Life in the Flames

Life in the Flames-5

Chapter-5 

The Captors

I opened my eyes to find darkness and my head searing in pain. I sat up on the coarse ground I was laying on and brought my hand to hold my head. As I lifted my hand it brushed against the cool metal collar around my neck.  

"Alonia?" Breezy's voice came from somewhere in the darkness.  

I stood up and squinted trying to make out anything in the blackness, "Breezy? Is that you? Where are you?" I asked out into the shadows.  

"Yes it's me. I'm over here. Follow my voice," she said as she guided me over to my right where I came to a wooden dividing wall that ended at my chest to reveal cool metal bars in-between us that allowed us to communicate.  

"We are in cells somewhere. I have no idea what happened. While you were in the back room with the tailor some man got in a tiff with Larais and everyone went outside to help settle the problem, even father. He told me to watch you and a few minutes later something grabbed me and knocked me out. Then I woke up a few minutes ago and found that we were trapped."  

Her voice wavered and I heard her sob ever so quietly before she began again, "Then I realized how still everything felt and how empty I was. I can't move the wind anymore," she then broke out into uncontrollable tears. 

 I brought my hands up to the cool metal collar around my neck. I felt along trying to find a seam or a crack to try to pry it open, but found a fluid surface. I tried pulling and scratching to get the infernal thing off of me. 

I sighed, "Breezy calm down. It will be ok. It's just a collar that prevents us from being able to access our element. I had to wear one on the prince's boat but it was just a leather one that I could untie. This one, I fear, will not be as easy to escape."  

"Why would someone create something that rips your second being from you? Why?" Breezy asked as her crying had subsided and I heard her sit down on the other side of the bars. I could hear the raggedness of her breathing as she tried to settle herself down.  

Why is a good question. "Maybe it is someone who can't wield. Someone jealous of our abilities that wants us to feel normal."  

"I feel so bare, like it is there right behind a veil but I cannot access it."  

"I know, it is truly awful and I hate it," I said with scorn in my voice and my anger flaring.  

"I do not how long I can take this. The stillness-" she paused, "is unnerving. I can't feel a single breeze in here. No air circulation at all. It must be torture for you to be away from water because with the air and myself it is always around. Almost always there is a gentle wind or a stream of air, but now I just feel shut away from it all."  

"I know how it feels," I said trying to get my anger back under my grasp. I trusted Breezy and new I could show my emotions around her but I had to be strong. I had to be the one she could look to because she was obviously scared, but so was I.  

"I think we may be in a basement or maybe a storehouse somewhere. Even though I cannot bend anymore I can feel no air circulation and it smells kind of like we are underground," Breezy deducted.  

I took in a whiff through my nostrils and it smelt kind of damp, musty, and dirty. Then I bent down and moved my hand over the rough surface of the floor and felt a mixture of rock, clay, and dirt. Next I just listened, I heard Breezy's breathing beside me, a squeak of a mouse, but nothing else reached my ears from the gloom.  

"You could be right, and its so dark it is a possibility that we are underground."  

"Yes the darkness is not very appealing to me," Breezy stated flatly.