Tori Transmigrated

Chapter 102: I Found Them

“Is there any news?” Ilyana sounded cautious. Tori sat on her bed, legs crossed, and papers spread around her. Sketched copies of maps had grids drawn over them and each section that was searched had been shaded in lightly.

Other papers were charms that were drying for additional energy to help the fatigued knights to keep up their strength. There were two open notebooks with various scribbles she’d written down to try to collect and organize her thoughts.

Tori hadn’t left Duchess Tetri’s winter cabin since they arrived two days ago, but she was tired.

“No,” she replied in a strained voice. “Duke Tetri’s team finished a sweep of the towns and villages surrounding Lake Glass. They’re going to start backtracking and checking the small foot and horse paths.” Lake Glass was the most remote of the large resort lakes in the area and at a slightly higher elevation than the others.

It had taken two days for Duke Tetri and his people to comb through the towns around the lakes and no one had seen a trio of teenagers matching the descriptions of Alessa, Dimitri, or Montan. She supposed it made a bit of sense; the protagonist and love interests had to physically stand out, and be unique and special.

Sebastian and their knights swept through the forests around the main roads, hoping to find clues that could lead to the missing teens or the carriage that they took. Her brother was growing frustrated; they hadn’t found anything yet.

Neither Baron Hart nor the Guthrys had gotten hold of Alessa and Dimitri. They were calling almost hourly, and no one was answering.

Tori had spent half an hour the night before trying to calm and reassure Madam Guthry. The Prime Minister had taken a leave to join the search for his son and Madam Guthry was left in Horizon. The friends and family members who tried to comfort her no longer had any words, and so Madam Guthry called her to ask about the search.

Tori didn’t have much to say either, but couldn’t bring herself to be upset at the woman.

“What about the roads back to Horizon?” Ilyana asked.

“We have people in the large towns and cities along the roads. Duke Sinan has sent a few of his people to guard the checkpoints in case the trio arrive,” Tori answered. Duchess Tetri had called Duke Sinan and he complied because the Prime Minister’s son was missing. “Anlar also has guards along major checkpoints and its ports.”

“You don’t think they left the continent, do you?” Ilyana almost choked out something unthinkable.

Tori let out a low breath. “Not on purpose.” No one wanted to think of the possibility that the three had been kidnapped enroute to wherever they were going, but it lingered in their heads.

Dimitri was the Prime Minister’s son; he was a walking target, though the motive of a kidnapping could only be speculated.

“It’s been almost a week since they left her hometown,” Ilyana said. “The roads leading out of the region were checked within three days, how far could they have gone?”

“They could have traveled off road.” Tori looked at a quickly sketched copy of a topographical map from Duchess Tetri’s library. It had marked footpaths that hunters and others who made a living in the forests used.

“And no one has seen the carriage? Carriages don’t simply disappear,” Ilyana said, almost bitter.

“The last place they were sighted was on a country road, by farmers along the road. They had stopped to rest and someone matching Guthry’s description asked for water,” Tori said. “After that, they continued on, but never made it to the lakes.”

Inns, taverns, and homesteads along the route had been questioned. Alessa and her party didn’t stop anywhere to spend the night. Tori wasn’t sure if this was because of finances or if they were simply pushing forward and didn’t want to waste time.

Which didn’t make sense to her. Alessa was angry at her father, not afraid. It wasn’t as if she were fleeing in fear.

“Tori,” Ilyana said, her voice quiet. “What do you think happened to them?”

Tori swallowed hard and shut her eyes for a moment. “I don’t know.”

The crystal ring around her comcry began to pulse, indicating that someone else was calling her. “Ilyana, I have another call. If anything happens, I’ll let you know. Please remember to feed Alexander.”

“I will. Don’t strain yourself, Tori. You’re doing what you can.”

Which isn’t much if I’m being honest. “I know.” She slid her finger back and forth across the crystal. “Hello?”

“We found the carriage.” Sebastian’s voice didn’t carry a hint of excitement and the moment Tori heard it, her stomach sank.

Her own voice was breathy as one hand clawed on to her lap. “Where?”

“Three hours ride from the cabin, up one of the mountain passes overlooking a feeder river,” her brother replied in a steady, emotionless voice. “It was hidden by the canopy. We wouldn’t have seen it if someone didn’t notice the broken branches along the side of the mountain.”

Tori’s eyes narrowed. “Why was it hidden?”

“It fell off the path and down the side of the mountain, into a ravine. The carriage wheel looked to have broken off and the driver lost control. It broke apart on the descent.”

Tori felt a chill sweep over her body. “Sebby....” She opened her mouth, but the question she wanted to ask didn’t come out.

“It’s all right, Tori,” Sebastian’s voice softened. “There were no passengers.”

She drew her head back and knit her brows together. This was good news, but at the same time, vexing. “The carriage was empty?”

“There were a few personal items, but there was no one in the carriage. No blood, no ripped pieces of clothing, no signs of distress. Sir Alvarez believes that the carriage was already empty when it lost control and fell.”

Tori lifted her hand and rubbed her chest. She was relieved, but this only deepened the mystery. “What about the driver?”

“There was no driver. Of the two horses, one went down with the carriage. It was still attached to the harness. Sir Montez estimates it’s been dead for a few days.”

She closed her eyes once more and grit her teeth. “Was the broken wheel an accident?”

“Duke Tetri is on his way to inspect it. This is his specialty. We’ll be here for a few hours, waiting for him,” Sebastian told her.

Tori nodded. “Should I tell the Baron and the Prime Minister?”

“No, we don’t have enough answers. I want Duke Tetri to find out the reason the carriage ended up down the side of the mountain. As of right now, we are certain that your classmates were not present when it fell.” Sebastian hesitated. “Idunn is with some knights following the path to try to find out where the carriage was coming from. The path leads away from the lakes.”

“Then it was coming back?”

“I can only guess,” Sebastian said.

Tori gritted her teeth and shifted her legs out from underneath her. She ignored the pins and needles feeling, and crawled over the papers in front of her. “Where did you say you were?”

“Three-hour horse-back ride northwest of the cabin,” Sebastian told her. He paused once more. “On the topographical map, I’d say grid square 21.”

Tori pulled a large sheet of paper forward and ran a finger down the surface. The square surrounded a stretch of mountain pass. She followed the lines that represented the pass. It was a minor road and didn’t seem to lead anywhere except further up the mountain.

The fuck were they doing up a mountain? Watching the sunrise? Singing kumbaya and having a moment after spilling their guts? “All right,” she said with a nod to herself. “Please let me know what Duke Tetri finds out.”

“I will,” Sebastian said. “And I know you were up late last night and were up early helping prepare food for the knights. Get some rest. Sir Aguilar and Iturralde are taking shifts to guard you. Benedict is there, too.”

Tori nodded. “I know.”

The call ended and Tori scooted off the bed to get to a desk where she’d placed most of her things. The cabin was quite large for a retreat cabin that was only used in winter for skiing: three levels and spanning the area of a large house. There was also an adjacent wood house and a covered overhang with a stable for horses and a space for two carriages.

The ground floor was for dining and entertaining, but there was a suitable kitchen where Tori tried to do her part to support the search parties by preparing food they could bring. As much as it frustrated her, she couldn’t do much else, but cook and be a glorified phone operator.

She didn’t have the riding skills to keep up and join them in the physical search.

She didn’t have the training for tracking people, either.

And her attempts to find Dimitri through the lapis lazuli were useless. Madam Guthry had given the crystal to Dimitri as a good luck talisman for his exams, but she didn’t know if he brought it with him when he left. Tori couldn’t remember seeing it attached to his bag, like it was meant to be.

There was a chance that Dimitri could’ve just accepted it as a symbol of encouraging sentiments from his mother, but later tossed it into a drawer to be forgotten.

However, even if he did have it on him, he was too far away for her to find.josei

Her reach wasn’t enough.

Tori rummaged through a bag carrying writing utensils, papers, more maps, and dug out a compass. She walked back to the bed and picked out the topography map and placed it on the floor. She knelt over it and measured out the distance from the cabin to the area where the carriage was found.

To her, it was about ten to fifteen miles away. Tori then measured the distance to the end of that mountain pass. Give or take another two to three miles. From there, Tori made a circle and then sat back on her legs.

“Fuck.”

Even with crystals and charms supporting her to draw energy, and focus it to search for a corresponding energy signature in a charm in a narrowed direction, her reach only lasted for two or three minutes. She’d timed it and it didn’t go far. It was excellent for someone who only started learning two years earlier, but for the purposes of the search, it was useless.

Tori slouched down and tossed the compass on top of the map with a glare.

“Lady Tori.” A knock came from her door. She looked towards it. Knowing that she’d be stuck in the cabin the entire time, her brother assigned her the master suite on the top floor, which took up most of the floor. The rest of the seven bedchambers were on the floor below her and knights alternated using them, resting in between their searches.

“Instructor?” Tori asked. Aside from her mother’s knights, the only other person in the cabin currently was Instructor Ignatius, who helped her cook. Two valets arrived the day after them and oversaw buying supplies to bring back to the cabin and as it was in between meals, they had gone to town for more ingredients.

“My lady, are you all right? Senior Sebastian called me and told me they found the carriage.”

“I know!” Tori said. “I’m fine, Instructor.” Frustrated, but fine.

“Do you need anything? Are you hungry? Do you want to go out for a walk around the cabin?” he asked. She heard him lower his voice. “Is that all right?” He seemed to be asking the knight guarding her door.

Tori took a deep breath and then blew some hair out of her face. Some fresh air would be good. She pushed herself up and put on her shoes. She opened the door and Instructor Ignatius looked over at her from where he was standing next to her knight.

“Let’s go,” she said. He gave her a sympathetic nod and offered his arm. Tori took it and they walked downstairs.

“We’re too far from the lakes to take a walk by it, but there are forest paths around the cabin,” Instructor Ignatius told her. “You’ve been in your room all day.”

“I’m trying to think of some other way to find them, but I’m out of ideas,” Tori said as they walked down the steps on to the dirt pathway. “Every few hours, Madam Guthry or Madam Voss call me to ask if there is any news and I don’t have anything to tell them.” Her heart sank as her eyes squinted. She lowered her gaze and shook her head. “I don’t know how else to help them.”

She didn’t tell Instructor Ignatius how painful it was to hear the two women speaking. Their voices were becoming ragged. Every passing day lessened the chance of finding their children safe.

“We all have our limitations, my lady,” Instructor Ignatius told her. “There is not much I can do, either.”

“If there is a chance that Mr. Guthry has the lapis lazuli I charged on his person, I thought I could find them,” Tori said in a quiet voice. She slowly shook her head. “But the distance....”

“I doubt even your brother could sense a crystal he charged in the range we’re looking at.” Instructor Ignatius crinkled his eyes. “As far as raw strength in collecting and charging energy, he’s the strongest person I know. I doubt Master Ramos could do any better.”

“It’s frustrating, but I can only imagine how it is for their parents.” Tori shook her head. They walked around the cabin, near the tree line. One of her knights followed behind them dutifully. She lifted her head and tried to calm herself. As they rounded the front of the cabin, she could see past the tree line and to one of the lakes below. “My reach can barely touch the shore of that lake.”

She was complaining, but Instructor Ignatius snapped his head towards her. “Your reach? When you’re sending out energy to find crystals?”

Tori nodded. “I managed to get my energy that far, but not any further. And that was after I used additional crystals and charms to try to extend it.”

Instructor Ignatius slowed to a stop and looked at her. “How do you know it extended that far?”

Tori looked at him with a quizzical expression for a moment. “My energy slows and ends.” The man looked even more confused, and Tori pulled her arm from his. “Grounded energy can’t go through water, so it must go down into the earth beneath it. I’m able to get a little further than the shore, but can’t sustain it further.”

“When I search for crystals, I use the grid visualization technique. It uses less energy,” Instructor Ignatius told her. “Remember what I taught in class?”

Tori nodded. In metacrystals, to find a crystal that a student had charged, they would ground and then release their energy through their left hand, but in overlapping lines to create a ‘grid’ that blanketed an area and would react once it connected to a crystal with their energy signature. When the crystal connected with the energy the student was releasing, all other energy lines were pulled in, and all the energy was refocused on the connection.

However, Tori first learned the technique from Master Ramos. Rather than give her strict instructions on her specific technique, he told her what the goal was and how it was done, then let her figure out the technique on her own.

The result was a combination of the gas and liquid visualization, where her energy was sent out like a wave through the ground. More energy was used, but it was more exact and finding a crystal was faster than the ‘grid.’

“The further away from me, the larger the gaps in the grid become,” Tori told him. “The energy needs to react to my crystal and if the crystal falls between the gaps, even if I reach far enough, I won’t sense it. The wave is much more sensitive.”

He nodded and furrowed his brows. He lifted his hand and rubbed his chin. “Have you tried focusing a wave in a particular area? Limiting it to a narrower field rather than the entire area around you?”

Tori let out a regretful sigh and nodded. “Yes, that’s how I was able to get it as far as the lake. If I send out a wave in all directions, my reach is a quarter of a narrowed field reach.”

“The energy required for this method is too much.” Instructor Ignatius frowned. “If you push yourself, you’ll get crystal fatigue or worse.”

“I know, which is why I don’t push it further,” Tori said. “At least, not on my own. I’ve tried to use crystals to boost the distance and charms to increase the energy I gather, but those have too many limitations. I’m unable to sustain charms that last long enough for me to search.”

“Charms are not as long lasting as crystals,” Instructor Ignatius said with a nod of agreement. “Your work carving Old Sulfae into crystals is much more effective and can be better controlled.”

“I don’t think there is a crystal large enough for me to carve for this,” Tori said with a heavy sigh. Her hand reached down and fiddled with her bracelet as she continued walking. She looked down at the bracelet. Her eyes landed on the black velar crystal next to the blue and white crystal she used to make noise controlling circles.

She narrowed her eyes and slowed to a stop once more.

“Lady Tori?”

“I think I’ve had enough of a walk. I’m going to go back and take a nap,” she said. She lifted her other hand and let out a small yawn. “I was up late and woke up early.”

Instructor Ignatius gave her an approving nod. “I understand. The two Tetri valets will return soon with ingredients to make dinner. Shall I wake you then?”

“Please do,” Tori said. “I’ll prepare dinner for everyone.”

She turned around and headed back into the cabin, followed by her knight. She headed back to her room and slipped inside.

Tori checked to make sure the door was closed before rushing to her desk and rummaging through a bag to find a sheet of paper. She cleared a space on the desk and removed the velar crystal from her bracelet.

She stared at it for a moment. Velare. Write.

She took a deep breath and used the crystal to ‘write’ a charm on the paper, first without grounding as a test. A very faint gray line could be seen as Tori dragged a corner of the velar over the off-white parchment. It was difficult to make out the writing, but Tori could feel energy coming off the parchment without activating it.

The paper charm was one of her favorites: the one for chilling beverages.

Tori looked around the room for something to place on top of it and her eyes landed on the ceramic jug by a small basin used for washing her face in the morning. She rushed across the room, picked it up, and looked inside. There was still water.

“Good enough.” She returned to the desk and carefully placed the jug on top of the paper.

Before she released it, she could feel the surface of the jug becoming cold, as if the entire thing were suddenly dunked into ice water. She heard the crackling of ice from within and peered into the jug.

Since she used the same combination of Old Sulfae on this charm as she did with the charms she used when chilling beverages, she didn’t think that it would freeze all the water at once, and that quickly. The regular charm made with soot ink took some time to freeze the liquid, which gave them time to stir and break apart the ice into the desired slush consistency.

“Maybe it’s because it’s water and not juice or coffee....” she muttered to herself. She put her hands on the jug, but as soon as her fingertips touched the surface, she snatched them back. “Shit, that’s cold....”

She poked the jug a few more times to see if it was just her imagination or was the jug itself as cold as an ice cube. She narrowed her eyes. The regular charms would not have enough energy to freeze the container like this. And the jug was much larger than a cup.

She found the towel she used to dry her face and used it to protect her hands against the cold surface of the jug as she carried it off the charm. She placed it to the side and carefully reached down to touch the piece of paper.

There was still plenty of energy. It was as if none of the energy was used at all.

She frowned. The only thing that changed was that she focused energy into the velar when she wrote the characters. Usually, she’d hold the charm and charge it, but that wasn’t necessary this time.

Tori began to shake with excitement. She grabbed more pieces of paper and used the velar to carefully write out the energy gathering charms she tried to use earlier, but went through too quickly. When she had six pieces, she went to the open space at the foot of her bed and placed them in a circle that she would sit in the center of.

She looked down and frowned. A little more help gathering energy couldn’t hurt. Tori ran to the window. Next to the window was a table with the selenite charging plate. She selected some of the larger pieces of quartz she had been charging overnight and put them on each of the charms. She found her timepiece and checked the time.

Tori then sat down in the center, her legs crossed, and placed her palms on the floor next to her. She closed her eyes and grounded, drawing energy into her body with her right hand and then expelling it through her left.

She hadn’t taken a breath when she felt a massive wave of energy roll up and seem to engulf her body at once. It was a tight, almost suffocating feeling, and she quickly forced it out and sent a wave of energy out around her.

The hazy lavender energy she usually visualized was much less opaque than normal. It rolled out faster and Tori had to use more effort to control its direction. She started to sweat and continued to draw energy. It was going further than previous attempts, but after a while, she felt the energy she was collecting drop.

The energy dispersed at once and she’d been cut off.

She opened her eyes and slumped forward, letting out a heavy breath as her chest rose and fell unevenly. She looked down at the charms and reached forward to touch one.

It was out of energy. She moved her hand over one of the crystals. It was also out of energy.

“Fuck, are you serious?” she muttered with disbelief. She shook her head. That was more energy than she’d ever gathered and released, and six charms and crystals were still not enough.

She almost clawed at her face in frustration before slamming the floor at her sides.

“My lady, are you all right?” A knock accompanied Sir Iturralde’s question.

Tori ran a hand down her face and took a deep breath. “I’m fine!”

She looked down at the charms. She looked at the timepiece she’d tossed on the edge of the bed. She drew her head back. At least five minutes; her time had doubled. She had also reached further away.

If she could last twice as long, there was a chance she could extend her reach to the areas she’d circled on the map. Of course, she’d have to direct her energy towards it and the further out she reached, the less dense her energy would be, but if it were enough to sense a crystal on Dimitri, it would be enough.

If he had the crystal on him.

Tori narrowed her eyes. It was still worth a try wasn’t it? If she was able to reach that far and still couldn’t find it, then Dimitri simply didn’t have the crystal on him. At least she learned something new.

…And that is the kind of thinking that makes you a crystal fanatic.

She leaned back against the foot of the bed after gathering the used charms and crystals and pushing them out of the way. Tori closed her eyes and tried to calculate how many charms and crystals she’d need.

She would have to wait until nightfall, as she needed to recharge the crystals. She considered asking her brother to charge them when he returned, but she wasn’t sure he’d approve of her experiment. Sebastian knew what crystal fatigue was and wouldn’t let her risk herself.

Tori stood up and carried the crystals back to the selenite plate. She ripped the used charms and tossed them into a small garbage bin beneath the desk. As she counted out some papers to write on, the flashing comcry got her attention.

She picked it up and saw Madam Guthry’s name.

Tori readied herself. She slid her finger across the crystal. “Madam Guthry?”

A raspy, shaking voice spoke quietly. “They...they found the carriage.”

Dammit, who told them? Tori gritted her teeth. “Yes. My brother said that they are still investigating.”

“Dimitri hasn’t been found?”

Tori closed her eyes as she felt her chest hurt. She bit her lower lip as she tried to suppress the aching at the sound of the woman’s broken voice. “No, Madam. Not yet.”

She heard the familiar choked breathing and then a pained cry. “Dimitri....”

Tori lifted her eyes to the ceiling as she felt them glisten over. “The carriage is the best clue we’ve found, Madam. This narrows our direction.”

“I shouldn’t have agreed to let him go to Fosse...I should’ve been more careful. I should’ve told him to commute there.”

“You had no reason not to believe him,” Tori said, quietly. She didn’t know what else to say.

“Dimitri usually isn’t like this. I don’t understand. Why?” Madam Guthry was asking that question aloud rather than directing it at her. “How could he lie to us?”

Tori found it funny at first. She was amused that Dimitri was found out and would face consequences, but hearing his mother crying daily and fearing the worst, all of Tori’s humor at the situation faded. As much as those three missing persons irritated her, she couldn’t stand to see their decent parents ravaged by their disappearance.

If anything, it made her detest Alessa, Dimitri, and Montan more.

“Madam Guthry, you must rest.” Tori furrowed her brows. “You must take care of yourself. Even if you have no mood for it, you must rest and eat properly. The Prime Minister is out searching for your son; do not let him worry about your health, as well.”

“Yes...yes, you’re right.” Madam Guthry let out a heavy breath. “I...thank you, Lady Tori.”

“I can’t do much,” Tori said. “Please rest, Madam.”

She slid her finger across the crystal and put the comcry down. She lifted her hands and covered her face. Her hands were shaking, and she wasn’t sure if it was from her experiment or Madam Guthry’s call.

She took a deep breath and grabbed the velar. She prepared to write more charms and stopped. Noise controlling circles could be written on the ground. She looked at the black crystal in her hand and then at the floor.

Well, why the hell not?

Tori slid the velar back into her bracelet and walked into the seating area that took up part of the room. She grabbed the back of a large, cushioned chair, and pulled it to the side and off a large, oval gray and white rug.

She then crossed it and pulled away two more large chairs, placing them against the wall. Tori pushed the arm of a large sofa to one side before pushing the other arm back. She alternated pushing each arm of the heavy sofa until it was off the rug.

The sound of the sofa leg scraping against the floor cut through the air.

“My lady?” a voice came from outside.

“It’s fine! I’m just moving a chair!” she said, blowing some hair out of her face. She then dragged a low table off the rug and next to an unlit hearth. She crouched down to one side of the oval rug and began to roll it up to reveal the dark hardwood beneath.

When the rug was pushed to the feet of the chairs she’d moved earlier, Tori looked down at the wide space she had cleared. Her hand slipped to her bracelet, and she slid out the velar.

She stood in the center of the open space and knelt, drawing a circle with the charged velar. She then drew six more around it, crisscrossing lines until a six-pointed star took shape, connecting the circles. At the end of each point, she drew another circle. She stood up and admired her work.

“That is the ugliest Metatron’s cube I’ve ever seen....” She tilted her head back and inhaled and exhaled deeply. “Whatever, I don’t have a big ruler.”

It didn’t matter that the lines were a bit shaky, and the circles weren’t perfect. The general shape was there, and she could feel energy radiating off it. A lot of energy. Tori was almost giddy as she felt the energy coursing through her just by standing in the center of the cube. She then wrote down some Old Sulfae within the circles.

She sat down in the center after putting the velar back. She never really thought about the energy she felt in the delta. At first, she struggled to feel it, but as she progressed in her crystal usage, she began to sense it in the air, the way Sebastian had when he first visited. Then, she had grown used to the energy vein after spending so much time there. But now that she was away from it and seated within the cube she drew, she noted that the pulse felt similar.

Tori placed her palms on the floor on either side of her and closed her eyes.

The moment she grounded, she felt a surge of energy shoot through her, and her eyes nearly flew open.

She opened her mouth, trying to take a breath as the feeling of being swept up in a large wave surrounded her. For a moment, she almost felt weightless, as if surrounded by and floating in the middle of the ocean.

Was this all energy?

She gritted her teeth and focused on steering what felt like a tsunami in the direction of the found carriage. Her energy was moving faster, recklessly, in the direction she tried to funnel it towards. If her earlier attempts were like a stream, this was the water released from a broken dam.

Tori tried to keep herself grounded as her energy flooded the area, hoping to find a single crystal she’d charged.

She felt sweat slide down her temples as she continued to channel.

Tori could feel that she was close to something. She just needed to keep going. The far reaches of her energy began to thin out. Her brows came together. The cube was still gathering obscene amounts of energy. Tori felt her back grow cold.

Fuck, it’s not the crystal symbol, it’s me. It was her body that was reaching its limit.

She clenched her jaw. She just needed to go a bit further. She could feel something.

A gentle pulse of familiar energy attracted her attention. It was hers.

I found you, you fucking bastard! Lapis lazuli. Her energy connected to it at once and she could feel trace amounts being absorbed, meaning someone was nervous, angry, scared, or all three, and the crystal was doing its job trying to relax the wearer. This meant that the wearer was still alive.

And even if the wearer wasn’t Dimitri, it was another clue.

The problem now was that while she knew the general direction, she didn’t know how far the lapis lazuli was from her or her brother. The further out her energy went, the slower it became. She couldn’t accurately estimate the distance.

Her head began to lighten, and her balance felt off. Normally, she’d stop grounding at this point, but she couldn’t bring herself to. She found them! She just needed to figure out where they were or somehow chart out where the lapis lazuli was.

“Lady Tori?” A series of rapid knocks came from the door. Instructor Ignatius sounded worried. “Lady Tori, there is a large amount of energy-”

“Tori, I’m going to come in.”

“Piers?” Her focus nearly broke and the energy fluctuated. “Don’t come in! I’m working!”

“Lady Tori, this is too much energy for you to deal with! Whatever you’re doing, stop at once!”

Tori heard someone jiggle the handle of the door. It was locked, but she had no doubt Piers, and her knights could break their way in. She scrambled to figure out how to track the lapis lazuli.

“Break down the door.”

A heavy thud was heard. Tori could feel her own grasp on the energy begin to falter and her body was starting to grow weak. Crystal fatigue was setting in.

She didn’t know what else to do. She couldn’t keep up the connection.

Tori forced the energy up through the ground, lifting the earth the same way she did when she first tried to use the terracrystal. However, without the terracrystal, the earth didn’t move.

Tori began to sway in her seat. The energy around her plummeted. A splitting pain shot through her head, and she fell back.

“Lady Tori!” Someone grabbed her before she hit the floor.

“Instructor,” Tori opened her eyes and squinted. There were shapes of people above her, moving. She couldn’t tell who was who. “Instructor, my energy-”

“Don’t move.” The man carefully laid her on the ground and reached into his pockets for crystals. “What are you doing? You know you’re not strong enough to control so much energy!”

“Tori.” A cool hand touched her forehead. “Give her a pillow!” Piers told one of her knights. She could make out him on her left and felt a hand lift her head so a pillow could be placed beneath it.

She was dizzy and clenched her jaw to try to focus.

“Senior?” She heard Instructor Ignatius speaking. Her brother should not have arrived yet; did he call? “It’s likely, she was using so much energy just now-”

Tori’s eyes widened and she looked towards the blob she assumed was Instructor Ignatius. “Does Sebby feel my energy signature?”

“Yes, he said he felt it where he is-”

“Is it still there?”

She couldn’t see Instructor Ignatius’ expression. “Senior, is her energy lingering...in the air?” There was a pause. “Lady Tori...why did you release your energy?”

Tori closed her eyes. “Tell Sebby to follow the energy while he can, before it disperses.” She allowed her body to sink. “Follow it away from where we are.” Her senses were dulling.

“Why?” Someone asked and she wasn’t sure who was talking.

“Because I found them....” Her breathing weakened. “Follow....”

“Tori? Tori!?” Piers’ voice faded away and then there was nothing.