"Holy crap did you see that!" Vernon says in astonishment.
"Now that’s crazy. What should we do?"
"They’re probably waiting on the other side of this. It’s just too conspicuous for them not to be. It’s just like in those video games we play. So be careful when we go though and ready yourself."
"You too Vernon, just remember to keep your head. Just till Marie is safe."
"Thanks man, I’ll try."
Vernon goes first. Walking into the mirror his body has the sensation of wadding through warm jello. He opens his eyes to see a room that is exactly the same as the one he just left. The spiral stairs now in front of him.
“Duke, are my eyes playing tricks on me or is everything only black and white.”
“No you’re not seeing things. It’s all black and white. We must be in a shifted area. When I was training with the sages they used places like this so they could train to their full strength. They didn’t have to worry about damaging the real world. Never seen one in person before.”
“So what you’re saying is we don’t have to hold back in here because we can’t damage anything?”
“That’s what I am saying. We might be able to damage the area but it won’t matter, it can just be remade with minimal effort.”
Vernon feels his hope perking back up, “Perfect.”
“Just remember though that they don’t have to either.”
They go up the stairs to see that the house is different. It resembles a house more than just a metal hallway. The giant metal doors that were at the top of the stairs are not there. The corridor is filled full of regular doors. Vernon can also see that the front doors are wide open.
Both Vernon and Duke start walking toward the front doors. Vernon looks into each room as they pass. Each the same. Three cots and a metal trunk at the foot of each. It all looked military, almost like they were in a barracks.
Vernon looks over to Duke and he is doing the same as he is.
Vernon asks, “Does this place looks like a military facility to you? Maybe the paladins are involved?”
“You never know Vernon, but this place doesn’t seem to be in use right now. Someone could have found it and the runes that could turn this place on. But if it is a paladin that’s in here, we’re in real trouble.”
“You’re right Duke, let’s think positive and forget I said anything.”
They reach the front door, not seeing any signs of use. Vernon carefully peers around the edge of the door. Looking left and right, and nothing is out of the ordinary. There is what appears to be daylight outside but past the gate there is nothing. Just a white nothingness. No street lights, no stars, no sun or moon, just nothingness.
"Ok… this is weird. I feel like I am color blind, I just walked through a mirror, and now there nothing on the other side of this gate. I don’t like this place at all."
"The magic probably ends at the fence here which is why there isn't anything beyond it."
"I guess. It’s still freaky."
"It’s unnerving for sure, but just try to stay calm and focused."
"Is that sage talk. Like I'm going to have to start doing yoga, or connect with my inner self."
Duke tilts his head, “We could always try to do that, but we aren’t monks Vernon. Good try though."
"Well jokes are normally your area of expertise, I’m just trying not to freak out right now."
A breeze blows in from the back of the facility. The winds howl and rage. Both boys press themselves against the wall. Vernon thinks back to the fireballs thrown from great distances with the assistance of a wind like that. The winds subside, and something else takes their place, it’s the sound of voices.
Duke taps on Vernon’s shoulder, and puts his finger to his lips. They both go silent, and try to control their breathing.
Duke whispers to Vernon, "Did you hear that?"
"Yea I do.” To Vernon it sounded like there were two voices, but he was unsure who they belonged too. The voices were not loud enough from where they were standing to make out what they were saying. He wants to keep the upper hand they have, and makes a plan.
Vernon says, “You go around the side and I’ll try to get on top of the roof. If I can. I might get lucky and find Marie up there."
"Alright, be careful, and don’t let yourself be seen. If they are at the back of the mansion we need to attack together. We can just use hand signals."
"Alright, and same to you."
An upward gust of wind comes from beneath Vernon’s feet as he bursts towards the roof. It was easy enough to clear the four stories to reach the roof. The roof was flat, which was good for him. It would make it harder to be spotted. He stretches out and his knuckles drag on something. Nothing is above him. He things this has to be the extent of the height of the shifted area.
He goes to message Duke about the ceiling but notices that he is no longer on the HaLO network. Vernon feels slightly relieved by this because there is now a better chance that Marie really is here. Without her HaLO getting any signal here either it will still be difficult to find her.
Vernon creeps to the back side of the roof where he hears a couple of familiar voices.
"Ugh, what is taking that zero so long? Don’t we have his girlfriend or something in the back. What’s keeping him anyway?" says Suzie.
"I don't know but we have to be ready for him. Just remember how fast he was last time and try not to make any mistakes this time alright." Eric replies.
"Yes I remember. I don’t like this, but I hate cocky zeros even more!"
“What is it with you and rune users anyway?”
Vernon blinks rapidly in surprise to see the two of them there. It was the brother and sister pair that Emma was working with when he meet her. It makes since that they would want revenge on him because of what happened in that match. It had to be a stain on their team, being almost defeated by a rune user like him. Vernon doesn’t remember seeing them in Bastion with the New Atlantis team. He didn’t think much about it at the time, but they must have gotten kicked off the team.
He goes to look over the side of the building wondering if Duke is in place. He sees Duke looking up for him waiting to get a confirmation from him. They connect glances and nod. Since Duke has yet to see who is talking, Vernon commences with the hand signals. He tells Duke there are two out there and to attack the one on the right. Duke nods in confirmation and begins charging up his runes.
His fire, ice and lightning runes from his bracelets and wind runes from his anklets begin to glow. He does so slowly, to not give away his position. Vernon notices something that Duke doesn’t know. The glow from his runes are barely noticeable with it being the same color as the ground around him. Vernon then starts to charge his own.
This is no longer just a simple training exercise or mixed magical arts match. This is for Marie’s life. Vernon looks down at Duke one more time, and Duke looks up to Vernon. They each give the other a thumbs up. Both pulsating with runes charged they wind burst into the backyard, headed for Eric.
He never saw the attack coming. Vernon swung in with his right, and Duke his left, both connecting fist over fist in the middle of Eric’s back. Releasing the two fully charged runic attacks hurl Eric into the woods with a trail of fire and ice behind him. They turn toward Suzie, and stare her down as an explosion goes off in the woods where Eric lands.
The adrenaline pumping through Vernon’s veins begins to make him lose his temper as he yells out, "Where’s Marie blondie?"
"Look what we have here. The zero finally makes an appearance. We were told you would come here looking for her. I also think you’re missing something important here.” Suzie says with confidence.
Duke chuckles, and replies, “Oh yea, what’s that?”
“We were ready for you to attack first." Suzie says coldly, as a beam comes from the woods. The beam is white and blinding. It connects with Vernon’s right shoulder making him spin in place dragging his right foot around.
&nb
sp; Duke charges into the woods yelling. "Vernon you take the wind girl, I’ll take the beam."
Vernon yells back through the pain, “Got it!”
16
The pain in Vernon’s shoulder begins to fade as he sees another beam pass behind him, from the corner of his eye.
"So where’s Marie!?" Vernon asks again.
A smirk curls around Suzie’s lips as speaks. "She’s here zero don’t worry. No harm has come to her, yet. We just want to get a little payback that’s all."
"Payback for winning a match. This is kidnapping, and trespassing. Are you both insane or just stupid?"
"We are neither. We were the lead players on the best team in Astrum, and you made us lose their record in the making. New Atlantis wanted to have the first streak of no player losses. They kicked all us off the team for that stunt. We have had mixed magical arts training in New Atlantis for two years now. We petitioned the Astrum Government to get it. Until you we hadn’t lost a single player in a match.” Suzie faces tenses in anger as she continues, “It was one of the ways that my brother felt special. You took that away from him!”
Vernon can see the passion behind Suzie’s eyes as she spoke, but he was getting angry with each word she spoke. Emma had told him that it was her idea that day, and she apologized to Vernon for it. This girl and her brother are clearly not right in the head. He takes a deep breath from his nose and tried to speak without letting his anger show.
"That wasn’t my fault, you had already won. It was Emma's decision to have your brother heal me and continue the match. If you remember correctly. On top of that your team leader got cocky and went solo against a highly skilled rune user, and a sage. Who did he think he was not realizing he might not come out unscathed?"
"Sage, what sage?"
For the first time since he received the email about Marie being kidnapped, a genuine smile comes across Vernon’s face. To think that they didn’t know who they picked a fight with.
He says, “You didn’t know, my best friend over there. Who’s getting ready to stomp your brother into the ground. He’s the youngest sage to complete magic training."
"He's a sage! I’ve got to go help my brother." Suzie says in a panic. She turns and tries to go into the forest.
Vernon appears in front of her, now with the upper hand and says, "Not yet you don’t. You've got to deal with me first." He finishes his sentence with his fist. It connects with her face, followed by a release of wind. Throwing Suzie to the ground with a thud.
Suzie looks over to Vernon with her hair disheveled and rage filled eyes.
"You don’t know what your messing with zero. You had better get out of my way." The ground beneath her feet begins to blow away from her. Her feet lift slightly off the ground as they glow a shade of white.
Vernon takes another deep breath through his nose steeling himself for the fight to come and yells out.
"Try me!"
Suzie flies into the air, covering her body in wind. She lands atop a small tornado. The winds around her arms begin to howl. Thrusting them toward Vernon, they snake out in his direction. She follows that with a flashing kick, hurling a blade of wind.
Vernon hears the wind howling and sees the cone of the tornado. He dodges out of the way and into the blade of wind. On instinct he created a shield of ice, but it gets cut in two leaving a gash in his arm. Black blood oozes out.
He stares at the wound waiting for the pain to start, but it never comes. Vernon must have been staring too long at his arm because he hears Suzie’s voice ring out with annoyance. "You better concentrate on me zero, or I’m gonna cut ya to shreds."
Her voice snaps him back into reality, and thinks of a quip to yell back at her, "You might want to listen to your own advice!" Vernon coats the ground in ice on a straight path to her. As she passes over it, Vernon creates a pillar of ice from underneath Suzie sending her toward the shifted area’s roof.
She manages to roll off the pillar before it connects, but this still gives Vernon the opening he needed. He has a brief thought flash through his mind about not hitting girls, but it quickly fades with the memory of Marie tied up somewhere. He wind bursts at where she lands with every ounce of energy he can muster from his rune.
His fist rears back and a thought comes to his mind. He accelerates his punch with a second wind burst behind his elbow. The wind around Suzie flares as she is about to stand. Vernon’s fist gets caught in the rampaging wind before he can connect it to her face and gets spun around like a top.
Vernon sees a flash of white within the wind surrounding Suzie. She erupts, picking him up within her tornado. Ripping up everything nearby.
A large flash of light mixed with an explosion slows Suzie’s winds down. With the centrifugal force fading, Vernon is tossed like a rag doll into the mansions back wall. His arm crashes through a window before he makes it to the ground.
Suzie yells out, "Eric!? Eric please answer me, it Suzie!" She starts mumbling to herself as she comes closer to the ground. "Please don’t be hurt, please don’t be hurt.” She hovers toward the tree line, and begins to look into the woods.
Vernon blinks his eyes open as he is laying on the ground. He goes to sit up but everything is swaying back and forth. Trying to clear his vision he rubs and squints his eyes. Instead he grabs his head, and try to make the spinning stop. Which doesn’t work.
A few steady breaths later, the world is no longer spinning. Suzie’s silhouette is still facing toward the tree line, and he sees another opening.
He tries the same attack as before, releasing another wind burst behind his elbow. With the added bonus of connecting, he dumps what magic his runes have left in them for a pillar of wind.
It howls against the torrent covering her body, shattering the air around her. It throws her against the brick fence head first. Vernon watches and flinches as her body flops lifelessly to the ground.
Vernon stares at Suzie for a minute and can see she’s still breathing. He looks toward the trees, and hears a voice cry out but can’t really make out who. He looks down at his arms and they are coved in black oozy blood. He hadn’t realized so much had come out, and the pain starts. The dull ache turns into a rampaging train of hurt, almost taking him to his knees. Taking a few deep breaths, he focuses on Marie, and limps in the direction of the voice.
A few minutes pass by as he slowly makes his way through the trees. He can’t see the house anymore, and hasn’t heard anything since he entered the forest.
"Vernon can you hear me, are you alright?" Duke’s voice cries out.
Vernon yells back, “Duke, I’m headed your way. Just hang in there."
“That’s my line. Just hurry up ok."
Vernon finds Duke propped up against a tree, with his once white shirt black.
"Damn Duke, you ok?"
"Yea I’ll be ok. I’m going to heal us.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“I’m a sage, I do everything remember?”
“I thought you couldn’t cast spells while you’re training with runes?”
“I’m just not supposed to. The Elders want their students to fully master the basics of runes before casting again. I figured since this is an emergency situation and we are in this shifted area where no one can see us, that I would heal the two of us.”
“Awesome. Let’s get on with it.”
“I’ve got to want you, I’m not as good at healing spells as Ashley. I only have one go at this because it will take all I have left. That’s why I waited for you. Also, make sure not to tell anyone that I did this today." Duke says while gasping.
"I promise.”
Duke takes a deep breath, and encircles both Vernon and himself within a circle of light. The light washes over them and flows out of the wounds like water. Closing them till the light fades from the skin. Vernon looks over at Duke and watches as the gash in his chest closes, and the burnt skin scabs and sheds off. The circle of light fades as the healing finishes on Duke.
&
nbsp; Vernon genuinely surprised says, "That was amazing I’d say you’re almost as good as Ashley if not better."
"I’ve gotten better thanks to her, but I haven’t been able to cast anything to try it out. I gained a lot of knowledge from just watching how she weaves her spells."
"I would tell her thank you but I think I will hold off on that till after you finish your sage training."
"Ha ha, thanks. How are you feeling? Anything stiff or sore?"
"Nope don’t think so. I have a couple of scars though, no big deal. What about you? Were you able to find anything out about where Marie might be?" Vernon asks as he extends his hand reaching down to help Duke off the ground.
"Sorry bud but he got me pretty good before I was able to ask him anything about it."
"Well let’s heal him up a bit and ask him nicely.” Vernon says shoving his fist into his palm.
"I would, but remember, I told you I on empty right now.”
"Right, well let’s just wake him up the old fashioned way."
Duke sits Eric up against a tree. He unhooks Eric’s belt, and uses it to tie his arms back around the tree with it. He then strains to casts a small water spell to splash in Eric’s face. A small sphere of water jiggles in Duke’s hand as he slaps Eric across the face with it.
Eric takes in a deep gasp for air and shakes his head around. He blinks awkwardly and looks up at Vernon. He tries to move his arms but they are tied down. He struggles harder, but can’t get lose.
"Tell me where Marie is." Vernon asks sternly.
Eric’s lips wiggle as if trying to form words but nothing comes out. A moment or two in silence he decides to try again and says, “I…is that her name. Sh… she’s close by."
"You need to tell us where. So we can leave, please." Duke says from behind Eric. Who tries to readjust his body to see who’s talking, but still can’t move.
Eric asks nervously, "What are you going to do with me?"
Duke says, ”Nothing if you tell us where she is right now. Otherwise I have to knock you out again, so you don’t try to come after us."
Cypher Theorem Series Box Set: Books 1-3, The Zero Class, Shadow Moon, Dragon Fire: A Science Fiction Fantasy Page 11
