The First Lock - 2. Chapter 2

- II -

She came to the wizard a half an hour later. If she thought about it any longer, she’d end up running into Jett nose to nose. The wizard looked up when he heard the door slam and immediately winced when he saw her.

“Katrena...” he said in a slightly alarmed voice. “Is anything wrong?”

“You could say that,” she thought.

“I need your help,” she said shortly, and the wizard blinked at that rapidly. Katrena could almost hear his thoughts. “Help? She needs my help?! Is this a joke of some sort? Oh, God, she is going to hurt me...”

“How...” he coughed. “How can I help you...?”

Katrena walked up to the table and sat down on the chair, her fingers immediately starting bounce off the old oak of the table. She remained silent for several minutes, and wizard’s forehead started to glisten with heavy beads of perspiration. Finally, she took a deep breath and raised her head.

“I need you to Lock me,” she said in a strained voice, and wizard’s eyes started to grow huge behind the thin frame of his glasses. “After you are done with that, I need you to open a portal for me... Since I won’t be able to do that, obviously...” she muttered with dry, humorless laughter.

“L... Lock you...?” the wizard repeated in a weak voice.

“Yes,” she said patiently.

“Why in the world...” he shook his head thus causing his glasses to slide down to the tip of his rather long nose. He absent-mindedly pushed them up. “Why?”

“I have my reasons,” Katrena said dryly.

“How...” he coughed again. “How many bracelets?”

“All three,” she said, and his eyes became even wider – a thing that normally would make Katrena laugh her head off.

“All three...” the wizard mouthed the words silently. “Is this some sort of a...” he started saying after almost a full minute.

“No,” Katrena interrupted him sharply. “Do it. After I am gone, do not tell anyone about my whereabouts, understood?” she looked at the man without blinking.

“Y-yes...” he stuttered. Katrena narrowed her eyes.

“Swear it,” she said as sharply as before. “Now!”

“I...” he took a gulp of air. “I swear...” he finished in a smaller voice.

Katrena kept staring at him without blinking. Finally, the wizard let out a small, tortured sigh and whispered something Katrena failed to hear. A small golden pin materialized on the wizard’s palm, and the man carefully pricked his pinkie with it. The pin immediately glowed bright-red, and then it shimmered for a few seconds and melted into a thin, golden-red stream that flowed into the wizard’s hand. Katrena slightly relaxed. She knew that if the man were to break his promise, he’d die a very slow and painful death. He’d be writhing in pain for several days before finally expiring.

“Now Lock me,” she demanded without looking away.

“How about just two bracelets?” the wizard asked very carefully.

“No,” Katrena shook her head immediately. “All three of them. I will be able to break two...”

“You might regret this decision...”

“I know,” she twisted her mouth in a bitter smile. “I am going to regret it immediately. This is why I need all three; nobody can break all of them, not even me.”

“I won’t be able to take them off,” the wizard said in the same careful voice, and she nodded.

“I know,” now she sounded almost serene. “It’s wonderfully irreversible. Do it.”

The wizard let out another small, tortured sigh and sat on the chair next to Katrena’s, his eyes cautious, movements slow. He took her right hand, wrapping his fingers around the slim wrist, and closed his eyes for several seconds. He muttered something in a low voice, his forehead wrinkling with concentration. Suddenly, blue fog formed around Katrena’s wrist, and she bit her lip when an unpleasantly cold shiver shot through her arm. The shiver was gone almost immediately and so was the fog. The wizard took a deep breath and repeated the whole ordeal on her other wrist. Then he clasped his hands in his lap and looked into Katrena’s eyes.

“Are you sure?” he asked after a couple of minutes.

“Positive,” she muttered. “Finish it.”

“All right,” he whispered and put his hands on either side of her head.

Katrena closed her eyes when another cold shiver ran through her entire body, and a suddenly-tight grip of a phantom band wrapped itself around her forehead. She felt the man’s hands slide off her head, and slowly opened her eyes. She felt exactly the same as she felt ten minutes ago. She frowned and silently called upon the wind. Nothing happened. She tried to reach for the Fire. Nothing happened. For the next several minutes, she feverishly tried to get response from Water, Earth, and magic streams. Nothing happened.

“It’s done,” she thought dully, and felt like screaming again.

She could control the streams and the elements for as long as she could remember – and that was a very long time. Right now, all she had left was her long life span, immunity to diseases (although she wasn’t sure if that applied to her anymore – she was pregnant for crying out loud; in her book, it was a major disease), and rapid healing. More than anyone ‘normal’ could even wish for, but she felt empty and robbed somehow. “Undo it!” a panicky voice shrieked in her head. “Undo it, undo it, undo it! Screw everything! Undo it right now!” She didn’t say anything; undoing it was impossible, she knew that.

“Open a portal,” she said finally and was slightly surprised to hear her own voice – it was so unemotional and hollow that she didn’t even recognize it at first.

“Where would you like to go?” the wizard didn’t sound as scared anymore, she noted. Of course, he had an upper hand right now, she smirked bitterly. She could still kill or hurt him (she didn’t rely on her ability alone; she was good when it came to normal combat as well), but it would be a difficult task, since he could knock her out with some nasty spell before she’d be able to get hold of him.

“I don’t care,” she replied calmly. “Some place similar to this one. I don’t like too many changes.”

The wizard frowned thoughtfully for a minute.

“The place that resembles this one the most...” he said finally. “...has its differences as well... Nothing will be exactly the same,” he looked at her with a silent question.

“I know that,” she grimaced. “I know I will have to adjust; I simply don’t want to end up somewhere completely opposite of this world.”

“All right,” he nodded. “There is no magic in that place,” he added, and Katrena snorted.

“Makes it even better,” she muttered.

“And also, there...”

“I’ll figure it out,” Katrena interrupted him. “Open the damn portal already!”

“All right, all right...” he nodded rapidly and started his chanting.

Soon enough, the portal shimmered open, and Katrena took a deep breath.

“See you in another life, wizard...” she muttered and got up.

She looked at the portal for a few minutes, saying her silent good-byes to Jett, and then she took another deep breath and stepped into the shimmering circle.