What if every magical creature you'd ever heard of was real, driven into hiding by an army of violent zealots? This is reality for Sarah Heisen and Porter Collins. Sarah is a sphinx living a life of luxury in her family's mansion. Hidden from all da...
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Chapter Thirty Four
(Porter)
"This is the Arch-Mirror," Azkular said, leading Porter, Joseph, and Tick into a small room, revealing the two-paned mirror he had used the day before. "Normally, I use it to speak to Arch-Mythic Rayalga when he's not here. It has another use, though."
Before anyone could ask what he meant, the djinn conjured a fireball and threw it at the mirror. Both panes of glass shattered into million tiny pieces, but at a wave of Azkular's hand they parted to leave the pathway to the mirror clean. There was a tunnel behind where the mirror had been, with stairs leading down into the mountain.
"It was supposed to be used just for an event like this," Azkular said, hanging his head in dejection. "If given enough warning, we could have evacuated the entire city through that tunnel. Given the situation, though, we didn't have time to use it. The Slayers attacked before we could send the signal to begin to evacuation."
Porter stepped forward to look into the dark tunnel. To think, so many lives could have been saved just by breaking some glass. He pushed those thoughts away, though. They would only depress him, and slow him down.
"Where does it lead to?" he asked, turning around to look at the djinn.
"Outside the mountain, stupid!" Joseph shot back.
"It goes on for about a mile," Azkular answered, not bothering to rebuke the satyr, "and then lets out by the river. Hopefully, that'll put us far enough away from the Slayers to avoid detection."
With that, he shrugged Joseph's arm away and hopped towards the tunnel. With one hand on the wall, he descended the crudely chiseled stairs into the darkness. Joseph followed directly behind him.
"Porter," Tick said, tugging gently on the young man's sleeve. "What's going to happen to the others?"
Porter sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I told you, Tick. Sarah's been taken, and—"
"No, the other Mythics!" Tick interrupted him. "The ones in the city!"
Porter's hand fell limp by his side.
"They're... not going to make it."
Tick stared at him. "Just like at the Historians' Tower?"
Porter grimaced. "Yeah. Yeah, just like that."
Tick looked down at the floor and crossed his arms over his chest. For a few seconds, he didn't say anything.
"I don't care," he finally muttered under his breath, so low that Porter barely heard it. But Porter did hear it, and his mouth almost fell open in shock.
"What?" he asked, dumbly.
"I don't care if they die," the little chimera said, still refusing to look at him. "They all said bad things about you, and they locked you up, and they wanted to kill you, and..."
