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“I was hoping you might swing by my hut tomorrow so we can chat?”
Before he has time to answer, Alexandraya storms over and interrupts. She gives me a curt nod, clasps Roman’s hand, and reefs him from the Auditorium. I am left standing speechless.
“All students, take your seats,” High Power Omnisensus announces. “It is with great pleasure that I announce this year’s winners of the third quarter Challenge to be … Braxton and Siriarna.”
Applause fills the room. Braxton turns to me with the biggest smile plastered across his face, and I return it with my own.
“Please join us, Siriarna and Braxton,” the Authority continues.
Braxton escorts me to the platform. I feel like I should pinch myself. I can’t quite believe this is happening, and tome.
“We mark this occasion by etching your names, along with your Propensity, into the Hall of Fame,” High Power Omnisensus declares jovially.
The holographic owl flies into the Grand Auditorium and proceeds to etch our names with its beak onto the plaque before exploding into glittering iridescent light particles. The cheering from the crowd drowns out all further announcements.
This really is the best day I have ever experienced, and I don’t want it to end.
After the celebrations finally conclude, Braxton escorts me home. We walk in comfortable silence, drained but elated from the day’s success. At my door, I turn to thank him for being my Challenge partner and he sweeps me into a tight embrace,brushing his lips against mine. My gasp is met with a gentle firm pressure, and I wrap my arms around his neck as I return the unexpected, but welcomed, kiss.
******
Climbing into bed, too exhausted to change out of my training uniform, I replay the day’s extraordinary events before my mind fills with images of Braxton. I brush my fingers over my lips where his met mine, before drifting into a deep and contented slumber.
I do not hear the intrusion that happens around midnight.
My mouth is bound shut and my head is covered with a cloth bag. This jolts me from my sleep, and I attempt to scream and struggle. It’s useless. I try to make sense of what is happening, but nothing registers. Two people are holding my body, one at my shoulders and the other has a strong grip on my ankles. I try to kick my legs, but they don’t move. My head is slumped awkwardly against a torso, and I am being carried from my hut.
Panic sets in as the outside air whips against my bare arms. Whispered voices speak quickly, one person instructing the others, but they are too quiet to distinguish who they belong to. I have no choice other than to endure what is to come. What that is, I have no idea. Horrible thoughts plague my mind. I am alone and terrified.
After what seems like a hundred moments, I am awkwardly lowered into a space and dumped heavily onto the ground. It smells musty and damp. My hands and ankles are bound tightly.
Voices chant together in a spell I am unfamiliar with. The cloth covering my face is raised above my nose only, it still covers my eyes so I cannot sight my captors. As the spell completes, my head is yanked backwards, and a syrup is forced down my throat. I splutter and try to spit it out, but my mouth is forced closed, and I swallow every drop. I try to beg for mercy,but my head is dizzy. The last thing I remember is the sound of disappearing laughter before my head hits the earth and I black out.
When I wake, my head aches and my wrists hurt from their bindings. It is still dark, and I have no clue how long I have been here. Bile rises in my throat and I bend forward to throw up, the vomit catching on my head covering. Then, I start to cry. How did yesterday, the most wonderful day of my existence, turn into today’s nightmare?
I can’t seem to stop sobbing. My body is rigid and I’m afraid to move. Am I alone here? Is there something sinister lurking? My mind is playing tricks and exaggerating horrible possibilities of the danger that might be surrounding me. I scream at the thought. I scream until my throat is hoarse and I cry until I have no more tears to shed. The exhaustion of the action numbs my senses and I move in and out of consciousness. It’s hard to know when I’m awake and when I’m dreaming.
I try to think about something else, anything but the terror inside my body. Slowing my breathing, I focus on how the surrounding darkness reminds me of the Home Realm and my guide parents’ masquerade parties. At midnight, Stefanie would turn out the lights and a thousand candles would flicker in replacement, winding down the festivities to an intimate crescendo. That’s when I would remove my mask, free from hiding my lacklustre magic and my wish to be someone else. Free in the darkness. Stefanie would always find me before the candles were ablaze. She would hug me and whisper how much she loved me in my ear. I dream of Linus twirling me around the dancefloor and I start to hum at the memory.
Whilst I am still terror-stricken and full of anxiety, I am certain I am alone. I fight to find a calm control, humming helps. Silencing my melody, I focus my senses on listening to my surroundings. Nothing. I hear absolutely nothing. That’s how Iknow I’m in the Void and my panic returns with a vengeance.
Remembering the legend of the Void, the way a group of students tried to summon a great god a thousand years ago, fills me with a new horror. The students set a trap behind the Learning Facility to show off their cunning ways to the rest of their classmates. What they hadn’t planned on achieving, was the capture of Zeus himself?and he wasfurious. He rose from the shackles and fired a lightning bolt at the group. Whilst it didn’t strike anyone directly, the force and power of the bolt pierced the earth, creating a cavernous pit where the students fell. Zeus left the students there for weeks, injured and starving until his return. Ignoring pleas for forgiveness, he stripped their powers and banished them to The Between. He left the pit as a warning to others. A great stone wall was erected in front of the Void to discourage future students from entering the area. No one enters this part of Evolirium.Ever.
However, Zeus did not put me here and will not come to my rescue.Who did put me here? And why?
My stomach growls, a reminder I haven’t eaten in days.I’m going to rot in here.
I start frantic rocking movements, trying to escape my bindings. Eventually I free my casting finger and I chant a spell to singe the remaining bindings, but nothing happens. I try to relax to encourage my magic to work, but it seems a useless endeavour.
“Damn you, damn you all,” I scream to the empty nothingness.
Chapter16
Roman
I seek out Braxton before morning classes commence. He is surprised to see me because we are not friends. I don’t hate the guy, although I don’t like the way he is currently spending so much time with Siriarna. Still, I don’t dislike him.
“Have you seen Siriarna?” I ask him with concern.
