The screaming in the distance fully settled down, and Amity finally calmed her mind, resolute in her plans for what she wanted to tell her friend. For now, though, she had to actually find her.

That plan started now, though, as she finally reached the edge of the moat, and finally saw the girl who had screamed.

As Amity barely saw the short girl, she began to cough uncontrollably, eyes watering from the burning building. The girl was wearing nearly nothing save for shorts, a sports bra, and an over-sized jacket that kept her covered, and she noticed Amity.

“Hey! Are you okay? Were you… in there?”

Amity blinked, still barely breathing, before managing to cough out a few words.

“I- I didn’t come out of that building. I came from back over there.” She pointed towards where the other moat was. “Did you come from…?”

“Yeah, I barely got out before the bulk of it collapsed…”

The girl began to tear up.

“Hey… I’m… sorry. I don’t quite… know what to say…”

“It’s fine… It wasn’t your fault.”

Amity let the girl sit down, and cry for a few minutes.

“What’s your name?”

“It’s… I’m Amity.” She turned to face the girl. “What’s yours?”

“Mariss.”

Mariss stood up. She walked to the crumbled bridge that once allowed access to her house.

“It… wasn’t much. This place was ruins when I moved in, but I didn’t quite have anywhere else to go…”

“Did your family…” Amity followed her, standing next to a post that originally held the bridge up.

“Not dead, technically. They… It’s a lot, I don’t want to burden you…” She adjusted the large jacket.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. Do you want to try to look for any of your stuff in here?”

“We can’t get in… You see the bridge.”

Amity whipped her hand around, showing her the red rock, and intentionally flashily showed her the process of magic, by creating an ice bridge.

“We can’t get across, right?”

She felt her magic tug as if removing a product from the hooks at a store, before allowing it to flow as if dropping it onto the floor. The cool mass freely formed near her hand, and it settled on the sand, much to the amazement of Mariss.

“Whoa, is that ice magic!? That’s really strong, too! My magic is kinda weak…”

“You have magic too? Hey, show me!” Amity nagged her as the ice bridge grew, settling on the other side of the moat where the original bridge once stood.

“I mean… Are you sure?”

“Yeah, show me some of your magic! Make an ice cube or something!”

“Oh, I can’t make ice, I only have lightning…”

“You… only have lightning..?”

“I can… only use lightning magic? You only have ice magic, it’s no different.”

Amity pulled away from the bridge. “What do you mean? I have… I think, all of them!”

“How do you have all of them..?”

“I just, do? Watch this,” Amity revealed the yellow rock, and used it to shock the air, sending zaps of electricity every which way, surrounding but not touching either of them.

“W- Watch out!”

“Relax, it wont hurt you… did it?”

“Uh, it didn’t but…”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Here,” She switched back to the red one, flaming the edge of the newly built bridge and melting it slightly.

“Amity-”

“Right, sorry, that just happened. Watch this one..?”

The wind kicked up, pulling away from its usual northbound procession and following Amity’s direction, which was to spiral around Mariss, lifting her brown hair up and around her.

“Dude, Amity, again, how do you have this many?”

“I don’t- Actually, I do. I… You’re not a human, right?”

“N… no?”

“Right, well, I am, and maybe my magic works differently because when I got it literally a week ago I got everything.”

“You only got magic… a week ago? I’m not nearly that good at mine, and I’ve had it for my… whole life, actually.”

“I mean, let’s see it!”

Mariss picked up a piece of rubble from the ground near her, throwing it into the ground and snapping it in half using a short beam of precise lightning.

“Dude, that was awesome! What do you mean you’re bad at it?”

“I’ve seen people way better… Like you! You’ve barely had it and you can do way more than I can!”

“People being better than you doesn’t mean you’re not good!”

She stepped past Amity, walking away from the ruins.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“Nothing of mine survived the fire. I’m gonna go, find a new place to live, or something.”

Amity ran, catching up to her, just to ask,

“If you’re leaving… Do you know where we are?”

“I don’t know exactly… I can point where we are out on a map, if you have one.”

She patted her pockets, finding nothing.

“I don’t… Can you at least tell me, what island we’re on?”

“sigh, I think we’re somewhere on the… east? Yeah, east side of the south island.”

Amity nodded, “Thanks,” before saying goodbyes and parting ways with the girl.

She fell to her knees.

“God… damn it… Where is she?”

Her hat fell off, and the man keeping her from moving picked it up, placing it back on her head.

“Waiting for Amity to come bail you out? Tough luck… She’s dead, isn’t she? We saw her fall.”

Himiko struggled in her restraints.

“You can’t get out of those, especially without her magic. There’s nothing you can do.”

Raleigh screamed in a distant room, begging for help. On Himiko’s other side, Katie sat, unwilling to move. Her face was drained, paler than the moon.

“Himiko… Don’t fight it.”

Kaiya slid down the wall in her chamber, separate from the rest of the group.

“Right, you’re… Kaiya Glitz, right?”

“Yes, but-”

She wiggled in the chains, but quickly stopped, realizing the futility.

“Right, so, we have reason to suspect you’re in possession of magic?”

“I’m not speaking.”

“If you won’t speak, we can always check ourselves, and let me tell you, it hurts.”

She sighed.

“Fine, alright. I have magic, yes, but I can’t use it right now.”

The woman flipped a page in her clipboard, raising an eyebrow.

“Explain.”

She explained how she got her magic, and why she couldn’t use it.

“Hmm, alright. You’re useless to us, and there are no sources we know of for, what you call, ‘active mediums’.” She penciled in a final line on the clipboard, before setting it down. “We will escort you out of this facility.”

Kaiya stuttered. “Wh- What? You’re… I can… go?”

“Yes. We will bring an agent in, who will take you to a local inn.”

“I… Thank you.”

The lady stepped out of the room, and while the door was open, flung a key into the room.

“You may unlock yourself, but do not leave.”

The door clicked closed, and Kaiya barely caught the key. She unlocked the simple cuffs on each arm and leg, and placed the key into her pocket.

Although the door in front of her remained closed, a panel behind her slid open as a man stepped through, leaving it open as he didn’t notice Kaiya on his way through the front door.

She peeked through the panel, noticing two young girls, both looking incredibly familiar.

Wait, “Himiko!?”

She slipped through, sliding it back closed behind her.

“Kaiya! How did you get out?”

“They let me out, I’m useless to them apparently.”

“Do you have the key?”

“Oh, yeah!”

She unlocked both girls who stood up and immediately ran in to hug them.

“Thank you!”

“You’re… welcome. Himiko.”

They both pulled away, and Himiko replied.

“Hmm?”

“Do you have any of the magic rock things?”

“Right, yeah, here. I have a few Amity gave me a while ago.”

She handed them over, before hearing the door from the other room open.

“Shit, we gotta run. This way!”

Kaiya quickly opened the door beside her, running through them, bringing Himiko and Katie with her. The solid floor didn’t betray them, as it seemingly silenced their steps as they ran into a dusty back hallway.

“Where do we go?” Himiko whispered.

“I’m not sure… I think we were taken across the entire facility to get to our holding rooms, right?” Kaiya leaned against the wall.

“Yeah, we were, I remember.” Katie brushed against it too, peeking around a corner.

“Did anyone see Raleigh?”

They all froze. None of them had seen him.

“Uh… I didn’t see him…”

“Me neither.”

“Right, that’s annoying. Here’s my plan.”

Kaiya pointed at the wall. “Somewhere, on another big wall like this one, there’s probably a map. There were a few one on our last visit to a facility. We need to figure out where the hell one is here, so we can start searching for him.”

They all nodded, understanding the plan.

Himiko led the group, slinking through the unused hallway to try finding their most important item at the moment.

The search was short lived, as at the first turn of this backstreet was a small map, only labeled with general use, but one entry caught their collective eyes.

Science #3 OR: General Holding Cell #3

They all pounced, knowing exactly where their friend was.

“Okay, turn back and it’s the second room right in front of us.”

“Are we sure? That seems like a really easy way to get caught, that route.” Katie pointed out an alternate route. “These rooms open into each-other, and with humans on the loose I doubt anyone’s doing any science now. We should slip through those and pick him up through the science rooms, then just sprint to the exit.”

“I… see your point actually. That might be a good route. Let’s go.”

They collectively walked down the rest of the hall, ending up at the turn that could end with them getting seen. They psyched themselves up, getting ready to try to run across.

Himiko peeked the corner, confirming that nobody was looking, sending the signal to run. They all did, and barely made it across before the noise of a chair scraping tile floor pierced their ears, showing that they would’ve absolutely been seen if they had gone just a split second earlier.

“Shit, that was close.”

The propped-open door to the first science room didn’t ring any alarm bells, so they stepped in, just before seeing the remains of an abandoned experiment. The charred black powder in the beaker left the distinct impression it was failed, and the vials of red liquid resting in holders mounted on the back wall proved it was in their best interest to keep moving.

Stepping into the second room, the collective storage, clinking could be heard a bit down, likely people grabbing more beakers, maybe preparing a distillation setup, or a vacuum chamber. Whatever they were getting, it wasn’t a great idea to stick around.

“Just go to the next room.” Just who whispered wasn’t clear, but the advice was sound, so they did. Luckily, the shelving was packed, and there were many solid colored materials anyway, so there was no chance for anyone to be able to see them. Hearing them was an issue though, so they opened the final door as slowly as they could, after checking through a crack in the side of it for anyone inside.

“Raleigh?”

Himiko turned the door open, not even becoming visible before Raleigh could answer.

“Wh- Who are you now?”

“It’s Himiko!” The door fully opened, and the three girls stepped fully in, softly shutting the door behind them.

“Oh my god, you guys! How did you get out?”

“Apparently they just let Kaiya out, since she has magic. She brought her key, so we’re gonna get you out then bail.”

“Yes, please let me out, they just left a second ago to grab some stuff for what they called a release.” Raleigh visibly tensed up while saying it.

“Sounds creepy.”

Kaiya slipped off the shackles holding Raleigh, allowing him to move freely.

“Thanks so much, genuinely. Pretty sure I was gonna die there.”“No problem, but we need to get going now.”

Right on cue, the door to the storage room slowly opened. Kaiya pushed open the other door, leading to the main grounds of the facility, and got everyone through.

“Shit- Get away!”

Right as the last person left the front door, the scientist realized what had happened, and charged for Kaiya. She responded by grabbing the yellow rock, barely hitting the person’s foot, before tripping as she left the room.

“Get off of me!” They had grabbed her foot, trying to pull Kaiya back into the room, but she managed to pull away from them and startle them with another strike to the other foot, allowing her to get out of their grasp.

She stood up, stumbling before settling into a simple run as she met up with the rest of the group, who were being closed in on by a few workers.

“Guys! Get in!” She swept the floor with a bolt of lightning, sending most of them tumbling to the floor besides one, who used his crutches to keep standing.

The rest of the group started into the tubes, deciding collectively to go to the far side of the island, leaving Kaiya behind.

He - the man on the crutches, who looked to be a higher ranking person, wearing a suit and tie as opposed to the lab coats that most of them wore - kept stepping forward, towards Kaiya.

He pressed a button in the chest pocket on his outfit, which sent the lights above them into a frenzy and forcefully shut the tubes entrance, solid metal slamming down.

Kaiya tried to use the lightning again, but the man was unaffected. She switched to fire, but he didn’t flinch.

“Look, kid. You may think you’re above us, but you have no business being here.” He inched closer, emphasizing words with the taps of the crutches against floor. “There’s a reason the travel portals were closed. There’s a reason that we don’t get humans. You were never supposed to be here, you rat, and he should never have been here either.”He didn’t touch Kaiya, tapping his crutch on a distinctly out of place tile on the floor. Kaiya instead stepped backwards, shaking.

“You may try to kill me. But this is not the end. You may tell the gods that you lost, and they will scorn you, ignorant fool.”

A pillar arose from the tile he touched, a small button revealed atop it.

“Death is only the end if you believe the story is about you, and it isn’t. Farewell, coward.”

The button sunk into the panel it was in, and a chunk of the ceiling separated, falling swiftly and noticeably, leaving cracks in the tile where its impact wasn’t softened by the body of a preteen girl, purple blood shining across the tile.