Dawn's Light

Chapter 21

Celia may have been lulled into a gentle sleep by the gentle rocking of the walking animal she was riding on if it was not for the fact she was frenzied panic that ravaged her mind. She was bound to the animal by more magic chains, and she had no chance to free herself or get the sack off of her head.

'What—why— what did we do to deserve this?' Fear scrambled Celia's mind as she tried to focus, but she felt blind and could not find something to anchor her thoughts to. In the darkness of the sack, she could not think of any short-term goal other than getting out and escaping. Her senses felt muffled and lost, as she could not even locate her and Verbena's mindlink in her confused blizzard of thoughts.

Verbena's worried mental presence briefly reached Celia, but it felt soft on Celia's comprehension it only came like a mere distant echo among the swirling winds of fear and bewilderment. Celia attempted to snatch the brief echo and use it as an anchor, but it slipped through her mind like liquid water or loose sand that easily slipped between a person's fingers.

'Maybe Xan escaped?' Celia's mind managed to rein in on that one thought, then descended into chaos and doubt. 'He was nearby when we were buried in snow, so maybe he was not captured and stayed hidden.' After a pause, she sighed in defeat 'there is no way he was not captured as well,' she emitted an audible whimper as she mentally admitted the flaws in her thoughts, 'I can't feel Verbena, and I am tied here, trapped, unable to move.'

"Everything will be fine, everything will be fine," she took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself again, "Xan and I will survive and be perfectly all right," she whispered to herself to trick her brain to believe her scared words as true. However, her heart refused to believe it.

'Whom am I kidding, this is hopeless,' she mentally admitted to herself and for a while, her mind paused in a bout of depression caused by the lack of hope. Her mind settled and she stopped panicking.

However, she had no idea how long she had been overwhelmed by panic or how long she had been riding on whatever creature she had been brutally tied to. With the bag over her head, she was blind to the moon, which was often the only hint of the passage of time, even if it was inconsistent.

After another unknown amount of time, Celia finally heard voices break the vocal silence, though they were barely understandable through the cloth. Luckily, they spoke a language similar enough to Celia's own for her to understand.

It took her a few moments, but she finally began to pick out bits of what the discussion was about and place the fragments together into a sentence she could understand.

"I found the disgraceful villains on the edge of our territory." The recognizable voice of the dark-skinned capturer spoke, though what Celia's understanding came from a mental reconstruction of the muffled noises that managed to reach her ears through the sack on her head.

There was brief silence as if someone was pondering what to do with the two prisoners, then another voice spoke, "Send them to the done-gen for now for later questioning," the slightly echoed voice rang loud and clear with a power Celia sensed and understood, but could not explain.

Celia had no idea what a "done-gen" was, but a sickening feeling settled in her stomach. In her fear, she attempted to locate her mindlink with Verbena. Sadly, her attempt was to no avail as she found herself unable to locate anything but were in her mind the bond was supposed to be.

All she could do was allow herself to be taken to a new place, as there was barely any slack in her binds she could use to struggle and squirm. Without any options, Celia felt useless, and unlike the rest of her life, she could not talk to Nami and Chrome and alleviate her feelings.