Sariela Silence:
A cold draft flickered the candle flame. I lay chained to a ritual table, unable to tear my eyes away from the only source of warmth in this stone prison. My body shivered, blue from the chill, but I was too terrified of my captor to make any sudden moves. All I allowed myself was a subtle stretch of my neck and sneaky glances around the space, waiting for that dark shadow to return and check on its prey.
Everything had changed since I last woke up. There were four other children lying here with me, but they hadn’t managed to break free from the “Tandem Somnum,” or as folks called it, the “Eternal Sleep.” If I hadn’t been so nosy as a kid, sneaking into my grandpa’s library, I’d be asleep too. I got lucky—my childish looks and small stature made me a victim no one took seriously. So, the mage still hadn’t noticed that I’d shaken off the curse. But my big gift and even bigger stash of knowledge didn’t change a thing: the anti-magic cuffs kept me from escaping or fighting back against my kidnapper.
“Ugh!” A desperate cry echoed through the crypt, bouncing off countless hidden corners.
The sound made me flinch, and I turned my face toward a small window. A white owl was slamming itself against the wall, trying to break through a special barrier that partially absorbed the emanation of death. The kidnapper had set it up to trap the souls of his victims in this place, but he’d miscalculated and caught a piece of land beyond the wall too, ensnaring the dead bird in his trap. As a pretty gifted necromancer, I understood the dead on an instinctive level, and no anti-magic cuffs could change that. I felt the owl’s pain under my skin, and it was worse than the imprisonment itself.
“Please, stop struggling,” I couldn’t help but whisper, barely lifting myself above the granite slab. “You’ll only fade away faster.”
The bird froze near the wall, then swooped down and landed on the ritual slab. Its round red eyes glinted in the dim light.
“Yeah, I can see the faded ones,” I said, and the owl perked up, flapping its wings as if trying to explain something to me. “But I’m still too young to understand you properly. That’s what Grandpa always said... Still, I can let you come closer to warm up, just be quiet! That scary shadow will be back soon, and it might scatter you!”
The familiar looked at me the way my parents used to after I’d accidentally caused some mischief. I called that look “Silly-Silly Ela,” and I hated it down to the tip of my tiny, pointy nose because it always came with boring lectures and punishments.
“I know a spirit could steal my body, I’m not that little,” I huffed, pouting with my cracked lips. “It’s just... such pretty birds can’t be evil! I can tell you don’t want me—you’re looking for someone out there, beyond the wall. If you stay here, that big purple stone will eat you up! And Grandpa said if I let anyone get killed, he’d ban me from his study, and there are sooo many cool books in there! You can’t even imagine!”
The owl shook its head, resigned to my chatter, and gently touched my forehead with its beak. Sure, the cuffs blocked my magic, but they couldn’t stop me from controlling my own soul. So, the bird’s spirit slowly merged with a green spark in me and started flashing images: a tree, a nest, a tiny sleeping owlet, and a body on the ground, pierced by an arrow. The bird’s entire life flared vividly in my memory, bringing tears to my eyes and a wave of nausea. It hit me so hard that I barely managed to close my eyes just as I heard the quiet footsteps of my captor approaching.
“How do we get out of here?” a voice asked in my head.
“I don’t know, but this shadow is up to something really bad,” I replied mentally.
“You mean the fact that five kids are on the brink of collapse isn’t bad enough?” the voice shot back sarcastically, pecking at the top of my head as if mocking the size of my brain. The motion made my head throb even worse. “What could possibly be worse?”
“Oh, it can get worse! At least we’re alive right now, and I’m awake. This ‘rat’...”
“What ‘rat’?” the spirit interrupted, confused.
“That’s what I call this mage, ‘cause he’s a pest and terrifying,” I explained, mentally grimacing. “Anyway, he’s planning something awful. I don’t know what, but I do know necromancers always need to stand at the center of the star to stay alive, and right now, we’re lying on one of the points.”
“And when’s this rat gonna start his work?” the bird asked seriously, impatiently tapping its feet at the edge of my mind. “How will we know?”
“When he starts chanting something weird.”
“But he’s already muttering some strange words, like a drunk slurring a tongue twister!”
Shock and fear made me snap my eyes open. The dim light stung my pupils. My heart raced so fast I lost control of myself. And the owl, sensing my weakness, took over, seizing control of my body and pushing me out! All I could do was watch as it swiftly rose from the slab, slipped through the anti-magic cuffs, and shoved the “rat,” falling into the center of the star. The pentagram lit up, draining energy from everyone outside its lines. Endless power tore through my body, subduing me, filling me, threatening to destroy me. With its last strength, the bird screeched and unleashed the excess energy, obliterating everything around us before vanishing from this world forever.
Tears streamed down my face. I felt that same boundless energy pull me back into my body and continue to change it. Somewhere in the corners of my mind, a loud cry rang out:
“Sara!” Someone kept calling me, but I couldn’t break through the thicket of terror. “Sara, darn it! If you set my tail on fire, I’ll kill you myself!”
A small black owl plopped onto my trembling hand, digging sharp claws into my forearm and forcing me to face reality. In a flash, my awareness started to return. Instead of the stone basement and ritual table, I saw a tiny apartment in the faculty dorms. I was gasping, my heart pounding wildly, staring wide-eyed at my rescuer.
“Thanks, Ember,” I whispered, stroking the bloody scratches his claws left on my arm.
“Always at your service,” the owl replied, wiping imaginary sweat from his brow and winking nervously. “It’s been a while since those kidnapping nightmares hit you. I really thought you were craving some roasted owl for a second there.”
“Nah,” I forced a shaky smile and ruffled his feathers. “You’re way too sharp-tongued. I’d probably choke.”
“But two liters of dwarven moonshine on a dare was fine, huh?” he grumbled, playfully raising his brows. “And you didn’t choke then!”
“Are you mad I didn’t choke, or that I didn’t bring you along to Seraphina’s drinking party?” I shot back, sliding out of bed to get myself together. I had to stop by the dean’s office today. It’d be rude to breathe last night’s booze on such a respectable man. “And anyway, go take a bath. Just ‘cause you’re black doesn’t mean you’re excused from hygiene.”
“Aw, Sara...” he whined, looking like a student begging for mercy on their third exam retake: sadly sniffling, rubbing his scratched-up side, and panicking at the thought of another scolding.
“Don’t ‘Sara’ me,” I scolded the little mess, stripping off my clothes and heading to the bathroom. “Are you Ember or Mudball?”
“Come on, Sarabear!”
“March.”
“Not a shred of pity!” he dramatically flapped a wing, stomping his little feet on the wooden floor like he was on his deathbed. “You’re a heartless woman! I’ll catch a cold, get sick, and you’ll be crying at my grave!”
“...and then I’ll resurrect you just to smack that pesky tail of yours,” I said, scooping up my familiar and stepping under the water. Magic responded instantly, starting to clean us both. “Just so you know, dead things smell a hundred times worse, and I’d have to wash you twice a day. This way, it’s once and done. Enjoy the efficiency, grump.”
The owlet sulked as he climbed off my hand and stood under the air jets. His feathers puffed up, turning the sleek black owl into a fluffy cloud of anger.
“You could at least have the decency not to flash your bare skin in front of a guy in his prime!”
“As if you haven’t seen it all before.”
“Still, I’ve gotta grumble...! Hungry, wet, miserable... If only someone would treat me to a cookie...”
“Top shelf, second from the top,” I said, and the half-dead owl perked up, zooming into the cupboard at lightning speed. “Just don’t overeat, or you won’t be able to fly. Look at that backside—you’re more cat than owl now.”
“Not everyone’s gotta be skin and bones under their robe. Soon you’ll be slipping through door cracks without keys or spells. Skinny stick, not the ‘Terrifying Terror of the Elemental Faculty.’”
“Geez, they’re so sensitive. I only cast a ‘Petrify’ spell once when those drama queens whipped up tornadoes in the lecture hall. What was I supposed to do? Do you have any idea how hard it is to neutralize ten different spells they’d tangled together and kept refreshing every few minutes?”
I walked over to the mirror, checked my standard professor’s robe, and headed to the Academy. Today was gonna be a tough one since the new semester started tomorrow. I just needed to get through this contract, and then I could land a gig with the Abyss Watchers as a magical forensic expert. Here’s hoping nothing goes wrong in the meantime.