Young Writers Society

Akia

Akia pushed herself up and turned to face Dorrin and Rhys. Rhys was helping Dorrin up, whose mask had shifted and showed part of his cheek. It didn’t tell her much except for he had tan skin and she could tell that from his hands. If only she could get a glimpse of his face, maybe she’d be able to figure out who he was.

But that moment wouldn’t come now, not when she had to get out of there. Sam was waiting for her back in Lightport, she knew. Closing her eyes, she called up the image of Headquarters in her mind, but she couldn’t focus. Rhys was just across the way and if he saw her before she could make it out everything would be ruined.

She worked harder to bring the building to her mind, but it just wasn’t coming. She couldn’t concentrate with Dorrin and Rhys so close. When she opened her eyes again, Dorrin was directly in front of her. It sent her reeling backward, but his fist caught her jaw, making her fall backward. Holding her throbbing chin, she looked up to see Dorrin staring her down, his eyes blazing.

“You dare use that spell on me?” He waved his hand and pain spread through Akia’s arm. She looked down to see her arm bending backwards at the elbow, trying to make it farther than it can. “I don’t take that from anyone!”

The pain was getting worse. She bit her lip to keep from crying out. She tried to focus on relaxing like she could with the torture spell, but the pain was too real. Suddenly, the air around her started to change. It was getting harder to breathe, her throat burning with every breath. The pain in her arm had gone away all at once, but she didn’t notice it; her arm had gone numb. It was freezing, the air biting at every bit of exposed skin. She wished that she had worn something warmer. The t-shirt and jeans weren’t going much.

Soon she was shivering. She couldn’t control her body, couldn’t stop it from shaking. No matter how much she concentrated or imagined warm summer nights, the air surrounding her was still freezing.

Why was her magic failing her now? Any other time she’d have no trouble with a situation like this. The magic was overtaking her, dominating her. She couldn’t fight it. There was no telling how Dorrin would take advantage of the situation.

The cold had found is way into her bones so even when the air returned to normal, she couldn’t stop shivering. She felt everything return to normal, yet she couldn’t move. Looking up, she saw Dorrin still standing over her, Rhys right there with him.

“You are a menace,” he spat. “You’re the only one standing in the way with that silly locket.”

“You two didn’t think it was so silly when you chased after it. Two grown men desperate to have a piece of jewelry.” Akia retorted. It earned her a kick to the stomach and she curled up in pain.

“That locket is dangerous,” Rhys said. “It’s better off being safe with us.”

Akia laughed, but it only made her stomach hurt. “The powers would never be safe with you. You’d just use it to take over another world. Or, wait, that might not be true. It actually would be safe with you.” Rhys understood. He narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists. Akia only grinned at him. There was nothing he could do without her.

Dorrin was looking from one of them to the other. “Would one of you explain what the hell these looks are for?”

“Gladly,” Akia responded. She sat up, the aching in her stomach disappearing. “The locket contains the powers of the worlds that Rhys has destroyed. He knows how to get the powers in, but there’s only one person who knows how to get them out.”

Dorrin stared at her blankly. “Come again?”

Rhys groaned. “Akia is the only one who can get the powers out of the locket, okay? She was the one who figured it out, not me.” Dorrin was staring at the both of them, seemingly not understanding. But then he laughed, a long, deep laugh. Akia quickly stood. She wanted to be ready for whatever else Dorrin threw at her.

“Of course,” he said mockingly. “You helped with the experiments, he promised your safety. It all makes sense now. Too bad he was dumb enough to not keep you around.”

Akia glowered. “Keep me around? I wasn’t Rhys’s to keep. We were friends. I worked with him because his experiments were going to make good. Once he started talking about immortality and combining powers, I was out. No one can do that.”

“With that locket, I can.” Rhys argued.

“And without me you can’t get the powers out.” The two of them stared at each other, neither one backing down. There was a reason that Rhys hadn’t killed her yet. He needed her, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

“You know,” Dorrin started. “It’s not really a bad thing, what Rhys is doing. He’s told me his plan. What he can do will unite all of us! No longer will the worlds be separated. Everyone will live together, magicians, seers, teleks. We’re all the same after all. Think about it. Magic is universal. The same magic mages use magicians do. The same with the seers and the teleks. Even the shapeshifters. Magic is in the soul of everyone here. The way we choose to use it is different.

“Once you take the powers from the locket, Rhys can fuse them together and everyone will have the same powers. You do understand how much of an advantage that is, don’t you? There will be nothing different about us. People will be able to use any power they want at any time. There’ll be nothing that can separate us.”

Akia stared. She hadn’t really thought about it before, what Rhys had been planning. Everything she was doing to fight him off was because she had thought he wanted all the powers to himself, they he was greedy. But now that she knew the truth, it didn’t sound so bad. If it even was the truth.

She tried to imagine a world where everyone had he same power. She would be able to use Layna’s telek magics, and seer magic like George. The future wouldn’t be a mystery anymore. Everything ahead of her she’d be ready for. And the shapeshifting magic. She could change into anyone that she wanted. It all sounded too good to be true.

That’s because it is. She reminded herself. Rhys was known for his experiments and they usually didn’t work. He would have to do more experiments than ever to figure out how to get the right combination. That would lead to more disasters, more lost time and more problems. No matter how great the outcome sounded, she knew that it would never work.

She wrinkled her nose and squinted her eyes, hoping that she looked like she was thinking about it even though she had already made up her mind. If she was going to get away, she’d have to convince Dorrin and Rhys that she would consider it.

“Say you get this locket back,” Akia started. “How are you going to combine them all? You at least have a plan, right?”

A grin spread across Dorrin’s face. “Yes, we have a plan. Rhys knows all the details, it’s written down somewhere.” He waves his hand dismissively. “And after we do, we’ll create a whole new world, one greater than any other before.”

Right. Like everyone would be able to live together. They’d still be arguing over who was more powerful. Akia thought. She remembered learning in school that the main reason there were different worlds was because no one could get along. Each group of people argued that their magic was most powerful.

There were many flaws in Rhys’s plan, starting with the idea that he could actually combine the powers. That had never happened before. Except with Falyn. She had both mage magic and shapeshifter magic inside of her. She turned out fine.

Too much magic would be damaging though. People were only able to hold one magic, two at the most apparently. Any more than that and it would overpower them. One can only have enough magic that they can control. With all the magics mixed in, who would be able to control it?

“So are you in?” Rhys asked. Akia looked at him. His face was plain, angry even. But his eyes told a different story. They were pleading her to agree, hoping that she would work with him again.

She grinned. “I’m never handing over that locket. I don’t care what you’re trying to convince me you want to do with the powers. You can’t fool me. The powers will be yours. You won’t give them to anyone.”

“You’re making a mistake,” Dorrin growled. “Even if we don’t get that locket, we’ll have the powers. And if you’re not on our side, we won’t spare you.”

“What do you mean you’ll still have the powers?” Akia asked. It didn’t make sense. The locket was the only place the powers were.

Suddenly, Rhys grabbed her arm and forced an image into her mind. She didn’t recognize it, but she grabbed onto it anyway. When she opened her eyes again, the three of them were standing in an open area. Looking around, she realized that they were boxed in by houses. Only one alleyway led out.

“What am I—" Before she could finish, she was cut off by a low rumbling sound. Turning, her mouth fell open.

There, in the middle of the ground in front of her (how had she missed it?) was a giant crater. It didn’t look like the pictures in textbooks. It was quite shallow with cracks running along every inch. Slipping out of the cracks were colors of all kind, glowing bright against the late evening light.

“What is that?” Akia asked, not sure if she really wanted to know the answer.

“Magic,” Dorrin said. “Stuck beneath the surface trying to fight its way out. If you don’t give me the locket, I can pull magic from here and use it just the same. Either way, you lose.”

Akia was speechless. What could she possibly say to that? There was magic being stored in what was left of her old world. She wanted to know how it had happened, but that didn’t matter at the moment. She felt backed into a corner. No matter what she did, there was no way out. Rhys would get the powers, with Dorrin’s help, and he would succeed in his crazy plan. It was finished, the fight was done. She had nothing left.

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For the LMS contest. Word count: 1,819