Amethyst

Fairburrow’s letter specified in no uncertain terms that I was to come alone.

Naturally, I completely ignored that.

Mary and I arrived with twenty minutes to spare, right outside Fairburrow’s office. The weekend crowd was practically nonexistent—something Fairburrow presumably knew all too well, as we didn’t pass a single person in the entire hall.

“Wait,” Mary whispered. “It’s not time yet.”

“He said don’t be late, nothing about being early.” I kicked down the door. “What do you got for us, Fairburrow?”

As I expected, his office didn’t have a person in sight. Fairburrow's leather chair sat empty, neatly tucked into a tidy desk, with neat stacks of ungraded classwork piled on the corners.

What I hadn’t expected was one of his bookshelves tossed open, and a wide-open stone staircase leading down behind it.

“Well, there's only one way to go.” I stepped inside, quietly closing Fairburrow’s door as Mary followed behind.

“We can still make a plan, Princess?” Mary stuck to my shadow like glue, clearly fidgeting more than usual. “We have time.”

“For what? Either way, we go charging down those stairs. Is that what got you fidgeting so much?”

“No, it’s just…” Mary hesitated. “Whenever I’ve been around the Professor, he always makes me talk a lot…”

Not the fact that he may want to kill us? Never change, Mary. “Don’t worry, I’ll blast him to smithereens.” And I’ll do it my way.

We slowly descended down the cold, stone stairs. Dim torches lined both sides of the hall, the cheap kind made with spare scraps of fabric. Apparently, to Fairburrow we weren’t even worth the extra cost.

“What are you doing here?” A thick steel door blocked our path at the end of the stairs. Giant, cold rivets locked the metal together, with four colored knobs sticking out near the center.

“W-What’d you find?”

“A men's Varie lock.” I gently brushed my fingers against the four painted knobs. Mary tried to glance over my shoulder, though with how slim the hallways were, she wasn’t having much luck.

“Here? Do you think it was Prince Isaac’s?”

“That’s my best guess. Won't stop me.” I tightened my grip. If this was a trap proving I was a Prisma, so be it. There wasn’t another way inside.

A Varie lock was infinitely simpler than the monochrome one from earlier. There weren’t any keys or combinations; just using all four types of magic into their designated colored knobs was enough.

Made them super easy to break into by an experienced locksmith, or so I’d heard. Being a Prisma did have its benefits sometimes.

A slight click echoed from the door. “I have a feeling this time it’s for real. Are you ready?”

“Never been more ready.”

I grinned. “That’s the answer I like to hear, Mary.” And with that, I pushed the heavy door open.

Inside, the room we walked into shouldn't have existed. It wasn’t that such a room shouldn’t have been built, or that the room was breaking some random Vertanian law.

The room was just way too big to fit underground.

“Val!” I dashed inside. She hung in an electric cage, nearly forty feet or so in the air. “Stay still!”

“About time you showed up.” Val’s voice was hoarse, but at least she sounded alright.

“About time indeed. It is nice to see your face, Princess Everbit, though I see you didn’t come alone.”

“And I’d rather jump off a cliff than see yours, Fairburrow.” My expression soured as the man walked onto a metal balcony halfway up toward Val. “Have fun hiding these last few days?”

“Protecting Vertana takes patience, something you wouldn’t be able to understand.” Fairburrow’s tone would have been right at home in one of his lectures.

“I don’t need any patience to smash your face in. Let Val go.”

“Gladly. I would never willingly bring harm to one of my students that didn’t deserve it. But first, I must protect the rest of my students from the heretics that seek to corrupt them.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean? Actually, I have a lot of questions you need to answer, Fairburrow. Every single thing in this whole, complicated, stupid mess has linked back to you.”

“You do?” Fairburrow said, his voice amused. “Well, as a professor, it’s only right for me to spread information whenever possible.”

“Why me?”

“Elaborate.”

“My transfer here, Isaac’s disappearance, now this. Somehow, your name keeps popping up every single time! And somehow, I always seem to be involved in it. Isaac was right all along, you were the one who organized my transfer, right?”

“Guilty,” he shrugged. “I’m sure you were told it was suggested by a Church official. My ties aren’t very well known. It’s not your fault that you never realized.”

“Your ties?” I let a blade of ice form in my palm.

“Holy Vertana, fifth division.”

Mary gasped. “O-One of them?”

“You recognize that?” I asked.

“E-Everyone in the kingdom knows the fifth division, Princess! They’re—”

“Inquisitors, yes,” Fairburrow said. “It is we who protect the kingdom from infidels and heretics. Why you, Princess? Because you are one of those heretics.”

“Me? Heretic?” If it came from any other person, I would have laughed.

“Yes, you.” He paced back and forth along the railing. “When the gods gave us magic, they expected structure, order in how magic should be used. But some people chose to research further beyond. They made contracts with the outer gods and demons, and now, the world has a name for those who dared to reach beyond what is natural.”

“So that’s how you view Prismas.”

“View? No, that’s simply who they are. There is nothing subjective about Prismas. That’s something you must know well, being one yourself.”

“I guess there’s no reason to hide it anymore. My mistake, doubting Isaac’s report.” Flame burst from my empty palm, forming a second orange blade.

“That pest. I see even death hasn't stopped his meddling.” Fairburrow spat.

“Is that why you killed him? Was Isaac trying to help Prismas that unforgivable?”

“Trying to help? Of course not. Lost sheep stray from their chosen path all the time, and it's through the guidance of their shepherd they find the way back to the beaten path.”

“You think you did a good job there?” I barked. “Can’t leave the beaten path if you’re dead.”

“Isaac went well beyond the beaten path. I wanted to save him with all my heart, but like you, he had already signed a contract with the devil.”

Behind me, I heard Mary gasp.

“So… You killed him for helping?”

“No, Princess,” Mary tugged at my shoulder. “Isaac was the same as you.”

“A royal? I already knew that.” I was so confused as Mary took a long, deep breath.

“Let me spell it out for you, infidel.” Any sign of the kind Fairburrow was gone. “Isaac was a Prisma.”

“Isaac was a…” I had to mentally double-check I hadn’t misheard the man.

It made so much sense. His passion for Prismas, the monochrome lock, that weird Prisma-hating facade. Of course a Prisma born in Vertana would have to take every step possible not to reveal themselves! “I’m so sorry...”

“Now do you get it! I am Zandar Von Fairburrow, second in command of the Holy Vertana, fifth division, and head inquisitor to the royal families of the world. Did you know, magical parasite that you are, that most Prismas come from nobility? How shameful that those who should be the greatest of us are those who turn to demons for power.”

We were one and the same after all, Isaac? Just thinking those words felt shocking. Both dealt the worst cards possible. I can’t imagine what It’d be like to grow up as a Prisma in the Vertanian royal family, yet you put more effort into changing things than I ever did.

“Do you really believe that?” I pointed my sword up toward Fairburrow. “Prismas and Varies are the same, it’s just genetics.”

“Lies and deceit.”

“You know what, I don’t care what you believe!” I let vines curl around my feet. “You killed Isaac, and the punishment of regicide is death.”

Vines shot from the ground, soaked with water as they made a quick bridge up. I dropped my ice sword, sealing the ice to the vines, and shoving myself up toward Fairburrow.

Vertical ice ramps; one of my more useful magical combinations. It was fast, more than speedy enough to get a few people up a small wall like this.

But not fast enough.

“Alas, the time for us to fight has not yet come.” Fairburrow stepped back. Walls of steel sprang from the floor, along with the creaking of rusted gears.

“What did you do, Fairburrow?”

“Just activated my trap. Nothing personal, but I have places to be. Let me know if you survive.”

He knows we win a direct fight, then? I scowled. Fairburrow must’ve seen me spar before, he knows that a one-on-one won't go well for him.

“Damn it, Fairburrow!” I slammed my fist into the wall. “Mary, come help me with this! I’m going to burn straight through the metal.”

“P-Princess, we have another problem?”

“We do?” I flipped around. “Oh, that problem.”

In the time between my charge and Fairburrow’s retreat, gallons of water had started to spill onto the floor, and the water level was rapidly heading our way.

“Why do villains always do that?” I muttered. “Just leave right when it's getting good.”

“I don’t know, but please tell me you have a plan!” Val still sat in her cage, anxiously looking around. “Because the second this cage touches the water, we're all getting fried.”

“Mary?” What few ideas I had weren’t anything more than ramming my head into the wall and hoping that I’d eventually get a lucky hit.

“We can try to clog the drains with vines or ice, but I don’t think it'll do much.”

“Worth a shot.” I snapped my fingers, letting a thin sheet of ice coat the walls, only to shatter seconds later. “Seriously? That’s unfair.”

“I figured, they’re high-powered jets.”

“Can’t you just move all the water to one side or something?” Val’s cage swung midair as she shouted down. “Just use a bit of blue.”

“And have a random drop shock you through the cage?” I’d thought of the same thing, but tossed that idea away pretty quickly. Whether the water was coming in from the bottom or sides, that didn’t really matter. It was still pouring in the sealed room.

“I-I have an idea…” Mary’s soft voice barely registered.

“Thank you!” Val screamed from above.

“Lightning has to have a source, right? I can’t say I know much about yellow, but surely whatever crystals are powering that cage have to be the same.”

“I’m not seeing anything like that!”

“N-No, it would be built into either the cage or the wires holding it up…”

At the same time that Val’s face went white, my face split into a grin. “So you’re saying we hit the cage hard enough and we’ll be able to disconnect it.”

“I’m saying there's a chance, Princess.”

“Well, a chance is good enough for me.” I looked back up. “What do you want to be hit with?”

“Nothing!”

“Vines it is. Mary?”

“On it.” With the two of us working together, a great tree trunk of a vine sprouted from the ground, twice the size of my shoulders. Rubble fell as the room shook a bit from the swaying.

“How’s your control…” Mary whispered.

“Rock solid! Hold onto something, Val!”

“What exactly do you think I have to hold onto?”

“Find something!” I nodded toward Mary, and together we slammed the vine right into the thin, metallic chain holding up her cage.

An eerie, wailing groan erupted from the metal, followed by the sound of bending iron. A bit of loose chain bounced against the wall. The gentle hum of electricity jolted off, the lightning disappeared, and the leftover chain flailed up—a clean break.

“What the hell—” Val screamed as she plummeted. “Someone better catch me or my wrist won't be the only one with a dagger in it.”

“Ruby—”

“I got her.” Thin tendrils of water flew from the floor, twisting to create a whirlpool.

Val landed with a giant splash, spinning around, and she eventually landed on the ground unharmed. “You could have at least kept me dry.”

“S-Same, Princess…” Mary muttered. Val’s splash hadn’t been free of collateral damage.

I shook the extra water from my hair and patted my clothes down. “Well, you’re down now.”

I didn’t know how thick those walls were, how far we were underground, or how far ahead Fairburrow had thought. Our entrance wasn’t an option either—halfway underwater now.

I’ll just have to deal with this myself. “Both of you stand back.” I raised a hand toward the door Fairburrow left from.

“Ruby?” Val raised an eyebrow. “What the hell are you planning on doing?”

“I hate dealing with metal. Water bounces off of it, lightning is useless, and hitting it with a vine doesn’t cause more than a dent if it's thick enough. But it’ll burn eventually.”

“No need for that,” Val sighed. “Fairburrow never bothers to change how these are set up.”

In a flash, Val’s dagger flew straight from her hand toward the door. But unlike anything I’d be able to throw at the door, Val's dagger went straight through like the door was nothing more than butter.

I watched, stunned, as the three-inch steel door crashed to the floor.

“Let’s head out; Fairburrow most likely thinks we'll be stuck in here for another hour or so.”

“You seem to know a lot about the man.” Mary slowly stepped forward, muscles tense. “Every step, it’s almost like you know how he’ll think.”

“Do I ever.” Val grimaced, then sank her shoulders and seemed to reach some kind of conclusion. “Come on. I think it’s time I told you everything.”