Shuttered Hearts

  Once again, they set off in the darkness. To the west this time, silent as they trekked down the forgotten roads leading to Sephec’s Fall, Chloris’s southwestern uninhabited desert wasteland.

  “There’s like no one around here compared to earlier,” whispered Selene in the quiet, ominous darkness.

  “That’s good,” muttered Faris, voice louder than anything they had encountered so far during the night.

  “Shh!” hushed Chelsi from the front. “It’s still dangerous.”

  If Theo could see more than just shadows in the darkness, he would have turned to Faris behind him to see him rolling his eyes. Instead, he recast a team-wide Swiftness and Barrier.

  “No Illusion?” asked Moriya lightly.

  “Do we need one?” the tactician countered more irately than he had expected—he had gotten little sleep the night before and had been kicked by the professor many times in the morning before finally getting up. This was hardly the time to be annoyed, though.

  “Maybe. I’m getting an unpleasant feeling, but I can’t be certain—this specific event hasn’t occurred before.”

  “Well…even if you wanted one, the entire class would need to both have the spell and know the words, so that’s not happening,” Theo grumbled.

  “Huh. Guess you’re right. Support-based spells are always so complicated.”

  The class descended into silence once again, until the darkness gradually relieved them of their cover, and the sky turned a deep blue hue.

  “Shall we stop somewhere for morning blessing?” Kor piped up for the first time in over two hours.

  “Still got a bad feeling,” chimed the professor again before anyone could.

  “If you’d like to stop, we should likely do it soon,” answered Chelsi, checking her timepiece with worry that matched Moriya’s words. “If we wait until sunrise, we’d be closing in on Lidell, which is currently contested, so there’d be no stopping until we reach the outskirts of Sephec’s Fall.”

  “Maybe we can stop, then—we’ve been walking for about three hours,” suggested the royal, already scouring for a satisfactory place to sit down.

  Theo, who had already contemplated making a brief stop, nodded to the hill to their left. Though it would be a slight inconvenience, he preferred being at a higher elevation, and there was sufficient foliage to obscure their presence up top as well. “Why don’t we head up the hill? We can find a place to sit while we wait for sunrise. Is an hour enough for you, Sel?”

  “Mhm.”

  As soon as the words left her mouth, Elias at the front pivoted, and the rest of the class followed.

  “It’s a good thing we don’t have to worry about wildlife,” mused Callie from the tail end of the group as they watched a herd of deer run away the moment they stepped under the cover of the trees.

  “I still feel somewhat sorry for them,” added Theo quietly, looking down the hill. Not enough. “Let’s get higher—there’s another cluster of trees not far ahead.”

  Once they were situated halfway up the hill, and Theo could confirm they were adequately obscured, he took a seat closest to the front. It was a delicate moment of reprieve for those who were partaking in the breakfast offered by the inn staff or simply waiting for the sunrise like him.

  I forgot about Lidell, he contemplated absently as hugged his knees. Maybe there’s another way we can head up to Syarktos. We could technically cross the Chalsi Prairie, which would shorten the trek, but that’s the primary thoroughfare between the southern Quillun and western Faluntide domains. Running into commoners would be likely, and even though not every encounter would result in a confrontation because sorcerers should be somewhat protected under the Faluntides, it would be best to avoid as much attention as possible. What if…we did half…so perhaps…we…

  * * *

  “Hey! Hey!”

  Heart racing, Theo jolted awake. Morning had arrived.

  Selene, in the distance. Enveloped by the light, on her knees with her head on the ground toward the sun.

  Two shadows on the path, one of whom was pointing at her.

  “Isn’t that one of those strange Circle of Graces people?”

  “Leave her alone; we’ve got to meet up with the tact at Lidell and deliver this spell.”

  “What if we brought the kid?”

  “I mean…”

  “Hey! You there!”

  Blindly jumping into action, Theo stuffed his notebook in his pocket and stumbled down the hill, calling a barrier spell on Selene first, a stationary Object Illusion over the rest of his party second, and then finally a barrier on himself.

  “Oh, there’s someone else. Aren’t they wearing—isn’t that—”

  Theo’s eyes widened at the same moment they all recognized each other’s robes.

  “You’re from MATS?” called the first individual, who lowered their hand. “What in the world are you doing here, and with a member of the Circle of Graces, no less?”

  “We’re on a mission,” he lied without skipping a beat, standing in front of the bewildered Selene, who had risen. “I’m with my classmate and professor. We were resting.”

  Their pin’s gold. They must be 2nd order or higher. The one behind…it also looks gold. I can’t tell how many bands are on it, what colors there are. They could be anyone, but they’re definitely dangerous.

  “Resting?” scoffed the MATS official, narrowing their eyes at the mere student. “The siege of Lidell is starting soon. Where’s your professor?”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Right here.”

  Theo jumped at the professor’s voice beside him.

  “You heard the boy. Carry on,” loudly ordered the professor without a hint of fear in his voice.

  “I asked,” replied the red-faced official indignantly. “What are you doing with a member of the Circle of Graces in your ranks?”

  “None of your business. Carry on.”

  That was when the second individual spoke, voice timid. “You must not have heard. In yesterday’s reports, they declared the Circle of Graces an enemy—turns out they were harboring a fugitive.”

  “A fugitive?” repeated Theo, taken aback.

  “I should listen to my gut next time,” muttered Moriya under his breath. “This is bad.”

  The first officer took a step forward, their confidence in the strangers plummeting. “How long have you been out on a mission? Are you really part of MATS? The one who caused the sanctuaries to fall, the one who began this war—Tyche sel’emma Jeanne!”

  Theo felt his blood run cold. “Did they find her?”

  “What?” called the stranger, continuing to advance with their muted partner in tow. “What did you say?”

  “Shut up, Theo,” muttered Moriya. “We need to fight them. No one else interfere; this is dangerous.”

  The tactician clenched his fists and bit his bottom lip. “Did they find her?”

  It was the timid one who answered, ascending the hill in stride along with their partner. They had a black, colorless tome at their side, and he could tell by the way they walked that there was a book on their back as well. Their pockets were empty enough that their coat swayed in the wind, revealing a single dagger on their belt. “No, but they’re getting close—and then we can finally stop the sanctuaries from crumbling.”

  “Now,” boomed the other enemy, extending a hand to Theo from not ten seconds away, “hand over the girl, or we’ll take her from you by force.”

  Theo took a step back, eyes widening when he bumped into a terrified, glassy-eyed Selene. “You’re still here!?” he cried. “Go!”

  But when Theo pivoted back to the front, he only registered at the last second that Moriya was nowhere to be seen and neither was his opponent. Only the second individual, whose mouth was moving rapidly.

  That’s a Warp.

  A high-pitched scream echoed throughout the hills, followed by a loud booming noise.

  Theo turned around just in time to see a pillar strike the ground with such strength that it formed a crater and knocked him forward.

  Whispering another barrier spell to replace the one that must have broken by the impact, Theo caught himself from rolling down the hill and turned to the second enemy, who had stopped casting their first skill and was now focusing on another one—one that Theo could not discern.

  Mind a blur, he summoned floating white shards behind him and directed them at his enemy before putting a hold on the spell and speaking a quick Dedgreas.

  But his enemy, buffed by a Swiftness spell, adeptly dodged the earth prison, summoning a giant sheet of ice that shattered into a thousand pieces and pointed straight at him.

  Shit.

  Letting his white crystals fly, watching them collide with the larger icy shards and erecting a flame wall to catch the rest, Theo summoned a ghostly blade in his hands. His heart was pounding faster than it had in any fight with the professor—while Moriya wouldn’t kill him, this stranger could.

  Fire, fire, fire, he repeated to himself desperately, stepping back and letting the flames of his wall melt into the ground to form a bubbling pit of lava that he could deto—

  Wait. I know those words. I know that circle.

  Letting the timed Eruption go, gazing up at a conjuring circle he had only seen once before, Theo began speaking the counter-spell to Leviathan’s Sword—the same spell that Moriya had attempted to use on him in their battle after their first class, one that he had learned not soon after.

  The blinding sword that peeked out of the circle in the sky stopped its descent, and, watching his enemy go airborne to conjure icy blades, Theo took advantage of their surprise to detonate his Eruption, the force of which his own barrier absorbed and sent his enemy onto their back.

  What’s next, what’s next? They were already propping themselves up, still conjuring a spell.

  To buy himself some time, he threw the blade toward the hand they were using to prop themselves up, satisfyingly meeting its mark as their back hit the grass again.

  Advancing, intent on not losing, he started casting a close-range Meteor, which was quick enough that it would afford a caster already in the middle of a spell little time to prepare a full counter before the spell would finish—which was right when he arrived at his enemy’s feet.

  “You…you’re insane,” they cackled against the deep rumbling of the incoming meteor. “Close-range Meteor? You’ll be dead in five seconds!”

  But Theo had calculated this, and he had just enough time to recite a spell he hadn’t ever used before, and that he had only memorized because it was in the Tactician’s tome that Ty had left him—Last Resort.

  With a searing fire at his back, Theo could feel his eyes involuntarily close from the pain of the spell reducing his health to near-zero, struggling to remain upright. It felt as if a sword had run clean through his chest, ten times worse than almost getting killed by Moriya.

  Still not as bad as losing Ty.

  And then there was a blinding whiteness. The heat dissipated, and he could no longer feel the pain. He opened his eyes and saw the rainbow hue of his shield. His half-burned opponent lay on the ground in front of him, a shaking, triumphant smile on their face as their body shook from the large patches of exposed flesh eating away at the rest of their short life.

  “Theo, down!” yelled a voice.

  Theo effortlessly fell to his knees and watched an airborne Moriya launch a large black figure down the hill, who skipped like a rock across water, but on solid ground. In his hand was a gigantic, tree-sized spear of pure darkness that he was preparing to send straight into his opponent.

  “Shutter.”

  Theo spun back to his bloodied opponent.

  That’s the spell.

  “What—”

  And then he swiveled back to Moriya’s surprised voice, watching the spear disappear as he dropped from the sky.

  “Let’s see how you defend yourselves now.”

  In a single motion, Theo was knocked back and his half-flesh, half-skin enemy kneeled over him. “People don’t die from burns that fast,” they whispered, pulling a dagger out and sinking it into Theo’s chest. “This is why you don’t bring kids into a war. This is why all you students are nothing but mere fodder. You can’t finish the job.”

  Break. You can Break him. He’s close enough. You know the words.

  Whispering the words shakily, knowing full well his opponent could hear him, Theo could feel tears of defeat surface. He was going to die. This was how he was going to die. Not in the hands of Ty, not in the hands of Em. It was here, at the hills of Lycea.

  “Won’t work,” his killer whispered, digging their dagger further into his chest. “I’ll kill you, your teacher, and then take the girl.”

  Gasping, he could see his life flash before his eyes, the remaining words to the Break a lifetime away.

  I made up my mind a long time ago. I’m going to live. I’m going to prove everyone wrong. I’m going to survive, no matter what it takes, and no one’s going to stop me. Not you, not fate, not the world.

  I love you, Theodore val’ne Emrys. I’ll see you later.

  Live. She told me she wanted to live.

  And then he said the last words of the spell with his hand over his opponent’s chest, refusing to let the world kill him. Refusing to give up on life, refusing to take back his words. Live. He was going to live. He had promised himself. He had promised her. He was going to see her again.

  The dagger stopped in its tracks. Their bloody eyes bulged, blood dripping out of their mouth as they looked down at their chest and choked, “N-no…t…that’s not…p—”

  Then, before the weight of their body could fall on top of Theo, they were pushed away by a tiny figure.

  “I’ve got you, I’ve got you,” they whispered frantically, pulling the dagger out first, then reciting physician’s spells he knew by heart.

  “It’s n-not that bad, right?” he half-gurgled, half-croaked, feeling like he needed to throw up, but knowing that he couldn’t or he’d choke and really die this time.

  “No, not at all. Nate, aren’t you going to go after the other guy?”

  “Yes. In a bit.”

  Not believing her, Theo raised his heavy head and stared at something else instead of the pool of blood soaking his chest.

  “G-glowing,” he whispered deliriously.

  “What? Your necklace? Is it not supposed to?”

  “No…it…it is…I…”

  His head dropped onto the cold ground as the soft hands worked on him, eyes landing on the body of the first sorcerer that he had ever killed. And…the only thing he could think of?

  “We…need to get that spell,” he uttered carefully, pointing a shaky finger at the corpse reeking of flesh and decay. “The…the person I f-fought.”

  A person clothed in black bent over the dead body. “It was an anti-magic field. I’m surprised that this is where it came from, all this time.”

  “Shutter,” tested Theo aloud, feeling like he had heard the word from somewhere before. Somewhere far, far away. “Shutter.”