Northern Witch

This was place definitely not the Academy. It was a sprawling mess of concrete and noise. I took a breath, or tried to, the exhaust fumes and something vaguely floral clung to the back of my throat. 

'Ugh,' I mentally groaned. 'Why couldn't I have made this place without cars?'

Despite my complaining, it was a good change of pace, I'll give it that. My watch read 1:47 PM. I had a few hours, give or take, before I had to somehow slink back to the Academy and pray I wasn't expelled. Assuming I could even 'slink' back in. I had time, plenty enough. Maybe.

I pulled up a map on my watch, I looked up the abandoned ruins I was going to and tracked it. Of course, it was on the outskirts, because why would anything I needed be conveniently located? 

"Ha…" A sigh escaped my lips as my fingers pinched the bridge of my nose. "Why couldn't I have made the ruins inside the city?" I grumbled to myself.

In any case, Ninth District here I come.

…

Eight kilometres. Eight. Kilometres. My legs had been protesting for the last half hour. But I kept going until finally I got there. The Ninth District was okay, not fancy, but the air quality was better. Less shine, more concrete, but clean-ish.

And there it was, the ruins. Or what remained of them.

There were buses, tons of them, spewing out tourists with cameras taking pictures rock. There even was a big dumb sign that read: "THE RUINS OF OLD: A GLIMPSE INTO A FORGOTTEN AGE OF MAGIC!" I almost covered my face in embarrassment. I couldn't believe I had written about this place at some point when I was still… Alex.

I ignored the crowds of people, heading to the back of the ruins where there was nobody there but myself. I had to find them, and there they were were: the geometric glyphs I had written about. They were almost invisible, scratched onto the wall. Shapes — circles, triangles, lines — a code only I could understand since I had created it, and one of the antagonists in the novel. But oh well, this power was mine for the taking now. To hell with everybody else.

I took a deep breath and focused as I got onto one knee in front of the wall. My mana tingled under my fingertips as I began using it. I traced a thin line of mana onto the glyphs, connecting them and following the pattern from my book. It took a while since I was terrible at this magic thing, but finally I felt it.

Click.

The wall moved and then a dark opening revealed itself with stairs that went down.

"Good," I muttered.

I made my way down and the wall closed behind me with a 'thud'. It was pitch black and then 'whoosh' as small, red torches flickered to life along the walls. I found myself in a long, low tunnel.

The air down here was different. It was stale, yeah, but there was something else, something potent and almost electric. I continued walking, keeping my hand brushed against the wall. The tunnel gradually sloped downwards, it felt as if there was a building pressure, a sensation I could feel on my skin.

Then, I spotted a nearly invisible tripwire mere millimetres from my foot.

"Phew…" I exhaled, having noticed it just in time.

I stepped over it carefully and continued on my way.

Next, there was a series of pressure plates concealed beneath a thin layer of dust. A wrong step, and the result would be a volley of some form of magic, a trapdoor, or worse instantaneous death.

'I don't remember there being so many obstacles on the way,' I recalled the events from my novel.

I made my way forward slowly, progressing inch by inch. It felt like things were going well until…

Click.

Damn it. My foot had pressed down on something, not a pressure plate but something else. There was a faint whirring sound that quickly grew louder and louder. I didn't wait to see what it was.

"SHIT!" I yelled breaking into a full on sprint. Screw being careful. The whirring escalated into a roar, and I could hear something massive shifting behind me. I risked a glance over my shoulder and saw it: a massive colossal stone block, scraping along the tunnel floor. But that wasn't all, it was on fire and changing shape.

It looked like some kind of ancient magic golen, and it was pissed.

I ran. Not a casual jog, but a full-blown Olympic-level sprint if you could call it that based on my stats. 

[Status]

- Name: Caspian Grey

- Age: 16

- Race: Human

- Mana: 11 (F)

- Physical Abilities:

- Strength: F

- Agility: F

- Endurance: F

- Dexterity: F

- Charm: F

- Skills:

- Basic Manage Absorption Lv. 1 (★)

- Dagger Affinity Lv. 1 (★)

The tunnel seemed to go on forever as I casually tripped other traps in the mean time. Balls of fire, launched from the golem's body, whizzed past my head. One grazed my arm, leaving a searing burn which I could barely feel from the adrenaline.

"What the actual fuck?!" I yelled, dodging another fiery projectile, then some magic arrows. This was way past anything I'd written.

I veered left, ducking into a narrow side passage I hadn't noticed while panic-running. The roaring and crashing quieted slightly, replaced by the thumping of the golem's footsteps. Shit shit shit. I kept going, I turned right, then left, then right again, then nothing! Dead end. I turned around, sprinting back the way I came and then took the next left hoping it wouldn't be another dead end.

Finally, I saw it. A massive set of double doors, made of some dark unidentifiable metal and they were covered, floor to ceiling, in the same geometric glyphs I had used to enter the ruins. 

"Rahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," the golem screeched, it was close.

I reached for the door, my hands scambled over the cold metal as I did my best to trace the glyphs while using my limited mana.

I had to remember the sequence, the exact order I had written in 'Realm of Shadows'. 

"Diamong, triangle, circle… shit, no! Square, then the double helix…" I muttered frantically. My fingers were fumbling harder than when I fumbled my last relationship when I was still Alex.

"Diamond, circle… shit shit! Again!"

I looked back. It was right there. I had to go faster. 

"Triangle, square, double helix, circle then diamond!" I traced the final glyph sequence with my mana.

The doors clicked.

Click.

A deep grinding sound echoed in the tunnel as they slowly began to swing inward, just enough to let me in. I squeezed myself through just as the golem was right behind me.

I tumbled onto the floor, the doors closing shut behind me with a screech. I got up, dusting myself off as I pressed my back against the now-shut-door. 

"Hah…" I took a deep breath in. "Hah..." I took a deep breath out.

And then I saw her. A woman. The person I was looking for, who'd give me the power I needed it I played my cards right.

She was sitting on a throne made of the same dark metal as the doors. It was huge, all sharp angles but she made it look almost… normal. 

Looking around, I noticed the chamber was even bigger than I thought. Blue light came from lines in the floor and walls that lit the place, but the ceiling was still way up in shadow. It felt like I was in a giant, hollowed-out dome structure.

The woman… Alicia. The Alicia. The Northern Witch. One of the most powerful noble vampires in my novel that was trapped here was right in front of me. She had silver hair, almost white, and pale skin. She looked at me with her red eyes… she looked curious?

'I suppose she would be considering she's been here for nearly a millenia alone,' I thought as I looked back at her.

Her dark blue, leather gothic dress clung to her. That blue, spiked collar, with the single blue gem… it was exactly as I'd written it. Almost. 

"…" 

I stayed silent. I felt small, insignificant, and knew I was completely at her mercy. I needed to be careful. If she's anything like that Alicia I had written out to be in my novel…

She tilted her head slightly, the gem at her throat glimmered under the light.

"Interesting," she said, low and smooth, echoing slightly in the vast space of the chamber. "A mortal. After all this time."

With a flick of her wrist, I felt something drag me across the room. My feet left the ground, and I slid across the smooth stone floor until I was directly in front of her throne. I was close enough that I could see the faint pulse of blue light inside the gem at her throat.

"So," Alicia said as a small, almost playful smile etched her lips. Her perfect, regal posture, didn't shift, not even an inch. "Tell me, little mortal, what could you possibly want with me?"

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