The intensely bright light that had suddenly erupted from the vault door, just as quickly disappeared and left me with closed eyes that felt like I had looked into the sun for too long. The sharp pain of the initial blinding light slowly dropped as I dared try opening my eyes. The first thing I noticed was the silence that swept the room. No voices around us, no sounds of armor pieces scraping against each other. The only thing I noticed was Amber's hand on my shoulder and her head on my back as she made herself as small as she could behind me for protection. The room was completely silent but for our own rapid breaths - short, sharp gasps that were the aftermath of a sudden struggle for our lives in unknown circumstance.

“Are you guys ok?” I asked as I slowly tried standing up.

Amber let go of my shoulder and looked up to see if it was safe for her to get up. As she rose she kept up her guard as she was probably just as disorientated as I was. Not knowing what just happened.

“Yeah, I think I am fine. No wounds anyway. How about you, Lucian?” Amber asked as she turned around.

“I’m good.” Lucian replied. Of all of us he was probably the most calm.

I knew he was good at rationalizing but damn I envy him.

Lucian walked out from behind the vault and started looking around for possible enemies. Amber quickly followed, prepared to strike at a moment's notice.

Suddenly I noticed a feeling. A feeling I only had once before. A feeling that was still fresh in my memory from just a few weeks ago. The same dreaded feeling I got when I woke up in the BirchBridge hospital, was now taking root again. My eyes opened wide, as if I was about to go into a full on panic attack. My breaths became fast, my heart pounded as if it could burst out of my chest any minute. My mind started spiraling down and the most excruciating thoughts started to take a hold of my sanity.

Is it all over now? Was everything for nothing? My mind felt like it was about to explode.

Amber examined the vault room for any signs of the robbers, Lucian suddenly noticed that Zephyria was missing. He called out her name while turning towards me. That is when he saw the dire expression I had on my face. I must have been white as snow. My mind was drained and panic was setting in.

“S-s-s-she’s gone.” I could hardly speak as Lucian ran over to me as fast as he could. He already knew what was going on. He knew after noticing Zephyria wasn’t in the room, what I was going through when he looked at me.

“Zeph!” he shouted. “Zeph stop what you are doing! We don’t know anything yet!” Lucian kept shouting as he ran towards me and knelt down next. He put his hand on my shoulder and tried to calm me down.

Amber heard Lucian’s shouts and turned around immediately as well to see Lucian running towards me and kneeling. She then saw my face. She also knew exactly what was going on, though she probably didn’t know the extent of it.

“What do you mean Zeph? Where is Zephyria?” Lucian felt the panic was taking control over me. Amber meanwhile also knelt next to me and tried to calm me down as she threw her hands around me in hopes of it helping me relax a little.

“I don’t s-s-sense her a-a-anymore!” I did my best to articulate the sentence but the panic of losing my sister again made it hard for me to speak. The past experience of BirchBridge came back to me all in one go and then some. I felt myself slipping further and further into despair. Back then I was lucky there was a doctor who could ease my mind. This time however, I was lost.

“Where was she? Is she still alive? How would this work without our connection? Will I ever find her? Is she lost forever now?” My mind was racing in a downward spiral where everything around got drowned out and nothing would reach me. I saw their mouths moving from the corner of my eyes but no words of theirs reached me.

As fast as my panic set in, it disappeared and the world became silent, my head became silent, my eyes closed and I lost consciousness.

— 10 minutes later

I opened my eyes when the ceiling above blurred into view, Amber's silhouette casting a gentle shadow over me. My slight movement got noticed by Amber as she looked down to see if I had woken up. She had a soft smile that showed her worry for her friend and her relief that he was awake and calm now.

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“Hey there. How are you feeling?” Her soothing voice was a warm welcome for my completely exhausted mind.

My head was a bit fuzzy but for some reason I was staring into her beautiful brown eyes.

“Zeph? Are you ok?” Amber looked concerned now and she held her hand on my head as if to check if I was sick. This snapped me out of my stare though and I finally noticed I was still in the vault room and my head was on her lap.

Before I could reply I suddenly felt a sense of appreciation. Not from myself but from some faint and distant feeling.

Wait, that was from my sister! She IS alive.

The darkness that was creeping into my mind earlier completely disappeared and I felt the wave of exhaustion rush through me. The clarity I had now did give me a chance to finally answer Amber’s initial question.

“Yeah I’m good now. Thank you.” I said with a slide blush on my cheeks while trying to not stare at her face again.

I tried getting up but Amber held me down. I looked at her questioningly while she smiled again softly.

“Lucian is upstairs checking if the house is clear. He told me to keep you here and make sure you don't overexert yourself. So stay.” She said with a hint of an order in her voice.

As she finished her sentence she pushed my head back on her lap as she lent back against a wall.

As she leant back against the wall, a faint blush seemed to color her cheeks - or perhaps it was just a trick of my exhausted mind.

The thought didn’t last long though as I gave into my exhaustion and closed my eyes.

— a few minutes later

My rest didn’t take long though.

Lucian came back into the vault room with the good news that there were no robbers anywhere in the house.

“He Zeph, I see your awake and calmed down. Is everything ok now? Are you good?” He was scanning my eyes, my body, and my aura for any signs of lingering stress or panic.

I looked at amber and gave her a thankful nod before slowly raising from her lap. Will pulling myself up to my feet I still felt the lingering sensation of my earlier collapse.

“Ok, so the good news is, I felt a slither of my sister's feelings. The bad news is that it seems she might not be in the best situation.”

Amber looked half surprised and half relieved.

“Well I’m glad your sister is ok for now, but where is she? What is her situation?” questions coming one after the other now.

“Amber,” Lucian called out. “Easy. He just woke up after having a mental breakdown.” Amber nodded “Sorry Zeph, I didn’t want to push you.”

I shook my head, “We want to know where she is, even me.”

Lucian and Amber looked at me in surprise.

“What do you mean with ‘even me’?” Lucian countered. Worry settling in his face.

Amber, not knowing how to respond, just waited for my response. The look in her eyes deceiving her calm demeanor, showing her worry about a girl that she only met a few days ago and already became good friends with. Even if it was basically me that she talked to.

“I don’t really know what is happening but I am guessing she is very far away. The connection I feel with her is almost non-existent and I can only feel a slither of her emotions.”

Even though I didn’t know where she was, I still had a slight smile on my face. Knowing she was still out there and even had something of an appreciative feeling that reached me, made me relax.

“I also think she is in a location lacking Aether. I believe I noticed a slight worry about magic just now but I can’t be sure. It is just that I felt that sort of feeling once before during training long ago.” I round up my reply feeling my tiredness rolling in again.

A sign of relief washed over Ambers face. “At least I am glad to hear your sister is still alive. That way we can at least try to get her back.”

The word ‘we’ peaked in my ears. We had yet to decide if she would be able to join our journey.

We heard the clock in the hallway sound 5 in the morning. The sun would be getting up soon and we were all tired right now.

“I think it is best to get some sleep right now. Let's get to bed and try to find a possible location that Zephyria might be at.” Lucian looked at me with eyes asking if I was ok with the plan.

I nodded as Amber started for the door to the dark hallway.

“I will inform the servants that it is safe now.” She said as she walked out of the room.