The Ivory Tower

Chapter 14: Leaping Into Battle

It was quiet again and Eliza was thinking about something, curled up in a chair. Aubree stood up and started pacing the room, and Naomi sat still in her chair, staring at the ceiling.

"I told them I would be in charge of the Tower while everyone else would be gone, and that I could leave during that time. God, I'm so stupid. I told them when we'd be the weakest and basically just stepped aside for them to attack." Eliza bit her lip. "I don't think the Fulgor are going to be attacking Africa. I think they're going to attack the Tower."

"What? How would they do that? They don't even know where it is," Naomi said.

"There could be spies anywhere, Naomi."

"There's no one there in charge," Naomi realized. "I left the Tower all alone." She turned to Aubree. "We need to get back, can you make a portal in here?"

"I can't make anything but a water portal without a medallion and Eliza can only make an earth portal without a medallion, and there's none of those things in here, so we're screwed," Aubree said.

"Is there anything we can do? Anything at all?"

"We could try unlocking the door," Aubree said. "But I doubt that would work, and even if it does, there's probably guards outside ready to shoot us if we do."

Naomi groaned. "Why did we have to get ourselves into this mess?"

"You tell me." Aubree said.

"So," Naomi said. "Have you ever done anything this bad, Aubree?"

"I have to admit," Aubree said, "Aiden might just kill both of you for this one."

"Thanks, now I have something to look forward to after we get out of here."

Something crackled above them, like the static in a speaker before someone's voice started projecting into the room from nowhere in particular. "Thank you girls for giving us full reign of the Ivory Tower. It is, truly appreciated from the Fulgor."

All three of them stood up, not knowing what to expect, but getting ready to fight anyway.

"We'll be sure to give you credit when we take over your puny little earth. It is, after all, what you deserve."

Eliza lost it. "Where are you, you cowards!? You want a fight? Fight me!"

"Eliza, calm down." Naomi said.

Aubree laughed. "You think you're going to win that easily? I've already sent a message to Aiden. They should be here any second now to get us."

"Aubree, you're not helping." Naomi said.

"Yes I am."

"No—wait, did you actually send a message?"

"Yeah," she rolled her eyes. "I'm smart enough to always have some of this on me." She held up a few pieces of the little colored magic paper.

Naomi made a mental note to start carrying some of that with her from then on.

Meanwhile, Eliza was still screaming at the disembodied voice. "You ba—"

Aubree put her hand over Eliza's mouth as she screamed all sorts of profanities at the air. "Calm down Eliza, screaming at it isn't going to help. You're going to waste all your energy you should be using on the real battle."

She abruptly stopped screaming and struggling and went and sat down. They waited for rescue to come, and Naomi wasn't completely sure if they would decide just to leave them and go defend the Tower immediately. She didn't think she would blame them if they just left the three of them here.