Rune Mage [Fantasy/Adventure | Book 1 +2 | Complete]

Chapter 27: Trial of Burnt Oranges

"Seiren!"

From far away, a young woman's voice called. Mother?

"Seiren!"

No, it was too musical. Mother's voice was deeper and almost always a little hoarse from shouting at her and Madeleine. This was a different, lighter, but still somewhat familiar.

"Stay with me!"

Someone was pushing her, tapping her cheeks. Another pressed on her stomach. She blinked, her eyes opening but not seeing. Her breathing strengthened as consciousness returned, but so did all her other senses. Pain seared across her belly.

A shadow loomed over her. Scarlet eyes glowed, filled with wrath, and a monstrous mouth opened. Long claws extended and scraped over her raw abdomen. Her blood gushed onto the floor.

"Don't!" she screamed, flailing. "Get away from me!"

Her breathing came in rapid rasps. Its strong arm pinned her down. She kicked out. Voices shouted in the distance. She couldn't make out anything. This was a horrible mistake, an experiment she should never have participated in. The panic came back and hit her like a train straight in the chest. She was going to die.

Seiren threw out her hand blindly; the movement was sluggish but the magic was there, manifesting as flames. She couldn't see it, but felt the heat along her skin. It did nothing, snuffed at once by the monster. More shadows moved in the distance. There were so many of them! She screamed, terrified, preparing more magic. Her mind wouldn't clear, invaded by the fear. She thrust it aside and tugged at the remains of the magic.

Something hot pulsed over her chest, reining in her terror against her will. She fought against it, but it swarmed over her like a thick, warm blanket, dampening all her emotions. She struggled, but darkness sank in, hugging her tight. Death consumed her.

Her eyelids were so heavy. She pushed them open. It was light, but she could only see blurs. She blinked, her eyes taking their time to refocus. She reached up to rub her eyes and had to wrestle to drag her arm from the constriction of some bedsheets. Was this heaven?

Heaven didn't have such coarse bed sheets, strong scent of burning oranges, and dirty windows, surely.

She blinked again. The pale ochre light from a yellow rune came into focus above her head. The rather nauseating scent of antiseptic fluid mixed with burning oranges filled her nostrils. Death shouldn't give off the smell of heretics.

She gasped and sat up. The world came into stark focus. Pain blasted from her stomach. She let out a guttural groan, clutching it. Seiren pushed herself back so that her back leant against the bed board. Her arms trembled, straining under her body weight. Cold sweat settled on her forehead and over her lips. She groaned again, the room spinning.

Her eyes darted around the place. Unfamiliar, white, cluttered. Books lay splayed across the shelves and four walls stared back at her. She swung her legs over the sides and almost emptied the contents of her stomach over her thighs. Biting her lip and swallowing the acid burning the back of her throat, she pushed herself off, grabbed the side of the cabinet, missed, and crashed onto the floor.

Her vision nearly went black. The tiled floor was cold beneath her arms. A dull headache drummed against the back of her eyeballs. A door slammed open in the distance.

"Oh blast! Felora, you were meant to look after her!"

"I didn't see her, okay? I was eating!"

"You idiot!"

The screech made Seiren wince. Her limbs lost all their strength; all she could do was scrape her fingers across the ground. There was a small draught that cleared the muddle in her mind.