Lumina Nightglow's Arc

Chapter 3 of 34

The unicorns landed before the dark wall of trees. Lumina slid down and stared up at it. The trunks stood so close together that no gap showed. Luminara Tidewhisper raised her hands, and her light poured forward. It struck the wall and died. No glow slipped between the trunks. "I cannot see past it," Luminara said. "The path to the heart is behind this wall, and I am blind to it." Lumina pressed her palm against the bark. It was cold and hard as stone. She pushed. Nothing moved. She tried to squeeze between two trunks, but the gap pinched her wings. "There is no way through," she said. "Not for us. Not for your light." Then a fairy stepped out of the shadows beside the wall. Her hair fell long and blue, and her dress shimmered like clear water. Small starlike drops glittered on her sleeves. This was the spirit who had helped them before, made of pure magic. She had lifted water into the air once to keep Luminara alive. Aqua Luna. She smiled and touched the bark with one finger. "You cannot break it," she said. "But you do not need to. Follow me over." "Over?" Lumina asked. "Our wings are strong, but Luminara's light will not carry that high. She needs water to shine, and the air above the wall has none." Aqua Luna spread her arms. Water rose from her hands and stretched into the air. It curled into a river that hung above the ground, flowing with no banks to hold it. Small fish drifted inside the current, their tails trailing fire. The glowing river climbed up the wall and over its top, then down the far side. "A road of water," Aqua Luna said. "It will keep your friend wet the whole way. Her light will not fade." Lumina lifted Luminara into the floating river. At once the mermaid's tail slipped into the current, and her light flared bright and full. The fiery fish swam around her, lighting the water gold. "I can shine," Luminara breathed. "Even up here. Even over the wall." Lumina rose on her firefly wings and followed the river up. The unicorns beat their wings behind her. The current carried them over the black treetops and down the far side. Below, the ground opened into a wide clearing. Luminara's light spilled across it, steady and strong. At the center of the clearing sat the heart. It was a deep red shape, cracked across its surface, scattered with blue sparks. It rose and fell with a slow, faint beat. Luminara pointed. "There," she said. "The sleeping heart. We passed the wall." Lumina landed near it. The heart's glow was dim, thinner than the blue sparks around it. Cracks ran deep through the red. She had reached it at last. But as she looked closer, she saw the beat slowing. The heart was fading faster than she had feared, and she still did not know how to wake it.