Mira Arvaith
After securing the students' tents on the isle, Jace and I flew over to the central isle.
I wasn't a big fan of heights. It was a miracle that I could even walk across the astral bridges every day without freaking out. Riding on Jace's cloud didn't cure any fears, as the sudden drops and sharp turns made it feel like I was on a roller coaster.
I glanced at Jace; he remained calm through it all, guiding the cloud through the sky.
How is he so calm?
I realized I didn't actually know much about him.
As we flew over, I got a better look at the isles. Three isles had teleportation terminals: the central isle, the test isle, and the second year isle. All three were smoking. The teleporter that exploded on the test isle was on the far left of the isle, which must have thrown off the counterbalance, because the other isles' teleporters were in the center of their landmasses and didn't seem to have the same problem.
The isles that housed the six different positions were connected to the central isle via astral bridges and weren't affected since there wasn't a teleporter on those isles.
"Jace, we need to get down to the central isle now!" I yelled over the wind as we flew through the sky on his cloud.
He threw up a gesture with his hand, indicating he heard me, and dove down. I clung to his stomach, which was more toned than I expected, trying my best to stay on his nimbus.
We flew straight to the teleportation terminal. Jace placed me on the ground, and seismic waves from inside the terminal bombarded my senses, followed by my faint cries beneath the crackling of flames.
"Jace, people are inside!" I shouted as I rushed through the doors.
Behind me, Jace used his cloud to extinguish the flames engulfing the terminal.
Inside, the vast room filled with white glossy paneling, and the laminated floors were charred, creating an acrid smell that caught my nose and throat.
The guards were covered in soot, their coughs raspy, bent over, gasping for air.
Jace's clouds absorbed the smoke and helped lead the guards out of the teleportation terminal.
While Jace tended to the guards, I walked over to the teleportation platform.
The platform's surface was cracked, and there were casings of ballistics scattered across it.
Did the guards do this?
No, they wouldn't be dumb enough to stay in the building to give themselves carbon dioxide poisoning.
Or would they?
So whoever set up an explosion here, did they do the same on the test isle where the students were secured?
So many thoughts ran through my head, and I was coming to a conclusion that I was hoping wasn't true.
I ran out in the storm to Jace, who was talking to the guards who were shaking off the disorientation.
"Is everyone fine?" I asked, wiping the water and hair out of my eyes.
"They need medical attention," Jace said, while I got a better look at the guards. Their abdomens were speckled with shrapnel and covered in blood.
These guards were at the adepts. An explosion this powerful shouldn't have caused this much damage, let alone pierced their cosmic-energy defenses. Assuming they had them up.
So what was the explosive made out of?
"Did anyone notice anything out of place, or concerning before the explosion?"
The guard groaned before responding.
"No, not really; everything seemed perfectly fine."
There had to be something. There was no way something like this could have gone off without anyone noticing.
"Jace, let's drop them off at the medbay and find any other members of the staff that are still around and see if they noticed something," I said, feeling some strange seismic activity vibrating in the earth.
Jace grumbled and commanded his clouds to scoop up the injured guards, and flew us over to the east pavilion where the medbay was located.
When we walked in, the place was hectic. Nurses were yelling, monitors were beeping, and sirens were blaring.
As I looked at the people the nurses were tending to, I saw more staff members and guards lying in the hospital beds.
I looked at Jace; his eyes narrowed.
"You're sensing something?"
Jace gave me a slight look of surprise.
"How did yo– never mind." he began to look around.
"Yes. I sense a signature, but it's strange."
"Do you know where it's coming from?"
"The signature feels far away but also embedded around us.
Jace's description made me think of the underground levels inside the test isle. We, as students, never had access to the underground areas of the academy.
I could always feel the seismic activity, but I just chalked it up to the technology that kept the floating academy in the air.
Then I remembered the conversation I overheard between the guard I met when I stormed out of the medbay and the nurse.
There were men from the surface that came up to fix the reactor on the central isle.
Things didn't start getting weird until they were beamed up. But how could they have gotten so many explosives past the guards without them noticing?
But I guess I'll find out once we get to the reactor.
I turned to Jace.
"Hey spark plugs, I got an idea, but it could get messy. You down?"
He shrugged.
"As long as I can protect my sister, I'll do whatever I need to do."
"Good," I said, waiving him to follow me outside.
Once outside, I created a person-sized hole in the ground.
"I think the weird type of cosmic energy you're feeling is coming from the reactor. I'm gonna dig a tunnel to it, but I need you to tell me if we're going in the right direction. Is that something you can do?"
"Is the water wet?" Jace said, a small smirk tugging at his cheek.
I rolled my eyes.
"Well then, please keep up. I don't want to dig a hole straight through the isle and fall to my death."
"Jump in already," Jace said, pushing me into the hole.
I dove headfirst into the hole, imbued my body with cosmic energy, and clawed through the rough rock that formed the foundation the academy stood on.
I just hoped that by the time we got to the reactor, it wouldn't be too far gone for me to fix. Honestly, I still didn't even know if I was capable of fixing it in the first place.