Don't leave your body lying around

There were some things about Hale Tenebris that Katharin really loved. One of them was his unswerving trust in her. If the whole student body failed a test, she would be the one person passing with flying colors. If all evidence pointed to her as the culprit, she must have been framed. If she claimed that mermaids were land creatures, that must be the truth of the world.

It seemed like, to him, she was always this perfect being beyond reproach.

And she knew that even if she failed his expectations, he would not change his mind. She was happy with that. She was proud that someone thought so highly of her and it made her want to strive towards being the person in his heart.

But she hated Hale’s arrogance and ignorance. He knew a lot but didn’t know anything at the same time. Because of that little bit of knowledge, he put all the blame on himself whenever things went wrong. But how could anyone know what would happen for sure? Even the Gods didn’t.

If they did, they wouldn’t have left it in her hands.

Or maybe they didn’t care about the world as much as the scriptures said they did.

Katharin reached for the chalk, her fair fingers passing through the golden mass that held it.

The longer she delayed, the more danger Hale’s body was in.

There were still many steps to take and she couldn’t falter at the very first. A small magic circle soon took shape on the concrete, and Katharin channeled miniscule amounts of mana, so little that the captors would not notice.

The shackles placed the wearer’s mana in stasis but no dam could hope to block the ocean. And Katharin had mana reserves unimaginable for some dragons, much less a 11 year-old human. Under her exceptional control, enough mana ran through the circle and the perfectly drawn shapes hummed softly. She didn’t have to hold back now that no mana fluctuation would be detected in a meter radius.

She concealed the circle underneath her skirt. That was the easy part. And now onto the second…

Katharin blinked away the dripping sweat. Space magic belonged to a higher order of magic and was inherently volatile. Few had the aptitude, and even those with talent had to be on their toes with it. Any error would cause them to be stuck in the gaps of space or parts of their body separated by the fabric of the universe and sent to different locations.

Only a few strokes were left. She looked over the drawn symbols again. The living things in touch with Arcanium alloy (the material of their shackles) in a set region would be transferred to a set coordinate.

She took a deep breath, slightly dizzy from the lack of food and water for the past half-day.

“What are you doing?” The small girl’s green hair swayed even though there was no wind. “Hermin really wants to know.”

Her head tilted cutely but Katharin could feel gooseflesh raising when a small palm brushed her shoulder. “Won’t big sister tell Hermin?”

ↂ

Hale slipped through walls after walls. The golden mass had left the moment Katharin started drawing. She needed time for the spell and if anything happened in the mean time, his soul wouldn’t be able to help. He needed to find his body. Whoever hurt the children had better watch out! If looks could kill, Hale’s glare would have shot the criminals many times over.

The dungeon ran systematically and had equipment that back alley thugs the likes of Mungo would never be able to get. There was another group behind this. If Katharin’s spell succeeded, the traffickers would definitely scatter so he hoped that the faces he memorized would help the authorities capture them.

Their clothing was not unified. Some dressed casual and others were more flamboyant, perhaps to blend in and out of the festival crowd. The only contributor to a sense of solidarity was their armband. It seemed that superiors like Python and the woman who talked to Mungo wore a purple armband, the brains blue, the muscles wore red, and the rank and file like Mungo had none.

When Hale finally located his body, it was in an incinerator, thrown in like garbage with two other bodies.