Pain roared through John’s body as the frozen sword plunged deep into his gut. Red blood flowed from the ice extending out of his back. He faintly heard Clarissa scream, followed by gunshots, and then silence. Before he could react, Micah pulled him close, his face a twisted mask of rage.
Who was this man trying to kill him?
John frantically searched the man's newly revealed features but found no recognition. He had never met this man before today. Groaning, John struggled to move, but Micah kept him pinned to the ground.
“Why are you here?! Did that bastard send you to mess with me? I don’t need his help or his trinkets!”
Micah was practically frothing at the mouth, but John had no idea what he was talking about. He felt the cold slowly draining his energy as his blood seeped out. Nearby, Nigel extended a hand where Crystal was suspended in the air, subdued easily by Nigel’s magic. Richard and the soldiers stood dumbfounded, their guns still lowered. Sarah cowered behind the other scientists, her hands covering her head. The entire group just stared at the two men in shock.
A flash of pain shot through John as Micah pulled him closer, growling in his ear, “I don’t know why Gordon sent you, but the artifact is mine. I’ll leave your dismembered corpse as a reminder for him to stay away!”
Micah extended his right hand, and an icy hatchet appeared in it, while his left hand remained connected to the sword pinning John’s stomach. John stared in horror as the weapon slowly rose. Behind Micah, John noticed unusual movement. The black columns began to ripple, their once smooth, reflective surfaces now bubbling and writhing like a viscous fluid. In an instant, the dozen columns exploded, splashing black liquid across the chamber. From the center of each emerged large statues of warriors. With a scraping of stone on stone, all twelve statues turned their heads to the now unprotected opening beyond the two struggling men.
Micah turned his head, finally noticing the commotion behind him. A bowstring twanged, and Micah barely managed to change his hatchet into a shield in time to block the sentry’s arrows. The arrows exploded in bursts of purple light, releasing a dense mist. Where the mist touched the shield, it sizzled and liquefied as if eaten by acid. Furious, Micah flung the ruined shield away in a flurry of snow and recreated a new one. He savagely drove the sword deeper into John’s gut, twisting it twice before ripping it out.
“Don’t go anywhere,” he said angrily.
Chaos erupted. The group had split into a disorganized mess. Stone sentries defended the now-open chamber with magical weapons. Sparks flew as one security guard emptied his entire clip into an approaching enemy, but the stone sentinel ignored the bullets, calmly decapitating the guard with a single swipe of its sword. Richard attempted to restore order, yelling at his team while Sarah whimpered in the background.
Nigel struggled to keep Crystal trapped, his attention divided between her and the two approaching sentinels. One sentry fired an arrow, but Nigel caught it mid-air with a raised hand and a grunt. However, the second sentry swung its sword at him, forcing Nigel to dive to the side, losing his concentration. Crystal dropped to the ground with a cry of pain, rolling just in time to avoid another shot. Shrapnel from the stone arrow cut into the floor near her face.
John tried to pull himself up to help, but the pain was overwhelming. He crawled toward Crystal, desperately ignoring the life draining from his body. Why couldn’t he heal himself? Reaching for his magic, the familiar rage surged up, threatening to consume him. He couldn’t use it—not without endangering everyone around him. Did he even want everyone to live?
As the fight raged on, John watched as Micah and Nigel joined the battle alongside the security guards. The gunfire was replaced by the soft woosh of magic, the twang of bowstrings, the shattering of stone, and the occasional sickening crunch as stone met flesh. John watched as a man dropped his gun, clutching at his face after being hit by the magical mist of a deflected arrow.
John groaned in pain, dragging himself across the cement like a red paintbrush on a canvas. Crystal, having been dropped and forgotten by Nigel, ran frantically toward him. In seconds, she was by his side, cradling his head as he weakly fell into her lap.
"John, you have to heal yourself! You're losing too much blood!"
"I... I can't," John struggled again to reach for his magic. The rage battled with the pain and fear for his attention. He reached for it desperately. Crystal’s voice echoed in his ears with as much clarity as the ringing of bullet ricochets and the screams of victims around them. With a cry, John felt something snap. Flames erupted over his body. He smelled burning flesh and saw his wound slowly bubbling in the fire.
His wound bubbled and charred until the flames left behind a horrific blackened mess. Ash was whipped away by the heat, revealing new, raw pink skin at the edges. The wound was closing—slowly and painfully—but he was healing it, intentionally. For the first time, his magic was working as he willed it.
At the moment of this brief clarity and achievement, the malevolent voice in his head made its presence known. Crystal, who had watched in amazement, was unaffected at first. But when John’s emotions shifted, Crystal suddenly hissed in pain, leaping back and simultaneously pushing him away. Her clothes smoldered, but she quickly patted down the smoking embers.
John squeezed his eyes shut as pain crashed into him again. He fumbled mentally with his power before regaining control. Focusing on the pain, he fed the flames with it, struggling to heal himself until finally, he looked down and saw nothing but unbroken skin.
John gasped in relief, letting go of the power. Crystal rushed forward to help as he weakly rolled onto his knees. The battle raged on around them. Half of the sentinels had been destroyed, but the cost had been high. Only one security guard, besides Richard, remained. Nigel and Micah were at the forefront of the fighting. Nigel deflected and redirected arrows with his magic while Micah tore into the stone sentinels with spears of ice and a massive frozen mace.
John watched in astonishment as both men wielded their magic in ways he had never thought possible. Crystal roughly pulled him to his feet.
“We need to get out of here now!” she urged.
John nodded weakly. He felt like he’d been wrung dry from using his powers, even for that small amount.
They had to escape. Whatever this job really was, Richard had brought them here under false pretenses. He had brought John to Micah deliberately, and the man clearly wanted him dead. John didn’t know who Micah was or what he wanted. All he knew was that he had dragged Crystal into this danger, and he had to get her out. Together, they stumbled away from the treasure room.
The sentinels were closing in on Micah, Nigel, and the final guard, who was using his magic to disintegrate any stone limbs that got close. However, unlike Micah and Nigel, he couldn’t extend his magic beyond his body. Behind them, Richard watched over Sarah and the remaining scientists, using his powers to keep them from fleeing. The remains of two other scientists showed just how well that had worked.
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John stumbled, gesturing to get Crystal’s attention.
“You saw what Micah did. How many witnesses do you think he’ll leave alive?” he muttered.
“They aren’t our problem. Your boy Richard seems to be handling them just fine,” Crystal groaned.
“He’s not my boy,” John growled angrily.
With that, John walked back toward Sarah and the scientists, both whimpering and cowering behind Richard but unable to move, trapped by his magic. Crystal followed, cursing under her breath. The sentinels remained entirely focused on Micah and Nigel, who seemed determined to enter the now-open treasure room.
Richard looked conflicted, torn between fleeing for safety or following after his boss. Either way, the women were dead weight, and he seemed reluctant to let them go without Micah’s approval. That indecision kept Richard at the edges of the fight, watching. It gave John and Crystal the chance they needed as they slowly approached the conflict once again.
John’s heart pounded painfully in his chest as he forced himself to take slow, measured steps toward the group. His rifle was raised, finger ready on the trigger, and aimed at Richard. Richard jumped in surprise as he noticed John.
"John, are you okay? I’m so sorry! Let’s work this out—" Richard began to plead.
Without a word, John took aim at Richard’s hand and fired, blowing a hole right through the center of it. Richard screamed in agony, clutching his ruined hand.
“I said, don’t touch me.”
Crystal rushed forward, helping both women to their feet. John was glad his assumption had been correct. He figured Richard’s magic required concentration, but with how powerful Micah’s and Nigel’s abilities were, he hadn’t been sure it would work.
Both women seemed to snap back to reality, and upon seeing the sentinels, they quickly ran after Crystal.
“Don’t let them get away!” Micah roared from within the chamber.
There were only four sentinels left. Micah and Nigel were slowly taking them down, and they would soon return to finish what they had started—with John.
John ran after the women. A gunshot rang out, and a bullet ricocheted off the wall near his head as he neared the chamber’s exit. Richard fumbled with his rifle while Micah and Nigel focused on the last sentinel. It was time to go. John raced down the tunnel, following the preset lights until he caught up to the women. Crystal was pushing Sarah and the other scientist forward as best she could. The women were close to shock, and it took everything Crystal had to keep them moving.
John caught up to them, and both women flinched at the sound of his footsteps.
“What’s going on?” Sarah cried, her hands shaking as she teetered on the verge of tears.
“I don’t know,” Crystal replied, shaking her head. “But we’re getting you out of here.”
A shout echoed behind them, and the group froze.
“Go! Now!” John urged, pushing them all forward.
They frantically followed the tunnel back to the entrance. Their footsteps and heavy breathing echoed off the stone walls, and every sound made them flinch in panic. Finally, they burst out into the cool night air, the refreshing scar-light illuminating their sweating faces.
The guards at the mine entrance looked startled as John and the others rushed past them. Crystal pulled the group aside to speak quickly.
“We need to get out of here,” she said breathlessly. “Grab what you need and meet at the vehicles in two minutes.”
The scientist looked frantically between John and Crystal. “I can’t leave,” she stammered. “I have to find Rayden!”
John and Crystal exchanged confused looks, but before they could respond, the scientist took off running toward one of the nearby structures.
Crystal grabbed John’s arm. “We don’t know how this Rayden is going to react. We need to leave now!”
She looked at Sarah, who was glancing around in every direction, unsure of what to do. “We’re getting out of here and heading back to Qorluna,” Crystal said firmly.
At the mention of leaving, Sarah visibly brightened, and John nodded in agreement. They quickly gathered what they needed and began searching for a vehicle. Within minutes, Crystal emerged from the guardhouse with keys in hand, skillfully deflecting questions from the curious guards still stationed at the camp.
John pulled Sarah with him toward the vehicles, shouldering a pack and keeping his head down. People were starting to notice their return without the main sponsor of the expedition. Where were they running off to now?
Sarah climbed into the back seat while Crystal took the driver’s seat. Just as John pulled himself into the passenger seat, shouts rang out from the far side of the camp.
A man was dragging the scientist who had escaped with them through the camp, shouting indecipherable orders. More shouts followed, and John could make out two figures emerging from the tunnel—Micah and Nigel.
“Go!” John shouted, slamming the door shut.
The sound of the engine starting drew more shouts, and men began running in their direction. Crystal hit the gas, and the vehicle peeled out of the camp, bullets whizzing through the air behind them as they drove down the trail and into the distance.
They drove through the night, with John referencing a map they had brought, directing Crystal whenever they reached a fork in the path. Sarah sat in the back, glancing fearfully behind them every few seconds for signs of pursuit. As the scar-light dimmed, the city of Prokeno came into sight.
They joined the line of vehicles entering the city and allowed their Jeep to be searched. They had stopped before arriving to inspect the Jeep for any surprises. Prokeno hosted one of the largest airports in Soventh, and the Belaquire military faction in control of the city made sure to inspect all comings and goings to prevent smuggling. John had ditched all military gear prior to their arrival. As far as anyone was concerned, they were just travelers returning from visiting a mine or refinery.
After a thorough inspection, they drove the remaining distance to the airport. There, they ditched the vehicle and, after a stressful three hours, managed to purchase last-minute flights. As the plane finally departed, John watched the busy airport grow smaller through the window.
He didn’t relax until they were well into the air.
Something big had happened in those mines. Something dangerous. The more John tried to recall his past jobs with Richard, the more frustrated he became. There were obvious gaps in his memory, jobs he had agreed to that normally wouldn’t have interested him. Crystal’s reluctance to shake Richard’s hand made more sense now. She hadn’t known everything, but magic users with abilities that altered their bodies tended to have more acute senses.
John was going to have to screen any future calls or texts from Richard. He needed to figure out what was really going on. There was too much he didn’t know.