The Twenty Seven

Chapter 13

Not hesitating, the Ritires rush in through the door, Ty and Es already producing flames from their hands. In the center of the room is Dr. Laghari, surrounded by twenty figures in black cloaks. This time, in the much brighter lighting of the room, the girls can make out shockingly pale skin covered by faint blue marks; marks that both seemed to be glowing and looked a little too familiar for Eira's liking.

Dr. Laghari screams again, her voice tearing through the otherwise stillness of the room, kicking the girls into action. Es rushes forwards into the center, pushing the woman out of the way and lighting the area around her on fire. "So we meet again," she says with a sharp laugh.

Eira digs the knife into her palm, mixing the blood and ash and drawing both the amplification and the protection Tochs on Ty and Nes. As soon as she finishes, Nes rushes in and takes Es' place. She stops short when she sees the face of one of the cloaked figures. "Sam?" Thoroughly shocked, she barely notices when the circle begins closing in on her. "Sam, it's me-- It's Nessa." Her voice is pleading. Ty and Es begin picking off people on the outer edges of the circle, Eira already haven given Es the Tochs. "It's Vanessa."

As soon as flames lick the first few cloaked figures, the circle disperses, spreading out once more. It reminds Eira of a jelly fish, the way the group expands and retracts. For a moment, she's transfixed, though the simultaneous screams of Ty and Es snap her out of it. Nes, too, breaks eye contact with Sam, looking around wildly. She reaches forwards to the nearest figure, pushing off their hood to reveal a woman. "Ming?"

Eira moves towards Es first, standing between her and who she can only assume is causing the vivid pain in her mind. "What do you want from us?" She asks, all but screaming her words.

"They're from Crann," Nes whispers to herself, not able to believe it. Closing her eyes for a moment, she mutters some words under her breath before opening them again. Her eyes are the same icy blue as when she uses her powers; the same icy blue as the marks covering the bodies of the figures -- of the people she had thought gone forever. "Stop!"

Everyone turns to look at her, including the girls. Es and Ty let out a sigh of relief as their pain fades. "Nes?" Eira calls tentatively, her voice low.

"What do you want? How are you here?" With a start, the other Ritires realize that Nes' voice is not her own. It's both deep and high, many different pitches pushed together creating a single tone that is almost too much for the human ear to perceive. "Why do you look like our people?"

Words flood through the girls' minds, in the same odd grouping of pitches. 'We are the Adda.' The others look towards Eira who just shakes her head, not recognizing the word either. 'We come from Ezeru. We come from the Duines.'

Es speaks quietly to Eira: "Duines are people with abilities. I've never heard of Ezeru."

"Give them back." As Nes speaks, each word is punctuated by a loud crack of thunder. The air around them begins to pick up, moving rapidly. A few of the cloaked figures look around, almost visibly shaken. Reaching forwards, she roughly grabs Sam's hand. As she makes contact, there is a small spark that runs through both of them. Sam's eyes widen and go completely black. He falls to the floor. The light is pulled from Nes' eyes and she lands beside him.

The room is completely silent, any energy completely removed from the air around them. After a few moments -- during which the Ritires remain still, not daring to even breathe -- the Adda fade backwards into the shadows of the room. When Ty gathers the courage to move, she rushes to one of the darkened edges, but there's nothing there. "What the hell?" She asks, kicking the wall.

Es and Eira rush over to Nes and Sam, kneeling next to them. Neither is awake, though both of their chests rise with shallow breaths. There is a low moan from their left, where Dr. Laghari is laying on the ground, her face covered in tears and blood. Remembering the reason they came there, Ty begins opening the doors to the rooms, looking for the children.