The Hidden Mages

Hidden

(picture above is Vincent)

A city. It was a city. Underwater.

After entering an invisible portal, my cousins and I found ourselves in an underwater city. Buildings of different heights were everywhere. Mini submarines could be seen here and there. I was weirded out when I saw two robots swim past me. Once our ship had landed, we all got off in different air bubbles.

"Where are we?" I asked, still not believing my eyes.

The soldiers made a circle, surrounding us. Two soldiers stepped aside, giving way to another soldier. This one wasn't holding any spear but that didn't make him less intimidating.

"Zoe? Lucas?" he asked, his voice sounded almost robot-like.

"How the hell do you know our names?" I asked fiercely, not wanting to show fear. In reply, he just chuckled. Well, at least I think he did.

"You're Xavier's sister, alright," he finally said.

'Wait.....what?!' It took me a few seconds to finally get it. "Wait.......are you...." I stopped, not sure if I was right or not.

"Vincent? Yup, that's me," he answered.

.

.

Vincent led us to a building that was probably 100 feet tall. Surprisingly, the inside of the building was not filled with water. Vincent tapped the button on his armor and his armor instantly removed itself. Vincent was now wearing a white tee paired with black skinny jeans.

"How come there's no water in here?" Lucas asked after doing a 360 turn.

"Technology," he replied simply, a smile on his face.

"Vincent has Intelligence Magic but I gotta say....I'm impressed," Angelo stated before giving Vincent a pat on the back.

"Come on, I wanna show you guys something," Vincent said, gesturing us to follow him.

While following him the rest of us kept looking around, a thousand questions filling our heads. We were too busy admiring everything that we didn't even realize that we had stopped in front of an elevator. Daphne turned to Vincent with a look on her face. A look that said 'seriously?'. He just shrugged before touching his temples with his finger, as in to say that he was a genius. She chuckled and shook her head before entering the elevator.

"So, those killing machine soldiers that brought us to you.........are they mages too?" I asked once we were all in the elevator.

"Mages? What makes you think they're human?" he answered, making everyone mouths open in shock.

"They're robots!?!" Lucas asked, his eyes now wide open.

I was still in disbelief and I wanted to ask 'how?' but I knew his answer. The elevator stopped with a 'ding!' and the doors opened to reveal a long hallway. We followed Vincent until we eventually reached a huge metal door. Ancient looking designs covered the entire door. It almost looked like the designs was a drawing about the past.

"Where are we?" I asked, my eyes fixed on the door.

"You'll see," Vincent replied before touching the door with his right hand.

All of a sudden, the bottom of his started to glow and in a split second, the door opened. We jumped back by surprise but continued to follow Vincent into a room. The room was way bigger than I expected it to be. Right when I walked in, I saw a huge table in the middle of the room. There were shelves here and there, all filled with books.

"When I got separated from everyone else, I woke up holding a piece of wood, trying to stay afloat. I realized that I was in the middle of the ocean and there was no land in sight. Due to having Intelligence Magic, I knew that it would take me weeks to finally reach land and it would be even harder to do so since I didn't have a ship. So, I did the only thing I could think of. I dove underwater," he explained.

"I found a few things from the shipwreck and I managed to make a mini-transport for me to find land. I traveled for days and finally found an island. I really wanted to stay in the village there but something told me to gather as many supplies as possible and go back to the ocean," he continued.

"Something or someone?" Dylan asked and somehow everyone knew who he was talking about.

"Astra Liliana. Our grandmother. I'm guessing you guys got messages from her too?" Vincent asked and we nodded.

Vincent spent the next 30 minutes explaining everything that had happened to him. Apparently, our grandmother thought that it was a good idea to build a secret hideout underwater so that it is hidden from the real world. She used her Illusion Magic and made an invisible border around the city. This whole underwater city was supposed to be the place where the 9 of us unite.

"For years I have been working to build this city and now I'm done," he finished.

My brother and my cousins have been through so much while waiting for me to save them. It's my fault. I didn't say anything after that.

"Right now, we're only missing one," Angelo stated after a few seconds of silence.

"Xavier," I said unknowingly.

I could feel their gaze on me, filled with pity but right now I don't think I deserve any pity.

"We'll find him," Daphne told me with her hand on my shoulder, reassuring me that it will all be alright.

I simply nodded with a small smile, not wanting to show the uncertainty in me.

"I've been tracking everyone for the past few years. So, I knew where each and every one of you was," Vincent said before walking towards the huge table.

He, then, tapped the center of the table and with that, a screen appeared. It showed a map and on it, there were nine dots. Eight were in the same place and one was in the far corner of the map.

"That's where Xavier is. All the way in Stormy Reef," Vincent stated, pointing at the dot that was placed far away from the other dots.

"So what are we waiting for?" I asked, starting to become impatient.

"We can't simply go to the Stormy Reef and get Xavier," Vincent replied, sternly.

"Why not?"

"Because Xavier is in danger,"

"From what, exactly?" I asked, trying hard to stop my anxiety from tearing my mind apart.

"A demon,"