair color."

She seemed to follow my motive. "You're going to use this to track down his family and try to talk to them, aren't you?"

"He mentioned having a sister, but not where she lived... what?"

Musa bit her lip. "Nothing, nothing. Just... be careful, okay? I know what it's like when you don't want to talk about your family and people keep asking. It's painful, to say the least. There may be a really good reason he doesn't want you to know about his past, and you should respect it."

A small knot formed in my stomach. Was it bad I hadn't really thought about it that way?

"But," she continued, pulling another book from the shelf and blowing off the thin layer of dust on it, "your instincts have always been better about this stuff than the rest of us. Just be careful when you talk to them... here, this looks like the right spell."

Musa passed me the book, already open to the correct page, and I stared down at it. Even though I'd used only the most minimal of magic the last few years, it looked simple enough for me to perform. My eyes scanned across the page, taking in the words, when suddenly something caught my attention. "Shit," I swore, earning me a serious death glare from the librarian in the corner.

"What is it?" Musa asked, bending her head over the page.

I bit my lip. "I don't know her name." I stared down at the blank line in the incantation where the person's name was supposed to go, the empty space seeming to taunt me.

She inhaled sharply. "Yeah, without that you're pretty screwed." As I closed the book with a sigh, she ventured, "Maybe this is a sign, you know? Maybe you should just take what you needed from the archives and go?"

I leaned against the shelves, considering her words. She was probably right, but I hated the thought of having come so far only to give up now. And even though

I knew the truth of what she'd said about family secrets, I was still dying to know what Thomas was hiding under that cocky, sarcastic exterior.

"Excuse me." I looked up to see the silver-haired librarian at my elbow, looking at us with what could kindly be called an expression of displeasure. "I couldn't help overhear you're looking for something? Perhaps I can be of assistance."

Musa's eyebrows disappeared into her hairline. "Why would you, who've given us nothing but dirty looks since we got here, want to help us?"

"It's my job, dearie." I bit my tongue to keep from laughing at the edge to his voice, like he was trying to be sarcastic but had forgotten how. Personally, I'd been wondering the same thing - although I'd have never had the guts to ask it out loud - but there was also a part of me that didn't want to turn him away if he could be useful. "And if nothing else, I can assume you'll believe me when I say that I have a vested interest in getting the two of you out of here as soon as possible." Musa's jaw dropped, and I could see her winding up for another shot at him, but he cut her off, turning to me. "So? What do you need, young lady?"

"Well, you see, I'm trying to locate someone... but the thing is, I don't know her name." I averted my gaze, sure his reaction wouldn't be favorable.

Of course, I was correct. "One woman - a nameless woman - in the whole of the universe? You'd have better luck looking for a needle in a pile of all the hay in the world." He started to snicker, but a glare from Musa shut him up. "Right then," he continued, "do you have anything at all to go off of? Anything at all?"

"I know who her brother is," I offered weakly.

His eyes lit up. "Well why didn't you say so sooner? Finding someone's sister is much easier." Immediately, he turned on his heel and headed off down the rows of shelves, deeper into the room. "Well?" his voice called out from quite a bit further away, carrying through the silence of the room. "Are you girls coming or not?"

Looking at Musa, I shrugged, then headed after him, hearing her sigh and then follow on my heels. The path he took wound through countless shelves stacked with more books than I had known existed, until finally it emptied out into a slight clearing, surrounded on all sides by books. In the center of the clearing was a slightly raised podium with something tall and gold spiraling out of the center, like an enormous, twisting piece of DNA.

"What is that?" Musa gaped from behind me.

The old librarian, standing on the podium, smiled smugly. "This, dearie, is called a person-finder. Simply enter a name and it can give you information about any person in the known universe; location, date of birth, all kinds of pertinent info - including any siblings. You, come here." He beckoned me towards the podium, and slowly, I stepped forward. "Put in your young man's name, and then we'll find his sister."

"Put it in where?" As soon as my hands touched the podium, the golden surface twisted itself to form something like a keyboard, as if it were fluid and pliable as dough. Shocked, I pulled my hand back, but the librarian just chuckled.

"Go on, then." Carefully, I picked out the letters to write THOMAS CROWELL, which hung in glowing blue letters right above the newly formed keyboard. When the last letter had been entered, I held my breath, waiting to see what would happen.

For a moment, there was nothing, and I started to wonder if the old geezer had just tricked us to get us to leave already. Then slowly, the double helix started to twist, the upper part seeming to disappear into the ceiling as more rose from the ground to take its place. "Whoa," I said, captivated by what was happening in front of me. I'd seen some pretty incredible things before, but living on Earth for the past few years must have desensitized me or something. But when I stole a glance backwards, I noticed Musa was staring in awe too, so maybe it wasn't just me...

"Pretty cool, huh?" There was a slight whirring noise as the thing did its work, but I could still hear the old librarian. "Been working here almost my entire life, and I've never seen anyone who didn't react like that to this thing. It's something special."

"You can say that again," I murmured under my breath, watching as one of the links glowed with a faint blue light, and the movement abruptly stopped; then a shimmering blue screen of the same kind of light replaced his name, words scrawling themselves across it as fast as the eye could see. I stepped forward to read, squinting slightly.

"Thomas Crowell," I read. "Current location: Santa Anna CA, United States, Earth. Born November 16th 1985, to Robert and Laura Crowell; younger brother of Rebecca Crowell..." It went on, but I stopped reading, a triumphant smile spreading across my lips. "Yes! I have a name!"

"Wonderful," the librarian said. "Now just type it in, dearie..." I was already pushing the buttons before he finished his sentence. This time the double helix twisted the other way, and the lag time was much shorter.

Rebecca Brown, nee Crowell. Current location: Westchester NY, United States, Earth.

"Where's that?" Musa said, coming up from behind and startling me a bit with her sudden proximity.

"It's a county in New York; close to Manhattan if I remember correctly. My roommate and her brother lived there for a little while..." I turned to the librarian.

"Can this thing give me an address?"

The man nodded. "I can print the results back at the librarian's desk, if you'd like."

I nodded and stepped away from the keyboard. "That'd be great. Thank you."

"Anything for the sake of getting my peaceful afternoon back." The man smirked, and Musa looked ready to strangle him.

After typing a few commands into the finder, we made our way back to the front room, finding it in pretty much the same state as when we'd been led through the bookshelves. There was, however, one exception.

Riven sat at one of the tables, his feet resting on the wooden surface and a slightly thick file near them. He looked bored until we came around the corner, and then his expression turned to one of slight annoyance. "Took you both long enough. I've been here for at least fifteen minutes."

"Lighten up, Riv," Musa said. Her tone was still cool, but not as bad as it'd been earlier. "We were finding our information. Did you find yours?"

"Oh no, I just gave up and grabbed a random file off a shelf in my never ending quest to impress you." He smirked, and Musa looked annoyed. "Yes, I found the file. Took a little while, though. Eraklyon likes to pretend it has a perfect record; anytime something goes wrong on the planet, the records of the event are withheld on a need-to-know basis. But luckily, Diaspro isn't a citizen of Eraklyon, so her files are on public record." He held the folder out to me. "They wouldn't let me take the actual file, so I made you a photocopy. Now you can curl up with a mug of hot cocoa and read all about how Baltor helped Diaspro make Sky forget about you. Whatever gives you your kicks."

I rolled my eyes but took the file from his hand, absently flipping through it. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

"So, now what?" Musa asked. "Do you need help looking through the information?"

"No, no... there isn't much here, and it's nothing you haven't heard before. I don't want to bore you."

"Bore us?" Riven laughed coldly. "I knew it. You've got what you wanted, we don't know enough to tell anyone, so you're just going to up and leave. Again."

My jaw dropped. "Oh, come on! That's not true and you know it, Riven."

"Then why do you need the files if they're, and I quote, 'nothing you haven't heard before?'"

"It's... complicated."

He gave a half angry sigh, half chuckle (Stella had dubbed the action 'The Riven' sophomore year). "Of course it is. Nice to see you're still so willing to trust us.

Best friends forever!"

Before I could start yelling at him (which considering we were in the middle of a library, would not have ended well for anyone), my phone buzzed in my pocket. I kept glaring at him, only stopping to read my new message. "...That's my roommate. She's wondering why I took off so early without explaining. I should go talk to her before she calls the police on me."

"Right. How convenient."

"Riven -"

He held up a hand. "I know, I know; you'll tell us when you figure it out. Just... go. See you later, maybe."

I opened my mouth, then closed it again. I glanced over at Musa, desperate for an ally in this, but to my surprise all she offered was a shrug. "He sort of has a point, Bloom. I trust your judgment and all, but... you won't trust us. After everything we've been through."

To say the comment stung was an understatement. "I just... don't know how to go about things right now. But when I find out, you both will be the first to know. I promise."

"I know." Her voice sounded doubtful.

There wasn't anything else to say, so I grabbed the files and headed for the door. I glanced back over my shoulder, expecting to see a violet gaze staring me down. But instead, to my absolute shock, I found his gaze on Musa. The two were facing each other and talking in whispers. I stopped and waited for a moment, but neither of them looked my way. To a person walking into the room, it wouldn't have looked like the three of us even knew each other.

It also wouldn't have looked like a mere hour ago, they wanted to tear each other limb from limb.

I sighed inwardly and started for the door again. If mutual annoyance towards me was the thing that got Musa and Riven back together, I was never going to hear the end of it.

When I made it back to California, Anna was waiting and would not allow me to push her off. It wasn't until several hours later, after a dinner that involved more question-answering than eating on my part, that I finally got some time alone to look at the files. (Thank God there was a Lost marathon on tonight, or I suspected Anna's interrogation would've continued.)

I was physically and mentally exhausted, both from the time difference and the day's events, but there was no way I was going to be able to fall asleep knowing the information I needed was just an arm's length away. So fighting the burning behind my eyeballs, I piled up my pillows against the headboard, propped the file against my knees, and opened it up.

Riven had been a little overzealous with the copying, I realized, as I started to flip through the pages. He'd given me the entire record of Diaspro's trial, when I really only needed the one thing. My eyelids started to droop a bit as I kept flipping, until finally a name seemed to scream out at me from the middle of one page. Exhaustion evaporating like spilled water on the pavement in the summer, I sat up straighter and began to read.


And then, it was like I blinked and he was standing there. He was in the reflection of the mirror, but he wasn't behind me. I'd only seen pictures, but I knew it was him. Baltor.

I was terrified, and I backed away from the mirror. I yelled at him and asked him what doing there, and he told me he was there to help me get what I wanted. He started stepping out of the mirror, and I threatened to call the guards on him.

Before I could call for the guards, though, he asked me how I would get rid of Bloom without him. I was shocked; I didn't know he even knew who Bloom was. Then, he raised his hand, and this dark red bottle materialized in it. He said, "Here, this will make all your dreams come true." I knew it was a love potion; that was the only thing he could've offered me that I wanted. I don't know how he knew about the past Sky and I had, but he knew... he knew I wanted it back.

It was a moment of weakness. Maybe he already had me under his spell by then. But... I agreed to do it. I put the potion in Sky's drink.


My hands were shaking so bad, I had to set the files down on the floor by my bed. Thomas might have changed the setting and expanded the conversation, but in essence, this was just like what had happened in his book.

The question now was, how? And perhaps also, why?

How did he know about all of this - because it at this point, there was too much for this to just be a coincidence. Why had he chosen to write it as a book? And maybe most importantly, if somehow this was what I thought - despite the complete impossibility of it ever happening - what did that mean about the whole Valentine-and-Rachel thing?

That last one made me shiver, and I tried not to think about it.

Too shaken up to bother with such mundane things as brushing teeth or changing into pajamas, I turned off the little lamp on the side table and snuggled under the covers, trying to relax enough to fall asleep. But my thoughts were too chaotic to even entertain the idea.

I thought about the other piece of paper I'd taken back from Magix with me, the name and address that felt burned into my brain. I'd been going back and forth about using that information since before I even got it, after talking with Musa, but now it seemed I had no choice. There was no way I could just let this go now. I needed answers.

Looks like I'll be heading up to New York for the weekend... Great. More snow.


What? It hasn't even been two weeks and we're getting an update? What kind of 2013 is this?

Yes, it's very surprising. Authoress and I have been on sort of a writing kick lately, which is giving us a huge advance on the story. We're hoping to get our big reveal chapter (about 2 chapters away) out on Valentine's Day. So cross your fingers and wish us luck!

Also, my computer decided to annoy me and turn this chapter into a big chunk of text. If some of the sentences still aren't separated or you notice any errors, don't hesitate to let me know!

Don't forget to drop a line with a review on your way out!

~ember & Authoress