*LYCIA*“There she is!” Reemus’s voice reached my ears making me freeze and then sheepishly turn back to face him.There was an obvious glare on his face that he was trying to keep in given that there were warriors around us. “Believe me if we had time to waste I would have given you a twenty four hour lecture on why you shouldn’t ever sneak out of the palace on your own and how dangerous it is.”“Hey, I am sorry but see nothing happened to me,” I said wondering why did they forget that I, myself was a powerful witch capable of taking care of myself.“Luck! That was all luck!” he burst out for a second and then controlling his anger again he huffed, “Seriously how can you two be so similar? Just when I thought I had enough of taking care of one brat find myself taking care of another.”This time his glare was directed at Seff who merely grinned back at him. I could sense that there was a long history behind this reaction and it made me chuckle a little making Reemus direct his gaze ba
*LYCIA*“Before we start the ritual I would like you all to join your hands and pray to the goddess once for a successful ritual,” dad said making everyone around us to join our hands together to give out our silent prayers.The room we now stood in was dimly lit with only candles and a double pentagram was drawn again in the center. Around this we all stood in a circle ready to pray.“But why do we need to pray? Do you mean to say that this process is risky? Is my brother’s life at risk?” Roz thundered out his concern making me open my eyes and stare at him. It was good that he cared for his brother so much but wasn’t this a little too much?“Don’t worry brother, I’ll be fine. I have gone through a similar ritual before and it’s nothing to worry about,” Seff reassured him with a smile but Roz still didn’t seem to agree.“King Roz, if you would pay attention, my own daughter is going to be a part of this ritual. She is the one I love the most in this world, of course I wouldn’t do any
*LYCIA*“Seff? Can you hear me?” I asked unable to see anything but the blinding bright light that had forced me to close my eyes.“Yes,” I am right here,” he said his hand squeezing mine, “But I can’t see anything, the light is making it difficult for me to open my eyes.”“Yes, I can’t open them either but are we alright? I can’t hear anybody else,” I said straining to hear my Dad’s voice but bizarrely it was quiet except of course for Seff’s voice.“I don’t know what is happening but you are right. Even our senses have dulled, if you notice properly,” he said lightly clenching my hand again; “I have to use so much of my force to actually feel your hands.”“It must be the magic’s way of working but I am happy. This is better than feeling the pain we did last time,” I said using much of my force to clench his hands, the only way left to know of his physical presence.Trying to open my eyes I am once again forced to keep it close by the whiteness all around me and I don’t know for how
*LYCIA*“Where are we?” The ceiling above had cracks in it. A clear indication that we weren't in the luxurious palace of Darrow.I tried to push myself up but my body still felt weary from the extraneous and magical catastrophe I had just gone through.“Lycia, are you okay?” Seff asked, making me turn my face to the side to see his worried face trace my features with his concerned eyes. He was safe. To know that gave me greater relief than the worry this strange place had brought me. “I am,” I therefore said, putting on a smile for him, “Are you?”“Yes,” he reassured me as he tried to raise himself up on his arms. His body, stronger than mine, also protected by the stone of Amours, and had at least left him with some strength to sit up unlike me. “What do you see around?” I asked, giving some time for my body to rest.“There isn't much around here. It's a plain dirty room with no windows and a single door. A light bulb fixed on the top of a wall is the one bringing in light. Beside
*LYCIA*It was silent. An embarrassing silence to my outburst that had resulted in nothing.“The only reason she didn’t come is because she is scared,” Seff said, bringing me within his arms to comfort me as he patted my back.Frustration nipped at my nerves as the seconds passed. I had been trying to run my mind, to find a way but no matter what I did it only resulted in failure. How long would we have to wait here like a shivering prey that is waiting for its unknown future to stab it?“Forever a kid, huh? When are you going to grow up and stop throwing tantrums?”The voice that said those words could only be of one and turning around to stare at her I blinked my eyes a few times to check if it had been merely a fragment of my mind or an ugly reality.“Alora?”“Always slow on the uptake too, just as usual,” she said walking inside the room to the doorframe of which she had been leaning.“Oh my goodness! Did Mom send you here to save us?” I asked turning in Seff’s hold but he didn’
*LYCIA*“What? That is your reasoning?” I asked unable to understand how she could come to that conclusion. “For that you decided to hurt my mother, your sister and-“Sorry I am late!” Suddenly we heard a shout come from near the entrance to see another fantastically unbelievable scene or maybe this was another something that I had hoped wouldn’t come true.“About time,” Alora rolled her eyes as she went to welcome the pretty white haired lady.“Well the King had locked us up, it was hard to escape,” Laverna said with a sigh, no signs of fear in her voice. Then turning to us she smiled, “Good to see you again.”“I thought you cared about my father! How could you betray him like this?” I shouted unable to determine who I could really trust if all the people I know were slowly going to turn out to be against us.Not a single muscle ticked in her face as she stared at me and then turning towards Alora she said, “I kinda understand why you hate her so much. She is the most annoying kid I
*LYCIA* “Enough!” A third voice finally intervened, “I don’t appreciate you sowing seeds of doubt in my partners’ heads.” The voice came from behind us making a shiver crawl through my skin. The intensity of her magic was so severe that I didn’t want to turn around to see her. I feared what she could do with that power. “Won’t you greet me too? It’s the first time that we can finally have a clear conversation after all?” the voice said and clenching on Seff’s hand to let me go I pulled away from him and turning around I stood beside him. ‘She is a human,’ he said in my mind, his voice shook from the disbelief, ‘She really is a human for the first time I can smell her.’ And although he said this all I could feel from her was an overwhelming store of dark magic that could destroy me with a flick of her finger. She looked just as we had seen her so far. The same raven black hair, the same pale white skin but this time her hollow black eyes though sunken actually had an iris. Complete
*LYCIA*“She’s crazy…” I muttered, backing away towards the wall, “She is absolutely crazy.”Leaning against the wall I let myself slip down, my legs feeling weak as my mind ran in overdrive at the possibility of what could happen to me, to us.“Hey, no, it’s alright. We’ll find a way. I am sure,” Seff said, coming to my side and crouching down to my level as he tried to get me to raise my head and look at him. I couldn’t do that though facing Seff right now only made me realize how truly incapable of help I was to him.He wasn’t a magic wielder, I was, so I should be the one able to do something but no matter what I tried or thought I couldn’t come up with a solution.“You are hyperventilating, you need to calm down, only then can we do something, I did promise you that I will protect you, right?” he said and I felt hopeless to hear him say that. He wouldn’t be able to do anything but I know that he would die trying to protect me as he had promised. A useless effort to save a useless