Kevin's POV
I woke up the next morning feeling totally normal and not at all in the way I did the first time Ciara ran out on me in the middle of a conversation. There was a lot I had to explain to her, but all in good time. I knew I couldn't let her reveal anything about Gary and that the only reason I told her that was because I knew there was no way she was going to tell someone else. It was a bad situation she was in, but it worked for me. Selfish in a way, but this was the only way I knew how to keep my friends out of trouble. Whatever reason Gary had for keeping his existence a secret from the rest of the artras along with his friend must have been a good one. On the other hand, there was Ryan. He had a lot of information I wanted from him and he was the only one I could get it from. I was supposed to meet him on Sunday for what he saw as a lesson to teach me more about what it is he thought was so important for me to know.
My dreams had become less frequent. My guess was that it was because we had not been anywhere in the estates which could trigger any memories from my past. These thoughts all ran through my head while I was on my way to school. "Kevin, you are no longer permitted to take your bike to school, do you hear me?" Mum's voice broke me out of my thoughts.
"Why is that?" I asked before the memories of the previous day came crashing back to me. I started breathing heavily from fear of what could have happened to my new bike. I had left it in the parking lot the previous day when I returned with Sonia.
"Don't get worked up. Kendall brought it home for you yesterday," mum said. I continued to stay quiet after that in embarrassment. We finally got to school and I was let out. I bid my parents farewell and turned to go to the school. I let out a long breath. This was getting tiring, but it was only the second week. ever since I got good at my time magic, it had become completely aware that each day of mine wasn't twenty four hours, but an excess of twenty seven or even more. On days when I didn't go to Armensia, my days stretched to a minimum of twenty six hours, but on days when I did go, I would not be appalled if they went all the way to thirty hours.
The sigh I let out now was one with a silent prayer and a hope that my day would go smoothly. Student bustled around in groups having bumped into each other on their way to school buildings. Everyone was moving about trying to make the most they could out of the twenty four hours of the day they get. Somewhere deep in my gut I could feel myself get even more uneasy causing magic to immediately leak out and form an area of awareness. Domain magic of a small magnitude had now become instinct. I looked to my right and saw a green hatchback parked by the curb. "Have a great day at school honey," a female voice came from the driver's seat. On closer inspection, the woman who then turned on the car had very familiar long jet black hair.
"I will, mum," another voice replied, this time one that I recognised as the one and only Sonia Everglade. She had arrived at the same time as I had. I waited for her as she waved her mother off and froze when our eyes finally met.
"I finally saw your parents," I said my face beaming, "or at least one of them."
She walked past me with a grumpy expression, "Wipe that goofy smile off your face."
"Oh come on, what's with the mood?" I began following.
"I thought people here greet with a nice 'good morning'," she said.
"Well, it depends on the situation. With your expression, I couldn't begin to guess your morning was good at all," I said.
"No, it wasn't," she replied, "let me be today." And with that she walked away from me and was gone before I could ask what was bothering her today. I got to my locker where the others were, except for Ciara. They seemed to be in deep conversation about something when I arrived.
"Good morning guys," I said before opening my locker to get the books I needed for my morning lessons.
"So, Kevin, according to what you said yesterday, does it mean you could be stopping time any moment in case there is an emergency in Armensia and we would all be going in the middle of a lesson?" Kendall asked.
"Yes, that is what I mean," I said before remembering something, "thank you for bringing my bike Kendall."
"No biggie, just be careful not to leave it next time," he said.
"I guess with my powers, I haven't had any need for it and ended up forgetting since home doesn't seem that far away anymore," I said.
"I understand," he replied.
"Where is Ciara?" I asked.
"She went on to class. She said she had things to do, some assignments to finish, I guess," Isaac explained.
"Yeah, I met Sonia on my way here. She seems to be in a bad mood today. I don't know why," I said just to let them know.
"Oh, really, where did she go?" Jacob asked seemingly in no rush at all, but we all knew better. I pointed him in the direction I saw her go and he was off before we could even ask what it was he was going to say to her when he found her.
"Never thought Jacob would ever show that much genuine concern for someone that wasn't Isaac," Kendall stated somewhat absentmindedly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Isaac asked.
"It means he cares and not in the same way he pretends to care about all the girls he makes moves on. This is different, I can tell," Kendall said.
"I was trying to tell myself otherwise, but I guess it's that obvious isn't it?" Isaac asked.
"Yes, it is. We all see it," I said and with that we changed direction and all headed to our respective classes. I was in the same first lesson with Kendall so I was going in the same direction he was headed. So far the day was going completely normally. I do wonder what could have been so depressing if it was able to sway Sonia's cheerful nature. 'I hope everything is okay.'
The first lesson went smoothly and soon enough it was time for the second lesson. As we all filed out of the class, magic poured into my mind making me slightly dizzy along with a message that I was sure was being broadcast by none other than Ciara herself. 'Kevin, stop time immediately, we have a situation in Armensia,' she said. I reacted almost instinctively, snapping my fingers with a low level magic spell instantly stopping one of the clocks in my head that counted time on earth. Since there weren't many powerful beings on earth, everything was easy to freeze with a light time spell unlike in Armensia where almost everyone there would break free of it. This spell however did not affect former artras since they could do magic enough to be safe from it.
'Everyone, get to the library,' Ciara's voice said again. Kendall instantly teleported out of the room leaving me in the room with the only other person who could move, Ciara. The rest of the students in the room were all frozen trying to get out of the room through the one door that was the exit. So in a way, I had trapped myself. I knew how to teleport, but the side effects were the ones that I found completely repulsive. I heard Ciara get up from her seat and realised she wasn't teleporting out of here yet. Instead she walked up to the teacher who was seated frozen at his desk.
"Why can't he move? Isn't he a former artra? Isn't his magic strong enough to counter your spell like your mother did?" she asked me.
"When he lost the Elder Dragon Ellimir, he also lost a substantial amount of magic that rendered almost useless. It doesn't mean he can't do magic, but it's too little to counter the spell I have just cast right now."
"That's terrifying," she said quietly.
"Yes, it is. I can't believe after all that he hasn't given up. He still offered to train me," I said.
"Let us not reveal any more just yet. I'm still absorbing the information you told me the last time we spoke, so please, for now, I don't want to know more about whatever sick game you are playing," she said.
"What do you mean sick game?" I asked.
"Earlier this week, the Purgers almost beat up Isaac, but thankfully he got away before they cornered him. Instead, they got their hands on some other small kid who they unleashed their sadistic wrath on. I still can't believe you joined them," she said.
All she told me at that moment didn't make sense at all. I could tell that this all did not happen and yet she still stood in front of me telling me this. "That doesn't make any sense," I said.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I can't remember anything you are saying to be true," I said.
She stayed quiet for a while before she extended her hand for me to take, "Come on, we can't have the others waiting for us," she said.
I knew I was going to regret taking her hand and as soon as I did, everything began to spin. Before I knew it, I had lost my sight, and was falling to the ground feeling like someone had just blended my brain. "I hate teleporting," I said as I sat up and rubbed my eyes in an effort to get my vision back.
"Are you okay?" Jacob asked.
"I will be, just a minute for my sight to return and the dizziness to simmer down. Although I cannot say the same for my nausea, that will take a bit," I complained.
"It's getting worse, isn't it?" Kendall asked.
I nodded. I wanted to call it warping sickness but refrained from making up such names. It was getting even harder for me to teleport over time. Soon enough I was up and ready to go. To prove it, I opened the portal to the Artarak lobby. "Guys, can I ask? You said something about special spots all over Armenville where the former artras used to hang out. Is the lookout post one of them?" I asked.
"Sort of, but it is also a place where Armensia and Armenville connect the most. One might say it's the closest location to Armensia in Armenville," Ciara explained before they all went through my portal. I wasn't looking forward to what was going to happen once we were on the other side of the portal, but hopefully this time, I won't be as clueless as the last time when we went there and I was dropped in the middle of a fight.
I approached the portal only to slip as an unseen force pulled me into it. 'This is new,' I thought as I only went through faster. This was definitely different. Normally when I entered my portal, I could see the end of it and could even go a different direction which led to Zaraias' cave. This was different. Instead of a swirling hallway of colours, I was in a whirlpool. Panic set in almost immediately, 'what is going on?'
Air, I need air. What was this? I couldn't breathe, I couldn't even tell which way was up. I was being tossed up and down by the strong current of the whirlpool, but that wasn't all. I was also going faster the longer I spun round and round and each time the speed increased the turning only got sharper like I was being sucked into the centre of the whirlpool. A sense of gravity came over me as I realised which way was down. The whirlpool was sucking me to the last place I wanted to go.
The spinning got so fast I no longer cared about how dizzy I was and once I was in the centre of the whirlpool, I was at my limit. My throat burnt from deprivation of air. My mind was void of any thoughts except that I desperately needed air. I was plummeting faster than I cared to know. 'Was this the work of the Dark mages? Were my friends also sucked into this madness?' At the point when I thought I was just about to lose my consciousness, air rushed into my lungs with such force it was like I was being forced to breathe which was quickly followed by a far from graceful collision with solid ground. I rolled onto my back just in time to witness a swirling portal closing.
I looked around when I finally got my dizziness under control. At first glance I didn't recognise what I was looking at. Odd pillars that went up dividing into branches continuously and till they were small enough they stopped. They were trees from the looks of it, but none of them had a single leaf on them, the smell that came from them told that they were long dead. The entire forest was dead. I took a look at the ground, but the soil was dark and showing no signs of being infertile. 'What could have caused this?' I thought.
A cold breeze blew past, chilling me to the bones. I looked only to be greeted by a cloudy sky with no rain clouds but no sign of the sun either. What part of Armensia was this? I almost asked. There was only one reason why I suspected otherwise. Tick tock tick tock... went yet another clock in my head. I had no idea that there would be a third clock now, but I had my suspicions. I was about to start walking when I heard the sound of hooves galloping in the distance. My first idea was to greet these travellers, but all hope of that vanished when I saw them. In the distance, horses charged for me at full speed, and so I went in the other direction of course.
They began yelling in a language I did not know. I looked back and saw that a few of them were now standing on their saddles. They wielded intricately designed spears that had long sharpened blades. If I didn't know any better, I would say someone had attached a sword to the end of a long stick. The men on the saddles jumped off in my direction at astonishing speed. I ducked and dodged them, but they weren't done. They both twisted in mid-air and brandished the back of the spear, both of them striking my shoulders as I tried to stop. The force they used instantly brought me to my knees. I tried summoning a portal, but I no matter how much magic I summoned form my void, nothing worked. I was surrounded, and from the looks of it, without my magic, I didn't stand a chance. Although my clocks were still functioning, this gave me the idea to stop time.
The idea vanished from my mind when pain radiated from the back of my head and I was immediately flung forward. I had let my guard down and one of the men on the horses had struck my head. Stars began filling my vision as I tasted blood at the back of my mouth. 'What the hell is going on here?' was my last thought before I passed out all the while I couldn't understand the language spoken by my captors.