personally, i <3 this! the description is omg so wonderful.

Omg, I was absolutely certain I was going to finish this and then I abandoned it for five months :(( I'm so sorry, and I have no idea if anyone's still interested. My inspiration just completely abandoned me :/ I've finally started up again, though - I'm planning to wrap it up fairly quickly. Again, so sorry!!

~\\/\/\//~

Part 12~Sonya (told from Sonya's POV)

Once or twice in the past, I've wondered if I was right in my choice of companions. But I know, deep down, that they're the right ones. I only hope they can stay on the right path, stay free of Ivkatorr's spells... --Idyrn

How did so much time pass so quickly? I wondered, sighing and straightening my shoulders. When we came to the Guardians' lands, when we met up back in Fernglade, it was summer. Now I suspected that it was more like fall, though the sunlight was still warm and it was hard to tell what had changed just because the land had changed so much. Coming out of the mountains, we had come to the Forest Lands - we were still on their fringes. I liked them in themselves, as I had liked most of the places we'd passed, but somehow they didn't seem like mine. There were tall, regal pines, and whispering white-clad birches, and other trees that I couldn't really identify.

Well, actually, I had loved the pines, the way the light came sifting ethereally through them, the way they stood proud no matter what came. They had also seemed protective, and though I'd never thought that I'd want something protective, what with Ivkatorr and all, I did.

Ivkatorr still hadn't caught up with us. Maybe he was struggling against the break in his followers,  but maybe he was making up some new plan.

~

We'd just left behind the cabin where one of Phaidon and Teryar's acquaintances lived. Honestly, those two boys seemed to know everyone. I suppose it was just one of the perks of being in Eviton's family.

I kept thinking about how that wonderful border-castle had been destroyed, and in a way it kept me going.

~

Ahead, the trees thinned out, and suddenly Lys and Daniel, who were ahead of the rest of us, stopped short. "Whoa," Daniel said.

"What is it?" Silver asked behind me.

"Yep, that's Irtan," Phaidon said.

I hurried the last few steps and came up next to Alyssa. Ahead of us was Irtan, and it was a land of gold. Fields of waist-high, golden, rustling grasses stretched out ahead of us, as far as the horizons, gleaming like spun sunshine. I touched a few blades that came up as far as the trees, and really, blades was the wrong word. They were soft and silky, warm with the sun or possibly with something else.

"Omg," Avi said. "This is incredible." She ventured a little way into it, her fingers brushing against flowers that glowed here and there.

The thing about Irtan was that it wasn't just beautiful. A drowsy peace seemed to cling to it, creeping into you and making you want to just dream and live and forget about the rest of the world. We followed Avi, wandering through the sea of bending grasses. It was afternoon; the sun was starting to touch the shifting horizon, flooding the fields with even more soft light. Looking at the companions, I saw that it made them seem to glow slightly too.

And after all, we'd been through so much. We'd faced so much danger, done so much hard work. Now I felt as if I just wanted to relax here forever, to let our journey never end, to not care if the way to wherever we were going was never found. It's hard to resist enchantment.

Rowan and Avi had drawn close together, and he was saying something to her; for once, all the old distrust that I'd noticed in her seemed to have disapeared. Lys was moving dreamily through the flowers, her dress stirring them slightly, and Robin and Sterling looked happy and somewhat alert. Alice looked absolutely, wonderfully content; her whole face was alight, her small frame erect. Even though she was two years older than me, I'd sometimes felt as if I should take care of her. That feeling was gone now, though; Irtan was taking care of us.

Ronald flopped down on his back in a patch of shorter grass; most of us followed his example. "I think this is the nicest place we've come to so far," Robin said, twining her fingers with Phaidon's.

A couple of the others murmured assent; most of us were quiet. I watched the infinitely blue sky above the grasses, only slightly tinted with sunset, and felt unutterable peace coming over me again. I had felt peace like this somewhere else - no, not peace quite like this... I knew I should let the thought drift away and be replaced by dreams, but for some reason I fought to keep it. Where had that been? A hallway soft with candles, a room brimming with laughter and excitement and people. Fernglade. Fernglade Inn, and the Guardians, and the border-castle. I pushed against something in my mind and sat up.

"Guys," I said.

No one bothered to answer; all I could hear was the swishing of the grasses. I looked around at everyone. "Guys!!"

"Mm?" Daniel said.

"Guys, I'm sorry, but stop this. We have to keep going."

My words fell, very clear and crystal-like, onto the woolly softness of the meadow. I heard them, like shards of ice, but just then I needed something cool and sharp. I sprang up.

Silver sat up too, her light blue eyes regarding me. "What?"

"We need to keep going. Companions, think of the Guardians! The Rose Magic! It's not like we can lie here forever."

The thick, drowsy peacefulness was gone, and the particular color of the field, which, for the past few minutes, had been looking too artificial, was gone too. A clean, sweet breeze riffled past us, and suddenly I felt as if I'd been loosed from a spell.

Everyone else was rising, looking around, looking relieved. "What the heck was all that about?" Ronald asked.

"I don't know." Teryar looked slightly shaken. "I think it was some sort of magic, but I've never known Irtan to be like that before."

"Maybe it was Ivkatorr," Sterling said softly.

"How could he have that sort of influence?" Avi demanded. "He might as well have burned the field."

"If that didn't work at the border-castle, it wouldn't have worked here," Alyssa said.

Robin turned to me. "Thanks so much, Sonya," she said, sounding sincere the way she always did.

"Yeah, that was really something," Ronald said with a smile.

I shook my head. "It's nothing." But their words warmed me the way few things did. They were so close to me now, and they meant so much to me. Maybe because, for the first itme in my life, I meant something - to them.

And for a second, I felt as if someone else was close to me too. A short, kind-looking girl, bouncy and full of life, who gave me the sort of feeling that pine trees did. "Thanks for being there, Kalisse," I whispered before following the others on through the fields that weren't spellbound any longer.

~

Yayy new part :D I'm happy you recovered and rewrote the memory of the previously lost draft of Part 12 and I love your descriptions of Irtan! 

And also, I'm still interested in reading this (Actually, I'm probably going to find time one of these days to reread all the previous parts, because I'm starting to forget character names, place names, ships, and whatnot), and in my opinion there's no need to apologize for taking a few months to post a new part :)

Aww, y'all are so sweet <333 Thank you so much, for your positive comments and for sticking with me :) @Scuttles, yeah, it worked out fine, since Spring Calamity submitted a side charrie. @Lyric, yes yayy I managed to rewrite it :D I've been having to reread some of the other parts too, lol...

~\\/\/\//~

Part 13~Robin

Once the spell had broken, Irtan was really quite beautiful - a transient, shimmering, unsteady world that felt as if it were nothing more than an in-between place linking two lands, two powers, two enchantments.

After all, Phaidon had said that the Land of Dawn was directly beyond this. He was walking beside her now, and she glanced up at him, noticing how the falling sunset light caught the hazel color of his eyes. The first time she'd seen him, she'd thought he was handsome, and she still thought he was the most good-looking boy she'd ever met, but now she loved so much else about him too. The way he smiled, the determination and courage he had, everything about him. She'd been so worried after the fire at the border-castle, and when Ronald convinced him to come back, she'd been too happy to quite trust herself. And now she was almost always near him, memorizing every detail about him - how was it so easy to memorize that? -, feeling herself falling more in love with him every day. It felt like a miracle. Now, he met her eyes and smiled, and she couldn't help smiling back.

But the episode with the spell had shaken her. How close to them was Ivkatorr now? What had been happening with him? They'd heard and seen nothing about him in the time they'd taken to get from the Heart-Lands to Irtan. And obviously he was still on their trail. Thank goodness they hadn't fallen under the spell...

The light was fading.

The glare of the setting sun dazzled her for a moment, then sank. She turned in a slow circle, scanning the expanse of grass. Nothing. But for some reason, that only made her more uneasy.

They camped that night in a place where the grasses were lower; it was lovely to gather around their fire again, tossing jokes through the flying sparks and feeling the cool night breeze tugging lightly at them. Crickets were chirping around them, unseen in the darkness but still beautiful. "How long will the food hold out?" Rowan asked, glancing at their provisions.

Teryar grinned cockily. "It's not going to finish," he said.

"Why not?"

"It's from the border-castle, remember? Which means that it'll last." They should also have remembered that I was with them, and was I going to risk the safety of my lands for the sake of some food?

Well, possibly.

"Do you ever get the feeling that -" Sterling hesitated. "That someone's watching us? Or with us in some other way? I don't mean Ivkatorr, it's more like - I'm not sure how to explain it."

"I feel like that sometimes," Daniel said. "I mean, I couldn't explain it either, but I do feel it."

Robin frowned. Sometimes she felt slightly like that, but only sometimes, vaguely, and she wasn't sure if it was the same feeling that the others had. She glanced questioningly at Avi and Alyssa, who both shook their heads.

"Anyone else?" Sterling asked.

Rowan, Sonya, and Ronald said they did, but the rest were silent. "Well, at least it's not just me," Sterling said with a quick laugh, shaking back her hair. "I was wondering if something was wrong."

I hope nothing is, Robin thought; not that anything was wrong with Sterling, but what about in general? They were so close to the end of their journey. It would be especially terrible if anything were to happen right now.

Phaidon reached for her hand, his own feeling familiarly comforting. She smiled involuntarily, her eyes still fixed on the flickering heart of the fire. They were all together, and that was what really mattered.

The next morning they were off again. Robin was jumpy, startling at the flight of a bird or a gust of wind. There were thin clouds today, though the yellow waves of grass still glowed lightly.

"We should get to Airen late today or possibly next morning," Phaidon said, quietly but his voice barely concealing a spark of excitement. Robin felt as if, though he was really addressing all of them, he was talking primarily to her.

"Have you ever been there before?" she asked.

Phaidon shook his head. "No. I'm not completely sure that you can even find it without magic, or at least without a reason for going there. You never went either, Teryar, did you?"

"Never. I don't even know anyone who has," Teryar confessed with his usual smile.

"So, complete adventure," Alyssa said brightly.

"How come that it takes so little time to get through Irtan?" Silver asked. "Is it, like, really small, or what?"

"I don't know," Teryar told her; was it Robin's imagination, or did his tone of voice change just slightly? "I don't think anyone knows just how large Irtan is."

"Well, we can find out, then," Silver said lightly.

Most of the day passed uneventfully, and finally, towards the end of it, Robin was wandering along in the middle of everyone else when the grassland seemed to tremble slightly. She stopped and looked around; everything looked suddenly unreal and as if it were underwater, though still glowing gold. Before she could do anything, it all melted softly away, and she was standing, shaken and dizzy, on a swath of short green grass.

At least the others were still with her, looking no less surprised than she was. She glanced at her surroundings, catching a glimpse of flowering trees ahead of them and, behind them - of all things - a ripple of gold. Irtan was just on the horizon, but looking at it, Robin felt like it was worlds away.

"Whoa," Daniel said. "I wasn't expecting anything so... sudden."

"Are we all still here?" Avi asked. "If we aren't, I think I'm going after Ivkatorr personally."

They were all there.

"But what happened?" Alice asked. "It was like... the crown that saved the moon or something."

By now, everyone was used to Alice's riddles. "I don't know," Robin admitted. "Is this another spell?"

"A spell, probably, but not a bad one," Phaidon said. "I'd almost think this is..."

"...Airen?" Robin guessed in a low voice. "Well, I mean -" She gathered her determination and outspokenness. "Why not?"

"It seems like a land of dawn, doesn't it?" Alyssa added. Everyone really looked around for the first time, and she was right. The air had a soft, rosy glow, like dawn light, and here and there were trees covered in drifts of white blossoms. It wasn't autumn here, Robin thought, it was spring - and didn't it feel like spring and dawn should be linked? An elusive feeling of hope and radiance was present, and though Robin had grown to distrust feelings of anything, she couldn't distrust this. It wasn't a spell. It was Airen.

"This is incredible," Sterling said. "We've gotten this far, anyhow."

"I feel like the end of our journey isn't that far off," Daniel added. "What were we supposed to do once we'd gotten here?"

"Follow the Rose Path," Avi remembered. "It would take us to the Rose Magic; we have the sword the dwarves gave us, so if we can just find the magic, we should be all right."

"Though, where's the Path?" Rowan asked.

There didn't seem to be anything like a path around them. Daniel was right; Robin felt the end of their journey drawing closer. What that end was, she had no idea. Well, if there's no path, all we can do is follow our hearts. "The Mountain People said the bird was gone," she reminded them. "Maybe the Path's gone too."

They wandered along, their conversation fading. It must have been about the end of the day, but it wasn't really dark, though a sunset feel was stealing through Airen's enchanted places.

Something made Robin turn, and just in time, she noticed a tall figure wrapped in a dark cloak coming down towards them from a hill.

The moments after that were confused and jumbled together. More people. Teryar and Phaidon drawing their swords. And suddenly, a clear, sweet sound that echoed over them, and a feeling of liberation and purity like swallows spinning upwards against an infinite blue sky. Robin felt a kinship with the ground she was standing on, and without even thinking about it, she made a quick gesture with her hands. The earth below her shook warningly. She didn't have time to think clearly about it, but she knew that she - she and someone else, a quick, warm, laughing young man whom she could sense close to her or almost within her - had created it.

The other companions were standing with her; encircled by a protective ring of fire and water twining together, strong, pure light breaking over them but semi-night beyond, wind pulsing against them, pine trees growing, hope and love and promises sustaining them.

They were linked to the Guardians. And they shared the Guardians' side powers.

~

Yesss! I'm glad to see the charie I posted for the week I was Spring Calamity doing well. Awesome job!

I have to admit I did forget about this but I've read it all! Kudos to you Amethyst! This is beautifully written and very fun to read! 

Tysm, everyone! I'm so glad you've been liking it :D And whoa, this is actually the last part... it's amazing that I've actually finished this solo write. Originally I planned to write a part for every Guardian as well as one for every companion, but the action ended up being centered on the companions, so unfortunately a lot of the Guardians don't have parts. I'm sort of sad to see this end - it's been so much fun to write :)

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~Part 14~

"That was really something," Sonya said softly.

Ivkatorr had fled, and the effects of their powers had cleared. Now they were still standing together, figuring out what had happened.

"We are each linked to a Guardian, right?" Robin said.

"Yes," Irtana whispered miles away, watching with the other Guardians through her vision magic.

They had managed to sort it out. Daniel was linked to Ji, Alyssa to Luna, Sonya to Kalisse, Rowan to Irtana, Alice to Ros, Sterling to Sol, Avi to Wylie, and so on; and they each had the corresponding powers. "We really should have guessed sooner, since there are ten Guardians and ten of us," Alyssa said. "Honestly, it's wonderful - I can almost see Luna."

Luna laughed in Riltava's palace, an unexpected sound, and a beautiful one. "I can see you though, Lys," she said softly, bending towards the vision.

"But guys, this isn't over yet," Silver said forcefully. Her voice was different, suddenly, less harsh, and her eyes were full of radiance. "This doesn't mean the spell's broken. We still have to find the Rose Magic."

"I was hoping someone would remember that," Sol said, also with a flash of laughter.

"But do we?" Daniel asked. "If we've got the powers."

Teryar shook his head. "I think those are just the side powers," he explained. "Not the actual elements."

"I think we got this link to the Guardians the moment we entered Airen," Rowan said. "But the Rose Magic is still important."

"If we can find it," Avi said softly, her heartbeat speeding up. What if the Rose Magic had disappeared? But that thought only lingered for one moment before it was gone.

Wordlessly, they all seemed to have reached Robin's conclusion - that they could only follow thier hearts. They set off together across the glimmering land, their hands joined, Alyssa's head on Daniel's shoulder and Teryar bending his head close to Silver's. The companions, together.

Long, long ago, ten young people had found themselves in a magical land that they had to save. Surely, before then, they'd all dreamed of something like that happening. They'd met each other, they'd given all they could to their cause, and they'd plunged into danger and friendship and magic. They'd come so far. They'd changed so much - changed the things around them and changed within themselves. They'd fallen in love, some of them romantically, all of them platonically. They'd grown strong and wise, and now at last they were drawing close to the Guardians and the end of their journey. They must have known deep inside, as they wandered across the shimmering allure of Airen, that Ivkatorr was almost completely defeated.

He must have known it too.

And the Guardians, breathless, expectant, felt it as strongly as the others.

Finally, the companions paused. There was a small rise in the ground ahead of them, and, Sterling saw, a door of sweet-smelling wood inlaid with gold was set into it. "This is it, then," Alice said, a bit breathlessly.

"Finally," Daniel replied.

"Yes, finally," Ji echoed with a smile.

Finally.

Avi had the sword from the Mountain people, and she pulled it out and touched the door with it. The door crumbled, revealing a softly lit, glowing passage. The companions entered it silently, still holding hands.

It opened out into a room built as a semi-circle with the straight wall missing; where it should have been, there was a soaring landscape of hills and trees and, far in the distance, a few purple mountains. It wasn't sunset here, but dawn, because after all it was the very center of Airen. And I was there, to finally meet the companions.

"Idyrn!" Alyssa cried. Of course she would have known it was me. Sometimes I think I'm a lot like her; I'm impulsive too sometimes, and I like to think I'm bright, and I have greenish eyes and brown hair as she does.

"Yes, it's me," I told them. "Dear companions, welcome. You've found the Rose Magic." I glanced with a sigh at a shriveled, withered plant in the center of the space, and gestured to it. "Once that was the source of the Rose Magic. Once it flowered, and kept hope and life alight in the world. But when Ivkatorr cast the spell that separated the Guardians, it dried up and its magic disappeared. But, companions, deep down it's still alive, and now that you're here, it can blossom again. If you give it water, it'll come back."

There was a small sunken pool nearby, brimming with clear water. I love that pool myself. All ten companions went over to it and scooped up some water from it in their hands, and flung it onto the rose. For a second I saw the droplets, glittering suspended in midair; then a blaze of light blinded all of us for a moment, and when it had diminished, the companions and the border-castle boys saw that Airen had vanished. They were in a large courtyard, and it was twilight again, and ten other people were there - people they knew.

"Companions!" Sol exclaimed. "You've done it at last."

"Elements, I'm so happy -" Lilly said. Everything else was lost in a jumble of exclamations and explanations and joy. They were in Kalisse's palace, the Rose Magic was awake, and the spell was broken.

~

"But - companions," Riltava said at last, stopping the chatter, "what are you going to do? We could probably get you back to your own world, but I'm afraid I don't really want to see you go."

"I don't want to go either, to be truthful," Avi said, smiling at Wylie; the two seemed to understand each other without any words.

"You could go back and forth between the two worlds," Ros suggested (trust him to come up with the solution).

"We can do that?" Sterling asked, her eyes shining.

"Yes, you can do that." Kalisse was radiant with happiness, reunited with her pines and with Sonya, home again for the first time in years. "They're both your worlds now."

And so the evil in those lands was defeated. But I, lingering by the Rose Magic (the plant had turned green again and blossomed), knew that someday the petals would fall and the story would begin again.

~

And that's The End... I'll post an epilogue and some extra stuff in a few days, though! I hope you enjoyed >:]