was surprised by the sight of two arrivals: Sebastian, who stood behind Elijah with a gun pressed against the back of his head, and a tall woman wearing a dark purple combat suit, accented by her silver boots with turquoise-teal highlights.
The woman was the one who got my attention. I took in her long silver locks that were layered with turquoise, gold, and white strands. They were styled down, and she wore a cape that sat upon her shoulders. Her arms were crossed.
She held a golden wand in her grasp, and the red tattoo with a magic circle in the middle glowed slightly on her chest, just above her cleavage. Her lips were ruby red, and her turquoise spheres were watching me with intrigued interest.
"You're..." I whispered but held my words as I looked at Elijah, who remained frozen in place. I soon realized that everything was completely frozen. No wind, no sound, just a void of complete stillness.
"Silver Spell Solange," she answered as if to dismiss my obvious shock before she turned her attention to Sebastian. "You're late."
"My tardiness was due to the barbaric mass of assassins at the gate of the territory," he grumbled. "Though I deduced you'd come along."
"And why is that?"
"The child with the rainbow hair told me."
They stared blankly at one another before there was a poof right next to me that had made me flinch.
"Mommy!"
I was left dumbfounded as I stared at the girl who’d poofed into existence holding Fuwa and Elsa.
What...is going on here?
The little girl was wearing a navy blue dress with a navy blue jacket with hints of purple. Her hair was silver with multiple colorful highlights that indeed made it seem like she had a rainbow happening in her hair.
Her arrival made glitter rain around us before she looked over to me as Elsa looked my way. "MewMew!"
"Mommy? Are we late?"
Sebastian and I looked at Silver, who sighed and walked over to the girl and knelt down. The way her expression went from serious to motherly left me speechless.
"Nothing is late in the realms of time and magic, Star," she greeted before giving her a scolding look. "Why did you decide to follow Mommy to work?"
She cringed and gave a nervous smile before trying to hide Fuwa and Elsa.
"Um...see...Daddy said I could follow you!"
"As in Dimitri or someone else?" she inquired.
"Hmmm. All the above!" she reasoned. "Daddy was taking me on a walk with the others when Daisy came and said she sent you to help someone and I wanted to help, so Daddy said I could with the others’ support, but then I poofed and found them!" She raised her hands up like Fuwa and Elsa were her prizes.
"Some evil people were trying to hurt them so I zapped them!"
Silver arched an eyebrow at the girl, who I could only presume was her child. It intrigued me just a little bit, even in this intense situation, simply because this woman looked so young to have a child at that age.
"It would make sense if those assassin goons wanted to get rid of Elsa and Fuwa. They most likely made a summoning trap so if they tried to come to warn Brianne and the others of danger, they would be summoned to the trap instead."
"Ya!" Star cheered. "That thingy! It was a ball of black and scary looking. I didn't like it or the people in black. So I zapped them all and saved Elsa and Fuwa. Now we're friends!"
"MewMew," Elsa replied, but she was looking around. "MewMew?"
Star lowered them before she hugged them. "Don't be sad, Elsa! Mommy just said we're not too late!"
Star lifted her gaze to Silver. "Mommy, Elsa and Fuwa are scared their Mistress is gone." The way she pouted her lips made Silver sigh as she reached out to stroke Star's head before she glanced at the two familiars in her possession.
"The darkness of your world did something that was strictly forbidden. Those traps aren't allowed to be used in these realms, which means your enemy is becoming desperate."
She rose up then before her eyes landed on me. I stared at her in disbelief as she merely snapped her fingers, and the world around us turned into a silver room with spinning golden magic circles that shifted to turquoise in a back-and-forth cycle.
"You carry the power of time within you and yet you watched your friends suffer the ultimate price," she acknowledged. "Why?"
"Power of time?" I whispered and instinctively lifted my hands up to stare