Chapter 52: Fracture

I woke up back in my bed. I was fully clothed, but with no shoes. The covers were tucked up tight under my chin, which was sweet of Remi, but I was boiling hot beneath. The sudden thought that he was sweet wasn't helping that heat either.

My limbs felt heavy when I tried to move them. It was similar to when I did a rigorous training session, but without all the soreness. My shoulder still ached though. I pushed the covers back and sat up slowly. It felt like the room was spinning. I don't think I had ever used up so much power at once. I knew it took a while to regenerate. A weight settled down next to me on the bed as the shadows grew into a shape. I flipped the nightstand lamp on then turned to see Remi looking rather serious.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I think your mother has something planned for you."

I quirked an eyebrow. "That's nothing new. She always has plans for me."

"No, I mean with this ritual. I think it's about you."

"Really? She's never included me in anything like that before. She just tells me to train and fills me up with demon power."

"That's what I'm worried about." The look of concern on his face for me melted my heart. "I think she's going to use you like a battery."

"That is also nothing new. You saw, she just used me to buy that stuff."

"I think she is going to sacrifice you."

I got quiet. My mind mulled it over, but I just couldn't quite seem to think about it. It was like my mind was stuck, in shock maybe.

"Lanie?" Remi asked. "Are you okay?"

"I... I don't know." I turned to him. "Does it make sense? Did she power me up to sacrifice me?"

Remi's face grew grim. "At least if we know, we can prepare." He grabbed my hand. "Why don't you look through the books in her library? I'm going to go ask around and observe. I'll see if I can get any more information, then we can come up with a plan. Okay?"

I felt like my movements were wooden as I shook my head. Remi slid off the bed. He hesitated before he stepped away. He turned to me, bent down, and planted a kiss on my lips. Before I could react he disintegrated into shadows.

My mouth hung ajar. My fingers slowly lifted and pressed to my lips as my mind reenacted the moment. As my fingers pressed lightly on my lips for a moment, my mind tried to confirm that it was actually a kiss and not a mistake.

I closed my eyes tight. As I opened them, I pushed that thought from my mind and focused on the more important one. Was Mother trying to kill me? I didn't even know how to feel about that. It was so incomprehensible.

I padded to the library in my socks. I picked out several thick leather bound books from the countless ones on the shelves. I couldn't read their titles. I wasn't great at languages, but I knew enough of them to get the gist of it. I sat at the table and turned the lamp on. Then, I started my quest.

A few hours and twenty volumes later I sat on the floor surrounded by open books. I kept coming across this weird phrasing. It was in a dozen languages. Each one included the word "darkness" and "broken", which sometimes translated into "split" or "half"." All of it was centered around the solstices, either summer or winter. The ritual seemed to be a power transfer, which wasn't uncommon. That was what most rituals were, but this one seemed to be able to amplify the power by tuning it to the Earth's power or planet's power or something. I kept getting confused. I hated not being able to comprehend all this high level stuff. I didn't like feeling dumb, who did, but I knew that this was just beyond me. I wished I had someone here to help.

Just as I finished that thought, Remi appeared before me. He tiptoed through the books, pushed one aside, then sat down cross-legged next to me. "Any luck?"

"Can you read this stuff?"

He shook his head. "I only know English and bad English."

I chuckled as he quoted one of my favorite moves. Then I stopped. That was a ritual. Four elements and a person. That was a transfer of power into a weapon. My fingers flew to one of the open books. A complex wheel within wheel and crossing lines pattern filled one side of the page.

"The fifth element was a person," I stated.

"Yeah, and?"

"There is only a place for one person in these spells, but it keeps talking about a split."

"Like... a fracture?" Remi whispered.

I glanced down at my arm. "A fracture..." My fingers read over the lines of the ancient languages. "Solstice huge more power combined fracture soul amplify network lines." I groaned. "Why is this so hard?"

Remi's hand closed around mine. "It's okay, just keep going." He moved my finger to the next word.

"Warning control darkness predict anger balance tip soul must maintain balance realms." I flopped back in frustration. "I can't do this. I'm only get like every other word. This is so convoluted."

Remi squeezed my shoulder. "It's okay. Let's just try to put it into context based on what we know. You said "darkness" right? Well we definitely found some darkness yesterday. It sounds like a prediction that is warning that if the darkness interrupts this ritual, then the balance between light and dark will be tipped."

I wrinkled my nose. "I guess. If you can even trust what I have translated."

"I think you translation is fine. It's just not complete. Now the first one. It looks like you have to combine the fractured soul. That's something. We just need to figure out what she is trying to combine you with."

"If I'm a fractured soul, then where's the rest of me?" My voice got a little creaky towards the end. I didn't realize it at first, but this fracture thing was a little scary.

Remi got quiet. "I have to go." He said suddenly and just like that, he was gone.