19 Chapter Nineteen

Ciara was the first to break the silence. "We should probably talk to someone about the breach Texan used to cross into our world." She said breaking their embrace. I did my best to dismiss the fact that I felt sad when she broke our contact and replied all the same.

"Yeah, we should. There's probably a way to seal it up," I said as we began the short walk back to the castle. What we found in the lobby was the last thing we expected. The artras were all suited up in their combat suits as if they were going somewhere and were seated discussing matters that were yet to be revealed.

"Back so soon. It was starting to look romantic," Jacob spat. Something changed in Jacob when we found out we were artras. He was more impulsive and had a shorter temper. Something that was poisonous to the unity the artras shared. Unfortunately, this time I didn't have a way to convince him to put his meaningless issues aside. So I let Ciara take over from here. Or at least that's what I hoped she would do.

"Guys, why are you all in your combat suits? Didn't we finish training for today?" she asked.

"Jovenor called. Earlier today, a team of mages from the Barrier Task Force was sent to check out a breach that they picked up on their scanners. They were to follow standard procedure and seal the breach, but they never returned. Then later on when Ciara informed the Elder council of Texan's visit our school. They decided to send a team of battle mages to scout the area and find out what happened to mages that went missing. Unfortunately, those didn't come back either," Kendall began and Isaac decided to pick up from there.

"In regards to the current betrayal of General Caspro Burnes, the wizards don't really have that many forces to deploy. If there is indeed a threat that could even possibly be Texan the Dark wolf. Then they are afraid they can't afford to lose more mages. They have requested that we go check out the breach and find the mages. They also said that if we do run into Texan, we should be able to get away from him by teleporting. We are ordered not to engage Texan at all costs."

"What if Texan is holding the mages hostage?" I asked.

"We are to abandon them in the sense that Armensia is at stake if we are to be slain by Texan," Isaac answered.

"Not a chance….." I started.

"Don't get impulsive Kevin," Ciara said to cool me down, "If that's indeed the case and Texan is holding the mages hostage. We will need a plan. We cannot attack him blindly."

"Are you seriously suggesting we fight Texan?" Jacob asked.

"What other choice do we have?" I asked him.

"If we go and fight Texan, we could end up dying ourselves. We've only had our magic for a short time. There's no telling what Texan could do to us," he said raising is voice.

"Are you saying we abandon the mages that Texan has hostage?" I asked.

"No, we have to save them, but we are not yet well trained to go head-to-head with one of the Seven Dark mages. It would be suicide. Besides you said it yourself, he had the power to cast a powerful time spell that put even your magic to shame," he said. This was al frustrating. Jacob raised a valid point that neither of us could simply dismiss.

"There must be something we could do to even the odds of us getting an upper hand in a battle against Texan," I said pacing around the room.

"Could you stop that? It doesn't help our situation," Ciara said to me before turning her attention to something else, "Jeremy, any ideas."

"You could try using magic items in the armoury," the artificial intelligence suggested. We obviously didn't have a better idea so we decided to go check it out.

The armoury was amazing. It had weapons of all kinds even though we noticed something. At the back of the large room was a shelf that held weapons that were mostly by all the artras of the past. It gave us all something to figure out. We would have to have our own weapons crafted. We all knew the elves were the best in crafting weapons. Isaac found armour that reduced one's weight till he was almost as light as a feather. He chose it together with a corresponding Ice sword and sheathed it.

Next was Jacob. He had become quite well acquainted with boosting magic which made him faster stronger and basically increased his ability to fight not to mention the artras' combat suits did basically the same thing. He decided he just needed armour to protect him from spells and a sword and shield that could repel spells. The epitome of a superhuman if you ask me.

Next was Kendall. The guy was bloody good at teleportation though I didn't realize just how useful it would be until he showed me that he could shoot fireballs which he wished he shouldn't have because we spent some time calling him the human torch.

When it was my turn to choose, I was dumbstruck. All the different varieties looked so good. I looked at my strengths for help. I was only good at stopping time and running. So I decided to get armour to help boost my speed. It made me light but firm on the ground which was different from Isaac's since he was aiming at being able to fly if the situation required it.

Ciara chose battle armour for protection. She reasoned that she didn't really need any enhancements since she had been trained to use magic for a much longer time than we had. When Ciara and I were dressed and all was in order, Jacob opened the portal to the location we had been given. I came to realize that Jacob may have changed in ways even I hadn't noticed yet considering the fact that he was the one that stopped us from rushing into a situation unprepared, but by the tone he used to speak when Ciara and I returned from the park. It made me wonder why.