Mortal Magic: Broken

I couldn’t sleep even if I wanted to that night. I was too stressed and worried to do so. So many outcomes were unraveling in my mind that it was the only thing I could think about. How would this turn out in the end? This simple question was haunting my mind and although I didn’t turn around all the time I was sure that it was evident I wasn’t sleeping at all. So when my time to keep watch came I was more than happy to get up and search the castle for my sister from here.

I figured if I concentrated hard enough I could see beyond the normal reaches of my mana sight. When I closed my eyes I could see an entire floor if I wanted to and I was certain if I concentrated I could see even further. As we were moving through the first floors yesterday I also kept an eye out for Ashe but she was nowhere to be found there. However I never did scout this floor or the ones above so I got right to it. After Yuto went to sleep the last hours of the night I sat cross-legged at the center of the room and closed my eyes. I immediately started seeing the mana around me since with practice it came to me almost naturally now, but this wasn’t enough for what I had in mind.

I concentrated as best as I could and my sight reached new lengths. I could clearly see everything I wanted, but it was all a jumbled mess so I had to find a way to clear the vision. An idea popped into my mind right then. I could make my body stronger and faster if I used my mana, so what if I can make this new skill stronger with Mana Burst too? I had never tried it before so I was unsure if I could do such a thing but it was worth a try in the first place. I felt for the mana residing inside me and imagined it flowing to my mind when I whispered the name of the arte.

I didn’t feel a change in my body but I did fill like I was no longer bound to it. I tried to test my theory by moving with my mind and I saw that I could move the point from where I was seeing to anywhere I wanted most likely. This was good. I didn’t have to leave here and I could still search the castle for my sister, thus saving both time and risk. I moved with my mind through this floor to make sure it was really empty and once I was sure I ascended to the next one. I started moving through the corridors and examining the rooms behind the walls to find people and I found no one. I remember the guards were stationed at the ground level of the castle since we had to avoid the patrolling ones and the rooms that were occupied but these floors were abandoned.

When I reached the fifth floor I again found signs of life, mainly the ripples of mana from guards. I could recognize them from their clothes that looked alike and the swords they were carrying. They were oblivious that I was watching them and that was perfect for what I had in mind. I kept moving and watching as the guards became more frequent at some point and I saw that there was a group of six guards stationed outside a single room. Hope started to rise in me and I nearly lost focus as I tried to keep my heart from failing.

I looked through the door and the walls and into the room and I found someone in the bed, sleeping. I moved closer and stopped beside the bed as I examined the person. The bad side of the mana sight was that I could not see the details of things and more importantly people but I could possibly see if that person was close to the one I was looking for. The person was covered with the sheet or whatever that was and tucked in like a ball so I couldn’t make out many things. I did however notice that my sister used to sleep like that or try at least when she was upset and my heart started beating faster.

I moved to the other side of the bed where the face was supposed to be and I wanted to actually be there and open my eyes to see the face of the person but I knew that if I opened my eyes I would still be inside the room we were hiding in. I was getting desperate to figure out who the person was and I had no clue as to how to do it. If my physical body was actually there I would possibly be there kneeling beside the bed with my face right beside the person’s and ready to take the covering out of the way when the person stirred and I moved a bit back.

The covering slipped and the person sat up a bit without moving his legs and looked at my direction like he could actually see me. I was starting to get worried when the person moved to the edge of the bed got on his feet and started moving towards me but passed me and headed for the built-in balcony instead. He looked at the horizon and I assumed dawn was nearly upon us when he wrapped his hands around his skinny forearms. That was when I realized who the person was. It couldn’t be Lars since he was taller than me and this person wasn’t, and besides Lars couldn’t be so slim, I had seen him in person. No the person was clearly a young woman that was hugging herself worried.

Upon the realization I lost all focus on what I was doing and I got pulled back to the room where I opened my eyes and breathed in heavily. I was sweating and now panting and the other two realized it and raised from their sleep worried. I looked at the balcony and saw that it was indeed dawn and we had to get moving now when I felt a hand on my right shoulder and snapped my head to the front. Yuto was there in front of me clearly alarmed and ready to act. “What is it what did you see”? I was too socked to answer but I was also happier than I have ever been in years and that did not go unnoticed by either of them.

I kept looking at Yuto and a big smile crept n my lips as I was seemingly trembling from happiness. “She is here. I found her”. That was all I could say without being too loud and risk us being found even though we were alone on this floor. The moment those words left my mouth Yuto smiled and without looking away spoke again. “Where”? I turned my head upwards and then looked back at him and he understood. Maia was up on her feet by now and trying to rub the sleep from her eyes. Yuto nodded satisfied and before continuing. “Tell me exactly what you saw”.

I was so anxious to go and take her in my arms and never let her go that I protested immediately and much louder than it was wise and Yuto closed my mouth with his hand. “I’m going to take my hand and you are not going to yell, alright”? Defeated I nodded and decided to go with his plan. He took his hand from my mouth I proceeded to tell him everything I saw when I was searching. We stayed in the room for an hour just going over everything before we decided to device a plan. It was really simple though we had to go to the fifth floor and then knock out the guards if we can’t slip past them and then knock out the ones at the door since we can’t avoid those, get Ashe and go before anyone realizes we were here. Nothing can go wrong with this really.

We set out of the room close to noon and I kept an eye out on Ashe the whole time to make sure she is not moved. Until then someone had entered the room with a bowl and nearly threw it at her before she used magic on him to throw him out of the room. I was surprised by that. She never used her magic aggressively before. It scared me to think what made her change like that. It scared me to actually get in front of her and look her in the eye when I have done such a terrible job as a big brother. How would she react? Would she do the same thing I did to Atreus or would she act differently?

We walked slowly until we reached the stairs to the fifth floor and then Yuto grabbed my right shoulder again and gave me a gentle shake. I looked at him and he looked worried but I assured both of them that everything was fine. I closed my eyes and sought out the ripples in mana from the guards and we passed them by undetected for the most part but I had to take out at least five of the guards we encountered and we then had to hide them and make sure they would stay down. Ashe was being held in the eastern corridor in a room facing the sun when it dawned so we moved towards there. We found the room still guarded by six men and they all seemed bored and somewhat relaxed. They sure didn’t expect someone to attack them since there were so many other guards between the girl they were keeping prisoner and the ruins all around the castle.

We had to take them out all at once and that would take careful planning. They were stationed three against the two walls and each looked at the one in front of him so there was no way for me to use projections to hit them without even one realizing they were being attacked. Even if I did make the hammers at the ceiling and let them drop on their heads it would probably result in at least one of them moving out of the way we didn’t want to kill them so Yuto couldn’t use his fire and I couldn’t use swords or knives or anything like that. Hammers or blunt weapons were my only choice here and I couldn’t make them fly as fast as swords because they weren’t designed to gut the air. They would be fast enough if we were lucky but I would have to fire them before they materialized entirely. Luckily the guards were not wearing helmets and none of them were ready.

I had to act fast so I closed my eyes and with my mana sight I imagined the places where the big hammers would appear and made the projections at the ceiling. Before they were even halfway done to the hilt I fired them to the guards aiming for their heads and hoped it would suffice. I heard the sound coming from the head being hit by a blunt object and then the body falling to the ground and opened my eyes. I looked around the corner for the guards and I saw that all of them were out and two of them had an open wound on their heads. I wasn’t sure if they would survive so I told Maia to heal them but not to the point where they would wake up soon, just so that they would avoid death.

After she was finished we stood by the door and I froze in place. My hand was mere inches from the handle and yet I couldn’t make it move closer. “Are you sure you are alright”? Yuto was still concerned about me and now I was too. I wasn’t ready to face her. But I had to save her and to do that I had to take her away from here. Yet I couldn’t look at her in the eyes after all this. It would be one thing to do so when I only had my failure as her brother to face, but I had to tell her everything. I had to tell her that I lied to her in her face telling her that I remembered nothing. And I was sure she knew I was lying and that made things even worse. “It’s fine, we all fear the time of confrontation. I’ll go in first if it will make you feel better”.

I nodded and stood aside for him to open the door and go in with my head facing the floor. That lump that formed in my throat and the knot in my stomach were making their presence known to me relentlessly. I felt Maia’s hand on mine as Yuto opened the door sparing one last glace towards me before disappearing inside. I took a deep breath and pushed the unease away and made a step forward when I heard a loud noise from inside and then the words Elemental Burst. I ran inside without a thought and saw Yuto in the air with fire, water and earth surrounding him and choking him.

He was wriggling in the air as all elements were dancing in the will of the young woman in front of him. She was angry and trembled in both fear and rage as she choked Yuto. I got between them and tried to reassure her. “Ashe stop, he is my friend we are here to help you”. At the sound of her name her eyes met mine and for a brief moment I thought she didn’t recognize me and my heart sank in despair. Had I changed so much that she couldn’t see who I was? Just then I heard Yuto falling to the ground and spitting out what water he managed to take inside him and coughing.

She just stood there confused and stared at me like I did to her. She had grown more than I could have thought. She was nearly as tall as I maybe half a head or so smaller and she seemed to be in perfect condition. She was wearing men’s clothes but all they did was to make her look fiercer. Long leather pants that looked like they have been used extensively and a tight brown sleeveless cotton shirt that had seen its fair share of tears were all she was wearing. Her face seemed just like I remembered only a bit less round and more defined in contrast with the rest of her body that seemed to have filled out with curves and all that. Yet I could see that she had some muscle on her, mainly from her arms that were bare. Her hair was longer than ever reaching the end of her back and tied with a piece of bandage at the end. She seemed fearless and I was at a loss of words. Gone was the little girl I used to know, in front of me was a woman that resembled a warrior.

I lowered my head and accepted the fact that she either isn’t happy to see me or she hates me if she recognizes me, or she doesn’t even remember me. Suddenly I heard her taking small cautious steps and looked back at her to see her having covered her mouth with her hand and coming closer with tears forming in her eyes. After that she run the rest of the distance between us and wrapped her hands around me in the tightest hug she could possibly give me and I could hear her quiet sobbing as she buried her face in my chest.

I hugged her again for the first time in a very long time and rested my head on hers feeling my own eyes watering. I rubbed small circles on her back and just stayed there like time wasn’t pressing us, like we had all the time in the world for this. Then I heard her voice. “You really came. I was starting to think you never would, that when he told me you were dead it was the truth”. She was sobbing in my arms and I was tormented by it. I couldn’t even begin to think what she must have been through because I wasn’t here to take her away sooner. Even her voice seemed to have changed and become stronger with all this.

“It’s alright now. I’m here and I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again. You are safe now you hear me? You are safe”? I kept her in my arms until she started to settle down and she moved away looking at me with a smile and the water on her cheeks and I smiled back at her. Then her expression turned from happy to confused. “What happened to your hair”? What indeed I wonder. I was ready to explain when Yuto butted in. “There will be time for that later, we have got to move, now”. He was anxious and so was Maia. In my relief that I found my sister alive and well I almost forgot what we came here to do and how we were supposed to leave this place.

“You are right we have to go. There will be time for this later princess I promise. We need to take you out of here first and make sure you live to see the dawn once more. Then you are free”. She nodded but I saw her blush at the mention of my old name for her which made me happy. We turned around and I saw that one of the guards had woken up but was still disorientated from the blow. However he did see us and he drew mana from around him and his sword flew out of its scabbard tied to his waist and rushed through the air towards us. Everyone got out of the way in time except for me and Ashe so I had to act fast. I pushed Ashe behind me and moved myself and the sword grazed my abdomen but then it flew back and made I bigger cut closer to my chest where my heart was.

The cuts weren’t deep but if the magus wasn’t dealt with then we were in trouble. I projected a sword to counter the one flying in front of me and then another hammer to hit the guard in the head again, only this time I heard the bones of his skull breaking on the impact. I was sure he was dead before I even turned my head to see him. I didn’t even flinch at the sight of his head that had opened up and half his brain was in plain sight. But Ashe was surprised at the very least. She didn’t scream but she was surprised that I killed him. She looked at me then and she was about to ask me when I stopped her. “We will have time for that later. There is much you need to know, one being that I have killed people before. I’m not proud of it but I did it anyway”.

She didn’t press further realizing that I would tell her everything later when she was truly safe and with that we left the room behind us. We walked through the corridors for a while when we heard some kind of alarm and we stopped in our tracks. Yuto looked at me and I closed my eyes to see what was going on. I used Mana Burst again and moved my mind to the lower levels where I saw that many guards were running and searching every room and I also saw that the guards we left alone on this floor were coming this way.

We didn’t have much time and once they found out that Ashe wasn’t in her room they would turn this place upside down to find us. We needed to hide and fast. I guided us to another corridor for now avoiding the guards coming our way and we waited there for them to pass us. When they did we made for the stairs and descended to the fourth floor that was not yet filled with guards searching for us. We had no room for mistakes as we needed to get out of here, and like this it would take us hours to do so. We moved to one corridor at that looked had more rooms than the rest and there we got inside a room much like the one the three of us used before. We couldn’t stay here forever though and sooner or later the search would come here too. That was when Ashe had an idea.

“We can hide inside the walls. I will make room for us inside by moving the marble and make it seem like a hole was never opened. And I will leave a small opening of air to pass inside; the balcony wall will be perfect”. She went for the wall without a moment of waste and she started pulling on the marble with her magic. Soon she had made a secret room inside the wall and we got inside before she merged the marble together and make it like a glass in width it was truly astonishing. She then pulled a small part of the marble from the outside wall no one could search and there was air coming in our hiding spot.

It was a little crowded in here since we were four people and the balcony wasn’t that big but we managed to make ourselves somewhat comfortable. I looked at Ashe a bit confused and I couldn’t help but ask. “How come you never escaped if you could do that? They will stop searching here after a while and then move to find you in the caves surrounding this place”. She put her head on her knees and pouted as she gave her answer. “I did do it, three times to be exact. I never managed to find my way out of the caves and I didn’t know how long they are so I couldn’t risk making another tunnel since they would find me. And that bastard has my powers. They found me each time, and most likely they will this time too”.

I felt bad for allowing this to happen yet I could do nothing about it. She tried to get away many times like I did back in Redgard and she had failed just like me because she was alone. But not this time, now she had me, she had us to help her. I put my hand on her head and messed with her hair a bit smiling like old times and her pout intensified before she giggled lowly too. “Don’t worry. This time you are not alone. I’ve learned that escapes go better with help”. But what she said before caught my curiosity. What did she mean by he has her powers?

“What do you mean he has you powers”? She looked at me and seemed to ponder something for a moment but answered nonetheless. “You don’t know? That is Lars’ ability. He copies the magic of others and makes it his own. He doesn’t just take the abilities though, he copies the knowledge and skills, everything. He knows everything I can do but his magic isn’t as strong as the original. I tested that many times. But he is cunning and makes up for it”. So that was why when I fought him he had Ashe’s powers. He had copied them and kept them for himself. But I don’t think he copied her ability to absorb mana indefinitely.

As we were waiting silently a plan was beginning to form in my mind. If I could just get him to use his real magic on me then I should have the upper hand. The skill Ashe described seems like a master arte that copies all the magic of another magus, but he can’t copy another master arte so he can’t use mine against me. If I can create mana without end and make him absorb too much he will succumb, but that would take too much time and there would be his guard too. No I simply needed to keep Blood Realm for the duration of the eclipse and then we could stop. If they wanted a fight then too then I would gladly kill them all if I had to.

Hours passed by and I was watching the guards carefully to see what they were doing. Three times they came to the room in search for us but they left empty handed. It wasn’t until the sun was starting to set that they started to move from the castle to the caves. When the castle was mostly empty again we got out of the wall and slowly I guided us the ground floor avoiding the remaining guards. They seemed agitated and focused as they were fervently searching and it was easier to avoid them when they were hurrying.

We got to the outside court and I saw no one out so I opened my eyes and we got out of the citadel. There we crossed the court and got to the start of the ruins where we saw some of the guards in the distance and hid we decided it was safer to leave from another direction and so Yuto said that we could head north where his home was, we would be safe there and it was only two days travel, maybe three if we were going slow. He said that he could see the citadel in the distance every day from his house. It was worth a shot to try and escape there. The tunnels were numerous and long and resembled a labyrinth so the guards couldn’t be that effective inside them. We just needed to make sure we didn’t bump into anyone in the way.

We moved to the north side of the ruins slowly dodging more guards as we did so. There seemed to be even more guards here than any other place in the ruins and the citadel. Like they were stationed here for a reason they were being focused on their posts like nothing happened. Just then I looked to my right and I saw that there was a huge unoccupied space in the middle of what seemed like the square of the city. The whole square was empty except for the single giant hole in the ground that if I had to guess could be bottomless. However I got distracted by the sight and I didn’t notice that we had been spotted until it was far too late.

Suddenly we were surrounded by magi and they all seemed ready to use magic to kill us. One of them used magic to sound an alarm like the last one hours ago and sure enough soon every guard would be here. We didn’t have time to lose so I did the only thing I could now that we had been compromised, I projected swords and fired them at the magi and most of them were killed in on shot, the others managed to block my projections so I had to use new ones to finish the job. Now before us lay almost twenty corpses of people I just killed without remorse in front of everyone and Ashe was dumbstruck. We said we would avoid killing them but now it didn’t matter so I killed them before they killed us. That gave us enough time to flee to the caves, or so I thought.

Out of nowhere I heard a menacing laugh and I paled immediately. He was here, watching and waiting for us to be spotted; and something told me that this was the exact spot he wanted us. That huge hole in the ground was bound to be part of the ritual if Ashe’s face was of any indication. I grabbed her hand and held it tightly in mine as my eyes never left Lars who was smiling and coming our way from the other side of the hole. “I’ve been waiting for you to make your move, Archer was it? Of course I thought that you would be smart enough to hide until the eclipse passes and ruin my plans but I would have found you by then. I can feel those whose powers I take so I knew you were still in the citadel”.

He admitted it right away that his power was to copy others. This made my plan even better for the situation. Barely containing myself from bursting in a fit of rage I kept glaring at him like this could actually kill him in front of me. If looks could kill he would have died the moment he took her away. “You know that you just told me your power right? I know that you took my sister’s powers and let me tell you that the elements can’t stop my blades. Fire can’t burn what is not real; wind can’t divert something that is not affected by force. Water can’t slow down something so fast and earth can’t stop what I can use from wherever I want. Her power is useless against me, and so are you”.

I was slightly aware that my words made Ashe feel somewhat useless and hurt but when dared a glance at her I saw that what I thought there was nowhere to be found in her face. On the contrary she seemed to be confident and ready. I heard Lars laugh and when he stopped he spoke again. “We will see about that young magus. You are facing a master so learn your place. Besides I only need your sister to be here when the blood moon is covered in Ea’s shadow completely. When that happens a bright light will erupt from this very hole in the ground and she will willingly walk over to it and fall due to the spell I have had put on her”.

In his bragging manner he told me what I needed to avoid and that was the last detail I wanted to win. The blood moon was already on the sky now and as we were talking I could see it getting black slowly as it was covered by Ea. I had five minutes at best to deploy Blood Realm and I needed to make a diversion for Yuto to use Crimson Inferno first. “Well it won’t matter since we already have you surrounded. You will all die here and now, and Ea will be healed by your sister’s sacrifice. Rejoice, you will not die in vain, at least one of you won’t”.