‘It’s cold’
Cherry huddled in the corner of an empty, locked room, her knees drawn to her chest. The cold concrete floor sent a chill seeping into her bones.
She shivered, not just from the cold but from the gnawing fear that had taken root in her heart.
It had been two days now since she had last seen Harvey who had previously been kept within the same cramped cell as her.
But one morning, the door to their cell had creaked open, and a dark figure had taken Harvey away. Cherry had screamed and clung to him, but he had cruelly ripped Harvey from her grasp while launching a hard kick at her stomach.
Thankfully, their kidnapper had kept his strength measured and while the kick had been painful and given her a bad bruise, she had no internal injuries.
After sending her sprawling to the floor in pain however she had not been able to say or do anything as her closest friend was dragged kicking and screaming from the cell.
He had promised he’d come back.
He hadn’t.
Now, she was alone.
She hadn’t seen any of the other kidnapped children aside from Harvey since arriving, so she was unsure if there were any other children in the neighbouring cells. However, she couldn’t stop the sinking feeling that even if they were alive, they would likely be no longer be whole was beginning to press down on her.
The silence in the building was suffocating, broken only by distant sounds that made Cherry’s skin crawl. There were screams sometimes—raw and agonized, echoing through the empty building like ghosts wailing.
And occasionally there would be the disturbingly jovial whistles of their keeper—completely incompatible with the horror of the current environment.
As the days ticked by, and she could feel the approach of the day in which she will be brought from the cell, she began to be consumed by a feeling of helplessness.
When she closed her eyes, she tried to picture family at the orphanage, her friends at school, or even the last rays of sunlight she had seen. But those memories were growing faint, overshadowed by the oppressive darkness around her.
Harvey’s face flashed in her mind, his warm smile now replaced by the haunting image of him being dragged away. She bit her lip, refusing to cry.
The sound of approaching footsteps froze her in place. Her heart thundered in her chest as she backed away from the door, her small frame pressing against the wall.
A shadow passed under the crack of the door, lingering for a moment before moving on. Cherry let out a shaky breath, her knees threatening to buckle beneath her.
Somewhere in the distance, a scream ripped through the air, cutting off abruptly. Cherry squeezed her eyes shut, pressing her hands over her ears. Once again trying to focus on finding comfort in the faces of her family.
In particular, she clung to the memory of her oldest brother who she’d witnessed competing on a national level just a few days ago. He would come for her. He had to.
“Please, Kain,” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the distant tortured screams that had started up again. “Please find me.”
After all, aside from her eldest brother, she really wasn’t confident in the local guards even looking for, much less finding, her.
————————–
Kain looked at Serena, “I know it’s difficult to fully trust one another but, considering the circumstances, I hope that you can trust me enough to clarify what abilities you have at your disposal.”
Seeing that she remained silent, Kain continued, “As a show of good faith, I will go first.”
Kain then began to explain what abilities all of his contracts had at their disposal, he even went into detail about the abilities of the sigils on his enchanted equipment.
“That’s everything…I do think that I awakened a gift, but I have no idea what it is yet, and so can’t exactly factor it into any plans we make.”
After a long moment of silence while making eye-contact with Kain. Serena finally opened her mouth…
The explanations about the abilities of the two contracts that had already been revealed were pretty much along the lines of what he expected. The only new information was about some constellation abilities of her third contract that hadn’t been revealed in any of the prior matches with her.
Her gift was also what Kain expected—a near limitless amount of spiritual power. Even without the use of a relevant spiritual skill to funnel the spiritual power to her contracts, just brute force shoving the excess spiritual power through the contract is still able to fuel all of her contracts for many hours of intense battle, if not days.
The only new information, and the information that Kain was the most interested in, was the identity and abilities of Serena’s unrevealed contract, which also happened to be her first contract.
His curiosity about this contract only grew greater after looking at the memories that he received from Heather Frost through Bea’s split.
How had it just happened to be around to form a contract with Serena when needed? From the Heather’s memories no spiritual creature was frequently around Serena or prepared for her by her family to contract immediately after awakening an affinity.
Also, why is Serena so averse to exposing it? After all, fighting with one less contract all the time is like voluntarily going into battle with one of her hands tied behind her back.
Finally, Kain was going to get some answers…
In a flash of light, what appeared to be a balancing scale. However, based on its lifeforce and its movements and animated expressions on the face carved into its central pillar which clearly indicates consciousness, Kain knew that it wasn’t a piece of enchanted equipment and was a spiritual creature.
However, despite its physical appearance, the lack of dark-attribute energy radiating off of it indicated that it was also not a cursed construct.
Therefore, the remaining options on what it could be were limited. But based on the aura it emitted…
“Is that what I think it is…?” Kain asked.
Serena nodded, “Yes, an Emanascion.”