Spirits and Sorrows

“Ruben! Ruben! Wake up! I need to talk to you! Wake up!”

Ruben groaned and swatted Laura’s hands away as she shook his shoulders. “What? We still have a couple of hours left. I’ve barely got any sleep.”

“Peter came back.”

His eyes snapped open and he was awake in an instant. “What?!”

“We need to get the others. We need to have a meeting.”

Everyone gathered in the Leader’s Tent that was in the center of the campgrounds. All of the leaders and a few trusted scouts were there as well.

Laura told everyone about her dream with Peter. Ruben listened with rapt interest and his heart started to race when the Iron Arrow was brought up. Was this how they would stop Kane once and for all? Could they find a way to finally end this nightmare?

“So this Iron Arrow is what could kill Kane,” said Sebastian, his brow furrowed as he thought this over. “I’ve never heard of this weapon before.”

“It’s what Peter said. We need to find it,” Laura said with confidence.

“But we don’t know where it is and if it could stop Kane. It might be too much of a risk to find it.”

Everyone started speaking at once until Hendrix cleared his throat and stood up. Everyone turned to look at him. “I know what this is but before I go on any further, I have something to confess.

“I was a member of the Queen’s Council. I’ve worked alongside Queen Lilith for almost two hundred years and was there when she defeated Kane Moonblood during the first war.”

Hendrix’s confession brought on an onslaught of reactions and questions, everyone speaking over each other.

“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

“Where’s the Queen? Why hasn’t she done anything about this?”

“What happened to the rest of the Council?”

“What do you know about the Iron Arrow?”

“SILENCE!” Hendrix thundered, his voice cracking in the air like a whip, startling everyone, even Nathaniel and Sebastian, into frightened silence.

Hendrix gazed at everyone calmly but sternly. “I apologize for not saying anything sooner, but I’d sworn an oath to Queen Lilith and did not want to dishonor that oath by revealing my identity.”

“We understand,” said Nathaniel. “We apologize for our reactions.”

“No need. I understand.”

Ruben tilted his head toward the faerie in a sign of respect. “It’s an honor to meet a member of the Queen’s Council.”

“Thank you, Ruben, but I’m the same sup you’ve been working with for the past four years. Please allow me to explain everything before asking questions.

“I was here when Kane launched the first war. I helped fight back against him. I joined Lilith on the battlefield when they faced off. They disappeared into her portal and she resurfaced a while later. She came back and announced she had killed Kane and we were safe. The spell Kane had placed over the army was lifted and the war was over.

“After Lilith made sure that the spell was lifted from Kane’s army and we rebuilt the territories, I approached Lilith to ask her what she did to defeat Kane. She told me she’d use an object called the Iron Arrow to kill Kane and she hid the Arrow somewhere in the Eternal World Ocean. She said it had to be hidden to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

“Laura is right. We need to find it. It will be dangerous to find it but it’s a risk we have to take because if we wait any longer then the danger will only increase and we need to act fast. We need to make the trip.”

“I agree,” said Laura, and Ruben echoed her words.

Everyone agreed and it came to a decision.

They were going to try to find the Iron Arrow.

“What about Peter?” Laura asked Hendrix. “He’s trying to get back. He would be a vital asset to the rebellion.”

“Can we try to bring him back?” asked Ruben. “I know we have other priorities but he’s the one who helped us find out about the Arrow and we can’t leave him in the Human Realm like this and he may have other valuable information.”

Hendrix was silent for a moment before saying, “We can try, but it can only be one attempt. We have to move quickly before the war gets any worse. We will try to bring Peter back but there’s no guarantee it will work.”