Algernon Black

(Chapter 157) What Lies in the Light

A pounding headache drifted Lucy awake, but as she tried to open one eye against the pain the spinning room around her forced them back down.

Wait, what room is this? Lucy panicked as both eyes shot open. Bearing through the pain, she focused on the light blue shimmer beneath her. The ground was cold to her touch but not like ice, though it almost had the exact appearance of it. Instead, the blue stone comprising everything Lucy could see was cold like a mirror and polished to reflect a harsh light back at her that was near unbearable for someone likely suffering a concussion. Despite the ache it brought, Lucy forced herself to look up where she saw the same stone surrounding her in every direction and hundreds of feet up like she was in the center of a frozen volcano.

"Nice of you to finally wake up for us."

Lucy looked forward with blurry vision as she tried to make out where the voice came from.

"Do try your best to stay awake."

Brickwood squatted down next to Lucy as her vision finally focused. And in a low voice that only she could hear and slicker than the stone she laid on, whispered, "It'll be so much more entertaining if you do."

Lucy made to stand, but a weight more than just herself kept her down. She looked to see thick metal chains clasped around her wrists attached to a latch in the floor.

She got to her knees but wasn't strong enough to lift her arms and rested the heaviness of the cuffs on the ground. Lucy leveled all the hate she could muster to stare at her professor.

"Does that look mean you have finally come to realize what's happening?" Brickwood asked, smiling at her attempt to appear threatening in such a sorry state. "The end we have all been preparing you for?"

We? Lucy thought, her stomach lurching with her rising gaze. Straight black lines started to form in the walls as her eyes focused. Then those blurry lines turned into human figures of men and women staring down from hundreds of hollowed-out alcoves carved into the cave walls—like the box seats of opera houses. Lucy saw the closest person in one of these alcoves was the headmistress. She looked around more and saw Punditwood, Opperwood, Enzelwood. Her panic grew as the familiar faces did. Conclavemen and women she had met in Attwood. Orenza, Rowland, Wilham.

Cecil.

Luke.

Pecilia.

Freya.

Jasper.

"What's happening?" Lucy thought in her mind but spoke aloud as she peered up at the faces of nearly everyone she knew.

"Of course, you still don't know." Brickwood scuffed, circling behind to take hold of her manacles. "You never were smart enough to figure it out." He yanked them far above her head, forcing Lucy to her feet before letting them thud back to the ground, almost pulling Lucy's arms out of her sockets with them. As unsteady as she was, Lucy managed to stand, but her hands hung low, and her head bent down as she used all her strength to keep the weight of the shackles from pulling her back onto her knees. "But maybe with some help, you could."

When Lucy was finally able to lift her head up enough to see Brickwood move aside, she came face to face with,

"Algernon," Lucy gasped loud enough for it to echo off the stone walls to be repeated into the ears of every man and woman in attendance.

Algernon looked at Lucy but made no movements. His black eyes reflected only what was in front of him, like the cold polished crystal of the cave. Lucy recoiled upon meeting those eyes and seeing nothing in them.