by Dan Wingreen
"To rescue you," Eallair answered slowly, like it should have been obvious.
"R-really?" Aidan asked. He thought he was smiling and, really, having his magic sucked out must have the same effect as being drunk because that was the only explanation for why it made him so happy.
Not that Aidan had ever actually been drunk…
"Of course," Eallair said. He smiled, and it was the warmest smile Aidan had ever seen.
And then he grabbed Aidan under his shoulders and in one motion yanked him to his feet while standing up himself.
It was a miracle Aidan didn't throw up from the sudden vertigo.
"Sorry," Eallair said cheerfully. "But we kinda need to be getting’ out of here if I'm gonna help you. Not to mention, I didn't quite fight my way through every agent coming up here, so there are probably more’n a few on their way."
He slung Aidan's arm around his shoulder and held his wrist with his other hand, then walk-dragged Aidan out of the interrogation room. Once outside, he gently propped Aidan up against the nearest wall, which was blissfully stone free. He also apparently overestimated Aidan's ability to stand because the second he let go, Aidan's legs collapsed and Eallair just barely caught him before he went crashing to the ground.
"Sorry," he said with a wince as he gently lowered Aidan to the floor.
Aidan managed to summon up enough energy for a glare.
For some reason, that just seemed to perk Eallair up. "Well, at least you're not completely knackered." Before Aidan could ask what in Merlin's name that meant, he continued. "How long were you in there?"
Aidan blinked tiredly. How long was he in there? "What…what time is it?"
Eallair pushed the sleeve of his jacket up and looked at something on his wrist, probably a crystal watch. "Just past four in the afternoon."
"Four hours?" Aidan cried. "I was in there for four hours?"
That couldn't be right, it seemed like…well, actually he had no idea if it seemed longer or shorter than that. Still. Four hours…
"Damn," Eallair swore softly. "There's no way you'll be getting’ enough of your magic back to walk proper like anytime soon, and we can't be waitin’ around here much longer."
Panic flared to life in Aidan’s chest. "Don't leave me! You can carry me! Or-or I'll crawl or—"
"Don't be an idiot!" Eallair snapped. "I ain't gonna be leavin' you, but you can't crawl, and I can't carry you and protect us at the same time."
"Then…what are we gonna do?"
Eallair sighed. "Something I'd rather not. I need to…give you some magic."
That brought Aidan up short. "Huh?"
"You need magic, and since you're off the Avalon stone you're already starting to absorb it from the air again, but we can't wait around for you to get enough back that your body don't exhaust itself just tryin’ to move. So, I need to give you some of mine."
"That's…possible?" That seemed wrong to Aidan, in a way that should have been obvious, but he was too tired to figure it out.
"Aye," Eallair said with a nod. "It's gonna hurt though, since you're empty and this bein' your first time and all."
Aidan shuddered. He'd had more than enough pain for one day. "H-how much?"
"Ever have frostbite?" he asked.
Aidan frowned. "No?"
"Well, it'll feel a bit like the blood rushin’ back into your fingers after they start to thaw out. But everywhere."
Aidan let out a frustrated noise. "I just said I don't know how that—"
"Sorry about this." Eallair smiled apologetically, then placed his hand on Aidan's chest.
There was a sudden, sharp pressure; it almost felt like being full after he'd eaten too much, except instead of the feeling only being in his stomach, it spread out from his center until his whole body felt like it was filled with something he couldn't define. It made his skin tingle, and a warm sensation started to spread throughout him.
Then the pain started.
It was like every inch of his body had been dipped in liquid fire. His skin burned and his eyes felt like they were being pushed out of his head from the inside. He screamed, but almost as soon as he started the pain suddenly went away and he slumped against the wall. Unlike the torture spell, there weren't any aftereffects.
"Ow!" Aidan snapped as Eallair stood up. "That fucking hurt!"
He pushed himself to his feet and glared up at Eallair.
"I'm sorry," Eallair said. "If there were any other way I wouldn't have done it. Trust me, I know how much that hurts."
"Well, don't ever do it again!"
Eallair smiled slightly at that for some reason. "I'll try. How are you feelin’?"
"I…" Aidan paused. He felt…fine. Actually, he felt almost exactly the way he had before he was thrown in the interrogation room. Even his shoulder had stopped aching. "I feel good."
And just like that the anger drained away. He felt good. He didn't hurt. And Eallair had come back for him. For him. Nothing else.
Right then, that seemed worth a little bit of pain.
"Good," Eallair said. "Now—"
"Thank you!" Aidan blurted. He winced, because that wasn't at all how he wanted to say it. He'd done nothing but snap at Eallair and call him names and still Eallair had come back for him. Thank you didn't seem to even begin to say how grateful Aidan was, but any other words he tried to say stuck in his throat. He forced himself to look into Eallair's eyes. "Thank you," he said again, softly.
Eallair smiled. After the fake smiles and smirks tinged with cruel anticipation from Anwir, his smile was almost overwhelmingly pleasant. "Anytime."
Aidan's eyes slid away. It was disturbing how much he liked that smile.
He pushed that out of his head and decided to focus on his surroundings instead. The interrogation room was right at the top of a T-shaped intersection, with two hallways, one going off to his left, the other to the right, and a long one stretching out in front of him. There were doors evenly spaced on each wall, all made of the same thick metal. Were they all interrogation rooms?
Aidan also noticed he could still hear the alarm, had been hearing it since Eallair opened the door. It made sense they'd soundproof the torture rooms, but then why did he hear it when it first went off? It must have been some kind of spell, or intercom thing, or something.
There were also signs of fighting. Scorch marks colored entire sections of the walls, several lights either blinked on and off or were destroyed completely, giving the halls an uneven, dusky ambiance, and the air was tinged with the slight acrid smell of too much magic used in an enclosed area. In some places, debris littered the floor from damage done to the walls and there were three odd looking lumps in the middle of the hallway in front of him.
Aidan's throat went dry.
"Are…are those…dead bodies?" he asked. He felt stupid as soon as he asked. Of course they weren't bodies. They were just stunned like—
"Aye," Eallair answered.
Aidan blinked. "You…killed them!?"
Eallair scowled. "I just said I did, didn't I?"
Aidan looked back at the bodies—the dead freaking bodies—then quickly back to Eallair. He couldn't decide which was harder to look at right then. "Why?"
"Because they were tryin’ to kill me," he answered slowly, like Aidan was some kind of idiot or child for needing an explanation for murder. "Look, can we talk about this later? We need to get out—"
"No! We can't talk about this later!" Part of Aidan knew he was being at least a bit irrational, not to mention hypocritical, since he was ready to bash someone's head in with a chair to save his own life not even five minutes ago. But a bigger part of him felt betrayed that Eallair had killed people. Aidan needed a "good guy" in his life, and since it obviously wasn't the government or Carl anymore then it was supposed to be Eallair, dammit! "Why didn't you just, stun them or whatever, like you did the other night?"
"Bloody hell, if we don't leave now we're gonna be swarmed with agents."
"I don't care!"
He angrily shoved hair out of his eyes. "Answer the question!"
Eallair growled in frustration. "Do you have any idea how much magic I've used the past week? Shields and stun bolts and fire and more shields and floatin’ and coming back here to save you and doing it all again? That's a lot of magic and I barely got any left."
"So?"
"So, stunning people ain't easy!"
"Bullshit." Aidan crossed his arms. "Knocking people out doesn't take half as much magic as killing."
Eallair rolled his eyes. "And what cheap 'magic warrior' book did you get that nonsense from?"
Aidan felt his face heat up. He actually did get that from a book, but still, it made sense, so he refused to be embarrassed.
"Look," Eallair said impatiently. "Killing people is easy. You just need to stop the heart. Knocking people out without harmin’ them? It's hard. Real hard. You need to overload their entire system without damagin’ any of the organs or evaporatin’ their blood or any of a dozen other things that can kill 'em. It takes a lot more energy to do that, and most of the time, tryin’ in the middle of a fight just ends up gettin’ yourself killed. If you wanna survive, if you wanna protect what you care for, you're gonna have to kill, and it ain't always gonna be cut and dried, good and evil. Life ain't ever been like that, and it ain't lookin' to be anytime soon. So, you just shove off any romantic notions you got going 'round your head about 'honorable fightin' or 'good guys' not doing any killing, because in the real world, that's just a load of shite."
Aidan slumped. He hated how much sense Eallair was making. Were there any illusions he had about life that weren't going to be shattered today?
After almost a minute of Aidan not saying anything, Eallair's expression softened. "Look, I know you went through a lot today and it couldn't have been anythin’ even lookin’ like easy, but—"
Whatever he was going to say was cut off by the blue-black bolt of energy slamming into the wall above his head.
"Fuck!" he swore. "Get down!" He grabbed Aidan's arm and pulled him down into a crouch next to him. Aidan barely kept his balance enough to avoid sprawling face first into the floor.
He looked up to see four DMS agents in almost identical dark suits at the end of the hall in front of them. The two in front were down on one knee and the other two were standing right behind. They all had their hands raised and, as Aidan watched, more bolts shot out from their palms. The bolts were dark blue with a core of roiling black, a telltale sign of dangerous magic. Eallair kept a tight grip on Aidan's arm with one hand, pulling him behind his back, and raised the other.
Just before the bolts would have hit him, a shield—blue and mostly opaque, just transparent enough to see blurry shapes through—sprang into life in front of them and they bounced off.
"Merlin's fucking shit!" Aidan swore. Eallair gave him an odd look. Aidan refused to flush. He was not going to feel embarrassed about saying something ridiculous in the middle of getting attacked by death magic.
Even if, he remembered suddenly, he did get the expression from the same book he got the stun magic thing from…
After a few seconds, Eallair just shook his head slightly. "Stay here," he said, giving Aidan a stern look. "Whatever happens, don't move until I say."
Without waiting for a response from Aidan, he let go of him and turned his attention back to the agents.
More bolts were bouncing off the shield. Every time one hit, there was a quick flash and the shield became that much harder to see through. Aidan heard Eallair growl in frustration, then to his horror, the shield disappeared.
It was only down for a second. Just long enough for Eallair to shoot two blue-black bolts of his own before reappearing. There was a shout of pain and one of the blurs collapsed. Aidan bit the inside of his cheek to keep from cheering—completely aware of the hypocrisy and not really caring right then—but even as more bolts bounced off the shield, he saw the downed agent push himself off the floor and start firing again.
"You didn't kill him?" Aidan asked, frowning. He expected to be called out on how contradictory that was, but Eallair never took his eyes off the agents.
"Has to hit him in the chest," he answered in clipped tones.
Aidan frowned. That seemed like an inefficient way to fight. He licked his lips, not really wanting to ask the next question, but… "Why don't you use deathbolts?"
For that matter, why weren't the agents?
Eallair dropped the shield again, but only sent one bolt at the agents before snapping the shield back into place just in time to deflect two more bolts.
"Takes even more energy than a stun spell," he answered. "Lotta concentration to aim, too. Ain’t practical in fights, ‘specially not long ones. And, it's nasty magic. Dirty and cruel. I don't use it."
A tiny smile tugged at Aidan's lips. Looked like the good guys had some morals after all.
The shield dropped again and this time Eallair fired off three bolts in rapid succession at one target. All three of them hit the man in the chest and he went flying back into the legs of the agent behind him, tripping him and sending him crashing to the ground. This time Aidan did cheer, but it turned into a shriek when a bolt slammed into the floor right next to him, sending tiny bits of scorched wooden floor in every direction.
"You okay?" Eallair asked as the shield came back up.
Aidan nodded rapidly, his heart slamming against his ribcage, then realized Eallair wasn't looking at him. He swallowed down the lump of fear in his throat. "Y-yeah."
"Right. Stay down."
Aidan was about to snap back that he wasn't about to get up and start dancing when Eallair lowered the shield again and shot twice more. This time the shield snapped back into place almost before he'd stopped shooting, but several bolts from the agents hit it and Aidan couldn't see if Eallair had struck anyone. The return barrage was heavy and the light from the impacts began to hurt Aidan's eyes. He turned away.
And that was the only reason he saw five more agents round the corner of the hallway to their left.
"They're on the left!" Aidan screamed.
Eallair didn't even hesitate. His right hand took control of the shield in front of them and his other hand shot out to the left. A new shield sprang to life just as the new agents began firing. Both shields were completely opaque now and colored a dull, weak looking blue. They barely flashed when they were struck, but that didn't reassure Aidan. The general rule of magic was the brighter and clearer things made of magic were, the stronger they were, though there were exceptions, and of course certain spells could be made opaque at the caster’s discretion. These shields were so dull Aidan was sure the opaqueness wasn't by choice.
"Shit," Eallair hissed through gritted teeth. "We need to get out of here. I don't have enough energy left to keep this up forever."
Aidan started to shiver. "We're…gonna be okay, right?"
"Is the other hallway clear?" Eallair asked. He didn't answer the question… Aidan shook himself before the fear could fully take hold and looked behind them.
"Yeah. No one's there," he said.
"Right." Eallair nodded. "Here's what's gonna happen. When I count to three, you're gonna run down that hall. You get yourself to the end and if it's clear you keep runnin’ till you get to the middle of the next hall. There's a door what leads to a staircase. Take it and go down and run like hell out of here, you got that?"
A cold ball of dread formed in his stomach. "Wh-what about you?"
"What about me?" He looked over his shoulder and shot Aidan a slightly strained grin. "I'm gonna be right behind you, holdin’ the shield up, of course. Told you to get them romantic notions of heroes and last stands and such outta your head."
"You never said anything about last stands." Aidan tried for surly, but he was too relieved Eallair wasn't going to sacrifice himself so he could escape to pull it off.
"That's 'cause last stands are for idiots." He winked. "Now get ready and remember what I said."
Aidan nodded. "Down the hall.
If it's safe, go to the door to the stairs in the middle of the other hall and get out."
"Good boy. Okay, get ready."
Aidan nodded again, too nervous to care that Eallair had just spoken to him like a dog.
"You'll do fine."
Aidan nodded again, less sure this time though.
"You'll do fine," Eallair repeated, looking Aidan in the eyes. There was no hint of doubt. Almost like he had total confidence Aidan wouldn't screw up somehow. Which was ridiculous, because he had no reason to believe Aidan was remotely capable of dealing with a situation like this. And yet, Aidan's next nod was a lot more self-assured.
I can do this.
"Right then." With one last quick smile Eallair turned his attention back towards his shields. "One."
He slid his other foot under him so instead of being down on one knee he was crouching on both feet, the right slightly behind the left.
"Two."
He slowly shuffled back until he was right in the middle where the top of the T connected all three halls.
"Three!"
Aidan took off running, his bare feet thumping on the carpeted floor. After a few steps he looked back over his shoulder in time to see Eallair stand up and take a few quick steps back into the hall Aidan was running down. When he was fully in the hall, he brought both his hands together and the shields absorbed each other until there was only one left; light blue, somewhat transparent, and blocking off the whole hallway. Aidan could see the blurred agents moving down the hall after them and could only assume the first group was doing the same thing. Eallair glanced over his shoulder and snarled.
"Go, for fuck's sake!"
Aidan snapped his head around and ran faster.
He got maybe halfway down the hall when another group of five agents rounded the corner in front of him.
Anwir was in the lead.
"Leaving already?" he asked, raising his hand.
Aidan skidded to a stop, giving his feet minor rug burn against the carpet, and immediately started running back the other way.
"E-El…I can't say your fucking name!" Aidan screamed. "They're down here too!"