The Rune Smith

Chapter 13- Breathless

Alia was tired of falling asleep and being knocked out. She was absolutely done with it. Yet, here she was, waking up for the umpteenth time.

She still could see nothing. The dark was uncomfortable, the voices echoing in her ears.

It was a combination of runic whispers and normal human whispers. And it was disconcerting. Alia could barely determine which ones were runes and which ones were not.

Then the voices ceased, leaving Alia gasping for air. She had been sleeping in a tank full of water, and the only thing that had allowed Alia to breath had been the incessant runes whispering loudly in her ears.

She still could see nothing.

The water drained around her and she fell to the floor, coughing and sputtering.

"She's awake. Finally."

Alia remembered the voice as the one that had taken her from the crash. It was distorted, as if she was hearing it through a blanket or a wall. Whoever it was wasn't in the same room as her.

She ran her fingers over the floor, trying to gauge what she was sitting on.

It was cold and smooth beneath her fingers, and Alia grimaced. She wanted to know where she was. For all she knew, she could be dead. She was in a sort of purgatory, and the man was personified death. He had come to take her away.

Alia pinched her skin, the pain forcing her to believe that she was still alive.

This felt like a nightmare, all of it.

She had been sleeping so much that she didn't know the difference between reality and imagination.

Alia clawed at her scalp. She didn't want to think. It wasn't good for her. She needed to be sane enough to make it out of whatever was happening. She needed Luca. She needed Alex.

She just needed someone.

Alia felt the air grow warm and she shivered. She had been blind to how cold it was.

She heard a groan as air was released from the room, and Alia was blinded by a light made brighter by the stark white of the room. She hadn't lost her sight. She had just been sitting in a dark room.

A man walked in, covered from the neck down in black. He seemed to have absorbed every speck of light right where he was standing, he was so dark.

Alia gasped as he stepped toward her, holding his breath as he held out his hand.

"Nice to meet you, ma'am."

Alia nearly tried to bite his hand. It was the man who had taken her.

"Not likewise."

He withdrew his hand, and Alia hoped it was because he could sense her utter revulsion.

"Where am I? I done with being forced to sleep. Why was I in the tank? Who are you?"

Alia glanced at the door. She wanted out so much.

"Where is Luca?"

She tried to stand, collapsing the moment she got to her feet.

The man stood unwaveringly before her.

"All that will be answered soon enough. I apologize for my rudeness, I am afraid that I cannot answer any of your questions. I am merely a messenger, as well as a retriever. I am also afraid that I killed that man to get to you. I could see no other way."

He glanced behind Alia and she followed his gaze.

"As for the prince-"

"Prince? You know?"

"As for the prince, he is right there. We wouldn't want him harmed, now would we? A war is not something anyone wants, and his death would likely be the start of one."

Alia crawled over to Luca. He was in the tank next to the one she knew she had been floating in earlier. With the lights on, Alia realized how large the room was. There were multiple tanks, each housing a different person. Every last one was grey in color, and Alia nearly concluded that every last one was a Forlorn. But then she recognized the features. They weren't raceless like Luca's were. They were definitely applicable to multiple different races that she had seen before.

"These people were drained of their magic." A new voice, yet another man.

A new figure appeared, filling the doorway behind the messenger man.

The new man was the opposite of the messenger in every way.

He had a sickly pallor, and he almost appeared light up the room with cruel smile.

While the messenger man was very dark, from his suit to his hair color, the new man was bright. Every piece of him screamed expensive, with his crisp white suit to his white hair which didn't seem to have a single hair out of place.

He was angelic. That was the best word to describe him.

But Alia could feel that there was something more to him.

Or maybe less.

The new man was missing pieces, pieces that made him human. Alia knew he could cover that milky white suit with blood and that smile would never even falter.

But Alia didn't know him at all. For all she knew, she could be wrong. And she prayed to whatever gods existed in her world that she was wrong.

Like the messenger, the new man held out his hand. Again, Alia chose not to take it, staring at it with a steadily increasing hatred. She didn't want anything to do with this man, no matter how wrong she was about him.

He continued to hold his hand out.

"My name is Mutine Presariom. You do realize it is rude not to take a new friends hand, right."

"You're no friend of mine. You monster."

It was in that moment that Alia had come to an epiphany. Everything that had happened to all of the people around her was his fault. She realized it the moment he had called her friend. Why would he ever call her friend if not to lure her into a false sense of security. Not that saying friend would calm her in any way. Only a monster could be so cruel as to tear away someone's identity. All these people without their magic? Without it they, they are essentially nothing but shells.

"What do you want with me? Do you want to drain me too? News flash; I have no magic. I am just a... just a..."

Alia felt pressure build up between her eyes. She wasn't going to cry in front this psychopath.

"I'm just useless. That's all. Someone who was predestined to become a slave saved by the slip of the hand of fate. That's it."

Presariom put his hand beneath her chin, lifting her face so that their eyes met.

Alia felt her heart stop mid-beat.

"Ah, but we know better don't we, little Rune Smith."