Shina stumbled and fell on her knees. “Mistress Orellia!” she cried, reaching out to her. From where Orellia lay, she too reached out despite the fair bit of distance still between them, and for a brief, fleeting moment, both of them met eyes.
Then the staff ripped through her throat as though it were a blade, and Shina screamed at the sight of it. Cah’lia tensed and slowed her breathing, refusing to let herself fall back into her earlier helpless state. She cursed the drastic change in luck. Just when they seemed to be gaining the advantage—just when it seemed like they’d all make it out of here alive. Without so much as a chance to react, Orellia had been taken from them.
Blood poured out of the tear in her throat. Even from across the stage, Cah’lia could hear the gurgling as she struggled to breathe. Kellar, who had just leapt over the gap spanning a distance no ordinary person would even consider jumping, landed in a crouch then stayed in that position a moment while he glared at the Archmage.
“You’ll suffer for this!” Shina’s shouted, her body beginning to glow. “I’ll kill you, Duncan. I’ll kill you!”
“You can die next, then,” the Archmage replied.
Duncan grinned down at Orellia, who was now on the verge of death. Her eyes had already rolled to the back of her head, and her gurgling was quieting. Slowly, the Archmage walked towards Shina, who of all five of them was the closest to him.
This is bad,
Cah’lia thought.
None of us can fight Duncan. It’ll only be a repeat of earlier.
“Shina!” she called. “Get back here right now!” The girl ignored her, and Cah’lia fought to control her temper. “Shina! We can’t win against him!”
“Orellia’s dying, Cah’lia,” Shina shouted back her way. “We need to save her.”
“She’s…
it’s
too late.”
“She’s still alive!”
“Shina, she’s as good as dead.”
“You don’t know that!”
Shina wasn’t thinking clearly. Even a cursory glance at Orellia was enough to know the woman had about a minute left, maybe two at the most, and then she’d be dead. Nothing could save her now. Not with that kind of wound. Gods, her whole throat had been torn open.
“Shina!” Kellar said to her. When she didn’t answer, the boy went after her.
Still in a crouch, he jumped back up to his feet and dashed across the stage, making his way over to the girl, who in this moment did not look safe to touch. Sparks danced off her skin and her fingertips. The last time Shina had been this way, she’d almost fried all of them.
“I need to get over there,” Cah’lia said, speaking to Patrick and the Champion. “I’ve got to do what I can to help.” She took just one step forward, then came to an immediate halt as the Champion wrapped his fingers around her elbow and pulled her back in place.
“No,” he whispered.
“But—”
“Just…wait.”
Kellar reached Shina’s side and dropped down to his knees while extending his hand in her direction. Then he hissed and pulled it away the moment he’d placed a single finger on her shoulder. “Shina,” he said, speaking softly. “We need to—”
“Too late!” Duncan said, cackling.
The Archmage pointed his staff at the two of them and mumbled a few quiet words. Seeing this, Cah’lia called out to them, though she knew it was a useless gesture. Curse it all! If only Shina hadn’t been so stubborn. If only she would’ve learned to keep a cool head under pressure and
listen
to people for once.
“Shina!” Cah’lia shouted. “Shina, please!”
As if reacting to the sound of her voice, Shina snapped out of her trance. The sparks ceased jumping off her skin, and she returned to her normal color. But it no longer mattered; Duncan had already made his move.
From the point of his staff emerged a flickering white ball of pure light that raced towards the two of them at a speed far too fast to avoid. Cah’lia had no idea what it was and what it would do to the two of them, but she could already tell it was destructive.
Even though this mass of light flew several feet above the stage, entire sections of the floor broke off beneath it wherever it passed. It appeared to have some sort of pull; the arms, legs, and other body parts of those Orellia had killed were picked up if any happened to be directly beneath it. It was like a tornado, except that anything drawn in was incinerated instead of thrown about. The closer an object came to the ball of light, the more it would burn up until vanishing entirely. Not once did Cah’lia see anything get near enough to actually make contact with the flickering, fast-moving orb; the closest anything came was one of the wounded High-Mages Shina had taken down.
The man was pulled up and off his feet, and with an increasing speed, he was drawn towards the light. He screamed, and the sound of it was one of intense, unbearable misery. Then it cut off as his skin, brain, blood, and all of his organs burned away. Only his bones managed to get within a few feet of the flickering orb before they too disintegrated.
Distressed, Cah’lia felt her shoulders slump and her knees weaken. Helplessly, she watched as whatever horrid thing Duncan had conjured closed the distance to Shina and Kellar; the area around them brightened under its intense light until she needed to narrow her eyes just to continue looking directly at it.
It didn’t have to be this way
.
Why didn’t you just listen, Shina? Now Kellar is going to pay for it
.
Even in her current state of shock, Cah’lia was able to predict what was sure to come next, and it was not because of some gift of prophecy or the ability to see into the future. It was simply that some people were easier to read than others, and Kellar was one of those people. That was why it did not surprise her at all when the boy did exactly what she’d expected him to do.
Quickly pivoting on his feet, Kellar drew back his arms and made as if to shove Shina out of the way, intent on sacrificing himself for the girl. It was just as Cah’lia had known it would be. For Shina’s mistake, his life would be lost. Only, things did not happen the way he intended—the way Cah’lia had predicted they would. Because while she was correct about Kellar’s actions, the outcome differed vastly from what she assumed would follow.
Shina, as if knowing fully well that Kellar would attempt to sacrifice himself for her, seized the initiative and acted before the boy had the chance. In one fast motion, she whirled around so that her body pointed partially in his direction, and then with a grunt, she rammed into him with her shoulder, sending Kellar stumbling off to the side and out of harm’s way. As he fell backwards, the tormented, confused look of denial in his eyes was one Cah’lia would not soon forget, nor would she forget the smile Shina sent his way as the light engulfed her, becoming so bright that only the faintest outline of the girl remained under its intense glow. It gave Shina the appearance of a sketch on a piece of white paper.
Kellar screamed at her, and he even attempted to pick himself back up as if to go running to her. But there was simply no time left. What had happened had happened, and now this would be something they’d all have to live with—assuming they lived at all.
A moment before Shina disappeared entirely within the brightness, a flicker of movement caught Cah’lia’s eyes. Set against the painful, blinding light, it appeared as more of a shadow that streaked across her vision, one that moved too fast for her to be sure of what she was seeing. Then the flickering ball of light exploded, blanketing the world around her in its glow and rendering everything indiscernible. There was neither a bang to go with it nor a sound of any kind: just light, and so much of it that not even closing her eyes could filter it out.
“Shina,” Cah’lia whispered, her voice sounding pained even to hear own ears. “Oh, Shina.”
Slowly, the light dimmed then faded away altogether until, barring a few spots in her eyes that she knew would diminish eventually, her vision returned. Now, she could once more see the world around her, though she wasn’t quite sure she wanted to look at it—to discover what, if anything, remained of Shina. Yet somehow, from a place deep within herself, she found the courage not to avert her eyes. Even if it destroyed her, she would not cower from the truth the way others so often did. Bracing herself, she looked to see if even a scrap of Shina remained in this world. And what she saw confused her.
Is that…?
Kellar was sitting on his backside with his hands behind his back and his palms flat down on the stage, his mouth contorted into a cross between a smile and a grimace. He turned his eyes to look first at Cah’lia, and then towards the spot where Shina had been standing when the ball of light had hit her. His cheeks puffed up, and then air rushed out of his mouth as both a laugh and a cough.
“Shina, you’re…you’re alive?” he asked, sounding mystified. It was something Cah’lia assumed they were all wondering, including Duncan, who regarded the girl with a disbelieving glare. Then Kellar shook his head, and in a much more animated, joyous tone, he said, “Shina! You’re alive!”
Cah’lia placed her hand against her chest and took short, rapid breaths to calm herself. Standing to the left of Kellar and completely unharmed was Shina, who through some miracle was not only alive but did not appear to have been harmed at all aside from her scraped knees, which were likely from falling down on them after Kellar had cut her free from the scaffold earlier.
In front of Shina was a glass-like prism: a triangular polyhedron that glowed a variety of vibrant, ever-changing colors. Depending on the angle and the light that reflected off it, the prism appeared as red, blue, green, yellow, orange, or gold. It was also cracked in places, and the cracks, Cah’lia now saw, were spreading across the entirety of its surface, which ran from Shina’s feet to above her head. The prism then shattered into an uncountable number of tiny shards, though not a single one of them hit the stage; instead, they faded away like mist in the air.
“How did you do that?” Kellar asked. “How’re you still alive?”
Shina stared at him a moment, her mouth hanging open. She wet her lips, blinked, and then shook her head. “I don’t…I don’t know. I thought I was as good as dead.”
At this, Kellar’s smile turned to a frown. “
I
was supposed to be the one who died.”
“Oh, really?” Shina asked, her words becoming sharp. “And why’s that? Because you’re a boy?”
Kellar opened his mouth to speak but closed it as if unsure of what to say. Good for him: that was the smart thing to do. He climbed back to his feet and took two unbalanced steps over to Shina, nearly falling down in the process. Then he wrapped his arms around her, pulled her in, and held her against him.
“I don’t know how you’re alive, but I’m glad you are. You’re never gonna do that again, okay?”
“O-okay,” Shina said, her cheeks reddening.
Both Patrick and the Champion looked on with blank, unreadable faces, but whereas Patrick almost certainly had no idea of what was happening here, Cah’lia had a niggling suspicion that the Champion knew more than he was letting on. If he did, he didn’t appear willing to explain. He seemed too preoccupied watching Duncan who stared mutely at them all from where he stood across the stage with High-Mages Ammecia and Tomas.
For the first time that Cah’lia could recall, Duncan appeared more bemused than he did hateful, though this did not last for long. In short order, Duncan’s eyes widened and then burned with overt contempt as he pointed to Shina.
“Are you the mage I’ve been looking for?” he asked. “Was it you who’s been fooling around this whole time, girl?”
Even as he spoke the words, he extended his hand off to the side—in the direction of the crowd—and following a small, brief flash of light, another of the mysterious robed figures collapsed and vanished into a quickly fading purple smoke.
Shina swallowed, then shook her head. “It wasn’t me.”
“Then who was it?”
“I don’t know who it—”
“It was
me
!” a voice chirped in reply. It came from above them—above Shina’s head.
Patrick, the Champion, Shina, and Kellar all lifted their eyes as if in search of the voice. Cah’lia also lifted her chin and scanned the area immediately above Shina. It didn’t take her long to find the one who’d spoken, and what she saw sent a wild mix of emotions running through her. Everything from confusion to astonishment made its way into her consciousness.
It’s like something out of a dream or a children’s story.
Hovering a few feet in the air above Shina was something that looked like…Cah’lia wasn’t quite sure what to call it. A tiny little flying person? A fairy? Just what exactly was that girlish creature with the fast-moving wings and the squeaky, cheerful voice?
“
You
?” Duncan asked it, squinting his eyes. “You’re the one responsible for this?”
“Yep-yep-mhmm!” it said cheerfully. Cah’lia had never seen anything like it. It was a small winged creature of some kind with big round eyes and a green ribbon in its hair. It pointed to itself. “I’m Estelle!”
“What kind of…what kind of thing are you?”
“I’m not’a thing! I just said I’m
Estelle
. I’m a pixie. And you’re in big, big trouble once my…huh? What’s that? You want me to say something to him? You want me to say…”
The creature—the thing calling itself a “pixie”—gasped, crossed its arms and dismissively turned its head to the side. “No, I won’t say those words. I told you already. It’s ‘
cause
I don’t use those words. Stop telling me what to do. Nuh-uh! I have
not
failed. I’m doing a great
job! You’re being mean again. Oh yeah I
am
gonna tell Rina and Cah’lia on you.”