I walked down the silent cobbled path towards Mikael's cottage. From far away, I could see the yellow flicker of a light from the windows. He was home and he was awake. 

I knocked when I reached his door and after a few moments, it opened of its own accord. I stepped into the dimly lit one-room cottage. Mikael was standing by the window with his back towards me like he had been the first time I walked into his cottage with Zayll. I could see the illumination of the lights from the orb on his staff. I stood on the threshold, waiting for him to say something.

"I believe you and I have much to discuss, Caley," Mikael said. My lips pursed to form a thin line. He turned and conjured up two chairs for us to sit on and gestured for me to take a seat. I did as I was told. He sat down opposite from me, gazing at me with unseeing eyes, his hands crossed over the glowing orb filled with magic. 

"Where would you like to begin?" he asked.

There was a storm of questions raging through my mind. I wanted to ask about the Blood Oath curse and my idea for how to break it. I wanted to ask about the elemental curse and my confusion of thoughts about it. I wanted to ask about the timing for both. I wanted to ask about the feasibility. I wanted to know if I would be successful. But I didn't ask about any of those. Instead, I spoke the first question that came to mind.

"Why did you send me all over the world looking for you?" I asked him. He smiled thoughtfully and leaned back in his chair.

"What makes you think I sent you all over the world to look for me?" he asked back. I pursed my lips. If he was going to answer all of my questions with another question, then this discussion was going to be pointless and frustrating. 

"Then why did you send me to all of those nations? Wasn't I just wasting time?" I asked.

"What did you learn from each of those nations, Caley?" he asked me. I chewed on the inside of my cheek.

I had asked this question to myself before and had answered it, too. But it was mostly in moments of self-reflection. Now he wanted me to answer the question for real and out loud. I swallowed and looked him in the eye, even though he couldn't see me.

"I guess from the Sylvanterra, I learned about the value of a life and how to respect nature. From Aghbad, I learned how to be more powerful and increase my endurance. I also learned how not to push my limits. And from Aerya, I learned how to self-reflect and how to concentrate my mind on a single thought even in the face of other distractions," I replied. 

"And from Atlantis?" he asked.

"I learned how to be a leader," I replied without skipping a beat. He smiled, satisfied with my answer.

"Do you still believe that you wasted your time?" he asked. 

"I mean, yes, I learned a lot in those nations. But what does any of that information have to do with me finding the countercurse? That was the real reason I set out on this journey. To find you so that you could help me figure out the countercurse. And now there's a week left until I have to go back home and I'm still not sure if I know the answer," I said. 

"Think about it, Caley. How would what you learned in those nations help you in finding the countercurse?" Mikael asked me. I frowned, thinking. When I came up with nothing, I looked at him blankly.

"I don't know," I said.

"Let us discuss something else until you figure out the answer," Mikael suggested. I groaned out loud to show him my annoyance. He didn't seem to falter. 

"Fine. Let's talk about this place. Atlantis. Did you know it existed when you sent me on this wild goose chase?" I asked. He chuckled, the corners of his lifeless eyes crinkling.

"I knew it existed. Of its whereabouts, however, I had no idea," he replied. 

"Then why didn't you put it on the map?" I asked.

"I did not know where it was located," he replied. 

"But you didn't leave any clues as to its existence! What if I never figured it out?!" I exclaimed.

"But you did. And that is all that matters now," he said. I rubbed my forehead with my knuckles in frustration.

"I wasted so much time..." I said again.

"Why do you keep insisting that you wasted time? All the experiences you had, did they not contribute to your overall magical experience?" he asked. 

"I'm running on a ticking clock and right now, that clock is ticking faster than I'm running. Queen Cordelia is on her deathbed along with hundreds of other people in this nation. And I'm the only one that can save them. Merlin knows how many other people have died because of your insistence on me gaining magical experience," I shot back. 

"While that may be true, everything you have learned up until now will help you in figuring out the countercurse," he said calmly. I glared at him and stood up, pacing to relieve some of my pent up frustration.

"The Blood Oath curse," I said, wringing my hands together.

"What of it?" he replied.

"You realize that I took it, right? Just like my mother had? When I met you in the forest, I hadn't taken it," I said.

"But in your mother's letter--" he began.

"I didn't read my mother's letter until much later," I said, stopping at the window. "It was too late."

"Well, this certainly complicates things," Mikael commented.

"Did you ever figure out how to break the oath without dying?" I asked. 

"I did not think I would need to. That was the purpose of your mother's letter," Mikael said. I felt my heartrate increase tenfold. 

"So you were relying solely on hope?" I asked.

"We were sure that you would be more than willing to read a letter that your mother wrote you. It was supposed to be the ultimate preventative measure," Mikael said.

"Well, not everything is perfect," I replied. "But luckily, I have an idea," I said. He raised his eyebrows. I sat back down in the chair across from him.

"Oh? And what is that?" he asked.

"In Aerya, I met this girl Kiya. She was extracting the different elements of the soy bean and that got me thinking. What if we could extract Elijah's blood from mine? His blood fused with mine is what releases the poison after the oath is broken, right? So if we can chemically extract Elijah's blood from mine, then the poison wouldn't be able to be triggered and released, right?" I said. 

Mikael stroked his long white beard thoughtfully.

"It is a very good idea," he commented, making me swell with pride. "But it is also very risky. Extracting his blood from yours will not be an easy task. You would need proper equipment and you must remember, blood is recycled from the lungs to the heart to the rest of the body constantly. There is no telling how integrated Elijah's blood is with yours," Mikael said. 

"So what are you suggesting?" I said.

"If you were to do this, we would have to take out all of your blood, extract all of Elijah's blood at once, and then replace your purified blood back into your body," he replied. I paled at his words.

"But taking all of my blood out of my body would kill me," I said. He pursed his lips into a straight line.

"Which is the only flaw in the idea. Otherwise, I think it could work," Mikael said.

I groaned in frustration, pressing the heels of my palms to my eyes. 

"So the only idea that I had is shot," I said. "What if I killed Elijah? Would that make the blood go away?" I asked.

"Think about that, Caley. Just because Elijah would be dead doesn't mean that his philosophy or orders would die with him. They would still exist. As would his blood. So if you disobeyed one of his orders even after he died, you could still activate the blood and poison in your system," Mikael told me. 

"Then what am I supposed to do?!" I exclaimed.

"For the time being, you must do what he says until such time that we figure out a way around the flaw in your idea," Mikael said. 

"He's going to order me to kill anyone that goes against his philosophy when we go to war," I said. "That includes Trey."

"You will find a way, Caley," he said. "You are meant to."

"You know what the prophecy doesn't touch on?" I asked. "Whether or not the Chosen One will survive all of this. Like, even if I do break the curse, will I live to experience the same love that I'm fighting for?" I asked. 

"Only time can tell that. But I have a feeling that you will survive this," Mikael said. "Now, what are your ideas about the countercurse for the elemental curse?" he asked. I sighed.

"It's complicated..." I mumbled.

"I am listening," he said. I took a deep breath and then launched into my idea on how to break the curse.

"In my speech to the people of Atlantis, I had said that I was fighting for both love and peace among Magii. I sort of just said that in the spur of the moment. But when I thought about it later, I realized that there might be more to it than just a feeling that I'm fighting for. I think that peace is an integral part of the countercurse," I said.

"How so?" Mikael asked, his expression mildly amused.

"Well, I was thinking about what my mother thought the countercurse was. A sacrifice made out of true love. My mother gave up her life for my father by disobeying orders and letting the poison activate in her blood from the Blood Oath. But that didn't break the curse. Then I got to thinking about something that you had told me when I met you. You told me that my mother killed your brother. But then I thought, what if she didn't actually kill him intentionally? What if he somehow gave up his life for hers?" I said. 

"What of it?" he questioned, a small smile on his lips.

"Well, then that would make the sacrifice two-part, wouldn't it? Leonardo gave up his life for my mother and my mother gave up her life for my father. But things like this don't happen in two's. And the only thing in magic that I know that is in a pairing of three is the Trinity," I said.

I glanced at the dove bracelet resting on my wrist and picked up the tiny dove charm. I looked at the fig in its beak and then at the marking of the Trinity on my arm. 

"My mother gave me this bracelet of a dove with a fig tree branch in its mouth. The universal symbol of peace. It had been her bracelet before she had given it to me. What if my mother represented the part of the Trinity that meant peace? And then Leonardo, your brother, was one of the greatest wizards of all time. He, like you, was a master of all elements. What if he represented the staff in the Trinity? The magic part of the Trinity?" I continued, looking at the staff in Mikael's hands. "And my father was the leader of the Order of the Light at that time. He must have represented the sword in the Trinity, the power. So Leonardo--the magic--sacrificed himself out of love for my mother, because he was her teacher and cared about her. And my mother--the peace--sacrificed herself out of love for my father. But my father--the power--didn't sacrifice himself for anyone," I said.

There was a moment of silence as Mikael absorbed my words. He still had a small smile on his face and he nodded, telling me to continue.

"I'm convinced that there had to be one more sacrifice and that had to be my father's. But he didn't give up his life for my mother or for Leonardo. The ultimate sacrifice was incomplete and so the countercurse didn't work," I said.

"Why do you think that that is the countercurse?" Mikael asked me. 

"Because..." I trailed off. "Because when the Original Witch was alive, all Magia lived in one place in peace--Elysium. But then the original water master broke her heart and she put the curse on the water masters, so they became weak. The other elemental masters took advantage of their weakness which led the water masters to leave Elysium. Then slowly, the other elements followed and the magical community became divided. There was no more peace. Magic and power won over, destroying the peace part of the Trinity. I'm convinced that the Original Witch never intended for that to happen. Magic is all about a balance and the two most dangerous parts of the Trinity have struggling for dominance over the past few centuries. They need the peace, which was lost with the curse on the water masters. If we can bring the peace back and couple it with love, then I think the curse can be broken," I said. 

Mikael was silent for a few long moments, nodding to himself. 

"What was the first thing you asked me, Caley?" he asked, throwing me off-guard.

"Today?" I asked. He nodded. "I asked why you sent me on a wild goose chase looking for you," I said.

"Now that you have told me your idea for the countercurse, do you understand why I did what I did?" he asked me. 

I furrowed my brow in concentration, thinking of a response. I stood and paced back and forth, thinking. I stopped at the window and closed my eyes, bringing my hand up to the water stone resting on my sternum. I felt a calmness spread throughout me and I focused my concentration on the matter at hand. When I figured out an answer, I opened my eyes.

"You did it because all of those places taught me something that will help me break the curse," I said.

Mikael stood and came up next to me. I opened my eyes and stared at the sky outside. Night had fallen and the sky was black, littered with silver specks of stars a million lightyears away.

"In Sylvanterra, I learned the value of a human life and the value of preserving nature. A sacrifice involves giving up a life. To know the full extent of my actions, I needed to learn to appreciate it first. When I almost killed Peter Long nearly a year ago, I had no appreciation for human life. But after the lessons that Queen Maya's people gave me, I learned," I said.

"In Aghbad, I learned how to increased my endurance and strength. But moreover, I learned how to withstand pain and channel my emotions into my magic. I'm going to need power to continously fight during the war. I'm going to be emotional because of my task and I'm going to need to know how to control my emotions," I said.

"In Aerya, I learned how to shut out all distractions and focus on one single thing. If I am going to break this curse, there are going to be a lot of distraction and a lot emotions. But I'm going to need to focus my attention on breaking the curse, no matter what," I said.

"And Atlantis?" Mikael asked.

"Here, I learned how to fully use my element. But mostly I learned how to be a leader. I learned of an entire nation of people just like me that need to be saved; people that I'm fighting for. If I fail, it's not only going to affect me, but it's going to affect all of these people, too. And since I am the Chosen One, it's me that they'll follow and restore peace with the other nations if I am successful," I replied.

From the reflection in the window, I saw Mikael nod.

"You understand now?" he asked. 

I focused my gaze on the brightest star in the sky and nodded.

"I know what I have to do now," I said.

"Then you are ready," Mikael told me.

And instead of a sense of fear engulfing me, I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders. I knew what I had to do now. All that was left now was to actually do it. I just had to hope that my idea would work.

____________________________________________________

A/N: So my classes start on Monday and clearly this book is not finished like I wanted it to be. There are a couple more chapters left. I'm going to shoot for 45 chapters total and then an epilogue. So this story is VERY close to being finished. However, I don't know when I'll actually get around to finishing it because pharmacy school is going to be VERY busy. I might start writing another chapter tomorrow, but it all depends on how I'm feeling. I'm living on my own now, so I have other responsibilities. 

Anyway, the plan is solidified. Do you think Caley's idea will work?

Leave me a comment and don't forget to vote!

XOXO