Before I could ever ask the midget who he meant by "them", he had already summoned beneath him a glowing circle with different squiggly shapes and unreadable texts- a magic circle. In the blink of an eye, he vanishes into thin air, leaving only fading glitters from where he stood earlier.
I can't seem to forget how his face slowly distorted into panic or fear or shock the moment he realized what occurred. An anxious feeling lurks in my stomach. Curiosity keeps tugging my guts, telling me to go there, to see for myself.
I looked around, judging from the few people that were here earlier, we were pretty much in the secluded part of the city, which meant that there's a possibility that the series of explosions happened in an open place, somewhere much more crowded.
"Young lady Calla, where are you going?!" Before I realized it, my feet had already moved on its own. A frantic maid follows me but I ignore her, despite that, she kept following.
As I kept rushing to the direction of the explosion, past the rose-filled tacky old buildings and houses, along panicking people running to the scene, caring less whether they'd run into each other or not, a thick fume of smoke comes into much more visibility as I keep nearing the site.
"Fire! There's fire everywhere!" A man screams hysterically pointing to the place where the disaster happened. Right, fire always comes after explosions, how did I not think of that? This is much more dangerous than I thought.
I continue to quicken my pace, so does the maid behind me. The smell of burning wood and metal fills my nose the more I come close. When I came out from a narrow space between two houses, chaos began to unfold. I stopped and saw a huge fire engulfing the very same structures and buildings that I looked at from Lady Elizabeth's mansion.
Cries of anguish fill the place. Some just stood frozen, hopeless. Others lie unconscious, possibly lifeless. I've never expected that I'd be able to witness something like this, not even during my past life. Yet despite the disarray and mess of the situation, there were people running in and out of the fire. A few feet beside my right, I see the same kind of people tending to the injured. Come to think of it, they were wearing the same flashy robe with gold designs as that of the midget's. Fellow wizards, I presume.
Across my field of vision, I see the midget carrying an injured man bigger than him on his back; he was just coming out from the fire. He heads to the place where rows of unconscious bodies had been laid.
"Cirse! What the hell is going on? Why is the fire not out yet?!" He asks the adult wizard who has been tending to the injured as soon as he put down the body he had just recovered.
"W-we have a problem, young master Lavi. We thought that since you were with us, we only had to bring C-level wizards. The process is slow and there are hardly any wizards here in the East to help us too-"
"Are you out of your minds?! Aren't you relying on me a bit too much?!" The midget ruffles his straight hair out of frustration. It looks like the other wizard had something else to say yet she hesitates.
"It's partly my fault for not being able to predict that they would do such a wild move." The young wizard sighs. Is he really thirteen?
"What? Spit it out." The midget orders when he noticed that the woman was getting restless. For a moment there, he looked much older than the other as he put both of his hands on his waist.
"Th-the residents... they're not healing, no matter what healing spell I use, nothing seems to work." This time, fear was printed on the adult wizard's face. "I've come to the conclusion that this is due to the lack of aether in the region. These people have only been barely clinging to life with what little aether they had left. They were bound to deteriorate in the first place!"
As if it was contagious, I start to feel frightened as well. The people...were dying? That includes Anette, the duke, the physician, the butler, Lady Elizabeth- everyone. That means the aether from the West didn't help at all. It was just enough to get by for ten years!
"How-" Before he was able to continue, another one approaches and calls out to them carrying an unconscious child.
"Young master, this is the last one. The child seems to be breathing yet it is only a matter of time before he dies." The man announces as he puts down the bloody child.
My chest tightens the moment I saw a pool of blood surround the pitiful child as I watch helplessly from the shadows cast by the setting sun. He will die because of me. Just because I am not capable of providing them their life force. I should do something. I refuse to be this useless.
"Do you want to help them?" A woman's voice echoes inside my mind, making me feel dizzy—my brain vibrating. I reach out to my head, hoping that putting pressure on it will ease the pain. Nonetheless, the voice was calm and subtle, divine and beautiful, in contrast to what it's making me feel.
"Young lady! What is the matter? Are you in pain?" Anette comes close to me the moment she realizes my wincing. I fail to answer her, only focusing on the voice that continued to speak.
"Do you desire to prove yourself useful?" The voice asks again. This time, both of my hands were on my head, by the time the pain has reached my ears my knees had given out. I knelt on the cold cement street, trembling and shaking. I seem to hear Anette's panicking screams yet I fail to comprehend, everything has turned into a blur.
"Answer me, child." The woman commands. I cannot take it anymore. If answering meant that the pain will go away then I will do so. If answering meant that I will be able to help these people then I will say,
"Yes!" I shouted, unable to withstand the aching of my head any longer.
"Raise your hands to the sky, my child."
I did not hesitate and did as she told me to and stood up. The pain in my head slowly subsides as I stretch my hands to the heavens unsure if it will truly help; this lady must be playing pranks on me.
"W-what are you doing, young lady?" Anette asks, bewildered.
"Yes, what exactly am I doing?" I ask her back as I turn to her. Yet she did not reply and only looked up above the sky. Her eyes grew wider and wider as each second passes by. What's with her?
In curiosity, I followed her gaze. I raised my head and also looked at the skies. There, I found glowing golden threads hovering towards me. To be much more exact, these golden threads gathered above my outstretched hands, entangling into a big ball of shining wavy threads. At that very moment, I realized what it was- perithia.
But how? The roses in this area were already burnt. These must have come from a further distance, places that weren't caught up in the fire. Was extracting perithia from far distances always possible?
As if used to this, my hands move on their own, spinning and weaving. The threads follow whatever direction my hands go yet never leave their place in the huge ball of light. I cannot believe it, I'm spinning perithia. After a moment, the glowing golden threads became one. Floating above my hands was a miniature version of the sun, yet just as bright, it was almost blinding. I release the ball of light — the aether into the air. Up, up, up, it goes and it stops above the center of the chaos. Like fireworks, it explodes and releases a very bright wave of light. I cover my eyes reflexively but I do not close them.
The light disappears, along with the fire. I look at the injured people. The blood on their bodies was gone. Was I able to help heal them? I look around and saw that everyone's eyes were glued on me. The lady who was screaming in sorrow earlier over her burning house now stares at me. The wizards who were frantically aiding the people just five minutes ago gave me looks of surprise and shock. The midget was just as wide-eyed and open-mouthed.
The scene was at a standstill and no movement was made, it was like the whole world was at a pause. Only the sound of burnt wood of the houses cracking and falling debris from the buildings were heard.
But does any of that matter now? My body feels heavy, my mind is blank and my vision is darkening. Ah, I'm about to pass out.
*thud*