The Vortex: Prophesies

Chapter Seventeen

I would say no one ever tells you about the consequences of the darker side of magic, but in this instance, it is true, who is around to warn me. Warn any of us of what it's really like on the other side of simple jinxes.

Why should they have too, they don't know they're providing those very dark books, hidden underneath the school in a place no one ever finds them. If the catacombs are hidden beneath us at all times, ingrained in the foundation of our lives, then why chance magic failing if they busted into the place.

There's no predicting where is already collapsed, and I don't believe I would ever be much help in the matter. I know our parts; I know the hidden doorway that would lead us to safety if we could port but nowhere else is of much use.

Some days when I need to clear my head, I will go exploring, let myself wonder the underground with a light in hand. Nothing ever changes, what is blocked, and dark remains that way and now that I have seen pictures of it from its prime, I only hate more that I will never retrieve that.

Now will never be the time to point the blame at the many people that could be faulted in some capacity for the attack, and for the things that don't know and may never be able too, I think my friends would yell at me if I did that.

That may actually be an overexaggerating, things have taken a hard turn for everyone, the school was eerily quiet by the time we all got back. They started porting everyone back here after the attack, instead of sticking us on a bus and taking us back, with some students facing injuries they couldn't risk the time.

Both Liylah and I were more than a little bit worried about the effects porting may have on those injured, squeezing yourself through space and time can't be good for injuries, especially not if your Elizabeth and had cracked ribs that could have punctured her lungs. Luckily for everyone, that never happened.

I don't let myself believe the teachers would be negligent enough for that to happen.

The museum was desolated, when you're stuck in amongst all the fighting, the destruction feels hidden behind the adrenaline rush you have, but it never stays around forever, and I refused to go back before the people that actually needed medical attention.

Mostly I just needed to sit with what had happened, let what I know and what I saw and what I did, all mesh together and leave me with reality.

Like you would expect all the artefacts of value were protected in ways The Saviours couldn't manage, it could have never been their true motive, although it does align with the other attacks on retail buildings across towns. It seemed more targeted, like they were re-announcing themselves as more than just people to keep an eye out for.

The plan of attack is different this time, instead of leering glances and missing people, threats against the government. This all more real, it doesn't let you brush it off as something else, there is no denying their agenda when they paint it over every available surface.

They wanted the fighters, the killers with the most power, how else will they get everyone under their thumb to enact their master plan.

The Saviours, even with my declining of their invitations have made me feel as though I am one of them. I killed a man to protect my friends, I could have good intentions but at the end of the day, that will never change the fact that a man is gone. At my hand.

A fighter would kill for that, an unbridled dedication to the cause, and yet I feel nothing but shame over what I did, and mostly over the fact I couldn't have stopped the spell leaving my lips even if I could have.

"Aurora!" Liy calls, breaking through the dark haze around me. Bringing me back to the middle of my dorm room, where I am sitting with Liylah and Lizzie, who although no longer physically wounded, still looks spooked. "Where'd you go?"