Swordplay

Part 41

Aparta laughed. It sounded shrill.

Struggling with all her strength, Moira tried to break free from the spell, but she had hardly any Unified Magic left. I can't let the Wild Magic out on purpose. It would endanger all people in the building.

"This time, it will hurt. For a long time." Aparta lifted her arms and recited a death curse with a low voice.

Moira's heart nearly jumped from her chest. She wanted to run but not a single muscle worked. She couldn't even scream.

The black shadow around Aparta's hands grew with every word she spoke.

Waves of Wild Magic churned through Moira's body and broke through the thinned out protective walls of her Unified Magic. A giant surge of Magie Sauvage burst forth. Rainbow colors mixed in a wild whirl with the curse's blackness, thinned it, and ripped it apart, and threw the fragments back at Aparta.

She dropped without another word.

Moira faltered. The stasis spell had vanished just like the chaos of burned, splintered, and toppled shelves. In their place, a world spread out like she had never seen before. A brightly blue sky curved over trees that reached her hip. Gras, as soft and smooth like a carpet of velvet covered the ground around her and Aparta. Birds the size of her fingernails fluttered through the air, accompanied by elves as tiny as a pinhead. In the denser part of the forest, Moira discovered a fox, barely bigger than the nail on her thumb.

"Maximal recording time reached." The recording box blinked brightly and pulled Moira from her reverie. The box sped away. Moira grabbed Aparta's shoulders and dragged her after the box toward the archive's entry. The newly created world seemed to follow her, spreading with every step she took. Moira saw trolls, deer, reindeer, horses, dogs, and people. Sabio's worktable had vanished, and a veldt-like landscape spread around the burning box. The recording box hovered above it blinking with a bright red light. The two files hung from a clasp that had appeared on the side of the box. "Fly to the exit," Moira ordered after activating the command mode, and the blinking box obeyed.

Gasping, Moira followed it with the still unconscious Aparta. As the door in the mesh wire fence came closer, she noticed that there was still Magie Sauvage spilling from her. She gathered the last of her strength and closed all the holes in her aura. Hopefully they'll stay shut.

The door slammed open, and Tord stormed in. "Don't touch the sword! It is …" He stopped abruptly, and his eyes widened. "What happened here?"

Aparta moaned, and the pinkie of her right hand twitched.

"I'll tell you later." Moira searched the desk in the entrance area with flying fingers for another stasis spell. When she had found the silver ball, she pressed it into Tord's hand and pointed at Aparta. "Activate it fast, before Aparta regains her consciousness."

Aparta's eyelids fluttered. Wordlessly, Tord obeyed. Moira felt very relieved that he trusted her judgment.

Just when the silver shimmer of the stasis spell spread over Aparta, the door opened again. Semra entered with four magicians in long safety coats and pointy hats. They had slipped their hands into the sleeves of their coats and reminded Moira a little bit of vultures. She had to laugh.

"Moira! What happened?" Wide eyed, Semra stared around, but Moira didn't answer. He knees buckled, and she sank to the ground giggling. She noticed that the recording box flew toward Semra with the two files.

Moira's field of vision narrowed with every second, and black dots danced in it. She wondered why the box and the files hadn't changed, and then, she lost consciousness.

***

When she came round, she lay on a stretcher. Semra and the President of the Gendarmerie Magique stood beside her. Tord held her hand.

"Franka will never forgive me for being too late." The whooshing of the Wild Magic in Moira's body nearly drowned out his words. She felt her magic search for a way out, and she needed all her strength to stop it. She clenched her fists, closed her eyes, and searched for the rest of her Unified Magic.

A hand touched her arm and made it even harder to concentrate. She opened her eyes.

The President of the Gendarmerie Magique shook her hand. "I am happy to see that you survived this chaos, and I'm very eager to hear your statement."

"Me too." Semra stepped beside him. "Where is Sabio? And what is Aparta doing here?"

"The box," Moira whispered. "It's all in the box." She closed her eyes again and focused her energy on keeping her Magie Sauvage under control. Inexorably, she slipped back into the blackness of unconsciousness.