Down

The steam slowly began to clear, revealing Sybill hovering silently above the frost-covered battlefield.

Then she turned towards Mariana.

Mariana stared at Zack’s motionless body. Her breathing quickened as her gaze moved across the others.

Craven. Boric. Lola. Zack.

All four had fallen.

Her golden eyes snapped towards Sybill.

“Who the hell do you think you are, bitch?”

Mariana’s wand moved incessantly, lightning and wind hurtling towards Sybill one after another. Sybill’s shield moved with immaculate precision, sweeping around her body to intercept every attack as flashes of silver, white and gold illuminated the cage.

Mariana increased the pace. Lightning cracked against the shield from above while blades of wind struck from either side, but Sybill blocked every attack.

Mariana’s expression hardened as she twirled her wand, and the air beneath Sybill suddenly twisted.

Mariana flicked her wand upwards.

A violent gust erupted from below with the force of a tornado, engulfing Sybill before she could reposition her shield. Her silver hair whipped wildly around her as the spiralling wind seized her entire body and hurled her through the air.

Sybill crashed into the wall of the cage, and the enormous barrier shuddered beneath the impact.

Mariana shot towards her, but Sybill had already recovered.

She flicked her wand.

Vines erupted from below and wrapped tightly around Mariana’s ankles. Her golden eyes widened as they yanked her downwards.

Sybill pushed herself away from the cage wall and watched Mariana being dragged towards the ground.

That seemed to settle it.

She looked around at the enormous shimmering cube surrounding them.

It was time to undo it.

Below, the vines continued dragging Mariana down, but Sybill had already turned her attention away from her. Mariana recovered more quickly than she expected, twisting in the air and managing to steady herself just enough to raise her wand.

Sybill lifted her own wand towards the walls of the cube.

A sudden bolt of lightning struck her directly in the back.

Her silver eyes widened.

The magic around the huge walls began to fade. Below, the vines loosened around Mariana’s ankles.

A smile spread across her face.

Crack!

Everything went black.

Sybill fell.

Down.

Down.

Down.

Deeper into an unknown darkness.

For several moments, there was nothing beneath her, nothing above and nothing around her.

Then the darkness opened.

Hundreds of crabapple trees stretched beneath her, their gnarled branches heavy with fruit.

The ground rushed towards her.

Sybill flipped through the air, silver hair streaming around her as the earth came closer.

Closer.

A familiar chittering filled the darkness.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

Hundreds of tiny pincers snapped together.

Golden insects carpeted the ground beneath her. They crawled over exposed roots, poured from holes in the earth and swarmed around the trunks of the crabapple trees.

Mana Drainers.

Sybill was about to crash directly into them.

Her body abruptly stopped.

She hung upside down in perfect stillness, the ends of her silver hair suspended only inches above the crawling mass.

Tiny golden pincers snapped beneath it.

Sybill’s eyes widened.

Slowly, she lifted herself higher and turned upright, never allowing so much as the tip of her hair to touch the creatures below.

Only then did she look around.

The crabapple trees seemed to stretch endlessly into the darkness, with Mana Drainers crawling between their roots.

But they were not the only things scattered across the ground.

Discarded weapons lay everywhere. Swords, spears, shields and broken pieces of armour had accumulated in great piles, some rusted almost beyond recognition.

Human remains lay among them.

Skeletons rested beneath the crabapple trees and against exposed roots, while others lay half-buried beneath years of fallen leaves. Empty hands still rested beside weapons that had done nothing to save them.

Sybill’s expression changed.

This was not merely where the witch had been keeping the Mana Drainers.

It was a prison.

And judging by the remains scattered beneath her, very few people sent here had ever left.

Recognition settled across her face.

“This is the witch’s Domain.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Back on the battlefield, Sybill was gone.

Mariana hovered for a moment inside the giant cube. Around her, Boric, Craven, Lola and Zack remained unconscious where they had fallen.

The shimmering walls surrounding them were already fading.

Mariana lowered herself to the ground.

Her high-heeled boots touched the stone.

Click.

She took a step.

Click.

Another section of the shimmering barrier dissolved before her.

Mariana walked towards it without hesitation, her golden eyes fixed on the battlefield beyond.

Click. Click. Click.

By the time she reached the opening, the last traces of silver magic were disappearing into the air.

Mariana stepped through.

A slow smile spread across her face.

She had won.