Chapter 4: Betrayed
Riley darted to Sabrina as fast as she could.
She shook her desperately. "No... Sabrina! Oh mercy- stop playing around! Wake up!"
But she didn't.
A sigh interrupted Riley's grieving. "And he just has to get away, doesn't he? Oh well- I'll catch that boy no matter what!"
Riley's head swiveled around to see the form that she had seen earlier, far back into the mine. Apparently she wasn't a ghost- just a trick of the light. But she still caught Riley aback with her short blue hair.
"Wait- what boy?" Riley ventured uneasily.
The girl looked to her, surprised. Then she relaxed and twisted one of the two braids in front of her face. "The one who was with you guys. DUH."
Riley's eyes widened. "You mean Alex?" Already she felt bile rising up her throat. "So you're the one who made the rocks fall! You..."
In a flash, Riley ran up to the blue-haired girl, yanked her collar, then slammed her into a wall. "WHAT HAPPENED TO SABRINA, YOU LITTLE-"
"Isn't it obvious? She's dead."
Riley's head whipped around to see a new figure coming to join them. He was even weirder than the girl- dark green hair that fell past his shoulders elegantly and startling crimson eyes, complete with a stocky build and black, yellow and blue robes that looked like it came straight out of a fantasy novel Sabrina usually read.
The thought of Sabrina bit into her gut, then slowly remembered his words. She's dead...
"What do you mean, she's dead?" Riley spoke carefully, and slowly her fingers uncurled from her grip on the girl's shirt.
"Isn't it obvious?" the boy pointed out. "That girl was crushed under a pile of giant boulders. I don't exactly think anyone could survive that."
Riley had known that Sabrina was dead, but now that the boy said it aloud, it forced her to face the truth, making reality one hundred times harder to bear.
Sabrina... she'd never see her smile again, she'd never laugh with her... it was all gone, just like that...
Tears pooled in her ears, then bit by bit they released and streamed down her face, one after another. She balled her fists. No...
And if that girl hadn't chased after them-
A painful scream tore out, and a green light began to gather around her, slowly intertwining together to make a symbol- then the symbol in front of her broke, and out from it came a happy, red-bearded man... a leprechaun?
The boy's eyes goggled, and in a flash, another symbol materialized in front of him. He quickly dispelled it to have a minotaur appear, swing its axe, and chop the leprechaun in two. Quickly after that the minotaur dissolved.
Riley tilted her head in confusion. What had happened...
But the boy seemed surprised, almost frightened, despite handling the situation with more than enough ease.
"Wh-what?" the boy sputtered. "I thought I'd eliminated all of you theurgists!"
Theurgist... wait a moment... those other two people, back at Crestwood, had mentioned theurgists, hadn't they?
Riley's eyes widened when she remembered the dream she had. That had... also mentioned theurgists...
The boy quickly recomposed himself, turned to the blue-haired girl, and nodded. "Sestiva, quickly. We must dispatch of her immediately. No mistakes-"
"VALDUS!"
The boy whirled around to see the two other people Riley had seen earlier- what were their names again? Jacob? Alyssa? Yeah, she thought that was it...
Jacob stormed over to the green-haired boy, Valdus, while Alyssa looked downright horrified, stiffly making herself walk over.
Jacob gritted his teeth. "Good thing we got here quickly," he seethed. "So we weren't the only ones looking for her!"
Valdus furrowed his eyebrows. "The theurgist? Actually, I hadn't known she even existed until now. And speaking of our target... Sestiva, after him. I'll take care of this."
Sestiva grinned evilly and licked her lips. "With pleasure."
She was going to go after Alex again, wasn't she?
Sestiva aimed a stick at the wall of boulders, and within seconds a burst of ice darted to the boulders. The ice broke a part, making a perfect opening for her.
Riley shook with anger, then launched herself at the opening. She wouldn't get away!
But she did when the boulders fell.
"What're you after?!" Jacob accused.
"Why, old friend, I believe that need not concern you." Valdus's voice rippled over Jacob's anger passively.
"It has everything to do with us!"
Jacob whirled around to see a shaking Alyssa.
Alyssa drew a deep breath in. "You were our friend! We trusted you! And it turns out that you were working for Malistaire all along!"
Valdus calmly stood there as Alyssa continued blindly. "And you... because you helped him... thanks to you Malistaire was able to kill all the theurgists-"
"Actually, he didn't. I did."
Alyssa froze, the breath knocked out of her by an invisible wind.
Riley kept looking back and forth between Alyssa and Jacob and Valdus. What was going on? Theurgists, Malistaire, betrayal... something wasn't right.
Jacob's lower lip dropped open. "Wha... you did that?" He was so shocked it was as if he had forgotten that he was supposed to be angry.
"Of course it was me. Do you honestly think that old fool could match up to me?"
"If you're working for him, then obviously you have some respect for him!"
Valdus closed his eyes and gave a low, amused chuckle. "Wrong again. You see, after you two fled, I killed him personally. He was going to betray me sooner or later, so it was best that I dispatched of him quickly."
Alyssa blinked a few times. "But he was so powerful! How could YOU have killed him?!"
"Simple. I manipulated you two to weaken him enough so I could finish the job effortlessly. Bravo."
"So we were close to defeating him?"
"Correct- and that didn't look like an easy feat to you two. The only other people I can think of who got as close as you were a duo of necromancers. But in the end, they were captured."
Alyssa set off like a bomb once the word 'necromancer' reached her ears. "ANGIE!" she screamed shrilly. "WAS SHE ONE OF THE NECROMANCERS?!"
"Angie?" Valdus seemed confused for a moment. "Oh yeah- your pathetic sister? Granted, one of the necromancers mentioned was a girl, but I promise on my life that she was not that girl. Let's just say that these necromancers weren't your average wizards-"
"THEN WHERE'S ANGIE, YOU LITTLE-"
The green-haired boy calmly interrupted her. "I also promise on my life that I do not know the whereabouts of your sister."
Even Riley, despite not knowing the situation, could tell that Valdus wasn't even attempting to make that lie sound real.
Alyssa blinked back tears furiously. "THAT'S A LIE! YOU WORKED FOR MALISTAIRE, YOU KNOW WHERE SHE IS, DON'T YOU?!"
"Correction- I used to."
By this time, Alyssa was frothing in so much rage that Jacob took a step back carefully. "Okay, um, Alyssa-"
Alyssa mentally tossed aside Jacob's concern. "Enough talk!" She ripped out another one of those sticks from her pocket. "You're going to tell me where she is right now, traitor, or pay the price!"