Free The Darkling Tide by Travis Simmons

moonlight?” Leona asked.
    “They don’t so much thrive as they just aren’t harmed as much by it. The sleeping eye is passive, Vilda is charged with knowledge and all things to do with intellect and emotion, she isn’t charged with the protection of the nine worlds. Hafaress, on the other hand, is the guardian of the nine worlds, he is the Waking Eye, and the baneful fires that come to claim the shadow.”
    “Oh,” Leona said. “That makes sense.”
    “Do you want to learn how to use it?” Daniken asked her.
    “Can I?” Leona asked.
    “I’m not sure, but if you can , maybe we can get you one of your own,” Daniken said. She gave Leona a winning smile.
    “Alright,” Leona said.
    “It would make a great weapon for you,” Daniken answered. “Better than that knife.”
    Leona didn’t answer. Abagail had said the knife suited her.
    “Alright, so, all you have to do is focus your thoughts,” Daniken told her. “Come, follow me.” The elf stood, and quietly led her away from the camp and toward the edge of Singer’s Trail. Leona followed, careful not to bang the staff on anything.
    “Don’t worry, it won’t break,” Daniken told her. “Now, point it at that wolf, there.” The elf took a position behind Leona and helped aim the scepter. The wolf seemed smaller than all the others, and he wasn’t as vocal about his hunger at seeing them. He milled around a little, but seemed rather calm.
    He looked so much like the shadow of a puppy that Leona fidgeted and tried to aim at a different darkling, one that was much more aggressive and snapping at the boundary, trying to get at them.
    “Don’t worry about him, he’s a darkling, he is already dead,” Daniken said. “Now, focus your thought, imagine the light of the moon coming to do your bidding. Feel the wyrd within the scepter building up, wakening to your touch.”
    Leona did as she was told, it was easy to call upon the power of the scepter, but as it woke up, it struggled in her grasp. She could feel the wyrd of the scepter attach to her, but when she thought it would flood her body with energy, instead it started drawing her energy into its depths.
    Her vision wavered and somehow split in two. There was an image of the Fay Forest before her, and then another, an immense plane of silver light.
    “This is normal at first, but command it. Be firm. Don’t let the light win,” Daniken told her. “Think of all you stand to lose.”
    Leona thought of Abagail, and the struggle she was facing. If her sister could be infected with the plague and face the darkness that might come for her, and struggle to remain good, Leona could fight this.
    The scepter pulled her further in and the vision of the Fey Forest wavered, and more of the silver light crept in on her awareness.
    She wasn’t weak. She was a Bauer. She was strong. This light couldn’t have her. She pulled back on it, and with a savage twist of her mind, she pulled her energy away from the scepter.
    As if by some subconscious command, Leona drummed her finger against the scepter with a clang. Silver light, nearly white, burst from the tip of the scepter. A deep resonant tone accompanied it, a sound that Leona felt echoed within her body.
    The beam of light connected with the wolf, and it burst into a cloud of dust.
    “You did it!” Daniken said, shaking Leona’s shoulders. The elf seemed genuinely happy, and the sentiment chased the power of the leaching scepter back into the depths of the weapon.
    A rush of air left Leona’s mouth, and she smiled. “I did it,” she whispered.
    “Good job, oh, you are going to be so good at this!” Daniken told her. “Now, we just need to find you a scepter.”

The still lake spread out before them nearly as far as Abagail could see. It existed both on and off the trail. She wasn’t sure if that meant anything outside the trail could slip into the confines of the trail or not.
    A haze of fog lay over the lake, and the snow didn’t seem to touch its