A Rational Magic || ONC2022

Interlude || Chaos In Lios City

"Dear Oserit, is she alright?"

"I don't know... Elandor! Elandor, help!"

It felt like the entire city was in shock. Even the ticking of the clock in the centre of the square had gone silent, quite literally — there was a Fixer now.

"Oh, for crying out loud, get him yourself!" Ciradyl snapped, gesturing wildly towards the street. "He's deaf as mexilae sometimes."

His sister nodded, red hair coming unclipped as she did so and falling across her face. Without pushing it back as she always would when it did that, or laughing at his joke, she leapt up and ran towards their friend's house.

Not that they'd been seen for the past week.

Cira stayed put, unsure whether he should touch the girl and check if she was still alive or leave her be for her safety. What would Elandor do again?

In the end, all he did was pull some of her hair away from her face, revealing a small marking on her cheek. As he looked at it, though, it vanished.

Just a trick of the light, he told himself.

Vaeri was by his side again just moments later, now joined by Elandor Lenire — the best healer in this part of the city. If anyone was going to be able to heal this girl, it was him.

"What happened?"

"See these?" Cira tapped one of the dirigible-like wings that were still strapped to the girl. "She's not... I assume she's from up there, like the Gateway the Wystans went to look at last week? And... well."

It was extremely obvious what had happened. And while someone had made a valiant effort to stop her fall (Cira was almost certain that it was Felaern, who had been there to do so but apparently hated humans... a slight contradiction there), it had just been a bit too late to work perfectly.

He stood up to join Vaeri as Elandor knelt beside the girl, waving his hands over her and muttering to himself. Vaeri frowned, a sign that something had just struck her.

"Have you seen Kat recently?"

"No."

"D'you think she's here because of him? Like... something happened?"

"Vaeri, I don't want to listen to it."

"But maybe he's still up there!"

"Adalia would never leave her brother somewhere he couldn't escape from," Cira pointed out, but Vaeri's words stuck with him.

It was possible, he supposed, but it was just as likely that the boy had just vanished in the same way—

"Stop thinking about Mai," Vaeri whispered, taking his hand. "Kat is probably fine—"

"What's your name?"

The siblings shared a look, and Vaeri stepped forward.

"I... Anya."

"How did you find the Gateway?"

"Uh. Originally?" The girl struggled to sit up, blinking more than was probably natural. "By accident, I suppose."

"And tonight?"

"My sister and I were told we needed to come here for some reason. We just... listened."

"Did you have anyone from here with you? A fairy, or someone like that?" Vaeri asked carelessly, and the girl's eyes widened.

"Oh! Yeah. He's... with my sister. They can't get down... apparently you should be able to help with that?"

The girl's companion being a fairy that couldn't fly certainly didn't equate to her companion being Kat... but it was something that pointed to Vaeri being right.

And was Adalia like that?

Oserit, Cira didn't know.