Rising Shards

I yelped after hearing someone say my name. “Who said that? Did I imagine that? Hello?”

“It’s me.”

“And…who’s ‘me’?” I asked. “I mean. Me as in the you that just said, not me, as in, I know I’m Zeta Faleur, just—”

“Zeta, it’s OK,”

I saw the glow in the distance flashed with every word I heard in my head.

“Is that you over there?” I asked.

“It must be my sword. I have a mental link with that bloodsaber. Guess it’s passed on to you since you’re using it.”

“And you are…?”

“Arctus Kathron. I thought that was obvious?”

“Oh! Hi, Arctus. Are you…like talking to me from the afterlife? From the poison?”

“I’m sleeping, I think. I don’t feel like I died.”

“OK,” I said. “Can you wake up soon and come get your bloodsaber, and fix all this?”

“Afraid not,” Arctus said. “I’ll let you borrow the sword for a bit, but you have to give it back when you’re done.”

“I can’t get out of here, Arctus,” I said. “I’m stuck. Can’t you just wake up? And fix this?”

“I can’t,” Arctus said. “It’s going to be a while before I’m healed. By whichever Exumi elder has me, it could—”

“It’s Mawiril,” I said.

“Mawiril, OK,” Arctus said. “Maybe a bit less time then.”

“So I can just wait! You’re a professional Cani, probably. You can fix all this!”

“A bit less, but still a while,” Arctus said. “The longer this this Elka grows, the stronger it’ll get. And the rest of your class is captured. The mask is going to drain from them, and the Order’s hold on this place will get significantly worse. Like, impossible to fix level worse.”

“I can barely do anything here,” I said. “And you think I could stop her?”

Arctus didn’t answer for a second.

“It’s Jeans, by the way. The Jeans I talked about when I first…you probably don’t remember.” I sniffed and wiped my eyes. “She’s the one doing this.”

"I remember," Arctus said. "You talked about her when we met at Rising Shards."

"If you remember meeting me and seeing me freak out over every little thing then, you'd know I'm not the right person for this."

“Zeta. Barring some bizarre circumstances that would be nearly mathematically improbable, I’d genuinely most likely be incredibly dead right now if it weren’t for you. You saved me. You can do this.”

“Somebody would’ve…I was just…”

“There was no one else there. I’m still feeling the poison; you’re just talking to my subconscious really. It was even worse when I was down there. Lophor Hothon wouldn’t have shown mercy. I would have been killed. You saved me.”

I couldn’t wrap my head around it. This was all too much.

“Who are you?” I asked. “I mean, who are you really?”

“I’m Arctus Kathron. I’m an Atrian.”

“Why were you at my school if you’re from here?”

“To find you.”

“Why’d you come to find me? First off, I’m really not that impressive. I’m actually genuinely afraid of my own shadow. And second off, just saying, if it was a romance thing, first off, I have a girlfriend. Third thing, or...second...you’re older than me. Sure just like a year but like. Fifth off, I think? Fifth, I’m also entirely not into boys so—”

“It’s not that. I promise I'll explain to you soon."

"But—"

“But right now, you have to get to my sword.”

“There’s all this Elka around me.” I said.

“Try using your powers on it?”

“Oh yeah,” I said. “Shut up, I would’ve remembered that.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Still.”

I held my hands out towards the Elka pit. Without Minty, it was a lot harder to channel a storm, but I was able to get a small rainstorm in front of me. I heard a hissing sound from it. The conjured water burned away the Elka. I heard growling beneath the bubbles forming, and a tendril lashed out, smacking me right in the face. The storm I had conjured vanished, and I fell backwards onto the slab.

“Arctus?” I asked. “I can’t do this.”

My hands were shaking. My vision was foggy. I felt so sick, like everything was about to start spinning. My heart was pounding.

“I can’t do this!” I asked.

As my heart started pounding harder than it ever had and my head flared, I fell on my knees. I cowered on the stone, while my body felt like it would give out any second. This was it. I stuffed my trembling hands into my backpack, and found my phone, which had somehow only slightly cracked. The battery was dead. And even if it wasn’t, I couldn’t call home in the void.

“Someone…please…just. Just…come get me!” I yelled, accidentally forming a lightning bolt in my hands that knocked my phone to the ground. As soon as it landed, its screen lit up.

“No…no way…” I said, seeing on the home screen from the rush of notifications from my Raina Starlight news sources that I somehow had a connection. I couldn’t type to anyone, my fingers were uncoordinated in panic and the screen made me feel dizzier. I rushed through the menus and clicked.