That Blue Fire

Chapter 28: Good People, Bad Deeds

I reached down into the darkness of the water in the cavern. When Alyssa clenched my wrist I told her to pull upward, her head hovered over the surface and her waterlogged mouth spoke 1 word, "Sirens"

I kept pulling until the putrid smell lingered closer. I heard the clinking chains restraining the beast, which I was thankful for. Alyssa's head bobbed back down into the water, like a fish bobber with a fish desperate to be caught. I was losing this fight, Alyssa was going to drown.

Then  was pulled under the water, not only was this the end for Alyssa, it was the end for me.

But those mystical voices that I heard in the cave spoke loud and clear now,

"Save the neglected one, sail upon the beast's wings, escape in anyway you like, it will lead you to your destiny..."

Bubbles swirled around in the deep azure blue of the lake around me, before everything faded to black.

I woke up a few hours later, my ears ringing and my eyesight was blurred from water. Not to mention the faint ringing inside my head, All I could see was a blurred black, where was I? How had I made it there? And most importantly, where were the others?

 I barely was able to rasp out the word "Chad?" Before losing my voice entirely. My mouth had been filled with water, harming my vocal chords. I attempted to speak but all that came out were gurgles of water, I wondered if the others had this problem as well. If only my thoughts could speak.

"Well...." Said a soft voice that I recognized instantly. A voice I didn't think I would hear again. I could only see blurs of his hair and face, for he was wearing complete black, "New students eh?" 

I felt like my disguise had disappeared when he said eh. But I slowly rolled over and knew it was still on, I saw someone next to me, but with blurred vision it was hard to tell. 

I heard footsteps coming closer. "Aye, Gavin, get a towel, newcomers must've taken a swim in the lake." Says the voice, with a chuckle afterwards, I was getting heated. For a boy who laughs when someone could've died is a traitor.

And a traitor he was.

Someone dried my face with a towel of silken fabric, I could now see who was around me, I was right next to Alyssa. At least she was okay.

I could see the shoes of the two boys, the color was a shining midnight black. That's when one pair walked over to me.

"WAKE UP!" The voice shouted, and I received a slap in the face with a pale hand. It stung where it had hit, then I received a tug of my shirt and another Harsh shout of "GET UP!"

"Do you think they drowned?" Says the other boy, presumably Gavin, the voices were so alike I couldn't even guess on who's was who's.

"Nah," says the boy standing near me, "I heard one of them mumble something, I think they said Chips" 

"Ow" I heard another voice say, relief rushed like a waterfall over me, it was Chad's.

"Aye" said one of the voices "Your voice sounds familiar, What's your name?" 

I rolled over to see Chad stand up, "Jai-Blynn, Sir. Yours?" 

"Why do you care what my name is?" Said the boy "Last Name?" He asked. His smile detecting Chad's lies.

"Lazooris" said Chad. 

"Fine, I might as well ask you this" said the boy, unraveling a piece of aged paper from his coat "Have you seen these mages, well, one of them isn't a mage, but you might as well tell me" he leaned up against the table next to him, before slamming the wrinkled and weather beaten page on the table.

"No" said Chad, breathing heavily.

The boy sighed, now felt like the time to act. I sat up and make a fake moan.

The boy turned his head towards me.

Now I knew it was him, but why would he be here? 

Roman. 

It seems like wherever we go he's always there. But this time he didn't know it was us.

"You. Come over here" said Roman.

I stood up with another fake groan. Before walking over to him.

"You've seen these two" he said pointing at the faces of the two outlaws on the paper.

The faces of me and Chad.

"Nope." I said, I nearly let out a yes, but caught my mind before I could mutter anything. "WHY!" Shouts Roman in frustration before I can even give a glance and Chad or the others. "NOBODY HAS ANY CLUE WHERE THESE SLUTS ARE!" 

Alyssa stood up and stammered "I-I-I do, Sir"

Was she about to hand us over?! My eyes widened with the fear of her response. All of this? Riddles, risks, sacrifices? Just to be betrayed?

"They died-" said Alyssa with fear in her eyes, Roman's jaw dropped, the only reason it seemed to not fall off was the net of pale skin that encased it.

"When? Where?" Said Roman in shock, he had a thirst to know more about our 'Deaths'.

"We'll, during that little game of yours, I ran away from my base, I found the couple acting absolutely innocent, recognizing them, I used ancient Darkspear Elves magic to destroy both of them to bits, they'd be unrecognizable if you were even to piece them all together again." Said Alyssa with a devious smirk to fool Roman into trusting her lie. 

That's when Thomas finally spoke up. "I saw it too, blood everywhere, scared me to my wits... It would be a vampire's feast to see all that happen"

"So that's what you say..." Says Roman, the tone he spoke in was one of a rising suspicion. "What did you two see? Huh?" He said, his head swiveling toward me and Chad. 

"We were devising a plan," said Chad "We hid."

"Very well" said Roman, with a tone that told me that he still didn't believe Chad and his remarks.

"I need all your names before you can pass and become Magi Academy students." Said Roman, his companion, Gavin walked over with a list.

Gavin said in a bland voice "This is a list of students who passed our game in the past week. It is magically updated to show the true identities of who won, so don't lie" 

One by one we each revealed our fake identities as Gavin checked off names from the list.

"Good," he said "All of you won the game at 6:46 PM, you are now verified Magi Academy Students. Enjoy your time here, for your days are limited..."

His gaunt warning rang in my head and Roman handed me black robes, a pure white skull knitted in where my heart would be, a gaunt hood that would've best been used for a disguise during a heist was sewn on using light gray string, it seemed like it had been used many times before.

"Be careful with those," said Gavin "Last 10 students who wore those died horrific deaths, not even the best of Necromancers could bring em back." He darkly chuckled, before leading us to a door, it's doorknob of gilded obsidian, again, shaped like a skull.