“Dexter,” Valentina called softly, rocking me awake.
My body ached with stiffness as I sat up and looked around the room. We were in my dorm, alone in the dark and Valentina was sitting up next to me. Her hair fell haphazardly over her face, leaving only one eye visible. One trembling, tear filled, eye.
She pulled her legs against her chest, and wrapped her arms around herself. I wasn't sure what to do as the tears came faster and her trembling turned to shaking.
Her gaze fixed on me. Then, her voice soft and distant, she said, “I can’t…”
“You can’t what, Val?” I asked as my heart dropped into my stomach. “What’s wrong?”
She squeezed her eyes closed, then they popped back open again with a fresh flood of tears. Falling into my chest, she wrapped her arms around me and pulled close as if I were her lifeline in a stormy sea.
As I embraced her, stroking her hair and holding her, my heart swelled. I hadn’t realized how lonely I was. Holding her like that, I realized Val was all I had left. I was worried about her, but each moment she cried a bitter rage built in my chest. It didn’t matter who or what was responsible, I’d be damned if I let anything or anyone hurt her.
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Valentina’s POV
Dexter’s heart beat like a calming drumbeat in my ear as I shuddered against him. My thoughts raced faster and faster, drowning out the sound of his breath, or his voice trying to coax me out of the darkness in my head. I didn’t even notice the world fade, but when I opened my eyes, Dexter and the bed we sat on were gone.
It was happening again.
“Astyia, you can’t hide from the blast! If they send another mana detonation device—no, when they send it—they won’t miss a second time. It will kill every mage on the continent.”
“I know, and that’s why it’s so important that I stay focused.” Reluctantly I turned to face my sister. Her pure white hair glowed, as always, making her black eyes appear deeper and more empty. “I won’t fail…” I placed a hand on her cheek, rubbing gently as I forced a smile. “…please, trust me.”
“I…I trust you, but this,” She glanced past me to the runes carved in my desk. “How will it save us?”
I shook my head, taking a long pause as I considered my next words. I didn’t want her to try and stop me, we didn’t have time for that, but I also didn’t want to lie to her. “It will save you, but I may be lost once the blast hits.”
Celestia’s eyes glistened with tears and she shouted, “Astyia, no!”
She reached to grab me, but I stepped back.
“It’s the only way I’ll have a chance, Cel.” My eyes pulled away from her, glancing at the mana crystal necklace she’d made for my birthday. I couldn’t endure her disheartened gaze any longer.
“What about Dustin’s plan! He can save us, all of us!”
My blood boiled at the thought and it took every bit of self control to keep from yelling. After a deep breath, I said, “If he has a plan it will not save everyone. Just himself, and maybe the other high mages. What I’m doing could save everyone in the tower.”
Snorting, Celestia retorted, “Everyone but you.”
“Well that’s better than letting thousands die to save five! And besides, I already told you, there’s still a chance I can survive.”
Celestia sighed heavily. Taking a step closer, she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pressed her cheek against my cheek, hiding her tears from view as she muttered, “Okay, Asty. I believe in you.”
“Thank you,” I said, turning back to my desk.
I placed my right hand on the center of a circular glyph with seven equidistant points around its perimeter. With a heavy breath I began chanting the ancient language.
I tried not to focus on my sister’s retreating steps, slow at first, then faster as she moved further from my chamber. She was going to Dustin…she didn’t believe in my plan. My breath caught, my heart sank, but I continued with my task.
The glyph illuminated, with violet light, drawing my focus back to the spell.
I chanted louder and faster as I placed my left hand on a rune shaped like a circle with three dots placed evenly around its edge. My lips trembled as the pressure built. I could hear the rumble of stone, like thunder, as my spell expanded outward.
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A magic circle appeared on the ground beneath me. Mana raged and swirled as charged energy lifted me off the ground and stirred everything in the room. With the mana circle active I poured my power into it.
My heart, my soul, my essence, and every bit of knowledge I’d accumulated, I gave everything to the spell.
My clothes peeled from my body, becoming a large leather rectangle. Like fabric unraveling into a pile of threads, my body came undone. Chanting turned to screaming as my flesh ripped and pulled itself apart, but I did not die. My cries soon faded into silence. I had lost my voice and the pain had numbed to a cold ache
Guided by the magic, my body slowly knit itself back together. One thread at a time, my heart and soul formed pages with my flesh. My mind burned knowledge and memory into each page using glyphs and arcane runes. My essence covered it all in a protective barrier that would prevent destruction. The leather blanket made from my clothes wrapped itself around me, binding not just to my flesh, but to my heart, my soul, my essence.
I dropped to the floor as the mana, once contained in my body, searched for a new home. It bounced wildly around the room, making a wreck of my space until it was eventually drawn to the necklace my sister gave me. The small crystals struggled to hold so much power, but they managed.
I didn’t need that mana to cast anymore, but it would make things faster and easier, so I summoned the crystals to myself. Breaking free of the gold chain, the mana crystals peppered themselves over my cover. Then I laid out the gold chain, connecting each dot. To form a permanent binding, I let heat melt the metal together with my cover. Both the chain and jewels sank into my leather, connecting them, though they remained separated from my being.
When the power stabilized, I set my sights to the sky. A rainbow of light illuminated the night, like the sun rising over the horizon. It wasn’t too late yet, but the detonator had already gone off.
“Cel!” I cried.
Fluttering up off the floor, I glided clumsily into the hall then up a flight of stairs to where Dustin and the other high mages had gathered. It seemed like I bumped every surface on my way as I struggled to adjust to floating in this form rather than running.
Once in the main chamber I didn’t find my sister, or Dustin. Alina, Bronson, and Idrina were all absent as well. Only five shimmering crystals remained, draped in piles of the mages’ clothing.
Was this his plan? Had he turned them to stones? Fool! They’ll still be destroyed when the wave hits.
Exploding mana roared across the plains as multiple blasts ripped through trees, autos, buildings…everything. Struck by the detonation signal, mage after mage became a literal bomb. The shock wave that followed shook the tower to its foundation and even as a tome, I felt it in my spine.
How could magic have such a weakness? With all it gave us we depended on magic, but now it would be our undoing. My stomach tied itself in knots—or rather, my insides felt jumbled and my head grew dizzy. My pages turned to iron sheets, weighing me down and making it difficult to stay afloat.
I wanted to give in, to just drop and wait for the inevitable; but I knew if there was any chance left, I had to act now.
Zooming out through a window, I spread open my pages to reveal a spell circle and channeled mana into it.
A deep dark void opened before me, draping over the magic tower and isolating the space in a separate realm.
The detonation wave struck, igniting the mana around me, and what remained in the crystals on my cover. The blasts tore through my pages with force that sent me tumbling to the ground.
The void swallowed the top half of the tower, but the lower half remained exposed as the wave hit. Fresh explosions rocked the earth, but their sounds quieted and everything around me began to fade away.
As the world dimmed to black, I prayed, “Lord of creation, please. Even if you only save one, please don’t let us be destroyed like this.” I prayed with all my heart, but I daren’t hope.
Even as the world fell away, I could feel the earth tremble while our civilization crumbled around me. I heard the silent screams as men and women burst apart like spark spitters in the sky.
What remained of Althea was only ruins and flat land. My friends would last for weeks longer, at best, as blood stains on the ruins of the city. Whatever became of my sister was an idea I couldn’t bear to consider.
A pit of sorrow opened beneath me as grief pulled me down.
How could they do this! Even in the name of war, to murder to every man woman and child, to destroy an entire civilization! Only mindless beasts could be capable of such slaughter.
Color returned to the world, the true world. Astyia was gone and her world with her, but her anger and sadness remained.
Dexter cradled me in a comforting embrace and my shaking subsided.
I couldn’t make heads or tails of the things I experienced, or memories that felt as if they were my own, but could not have been.
I knew I belonged with Dexter, but ever since the library, when that girl touched me—ever since I heard her voice in my head—I kept seeing myself as someone else, as Astyia.
Dexter tried to console me as the last of my tears dried on my face. He rocked me back and forth, holding me close. I wasn’t sure if it was comforting or just weird, but his touch helped keep my thoughts focused in the moment, rather than falling into another desperate moment of Astyia’s life.
Whatever connected me to Astyia was doing more than just showing me old memories. It wanted to consume me, to swallow me whole in a sea of despair.
Dexter was the rock that kept me grounded and pulled me back from the darkness that nibbled at the fringes of my mind.
I held Dexter tight as I buried my face against his chest. Taking slow deep breaths I acknowledged a truth I didn’t know how to verbalize, but the words provided themselves. “I can’t lose you…I need you, Dexter.” I whispered so quietly that I couldn't even make out the words.