Slice of (magic) Life

Chapter 15 - Axle

Axle looked terrified but he stepped forward.

"Where's my father? I need to know if he's okay," he said. Elaine backed him up and asked the same thing while placing a hand on Axle's shoulder.

"You're dad is safe in one of the most secure buildings on the Luminary. He's alive and being tended to as we speak. But now we have to-"

Axle shrugged Elaine's hand away. "But I need to see him, now!" He demanded.

The Luminary leader gave him a stern look and he thought she would reprimand him for being difficult.

"Axle," the woman's voice dropped to match her seriousness. "I promise you, your father is alive. He is getting the best healing magic we can give him. But right now, we are about to be overrun by shadow creatures, and we need everyone's power to drive them away."

He stood his ground for a few more moments, gazing into Monique's eyes, then he huffed and crossed his arms. "Fine," he said.

Monique dipped her head with thanks, then started going through some of the storage boxes littered around the warehouse. Axle scanned the entire place. It looked like any old warehouse, all grey and dusty-looking, having a metallic finish to its walls. The roof had large metal pipes crisscrossing along the whole stretch of the building. Aside from the double doors they went through, there were also three other entrance ways, one on each side of the warehouse.

"Here, each of you take one of these." Monique handed them a simple grey pendant. Axle received his and inspected it. The pendant had no distinguishing features other than a marking of what Axle guessed was the Celestial Alliance's emblem at the back of it on the wooden side. The gem that was surrounded by the wood was round, smooth, and grey. To some, this might've looked like a cheap accessory. But to Axle, it looked like a precious piece of jewelry.

He never really had any accessory to wear around. Nothing to distinguish himself from others when at school or when they were out. Axle also secretly had an interest in gemstones, and he was busy figuring out what stone was set into the pendant when Monique began explaining.

"These amulets will help keep you safe." She said.

Elaine interjected, nudging Axle, "And I thought they don't do magic in random objects and all that talk about 'magical artifacts' wasn't real."

Axle playfully nudged back, "I didn't know. I only learned what my dad taught me."

Before anymore conversation was made, Monique interrupted, "Well, your father was partially correct there Axle." Axle and Elaine's attention moved back to her.

"You see, true magic cannot stay within objects for long," she began. "But it is possible for us to place a spell or two on things like these. Eventually, however, this spell will wear off over the course of a week at most because it doesn't generate its own magic, like we do."

Axle nodded his head, his thoughts suddenly flooding his head about what things he could enchant back home once this was all over. Carefully, he dropped the amulet over his head, letting it rest on the center of his chest. Elaine and the twins also put theirs on.

"Okay, now stay put. Don't want anything going wrong here," Monique said.

They all stood perfectly still as the powerful Mage raised her hands toward them and began casting. Her orange aura flowing from her hands to the four amulets. Once finished, Monique let her hands drop to her sides and inspected each amulet. Axle looked down at his own to see that it had gained an orange glow. The others' had also changed to the same orange color of Monique's magic.

"Okay, you're all good now," she said. "Now let's get you four into position."

Quickly ushering Axle and the rest out of the warehouse, Monique assigned them a spot among the hundreds of Mages near the area where they entered the Luminary for the first time and she left to head farther out.