[Seraphina]
Authorities, what humanity calls magic, were never understood fully. They simply arrived, settled into the world after the angels descended. An Authority was the power a person awakened with, powers associated with a theme or concept tied to them. Some were simple, like altering wind direction. Others shifted emotions, bent steel, or shaped crowds and nations. Humanity had spent centuries classifying them, but no one knew their purpose. They arrived with the angels, but not from the angels.
Seraphina raised her head and looked at the man in front of her.
He stood, or rather leaned, against the wall. Gagged. Arms bound behind his back with reinforced straps. His left leg was mutilated from thigh to ankle, flesh torn open in strips that exposed bone. The right leg trembled while keeping him upright. Blood streaked down his chin and neck from some earlier beating, but his eyes remained clear. A dark red film coated his irises, yet they were steady and unafraid.
He was waiting for her to finish it.
Seraphina kept her face calm as she always trained herself to do. She had assumed she would feel nothing facing a prisoner like this. A dissident captured near the European Union's border with the angels they had told her. Perhaps a smuggler or an agitator. The EU always had problems in the east near the Walls.
Her father stood several steps behind her. Tall, well groomed, his presence quiet but heavy. With him were members of their household, a few officials her father was friends with, and three researchers. They stayed close to the only door in the austere testing chamber. All eyes watched her.
Her father gave a small gesture to proceed.
Seraphina lifted her right hand. Her fingers flicked outward, the same gesture she used as a child when banishing toys or scraps of paper. A simple, dismissive motion, as if brushing away a fly.
The man vanished.
There was no sound. No displaced air. The space where he stood simply became empty. Blood remained on the floor where droplets had fallen previously. The ragged footprints remained. Everything else was gone.
She exhaled softly. She had expected nothing less. Objects disappeared when she willed it. Animals too, years ago when her tutors insisted she must test her limits. Why would a human be any different.
Her gaze flicked to the observers.
Her household looked pleased. Her father most of all. His expression held a slight pride he rarely voiced.The researchers stared not at her, but at the empty space, already whispering among themselves.The officials wore mixed expressions. One troubled. Another faintly fearful. A third indifferent.
Seraphina kept her posture straight and composed. Her heart was steady, though her stomach twisted faintly now that it was over. That faint twist bothered her more than the act itself.
Her father spoke."Would you like to perform another trial."
Her answer almost leapt out without thinking.She swallowed it before it escaped her lips. She didn't want to seem ... weak.
After a controlled breath she said, "Let's continue, if the researchers still find value in further observation."
Kosvin, one of the senior EU researchers and a familiar face from her childhood, stepped forward with a professional nod. His pale eyes shone with interest rather than concern."We would appreciate another demonstration."
Seraphina felt a coldness settle at the base of her spine. The kind that came from knowing she could refuse, but that it would change nothing. The trials would continue tomorrow, or the day after that. She would be expected to perform it again.
She lifted her hand slightly, preparing for the next subject they would bring in, her expression calm and unreadable. Her thoughts, however, spiraled inward.
Authorities were given after the angels descended. That was what the world believed.Yet no explanation was given.Humanity never learned the mechanism.And even now, after centuries of study, Seraphina felt that all anyone truly understood was the surface.
She had just erased a man from existence, and she could bring him back if she wished. Though she wouldn't bring him back. She never told or showed anyone that she could do the reverse as well. All they knew was that she could make things disappear. That was her Authority. But she had no idea where he had gone or what existed on the other side.
As the next prisoner was dragged forward, Seraphina realized that she feared not the act of banishing, but what existed on the other side. Where the items, animals, and now people ended up.