Chapter 27

One Week Later 

Three Weeks Until the Advanced Tournament 

I glared at the note as it sat on my bedside table, hating it--hating myself for ruining my one chance at reading it. It was clear my Mom had written it before leaving the house to help against the rogue attack. In my blind rage that day, I knocked over a number of half-full coffee cups, soaking the note I had completely overlooked. It sat on the floor of the house for nearly a month, as it had taken me over a month to gather enough courage--or desperation, to finally visit. 

I wanted to scream, at my Mom and at myself. She always had a habit of leaving half-full coffee cups around the house, making a new one before she finished the first. The dark ink on the thin sheet of paper had ran, and long ago dried into a sticky, fragile mess. I could only make out a handful of words on the paper, none of which made any sense. It was clear she left the note in case something had happened to her, bu