by Serena Nova
We just watched; watched how the Ilunias used their fire to keep the Witches separated, and made sure they couldn’t work together. Not that they would have done that, egos and all that. The Ilunias used their air to lift them up and let the Witches fall down again, hard enough to break bones. They threw earth disks at them, and used water to try and drown them. The Witches couldn’t die in the test, the Selection council made sure of that. Before the Ilunias could do any real harm, the Witches would be covered by those shields, and pulled out of the fight.
My eyes flew over the fight, moving from Witch to Witch, and I watched Astra fight the hardest she had ever done. It made me proud. I then diverted my gaze towards the box, where the Selection council and teachers had been watching the fight. I watched their mouths form words, their hands glowed when they placed a shield over one of the Witches. I found disappointment in their gazes, and the irritation had risen, knowing they hadn't found what they were looking for. The Witches hadn’t been good enough. My anger had flared up at them, the Kings, and that whole messed-up idea of the test.
Those Witches fought with everything they had, fought with everything they had learned, instead they were dismissed as worthless. I felt the sting of my nails dig into my palms, and directed my glare towards them. And if they could hear me, they would have heard the growl that escaped me. Rage surged through me, made my blood boil. The Kings were the ones who had agreed to it, those high-up shit-heads. They had decided that they needed the strongest, and that this test would be the only way to find them.
“Son of a donkey’s ass,” I mumbled to myself. “Why are you doing this?” I kept mumbling, questions as they ran around in my head. They came and went until one stayed with me, on repeat.
They needed to find the strongest Witches, the strongest. My eyes widened with the realisation that hit me. They were there to flush something out, to find something that they believed still existed. To find me? I shook my head, they weren’t looking for me, they were looking for someone like me.
I looked down at the sand, my shoes covered in the small grains. My fists were still clenched from all the thoughts and emotions that ran through my head. They weren’t looking for me, they didn’t know that I was alive. Nobody knew . . . except for Astra, and she would never say anything. She was family; not by blood but by choice. That was something stronger than blood, when you chose to walk that path with that person.
I looked back towards the box, the teachers, and the Selection council, and I forgot the fight. I watched the Selection council more closely, and looked at the teachers. They had raised me. If they had known, they would have been the ones to tell the Kings. A chill went down my spine; it made me shiver, the idea alone. That they had betrayed me. Tears threatened to fill my eyes, and before one could fall down into the sand, I heard my name.
“ISA!” I looked up to see Astra flying. High up near the wards that covered the arena.
“Don’t interfere!” Instructor Lavina screamed to me, she stood a few Protectors to my right. I glanced at her. She then yelled the order to me. “Don’t you fucking interfere!” I gave her a small nod, which was the only movement I could make while my body was locked with the fear and shock I was experiencing. I looked back to Astra, who had started falling down. I quickly looked to the box, and hoped one of the teachers would break her fall. I saw Miss D’Moray's hands move, I felt the magic that took shape around Astra.
I breathed out again, when Astra’s fall slowed down, when I could see the shield shimmer around her. She had been the last of the Witches, the last one standing. And then it was done, the test was over. And I knew for sure that they hadn’t found what they were looking for. The anger still shimmered under my skin, a silent creature that lay waiting to explode.
The Ilunias stood before the box with the Selection members, who were ignoring them as they talked to each other. Obviously, they had forgotten that the Ilunias weren’t back in their cells yet.
I looked over towards Lavina, waited for orders when a shrill ice-filled voice sounded through the arena, and my head whipped around to find the source.
“You think capturing us would do you any good?” We could hear the promise of death, spoken with each word. I swear I saw the room vibrate with the power behind that voice. The whole arena was now focused on them.
“You think that those things,” the middle Ilunia pointed towards the Witches under the box, “can stop us?”
Some of the Witches had scrambled together behind the big shield that the teachers had pulled up around the box. It had been pulled down towards the sand floor and covered the Witches when they were pulled behind it. This was easier for the teachers to maintain then a single shield on every Witch. The girls pushed themselves against the wall of the arena, closer to each other, and tried to escape the wrath of the Ilunias. Others just looked at them, and a few of them even laughed, feeling safe behind that shield.
Astra just stood there, in front of the others at the edge of the shield. A murderous look was in her eyes, her mouth was in a straight line, and her hands glowed with power. She was ready for another fight, if it came to that.
Before anyone could react, the Ilunias let out a high-pitched scream. People fell to the ground, covering their ears. Protectors were down on their knees. More Witches scrambled further back towards the wall; away from the Ilunias, away from the threat in front of them.
My magic reacted on instinct, it covered my ears from the worst part of the scream. Still I looked through squinted eyes towards Astra, who had her hands to her ears, still standing.
The air vibrated, the sand grains started to shake, and the shields exploded. The one that kept the Witches safe, and protected the box with the teachers and Selection. Luckily the ancient shield around the arena held steady. The magic that exploded from the shield rained down on us; it made my skin tingle where it touched. The ground shook with the force of power that had been released. Some of the people in the box fell down. Others grabbed the railing in front of them, steadying themselves.
The Ilunias were now smiling, something you would never have hung above your bed. The scary level of those smiles would give me nightmares for months. Their hands glowed with their magic; wind whispered around them, their long hair dancing. All three of them looked towards one single Witch. Astra.
My heart jumped into my throat–the beat increasing–and my hands had started to tremble. I could see the Ilunias starting to aim, pointing their fingers towards Astra, who stood in front of all of the Witches, her arms glowing with her magic, her ears were bleeding like so many of us. My feet were already moving towards her, my body had made the decision to keep Astra safe, and my mind was right behind it.
I screamed when the Ilunias released their combined magic. It bolted towards Astra.
Everything slowed. Astra turned her face towards me, her blue eyes wide. My heartbeat drummed in my ears, so hard it drowned out my footfalls. I pushed my body to move harder, pushed magic under my feet, I used the air, so I would fly towards her. Just before the surge of power reached Astra, I grabbed her, my back turned towards the Ilunias.
I saw the shock on her face turn into fear as her eyes widened. Her hands came up to catch me if I fell. Because a normal Witch would have fallen down, would have been killed from a blast like that. And a protector, the Nulls, would have been decimated, gone, turned into dust, nothing to bury. But Witches had a higher tolerance for magical attacks, our bodies could handle more. I wouldn’t say that we were made of magic. Still, with the magic inside our bodies, we were more resistant than Nulls.
I watched Astra’s mouth form my name, the blast of the magic too loud for me to hear her voice. I felt it crawling over my skin, it made the hairs on my neck stand upright. Their darkness, their slick and oil-like magic had sucked the air out of my lungs. Tears streamed down my face, making Astra a blur in front of me.
With effort, I sucked it all inside of me. I pulled the magic into myself and turned it into my own. A ragged breath escape
d my throat. It had been a long time since I had used magic; took magic, and I had forgotten how hard it could be. Cursing my Gran for making me keep it a secret, I straightened my back, rolled my shoulders and looked into Astra’s wide eyes. I wiped away the tears in my eyes and gave her a half smile before I turned to the Ilunias.
“Now, let’s finish you three,” I mumbled to myself, my anger close to the surface.
The ring of steel rang through the arena when I pulled my swords out of their sheaths on my back. They glinted in the sunlight. The leather hilts fit perfectly in my hands, the weight balanced over the swords and the edges sharpened enough to cut heads from bodies. That was something I planned on doing three times; nobody touched Astra without paying for it.
With a smirk on my face and death in my eyes, I walked towards the Ilunias. Their mouths were open and their black eyes wide, their hands still hung in the air from blasting their magic. Fingers twisted before they lowered their arms. I stopped in front of them, both swords loose in my hands, next to my body. Their tips almost touched the ground. The Ilunias stood there, their brains slow to react to what they saw.
“Boo,” I said. All three of them scrambled, moving apart from each other.
“The game is on,” I said as I rushed towards the left one. I used air to speed up, reaching her in seconds. I swung my sword towards her head, but she dropped down, disappearing into the earth, dust rising up where she stood.
“That trick doesn’t work with me,” I told the empty space in front of me. I stomped down with my feet and pushed her upwards. A cry escaped her mouth before I cut off her head. She gurgled for a second before the head dropped on the ground with a thud.
The whole arena was silent, no sound inside the walls. Until two screams filled the arena. “Sister!” one wailed, with a high-pitched ice-filled voice.
“What have you done?” the other screamed at me.
“I killed her.” Before I finished my words, I felt magic being gathered. I wasn’t keeping my magic inside myself anymore; my senses were heightened, and my surroundings were clearer. I gave myself a second to shake off the doubt that had rushed through me with exposing myself to the Selection council, the teachers, and the others in the arena. I shook the feeling of being whole again off of myself, before I focused on the magic I felt behind me. I moved, using air to go faster, moving out of the way from the magical blast the other two Ilunias had thrown at me.
I turned around, threw air towards the right one and fire towards the left one. They both pulled up shields, blocking my attempt to finish the fight fast. Fire balls were thrown at me, so I used air to infuse my swords with the magic to slice them in half. I cut through them like a knife through butter. The heat still blasted in my face, and had made my lips dry up.
Running towards the left Ilunia, I made stepping stones out of earth. Running higher, I reached above her head before I jumped. I had planned on cutting her head off, instead I was thrown out of the way by a blast of air. I hit the ground hard, feeling the sand scratch over my arms and face. My knees burned with the impact, and I felt blood dripping down one of my legs. Ignoring it all, I got up and braced myself for the next attack. My swords were next to my body, I shifted my weight to my heels, balancing on them, ready to move when they did.
“Who are you?” I heard one of them ask.
“Your worst nightmare,” I answered, and with that, they flew towards me, screaming. I braced myself and jumped high into the air, flying over them. With a thud, I landed behind them, turning around, swirling with my blades. I cut one of them across her back. Black blood flowed down her back as she fell down to the sand. The other Ilunia, her sister, stood in front of her. Protecting her.
Air attacked me from the sides, making me stagger before the earth dropped from underneath me. I pulled on my own magic, getting the earth to close up under my feet before I fell down into the hole, shielding myself with an air wall from the strongest attacks from her. I kept pushing my magic out, pushing my air shield until I knew I could blast her with my own air.
She fell backwards, over her sister who was still on her knees. I rushed towards them, only to be met with darkness. Total darkness. I couldn’t even see my own hands in front of my face. For a moment I felt panic clawing at me. I shoved it back down, and I listened to my surroundings.
I heard a whisper around me–not knowing where it came from–say, “Give us the darkness to defeat our enemies.” I turned around, slowly circling on the spot I was standing on. The air was cold, almost freezing, and the silent darkness pressed against me.
Then all hell broke loose. I heard people screaming. “Isa, where are you?” The voice of Astra reached me above all the screaming. “What happened?” I heard the panic in her voice.
“I have no idea, stay where you are. I’m handling it,” I yelled back at her.
“No, you are not.” I recognized the voice of Thalia.
“Oh, shut up, apple pie. I’m doing more than you did,” I told her. I was still turning around, trying to find the Ilunias. I hoped that the screaming didn’t mean they’d gone after the other Witches or the Protectors. My stomach turned around at that thought, my mouth went even dryer, not knowing what had happened around me. Whether the girls were all right or not. Astra sounded okay, that was good. I focused back on myself and my surroundings.
“Stand still, Isa, it doesn’t work, turning around in the dark. There is nothing you can see,” I said, giving myself a pep talk to keep my own nerves calm. Standing still in the dark, I could hear the movements behind me.
“Little girl, little prey, you are so dead.” I felt their breath touch my ear, their whispered words sending chills down my spine. I turned around, swinging with my swords, cutting through air. A laugh sounded from my other side, I moved that way, cutting with my swords, and hitting nothing but air again.
“You are nothing, little prey!” one of them screamed.
“You will never be anything,” the other whispered. Again, I moved, faster than I had ever moved before, hitting air.
I bared my teeth, knowing they wouldn’t see it. A growl escaped my throat, my hands clutched my swords. I felt my muscles cramping from the tight grip I kept. Something hit my back, making me lose my breath, and I stumbled forward. Another blow to my ribcage, which made me blow out the last of my breath. I lost my balance after the blow to my face; my cheek throbbed with the impact. I felt the ground before I noticed I had been falling, the darkness made me lose my orientation. The impact rattled through me, and I almost lost my swords, before I clutched them in a death grip. I sucked in a breath of air, dust and sand filling my mouth. Coughing, I laid on the ground.
The laughter of the Ilunias filled my head, the darkness pressed in on me. It wanted to chew me up, eat me alive and spit me out as a shell of nothing but emptiness. The sand pressed into my skin, and the leather of my swords was warm in my hands. I took another breath filled with sand and darkness.
‘When you are down, you get up, Isa girl. You get up, take a steady breath and look at it differently,’ I could hear Gran saying, as if she was right there, next to me. I pushed off of the sand, getting up as I took a breath. The darkness still pressed against me. I took another breath and let the words of Gran sink into me. Look at it differently, look differently. An idea formed in my head, and I closed my eyes. I relaxed my stance, balancing on my feet, my swords, again, loose in my hands.
And then I embraced the darkness, the magic in it and made it my own. I listened to my surroundings. It wasn’t that suffocating anymore since the darkness had stopped working against me. I pushed my magic around, slowly searching for the ones responsible for this. The last two Ilunias in the arena, and the two who would die.
I felt the first one, right behind me. I stood still, waiting for my target to move closer. I didn’t move a muscle when I felt her moving towards me, letting her think I was still unaware of where they were.
“You are so–”
Before she could finish her words, I t
urned around, slicing my swords through her throat, cutting her skin and bone and removing her head from her body. “Dead.” I finished her sentence before the head hit the ground. Warm liquid dripped down my face. Wiping the blood away from my eyes, I focused on the other, she had kept quiet that time. No screaming over her fallen sister.
I kept my eyes closed, my magic around me, and I waited again, listening for the last one. I heard a rustling to my right, but continued standing still. A rustling at my front; she was playing with me, trying to make me move around, and hoping I would make a mistake.
“You think you can beat me? You think that I’m weak without my sisters.” The voice came from in front of me, filled with hate and pain. Pain for her lost sisters or pain for knowing that she would be losing this battle, too, I did not know.
I could feel magic moving in the air, dark magic. Even darker than the darkness around us, a magic that wasn't of this world and shouldn’t have been there. I braced myself for the power that she was collecting in front of me. Reaching down towards my own power, I pulled it up and pushed it around me, collecting it and building it into the things I wanted.
I pushed out the shield behind me the moment the Ilunia let go of her dark magic, knowing she would not only target me, but the people behind me. I could feel the magic cross over my skin, like an oil that sticks to you and would never really wash off. I pushed my own magic into it, forming a copy of myself as I turned into a shadow. I moved to the right, the Ilunia now focused on my illusion, and crept closer.
“You can’t win this, little prey!” she yelled at the illusion. When I stepped behind her, I placed my swords on her throat. She froze and the darkness, the concentration she had, fell away with the shock of being at the end of her life.