That reminded her of the trouble awaiting her, but when asked, Eriana said there had been no real developments. The police were obviously looking for her, but no one knew anything, though reports of her disappearance were all over the news despite it not being witnessed.
“Do you know how to create the Home Rings?” she asked. “I know Soliander did most of it, but the guys said you helped with the healing part of the Quest Rings.”
Eriana turned off the highway into the even heavier side-street traffic. “I’m afraid I don’t know enough, or have the power to make one. I just know what they’re supposed to do. I think if we can get the four of you settled somewhere and you don’t leave, you will be fine until we can create them. One thing I know is that you need soclarin ore.”
That didn’t surprise her. “That’s interesting. We gave some to Lorian when we were on Honyn.” She sighed. “If only we knew how to contact him.”
“There are ways to send messages. Matt can look into it and either do it from here or the next time you are on a quest. It would be easier if you’re already on Honyn, of course.”
Talk soon turned to how to use the amulet, but there wasn’t much to it. Anna would need to concentrate her will on it, and her emotions, opening herself to the touch of a god who might help her. The amulet would collect that energy and act as a kind of beacon to the gods of a world, whether she knew their names or anything about them or not. It facilitated an initial contact and all subsequent ones, but that was not all. The amulet helped channel power from that god under certain circumstances, mostly offensive ones, like when she had done things to the undead in Ortham.
For healing, the amulet didn’t do that, as Anna’s body was the conduit instead. It seemed to make sense to her, and Eriana suggested she try using it here on Earth to contact God for the first time. That seemed like a good idea, but she felt afraid of getting an answer. She still resisted the notion that He was real.
But she needed to get over it. And she wanted to. She had a friend to visit and see about healing because, inadvertently or not, Anna was responsible for what had happened to her. That was a conversation she badly wanted to have but was also afraid to do. And there was the issue of traveling there. There was too much risk to herself. Maybe she could send Eriana to heal Raven, but the real Light Bringer reminded her that even she was not strong enough to do it yet. Anna knew it to be true because Eriana would have healed her. Raven might have to wait.
The same went for Daniel. Ryan hadn’t brought up the subject of healing his brother for a while, a fact for which she was grateful. But Anna felt a new appreciation for his guilt in causing the paralysis, a new sympathy and compassion that had made her want to hug him more than once and apologize, not for anything specific, but in case she had ever seemed dismissive or frustrated with his requests to heal Daniel.
She had paralyzed Raven by accident, just like he had done to Daniel. Having been paralyzed, she knew the fear and uncertainty of it. Raven was likely still in that same spiritual place. Daniel was not, having been in a wheelchair most of his life. How would he react to the possibility of being able to walk again? In theory, he would be all for it, but after so much time, there had to be some adjustments he would go through. While she assumed this would be positive, maybe he would resist such a tremendous change to his life.
Jade had lost both legs, and Anna didn’t know if she would ever be strong enough with healing to fix damage like that. Even Eriana might not. That Jade would never dance again filled her with a different grief, because all of Jade’s ambitions and dreams were about that, and Anna had killed them, probably forever. And even if it wasn’t, Jade had no way of knowing that. Anna wasn’t sure she could ever face her and the unspeakable loss she had caused.
Worse than all of this was that Heather was dead. She had had little time to come to terms with it, other than those awful hours in the hospital. The strong desire to visit her grave—if she had even been buried yet, and she didn’t know—would have to wait. These Home Rings were everything and needed to become top priority. The random summoning was bad enough by itself, but having to be virtually imprisoned in Jack’s apartment, or somewhere else, so they would be safe when they returned caused too many problems.
Looking at the phone in her hand as Eriana neared Jack’s apartment, she wondered if she should call her parents. Would someone tap the phone? Would an email give away her location? What was happening with any lawsuits or other legal problems? She felt relieved as they parked. Jack hopefully knew these things. She badly needed an update and wasn’t even sure where they had left off with any plans to create a home base that wasn’t his apartment.
The champions soon reunited with Eriana and Jack being the only other two present. They dialed Ryan’s attorney and Daniel for an update and planning session. The first surprise was minor; Eric and Ryan had been on the
