The Mystery at Trida Academy | Fantasmical 2023

The Price of Magic

The cave walls were slick with moisture and glowed with a faint blue light. She shivered as they descended, wishing she'd brought a heavier cloak. They made their way over the rocky ground, and Alaina hoped she didn't slip. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. But they'd come too far to give up now.

The narrow corridor continued twisting down, farther and farther into the earth. The light from the cave walls seemed to dim, and she struggled to see more than a few feet in front of her. Her feet slid along the ground, and her steps slowed until she was barely moving at all.

"Having second thoughts?"

She could practically hear the smirk. She looked over her shoulder, trying to figure out where Cole was. She could barely make out his dim outline just a few feet away. His eyes glowed an unnatural orange. Alaina took a step back, bumping into the slick wall.

"Something wrong?" Cole asked, clearly confused.

"...Your eyes." Alaina said slowly. She wasn't sure if she should say anything. At least, not while she was standing alone with him in a darkened cave. But she didn't know what else she was supposed to say.

"Oh." He glanced away. "Do they bother you?"

"No." Alaina told him. Though truth be told, she wasn't sure. But the fact that he seemed self-conscious about it did help put her mind at ease a bit; at least he wasn't tricking her. "Let's just get that pearl and get out of here."

She let Cole lead the way. It seemed those glowing eyes of his helped him see much better in the dim light than she did. Finally, the corridor opened up into what almost looked like a small room. And in the middle sat a large pearl that almost glittered in the gloom.

"It's beautiful." Alaina breathed.

"It is." Cole agreed. "...Are you sure you want to do this?"

Alaina nodded. She knew the price, and she was willing to pay it. She reached out and grabbed it, carefully setting it into the center of the ring and popping it into place. She thought she felt a slight buzz in the air for just a second.

"Put it on." Cole urged. But Alaina hesitated. Now that she was standing here with the Eternity Ring, next to a man with glowing eyes, doubts crept into her mind.

"Why don't you take it?" she asked.

"I can't use elemental magic." Cole said grudgingly. "But you should probably put that on sooner rather than later."

He turned to the entrance of the room, crouching down. Alaina didn't know what he saw, but she did know what she could hear: something was skittering in the dark. She shoved that ring on her finger and squared her shoulders. She'd known the price of that ring, and now she would have to pay it.

She closed her eyes, reaching for her fire magic. It might have been the most volatile, but it was also the only one she was familiar with. Besides, she'd need fire to figure out what was actually out there. She raised her hand, letting the fire flow through her, into the ring. The ring stabilized and amplified it, and she was able to create a waist-high wall encircling the room. She'd gotten it a little close to Cole, but he didn't seem to mind being nearly burned. Alaina grinned to herself, counting that as a win.

Her victory was short-lived, however, when she saw a group of wolf-sized spiders scrabbling towards them. Alaina fought back a shriek. As she jumped back, the flames started to dwindle. That's when Cole started to look worried.

"Don't drop the fire!" he called out.

Alaina nodded, even though he wasn't looking at her. She took a deep breath, willing the flames to rise up to their shoulders.

She'd been hoping it would scare the growing number of spiders away, but that didn't seem to be the case. They just continued piling up, only a foot or two from the wall of flames. Her confidence growing, she launched another wave of fire underneath the front row of spiders. They screeched and scrambled out of the way. Then, they settled back down, inching ever closer to the flames. She would have tried making a third row, but she thought better of it. The cave was already starting to fill with smoke. So now what was she going to do?

Wind was defiantly out; what if it just extinguished the flames? Then they'd be in the dark with those things. Water? Same problem. And they might drown, too. So, earth? Alaina didn't have any experience with earth magic. Was she going to be able to do this? She looked down at the ring, trying to figure out how earth magic would feel. Well, it was almost fire's opposite, wasn't it? So maybe she should try channeling it in the opposite way. She raised her palm towards the ceiling, and lowered it as calmly as she could.

Rocks immediately fell from above. The good news was that they smushed the spiders. The bad news was that they also completely extinguished the fire. She strained in the pitch-black, listening for the sounds of surviving spiders. But there was nothing but the sound of her own heavy breathing.

"Well, that wasn't quite what I'd planned..." she mumbled to herself. Cole laughed in the dark. Alaina tried to ignore the fact that she was pretty sure she could still see his eyes faintly glowing.

"It worked at least." he snickered.

"Think we can dig our way out?"

"I doubt it – the rocks go all the way up."

Alaina nodded to herself in the dark. Well, there was always magic. And maybe she wasn't that good at it, but that's what practice was for. She waved her hand one more time. She'd intended to make the rocks in front of them disappear. So she was shocked when the floor vanished instead. The two of them fell into the darkness, and Alaina wondered why she ever thought she could afford the ring's price.