The Quest of Sha-Ree (Daring Alina Luxera, Book 2) - Part 1, page 1
THE QUEST OF SHA-REE
DARING ALINA LUXERA
Book 2 – Part 1
ELON VIDAL
This book is a work of fiction.
All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed
in the novel are either products of the author’s imagination
or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2021 Elon Vidal
Cover copyright © Light Age Media
A Light Age Media Production
All Rights Reserved
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s
Intellectual property. If you would like permission to use the material
from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact
info@lightagemedia.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Light Age Media
Barcelona
First Worldwide Edition: June 2021
Version: 1. June 2021
MORE BY ELON
The Sword of Varen (Daring Alina Luxera, Book 1)
Begin Alina’s series here before you read “The Quest of Sha-Ree”.
(Read it now here!)
Witchlight, Book 1 in Lightkey: The Intrepid Lucy Duceaul
(Get this book for FREE when you click here and sign up to Elon’s newsletter!
Also, available on paperback here.)
Eclipse (Dawnbringer, Book 1)
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The East Gate (Dawnbringer, Book 2)
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The Attraction Wielder – Juro’s Backstory (The Indomitable Ella Larisse)
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The Time Wielder (The Indomitable Ella Larisse, Book 1)
(Read it now here!)
The Sword of Varen (Daring Alina Luxera, Book 1)
(Read it now here!)
CONTENTS
FREE GIFT
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ELON’S AUTHOR NOTES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
OTHER BOOKS BY ELON
THE QUEST OF SHA-REE – PART 2
ECLIPSE
WITCHLIGHT
DRAGONLIGHT
THE TIME WIELDER
THE ATTRACTION WIELDER
THE DRAGON SIGNET
CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR
REVIEW THE BOOK
FREE GIFT
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CHAPTER ONE
Alina felt an almost overwhelming urge to run. Almost. Faced with a goddess in the process of burning the world Alina had been part of since childhood, it was a natural reaction.
She tossed her curling red hair and looked up at the figure towering over her. Hekate’s face flowed and shifted, becoming male, then female, then something that was neither, or possibly both. Her form was just as fluid. Tall, thin, muscular, curvy. Armored or clad in flowing robes or nothing at all.
Alina gritted her teeth, fists clenching at her sides. She wished the being would make her mind up. Just be one thing! But the amorphous shape-shifting wasn’t limited to the Goddess. Around them the world shifted and changed as though someone were channel hopping.
Alina and Hekate stood amid an expanse of desert dunes beneath a blazing red sun. A frozen tundra. A jungle of steaming vegetation. A city of glass so bright the inhabitants all seemed to be wearing sunglasses. The flickering dance of images was making Alina’s head ache.
There was nowhere to run to. How exactly do you run away from a deity who changed their location and appearance with a thought?
Terror turned Alina’s insides to water, she wanted to curl into a ball and shut her eyes tight until it was all over. What stopped her was seeing Zuro scamper over to the towering shape that was Hekate. Zuro was her friend, her mimic dragon, an animated statue in the shape of a dragon. Seeing him bounding the goddess like a puppy to its mistress hurt.
She was taller than the highest tree Alina had ever seen. Alina had no scale by which to measure her height. Was that thirty feet? Forty? In her mind she saw an immense redwood, its highest branches lost to sight, its trunk as massive and solid as a mountain.
Though Hekate’s face and form flickered and changed her eyes seemed to remain the same. They burned with a light that Alina could feel as though she were staring into the sun.
The hurt became a spark of anger. A feeling of being cheated of her friend, her closest friend in all the world.
A fresh, flash of nausea went through her at Hekate’s constant state of flux. She embraced the anger at Zuro’s apparent betrayal, holding onto it to suppress the sickness.
“Just stop it!” she demanded, “you’re going to make me throw up.”
“Of course. I should have known you wouldn’t be ready to travel the Lightway yet,” Hekate said with a hint of amusement in her voice.
Between one blink and the next Alina found herself sharing a clearing with Hekate and Zuro. Around them was a sea of tall silver grass which swayed and sighed in a gentle breeze. Hills rose all around and in the far distance a row of black, jagged mountain peaks. The sky was lit by a thousand white stars. Where Hekate had stood was a tall, silver-barked tree. Its bare branches were tipped by a shining white light. A silver owl perched on a thick bough and watched her with wide, black eyes.
“Is Twiland more restful?” Hekate’s voice seemed to come from the tree but not as a sound reaching Alina’s ears.
She seemed to hear the voice in her head but knew instinctively where it came from.
“Thank you.” She breathed in deep, letting the cool night air wash away her nausea. “Would you tell me what is going on now? If you intend to destroy me like you did Varen then I would rather you just got on with it!”
You probably weren’t supposed to yell at a goddess but Alina figured she had not much left to lose.
“Varen hasn’t been destroyed. You’ve never even been to Varen!” Zuro crowed, “Oh boy! Have I ever got some sights to show you, kiddo!”
Zuro had changed with the transformation of their surroundings and Hekate adopting the shape of the tree. Gone were the wrinkled scales, glasses, and mustache. His skin was sleek and silvery. His eyes were sparking, multi-faceted jewels that seemed to coruscate as many colors as Alina could think of. Alina gasped.
It was another betrayal. Another change from the world she had known for the last two years. And it came from the individual she had always trusted the most. A feeling of loss cored her being. Then, its place, resentment and anger.
She would not put up with this. She would not be bullied. If it was Hekate’s pleasure to destroy her world and take away her best friend, she would meet her fate with head high.
“Of course, I’ve been to Varen. Wyndira brought me there more than two years ago,” she said, recovering herself.
“No,” said Hekate, “I intercepted you as you passed through the portal. The world you have known is merely a reflection of Varen.”
“And you and I were the only real people in it,” Zuro said. Everyone else was a combination of your mind and mine. Although why you dreamed up so many jerks to live with is kinda beyond me.”
“Not real? But of course it was real…” Alina objected.
“All illusion. And now dispersed,” Hekate said. “Now that the Lotus force has chosen you there is no more need for the reflection.”
Alina sat down, crossing her legs, and running her hands through her long hair. She tried to take in what she was being told. The mental leap was too much. She remembered the quiz nights. The laughter and the banter between teams. She couldn’t believe that such vivid, real memories could be false. It was like losing family. The Coven had been a family to her. There she had confidants, friends, rivals. Witches who drove her mad with their rules and their punishments for the slightest infraction. Friends who she had passed notes with, had broken down into uncontrollable fits of giggles with, always at the most acutely inappropriate times.
“Why?” she asked in a small voice.
She pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them, burying her face in her arms.
Then she felt a warm touch on her hand. She looked up. Zuro had left the silver tree and stood next to her, one taloned forelimb resting on her hand.
“I’m still here. I’ve always been real,” he said.
“But you’re with her!” Alina accused, “part of the trick. You’ve probably been laughing at me this whole time!”
“Nope,” Zuro said brightly, “I was crafted to be a familiar to a very special witch. One that would attract the Lotus energy. You’re not the first but, oh boy, am I ever glad that you’ll be the last.”
Alina glared at the silver tree. She could feel waves of contentment and peace emanating from it, washing over her like a gentle surf. She was having none of it. She didn’t want to be peaceful and contented. The back of her neck began to feel warm. Her hair started to glow, as though lit from within.
“It was a dirty trick,” she glowered, “and I will not be pacified. Tell me what you want of me.”
Zuro lifted his head and blew a plume of blue and purple flame from his nostrils. Well, that’s new.
“The Lotus is an elemental energy unlike any of the others that make up the cosmos. It was present when the universe was born, witnessed the birth of the Titans and then the Olympians. It is a force for balance between the Light and the Dark. I, like the other Titans, have felt its coming return for some time and have been preparing. What Hades or Kronos are planning, I do not know. But I knew something they did not: that only a human witch could join with the Lotus, become the Lotus Flower, and bring balance to the cosmos. I have watched and waited. And now I have found you.”
“Hades and Kronos are Titans, like you?”
“Technically, speaking Kronos is my brother. Hades as I’m sure you know, is Lord of the Underworld, the realm which underlies all worlds and is the antithesis of the Fairest Realm: Sha-Ree.”
“I know about Hades. I spoke to him. Ate with him. He told me all about how you murdered Persephone, his wife.”
“In the reflection, in your dream. Not in actuality,” Hekate said gently.
Alina tossed her head, folding her arms and firming her jaw. Her cheeks were warming from the embarrassment of having been fooled. But at the same time, she was determined that what felt to her like solid memories couldn’t have been fabrications.
“Why would I…dream that? It doesn’t make sense. I also dreamed there was a Prophecy that you would return and destroy the world. And you fulfilled it. Where did I get that stuff from?”
“The reflection draws on the possibilities of the future tides. They wash over the reflected world and saturate it. You absorbed those possibilities and incorporated some into your dream.” Hekate replied smoothly.
“Ally, don’t be a meathead. Zuro said, “you haven’t seen the real Varen yet. Or the real Coven.”
Alina could remember returning to Varen from the Underworld, having delivered the sword into the hands of Hades. Could remember the deaths of all the regents.
“So the Sword being stolen by Fivera didn’t actually happen? Or the assassination of the Regents?”
“It hasn’t happened yet,” Hekate said.
Zuro’s head whipped around to stare up at the tree, “Brightest, I thought it was all illusion. A test…”
“It was. A test woven of possible future events. I have journeyed far along the possible roads of the Lightway and seen much. Those events you witnessed may come to pass. If the Sword is passed to Hades, then a chain of events is set in place in which all of the Five Worlds will burn. And then Sha-Ree will be vulnerable to invasion from the Underworld. Hades will make life and death the same and he will be Lord of All. Alina, you must prevent this.”
CHAPTER TWO
“Me?” Alina couldn’t help herself, “I’ve only just discovered my affinity. I don’t know what it means or what I can do with it. If Hades is such a threat, why can’t you deal with him?”
If those terrible things she remembered hadn’t happened yet, then there was a chance to make things right. Alina found herself welcoming the idea. She couldn’t give up the good memories she had. But the chance to undo the bad ones was tempting.
“The Titans are bound by even more rules than the Gods are. Do you know what would happen if beings like Hades had free reign?” Zuro said.
“The Gods are bound by the Olympus Accords, which Oceanus, Krios, and I brought about to prevent them destroying the world. We are bound by more arcane and elemental forces. Trust me, child. If I could take this quest from your shoulders I would. But I cannot embrace the Lotus. I will however provide you with help.” Hekate floated closer to the tree, holding a delicate hand toward the silvery leaves. “The mimic dragon will continue as your familiar. He has abilities which were kept hidden from you in the Reflection. And I will give you a gift.”
A bright light shone from the center of the tree trunk. A circular shaped mirror appeared, hanging from a branch that hadn’t been there a moment before. Alina got up, moving forward until she stood before the mirror.
It was curious, unlike any magical item she had come across before. She kept her hands firmly behind her back and peered into the surface of the mirror suspiciously. What trick was Hekate trying on her?
It was as tall as she was and a little wider. When she looked into it she didn’t see a reflection. She saw herself, but aged. She wore star-bright armor and a shield strapped to her right arm. Then the image was gone and she was standing behind a counter, wearing a red and white tunic and a ridiculous hat. A brightly painted board stood behind her with images of food.
She puzzled at the images, gasping slightly at one in which she seemed to be skipping hand in hand with a warty, green-skinned ogre. Call me shallow but he would have to have one heck of a personality.
“These are the future. But they’re different… so they’re possible futures?” she reasoned.
“You must train your mind and master the mirror before it will be of use to your quest, or you will be lost in a sea of possibility,” Hekate said ominously.
“So, assuming I agree to help you I get to take Alina-Vision with me. To somehow help me. Is that right?”
Alina thought about Hekate’s warning. It made her want to walk away and say thanks but no thanks, keep your mirror. But it was magical, and Alina felt an overwhelming urge to know more about it, try it out, master it.
She bit her lip, flexing her fingers, hands held ready to touch the mirror but held just short. She hadn’t yet decided if she was going to accept this quest. But what was the alternative? Go back to the reflection and burn with the rest of the illusory world?
Alina reached to take the Mirror from its branch and gasped again as it folded into itself until it had reduced to the size of a saucer. She hefted it in one hand; there was no real weight to it at all.
“What about the Lotus affinity. What are its principles, what can I do with it? Can you tell me that at least? Set me on the right track?”
At that moment, the tree was split down its middle, ripped asunder in a gout of black flame. The owl took to the air with a screech, exploding into a swirling flock of smaller birds that darted and wove through the sky. Alina jumped back and Zuro leapt to put himself between her and the remnants of the tree which were rapidly blackening and collapsing into dust. Where the tree had stood the ground crumbled, the soil carried away as a fine dust.
A white hand with skin the color of fungus was clawing its way out of the dust. It was followed by an arm, and then a shoulder. A man rose, wearing an ill-fitting dark suit. His shoulders were round and hunched, his hair lank and greasy. He eyed Alina with a slitted yellow eye in a long, dour face.
“So, this is your champion, Hekate,” the man said in a whining, dry voice.
“Kronos!” Zuro hissed, a spurt of blue flame jetting from his nose.
“Now, now. Not exactly health and safety is it? Shooting naked flames all over the place. You could start a fire.” Kronos wagged a finger in Zuro’s direction and Zuro’s nostrils became plugged with what looked like corks. A piece of paper also appeared, pinned to the scaly skin of his snout. Alina looked, it seemed to be some kind of legal notice full of sub sections and clauses. She wrenched it free and tore it up, but the pieces simply reassembled themselves. She glared at the pale little man.
He was not, in her opinion, a worthy manifestation of a Titan. He looked like an office clerk. There was something unsettling about him, something she immediately disliked.
