Moirai

A gap appeared in my memory at that point. I didn’t know whether I passed out, or it was some sort of magic-induced daze but when I was next aware of my surroundings I was lying on a cold stone floor. Opening my eyes, I could see that I was in a sort of cell. The walls were low and instantly triggered my claustrophobia. To the right was a heavy wooden door, locked, with a small barred hole cut out of the top. The only light came from a window at the very top of one of the walls, also barred, showing the sky at an odd angle. It seemed that we were also just below ground.

But before I could even register that beyond the surface thought, I remembered...

Loni!

I bolted upright and had to wait a moment before my head stopped spinning. The memories came flooding into my mind and I looked around anxiously for Loni. She was lying a few feet away, Mayran kneeling next to her. She was unconscious and for a brief moment I thought that she was asleep, but then I noticed her skin; pale and clammy. Her face twitched and grimaced, indicating the level of pain she was in.

My eyes snapped to her shoulder. The knife had been removed and a wad of what appeared to be the soft inside of Mayran’s coat had been placed to stem the bleeding, but it had been soaked in crimson liquid. Even as I watched, Mayran removed the cloth and ripped off another piece to replace it. The wound was only about two centimetres long, but it was very deep and bleeding constantly.

Mayran looked around after replacing the cloth. “There must have been some sort of poison on the knife, it’s become infected.”

I crawled over to her and stroked her sweat-soaked hair out of her eyes. “Is there anything that you could do?” Worry gnawed at my heart; she had been my friend since we were children and was like a sister to me. I had always felt like it was my responsibility to look after her, and so a great sense of failure fell upon me.

He frowned. “There is something that could be done, but it is beyond my own abilities. You would be able to do it, however.” He replied.

“What do you mean?” I asked, looking up at him. What could I possibly do that he could not?

“I think you know what I mean.”

A jolt of anger flared within me and I opened my mouth to yell at him for being so cryptic, before I did, in fact, realise what he was talking about.

My aura. He was telling me to use my aura to save her.

“I-I can’t.” I whispered. “I don’t even know how. I…” I trailed off. I was now running out of excuses. What if I could do what Mayran had said and only use my aura for good? What if auras themselves weren’t as dangerous as I always thought they were, but only the way they were used? The times I had used mine was proof of that, wasn’t it?

“You can. Just remember what you did back at Kasanda’s house and with the Erkings.” He instructed gently.

I needed to save Loni, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself unless I at least tried, so I took myself back to that day at Kasanda’s. The two creatures had burst in, axes in hand and…I had wished with all my being for the axes to disappear. I had been full of fear upon seeing the weapons…and then that exhilarating power had filled me and they had vanished. It was a similar case with the Erkings. Well, I felt fear now. Fear for her.

I looked down at Loni’s shoulder and let all that worry come to the centre of my mind in full force. I tried to imagine her shoulder whole and unblemished, like it normally was.

But there was still a hesitation. I was still too scared to reach into the aura that I now could faintly feel, the same way I could feel my heart, inside me. What if I couldn’t control it? What if it didn’t do what I wanted and made the wound worse?

I shook my head, squeezing my eyes shut in despair. “I can’t! Why can’t you?”

I heard him sigh. “Because I don’t have the power for it. I’m not the strongest aurae by any standards but if it was just the cut, I could do it, like I healed your leg, but because there’s an infection as well…it would leave me too exhausted and we’re going to all need our strength if we’re going to get out of here.”

“What makes you think I’m a stronger aurae than you, then?” I demanded.

“Because I saw how you were after the first time. Making two objects of that size disappear is no laughing matter. Every aurae is weak at first, but I could tell that you were stronger than most. Even making the Erkings disappear would have done serious damage to a weak aurae, whereas you only had a brief period of unconsciousness, mostly thanks to your injury.” His voice adopted an admiring tone. “If you train, you will become stronger. You will be able to do things just by thinking of them. You may well become one of the strongest mages Renenta has seen for a long time.”

I frowned. His words sounded terrifying, but incredible. Did I dare believe them?

I looked back at Loni’s knife wound and this time really focussed.

Loni let out a soft moan, her face pinching even tighter.

I felt my hesitation slip and everything was triggered. That same warm feeling from before built up in my chest, warmer and warmer but not hot enough to be painful. Then something very akin to an out-of-body experience occurred, and I felt myself also drawing power from Loni herself. I briefly panicked, but I remembered Kasanda explaining that this was how healing worked.

The deep cut vanished. The purpled skin around it slowly paled back into Loni’s usual skin tone. Her breathing became more relaxed and her face smoothed out.

The heat inside me faded quickly, leaving me slightly dizzy. I leaned back, lifting one hand up to my head, breathing deeply. It only took a moment before the feeling faded.

“You did it!” Mayran suddenly crowed. I looked up at him. He was grinning, his eyes twinkling with pride. “Oh, Alnya, well done. I will admit that I was worried there for a second, but I should’ve known you would bring yourself to save her.”

I smiled at his excitement. I had to admit; despite the fact that the effects I had felt scared me, I was...pretty chuffed at what I had just done. Loni was already getting the colour back in her face and looked as though she could wake any minute. I sat forwards again, the grin still on my face.

Well, there was absolute proof that I could use magic for amazing things. My fear wouldn’t vanish completely for a while, but maybe…just maybe…

My thoughts were stopped short as the door to our cell slammed open and the huge, hulking figure of Gould blocked the light from the lamp in the hallway beyond. He glared – or at least, I thought he glared, for I couldn’t see his eyes – down at us. When he spotted Loni, he gave a huff of annoyance.

“Which one of you healed her?” he demanded.

“I did.” I snapped, getting to my feet. “What do you want with us?”

His gaze shifted to me. “Come.”

And without another word, he moved aside and waited for me to walk through.

I turned towards Mayran.

“I’ll look after Loni. See what he wants.” He said, then in a lower, more urgent voice, hissed, “Be careful. Don’t hesitate if you have to use your aura again, but remember; don’t go overboard!”

A shiver crawled down my spine, but I steeled myself and nodded, walking out the door. Gould slammed and locked it, then led the way.

I was too distracted with thoughts of getting us all out of this situation to be bothered by the underground walk, for it looked like – willingly or not – that job had fallen upon my shoulders.

Great.

I followed Gould up several stairs into the bright sunlight above, where he then began walking over to his house. I looked around and realised that I could run now, but of course, I couldn’t leave Mayran and Loni and I highly doubted that I was faster than Gould.

Mayran had said to use my aura.

But with my heart still fluttering slightly from healing Loni, and my naïveté on what I could do still at an all-time high, I felt lost. Aside from somehow killing Gould, which I wanted to avoid at all costs, I needed to find a way of immobilising him so I could get the cell key and help the others to escape before he could chase after us.

“Where are our horses?” I asked aloud, hoping that he would be too confident in my fear of him to avoid telling me.

“Over there.” He pointed vaguely at the stables. I assessed the distance from them to his house; roughly two hundred metres. I could run that quickly.

“Why are we going in there?” I risked, indicating the house and hoping my questions wouldn’t anger him.

He chuckled darkly. “So we can tell if you’re the one I’ve been told to watch out for.”

It was as though the temperature had dropped. So Indina was behind this, too.

I followed him inside still without a plan of any kind. Why had Mayran left this up to me?

As soon as we were through the door, he closed it behind me, leaving us in near darkness. The reason for this, as I quickly realised, was that all the windows had been blacked out. It reminded me of vampire houses in films.

“Right.” He said loudly, bringing my attention back to him. “Now, this shouldn’t hurt.”

That on its own was ominous, but when he lifted his visor I couldn’t help the scream that tore out of my throat.

For in place of his eyes were nothing but black holes with bright red lights inside them. They were over-bright in the darkness, and as his hands reached out towards me they seemed to get brighter and brighter.

It happened almost subconsciously: one moment his fingers were inching towards me, the next he was looking around with a confused expression. It took me a moment to realise what I had done without even meaning to; I had made myself invisible.

Now, even I couldn’t deny how cool that was.

The drop in my strength was slightly stronger this time, and so it took me only about a few seconds to zone in on the keys at his belt. I ducked under one of his arms and grabbed them, ripping them off the hook. He made a lunge in my general direction, his big meaty hands nearly closing around my wrist as I scurried out of the way and yanked open the door behind him.

I then tore off back the way we had come, towards the cell, almost tripping down the stairs in my rush.

“Mayran! Loni! I’ve got the keys!” I gasped, running to the cell door and unlocking it. My fingers fumbled slightly, but I managed to get it open.

“Well done.” Was all Mayran could say as he walked out. He placed a hand on my shoulder, and

I suddenly realised that I was visible again.

To make the moment even better, Loni stepped out after him, looking a bit pale still but otherwise back to normal. She grinned at me as we headed back to the surface.

Only to find Gould waiting there for us.

I was relieved when Mayran was the one to act, as he focussed on the red-eyed figure standing in our way. Gould was suddenly thrown sideways out of the way. We climbed out and saw that he hadn’t just been toppled, but tossed several hundred metres away.

I said nothing, but looked at Mayran as if to say, ‘Nice.’

Within five minutes we had retrieved our horses and were galloping far away from Gould and his property.

Mayran congratulated me on both instances of using my aura, after I told him that I had made myself invisible. I respected him for not saying, ‘I told you so’. He kept his tone admiring and proud. There was also a hint of relief and I wondered if he’d been waiting for this moment.

That night Mayran contacted Kasanda to inform her that we would be reaching the forest the following day. She said that she would meet us there. I didn’t know exactly how she would manage that, but went to sleep content with the idea that she would.

It seemed my journey had finally begun.