The Eighth Warden Bk. 05 Ch. 00

Demea stared south, though there was nothing there but a rough cave wall. "Can you show me how?"

Hera tilted her head to the side. "Vestath?" she asked.

While Demea's kin had died hundreds of years ago, she traced her ancestry to the Vestathi Tirs. She'd been watching over them as Hera had with the Skotinos refugees.

"The humans there have rebelled, and they've blockaded Tir Shova. We already lost Tir Nok and Tir Taval during the war." Demea hesitated. "I keep seeing... visions, I guess you'd call them. Like waking dreams. Each one is different but similar. I think Tir Shova is going to fall. Not right away--the humans aren't well organized yet--but in fifteen or twenty years. They'll chase The People into the Salt Desert and that's where we'll die. No one can survive there, but if you help me change them..."

Hera understood what Demea was referring to. She'd had disturbing visions herself. In the futures she saw, The People would come to an end. The changed children might survive, but far too many of the adults would not, and without the adults, who would keep the children safe?

"I'll help," she said. "We'll save as many as we can." She sighed. "I just wish we could do more. We have all this power and we can't use it!"

"No!" Demea said. "That's what I came to tell you! We can use it, just not on our own. We have to gift it to others."

"What do you mean?"

"The totemic magic, it's not limited to just us. Allos figured out how to grant a sliver of magic to one of The People. Healing magic to replace the healing wizards and surgeons we lost. Protection magic to block the wildstorms. There's more we're still figuring out. It's deeper than the totems ever let on. Allos has picked nine so far, and I've already chosen my first, in Tir Shova. She was a field medic during the war, but now she can heal better than any healing wizard ever could. It takes something out of you, so you have to choose each one carefully, but we can help! We can help everyone!"

Hera took in a shaky breath--or at least her spirit form acted as if she had. This would change everything.

The People would come to an end.

But they could be reforged into something new.