Mage

Septima

I could see the strain on Adrian's face as Kyan and I rode next to him. He was doing tracking spells almost too often, watching Rinn's progress ahead of us. I knew Adrian was struggling to pace the horses, not wanting to wear them out but not wanting to let Rinn get to the city first.

We reached the very outskirts of the city as the sun began to dip into the horizon. Adrian had informed us that Rinn had entered the cave where he was holding our families, but there was no lighting so he couldn't see much past the mouth.

The cave in question had its opening facing the ocean, it was quite scenic actually. But we stopped and tied up our horses, about half an hour behind Rinn. My entire body felt sore from riding all day, but I smoothed out my dirty white healing robes anyway, shaking the numbness from my thighs.

Howan and Adrian, gripping Father's bowstaff, lead us into the cave, lighting the way with a spell. As we walked, I shook out my hands, trying to warm myself up for whatever magic I would need to cast. I hate it, but I'm going to have to rely on my older siblings for their mastery of combative magic, suddenly angry that I only ever studied defensive spells.

The cave kept winding down, the rocks were slippery with cold water, and the air thick with chills. There was a general unpleasant smell to the air, something like rotting fish and mildew.

As we kept going we saw a light and the path opened into a huge circular cavern. There were naturally formed pillars of rock surrounding a pool of water, glistening with sunlight that was flooding in the room from a section of the wall that was open, looking out of a cliff face facing the ocean below.

It was beautiful.

I was broken from my awe when I heard crackling. My attention was brought to the large pool of water which began freezing over starting from the opposite side of the room. Emerging from an alcove around the rugged cave wall was Rinn, the spellbook in his hands.

His dark brown eyes were twelve shades lighter, almost white. The tell-tale sign of magic poisoning.

"You shouldn't have come," He said, holding his free hand outstretched.

"Rinn please stop this," I said, adrenaline creeping into my exhausted body.

It was, of course, no use. Rinn immediately fired a blast of ice from his hand right at me. Adrian hit me with a well-aimed knockback spell, and I was pushed out the ice's path, landing sprawled on the ground.

Kyan rushed to my side as my older siblings made their way around the actively freezing pool, keeping Rinn occupied from both directions.

"Are you ok?" She asked me, giving me a hand.

"I'm ok," I said, my bones aching as she pulled me up.

I pointed for Kyan to follow Howan to the right around the pool and I ran left, shooting a knockback spell at Rinn, who had now fashioned himself a magic shield of ice, probably using a spell from the book.

I joined Adrian on the left and racked my brain for a good spell to use. My brain, of course, came up empty so I used another knockback spell and aimed it at the book.

The spell was blocked, but now Rinn was looking me in the eyes, temporarily distracted. Howan, ever my genius big sister, picked up on my idea and successfully knocked the spellbook out of Rinn's hands, sending it flying in my direction.

I ran to catch the spellbook and hugged it to my chest instinctively. Not a second later I heard Rinn shout a blast of ice towards my direction, and if it weren't for my older brother sliding in to block it, it would have hit me square in the chest.