We were led to the first cavern we came to, and toward the big doors. We were told to bolster them. Commanded was the right word. I could feel Jonah bristle beside me. He did not do well being commanded.

  Maryanne: Neither do we!

  Strength: Yeah! Who does that bozo think we are?

  Mark: He can take a hike.

  Jack: Put a sock in it. We’re kind of their prisoners again, only we aren’t in a cage this time.

  Maryanne: The slaves would revolt if they did that.

  Strength: Yeah, we got backup.

  Mark: And there are a lot of slaves.

  Jack: There are a lot of people in our favor right now, but I doubt that’ll make a difference if we can’t bolster those doors as we said we could.

  I sighed and watched my step as we came to the other end of the doors, and a slab of concealed rock was removed, showing us a defined array that had several interlocking matrices put together.

  Mikale grinned and scoffed. “See? The complicated array is almost impossible to…”

  “An Earth symbol can go between the mirage symbol to strengthen that part of the matrix. The other Earth symbol will have to go at the other end somewhere to balance the matrices, and the root can go directly in the middle of both symbols connecting both, but the power symbol might be a bit of trouble,” I said as I inspected the array. Jonah smirked and nodded. He was letting me figure this one out myself.

  “Maybe if we...no, that would destabilize the mirage, although...” I turned to Mikale. “Is the mirage necessary? The one about bending doors?” I asked.

  Another male answered me. “Not really. That’s for aesthetics and because it’s cool,” he said.

  “Then if you replace that small matrix with the ultimate power rune and it’s corresponding matrix I don’t see why it shouldn't work...although you can link the extra matrix to the array and keep your aesthetics and it should still work, though not as efficiently as if it was part of the true matrix,” I said, biting my lip and looking at Jonah who was also inspecting the array.

  “Or you could fit it in place of the power rune you are using now,” he muttered. I glanced down at the array. I couldn’t see that result because I still needed pen and paper to make such calculations, but with what I knew of the runes beside it and the ultimate power rune, it was a possibility.

  “Can’t believe you missed that obvious solution for something harder,” said Jonah, smirking, and I grimaced.

  “Yeah well I’m still learning and you know I suck at math,” I said.

  “You were getting better with my tutoring, right?”

  “Yes, master, “ I grouched, and he chuckled, mussing up my hair. I frowned and straightened the frizzy locks. This cave system was murder on my hair. It astounded me how many good-looking males wanted to go out with me just because I saved their lives. Thank God for Jonah. He might be a smooth talker, but he knew what to do in those situations.

  Maryanne: Smooth talker? He purred in our ears!

  Strength: Yeah! A violation!

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Mark: He was only helping us.

  Jack: Yeah, and I’m Santa Claus.

  I snorted and shook my head, getting Mikale’s attention.

  “No, what?” he asked.

  “Oh, I was only thinking of the array and throwing solutions away in my mind,” I said, smirking. Jonah glanced at me, and I smiled back innocently. He went back to working on the rune array. He knew that my voices were the source of my amusement. He was bent over with his brush and was inking the new rune array.

  He was the master, and he had the better handwriting, so he did the work while I sat there useless. It took two hours to ink the new array and another to link it to the doors. Once we made sure they worked like normal, he straightened off the floor and wiped his forehead.

  “Got any others?” he joked.

  Mikale smirked. “There are three other entrances apart from this one,” he said, and Jonah sighed.

  I snickered as we were led to another part of the caves. “Should have stayed quiet,” I whispered.

  “How was I supposed to know there were three more of these things?” he muttered.

  I smirked. “Being a smart alec doesn’t really pay off here.”

  We were led up some stairs and to an entrance that mimicked the first. Luckily, all we had to do for this one was mimic the same array and place it instead of the old one. The next doors, however, took two hours to figure out and five to make and place the rune array. I helped Jonah this time, otherwise it would have taken ten hours! The last took two hours. By then, we were tired and hungry.

  It was almost midnight, and we had missed dinner. We were led back to the caverns and towards the left side, this time where there were various caverns. One was a cafeteria. We sat on the wooden benches placed between the stalagmites.

  The whole cavern glowed with a dim light, and moisture clung to the surface of the rocks, beading them with dew. The walls sparkled with droplets of water. We ate cold sandwiches. I gave my meat to Jonah, and he gave me his cheese. We ate in silence.

  There was a pall of fear over the hideout. It had snuck in, in the last few hours unannounced, as the forces armed themselves, and the hideout was evacuated. I knew I was a big liability in this fight and should be with the evacuees, but Jonah was a fighter. We’d have been separated like Datha wanted. Still, I was close to useless and would stay inside with the other slaves, defending the hideout with runes while Jonah fought.

  Maryanne: We are not useless!

  Strength: Yeah, we aren’t!

  Mark: Nor are we broken.

  Jack: We just are! Whether people like it or not! We’ll get our powers back!

  All: Yeah!

  I sighed as we made it to the sitting room to wait for news on the invasion. No one could sleep. Jonah tried to anyway since being drowsy on the battlefield was a good way to get killed.

  The excited buzz in the sitting room didn’t allow for that. Instead, we kept up by practicing complicated rune arrays. Ones far more complicated than the doors. I studied alongside him as he explained every rune he was placing and its function. These were new to me. I didn’t know all five hundred runes yet.

  Almost but not quite. These were the runic equivalent of ultimate runes and were to be used sparingly. They were powerful. I knew one already. The hexagon with the circle inside indicating ultimate power.

  There were thirteen symbols, including five for the elements that provided stronger anchors to them. A dot for Earth. A curly line for Wind, a wavy one for Water, three vertical wavy lines for Fire, and a cross for Ether. He’d used them for the doors. We sat up revising runes until the first attack came, and we were separated.

  I stayed with the other slaves while Jonah was led out to fight. We were huddled in a cavern and told to keep the weapons loaded. One problem with this. We were never shown how to operate the guns, and so hadn’t a clue how they worked.

  I studied the runes array for the weapons, but it was a complicated array with more than thirty matrices linked together!

  Still, we had to figure this out if we wanted a chance against the council, so I took a piece of paper and began to deconstruct the array rune by rune. I found the secret of the reloading power halfway through and promptly taught the rest of the slaves what to do as the guns were piling up.

  By midday, we had every gun reloaded, but the brigades had managed to find their way inside via the air ducts. I glanced around the room. There was an air duct that led inside this room! I took out Dancer and positioned myself in front of others.

  They came down in swarms from the least expected place. Not the vent, but the front entrance, as several of those protecting us fled and led them through. Many gasps of outrage followed, and then a scream of “!Pedaso de mielda!”

  “Cousin no!”

  A blast sounded from my side as a black blur rushed by chasing a red blur right out of the entrance.

  “Roberto!” cried a woman tearfully.

  The men and a few women in red sashes chortled, and it angered me. I got Dancer ready, touching two runes at the bottom of the pommel.

  “Spring, come let your bounty grow with life with WATER!” I cried as whips of water sprang from Dancer and curled around a fire brigadier as he shot a flame ball into the hybrids.

  “Together! Those who can fight with me!” I cried, attacking them as they came in and dodging their flame balls as they went wide. I slashed one across the shoulder and down the arm. Another hopped down and began shooting fire blasts at me.

  Water whips curled around the one who started firing blasts. I dodged and weaved across the room to where I had left my rune arrays. It was partly done. The others were hoisting the five guns left for our defense and were firing into the crowd.

  Loud electric buzzing filled my ears while more brigaders fell through the small air duct, which had widened to allow them entrance. Some held collars, and the hybrids began whimpering behind me. I felt helpless as I drew my arrays as fast as I could.

  I had a plan for these fire brigades. I had to duck an Ether blast to the head. Fire was shot at a girl, and I stretched my hand out, willing for water to come. Nothing! I couldn’t stop it! I felt useless as the fire burned her face, and she screamed. I was their protector, not the liability I was.

  I wasn’t helping anyone this way! I needed my powers back. I decided to visit the great temples and regain my voice again. I finished and crowded everyone behind me.

  “Oppolomei, take my sacrifice and protect your people,” I yelled as the barrier glowed.

  A brigadier laughed. “What sacri–”

  A bright yellow beam cut off his head mid-sentence, and I smirked as the barrier came into being.

  “You,” I muttered, making sure that the anchor was evident to Jonah as I peeled a sticker off with a smiley face where the barrier was anchored and placed it on a rock,

  One of the guns made a whirring noise.

  “It’s jammed!” cried a male hybrid.

  Flip the switch!” called the crying female, sniffling.

  I remembered the runes of the gun, and my eyes widened.

  “No! Don’t flip the switch again!” I cried, but it was too late. The gun sputtered and then lit up. I shoved the gun into the brigadier's and watched as it detonated like a grenade. The cavern lit up in a grand explosion. I was blown back into my barrier and slammed to the ground. My head hit a stalagmite with a dull crack, and debris from the ceiling pelted me. I felt something slice into my forehead. I fell within my barrier.

  “Keep us safe,” were my final words as the barrier glowed and trapped us all within.