Artemis was awakened by screaming as elves and beastites scrambled from the hole. He headed over to see what was going on. Artemis put his head over the hole and could more clearly than ever hear the groans of the creatures on the other side.

  “We have to act now!” Tyrnal screamed. “The creatures have started to crack the glass wall with their constant banging. No time to make the door, we need to get in there and then have them collapse the first hole and hopefully when they come in with the second one we will be safe and have some supplies.”

  “Fuck,” Suntiana yelled. “Alright everyone in the exploration group grab your weapons we are headed in.”

  Artemis, not missing a beat, grabbed one of the pickaxes from the miners and jumped into the hole. He was followed shortly by the group.

  “Lyna’s group was all shouting about glory and the afterlife, it wasn’t really helping relax the nerves but at least they knew the reality of the situation,” Tyrnal thought.

  Some other people from the dig crew all jumped into the other hole and started making noise to draw the attention away from the main group. Hoping to give them a chance to get in without being overwhelmed. Artemis could hear them yelling and banging and noticed how the creatures on the other side of the glass moved quickly away.

  “Well, it’s now or never,” Artemis said, psyching himself up to breaking the wall. He swung his pickaxe as hard as he could. He cracked the wall where the creatures had already fractured it. With a crash of glass as it started to rain down, everyone piled into the building just in time to have a mountain of dirt fall in behind them.

  The group had almost no time to co-ordinate their plan. Suntiana took off running, sort of flying with one of the creatures hot on her heels. Artemis tried to go after her but was blocked by a group of the creatures running at him.

  The creatures were disgusting, from what Artemis could see in the flickering light of the room they were like hairless Apites. All grey and discoloured, their faces gaunt and malnourished looking (even for creatures on this island), they wore weird clothes that looked like the elven armour used on the mainland and they had crazed expressions on their faces.

  Not wanting to wait and see if they would attack first, Artemis swung his pickaxe and nailed one of the creatures in the chest. He went to pull out the pick but it was stuck, held in place by the creature's strange clothing. Artemis kicked at the now limp creature from the end of his pickaxe at his companions. Some of them stopped and to Artemis’s horror started to eat their fallen. Artemis, not having more than a moment to think on this started swinging his pickaxe now aiming for their heads wanting to see if it would be easier to get them off his weapon. To his surprise and pleasure, it was, one quick swing to the head the creatures were down and food for some of their friends. This was helping to thin out the group around Artemis as he continued to fight.

  Artemis was having issues manoeuvring around the room, it was cluttered with what he thought were chairs, but they were on wheels? What kind of strange creatures had come up with this idea? Artemis wondered how something so impractical had ever been made. There were also these segmented walls standing all-round the room, some toppled into the clear walkways by the creatures as they charged at him. There were desks but not made of wood like the ones he was used to seeing on the mainland. The desks were metal and much lighter he found as he kicked them to the sides making more room to fight. These metal towers standing as tall as an average Beastite were standing all over the room as well, some with their drawers hanging out spilling their contents all over others were on top of some of the creatures who appeared to have been trapped under them. Whether this had happened on purpose or by accident Artemis did not care it just meant less creatures for him to fight.

  ***

  Rothar and the Bearites were stuck back at the opening where they had come from. Surrounded by an ever-growing horde of these creatures Rothar and the bearites swung wildly hitting as many of the creatures as possible. These creatures, fast as they were, were not all that organized. It was almost as though they were simply responding to what sounds were being made by the group. No one noticed this however, they were too busy fighting for their lives. Rothar was doing his best to strike at the creatures, but his weapon kept getting deflected by their strange clothes.

  “The Head, aim for the head!” Rothar heard Artemis bellow from across the room.

  Rothar swung his daggers and connected with the head as soon as he pulled them out the creature fell at his feet and was immediately set upon by other creatures. As Rothar tried to clear a path around the corpses and creatures he heard a Bearite scream out in pain. It was a familiar voice. Rothar turned to see Quade being piled on by more and more of the creatures all biting and clawing at him. They were tearing him apart.

  “What the fuck is Quade doing down here?!” Rothar thought. “He was supposed to stay up in the cave.”

  Rothar made his way back running as fast as he could over to Quade. Rothar noticed Lyna was doing the same thing, but she was doing a much better job. Throwing the creatures by their heads into the air and further into the horde. This distracted more of the creatures as they had an opportunity to feed now.

  Lyna reached Quade first, she let out a deafening roar. It was full of pain and anger Rothar knew by the sound it wasn’t good. Rothar was getting swallowed up by the hoard as it kept pushing towards the group. Rothar had to change his tactics and focused on fighting off the creatures and hoping Lyna could protect Quade.

  Lyna having reached Quade and having thrown most of the creatures off him realized Quade had fallen protecting Tyrnal. She was far too late to help Quade. She looked down in horror as Quade had been ripped apart, his guts being pulled from his body through several hand sized holes in his body. His chest had been ripped apart and she could see his slow beating heart. He was coughing up blood from his broken muzzle as his jaw flapped as he tried to talk. Lyna reached down and held him, as more creatures made their way towards them. The other bearites surrounded Lyna and Quade.

  Quade seeing Lyna he began to cry, he thought he was in trouble for coming down without telling her. He had only wanted to help prove to Lyna he wasn’t a cub who needed to be protected.

  Lyna picked up Quades head gently and held it in her arms. “It’s okay Quade. You fought well, you made me proud,” Lyna said, holding back her tears and trying her best to smile. “Rest now young warrior, your journey is over. Your memory will live on forever with our people…”

  Lyna felt Quades head go limp in her arms. She let out another roar, this one was filled with rage and sorrow. She swore to herself then and there to take as many of these creatures with her as possible. She stood up and pushed her way to the front of the Bearites and started cracking the creature's heads with her massive paws. The creatures were dropping almost as fast as they could come at her. She was being bit but didn’t care. The Bearites around her were being overwhelmed, Rothar had lost one of his daggers and was being pushed back into a corner. Artemis had broken his pickaxe and had been backed against a row of the fake walls where he couldn’t get out from. Artemis looked around and just prayed that the other group wouldn’t come in looking for them.

  A flash of red flooded the room, followed by a high-pitched squeal. More creatures dropped from the ceiling and started to swivel in place. Artemis and the others caught off guard by the squealing sound all fell to their knees covering their ears as the pain was too much to handle. Next, they heard buzzing as though a swarm of bees had been released. Artemis dropped even lower to the ground. After several moments had passed the buzzing stopped.

  Artemis looked up to see carnage like he had never seen before. The creatures had all been killed and the creatures that had come down from the ceiling were just hanging there lifeless. He looked around taking in the room and trying to figure out what had happened. He noticed Rothar, Lyna and the Bearites were all huddled with Tyrnal.

  Before he could make a move towards them, he heard a scream coming from the other room. Artemis had forgotten for a moment that Suntiana had been chased off by one of them. Everyone came running towards Artemis and in the direction of the scream. As Artemis turned towards the scream he caught a glimpse of their fallen comrade. Artemis and everyone burst into the room Where Suntiana was and saw she had caught one of the creatures.

  “How did you manage that?!” Tyrnal exclaimed.

  “I don’t know one moment it was chasing me and the next it was locked in that room. Once it was locked in that room the lights changed colours and this high-pitched squealing started.” Suntiana said, sounding exhausted and confused.

  Tyrnal explained how that happened when more creatures had appeared and took care of all the ones that were attacking them. Looking more confused than ever they all looked at the room with the creature in it. Tyrnal noticed the terminal and the blinking lights whipped out one of his books. He knew that there was something about that in there.

  Success! He had found the passage, completely ignoring everyone else he moved towards the terminal. He looked at the strange device before him and compared it to images in the book and the instructions written in it. As he looked up what the flashing lights and strings of words meant in the book, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

  “Should you be messing with this?” Suntiana asked with a nervous look on her face.

  “It will be fine, I will make sure not to do anything until I am sure of what it says in the books,” he said frustratedly as he placed a book on the control panel.

  With a click they heard a crackle as a voice appeared to come from nowhere.

  “Re-initializing systems. Scanning for functioning systems. BZT… Error… systems not functioning at proper capacity... BZT… life support is not a priority… BZT… rearranging system list to reprioritize life sustaining systems. Error detected in contamination room. BZT… scanning lifeform… ERROR.... BZT… incompatible DNA detected. ZZT… DNA partial match to… ZZT… Initiating resequencing… BZT… systems will restart in 60 seconds.” The voice said. “60…”

  Confused by all the noise made by the system, Tyrnal postulated to the group that it could be the language used in the text he couldn’t translate. The group looked up to see a light moving its way up from the bottom of the room where the creature was contained.

  ***

  Ashera felt this pulse coming from the beams moving up her body. What did the system mean by incompatible DNA? She would have to check the logs to find out once she was out of there and dealt with the group out there. Her muscles started to feel less tense, as the beam passed over them. She could feel them relaxing and swelling back to a normal state. The beams passed over her head and the fog, fatigue and everything else from earlier started to lift. She had been in a state of incomplete stasis. For how long she didn’t know. She could move her body of her own free will again. She bounced up and down looking at her feet as though she was seeing them move for the first time.

  “It worked! I don’t know what button they pressed but it worked! I can move,” She thought excitedly.

  She looked up as her vision cleared, she noticed there were mostly Druid Folk standing in the control room apart from one elf. What the fuck is an elf doing in this building? Why weren’t the others attacking him?

  “...5,4,3,2,1 Commencing reboot,” the system called over the intercom.

  Click, the door to Ashera’s room unlocked and the lights all went out. She scrambled for the door wanting to get out before it locked once again. On the other side she went for the emergency weapon but couldn’t find it. She moved quickly and quietly to the room where everyone else was.

  Artemis smelled something as Ashera entered the room. It was like the things that had attacked them but different enough that he couldn’t be sure. In the dark he could make out the shapes of everyone else there and noticed a figure standing by the door. He quickly stepped between everyone and the figure.

  “Something else is in here with us guys,” Artemis said staring into the dark.

  “System reboots successful. Beginning to bring sub systems back online,” the system proclaimed.

  They felt this wind coming from the ceiling. It was cool and pleasant. It took the stainless from the air. The lights all flickered and came back to life. Taking them by surprise as they looked around for the torches only to see the light was coming from squares in the ceiling. They heard a voice, and all spun around in the direction of Ashera. She was trying to be non-threatening. She had her hands up in front of her, palms up showing she had nothing concealed and was speaking to them.

  Lyna and Rothar stepped up beside Artemis and took up defensive positions. They had never seen a creature like her before it was built like an elf but was missing some of the key features, she didn’t have the proper ears for one thing and she was short even by a Wood elves standard.

  “I mean you no harm please tell me why you aren’t arresting that elf,” Ashera said to the group.

  Suntiana looked at the others to see if any of them understood her, they were all as confused as she was. She was clearly not an elf now the group seemed to all decide, she wasn’t speaking any language they understood. At least she wasn’t chasing her anymore and groaning Suntiana thought. As Ashera moved forward Artemis’s fur bristled and he bared his fangs, he put his hands up expecting a fight. Rothar and Lyna did the same, hoping Artemis was wrong but wanting to be prepared just in case.

  Ashera stopped moving forward when she saw this, she was now more confused. “Why are you working with the Elves?”

  Still getting no response from them at all. She had an idea and hoped it would work.

  “I am Ashera, who are you? What are you doing here and why do you have an elf with you?” She asked them in Elvish.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  This got an immediate response from them. They looked at each other wondering what to say. Tyrnal stepped forward pushing his way past Artemis and the others and was about to begin speaking when he was cut off by the system.

  “Time since the last reboot 2987 years 285 days 3 hours and 29 minutes. Issue new commands at the terminal.” The system said then fell quite again.

  Ashera went pale and felt faint. Almost 3000 years had passed since the bombs had dropped. This had to be some kind of mistake Ashera thought. She wanted to curl up on the floor and weep, but she didn’t want to appear weak in front of these strangers who could be hostile towards her.

  “I'm Tyrnal, this is Suntiana, Rothar, Artemis and this is Lyna and her clan. What does that mean? What are you? You don’t look like any species we know.” Tyrnal berated Ashera with a list of questions.

  Ashera was surprised, the language this Tyrnal was speaking sounded like elvish, but had a foreran dialect to it. She wondered how much the language had changed over the apparent centuries.

  walking past everyone and towards the terminal, Ashera said. “I’ll answer your questions and then hopefully you can answer mine. I’m surprised you don’t know ‘what’ I am as humans are as common as elves in this place. I would especially expect an elf like yourself to know that. There must be a glitch in the system somewhere. If it’s true though I assume we lost the war… humans must now be enslaved by you gods damned elves.”

  Tyrnal went up to Ashera excitedly and got a closer look at her. He looked her up and down moving around her. She was short, he guessed she was 1.5-1.6 meters tall. She was slender but well proportioned, she could give an elf a run for their money Tyrnal thought. Her face was cute, her lips were small and she had wrinkles that indicated she was always smiling. Her eyes were a beautiful grey colour, they almost looked ethereal. The rest of her facial features were petite, matching her face perfectly. Her hair was a golden colour and fell just short of her shoulders. She had a marking coming up her neck, it was black and looked to move whenever she did. Her ears were more pierced than those of the sages of his tribe and that's saying something. She also appeared to have a piercing in her lip and nose, something only common among young rebellious people of his tribe.

  “What war? You don’t mean the great war do you? It was almost 3000 years ago but there’s no way you're from around then. What do you mean humans work for elves? If you are human, you’re the only one we have seen. Everyone works for the High Elves, even other elves. We are made to do everything and anything they don’t want to.” Tyrnal explained.

  Ashera went pale once more as Tyrnal confirmed what the system had said. 3000 years… she would need to process this later as there were more pressing matters that were raised. She mulled this information over in her head. So, the elves had won the war but not all elves remained equal, only those gods damned High elves remained in power. Interesting, but the big concern was what Tyrnal had said about the humans. Had all humans ended up like her in a form of stasis? Had they all been whipped out? Did the Druid Folk not know how to turn back into their human forms? Had they just lost that ability over time? She was ending up with more questions than answers unfortunately. She didn’t think it was best to ask any of these just in case. She didn’t want to shock them with too much information all at once.

  She looked at Tyrnal and said, “So the High elves succeeded in their plan to subjugate all the other species? I find it hard that some of the more ancient species went down easily. How did they deal with the Dragons?”

  Tyrnal looked shocked at this question. “They subjugated all the species in the Southern continent, to the East and over to the West but they could never touch the Northern provinces. It’s a tenuous peace the elves leave them alone, for the most part, and they leave the elves alone. At least that’s what we are taught when we start working for them. They always remind you that you live by their good graces.”

  “Tell me everything you know about what has happened since the war… I mean the great war. I have missed a lot of things it would seem.” Ashera said.

  Tyrnal looked confused and saddened at this question. “Unfortunately, we don’t have many records from the time after the great war. All that information is kept by the High elves and none but them are allowed to see it. All we have are tribal stories passed down through the generations. None of them begin before our time in servitude to the elves.”

  Ashera was shocked by this; how could all records be deleted from before their time serving the elves. It dawned on her then, there was one spell, one that used technology and magic from her time that could have caused this. The elves wouldn’t have gone that far, would they? She had to ask Tyrnal.

  “Can any of you use magic?” she asked hesitantly.

  “Most definitely not! How could you not know this? None, but the High elves can use magic and those of us who show aptitude for it are taken and never seen again.” Suntiana said.

  Ashera began to look over the logs on the terminal, maybe there was some more information in there. She was sure she would find something; she was aware it would be a long shot though 3000 years is a long time for files to be maintained. She still held out hope that the 3000 years was some kind of cruel prank being played on her. As she pulled up the files one after another, she could feel eyes watching her every move, and there was this excited breathing in her ear. She glanced over to see Tyrnals head almost sitting on her shoulder as she worked. Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she looked for anything usable. So far, all the files were corrupt or useless. Frustrated that none of the normal system logs were showing anything she decided to change how she was approaching this. She thought she should try the magic tracking file. It would likely have been stored and then isolated after the systems went into maintenance mode. She pulled up the file there were only three lines in there that mattered on from 25 May 2035, the day they used their catastrophe class magic, one from 27 June 2039 and one from today 28 April 5027.

  “It looks like the first spell was one to target all the magic systems and make them malfunction. Explains how they won the war so quickly. The second one though is something completely new. It looks like it simultaneously rewrote all existing races' memories into thinking they served and revered the high elves, and it looks like it put in some kind of mental limiter… interesting…” Ashera mused aloud. “It looks like they found a way to target other races and make them believe their ability to use magic was gone. That's just not fair.”

  “Umm…” Tyrnal began, “What do all these symbols on this ‘terminal’ mean? It seems to be in a language you understand, but we have never seen it before. What is this third entry? You never explained it. Also what do you mean our magic has been sealed? None of us have ever been able to use magic ever.”

  “Let me explain first these letters and symbols are from the human language English. I can switch the terminal over to elvish so you can understand it better,” Ashera began. “To answer your second question, this was when you turned the terminal on and had the system reanimate me from my partial state of stasis. As for your ability to use magic, it's easier to show than to tell.”

  Ashera pushed a few buttons in a few windows that popped up and suddenly before all their eyes the language on the screen changed to elvish. Tyrnal was able to understand most of it thanks to his time reading the ancient books, but the rest could only understand a word or two. Then Ashera began to go to work, she opened another window, this one had the name system on it. Tyrnal took this to mean she was interacting with that voice they had been hearing earlier. She pulled up a list of instructions, or rather commands she could have the system do and began to punch them in. In a rather quick but sequential manner.

  “Unable to comply with this request user Ashera. The spell area is too great for this one unit to reverse. May I suggest limiting the reversal to this one room. Power remaining in reserves should be sufficient for that one last task. Afterwards only primary systems will be usable.” The system called ringing over the intercom.

  Clearly upset by this Ashera began to furiously type in new commands. Warnings and errors were popping up faster than Tyrnal could read them. A large green window popped up stating that the new parameters were acceptable and asking for voice confirmation to proceed.

  “This is Major Ashera access code Zulu Echo Romio Omega. I hereby order the system to comply with the latest input commands even though it will render this outpost inoperable.” Ashera said in a tone that seemed to command respect.

  “Order acknowledged. Commencing removal of catastrophe level magic from current living floor inhabitants. One amendment power is only capable of removing the spell from five individuals. Is this still acceptable to you, Major Ashera?” The system replied.

  “Agreeable please use audio recognition from targets. Please state your names for the system,” Ashera said motioning to the five people closest to her.

  “Suntiana.”

  “Tyrnal.”

  “Artemis.”

  “Lyna.”

  “Rothar.”

  Ashera confirmed visually that all the turrets were retracted, and the projectors lowered down. They began to display the counter spell marking all over the room and were showing the proper magical formulas. She noticed how startled the others were and knew she would have to explain everything to them as the night went on. For now, though she focused on making sure the system was running properly. The room began to buzz as power coursed through the magical circles that had been drawn.

  Suntiana began to feel this tingling sensation at her feet, it wasn’t unpleasant but was like nothing she had felt before. As she looked at the others, she could tell they were feeling it as well. The circles around their feet began to move up off the floor and the tingling sensation moved with it. Once the spell was about halfway up their bodies it stopped and began to spread out in all directions. Soon their whole bodies were enveloped in this white glow. It began to get warmer in the light, this made Suntiana uncomfortable. What was Ashera doing to them she wondered. She looked around to see that everyone else was just as freaked out.

  “This isn’t going to hurt us, is it Ashera?” Suntiana asked with audible concern in her voice.

  Ashera smiled, a kind and peaceful smile and said, “nothing bad is going to happen to you.”

  Then in a whisper she said, “probably.”

  “What was that?” Suntiana said with concern in her voice. “I didn’t catch that.”

  The heat faded and was replaced with the sensation of something wanting to burst out from her chest. It grew and grew until it felt like it could no longer be contained, and she felt this presence, this force flowing throughout her body. Then with a flash and a bang the light was gone and so was the magic formulas and circles.

  “Well, that should be easy enough to test if it worked. Let's head into the storerooms and see if you can use any magic now.” Ashera said with a smile.

  “What just happened?” Tyrnal and Suntiana said in unison.

  “Like I said, you should be able to use magic now. It will be easier to show you that to explain it all.” Ashera once again motioned for them to follow her.

  The group was confused as to how they were going to be able to use something only elves could do. They followed Ashera over to a set of stairs and she led them down to the floor below. This place was less crowded than the floor they had been on, no desk and chairs or walls thrown about. It was the armoury, library, and storage facility all in one. Off to the back wall there hung armour, guns, swords, staves and other various weapons. To the front there were books galore, some in elvish most were in English but all in pristine condition. Finally on either side there were stores of food, medication and rations for traveling around.

  The group's eyes widened with excitement, all of them running off in different directions. Tyrnal ran towards the books and began to look at the ones in elvish getting completely lost in the sheer number of them. There were books from basics of gardening to something called advanced physics, whatever that was.

  Suntiana and Rothar ran towards the armour and weapons amazed to see something of such good quality not in the elves' hands. There was full body armour in better shape and better quality than anything the guards on this island would have. The swords seemed to be sparkling as if lightning was dancing on their edges. Suntiana was drawn to the strange looking guns, they had no place to load a shot and looked as if they would break from a single use.

  Lyna took off towards the cabinet with the medicine, astonished by the sheer number of different substances here she wondered what they all were. She found bandages, slings, splints, and other various medical supplies that she recognized and myriad of others she did not. Yes, these could have helped Quade she thought. As she sat there thinking about Quade she began to sob loudly. Her whole body shook with sorrow, she laid on the floor and curled up. Suntiana and Rothar made their way over to comfort her. Suntiana knelt next to her and wrapped her arms around her head. Rubbing her head.

  Suntiana began to cry too because Quade had been the youngest member of their group. He had been the one to keep the group's spirits up, he was the one who cooked all their meals, and he was the one who would do anything to prove himself as a man not just a cub. Suntiana’s tears turned into a smile the more she thought about him and then into laughter as she remembered all the good times they had had together.

  “Do you remember the time Quade accidentally took some of the Sunsparks Lyna?” Suntiana asked between giggles.

  “Yes, he thought he was home,” Lyna raised her head a little and started to smile. Her smile turned into a bit of a chuckle. “He kept insisting he needed to find his teddy. His little blue bear.”

  Lyna became a little more sombre, “I bet we could have found something here to give him. What am I going to do without him, Suntiana? He was like a son to me.”

  “We will all grieve his loss, Lyna. The best we can do is give him a proper burial and make sure to keep his arm band. We will keep it by the campfire to remember him.” Suntiana said, still smiling a warm and comforting smile.

  These words brought a little bit of peace to Lyna but she knew the hole in her heart would take years to mend. If it mended at all. Artemis, looking back and having heard the exchange, thought he had nothing to add to it. He had only known Quade a little while and had no stories to share about him. He made his way to the supplies. He looked it over and found what looked like more advanced camping gear then he had ever used, there were real shovels, picks, axes and rope. These supplies could make living in the cave so much easier.

  Ashera was quiet as she approached books and began looking through them beside Tyrnal. She reached over Tyrnals head and pulled out a book in elvish entitled the basics of magic, an introduction to the elements. She handed it to Tyrnal after a few moments of trying to get his attention.

  She turned it to a page on making fire using magic and explained to Tyrnal, “here try making fire, this passage helps explain how to do it. First you need to focus on the fire that you want to create. Then you need to focus on what makes fire burn and lastly you need to focus on what it means to create fire. I'll help you as much as I can.”

  This confused Tyrnal what did Ashera mean about how fire was created. As far as he knew you hit two rocks together and created a spark to get fire. He would try picturing that. He focused on his hand and imagined a spark in the palm of his hand leading to a small fire. Nothing, he tried again this time really focusing on that moment when the spark happens. A small fizzle appeared only for a moment then disappeared. This made Tyrnal jump with excitement. He wondered if he had just performed some magic.

  “That was good Tyrnal. Give it another shot. Think this time about what fire needs to be created. Fuel, so wood or small plants, a heat source like the spark you are picturing and oxygen” Ashera said encouragingly.

  “Oxygen?” Tyrnal asked, not knowing what that was. “Are you trying to make a fool of me?”

  “Obviously not,” Ashera began.

  “Then tell me plainly, what is oxygen,” Tyrnal said annoyed, but curious.

  “Oxygen is a gas, it’s in the air all around us. It’s part of what you breathe in that helps you stay alive, to simplify the answer” Ashera said.

  The others wondering why Tyrnal in such an excited state had come over to watch. Again, and again Tyrnal got a small fizzle to appear in his hand each time going out and leaving a little trail of smoke in the air above it. Everyone was watching intently to see what would happen. Tyrnal focused on the spark that caused the fire, the light coming off the fire, the warmth that radiated off the fire and it’s ability to burn. With all his concentration and focus on those components a fizzle appeared in his hand and then fwoosh there was a small fire in his hand. Shocked by this sudden development everyone jumped back.

  “What the fuck! How are you doing that! If the elves find out, They’ll make you disappear!” Rothar exclaimed as he jumped back.

  The others all let out cries of shock and disbelief. Tyrnal tried to drop the fire. With his concentration no longer on maintaining the fire it went out.

  “That was so cool! How do I do that?!” Artemis asked excitedly.

  Artemis ran over and grabbed the book from Tyrnal only to have forgotten in his excitement that he didn’t know how to read elvish.

  Ashera patted Tyrnal on the back, the look of shock on his face still all to present and said, “See now that’s magic and you can do it. It might take some time, you and I are going to have to teach everyone else here how to read elvish and how to cast spells but we can get your guys at least the basics. Now when your group came crashing through the window you said something about needing supplies. Let's get you what you need then get out of here.”

  “We can come back, right?” Tyrnal asked. “I don’t think we will be able to take all this with us in just one trip.”

  Ashera nodded and laughed then went upstairs to wait for everyone else to come along. She went back into the control room and closed the door. She fell to the floor weeping completely drained from the front she had just put on. How could 3000 years have passed; everyone she knew was now long dead from old age or lying in rooms gunned down by the security system. She was a person out of time, what was she supposed to do now? She had no cause to fight for. She continued to weep silently not wanting to bring any attention to herself. A thought came to her, she needed to get to the North, maybe some people had made it there. Maybe she wouldn’t be alone anymore. That would be her next goal. First, she thought, I’ll stay here a little longer. She mourned the loss of her friends, her family, the people around the world who hadn’t been lucky enough to enter the stasis state. She laughed a little at this though her tears. The stasis spell had failed horribly, it was thanks to her blunder that everyone in the facility were dead.

  She wondered if it had happened that way at the other facilities under the spells influence. Had the other systems remained active? Would she be able to save any of them. She doubted it, none of the other facilities had magic reactors driving them. They were strictly old school. This reactor had been a prototype cooked up by some of her colleagues. She shuttered at what this likely meant. The other facilities would be swarming with her people in this state. If she came across any she would need to put them down. This made her more depressed and she started to sob uncontrollably, no longer caring if she made a sound.

  She stopped crying after what seemed like a lifetime and picked herself up. She got herself over to the terminal. She figured, she would need the locations and schematics of those other buildings to get anything useful from them. She downloaded everything to a microSD card and plugged it into a portable device she could wear. It looked like a teardrop pendant and was activated by pouring a little magic power into it. She tested the device to make sure it was working, once sufficiently pleased that it was, she went out to the main room to wait.

  Everyone came up the stair’s moments later, arms piled high with supplies, books, weapons and armour.

  “Right,” Ashera began, “How do we get up to your base? It looks like the tunnel you used collapsed when you came in.”

  Suntiana dropped the supplies she was carrying and let out a gasp. “Shit the other team, will they still be digging? What if they listened to what happened and assumed we were the ones who were whipped out?”

  “Show me where this other tunnel is supposed to be,” Ashera said with a shrug. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Tyrnal went over to the glass panels of the outer wall and started counting over to where the new tunnel was, and gestures for Ashera to come there. Ashera walked up to the wall, looked at the bullet proof glass and knocked on it.

  Ashera listened to see if anyone was on the other side. There were some sounds of movement. Asherea knocked repeatedly. No response. Ashera walked over to Rothar and took one of the guns he had brought over with him. Rothar laughed a little at this, she had picked up the smallest gun. Rothar was sure she wouldn’t make a dent in the wall with that.

  Ashera didn’t pay any mind to him and pressed the gun up against the glass. As she held it there a glow started to emanate from channels on either side of the gun. These channels ran from the grip down to the barrel and back to the trigger. The grew brighter as Ashera channelled magic energy into the gun. She slowly squeezed the trigger, and the glass began to vibrate. First it was violent then it became shallow but much faster. As it vibrated cracks began to form getting larger and larger until the window broke into fine pieces and the glass all fell to the floor.

  Ashera looked back at Rothar whose face was in complete disbelief. Ashera assumed this was because he had never seen magic applied like this before. If he had seen magic at all. She was going to have a long road ahead of her getting them to use magic.

  Once the glass finished falling Xix jumped through the opening and grabbed Ashera by the neck, lifting her off the ground.

  “Who are you?!” Xix bellowed. “Where are my friends?”

  As Xix looked around the room not paying attention to Asheras response she noticed how everyone was there and accounted for. She dropped Ashera as her gaze passed over Quade.

  “No! How could you let this happen to him, Lyna!” Xix bellowed between sobs.

  “It wasn’t anyone's fault Xix; we didn’t know he had slipped in with us. By the time we realized he was already being ripped apart by the creatures on this side of the glass.” Suntiana explained. “Don’t blame Lyna, blame me for not keeping a better eye on who came with us.”

  Xix looked around and saw all the bodies of the creatures who had done this and realized they had a striking resemblance to Ashera. In one fell swoop Xix was back at Ashera.

  “You! This was your doing! Why is she still alive?” Xix demanded.

  Rothar dropped everything he was carrying and grabbed Xix, pulling her back from Ashera. “Calm down, we'll explain everything once we’re back in the cave. Believe me when I say she’s a friend.”

  Xix Shrugged Rothar off, went over to Quade, picked up what remained of him and moved past everyone to the ladder going up.

  She was muttering the whole time, “Bullshit. A friend my ass. I’ll kill her.”

  Once everyone was back in the cave Suntiana, Tyrnal and Artemis regaled everyone with the tale of what had happened.