The Dragon Races- Part 33 (FINAL CHAPTER)

Pain. Fear. Confusion.

They pulsed in Eriene's mind, throbbing in a way she couldn't ignore. She whispered for the Shifter beside her to wake, hands gentle as they touched Jen's arm before drawing away. She turned her focus to the Foranian. Her friend. The boy who had loved her, the one who hadn't cared when she had denied him. Eriene paused as her hand hovered over him. He looked so peaceful sleeping. The one sane thing she felt... she didn't want it to shatter. But it had to. 

"Alaric?" Eriene shook him by the shoulder. "Alaric, wake up." 

His eyes fluttered open, the sleep leaving his eyes as he rubbed them with the palm of his hand. He looked to the empty space on his left. "Where's Everlys?" He whispered . "And Therin?"

Her heart dropped. She pointed to the hollow in the center of the cavern with one hand, pressing her fingers to her temple. "It's... loud. And muddled. Like one white bird in a flock of black. But down there. I think."

Alaric scrambled to his feet and nodded. He stared down into the darkness, looking back at Eriene and the Shifter. He took the first few steps. "Let's go, then."

Jen rushed forward to grab his arm. "Don't!" Her eyes begged him to listen. "You can't go down there, there's danger."

He glanced at her hand, prying her fingers gently away and turning back to the stairs. "And that's were Everlys is." 

He didn't think as he pressed his shoulder to the wall and descended. His fear of falling into the abyss clouded with a different worry. He hoped nothing had happened to the two Sinistrians- to Everlys. He remembered how crazed Therin had looked with darkly colored tendrils crawling up his arms and eyes flecked with green. He remembered how afraid Everlys had looked when Eriene had grabbed her arm. What if Therin had fought her? What if he had overtaken her? What if... the darkness had?

Alaric slowed as the two came into view. They seemed fine- sitting against the stone opposite the end of the winding stairs, mummering in voices he could barely hear. 

Everlys stood up as she saw him, putting up a hand as Therin started to do the same thing. Therin sank back against the wall, turning his head away.

"...Hi." 

Everlys crossed her arms. "I... what are you doing down here?"

"Eriene felt something." Alaric waved his hand around. "And then Jen started freaking out and I started freaking out because you and... him were gone. I was there, too, when all the Dark Magic stuff happened, in case you forgot."Everlys nodded. "I... remember." she said softly. "It wasn't long ago." She glanced back to Therin, then watched Alaric as he took the last step down. Her smile was small as Alaric's shoulders dropped, his entire figure relaxing. "We're both fine. Thank you."

"She said not to follow where the path led." The Shifter's voice echoed as she and Eriene reached the bottom. She refused to touch the floor. "We can't... I can't..."

"Jen, it's okay..."

"No!" Her scream was wild and animalistic as Eriene stepped down to stand on the flat ground. She screamed louder and louder, crumbling to her knees and shrieking like knives dug between her bones. Like the river of her blood set on fire.

Everlys turned around to Therin in the same position. She watched as he tried to hold back the pain. His nails dug into his palms, and his back arched and flexed as he tried to rid his body of whatever overtook it.

Alaric turned to Everlys as Eriene fell. She wasn't able to rip her arm away from the Shifter's claw-like grip as veins of black and green crept over her fingers and down her arm and sleeve.

The blonde glanced towards the light in the center, taking a small step towards the still-standing Foranian as darkness engulfed the pulsing sphere. Like an eclipse. Like water washing over stones, like fabric shielding people's bodies from other's view. It shined black with shadow and tinged with green light, red specks dancing in their vision as it filled the space.

Everlys reached forward, slowly, brushing her fingers across the back of Alaric's hand. She laced their fingers together as the growing center mass whipped out it's many arms to coil around their bodies like how it had with the others "I don't want to go..." Alaric whispered. Fear filled his eyes as the strands crept up his legs and free arm. He clung to her, and Everlys didn't move away. For once.

"Me neither." She wrapped an arm around him as they fell to their knees. Everlys could feel him trembling, gripping the fabric of her jacket so his knuckles turned white, burying his face in her shoulder to try and rid himself of whatever pain he felt. 

Pain was her old, old friend.

But even so, her mind felt ripped apart. Violated, warped, shattered like a fragile glass sculpture. One that once had the opportunity for beauty, now left to sit in shards without any means of repair. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you, Alaric." She breathed in his ear, heart breaking as she heard a small, helpless whimper in response. "Like how I failed Althea." A scream from Alaric, then one from Everlys.

Then silence. 

Then darkness.

**********************

White blinded Eriene's vision, a burst of searing light forcing her eyes shut immediately as they opened. 

Everything hurt... her arms, legs, chest, and head. Every part of her body filled with immeasurable pain. Though at the same time, she felt numb. Completely, fully numb. Weightless, like a cloud.

An electrical jolt brought the throbbing back.

"Hello, Eriene." 

She opened her eyes the lightest, squinting at the brightness of light reflecting off the figure's white coat. The woman reached for a tablet handed to her by the Medic behind. "I believe you've... seen me before."

In that... vision, in the cave. Where she had seen the group of children and teens. And the girl in the front, Althea, who had been held back by Jen.

"Open your mind, Empath."

"My... mind?"

"Yes." She snipped. "Don't make me repeat myself."

"Why-" Her words cut off by a yelp as an ache passed through her head. The sensation worsened, claws pulling apart her skull until she had no choice but to allow a flood of emotion into what she felt. More pain, more fear like what she had felt in the cavern. But also... white. It had no label, numb and blank. Just... white.

It frightened her, the feeling unfelt by her ever before. She was an Empath... she knew emotions. She knew them like how a Larkwing knew communication, like how Telepaths knew the mind. 

And this forgien feeling... this scared her. 

Her nails clawed at the cot's white sheet as she tried to writhe away from the hands tearing her head open. 

"Enough." The pain subsided. The cold fingers loosened from her mind, reeling away as her skull knit back together. Eriene glanced down at the wires inserted into her arms, at the single, thin strap holding her flat against the thin mattress. The woman took a step back, satisfied. No other words left her tightly pressed lips. She turned to the door, the younger woman who had followed her hugging the tablet to her chest as the two walked out and down the hall. 

The next room looked the exact same- white walls, white curtains, a pale monitor connected to the still figure by transparent wires. A glimmering, white substance slowly trailed through the tubes.

"You extract from him, Riva." The woman ordered to her assistant. "I have... the other girl to attend to."

Riva gave a small dip of her head, turning back to the unconscious figure. His chest rose and fell, the only faint signal he had survived whatever twisting of his mind her superiors had ordered in the arena. "This... might hurt." she said softly as she touched a button on the monitor. 

His eyes jolted open as the white energy moved more quickly through the tubes. He didn't let any sounds of pain or discomfort. He just... looked at her through glistening, brown eyes, a tear dripping out the corner and rolling down his cheek.

Riva waited a moment before pressing the button again- stopping the machine's extraction of his magic and sanity. 

"I'm sorry." she murmured, reaching forward to brush the tear away, wiping her finger on her white, knee length coat. 

Alaric turned his head away. "Tell me about my parents." He whispered. "My real ones. I need to know who they are."

"I... can't. Protocol forbids it."

Alaric reached his hand forward the inch he could to grab onto Riva's coat as she moved to walk out. "Please?" He begged. "A clue, at least?"

"I..." She glanced at her tablet, even though the screen shined black. Riva gently pried his fingers away. "You've seen your father before, even though for a short time." She waited a moment before her last two, quiet words escaped her lips and hung in the air even after she left. "In Sinistra."

Riva turned away, pulling the white curtain aside and standing still as Medics walked past. Lost in the river of white, she walked down the long room to a door, touching the back of her wrist to the panel on the wall. She winced as it beeped, the red light flickering to green as she pulled it open, pivoting to face another door right as she entered the narrow hallway.

This door had a gray mark on the side, just as all the others in the corridor did. Riva reached for the handle, but sharply pulled back. 

Screams echoed from inside. Shrieks of anger and torture, ones of desperation for help- all muffled by the one inch barrier. 

"You'll never get your hands on me again!" The prisoner- the girl- screeched. "Not me or Althea- NEVER Althea. I'll KILL you if you do- I'll KILL you!" 

"Althea's ours already." The woman inside hissed. "She's OURS, not yours."

The girl screamed again. A chilling scream that made Riva shiver.

The Medic who walked passed didn't react- their face remained straight, blank, no wince or beg for it to stop distorting their features.

"Althea's dead to you. Like you'll be after we send you back to your province and leave you out for the wolves." 

Silence. 

"Unless someone gets to you here, first."

Riva clutched her tablet, shutting her eyes tight as her back pressed against the wall. She had read about Everlys. Riva had read about her, the Empath, the Emrys, and the other one. The one who people called the failed Eidetic, the young man who's parents abilities hadn't transferred down to him. 

A wave of relief passed over her. At least... at least Therin's magic wouldn't be expoited by those above him for the sake of power or money. 

Not like what had happened to Everlys. 

"Thank you, Deverell." Riva composed herself as the door opened.

"You've been helpful."

The woman turned to look at Riva, the door slamming shut. "Have you finished?" 

"...Yes, Ma'am." she said after a moment, lowering her head the slightest as she handed her superior the tablet. "But... if I may ask, why? Sinistra's already the most formidable force of the Five Kingdoms. With Alcator and Alderon-"

"We are only powerful because of this, Medic." She hissed, forcing the device back into Riva's hands. The woman moved closer, voice lowering dangerously quiet. "We need this to gain back what we deserve, what's been stripped from us by Riverdeen and Forane. The alliance of our people. Land and nourishment. Everything that kingdom full of flowers stole when it and Riverdeen banded together and closed it's borders. We need this to survive." She paused. "I know you do."

Tick. Tick. Tick. 

Beeping layered over the sound. Then shushing, hissing.

The woman pushed Riva aside, scrambling for the door handle as mist filled the corridor. Riva didn't follow. 

She stood still as black-cloaked figures swarmed the large room behind, two of them appearing in front of her as her head turned back. She dropped the tablet, letting it crash to the ground, telling the figures she wasn't an adversary.

She glanced to the walls as cracks dispersed in the marble. 

They slowly walked to the door on Riva's right, opening it and slipping in, plucking the wires gingerly away from Everlys's body as the ticking grew louder.

She looked up at them, glancing at the hands that moved under her shoulder blades and legs as she throbbed in and out of unconsciousness. 

"I'm gloved." Everlys heard the person say. "Don't worry." 

She gave a faint nod- all she could manage. "Get the others, too." She whispered. "Alaric and..."

"We have." The voice calmed her. Reassured her that everything would be fine. Everlys could tell they told the truth.

And just as the other figure reached for their wrist cuff, Everlys caught the sight of a small, silver sphere carved in with swirling patterns in the hallway outside the door. A red light pulsed angerly as the beeping grew louder and louder, filling her ears and head.

And as her mind filled with black, the beeping stopped as the small square of color switched from scarlet to a bright, emerald green. 

And the fortress detonated in an eruption of bright, searing light.

~ End of book 1 ~