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Displaced.

Stepping towards her desk, already planning how best to finish her work, the air in the room changes. Confused, she glances around as if searching for an intruder, but she knows this is impossible. Not many things can get past a being that can see the energy flow in everything.

This is unfamiliar; strange energy is gathering and building up, becoming more intense as it approaches, but Era can’t see it or tell where it’s coming from.

It’s palpable, making the air in the room so thick that you would think you’re underwater.

Suddenly, her chest begins to tighten, her pulse quickens, and her breath is shallow and rapid; she is having a hard time catching her breath.

Fear? She’s afraid? When was the last time she felt fear?

Trying to centre herself as if bracing for an impact, she spreads her legs apart and points her index finger and thumb in an ‘L’ shape towards the ground, concentrating the energy in her core.

But it’s no use; her mind is fuzzy, and her vision is starting to blur. There is pain all through her body, as if someone is reaching in, trying to pull something out.

The pain is now radiating inward, starting from the tips of her fingers and toes and moving along her arms and legs toward the centre of her body.

Her limbs start contorting and bending, trying to find release, but there is no use. Waves and waves of pain are pulling at every inch of her skin. But it’s not just physical pain she is fighting, something is also attacking her ethereal body.

A strange thought crosses her mind, - ‘So, guardians do feel pain after all.’

The agony is unbearable; she has died many deaths before, and now, in her panic, she is trying to associate this with her feelings.

Is it like being burned alive when she felt the flames crawling up her skin, and as it burned, the smell of scorched hair and flesh filled her lungs just before the hellish heat took her breath away?

‘No, no, that’s not it!’ – the voice in her head is screaming louder than ever before.

Or maybe it’s like falling off a cliff and the fear that comes just before hitting the surface of the icy water. Was this what was happening now?

That dizzy feeling of confusion, that giant pit formed in your gut and chest just before your warm body hits the frozen surface.

Is it the sudden shock that swiftly turns into the fire that burns your skin and, at the same time, fills your lungs with frozen liquid?

But nothing compares. . .

The feeling of surrender and wanting to drop to her knees is overwhelming, but now she is paralysed, frozen in place by this unknown force trying to break her apart.

That thick pressure she felt earlier is now all around, enveloping her like an invisible cocoon. Can she even breathe? Is her heart still beating?

She tries to concentrate on the room, but her sight is blurry… blurry. Is that even the right word?

The room is distorted as if all the matter within points toward a dark dot in the middle of Era’s line of site.

Trying to concentrate on that spot, she feels herself slipping increasingly towards unconsciousness. Every muscle and nerve ending is now numb.

But her mind is still screaming, wanting to be released from this trap and the unknown force sending her into an abyss of unbearable fear.

Movement! Her immobilised body is now moving, but she can no longer see anything. Everything is pitch black, and she is moving through darkness. What is this never-ending void?

As Era tries to keep her only remaining sense from slipping away, there is a sudden realisation that she can no longer feel Earth.

She can no longer sense the low vibration of its gravity and the murmur that connects her to her home. Everything is now slipping further and further away from her.

Sorrow and loss have now taken root in her mind; emptiness, as she has never experienced before, is currently dominating her every thought.

‘This is not possible! This is not real!’ – her screams bounce around like needles in her head.

And just like that, as maddening panic begins to take root in every bit of her existence, there is the familiar feeling of firm ground beneath her feet.

Falling to her knees, with her palms flat against the cold stone, her arms trembling, all strength seems to have left her body.

Pushing herself up and resting her hands on her upper thighs, her long, curly hair, messy and frizzy, is lightly moved by a soft breeze.

She takes a deep breath, waiting for her eyes to focus. It feels like she has not been breathing for a long time.

Finally, after a few deep breaths, her senses return to her, but this brings no comfort as she glances down at her palms; they are now stained with a red viscose substance with a strong metallic smell.

‘Blood?’ – she is almost surprised by her voice as it echoes and bounces off the walls of the hollow space.

Glancing around, she notices that she is kneeling on a large round, smooth stone slab in the middle of which there is a second indented circle filled with a red liquid.

As her mind is still fuzzy, it takes a minute to realise that what she is standing in is indeed blood.

Gingerly lifting her head, her eyes are met by those of a man dressed in black robes with a large hood pulled over his head. His gaze is fixated on her, as if he is shocked by her presence, staring without blinking.

Era then notices that despite his unyielding stare, his mouth is rushing, and the sound it’s producing is like a murmured prayer, although she can’t understand the words.

But he is not the only voice she can hear; thinking it’s the same echo as before, she looks over to her left and is startled to see a second hooded figure in the same meditation pose, with his palms resting limply on his knees and with the same shocked expression in his eyes.

Glancing back and to her, two more figures are sitting on what look to be separate platforms from the one she is on, triangular with a curved edge following the lines of the slab in the middle.

The earlier breeze swaying her hair ever so gently increased, so much so that she thought someone was brushing against her back.

Silence, the chanting has stopped, and as she looks up again at the hooded figure in front of her, he has now lifted his right hand as if he is trying to grab something invisible in front of him.

‘Who are you people? Where am I?’ – she yells without letting go of the man’s gaze.

Tilting his head as if curious at her words, he narrows his eyes and, with a swift nod, signals the others to follow his movement.

Now, all of them are reaching towards her, hands halfway closed but not moving. The chant was started again, but Era could recognise the cadence of the language, and even some of the words sounded familiar to her.

There is slight improvement in the pain and it feels like normalcy might be returning, and she is starting to feel a bit like herself.

Trying to assess her own condition, she brushes her hair back and off her face, but all is not well; there is an almost unnoticeable tightness in her chest.

Ignoring it, she turns her attention back to the man before her and lifts her hand, looking at it with a smirk. She wiggles her fingers slightly, and arches of electricity start dancing between them.

Feeling the energy come forward when she calls it and being able to sense the flow of it all around her once more gives her comfort.

Now, she wants to look around to assess the situation; with little arches of electricity still moving through her hand and reaching her elbow, she is ready.

The hooded men keep chanting; Era, on the other hand, has already opened her sight to examine their energy.

But what she sees is impossible. It can’t be real. These are humans, at least on the outside, but their energy cores are almost as dense as a guardian.

She can see it dancing, flowing through their bodies entering and being transmitted through every nerve. Just like an incarnated guardian body.

This, together with the strange pull of gravity, sends Era’s head into a spin; closing her sight and shaking her head, she turns her attention back to the one in front of her.

‘I asked you! Who are you? Where am I?’ – she says this slowly and calmly, but each word is heavy with rage, and you can feel the threat in every syllable.

This had their attention; the chanting stopped, they dropped their hands, and the one behind her spoke.

‘Master, what is this creature?’

As her ears adjusted to the sentence that was just spoken, almost giddy, she suddenly realised it was Mandarin; they were speaking Mandarin.

 ‘Who are you people? Where am I?’- she repeated her initial question, this time in her mother’s native language.

They clearly understood her as they were staring intently as if waiting to see what she would do next.

‘Well, you don’t seem to be impressed by me at all; I am offended!’ – she said, increasing the intensity of the energy running through her fingers.

But in her head, she was wondering why they were not impressed, even though this was a bizarre situation she found herself in; they are human, and the last time someone saw her do this, they fainted and woke up believing they had gone mad.

Feeling stronger and determined to get an answer, she lifted herself up and slowly turned, looking at each man under the black hoods and staring them down.

She had now contracted the energy in her palm in a small round ball and was playing with it, throwing it up and down while continuing to turn.

Still, no reaction; as she gets back to her original position with the man they call ‘master,’ she throws the ball towards his head, missing his ear by half an inch and removing the hood of his head.

‘Ha! … not even flinch, impressive!’

Suddenly, they all stand up, pointing both palms towards her, eyes closed, but Era can see the rapid movement under the lids as if they are looking for something.

Now irritated, she throws her head back in exasperation, so her eyes widen at the scene above her.

The cavern she is in is an upside-down funnel, and through the opening, she can see the night sky, but this is not what startles her. It’s because shining light through the door is two moons.

‘Two!’ – she exclaims to herself, mouth opened and eyes widened in disbelief.

‘Master! How is this possible? She has no spiritual core?’ – this brought her attention back to the four men around her.

As she opened her mouth to say something, there was a sudden realisation that the earlier wind was gradually increasing, not coming from any direction but swirling around her.

Looking at the dark hooded man in front of her with an accusatory gaze, she realises he is as stunned as she is.

The intensity of the gust is increasing, lifting her hair, spreading it and making it dance all around her. Also, her power starts to surge uncontrollably as she is suddenly plugged into a socket.

Feeling the ground beneath her vibrating and shaking, she lifts off and levitates several feet.

This is unimaginable to Era, where this surge of energy comes from. A guardian’s power comes from his connection to the material world and the energy flow that fuels and gives life to everything.

To her knowledge, energy is transferable, but she has never known a human with such a high index as the ones in front of her.

And how can they know how to manipulate, add to, or even extract it? Not even she had this knowledge, as this was a skill only the inner circle of masters possessed.

Millions of thoughts and questions are swirling through her head a million miles an hour, fuelling her anger.

‘Let me go! What are you doing to me?’ - she is now screaming at the top of her lungs, spitting anger and frustration with every word.

She opens both hands and as before, she gently wiggles her fingers, causing the electricity to arch between them. Still, instead of the small, concentrated burst, she is familiar with, the current spreads through her entire arm. Surprised by this, she flicked her wrists forward, and lightning-like energy burst out; unable to control the discharge, it now forced her arms apart, and as if dancing to a rhythm, the point hit the floor of the cave, then the walls and back and forth until Era managed to stop it.

Still levitating above the four hooded figures, she noticed the absolute shock and awe as the ground started to tremble beneath their feet violently.

The surprised expressions last only for a moment; as if snapping out of a trance, the now unhooded man that Era had stared down earlier pulls out a dagger and, without hesitation, makes a large cut on both forearms; the other three men follow his lead.

But the blood doesn’t flow down; as if enchanted by the chanting from the four men, it starts heading toward her.

Suddenly, she is feeling the familiar pressure from before, with the added pungent smell of blood now enveloping her body and slowly bringing her back down to the platform.

Once back, the viscous substance enveloping her is turned into shackles, kneeling her down, binding her arms and legs behind and underneath her.

The ground is still shaking, and the wind is still strong around her, but once the men feel that she is secure in her bindings, they turn their attention to the shaky ground.

Again, taking the meditation potion, a low murmuring chanting begins reverberating in the large cavern.

Again, that familiar fear is starting to creep into Era’s mind; this is not something she is equipped to deal with, as inherently, guardians have very few worries.

They don’t fear death, pain or loss, as these things live in a continuous renewal cycle. For them, they are a source of research and examination, and they want to experience them to understand better.

But Era is still young, just on the clasp of maturity, and even though she has experienced all required to move to the master level, she still lacks an understanding of the core nature of all human emotions.

And here, in this situation, she finds herself in the desperation that naturally results from unimaginable pain and fear.

As the bloody shackles that bind her tighten around her, the ground beneath has now stopped shaking, but a new sensation is creeping in.

Tiny particles of blood are starting to float around her, increasing with each rotation, swirling faster and faster; they have now transformed into bloody ribbons that, as well, have begun to increase in size.

Era is now immobilised, entirely still; she can’t even feel the air in the room anymore, no breeze, no sound, she can’t even tell if she is still breathing.

Suddenly, there is movement as the bloody cocoon is lifting off the ground; she has no idea where she is now as all she can see is the opening to the funnel and the two moons all enveloped in a bloody red mist.