- Фэнтези
- 18+
Waking Up
Cold.
Juliana peeled her cheek off the cold floor, wincing as she did so. Her skin stuck to the black metal tiles as if she had been lying there for hours on end.
But that was impossible. She had just been in class…
Juliana pressed a hand to her forehead. Her head felt about ready to burst open. Every thought sent another needle into her brain.
Shaking her head, Juliana grit her teeth as she took stock of her situation.
It didn’t take long. The room was roughly the size of a large closet. Completely unfurnished as well. Every square inch was covered in palm-sized tiles of the same black metal. The door as well, though the door did have a small barred window. It was not big enough to fit her head through.
The only source of light was a faintly pulsing orb of white light that had been inset in the center of the ceiling. Each pulse brought with it another thump of her headache. Whether that was because of the light itself playing havoc on an already existing headache or some magical effect, Juliana couldn’t tell.
The faint pulses did reveal a second form collapsed against a wall.
“Shalise,” Juliana croaked out. She descended into a fit of coughs. Her throat was cracked and dry. Licking her lips did nothing to moisten them.
Crawling over, Juliana put a hand on her friend and tried shaking her. “Shalise,” she coughed out, “wake up.”
Shalise made no response except to slide down the wall. Before her head could hit the floor, Juliana reached out and carefully set the brown-haired girl’s head down on the ground.
She was breathing, Juliana could see that much. But another minute or two of shaking the girl did not help.
Juliana turned away. She pulled herself to two unsteady feet. Leaning against the wall for all the support it could offer, she pinched her eyes shut.
Her head was killing her.
They were clearly in a prison of some sort. Neither of her wands were around, though she still had her ring foci and Ylva’s ring along with her clothes. Attempting to activate her ferrokinesis fizzled out. The magic simply wouldn’t gather.
Which Juliana expected. Only a fool would build a prison and not ward against magic.
It was a good thing she had decided to study medieval armor towards the end of the previous school year. Had she still been relying on her ferrokinesis to provide joints, she would be utterly immobile with suppressed magic.
Opening her eyes, Juliana stumbled to the door. She had to stand on her tip-toes just to see out the window.
More cells. Identical doors to her own lined the wall opposite from her door. A narrow catwalk extended out from both her own door and the doors on the other side with a small gap between. There were at least two rows of cells above and two rows below the floor her cell was on.
She couldn’t see the rooms adjacent to her cell, but Juliana had no reason to doubt that they were cells as well.
Losing her balance, she fell back against the floor and only managed to keep her head from hitting the hard tiles by quickly moving her hands in the way. The weight slamming her hands into the floor still sent a needle of pain through her knuckles and into her head.
Juliana groaned as her headache redoubled its efforts to rend her mind.
She lay there. Juliana shut her eyes to keep the pulsing light out and simply lay there. She didn’t even try to think of anything until her headache receded to more manageable levels.
They were in class. History. Juliana was playing with her ferrokinesis. They had to leave in the middle because something happened. Something bad.
Remembering hurt. And wasn’t much use, if she was honest with herself.
Whatever facility she had ended up at wasn’t a small-scale hole in the wall. That meant there would be people. Guards and other prisoners. Presumably, they’d be fed at some point. Hopefully they would be given water too.
A light groan from her cell mate roused Juliana from her thoughts.
“Shalise,” Juliana said as she crawled over, “are you okay?”
“My head…” Her voice came out as a dry rasp as well. Shalise propped herself up on one elbow while she rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I feel like I’m going to throw up.”
Juliana scooted back. “Please don’t.” Their cell wasn’t large enough and it definitely lacked the necessary ventilation.
When Shalise made no heaves or gags, Juliana cautiously moved back to her side. “Do you remember how we got here?”
“Where is here?”
“We’re prisoners of some sort. I haven’t seen any writing or signs to tell more. I don’t think it is Eva’s prison.”
“P-prisoners?” Her voice came out at a high enough pitch to cause both of them to wince.
After a moment of mutual silence, Shalise scrunched up her round face in thought. “There was fighting. And you drew a circle… a summoning circle.”
