image [https://i.imgur.com/jpOYNWV.png]

Cursing at their thoroughness, I mourned the loss of my items. I’d do my best to get them back if we found an avenue of escape, but the ring especially would be missed. Maybe they’d stash them somewhere, or perhaps I’d get to pry it off a corpse. The last option sent a surge of malicious satisfaction through my body and I was surprised at the outpouring of bloodlust I felt. If we had the chance, I’d do my best to give them hell. Better to go down swinging, my emotions be damned.

I’d take care of any potential fallout after.

In a sullen mood, I grabbed a sandwich from the tray and scarfed it down, hunger getting the better of me. It could’ve used a little mayo, but the salami and cheese were a nice combination and there were plenty of them. Whatever they had planned for us, it seemed like they didn’t intend to starve us.

Thinking about the darker aspects of captivity while I ate, my mind went to torture and other unsavoury affairs I’d watched in various movies over the years. I didn’t want to believe that we’d be subjected to any of that, but you never knew if there was a bad seed or two in their roster.

Shuddering a little at the thought, I finished the tray with sandwiches and had some more water.

Then I got to work.

I had another two and a half hours before the doctor came back, and I was feeling much better at this point—refreshed and with a clear head. It was time to work on my Sigil.

Sitting down on the floor I crossed my legs in the lotus position and took a deep breath.

Entering the tranquil mind I sat in the middle of my foundation and found my centre, putting one hand on the part of the square. I’d decided to try my hand at the life-aether and see how far I could push my tracing in one go.

Willing myself to direct the green orb, I sensed the energy’s willingness to comply immediately and I could feel it getting closer. Taking a deep breath I steeled myself and got ready for a bit of mental wrestling.

I held out one hand in my soul space and a small tendril snaked out and wrapped itself around it. I’d start by routing the aether into the traced-out part of my Sigil first, adding my traumatic experiences to the fray, then absorbing what I could into myself.

Feeling the flow moving from my outstretched hand and into my foundation, I poured my amplified negative emotions and memories of the bar fight into the Sigil. It was a lot easier this time around since there wasn’t as much to unpack.

The burden being gradually lifted from my shoulders was registered in the back of my mind in real time, but it wasn’t as impactful as it had been previously. The regret I’d felt at killing the ghouls had already diminished on its own when I had considered how they were mindless shadows of their former selves. Apathy was already settling in a little at reaping people's lives and it soured my mood.

The cost of doing business, I guess.

My foundation stopped accepting aether automatically after a while, a red glow shining from below, and I could sense its fullness, primed and ready to execute my orders. Next, I willed what remained of the life-aether into my body.

The hot sensation of foreign willpower settled in my chest and we struggled back and forth for control. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but after a while, I finally managed to clamp down on the unruly energy and filled myself to capacity. Or as near as I could get. The heating properties in my chest were a mild annoyance, but nothing I couldn’t handle now that I knew what to expect.

Before the sensation of totality could settle, there was no more life-aether to absorb. It had run dry. Surprise flashed across my consciousness, but when I thought about how my Sigil was much further along now than the last time I'd worked with the green energy, it made sense.

I enjoyed a brief window of serenity before I continued.

Here goes everything.

Willing the foundational aether to trace out my Sigil, I supplemented it with the aether in my body when it ran dry, but then something unexpected happened.

I suddenly hit a wall.

A pinch of aether was still sitting in my chest, unused, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t push it anywhere. My real body frowned and when I looked down at my foundation in my soul space, I found out why.

It was done.

image [https://i.imgur.com/TGgK9IC.png]

"YES!" I yelled out loud and felt the last scrap of aether contained within me disperse harmlessly because I lost my focus.

I didn't care. It was complete. Faster than I'd expected, faster than anyone would probably have expected, I'd finished tracing my Sigil. What should have taken me weeks had only taken days. I didn't know why my Sigil responded so well to the life-aether, maybe it was simply catching up. I decided it was another puzzle for future Ethan. I knew my perspective was a little skewed due to the timeframe I'd managed to do it in, but I'd been waiting for this with bated breath. I could finally start working on my magic.

Giddiness and excitement bubbled to the surface as I thought of the prospect of finally working with the aether, and I couldn't wait to find out what my affinities were.

With a pang of regret, I thought of Colson and how I'd have liked to share this moment with him. His guidance on what to do next would undoubtedly have been invaluable too, but I'd need to work on it myself the good old-fashioned way—through trial and error.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Unable to help myself, I absorbed minuscule amount of ambient aether into my body to see what would happen and was positively surprised when the warm glow in my chest automatically went through my body and filled a tiny amount of my Sigil. That part lit up with a glow and I smiled in satisfaction.

Before I could get carried away, I exited my meditation, and while I didn’t feel any discomfort anywhere it was better to be safe than sorry. Sitting on the floor I could feel how the toll of the tracing had affected me mentally and physically. Despite my jubilant mood and the rush of adrenaline that had perked me up when I discovered I was done, my mind felt murky and my body heavy.

I would wait for tomorrow to arrive before I filled the Sigil completely with ambient aether, for when I was rested. Colson hadn't mentioned if there were any negative consequences of slipping when you were done tracing out your foundation, but I didn't want to take any more chances.

The clock showed 5:44 PM. I'd been at it for roughly two hours. It was weird how time flew when you were immersed in working with magic.

Standing up on half-numbed legs, I shook off my body and cricked my neck to either side, waiting for the doctor to arrive.

At five past six the door unlocked.

"Ethan, still up and about," she said and smiled at me. She entered with a set of bland grey clothes in her arms and deposited them on the desk. "And you ate all the food, great. How are you feeling?"

"Better, but still a little woozy," I lied casually, shrugging.

She considered me professionally for a moment before speaking, "That's to be expected. Little change of plans. Put on some fresh clothes and we'll head upstairs. Our Lord wants to address you all. It'll give you a moment to talk to your friends."

"Really?" I asked, and took off my clothes, equipping the cult ensemble, "I thought you were keeping us isolated on purpose."

"Your friends are bunking in pairs. We don't have as much space as we'd like, which is why you're in here on your own instead of in one of the cells."

"Doc," one of the masked bodyguards warned.

"Oh relax, they'll probably tell him about it anyway," she waved his comment away. "You'll need to put on this," she continued and held out another hood for me, "it's clean, don't worry."

The clothes they'd given me were a little tight around my thighs and my chest, the shirt only barely covering my stomach. They were probably a size or two too small, but they had a bit of elasticity so it wasn't overly uncomfortable.

I put on the hood she was holding and presented my hands.

"What are you doing?" she asked in a puzzled voice.

"You're not gonna tie my hands?"

"Unnecessary, are you going to try to escape?"

Grunting gloomily, I followed it up by telling her I wouldn't dream of it.

"All good, then. Come along," she told me cheerfully and grabbed my arm.

Leading me back up the stairs, we briefly ventured outside, before entering what I assumed was another building when the air changed again. No words were exchanged, the doctor humming slightly into the silence. The good cheer I'd felt at my accomplishment was diminished but not wholly gone, nervousness setting in.

As we walked further into wherever we were, I heard muted voices coming from up ahead. A door opened and I was guided inside, the voices quieting at our approach. My hood was removed and I took in my surroundings and the other people sitting at a long table. Ten of them, three of whom I knew. Relief washed over me at seeing them alive and relatively well.

Glancing around briefly it was obvious that it was an assembly hall of some kind. A huge room with old chairs and tables, lit by fluorescent light, the sunlight was blocked from entry by blackout curtains covering all the windows. The other captives were situated in the middle, and four masked individuals were positioned relatively far away, one in each corner. They had stun rods hanging on their belts and walkie-talkies attached to their chests, standing by in case of trouble.

"Ethan! You made it," Dink called from the table and waved me over when I focused on them.

The first thing I noticed about them was that they were all wearing black collars with silver symbols around their necks and anger rose within me, but I plastered on a smile and headed their way. The door was shut behind me, my chaperones content to stay outside.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," I told the table at large.

There was a chorus of chuckles in response to my sarcasm.

"Meet June, Ralph, Viggo, Annie, Jack, Adam and Royce," Dink introduced and pointed at them all individually.

Ralph and June were two names I knew. I remembered Mateo mentioning them when we were in the storm cellar. Had they been cooped up here for months? I waved in greeting, pulled out a chair, and sat down, eyeing their collars with disgust. They were seamless, with no obvious locking mechanism that I could see.

Mateo himself was being quiet, and he looked tired as hell, but his wrist had been bandaged properly and I hoped he wasn't hurting too badly.

"This the one who got nabbed along with you?" Ralph, by far the oldest, asked in a gruff voice, continuing before anyone had a chance to answer, "Bit on the younger side. No offense, son."

"It's fine, I am," I told them, following it up with a question of my own. "How long have you all been here?"

"Between two weeks and four months," Mateo provided, cutting down on the specifics. "Sorry to cut short your inquiry, Ethan, but I'm not content to just sit here and wait for whatever they've got planned. We were just discussing what to do when you entered."

"And like I said," Ralph began in an impatient tone, "I've been here for four months, June's been here for two. Damn near went mad before she got here, and we haven't thought of a way to get outta here as long as we're wearing these damn things," — he tugged at his collar — "We're taken outside to a closed-off area twice a day to stretch our legs, but they never leave us without supervision by at least four guards. We're even allowed to talk to each other and I don't believe they're listening in, but I think that's just typical vampire arrogance at play. They're always like that. Walking around without a care in the world, thinking we're beneath them. No other sane person would let their prisoners potentially plan an escape."

I'd decided to table stereotyping people after my experience with Tanner but since none of the others gainsaid him, I kept quiet.

Mateo slapped the table angrily with his good hand, "It's not good enough! There's got to be something we can do!"

Ralph's face took on a hint of anger, but before he could offer a rebuttal I lightly tapped the table twice in interruption.

"How do the collars work?" I asked in a low voice. "This is important."

Royce bent over the table and looked at me intently.

"Standard fare. Runes block the absorption of aether into your Sigil and prevent you from drawing on any you have stored. There's no punitive measure, if that's what you're thinking, it's simply impossible to do. You can feel the aether, just outside your reach. They have to charge them every two to three days, depending on the strength of the Holder, but they charge ours daily. The doctor's been doing it," he told me in a hushed voice.

"How do you disable them?" came my next question.

"You mean like power them down? Let 'em run out of power. If you mean removal, that's actually simple. You simply infuse it with aether from the outside and will it to open," Royce finished and leaned back.

"Are you kidding me? That's conveniently simple," I whispered in surprise.

It seemed like a massive oversight by whoever had produced them, but if we could turn it into our advantage I wasn't going to complain.

"I was assistant to an artificer for a couple of years before the collars were made illegal to produce by the Board," Annie chimed in, in a low voice. "You can only fit so many runes in a limited space before they start disrupting each other. That's why rituals require a large space. Better safe than sorry. The aether interactions go haywire if you overdo it, and aether blockage and material resilience are obviously top priorities. There were a couple of cases of people trying a workaround, years ago, resulting in collars exploding. Not pretty."

"No kidding," Rob provided with a snort.

This was good news. Maybe we'd be able to plan an escape, after all. Now we just had to formulate a plan.

Before I could ask my next question, I was interrupted when the door to the assembly hall was thrown open.