Zakaria awoke in what appeared to be a cell. The bricks comprising the prison were fairly new but still there was a trickle of water seeping in through a crack in the ceiling. Accompanying Zak in his luxurious abode were two slightly older tanned boys of caucasian descent, and a skinny oriental girl who looked to be fourteen or fifteen.

“You, okay, friend?” the brown haired pale girl asked one word at a time, as if struggling to find the right words to convey her thoughts.

“I’m fine,” Zak replied. “Although my head hurts, and I've got a few splinters in my right side, and I'm hungry, and now I'm complaining”. He let out a sigh.

“You don’t seem fine” smiled the blonde haired, more tanned boy. His english was fluent, but Zak could detect a slight Spanish accent.

Zak shrugged. “Where are we?” he asked as he looked around more thoroughly, his head still aching from the rough treatment of his abduction.

“Not sure to be honest. Me and Martim here have been locked in a similar cell for the better part of a year now” he replied whilst indicating the quieter black haired, brown eyed boy sitting next to him. “They moved us here yesterday, but they covered our heads with bags so we have no idea where here is exactly.” He explained.

“I’m Jairo by the way, I would say it’s nice to meet you, but given the way we’re meeting” he shrugged.

Zak smirked slightly as he turned his attention to the girl. “How about you miss?”

“Abiko, Abiko Mamoru,” She replied. “I’m not sure how long it’s been. Was asleep at friend’s home watching football world cup. Then they come. They killed my friend and then take me” She explained, her voice laced with pain as she remembered the traumatic event.

A pained expression could be seen on the boys’ faces as they took in the unfortunate fate of their companion.

Martim whispered something to Jairo in what Zak identified as Spanish. At Zak’s inquiring look Jairo explained, “He doesn’t speak any English, but he understands it somewhat. You said you were sleeping at a friend's place watching the world cup last week? The last world cup was about three years ago” he explained, directing the second part of his statement at Mamoru.

“Years ago” she whimpered in despair, clearly shocked at how long it had been.

“It’s November twenty-twenty-one right now” Zak said as he finally picked himself up from the floor.

The next few minutes were spent in relative silence. Mamoru seemed to be in a state of shock and had long since curled up into a fetal position and seemed to close off from the outside world. Jairo and Martim conversed quietly about their new surroundings whilst Zak spent his time looking over every inch of the cell, trying to find a weak spot or openings from which to escape.

"It's no use mi amigo," Jairo said. "They made this cell by magic, me and Martim have tried every way to escape, but it's no use" he finished off dejectedly.

"Magic?" Questioned Zak.

"Si, we have seen them. Sometimes they use a wand to do their magic, sometimes they wave their hands or use a medallion, but either way there’s a flash of light and something magic happens."

Zak looked at the boy weirdly as he contemplated his words. “I guess being locked up for a year has driven him slightly mad” He thought, obviously not believing his fellow captees words.

"Right," replied Zak. "Even if they did use magic though, there must be a way out of here or a way to call for help" he said, playing along with his peers' delusions.

Jairo shrugged. "If you find a way I'll be happy to help," he said with a resigned smile.

Zak went back to inspecting the cell. As he peered closely at the bars of the cell door he noticed weird strings of characters had been carved into certain areas of the bars. They resembled hieroglyphics, or old norse letters. What this meant was that certain parts of the bars were thinner than others. Zak looked around and picked up a stray rock near the rear of the cell. He then proceeded to strike the letters, in the hopes of it being weaker and letting them create an opening to escape from.

As the edge of the rock scratched the letters, a brilliant flash of baby blue light erupted from them and Zak felt like a fifty kilogram sack of rice had been smashed into his chest, sending him flying across the small space.

“Oww” he groaned from the floor, having landed on his scratched up right side.

“Are you ok” the other three asked, having rushed to Zak to check if he was injured.

“What the hell was that '' Zak exclaimed as he accepted Martim’s hand who then pulled him up.

“Like I said, magic” shrugged Jairo, seemingly nonplussed by the supernatural event.

Zak’s mind was just about ready to shut-down. No matter how many fiction books he had consumed, or how young and supposedly adaptable he was supposed to be, to accept that a thing like magic existed was beyond him. However the fact remained that a set of inane letters had emitted enough force to fling his 45kg frame across a room.

Before Zak could delve too deep into the rabbit hole he heard footsteps approaching. The same large cloaked figure that had abducted him appeared at the bars of the cell. Zak tensed up and readied himself, expecting another confrontation. The man pulled out what looked like a jewelled stick, before waving it at the bars of the cell. The rods of metal seemed to liquify as they bent aside at the middle, allowing the large man passage. Zak gaped dumbly at the casual display of sorcery happening before him, his earlier readiness gone due to shock.

The large man approached Zak menacingly, snapping him out of his stunned state and reminding him that the man was a threat. The man waved his wand at Zak, who tensed up and flinched, expecting pain. Instead he felt a cool numbing feeling on the right side of his body. As Zak looked down he saw the wounds and scabs inflicted on him by the shrapnel earlier shrink in size, as the surface tissue knitted back together leaving only faint scars in their place.

“Ingredients need to be kept in the best condition,” the man said. He proceeded to reach into the bag strapped to his belt and pulled out a bag of buns. “Dinner” he snarled as he dropped the bag onto the ground, spilling the buns onto the cell floor.

As the man left, Jairo picked up the four small buns and gave one each to Zak and Martim.

“You need to eat senorita” Jairo said to Mamoru, who had been freed from her stuporous state.

She nodded slightly and proceeded to take small bites of her bun. Zak was also feeling quite hungry as he hadn’t eaten in a day. As he bit into his crusty bun he looked over at Mamoru and couldn’t help but notice how her skin seemed to stretch tightly against her already skinny frame, and how her cheekbones protruded clearly on her face. It was clear to Zak that although Mamoru had grown in the last three years, she had clearly not received enough nourishment and as such looked painfully gaunt.

“So much for keeping their ingredients in good condition” Zak thought darkly as he ripped off half his bun. “You need this more,” he said to Mamoru. Mamoru looked surprised at his kind gesture, and after some polite refusing and arguing eventually accepted the gift as she was indeed feeling quite weak.

Jairo and Martim smiled at the exchange, feeling slightly guilty that they had already finished off their meagre meals.

As the night settled in and the temperature dropped, Zak shivered from his seated position on the floor. The chilly night wind whipped through the holes in his shirt which had been carved out by the shrapnel, sapping him of body heat. He had since given up his search for an escape path, believing that his lack of magic would make escape from a magical prison impossible.

Jairo saw Zak shiver. “Come here mi amigo” he said, offering half of his wooly coat that he had been using as a blanket. Martim did the same for Mamoru. “They gave us these last winter so we wouldn’t freeze to death,” he explained. “It’s no blanket, but it does the job” he smiled half-heartedly.

Being as isolated as Zak had been throughout his life, he was normally cautious and guarded around individuals his own age. Despite this Zak returned the smile as he and Mamoru joined the tanned boys. Maybe it was the extreme situation, or it could be that Jairo’s friendliness, Mamoru’s gentle nature and Martim’s timidity were all complimentary to Zak’s normally introverted personality. Whatever the reason, Zak couldn’t seem to keep his guard up around his three peers.

The four youths conversed late into the night, none of them feeling sleepy due to the apprehension. The talking also helped to stave off the fear and anxiety that their current situation inevitably caused.

Zak learnt that Jairo was from Madrid in Spain, was a football fanatic and had a massive family whom he dearly missed. Jairo translated for Martim as he explained how he hailed from a large beautiful city in Portugal known as Braga. He loved cooking, and hoped to one day open his own restaurant. Although there was some communication difficulty with Mamoru - as she only knew basic english - they were able to understand that she was from Hokkaido, Japan’s second largest island. She was a regional kendo champion, which was a sport that utilised bamboo swords known as shinai.

It was a weird experience for Zak. He was more scared and apprehensive than he had been in years. And yet at the same time, he was somewhat happy as he wasn’t lonely. The three youths found it fascinating that he was in year five of secondary school despite his young age, and were interested in his plans for travel. They even recommended areas of their own countries to visit.

Despite the fear, apprehension and uncomfortableness, Zakaria fell asleep with the ghost a smile on his face.

----------------------------------- ) = ZS = ( ----------------------------------

Solaris was again stood on a tall building observing the city below through his tempered glass disk. If one were to look through the disk they would see a spectrum of colours and shapes superimposed onto the world. The air and sky appeared as blue, green and indigo shades of swirling mist, the non magical humans below all exuded a faint yellow hue, and as Solaris observed the warehouse complex below, a previously invisible purple dome-shaped barrier became visible to him.

Solaris put away the disk and proceeded to grip the air in front of him. A miniscule mote of light appeared. It proceeded to extend into a pillar of azure light, before materialising into a beautifully intricate staff.

“We’ve found them” Solaris said triumphantly. “It’ll take me a few minutes to break through the ward systems they have in place, but after that expect a challenging battle. Remember, this is now a hostage situation involving children. Show no mercy,” he warned. “We detected five magical signatures which means at least five assailants. Yasmin and Drake, you two are together, defend and attack as if you were facing a class 7 beast, not a magical being.''

The brown skinned, honey haired girl and the white blond boy nodded to Solaris and nodded to each other.

“Zamfir, Linley, you two are the second team, same instructions'' Solaris continued. “Leave whoevers strongest for me,” he said decisively.

Solaris jumped from the tall building, diving down and impacting the barrier with his staff with such power that the air exploded and the ground around them shook. Cracks formed in the barrier but it somehow withstood the seismic impact. Solaris lifted his staff and prepared to throw as much magic at the barrier and bandits as was needed to get to the youths trapped inside.

----------------------------------- ) = ZS = ( ----------------------------------

The four youths woke mere hours after they had succumbed to sleep, the cold hard floor only allowing them a short bout of rest.

A rattling was heard from the bars of the cell, and standing there like an ethereal spectre was a lithe cloaked figure. Distracted as Zak may have been - as he was still groggy from sleep - he was positive no one had been standing there a second ago.

“Oh good, you're all awake” tittered the woman in a strangely excited voice. “Death tim” she continued as she casually waved her hand. Starting from the crack in the ceiling the room seemed to melt as the stone flowed into itself, eventually getting sucked into the smooth granite floor beneath them. Zak gaped at the magical display, still not used to the insane and logic-defying feats.

Mamoru suddenly marched to stand in front of the three boys and spread her arms slightly, as if to protect him. If one were to look closely they would notice a soft white glow emanating from Mamoru’s body. “Let us go” she growled, her emancipated figure somehow exuding a strong presence.

Zak suddenly lunged for the woman. She was alone and appeared to be unarmed. He reasoned that if he could take her down before she could cast any more of her magic, they might have a chance at escaping. A searing pain erupted on his right side before he was even close to reaching his target. The woman had shoved two fingers painfully against one of his shrapnel scars, sending him sprawling onto the floor. Despite his injuries having been healed, they were still sore and bruised.

“As much as I love babysitting brats, I like it more when they listen to me” and as her words concluded a shadowy figure appeared behind each of the youths and grabbed them roughly, dragging them across what was revealed to be a simple warehouse.

Zak, Mamoru and Martim continued to struggle against their captors' heavy hands, but Jairo walked calmly, seemingly accepting his fate.

They were marched to the neighboring building where an expansive intricate carving filled with a crimson coloured liquid dominated the floorspace. At the centre of the circular design was a small mountain of slightly glowing dirt surrounded by a miniature moat of water. Several smaller piles of minerals and chemicals could also be seen around the dirt pile. The four youths were forced to stand exactly ninety degrees from each other, so they formed a cross on the outermost circle of the complex formation.

“It is time” breathed Leah excitedly, as her four companions pushed their captees to their knees. “Lock them in place and move” she commanded.

The large spectre waved a stick - which he had suddenly produced out of seemingly thin air - at each of the youths and slowly proceeded to leave the ritual circle, the other three spectres filing in behind him.

Zak and the others attempted to stand up, but their shins were stuck to the ground. “What is this?” shouted Zak hysterically, by now long past the point of fear.

“A sacrificial formation, mi amigo,” replied Jairo calmly. “They’ve been talking about it the whole year.”

“How in the devil are you so calm?” Zak cried. “Let us go you bastards!” he screamed at the cloaked group.

Jairo shrugged and stared at Zak with a calm expression. “We’ll be okay” he smiled as Leah slammed her hands down on one end of the outer circle, the crimson potion composing it immediately illuminating a sickly maroon glow.

Leah breathed in deeply and began chanting. “We five shadows offer young life in violation of innocence” Zak felt his muscles freeze up as his whole body became rigid, “we offer blood in violation of purity” the potion forming the ritual circle brightened, “we offer Newblood in violation of magics blessings'' Zak felt the blood flowing through his veins slow, leaving him in excruciating pain. “We offer chaos in violation of peace and we offer wrath in violation of love.” Small dark clouds formed above the five shadows and wafted over to the pile of dirt, hanging over it like an omen of doom. “We seek only power, in violation of patience. And control, in violation of freedom.” As Leah concluded her invocation the glow from the ritual circle reached blinding levels. Tendrils of light rose from the formation and proceeded to wrap around the four youths.

“It’s done,” said Leah. “Give it half an hour for the life to be sucked out of the little critters and we’ll be the proud new owners of a quasi-king class golem” she exclaimed excitedly.

An explosion was heard from some distance away.

The short stocky cloaked figure waved a medallion and a blue formation of light appeared before him. “They caught up to us!” He yelled. “They’ve breached the outer wards and’ll be on us within minutes.”

“No” snarled Leah, “we’re so bloody close. No one can interfere now or all our hard work will be down the drain.”

“Then we stall them” intoned the largest man.

Leah nodded. “We distract them for however long it takes, then take our lovely new toy out for a test run, they’re probably only children anyway.”

“Let’s get to it then” laughed the short man as he gripped the large hammer strapped to his back.

The group of five hurried from the warehouse to intercept their guests, all failing to notice the dimming of the maroon light behind them.