I was completely disoriented in the absence of mana. It felt almost like I was suffocating. My vision blurred and my head felt like I’d been struck with a hammer. I’d only just gained the ability to sense mana and already it seemed that I’d developed a dependance on it. The lack of energy made me feel woozy and light headed. Even worse, was the pain of healing.

After absorbing the purple energy, a consistent dull and scraping pain tenderized the flesh around my ribs and sharp stabs electrified my broken leg as bones slid back into place. Both sensations spread like fire, terrorizing my nervous system and making me wish I could stop the process.

The pain was all I could think about until finally it stopped. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but mana was returning to the atmosphere offering a welcome relief from what I labeled as withdrawal symptoms.

My bones, now in their proper positions, began fusing back together. This process was less painful, but still quite excruciating. It felt like my whole body was in overdrive. I was cold yet sweating profusely. Three times I barfed, a strange pink liquid; it was thick and slimy with an odor like trolls feet. The liquid sizzled on the ground then evaporated into the atmosphere.

Please stop healing! I pleaded with my body and even tried the ‘controle’ technique the voice taught me. Neither worked.

Guttural cries of an angry beast echoed through the tunnels.

Was that the mother?

The beastial roaring continued for several minutes, but due to the echo it was impossible to tell where it came from or how close it was.

Please heal faster! Please heal faster! “Fucking Heal faster!”

Stones started to clatter on the ground, then the cave started rumbling and quaking with force that jostled me around.

Stalagmites and rocks of varying sizes fell from the top of the chamber. Most of the debris fell around the edges of the space, so I was confident that the others were fine, but I had to keep rolling around to avoid being crushed or impaled.

When the cave stopped rumbling I sat up and looked around. Further down one of the splits in the path, there was a pair of ember like eyes. The glow of creeping vines offered enough light for me to make out the contours of its spiky face, but the rest of its body was hidden in darkness.

The creature wasn’t moving, just watching from a distance. Small spikes on its face flaring with its nose as it sniffed the air.

“Ugh,” Fin groaned as he sat up.

“Erm… my head is pounding,” Mai winced as she pushed herself back to her feet.

I started waving my arms to get their attention.

They didn’t notice.

Then Audrey stood up as well. “Ahhh!” She shrieked and scrambled towards Fin on the opposite side of the chamber.

Shut up! I restrained myself from actually yelling at them, but I did wave my arms more vigorously.

Mai finally noticed me. “Fey, What are you doing?” Her gaze followed my finger when I pointed down the tunnel, but it was too late.

The beast roared with a fury that penetrated to my core.

Once more the cave rumbled as the creature, a dark mass of pointed quills sped towards us with wrathful eyes.

Mai conjured her chains.

Fin shot five lightning bolts.

The lightning hit, but didn’t seem to slow the beast down.

With every powerful step, tremors rumbled through the cave, knocking us off balance. Mai criss crossed her chains throughout the tunnel hoping to slow the creature.

Fin grabbed Audrey and the two ran away from the split, closer to me, but more towards the path we’d come in from.

Please let this work!

“Flare burst!” I knew the spell, I’d seen my sister cast it over and over during practice. I had even imagined how it would feel when I was able to sense mana. I’d never personally experienced it, but the theory was, a mage would draw in mana from the atmosphere, alter that mana within themselves into the form they desired, then expel it back into the world as either a spell or elemental magic.

There were a few factors that influenced this process. First was affinity. Any mage could use any element, but affinity affected how efficiently they could convert mana into any particular element. It was dangerous to use an element you didn’t have an affinity with because you could very quickly find yourself in mana overload. That was when a mage absorbed too much mana and wasn’t able to get rid of it quickly enough. In the worst cases it could result in death.

Another factor was the environment. This also played a bit with affinity because the environment would determine the element of ambient mana. Because of that, if a mage tried to cast fire while underwater the spell would fail and it would almost certainly result in overload.

Finally, understanding of the element could also influence a mage's ability to command it.

I understood fire better than any other element, I didn’t have any affinity yet, at least not that I knew of, but there was ample fire mana in these tunnels.

I watched my outstretched hand expectantly.

I waited, but no mana rushed into me, nothing shot from my fingertips.

“Pfft, an inept trying to cast,” Fin scoffed. “This how it’s done Flare—”

“NO, DON’T!” Cole’s voice came from the exit tunnel between Fin and I.

“—burst.” A ball of bright red fire shot out from Fin’s hand like a comet. The flames trailed behind as it hurtled towards the huge spiky creature.

The creature was breaking through Mai’s chains easily, but she didn’t back down. As soon as it would break through, the chains regenerated and Mai made a new barrier. This time, it seemed like using the chains took all of her focus. To her credit, she had managed to slow the beast down; although, things changed completely once the flare burst made contact.

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Black fluid, secreted from the beast’s many quills, burst into flame. Instantly, the already overwhelming beast, became a nightmarish demon cloaked in spellfire.

Fire jumped from the beast, igniting globs of black fluid sprinkled through the tunnel.

“Fuck.” Cole wasn’t far from me, and Carletta was right beside him. Behind them a team of enforcers poured into the wide open chamber.

They left to call for enforcers, but when?

Mai must’ve reached her limit because she dropped to a knee and the chains vanished. As her knight I should’ve gone to her sooner, but even now as I hustled across the chamber to reach her, my leg buckled beneath me. I still hadn’t recovered from my injuries.

The enforcers rushed past me through black smoke that was steadily filling the cave. Bright fires, burning all around, made it easy to see Mai. Her ice chains were gone. The creature's quills flared out and with a gravelly bellow, stood up on its back two legs.

Fire fell from its back, spreading throughout the chamber on black silk streams that flowed across the floor like a complex web.

I was forced to stop my advance, but the enforcers continued. One of them, riding a current of wind, shot beams of pure mana from his CAD. I’d never seen a CAD with such a unique design, and had never heard of them being capable of long range attacks.

When three of the beams hit the beast’s underbelly, it roared again. The shots seemed to anger it more than they hurt it.

The beast lifted one of its great claws and brought it down above Mai. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see another of my companions killed.

Mai screamed, but the expected crunch and tremor never came. When I opened my eyes, luminous vines were restraining the creature.

They twisted in tendrils around the beast’s quills and claws. Several vines, braided into thick cords, wrapped around and lifted the creature several feet in the air.

Despite all its struggling the vines held. As they tightened, they also strangled the creature’s flames. Whether they hurt the beast itself was impossible to tell, but they did keep it from moving.

When I followed the vines back to their source I was surprised to find Audrey feeding mana into the plants that lined the walls.

Is this how she made an impression during the practical test?

Even the enforces stood awed by her ability with the plants.

With the creature being restrained, it was easy to forget the threat it posed.

Mai hurried away from the beast, retreating behind the enforcers and Fin did the same. I wouldn’t be able to fully relax until the beast was dead, but the presence of enforcers added an extra layer of security.

“What happened here?” shouted the man with the special CAD. He must’ve been the lead enforcer.

“We were attacked.” Fin said, stepping boldly towards the man. “One of the reapers probably, but I’m not sure which one. He never gave his name.”

“Then where is he?”

“I don’t know! Gone, what does it matter?”

The enforcer didn’t answer. Instead, he surveyed the area. “Two dead, some slimy muck, low mana density… start scanning and get me a report in five minutes.”

As if to remind us of its presence, the spiky beast roared and shuffled around. It managed to get a claw free, though all it could do was wave it back and forth.

“Would somebody kill that thing already?” The lead enforcer groaned.

Another enforcer, who was near the beast, activated her CAD then thrust it through the creature's face. With a squelch, and a whimper, the beast died.

When Audrey released her spell, she fell on her butt panting. “Thank you, I’m not sure I could’ve held that much longer.”

While the enforcers surveyed and scanned the area, I took the opportunity to look around as well.

Two dead… then Byron as well?

Fires still blazed around the cave in every black pool except one.

Byron’s corpse was unrecognizable. It looked like he’d been smashed over and over with a large rock then sliced to ribbons. All I could make out was a few strips of blue cloth among the pool of liquefied flesh and blood.

Why didn’t you help me sooner?

I hoped that the mysterious voice would hear me and respond. I had so many questions.

How did I sense and absorb mana?

…

Who are you?

…

What happened to me?

…

What did you mean by “we will both die?”

…

Even though I got no response, I felt that the voice was still there. Some part of me just knew. It also knew that no amount of pestering would get me any answers, so I stopped asking questions.

“Are you okay?” Cole’s voice startled me, shaking me away from my thoughts and futile attempts to communicate with the possibly imagined being.

“I’m…fine, just a bit confused is all. You should check on Mai, or Audrey.”

“I did. They’re both a little shaken, but okay. I checked on Fin as well. Not sure why I bothered though…” Cole frowned at the ground.

“Well, what about you and Carletta? What happened to you two?”

“We ran to call for backup, but now I wonder if that was the right choice.”

“What do you mean? If you hadn’t gone you might’ve died too.”

“I know.” He paused. “I’m glad to be alive and also sad to say goodbye, even though I didn’t know either of them well.” He clicked his tongue in frustration. “You know, when we called the hotline, the dispatcher said it would take an hour for enforcers to reach us? She actually told me that we might be better off running away!”

I laughed. Cole’s already gloomy expression darkened, making me feel bad for my response.

I knew it wasn’t appropriate in the situation, but for once I didn’t feel like the naïve one. “Yea, back home it takes a while too. Enforcers are only stationed near the cities with regular safety issues, and the capital. Remote places like this and border cities usually don’t have much coverage.”

“Yeah? Well that’s dumb as hell. How can they call it a SAFE zone if no one’s there to protect people? It’s no wonder the Zephyr went undetected.”

“I don’t know… that still seems odd to me and this beast too.” I said gesturing toward the limp creature.

The magically grown vines had wilted, and sagged to the floor under the beast’s weight. Seeing the dead creature again, I was reminded that she had probably been trying to find and rescue her baby.

I wondered if that was why she attacked us. The clumps of meat hardly resembled a… whatever it was, but surely she had smelled its blood and guts all over me.

“Most large beasts, especially the dangerous ones, impact entire ecosystems. That zephyr definitely should’ve been noticed. And this creature too. Even if the enforcers didn't set foot on the mountain, they must’ve come close enough to notice the signs of these beasts' presence.”

“All I know is we got lucky. This group of enforcers came across Carletta and I a few minutes after the dispatcher hung up. Said they were tracking a rogue, but they lost him in the mountains. When I mentioned the guy in black they said it might be their man so they followed us back here.”

“I don’t think it’s the one we were tracking, but there was definitely a rogue here,” one of the lower ranking enforcers said as he came near Cole and I. “Boss says it’s time to leave. The smell of death tends to attract the beasties and we don’t want to be here when they show up. Then there’s the chance of the rogues coming back. We might be able to handle it, but can’t risk letting you kids get hurt. So quit yappin and let’s get moving.”

“So you’re not going to chase that maniac?” Cole asked.

“What’s the point? We’re at least an hour behind him, maybe more. By now he’ll have found a safe place to hide or even left the SAFE zone.”

“But you could try. What if—”

“Forget that, we need to hurry back to Sky Haven.” Fin huffed as he stomped between us and the enforcer.

“He’s right, let’s go!” The lead enforcer didn’t give any choice and he wouldn’t hear any arguments either.

Like livestock, we were gathered and herded out of the cave, down the mountain, and into their oversized velociter.