hyur

Sarah rolled about in her bed, unable to get to sleep. She’d woken up an hour after midnight. A nightmare where her friends niggling words tormented her in sleep as well. Sick of staring at the dark ceiling, she got up and tip-toed out of her room. Down the hall her dad’s door stood open, not bothering to close it as he always got up first in the mornings.“Dad?” She quietly called as she peered around the door.

Noah punched her in the solar plexus, pushing all of the air from her lungs. She wanted to drop to her knees, but his hold on her was absolute, as though she was shackled to a dungeon wall.“The gods didn’t protect Seraph from me, so don’t expect them to protect you. Start talking before I grow bored.”

Slowly, and with no shortage of effort, he began to pry off his clone, separating centimeter by centimeter. Sitting on the floor, he resembled an animal shedding its skin. Eventually, he and his clone split like dividing cells, but the seal was trying to pull them back together. Moving his clone forward felt like trying to swim upriver, and it was taking everything he had not to be pushed back, let alone advance further. However, he felt himself closing in on something, a sensation, or perhaps it could be called a state of mind. Whatever it was, it seemed to help him project his mana. If he could make this state of awareness easier to access, then his magic would surely grow much more powerful.