Tori Transmigrated

Chapter 222: A Really Stupid Rock

If she never smelled that syrupy sweet scent again in her lifetime, she could die satisfied. The lingering smell seemed to penetrate the upper reaches of her sinuses.

This is all that idiot Gideon’s fault. God, how could he possibly be a love interest with zero sense of danger, that little shit.... Her head was heavy, but her first thoughts upon regaining consciousness were cursing the prince of bad decision making who thought going to see Alessa was a good idea.

Granted, she didn’t know if Alessa was actually involved, but really, who else could it be? It was laughable to pretend that their being attacked on the way to see Alessa had nothing to do with her.

Tori was on a hard surface and resisted the urge to move in case she was being watched. There were better ways to find out who was around her than getting attention.

She grounded and felt a burst of relief when the familiar feeling of the mem crystal poking at her left breast meant that it wasn’t lost. The bracelet her master gave her, however, was no longer on her wrist. She couldn’t feel the metal against her skin nor could she sense the crystals that were on it.

That bracelet just couldn’t fall off. Someone had to undo the latch and pry it off her unconscious body. Her left arm didn’t feel constricted at all, either, and as she pressed it against herself, she realized someone had also taken her dagger. She couldn’t feel her comcry, either.

But the mem is safe. She pushed down the bubbling anxiousness to focus. Her body felt heavy, but she was sure that was a side effect of the poisoned gas. There were no sharp pains or throbbing, at least while she was laying still. With her eyes closed, she managed to extend her energy around her.

There were no other immediate heartbeats nearby and she cracked an eye open. She frowned and turned her head. It was dark. She was either locked in a room or had been entombed alive.

That’s a dark thought, Tori. Focus. She slowly moved her arms. Like her head, they were a bit sluggish, but she could still move them. And my wrists are bound. Wonderful. A rough rope tied her wrists together, but it seemed that whoever tied her up didn’t put much effort. It was secure, but only wrapped around each wrist once. She could still move her hands freely or twist her arms.

Since she couldn’t touch anything in front of her, she turned and put her hands on the floor. She crawled forward, carefully dragging her hands and avoiding putting too much pressure on them at once in case there was anything sharp.

Safety first.

It didn’t take her long to run up against the wall. It was wood. She moved her hands along the wall and found that the wood paneling seemed to only go waist height, then it was what felt like cracked plaster. This wasn’t common in an everyday farmhouse. No light was coming through any cracks, so it was either night outside or she was in a room underground, or at least deep inside a house.

Tori braced herself against the wall as she tried to push herself into a standing position. Her legs also felt weighted and cumbersome to move, but at least she could move them. She stumbled along the wall, keeping her hands against it to try to get a layout of the room. It wasn’t very big. She didn’t think she could fit a bed from her dorm inside without it spanning the width.

There was nothing in the room, either. No chair, no boxes. Certainly, no weapons.

Tori closed her eyes and let out a low breath as she leaned back against the wall.

There were too many unknown details. How long was she unconscious? Where was she? Where was that idiot Gideon and Fabian? Her stomach knotted. Were they alive?

She shoved that thought out of her head. If she was alive, then Gideon and Fabian must’ve been alive. There was no reason to kill them, but let her live. Then again, she could also understand if Fabian were killed, but not Gideon.

Tori took another deep breath and slid to the floor. She couldn’t use up all her energy searching for them. It was best to prepare herself first.

“Dammit....” She gritted her teeth and tilted her head back against the wall. With her wrists bound together, she brought her hands to her chest and jostled her breasts and the unboned corset supporting them. Her crystal slipped between the loosened spaces and she untucked her shirt to let the crystal fall out. She managed to pick up the crystal, but grumbled about the inconvenience of trying to write with her wrists tied together.

The best she could do was write on the palm of her left hand. A simple energy gathering, sense enhancing, and strength increasing charm. She needed as much energy as she could gather and release in order to increase her odds of survival and finding Gideon.

When she finished, she did her best to pull up her pant legs and wrote more charms for speed, reactions, and most importantly, clearing her lungs and purging poison from her body. The details were complicated and she was writing in the dark as best as she could, but as she took deep breaths, she could feel her lungs lightening. As she stopped to take a breath, she grounded and released energy once more to check her surroundings.

She didn’t get far. A heartbeat was coming. Two of them. Tori wasn’t sure if they’d bypass her room or not, but she shoved the crystal back into her cleavage. She slumped back against the wall and acted limp and tired. A light came from cracks in the wall making the shape of a door. She adjusted herself to face it as she paid attention to the approaching heartbeats.

Two men who were rather large and dressed as commoners. Her current situation made fighting them a bad idea, as her body was still a bit heavy and she didn’t have a weapon. She also wanted to know what they planned to do with her. As long as they didn’t try to kill her then and there, she’d follow along until she found out more.

She took a deep breath to calm herself. The door was unlocked and thrown open. Tori moved her head, as if still heavily drugged.

“She’s almost awake. That’s good enough.” One man snorted and walked into the room. He grabbed Tori’s arm, and she held back a cry as he pulled her up. Her legs stumbled beneath her, and the man shook her. “Wake up! I knew we should’ve brought a bucket of water.”

“If she can’t walk, just carry her.”

“She’s heavier than she looks.”

Excuse me. The fuck.... Tori was heaved over a larger man’s shoulder and felt his shoulder dig into her stomach as they left the room. Tori opened an eye and saw that they were walking through a dilapidated hallway of what used to be a well-to-do home. Paint was flaking off the wall and a few wooden panels were missing here and there, but at one point, someone with money must’ve lived there.

She was carried up some steps to what appeared to be the ground floor, as there were windows. It was still dark outside and Tori hoped she’d only been asleep for a few hours and not days.

They turned a corner and one of the men knocked on the door.

“Come in,” a muffled male voice came from within.

If it’s Adrien, you will just have to kill him, Tori. He kidnapped you, you are well within your right. The door opened and she was taken into a room that smelled of coffee and pastries.

“Is she all right?” a worried voice asked.

Motherfucker. It’s Alessa. Tori was tossed on to a worn, threadbare sofa and hit the top of her head against a cushion arm rest. The sofa was old and there wasn’t much left of the cushion, but it hit her bun first, cushioning the blow. She still couldn’t help but let out a hiss and curl up, gritting her teeth as her arms rose to her head.josei

“Countess Guevera is awake,” a mocking voice asked from across the room. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, my lady.”

She hadn’t seen him yet, but already knew it was Adrien. She took a deep breath as she pressed against her hair with her hands. As she opened her eyes, they were immediately drawn to the familiar bracelet and dagger on the desk across the room. A small gold ring was with them, but her comcry wasn’t there. Was it left at the attack site?

Tori feigned indifference and tried not to appear interested in her things.

“Who are you?” The arrogant hated being forgotten the most. Tori's annoyed words earned her a small scoff.

“You’ve already forgotten? What a bad memory you have.”

“Do I have a bad memory or are you just forgettable?” Tori replied as she pushed herself into a seated position. “Keep in mind I am ranked third in the most prestigious secondary school in the empire, so that’s telling.” She looked at Alessa and feigned confusion. “Baroness Hart? What’s going on?” She looked down at her hands and then lifted them to show her the rope. “What’s this about? And where is the second prince?”

Alessa’s face had a mixture of pity and disappointment as she looked at Tori. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that, Countess.”

Tori squinted and turned her head. “Why not?”

Alessa crinkled her eyes and looked almost pained. “Because you’re a traitor.”

Tori stared at her for a moment and silently replayed her words in her head, unable to believe what she had just heard. “What.”

“Your influence is almost boundless, and you’ve been accumulating it since the beginning. From the Crown Prince and now Gideon, you’ve convinced them that you're trying to help the empire when really you’re manipulating some of the most powerful and influential people in the empire to gain their support,” Alessa rushed out her words and Tori dropped her jaw a bit.

“Support for what?”

“Foreign invasion,” Adrien, who was seated behind the old desk, rose to his feet. “With enough power and influence, you can gain access to highly sensitive information and use it against the empire.”

“I have no reason to do that,” Tori said with a deadpan look. She looked at Alessa. “You had a hand in attacking our carriage? Is that why you were so desperate to get the second prince to come have coffee with you? So you could kidnap him?”

“We didn’t kidnap him!”

“Did you leave him behind?”

“No-”

“Then you kidnapped him.”

Alessa lifted her hands to the side of her head. “Stop it! We didn’t kidnap him! We needed to save him from you!”

“So, you attacked his carriage knowing I was inside in order to separate us?” Tori replied in a dull voice. That didn’t add up. No one knew she was coming, as she invited herself just as Gideon left the inn. How could this be premeditated to catch her? She tilted her head to the side. “What do you plan to do now?” Her eyes drifted to Adrien. “Or should I ask you? You’re the one feeding her these lies, aren’t you.”

Alessa raised her chin with defiance. “He’s not feeling me anything. Adrien is an agent of the empire.”

Tori raised a brow. “Is that what he told you? You’ve questioned my actions, but you didn’t question his? No one knows where he came from or where he got his wealth. If anyone has a questionable background, it’s him. You should be wondering what’s his relationship with any foreign powers is. Specifically, the Duraga Federation.”

For a brief moment, she saw his eyes narrow before he recomposed himself. “The Duraga Federation? Where did you come up with that, Countess? I’ve been working with Soleil for years to keep them out.”

“Out of sight?” Tori raised her brows. “Were you not the one who helped von Dorn find a swordmaster who happened to be a former Duraga Federation soldier? And do you not have contacts with spice smugglers that have been using a tunnel to smuggle said spices across the border?”

“I have been monitoring suspicious people for years, trying to get to the source in order to stop them.” Adrien slammed his hands on the desk. “But you were involved with cutting those leads off before I could find the source!”

“Oh my God...what are you smoking?” The words left her lips before she could stop them. She turned towards Alessa. “You really don’t believe him, do you? Hart, I am the daughter of a marquis family. Do you know what happens to those who show the slightest hint of betrayal? I have no reason to hurt the second prince, either. Our mothers are best friends.”

“I also don’t understand how you could betray Soleil like this,” Alessa said in a breathy voice. “I always admired you, Countess. I didn’t want to believe it when Adrien told me.”

“But you do. How long have you swallowed what he told you? Is this why you spread rumors about me? And what about asking for help with your project? What was your goal then?” Tori watched some guilt cross Alessa’s face.

She turned her head away and shook it, as if shaking off Tori’s questions and any of her own. “I was hoping he was wrong, but the closer I got to you, the more it validated what he was telling me. You’re using your wealth and influence to get close to the imperial family. You’re a spy.”

“Are you freaking kidding me!” Tori barely held back her scream. “What proof do you have that I’m trying to betray the empire?”

“You’ve become very close to the Crown Prince,” Alessa told her. “It’s no secret that he is devoted and loyal to you. People say that you received your territory because of him. No one has received territory in over a hundred years.”

“No one has settled the delta in over a hundred years, either,” Tori snapped.

“The Crown Prince will make you his princess and when he becomes Emperor, you will become Empress. At that point, it’ll be too late to stop you.”

“To stop me from what? What exactly do you think is my diabolical master plan?” Tori demanded, throwing her hands in the air as dramatically as she could while they were bound.

“You’ll open the gates to start an invasion. We know you’re not working alone, and we know that you have contacts across the border to facilitate this, and are likely giving them state secrets you’re getting from the Crown Prince,” Alessa told her in a trembling voice. Her wet eyes met Tori’s dumbfounded ones, as if horrified at Tori’s alleged actions.

“I’m going to be honest with you,” Tori said in a dull voice. “Everything you are saying is insane. I don’t know who told you these lies-”

“Don’t try to convince me!” Alessa shouted and Tori raised a brow. “I know what you’ve been doing! I know you’re trying to manipulate the imperial family in order to get information and weaken the empire!”

If I could manipulate the imperial family, that idiot Gideon would never have come. “You’re going to believe Adrien Rosiek, a known sexual predator and despised merchant with a mysterious background?” Tori looked at her as if she were an idiot. “I know we’re not on the best terms, Hart, but really? You just believed him when he accused me of being a traitor and a spy?”

“I saved Adrien’s life!” Alessa lifted a hand to her chest and shook her head. “He has no reason to lie to me!”

“He has every reason to lie to you! He attacked the carriage of the second prince of Soleil!”

“I didn’t attack it. I saved him,” Adrien hissed with narrowed eyes. “From you and that would be knight of his.”

Tori gawked and turned her wide eyes to Alessa. “You think von Dorn is also a traitor?”

“What other reason would he have for his sudden change towards me?” Alessa asked. “Before, he was my friend, but after you got involved, he distanced himself from me. All my friends did! Dimitri, Fabian, Gideon, Montan! Even Constantine!”

Tori narrowed her eyes and her voice dripped with disgust. “Constantine was our friend first. You were merely an acquaintance. As for the others, I had no plans of befriending them at all. It just happened.”

“It’s a coincidence that the son of the Pope, the son of the former Prime Minister, and two princes all suddenly became your ‘friends’?” Adrien’s tone was mocking. “You expect us to believe this wasn’t planned?”

Tori rolled her eyes. “She just said that they were her friends first. Why don’t you apply the same accusation to her?”

“What could Alessa do? She is a struggling noble whose only goal is to pull her territory out of poverty,” Adrien said with a sneer. “But you...you have power and influence. You’re in the perfect position to gain access to the highest echelons of the empire and destroy it from within.”

“You know what, both of you seem to ignore the fact that with all my power and influence, there is no reason for me to throw it all away for foreign invasion. It’s stupid. I really can’t argue with you. It’s like talking to a rock. A really stupid rock.” Tori shook her head and crossed her legs as she leaned back on the couch. When it was clear she wasn’t going to continue speaking, Alessa stepped forward.

“Countess, I am thankful for all your help with the orphanage school,” Alessa said in a shaking voice. “But I can’t allow you to continue your betrayal of Soleil.”

“Alessa, I know the Countess has been kind to you, but you have to understand that all her kindness is for personal gain. If we let her continue, Soleil will be torn apart by her,” Adrien said in a gentle voice as he put his hand on Alessa’s shoulder. “We can’t let her go and alert the other traitors.”

Alessa shut her eyes and nodded with some reluctance. “I know.”

“You’re doing the right thing. You noticed everything she was doing, didn’t you? You know what she is capable of. That she can’t be trusted. Look how quickly she turned your friends, even the entire school, against you. But because of you, we were able to capture her before she did something terrible to the second prince. You not only saved him, but are saving Soleil,” Adrien seemed to reiterate with an accommodating smile. “You’re a hero.”

“Oh my God...” Tori let out an exasperated sigh.

“What will happen to her?” Alessa asked as she glanced at Tori and then looked at Adrien. She completely trusted him, and Tori shook her head.

“I’ve alerted my men to hold her. We can’t turn her in to the empire yet. The Emperor and his people are too fond of her and won’t believe us. We need to gather more evidence,” Adrien answered Alessa so sincerely, that if Tori didn’t know any better, she would’ve believed him, too.

“Then...Gideon?”

“We’ll bring him back to the Lunar Inn. The carriage was staged as an attack, so he’ll believe it when we tell him that we saved him, but the Countess and his knight went missing,” Adrien told her.

Alessa nodded and looked towards Tori with some uncertainty. “Will the Crown Prince search for her?”

“We have places to hide her,” Adrien replied. “They won’t find her until we gather enough evidence to prove she is a traitor.”

“All right.” Alessa chewed on her lower lip. “Then, I’ll leave this to you.”

“Continue ahead to see the caravan stop-”

“Hart, think this through,” Tori said in a low voice. She fixed her stern eyes on Alessa. “Look at what he’s done. Do you honestly believe that he’s acting in the best interest of Soleil? If you had any part in the second prince’s attack and abduction, you’d be lucky if all you’d lose is your title.”

Alessa took a deep breath and straightened her back. “Adrien warned me not to listen to you. I already know you’re good at talking. I can’t believe a word you say.”

Tori closed her eyes and drew in her lips. “You are being lied to and tricked into betraying your country.”

Alessa slowly shook her head and narrowed her amber eyes. “No. You’re the one who’s lying. Students from Sur said you were an arrogant, loud, and ill-mannered person, but something changed you when you started Lycée. Why were you suddenly so focused and amiable? You can’t have changed without reason.”

My soul switched bodies. That’s my reason. Tori took a deep breath. “And the best reason you could come up with is that I’ve become a spy and plan to destroy the empire from within?”

“Everything makes sense.”

“No, it doesn’t.” If she could rub her head to ward off her frustration, Tori would’ve. From what Alessa was saying, this was something she believed for a long time. Someone, probably Adrien, started brainwashing her early to get Alessa to believe in such a ridiculous conspiracy. Adrien supported her, entangled her emotionally, and gave her encouragement. Of course, Alessa would believe him over her no matter how far-fetched his lies were. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

“I’ve watched you for a long time. I know what you’re capable of.”

Tori slowly opened her eyes and met Alessa’s. “No, you don’t.”

Adrien stepped between them, breaking their intense gaze. “Alessa, you should go now. You need to get to the caravan stop by morning in order to have enough time to survey the site before you have to return to Horizon.”

She looked up at him and nodded. “Don’t tell Gideon I was here. He’ll be worried.”

“Of course,” Adrien assured her. He put a hand on the small of her back and led her towards the door. He looked over his shoulder as he ushered Alessa out and looked at the two men. “I’m going to escort the Baroness out of the village. See to it that the Countess is properly secured.”

The two men bowed their heads towards him, and the door closed.

Tori shot up from her seat, where she had been perched on the edge of the sofa with her legs bent, and darted to the desk. The two men had been standing across the room, by the door, and likely didn’t expect her to move so quickly after being drugged. If she hadn’t written a charm on herself, then she’d stumble at best, but she had her precious ultimate weapon crystal on her.

She snatched the bracelet off the desk and ran to the opposite corner. The two men laughed.

“You had a choice between the bracelet and the dagger, and you picked the bracelet? Are you mad?” The smaller of the two bellowed as he looked at her with mocking eyes.

Tori held their gazes and maintained her distance as her fingers went through the familiar crystals. She could identify them by touch as easily as by sight.

“It’s two against one. What can her crystals do?” The larger man smirked. He passed the desk and picked up the dagger. “This is expensive.”

“She’s the daughter of a marquis. She said so herself.”

The larger man laughed once more and looked at her with a predatory look. “I’ve never had the daughter of a marquis.”

Tori scoffed and poured energy into a crystal. She could feel it crackling with energy beneath her fingertips. “And you never will,” she said as she squeezed the crystal. “Tell me where the second prince and his knight are. I know you’re working for Rosiek and the Duraga Federation.”

“You’re not in any position to speak.” The smaller man frowned. “Since you’re so sure of who we are, we really can’t let you leave alive. None of you will leave here alive.”

Wait...is he going to monologue? Shit, the more information the better! “What are you talking about?” Tori asked as she pressed her back against the wall. “Are you going to take him outside the empire and ransom him? What are you going to do with me?”

“The attack was never meant for you; it was meant for the second prince. Finding you was a bonus. The loss of the second prince would be bad enough, but if it was caused by the daughter of one of the empire’s marches, it would devastate the empire’s foundation.”

“You’re going to frame me?” Tori wasn’t sure if she was surprised or confused.

“After we’re done playing with you, your body will be left near the second prince with evidence that you killed him.”

Tori squinted. “How did I kill him?”

“Arson.”

Her eyes widened. She concluded they were really bad kidnappers. “That is the most energy inefficient way to kill an individual! Can you get any more convoluted? How ridiculous-”

“Shut up!” The larger man took a step forward. “You don’t seem to understand the situation you’re in. You’re trapped here and no matter how good you are with a sword; you don’t have one and it’s two against one.”

Tori sneered. “Who said I need a sword? Let’s get one thing straight. I’m not trapped here with you two. You two are trapped here with me.”

She tossed the ice crystal onto the floor by their feet. The two men watched the small crystal bounce, but before they could laugh, the temperature around them dropped. The larger man dropped her dagger and wrapped his arms around his body.

“What-” Cracking was heard as frost covered their body and their skin grew stiff.

Tori stood in place, in her little corner of the room where the carnelian gripped in her hand kept her nice and warm. She watched the men freeze a bit slower than she’d like. Ice crystal was not liquid nitrogen, and it didn’t make the air as cold. She’d already experimented with that on the island and they just couldn’t get the slabs of meat to instantly freeze.

However, it was cold enough to leave the men unable to move in about a minute. Their bodies couldn’t even shiver.

Tori stepped forward, holding on to the carnelian and focusing on circulating the heat around her just enough so that she wouldn’t be hit with her own cold blast. She picked up her dagger and returned to the corner. She sat down with her knees in front of her and pinned her dagger between them, then sawed through the ropes.

She let out a relieved sigh as the ropes fell. She tugged them on and deactivated the ice crystal. She strapped her dagger sheath and bracelet back on before picking up her crystal. She took the hilt of her dagger and knelt down, knocking a set of keys hanging on one of their belts off.

Tori looked at the two frozen men.

Hearing was the last sense to leave when a person died, she recalled. She tilted her head, feeling no guilt for the two men as she stood in front of them, and spoke.

“I see no one told you I’m considered a crystal prodigy. Your intelligence is lacking.”

She walked to the door and closed her eyes as she stood beside it. The mem increased her energy and she spread it out in all directions over the ground, hoping to find a familiar heartbeat. She’d identified Fabian and Gideon before. She had to trust her ability.

Gideon was nearby, but wasn’t in the building. He was being held elsewhere. There were six people surrounding him, likely as guards.

Tori bit her lower lip. She couldn’t sense Fabian and for a moment, she felt dread that he no longer had a heartbeat. She gritted her teeth and pushed the thought out of her head. She had been in an underground cell earlier. Fabian might be, as well.

Instead of sending her energy around her, she sent it down and out. It was a bit more difficult to use mem energy through the ground as opposed to over the surface, through air, but it was possible. She silently called Fabian’s name, hoping to find him.

She sucked in a sharp breath and her eyes flew open. Her heart trembled and she grit her teeth. “Well...at least I found him, too....” She wrote a silence charm on her forearm and adjusted her dagger in her hand before shooting out the door and rushing down the path where they’d carried her.

Her footsteps were silent and her nervous breathing was unheard as she raced down the steps to the lower level. She concentrated and turned on all the light crystals in the narrow corridor before following the heartbeat to a wooden door. She grabbed the door handle and found it locked.

Obviously, Tori. She took the keys that were still cold in her hands and fumbled with the lock, trying key after key until she got to the seventh one. The door unlocked and as it opened, someone rushed out. Tori stepped to the side, narrowly avoiding Fabian trying to tackle her.

She grabbed her mem crystal and stopped the silence charm.

“Guevera?” Fabian choked out as he leaned against the opposite wall.

“Let’s go. I found the second prince,” she said. Fabian nodded and tried to follow her, but stumbled. She turned around and watched him brace himself against the wall as he panted. “You’re still poisoned?”

“Aren’t you?”

She grumbled. “Lift up your shirt.”

“What?”

“Just do it! The faster I can write a charm to clear your lungs and purge the poison, the faster you recover!” He grabbed the hems of his shirt and nearly ripped it off himself with an awkward motion. Tori wrote a charm over his chest, focusing on his lungs and increasing his speed, agility, and allowing him to draw energy to strengthen itself. The breathing purification was activated first and she instructed him to take big, deep breaths while she wrote the other charms. “There are a lot of people in this village, but not many in this house. Gideon’s in another building that’s guarded, but it’s close. They’re going to set it on fire and try to frame me as the murderer, so we need to get to him quickly.”

“Frame you? What’s going on?” Fabian seemed torn between looking confused and wary.

“Hart’s little merchant friend convinced her I’m a spy and wants to frame me for murdering the second prince to turn the imperial family against my family,” Tori said. She let out a little ‘tsk’. “They don’t know us very well.”

“Alessa’s involved?”

“He lied to her. I don’t know for how long, but she sincerely believes him. Enough to help him,” Tori said. She drew her hand away. “Ground and the rest of the charms will activate.”

“You wrote charms on me?”

She stomped her foot in frustration. “Von Dorn, I don’t have time to answer your questions! I’ll explain the details when we’re safe. Now, ground! We need to get Gideon!” Fabian did as he was told, and she watched his eyes widen. He looked at her with stunned disbelief and she turned around. “Come on! Try to keep up!”

He nodded and she could hear him dragging his feet behind her. She followed Gideon’s heartbeat and tried to avoid running into anyone. There weren’t others in the large house they were in, but there were outside.

The foreign heartbeats seemed to be patrolling, but the six around Gideon’s hadn’t moved away.

“Guevera! There’s smoke!” Fabian pointed towards the sky as they burst through a back kitchen door and saw black smoke floating into the night air against the orange-yellow light of flames.

Tori let out a low growl and quickened her speed. The smoke was in Gideon’s direction and her heart sank. The source began to appear as she rounded a wing of the large house and saw several men surrounding a small shed that already had flames on the roof.

“Hey! It’s that woman!” Several heads turned in her direction and the men who were watching the house burn began to shout.

Tori narrowed her eyes. She flipped through her bracelet and grabbed the terracrystal. She slammed her hand on the ground and watched as their feet sank into the shifting soil. Confusion filled the air as they struggled in place, only to sink deeper. They were up to their thighs with liquified soil before Tori hardened the dirt.

“I can’t get out! I’m stuck!” Someone screamed as Fabian stumbled to a stop behind her.

Tori grabbed his hand and gave him her dagger. “Deal with them before their yelling attracts attention. I’m going in!”

She didn’t know if it was the shock that caused Fabian to obey without question, but he grasped her dagger like a short sword and rushed forward. Tori turned her attention to the burning shed and grit her teeth.

She ran towards the door and got as close as she could before pressing the terracrystal on the ground once more and causing an earthen slab to shoot up and knock the door down. Another rose, a bit slower, and braced the roof.

Tori coughed as the smoke rushed out of the open door, and she collapsed the first earthen slap to try to smother the flames nearest it. If there was water, that would’ve been better, but it seemed like those men were going to let the shed, and Gideon inside, burn to the ground.

“Gideon!” she shouted over crackling wood and the roar of flames consuming them as she stood on the threshold. She manipulated the dirt to spread around and tried to smother as much of the flames as she could to avoid catching on fire when she entered. She could feel the heat against her face, leaving her wishing she had time to use the ice crystal better. “Gideon, you stupid bitch! Answer me!”

She heard a faint sound of coughing and turned her head towards it. There was too much smoke lingering, and she couldn’t see him clearly. She closed her eyes and isolated Gideon’s location with the mem. He was in the far corner of the room, as far away from the door as possible.

It was as if he were purposely making this difficult for her, and she swore she’d get him back for it.

Tori lifted her shirt over her nose, gripped her ice crystal to try to cool her body, and darted inside, heading straight for the young man kneeling on the floor and choking on smoke.

“Cover your mouth! I’ve got you!” Tori said as she grabbed his arm and slung it over her shoulder, thankful she’d written a charm to increase her strength. She grit her teeth and dragged him towards the door. “You’re lucky you’re Piers’ brother....”