IN THE END.

INA (chapter 2)

—and Ina awoke.

She remembered having a bad dream or something, still felt the fear— primal and urgent— as it curdled inside her. Something about a missile, maybe? She curled up tighter in her blankets— which is when she noticed the searing pain that ripped through every inch of her body when she tried to move. She yelled out in pain, but that made things worse. She realized how hard her bed was, and she realized how weird the blankets felt, like a pile of debris. No, not a bed, she thought. The ground.

The rush of memories came flooding back to her, flowing like a river around the stabbing headache she realized she had. Missile, collapse, Amelia, Amelia, AMELIA WHERE—

She tried to get up. There was too much debris on top of her— something heavy on her chest. She tried to push it off her. It lifted, but only just. Though the metal— that's what it was— was off her chest, she was starting to have trouble taking in air. She probably had some broken ribs. Her leg was trapped underneath something. She yanked it back, but the blinding pain shot through her leg and she nearly dropped the metal on her chest that she was barely holding up. It was probably broken. She shouted for help. She doubted anyone could hear her, but she kept shouting.

She lay there for some time— whether it was mere seconds or eternities, she couldn't tell. It was too dark and everything was hurting and everything was pain and her head hurt and maybe some Advil would help and god did she really need some coffee because she missed it this morning because she had to rush to the meeting and what she wouldn't give to spend another day in that cafe on the street corner near Kiara's place watching Amelia stare out the large window and talk senselessly about things which their meanings just eluded her grasp and maybe she would have an espresso because she was feeling especially tired right now, yes, so tired like she could just close her eyes and let go of the metal and go back to sleep and maybe Ane'nis would wake her up in time for the stream—

A beam of light shone through the darkness, making Ina's eyes water. Oxygen flooded the chamber and Ina took a big gulp. It was better than the cappucino that Ina had been thinking about. A familiar flash of pink hair and a ripped cloak held a large piece of drywall up. "Calli?" Ina rasped.

"Ina!" said Calli, voice audibly relived. She turned away to call to the others. "Guys! I found her!" she yelled, pushing the drywall away.

The four of them dug Ina out and lifted the piece of metal that was trapping her leg, moving it carefully so as not to hurt her. The metal on her chest turned out to be a thin-enough steel bar from the walls of the building that wasn't really that hard to lift after the debris clamping it down on either side had been removed.

Carefully, she sat up. Everything ached, and with the burst of adrenaline she received upon waking up now fading away, it was all she could do to keep it together. Her chest was burning with pain, and her leg was absolutely useless. So fix it, idiot, she thought.

At its very heart, the eldritch magic was all about moving things. The most important part of eldritch magic, the very fundamentals and the heart of it all was simply stretching, squashing, and moving. Master the simple art of telekinesis (or whatever you want to call it), and you can master it all. She remembered the endless hours spent studying AO-chan's ever-changing catalogue of spells and chants that would help to channel the world energy into force, taking notes and performing the experimental rituals that no one else could understand. I should probably heal my leg, she thought dimly.

Though her predecessors never understood science like the modern day people, they could feel each tiny little atom swinging around in the air, vibrating and bouncing around and causing chemical reactions and blowing things up and creating food and whatnot. They called it elan'yn l khua— "the world vibration." They believed that was the feeling of the world being alive. It is, in a sense, she thought. After all, without that vibration, everything would be really cold and really dead. The eldritch people— those with the gift, a small number at best— found that energy could be gleaned from elan'yn and used to perform movements.