Of Light And Shadows
Chapter Forty...

“Stand beneath the moon gate and close your eyes,” Lanthia instructed.

Jia nodded and padded across the soft grass, positioning herself under the worn stone structure as butterflies fluttered in her stomach. She wanted to speak to her mother more than anything but she was so afraid that she didn’t have enough power to Scry.

Quite often, the Demons she’d come to call her family would talk about the power they thought she held. They believed she was strong. The problem was that she didn’t believe it herself.

If she possessed any real magical talent why hadn’t she been able to use it to stop Abaddon from harming her? She’d prayed so many times for the strength to defend herself and it had never found her.

“Clear your mind, Jia. Don’t worry about whether it will work, just think of your mother. Remember her face, the colour of her hair, how she sounded when she spoke to you.”

Jia took a deep breath and closed her eyes, picturing the way Lauviah’s blonde tresses had shone like gold in her hands as the brush slid through them in Lucifer’s room.

She saw the strength in her mother’s beautiful eyes despite her thin frame and gaunt cheeks. The memory of her adoring smile blossomed in Jia’s mind and she found herself smiling too as her mother turned and beamed, her face fuller and her body stronger.

“Jia? Is that you sweetheart?”

“Mother?” Jia’s eyes flew open and she found herself surrounded by a pearly haze on all sides except one. It roiled and drifted around her like fog, but when she reached out to touch it she felt nothing.

In front of her the fog was clear, showing a good view of an ornate white room with gold and duck egg blue accents.

In the centre stood Lauviah, clad in an equally beautiful white dress with golden clasps at the shoulders and a decorated gold belt at her waist. It flowed around her like water, giving her an almost grecian goddess-like appearance.

Her beautiful blonde hair was braided in an intricate crown on her head, loose strands framing the soft pink of her cheeks.

“Are you Scrying me from the human world?” Lauviah asked, taking a few steps closer.

“I...I think so. You look so beautiful.” Jia’s voice cracked as she took in the vision that was her mother, tall and strong and glorious in her home.

“Being back with the Angels has done so much to heal me,” Lauvi answered with another dazzling smile. “I’m not one hundred percent yet but I’m getting there. How are you my darling? I miss you more than I can say.”

“I miss you too.” Jia hesitated, wondering if she could tell her mother about Lucifer.

“What is it?” Concern coloured the Angel’s tone as she waited for her daughter’s reply.

“Well...I’m not sure how much I can say. I don’t want to drag you into the mess of the Demonic realm when you’ve only just escaped it.” She twisted the hem of her shirt in her hands nervously. “But I wanted to tell you that...that Louie and I are together.”

“You are? Oh sweetheart, that’s wonderful! He was always such a kind soul.” She clasped her hands together in delight but her face fell as she saw Jia didn’t mirror her excitement. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.” Jia ran a hand through her hair and looked down at her shoes. “I’ve decided I want to stay in the Demonic realm with the brothers, and I’ve admitted to myself that I like Lucifer, but there’s still so much I don’t know about myself.”

“You’re young, Jia. You have your whole life to figure out who you are.”

“That’s just it.” Her voice cracked, betraying her fear as she looked back at her mother with tears in her eyes. “I don’t think I do.”

“Why not?” Lauvi looked like she wanted to leap over the foggy divide between them and pull her into a tight hug.

“Satan wants me for his collection. Over the years he’s developed a liking for possessing odd things and creatures.”

“Oh, I know all about his hobby,” Lauviah glowered. “It started well before the war. I warned Michael about him but he and the other Angels didn’t believe anything would come of it. Nobody ever imagined he’d start the Uprising.”

“He wants me because of my blood.”

She didn’t know what else she was allowed to say so she stopped talking, making a mental note that when she was alone with him, she’d have to ask Lucifer how much he was happy for her to tell Lauvi the next time they were able to speak.

“I feared that might be the case. I want you to know that Michael is watching him and he’s watching you, sweetheart. You’re not alone and we haven’t forgotten you.”

“But how can you help from your realm?” Jia asked. “The Angels never venture out across worlds unless they absolutely have to.”

“I know. The separation brought with it a lot of rules that shouldn’t be broken, but they can be in dire circumstances.” She smiled gently at her daughter. “Tell Lucifer that Michael and I are watching, okay? He’ll know what to do next.”

“I will. When can I contact you again?” Jia asked eagerly.

“Now you know you’re able to Scry I can contact you whenever I’m able. I can’t usually Scry Demons but you’re not a full Demon and you share my blood. You can Scry when you need me. I’ll answer as much as I can. I love you sweetheart.”

“I love you too,” Jia replied. Lauviah blew her a kiss and the strange pearly fog closed in around them, concealing her mother from view. When it faded she was back in the garden, standing beneath the moon gate.

“Well,” Lanthia said with a bemused expression, “I was supposed to be helping you Scry but it appears you can already do it alone. Are you sure you’ve never tried before?”

“That was my first time. Thank you for helping me contact my mother.” Jia swiped at her cheeks and was surprised when her fingers came away dry. She was sure she’d been crying while talking to Lauviah.

“All I did was start you off. You did the rest all on your own.” The Witch smiled gently before her expression turned serious. “Now that you’ve spoken with Seraph Lauviah I wish to use the ley lines with you to expand the wards.”

“I don’t know if I can do it but I’m willing to try. How do I help?”

“Take my hand.” Lanthia stood beside her under the moon gate and took both of her hands in her long fingers. “Feel the magic of the arch. It vibrates beneath us. It pulses through the stone like a heartbeat. Find its rhythm.”

Jia focussed on the ground under her feet, searching for the power Lanthia was so sure was there. At first she felt nothing, but when she was ready to say it wasn’t working the faintest stirring beneath her left foot made her pause.

She followed it, tracking it with her senses as the crackle of energy travelled through the earth and into the stone over their heads. It circled around and around the moon gate in a steady rhythm. Jia had found the pulse of the ley lines.

“I can feel it,” she whispered, afraid that speaking too loudly might disrupt the magic she was feeling.

“Good. The wards expand outwards in all directions from this point. Search for the edges. You can do it.”

The pulse stopped its circling and sank back into the earth. Jia imagined if her eyes were open that it would look like a blue glow lighting up the stone and carving a path through the grass.

She followed it with whatever strange magic sat deep inside her, sensing it pass beneath streets and buildings, gathering speed until it reached the end of its journey and shattered into two parts that shot in opposite directions. The two halves arced in a wide circle, revealing the edge of the protective wards.

Every few seconds the blue glow in her mind would falter as though something were slowing it down.

It was almost like it hit an invisible barrier that it had to smash through before it could continue, and Jia got the impression of several indentations in the edges of the protective circle where something was pressing in from the outside.

“I see it,” she breathed, fully focused on the various weak spots. “Something is trying to break the circle. Is that Jezebeth?”

“It is. She has found a ley line of her own with a moon gate that allows her to manipulate its power. It’s far away but the two gates are on intersecting lines, which means she can reach us from wherever she is.”

“Do the ley lines cross realms?”

“Yes. Ley lines give power to all things in all worlds. They are the essence of life and magic, the source from which we were all created. When we die we return to the ley lines to be reborn as something new. As long as the three realms exist, so do the ley lines that fuel them.”

“I think I can reach her.”

Jia was focussing on replaceing the intersection, expanding out beyond the wards and following the ley line itself. The blue in her mind turned to a deep purple as she moved away from Lanthia’s magic, far away from the moon gate she stood in.

“Be careful. Connecting with other realms is dangerous for a beginner.” Lanthia’s warning sounded far away as Jia continued to reach out, further and further away until she felt the edge of the realm give way.

For a moment she was free falling in the vibrant purple light, her stomach twisting as weightlessness overtook her.

She couldn’t tell if it had been a few seconds or several minutes that she was falling, but suddenly she had found the intersection and a ley line of deep orange was pulling her along.

She followed without hesitation, knowing that if she waited for even a moment Jezebeth would sense her and retreat before anything could be done about her.

Despite her feet being planted firmly in the grass of the garden behind Tia’s Trinkets, Jia felt like she was flying.

Her consciousness raced through the Demonic realm for miles and miles, following the powerful stream of magic beneath the rock until she reached the point where the adjoining moon gate waited for her.

Acting on instinct, her consciousness gathered speed, hurtling towards the gate and the unsuspecting Demon within it. This gate looked like it had grown out of the ground on its own.

It was surrounded by shadow and the dirt around it was flat and barren. It was constructed of a circle of branches with a hazy figure stood in its centre, and the energy coming from it seemed wrong somehow.

She felt like a rocket as she launched herself at the gate and her soul collided with something hard and cold and dark.

There was a booming crash like a thunderclap in her mind and she glimpsed eyes of the deepest black before the other presence was knocked loose and a searing pain shot through Jia’s mind.

She barely had the chance to register that she was the one now in control of the orange ley line before her consciousness slipped and she faded into blackness.