SWNOVELS Chapter 19: Facing the Threat
“Frazor?” Sahara asks looking confused. “How did you get out?”
“I have friends in low places.” He says walking closer to her.
Sahara rolls her eyes knowing that she can just teleport him back to the cell he was in. She attempts to teleport him, but nothing happens. She looks around wondering if someone else is around too. She feels a bit more anger as she attempts to teleport him again. Nothing happens again.
“What is wrong Sahara?” Fazor asks with an evil smile. “You think I would come unprepared to prevent you from teleporting me?” She looks around again, knowing he is not here alone. “How stupid do you think I am?”
“Westrohen?” Sahara asks stalling.
“Well, we all know westrohen has no effect on you.” Fazor says tracing a finger along a tree he is passing. “And you are not powerless here…are you?” He asks sounding as if he is inviting her to try magic on him.
She wastes no time as she causes a tree limb to swing down toward Frazor. She watches him laugh as the limb goes straight through his holographic image.”You’re not really here.” Sahara says confused.
She feels a thud against the back of her legs causing her to fall, “Or am I?” She hears another Frazor now behind her. She causes another tree limb to swing down toward the new Frazor. The limb goes straight through the holographic image of him also. Now both Frazor’s are laughing at her. She feels herself getting angry as she feels something hit her arm and she winces in pain. “Come on, Sahara.” A third Frazor says teasing her, “Can’t you find me?” She begins to see multiple more Frazor’s come out from behind trees surrounding her.
Each one sends something her way that either hurts her or knocks her down again. She screams in rage after a round disc slices her calf slightly and causes blood to run down her leg. “Are you getting angry elfie?” One of the Frazor’s asks her in a false caring voice.
“What do you want?” Sahara yells out spinning around looking at all of the Frazor’s closing in on her.
“Who says I want something?” All the Frazor’s say in unison and Sahara covers her ears from their sudden loudness. She sees all the Frazor’s arms raise and she sees debris from the woods rise from the ground. She hunkers down trying to protect her head just before she feels rocks, branches, and other odd objects hitting her from all directions. “You know what?” She hears the loud Frazor voice in her head. “I do want something.”
She tries to shake him out of her head as she continues to try and block debris from hitting her face. “Stop it!” She says quietly, beginning to feel overwhelmed.
“Yes.” Frazor laughs at her, “Beg me.” She feels the force of the debris hitting her strengthen. “Beg me to stop it!” He laughs louder. Sahara refuses to beg as she tries to fight off the painful debris. “Come on now.” Frazor says, “Beg me. Just like your pathetic little mother begged.”
His words cause Sahara’s anger to peek. She yells out feeling more anger than she had ever felt in her life as her hands hit the ground. She can feel the roots of the trees beneath her and she looks up at the Frazor’s still surrounding her through the debris. She manages to keep the debris from hitting her as she tells the roots beneath the dirt to rise up. “There she is!” Frazor laughs in a sort of evil excitement. Sahara sees everything turning a reddish orange color as she feels her anger grow. The roots follow her command and fly up from the ground startling all the Frazors. The roots fly through Frazor after Frazor as they spin and whirl around her. Until finally she notices a Frazor who seems different. She causes some of the roots to grab hold of him as if it were a large hand. His laughter seems nervous as he speaks, “You have not disappointed this time.” The debris all falls to the ground as she causes the real Frazor to move toward her. “Show me more.” He says and Sahara causes the roots to tighten their grip on him. He grunts in some pain, “Like Uncle, like niece.”
“I am not!” She yells in anger and notices her voice sounds odd, as if there are two of her speaking.
“No.” Frazor says with a squeak as the the roots tighten around him more. “You’re better.”
“Sahara.” She hears Brystol saying her name in a calming tone and it causes her to look over toward his voice. All the other Frazor’s have disappeared and a reddish orange Brystol, Bularia, and Headoreon Shawdlortur are staring at her in shock or maybe fear she thinks. “Put him down.” Brystol says still sounding calm as he has his hands up toward her taking a slow step forward.
Sahara feels her anger blaze inside her from his request. They grow a darker color red as she looks at them and speaks. “He can’t be let go.” Her voice sounds odd still and she realizes it sounds demonic.
“The guards will take him.” Brystol says still sounding calm and stepping closer toward her.
Sahara feels angered at Brystol for not understanding Frazor needed to die. She turns her gaze back to Frazor and causes the roots to rise up around his neck.
“Sahara please?” Bularia says sounding scared. “Stop.”
“Shut up!” Sahara roars noticing guards are now surrounding them. “He escaped once, he will just do it again.” She feels the anger pulsing inside her. She doesn’t understand why everyone seems to be on Frazor’s side.
“Aranel.” Headorean Shawdlortur says also sounding calm. “This isn’t you. If you do this, you will never be the same.”
“Look at me.” Brystol says sounding closer to her. Sahara refuses to look at him as she stares angrily at Frazor. “Please Sahara?” He sounds desperate as he speaks, “The guards will do what needs to be done.” Sahara glances over toward Brystol and notices his Red face is calming to an orange color. “You are doing exactly what Frazor wants you to do.” She swallows wondering what he means. “He is testing your anger.” He says stepping closer so that he is an arms length away from her. “You have to calm down.”
She begins to feel confused as she looks from Brystol to Bularia. Bularia is scared of her, not Frazor. She feels Brystol touching her hand and it causes her to look back at him. He looks nervous but still sounds so calm as he says, “It is okay.” She doesn’t understand why everyone is focused on her instead of getting Frazor. “You aren’t a killer.” Sahara notices the orange color lighten to a yellow. She loosens the roots gripping Frazor and hears the guards capturing him. Brystol is closer to her now and is slowly pulling her in for a hug. She sees her vision clear as he wraps his arms around her.
“Take her back to Malorsty.” Shawdlortur says moving toward Fazor.
“What are you going to do with him?” Sahara asks pushing away from Brystol and she notices her voice sounds normal again.
“The aran will decide.” Shawdlortur says as he looks up toward the sky at a carriage that is flying over them towards the academy.
Sahara sees Frazor already handcuffed in magic preventive cuffs. He does not look as confident as he did the last time she had put him in jail. “Come on.” She feels Bularia pulling at her hand as she speaks, “We should get back.” Bularia, Sahara, and Brystol make there way back toward Malorsty Academy in silence, until they pass the scolding stare of the aran.
“I am sure that will be a happy conversation later.” Brystol whispers sarcastically to Sahara.
Just a few hours later Sahara finds herself sitting in a room alone with the aran. She knows he is unpleased. “You broke your promise.”
“Actually,” Sahara says confidently, “I didn’t. My promise was that I would not wander off to look for answers, this time I wandered off to stop a sickness” She sees the aran narrow his eyes at her so she pleas her case further, “Everyone is feeling better though.” Sahara says hopeful for some compassion as she is looking down at her hands as they twist in nervousness. All the sick elleths had recovered instantly after the aran had vanquished Frazor.
“And you did single handedly capture an escapee.” The aran adds.
Sahara looks up at him realizing he is not as mad at her as she expected. “So, we are good?” she asks standing to her feet to leave.
“No.” He says pushing her on the shoulder to sit back down.
After she receives a stern talking to from the aran, she arrives to her dorm room feeling exhausted. To her surprise, Bularia, Marol, and Carol are all waiting for her inside. She had missed her friends. She was excited to see her room full again, even if it was for just a couple of more days until the school year was over.
She hugs Marol and Carol, “I am so glad you are both back and better.” She notices Bularia seems odd still. She had not spoken to Sahara since they were out in the woods with Frazor. “Hey?” Sahara says toward Bularia. “Everything alright?”
Bularia seems reluctant to speak as she looks over at Marol and Carol. Marol speaks looking nervously toward Sahara, “Bularia was just telling us about how you were.”
“How I was?” Sahara asks wondering what they mean.
“You were possessed with anger.” Bularia says looking uncomfortable. “Your eyes were on fire, and your voice…” She says hugging herself and keeping her eyes away from Sahara. “You really scared me.”
“My eyes were on fire?” Sahara asks remembering how everything looked reddish orange.
Bularia is just staring at her nervously as she says, “I have never seen anything like it.”
“Thankfully Bristol was there to save the day.” Carol says falling down to her bed with a swooning sigh.
Sahara tries to process what happened as she remembers back to how angry she was. “He angered me so. I didn’t mean to feel so much hate. And the next thing I know, everything looks red and all I could think about was destroying him.”
“I thought you didn’t have emotional magic?” Marol asks cautiously.
“Tyde…or Frazor, taught her how to use her emotions.” Bularia says rising from her seated position still looking fearful.
“What?” Sahara had not realized that she had actually been using her emotions to attack Frazor. She had not realized that was why it felt so different. “He didn’t.” Sahara tries to argue with her but she realizes that Bularia was correct, Frazor had in fact taught her how to use emotional magic. “But why would he do that?”
Bularia crawls into her bed quietly and Sahara looks at Marol and Carol for some answers. Marol shrugs her shoulders and Carol just brushes off the idea, “Maybe he just wanted you to have to go back and take basic emotional magic next year.”
Sahara crawls into bed feeling overly confused. The calculations put into the attacks against her might be more than just a way for Patreek to learn more about her. What if they are about training her too. She shakes her head knowing that if Patreek is wanting her power, there is no way that he is training her too. That just would not make any sense.
“Bye.” Sahara says as she hugs Marol and Carol next to their carriage.
“Hope you have a good summer break.” Marol says to her.
Sahara rolls her eyes as she looks over at the carriage that awaits her. “Not likely.”
“It is just one week.” Marol laughs, “It could have been the entire summer.”
“True.” Sahara agrees with her. “The aran, I suppose, gave me a lesser punishment timeframe because he likes me at least. But, if I do it again the next punishment will be two weeks.”
“I wish my punishments were to spend a whole week with a hot tutor.” Carol says watching Brystol climb into Sahara’s carriage.
“If only the tutor didn’t have devil horns.” Sahara says in annoyance.
Bularia jumps onto Sahara’s back surprising her. “Don’t leave your punishment waiting.” Bularia waves over at Brystol, who waves back from the window of the carriage.
“It is just one week.” Sahara says trying to convince herself that one week with Brystol tutoring her is doable. “Just one.”
Waizlynn yelling at Bularia causes her to say her quick good bye and leave.
“Telicall us sometime, especially if they figure out who the elleth was working with Frazor to poison us.” Carol says to Sahara with one more hug.
“I will.” Sahara says as the twins crawl into their carriage to leave. She feels her heart ache as she slowly walks toward her own carriage realizing she can no longer stall from having to spend time with him, the most annoying ellon ever. She steps into the carriage with Brystol, realizing it was going to be an interesting first week of summer break at Kinderton.