If it was an intentionally made piece of magic, Ylena wondered if it might not be true; though why would they bother. To leave these magic portals inside the mountain should mean death for anyone returning, which made her question if they were manmade or not. Could they have been magically created and somehow shifted into the mountain? No one knew enough of the alien version of these spells to guess if that could happen.
"And the earth wizards..."
"Can't find any openings deeper in with their magic," Ukor complained as he glanced at the two earth wizards sitting nearby eating their snacks. The men met his eyes and said nothing though their eyes told her that they didn't appreciate his disparaging remark.
Releasing a deep breath as she considered the problem, Ylena wondered what she could suggest to help solve this. She wasn't an earth wizard, though the diplomacy wizard knew some of their spells. All diplomacy wizards were trained in as many spells from the elements as they could manage. Like a white wizard, they tried to be as versatile in their knowledge as their skills would allow. Even so, Ylena didn't know anymore about working with stone than earth wizards specializing in the magic.
One of the air wizards came hurrying up the path, he was already breathing a little heavy as the man reached the cave. "Silvis was watching the northeast and says that something is flying this way."
"Something or someone?" Ylena questioned wondering if Katya had been sent to tell them of a discovery.
"Um," the air wizard began as he realized that he hadn't heard the full story. He had thought that information would be enough for the other wizards.
A rumble in the ground could be felt by everyone around the mouth of the cave. Looking inside, Ylena watched as a pair of soldiers hurried out of a side tunnel. Like at the previous cave, they had decided to be thorough in their search of a possible way to find this rift. Feeling like a gentle earthquake, the two men didn't seem to care if the wizards didn't like their running outside of the cave. No one wanted to risk being buried alive if the cave was about come down around them.
Ukor started to complain to the soldiers, but their faces were white with fear. Those two wouldn't be going back inside anytime soon, the woman thought as she looked away from the cave and back to the sky.
"Wizard Ukor, a door opened at the end of the cave!" a voice called from the depths.
"That seems too convenient," the elder gate wizard grumbled. "Blake, stay here just in case. No sense in risking both of our lives."
Squinting, Ylena tried to see what the air wizards had spotted. If it was Katya, then they weren't too far from the first cave and the girl should arrive pretty soon.
A dot appeared in the sky, but Ylena looked away a moment as she noted a strange buzzing noise coming from inside the cave. "What is that sound?" the woman asked.
Both earth wizards stood looking inside with worry. The men stepped back in discretion. Blake did as well as he cast a vision spell.
A murmur that sounded a bit like Katya's voice was masked by the buzzing sound as it seemed to get closer.
"By the gods!" she heard Ukor cry out frantically and tried to find the wizard quickly. The lights inside the cave created by torches had begun disappearing from deeper inside the tunnel suddenly making it hard to see the wizard at all.
Blake gasped and again Ylena noticed Katya's voice on the air. What was the girl yelling for? She was obviously too far away to be heard. Maybe Katya still didn't realize that yelling into the wind wouldn't let her yells carry any farther, her mentor thought with a shake of her head.
"What in the world?" Blake asked as he stepped back. "Ukor!"
Ylena watched as the gate wizard inside the tunnel appeared running towards the opening briefly as white dust suddenly surrounded him. His body seemed to shrink, though that term wasn't quite right either, she realized. He became a boy, a child, an infant and continued to shrink until the wizard winked out of sight.
"By the gods!" she echoed the deleted gate wizard and took her first step backward.
"...trap!" the word registered in her ears even over the sound of the buzzing.
Katya saw her mentor step back seconds after the men around her gave ground.
"It's a trap! Seal the tunnel quickly!" she yelled out cupping her hand around her mouth trying to force her voice through the wind whipping back into her face. There had only been a slight breeze, but the dragon mage was experiencing wind resistance that would be enough to keep her from delivering the warning that needed to be given quickly.
Never slowing, Katya dove towards the cave opening. Her eyes could make out a cloud of dust swarming out of the tunnel mouth that seemed the exact opposite of the first in color. What had been black was white here, but the girl was certain that it was just as dangerous.
"Ylena, get away from there!" Tears from the wind and tears from her worries welling up given form blurred her vision a bit. A hand wiped at them clearing her vision enough to see Ylena about to be caught by the cloud. Her mentor had the ability to try calling up a spell, but her feet and the magic would be too slow. She cast like a wizard, not a battle mage.
"Dragon claw!" Katya called out reaching out from the furthest she had ever tried. "Dragon wind!" she added as red crystalline claws grasped the dark haired woman around her waist.
Momentum drew the two closer together. Large red bird wings swept forward driving powerful winds past Ylena towards the white cloud.
"Seal the cave quickly!" she called out flapping her wings and pulling the dark haired woman towards her.
Her eyes found the two earth wizards and her magic propelled them to use their spells while her wings did their best to hold back the white dust. Blake and a battle mage were battered by her winds, but were able to fall away from the touch of the dangerous cloud.
Stone rose up as the earth wizards stomped their feet on the ground. They didn't even need to place their hands on stone to manipulate it. Magic let them feel and control the earth as long as they touched it in any way. Their hands lifted as if raised to one of the gods in prayer.
Katya looked from the sealed cave to her friend and mentor. She gasped. The woman's black robe and coat seemed to rot away before her eyes, though as she looked perhaps that was the wrong term.
Black dye retreated and dissolved from the leather. The coat fell apart as the garment seemed to unravel as the threads winked out of sight. Openings in the leather appeared and she could see the robe beneath turning to the fibers from which it had once been created. It was as if all the work and creation of each piece was being undone until the material was no more.
"Dragon wind!" she cried out again as the claw deposited the dark haired woman on the ground. Attempting to blow the white dust away from her friend, Katya moved closer looking for any dangerous pieces in the air.
Ylena was writhing on the ground and crying out in pain. To her eyes, Katya thought that something was different, but it was still too subtle in her panic and worry over her friend. She wasn't turning to dust as far as the girl could tell, at least.
Holding her stomach, the dark haired wizard seemed to be dealing with excruciating pain there as she continued to cry.
"Your jacket, Katya!" the warning came from the side of the cave mouth. Blake pointed at her white leather coat and the girl noted it reacting much like she had seen with Ylena's black leather coat.
Stripping it off, Katya threw the jacket away from her and Ylena. Her apprentice dress beneath had its problems as well. Her left sleeve had a few small holes growing slowly. Perhaps the dust was down to just a couple pieces there, but the girl used her ruby armor and claws to rip it free. Thrown onto the jacket, it turned to fibers, then pieces of cotton shrinking to seeds before disappearing into nothingness.
She turned and called out to Blake frantically, "Is anymore on me?"
Pointing to her hem, her claws removed the bottom few inches removing a strip that dissolved in her hands, but with that the dust seemed to be contained. The coat and pieces of her dress in the pile didn
't fade away completely for several minutes, but by that time she was checking on Ylena again.
Naked and pale, the dark haired wizard finally stopped her crying. She shook from pain and perhaps the cold a moment longer even as her apprentice to figure out what she could or dared to do.
"Ylena, are you alright?" Katya asked still maintaining her armor. If the dust was reversing time as opposed to aging whatever it touched, then the fifteen year old girl had fewer years to risk than the other wizards around her. It was a selfish thing to think about, perhaps believing that her dragon armor would protect her. Still she watched Ylena from close by and finally take a deep breath before opening oddly blue eyes to look at her apprentice. Katya gasped.
"K-Katya?" the dark haired wizard questioned still feeling the lingering pain of her body's cramping.
Looking at Ylena as she rolled to sit up, Katya thought that she was looking at a girl of roughly her own age now, perhaps even younger. "Ylena, how do you feel?" she asked tentatively.
"The pain is fading, but I feel... weird."
The dark haired girl started to use her hands to get up and Katya noticed blood dripping down the other wizard's legs.
"You're bleeding," she said quietly.
Standing up looking shaken, Ylena glanced to the blood trailing down her legs before looking in confusion at Katya. "Did you grow taller?"
Katya noted that the dark haired girl in front of her was only about the same height now. Previously the older wizard had been a couple inches taller than her apprentice. "I think the white dust must eat away time. You look... younger."
Placing her hand on her stomach, Ylena looked thoughtful. "If I am younger, maybe my body has reset everything. I don't usually have that bad of cramps each month, but I thought that I was going to die for a moment there. Perhaps I just relived every one that I've ever had in that moment?"
Making a disgusted face, Katya changed the subject quickly. "Do you feel sick or anything?"
"I actually feel great now." She paused and thought again. "If I am just as tall as you, I might be your age if your guess about this cloud is correct. Well, I mean physically I might be."
Again Katya gasped, but not because of that revelation. "Have you forgotten everything since then too?"
Shaking her head, the look was that of a teacher disappointed that her student had missed a point somewhere. "I still remember you, silly. I don't think that I've forgotten anything. It affected my body, but not my mind."
Katya pointed towards pert, petite breasts revealed in front of her and said, "We need to find you some clothes."
Glancing down, Ylena seemed less distressed about it than her apprentice would have thought. "Yes, I suppose so."
The brunette girl was slender with long lines, even now that she had lost a couple inches in height. Katya guessed that she had lost weight also, though Ylena hadn't been heavy by any means either. The wizard had been pretty, though in an older way the girl had always thought. Most men had found her attractive based off some of the conversations she had had in camp and sometimes overheard in the dining hall at school when boys forgot their manners.
Ylena seemed to almost glide towards Blake. Her movements were fluid and sexy, though Katya wasn't certain that her mentor was even trying. The apprentice was noticing more about the girl's body and didn't understand why she couldn't stop looking.
Wrenching her eyes away, Katya noted the looks on the faces of the men near them. It wouldn't have surprised her to see stunned looks on their faces with the change to Ylena's naked body, but there was something beyond that.
"Blake, might I borrow your jacket?" Ylena asked putting out a hand. The gate wizard seemed mesmerized. He hurried to pull off his jacket and the men hearing the request looked bitterly disappointed that they hadn't been asked instead.
Blake didn't just hand her his jacket, but moved close to wrap it around her shoulders. His eyes surprisingly didn't leave her face.
"Thank you," the dark haired beauty said holding it in place with her hands, but Katya noticed that she didn't immediately pull it closed or button it up either. She also noticed a thrum as Ylena spoke. It was magic.
Hurrying forward, Katya thrust magic into her tone as she tried to snap Blake out of his reverie, "Blake, turn around!"
She could see that it was a fight for the wizard to turn away. "Close your eyes, Blake, and stay there until I tell you to turn around."
"Katya, what are you doing to the poor man?" Ylena asked and again there was an extra thrum that could be felt.
Looking at the other wizards and mages nearby looking enthralled as well, the apprentice lowered her voice and asked, "When you were found in the harvest, were you a wilder talent already?"
"N-" Katya covered the other girl's mouth and shushed her quickly.
"Quietly, every word you say seems to be coated in diplomacy magic, Ylena. If you remember everything, then recall your control, please. If I were male, I'd probably be enthralled as well.
"You're even acting oddly. You could put the coat on properly and not show off everything, you know," she chastised the older wizard, which felt strangely more appropriate since Ylena now appeared about as old as Katya was.
Ylena slid her arms into the jacket and began to button it without saying a word. Her eyes seemed to want to say something to her apprentice, but she took a moment to fasten the lower buttons leaving the top two unfastened in spite of the cold and tossed her hair back behind her. Gesturing with her hand to follow, Ylena moved away from the squad gathered near the horses.
"Gentlemen, return to the horses," Katya ordered using her magic to break the other girl's magic control. The men didn't go easily, but her magical power rivaled her mentor's. She might even be more powerful, but her brother was a battle mage who was also greater than he seemed; so Katya had never let herself be swayed by the power of another's aura. In this case, it meant that she had the ability to counter Ylena if her power was out of control.
The two girls moved far enough away that if they kept their voices at a normal volume, the closest men would be unlikely to hear or be affected.
Ylena tapped her chin in thought looking up towards the sky. "The wizards found me when I was fourteen, but my magic started manifesting when I was just thirteen much like you. I wasn't a wilder per say, but... the boys really liked me."
"Did they need to use one of those necklaces on you to contain your magic?"
Dark hair flowed back and forth as she shook her head. "Like I said, I wasn't that out of control when they found me."
"Well, if you are reliving your puberty, this time it looks like you are less in control. How is that possible when you have decades of practice using your magic?"
Flinching at the word 'decades', Ylena sighed before answering, "I'm not certain, but I can't say that there is any precedent for it either. No wizard gets second chances like this to relive their teenage years."
Mumbling a basic spell, the wizard made a ball of light form above her hand. It was a light spell taught in the first few weeks of her training, so Katya knew that it shouldn't take much ability to use. On the other hand, since it was one of Ylena's earliest spells; it proved that she remembered things from about twenty-five years earlier.
Sighing, Katya asked, "Did you happen to bring one of those control necklaces along?"
Ylena thought a moment and nodded. "Yes, actually, I don't even know why I did exactly. We were unlikely to find anyone needing training, but I brought one just in case."
"Ok, then once we get back to the company; you'll have to walk me through how to contain your magic for you like you did with me. That should keep every man in earshot from becoming enthralled by your magic every time you speak. You have more clothes back at camp also, so we can dress you properly.
"Aren't you cold at all?" she added asking incredulously. Ylena had bare legs and feet. She stood on cold stone and had only appeared to put on the coat for some modesty.
"Surprisingly, no, but that might just
be the shock of reverting to my teen years. I used to run around barefoot a lot as well, so maybe that is why these stones haven't been hurting my feet too much."
Again Katya sighed. "Well, I guess that you had better not talk until we can find that necklace."
"It wasn't just my voice," Ylena warned.
"Well, you are pretty. I think you might be even more attractive now than before," the younger girl replied guessing what the other meant.
"Some diplomacy wizards give off a pheromone that affects others also," the dark haired Ylena warned with a shake of her head and a wince. "I could manipulate boys with a look before I was trained to restrain my magic."
"Great," Katya replied but started the walk back to the second squad with her mentor at her side.
"Katya, what was that anyway?" Ylena asked quietly and gestured towards the sealed cave.
"I'm not sure," she began. "At the other cave, what looked like black dust came out of a hidden room. Beyrieth had ordered everyone out of the tunnels before it was supposed to be opened, but one of the soldiers who discovered the trigger must have gone inside before she made it there."
Shivering at the sight of the wizard aging to dust in front of them, Katya added, "The dust buzzed like this cloud did, but it seemed to age anything struck by the dust mites. Their flesh withered away and even their bones turned to dust. Metals and stone seemed resistant, though I couldn't see them very well before we had to seal the other cave.
"I hurried here and this cave had a white cloud. It removed time instead, I think."
Ylena nodded. Her memory of Ukor turning into a youth and then a baby before disappearing from sight chilled the wizard more than the cold. Hugging her shoulders a moment, she said, "If you hadn't pulled me from the cave and sealed it..."
"I just wish that I had made it sooner. Did someone discover another room or a chest?"
Frowning, the older wizard tried to recall and shook her head. "I felt a rumble and someone called out that a room appeared, but I don't think it happened by chance. You were quick to come, I would assume?"
Battle Mage, The Caves of Time Page 13