Never Enough Time

Chapter Twenty-Two: Rika

Chapter Twenty-Two: Rika

“This is an emergency

So are you listening?

And I can't pretend that I don't see this...”

– Paramore, Emergency

RIKA

I sat alone in Gabriel's bedchamber after he left, examining the hemisphere of golden light surrounding my injured hand. It seemed deceptively simple, the light, yet I knew that it had taken much of Gabriel's energy. He had looked so pale after doing magic, and I had to wonder if healing an injury took as much energy as it would to naturally repair itself. If so, then I felt even worse for making Gabriel heal me, especially since he didn't appear to even remotely like me. 

How could he come to dislike me so quickly, anyway? It's not as if we had known each other for any amount of time sufficient enough to form a justified opinion of the other, much less start to dislike them. Yet Gabriel seemed openly hostile towards me the moment I entered his room. It was as if I was a nuisance that he couldn't wait to be rid of, a thorn in his side that he longed to pull out. What could I possibly have done in the few minutes that I'd known him to offend him so? The more I dwelled on it, the more agitated I became. I let out an exasperated sigh, the light of the dome around my hand flickering as I did so.

To distract myself from the tangle of incoherency that was my thoughts, I gazed out Gabriel's window, admiring the view of the forest he had. Despite his behaviour towards me, I had to admit that his choice in his view was fairly good. I could see almost to the edge of the forest from here, and the sunlight reflecting off the moving leaves was like light reflecting off many facets of a diamond. For a moment, I closed my eyes and listened to the soft sigh of the wind blowing through the trees and the occasional chirping of the birds that inhabited them. I opened my eyes again, feeling much more peaceful now. I scanned the forest, wondering if I could find the place where Nathan and I spent the morning. Instead, I noticed a faint column of what looked like dark smoke rising up from a particular point in the trees. I frowned at it, even though people often set up campfires in the forest on hunting expeditions. When properly controlled, fires were not generally a major issue. Still...it's probably Father's hunting party, I thought, ignoring the uneasy feeling in my stomach as I watched the darkening pillar of smoke rise into the sky.

Over my hand, the dome's light flickered and died. 

I looked down at my hand, surprised. The space around it seemed empty now that the light was gone. Tentatively, I moved my fingers carefully one by one – testing. The pain was gone, but my hand felt oddly refreshed; as if it had taken the warmth of the light and absorbed it. And maybe it had done that; I had no idea how magic worked or what it did. I thought about asking Gabriel about it, but quickly dismissed it. Seeing as his attitude towards me was less than kind, I was as likely to get a cold stare from him as I was to get an answer.

Glancing at the door, I wondered if I should go find Gabriel or Nathan, to tell them that my hand was better. More importantly, I wanted to ask them if they knew anything about the fire in the forest. There was a dreadful, sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that told me something was wrong, and I intended to find out why. I pushed myself away from the table, my chair scraping loudly in the empty room. I stood and, taking one last look at the forest outside the window, I left.

Aware that I wasn't supposed to be in the castle at all, I poked my head cautiously out Gabriel's door into the corridor. It was deserted, so I stepped out into the hallway and examined my surroundings. A flight of stone stairs leading downward was placed at my right. The floor was covered in a long, red carpet that felt soft even through my leather hunting boots. The entire hall was lined with several identical wooden doors, one of which I assumed was Nathan's room. Now the only question was, which one?