Closed

A blue beam hit Ms. Saka. A green screen appeared on her back to shield her, and partially succeeded, yet it couldn't stop her from face planting into the ground. The same strike also pushed me far away from her, and I fell on my back.

The woman in dark coat ran (or rather flew) closer in the blink of an eye. I quickly got up; Ms. Saka tried to do as well but wasn't as lucky as me.

"Ms. Saka!" I shouted.

"Leave me and run!" she shouted back. "Wait!"

The contrast of exact opposite commands dumbfounded me for a short while.

"Catch it!" Mr. Saka cried. She had 'dismantled' the top parts of her wand (which is quite possibly the closest description of the act) and threw it's large gemstone towards my general direction. I ran to catch it, watching it's trajectory more than where I was going.

My mild panic reached a higher level when I saw red projectiles rapidly passing by the stone as if they were being fired from a machine gun. One of these projectiles actually managed to hit it too, instantly redirecting it to land tens of meters away. The gemstone was now laying still by the edge of a cliff... a slope more than steep enough to not be able to stand on it.

"I will stop her, go take it!" Ms. Saka yelled from distance as if she noticed my hesitation. I looked back towards the fight scene, but ultimately obeyed her command when I saw her half-angry expectant face.

I managed to reach the gemstone without having it roll down the slope all the way to the lowest regions of the mountain.

Looking back at the fight scene again, I saw Ms. Saka trying to fight the other woman in close quarters. She was using her wand as a melee weapon now, while the other woman was dodging and trying to get the upper hand back. And soon after, she did. After increasing her distance a good amount, the woman blasted Ms. Saka away with a quick strike. Ms. Saka fell down once again, and unfortunately, that would be her last.

The woman didn't miss the opportunity and destroyed Ms. Saka's wand, or whatever was left of it. Before Ms. Saka could get back up, a lightning strike completely disabled her.

"NO!" I cried.

She saw me at that moment. We looked at each other for one last time.

"What are you doing, just go! Get the stone to Master Engin! Run!"

To finish the job, the woman stepped on Ms. Saka; first, her chest, and then her neck.

I couldn't watch the rest. I just took the stone with me and began running uphill. But before I could get away, a blue ray struck the ground a few meters ahead of me. It wouldn't be a problem by itself, unless it started a small avalanche or something similar, which it did. I had no way to progress, I had to go downhill. There was no choice to make.

Before the temple disappeared from my vision, I heard a last cry from Ms. Saka. It was the sound of pain.

I made my way down the mountain and ended up in a forest. It was the same forest I've been in when I got lost with Sena at the beginning of our adventure. Now thinking of 'our' adventure... It really has been a while since I saw her.

I learned to ignore my useless thoughts soon enough, and kept walking through the parts I could vaguely remember.

After a while, I really could see the houses on the outer edges of Yuvakaya. I could hide here for a while before attempting to return the stones to the mountain enclosure, long enough to lose the heat of that woman. A witch, I could probably call her. She didn't quite fit the traditional description of a witch, but that was the only thing I could relate her to.

Now, the problem was choosing where I was going to go from here. A minor problem in contrast to most other choices I had to do, but still a problem.

I could go to my aunt's house, endure a relief ceremony, report my reappearance to the police (I knew she would've notified them, and more than once too) and probably get a lecture on how dangerous it is to stay in the streets at night and not notifying her on top of everything - all that while trying to hide what I've actually been up to, and not mentioning that I was about to go missing again. In short, an unpleasant choice.

I could pay a visit to my university campus and find a place where I could stay during the night. However, it was probably abandoned by now, and certainly was a good place to get into further trouble.

My last and obvious choice was visiting my 'friend', the man who was running a bookshop. Sena's father, Mr. Idris. Yes, indeed that was what I was going to do. I could guess how devastated he was after her daughter had went missing. Losing the last member of his family... Perhaps I could give him the good news, that his daughter was safe and healthy. I could even clear the mysterious disappearance of his wife as well, but I would definitely get some further questioning on where they were and what exactly they were doing, though, which I wouldn't really be able to answer. But still, after some consideration, visiting him still looked like the best idea.

And in relative serenity of the night, I walked down empty streets and came to the bookstore. When I approached the building, I saw some strips of tape on the store's windows and door. A few white sheets were reading 'CLOSED'.

The curtains were not closed, so I looked through the windows. The book shelves were almost empty, and there was a bit of a mess inside.

Seeing the curtains open, I tried opening the door, thinking it may be left unlocked too. I was wrong, the door was locked.

I knocked. I wasn't heard. I knocked harder. Again. And again.

No one came to open the door.