Mortal Magic: Broken (Book 1)

3. Connection

A few hours flew by as I was sitting in my cell carefully taking care of the wounds I got from being careless in my fight with Yuto. I had bruises that I could barely keep hidden until they faded and one or two burns that would be distracting me for quite some time now. I made sure to cover all parts of my body that had scars so I was never seen bare-chested and when I had to take my clothes of I made sure no one could see me. I could not see the actual extent of my condition without taking my shirt of and to do that I had to wait until even the guards were sleeping, because they never stayed awake in the night even if they had just come on duty.

They had brought the man I fought in as I waited; in the same cell I occupied to be more precise. He was still unconscious and he seemed to be a long way from waking. He would probably sleep all night and maybe some of the morning before coming out of it. I kept my ears open for the sound of utter silence after the guards stopped laughing with the jokes each other made and the end of their predictions for the next day, and as I expected soon they were out, having their twisted fun in the realm of dreams that everyone thinks is real. My arms were sore and there was pain every time I pushed them beyond what was comfortable, but I slowly pulled off my shirt and threw it at the bed. I was sure that my back was never hit by any means today so I turned all my attention to my front side. My upper arms had several bruises that I was sure where still forming and I had burns between my wrists and elbows that would be visible either way. I suppose that coming out of this fight unscathed would be suspicious so I won't be making any attempt at concealing those, but for the rest I had no problems. My arms however were not the only place I had visible markings from this. My chest and abdomen were full of scars too, just like my back, and now I had some minor burns to add to the pile that made it difficult to move freely. Most of the damage was at my stomach and that would be irritating because every time I ate it would be painful I imagined. Luckily there were no burns on my chest near my lungs to make breathing painful so that was something.

I took one of the long pieces of cloth I kept under the stone like mattress I was sleeping on and dipped it in the bucket of water on the small square table in the middle of the wall of the cell opposite the iron bar door. I was lucky the water here was always cold cause that was what I needed right now. I wrapped the now cold and wet cloth around my abdomen and the sensation was comforting, the slight pain from the burn I felt was subsiding as the skin was losing temperature. I would have to do this many times in the following hours. I kept my shirt off and laid on the bed face at the celling, the only thought that occupied my mind was how to break out of this place. I already had many ideas to do so, but I never seemed to have enough power to set my plans in motion. My latest plan was to use an arte that would create enough panic and destruction for me to escape unnoticed. The problem was that it required my body to create enormous amounts of mana and release it constantly to create countless projections that would fly in every direction. It was dangerous for me as well because the whole process would exhaust me and of course any number of blades could find their way into my own body. This arte was beyond incontrollable, something similar to what my body goes through every month when the blood moon gives every magus a boost in his magical abilities, for me it made my body create the amount of mana I need for this attack and so much more, but it was more painful than someone would think. It was like my insides were melting and my body was flooding, and upon reaching the critical point I would expel all that mana outside of my body where anyone could use it if he wanted.

The thought of going through this again in a couple of days was unsettling, so much that when Yuto came to and was staring at me I had no clue. I only realized it when he tried to ask me something and he fell on the ground from the dizziness and the headache coming with being unconscious. As he was getting up I swiftly pulled on my shirt despite the pain I was feeling and then made sure he was sitting on his bed. He kept looking at me confused and I hoped it was because he was not dead or at least due to being in the same cell as me, but as luck would have it, he was looking at me like that after seeing all these scars. "How did you get all these, you had nothing when we were fighting". I averted my eyes from him and went back to my bed trying to avoid the question. "I don't know what you are talking about". He kept trying to get up but after he got dizzy a few times he gave up and grabbed his forehead in defeat.