Trip strides to the very back of the huge room and pushes a heavy set of shelves off to the side. He then presses something on the wood paneling behind, because of course, even The Owners' cleaning closets have wood paneling, and then I watch in kind of impressed awe as it opens up to reveal a giant and very sterile room.
Unlike the rest of the mansion, this room is completely white. The floor, the ceiling, the walls, everywhere is white.
Except for the giant gold and red sigil painted on the wall opposite the door, it’s huge, and it’s pulsating with magic.
“Whoa,” Ransom mutters as he studies it. “Where the fuck did he get magic like this?”
Trip shrugs, “I have no fucking idea. I don’t even know how we’re going to break it.”
“Blast a fuck ton of magic at it,” Ransom suggets.
River looks at him, “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Even I can feel how strong it is.”
Ransom winces slightly, “It’s not the best idea, but we don’t have the time to come at this with finesse, it’s gearing up to move the building. I can feel it. If the building gets moved, we lose any evidence that we have.”
“We can’t risk it. You guys have gotten closer to shutting this place down than anyone ever has before,” Trip says. His expression darkens, “I will not be held prisoner again.”
“No, you won't,” I reply.
Ransom looks at River and me, “It’s going to take all of us, and even then, I’m not entirely sure we can break it. Give it as much as possible, but don’t drain yourselves, we’ve still got to fight our way out of here.”
I nod. Makes sense.
“On the count of three,” River says, and I feel his magic start to gather.
I do the same, shifting so that I can send more magic into the seal to break it.
“Holy shit,” Trip gapes as he watches us both, in shock.
Then Ransom’s power is unleashed. It’s not calm or sedate, Ransom’s magic never is, but there’s a different undertone to it now that I’m only just beginning to pick up.
It’s violent, deadly, and wild.
It’s more.
“One, two,” River starts, and then finishes with “three.”
We all release our magic in a steady stream toward the seal, and I immediately feel it try to resist.
We’re making progress, but not enough. We need to break the seal quickly before it can move the building. I have no idea if they’ve even managed to get to The Owner yet or locate the files. I also have no idea if it would take us with it when it moved or if it would take those that we’ve removed from it. Maybe there’s some kind of spell tying them to the building, so if it disappears, they do too?
There’s no way that I’m letting this building take Trip, it’s obvious that he means a lot to Rana, and he’s been through hell, that’s pretty fucking clear.
We cannot risk this building moving.
I put more power into it, I’m not using everything, if I did, then I wouldn’t be still standing if it finally breaks, and I will not put the others at risk because they have the added complication of getting a passed-out me out of the building as well as keeping themselves safe.
And then it suddenly gets easier. I keep the blast aimed at the sigil as I quickly glance over at the source of the new power stream. Sure enough, it’s Trip.
He shouldn’t be able to do what he’s doing, but then again, neither should I, or Ransom, or hell, even River.
His gaze darts to mine, filled with fear and unease. I grin, flapping my giant wings and flashing my fangs at him for good measure. I know he’s worried about revealing this part of himself to us, but I’m not normal, and that’s pretty fucking obvious.
He clearly understands what I’m doing because determination fills his gaze, and the power level increases substantially.
“Fucking hell,” River mutters, sounding impressed.
The new power surge is exactly what we needed to succeed, and not only does the magic of the seal snap, but the wall explodes as well and sends us all flying backward.
