AYLA
All of us except me turn our heads around. I don't need to look for the source of the sound. As the daughter of the Mind, I can hear its thoughts: 'Kill. . . meat. . . blood. . .'
Another screech. The Fulcans are attacking us.
"Get us out of here, Alex!" I yell. He does so immediately. "Fulcans," I tell everyone. "Only three of them. But that's more than we can handle at this point." The Sophixians begin to arm themselves with incredible speed. Alex yells out, "Right, who out of you three," Alex says, pointing to Cilia, Liam, and me, the only non-Sophixians in this car, "Can drive this thing?"
I know I should be the one to drive. First, out of Cilia, Liam, and me, I'm the only one who's ever driven a car before. But since that was for only a few minutes of my entire life, I doubt it counts. Still, Liam's obviously in no condition to drive. He can't reach the pedals with his broken leg. Out of Cilia and me, we both secretly know that she has better aiming skills. That's the skill we need to count on most. Long distance shooting. Besides, she'd go berserk if she were asked to drive a car so high up in the air. So I get behind the wheel.
I drive fast enough so that we hopefully won't meet the Fulcans, but not too fast that the Sophixians will get knocked out of the car. I also keep the car high enough that the car doesn't touch the tainted clouds.
The first attack comes from the right. I'm about to warn the others when Alex throws a knife into the clouds. A screech is heard. I read the creature's mind. It's wounded, but not too hurt. It's still moving.
Then we see them. All three of the hideous bird ladies, flying in perfect formation.
I step on the pedal, and we're yanked back by the speed of the car. But the Fulcans dive and turn so sharply that they're even closer now than before. One of the Sophixians lets a flaming arrow fly. I see through the window mirrors that the Fulcan dodged. It didn't get even a small graze. Another Sophixian gets a bombing arrow out, but his comrades stops him. It's too big of a risk. He might end up blowing up the city underneath us.
What we need is a formulated plan. But in this situation, that may be a little hard to muster. The Fulcans dive into the clouds. They're nowhere to be seen. Why did they just retreat? Unless. . .
The car is attacked from the bottom. A Fulcan jumps in front of my window, and breaks the glass. I scream. My face gets scraped by the shards of glass. While both me and the Fulcan are distracted, Alex shoots a gun, and the bullet finds its mark on the Fulcan's head.
The car keeps thumping from below. One of the Sophixians yells to me, "Get the car higher up!" I do as he says, for I hear his thoughts saying, 'I need to get below and get the Fulcan out of the engines.' Once we're up enough, he jumps off. I don't know how he's not going to die at this point.
But he surprises me. He flies- flies with such graceful ease down to the deck. This is no ordinary magic. That guy was born that way. He's a son of one of the spirits of the Wind. Or the Air? At any rate, the Fulcan in the engine is thrown off.
That's two down and one left to go. But where is it? It's gone. The guy who can fly is back on the car again. Just as I think the last Fulcan has retreated, I hear a scream.
Cilia- her eyes are flashing from blue to gray. I'm able to make out the thin outlines of the Fulcan's body, fighting its way into her mind. It's trying to control her. The Sophixians hack away at the Fulcan, but it's no use. They're chopping down air.
The six of them lower their weapons, and begin to chant. It's nothing like the magic we learn at school. It's advanced magic, for senior students. But somehow, I recognize it. Ancient magic. Magic of the ancient spirits. The spirits that existed before the current spirits replaced them.
Slowly, the Fulcan's body is yanked away from Cilia. Then it enters the flying dude's body. His body twitches. A girl next to him, his girlfriend, I think, chokes out, "Tal!" Tal's body begins to change. His finger grow into claws, his teeth into fangs.
I know what is happening before anyone else does. The Fulcan is worming its way into his mind, trying to control him. I can almost see the Fulcan controlling his every move. Tal is forced to attack us.
The Sophixians just defend themselves. But I can see it's getting harder for them to do that. They all know what the cost of being a Sophixian is. But they've never had an up-close experience. Alex, the bravest of them all, attacks. Tal topples over the car.
The Fulcan's soul tries to leave him, but Tal is clinging onto the soul, refusing to let it escape. He has entered the clouds. He can't save himself now.
Alex takes out a remote controller. He pushes a red button. "There," he says. "He's got himself a parachute now. We can only hope that he stays intact until we get back here with the major spirits."
The rest of the trip is uneventful, and goes by slowly with no conversation. I keep driving, since I'm not bad at it, and Alex needs to rest. Besides, he's probably our best chance at defending ourselves, and he's not going to be able to do that if he's behind the wheel. One of the Sophixians fixes up the window, so at least I can see well. We arrive at Crystalline- or what used to be it, anyway.
Cilia's vision was right. The entire castle has been blown to ashes. What used to be a floating castle is now a heap of waste. There's no sign of any life in sight. I land the car on the clouds. Amazingly, the car doesn't plummet to the ground. The clouds are enchanted. Not the tainted clouds like before, though. These clouds were enchanted for a good purpose. I tentatively step off the car. I'm alive. Seeing this, the rest get off the car. Cilia still looks a little hesitant, but gets out anyway.
We all stare at the smoldering remains of the castle. Then we hear a cough. It's coming from the ashes. I can't see anything, but I know it's a person. I don't run towards the noise, and nobody else does, either.
I try to read the coughing person's mind, but can't pick up anything. Alex slowly steps towards the source of the noise. Then he breathes a sigh of relief. "It's okay, it's the healing dude."
Alvin, the spirit of healing, steps out of the ashes, hacking into a tissue. Well, he doesn't step out, exactly. He can't move. He's been petrified somehow. Alex has to roll him out of the ruins. Alvin's trying to make some sound to communicate. "The Dark Queen. Mmpf. Bombed."
He gives up after that. It's obviously taking him a lot of effort to make a single sound. Tal's girlfriend from before steps up to Alvin. She touches him, then quickly takes her hand away. "That's Apolithis. It should wear off in a couple more hours."
Apolithis is one of the ancient magical herbs from ancient times. They were used for healing, but why ancient people used petrifying herbs for healing is a mystery. Anyways, the Sophixian girl is right about the fact that it's going to wear out soon. But until then, we'll have to wait.
Once the sun sets, Alvin regains control of his body. We gather around a makeshift campfire, and he quickly summarizes how the Fulcans attacked. Apparently the other spirits were blown away by huge gusts of wind. None were hurt, but he doesn't know if they're alright. Alvin was able to secure himself to the clouds using Apolithis. Then he goes on about how incredible brave and smart he was in that situation.
I see Tal's girlfriend and Alex roll their eyes. Although Alvin's a spirit, and an important one, nobody takes him seriously. When the current spirits replaced the ancient spirits, they were supposed to be more developed rulers, with more powers and generosity. Alvin, though, wasn't better than the former healing spirit. He was weaker than the other spirits, and was one of the first spirits to give in to Zarina during her reign. All the spirits laugh behind his back, except for Cilia's dad. He's convinced Alvin is one of Zarina's followers.
I try and read the spirit's mind, but I can't penetrate through whatever barrier he's using. In the end, I'm so curious that I ask him, "Why can't I read your mind?" He smiles, and speaks in what's supposed to be a happy but is actually and very creepy voice, "Well, daughter of the Mind, I have some healing products that I've been using ever since the Dark Queen's downfall decades ago. It helps me block out all the bad memories, allowing me to ease my mind. It's hard for even your mother to penetrate through it, so I doubt you'd succeed."
I frown, but continue studying the flames of the fire. We go to sleep. A few hours later, I'm awakened by Cilia saying that Alvin is a traitor.