Chapter 24 #3
The other man made a swift movement, and with a soundless pop, Alina felt the blockage that had prevented her harnessing Dust break off her.
She had no chance to do more than cast her senses around for unclaimed movement before she was almost choked by a sensation that felt like the magical equivalent of someone wrapping their body around hers and forcing it to move.
Spluttering helplessly, not trying to harness anything, she felt the Dust from the movement above enter her reach.
Her magical sense latched on to it, her mind flooded with awareness of the significant amount of power in her grip.
But it wasn’t really in her grip. It felt more like wet rope slipping swiftly through her fingers, directed not into any immediate purpose, but into the strange wooden object just outside her cell.
All at once, the rope stopped sliding, and all was still. It wasn’t that the Dust was gone. It still filled her awareness. Her senses were overwhelmed with the effort of harnessing power. But the power wasn’t hers to command. It was locked in the object before her.
Her captor looked at his fellow. “It’s true. Her energy is remarkable. I harnessed much more with her than with the others.”
His voice was fainter, his own energy reduced by the significant use of magic he’d just undertaken. It was nothing to the numb exhaustion creeping steadily over Alina’s body.
“Alina!” Benji called her name, trying uselessly to pull the bars off his cell. “What did he do to you?”
“I’m…” Alina could hardly get the words out. “I’m…harnessed…to the…magic that’s…stored in the…object.”
“What?” Benji’s voice was too loud in the small space. “That’s not possible.”
He was right. It shouldn’t be possible. She should only ever be able to be harnessed to active magic as she drew it from current movement.
But the magic of whatever movement the other man had harnessed was captured securely within the wooden item.
It could be released at a later time, like whatever had been used to silence and magically bind her.
But all the time it was being stored, ready for use, it would be an active drain on her energy.
“Much more is possible than your small-minded kingdoms imagine,” one of the strangers said dispassionately.
“It would be more convenient for us if we’d found a way to capture magic in objects and let it lie dormant.
But we haven’t yet understood how to do that.
As our recent experiments in Torrens showed, even a huge volume of power will become useless if stored dormant in a talisman.
It has to be harnessed at all times. And why sacrifice our own people to that cause with the Peninsula so defenseless?
Now you get to be part of the innovation, which is more honor than your worthless lives deserve, I don’t doubt. ”
He turned to his fellow.
“Your turn.”
Alina realized that the second man was preparing to do the same thing to Benji, and a protest rose within her.
“Stop.” The word burst from her with too much force, and her senses swam alarmingly. She was back on the precipice, staring down into the chasm of total depletion.
“You’ll learn quickly not to do that,” the man who’d bound her said, no pity in his voice. “We’re using every bit of energy your body can spare to maintain the magic in your talisman. If you try to expend any more, you’ll die.”
Alina lay still, barely able to marshal her thoughts enough to even feel afraid. She was impossibly weary, each breath a struggle.
It’s not over, a whisper of defiance reminded her.
The team is following the linking enchantment.
They might be almost here. A warmth spread through her chest at the thought.
She realized that it had been there the whole time, she was only just now focusing on it.
She didn’t know if it was just her certainty that Xavier would come for her, or something more tangible.
She could almost believe it was the pressure of the linking enchantment, tying her to the investigation.
The thought buoyed her amidst the fear and exhaustion trying to choke her.
She’d thought the men had left, but one of them spoke from a short distance away.
“Hold on, I forgot.” His voice was sharp. “We were supposed to check both of the new ones in case there’s anything on them. Because of the man those investigators sent out to try to get captured.”
Alarm flared in Alina, sick and hot, but she was unable to do anything but lie there as one of the strangers knelt outside her grate. He examined her carefully, his sight playing no role in the scrutiny.
“She’s clean,” he said. “Nothing is coming out from her except the connection to her talisman.” He patted his pocket.
“Same with this one,” the other said, rising from his place in front of Benji.
The pronouncement crushed the last hint of resistance within Alina.
If she’d had energy for it, she would have broken down and sobbed.
As it was, she couldn’t muster more than a whimper.
The linking enchantment wasn’t working. It had been weakened too much by the transfer, as the craftsman from the guild had warned might happen.
No one knew where they were. No one was coming for them.
For a moment after the men’s footsteps retreated, all was silent. Then a faint voice came from somewhere down the row.
“Welcome,” it was more breath than speech, “to the family.”
Alina didn’t try to respond. Sinking into the exhausted oblivion that threatened to consume all the years she had left, she felt hope die within her.