I followed the trail of blood down to the holy sanctum. My heart beat faster with each step as I heedlessly pounded down the blood soaked stairs.

Reaching the bottom, I needed a moment to take in the scene before I could process the horror that awaited me. My uncle, covered in Lumia’s blood, stood over my best friend as she lay taking shallow breaths. She was struggling, desperately trying to crawl away from him, but for each inch she moved, he stepped a foot closer.

“Silv…” she cried weakly, as our eyes met.

My uncle’s focus had been entirely on her, until now; he looked up and smiled at me. “You made it back quicker than I was expecting.” He sighed and shook his head; blood smeared on his cheek glimmered faintly as it caught the firelight of a hoovering green flame. With a wave of his hand, a thick layer of black mana blocked the way back up. “Just in time to watch your friend become my slave.”

Seeing the red gem in his hand I realized what he meant. He was going to turn Lumia into an eidolon. I couldn’t imagine what was going through his head, but it certainly wasn’t logic.

Lumia’s blood mixed with mana particles and swirled toward the gem as my uncle's eyes began to glow. Lumia stretched her arm toward me screaming, “Silv!”

It was a desperate cry. That one word seemed to contain all of her strength, emotion and no small amount of pain.

Reacting on instinct, I fired several bolts of pure mana at the dark barrier without looking back. Breaking into a sprint, I fired another shot at the gem which was now floating in front of my uncle.

I heard the first three bolts crash against my uncle's barrier, but when I looked, it didn’t seem like they had any effect. Wrapping his hand in mana, my uncle swatted aside the final botl before it hit the gem.

“Silv…please…” Lumia cried, her word’s barely a whisper.

“Tsk tsk, what a poor performance,” my uncle said, “I guess looks aren’t everything after all. You might have her gold hair, but you certainly don’t have her power.”

Tears rolled down Lumia’s cheeks and her breathing slowed. The last remnants of her blood were flowing toward the gem. The spell was almost done and Lumia would forever be bound to serve my uncle.

Desperate, I let out a furious roar. I tried to pull mana away from my uncle, away from the gem, but I couldn’t hope to overpower him.

As I was giving up, I felt a strange sensation. The mana around me trembled with golden light, vibrating the air as the normally invisible particles became plainly visible.

My uncle started to say something, but I couldn’t tell what. Mana was rushing into my core at a rate that I knew was unsafe, but I couldn’t stop it any more than I could stop my uncle. My core swelled as much as it could to accept the incoming mana, but it didn’t take long before it was full.

As more mana tried to force its way inside, my core felt ready to burst. The pain was overwhelming, so much so that I could hardly process my thoughts. My vision blurred into bright light and the only sound that made sense was the steady pounding in my ears. Several moments passed like this, then my vision returned, but I still couldn’t hear.

My uncle was irate, flailing his arms and screaming like a mad man. The gem had fallen, Lumia was slowly moving towards me and her wounds were healing. Whatever was happening, it seemed to be stopping my uncle’s magic, at least for the moment. I knew I couldn’t keep this up for long. My core would give out and shatter. Lumia was safe for now, but what of the barrier? My mother said she’d come soon, but would I last long enough, and would she be able to reach us?

I couldn’t answer any of the questions. I was in too much pain to twist around and check on the barrier, and my core already felt like it was cracking. I figured I might last a couple more minutes at best.

‘The eidolon,’ I thought, my eyes frantically darting around trying to make sense of everything in view. Vivi should be here, if I can but rouse her…

It was then that my eyes settled on a forest green gem—or rather, the gem's shattered remains. The realization that my uncle hadn’t acted on a whim struck me. Destroying her gem was likely the first thing he did upon entering the sanctum. Probably as Lumia was distracted admiring the only creature that truly compared with dragons in might.

Neither would’ve expected his treachery; however, I guessed it must have been deliberate that he chose here of all places. If he had not eliminated Vivi, then even if he’d succeeded in dominating Lumia, my mother would’ve turned the sacred beast on him as soon as his plot was discovered.

I felt a dull thump as something struck me from behind or in front, I couldn’t tell. There was hardly any pain from the impact, but a jolt shot through my entire body. It was all I could take. I felt myself tremble as mana rushed out of me, but nothing else made sense. I tried to hang on, to keep fighting for Lumia, I wanted to know she was safe; instead I felt my mind drift into a dark void, unable to climb back out.

A peaceful darkness called to me, its tug growing stronger the more I fought to get free. Soon I forgot the scene entirely and relaxed into the easy quiet of nothingness.