Gala spherical orbs of fire crackled overhead, their light casting long, dancing shadows across the chamber as they bobbed a certain distance from her head. Nova's briefly glowed with a similar fiery intensity as he mimicked her ability, a quick flash of crimson that was gone as soon as it appeared. He was ready to act, but the group needed direction.
"So what now?" Bishie asked, his voice echoing in the spacious lobby, a fragile sound in the tense silence.
Nova didn't reply immediately, his eyes fixed on the unmoving mechanoid, a hunk of cold, inert metal lying on the ground. He took a cautious step forward, his boot scuffing against the polished floor, then stopped abruptly. The risk was too great.
"Never mind. We can't risk it coming back online," he decided. His gaze shifted to Maram, her manick signature a wispy, ethereal cloak around her. Crouching low, he drew a circle on the ground with a fluid, precise motion, the lines glowing with a faint purple light, and the mechanoid vanished into the swirling void of his space-time. Just before the portal sealed, a final glint of metal winking out of existence, Nova pulled Will's and Ruby's phones from his portal and tossed them back to their owners with a casual flick of his wrist.
"Why the phones?" Bishie asked, his confusion evident as he hadn't seen the entire exchange, only the mechanoid's sudden disappearance.
Ian turned to him, a hint of a smirk on his face. "Check your phone."
"Okay, but I don't see why I'd have to check mine," Bishie grumbled, pulling his device out. He tried to power it on, but all he heard was a series of weak, desperate clicks. The screen remained a dead, black rectangle. "Huh? This was charged before I even came down here."
"Your phone's fried," Ian said matter-of-factly, a smug air about him. "You'll need a new one."
"Well, what about yours?" Bishie demanded, his frustration mounting as he stared at his useless device.
Ian held up his own phone—a tiny, plastic brick that looked ancient next to Bishie's sleek device, a simple black rectangle with a faded number pad. "A phone is still a phone. Why didn't yours get fried?" Bishie asked, his frustration now a palpable thing in the room.
Ian pulled him closer, showing him the back of the device. Intricate runes were etched directly into the case, the symbols glowing with a faint, almost invisible light. "Manickal protection," he whispered, a hint of superiority in his tone. "You should've learned this in class."
"This isn't a lecture!" Nova interjected, the portal now fully closed, its purple glow fading to a fine dust of light. "Right now, we have to get moving. Turn the lights back on, get this kid to Wisdom so he can study, and once you're done, then you can rest."
"Who's with whom?" Sam asked, his eyes scanning the group, already trying to organize the chaos.
"I'll stay here and manage the lights. Ian, you're with the kid and Wisdom. Everyone else, break off into the teams you want and repair all four breakers." Nova's voice was a commanding presence, cutting through his team's murmurs and small talk.
Maram, with a graceful twist of her wrist, pulled two tools from her own portal. They were small metal boxes, each holding a glowing crystal, its light pulsing with a soft, steady rhythm. Mirrors surrounded three-fourths of the crystal, and a cloth-wrapped handle was at the top. "Remember these?" she asked with a faint, nostalgic smile, her eyes sparkling.
"Flash boxes!" Ruby exclaimed, her voice a squeal of pure delight. She dashed over to Maram and snatched one from her stash. "I haven't seen these since they were first made."
Ruby unwrapped the cloth from the handle and grasped it. Nova watched as Ruby's manick cloak, a shimmering veil of crimson light, began to form around the device, enveloping it. The crystal emanated a pure, steady light, but because of the mirrors, it shone out in a focused beam, a brilliant white spear of light that paved the path ahead.
Maram did the same, illuminating her own path with a soft, controlled glow that seemed to absorb the darkness around her. "What about mine?" Gala asked, a tinge of annoyance in her voice as she watched the others prepare.
"You're a glorified flash box," Maram said simply, a derisive smirk on her face. "You don't need one."
Annoyed, Gala pulled Ourania aside, her expression a mix of fury and theatrical indignation. "She's with me," she declared to the group, her words a final, unwavering pronouncement.
"I CALL LIGHT HOUSE!" Ruby announced, the name of a sudden, nonsensical outburst. Lighthouse? Everyone thought, confused by the sudden name. Ruby scurried onto Will's head, her sudden weight causing him to stumble slightly before he regained his balance. He was the tallest of the group, a human lighthouse for the tiny mage. "Ugh," Will sighed, but he didn't complain, already accustomed to Ruby's antics.
"Alright, Maram, I guess you're with me," Sam said, stepping forward.
The mages were about to take off when they froze. The path ahead was a maze of dark corridors, and no one seemed to know where to go.
Nova looked at them, a single, annoyed blink. Their hesitation was wasting time. "There are four breakers. Find them, charge them with joules, and come back immediately. Check the labs, the rec center, in my dorm, and there should be one near the entrance." His voice was a flat, unyielding command.
"Why is there one in your dorm?" Ruby asked, her brow furrowing as she cocked her head to the side, a curious child in a world of serious adults.
"Because I'm paranoid. The rest is common sense," Nova said flatly, his voice devoid of humor. "Now go. Stop wasting time."
The mages jetted off, their individual lights getting smaller and smaller as they raced into the darkness, a constellation of fleeting colors in the inky blackness.
Nova, his back to the chaos, walked back to the library with Ian and Bishie, the floating orb of Gala's mimicking manickal energy following him like eager puppies. As they walked, a palpable tension settled over the group.
"Bishie, before you study, what do you know about the history of our world?" Nova asked, the question a sudden, jarring shift from the earlier urgency.
"Lots, on the account of my aunt and uncle telling me everything I would have to know."
Nova and Ian exchanged a look. They said nothing, but a slow, synchronized circling of their index fingers at their temples. "We should probably educate him," Ian telepathically said, his voice a soft, almost imperceptible whisper in Nova's mind.
Nova filled Ian's head with words, a torrent of unspoken thoughts and memories. "It won't matter in a few weeks. Since he'll be gone in a few weeks."
Nova stopped at the library entrance, his face tired and drained in the flickering light of the flaming orbs.
"Nova, over here!" Wisdom called out, floating down above them, a regal figure in her light gray cloak. She cradled a few books in one arm while holding a flash box in the other, a small, intricate device that glowed with a soft, warm light.
"That's your new best friend, Bishie. Get used to her," he said, giving Bishie a light push toward where Wisdom was about to land. "She's not a fan of interruptions, so don't ask any questions you can't find in her books."
Wisdom landed gracefully, her feet barely making a sound on the carpeted floor. "You'll need to learn all about the brain before you can leave," she said, her voice a calm, steady presence. She pulled him over to a large, polished wooden table and dropped the books with a loud thud, the sound a final, definitive punctuation to the chaos.
A faint, metallic clang, almost swallowed by the silence, barely reached their ears. Nova's head snapped up, his body tensing, the calm demeanor he'd just adopted instantly gone. He looked at Ian, a silent question in his eyes.
Ian's gaze remained fixed on the books, a flash of irritation flitting across his expression before it returned to its placid state. Nova caught the single, fleeting thought that wasn't meant for him: That's annoying.
A soft boom echoed, a hollow sound followed by the faint whisper of glass shards hitting the floor. Ian's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly, his mental voice a curt note Nova couldn't ignore: They got it.
Then, a faint, strained voice pulsed through the air, an almost inaudible yell, "Oh shit!" The whisper was immediately followed by a deep, resonating boom.
Nova pulled his head back, a low groan escaping his lips. He looked at Ian, his expression no longer just serious, but grim. There was no more pretense of calm.
His command was sharp and clipped, a stark contrast to his earlier composed tone.
"I'll be back. Keep them safe."
Nova didn't wait for a response; he sprinted out of the library's main entrance, his shoes pounding a frantic rhythm on the floor. The vast, empty lobby swallowed the sound of his footsteps, leaving only a deafening silence.
He stopped in the center, cupping a hand to his ear, his senses stretched thin, trying to pinpoint the chaos. Faintly at first, then growing louder, he heard a distinct clattering and the hiss of compressed air coming from the labs to the west.
"Great," Nova muttered to himself, his frustration boiling over. He ran toward the lab hall, the sounds growing louder and more frantic with every step, his own shadow a frantic, dancing figure on the walls.