CHAPTER 8

Lone Discoveries

I entered the clearing, heart thumping and head still spinning from the night before. "You really think you can do this?" I told myself, half in awe. The quietness of the glade felt like a call from above—one that I wasn't so sure I was ready to accept, but something deep inside of me urged me on.

"Of course, Sophia, you have to try," I replied back, my voice fragile and tentative as I steeled my resolve. "I have to understand what these new feelings are all about. What is this power even about?" I breathed, half to the trees, half to the wind that seemed to be whispering words of encouragement.

I knelt next to a pool of water, its surface shimmering in the pale light. "See this, it's like every drop is full of potential," I whispered softly, following the ripples with a tentative finger. "You recall what Caleb said: that magic isn't something you call—it's something you awaken?" His words recurred to me like a lifeline.

A gentle rustle of leaves sounded like a responding whisper. "Wake it, don't push it," a gentle echo responded, as if the clearing itself was whispering in terms my heart would understand. "It's a matter of being open to it, isn't it?" I responded, and an odd heat flared up in my breast. "I've been so closed off, scared of what would spill out if I opened myself up to feeling it all.".

I picked up a fallen branch and twirled it around in my hands. "This… this is my tool now, isn't it? The key to something hidden." I stated with a mix of exhilaration and fear. "But what if I lose control? What if it takes over me?" My voice trembled as doubt crept in.

"Remember," I whispered to myself, "even the spark can create a flame." The words, though spoken aloud in solitude, resonated like a mantra. "I've been rehearsing these little pockets of magic all along. The sparkles, the soft hums—I know they exist. They're simply waiting for me to take them."

I closed my eyes, and the gentle caress of the wind blew my doubts away for an instant. "I feel it, don't you?" I breathed to the glade, as one would to a close friend who understood something special. "That little flame inside me—it's been dormant for too long. Maybe every time that I lose hope in love, that flame burns a little less fiercely."

A voice, soft and far off, like the shadow of a memory, replied, "No, Sophia, each test only makes it shine brighter. Each laugh, each tear—it's all part of you." I slowly blinked, observing the dancing lights in the clearing, as if they were small fragments of hope. "I'm scared," I spoke aloud. "What if this ability isn't a gift, but a curse that cannot be halted?"

The trees answered, "Only you can choose its nature, only you hold the reins." I smiled quietly at the foolishness of disagreeing with nature herself. "You're right, I think. I've been running away from what would set me free." Weak words, but genuine—a promise to myself that I would no longer hide.

As I moved further into the glade, I began to experiment with the magic in small doses. "Behold," I breathed to the silence, trying to will a soft glow from my fingertips. A delicate shimmer ran across my skin, startling me with its fragile beauty. "That's it! I'm doing it!" I yelled, heart pounding as the magic responded to my tentative command.

I recalled the last time I'd spoken with Gabriel, his soothing voice echoing in my mind, "Sophia, you're stronger than you know. Your magic, your heart—it's all connected." "Maybe," I breathed, unsure but hoping it to be true. "I think I'm at the edge of something incredible, or maybe something dangerous."

I scribbled some thoughts into my creased leather journal, its pages scarred with the ink of my fears and unsteady hopes. "I'm not testing magic," I said to the silent night, "I'm testing me. Am I really ready for all that's been bottled up inside me?" The question had a rough sound to it, each word vibrating with the weight of memories and unspoken stories.

Don't you remember when Lucas had spoken to you once and said, 'Every scar is a story, every tear a lesson?' I queried the glade, letting the words dangle in the air around me. "I believe I'm finally understanding that now. I see these flashes, these little bursts of light, as the recollections of everything that has occurred to me.".

A soft whisper, as smooth as a children's rhyme, slid past my ear. "And there's more to come," it whispered. I chilled, with excitement combined with that old, crawling warning tingle. "Who are you?" I blustered, though I knew it was not a man. "One of those voices from my past, one of my mate's ghosts?

No, the gentle retort, "I am the promise of what you have yet to find." I waited, as it loomed over me like a delicate shroud. "I can hear echoes, whispers of far-away voices that remind me of those I have loved and lost," I conceded, the fragility evident in every syllable. "But what if the echoes are warnings of something I cannot escape?

The glade responded softly, "Each echo, each whisper a guide, not a warning. Have faith in the path." I exhaled, sensation the mix of hope and fear that had been my constant friend. "I suppose you're right. I can no longer keep running away from the voices in me, no matter how scared they make me.".

I started trying to do things, calling upon a weak but luminous globe that floated less than an inch over my stretched palm. "Behold." I whispered, chuckling with astonishment at the stupidity of appreciating the beauty of my own magic. "It's like I have imprisoned a bit of the moon itself, in my hand.".

"Your power is within you, Sophia," I told myself, speaking to the orb as to a familiar. "And as you, it is fragile and moody. I must learn its tongue before it speaks so loudly that everything gets rearranged." I was thrilled and afraid at once, standing on the threshold of what I knew and what I feared.

A memory was stirred up—flashes of laughter, whispers with my friends of secrets shared, every instant a thread in the brocade of destiny. "Sometimes I wonder," I breathed, almost as if I were confessing to the sphere, "if these small moments of magic are truly mine or if they belong to the parts of me that I had to leave behind when I lost love.".

The orb glowed softly, its light soothing my hand like it was talking to me, saying, "They are yours, Sophia, all of them." I smiled softly, knowing the gravity of the moment and the absurdity of arguing with a ball of light. "I suppose even magic can be a little cranky sometimes."

The peacefulness of the glade was shattered by my internal monologue, each sentence edging closer to understanding not only the magic, but the complex web of relationships waiting for me back home. "I can hear them almost," I said to the darkness, "the voices of my friends—Gabriel's calm reassurance, Caleb's silent strength, even Lucas's tortured whispers from the past. They're all a part of this story, aren't they?"

The wind answered softly, "They're the echoes of your life, the reminders that you are never really alone, even when you're alone." I nodded, though I knew the wind could not see me. "Maybe that's what scares me most," I admitted. "That when I open these secrets within me, the gap between us can only grow wider.".

There was a heavy silence as I pondered that possibility. "What if this journey takes me further away from the people I care about?" I asked, my voice shaking with a mix of fear and determination. "Or worse, what if it creates a rift between us, one I can never bridge?

The orb's light flickered in sympathy, and I could almost hear Caleb's soft, unyielding voice, "Growth is painful, Sophia. It's the only way to really know who we are." I let that thought linger with me, acknowledging the bittersweet truth in his words.

I put the orb onto the ground carefully, and when it dissipated into a soft glow, I breathed, "I must keep looking, not just the magic, but for that part of me that lay dormant for so long." Every phrase was an oath, an affirmation to myself that I would encounter the unknowable, no matter if that meant facing undesirable realities.

Will you go with me, Sophia?" I asked the meadow, voice trembling as though expecting a friend to walk alongside me on this solitary path. "Will you be with me in my finds and lead me through these entangled emotions?"

A soft, hardly audible breath responded back, "I am with you, step by step, even when the voices of your past sing louder than the present.".

I couldn't help but smile in my confusion. "Then let's start this journey right. I have questions that only the magic within can answer, and maybe, just maybe, I'll find some of my lost pieces along the way."

As I sorted through my scattered thoughts, I felt a chill run down my spine upon hearing a voice familiar but far away whispering at the fringes of my memory. "Sophia, are you prepared to face what you've been avoiding?" it asked, leaving me breathless and perplexed.

I stared out at the deepening horizon, the ball's light a faint beacon in the vast unknown. "I don't know," I whispered, my voice heavy with both resolve and fear. "But I have no choice—I have to attempt it."

What if this power unravels more than magic?" I breathed into the darkness, the question weighing as heavily as the shadows that moved in to engulf me, having me teeter on the precipice of a truth I wasn't sure I could live with.