"This was a bad idea," Piper said as she and Em rode their dragons to the library of the Eternal Equinox. "What if while we're gone, the curse...you know..." She began to cry before finishing her sentence, but Em knew what she was about to say.
"I know it's hard," Em said. "But we've gone through every book at the stronghold, and even if the Library of the Eternal Equinox doesn't have it, he may have a clue as to where to look. And Arkayna's with Zarya, so she'd call if anything happens."
"But what if the library's closed?" Piper asked.
Em didn't answer as she looked at the sky. Piper did have a point about the library possibly being closed. It was already dusk, and in their haste to leave, no one checked when the Library of the Eternal. Equinox closed. She just had to hoped that if the library was closed, Snellson would agree to help after what the Mysticons had done for the library.
She began to wonder if splitting up to different libraries was a good plan after all. Stop second-guessing yourself, Em thought. They more places they searched, the more likely they were to find something.
"If we don't manage to save Zarya, then I don't want to be a Mysticon anymore," Piper said. "I can't keep losing people I love."
Em looked at Piper shocked. The elf was staring straight ahead, and Em wasn't sure if Piper meant to tell Em that, or if she was just thinking out loud.
She understood where Piper was coming from, though. Watching a close friend suffer from a life-drain spell twice was something that Em wouldn't wish on her worst enemy. And while Piper never talked about her parents, but Em guessed that something tragic happened in the elf's past. And unlike the first time, they didn't quickly have a plan to help her.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw the large library. The moment that Topaz and Miss Paisley touched the cloud, Em and Piper jumped off of their griffins and headed into the library, barely stopping to scan their library cards.
"Where do we even start?" Em said as she looked at all the books in the library. When she first saw the library, she was simply amazed at all the books. Now that they were looking for something to help save her friend's life, it suddenly felt so overwhelming.
"Let's go ask Snellson," Piper said.
Piper and Em went to the main counter, where Snellson was writing in a notebook. He didn't look up as Em and Piper approached the counter.
"Um...excuse me," Em said. "But..."
"What do you want?" Snellson said without looking up from his notebook. "I'm in the middle of the next bestseller."
"Do you have any books on life-drain spells?" Piper asked.
"Second floor, in the 'curses' section," Snellson said.
"Thank you," Em said. With that, they turned around and began heading up the stairs. It took ten minutes of browsing the shelves until Piper said "I found them."
"Perfect," Em said. "There has to be something here."
They looked around for a moment until Piper pulled a large blue book from the shelf. "Life-drain spell theories," Piper said. "This has to have something."
"I'm sure it does," Em said.
As they walked to a table to read the book, Piper asked, "Zarya's going to be O.K., right?"
Em looked away, hoping that Piper didn't notice her tears. "Of course."
XXX
Arkayna tried her best to focus on the spellpad, but her attention kept going towards her twin sister, who was sitting on the couch beside her, staring intently at a spellpad.
She checked the time on her own spellpad. Nova Terron and Aunt Yaga were late. Aunt Yaga reversed this spell a while ago once before, so she probably would have a clue as to how to reverse it. And considering the fact that she found practically nothing that could help them online, anyone who might be able to help would be welcome.
The memory of her mom and stepdad rushed into her mind. She remembered the pain seeing her parents turned to statues right in front of her, and the heartbreak when she came to the conclusion that they were never going to come back. She thought that she had lost family once before, and the thought of going through that again terrified her, But if even a Demi-god couldn't keep the curse away forever, what were the chances that they could find something else that would work?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud scream beside her. She looked, and saw saw Zarya's eyes clenched shut as she sat upright, with the spellpad Zarya was using to research the curse on the floor. The purple lines spread even further, almost covering Zarya's entire body. Choko immediately jumped up from the floor and sat on the other side of Zarya.
"Zarya!" Arkayna cried out, "Are you O.K?"
"I've felt better," Zarya said through clenched teeth.
Arkayna put her arm around Zarya. "It's going to be O.K." Other than comforting her, Arkayna didn't know what to do. She wanted to get her mom, but that would mean leaving Zarya.
After what seemed like ages, Zarya seemed to relax a little. She leaned back against the couch, taking deep breaths.
The tears that Arkayna was trying so hard to fight back finally came out. "I'm so sorry," Arkayna said.
"For what?" Zarya asked. "You didn't do this to me."
"But I should have known something was up," Arkayna said. "I knew you were hiding something this morning. And for Gygax's sake, why didn't you tell us you about this sooner?"
"I didn't want to worry you guys," Zarya said.
Arkayna wiped her tears. "I guess what matters now is finding a way to reverse this."
"I hope we do soon," Zarya said.
"You're scared, aren't you?" Arkayna asked.
"No," Zarya said quickly. When Arkayna continued looking at her, Zarya added "I guess a little."
"Don't worry," Arkayna said. "We'll figure this out."
Just then, Nova Terron and Aunt Yaga ran into the stronghold. "Oh my," Aunt Yaga said as soon as she saw Zarya. "Arkayna was right about the life-drain spell."
"You have to fix it," Arkayna said.
"Of course," Aunt Yaga said. She cast the reversal spell, but the lines on Zarya's body remained.
"It's not working!" Arkayna said, panic filling her voice.
"The spell must have become too strong to remove," Aunt Yaga said, fear and worry in her voice,
"What do we do?" Arkayna asked.
"We must find whoever cast the spell," Nova Terron said. "The laws of magic are the same, so the person who did this would be able to reverse this."
"It was Tazma," Zarya said. "So I doubt she'd help."
Just then, Arkayna's phone rang.
"It's Proxima," Arkayna said.
Arkayna answered the phone. Before she could even say hello, Proxima said "I found a way to reverse this."
"Perfect," Arkayna said, "What's the spell?"
"It's a little more complicated than that," Proxima said. "I'm heading to the Stronghold. I'll explain everything there."