From The Ashes We Rise: Chapter 25...
I haven't done this in far too long. Guys I'm sorry for killing off Art but there needed to be more drama, don't hate! Must say I miss him but what's done is done, it was inevitable. Thank you all for the support and replies, makes my day to see people asking for more! :) Also, now four offers for University! One more and I've been accepted everywhere I applied for :)
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"Emma, it's been three weeks. You need to speak."
"She won't speak, Skul. She hasn't even spoken to me," Alice muttered, frowning at her adopted sister. Emma sat with her knees drawn up to her chest on the sofa, hands on her knees, chin on her hands. She hadn't said a word to anyone. She'd lost weight, she looked tired. Even her book of symbols, once glued to her hand, lay on a table in her room, gathering dust.
"Emma please, we've all lost people we love over the years. You need to snap out of this, we need you." Skulduggery tried to get her attention. Emma didn't move. Tanith wandered in, whistling a cheery tune at odds with the tense atmosphere of the living room.
"She won't move Skul. Give up, leave her alone. She'll come round,"Tanith said. Valkyrie was right behind Tanith, and her eyes strayed worriedly to her aopted daughter. She looked at her husband across the room and nodded.
"Tan's right. Skulduggery, you should leave her alone for a while. She'll be okay soon, she needs to deal with this on her own terms." Skukduggery straightened up and turned to face his wife, looking as if he was about to protest. She cut him off. "If you continue to hound her, she'll shut herself off completely, for much, much longer."
"But we need everyone we can get, Valkyrie. The vampire patrols grow more frequent every night, the Underlings set up a constant guard around our lands, waiting for a way to get under the wards. It's only a matter of time before China's protections fail and we all have to face the fight of our lives. We need her to fight with us."
"And she will, in her own time." Valkyrie kissed the top of Emma's curly hair and sighed. "Just leave her be. I need you to go train Alice with Tanith anyway, they keep getting distracted, and I know how hard you were on me when I was training."
Skulduggery looked at his daughter in silence, empty eye sockets fixed on her still frame, before sighing, defeated.
"Fine," he grumbled, sloping off gracefully in his dashing black suit.
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"Mother," said a soft, familiar voice from behind Valkyrie. She turned away from her husband's retreating frame to find Eyren standing in the doorway that led to the grand entrance.
"Eyren, where've you been?"
"Fixing this," he said, and held out his fist. His vocabulary had come along in leaps and bounds; in just two short weeks he'd learned to read, to speak, to walk and to interact with others. His words were pronounced with such eloquence any Queen might be proud of. And his voice was liquid gold, smooth as warm honey just like his father's. But when he smiled at her, as he handed her what was in his closed fist, Valkyrie was shocked and delighted to find traces of her own father, Desmond, in the way his eyes crinkled up at the corners.
"What is it?" She asked. When he said nothing, she opened her fist to find the echo stone laying in her palm, all in one piece and glowing gently. The only evidence of its extensive damage were a myriad of almost invisible hairline cracks in the surface. Even in her metal-clad palm, Valkyrie could feel its cool hum.
And then Gordon materialised in front of her, beaming gently. He saw Eyren and yelped.
"Oh my! You scared me there." He squinted. "Who are you?"
"Your great nephew."
"My what? Eyren? Dear me, how long was I in the stone for this time? Last time I saw you, you were in nappies." He seemed crestfallen at missing so much. "Of course, missing the nappy stage would be a good thing, since I escaped having to change them. Not that I can, being no more substantial than a ghost."
"You were only away for three weeks Gordon. Eyren is just under four weeks old," Valkyrie said quietly, amazed. Her four-week-old child had fixed the Echo Stone without even knowing how it worked.
"Please, somebody end my confusion, I beg you. What on Earth happened?" Gordon scratched his head, puzzled. Eyren explained in concise, gentle tones the events of Grimm's break in.
"Ah, I see," his great uncle replied when the young man had finished. "So Grimm accelerated your ageing?"
"He forced my body to develop to the point at which magic would slow my ageing, had I been raised in a naturally magic family like a normal young mage. My guess is that I'm roughly twenty years old, physically. Mentally, I'm much more advanced," Eyren explained, his eyes full of a cool, modest intelligence. He said it without any inflection, like he was commenting on the weather.
"Advanced?" Valkyrie asked before Gordon could interrupt. "What do you mean?"
"I know more than the average twenty-year-old."
"So his ability as a mage is intelligence?" Gordon asked. Eyren smiled.
"Almost. Not exactly right, but close enough." Valkyrie frowned.
"I thought your gift was copying somebody's magical ability and using it yourself," she said.
"It's not quite as simple as that mother," he said, his head tilting so much like Skulduggery's. "I've gained a complete understanding of how magic works." Valkyrie blinked.
"I'm not sure I understand," she frowned. For his part, Gordon just seemed extremely surprised. Eyren just gazed innocently at them both with cool, clear eyes. When nobody said anything else, he tried explaining again.
"One touch is all I need. If I come into contact with a mage, the knowledge of how they manipulate their magic specifically becomes mine. In effect, I can duplicate their abilities."
"That's a very valuable power you've got there, young man," Echo Gordon said soberly. "If Grimm realises that, he'll come for you." Eyren smiled sadly, looking so much older and wiser than he was. And already so very tired.
"He was the one that gave me this ability in the first place. I'm afraid he already knows. It's only a matter of time."