"How's it going?" Elena hesitantly asked as she peered into the library and cautiously entered, followed by Naomi. Mateo and Isabel, who had been hard at work ever since they won back Avalor three days previously, were surrounded by mounds of books. They were stressed over finding answers and were mostly keeping to themselves, locked away in the library or in Mateo's workshop. Elena had tried to not bother them too often. Instead, she focused on working with Naomi on a plan to reorganize the city and with Gervaso about evacuating the northern Avaloran villages before the dark army arrived. Time was running out though. She had to check in on Mateo and Isabel's progress.
"Ugh" Mateo groaned as he looked up from the Codex that he continued to study. Elena looked at him with sympathy but her expression also told him she was really starting to worry about whether or not they could find the answers in time.
"That good huh?" Naomi said sarcastically. "Didn't you find... what was it that Achoo bless you called it? Enlightenment?"
Mateo just rolled his eyes and stared at Naomi unamused and a bit irritated. Mostly because he was frustrated with himself. "Ummm his name is Ataguchu! And yes, it's enlightenment. And no. I have not achieved it yet"
The three all exchanged looks of uncertainty.
"I do have good news though!" Isa interjected with a hopeful tone as she finally looked up from the Book of Magic that she had been studying.
"Oh?" Elena asked.
"So I discovered that all the magic from each artifact can be transferred into one single magical object, making THAT object able to use the full powers of all the artifacts at one time. We're thinking that we should use Mateo's tamborita!"
"Well that's GREAT!" Elena cheered.
"Well yeah..." Mateo began sounding not so positive. "The only problem is that I don't know a spell that will allow me to transfer the magic! That's what we're working on now"
"Oh." Elena replied, back to feeling a bit down trodden. "So... have you come close to Enlightenment yet?"
"Well... I don't know. I mean, I think I might have but... it just feels... weird? I guess... I don't know... I feel silly sitting there talking to ... nobody..." Mateo stuttered awkwardly.
"Seems to me that you're holding on to something Mateo" Elena told him. "You need to really concentrate. Who cares if you think it all seems silly? Obviously Ataguchu didn't think it was silly. He believed in it all right?"
"riiiiight" Mateo confirmed as he listened to Elena.
"And you believed in him right?" Elena asked.
"Yessss" Mateo answered.
"OK then!" Elena smiled happily. "Well, we all believe in you! You can't just give up because you're afraid of looking silly or you're afraid of failing. If you fear failure you will fail Mateo!"
Mateo thought about Elena's words and knew she was right. He couldn't put it off anymore.
"You're right" Mateo said and stood up, grabbing his codex to take with him. "I'll be in my workshop and I'm not coming out till I've found enlightenment!"
Mateo held his head high as he left the girls in the library and headed out to do what he had to do, a look of determination taking over.
"Lets hope he can really do this" Naomi said to Elena once Mateo was gone.
"He can!" Elena said positively. "He has to"
Mateo closed the door to his workshop and walked over to the middle of the room. He took a seat, sitting with his back straight and legs crossed. He looked at his surroundings and sighed heavily. It was filled with question as he glanced at books he had yet to read, potions that he had never finished, ancient wizarding artifacts that he didn't even know what they were. Everything in that room reminded him of how young he still was and how little he actually had learned when compared with Ataguchu, his predecessor. How had saving the Ever Realm all come down to his abilities? His time to be a hero seemed to be arriving far too prematurely for his liking. Still, there was no one else. He Rose from his seated position and circled the room again, this time vanquishing every flame from every lantern as he passed by. When all was dark he stood in the silence and breathed in the stillness. He was blind to all around him but closed his eyes regardless. He felt his senses heighten as he continued to circle his workshop, reaching out to touch the books, glide his fingers across edges of the tables, grip each tamborita in his hands. He moved with grace, never once stumbling over what he could not see. He didn't need his eyes to see or know what was before him and that's when he realized that he didn't need a physical presence beside him to hear what his ancestors had to tell him. He made his way back to the center of the room, confident for the first time that he was feeling exactly the way he was supposed to be feeling. He returned to his upright seated position and began to breathe deeply and slowly like he had tried so many times before. This time though, he was fully shut off from the rest of the world. He had no distractions and no fears. He didn't hesitate to open himself up and let the spirits of the Maruvian Wizards enter his mind and fill his soul with their wisdom. The longer and deeper his breathing became the louder the sounds of it all became. Then suddenly it was as if he could hear each breath floating off into the distance, or perhaps he was floating off into the distance? This was the moment that always frightened Mateo. The moment where he knew he was about to see himself from the outside looking in. The moment that he didn't dare try to escape this time. Through closed eyes, Mateo could see a glow and he slowly lifted his lids to see himself, alone in the darkened room with a cloud of light surrounding him. His chest was rising slowly with each inhale and falling with each exhale. He didn't look silly or fearful. He looked strong and confident.
"And there you have it" a voice said to the left of him. It was the same quirky tone that had always sounded a tad too upbeat and casual for the seriousness of the conversation or for whatever lesson was being taught. It was Ataguchu.
Mateo looked to his mentor and gave an amused grin. "So this is it? Now what?" He asked.
"We'll be with you. I promise. Once the artifacts are in your hands, you will return here. Not necessarily here to your workshop but here to the home of your ancestors. We'll do the rest." He explained in his usual tone before becoming more serious than Mateo had ever heard. "After that... vancera la oscura a la munda espirita, fatisima"
With those words Ataguchu began to fade away and the sounds of Mateo's own breath began to return. He shut his eyes and when he opened them again he was sitting alone in the dark. He felt different though. More powerful. Perhaps Enlightenment was more than just a portal of communication to his ancestors. He curled his lip as he wondered...
"Illuminate!" He shouted with great concentration as he raised both arms, each in the direction of a torch. Flames instantly arose and lit up the room. Mateo's eyes widened at his new abilities. He had read of wizards being able to use magic without a wand or a tamborita but those wizards had been non-existent for quite some time now. He crossed his arms and stood tall, confident, and a bit in awe with himself. Not even Shuriki could do what he had just done. He felt ready to take on the evil army that she had created. An army that he felt for the first time, that he was stronger than.
"So what are we supposed to do now?" Naomi whispered to Elena, sounding bored and a bit impatient. The pair sat quietly in Elena's room as Gabe was fast asleep nearby, still resting up from his wounds and Isa was busy in her own room working on a way to help. "We just sit around here waiting for Mateo to hear voices in his head?"
"Naomi! I trust Mateo. We just have to give him time to figure things out" Elena said, defending her royal wizard.
"Annnd have you come up with a plan if he doesn't come through? Don't you think that's something we should be thinking about?" Naomi asked, feeling not nearly as confident as Elena was.. or as Elena was pretending to be for the sake of everyone. Naomi was more of a practical thinker and relying on Mateo's magical ability to speak with the dead was something she couldn't wrap her head around.
"Well..." Elena thought "Gervaso is working on evacuating the villages in the north as we speak and if worse comes to worse we just keep moving everyone south"
"That's not a permanent solution Elena and you know it" Naomi told her.
Elena hung her head. "I know Naomi it's just... we don't have another solution. If Mateo can't figure this out then... we're all doomed." She said sounding defeated. She was trying to stay positive but every hour that went by without an answer diminished her spirit just a little more. "I guess... I mean we could always flee on the ships but that won't stop the army from conquering all the kingdoms to the south of us.
"Elena... maybe it's not up to us to save the world..." Naomi told her friend, placing a hand on her back for comfort.
"ELENA! NAOMI! I DID IT!" Mateo shouted as he excitedly burst into the room, running over to the girls and causing Gabe to jolt up in bed.
"GABE GOAL MAKER!" Gabe shouted and then lied back down and began to snore as he drifted back to sleep. Naomi, Mateo and Elena all paused and stared at him with a baffled look.
"Uhhh... I think he's still sleeping" Elena said as she went to his side, pat his head gently, and checked to make sure his shoulder sling was still in place.
"Great! We're over here worrying about the destruction of the world and he's happily dreaming about Olaball?" Naomi voiced aloud, a bit jealous of Gabe's blissful slumber.
"Well... I think the doctors gave him some pretty strong stuff" Elena defended. "Anyways..." She said as she went to Mateo's side "you did it?!" She asked, crossing her fingers and feeling hopeful that he had found Enlightenment.
"Yup!" Mateo said with self pride. "It was AMAZING! I saw him! I saw Ataguchu! Annnnd he talked to me!"
"Are you sure you just didn't take some of the same stuff that Gabe's been taking?" Naomi asked with a bit of snark.
"Noooo Naomi" Mateo answered, trying to be patient with her remarks. "I actually did it! Elena, grab your scepter and lets go find Isa. I'm ready to do this!"
The trio of friends, along with Isa had gathered up all six of the artifacts and met in the throne room. Mateo took a seat on the floor, picked up his tamborita in one hand and the Codex Maru in the other hand. He closed his eyes and the girls watched from a short distance away as he entered into what appeared to be a trance to them. Suddenly he began to chant in a language that was foreign to Elena and Naomi but not to Isa.
"It's Maruvian" The Cordoban Queen explained to them in a whisper, trying to stay quiet as to not break Mateo's focus. She began to concentrate on his words and started to translate the spell that he spoke "The Book. The symbol of intelligence. I hereby transfer my knowledge to one all powerful object"
"I didn't know Mateo spoke Maruvian" Naomi stated.
"I don't think he does" Isa told her, fascinated by what they were witnessing. "I think... he's repeating the words of the Maruvian wizard who placed the magic in the book in the first place"
"Whoa!" Elena said, also marveling at the display in front of her. When Mateo came out of his dream like state, Elena knelt down by his side, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright? Do you think you did it? Was the magic transferred into your tamborita?"
Mateo took a moment to not only compose himself from his second trip to the "home" of his ancestors but to also process Elena's bombardment of questions. "Um... I think so. I don't know how to explain it. I can just... feel it! Something happens to me when I reach enlightenment. It's like every time I get there, I gain more power. I'm more in tune with myself and my magic!"
"But how are we going to know for sure?" Naomi asked.
Elena thought about it for a moment and then picked up her scepter. It gave the usual glow it always had when she touched it. She then handed it over to Mateo. "Do the scepter next" She told him. "When you're done, if the magic was transferred out of the scepter then I shouldn't be able to use it anymore right?"
It was something none of them had even thought of before. "She's right" Mateo thought to himself as he took the scepter from Elena. He looked to Isa to see what she thought about it. She was nodding in regards to the conversation, confirming to Mateo that she too thought that Elena was right. Once the magic left the scepter, Elena would lose her powers.
"OK... let's try it" Mateo said and began his third journey to enlightenment as the girls backed up and gave him his space.
"The scepter. The symbol for leadership. I hereby transfer my knowledge to one all powerful object" Isa interpreted.
When Mateo was finished he stood up and walked over to Elena. He held out the scepter to her, already knowing that the magic was gone. The girls couldn't feel what he was feeling though. They needed to see it. Elena slowly reached for it and then quickly gripped it in her hand and raised it in the air. "Glow!" She shouted. Nothing. "GLOW!" She shouted again. Nothing. Her shoulders sank with disappointment as she lowered the once magical staph. Part of her was hoping that it would still work for her. She met Mateo's eyes and they shared a moment of sadness as they knew their days as the magical dream team had just come to an end.
"Are you OK with this?" Mateo asked her.
"Yeah. Of course" Elena responded honestly. She knew that losing her powers in order for Mateo to gain greater strength and knowledge of his own was more than worth it. It would be selfish of her to think otherwise. "My family has ruled Avalor without magic for generations. I'm sure we all can manage. Besides, you're still the royal wizard! You're still going to serve the kingdom by my side. Avalor won't be completely without magic right?"
"Right!" Mateo confirmed. "OK so... we know it's working. Lets finish this!"
Mateo continued on with the transfer of the artifacts. The wand: symbol of magic, The dagger: symbol for strength, the ring: symbol for love, and the amulet: symbol for beauty.