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The rest of the class cheered as Sophie and Trom stepped back into the Dimension Room, then practically assaulted them with questions. The entire class was speaking at once, and for once Sophie experienced what it was like to be the one being asked a million questions rather than being the one who asked them. There was no way to answer them all at once.
”Let Sophie and Trom get through! Questions will have to wait till we’re out of here and can help Nimum!” Mek said sternly.
The rest of the class did as they were told and stepped back, letting Sophie and Trom step forward. Trom lifted the chest up towards the ceiling and let it glide out of his hands. The chest floated up to the other objects, finding its place between the lantern and the energy container. The five objects started to move around, floating around in a circle under the ceiling. The rotation started to increase in speed, like a helicopter’s propeller spinning faster and faster, until it looked like the objects all melted together. Suddenly the spinning objects lit up into a blinding light so bright that Sophie had to look away.
When she looked back, the five objects had disappeared. But in the middle of where the circle had been hovered a flame. It was not much bigger than a campfire, but it shone like the sun itself. The flame wasn’t red, orange or yellow like a normal fire. Instead it burnt with all the colors of the rainbow and more. The colors all danced within the flames in a kind of idyllic harmony that Sophie had never seen before.
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The students all stared as the flame floated down towards the palm of Trom’s hand, before stopping about an inch before touching his skin.
“So this is the Northfire,” Trom muttered. “I can’t believe a tiny flame like this could transform the White Desert into a place like Utgard.”
Sophie leaned in closer, thinking back to what Loki had said the first time he saw the power source. “So that’s what he meant about its amazing colors.”
Sophie and Trom just watched the beautiful flame, not noticing that the rest of the students were all looking at them expectantly.
”What do you mean that’s Northfire!?” Elva exclaimed, when her patience couldn’t be stretched any longer.
”Oh right, I guess we should explain that part,” Trom said, scratching his nose.
So, Sophie and Trom started to explain what they’d discovered: That Loki was Skrymir and that Utgard was Northfire. Trom hit the point that Utgard was real and not some kind of fiction particularly hard, but Elva argued that she still hadn’t been wrong, since Utgard had been renamed and forgotten.
Above them, the floating symbols suddenly started to vibrate. They pulsed and writhed in the air, until all at once they dashed towards the books in massive streams, flying onto the pages. Beto hurried over to the first book and opened it eagerly.
”This text is written in the Dark Elf tongue! And this one is in the language of the dragons!” Beto leafed through book after book, concluding that there had to be enough books in the room to cover every language in the magical world. What was more interesting, though, was that the books were all about the same thing: The kingdom of Utgard and its king, Loki.
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”So this is where all the knowledge of Utgard and Loki was hidden,” Trom muttered.
At almost the same moment, Sophie felt something shift inside her brain. Of course! Utgard! Skrymir! She had heard all those names before, in stories she’d read long ago in the human world. The stories had been a bit different, sure, but they were definitely based on the same thing. It seemed that whatever power had locked away the memory of Utgard and Loki had affected her too – perhaps ever since the first time she’d stepped into the magical world!
Fiff flew around in circles, cheering to her heart’s content. “We’ve got the treasure! Now let’s go help Nimum!”
Mek shook her head. ”Not until we have a plan. Remember, that ice troll general and the Grox are still out there.”
The class all turned towards Sophie, who thought about it.
”We should figure out how to use the Northfire first, otherwise we’re not gonna be much help to Nimum.”
That sounded pretty reasonable to the rest of the class, and they gathered around the flame, intrigued.
”How’s a tiny flame like that gonna help us against the Order of Terram?” Varis said, disappointed.
“It was able to transform the White Desert into a lush forest. So if we can somehow use its power, we might be able to make plants appear, which would help Nimum a lot,” Elva explained.
”But how?” Mek asked. ”We don’t have much time, and who knows how Nimum is holding up out there?”
Sophie hesitated. She had no idea how the Northfire actually worked. She looked to Elva. She knew all about magic, so maybe she could do something?
”All that from this little flame?” Varis asked, reaching out a paw towards the fire. “It’s not even hot.”
The moment Varis touched the flame with his paw, his fur suddenly started to grow wildly. Varis pulled back his paw almost immediately, but not before his fur had grown ten times longer than its usual length. He looked like a poodle that had gone its whole life without a haircut. The rest of the class all stared at Varis in shock, then back to the flame.
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“Kinda glad it’s floating above my hand, now,” Trom said, with an air of relief.
Mek nodded. ”Right then. Now we just need to agree on a plan for what to do once we’re out there. Sophie, any suggestions?”
”We need to get the Northfire to Nimum. With her magic, I’m sure she’ll be able to use it.” Sophie looked over at Elva, who nodded in agreement. “But if we can’t get to her… we’ll need to get to one of the plants she’s conjured during the fight. If we can get one of those to grow, that should help Nimum too. We just need a way to get past the Grox.”
Sophie looked over in the direction of the Dimension Door. There hadn’t been that many Grox left last time the door opened, but just a single one of them had proved to be more than enough of a challenge for the class. So any more than two or three would put them in serious trouble. She looked around, searching for anything that could help her.
”Maybe we could use some of the furniture or the shelves to shield ourselves from the Grox,” she mused to herself.
”If we have to carry all that stuff, that’ll seriously slow us down in the snow,” Trom pointed out – though not in that same critical way he had been doing for the past week. Just like Sophie, he was thinking through all the possibilities, scratching his nose as he did it.
“Maybe we could grab some of the lighter stuff and just slide out on it? Kinda like snowboards?” Trom suggested.
“How are you going to slide anywhere when it’s completely flat out there?” Elva pointed out. “You’ll get maybe a couple of feet if you have a running start, and then you’re back to square one.”
Trom nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, you’re right. You’d need a big push or something. And none of the stuff in here is really quite right for it either…”
Trom and Sophie were both quiet for a few moments. Then a small, mischievous smile began to spread across Trom’s face.
“You know… Maybe it’s time for me to try out that whole ‘inventor’ thing we talked about…”
“Do you have an idea?”
“Yeah, I’ve got something. Hey, Elva, do you think you could make…?”
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