Dara, Page, and the Secrets of the Multiverse

▷ 15.1

Beams from the headlights of a tank burned the rest of Page's vision. Her legs were sluggish, having been shocked with a current earlier. Even with the healing spell pouring from her fingers, she couldn't get her frayed nerves to work, much less properly. Beside her, Dara's bobbed hair bounced on her head as she darted along with Page. The incompetent mule just had to trigger the trap system—something all mystics were taught the first day of training.

Page didn't even want to be with the woman, but the Premier was bent on getting this mission done for their plans to progress and Dara was the only other mystic available for deployment. The Ganara Upheaval left its mark on all mystic communities throughout the land, and the Domain wasn't spared from it. The Premier has been pressuring the scouts to rescue more mystics, to train their people in the art of spells more effectively. They needed soldiers, people who could stand up against the Laic Empire's hostile takeover and protect the future generation of mystics who weren't even here yet.

But Dara's head was in another realm, and Page simply had no patience to ride along with that. Just earlier, before they left the Domain, the girl had the gall to ask Page what spell would be ideal for removing gum from her trousers. Page could have thrown the girl out, but quarreling with one's partner hours before a mission was a way to get one killed.

And true enough, Dara, as inexperienced as she was in the field, stepped wrong inside the containment facility housing a rare strain of the magus ore, setting off a lab-wide emergency shut down. Page had been doing missions with varying degrees of success since she was first an apprentice, she had never anticipated this kind of amateur mishap, much less from someone who had lived through three apprentice recognition ceremonies since getting her badge. How were the teams Dara got lumped into survived without getting caught? Were they doing something that Page didn't? Perhaps, she ought to have a chat with the leaders once she got back.

A metal bullet whizzed past Page's ear before embedding itself on the arched door frame of the facility. Alright. If she got back at all.

"Halt!" An order issued from behind thundered over the cloud of footsteps and whirring laser rifles. Page gritted her teeth, circling a grip on Dara's arm and yanking her into a corridor divergent from the straight way out. What was the probability of losing the soldiers who practically grew up in this facility? Soldiers who had been trained to memorize every nook and cranny of the site they were to protect?

Darkness dawned on them, plunging their surroundings with a thick, inky veil. Dara's frantic breaths echoed in the haze, and Page felt her squirm against the hold on her arm.

"What are you doing?" Dara demanded, her high-pitched voice more annoying than scary.

Page rolled her eyes, mostly because she was certain the girl wouldn't see it. "I'm saving your ass, damn it," she retorted, digging around her pockets for a shine-stick. She found one in the left pocket of her vest. With a bit of her mana, she fed the biodegradable canister with it. A little to spare for an arduous journey ahead. It would be best to conserve her supply. None of them knew what was bound to happen beyond this corridor.