The Swords of Memory: Second Chances

Chapter 27

Zara opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was in the training room. Once again, she was held prisoner there. She saw the dismantled cages off to the side of the room and felt the cold iron of shackles on her wrists. She was able to stand but her hands were held above her head by the shackles. This kind of trap hadn't worked in the past due to her disappearing each morning but since her body had remained here the last time she went back to her world it had been possible to effectively restrain her. She had no illusions that she would be able to escae these restraints. A metal cage that she could move was one thing. Now she was attached to the wall and couldn't move more than a few inches. She wouldn't be escaping from these shackles by herself.

The one thing she could move was her head and she used it to investigate her surroundings. The room was the same as the last time she had been in it. The only difference she saw was that the cages had been dismantled. She continued to search for a possible means of escape when she heard a jangling of chains. She had heard it before as she moved, but this time the sound hadn't been from her chains. She looked towards the direction of the sound and saw that she was not the only captive in the room. There was a man next to her. Zara realized that it was Daniel, not Eli like she had expected. She quickly scanned the rest of the room and found it empty of people. Eli and Daphne were not there. Hayden wasn't either, but he hardly counted considering he had betrayed them. Zara was happy that there was a chance they had escaped, but was also disappointed. Their powers were her only real hope of escape. Without them, she was stuck. Her only chance of escape would be to manage to stay conscious long enough to wake up in her world and disappear here. If she could position her cuffs right she was re-appear here, free of them.

With nothing to do other than wait, Zara tried talking to Daniel. "Daniel, are you awake?" Her neck got tired and she was forced to look forward again but she heard the chains jingle again.

"Zara... you're alive..." Daniel said. He sounded horrible. Zara twisted her neck to look at him and saw that he was not in good shape. His face was coated in dried blood and there were bruises evident on his arms. Zara suspected that there was a lot more damage hidden by his clothing.

"Daniel, can you inch over to me? If we can touch, I can heal you." Zara saw his feet make an effort to move closer to her but the effort accomplished little. She realized that he was too injured to move effectively, if it was even possible for them to touch with their restraints. Zara took it on herself to close the distance between them and braced her arms. She pulled her feet up and started swinging from side to side. After she had built her momentum she reached out tight her feet and managed to kick Daniel's side. On her second attempt she managed to hook a foot around his arm. He moaned in pain as the contact aggravated one of his wounds but Zara managed to hold on with her foot. Her pant leg was in the way of her skin touching his though and calling on her power only healed the bruises that had started to develop on her wrists. "Move my pant leg so that our skin is touching Daniel.

He did what she told him and Zara felt her power activate of its own accord as their skin touched. His injuries started to leave him and come into her. Zara hadn't noticed how much she liked how using her power made her feel. The pain she took from Daniel was just as real as if she had been hurt herself but its sharpness was always dulled by her healing. The pain followed by the tingling sensation she got as she rapidly healed was such a thrill to her. She could definitely see seeking out people to heal. They would benefit and so would she. She had yet to fully heal him but the strain of keeping her foot hooked on Daniel's arm became too much and she fell. The uncontrolled fall made her scrape her elbows against the hard stone wall. The scrape healed along with the injuries she had managed to take from Daniel but her own injury didn't give her the same thrill as his did. There was something about taking the pain from someone else that made it that much more potent.