* * *
Entering the town library, we were greeted by a pinched faced woman. Sitting behind the dark, chestnut-colored desk, she looked sharply at us through her glasses that were resting on the tip of her nose.
“Can I help you girls?” the librarian said in a nasally voice.
“We are just here to find some books to read,” Blaze said innocently.
Looking us up and down as if she was trying to determine our intentions, she said, “Very well. If you find any you would like to borrow return to me.”
As we began to leave, she pointed her long, bony finger to a plaque on the wall. “Be sure to read the rules of the library before you go further,” she warned.
Standing in front of the sign like attentive soldiers, we read the rules. The extremely long list of items could have been summarized into only two rules - Be Quiet and Be Courteous. Once we had read the sign, we all turned to the librarian and smiled before retreating towards the library books.
After we were out of earshot, I began to mimic the librarian. “And there will be no fun ladies.”
My impersonation sent Bay into an uncontrollable laughing fit.
Immediately, we were scolded by the librarian. “Ladies, this is a library not a fun house,” she hissed.
Quickly apologizing, Daisy quietly responded, “We are sorry. We will be quiet.”
“Let’s go find a place in the back, out of her view,” Blaze whispered.
Nodding, we silently walked to the very back corner of the library. In this section, the books were on shelves that enclosed a large rectangular table with eight chairs. Sitting down at one side of the table, we began discussing our plans.
“We have to write a book that has everything we know about the magic,” Blaze said. “Well, almost everything. Once it is written, we will find the humans that we will teach about our magic. This is our only chance to bring Danu back from the dark place she is in.”
Daisy agreed, “It will all be up to them but we need to make it appealing. We have to make sure that this book is written so convincingly that they will want to be part of our world.”
“How could they not want to be part of our world?” Bay exclaimed. Quickly looking around to make sure that she had not been heard, she continued in a soft whisper, “At least the world before Danu faded.”
“This will happen. We are going to bring her back. No more negative thinking,” Daisy scolded. “Blaze, please shows us what you and Kai have started.”
From out of the air, a large silver book appeared. The book was embossed with the symbols of the elements surrounding an outline of the Goddess. The individual elements shimmered in soft colors representing their power.
Running her fingers over the shimmery aqua blue sign of elemental water, Bay smiled, “The book is very pretty. Who wouldn’t want to read it?”
Page by page, we read each line. As we added and removed words, the silver wording slithered around the sheets of paper.
“We need to also tie things to this world. Things that they have available and consider important,” Daisy said. Leaving the table, she went to one of the bookshelves and returned with a small brown book. “Here are some of the flowers around here. We can write uses for each of them.”
“That is a great idea,” Blaze praised. “But, we need to do more than that. We need to teach them each how to connect with an element. At first, they will not really be connecting with an element. We will have to convince them that they are full of the magic like us.”
“How will we do that?” Bay asked, looking concerned at the task ahead of us.
“We will be there,” I explained, “We can’t give them magic. But if they learn to call it, we can provide the magic.”
Words on the paper began to frantically form.
A sprinkle of lavender flowers
A pinch of sage
A call to Air
With a feather of blue
“Ok, read this out loud, Bay,” I instructed.
As Bay read the words, a soft wind circled her gently at first and then ended with a strong burst.
Excitedly, I said, “If this is done correctly, we will convince the reader that they have a gift.”
“At first it will be pretend but if Danu returns to us, she may be so happy she will bless them,” Blaze said excitedly.
“This is a dangerous game,” Daisy warned. “How do we know this will work?”
With a spark of fire burning in her eyes, Blaze said firmly, “What else can we do? This has to work.”
“You are right.” Daisy conceded. Touching Blaze gently, she patted her hand until the fire burning in her soft brown eyes disappeared. “It will work. We will make it work.”
For the next few hours, we wrote in the book filling the pages with different spells we created and prayers to call the elements. When we reached the end, Daisy shut the book proudly.
Blaze said, with tears glistening in her eyes, “This will be the book that brings her back to us.”