Chapter 13: White Magic

Larissa woke to the sound of someone pounding the insides of her head. She opened her eyes and came face to face with Zoreon. His face filled her whole vision, as if she were looking out of a stain-glassed window. She looked around. All around her she was almost blinded by bright blue-white glass walls of her prison, even the floor was made of the blue-white glass. There was nothing more. She shut her eyes for a few minutes then opened them again. He was still there. It wasn’t a dream.1

“Oh no!” she grunted.2

“I see that you are awake,” Zoreon taunted, “good.”3

“Zoreon what have you done to me?” she demanded getting to her feet. The ground shook beneath her and she fell back. Surprisingly her fall did not break the glass.4

He laughed like a schoolboy who had a crush on her, “Aren’t I full of surprises?”5

She replied with a scowl.6

“I have created,” he continued, “a magical device that controls people’s magic.”7

“You trap mages in you little crystal that drains their magic?” she asked.8

“He nodded slightly, thinking, “in a sense, yes.”9

Larissa held up a fist and shook it, “you won’t get away with it!” She surprised herself by shape-shifting into a goat. In a furious motion she rammed the side of the crystal wall with her horns. When she stuck, the power of the crystal fought back. Larissa flew backward, her body crashing to the glassy floor. She shook her head and tried again, but instead she was a bear clawing at the walls. Again the crystal magic zapped through her and sent her sprawling to her hands and knees.10

Zoreon laughed, “Save your magic. The more you try to use your power the less time you will have it.” And in an instant his face had disappeared.11

How do I get out without using my magic? She asked herself. “There’s got to be a way!” she leaned up against the side wall and she instantly regretted it. A force had sent her almost to the other side of the crystal.12

Larissa go to her feet again and crept up to the wall. I wonder… she thought. She put a had hand on the wall and a electric force stung her hand making her yelp. She tried the other hand and got the same result.13

“It seems,” she said thinking out loud, “that every time I touch the wall it zaps me.” She sighed, “great!”14

Her mind began to fog, her vision became blurry. She could feel beads of sweat streak down her face and tried to wipe them away.15

All of a sudden she began to grow weak and dizzy. Larissa’s legs collapsed under her and she hit the glass ground with a smack. Something bright flashed in her eyes and Larissa thought she was seeing things, but she had just passed out.16

It seemed like hours before she was conscience again, but she didn’t have the strength to move. Instead she just laid there being jolted around inside the crystal while Zoreon roamed about.17

I have to get up, she told herself, but her body disobeyed the order. She rolled her head back trying to think of a plan, but her mind would not concentrate. Her eyes began to blink slowly. She fought them as best as she could, straining her herself. Larissa felt the color flush from her face.18

A tingling began to prick in Larissa’s fingers and toes. What’s happening to me? She asked herself too weak to form the words on her tongue.19

There was another flash of white light so bright that Larissa could have sworn she would go blind even with her eyes closed. She felt completely helpless as she laid there her strength continuing to drain within her.20

Larissa could hear someone calling out to her, but something suffocated her brain making it cloud over so she couldn’t place the voice. She grew weaker and weaker every second she was trapped in the crystal, blacking out every now and then until she couldn’t open her eyes anymore.21

There was another flash of white light and Larissa instantly became conscious, but her eyes were too heavy to open them. She was blinded from the inside of her eyes lids, but Larissa no longer cared. She had given up on hope, on Nathan, on anyone to help save her.22

Another flash of light blinded her again, but Larissa was slipping out of consciousness again.