Going back to our ship was a possibility, but if whatever was coming caught us while we flew through space, it would be impossible to avoid. Escaping to the ship was suicidal. Instead, we went past the open hatch — a surreal video of space peering through without any windows between us — and went the opposite way we first walked through.

Whatever was creating magic had moved and I sensed it in the change of the flow. I wasn’t sure where it was or where it was moving to, but it was clear that moving away from where we were was a good idea. Martin ran, his voice interrupted by his heavy breathing, all he could muster were gasps and moans of fear. Tedet wheezed through his windpipes, but his voicebox did not need air to speak; he pointed and ordered us to move, being the only one capable of voicing anything out. Martin and I simply complied.

Every corner, every hallway, and every doorway whizzed by as we squeezed through whatever way we could. Every so often we’d see machines eating up the ship and we’d moved past them, jumping over holes in the ground or across openings in the walls. The machines scattered when we made enough noise — they weren’t stranger to the struggles and what it would mean to be caught in them.

It must have taken us several minutes before I finally started slowing, realizing that whatever was moving had stopped. Martin and Tedet turned to see me as they ran a little further, only for them to come to a stop to simply ask my name. I knew what it meant, all the questions they wanted to ask, but didn’t know how or where to start, were all condensed into a single word: “Ed?” and “Eddy?” were spoken in unison.

“It stopped,” I explained. “It’s not moving anymore. Oh, sweet Mary.”

Suddenly, the probing appeared again.

“What was that?” asked Martin. “The whole ship shook!”

“It must have been massive,” continued Tedet. “I can’t imagine the machines moving all at once to make it happen. Besides, when they did move, I didn’t feel anything.”

“They were escaping from it as well. It couldn’t be them.”

I didn’t know how I was supposed to bring it up to them. That two things in the ship were sources of magic. One could easily be Padrict, but he could also be hiding from it. At this point, with what was happening, I couldn’t rule anything more out. A massive source of magic that moved and shook the ship — I could only think of one source, and that is a demon. But the magic is natural, not demonic. There are tinges of something awful in demonic magic, I would be able to tell. But nothing else can be as massive as a demon. Then again, such a big demon would be so powerful there is no reason it’d live here alone. And why would it make magic to form the Earth’s atmosphere and gravity?

None of it made sense. But that was my best guess so far. I’ll have to imagine it’s a demon and it’s hostile. It goes without saying, that the demon must be avoided and we must search for the source of the probing, it’s our only bet to find Padrict and get the hell out of this place as fast as we can.

But before that, I should tell Martin and Tedet that it was probably me that angered the demon.

So, I told them. As we walked in the general direction we were being probed from, I told them everything I knew and everything I hypothesized.

“A demon? Not a faery?” asked Martin.

Tedet interrupted before I could answer. “Demons are Faery. But I guess you mean the Fay. As far as I understand, they would not be leaking magic. The Fay have absolute control over their magic; you would only feel them if they wanted you to or if they were breathing down your neck.”

“Pretty much,” I answered. “Wizards could feel them, but we’d need a lot of experience, concentration, or being within meters of them. Galavant gave us chills because he wanted to come noticed last time.”

“So, a demon. But with natural abilities?”

“No demon we know of fits a description. But who knows, at this point? The supernatural can surprise you. I’d confuse it with a wizard if it weren’t so strong… but no wizard, warlock, or witch could be this powerful.”

I saw Martin’s face turn from deep pondering to confusion. He turned to look behind himself, at the blackness of the hall and I imagined him feeling pursued. Martin felt nothing, no magic. Only the darkness follows him. I know what is happening and Tedet, with experience, is at the very least attuned to magical changes, he’d feel the thing close like how he’d hear something far away, so long as the damned thing was close enough for him to notice the change. But Martin? He probably felt alone, despite having us as guards. Without any information, without any knowledge, Martin probably feels vulnerable. Like prey only knowing their hunter was somewhere out there, stalking.

With nothing left to do, we simply kept walking. The ship felt a lot more eerie. What was a scary mystery in a dark ship became a living nightmare. The little machines shuffled and whirled like usual, something like nature going back to the usual business after an artillery barrage. What are animals supposed to do when they must survive? And so, the birds keep flying and they keep chirping across no-man’s land. And so, the little machines keep crawling and keep dismantling the graveyard ship.

The holes made the ship a lot more confusing to travel. One would imagine that the labyrinthic nature of its identical halls would make the holes easier to navigate, but the reality was that it only made it seem like an optical illusion.

After walking for a while, getting closer to the source of the magical probing, I sensed a shift. The source of magic had slightly moved, and I was able to detect its slight movement on a big enough angle. I knew whoever was doing it, was close. We kept moving, and I tried circling around, so that maybe they would not feel as concerned that we were looking for them. The new angle told me the source had moved toward my left after a bit. I could not detect its closeness, but I knew we were close enough.

I quickly changed directions and the source shifted again, but it disappeared soon after.

“Trouble,” I said to my companions. “I cannot sense it anymore.”

Tedet reached out to his pouch and readied for an alchemical incantation.

“Martin, stay behind us. If something happens, hide. Hide fast.”

“How close, Ed?” asked Tedet.

“I can’t tell. Within a hundred meters. Can’t be more.”

“Not too close; not too far.”

“Close enough to be a thread.”

“Can’t you slightly probe him?” asked Martin. “Just a bit of magic.”

“I could try, but if I fail, I will be sounding a siren on the entire ship.”

“What about Ted?”

Tedet shook his upper body, trying to imitate us shaking our heads, and said: “Can’t”

For the next minute, my alertness skyrocketed. We shuffled slowly across the ship, making as little noise as possible. My footsteps were light and long. Tedet was crouching and he slid his feet forward. Martin leaned forward as he tried following my steps.

We turned corners by peeking slowly. We stopped as we watched the little machines roll and bound across and between our feet, hoping not to make any noise. Every time a fight broke out, we whirled towards it and I felt myself tense up before I could start building up magic.

Something spooky about two parties stalking each other, not knowing where each is. Whoever got the upper hand would be the winner. If they found us first, they’d be able to strategize and act using the element of surprise. They could take us from their most advantageous position, leaving us wide in the open, while they scurry along, from cover to cover, without us even seeing them.

Another minute passed and nothing. I decided to change our direction and turn again, towards where I thought they’d go if they were trying to turn around us. We turned left when we started following them, and now we’re turning left again. Of course, they’d be doing the same and we’ll eventually converge in a center, that is, so long as they follow our pattern.

Thinking about Padrict, I thought they might run away, but they only have a few options. We controlled the right side of the ship, while whatever was causing the magic and tremors, was on his left. I concluded he would not go further left, and he could not walk back unless he wanted to intercept us up front. So, it only left going towards the edge of the ship or turning left again, to get past us.

I directed myself an at intercepting angle, expecting us to eventually be close enough to sense us. We’d have to be extremely close, a few meters.

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Suddenly, I felt a pang. The surprise made me jump and it took longer for me to act on it. I tried feeling the flow and I knew where it was. The strength of the magic was high, there was no mistaking it. In the very next millisecond, I knew it was close and I knew where it was coming from. My face instinctively turned towards where I knew it came from, like how one would turn when they heard something. When I locked eyes on the place, across several opened holes, I knew it.

I thought I saw a silhouette. Something in the shadows hiding.

No, not hiding anymore.

My skin began to crawl when I felt the magic coalescing before my eyes. This wasn’t just probing anymore; this was active magic. Padrict, or whoever, was casting a spell.

I pushed Tedet and used the momentum to hold on to Martin and we flew backwards.

“Watch out!” I shouted.

Something zoomed past us, and I could clearly hear the wind whistling as it did. The heavy impact echoed across the empty halls with a deep thunk.

“Sweet Mary!”

Tedet crawled towards cover and Martin and I pulled ourselves away from him to take cover as well. Another object whistled, and this time I hit closer. It wasn’t on the mark, the object was most likely being launched randomly across the holes, hoping it would hit.

“Across these holes!” I told Tedet. “I felt it.”

“Yea, I heard ‘im, alright!” he answered.

“How is he doing that?! What magic is that?” I spoke aloud.

Magic doesn’t break the laws of physics. Magic is also energy and we use energy to modify or transform reality. To spit out flames, we change the temperature of the places, directing the kinetic energy of molecules from one place to another. No energy is created or destroyed. Water is manipulated using its movement or the movement of other objects to change its shape and course. Wind works the same. And earth magic requires some sort of object that is recognized as rock. But the entire ship is made of metal, and metalomancy is not usually taught or used. It’s hard to use it because metals' crystalline structure makes them hard to manipulate. Rocks are amalgamations of different crystals in an amorphous structure, making them easier to manipulate. And yet, this man was shooting us with something.

More thunks. He was not aiming correctly, but any one of those shots could put us out of service for good. Eventually, they began trying to move closer, trying to see if we could approach it from different angles. The thunking spread, but eventually it started following only me. Padrict must be sensing my magic and was trying to at least put me out of commission first. I was the one that found him, after all.

One of those objects eventually hit a wall behind us — Martin was still following me. I got close to see the object that looked like had broken apart, but with my limited eyesight, I could at least figure out a cylindrical shape on the pieces that were left behind.

My curiosity peaked at the object that looked to me like some sort of rock, and when I approached to grab it, something happened. My arm began crackling. Not my arm, exactly, but a digital sound came through from the location of my extended arm. The sound made me instinctively recoil, tugging my hand inside the other against my chest, as if that would protect it and me from the sound. I knew that sound too well. From movies and documentaries, this sound has been following us for centuries. Ever since we first discovered about it and learned of its dangers, we created tools that allowed us to detect it. The crackling sound associated with those tools is now being used as tradition — as well as a digital beeping — to warn us of the closeness of that danger. My arm had come close enough for it to detect it and the sound was enough to strike fear in Martin’s and my heart. We looked at each other. We knew exactly what we were thinking without saying a thing.

Another thunk near us broke the flung stone into pieces and some of it rained on top of us. The crackling repeated several times a second and the beeping went higher in pitch. I felt my soul escaping my body before I finally heard both our suits state the obvious.

“Warning! Radiation level high!”

It took less than a second after we heard the crackle, to sound of the warning, for Martin and I to jump away from what we imagined was certain death — radiation.

Padrict was flinging at us radioactive material.

“TED!” I screamed. “It’s radioactive!”

“Depleted uranium!” continued Martin.

Certainly, our suits could protect us from its most dangerous type — alpha and beta ionizing radiation — but if those rocks hit us and puncture through our suits, it would be our death sentence.

Martin and I kept moving until we got closer. There was no point in trying to run away. So, we hid and closed our distance, trying to keep Padrict from engaging Tedet. The stone flinging went quiet for a little. We decided to take the advantage to peer through and found nothing. Thus, we moved again.

Another pang and Padrict was extremely close, within a dozen meters. He flung another piece of radioactive material and I could hear him using magic. I twisted from my cover and peeked through, gathering my magic, and blasted Padrict with my own attack.

“Tempesta!” I cast.

I could hear Padrict wail as he was slammed by a wall of air.

“Forza!” he reciprocated in a scream.

The wind that came towards us slammed the wall at my back. I felt it bend slightly with a groan. The wall became warm to the touch.

“Pietra!” he screamed again.

The wall was peppered with several pieces of rocks that rained dust on us. The suits immediately reacted to it and shut itself off. Martin and I rushed out of the place and into another hole. A magical spear of air slammed into my shoulder and I felt gravity suddenly spin as my body flew across the floor, crashing into a hard cushion of little machines.

Martin rushed to help me when several footsteps appeared from another hole.

Padrict held a piece of rock in his hand and I felt the magic gathering. He quickly turned to his right and cast the rock with his incantation.

Another body drove into Padrict, making it fly and slide on the floor. Tedet had crashed himself into the enemy.

When Padrict reincorporated, I sensed the magic gathering. I did the same.

“Forza!”

“Tempesta!”

Our winds rushed into perpendicular angles, but while Padrict’s was focused and small in area, mine was wide and brute. My magic swallowed his and the wind took him off his feet and dragged him across the floor, into a wall.

Before Padrict could do anything, Tedet was already upon him, holding him on a wrestling choke and making him submit to his alchemical power. The rogue wizard had no chance of fighting back.

“No!” he screamed. “Let me go! Let me—Forza!”

A spear of air found Tedet’s chest the force behind it made him lose his grip on Padrict. Tedet was still on top of him, but the struggle to keep the wizard’s hands away from him was equivalent to two people fighting for control of a gun.

Martin and I ran to Tedet’s aid, managing to hold Padrict’s arms just before he let loose another wind spell that found the open air as its objective. Padrict, now forced to pose with his arms and legs akimbo, resigned to the struggle after two or three minutes. He resorted to commands and, later, to begging.

“Please!” he cried. “Please, let me go! I won’t attack you anymore. Just let me live!”

“Calm down, Padrict.” I said for what I thought was the tenth time, hoping he would finally listen.

“I know who you are! You’re here to kill me!”

“No one’s killing you. We’re here to rescue you.”

“The Council wants me back, they’re gonna kill me!”

“Padrict, stop! I’m here at the request of your Master. Professor Odrichienk. He wants you to come back home.”

Padrict kept slightly struggling and murmuring negatives, but he stopped begging for his life.

“Padrict. I’m Edwhite Avarez. I’m here to take you back home. We’re going home.”

“I know who you are…” he said and wailed. His eyes now leaked tears. “I know who you are…”

“Then you know I wouldn’t be here if the Council wanted you dead.”

“They said you were a traitor…” he said between cries. “That you were working with the torviela and the Fay.”

“That’s me,” I confirmed, finally talking to the man, towards his opened eyes. “And they pardoned me. We can do this together. Your professor is also worried. There’s nothing to fear.”

Padrict began crying more but his body finally gave up. Going completely limp, the last effort he made was pushing his hands against his face to finally cry himself dry.

At the same time, the ship began rumbling. The feel of the magic changed once again. Whatever was after us last time has woken up again, most likely due to our magical battle.

“I don’t want to die…” He begged between cries. “I don’t want to die… I don’t want to die…”

Martin looked at me concerned, so feeling the pressure I forced myself to speak.

“Easy,” I consoled him. “You’re not gonna die. I promise you. But we need to get out of here first.”

“I saw it. I saw it. I’m dead.”

“No. You won’t. Relax. No one’s gonna kill you.”

“Yes. I will. I saw it. I saw them.”

I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but unfortunately for me, the curiosity won me over.

“What? What did you see? Who did you see?”

“Ed!” Tedet tried interrupting. “We don’t have time for this!”

“I saw it all. The Council is going to kill me. I saw it. My spell. It showed me. I’m gonna die. They’ll kill me.”

“Your spell?” I asked. It was as if he was talking nonsense. “What spell?”

“My spell. It showed me. I made it show me.”

“Padrict. Calm down. What spell did you use?”

“Clairvoyance. It was my ritual. A clairvoyance spell. It showed me the future. It showed me my future. It showed me my death. The Council—” he choked on his words and cries.

“Ed!”

I grabbed Padrict by the arm and swung it around me. I pulled him to his feet and Martin helped pull him along with us. There was still some instinct in that head of his, as he resigned to us. He was still running for his life, and right now the thing most dangerous was the thing rocking the ship.

Padrict did not finish his sentences, but I didn’t need him to. A clairvoyance spell made from a ritual? It sounded crazy. Clairvoyance was impossible. The rituals and spells to see the future don’t work. It couldn’t be possible that he would be able to—

A thought crossed my mind. How I was told that Padrict had completed his ritualistic spell and escaped right after. This was confirmed by both the Professor and S.A.W. Ravan.

Impossible, I thought. For the, probably, tenth time since we left Sovail. A million things had surprised me as what I thought were impossible situations. Since the wars, the ship’s magic, the machines, and now a clairvoyance spell — a working clairvoyance spell. In scale, I would’ve thought the ship’s environment to be impossible without great magic, but a working clairvoyance spell — a spell to see the future — was another level of impossibility. A working clairvoyance spell seemed to be physically impossible; the future isn’t determined. Determinism doesn’t exist in a world where Free Will is real.

I turned to see Tedet as we ran. Whenever I could see his face, it revealed nothing, and it only made me more unsure of our situation. I saw my boyfriend looking at me with a surprised realization as he understood after I managed to explain what the spell was. He needed no other explanation about what it meant.

“He saw the future?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I answered incredulously. “And his future is death.”

Padrict looked like he was on the brink of tears. All we could do was keep moving, keep running, and hide, hoping he’d calm down after everything was over. But none of us was prepared for this surprise.

One thing after the other, and I was so out of surprises. I began doubting there was anything else that could surprise me anymore.