"Taro, are you okay?" Rose was the first to break the silence. They had been walking for about twenty minutes quietly, all afraid to talk because of the unknown presence of the wolves. Taro had taken the almost unconscious Liss on his back. While she was not particularly heavy, the weight was starting to take its toll after the long walk. But Taro did not want to let her go.
"I'm fine." He gave a short but clear answer. Rose had no choice to believe his words.
"So, can you tell us what happened at your carriage? Why are only the two of you left?" Rose asked curiously. Taro had told them they were about halfway to their carriage and they had most likely already put enough distance between them and the wolves, so it was the perfect time to ask. Taro started to tell their story.
"The first half of the journey, nothing happened. We were all sitting in the back of the carriage, talking with each other. It was a pretty relaxed atmosphere. But a couple of hours ago, around here, our carriage suddenly stopped."
"...Just like ours. Did you feel an earthquake of some sorts?"
"Yeah. At first we thought the driver had gotten out to check something on the vehicle, so we didn't think much about it. But it took way too long for him to return. That's when two men went outside to search for him."
"Two men?"
"Yeah, pretty well-build men. I believe they used level E prana. In other words, nothing more than a little flame."
The way he described their magic, signaled that he had been to -or at least had knowledge of- Equilibrium, the small magic country to the north of the Human Realm, lying straight next to the biggest and sole kingdom in the Human Realm, Tyrionia. The country was not much bigger than an enormous capital and a handful of smaller towns, but was very proficient in its ability to train and research magic.
One of the systems they'd put in place was a ranking system for magical use and power. That ranking system tried to place all the different magic users and spells, that's how they called the usage of prana, according to their strength and utility. The rankings started from F, the lowest form of control and power, all the way up to SSS. Rose only knew a few specifics about those ranks. If someone used a rank F spell, it'd mean it was very low in power and they had no control over it. Rank F spells were considered useless by many, but they could have some basic uses like warming up your cold hands in the winter with fire prana, or cleaning your body with water prana.
Rank E spells had about the same strength, but the user had a higher level of control over them. Lightening or putting out candles, like the two men had done in their carriage, were considered rank E spells. They were seldom suited for combat, but they had a lot of practical uses. Most people in the Human Realm were able to use rank F and a couple of rank E spells. Schools in most of the countries included the basic ones in their curriculum.
On the contrary, she was not aware of the breakpoints that made up the higher ranks. Often there were a lot of tests that determined a spell's control and power, and they were ranked on the results of those tests. It was said that most citizens and students who had resided in Equilibrium, were able to determine a spell's strength just by looking at it. The country had made many advancements that weren't even known in the outside world, and that seemed to be the result of one of them.
... How did Rose even know this, she wondered. She didn't have a recollection of going to Equilibrium, yet the information flowed into her head like she'd been there for quite a while. That reminded her, how did she realize the beam was going to hit the carriage earlier? Nobody in their right mind would've even guessed it was something as unexpected as a fire beam out of the nowhere. But she'd immediately realized it, even without seeing the actual spell. How...?
Taro did not let her finish her thoughts. He continued his story, wanting it to be finished by the time they reached the carriage.
"After the men went outside, we waited another five, maybe ten minutes. There was no sound to be heard, so two of the friends, Liss and David, decided they would get out and quickly see what was happening. I decided to join them. So we went out of the carriage, but we saw nothing unusual. We circled around to the front, and that's when we saw them. The two men, the driver, and a couple of other unknown men were discussing something quietly in front of the carriage. Just at that moment, we heard a yell from the back of the carriage. The men in front turned towards our direction and saw us, after which they yelled out something. Two men had shown up behind us directly after their call but we hadn't noticed. They injected us with something... I did not get a good look at it since they attacked us in the back, but I'm pretty sure they used something like a small syringe."
"Poison?"
"At that moment, I thought so too. We all instantly fell numb on the ground. The three men then took out something out of our pockets, I believe it was our badges. After inspecting them, they took David from the ground and dragged him to the back of the carriage, out of our view. They then threw two badges back on the ground before us, as if they were somehow useless."
Somehow, Rose had a gut feeling what the men had checked. If she were right, she'd have to check all the badges of the group as soon as they reached the carriage, or they might be following the same fate as Taro's group.
"After a while, all the voices and footsteps had disappeared. I finally regained my senses and could finally stand again, so that's when I thought the syringe only had a paralyzing effect. However, while the paralyzing effect on Liss also wore off, her body became really unstable. She told me she felt like her life energy was slowly being drained. I'm not sure what kind of drug could even do this, but I'm positive it is somehow draining her prana circuits. It's the only explanation for my lack of symptoms and her current situation."
"I see... Wait, why do you not have any symptoms then?" Rose asked confused.
"That is..." He then realized he said too much. "It's not important for now."
He took a deep breath, then continued. "I looked inside the carriage, but there was nobody. However, I still heard sounds in the vicinity and thought the men were about to come back. That's when I took Liss and ran away. I was hoping we would cross with your carriage and you might be able to help us. You know the rest of the story."
Rose thought deeply. There were a couple of very uncomfortable points in his story. First there was of course the random men, who had seemingly kidnapped the whole carriage except for Taro and Liss. The reason why they hadn't captured them, probably had something to do with that tracking device in their badges. Rose was sure Liss didn't have a tracking device in hers since she had switched them up, and the same could be true for Taro's. She'd have to check his to be sure, but it seemed the most logical conclusion. At first Rose had thought it was a safety measure implanted by the school or institute of the four friends to know where they were, but it seemed to have been implanted by someone else. So her bad feeling had come true after all...
Secondly, the fact that they left behind Taro and Liss without killing them, bothered her. It meant they were not only confident enough in the potency of the drug, but were also sure no help would arrive in time. But they should've known there was a second carriage not far after them. Which brought her to her third point...
The start of the events in Taro's carriage and Rose's carriage were identical. The earthquake. The carriage suddenly stopping. No communication with the driver. Two men that went outside, without returning. The only thing that was different, was the second part of the story.
"Did you see anyone on the way to our carriage? Truth is, our driver and two passengers disappeared in the same way as in your carriage. However, they never came back. Instead, we got assaulted by a barrage of fire beams out of nowhere, followed up by that wolf attack. Do you think they got caught by them?" Rose asked.
"Very likely. I've seen some blood on the road that couldn't have been any of ours or yours. Chance is that they had a group lying in to ambush you just like what happened with us, but they were caught by those wolves. The men that disappeared probably went looking for them, getting caught as well."
It made sense. That would at least solve one mystery. Rose decided to tell Taro about the tracking devices. She kept her voice low so the others wouldn't hear her. The last thing she wanted to do was cause more fear in their minds. Taro grabbed in his pocket, and gave the two badges to Rose. She closed her eyes for a moment and concentrated on the objects in her hand. No trace of prana was present.
"You can use detection spells?" Taro asked her, clearly surprised. Rose looked at him in confusion. "To see if there's any prana present in a certain area or object." He clarified.
"Oh, yeah I suppose I do. What about it?"
"That's... Pretty high rank, you know. From the spells you'd cast earlier I guessed you were a rank D caster, but detection magic isn't used by mages lower than rank B. Where did you learn it?"
"I... I don't know." Rose answered honestly. "I just know how to do it, that's all." She did not want to tell Taro about her lost memories.
"I see... Also, did you know that being able to use more than one element is very rare? Maybe one in a thousand is able to use multiple elements, and often it causes so much imbalance in their bodies that they aren't even able to cast rank E spells. Seeing someone using two rank D spells with two different elements is definitely not something you see any other day." He enthusiastically told her. He initially came off as a very stoic person, but it looked like his deep interest in prana was showing another side of him.
After realizing the shift of tone, he immediately regained his composure and apologized. "I-I'm sorry. This is not the best time to talk about these things. We have other worries on our minds."
Rose agreed. While she did not particularly mind listening to his explanation, it was not the right time for that. While they had been talking, the carriage had finally come into sight. It seemed to be desolated, but undamaged.
"Finally, we can get out of here!" Someone behind Rose yelled out in happiness.
"Oi, don't shout! You'll wake lil' missy!" Sam reacted angrily. The little, crying girl from earlier had fallen asleep on his shoulder. It had probably been harder for her than anyone her, considering her little age. Rose guessed she was around fourteen, which was still young to travel around alone. She wondered about the reason why, but there was no way she could trouble the little girl with that right now. Everyone else seemed to be between the early-mid twenties up until the late forties, with Sam probably being the outlier, nearing the fifties. Of course, ages were tricky, many had been fooled by them before.
While Rose and Taro went to the front of the carriage, the group went inside the back after checking there was nobody present. The driver's seat was abandoned, with a little glass ball next to the seat.
"The mechanism is still intact. With your fire magic, we will be able to move this thing. I'll just check if the tires and other mechanisms are still alright, and then we're ready to go." Taro told her.
"I'm gonna check the back and see if everyone is alright. Also, could you give those two medals to me? I will do a quick check on them before we go, so we don't get tracked down." Taro did what she asked, and they both went their own way.
