Poppy shrinks to her sprite size and races over to the brook and gathers water in both of her hands. She quickly forms tiny water funnels in her palms. She races back to us, her wings fluttering rapidly. Like her mother, Jasmine, her wings resemble those of a silvery dragonfly’s wings. They sparkle under the attention of the brilliant sun and she grins broadly as she sends water to me and my sister for us to manipulate and direct. As soon as Poppy sends the water funnels our way, they still and become floating spheres of water.
My mother has never been good at manipulating water, but I’ve never had a problem with it. The three of us direct our water element over to the two males trying to kill one another and we allow the spheres of water to rain down on them while Poppy swirls the water around each of them forcing the two apart. As the water parts, the two males stumble backward from one another. Heaving huge gasping breaths. They glare at each other before turning to the three of us. Obviously, they’re pissed.
“Get over it! What are you guys? Twelve?” I shout, pacing back and forth in front of them demanding, “This?” I gesture wildly about, “is getting us absolutely nowhere.” Turning to my brother, I take a deep breath and implore, “Please, brother … trust me on this. Stop thinking with your pre-misconceptions. Look at Daxell. Really look at him. When you do, you’ll see what I see. You’ll see his soul. He can’t help that he’s half-demon, but his soul is untarnished, by that fact, I dare you to take a closer look, Lachlan!”
Dax, shakes his head and moves to put distance between us and I step closer. He gives me a hard penetrating glare before demanding, “What do you want from me, honey cheeks?” His question resonates around us.
“I want you to stop running from this. I want you to just take a chance on getting to know me and what we could be to one another. That, and I want you and my brother to work things out between you. When you do? You can join the rest of us inside. As it is, we have work to do.” I glare at my brother, daring him with a look to betray my confidence. I call over my shoulder, “Work it out!” Then I stalk back toward the house, my small female entourage flanking me.
As we enter the back door to the kitchen, my sister is the first to ask, “What’s going on, Lillie? Whatever it is, it must be serious, especially if it’s more important than watching Lachlan and Dax exchange blows to one another’s face? I was kind of enjoying the match.”
“The New Raven Order, that’s what. I’ve barely scratched the surface of what they’re up to,” I say over my shoulder. I refuse to look out the back window to see what Lachlan, Dax, and Samuel are doing.
Poppy flies down the hall toward the study, she stops just outside the door and asks, “I’m afraid to ask, but what’s the New Raven Order?”
“Honestly, you don’t want to know. From what I have gathered so far, it appears to be a type of cult that worships The Morrígan or Morríganna. It’s a new order, or maybe not so new here in this realm. It’s hell-bent on bringing Morríganna back from The Underworld. Mama and Da think that this order began to form right after the battle that triggered Morríganna’s fall from glory. ”
“You have got to be kidding me. Mama and Da fought a war to see that she did not succeed. Why would this order want to bring her back? I don’t understand. That would be disastrous for everyone.” Timbra mutters.
“It’s not for us to understand. None of us here could. We were never followers of that wicked witch. What we need to do is find them and put a stop to all their dastardly plans.” I give each of them a dire look before turning into the study. I walk over to the computer and switch it on from the desktop console. A virtual hologram hovers above the desk, I touch it with my index finger and direct it to hover to my left at eye level, I do this several more times until there are four virtual screens in the air in front of us. I tap on several files and begin pulling up what little information that I’ve found thus far. I’m able to manipulate the virtual touch screen in front of me until each screen has information displayed. Turning to look at my sister and best friend, I start, “There isn’t much here. Nothing concrete. I have not been able to figure out key search words that will pull up much on their cult. That and I’ve not been able to figure out how to access the darknet.”
Poppy steps forward and touches the screen to my right, bringing up an image of a raven, wings spread wide, head down almost in reverence. Behind the raven is an intricately designed triquetra inside a circle. She studies it for a moment and turns to me, “Is this their symbol?”
“I think that it may be. Every time I search the words new raven order, it always comes up, but there is never much else to go with it.” Sighing, I turn back to study the symbol.
Poppy’s face pinches in concern, “Lillie, if this is their symbol or logo, then they are not only worshipping The Morrígan but The Morrígna as well. They are worshipping the triple goddess, but how can that be?”
I reach over and tap a file bringing up a work of fiction that may not be so fictional. Pointing at the book titled, The Raven Rises from the Ash, I say, “Evidently, this book is linked to that symbol.
