By the end of the week I no longer cared if my magic returned or not. The Sun occupied my every waking thought. When I shivered in the cold I wished I had its warmth. When I felt tired and weak I wished I had its power, burning inside me. Instead, I felt empty. Something so important was missing. At the breakfast table every morning, Luna rattled on about all the tasks she was doing for the day, and I tried to feign attention, but honestly, who cared? I just wanted to stop feeling awful all the time. At least Luna was taking over most of my duties each day. I knew I didn’t have the strength to take them on.
“Princess, are you alright?” Raven asked, concerned, as we went to do one of the few activities that were still on my schedule.
“I’m fine,” I said.
She shook her head sadly. “Well, here are a few decrees you have to sign. Bring them back to me tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I said weakly. Once upon a time I would quickly sign them and we would quickly move on to the next task, but we both knew that, being noon now, I could barely stand up. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Raven,” I told her.
I napped with Philomena near my fireplace for most of the rest of the day, and then I sat down to sign the decrees. To my immense frustration, the quill would not hold still in my horn. Much as I tried to maneuver it, it would not cooperate, shaking erratically in my magic. This was an unpleasant new development. I had been trying to avoid magic in general and levitation specifically because of the risks it posed, but I had still been able to lift small things without a problem. Now I couldn’t even do that. After trying in vain to control the quill and spilling ink everywhere, I finally grasped it in my wing and signed that way, albeit extremely messily.
I found this experience quite distressing and decided to go to bed early.