Galaxy of Hyperion: Mystic Heir

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Frozen Prison

Jayler was stunned at first, but he managed to force himself to nod in response. "Yeah... You're right. We can talk about it later," he whispered. He still seemed to be a bit distracted, and it took far too much effort for Jayler to shake off his previous thoughts to focus on the battle at hand. He snapped his fingers together, and flames began to crackle between his palms as he turned his attention towards the window. 

Jay jumped backwards, away from the window, as soon as she realized how much he was trying to do. Flames rocketed through the air, and they slammed into the ground below. Jay realized that it had to be a different mage that had been responsible for the fiery streak of magic a few moments prior, and she couldn't tell if she was more relieved to have Jayler there with her or if she would have preferred for him to be elsewhere. 

Jay took to the window once again as soon as Jayler was finished. He had managed to take out quite a few of the enemies in the area, and Jay had to confess that her brother's fiery magic certainly packed quite the punch. In fact, he seemed to be even more experienced with unleashing powerful blasts than she was, and Jay would have been lying if she said that she wasn't impressed with everything that he had proven himself capable of. 

"There are so many of them..." Jayler whispered from his place beside Jay. "I don't know how Alba could have prepared for this to such an extent. I didn't realize that there were so many creatures made of Ice magic near here..."

There was something that caught Jay's attention. She turned to face him, eyes wide as she remembered everything about Cryai. "Ice magic?" she questioned. Images danced through her mind of the way that Cryai had stroked her cheek in the process of examining the symbol of Skylox found there. She remembered the way that the Ice mage in Nadia had drained everything that she was so effortlessly. It appeared that she was far from being the only one with the issues of fighting back against an Ice mage. 

Jayler nodded his response, eyes flashing with determination. "Alba is the one that we're fighting against. That's what everyone here thinks, at the very least. Alba is a Lakinya, and that's the reason that we're trying to fight back. Alba has the power to create artificial creatures made out of Ice, hence why there are so many enemies here now. None of them are real, but we have to obliterate all of them if we want to get out of here," he explained. 

Jay nodded to herself as she processed what he was saying. It certainly made sense given how fine Jayler suddenly was with fighting and even killing the enemies that were closing in around the castle. Even though he didn't have much of a choice, she still would have found it strange if not for the explanation that he provided. Jayler seemed like the type to prefer peace over death, though Jay supposed that such a concept applied to nearly every living creature that she had ever cross paths with. It was logical that Jayler knew something that she didn't with how happy he was to rain down fire from above without a moment of hesitation. It was certainly helpful information to have. 

However, it did lead to her thoughts starting to spiral when she realized that Cryai was involved with this Alba character. If Alba had already been revealed to the other groups of Hanilia, then chances were high that the plans of the Lakinya were moving forward far faster than Jay had anticipated. She hadn't exactly been given much time to think it over, but she wasn't about to ignore the point that the evidence was trying to give her. She was going to have to finish the current battle as soon as possible so that she would be able to target Alba. While she had been gathering the Skylian Mages, Alba had been growing their forces, and Jay couldn't let them get away with such a thing, especially with the knowledge that this was likely involved with the foreboding event that had spurred Lyloc to tell Jay to gather the Skylian Mages. 

She did her best to cast the thoughts away from her mind as she snapped her fingers together, creating another sphere of purple energy that she threw towards the troops gathering around the castle. She didn't see any of her allies outside, and she suspected that was a good thing. It would have been so easy for them to be surrounded given the circumstances, and Jay felt sick at the mere concept. Still, she found herself wondering how the rest of her allies were doing, and she closed her eyes for a brief moment to pray that they were safe before she returned to the fight at hand.