Cilia
I open my eyes. I can't see anything. I feel around. I'm in a tall, narrow box. The only light comes from my two rings. If I could only use them as daggers now. . . I imagine them turning into blades. Sharp blades that can cut through this prison. I open my eyes to find that my rings are still rings. I try again. And again. I try to think of each time when the changes happened. The octopus lady, the crazy guy. . .
When I'm in a dangerous situation. When I need to protect myself. I close my eyes. 'I'm in a box, trapped here for who knows I might be in the middle of the sea. I need help.' I feel a thump, like the box is shaking. I open my eyes, and see. . . scuba diving gear. I mutter a curse and think again. 'I'm trapped inside a narrow wooden prison that's about to close around me. . .' A stick. Really? Again, I try, and try again. Thump. Thump. Thump. A potato peeler, a toothpick, and. . . axes. Not what I was going for, but even better. I swing down with all my might, and the box- what I realize was a closet- falls to the floor. About a second afterwards, the Queen of Death appears.
Pain. That's all I can think about. Whispers, telling me to give up. I scream. Something's trying to break into my mind. I try to block it, but it's too hard. I scream again. But there's something more than pain. A voice? A voice of a woman. Not Zarina's voice.
"My sweet Cilia. . . We will meet again. . ." Then the pain stops. I'm at the beginning again. Falling from the sky. . . I see Queen Heratha. I groan. When I regain my sight, I see fighting. Queen Heratha's fighting Max. Lady Dara and my dad are battling three women at the doorstep. Ayla's helping me get to my feet, moving me into the room in which Max's 'granny' went into. Blood splatters everywhere.
Ayla slams the door shut. "Cilia, oh my spiritual hells. . . What the heck were you doing in. . . Are you alright?" I nod, although I'm not. The world is spinning. My mom? Was the woman who spoke in the vision my mom? I puke all over the floor.
"It's alright, Cil. Cilia, get over here." "Z- Zarina," I gasp out. "Sh- She was here. . ." Ayla moves me onto a bed. "I know. Just calm down," Ayla says to me. "Control yourself. We don't want you to get taken over again, especially right now." I puke once more.
After about thirty minutes, the door opens. We both yank our heads towards the door. It's my dad. "They're gone. Disappeared with their mistress." Then he looks at me. "C'mon, kid. Let's get out of here."
They try to take me back, but I refuse. I tell them that I haven't had a single vision since I got here. I haven't lost control up here. I can see Ayla's freezing cold, because she's shivering. But when she says this, she's not shaking from the cold. She's shaking from fear. "Cilia, Zyrinx is the only place we can protect you. Queen Heratha can help you." I shake my head. "Please, Cil. This place is too dangerous. We need to go back."
The Ayla I knew is gone. The real Ayla would never suggest giving up. But here we are, and Ayla's afraid. And has every right to be. But I can't go back. I'll put everyone in even more danger, including myself.
My dad makes things easier for all of us by grabbing me and teleporting straight to Sophix in Zyrinx. I tell Queen Heratha everything that happened while I was on the Crust. She says that I should keep living my life as before, only with bodyguards at all times. Meanwhile, she and the rest of the major spirits will continue working on a cure for my. . . condition. They'll also go back to the Crust and try to figure out what those octupuse creatures were.
Many spirits, especially combat spirits, are asked to 'protect' me. But I know that they're just keeping an eye on me, and that they're protecting others from me. And although no one never asked her to, Ayla never leaves my side.
After about a week of this ridiculous routine, the major spirits have still made no progress. It's distracting to have the spirits around, especially when I'm in the middle of a test or something. When I tell this to the spirits, they say I can have a Sophixian with me during class times. Sophixians. The senior of all students who are studying to get advanced degrees. So now, instead of having million year old spirits breathing down my back, I have super-smart kids in their early twenties watching my every move.
But nothing abnormal happens within the week of having bodyguards with me at all times. That's the good news. The bad new is that there's still no progress going on at Crystalline, and it looks like I'm going to be stuck with guards for the rest of my life. Before I know it, two weeks have passed, and I'm nearing the end of my first semester of my sixth year in Sophix.
I always stay with Ayla during the breaks. Her mom and dad are alive. Almost all minor spirits' mortal parents live in Zyrinx. Although it's impossible for a human to travel within Earth's surfaces, when a human marries a spirit, the spirit's blood is transferred to the mortal, and allows him or her to step into Zyrinx. Ayla's dad, Arthur Yu, lives in a quiet little village that takes about two hours by bus to the noisy city of Sophix. Everybody is already on their buses, and cars, but Ayla and I are waiting. Apparently there was a huge accident downtown, and now he can't get here until the roads have been cleared.
So we sit inside the school, watching the news. The guy on the screen says it'll take about six hours to get the road cleared. Authorities aren't sure what caused this accident, and they're investigating right now.
A lot of kids' mortal parents live in the quiet village near one another. This means that we're not the only ones having to wait. The teachers offer the remaining kids the cool cafeteria to wait in. But Ayla and I wait outside near the woods, since we want to talk privately.
After about twenty minutes of this, we see two guys heading towards us. Liam Rivera and his older brother. I get up and walk away, not wanting to see either of them. Ayla stays where she is. Soon, Liam and Leo are here. Liam walks towards me, and I walk away. "Cilia?" He's calling me, but I ignore him. He's still in a leg cast because of me. "Cilia!"
I've reached the end of the school premises, and he hobbles towards me. "Look, Cilia, I just want to talk, okay?" When I don't say anything, he says, "I know this wasn't your fault, and I want you to stop avoiding me. I know you think you're going to go crazy again, or you think this is your fault, but it's not."
He talks, while leading me back to the place where Ayla is. When we arrive there, I see Ayla's laughing, with the psycho who tried to kill me. I cough, and they look up. Ayla's face turns red, as if she's embarrassed that she's talking to Leo. She should be.
I'm about to tell Ayla "Let's go", but then the ground rumbles. The earth splits open. We're tossed into the air, hurtling at a speed of 80 miles per hour. Screams coming from all sides. I pass out.
ZARINA
She was humiliated. Zarina, the Queen of Darkness, had run away from a challenge. Worse, she had escaped by herself. Although she did not think of herself as sympathetic, this did not mean that she enjoyed watching her greatest supporters get beaten up. After realizing what a foolish thing she had done, Zarina had whipped back into the apartment, grabbed the four immortals, and disappeared to the front of the cave.
Her followers had cleaned up the dark, gloomy place. Long ago, during her reign, this place had been the foot of a huge castle that reached the clouds. But then the spirits had come and blown this place up.
Her followers had fixed the ruins up a few years ago, shifting the rocks and debris to form a large cave.. The once dusty remnants of the war were now fully equipped with defensive shields and charms. The walls were lined with torches. One room led to a pool, in which the only other entrance was a hole in the bottom of the ocean. Others led to weapons, potions, and just plain rooms. Sputtering and gasping, Zarina fell to the ground.
"Aunt- Queen Zarina?" Zarina awoke to the voice of her only known family left in the world. Winter was an eighteen year old girl who was Zarina's distant niece or something. Winter was a minor spiritess, the daughter of the ancient Winter spiritess.
To Zarina, the girl was absolutely useless. She refused to kill, and couldn't even wield a light blade without hurting herself. Winter didn't know how to use her greatest weapon of all- the power of the cold season itself. The only thing she had a minor skill at was tracking and healing, both of which were pretty useless in battle.
Zarina groaned, and got up. She was at the entrance of the cave, with her niece, Winter, beside her. The three spiritesses and Maximus were rousing as well. All she could think about was how foolish she had been. Now the major spirits and the rest of the world knew for sure that she was back and well. She should have come earlier and grabbed Aaron's child the first chance she had gotten. Instead, she had chosen not to. Now, four powerful followers were hurt, and she was left with no plan.
Anger overwhelmed her, and she had to use all her might to keep it from exploding out on everyone. She quickly melted into the wall above her throne. After slamming the door shut, she turned around.
It looked like a normal office, with shelves of books, a table, and a chair. But it was also very different, for hidden amongst the shelves was a secret entrance. Zarina opened up the hidden door, and led herself into a tiny room with another door in it. She breathed out purple smoke, and blew it into the lock. The door clicked open. A very tall room appeared before her eyes.
The room was about seven stories tall, filled with potions and vials. These bottles held the essences of the many Zyrinxians she had killed and captured for the past century. At the center of the room was a crystal Eye, filled with what looked like white gas. Again, Zarina blew out purple smoke. The eye began to inhale the gas. "Show me Cilia Jewel." she whispered. The ball's white gas formed a picture of a girl. She was with Heratha and the rest of her weak puppets.
Zarina continued to observe the girl for one or two more days. She noticed that wherever the girl went, a spirit or an older minor spirit would follow. Zarina needed to find a way to reach that girl. But she could never do it while the girl was in that wretched school. Too many spirits and warriors. An attack to blast her out of there would be blocked by a spirit protecting her. What she needed was a situation in which the girl was mostly alone, surrounded by weaker beings.
A perfect chance came for Zarina in a few weeks. Through her magic eye, she could see Sophix's students going home. Zarina concentrated and locked her mind onto the grounds of the outskirts of Sophix. She made a huge eruption occur on the roads, causing panic amongst the many mortal drivers. Some of the students were asked to wait in the school.
Zarina saw Cilia Jewel walk out. Later, she regrouped with three others. Now was Zarina's chance. She slowly began to weave magic in and out of her fingers, lacing them with intricate spells and curses. She finally covered it in a shell, and blew it into the crystal Eye. Zarina saw the four minor spirits getting thrown off the earth, hurtling into the air. "Follow her," Zarina whispered. The eye followed her for hundreds of kilometers until the four began to descend at an increasing speed. Zarina snapped her fingers, and the children began to slow down. She did not want them dead. . . Yet.
She let the four minor spirits settle in the moist soil of the island. Then Zarina dismissed the eye, and looked out the large window in the room. Using a small telescope, she could see the island. The island that the minor spirits had crashed in was only a few kilometers away from her cave.