The Greatest Sin

Fer boarded the plane. Today, another sister would be freed.

Ever since Ilwin’s phone call came through, Arcadia had become silent. Edmonton sat on a dull chair in Eliza’s room. She had cleaned it up since they were staying. It almost seemed like her room, but the little touches were missing. The flower vase was empty. The carpet was rolled up and stuffed under the bed. Her books weren’t neatly sorted, instead just thrown onto a shelf. Empty water bottles lined one wall, clean, organized, but it wasn’t a healthy Eliza living here.

Edmonton looked at the girl. She saw him looking, nodded and said nothing, instead just bringing her knees up to her chest. Fleur was sitting on the other side of the bed. Eyes closed but obviously not asleep. Meditating most likely. They sat in that small dorm-room and looked at each other.

The clock ticked. Outside, a bell started to sound. Six beats. Almost evening. Edmonton sighed heavily as he pulled himself up off the floor. “Alright.” He broke the silence for a moment. “It’s time.” Eliza nodded as she slid off the bed. Fleur opened her blue eyes and sighed herself. What was there for them to say? How could they plan? What could they even say about the containment ward? The most interaction any of them had with that place was brief looks of curiosity at the outside of the building.

“So it is.” She said. There was nothing else to say.

Edmonton hooped a leather belt around his trousers. Its shutting click was deafening. Eliza put on a coat and donned her backpack. Edmonton had never considered how loud the sound of cloth against cloth was. Each of Fleur’s buttons clicked with tiny drumbeats. Edmonton fastened his shoes in silence.

They left that room. Eliza stared at the door for a few moments. She smiled to herself, stroked the handle and shook her head. No one said anything, there was nothing to say. They left the Floromancy dormitory. A huge building, the outside was bathed in flowers. Grand statues of curled wood grown into shape. Edmonton had never considered how pretty it was, but he never considered he may never return here.

They walked past laughing couples. They walked as the young children played silly games together, students of Arcadia who were still in their first year. They walked past a teacher explaining how to grow flowers in a pot to another pair of students. Edmonton sighed as he walked with Fleur and Eliza.

Silence.

They walked through a park. More dates. More students reading in the shade. A gaggle of boys were sharing what no doubt was a smuggled bottle of wine. A teacher pretended not to see them. Past benches as flowers moved in the gentle breeze, as birds sang in their nests, their songs playing to a background of people chatting and leaves brushing. And Edmonton kept walking. Fleur kept walking. Eliza kept walking.

Silence.

Fleur broke it eventually. Her tone careful, she fiddled with a lock of black hair. “We go in and out.” She said. “Just Lyca.”

“Just Lyca.” Edmonton replied. And so they returned to silence. Three pairs of footsteps on gravel as they left the main stage of Arcadia. Students didn’t travel far out from the dorms, there was no need to when they had everything they needed under their noses. North, through a park. The tower tops of the Divine Library were visible in the distance, across the Divine Gardens. Not today. Edmonton sniffed in humour, to think how much his life changed because he entered that structure, and he still had not read even a single page of the works stored there.

That sniff quickly dispersed into the air as Edmonton kept walking. Fleur kept walking. Eliza kept walking. Three pairs of footsteps, birds singing in the air, trees gently swaying, the sky becoming purple as the Sun fell.

Three pairs of footsteps in an ocean of silence.

Their walk felt like crossing the world, but it was no longer than a half-hour. The clocktowers had not even started ringing to mark the turnover of the next hour yet. The containment ward wasn’t especially far away from the main complex of Arcadia. It was an old structure, one of the oldest in the faux-country, and one of the few that still lay untouched by modern architectural design.

Edmonton looked up at the building. It was a building from a different era, when mages built for function rather than form. A moat of sand lay around to stop any flora from climbing the walls, and it was an ugly building. With small windows that were more like arrow slits, the door was heavy steel. There wasn’t any towers, it was simply a block of stone that had been ripped out of the ground and then carved into shape.

A pair of Arcadia’s staff stood at the doors of the building. At least it had guards. The two were quietly chatting among themselves as Edmonton came to a stop on the edge of that sand-moat. He simply didn’t want to speak with these people yet.

Silence.

Fleur broke it again. She laughed nervously. “When we went off last time, with Sara, it was different.”

“It was.” Edmonton said. Eliza played with her fingers.

“And when Anassa sent us off for Fer.”

“That was something else.” Fleur said as she let out a heavy breath. “That we basically had to do.”

“We have to do this too.” Eliza said and Edmonton nodded.

“We do.” He said slowly. “But no one is telling us we have to do it.” He was in disbelief at how much of a different the lack of a direct command made. He had always wanted prestige, but even that prestige came with a duty. The job of a leader was dictated by the wills of his subjects. But this though? This was purely him, Fleur and Eliza. There was no one else. Even Anassa had only said if they can, they should, but she didn’t press them into rescuing Lyca.

“We’re not going to leave Lyca here.” Eliza said.

“Of course we’re not.” Fleur chimed in. Her voice quiet. The guards noticed they were being stared at and stopped talking. Edmonton ignored their looks, it was rare for people to visit but it wasn’t unheard of.  Arcadia had plenty of architecture clubs, another profession mages were common in. “But… I mean, it’s on us.”

“No one to give us a smack if we fail.” Edmonton said and Fleur let out a mirthless sniff that pretended it carried humour. The conversation died down. It wasn’t a conversation anyway, it was simply a way to pass the time.

Silence.

Birds singing, trees rustling, the guards returned to their quiet conversation, someone shouting in the distance, wind blow. The sun setting.

And Silence.

Edmonton broke it this time. “I remember talking with Iliyal before Misfortune.” Fleur smiled to herself as Eliza looked at them.

“I still have the picture Doug took.” Fleur said. “I’ll show it to you and Lyca when this is over.” Edmonton returned the conversation to what he wanted to say. The thought had invaded his mind and now he had to say it to get it to leave.

“He said the wait’s the worst part. And that you never get used to it, you just find ways to cope.”

“I believe that.” Fleur said as Eliza nodded.

“So that was the Iliyal Tremali we met back then? When we rescued Fer?” The shorter girl asked. She retied her brown her into a tail. Fifth time now. Fleur nodded. Silence returned.

And so they stood.

They drowned in the silent ocean. With its singing birds, with the swaying trees, with the sounds of students eventually disappearing as they returned into their dorms for their night. They drowned until it was almost hard to breath. They drowned until they couldn’t stand. And so they stood.

And then, three shooting stars above them broke the silence. Cruelly cut it apart. Like lightning devouring kindle. The silence was the stillness of an image, a moment captured in time. And then, the image started turned to film and started to move.

Edmonton looked up. Raptor One and Raptor Two screeched overheard, they were massive planes, with a unique sound produced by the four engines strapped onto them. They flew straight, slowed, then circled. “That’s our sign.” Edmonton said as he cracked his neck.

A mere minute ago, he felt as if the air had turned into custard. It had been hard to breath. His movements felt slow and lethargic. Now though? He cracked his fingers and stretched his spine. Fleur let out a deep sigh and took a breath. “Wait’s over.” Eliza said, her voice cold and sharp now.

Edmonton took a step onto the moat of sand. The guards were looking up at the plane. They were expert mages, the robes revealed them. Full of colour and signs. They turned immediately from the sky and towards the three who had stepped towards them. “Visitor hours are closed.” One of the men shouted in a strong voice.

Edmonton felt them grab at magic. They started to light up like a campfire in the coolness of a mountain valley. One man grabbed at fire, the other at Edmonton’s element, water. From their expressions, it was obvious that they knew Edmonton and the two behind him were up to no good.

Edmonton came to a stop. There was a crash from the dormitories. Screams. A bestial roar. Gunshots. “What’s happening!?” One of the guards shouted. Edmonton snapped his fingers.

Arascus had taught him how to train power. Anassa had taught him to use it. There was no need for theatrics. For great beams of red sorcery to incinerate the men from existence. Anassa called such things pedestrian, like a strongman who could not bring his fingers to his shoulder because of the size of his bicep. Sorcery was easy to use and it was easy to show off with.

Edmonton snapped his fingers and the two men collapsed. Two tiny beams of sorcery shot at them from Edmonton, each one splitting right at the end to pierce the throat and the heart. That’s how Anassa used sorcery.

Fleur waved her hand. The door fell forward from its great steel hinges. Its crash louder than the roars and gunshots and explosions coming from Arcadia’s central complex. There were ten men waiting inside. More guards, this was the only area that required it in Arcadia, they were after all holding mages who went out of control in here.

They stood up, looked at the two corpses, at the doors, and at the three approaching them. Eliza stepped forwards. She sliced the air with her fist as if she was holding an invisible. A wave of red sorcery emerged from her. A sword that cut steel and concrete and flesh all with the efficiency of a hot knife slicing through warm butter.

Ten men were split at the waist, just like that. Edmonton stopped at the entrance way. Alarms started to from the main complex. Then more sounded from within the containment ward. He took a breath and changed his mind.

The wait had been a torture session as scalpels of anxiety tore his mind apart. He had wanted to turn and run, hide, even though he knew he would not be able to look himself in the mirror tomorrow if he did that. Questions and doubts had filled his mind with a depressive plague that corroded his sanity away. Now though?

Why bother? Why did he fear the wait? What were the doubts even about? He couldn’t recall them as sound started to flood back in. His own heartbeat chased the thoughts away. The stillness had been an unscalable mountain, and he scaled the mountain in one small step.

He took another breath as sorcery spiralled madly through his veins. Magic simply did not compare. It was like showing fire to a child and then giving them a matchstick to play with. There was no need for a plan, no need for any discussion, he knew Fleur and Eliza as well as they knew him. Lyca was somewhere in here.

Edmonton stepped into a puddle of blood as he made his way into the stone corridor.

Now though, the wait was over.