Arine

I wanted it to stop. I couldn't form a single thought but I knew I wanted it to stop. While I slowly unbuttoned my blouse, I felt his lecherous stare on me, as well as the way his hands felt on my waist. I wanted it to stop so badly, but the more I tried to fight back, the more intense my headache became.

After every button was loosened, his hand made its way up, taking in every one of my curves until he was far enough up that a tear escaped my eyes. His face came closer and when his disgusting tongue touched my body, the door to the small room crashed open.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?” perplexed by what had happened, he let go of me, sending me falling down on my butt. As soon as his gaze wandered to the voice, my eyes started acting strange again. Before I was able to form a coherent thought I saw the silvery magic around the boy’s head, how his body attracted it, and most importantly, how it made its way to the red-headed girl. The small moment of surprise was enough to allow me one thought: we need to get the hell away from him.

“Get out of here,” I grabbed her by the arm and made sure we ran as fast as possible, as far as possible from this nightmare. Behind me, I heard a loud crack but I didn’t care what it was, I wanted us to get away from him. We ran until we were on the other side of campus, behind the girl's dorm, only resting once we couldn’t anymore and finding shelter on a park bench.

“Arine…you might want to close your blouse.” I button my blouse and rested my head in her lap. As if being assaulted wasn't enough, now the whole campus got a good look too. My breath became sharp and rigid, the environment became blurrier, and what the girl in whose lap I laid in whispered in my ear, I couldn’t hear as the sound of my own howls drowned out all else. Why? Why always me? What did I do to deserve this?

“Arine...Arine...we need to tell someone.”

“Mhm.” Telling someone? I know it was the right thing to do, but I couldn’t. At least not right now. All I wanted was to get rid of his stupid face, that stupid grin he had, and the way I felt completely helpless. Why couldn’t I have sent him flying against the wall? But no, it had to be some innocent girl and now when I wanted it more than anything, nothing happened. What a cruel joke. I laid there in her lap for who knows how long until her voice brought me back to reality.

“It will be alright. We won’t let him or anyone else touch you again.” Her voice sounded so familiar. Looking up at her I wondered, how could I not notice the whole time?

“Kat?”

“Hey,” she said as she smiled down upon me. I pulled my head from her lap and took a sitting position next to her. I was glad no one else was around right now to see what had happened.

“Thanks for… you know.” Silence fell between us for a while but it quickly became more unbearable than just talking, “Why were you there in the first place?”

“When we were at the hot springs yesterday, I saw your back...and I wanted to talk to you.” Kat avoided further eye contact with me as she started to shift slightly and fidgeted with her hands. “I...it’s none of my business but I just thought that what happened to you...it never crossed my mind that someone could do something so cruel.”

“You know what the thing on my back is?” I had wondered a few times about what it was exactly Jenna did to me back then. Most of the time I tried to forget about it, but after what happened at the tournament that was becoming harder and harder. I knew it was some kind of rune spell she put on me and I had a few guesses as to what it could be.

“I know it's some sort of rune circle, but I have never seen those runes before...does,- does it hurt?”

"No, not anymore."

Slowly she brought her hand closer to my back but then hesitated for a moment, “Can I?”

“Yeah.” It felt weird having someone touch my back, especially considering the way it felt. Her hand was slowly running up and down the scars, following the runes and redrawing them with her fingers. It wasn’t painful but the way her fingers bombed up and down each line made me aware of just how deformed my back had to be. “Kat? Would you mind bringing me to my room?”

“Sure, ” she withdrew her hand and together we walked the short path back. I was glad when I was finally in my room again. Alone, away from this world, away from all this suffering but I knew it wouldn’t end here. I dread the night that was to come.

Elinora

After mom and I couldn’t find Arine at the spot we agreed to meet at, I searched for her at the library without much success either. I thought about going to her room but ultimately decided against it. If she was there it usually meant she wanted to be alone.

I met with Lyn, Emily, and Riley back in our small living room. Kat was nowhere to be found, the others didn’t know where she went either. They told me they were walking together when she saw someone and disappeared. We all assumed she found a new victim for her flirting.

Emily was currently busy making and trying out new sorts of tea she had found on the marketplace. Every one of us got a mug and we each had to test one of the many samples she brought.

Making ourselves comfortable on the couch, we started talking about the day while we waited for Emily to finish. My day wasn't too exciting, I was able to tell what we did in less than five minutes. Private lessons weren't the most interesting thing in the world after all. But what was interesting, was hearing about the rest of the school. Since the incident with Arine I had wondered and worried what other people would think. As it turns out it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I had made it out.

A big reason for that was Lyn. With her connection all over school, she managed to influence a few important persons, namely Aron Mufkin, the director of the school's newspaper. It was also the first time I heard about this newspaper, but then again I seemed to miss a lot of things. Basically what she did was convincing him to interview Friza Terun, the girl Arine had fought.

The way she described the events were astonishing. She didn’t blame Arine, she said it was as if an ancient evil had overtaken her. She and the rest of the student's body attributed it to some long lost legend about ghosts that were imprisoned in the old depths deep beneath the Aterium. If they knew how close to the truth they were.

I was glad, one thing less to worry about and I couldn't wait to tell Arine once I saw her again tomorrow. We talked some more about mundane school stuff, all the while trying out Emily’s different tea variants. It was nice just talking and relaxing with them about this and that, I hoped we could do this more often. Letting go of all the worries and fears, being accepted for who I am without getting judged, I didn’t know how much I needed it.

It was already getting late, midnight late. Kat still was nowhere to be found, much to the disappointment of Emily as she had some extra spicy tea she wanted her to test. We decided we would wait another half hour when the door burst open with a ghastly looking Kat entering the room. The fiery aura that normally surrounded her was extinct, replaced by a look of horror. All eyes were fixated on her.

“Eli, something happened to Arine. You should check on her.” My mug shattered on the ground, spilling tea everywhere as I made my way to Arine's room as fast as possible. She wasn’t too far away, being in the building right next to us. But since Kat wouldn’t tell what happened exactly, I had a very bad feeling about this.

The door to her room was locked and with every knock that wasn’t answered my breath became more rigid. Using one of the runes my mom had taught me in combination with a simple beginner fire spell, I was able to force my entry into her room. It was empty. There was no Arine and the plush shark was gone with her.

Somehow managing to keep my composure, I rushed back into our living room. When I told the others that Arine wasn’t in her room, Kat started to tell us what had happened. The reason she couldn't be here sooner was that she had talked with Mr. Sirus and he and a few other teachers needed to interview her. As Kat told us what she had witnessed, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was all my fault. I should have never left Ari alone. My Father was right, I’m such a failure. 

While Lyn and Emily tried to comfort me another figure entered our room. It was an old man with a long white beard. “Please meet me outside, the others are already waiting.”

Not believing what had happened, I followed the other outside where we met Olaf, Mr. Sirus, and my mom. This can’t be happening, this can’t be real.

“I want you all to search the whole city. If Arine is still here, we have to find her. I don’t want to imagine what she has to go through right now,” Mom said and I knew she was as worried as the rest of us were.

We split up in groups of two, Kat and Lyn searching the marketplace, Mom and Olaf searching the library, Emily and Mister Sirus were responsible for the lower parts of the city, and Riley and I would search other spots in the city that Arine and I often frequented. I wasn’t the biggest help in my current state but I tried nonetheless.

Together we searched for hours, but there was no sign of Arine. Even asking the few pedestrians that were still out and about turned out to be futile. No one had seen Arine. When we returned to report or progress their expression was as somber as ours. And then Mom returned without Olaf.

“What’s happening? Where’s Olaf?” Riley asked and for once she seemed to be more interested in something other than her books.

“There’s a problem.” Mom said as she looked to me. I knew this look, it was the same look she gave me when she told me about my father. “The book, it’s gone.”

“Th-the book? Yo-you don’t mean-”

“Zere’s grimoire.” I felt two arms supporting my sides as my legs gave out underneath me. This wasn’t happening. It wasn’t. Arine was right next to me just a few hours ago. She only wanted to look at the flowers. It wasn’t more than ten minutes that I wasn't by her side. I refused to believe this was happening. “NO, this isn’t true...it can’t be...Ari...”

I was so lost in my own dark place that I barely noticed their confused and frightened faces when mom told them the truth about Arine. It wasn’t long until the sound of four other girls crying echoed through the night. Even my mother, who so far hid her emotions with practiced grace couldn’t hide her tears any longer.

Lyn was the first to recover, “What do we do now? We can’t just sit here while they are out there doing who knows what to Arine.”

“I don’t..ge-get it. Ho-how ca-can so-someone do something so...so horrible.” Emily hugged her knees as she sniffled to herself. The story about Arine’s fate had affected her more than anyone else. Where she was normally so bubbly and lively all was gone now, replaced by an endless pit of darkness. “I don’t want her to die.”

“No one wants her to die.” My mom reassured her. “Olaf and Sirus are already working out a plan to find Arine again but there is nothing much we can do for now.” As she said it, the already somber atmosphere became even more depressing. No one wanted to admit it but she was right. If Arine wasn’t in Alos anymore we would have to wait till tomorrow. Sending us out now without a plan or backup was irresponsible at best and a suicide mission at worst. We had to get more people on board but doing this now wasn’t an option. “You all should rest now. Meet me at eight in Olaf’s office.”

There was nothing more to say, we parted ways with mom and all disappeared silently in our separate rooms. The whole situation weighed heavily on our chests, rendering speech impossible for now.

Back in my room, I couldn’t close an eye. I couldn’t imagine living without Arine. And the images of Jenna abusing her for her own wicked plans were driving me insane. How could I rest if Arine had to go through hell? I wanted nothing more than to bang my head against the wall when I saw it in the corner of my eye, the tracking stone. As much as I wanted to trust my mom, I couldn’t just sit here and wait while Arine was out there somewhere, alone and scared. Not when I could do something on my own.

I took the stone and let it guide me towards Arine. At first, I worried she might have left the stone in her room, but after it led me further and further away from the academy I was sure she had the stone on herself. If she forgot to unpack it or took it with her on purpose I didn’t know but that wasn't important. Important was that I wouldn’t let her go through this alone.

I came to a halt on the western port when the last airship for the next six hours docked. I’m sorry mom, but I have to break my promise. And without looking back I boarded the ship. Arine, wherever you are, please hold on a little longer, I’m coming.