“Get away from him!” I bellow as I shape a sawblade of flame and hurl it at Buchanan. The bastard sneers and detaches himself from the mass of plants that have run Tyson through. Alice thinks quickly and intercepts the him with a portal of her own, the other end landing him in between us. We both let out furious war cries and lay into the sub-human that murdered our classmates. We each grab him and choose a charge in unison uttering “Phalange! Deus!”, running a close-quarters lightning current. A spell that’s good for self defense alone, but a torturous way to dispose of an assailant when used in tandem with a partner. We were of one mind and continued until his skin charred. When his body fell, there wasn’t any relief. Alice didn’t look satisfied either, instead staring at her hands still processing what we had done.

Not taking the time to think about it, I race to Tyson’s side as Alice goes on to face the floating man guy in the red hood. “I’ll cover you while you do what you can. Let’s not lose anyone else today!” I examine Tyson and feel for a pulse, there’s nothing! I can’t bring myself to accept that, I was so close to helping him, I was right there coming out of the portal. When Hank showed us the scene it looked like he was cleaning things up and everything. This isn’t fair! I take a breath to calm myself down and freeze off whatever was left of Buchanan’s plants. He falls onto me and I start to feel faint at the sight of my hand looking through his chest. I stare into his eyes. They’re devoid of any light, I can’t accept this. I can’t forgive this!

My fists clench to the point of my nails drawing blood from my palms. I lay Tyson down carefully, if he were up, he’d tell me to “ditch the stiff and go help Alice.” The last time I felt my magis spiked like this was when Buchanan attacked me. This time, I’ll settle everything on my own.

Flames blanket my body, then wind gusts throughout the streets, swirling around my person. Lightning arcs throughout the atmosphere and the ground shakes beneath my feet. It’s indescribable, amount of just… everything that I feel. I know exactly how many living people are on this road, in Arcton period. Even more still, the world! I feel everyone! Everyone except Tyson. For the first time I begin to float, and after a few moments I fly directly at the enemy. Whoever they are, they’re going to regret ever coming here.

Alice was having a back and forth with her adversary, and I could feel the fatigue building within her tiny frame. I could feel every drop of magis in her blood, and how much she was wasting it each time she conjured one of her unstable portals. She really needs to swallow her pride and take lessons from her father.

It was then I noticed the calm that had washed over me since I had let my magis flow freely. I feel as though everything is in my control, without question. In fact, I wave my hand down, focusing on the hooded man. A vortex of wind is conjured above him, forming a drill that drives him straight into the ground. Alice whips around and gapes at me.

I think, “I know. I’m still figuring this out.” She grabs her head and shakes, then looks back up at me. “Did I just use telepathy?!”

Alice mumbles to herself while pinching her leg, “Y-yeah Li-li I think you did.”

I’ll explore this later, right now I had a someone to crush. I float down to the guy Alice had been fighting, who was still being pinned down by the twister I conjured. It was so effortless, I don’t even feel like I’ve been concentrating on keeping him down. In fact, I’m sure that I’m not. I raise the earth to bury him up to his neck and begin to question him. “Why? What’s the point of all of this violence on innocent people?” He continued to gape at me without saying a word. “Answer me! NOW” His eyes roll in the to the back of his head and he becomes unresponsive, I feel all the tension leave his body within my bind. Then, I sense an older, more formidable presence inhabit his body. There was no trace of the original charlatan left! Arts of this level are unheard of, but I guess I’m one to talk.

Glyphs appear on the ground beneath me with an unfamiliar script on them. The glyphs begin to expand all around me, boxing me in. “Hey!” I yank the man’s body up to my level, “You’ve lost! Now stop playing tricks and tell me what you’re after!”

The body reawakens, this time with eyes of amethyst. “This has all been for you my sweet, for our long-awaited reunion.” The tattoos on the body now shine with the same purple and I feel dread permeate the box I’m in. I don’t know why, but I’m paralyzed with fear, like I’ve been in this situation before. My elemental cloak dissipates, and I’m brought down to my knees. It feels like everything is ten times heavier in this box! “Oh, my love. How long has it been this time? Ninety? One-hundred years? I’ve tried counting the days, but I just get so lonesome. You understand if I’ve kept myself distracted over time?”

I struggle to move away but he forces himself into a embrace around me. The tighter he hugs I feel less like myself and my skin goes cold. I force out an electric current to the best of my ability, “Get OFF!” The sparks dissipate before long. He “pats” me on the back so hard blood shoots out of my nose. I’m dizzy. I feel like all of my magis is being packed away somewhere I can’t access it.

He shooshes me, the nerve of this… whatever he is. “Now, now, dearest Iliana. It’s me, your betrothed Rohan. We’ve been destined for a union that would change the world for centuries now, but every single time I have you within my reach, either some lowborn filth, or that depth-crafted miscreant The Objection seals one of use away. Not this time though my love, for I have sowed the seeds of my progeny over several eons, and only the most capable have received my mark. I’ve come quite prepared with several descendants, ready to be my next vessel so that we may join as one.” He sighs before squeezing me tighter. “Truly this is the climax of our forlorn saga. I just have to deal with the matter of you forgetting once again that you belong to me. You just stay there, and I’ll have everything fixed in a matter of weeks. It seems as though my forces in that region have been rather exhausted.” This handsy creep suddenly has his flesh melt away, and purple energy wraps around my body and goes into my chest. While it isn’t painful, it felt like a nightmare the way the body turned into this creamy goop, all except for the skeleton that stayed wrapped around me. My vision fades as I start to feel sick.

* * *

It was all too much for me. First, I lost Tyson, then in my rage I was enveloped in the most power I had ever experienced, all to have it sapped within a few minutes. I woke up in Alice’s and just sat there and stirred for a while wondering how I got here. Alice walked in before long. “You’re awake! I was so worried!” She goes to hug me, and I jerk away instinctively.

“Sorry I just… I’m in a very bad and crazy place right now.”

She nods as she conjures a small cabinet door and pulls out some piping hot tea with some crackers. “That telepathy was out of control, but you had some valid criticisms of my style. Here, take as much rest as you want. Everyone’s here trying to sort themselves out.”

I take a moment to digest what she had just said, “I’m sorry you heard that? That was just a passing thought, I didn’t even mean to convey that to you Alice! Your art style is super cool!”

She giggled after taking a sip, “Yeah I know it’s the best, but that doesn’t mean Daddy can’t teach me a few things to better myself. Wanting to set myself apart from him as an artist isn’t equivalent to excluding any of his influence. I need to be as capable as I can in case another attack falls on the city. With the way things have been going I could be the head of the last founding family before I know it. Should I start wearing suits?” We both share a laugh.

“Oh… how is your dad? We really did a number on one another that day.” I flash back to the image of my lightning scarring Mr. Traver’s chest right before he punched my lights out. Just thinking about it made my jaw sore.

“Well he’s… everyone’s kind of down in the dumps right now. I’m just doing my best to be supportive, we can’t all be total wrecks right now ya know?” I rub my cheek instinctively as she explains, and I notice something strange. There are marks on my arm, on both of my arms! I jump out of bed and start freaking out as I check the rest of my body.

“Where in the world did these come from?!” I scream as I reveal to the black marks on my arms, legs, and abdomen to Alice. “They look like chains? and…” I peek beneath my shirt to look at my chest. “What the fuck?!” There was the image of an ornate lock resting there, where all of the chains seemed to converge.

Alice’s face deflated. “Yeahhh Wyatt has ideas but he wanted to ask you before he made a conclusion on anything. He’s hanging out downstairs if you’re ready!” I couldn’t get downstairs fast enough. If father knew I got tattoos, especially within such a short time of being away from home? I don’t even want to think about it.

We make our way to the first floor where we see… Tobias? He gave me a meek wave before I decided to just save that for later and keep following Alice. Once we arrived at a room in the basement, she gingerly knocked on the door. “Wyatt? Hey if it’s okay, Alina woke up and she’s ready to talk to you. If you need some time, I get it.” After a few seconds, the door swings open, and Wyatt steps out, keeping the door close to him like he didn’t want us peeking inside.

“What were you doing in there?” I question.

He opens his mouth, but then goes with “It’s not important. Let’s go sit with Kurt so he doesn’t have to get clued in later.” He looks to Alice, “We’ll let your old man sleep a little longer. It’s been a rough couple of weeks.”

I go over everything that happened with Wyatt, Alice, and Tobias. From the time Alice and I had arrived on the scene, what I saw happen to Tyson, and the what that ghoul told me as he clinched on to me and all of my newfound power leaving me in an instant. Wyatt wasn’t happy to go over everything to hear any of it, but diligently pressed me for as much detail as I could muster. He asked me to try and heal his arm like I did that one-time Tyson went berserk on him. I had to strain myself way harder than usual, but there was definitely an improvement overall.

“Sounds to me like we’re fucked ladies and gents.” Wyatt yawned as he tested the mobility of his arm. “If that creep Rohan turns out to be Rohan Strauss? He’s literally waged most of the wars in recorded history for the sake of getting hitched. What’s more, he seems to know more about your power than you do of course, and he managed to cap you with your new ink. Which honestly? It doesn’t look half bad.”

I roll my eyes, “Thanks Wyatt. There’s gotta be a way we can defend ourselves! Maybe even take the fight to him!”

“Yeah just like I beat that one chick and made her into the latest landmark in town! It was a community effort, so we just gotta bring in more numbers, right?” Tobias chimed in with enthusiasm.

Wyatt shook his head, “While we definitely got lucky with whatever level of charisma you had to give people hope to fight back. The two you and I faced were nobodies in the grand scheme of things. We have an undetermined amount of weeks to not only amass a force of competent enough artists to stand a chance against elites with unique arts that have been honed for generations, BUT also figure out a way to counter the founder of this whole city, who can apparently live on through whatever grows after he shoots his DNA.”

“Dude gross.” Tobias threw a chip at Wyatt, who batted it away.

“I’m just stating facts.”

Alice perked up, “What about Tyson?! How’s he doing?”

Wyatt let out a sigh, “What about Tyson? He’s fuckin’ cadaverific Alice! Whatever kept him going before isn’t working now!!” The room went quiet. “Sorry, I just... Hank told me himself he would usually come to after a couple of hours.”

That last quote caught me off guard, “Usually?”

Wyatt was grim, “Yeah uh, he’s taken this ride so much that no one knows the actual count apparently. Travers told me himself when I got back. He actually used to live here before they arranged for my parents to run into him. That’s why Alice was always freaked out by him. Hank used to do some sick stuff to try and make him a walking weapon. Sometimes he’d go overboard and.”

My stomach dropped. “Well, where is he? Maybe if I could spark up his body or something we could!”

“Alina, don’t. Believe me I know what you’re going through but… maybe it’s more than some ancient restart art. Maybe it’s like his soul or something and it finally decided that it needs to rest. I wish we didn’t lose him either but… I’d like to treat him better than the people who knew him before.” Wyatt being so resolute in his stance, I couldn’t find a way to argue. Just because I was desperate to have him back didn’t mean it was right to even try to take him. We’ll have to carry on without him.

We all sit in silence, realizing that we didn’t get any do-overs or safety nets from here on out. After today, our lives as simple students was finished.