“I don’t want to fight you!” I scream at the top of my lungs, trying everything in my power to get through to Prisha as I dodge her attacks.

  “After what you did, I have to punish you.” Prisha responds as she swings a chair leg at my head, I duck just moments before it smashes into my head.

  I don’t want to hurt her, and if I use any magic on her I’m worried I will crush her. I know she is quite skilled at magic herself, but I don’t know that she can defend against crushing gravity.

  “Prisha’s fist came down on James with the weight of twenty grown men.” Prisha utters as she swings the chair leg again, and again I duck out of way. The moment it passes me, her other fist collides with my stomach in an uppercut that feels like I was punched by a ton of different people at once. I shoot toward the ceiling, slam into it, and then back onto the floor. I let out a loud groan as the floor cracks under my weight.

  How is she doing this? I never took the time to ask what kind of magic Prisha used, I just know that she did and was good at it. I suppose this is what I get for being self involved.

  Madison wipes the tears from her face as she climbs to her feet. It appears that Prisha’s spell has worn off.

  “Her magic works similar to Dardania’s except she uses phrases to make very specific things happen.” Madison croaks, her voice scratchy from crying hysterically.

  “How the hell do you stop that?” I cry out in frustration. Literally though, how do you stop that? The sky is the limit for what she can do. Like, can she order my heart to stop? That I have forgotten how to breathe? What all can she do? Since the magic itself isn’t physical, the only way to stop it is to stop her.

  “Madison s—” Before Prisha can say her next spell, Madison slams her staff into Prisha’s face and sends her hurling into the bar.

  “Oh my.” The woman says as she covers her mouth while looking at Prisha laying at her feet. “I didn’t think you’d actually attack her. Color me surprised. I guess the love for one’s own life out weighs the love they have for one another.”

  Madison grips her staff tightly in her hand and the air begins to crackle. I look down at my arm and notice that all the hair is starting to stand on end. Madison’s hair was slowly starting to float up into the air. The crackling in the air gets even louder.

  “Oh shit.” I start to walk backwards away from Madison.

  “Fuck.” Trevor says before turning and running at full speed out of the pub. The rest of us don’t have the strength to move that fast.

  “Um, what are you doing?” The woman asks, as she ducks behind Prisha who was standing again.

  “Get behind me.” I say to Avis and Dardania as we back into the corner. I pull upon all the surrounding energy around us and create a wall of gravity surrounding us in hopes that I can redirect the lighting.

  “Ahh!” Madison screams as lightning shoots out of her staff in every direction in the pub, she really didn’t hold back with this one.

  A bolt of lightning shoots straight towards us but right before it hits us, it runs into a dense barrier and branches in two and hits the wall where it ripples outward.

  “And the lightning just a barely missed Prisha.” Prisha says nonchalantly as the lightning bends around her abnormally. Madison’s eyes widen with surprise as she lets out a primal roar.

  “Why haven’t we seen this before?” I ask as I stare at Prisha who from my perspective seems entirely unstoppable. I’m the one who is supposedly part of the all powerful Major Arcana and yet she is running circles around us.

  “She doesn’t like violence. Her mother is the one who was much more extreme, she on the other hand is a pacifist. She wants to help, not hurt.” Dardania says as she climbs over the burn mark on the floor and out of the corner.

  Madison stumbles slightly backwards.

  “I guess I shouldn’t expect anything less from the daughter of the woman who blew up a church to make a point.”

  “She is the woman who taught me magic.” Prisha steps away from the bar and slowly walks towards Madison. “And the Major Arcana are the reason she’s dead.”

  “You don’t believe that.” Madison says as her mouth falls open. “You don’t. It’s that witch making you say it.”

  “Not how my magic works.” The woman stands up, grabs a piece of food off the bar and throws it into her mouth. “This is all her.”

  Madison stares at Prisha as she gently shakes her head.

  “She thought that if she could hurt the Order enough that the Major Arcana would come through and topple them. That they would come out of hiding and destroy everything evil in this world. Yet, they didn’t. Not a single one of them raised a single finger to stop the Order. She died because all of you are cowards.”

  Prisha slowly starts walking towards Madison who is glued to the spot, tears in her eyes, and mouth hanging open.

  “Where are our saviors? Where is the rest of the Arcana? Why haven’t they come to save us.”

  “They’re right here.” I say as I swing my fist and slam it into the side of Prisha’s face causing her to stumble backwards. I didn’t put any additional force behind it, I don’t actually want to hurt her. This other woman though, her I do want to hurt.

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  I turn towards the woman who is still sitting on the bar snacking on some food that was sitting next to her. She couldn’t be bothered to even care about what was going on in front of her.

  “Hypergrav-” I begin but she puts up her finger.

  “Uh-uh.” She wags her finger as me as two members of the Minor Arcana draw in closer to her. As long as she has these people on her strings, there isn’t anything I can do to stop her.

  “Maybe learn a new spell.” She chuckles as she shovels a handful of food into her mouth.

  “Prisha, I’m sorry I couldn’t save your mother. I’m sorry.” Madison collapses to her knees and begins sobbing, but not once does she look away from Prisha.

  “Save your breath, I don’t care about your pathetic apology.” Prisha rubs her jaw where I punched her as she slowly walks towards Madison. She kneels down in front of Madison.

  “Suddenly, Madison forgot to breathe.” Prisha mumbles mere inches away from Madison. Madison begins to gasp for air as she starts to claw at her throat. No matter how hard she tries to breathe, she is unable to do so.

  “No!” Dardania screams and begins sprinting towards Madison. A blur followed by a loud boom follows and Trevor appears in front of Dardania, stopping her movement.

  “I thought you were worried about me.” Trevor swings his fist at Dardania who leans back to avoid being hit. At the same time Avis kicks his arm in the same direction Trevor was punching causing him to fall off balance. Dardania leans back forward and pushes her hand against Trevor’s back.

  “Boom!” A micro explosion occurs on Trevor’s back and launches him across the bar. Dardania continues rushing towards Madison, a gust of wind following in her wake. Without missing a beat, she kicks Prisha out of the way and slides down onto her knees in front of Madison.

  “Breathe.” Dardania says to her, but Madison’s eyes start to bulge as her face starts turning purple. “Breathe!”

  Madison shakes her head and continues to claw frantically at her throat. I don’t know what to do. I stand frozen to the spot, unable to do anything. Gravity won’t help anything. I once again am useless.

  “Breathe!” Dardania’s voice booms like a sonic wave, the ground vibrates beneath us, and her word echoes around the room with the same essence of a spell. Madison takes a deep breath and collapses into Dardania’s arms and passes out. I watch with bated breath until I was sure she was breathing.

  Dardania gently runs her fingers through Madison’s hair a few times before gently laying her down on the floor. She slowly stands and turns towards Prisha.

  “She is your friend.”

  “She’s a monster.” Prisha responds casually.

  “She is your friend. You are under a spell. Snap out of it.” Dardania slowly starts walking towards Prisha, her face was terrifyingly blank.

  “Hello, I’m right here. Do you just not give a shit about me now?” Trevor says as he jumps back to his feet and wipes dirt of himself. I turn my attention towards him, and then back to Dardania who is still slowly walking towards Prisha.

  “See, James hasn’t perfected a direct attack yet. I have.” Dardania sharply turns her head towards the woman sitting on the bar. “Whiplash.”

  The woman’s head whips backwards, slams into the bar with a loud thud, and she falls to the floor unconscious.

  Prisha takes a step forward before falling to her knees, she covers her mouth as tears well up.

  “Madison.” Prisha’s voice is shaky as she crawls towards Madison. “Oh my gods, I’m so sorry.”

  I wanted to focus on what was happening with them, but I couldn’t let myself get distracted. I did that once and it didn’t end well, take Avis and my messed up arm as an example.

  I turn back towards Trevor but he wasn’t there anymore. I frantically look around trying to find any trace of him but nothing. My heart starts to pound in my chest, so much so that I could hear it in my ears. Slowly a lump starts to form in my throat, where is he? If I don’t have eyes on him that means he could do anything at a moment’s notice, perhaps even kill one of us.

  Madison is currently indisposed of, and I’m pretty sure Prisha is as well. They are huddled onto the floor right now not really doing much moving. Dardania has regained her composure and was ready to fight now, but our enemy was missing. I don’t like this. I don’t like it one bit.

  “Huh.” I hear a gasp from a softer voice from the direction of the bar, I turn to see Trevor holding the woman by the throat with his head leaning over her shoulder whispering in her ear.

  “Please, just let me go.” She cries as she tries to pull away from Trevor but she can’t even cause him to budge. Tears are gushing down her face, streaks of mascara slowly start to form on her cheeks. This is not the same woman who appeared so powerful moments ego. Instead she looks terrified, like she is one step away from death.

  Trevor again whispers something in her ear. She shakes her head ferociously in response.

  “Do it!” Trevor screams as he presses his fingers into her throat. Avis takes a step forward towards Trevor.

  “You move and I crush her windpipe.” Trevor spits and Avis instantly freezes. Like Dardania said earlier, I have no way of attacking him. I can only adjust the gravity in a certain area, not on a specific person. This magic is useless. When the time came to actually fight, it was useless and everyone else had to help me. What am I even good for at this point?

  “Come to me.” The woman cries out. It doesn’t take long to hear footsteps behind us. We all turn to see a massive mob of people slowly start file into the pub, with Tate leading the charge. It was all members of the Minor Arcana. Prisha raises her head to look out at her friends before her, her face falls.

  We can’t fight them. There are two many, and even so, they are the people who have helped us. The ones who healed Avis, helped us get a carriage to Sirius, helped Prisha when her mother died, and so much more. How could we possibly fight these people?

  “Now, tell them to kill themselves.” Trevor whispers softly.

  “No!” Prisha cries out as she tries to scramble to her feet.

  “Love doesn’t work that way. I can’t make someone kill themselves.” The woman closes her eyes tightly as though she was trying to not look at the sight before her.

  “Oh? No one ever kill themselves cause of the actions of someone they love?” Trevor inquires.

  “That’s an act of depression, not love. Love may have been the cause for the depression, but it’s not the reason for the suicide.”

  “Tricky, tricky.” Trevor slightly squeezes her throat, she screams out in agony and he lessons his grip. “How should we go about this then? How does one get the Major Arcana to kill the Minor Arcana, or vice versa?”

  “Or maybe stop acting like a bitch and kill us yourself.” Dardania spits at him as she slowly starts walking toward the bar. “Strength, clearly you don’t have it. Otherwise why the shadows? Why the charade? Why all the pomp? Cause you’re a coward. You may have physical strength and the desire to destroy us, but that’s where it ends. You’re too big of a coward to just kill us yourself.”

  Trevor squeezes the woman’s throat again.

  “Kill the Major Arcana and those who call them friends.” The woman says softly, but her voice feels like it travels far beyond just through the air. It feels as though it vibrates into your brain, and deep into your soul. She didn’t say anything that affects me directly, but I could feel the affect of her magic nonetheless.

  I turn to see the Minor Arcana all raising their weapons, or starting to chant, or beginning to walk towards us.

  Trevor takes the woman and throws her to the side.

  “The Minor Arcana all stop moving.” Prisha says through bated breath. Everyone in the room stops moving. Prisha winces in pain as she falls to her knees, “I can’t hold them like this for very long.”

  “Die.” Dardania says through gritted teeth.