Page 29 of The Witch & the Tiger

“How on earth –” Willow asked, stunned.

“I could see it on your face.” She quirked one eyebrow at Willow. “I need the physical origin of the enchantment to break it. It doesn’t work on secondary targets, unfortunately. Otherwise, I doubt I’d be working in the academy, and some secret organization would scoop me up. The reading and breaking part I do is a little more common.”

It didn’t feel that common, but Willow and the others accepted the words and waited patiently for her to read the symbols. A whooshing sound tickled her ears. Was that wind or water? Was the sea level already rising? Or was it just the sound of her own thumping heart, magnified in this awful silence?

“I’m nervous,” Martin whispered to her, standing close. “I thought… I don’t know, but I believed Yannick to be here still. That I’d see him and bring him back to his family…”

“What the professor said about the tides, though… that could be possible,” she whispered back, wondering if she dared grip his hand here in front of the others or continue to play it cool. Surely, it’d just look like a comforting gesture.

Water dripped off the ceiling, striking her between her clothing, and she yelped, causing everyone to stare and react as if a monster had just slithered in.

“What?”

“I got water down my spine! Agh!”

“Oh…” Marlon said while Kati and Martin burst into laughter, breaking the otherwise fraught tension between them all. The mood had been dour since they’d entered, but now they were able to relax a little. Not completely, though. They were still in a strange and alien place. They dreaded the idea of the water lapping into the tunnel, rushing toward them.

“The writing here doesn’t tell us what’s in the prison, unfortunately,” Z’Hana said. “I’m going to open it. But before I do so, I need Marlon, in particular, to be ready to revert time if it turns out to be catastrophic. Umber and Martin, protect Marlon as if your life depended on it – of which it may just.”

They moved into position, Martin and Professor Umber flanking Marlon, who appeared a little sickly.

Professor Z’Hana took a deep breath before waving her finger of darkness across the runes on the door, butchering them. The runes faded in color, and the door, as if sealed precisely by those runes, creaked open.

It's not ominous at all.

Z’Hana poked her head into the billowing fog that started to appear. “Wish me luck. If you don’t hear my voice in twenty seconds, assume something bad happened to me and rewind.” She stepped into the fog, continuing to talk loudly.

“It’s foggy, hard to see… oh, it’s clearing. And I’m in a chamber of sorts. Oh.”

“At last,” a deep bass voice said. Unfamiliar to any of them.

Marlon crouched, listening intently.

“You and your friends waiting outside may come in. I do not bite.”

“I suppose you can’t.” Z’Hana poked her head back out. “We can go in.”

Cautiously, they followed her in through the fog and emerged into a room smaller than the cavern, lit instead in a brilliant white and gold compared to the softer blue hue of before.

Before them, two individuals waited.

One was on the floor, appearing as if in a deep sleep. Martin let out a cry. “Yannick!”

The missing student.

The other individual was noticeably chained by shimmering silver cords that extended from the floor and ceiling. The cords wrapped around their arms, legs, and neck. The cords seemed long enough to allow a little movement, to lie down, to kneel, to barely stand. The individual in question chose to kneel. Stark red eyes glared at them from an eerie, lavender face. It had long, sharp ears, white eyebrows, and white hair that extended well past its waist, framing a wispy, knife-thin body. The only clothing it wore were some tattered-looking shorts.

“Welcome to my abode,” the fae being said, and a terror crept up Willow’s spine. The Unseelie Court was among the most elusive of the courts, the most dangerous and cursed of them, free with glamours and free to pursue passions over honor. The court was so secretive that none of them had names. This creature before them looked distinctly alien, with sharp-angled features and big red eyes with black instead of white in their eyes. “I would offer nourishment and a place to sit, but as you may see, the options are rather limited here.”

And what a voice the creature had. Willow suspected that if it wasn’t chained with what looked like anti-magic chains, that voice itself might have a spell concealed within it.

Silence fell over the room until Professor Umber stepped in to speak. “What of the boy who lies so still?”

“Alive,” the fae said. “In hibernation. He would have long died from starvation and thirst if not for the last bit of magic he possessed to make himself sleep. I, of course, guided him to that sleep. My powers are limited but not yet eradicated.” He grinned, and something of the notion of a fae managing even to seep magic through all those anti-magic cuffs made her feel dizzy.

This was a being of incredible power and danger. No wonder the little hairs on her neck stood up on end. The being grinned at them. “You can check if you wish.”

Professor Z’Hana knelt to check Yannick’s pulse and examine the boy. “I can’t tell if he has an enchantment or not. I did bring a Truesight potion…”

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