Broken Star
an excerpt

Talitha turned quickly; she wasn't sure what had happened. She was sure she had been in the library seconds ago; now she was… she turned again. On the plains, there was no snow to be seen, the sky was clear blue. She took a slow breath and started walking, nothing about this made any kind of since. She knew she had fainted… or gods she didn't want to think of the or, it meant death and she didn't want that. But there wasn't any other way to explain what had happened. How she had gotten here, this was the plains, in the middle of summer. She turned again and stopped when a familiar tingle went through her, turning faster she smiled when she saw the city rise up around her. Walls formed and moved and even as she stood still she felt as if she moved through the city. The movement stopped as fast it had started and she turned slowly around the dim room.

"Are you sure this is the right place?"

"Of course I'm sure. They told us where to go."

"We could have taken a wrong turn."

"Quiet all three of you we need to get this done before one of the Touched find us here."

Talitha frowned at the male voices and then saw the four of them walk into the room. She gasped as one walked right through her and toward the center of the room. She should have expected not to be able to be seen, but it still threw her to feel someone pass through her. Pushing that out of her mind she followed after the group and paused when she found them all looking up. She stepped into the center of the blue light and only saw more light from above.

"Are you sure that's it? It just looks like a light."

"This has to be it, there's nothing else in this city like this. They told us what we'd find. This is it."

"Fine. What did they say to do?"

"We need to read this."

Talitha drifted from the center of the light and moved to the man that fumbled around before pulling out a crumbled piece of paper. He started speaking, the words were foreign and made no sense but she couldn't help but watch as he read the words. A low rumbled filled the air and she turned, wondering what was going on and found nothing. The rumble wasn't coming from around her, but above her. Her breath caught as she saw the light grow brighter and brighter then the light faded faster then it came and Talitha stared, taking a step closer. This had to be the star, the star that created this city. It was so much smaller then she thought it would fit in both of her hands. How could something so small be as powerful as she thought this was?

"That's it? What we risked our lives to come in here for?"

"I thought it would be different too, but we can't stop now."

The man that spoke before started again in the words that made no since to her. But even if they made no since, she knew what they were doing. They were going to break this star. She turned to the man and cursed the fact that she could do anything to stop him. Then a wave of power washed through her and it felt like she was being pulled into a hundred different pieces. Gasping she dropped to her knees and watched as four pieces of the star dropped to the ground with a soft chime.

"Now what?"

"They can't find these. We each take one and we make sure that they are saving."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes we can chance this touched getting this star back."

Talitha moved back as each of the men took one of the star pieces and still didn't move as they walked from the room. She had no idea what any of this meant. To see something like this now to actually. And to actually hear voices that made no since.

She stood slowly only to drop back to her knees as the city shifted and blurred around her, before she knew what she was doing she found herself knelling in the sweet grass of the plains. Still dizzy she paused herself up to her feet and felt herself waver for a second and then felt the dizziness fade. She turned until she saw the city. The army spread out for miles around the city. She took a small step but paused when she heard a voice.

"Did the kings do it? Has the star been destroyed?"

"Yes, I think they did. I think they did get the star destroyed. They did do it. After all of this time. "

"We must hurry then. If the Star Touched are able to rally their people they will use their last remaining powers to try and stop us."

"Are you sure it's going to work?"

"I'm sure."

Talitha drifted closer to the group. five of them, dressed in long dark robes with heavy hoods. She started forward again, to see who these people were, but every time she thought she was close enough to see their faces, it seemed like she was pushed back. But even though she was at a distance their words seemed clear as if she was standing right by them.

"The spell, hurry."

Talitha couldn't understand the next set of words, but it had to be the same language that the kings had spoken a few moments ago. The hair on the back of her hair stood on end and a different rumbled filled the air, but as she turned she saw that it was the army moving away from the city. Thankfully they weren't moving toward her, she wasn't sure if she could handle thousands of people moving through her. It wasn't until she caught sight of the city that she knew what was going on. These cloaked figures were doing making the city vanished. She glanced back at them and drew in a sharp breath. If a group did this, created a spell that made the city vanished.

That meant that the city hadn't vanished with the breaking of the star. Something else has made the city vanished. There was nothing she could do, but watch as the city started to fade. She turned back to the group and gasped as each of them started to drop to the ground. Moving closer to them she found she could this time and stopped near the nearest one. None of them moved and she could tell that they were all dead. She glanced over her shoulder to see that the city was gone. The spell these five had done had been much too powerful for them to not be able to live through it. She crouched down next to one and licked her lips. They hadn't even acted like this spell would be powerful enough to actually kill them.

Talitha took a breath and shook her head. None of this made any kind of sense. The reason she was here seemed to be strange, she shouldn't be here. She should be in the library in Aldona. It seemed like she had been pushed back in time, but she still couldn't effect anything. It was as if as she was seeing this as some kind of vision.

She gasped suddenly and turned, looking for the kings, but most of the army had vanished. The star pieces had vanished with them. The only thing she knew was that the kings had taken the pieces, but that would take a long time to find them.

She felt the world tilt and she dropped back to the ground as the world spin. She closed her eyes as everything continued to tilt.

"Talitha. Talitha."