“No,” I cried out as I watched Noel fall limply into the water. One of the knights that had been sent to protect us had just stabbed Noel through the chest, causing him to fall in.

  Why?

  Caleb had only asked the knight a series of innocent of questions before she suddenly went on the attack.

  Two of the other knights rushed over to her side, revealing their cleaver-like blades from underneath their cloaks. They raced past the first knight as they swung their weapons, aiming for Chris and Luke.

  Luke jumped back from the knight’s slash aimed at him while Chris caught the blade of the other knight's attack with the tip of his lance that he re-summoned.

  Caleb ran towards the attacking knights but was caught in the crosshairs of the fourth knight who wielded a bow. The bow knight let loose an arrow that ended up piercing Caleb through the back of his leg. Caleb collapsed immediately but continued crawling over towards the others, firing a massive stone he manifested into existence at the bow knight who dodged it by stepping to the side. The bow knight marched over with his bow and struck Caleb in the back of his head with it, ending Caleb’s struggle.

  While Luke and Chris continued to clash with the two cleaver-wielding knights, the knight who had stabbed Noel with her rapier slowly began approaching Mira.

  Zoe had to hold Kat back, stopping her from running over to Mira’s side. Tears began running down Kat’s cheeks. Zoe covered Kat’s eyes with her palms, wiping away Kat’s tears as Kat sobbed quietly.

  The bow knight that defeated Caleb closed in on the rapier knight and Mira.

  “Guys, how do I use my weapon?” Mira called out to the boys.

  “Hell if I know,” Chris said as he deflected his opponent's blade.

  “It's a bow isn’t it?” Luke asked in between parries. “Just pull the string or something.”

  As if sensing danger, the knight with the rapier lunged with her weapon, charging forward with all the reach her arms offered and all the speed her legs could muster, all in an effort to close the gap.

  Mira pulled the string with all her might as the knight tried knocking the bow away. Mira unleashed a giant blast of air from her bow, disarming the knight and sending her crashing into the crystal ceiling. Though Mira had defeated her opponent, the burst of air had created a tremendous amount of blowback, which sent her crashing into the crystal cavern’s walls as well.

  “Mira,” Chris yelled, he pushed his opponent away with a swing of his lance. He created stones out of thin air and sent them flying towards his opponent. Though the stones weren’t enough to pierce through the knight’s armor, let alone kill, one of his larger stones had managed to strike the knight in the head, knocking them out.

  Chris then charged at the bow knight, lifting his spear to try and pierce the knight through their armor. The bow knight suddenly threw a glass vial, filled with some kind of sparkly substance, towards Chris. The moment the vial made contact with the ground, a large red smoke cloud appeared, enveloping itself around Chris. Chris took a series of pained breaths. He stumbled around until his body gave into the effects of the red cloud, his spear dispersing into a thousand particles as he collapsed.

  Seeing the dropped rapier nearby, the bow knight picked it up and held it over Chris’ body.

  A loud crash echoed throughout the cavern. With the force from a massive fireball, Luke had sent his opponent flying towards the bow knight. The bow knight dodged his armor-charred ally easily.

  Luke followed up his failed attack by blasting two raging fires from the soles of his feet, burning away his footwear, in order to send himself flying towards the bow knight. He leapt with his blade readied, his form perfect for launching a piercing strike. Luke landed on his bare feet before throwing a fiery thrust of his sword at the bow knight.

  The bow knight raised their rappier, tapping and holding the crystal at the end of the pummel. As soon as Luke got close, all of the flames he had conjured with his sword quickly abandoned him as they transferred from his blade to his opponent’s rapier.

  As the blades were about to clash, the bow knight released their grasp on the crystal, causing all of the absorbed flames to shoot out in a spiral. The spinning flames hit Luke directly in the chest and sent him tumbling across the cavern.

  The bow knight then turned their attention towards us, with Kat being the main focus of their gaze.

  I stepped forward while Zoe pulled Kat behind her, blocking Kat from the bow knight’s view. I knew that my magic was no match for their flames attacks, but I still had to do whatever I could to protect those behind me. I expected the bow knight to face me, instead, they ignored me.

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  The bow knight turned away from us and continued walking towards Mira. They knelt down beside her, placing the back of their hand against her cheek. They picked her up and began heading towards the exit, carrying Mira over their shoulder. As I watched them leave, my gaze landed upon the unconscious bodies of everyone that had been fighting so bravely just moments ago. They all laid silently on the cool crystal floor.

  They had known it was an uphill battle, but they hadn’t given up. And neither will I.

  I stepped forward and raised my hand, aiming at the back of the bow knight’s head. “Torius,” I chanted.

  I tried picturing the simplest and fastest form water could take that I could think of.

  Something fast and something small, come on, think.

  It was then when I heard my answer. I heard the sound of water droplets falling from the cavern’s ceiling and plopping into the water basin. A falling raindrop. As I concentrated my magic, I could feel the magical energy of the cavern itself guiding me. The crystals that normally slept dormantly in this sacred place were reacting to my magic and reaching out to me, influencing the shape and form of the raindrop I had begun conjuring.

  As I allowed the cavern’s influence to flow into my mind, I was given a small moment of brevity in my concentration of thoughts. With that moment granted to me, I found myself thinking back to that night. The night Noel had taken me to skip rocks.

  I pulled my arm back, the water-drop I was controlling grew cold, condensing and hardening itself until it was no longer water, but ice. Hovering over the palm of my hand was a water raindrop I had created and turned into a chunk of ice.

  Keeping the bow knight’s head as my target, I swung my arm forward. The ice flew fast and strong, striking the bow knight in the back of the head and knocking off their helmet.

  I felt sick as I recognised the knight’s familiar red hair that now greeted me. He slowly turned around, his wicked eyes staring directly at me. It was Kenneth and he was watching with eyes full of fury.

  “Kenneth?”

  Kenneth fumed his nostrils at me before shaking his head. “If you had just let me walk away with mine, I would have let you walk away with your’s.”

  Kenneth lifted his arm, aiming for me in-between his fingers. “Flador.” An arrowhead of fire formed in front of his palm. He let the flames grow until the arrow eclipsed his entire hand. I raised my arms, ready to cast a shield of water to snuff it out.

  Kenneth grinned as he quickly turned his hand away from my direction, releasing his spell towards someone else before I could react.

  Only managing to slightly turn my head, I caught a glimpse of the spell as it rushed past me. His target had never been me, but rather those behind me.

  His spell struck Zoe. She crashed into Kat, causing both of them to fall to the ground.

  I wanted to scream, but a follow-up flame forced me to stay focused on Kenneth.

  “Torius,” I managed to shout as his flame reached me, causing a sudden explosion of steam. Though I had managed to block most of it, the heat from the steam managed to scald my hands. I slumped down onto my knees from the pain.

  As I struggled to cool my hands with another water spell, Kenneth placed Mira gently on the floor. He muttered a few words to her before approaching me. He glanced around, analyzing the unmoving bodies of his people. His eyes lingered on the girl Mira had sent flying earlier.

  “To think, Alice, you could have also been by my side like them. If only you hadn't become the oracle of the heroes.”

  Kenneth bent down, grabbing me by my wrist, dragging me towards the basin of water.

  “Oww.” His grip was strong and unwavering, it was as if a wild dog was clamping its jaw onto my arm, refusing to let go of their new toy.

  “Though I suppose you did your job, you led the heroes here after all. You helped them increase their capabilities.” He turned his head to look at Mira. “Her capabilities.”

  We were now on the edge of the cavern floor that surrounded the pool of water the heroes had thrown themselves into earlier. Kenneth held my face inches away from the water, forcing me to stare at the dark abyss.

  “I suppose the only fitting reward would be for me to now lead you to your gods. May you and that hero never be a thorn in my side again.” Kenneth pulled me by my hair, yanking my head towards him in order to be face to face with him once more. He smiled with glee. “I’ll make sure your family joins you real soon.” With those final words from his lips having served as his farewell, Kenneth threw me into the water and I began sinking until I could see nothing but darkness.

  I struggled to hold my breath as I sank, my thoughts racing as fast as my heart. All I could do was close my eyes and hope that my end would be quick and painless. Old memories of my family and friends began flooding in as the cold water around me kept pushing me farther and farther down into the abyss.

  In my final moments, some of my most cherished memories played for me one last time in my mind.

  The day my mother and I had baked a cake together for Liam's birthday.

  The day Father had handed Kat to me, having just finished counting all ten of her tiny fingers and ten little toes, when she had just been born.

  The time my uncles ordered Caleb and Mabel, freshly knighted at the time, to carry me on their shoulders as weights for their morning marches when I had wanted them to play horsey with me.

  The day Father Albert introduced Zoe to me and I asked her to become my very first friend.

  Lastly, the look of surprises Luke, Chris, and Mira had when they first arrived in my world. They all had been standing in awe while a certain someone had been laying down, studying me in a daze with his alluring grey eyes.

  It was as I thought of him that I felt a sudden warm embrace tear through the frigid water around me. I opened my eyes to see that there was another hand holding onto my own, a bigger and warmer hand. That hand was then illuminated by a crystal blue light that began glowing from my gemstone. I turned my head as I felt a soft bubble of water brush against my ear. Holding me close from behind with a pair of glowing blue eyes, was Noel. He smiled at me, pulling me around to face him as he lifted me into his arms and swam us both, at impossible speeds, back up the chamber of water. I held onto his chest, shutting my eyes until I no longer felt any of the water around us and instead felt the cool air of the cavern once again.

  I opened my eyes, Noel’s peaceful gaze was looking down at me as I felt his grip tighten around me before he slowly lowered me onto my feet.

  “Noel?”

  “Sorry I took so long.”