YP – B3:QtnoWLM – Chapter 6 (Chapter 103)

195 Days Until Perseverance And the Uncertain End (part 3)

Zeydar breathed as silently as he could, whispering spell after spell under his breath as they moved through the compound. They had knocked most of the people out, having to injure a few. They being Evester and the others. The best he could do was whisper spells to protect them from whatever could come their way. It was not much. Kim opened the door to a supply room, where food, batteries, weapons, and clothes lay haphazardly.

“We found a room.” Kim spoke to her headset. “Secure path.”

“Copy.” Uly answered back.

“Copy.” Crass replied. 

The two teams would secure the path from the room all the way back to the bus. They’d run the supplies as Team one, meaning Zeydar much to his dismay, would protect them.

“Its sparse.” Heia looked over what was in the room. There was enough food for them for maybe two days and for batteries and weapons, there were few. The clothes section was the largest but he wasn’t sure if any of it was winter appropriate. He was not sure. He’d never felt a winter on the Lowerlands. He doubted it was pretty fake icicles and soft snow that was only for show.

“They’ve probably used most of it.” Evester walked in towards the clothes and materials. “This is our most important bit. We need to get as much clothes back to the bus as we can.”

“And food?” Kim asked.

“We take what we can.” Evester knew it would not matter much, because the amount of food there was not a lot. There had to be another.

“We need to find the car batteries.” Shawn looked around the room. “There may be an additional supply room with food.”

“Zeydar, Heia, Shawn, you go look. Evester and I will keep the room secure.” Kim agreed.

“Keeping me from the fun?” Evester protested.

“Keep me in the loop. Go.” Kim directed them out and Shawn took the lead out of the room. Zeydar cast his protective spells over the room, and stalked through the halls behind Shawn. Shawn made sense, as the only soldier among them. Zeydar, because he was able to cast them into sleep, which somehow was slower to do that just knocking them out as Kim and the others tried to. Zeydar supposed that Heia was sent to keep her moving instead of freaking out that they had hurt others.

“Ready.” Shawn warned Zeydaar who cast the shield magic as Shawn kicked open a door. Before those inside could react, Zeydar cast a wide freezing spell and then used the longer and slower sleep spell as Shawn disarmed those who could still move. Once the last fell, Shawn reported in. “Food. Secured.” The room was filled with it, all too much to have come from the city they were in now. “We’ll take as much as we can.”

“We can’t nearly carry this all.”  Heia looked around amazed and a bit darkened by it. He wondered if she knew how they must have gotten this food. He wondered if she was furious about it, like she often was about things like this.

“I’ll put a spell on it.” Zeydar wasn’t sure what made him say the words. Perhaps it was the dark underlines in her expression that said she wanted to see it burned if it could not be given back.

“You can do that?” Heia asked him knowing he meant not just getting it back to the bus but destroying it.

Zeydar decided it was better not to answer her question, because he was not even sure he could do it. It was easier to say he could than to say that he wasn’t sure. Zeydar looked around the room, avoiding her question.  “We still need to find batteries.”

“We will look. For now we transfer this food to Kim and Evester.” Shawn answered. “Get what ever is nonperishable.”

Heia and Shawn moved around the room collecting and Zeydar thought of the spells he knew for movement, knowing that he was going to have to tempt fate a bit more than he’d let on. They couldn’t waste time with moving it back and forth and back and forth, and then he also had to come up with something to destroy it.

Destroying would come second. For now he needed to move it.

Breathing out Zeydar focused on the tickling against his skin. New magic, old magic, it did not matter what it was, but he had to listen to the ebb and flow of the world. Casting the charm without a word, Zeydar used his Staff as a guide rather than the medium for the cast. He lifted a few items and then placed them back down. Zeydar was sure he’d be able to move it quickly enough. He just needed more practice before he tried to move it all at once.

Heia shot Zeydar a look that told him she knew he was practicing a spell he’d never tried before but said nothing as they gathered more as he practiced in silence.. 

—

Zeydar looked over the warehouse, stepping inside with a sigh. They were done. They’d destroyed the food that was left, or much of it. Kim wasn’t certain it was all of it. She doubted they’d be that stupid to keep it all stored in one place. They’d gotten everything else back to the bus, and now they had to pack it up. He was taxed beyong measure, moving much of what they had recovered, with spells that the did not know on a mind that did not know if it could focus.

He was shaking again, he realized as he tried to clench his fists tight and focus on the moment. Too much magic without knowing anything about it. He needed to stop being so reckless.

“Place up the protective shields.” Kim warned him before he could relax too far. “I need watches of three. Make your teams! Zeydar, can you pull an all nighter?”

“I’ll have to.” If he wanted to have full control over the shields that was. He wished she had asked him before they did their all night excursion. Before he had used up so much of his magic that the room was spinning and his head was aching and everything was becoming too. Much. His ration of Dreams would do enough to quell it.

“We aren’t far from being complete.” Karla told her. 

“We still need to know that everyone can stay up. If you and your siblings cannot, go to bed then.” Kim smiled softly.

“We can. We were recon team for our family.” Kori answered. “We are fine.”

“Good.” Kim nodded before she started giving out orders for the others to quickly hurry. Zeydar recognized words on how they had enough power for a month at least, and that Uly was able to start a recharging port for the top of the bus. Lynx gave the report on the food that they had, and that they would need more at some point, but that they were safe for now. The bus was scheduled to be insulated as they drove.

“You doing alright?” Evester placed his hand on Zeydar’s back.

“Yeah.” Zeydar tried to wash away the thought of the growing heat that had been placed on him from the simple action. Everything was already too… alive. He wanted to get away, but he also had to stay in control. The magic was biting at him, stinging him now. He needed Dreams.

“When are we going to have to worry about them waking up?” Evester asked in a lower voice almost as if he knew that Zeydar’s ears felt like they’d start bleeding.

“The spell should keep them asleep until dawn.” Zeydar knew that didn’t give them much time. He needed Dreams.

“That’s enough time then.” Evester then relayed the time line.

“We leave in two hours!” Kim agreed. “First driver get sleep now.”

“Okay!” Phil laughed before he hopped onto the bus to get whatever rest he could before they left. Zeydar walked from Evester to the center most place of the warehouse, which happened to be the bus. He jumped up, and walked atop the air to the top of the bus knowing that everyone was watching him as he did. Sitting atop of the bus, he closed his eyes and began taking off his Staffs. He summoned his bag to him from the window, and pulled out the ration of Dreams they had given him that morning, or was it the morning before? He did not know was he placed the Dreams in his mouth.

Eyes closed he focused on keeping the spells up until they were gone, all while attempting to learn more about the magic that coursed through his veins. All while trying not to let his head split apart in pain. It was a difficult line to walk.

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