#Clara Aether#
I hear water dripping, it goes pit, pat, endlessly looping. I try to move but my head erupts into a mountain of pain as if resisting. I clench my hands and they respond with reluctance. I have mana exhaustion, but how? Think Clara, think! The last thing I remember, I was with Isla, when we were taken away by some wind. Right.
It flew us to a cave far away from the academy. I already had a feeling that it wasn't right. That man who we last saw, he had to be the culprit.
I get up but not long after, chains pull my body back as if they were tugging me. The chains were magical, phased through a wall. It knew I wanted to escape. This type of magic had to be a trap type and by the strength of it, it must only act at a small location, be it this cell or maybe multiple. But how would I even get out? I had on mana, no help and most of all I was exhausted.
"Hello?" Isla's familiar voice rings throughout the echoing corridor. She must've heard me move before.
"It's me, Clara," my voice surprisingly croaky, "do you have a way out?"
"No, my mana's nearly gone. How about you?"
"Mine too."
Then I heard a loud echo followed by the sound of a whip and most gruesomely, grunting and pain. We must be very deep underground.
"There's a guy getting tortured for a few hours."
"There's no way the academy has facilities for imprisonment, where even are we?" I ask in confusion and getting another cry of pain from the victim.
"Stop, I'll talk! Let him go…" the victim speaks and I recognize that annoying voice. The guy at the library, he was the one who was being tortured.
How do I get out? I need mana. Where do I get mana? My surroundings, which have none in it. That's when I realized, I've been limiting myself to this cell. If I expand further, I could reach through the cell floors and pull mana from there. Although most of the mana is earth attributed, it'll eventually be enough to use a spell. Think Clara. Back to magic class!
I closed my eyes, forcing my thoughts to subside. If I wanted to get out, I needed to concentrate as much as I could.
I touched the small gap in the floor bricks. I'll draw out mana through there. It wasn't easy, I spent one-minute absorbing only a tiny particle. This is testing my patience. Isla, a mage, should be able to do this faster.
"Pull it from underneath?" Isla remarks, "It'll take a long time, and if the guards notice, they can just sap us again."
"How long would you take?"
"Around five minutes." Five minutes, that's fast.
"I can buy you time, get enough for a spell to break these bars," I whispered as I started getting up.
I then shouted some inexplicable words, none of which shall be mentioned.
Not long after getting cursed, two guards came with an unhappy look on their faces. They weren't guards, they're just mercenaries I thought as I inspected their faces. Like drunk blokes who just got insulted, they drew their anger on me, their target.
Great, I've got their attention-
A fast, mana bullet flew from the mercenary's finger, barely grazing my cheek before hitting the floor, making a big dent in the brick floor.
"Yeah, that's right keep talking would ya?" They were toying with me. They could kill me anytime if they wanted to.
"Stop messing around and help me bring these bodies." A third mercenary appears with a body on his back. Those glasses, I thought as I peered closer.
"Wallace?" I said to myself in disbelief. If he was here, then..
Marcus. Where's Marcus?
Then I saw Marcus' limp body being carried and something ticked inside of me. They threw him into the adjacent cell next to me.
"It seems you know these kids," the mercenary said in a grueling voice as deep as the ocean. I looked back at him in defiance. It'd hurt my pride to let them think they've controlled us. He shoots another and I move my head just in time before it hits me, "Know yer place," and he leaves us in silence.
Neither Wallace nor Marcus said a word, I assumed they'd be unconscious.
"I'm nearly done," Isla whispers, "we have to act fast."
"Wallace and Marcus are here," I whisper back, "we can't just leave them."
"Wallace is here?" Isla's voice gets louder.
"Tone it down, would you?" I said as Isla's voice continued to echo even after several seconds.
"Give me two more minutes…"
I shift over and tap the wall to wake Marcus up. I tap, tap and keep tapping until I hear the sound of shuffling. No way he's sleeping. But one becomes many and by the time a minute had passed, he responded with a mumble.
"Marcus," I spoke with a hushed tone, "if you can hear me, say something."
One second.
Two seconds.
"Clara?" He says, "Where am I? Why am I here? Where's Wallace."
"Shhhh, we need to stay quiet. We're captured right now." As if reacting to my sentence, Marcus tries and moves around and later gets pulled towards the wall.
"That's some weird magic."
"Isla's working on it, we need to be fast though. Wallace is still in the room next to you."
"I'm ready," Isla declares, "I'm cutting this." I see sparks fly from Isla's cell. She comes through unharmed and starts cutting the metal with her fire magic. After running as fast as I could from the chain's range, I saw Marcus and Wallace also chained up, though Marcus unharmed and Wallace quite the opposite.
"Might I ask what happened?"
Marcus merely shrugs as if he had no recollection before coming here. We help him and Wallace, who was sleeping, out.
"I'll carry him."
"Now what?"
"We bust out of here," Isla surprisingly takes initiative, "come here, I remember."
"Didn't they knock you out," I said as we traverse up the winding staircase.
"No, I acted unconscious," Isla says and conjures fire as the torches at the side of the staircase became more and more scarce, "I left a scent of air and let it catch underneath the steps, we'll have to follow this trail to get out from where we came in."
Marcus who seemed out of it, started lagging behind us.
"Marcus are you okay?" I ask as he puts his hand to his forehead.
"I can keep going,"
Isla stops and looks back, "we have to hurry, let's go." Marcus starts walking again. Somehow, he looked like someone who just crossed a desert bare foot with no staple. We kept walking upwards until the we could no longer see the torchlights below us. Isla's magic runs out temporarily so I cast some light above us, though it wouldn't last long. I was also getting tired. Having to carry a person up a staircase is taxing. My back started aching and my feet lost its touch. But whatever happens, we must make it out
"We're nearly there," Isla announces, giving us a rush of hope.
We reach the top of the staircase and look down. The dot of light at the bottom, a few acres deep, was where we came from. We were in a room with plain walls and a door, devoid of any living presence. No furniture, no décor. What place are we in?
We all lay down and rest, "How close are we?" I ask out of curiosity.
"Close," she responds, "there's more mana here, it'd be easier to cast spells now. Out this door to our left is where my trail started. We'll have to explore on our own from there. Marcus, can you move?"
His eyes closed; he responds but had no force behind it.
"I'll go and come back," I suggest, "you keep watch."
Isla nods and starts chanting multiple barriers. I push the door carefully, millimeter by millimeter and peek through the gap. It was more cells but this time a wider pathway. Footsteps. But where? It was too far away. Walking out would be a huge risk since they could be anywhere but where I was peeking through.
Then I thought of something we learnt in our meteorology class. Our teacher had mentioned that all objects, be it water or stone, will always reflect or refract light and that a mirror or a glass can change our vision greatly. Which means I must converge the light. I then concentrated.
The way we see colours is through the information that light carries when it reflects off an object. In theory, if I were to target an area of reflection off an object, bend it towards me, it would be the same as looking at it in front.
Think about light. Try and visualize it. I repeat to myself and the light waves form. Some had more lines and others had less each at different angles, it was everywhere: inside the room, outside, even some emitting from Isla's barriers. Thousands and thousands of strands reflected until it grows dark.
So this is light
What appeared before me was an entire separate world. These lines extended infinitely that
I reach my hand out and focus. To my surprise, the rays gravitated towards my hand. I look at an individual strand and I try and bend it, it changes shape. I made another and it bends to my will without resistance. This is light. It exists everywhere but its abundance differs. The room I was in compared to outside had a miniscule amount.
I was also scared to do it. Unlike my hand, which can emit light and could bend the shapes, I had to perform it with my eye which if anything went wrong, I would be blind for the rest of my life. I hesitate. This is more dangerous than I thought. It's not like we're in a rush.
But I look back and Marcus' body gets limper than before.
I must do it
The strands, I tell myself, control it. I look at every strand of light outside and I angle it. I bend it, silently hoping that the cluster of rays would not burn my eyes. I could see from the left of the door and the passageways after that. The halls and the rooms, even the guards who were looking at the door I was peeking from. They couldn't see me but I could see them. But I was hot. Very hot. Excruciatingly, unbearably hot.
"Just a little more," I say to myself as my eyes continued to feel like it's being immolated. Then as if telling me a warning. I was cut off from the strand and my eyes started seeing stars. I must tell Isla.
"They're looking at us?" Isla says in nervousness, "we have to leave, they must've heard something."
I slapped my cheeks with both hands, "I can blind them, Marcus can you move?"
He nods silently and drags his and Wallace's heavy body up.
Then we rush out. We don't leave time for the guards to react. I flash them and Isla sends them crashing towards each other with powerful gusts of wind. Today was their unlucky day. I thought as we ran past the two guards. I look behind to see Marcus looking underneath a door gap.
"Marcus what are you doing?" I asked as Isla and I come to a halt.
"There's someone in here," he says softly.
"There's no time, they'll know something's up!" Isla urges.
I go to look what had captured his attention. It was the man with the tattoo, chained up and tied to a chair, "I'll get him out."
"Clara!"
I open the door before Isla could refuse. Cold, damp, and isolated. That's what I would describe the room the man was in. I lit the room up with my light and his eyes come back to life, darting everywhere. Shriveled and cowering, he reflexively tilts his head down in submission.
"Hello mister," I say in a lighter tone. He looks up with relief.
"You're the girl from before."
"I'll help you out."
"Thank y-"
"For a price," I say before he could assume anything. He listens tentatively. "Answer all my questions truthfully after." He nods and I burn his cuffs with light.
We head outside to meet Isla waiting patiently.
"Come on, let's go."
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