Cilia
As soon as I hear Alvin talking about some sort of medicine that blocked his mind out, I know that my dad is right. Alvin's the spy. His medicine of some sort is the reason why Lady Dara couldn't locate a traitor, and that's why Alvin passed his trial decades ago. He's able to block out mind penetrations.
I make sure everyone, especially Alvin, is asleep until I go for Ayla. I rouse her, and tell her what I think- what I know about Alvin. She and I wake the others, and they agree what I'm saying makes sense. But we still don't have any proof. If we tried attacking him, he'd kill us. He may be weak compared to the other spirits, but to puny minor spirits? We'd be dead in a second.
We all decide the safest thing to do is quietly head back home, since there, we can look for more proof. We all get in the car as silently as possible, and start the engine up. Alex makes a soundproof bubble so that no sound will be heard by Alvin. We head off the clouds, and smack right into Alvin.
Apparently the Alvin sleeping back there was a magical holograph. The real Alvin grins and says in his creepy voice, "You know, being the spirits of healing and all, I can sense when something's wrong. Now, I can't let you go back alive, now can I?"
Then he undergoes a revolting transformation. His eyes increase into huge green ovals, his body into a large hard covering. Legs sprout out of his body. He has become a giant spider. Only he is a giant repulsive humanoid spider with poisonous fangs and wings. Great. We're on an old rusting car, hovering in midair, and he has wings? We are not getting favored by luck here.
"Alas," he says in his crazy voice, "I can only eat six of you. The Dark Queen has forbidden me from killing Cilia Jewel and her friend, but I suppose the rest may make a fine meal."
Alex smacks his sword onto Alvin's exoskeleton, but it doesn't even make a dent. But it must sting, because he yelps. "Let's start with you!" He lunges. The car swerves. Then I hear a voice. Like the one on the island.
"Cilia. . . Cilia Jewel. . . You must give in. . . Save your friends. . . I will win in the end. . . Give in. . ." I couldn't stand it anymore. I scream. The world is filled with a blue mist. I see six Sophixians. My brain immediately understands them as enemies. My golden rings flash. In their places are two long knives. I attack. A Sophixian senses this, and blocks. He does not attack. I will be able to use this as an advantage. I attack with tremendous fury, with skills that I never knew I had. I fight two of them at once. The girl, Ayla Yu, the daughter of the Mind, tries to penetrate into my thoughts, willing me to stop. I yell, and kick both Sophixians in the gut. With them on the floor of the car, I charge towards the girl. I throw Ayla Yu up into the air. Instead of hitting the clouds, she hovers there for a moment. Then I thrust my hand up into the air. A horrible scream echoes throughout the ruins of Crystalline. I let go of the force holding Ayla Yu up there, and escape Cilia Jewel's body.
I open my eyes. We're plummeting to the ground. Behind me, the Sophixians battle the monster. I can slowly make out the lines of Ayla's body falling towards the ground. "No!" I try to get up, but can't move. I'm stuck in a magical bubble. The impenetrable kind. These bubbles can only be opened from the outside. I pound on the walls, but I'm ignored. With a huge burst of speed, everyone's thrown to the floor. The car hood catches Ayla, who is out cold. Then it all makes sense. I was controlled. I'm in this bubble for the others' safety. I did this to Ayla.
I don't talk on the way back. We're headed to Sophix to bring news. The major spirits have disappeared. Whether they've been captured or whether they're just hiding remains a mystery.
AYLA
When I awake, we are in the car, about thirty minutes away from Sophix. Cilia sits on the floor, shaking. When I read her mind, I find out that she wanted to run away. That her presence might just endanger us more. I want to tell her that's not true at all. But I can't. She does put us in huge danger. But she's also my friend.
"Oh, good, you're awake." I turn around, and see Tal's girlfriend- whose name is Elia- looking at me. I read her mind, and her thoughts are saying something like 'Oh my freaking god you're okay although you just dropped from the sky to the ground and suffered Zarina's curse how are you awake I'm just going to pretend everything is okay as to not scare you'.
"We're going to be nearing Sophix soon. We'll get professional help at school or in the town. You should just rest now."
I do as she says, since my body is aching all over. My bones feel like jelly, and my head won't stop shaking. But the worst part is the voices. When Cil- when Zarina used that crazy spell on me, I heard terrible things. My worst nightmares, dark spirits from the ancient worlds. . .
We arrive. The students and teachers gather around us, but stop their smiling when they see our grim faces. When we touch the ground, I immediately collapse. People lift me up, and I hear Alex telling the others what happened.
Doctors are called from the town. The nurse at our school tells me it's nothing, but her horrible expression tells me otherwise. Also, when I read her mind, I can tell she's genuinely worried I might die. When the doctors arrive, they exchange worried glances. One of them comes up to me and says, "Miss, who is your parental guradian? From your human side?"
A lump forms in my mouth as I remember my father. I was so wrapped up in escaping from that island that I forgot all about him. Right before we had run into the Riveras, Cilia had told me about the accident that had occurred downtown.
"Ar-Arthur Yu." They whisper to one another. "What happened to him?" I ask. I desperately want them to reply that he's fine. But that would be impossible. Zarina would have targeted Cilia's guardian. Who is my dad.
"Miss Yu, you're dad was transported two days ago to Crystalline Hospital. He and many other human parents are in the emergency room right now. Arthur Yu broke an arm and twisted an ankle, but otherwise he is perfectly fine.
I should be happy it's not any worse. But it is. Crystalline Hospital. Crystalline. The city of Crystalline is covered in sleeping smoke. Or is it time stopping smoke? If it had been the sleeping kind, my dad would be dead by now. If it is the time stopping one, it means he's alright. I explain about this to the doctors. Their expressions turn from shock to a one of understanding.
"I know you're worried, Miss Yu, but I think there's a higher chance of it being time stopping smoke. When our office called them last week, the phone wouldn't ring. The signal couldn't get through at all. That means the time has stopped, right?"
I nod, but think to myself 'Yeah, or their phones could've just run out of battery or something.'
It's all I can do to stop crying, especially after they've announced what's wrong with me. Just as Elia thought, I've received Zarina's curse, an ancient dark curse used by Zarina during her reign. It basically sucks your will to live out of you, and gives the victim so much pain that he or she will want to die. The curse was created for use on spirits, and major spirits. And even they couldn't take it. I received a more timid curse, which caused me pain and suffering, but no loss of the will to live. However, it is equally harmful to me, since I'm a minor spirit. Now, the doctors are tested with having to prevent a minor spirit from dying from that curse.
But the doctors reassure me. "A hundred years ago, we would have given up all hope of you surviving, Miss Yu. But now, we have advanced technological healing methods that can help us save you. Unfortunately, the only known healing product is in Crystalline. If what you said is true, we can't get the supplies. All we can do now is wait, or put you in the city of Crystalline to stop the curse from spreading into your heart. You have one month left. It's your choice, but I highly recommend that you stay in Crystalline, so that the curse cannot spread throughout your body."
So he's asking me to step into a place where time doesn't exist, to prevent my body from getting poisoned any more.
No. Absolutely not. If Zarina succeeds in her plan to retake the world, then I'll be waking in Crystalline to find out that all my friends are dead, and everyone has become a slave of Zarina. If I have one month left, I'll spend it helping Zyrinx. So I refuse their offer. They try to convince me from doing so multiple times, but in the end, I win the argument.
The students and Sophixians are to gather in the main hall for an emergency meeting. Alex, one of the senior Sophixians, will be explaining things to the others, including the teachers. He talks in a strong voice.
"Zarina, the dark tyrant that once ruled these very lands, has now returned. She has frozen time in Crystalline, destroyed the home of the major spirits, recruited all sorts of creatures for her army, and is controlling two of our students: Leo Rivera and Cilia Jewel. The major spirits have disappeared. Whether they are safe or not, we cannot know. But we do know something: We cannot rely on them for help right now. The only thing we can do is seek help and allies from the other schools in Zyrinx. We must all work together if we are to stop Zarina."
He has convinced many people, for sure. But I'm not sure if any of them will step up to join a fight, especially one that will get them killed for sure.
Then Cilia steps up to talk. "Alex is not being entirely honest with you. He's talking as if things are all right. But they're not." A ripple of uneasiness passes through the main hall.
"Zarina has already taken Elytheia," Cilia says. People gasp. I however, am confused. Is what Cilia saying even true? And if so, how could she possibly know such a thing? Puzzled, I read her mind. I see visions. Zarina has not taken Elytheia by force. The king of Elytheia has made an alliance with her. He supports her decision, her rule.
This is extremely bad. Things are so much worse than we had thought. Elytheia is the largest country in Zyrinx When you take a map of Zyrinx and one of the Earth's Crust, the two maps will overlap perfectly. On these two maps, Elytheia takes up more than two thirds of the continent called Asia on the Crust. Elytheia also has the most developed army in the world.
Cilia continues talking. "This is only the first step in her giant plan. Elytheia is the country with the largest population in all of Zyrinx. With Zarina's weapons and their people, her army will become indestructible. She will take over one country after another, until she will end everything in our country of Crystalline." Silence spreads through the crowd as Cilia's words begin to sink in.
"And she won't stop there." Her voice rings through the halls. "She will target humans on the Crust. Minor spirits will become slaves. Then, when all this is completed, she will rise to her throne, and kill Queen Heratha."
After about thirty seconds of silence, Cilia speaks again, thing time her voice full of meaning. "We need all of Zyrinx to stop her, starting with Sophix." Then she slumps down back in her seat.
Elia gets up and says, "I will be the first one to join this cause." After this, the murmur of "I will join" spreads quickly over the audience. Soon, all of the students, even the younger ones, are saying, "I will join".
That night, leaders are chosen to take charge of a certain group of people. Among the leaders and Alex and Elia, along with eight other Sophixians. Then two main leaders are chosen out of the board of leaders- Lyra White and Alex Clark. Finally, there is the remaining decision of choosing two more leaders.
Cilia, who was watching the choosing of the leaders with me, suddenly gets up and says, "I vote on Ayla."
Me, a sixteen year old daughter of the Mind who is destined to die in a matter of weeks. I try to point this out to the others, but they won't hear a word of it. They say I've showed true responsibility, power, blah, blah, blah.
Now we have one leader left to choose. I hear everybody's minds thinking 'Cilia'. So I just say it for them. "I vote on Cilia as the last representative." Agreement ripples through the crowd. Even though she may be possessed, it was her words that brought the courage out in all of us. But she refuses. In a very stern, cold voice that is nothing like her own, she refuses. Then she speed-walks away.
I run out after her. I find her in the woods, crying. I've never seen Cilia cry before. She's always been the strong type. But my dad had said something once before: 'It's the strongest people who hurt inside the most.' I read Cilia's thoughts. She thinks she's a monster. She thinks she'll kill off everyone. She thinks she's a weapon of Zarina's. I sit down next to her. As much as I want to talk, I don't. We just sit there, side by side for about twenty minutes. Finally, I speak to her. "Cilia, you're a hero. You were willing to offer your life in exchange for our safety. And if you don't want to lead, that's fine. But I want you to." She smiles, and I lead her out of the woods.
The next day, I find out Cilia Jewel has agreed to be one of our leaders.
Cilia plans with the rest of us 'leaders'. We need to seek help from the other schools, that's for sure. And we need to take back Elytheia.
There are three major schools in the country of Crystalline. The first is our school, Sophix, which lies at the center of Crystalline, near the capital city. The second school is in the southern area of Crystalline, and is more like a training camp of warriors than a school. They are called the Mortisian warriors and the students are super powerful, super smart, and super lethal all-girl warriors who are equally skilled in both magic and physical combat. The last school, located in the far north, is called Dynatos. The Dynatos students are warriors who prefer physical combat to other stuff. They're known for being unpredictable and strong.
There is a vote among the leaders, and we decide that Alex and Lyra should be the ones to try and ally with the two schools. Alex will go to the Dynatos school with a couple other Sophixians. Lyra will take twenty girls down south, to the castle of the Mortisians.
The rest of the 1,700 students will stay here, and train. If anything happens, fifty other Sophixians will help defend Sophix.
That leaves Cilia and my group, who will be traveling to Elytheia. We're going to take ten Sophixians and whoever else joins the cause. We're somehow going to convince the king to give up his alliance with Zarina.