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Rhiea ~ rah-ee-ah
Antecua ~ an-tee-k-wuh
Vunmarc ~ vuhn-mahrk
Ulianph ~ oo-lee-an-f
Whiscanter ~ why-can-ter
♛
WHEN she woke up this time, there were no hushed voices or ravaging heat or swelling pain. She didn't want to attribute it to the drink Marcela gave her, but she couldn't deny it, either.
Along with the bandage on her injured arm, there was another one across her palm. Must have been another cut.
Her worry for Kara and Elowen only increased as she wondered what kind of torture these people were subjecting them to.
What if these people already knew she was this Silverein? Could they have had something to do with her parents' deaths?
There was a lot to think about, but she couldn't afford to waste time thinking.
She took her time to get up and when she was sure she could stand firmly, she headed towards the door with small steps. The door opened to a straight hallway with two doors on both sides. She noticed some signs with different colors on them.
Up ahead was a staircase which she followed to the floor above, but when she arrived, it was a hallway that led to nothing. The stillness of the air made the room feel empty and lifeless, with no doors or windows to break the monotony.
Why would they have an entire floor for nothing?
She glimpsed around and if she had blinked, she would have missed it. She'd caught a ripple-like movement on the wall to her right and stepped closer to place her hand on the wall. The sensation on her fingers made her feel she was sinking into something soft, yet her hands roamed around the wall until she felt a doorknob. Her mind struggled to make sense of the sensation she felt and the empty wall in front of her.
Yet, logic failed her and her only conclusion was Magic.
She turned the invisible doorknob and pushed, but instead of the wall giving in as she expected, her hand went through the wall. The sight threatened her with a wave of nausea, but she pushed it down with a deep breath, knowing that this would be the first of many odd things she would experience.
With closed eyes, she took a step and even if she had prepared herself for the surge of ripples that drove through her, nothing would have prepared her for the sight her eyes met.
The world changed in an instant. Gone were the empty walls replaced with a space that spanned wider than she could see. Shocks of blue light floated above, below, and around her. Although her feet could feel the solid earth beneath her, her eyes concluded she was standing on a blue mist.
It was the same shade of blue as the searing light Jamie shot toward her in the forest. Taking her eyes from the mystical sight, she raised her head to take in the various equipment that filled some area of the space. The apt arrangement reminded her of a gym.
Just before she could stray further, a burst of blue light spread across the room, once again surging toward her.
A scream emerged from her and she steeled her mind and body for the impact, raising her feeble hands as some form of shield, but the force never came. She lowered her arm, giving her eyes the view of a foggy blue wall towering some inches above her.
Was this ice?
The wall swiftly evaporated to reveal a bare-chested and sweaty Jamie. His muscles bulged around his folded arms adding to his menacing stance. Gone was the calm nerd she knew him as, and in his stead was someone whose aura seemed to command a lot of respect and also someone who had a well-shaped trunk.
She didn't realize she was staring until he cleared his throat which forced her to look him in the face. She felt the heat rush to her cheeks, but she tried to pass it off as a subtle cough.
"Seems like you prefer to stand in the line of fire."
"Seems like you prefer to torment my body with your blue light!"
"You're welcome," he said as he strode away to a chair she hadn't seen before and picked up the towel on it.
She scoffed in disbelief, trying to keep her eyes away from the muscles of his back as they flexed with each action. "I should be grateful that you find some sick joy in hurting me!"
"Grateful that I saved you from getting hurt." His voice came out muffled as he wiped the towel over his face.
"You're impossible."
"And you're supposed to be in bed, resting." He turned to her, his face unrelenting from his frown. "But you're not. Which means you can't do as you should, meaning you're not as responsible as you seemed and would need much surveillance."
With every word he let out, her anger rose.
"Irresponsible? If anyone is irresponsible, it would be you! If I'm this princess, should you be blasting magic at me!" she exclaimed, but he laughed, one that made her want to smack it off his face.
"Oh! Claiming the Princess card now, are we? You didn't seem so receptive earlier. I remember you didn't want us around you and now we're supposed to be, what, protecting you?" he asked with an incredulous look cast over his features.
She stormed toward him, her fists clenching at her sides till she stopped right in front of him.
"I am not using the princess card. Do I look like I want to be here dealing with you and your bitter face?"
"Bitter!" he bellowed before he went on with a smirk. "You didn't seem to have that opinion when you were staring at me some moments ago."
Her cheeks flushed with a fiery heat as she fought to restrain herself from delivering a resounding smack.
Yes, his toned body had caught her off guard, but his present attitude was turning the picture sour.
She scoffed and turned to walk away. Being so close to him was more infuriating than she thought.
"And where are you going?" he asked and shifted his weight to one leg before placing his arms on his waist.
"I'm leaving," she said, but soon after the words left her lips, she realized there wasn't a way out. Or at least not one she knew as the wall she had walked through had disappeared.
Jamie must have already known because he made a poor attempt to cover his laugh by clearing his throat.
"How do you want to do that?" he asked, forcing her to stop in her stride.
She took in a silent, deep breath and veered around to him, willing to set her anger aside. But the smirk on his face shattered any form of humility she could muster.
"Screw you," she said instead and stormed away, not caring for his response.
Her walking turned to limping due to the fresh pain in her right foot. When she noticed he didn't follow her, she breathed a sigh of relief. Any more of his presence and she would do something about it.
She never considered herself a violent person, but when violence would be necessary, she couldn't predict her reaction.
What would she do if she'd reached the peak of her tolerance? Would dialogue still seem like an option?
After a while, she noticed the environment slowly morphing around her until it became a dry red land. The red and its stark similarity to the color of Gema's hair made her feel this was Gema's abode and she was proven right when she saw Gema throwing punches along with bursts of fire in all shapes and forms. What exactly she was punching at, Karyn couldn't say.
Gema paused and took a deep breath.
"Marce, we need to—" she stopped mid-sentence when she saw Karyn. "Ryn? What are you doing here? How did you—And is your foot bleeding!" Gema yelled.
She looked down at her foot and found it smeared with what could only be her blood, but the dry red land had obscured any footprints. She glanced up to see Gema storming towards her but didn't have time to respond before Gema placed a hand on her shoulder and murmured something.
The world around them contorted before she sat on a bed in a room. Gone was the red land.
The sudden change of environment made her feel like someone had smashed her insides into a bowl of mush. Suppressing the sudden urge to throw up, she clamped her hand over her mouth and shut her eyes tightly to stop the spinning.
"Sorry about that. It can be weird at first, especially since you lived a normal life for years. Marce needs to come tend to that," Gema said as she busied herself till the door opened and Marcela strolled in.
"I got your message what's—Mi stra mo, what happened to your foot!" Marcela exclaimed before she waved urgently, conjuring a stool which she sat on. [~Oh my stars.]
Karyn tried to pull her leg back, but Marcela stopped her.
"Karyna, you need to trust us. You're our princess. Rhiea. And we are here to protect you."
"Tell that to Jamie and I'm not a princess, much less yours," she said with a scoff but left her leg in its place.
Marcela muttered as she got to work on her leg and she heard Jamie's name mixed in the foreign language.
"Is that Spanish?" she asked.
Marcela paused her movements but only for a second. "Oh, no. It's the language of my homeland, Antecua."
"Your homeland? I thought you were all from Wlerden," Karyn said, taking her time to say the foreign word properly.
"There are different regions in Wlerden. I'm from Antecua, Gema's from Vunmarc, and Jamie's from Ulianph. Our ancestry traces back to those regions, but we all lived in The White Castle when we were young."
"The White Castle," she tested. It didn't spark a memory, but it brought to mind a recent dream.
Only within the white walls shall you find the answers you seek.
That was what the woman in her dream had said and she couldn't help but wonder if the woman had meant this White Castle.
"And where am I from?"
"The capital, Whiscanter, and that's where The White Castle is."
Marcela kept working, but Gema soon broke the silence that surrounded them.
"How did you get into The Vast?"
So that's what it's called.
"I, uh, walked through a wall."
"You're the inquisitive type, aren't you?" Gema asked but moved on. "That's where we train and soon you'll be joining us."
She frowned. "For what?"
Marcela chuckled. "For training."
"To... fight?"
"Ryn, you've never been safe here. It's becoming more obvious day by day," Gema said, gesturing to her foot. "And they're not gonna let you leave here easily so—"
"Leave!" She interrupted. "Why would I want to leave? All you guys have done is tell me the story of my parents and where you come from. When all I want to do is to find my best friend and my sister!"
She wasn't the type to just flare up and had always trusted dialogue would be enough to resolve any conflict. But she didn't know how far dialogue would take her when magic was ripping the life she knew apart.
"Karyn," Gema started with her full name. "We aren't rushing anything and we don't want to force you to do what you don't want. We understand how new and confusing this can be."
Marcela groaned. "And how annoying Jamie is."
"How have you dealt with him all these years?" she drawled and the two girls broke out into fits of laughter.
"I don't know, and Marce has feelings for him on top of it all. I can't imagine being with someone so exhausting. There was a time when we were young and Marce didn't know where Jamie had gone one evening. She went hysterical, trying to search for him. She kept wiping her tears because she said Jamie never liked to see her cry and she didn't want him to know she had been crying over him. And we were just five then," Gema said between laughs.
"What can I do? We are all slaves to our hearts," Marcela said with a wistful look. "All done," she added with a pat on Karyn's leg.
Karyn looked down to see the bleeding had stopped, and a thin line had replaced the fresh cut.
"Thanks," she said as she set her leg down.
The short story made her recall the first time she couldn't see Kara.
"You say Kara is a... Turund," she started gingerly, skirting around the new word. "And I would always know and be able to communicate with her. Is there any time that I won't be able to see her?"
Marcela's lower lip just out as she moved to sit beside her, while Gema traipsed around the room, rummaging through her lockers.
"I could think of a few things that can interrupt the connection one has with their Turund. Why? Did it happen to you?"
"The first day you arrived, I couldn't see Kara, yet she could still see me. She tried to contact me, but it wasn't until I got back home that I saw her."
"Changes in the amount of magic around you could have caused that. Especially since you have the same magic as we do. Your inner ability to recognize us could have interrupted that connection. Any rare type of magic can also interrupt."
"Kara is such a beautiful name," Gema said, moving to rest on the drawer some paces to the side. "Olwyn must have wanted you to have a partner and not feel alone, which was why she made Kara unaware that she was a Turund."
"She can do that?" Karyn asked with wide eyes, unable to comprehend that this pleasant woman they called Olwyn was the same cruel Aunt Helen she'd known all her life.
"When making a Turund, the person can either choose to have the Turund know its purpose or not. If the Turund doesn't know, then the person who made it can choose when to reveal it to the Turund. All they have to do is to utter a spell. You were young and the whole point must have been to keep your memories away from you without you realizing you were missing them. Which must be why she told you your parents had died when you were an infant."
After a beat, Marcela spoke. "I know you're worried, but we will get Elowen and Kara back, and we will get your memories."
The mention of her best friend raised another question surrounding her disappearance.
"What were you guys doing in the forest?"
"We were waiting for Elowen."
"Elowen!" Her wide eyes flickered between Gema and Marcela.
"We don't know why or how Jamie got the meeting with her secure," Marcela started.
"And we may never know, given how tight-lipped he is being, even with us," Gema chipped in.
"At first he said he doubted Elowen, but then he changed his mind and said Elowen was on our side. We asked how he was so sure and all he said was that Elowen would explain all she said to him to us that night."
"But she didn't turn up at school and instead of her, you and Zack found us," Gema said, and Karyn missed the small smile on Gema's lips as she recalled the shady conversation Elowen had with Jamie.
"Speaking of Zack." Karyn heard the suggestive tone in Marcela's voice before she glanced up to find the teasing glint in her eyes. Marcela then asked, "Have you both discussed your emotions?"
A wave of remorse set upon her, despite her frown at Marcela's words. He'd been here since the incident and the only time he left was because of the police. Even at that, he came back soon after. He was the only one taking care of his grandma and yet he left her alone because she was in a deep sleep.
"Emotions? No, we are just friends."
"Friends! The pain in his eyes, while you groaned in your sleep says much more," Marcela said.
Gema added, "Plus, as much as it hurt me, you only wanted to talk to him when you woke up."
"I... trust him. I know we've not known each other for the longest time but, with him, it's... different."
Another kind of comfort.
"That's good that you have someone you can trust in this town, but is it the right person?"
She looked up at Gema, who moved to sit on her other side, leaving her sitting between them on the bed.
"Hear me out. We've been to so many places, searching for you, and out of all the towns, we've never seen one like Emerfield."
"It must be the town's magic," she joked.
"You could say that, literally. Since we've got here, we've not been able to contact home. There's this sort of barrier. Add to that the number of spies here."
"They're everywhere," Marcela added.
"When we realized, we knew The Silverein had to be here. It was too much of a coincidence to have this many people from Wyrione in this place. And what confuses us the most is that you're still..." Gema paused. "Good. I mean, after what, ten years and they've not approached you, it's almost a marvel."
"And now, they're harming the closest people to me. Is this some kind of message?" she wondered aloud. Marcela held her hand and squeezed it softly. At the slight gesture, tears formed in her eyes.
"We have a way to go about it, but we would need you—"
"Whatever it is, I'll do it," she cut Gema off, desperation oozing from her words.
"Each gem gives powers—specific or gemal powers and nonspecific or personal powers. The gemal powers are the same for all Wielders of one gem while the personal are unique to that Wielder. Back at Wlerden, we discovered that your personal power is Astral Projection.
"This is the ability to go to a different place while your body remains where you are. But you would need a gate which is usually a personal item. This means that to see where Elowen is right now, you would need one of her items. You were good at this back then, but considering you don't have your memories and you've not practiced in a long time, you would need training," Gema explained.
"Then how can I master it or re-master it in a short time?"
"It might be tough to do in a short time, so another way is to use the item and a spell to track her. But that may not be as efficient or as quick as using your powers," Gema stated.
She went quiet as a distant memory flashed in her head. It now seemed like a long time since she had that bizarre encounter at Fast Foods.
"You said something about a gate. Can a gate be a person?"
"Well, yes, and no. No, in the sense that you need to have a personal connection with this person first. Yes, because if you do, it won't take you to the person's present, since that's where you'll be. Instead, it would take you to the present of who or what that person is thinking about."
Gema's explanation fell short, as Karyn's expression remained confused.
"Okay, if, right now, Marcela is thinking of Jamie, as she surely is," Gema teased. "And you use her as a gate. It would lead you wherever Jamie is."
"Why can't I just do that instead? For Elowen?"
"Because personal connection is important. I don't have a strong personal connection with Elowen. Neither of us do. The only person who does is you, but you can't use yourself as a gate," Marcela explained.
"Ok, so all we need to do is get something of Elowen's. Maybe I can start training right now—"
She was cut off as the door burst open before a frantic-looking Zack stepped in. He rushed over and as she stood, he enveloped her in a hug, but it was a short one as he stepped back.
"I'm sorry I, uh, rushed in. I got back, and you weren't in Marcela's room like before, and I—"
"I'm fine. I'm fine now," she said and before she could stop herself, she reached out and held his hand.
But the moment ended as he turned and left the room, leaving her puzzled by his actions. Zack always composed himself and she had never seen him this disoriented before.
"You should go talk to him," Marcela suggested, and she nodded, not having the words to reply.
She let her feelings, or The Sense as Zack termed it, guide her. The staircase led down to a quaint living room with a soothing ambiance. Her eyes fell on the door that led outside the house and without a doubt she headed towards it.
♛
ITNC: Karyn ponders on the benefits of joining the team and Zack links a familiar name with the underground clan in Emerfield.
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~
The Sparkling Authoress,
Mis. A
❤️