The Elixir

~Illusions

After this ordeal, Vieva isn't sure if she'll be able to ride Diadys without hurling. Her body hurtles downward, narrowly missing a flailing Owain and Derald, who screams in such a high pitch it makes her wince.

At least she'll have something to tease him about after.

Vieva slaps her hands to her side and keeps her toes pointed, feet together tightly. Her hair streams behind her like a banner, shining in the weak light. She squints against the biting wind, hissing as it cuts into her eyes and causes her to narrow her eyes into slits, so it prevents her from finding the ground. She dodges Lysabel, who falls in a starfish like form. Her face is frozen in a mask of terror.

If she weren't careening through a dark tunnel, she'd roll her eyes.

From a young age, Vieva had been trained on how to react in any given situation. An attacker, when surrounded, when you were unarmed. Everything and anything Father could think of. It had been one of his greatest gifts to her; giving her the skills to defend herself without her magic. Though now, even though she's only harnessed her mage magic for a few months, it feels as though it's been with her throughout her entire life. In a way, it had. She just hadn't felt it.

Vieva inhales sharply. She sees something, through her blurred, teary vision. A small white light, so tiny it could be that she's just imagining it. But as she continues to fall, the light becomes brighter and brighter, engulfing everything around her. Vieva puts her forearms up, tucking her face in, bracing for impact.

But it never comes.

Instead, she lands on a crystalline beach, pristine and utterly serene. The sand is almost as white as her hair, and no dunes or footprints marr it's pure surface. The water is gentle, soothing, so translucent she can see her features clear as a mirror. It crawls softly on the sand, slow and creeping, then recedes, only to come back again.

Vieva had visited the oceanside multiple times, but only for the summer. And being nobility, she couldn't exactly go and frolic in the water. There had been standards even when she had been a young child. But seeing it's endless expanse, the way it blends with the horizon, tears come to her eyes involuntarily. There is a certain grace in the ocean's harmonized movement.

Vieva inhales deeply, relishing the salty tang in the air. Her grandmother, though Vieva had never met her herself, had always gone to the seashore, according to Father. She had claimed that the sea air 'cleansed her soul'. That said, she'd also been a woman of many superstitions, but she had been right. Each breath replenishes her, and the tension built up from days of worrying about the safe slowly chips away.

The safe! All thoughts of the sea are pushed away by her panic. Where is she? There most definitely isn't a hidden beach so far underground and besides, she can see the sky. Where has she landed? And where are the others?

A sense of foreboding washes over her, like a wave. Now, as she looks at her surroundings again, she realizes everything is too perfect. Too preserved. A real beach would never look like this. Her senses sharpen at the realization. This is all fake.

"Vieva?" She whips around, startled by the voice at her back. Her cousin stares at her, amber eyes confused.

"Caedric." She runs to him. "What are you doing here?"

He gestures to her with his hands. "What are you doing here?"

Vieva rears back slightly. "I'm here to defeat the Warlord." She narrows her eyes. Her gut churns with the premonition that Caedric is acting strange.

Something darkens in Caedric's normally bright, warm eyes. Something foreign.

"You? Defeat the Warlord?" He laughs cruelly, smile thin and sharp. "Don't be delusional, Vieva."