#izira

Hard, cold stone. But it wasn't cold where she was. Izira was laying on the ground, on this stone. She was laying, but she wasn't sleeping, was she?

Slowly, she opened her eyes, carefully not to get blinded by the morning light… but there was no light. And it definitely wasn't morning. Her surroundings were dark, almost pitch black if not for the faint, red glow coming from somewhere below her.

She tried to lift herself to a sitting position but felt every inch of her body scream in protest. She fell back down and her vision faded into black smudges. Her eyes were burning and her head felt as if someone was driving a drill through it. She pressed her hands to her eyes and opened her mouth to scream but no sound got out.

At the same time she didn't feel anything.

She was lying there long, with only her racing heart any indicator that time was passing at all and the relentless screaming in her head any sound pushing through the suffocating silence around her. Finally she realized she had a thought.

She was asking herself, where was she? What happened?

"Yes," she finally said out loud. Her voice was quiet and hoarse. "Where am I?" It hurt to speak but for some reason she was ecstatic she was speaking at all. She felt that speaking is important. "What happened?"

Suddenly she saw ruins and smelled smoke and all around here were growing dark crystals.

"Gramorr!" She tried to shout but her voice was too weak.

She sprung up and immediately almost fell again. She made a few steps forward before falling to her knees. She looked around.

There was no sign of the crystals, only plain, black stone. She couldn't see the sky, but the ceiling of the place she was in was bristled with stalagmites. So she was in a cave. But she didn't get here by herself, did she? The last thing she remembered was…

The castle. Her home. Black crystals springing from every corner as the corridors were filled with smoke. The staff was running away in panic and the soldiers ran towards the enemy. Spells and explosions sounded in the distance. All possible artifacts got activated at once, to use every chance they got against Gramorr. Except she didn't have her amulet, no, she gave it to someone beforehand…

Her breath cut short in her chest and her heart seemed to stop completely. Talia.

"Talia! Talia!" She started calling out repeatedly, no matter her voice anymore.

The panic added her strength but she didn't even notice it. She ran forward still shouting and looking around for her sister.

Izira stopped suddenly, at the last moment noticing that she reached a cliff and almost fell down. Down from the abyss came the unidentified orange light. She didn't really want to learn what it was.

"Talia!" She kept calling out as long as her voice allowed her to and paced her prison - because she was now sure she was in prison - until she fell down from exhaustion.