.·✧☆Stellarium☆✧·.

Chapter 12

Alexander, The Raid | 3,022 words

It feels wrong to say today is the day we wrap everything up. Nova has been practically bouncing off the walls to go back to the castle and do her inevitable press tour about all of this. I have to wake everyone up in a bit, but Sybyll is already up with me before the sun rises. The cold breeze blows through me to the bones, but it's nothing I’m not already used to. “What are you doing up so early?” I ask her in a hushed tone. “I couldn’t sleep. Truthfully it’s quite boring.” She says back. We lean near a window, I’ve never heard someone describe sleep as boring before. Sybyll has been the strangest person on this trip since day one, all of her actions and mannerisms have been so different than what I guess I’m used to. “Why did you volunteer to stay behind? We both know it’ll kill you to not know firsthand what is happening.” She picks at the skin around her nails, “You heard what I said earlier, I don’t have the practical experience to be useful. I don’t need to be another thing you worry about.” This is an obvious half truth, “What about what you told me in the inn? That first rest after the train station.” She looks away from me, “What about it?”

“You have the raw power at least, you said so yourself. I know by now you wouldn’t have come along if you didn’t think you could keep Nova safe.” In truth this is me trying to prod her for any answers I can get, not necessarily looked favorably upon but it's what works. I can’t verify most of the information she has given me, I don’t know her card or have seen her do any magic before. Though, if there’s one thing she’s very good at, it's usually dodging my questions. “I just can’t risk letting Arthur be a liability either.” She furrows her brows, annoyed somewhat. “What’s with this anyways? I’m no good with a weapon, aren’t I making your job easier for you?”

“I’m just saying, if you’re able to, why not use your magical abilities. Assuming of course that was what you were referring to.” Her eyes, only her eyes, move to look into mine. I don’t mean to nitpick or belittle but she freaks me out a little. Her appearance when I do get a good look at it is slightly uncanny, the biggest reason is her skin. I know it's such a weird thing to notice, but it looks bloodless and pale. I want to say pale, as if she’s used all of her energy where her card just barely colors her blood. But she doesn’t use her magic, and even more to that point her eyes never waver in saturation. I guess that’s normal, but for someone to look that pale, their eyes would reflect that. “I don’t have any formal training like you and Nova.”

“But then, how can you ensure that Arthur will stay in your sights?” This is somewhat a genuine question, but still I really just want to know what she’s keeping from everyone. And when I say this, I mean everyone. Something I deduced a while ago was that neither Nova nor Arthur know, I wonder if the queen even knows. “I’ll just keep a hand on the cuffs, or better yet I’ll cuff him to me. Happy? I’m sure both of us will be.”

“That sounds reasonable, yes.” I’ve been intentionally pushing buttons and raising issues to see if there are any physical changes to her appearance, but there are none. This is going nowhere.

“I trust that you’ll be able to make sure she comes back safe, right?” She says to me, "It's not easy to pawn off my mission to you, but it’s really important to me that she returns safely.” It makes sense to me why she’s saying this at least, their personal connections seem to be her real motivation; but she hides it behind a thin veneer of professionalism and loyalty to her nation. This is the most honest she’s spoken to me since that morning in the inn. “I fully understand, you can trust me,” I say to her.

It’s about time to get moving with the plan, early morning is the best time to strike from what I’ve gathered. I let Sybyll wake up Nova, she’s more accustomed to it than I at least, so I get to wake up our favorite criminal. I shake his sleeping bag a little and he darts straight up, nearly headbutting my face. Thankfully, I flinched back in the nick of time, but that could have gotten nasty. His eyes are wide open and searching for something, he calms down in a second after realizing what was going on. “Why do you need to wake me up?” He lays back down and rolls over to his side, "It's not like I’m going in there.” Maybe it wasn’t necessary but I thought at least everyone should be up before we head in. “I just thought I should let you know that you’re about to get some good quality time with Sybyll.” He groans at this. “If you want to go back to sleep, that's fine by me.”

I leave to check on Sybyll and Nova, it seems they had a more pleasant time than I. Sybyll is fussing over her again, “You really should put your hair up, it could get in the way.” Nova is rolling her eyes, “I don’t need to really, it should be an easy recovery mission.” I make sure to stay light and bring the essentials. Just hatchets should do for this, even though I have the option to bring back Violet back dead rather than alive I’d rather not kill her.

We wave goodbye to Sybyll and Arthur, Nova beaming the entire time. We make our way to the base, open the secret door and descend the long winding spiral stairs. It's surprising how far down we go before we reach the bottom of the stairway. Met with a hallway with a bunch of doors we have no idea where to go from here. “What do we do from here,” she whispers to me. “Check which doors are locked, we’ll go in as a team. We need to not get separated in a place like this.” We go into the first unlocked door, which reveals nothing special in particular. It's rows and rows of bunk beds, but the real suspicious thing is how empty this place feels.

The next door we try is a lab door, there’s no equipment left that isn't part of the structure itself but is still clearly a laboratory. Nova and I share a look with each other. “It's weird there’s nobody here,” Nova says to me. “Do you think she knew we were coming?” I ask. There’s no reply but I can tell we’re thinking the exact same thing. Even if there’s nobody here, that does not mean there isn’t anything to find. Turns out, every door was left unlocked, so we started searching room by room quickly. We eventually encounter this one at the end of the hall that has a strange slightly raised platform made of metal; attachments for chains are welded in the base. My palms light up with the familiar glow of my own magic, the base isn’t made with anything special but there was a massive source of energy that used to be on top of it. What possibly could have been held here? As I keep looking around I notice a weird high pitched hissing noise from the opposite corner of the room. As I go to investigate, Nova notices something and puts her body in the way of mine.

It happens too fast for me to react, both of us are flung into the back wall from the force of the explosion. The wind is knocked out of me, I lay limp while I desperately breathe in the scent of smoke and debris. My ears won’t stop ringing as I attempt to collect my bearings. Nova is bleeding bright violet from multiple wounds, we both need a minute to adjust. She took the majority of the damage for me. She comes back to reality rather fast and shakes me while saying something. I watch her lips move frantically, but the loud ringing hasn’t subsided yet. A sharp pain in my side tells me I haven’t completely escaped from harm either. Metal shrapnel was lodged into my abdomen, my hand touches the wound and I see my own fresh and deep colored blood. I need to leave that in there for now and we can heal it at home base.

As I am able to understand more, the structure of the tunnels have caught fire. We need to get out of here. I stumble to get up, legs weak as she takes my hand to lead me down the hallway back to the stairs. The ringing slowly fades as we run, replaced by the thudding of my heart, the sound of our footsteps, and the crackle of the fire as more things get caught in it. Supporting beams fall from the walls around us as we attempt to get to the exit.

Nova slows down around 3/4ths of the way through, doubling over and letting go of my hand as she reaches for the gaping wound in her arm. She’s out of breath but trying to not inhale any of the air around here. Her complexion is pale, she must have lost a lot of blood. “How bad is it?” I ask. “I think I’m really dizzy” Is all she says. It’s worse than I thought upon inspection, the entire sleeve of her shirt is soaked into a dark purple and is sticking to her skin. The distinct metallic scent of blood mixes in the air as I rip a section of fabric from the sleeve of my own shirt. I fashion it into a tourniquet and tie it tightly above the wound. I take her non injured arm and sling it over my shoulders, determined to not let us die here. The creaking and crackling of the surrounding structure becomes background noise to me. Nova notices once again before I, using her remaining strength to push me out of the way of the supporting ceiling beam falling on us. Placing the fiery wood in the space between us I’m on the side nearest to the door, coming up around knee height I’m not sure if either of us would be able to jump over it.

“Nova, what did you just do?” I think aloud as small sandy rocks start to fill in the cracks in the ceiling. “Saved you didn’t I?” She’s just barely coherent. “I’ll try to make a way through, don't worry.” I try to muster the remnants of my own energy to try and maybe move the debris to the side, or form water from the hydration in the air. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough moisture, nor do I have enough energy to move the beam with magic. Bloodloss is taking its own toll on me, I wouldn’t be able to use even simple spells without killing myself. She sees this and says, “I’ll find ‘nother way out, but you need to go,” She puts a weak barrier up using her own magic. I’m surprised she has enough energy left in her with her own wounds. “Nova!” I yell through, “There’s only one exit. Please, just turn around,” She keeps walking away and ignoring me. I hit the barrier with my hands desperately, voice cracking, “I can’t let you die here! I can still make a way through!” My voice is hoarse from the yelling and the smoke but I’m too weak to do anything else.

Moments later the ceiling comes down and shatters that barrier as if it were made of spun sugar, so there really was no point. At least one of us has to get out of here. Sybyll will kill me for this, if I make it out of here. I rise up the steps slowly, somewhat grateful they’re made of stone despite the intense heat. I have to hold my breath as I rise due to the smoke getting thicker. I sputter, cough and heave as I make my way out of the building, getting fresh air in my lungs has never felt better. Sybyll and Arthur rush over to me, as I lose control of my body and stumble over. I’m flipped over on my back as I watch the sky reach dawn. “Do you know any healing spells?” She asks Arthur frantically. “I only know one, it’s not a nice one,” He says back as Sybyll unbuttons my shirt to get access to the wound. “Its good enough. “Okay, apply pressure while I cast it, It’s going to itch.” I give a weak nod as Sybyll pulls the metal out and presses hard into my side, green glows from Arthur’s eyes and hands as I just now notice that Sybyll must've uncuffed him some time ago. The itching is overwhelming and painful, more painful than getting the wound itself. It's probably because I’m coming down from the adrenaline. I bite down on my hand to prevent myself from yelling and alerting anyone nearby. It feels like it's been years before the spell ends and I’m able to sit up, the aftermath isn’t very pretty though. Blue scar lines are left where the tissue was split, and I’m still weak and pale.

“Alex, where’s Nova?” is the first thing Sybyll says to me. I can’t meet her eyes as she asks me this. Her face darkens in dismay as she puts the important pieces together. She grips my shoulders tightly, tighter than I thought someone of her stature could even grip, “did you leave her there?” I’m shocked to hear this accusation from her, “No, absolutely not. We got separated after the explosion.” Without a second thought she rises to her feet, “I’m going in to get her.” I shakily get up as well, “I can’t let you do that, its a suicide mission I cant risk losing anyone else.” I’ve never seen her like this before, “You can’t just say that, we still have a chance, just let me go in.” She’s desperate, I know, but I stretch out my arms to block her from charging in. “I can’t let you try and kill yourself.”

Her breathing quickens, as she grips the base of her hair. “Was this a setup?” She turns to look at Arthur. She lets go of her hair and grips him by the collar of his shirt. “You knew about this didn’t you? This was all a setup from your organization to get us killed.” There’s an edge to her voice as there is a crazed look in her eyes I’ve never seen in anyone before. “I didn’t know anything, there’s no way I could have known about this.” He trips over his words and repeats them over and over while trying to fight his way out of her grasp. I grab her by the back of her shirt to pull her off of him. “NO!” she shrieks, I try to pin her arms behind her but she is still surprisingly strong, resulting in us wrestling for control. She starts howling, shrieking and sobbing, it's hard to make out what she’s saying for the most part outside of the occasional “You need to let me go,” and “Please, I don't want to hurt you.” Despite these words she continues clawing at me to try and free herself.

That's when I hear the sickening snap of bone and tissue, her nails grow sharper and longer as we continue struggling. I’m forced to listen as she watches the building sink into the tunnels below it, fire and smoke rising to the outer structure. This obviously only worsens her frenzy, as she screams to let her go her arms darken and small feathers sprout from them. The back of her shirt tears as large winglike structures grow from her center of gravity and sprout long feathers themselves. At the top of her head she rapidly grows antlers, beginning as nubs in velvet to eventually being fully grown and the velvet drying off within seconds. Her large wings begin to beat as I tighten my grip around her. Arthur had been backing and scooting away similarly from what I’d seen from when I first encountered him atop the train. But he and the surrounding area would all freeze for a few seconds at a time. The birds in the sky, each and every blade of grass would all freeze in place as if time had stopped working.

Everything froze, except for us. The struggle eventually stopped as time resumed and the building completely caved in on itself. She lay there crying in my arms in her somewhat beastlike form. Arthur had stayed put from a safe distance, she continued to wail and sob into my shoulders for a great while. We eventually make our way back to our old camp around the time that dawn ends, trying to get there before anyone else sees her like this. She decides to lay down in the tent that Nova and her slept in the night prior, Arthur and I dare not disturb her.

“What was that?” he asks me, visibly shaken from the whole ordeal. “She... she mutated and changed before our own eyes. That's not natural.” I pause for a moment,“ I think I finally understand now,” I reply in a hushed voice. “The artifacts, everything, the research.” Arthur looks at me confused, “What do you mean?” I open my notepad and start connecting dots, “You weren’t sent on a fool’s errand, but I mean there’s still things we don’t know.” His face lights up in recognition, “She– Violet, has been trying to use the power of an angel for her research, and Sybyll is one of them.”