You Tried

Chapter 30- Magic

-Seto's POV-
I've been taken to the top of the north tower, still trapped while Amelia blasts poor Preston to the marble floor inside, where he lies motionless. In the top of the tower, Amelia still keeps me trapped, but she lets go of the tube. I had woken up a while ago, so I'd seen half of Preston's fight against Amelia, and her act of aggression. She's standing in front of me, while she shoved me into an iron bar cage. There's a barred window behind me.
Instantly, before I can react, she summons a pain curse on me. My body explodes in pain, screaming in protest. I hit the stone brick floor, gasping for air. The pain curse is unbearable, and I can already feel my life force weaken. She's killing me slowly to make a point to Brice.
But Brice isn't here. He's below- against the wall with a cracked skull. But the pain is making my head spin. I watch the floor, trying to relieve pressure the spell puts on my brain. I can see the kid as she comes into the room to observe.
Amelia reduces the pain spell to nothing. I sit up, and regain as much composure as I can. But she acts too quickly, and I'm hit with a more serious curse, one of physical damage. Burns appear on my arms and neck. They hurt as if I'm stuck in a burning building or something.
I cry out, but no one in the room moves except for Amelia as she casts her spells. While I recover a tiny bit from that, she tries to send an Elimonus at me, but fails as I have just enough energy to break it up. She growls in frustration. I drop my hand back to the bricks, just to hold my head up. Amelia showers me in harmful spells, and my life force diminishes drastically with each one.
On the brink of death, Amelia stops her onslaught. I lay crumpled on the ground, broken and nearly dead. Below me, I hear horses. And shouting. A lot of it to be honest.
There are several whinnies of upset horses, and several worried shouts. I can hear my name, but nothing else. Then I recognize some of the voices. Rob, and Sky! Preston and... Brice. He's alive, and that's all that matters to me.
I can't call back to them. I'm so weak, I can't even lift my head anymore. I hear Rob shout, "Check the other towers! Sky, come with me!" I then hear the north tower's door open as Rob and Sky step inside. I can tell that Brice and Preston are with them by their energies.
I notice footsteps come bounding up the staircase, and Rob bursts into the room. Amelia disappears, and the kid stands in the corner, trying to hide. Rob picks the cage lock, and Sky hauls me up. The pain that kept me immobilized kicks in, and it feels like a kick in the ribs and everywhere else. I cry out from the sudden movement of my body.
Sky slows down, and gently picks me up to where he's got a hand under my knees, and the other under my shoulder blades and arms. My head hangs loose, because I can't bother with the pain to move it. I'm laid on the neck of a horse, and I know that Sky is behind me, controlling the horse. I hear Rob shouting again, and I can barely see a couple soldiers on armoured horses appear. Rob spurs his horse, and then we all take off after him.
We arrive at a castle clear after dark, and I realize something. We left Vikk, Lachlan, Ty, and Anthony. I barely manage to alert Sky if this, and he understands. "I'll grab then in a second. But I need you in the medic's care first, Seto." He carries me to a small room in the front entrance area, and a woman takes me and sets me down on the bed. Sky teleports away.
The medic here seems nice enough, and she panics when she realizes how close to death I am. Everything hurts, and I can feel my heart slowing down on me. I see Brice stumble passed, and I can just make out a kind of stress ball in his hand. The thick bandages around his head make his hair stick up more than it already does. He looks stressed.
A few hours pass while the medic tries her hardest to heal me. But the downfall of it, is that I'd flinch, and white hot pain would stop me instantaneously. I'm in so much pain, it's ridiculous. Every muscle in my body is screaming at me in protest to movement. But the medic won't give up trying.
She managed to heal the burns left. She wraps my arm up from my wrist to my shoulder, because it's so weak, it'll snap if I move it too much. She ties off the bandage tightly, and then wraps a sling around it to keep it immobilized. She releases me from the room for exercise. And I leave to explore the place I'm in.
I see Sky milling around, and so are the boys. Rob seems jumpy, almost like he doesn't wanna be here. Preston looks happy, exploring the upstairs. I can see Ty and Anthony, and I hadn't realized night had fallen. Brice is sitting on the carpeted tile floor, leaning on a short chest next to Vikk.
Lachlan, Mitch, and Jerome are all running around in an unfair game of tag. Rob is literally just sitting in a velvet chair on a platform, stressing over something. Whatever is stressing out Rob, must be bad, because he's gone ADHD mode, and won't stop tapping his heel to the floor. But my main focus is Brice. I need to talk to him.
I sit down next to Brice, and Vikk is on the other side of him. Vikk leans forward and shifts so he can see me. Brice's bandage has blood on it already, and that means his skull may have a serious issue healing. Most injuries like this will heal quickly on a sorcerer, but his just- isn't. And that's bad for him.
Brice turns to me, pretty elated that I'm okay. Vikk's speech is still horrendous, but he's managing. "H- how, are y- you?" "I'm okay, Vikk. Thank you for asking. How's Rob? He seems stressed about something." Vikk shifts.
"He- he b-brought, us- to, um... His home." This catches me off guard. Rob said to me earlier this year that he hates home. And yet, here we are- at his home. No wonder he's stressed.
The other boys come over, and all three are out of breath from running about. Preston pops into our circle from upstairs. I can tell my enchantment on both Jerome and Preston has worn off in time, because they look humanoid. Both of their bandana's bear the mouth of what the normally look like. Jerome's has the muzzle and bared teeth. Preston's had the signature creeper frown on a field of lava designs.
My arm starts to ache, and my head starts to spin from too much movement. I say my good nights and such, and Brice leads me to our shared room. We don't need to share, but Brice chose to anyway. Why not? I settle into tinge mattress, exhausted and pained. I drift into a deep, empty void of sleep.

-Sky's POV-
I feel bad for Seto. He's taken so much near fatal damage from Amelia in a max of an hour maybe, and yet, can still stay awake for a few hours. He looked wiped out when I saw him in the hall. I'd retrieved the boys and the twins directly after I left Seto with the medic. Grace was concerned, and confused about why I came for Jerome and Mitch later than usual.
All I told her was that Amelia lied, and Seto was endangered. Now I sit out on the patio on the second floor, staring out at the starry navy blue horizon. The breeze is keeping me out here, and I'm too distracted to go inside to the boys anyway. As I watch the horizon, I notice a glow of yellow. My amulet is starting to glow again.
I don't know why this happens, but it does sometimes in the dark of night. Either way, I never told anyone this, but without my sunglasses I wear, I might as well be blind. I can see, but only just. I can't see anything but shapes and colors without my sunglasses. They're enchanted, so I can see correctly.
But my blindness has only grown worse over the years. There are those few nights a month where I lose the glow to my eyes, and you can see regular human eyes. They're still yellow gold, but more human. I've never showed anyone, due to my poor eyesight and the fact that I don't know exactly when this happens. It's always random.
The night starts to fade, and I can see a bit of magenta on the horizon. In my confusion and distraction, I leap from the patio, and trek to the stable. Sprite hadn't left yet, so I stroke his nose while he's here. I'd taken his armor off, so he'd be more comfortable, but he still clearly felt out of place. He nuzzles me, and rubs his face on my shoulder.
"Go home, Sprite. Rest. You'll need it." And with that, he disappears. The armor and stuff leaves with him. I'd raised Sprite from a colt, so he's extremely attached to me. I could tell he was reluctant to leave me.
Rob shambles outside, and he's not paying attention. He runs straight into me, so I steady him. His face looks mangled in the strange dawn light, and he looks startled to see me. His momentum breaks, and he tumbles into me while I press my hands back against his shoulders. He steadies against my hands.
He stares at me, and he seems to be trying to see into my eyes directly. He's very reluctant to give up and look at my shades. He squints, desperately trying to see my eyes. And he jumps when this is one of the nights the glow goes away. The glare behind my lenses disappears, and he can actually see my eyes.
"What- Sky! You- I..." "Relax Rob. I know. My eyes look different. It's okay. I'm used to it." He starts to panic a little, but understands what I said. He steps closer to me, and it makes me claustrophobic and crowded. I step back, feeling overwhelmed a bit.
"What- How?" "I don't know. It doesn't happen often. Maybe three days a month?" I watch him, and his posture changes. He'd come out, stuck and confused. Now he seems intrigued, if not angry.
He studies my eyes through my shades, and I just stare back. I'm surprised by how neat and scary he finds this. I just watch him, mesmerized. He looks away, but before I can react, he turns back, and snaps his hand at my sunglasses, pushing them sideways off my face. They hit the grass a few yards away.
"What the hell, Rob. Why?" "It's too weird not being able to see you, and I knew you wouldn't take them off even if I asked nicely. You have something wrong, don't you?" "Fine. You caught me Rob. I'm mostly blind. But Rob, you literally just blinded me. I can't see anything right now. Give me my glasses."
I hear the crunching of his boots in the grass and dead leaves. "Here, Sky." I reach my hand out in the direction of his voice, and my hand collides with my glasses and his hand. I slip my sunglasses on, and I can see Rob again. He's looking at me, serious and concerned.
"Can you really not see? Why?" "Want me to tell you?"