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Scarlett woke up in a cold sweat in her tent. She had a terrible nightmare, but couldn\'t recall what it was. She could only recall vague images of a circle carved into stone with blood in the center.

She was starting to feel the time she spent here was weighing on her and was glad that they would be leaving in the next few days.

She was still disappointed that there was no interesting information beyond the existence of this place, but she needed to hide these feelings from Rana. After what she said to Rana yesterday, Scarlett would feel hypocritical if she knew, so she needed to hide them.

She went through her morning routine for the next hour and prepared for the day. Scarlett left her tent and saw Jere up early in the morning doing push ups.

Jere was shirtless with sweat dripping off his well toned muscle.

“He’s such a health freak.” Scarlett thought to herself.

It was Jere\'s’ morning ritual that made her feel a little guilty for not being more health conscious herself.

Scarlett: “Morning Jere. Trying to make us feel lazy as usual.” She said with some sarcasm at the end.

Jere: “Good morning teacher.” He said while grunting and continuing with his workout routine.

It was on this trip that Scarlett realized how dedicated he was to exercising. It made her wonder if other people from the Lionheart college were all like this. The first time on the trip he started doing this, she teased him, only to be offer to work out with him. When she refused, he teased her about doing more exercise and being more health conscious.

Scarlett: “So, did you notice anything this morning?”

Jere: “Nope. It’s the same as it always is. The creatures won’t approach this place.”

Scarlett: “Huh. OK um, carry on with whatever you\'re doing then.”

Jere: “Teacher!” Jere yelled out as he stood up.

Scarlett: “Jere, is something wrong?”

Jere: “I just want to say that I\'m sorry for what happened the other day.”

Scarlett: “Oh that, don’t wor…” Scarlett was interrupted by Jere.

Jere: “And I want to say that I don\'t think what I did was wrong.”

Scarlett: “Oh?”

Jere

: “I know that I don\'t always think things through and you constantly scold me about it, but I\'ve taken the time to think about what happened that day.”

Scarlett looked at Jere in anticipation at what he was about to say.

Jere: “You said that I shouldn\'t run off by myself and trust you more, but I think I can do things alone because I trust you.”

Scarlett: “Sigh. Jere, you\'re talking nonsense again.”

Jere: "No, listen. I know I\'m going to eventually mess up, but I know you’ll be there to save my butt every time. So, I shouldn\'t be scared about what comes at me in the future. It’s why I can put myself out there for other people. After all, I have one of the strongest archmages watching my back." He said with a smile.

Scarlett: "Is that really the conclusion you came to?" she said as she put her hand on her forehead, covering her eyes.

It looked as though Scarlett was disappointed with her disciple, but deep down she was feeling happy. Her student had taken her lesson to heart and actually thought things through for once, and the conclusion was beyond what she expected. He was actually relying on her, in his own way.

Jere had shown Scarlett to a perspective she had never considered and was impressed. However, she didn’t want to encourage recklessness.

Scarlett: “This just sounds like a nice way to excuse your rashness.”

Jere: “No. Teacher, I\'m trying to be sincere.”

Scarlett: “And I accept your sincerity, but I still don’t want you going around looking for trouble. So, when we get back to Graheel, you\'re writing a ten page essay on the virtues of patience.”

Jere: “What?!? You\'re punishing me!”

Scarlett: “It’s not a punishment. Think of it more like training for your mind. Don’t worry, I know that writing is not your strong suit, so I\'m going to assign Chelsie to help you write it.”

Jere: “C’mon, you\'re going to drag Chelsie into this as well?”

Scarlett: “Again, it’s not a punishment, so there is no due date. And who knows, if you both do a good job, I might even make you both an enchanted tool for your efforts.”

Jere: “Wait, really?” He said with great excitement.

Jere was excited at the prospect of receiving an object enchanted by Scarlett.

Many thought that it was Scarlett\'s mastery over fire that made her an archmage, but it was actually her enchantments. Her ability to infuse aether into objects was unmatched, and those who knew about this flocked to her with countless requests to create enchanted tools.

Jere: “If you\'re serious, can you make me an enchanted fire sword?”

Scarlett: “Whoa there. You\'re getting ahead of yourself. Write that essay first, then we’ll talk.”

Jere

: “I can’t believe she is actually going to give me a fire sword. I asked so many times in the past, but she just flat out rejected me, but now I\'m actually getting one.” He mumbled to himself while completely ignoring Scarlett.

Scarlett: “Um, hey there. Are you listening to me?”

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Jere: “Oh man. I gotta train my body to make sure it can handle such an awesome weapon. I’ll need to double my training.”

Scarlett: “Earth to Jere, I\'m talking to you.”

Jere: “Teacher! I gotta go run laps around Ziger-thingy! Talk to ya later!” He yelled out in excitement.

Jere immediately turned his back to Scarlett and kicked up dust, as he ran off into the distance to do laps around the ziggurat.

Scarlett was left alone dumbfounded.

Scarlett: “Oh my god. He’s such a meathead.” She said as she facepalmed. “Outside of being a health nut and combat expert, he’s so stupid,” she mumbled to herself.

Despite Jere’s rashness, she was feeling pretty good about his effort. Jere was actually taking the things she told him and learning from it. She had also managed to create a situation to get Chelsie and Jere alone together, giving Chelsie a chance to hopefully ask him out properly.

Scarlett: “Hopefully, Chelsie will be a little less mad at me with this”

She then headed off to talk with her other disciples.

Scarlet\'s memory of beyond this point becomes a little fuzzy. At some point, she was offered a drink from someone she couldn’t recall. It was then at that point, in her hazy memory she blacked out.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

Scarlet eventually awoke to total darkness upon a cold stone floor. There was a sack covering her head and her legs and arms were bound.

Calmly, she immediately tried to burn away her bindings, but couldn\'t.

There was something disrupting her aether. She could feel it. There was jinsil steel pressed against her neck. A material she was familiar with.

Jinsil steel was the primary material used in law enforcement to capture mages. As long as enough of it was actively touching the flesh of a mage, the aether in their body would be dispersed harmlessly into the environment if they tried casting spells, rendering all spellcasting impossible.

Wiggling around; she could feel that it wasn\'t a proper jinsil collar. It felt like a bunch of random pieces of jinsil that was haphazardly tied together, then placed snugly around her neck.

She pulled against her binding, trying to loosen them enough to free her hands. If she could get a hand free, she figured it wouldn\'t be too hard to get the collar off and escape from wherever she was.

The mental training that she did when she was young was paying off. She was calm and collective even in this distressing situation.

“Remember what Cinder taught you, Scarlett. When you\'re in danger, always remain calm, or risk being consumed by your own flames.” Scarlett repeatedly thought to herself.

This was a mantra that was taught to her by her teacher. It was to help her control her flame magic, as the type of fire magic she used was very volatile to her own emotions. If she wasn\'t focused when she was casting, she could hurt herself or others. But, that same training was also useful in keeping calm in stressful situations.

She needed to get free. She was more worried about her disciples than herself at the moment. Once she was free, she would go to search for her disciples and make sure they were safe.

Scarlett continued to pull and tugged against her binding. She had spent a good amount of time trying to loosen it before she heard the sound of footsteps. Based upon the intervals of the footsteps, she could tell that who or whatever was approaching was at least bipedal.

They were still far away, but she could just barely hear them talking. She wasn\'t able to hear the full context of what they were saying, but she managed to hear a few key words: risky, aether, ritual, and sacrifice.

“Sacrifice? Are my captors cultists?

” Scarlet thought to herself.

As her captors got closer, they stopped talking to each other.

She could hear one of the individuals approaching her. They grabbed her by the shoulder and made her sit upright, before they removed the sack on her head.

Once the sack was removed from her head, she could see her captors. The only emotions she felt at that moment was shock. Nothing she had experienced in her life prepared her for this.

She had expected her captors to be some sort of monsters she didn’t know about, or other people that both her and disciples had missed when searching the area. Scarlett could even imagine assassins being sent after her. She knew plenty of people that would be happy if she just disappeared, and her presence in the Wildlands would give them the perfect opportunity to make it so.

But, not in a million years would she have thought to see her disciples.

Before her eyes were six of her disciples in weird makeshift robes. Standing in front of the group was Rana. She carried herself as if she was the leader.

Scarlett: “W-what\'s going on?”

Rana: “Don’t worry, teacher. It will be all over soon.”

As Rana said this, the other’s began to surround Scarlett in a circle.

Taking another look at her surroundings, she realized she was in the chamber at the top of the ziggurat. And, she was sitting in the runic circle at the center of the room.

Scarlett: “What are you doing?” She demanded as she struggled against her restraints.

None of her disciples said anything and began to chant in a language she had never heard before.

Disciples: “Ruo ecifircas rof woper peccat.”

As they began their chanting, the circle that Scarlett was sitting on began to glow. It fascinated her. She had experimented with this circle countless time and it never reacted to anything she did to it. But now, Scarlett could feel an intense amount of aether forming all around her in the air. She knew that whatever they were doing was incredibly powerful and potentially very dangerous.

Not wanting to sit still and allow her disciples to finish their ritual, she tried to push herself out of the circle. As she came close to the edges, she was stopped by some sort of energy barrier that pushed her back towards the circle\'s center.

Scarlett landed on her back and then struggled to sit back up right. She was now trapped both physically and magically.

Scarlett: “Charlotte, Tamara, Severinus, Iwan, Waqar, Rana. Why are you all doing this?” She pleaded with them, but they continued to ignore her and maintained their chant.

When Scarlett\'s pleading failed her, she thought that her only hope was to get the jinsil off her. If she could restore her magic, she could escape and stop whatever ritual they were conducting.

Whatever plans she was about to concoct were interrupted by the feeling of her aether leaving her body. It felt similar to when she was casting magic. Whatever spell they were trying to cast, they were using Scarlett as a battery to power it.

She could see the aether leave her body, thanks to her eyes of truth ability. The aether appeared as a wisp of glowing energy and started to spin in a circle above her head.

It was fascinating and concerning for Scarlett. She had never seen aether move like that and wanted to know what the purpose of the spell was, but was also concerned that she was at the center of it.

The aether just kept coming out of her until she was completely drained. At this point she thought the spell was done with her, but then she felt something else be pulled out of her. This was the moment she truly began to panic.

The pain she felt was the worst thing she felt in her entire existence, it was indescribable. A fundamental part of her life and being was ripped violently out of her to power whatever damable ritual her disciples were conducting.

Scarlett: “P-please stop! You\'re killing me!” she desperately pleaded with tears running down her face from the pain.

Some of the disciples hesitated for a second. They had never seen their teacher in such a vulnerable state and it gave them some pause, but they ultimately didn’t stop their chanting. The ritual continued on.

She screamed out in pain.

Scarlett was in such pain that she couldn\'t even sit upright anymore, and fell to her side. She layed suffering and dying, and for what, she did not know. She did not want to die, not like this, but she felt the approach of death and her life flashed before her eyes.

All her memories came to her at once: meeting her aunt for the first time, her teacher Cinder teaching her magic, leaving her home town, attending Graheel university, writing her thesis, meeting and recruiting each of her disciples.

In the echoes of her past, a single memory stood out to her. It was something that her teacher had told her all those years ago. It was the glimpse of her future he mentioned.

“Your decision will lead you to a crossroad with eight other people, and each will go their own way.”

“What choices did I make to end up like this? What did I do wrong?” She quietly and weakly weeped to herself.

The world and her consciousness faded to black.