Rune Mage [Fantasy/Adventure | Book 1 +2 | Complete]

Chapter 42: Painted Wings

Seiren whipped around. A figure lay collapsed on the ground, a mop of blonde curls tangled on the stone cobbles. Her heart leapt to her throat. Her eyes darted to the escaping figures, but her body tore towards the fallen mage.

"Loren!" Seiren's voice cracked. She landed on her knees, ignoring the spears of pain shooting up her thighs. A thin drizzle coated her shoulders. Her face tingled, turning numb. Trembling hands swept Loren's blonde hair off her face. On the ground beside Loren was a rune Seiren had never seen before. It didn't follow the standard rules of rune magic of double circles and locks: a square base with four petals blooming from the centre, connected by a diamond within its centre, drawn in a thick, sticky, crimson substance that flowed in a constant direction, mixed with an unnatural white glow. Even as she looked, shivers went down her spine: what awful magic. Did Loren create this to protect herself against the two attackers? "What is this -- what happened?"

Loren's eyes were sunken in, barely able to focus on Seiren. She didn't have any wounds -- there was no puddle of blood pooling anywhere except for a thick gash at her left wrist that was now just a thin trickle. It didn't explain why she was so deathly pale and her face so gaunt. Each breath came as a rasp.

Seiren's heart rammed against her ribcage, running through all the runes she knew in her head. No green rune could reverse this when she didn't even know what this was. She would never dare use the experimental runes she'd created on Loren; none of them worked, anyhow. Her mind was in too much of a mess to use chaos magic. With desperation, she tried to conjure up a positive image. Loren, sipping tea, giving her prompts when she was trying to heal Bonsie's gaping wound on its belly. Bonsie, not a care in the world, purring away as Seiren fussed over the messy wound sealing up. Loren making her dinner after a long day at work.

Her hands glowed white. Her mouth dried.

The chaos magic didn't extend from her hands onto Loren's body as it had with Bonsie's. Loren could only look at her, as if desperate to say something to her, but lacking the energy.

"Don't worry, Loren. I'll f-f-figure out something." Seiren's stammer only made her panic worse. Blood drummed in her ears and her hands shook worse than autumn leaves. What else was there to do? With every passing second, Loren's life faded away. The peculiar rune continued to flow within its strange design. Almost out of desperation, Seiren reached to sweep it away.

Don't touch it! Madeleine screeched. Seiren froze.

But--

Just don't touch it! It's horrible magic. I can feel the agony just flowing from it. This is the devil's magic. Don't touch it!

Seiren had never heard Madeleine so hysterical before. With a numb mind, she could only stare down at Loren, whose hand clutched hers. Chaos magic flowed from Loren into Seiren.

"What are you doing? I'm trying to heal you!" Seiren said, eyes wide. "No--"

"She's... alive..." Loren whispered. Her voice was so weak, her next words were drowned by just a gust of wind. The flow of chaos magic ebbed and ceased. "Ker..."

"Ker...?" Seiren repeated, puzzled. "What do you... Loren? Loren!"

She was still breathing, but her eyes gaped blankly at the sky. The peculiar rune glowed beside her body. The whole scene made Seiren numb and sick at the same time. Loren, who had been so lively and so present, looking nothing more than a breathing doll, devoid of her bright personality. There was barely a thread of magic left in her hand that Seiren almost crushed in desperation.

"Loren! Loren, wake up!" The sense of familiarity -- a person whom she was fond of, staring unseeingly at her face -- hit her like a tide that buried her in sorrow and despair. The hand touching Seiren's was icy. "No! No no no! Loren! Please!"