Resistance (Part 1)
The Tower was still red, in light. The absolute silence of the speaker system, left a sort of eerie lack of sound in the world. Heia had not lived in the Tower for too long and even she knew that the silence was weird, wrong, uncertain. It felt as if no one could create any sort of sound because the speakers were void of noise. Yet the world still sung, in buzzing broken speakers, in the light sound of raging fires, of alarm bells and the crunch of rocks as they moved.
The Tower had been evacuated over the course of multiple days, leading the way for survivors to make it off the most damaged floors. Many had died, but not nearly as many as could have been killed had Zeydar not been able to stop the destruction. Save them, Heia was not sure anyone was on the floor. Heia pulled her mask up on her face, eyes down. The bus was cast in a energy that she did not want to address, for it would address the destruction and they all wanted to act like they weren’t riding through it illegally, to find someone who might not exist.
With the notes that Zeydar had given them, they were able to send the schematics to the World Council. Hopefully, the notes would be used to help the other Towers and CloudCities, to reinforce them where the breaking had occurred. Hopefully, they would care enough. Heia only could hope that they were able to save the other Towers. There was always the chance that the Towers would still collapse due to magic. That the Towers would still fall to ruin without someone like Zeydar to stop it.
However there was no proof, that it was even outside magic’s fault, nor that Zeydar had been the one to stop it, yet Heia knew Zeydar had stopped it. In part they believed him responsible for the damage and for the stopping. Zeydar seemed to be the biggest consistent to the damage for Valaria and Arcadia. They were basing their analysis on his testimony that had come when he was under the influence of drugs and while detoxing. Neither testimony seemed particularly reliable. The only thing they were able to confirm for certain was that Zeydar was a Class Zero Mage. Uly had been able to pull his connections and get into the records when the evacuation protocols had been called.
“Around here.” Evester whispered, snapping Heia from her thoughts.
“Are we sure?” Phil asked just loud enough that she could hear his breathing better.
“This was the rendezvous spot.” Evester answered, even if they had forgone it in an attempt to flee the Tower all too quickly. The original rendezvous spot had been the original plan, what Kim had decided and made their escape to, and the place she’d made their escape to again. With more of the chaos they had ignored it, hiding until they could make their way to it and now they were hoping that Zeydar had still gone to it, despite only having known the plan in passing from Evester’s notes, the ones he had edited to give back to Evester on where the faults lied in the Tower.
The bus stopped and Kim opened the doors.
“We have ten minutes then we have to leave.” Uly warned them. They were only able to escape the Tower for a bit longer before patrols would stop them for good. Their short window was growing shorter by the moment, each moment that they searched for Zeydar.
“Okay.” Kony jumped off the bus faster than Evester, followed by Kori and Karla. Heia went to yell at them to stop, but stopped, unable to voice herself too loud. She could not leave a trace of herself here, even if it were only her voice. Instead she chased after them, wanting to make the least of a scene as possible. Evester headed on after the triplets.
“Not you.” Heia pulled back on Kori and Karla. “Back to the bus.”
“Kony doesn’t get to have all the fun.” Kori protested.
“He’s the only mage we have.” Heia knew her brother had to be used, even if he didn’t know any magic.
“Get back to the bus,” Crass spoke from behind her. “We don’t have time for games.”
The two girls glared at him before Karla sighed and pulled Kori back to the bus. Heia watched as Shawn took them back on to the bus and the doors closed.
“You needn’t come.” Crass warned her.
“I’m part of the trio.” A part of her thought it was her right to see this, above anyone else. Even if she knew she was useless out there, she was going to help.
“He might not even be here.” Crass shook his head, speaking to himself more than anyone.
“He’ll be here!” Kony called back, slipping into a doorway as Evester cut it open. Heia wasn’t sure where her brother got his confidence. Heia followed after them as Crass pried the door open more. The lights flickered ominously, and there was the strangest sound of running water, a sort of trickle from above, and a roaring somewhere down below. The floor were damp in some parts and flooded in others. The room smelt of bad eggs and ruined carpets. Another explosion waiting to happen, unable to from all the water.
“Over here!” She heard her brother call.
Following after his voice, Heia came to a room where tables were tossed and pushed to the side in a hurry. The air around the tables was clear, clean, void of all the toxic gasses that clung to the air waiting for ignition. Evester knelt down next to one of the tables with his holoblade glowing. In the light, Heia could make out the face of Zeydar who was cowering from it all.
“Finally.” Zeydar’s voice was weak.
“You okay?” Evester asked.
“It’s too bright. Turn it off.” Zeydar protested and Evester did as asked. Kony offered out his hand and Zeydar took it, leaving from the spot, casting what ever spell had been filtering the air, to around them. A lightness brushed around her with his spell, as he cleansed the air around them, a lightness that told Heia that he had been using magic nonstop since she had last seen him. Crass walked past Heia to help Zeydar who looked very weak.
“Have you been able to eat?” Evester asked looking Zeydar over.
“Once I’m back on a good dose of Dreams, I’ll be able to.” Which meant that no, Zeydar had not ate at all in the days since he’d disappeared.
“You aren’t going back—“ Heia started but Evester cut her off with a glare.
“It’s safer for everyone.” Zeydar explained.
“Agreed.” Evester took the bag that Zeydar was carrying. “What is in here?”
“Everything I need to train Kony and to survive on the run.” Zeydar answered, leaning on Crass.
Evester looked into it, before shutting it again. “Now or on the bus?”
“Now, no? We don’t want the others being exposed to my degenerate nature.” Zeydar answered, reaching for the bag. Evester opened it and Zeydar pulled out a metal box from the backpack. Zeydar leaned over and showed Evester the combination, one that Heia watched closely. Opening it, Evester let Zeydra reach inside. Heia recognized the drugs.
“We can’t.” Heia protested. “We took him off of it for a reason. People died for us to do that.”
“No. People died because the Superiors wanted people to die.” Zeydar looked the Sweet Dreams over as if he’d never seen anything better in his life. “Detox me on my rate, not an expedited route and we will be fine. I’ve grown up on this stuff. I have to relearn to use my abilities without it, slowly working towards that, but I will.” He took the Sweet Dreams, placing them in his mouth and slowly closing his eyes.
Would they have enough time? Was that not why they had decided to cut him off to begin with?
“I did it before.” Zeydar continued after a moment. “I can do it again without having to risk being caught. You’ll just have to keep on me to make sure I do.” When would they finally hit? She knew that it took time for the drugs to get into the blood stream. She wanted to tell them all that it was wrong, that he was already there and it was his addiction talking, not their common sense. Unfortunately, none of them knew how to work with his powers and the fear of whaat he could do outweighed what they should have done.
“We will.” Kony went to help Zeydar. “When do I start learning?”
“After.” Zeydar answered as Crass began to lead him out. “For now we need to go. No?”
Evester did not agree, instead leading them out without a word.
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Marlena Marie 
Nice and well written!
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