Anamnesis: Book 1

Chapter 12

The only sound to remain was their uneven breathing. When the dirt around them had settled, Levi looked out into the darkness. His barrier had given off the faintest of lighting, which only illuminated the rock and stone piled around them in a ghoulish spectacle. Aster was able to pull herself from Levi's grip, only to inwardly reel at the sight presented to her. Her eyes moved frantically, from one end of the dome to the other, trying to formulate a solid thought before another struck her. She was beginning to feel clustered and had to remind herself to breathe from her core rather than her chest to keep from blacking out.

"This is bad..." She heard Levi mumble from the center of the dome, of which he still stood, body flickering with pings of light.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." Aster repeated in a panicked mantra, pacing between what little space she had.

All around them the dirt had molded against the barrier, not an inch of free space or leniency in its depths.

"Levi, you can get us out of here with your magik, right?" Aster asked hurriedly, failing to keep her composure despite her efforts in doing so.

Levi felt his insides churn. "I don't know... Just give me a moment to think here..."

Levi looked from one edge of the dome to the other before his eyes settled on the upper right corner of his lids in heavy contemplation. Several ideas crossed his mind, though none that seemed doable in their current circumstance. As it was, his magik was the only thing keeping them safe, and any shift in direction could very well cause a break in his barrier. Whatever route they took, it would have to be one hell of an escape route. After several minutes of shoveling through ideas and ultimately tossing them aside, he sighed, frustration imminent.

"Honestly, this isn't looking good..."

Aster turned to look at him then, her face etched with soot, sweat, and worry.

"There has to be something..."

"Well, if you can think of a way, I'm all ears. But as it stands, I can't come up with anything plausible."

"Well..." Aster began to rack her brain, her survival instincts stubbornly pushing for answers. "Isn't there some sort of beam or something you can use to blast us out of here?"

"Aster, I'm a mage, not a superhero. It doesn't work like that."

"Then what the hell is the point of even studying magik?!"

"Don't go blaming magik for this mess! It was doing me just fine until now. This was because of your outburst."

Aster pursed her lips together, wanting desperately to curse his name and deliver him a sharp blow to the head, but contained her anger for fear of disrupting the barrier.

"There has to be something!"

"Well, the 'something' is trying to keep the damn ceiling from burying us alive!"

"What about oxygen?" Her mind suddenly wandered to the next likely cause of death. "How much do we have?"

"I don't know. A few hours if we're lucky, which judging by the day's events, I'd say we aren't."

"Alright, then we'll just have to keep thinking, at least until your barrier gives way."

"I don't know how long I can even hold it. My lifeblood wasn't fully restored to begin with. Who knows how long it'll last now."

Aster stopped pacing to better gain control of her racing heart and dismal thoughts. Her stance was solid, and she had nowhere to look but the ground between her feet. She let her thoughts move away from the cave-in, the barrier, and the man beside her until she was no longer staring at piles of soot and rubble. She became completely absorbed in her thoughts, the world around her giving way to the cluttered walls of her mind.