The Final Hope: Awakening

Chapter Seven

Weeks. That was how long we spent searching through the collections of books. Freya insisted that I look through the books on Magic while she searched through Research but, although I was interested in magic, I too wanted to look at those shelves first, since we had a greater chance of finding something useful there.

When I told her about it, she simply replied, "If push comes to shove, it would be best if at least one of us knew how to fight." I understood her reasoning, but our best chances of survival were in trying to return to Earth instead of fighting the draiths. However, she said we need to be prepared for anything, including a confrontation.

Although I understood preparing for different circumstances, I still disagreed because if push did come to shove, we wouldn't stand a chance. However, she wouldn't listen to reason and Mia said she would help Freya out instead and that we should divide and conquer. I didn't see the point in arguing, it was two against one.

So, I decided to go with the team and started practising magic.

Unfortunately, despite having an 'affinity' for storm, I could barely create sparks for the first few days. Since then, I had gradually improved but at this point, I was only able to conjure up a small spark between my thumb and index finger. As cool as it looked, I knew that it would be useless in a real fight. As a result, I also started practising healing and other forms of magic, but they too proved equally difficult.

Ryan was in a coma for two whole weeks before waking up. When he did, he was devastated to discover his condition. He took a while to mentally recover and had begun wearing an eye patch since.

Once he could walk again, we showed him the hidden room, along with the letter, but he didn't take it well at all. Like me, he expected everything to be normal once we had finished the mission, but he found out that despite having gone through so much, and having sacrificed an eye, we were in just as much danger as before and not at all closer to finding a way out.

Furiously, he declared that he wouldn't help us and I believed that he'd returned to his old self but, he turned out to be far more helpful than he made out. Whilst Freya, Mia and I were reading the books, he took over housework.

Not only did he manage to fix the table we had broken in the library, but he also used his excellent cooking skills to make great dishes for us every day. He also cleaned our rooms, did the laundry, starting growing our own food on the outside and did everything else he could to help us, except for reading the information himself. But, out of consideration for everything that he did, I didn't criticise him for that.

Freya, on the other hand, did. Despite becoming more empathetic, Ryan and Freya still consistently fought - so much so that Mia and I had become accustomed to their bickering. However, on rare occasions, I would catch them in a corner locked in conversation about something. One time, when I interrupted them, they were startled.

"What do you want?" Ryan yelled harshly, taking me by surprise. I didn't expect him to get scared easily, but I apologised quickly.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," I explained. They instantly relaxed.

"Don't worry about it," said Freya. "You startled us that's all." It was awkward for a moment, but I was still glad that they were trying to get along sometimes.

Generally, we had all gotten quite used to each other and had managed to establish a daily routine. Even though we made little progress in coming up with something useful, we were still relentless and kept searching each day. Even if on occasion, one of us felt like it was hopeless, the other two would cheer them up. Ryan would often mumble his disinterest and the fact that he thought it was pointless, but he never got in our way. But when everything was going as well as it could, it all changed.