Silence, tranquility, a light neither too bright or too dim for my senses. Everything felt so distant, foreign, as if I was an outsider looking at it through a screen, was I even 'looking'? I wasn't feeling that way, my senses, I wasn't aware if I even had them, if what I was experiencing could even be called a sensation. I... who am I?

That peace was shattering in an instance, removed and replaced as it never existed. Plummeting into darkness, pain shoot from my arms, a searing continuous pain that spread over to my back. I wanted to scream but something was blocking my mouth I... NO I can't afford to lose consciousness right now. With one motion my hands were freed from their awkward position behind my back only for both to hit a hard surface! What's going on? Where am I? No that's not important dousing the flames were more important... Was I on fire?

Ignoring my surroundings I put my hands between my legs as I crouched down hoping the flames drowned between the folds of my dress before they had the chance to consume it. Was I wearing a dress? wasn't I dressed more casual? The inner part of my legs was stinging as if countless needles were piercing it continuously but fortunately it didn't managed to reach the same level as my arms which by this point had turned silent. I shouldn't be happy about it but not feeling the pain did somewhat soothed me,

I... me... my name... Right! I'm cadence Troute... Wrong. I'm Arthur, just Arthur. What's the last thing I remember? I was walking down the sidewalk with my lady-in-waiting... no I was alone, lady-in-waiting, what's that!... why would a lady such as myself walk alone, preposterous! I-we-I was walking when someone pointed to the sky, a humanoid figure was standing there high up without any visible cables. Everyone ended up starring at the figure up until it raised its right arm, after that...nothing.

Wait when did that happen, if such a genius appeared in Prunce I would have known. That good for nothing my lady-in-waiting wanted me to try peasant 'delicacies' and here we are, who knows what they put inside that disgrace they call food. Fuck I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore, my body's so heavy. That 'treat' must have been laced with some drug or another and we ended getting kidnapped. Now that I think about that good-for... No I shouldn't call her that... as if, the only thing she's capable is running behind my tail and even then she leaves much to be desired. She's a good attendant dealing with a little shit of a boss now finally shut up for a chance! YOU! you? There's no one else here, all this time I've been talking to myself and not in THAT sense. Yet... ugh my head's about to burst.

Anyway back on track she did mentioned that there were cases of children going missing but like the idiot that I, Cadence or Arthur am I simply dismissed as a non-problem saying big words such as "I'll burn them to dust" or "They'll be nothing of them left if they tried anything funny". Just like that I dragged her into this, my lady-in-waiting, my responsibility. And in my brilliant attempt to escape I tried burning the ropes with a small flame but ended up messing up and burning myself, so much for being a 'chanting genius' and all that shit, what does it matter how people call me, or her, when I can't do it right when it counts.

Focus. By blaming myself nothing will be achieved. Spend your time finding what went wrong with the chant, wait I know exactly what, it wasn't a chant to begin with. Having my mouth gagged meant that I couldn't chant, so in desperation I tried to recreate that elusive feeling my body got from chanting, a warm reassuring embrace, was I always describing it this way? An embrace you say... what's that? In a sense I did succeeded if not overachieving a bit but how did I reached that result. Was it an energy issue?

Based on conservation of energy chanting in the form that I know should be impossible. Chanting shouldn't have the results it produces, without any known repercussions to boot, just by willing it into existence. Which means that there is not only the one chanting and the result that an observer has to consider in this equation, an outside force, a third party, an energy at play that creates the result becuase the chanter demands it. So now instead of focusing in the relation of myself to the result I need to figure the connection between myself and that new energy...

Easier said than done, it's like going from jumping into a pit of snakes to a pool of acid. Most likely since we are able to interact with this energy in such an intimate manner then there should be a way to perceive it. Should I try meditation? Nah it takes too long to reach nirvana, I don't have the time for that. Then the opposite of meditation. Meditation aims for a steady mind, in the here, the now, the world, the corporeal, through that concentration they reached nirvana. Only I needed to perceive the incorporeal, an energy that literally creates magic...

Magic, why they don't call chanting magic. And thermodynamics, "when in dough trust in thermodynamics", so how come no one questions chanting in the form that it's taught? There's something about my memories, there's too much of it, Arthur's world where chanting wasn't a possibility but reached a higher technological level and Cadence, who's body I'm currently inhabiting, with an developing world full of possibilities. Now how that's happened or why are better left as work for later. All that matters right now is that I have this knowledge and I should better put it to the test.

Closing my eyes, an absolute useless first step when in complete darkness, ridding myself of all thoughts but one, repeating the same steps Cadence took before minus the final, that 'feeling' took form inside me, that fuzzy warm feeling one gets from chanting. So with the actual first step covered I 'reached out', I tried to broaden my viewpoint so to speak. If my hypothesis held true then this connection was a path already taken, it's not a question if there's an end result, the question is how to reach that desired end result. My aim was to somehow notice any alterations around me, to find out if what I was feeling inside me created an event outside.

Little by little I felt my restrains loosen, the weight of my clothes disappear until there was nothing, my senses had all went blank, my mind separating from my body. Before me stood a void. No, not just before me, it was also behind me and next to me, all around me, both enveloping and permeating me. Even time lost its meaning the more I stayed in that state and then something surfaced, a familiar feeling yet one that I couldn't exactly place. Silence, tranquility, a light easy too 'look' at surrounding me, lasting but a fleeting moment and then there was no more.

The weight of my clothes returned, the biting pain in my back, inner thighs and where the living nerves meet with the burned ones made its presence known, only now they were more bearable, less noticeable to put it, but even that was secondary to what I the change that happened at large, it was I had somehow awakened an entire new sense. My hypothesis was correct, there was an energy acting as the mediator between our mind and the magic that we created and now through this outer energy, as it passes through objects, I can 'see' the world around me.

Unlike normal vision than relayed in photon waves bouncing off objects this sense relied on the speed of the wavelengths, or more precisely the noticeable degrease as it passed through them. If only that was where it stopped. A void of energy, releasing its own wavelength at the edges, having its own "voice", being the most vibrant at the edges of the void fading the further away it veered mixing perfectly with the outer energy. That void at the center emitting the wavelength, given its vague shape, 'looked' to me like a person, in the same position such as myself, trapped in a barrel, bound and gagged. It was her. No matter how exciting this discovery was it didn't changed the fact that I needed to get out, that I needed to get her out.

Should I use fire again to burn the ropes on my legs? I still wasn't sure what exactly caused the chant, or the spell, to go out of control but now I should be able to peer deeper into the matter. Surely there should be a better solution than to attempt self-immolation again. Closing my eyes once again I focused all of my brain onto the wavelengths in an attempt to make sense of them only to realize that I could 'see' inside my own body, the energy that flowed. I suppose it stands to reason that I can see what's inside me and not what's inside other people but regardless this is a huge step forward in what I'm doing. Now I can figure out what that 'warm' feeling is and how the outer energy reacts to it firsthand.

From my little experimentation I figured two things. Firstly the inner energy moved based on my will forming various three-dimensional shapes, inside my body and then the outer energy followed suit mimicking said shapes. Secondly it mimicked but didn't mirrored, depending on the type of 'chant' that I was thinking, without executing it, the concentration of outer energy was either lower or higher than the inner one but never equal, although they do say "never say never" and my process left much to be desired, this may be the answer to my question as with every fire-based chant that I tried all managed to gather far larger amounts of energy, in the shortest of time, than any other non fire-based ones.

Affinity. That's the most likely scenario. A concept not of this worlds but from Arthur's. Chants are universal, be it a kid or elderly, rich or poor, speaking the same chant, the right way, will always produce the same result at the same time but what I was seeing suggested that now each of those chants worked on an individual basis making the users of this magic uniquely stronger or weaker on specific aspects. To thing that Cadence stumbled on this all on her own, and suffered the consequences, to think that she had the greatest affinity with the most dangerous of elements and just happen to find out in the worst possible way, like... for fucks sake.

Now the question rose, which pattern exactly yielded the most efficiency. Even thought I knew that I shouldn't be doing this curiosity got the better of me and I started twisting and turning my inner energy. At first I needed to think of the specific chant for the energy to move but right now that 'middle-man' was cut out of the equation, the previous experiment did granted me a deeper understanding of this energy's machinations allowing me the opportunity to affect at a more direct level.

This allowed me to try out a different approach, to let the energy run its course. Of course that didn't meant that I left all to chance, if I did that then it was but a matter of time to be burned. Half my will and half my inner energy at work. The result was something that I never expected, the outer energy wasn't steered in the least, instead my inner energy gathered around my skin, slowly enveloping my whole body. Should I worry I wonder? It looks to me like self-immolation only the shaped formed was an absolute new one.

As I run chant after chant similarities between then started becoming noticeable, 33% to 66% of a chant's shape was shared by others, albeit in varying proportions. Every chant's shape was unique in its own way but were all similar enough to make what is happening right now feel very alien. Even with my little experience on this matter I realized that I somehow stumbled my way into a different level of magic and I just couldn't help myself. Instead of letting it surround my whole body I contained the energy around the rope on my legs and, taking a deep breath, activated the magic.

To my utter surprise I was still alive and what's more the rope binding my legs had disappeared. Trusting on this new magic I put it in my face removing my blindfold and gad in turn, not that it actually helped as I was closed inside a dark box, or barrel given its shape. This power, this magic it's the key to my survival with it I can get out of here. Now the question was how? For how miraculous this magic was it didn't really solved the problem at core. Getting out of the barrel was one thing, I highly doubt this body of mine will get me far in its condition and most likely there are guards patrolling this place. I can't abandon her here but I also doubt that I can save her.

Waiting isn't an option worth considering given how my condition will only worsen and that they may separate and ship us out at any moment. Then I suppose it comes down to this, a fight, and I doubt I'll be able to incapacitate anyone, all I can rely upon is my affinity with fire and that... What am I thinking, given this world's medical advances I'm a dead woman walking, might as well play demon in my final moments and lay to waste to as much as possible.