The Vortex: Rectification

Chapter Twenty.

Chapter Sixty.

Every move of my body drags my energy further down, reinvigoration potions can hold me together and keep the barrier in place but only for so long. I can't shatter the rest of my magic because they all took too long to realise what I had done was actually working.

Too many questions demanding to know how we achieved it instead of taking the win and running with it, getting people out of the way and getting the buildings most important people and rooms locked away. Shattering The Saviours cockiness while we still can and evening the playing field substantially. With the other magical provinces leaving us high and dry once again we can't just push it all away and wait for the people who won't come.

Sometimes the only option we have left is to rush into the most dangerous of places and give them everything we have since laying down and letting everything fall apart because they odds aren't in our favour is never going to be an option and if that means I come out of this with no magical abilities left then I'm willing to go this far.

It seemed like such an impossibility when I first heard about magical cores, corrupting or shattering the very core of one's magical ability seemed dramatic. How can you break something you were born with, that in many ways feels endless and exhilarating. The you learn about breaking them, about shattering your capability with pushing too hard and doing magic out of your depths and you think to yourself, that'll never happen to me.

Now the very possibility doesn't just chase me around, but it plagues Aleera too and the thought of her coming back just to lose even more is like a knife to my chest. Her magic has already been so impacted, and she gave so much of her pain and trauma in the spell that I keep worrying it was too much.

I don't care how much she shouts at me when this is all done about breaking the connection after the barrier established, for taking it onto my own shoulders instead of continuing to draw from them both too. Perhaps it was a mistake I shouldn't have taken onto my shoulders but what use are we if all three of us are drained and about to pass out.

Besides, they needed to be ready and able while I find my way to the top of the building where the window billows open and the smoke from the vial, I stowed away in my bra can leak from.

"What are you doing Aurora?" Alexander's voice makes me jump, my fingers slipping from the wooden shutters that cover the top window.

"Holy crap Alexander!" I shout, pressing against the wall and slapping my sweaty hands over my chest. "Where the hell did you come from?"

He racks a hand through dishevelled blonde hair, waving his wand and letting the pieces of wood fall to the ground to expose the window. "Honestly if you are going to try and sneak away when you shouldn't, you might want to try being more aware of the people following you"

My knuckles rub against the centre of my chest, a dull throb of pain presses down against my lungs, "Okay well I thought that I would be the last person that anyone would be focusing on"

Alexander's dark eyes practically roll out of his head, and I can understand the many ways in which he is justified in doing that but giving us a chance to close the holes in our defences is a pretty solid excuse. It's also the truth that I don't think has settled in with anyone, including myself because with everything we have done it seems unplausible for it to have actually worked.

For the pain the inflicted they on me and the scars they left me with won't ever truly leave my mind but to know what they are feeling it, begging for it to stop them with every push against our fence. It's the best kind of revenge someone could ask for, and I don't wish for them dead, yet I wouldn't bat an eye at their demise, whether at my hand or someone else's.