When Yras came to, it was with a searing headache. At first, all he could think about was the dizziness surrounding him, making his vision fuzzy and body feel heavy. Once he began to recover his senses, however, he realized just how much he was shivering.
It was freezing.
If he had been of a clearer mind, he would have realized how odd that sounded. Fumari did not get cold. At night, the rural areas could certainly become dreary for those who travelled between cities, but the population did not live in those areas for areas for a reason. The fact that he was not only cold, but freezing should have ticked him off more than it did.
Instead, it made him jolt up with confusion, squirming when he realized his hands and legs were tied. His hands were bound behind him, of no use to him as he tried to upright himself. Looking around, the room was dark, with a hint of sunlight peering through a sliver of an opening in the thick limestone wall. Because of the dark, it took him more than a moment to realize he was not alone.
The person did not speak from where they sat cross-legged in the corner of the room. Yras could not even tell if they were awake or not, the shadow of the room covering them more than any other side of the space. It was only after his eyesight adjusted to the darkness that he even comprehended what the dark lump in the corner was.
"Who are you?"
The figure stirred, head shifting and back straightening. "Interesting."
The voice was feminine, but that was all he gleaned from it. "Answer me."
A short silence stretched between them, and he doubted he would get his wish, but then she spoke. "Lia. A pleasure to meet you."
The hint of humor in her voice sent additional shivers through him. "Why am I here? Did you do this?" There was still the chance she too was a prisoner, but her odd cheer made him reconsider that.
"Yes. You're here until it's over." Cryptic. Just what Yras needed.
"Why is it so cold?" His teeth were starting to chatter, though he managed to form words well enough.
"Oh, I did that. Would be a shame to have you burn your way out of here."
He mentally slapped himself for having not even tried, but once she said it, he realized the truth of the matter. He was too cold to summon fire. Though this was his first experience with it, he knew that fire mages could not use their magic well in colder parts of the world. However, given his living arrangements, he had never worried for such a future where he would be affected like this.
Only a few people had the ability to bring that climate here. "You're an ice mage."
Lia giggled. "Glad to see you catch on. I don't get to play with fire mages often, but the ones I have tend to be duller than you'd think."
He ignored that. Instead, he looked around the room again. It did not look icy, but the lack of lighting made it look like nothing in the first place. Beneath him the concrete did nothing to warm him, but it did not feel like ice either. So what was she doing?
Better yet, how long would he be kept here? His natural affinity for fire made his body run warmer than others, and he imagined that kept him from feeling the true temperature Lia held this room at. However, that could diminish if he did not get out of here soon enough. How long would it take? He could not remember, having chosen at the time to instead to wonder why anyone would have wanted to be exposed to the cold for so long to begin with.
He squirmed where he lay, shifting to see if there was anything he missed during his other examination of the room. Probably, given how dark it is, he thought. For a brief moment, he tried burning the rope off of his wrists, but it failed. He felt his hands warm up, but nothing caught fire and he only managed to waste what heat he did still have.
The glow from the attempt lit up his corner of the room, exposing the dull walls and floor for a brief moment. No obvious ice. He cursed as the darkness fell back, shivering more at the loss of the miniscule warmth.
"Glad to see you tried," Lia said. "Would've been disappointing if you just laid there the entire time."
"Happy to be of service." Even his sarcasm felt lacking with the cold making his voice shake.
He heard her move, boots on the floor and a relieved noise that said she was stretching. She did not say anything else, but paced in the small space. It was then, as he listened to her scraping her boots on the concrete, that he realized he could hear nothing outside of the room. Where was he that it remained silent?
"It could be awhile," Lia said, interrupting Yras' thought process. She was easier to see now as she stood nearer to the sliver of light. Her skin looked darker than his, hood over her head so he could not see her hair. While it was hard to distinguish age, something about her seemed young, maybe younger than him. He did see her smile as she grinned at him, hands behind her back. "Sorry I can't make you more comfortable. Defeat the purpose. But we can chat if you like."
He doubted her hospitality. "Tell me where I am."
To his surprise, she did. "Western Ahlnar. It was meant to be a storage room, I think. Bit empty now, but I guess it's storing you so not completely empty." She laughed at her own joke, but Yras ignored that in favor of his mental map. If he was on the western side of the city, then he was likely near the hostels. Maybe he was in one. No, he reasoned, there wouldn't be a room this empty in a hostel. Too many people to spare the space. Lia and the other members of her team may have been staying in one, so he kept that in his mind for later.
Now for the important part. "Where are...the others." Part of his pause was due to the cold, but the real part was due to catching himself from referring to Eske and Ollyah by their titles. The possibility that she did not know who they captured still remained, albeit barely.
"Oh, probably on their way home by now." She waved a hand through the air. "They're the reason you're here. Gotta keep you occupied while they get out. Could've killed you instead, but what with you being a noble and all, too much of a political incident to risk it."
I'm not worth the risk, but royalty is? She must not know who they are. Either that, or she did not care about the strain her homeland would have with Ehvera. Her accent put her with Sarbil, and he would be surprised to find out otherwise. He could see how upsetting Fumari would be of a greater risk than upsetting Ehvera to a nation like Sarbil.
"Where is home?" Were they taking them to Sarbil? That threw another wrench into everything going on if Sarbil had a part in this, but they were also known for outsourcing their strength to willing buyers.
Lia hummed. "Where do you think it is?"
He did not have the energy to play this game with her. Instead, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. If he could warm up just a little bit, he may be able to summon fire. But even if he could, how would he get around her ice? She was much more prepared to attack than he was, no matter how much fire he managed to summon.
She did not seem to like his silence. "You know, I'm not here to torture you or anything. It's just a job. As long as you don't ask me to break my confidentiality agreement, we can talk." She sat back down, cross legged on the floor beside him.
"How did you make this room so cold?"
She chuckled. "Oh, that? A combo of my magic. Wind and water have some interesting combinations to play with, you know."
Of course. Water and wind. Yras had been thinking of only one half of the equation. While there were water mages who could create ice, a smaller few could do so by other means. Yras had been used to single types of magic that he almost forgot some mages had more than one element. Only elemental types could have affinity for more than one. Two was not so common, but not rare either. Three, however, was. Only one person had all four: the Gem of Nature. He did not know if there actually was a Gem of Nature at the moment.
He was getting sidetracked. With her duo abilities at their strongest, and his one magic weaker than ever, there was no contest between them. If he wanted to break free, then he would have to do so another way. It was a good thing he was a charmer. Yzuan would beg to differ, but Yras thought he could sway her.
"C-can you m-make it warmer?"
Never mind, Yzuan was right. Yras failed at wooing.
He did get a laugh out of her for that one. "Oh, sure thing. I had no idea you were cold."
"Who bought your services?"
"Won't say."
"What do they pl-plan on doing with them?"
"Can't say."
"You're not-t even a little curious?"
She shrugged. "People hire us for all sorts of reasons. He's rich and knows the game. I don't care to know what happens to other rich people like your friends."
It was a long shot, but maybe he could use her ignorance in his favor. "Ss-so, you don't know who any of them are, do you?"
"The man in charge? Yes. The targets? Eh. Boss knows, and that's all I care about."
"So your boss is fine with starting a wa—a war?"
She tilted her head. "You do know who you're talking to, right? I know I don't sound menacing or whatever, but I'm Sarbel through and through." Despite the poor lighting, he knew she grinned by the way she spoke her next line. "We're always ready for war."
"Like you did to Ha-haizen."
She waved it off. "Haizen's government is the worst of them all. Arrogant, thick-headed, living more off of a legacy than actually doing anything. They had it coming."
"Does Fffumari have it c-coming?"
"You think we're gonna attack you?"
"Aren't you?"
She laughed. "Don't know. I don't really keep up with politics. The emperor knows what he's doing."
The irony in her manner when compared to her disgust for Haizen did not go unnoticed.
He tried moving again, but it became increasingly difficult to do so with his body going numb from cold. Shuddering, he cut himself off from talking. Too cold. Never had he expected to feel this useless, this powerless. Talking to Lia and pretending that everything was fine gave him a reprieve, but only just. He had to face the issue.
Yras was stuck.
Once again he tried summoning warmth, more for his own comfort at this point than an actual escape attempt. A shimmer of light came and went too fast for him to enjoy. If only he could hold the flame in his hands, keep it safe from the air Lia controlled. Impossible.
Damn it. Eske and Ollyah got farther and farther from him every second he laid there. Yras needed to find them, to get help to save them, but how? He could not even save himself. Perhaps if he had spent less time learning fire dancing and more time learning fire fighting this would have been easier. There were techniques to keeping an inner flame when in freezing climates. If only, if only, if only.
Nothing he could do. Too cold to yell, to get outside help. Too cold to summon fire, his element that never failed him before now. Too cold to stop his friends' fears from becoming reality. He had already failed them when attacked.
Failed to do his only job. What a lord he was.