I race into Barbara's shop after class. I need to learn how to turn a mirror into a portal now before the false face can put his plan into action.
He already has.
I look down to see Sam sitting in front of me his eyes worried.
"What do you mean?" I say sharper than I mean to.
He already has put his plan into action. He has her.
"What? What do you mean?"
He has your friend.
"Crap, crap, crap! Barbara!"
"Calm yourself, Leilani. Take a few deep breaths with me."
Barbara comes from the back and takes my hands. "You have to be calm to do this Leilani, opening a portal takes concentration and a centered mind. If you're frazzled, frantic and afraid, I cannot send you through a portal."
"But I need to go now!" I wail, my hands trembling in hers. I don't want Sarah to be harmed. Even though I only met her the one time, it was enough for me to become attached.
"Leilani, breath with me. You can't go in your current condition."
Even though my mind is racing and I'm terrified, I know that Barbara is right. If I can't calm down and concentrate I won't be able to do anything to help Sarah. Plus we were just planning on starting my lessons, it could be days or weeks before I can learn the magic to create and walk through a portal using a mirror.
"Remember, time doesn't work the same in the land of the Fae as it does here. What could be minutes for Sarah, could quite possible be weeks, months or even years here. So breathe."
What else can I do? I know she is right but I still don't like it. I take deep breaths with her until my hands stop shaking and my mind stops racing. I can do this. I know I can.
"Okay, I feel better." I say softly before disengaging our hands.
"Good. Now do you want to tell me about your dream?"
I'm not even surprised that she knows about my dream and I tell her what I can remember.
"He wants to turn both worlds into barren wastelands." I end my description of the dream.
Barbara nods. "Yes, he's quite capable of doing it too, if we don't stop him."
"So how do we do that?" I ask hoping she will say it's time to start my lessons, but she surprises me.
"We wait, and you learn as much as I can teach you about not just portals but your magic."
"But I don't have any magic. I told you this before, I'm nobody special, and I don't have any special powers."
Barbara shakes her head. "Girl, you have Fae blood, that means that while you may have had no real powers before, your gifts have now been woken up by meeting Sam and myself. Everything happens for a reason, Leilani. But don't worry, I won't leave you without proper training. You have no idea of the power you possess."
"So when can you teach me how to use a mirror to open a portal."
Barbara has been leading me towards the back of the bookstore and her break room during our conversation.
She sighs and then says, "Let's have some tea and chat. There is far more to learning what you want to learn than just opening a portal. Your energy is all over the place so the first thing we need to do is teach you how to properly center yourself."
I pull out a chair and sit down. I know I'm not going to be learning anything about mirrors or portals today. As much as I want to get to Sarah, it's not happening today and I don't have time to try and find another teacher. Honestly, I don't want another teacher. Even though I haven't known Barbara for long I trust her, and I definitely trust Sam as well.
I watch as she makes my tea the way I like it with a bit of honey. She sits the cup down in front of me before sitting down herself across from me.
"So, tell me Leilani, have you ever taken a yoga class?" She asks me.
I've thought about taking yoga in the past, but I'm always so busy that I never bothered. "No, I can't say that I have."
"Too bad," Barbara mutters, "that would make teaching you to center yourself much easier."
"Can I learn from an online video?" I ask. I know YouTube has a lot of yoga videos.
"I think starting a regular practice of yoga would be helpful. Yoga teaches you how to breath properly for centering and the asanas or movements teach you focus. Try to find a teacher who focuses on breathing and easy beginning asanas. You'll learn to get centered and calm much more quickly than if you try it without. After you've been practicing yoga for a bit, then I'd like you to have a few Reiki sessions with a friend of mine to get your energy aligned."
"Okay." Now it's my turn to sigh.
"I have something for you." Barbara says, getting up and pulling a book from a bookshelf I don't remember seeing the last time I was here.
"What is it?" I ask as I take the obviously ancient tome.
"A book on the history of the Fae. Humans think it's just a mythology book, but it's their actual history and this particular book was written by a sixth generation full-blooded Fae whose family lives in this realm rather than in the Fae realm. Of course no one knows that or knows that he's six hundred years old, but that doesn't matter. What's in this book will teach you the major players of the Fae world. This is your homework for the next two weeks, Leilani. Read the book, start practicing yoga and we'll meet again in two weeks."
"But I thought you were going to start teaching me about..." I'm not happy about this extra load of work on top of my normal school load, nor about having to wait. I had thought we were to begin today.
You are beginning today, Leilani. This is the start, you cannot just jump into learning magic, about your powers, and mirrors without the proper background training.
Sam's thoughts came to me and I looked down to see him cleaning himself at my feet.
"Okay, I guess there's nothing I can do to change your mind and do this faster?" I say, looking at Barbara hopefully.
"To send you into the Fae realm unprepared would be a death sentence, even with your new powers." Barbara said firmly. "Come back in to weeks and not before, and Leilani I will be testing you, so make sure you read the book and do your yoga because I will know if you haven't."
Not that I was really planning on not doing those things but she was making it clear that if I did not do them I would then be causing the delay in getting to Sarah myself. I wouldn't do that.
"I'll do them, Barbara. I'm just not sure how I'm going to handle this on top of everything else I have to do."
"Call me if you need more time, dear. I want you properly prepared before entering the world of the Fae. If you're not, you won't survive. Not all Fae are kind like my friend who wrote this book, many are deceptive, and cruel. They live a very long time and many think nothing of playing with humans, and I don't mean that in a good way. That's most likely how you came by your Fae blood, some Fae lord playing in the human realm. He probably doesn't even know or care he left a child behind."
I'd never thought of that before, who the one was who gave me my Fae blood, I mean. So far I'm not very impressed with what I know about the Fae, and I certainly don't want to be one of them. I just want to find and help Sarah and stop the False Face from putting his plan into motion.
"Put that book in your bag dear, and guard it well. There are not very many editions around anymore."
I lifted the heavy book and slid it down into my backpack. The thing weighed a ton, or so it felt like.
When I sat back up, I found myself with a lap full of cat. I stroked my hand down Sam's back.
Scratch behind my ears?
I laughed. "Sure, Sam" I scratched behind both ears and he began to purr.
Barbara smiled indulgently and then got up to go out front when we heard the bell ring.
I spent another thirty minutes petting Sam before I decided that Barbara not coming back into the little break room meant we were done for the day.
Time to go home and start reading the book she'd loaned me.
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