Chapter Twenty Five

Ciara had not wanted to tell the artras of her growing worry of there being a possibility of having a seventh artra. Most of them hadn't noticed it yet and has regarded all seventh equipment in the Artarak as simply spare equipment, but she had known better. It had almost caught her off-guard when Kevin had asked about it the previous day as they left the Artarak.

That night her thoughts wouldn't stop wandering about the case of there being a seventh throne and she eventually found herself in the throne room mentally. Until then she had never projected her mind through to Armensia. It was normally Jovenor who simply communicated to her telepathically all the way from Armensia through a device he gave her that helped him bridge the gap. She still regretted blaming Kevin for entering her mind that morning. But what bothered most of all at the present moment was the fact that she had woken up in Kevin's bed and not known how to react in the situation. She had ended up teleporting out of pure panic.

Jacob had then approached her the moment she reached school with questions concerning how close she was getting to Kevin, but she had dismissed him saying nothing was going on between them. He wasn't convinced although he still had to let it go. "You know he you don't have to feel bad about taking his memories any more," he had said assuming it was the reason I was still giving the Siege my attention.

"What are you saying Jacob?"

"I'm just telling you to revise your actions. He might interpret your kindness differently from what you intend," Jacob said as he backed off the subject. After giving it some thought Ciara decided it was best if she ended whatever might or might not have been starting between the Siege and her though her gut was against it. She spent the first twenty minutes of the maths lesson staring at Kevin as she mustered up the courage to tell him off. Even though every bone in her body was telling her not to do it. Not to mention the way Kevin seemed to be acting. She had noticed that he was completely unaware of his surroundings and even when he did try to pay attention to Mr. Bergstrom he only zoned out yet again.

'Kevin, whats wrong with you,' she asked him telepathically.

'Not sure,' he replied. She decided to take a peek in his mind and possibly find the answer for him. It was not at all what she expected to find. His mind was full of swirling memories and half baked thoughts all mixed up together. She couldn't even pin point a single thought. It was so bizarre that she couldn't tell if he was capable of logical thought at all. Though amidst all the swirling thoughts there were a few that would last and this were blurry images of a blonde with icy blue eyes very similar to her. She would have said it was her, but the images always disappeared before she could get the full body detail. It was almost as if he wanted to see the girls eyes alone.

'Your mind is a freakin mess.'

'Thanks for the clarification,' he replied sarcastically.

'No need for the sarcasm. Anyway, I need to tell you something,' she told him trying to get every thing done as quickly as she could.

'What is it?' he asked.

'What happened yesterday was a mistake. I don't know what I was thinking. I'm sorry,' really, she said.

'What part?'

'Me at your balcony. Sleeping at your place,' she confessed. She awaited his reply which never came. She didn't quite understand what happened to the Siege after that. She could only say that he looked sick. As if someone had just poisoned him at that very moment. Mr. Bergstrom allowed him to excuse himself from the classroom which he got out of rather hastily.

Three minutes later, the teachers voice began glitching like there was static on a recording. I looked around and noticed it was time that was being affected. Only one artra had learnt time magic, so it had to be none other than Kevin. And considering the fact that it wasn't affecting me, it was weak, which meant that he was being careless. This way anyone could end up not being affected by the spell and it would cause a panic.

'Are you crazy?' I yelled at him telepathically and waited for his answer, but it never came. The next time I tried sending out telepathic waves to search for him, I couldn't find him.

'Guys, something is wrong with Kevin,' I told all the artras in school telepathically.

'It's probably like what happened in the maths test,' Isaac consoled seeing as he had also witnessed Kevin getting out of class.

'Yeah,' she replied, 'probably.' But something told Ciara it was something else entirely, but she had to keep up her optimism and avoid imagining a worst case scenario.

….................

Ring, ring, ring. The bell rang for students to go for lunch. Kevin had proceeded to miss the lessons that followed after his disappearing act. Ciara had then decided that at lunch time she would search for him. She waited till the class was empty and vanished. She used twenty minutes to check a multitude of places. She went to the library, the football pitch. When she realised that he wasn't in school she then went to Armensia and checked the Artarak. Jeremy had tried to convince her that he did not stop by even once, but she wasn't having it. She checked the massive palace and eventually went back to school.

She sat at the their table in the cafeteria poking at her food. Where could he be? She thought. "Guys, I can't find Kevin anywhere. Have any of you seen him?"

"No," they all replied except for Jacob.

'Jacob,' she asked him telepathically.

'I also haven't,' he replied while he continued eating with an indifferent expression that could only be interpreted by Ciara as a sign that he wanted her to let him go.

'If it makes you feel any better, I made it clear to him that we are still just friends,' she said to him.

'Then you have your answer. I think you had already crossed borders you shouldn't have. So I expect he is heart broken right now and decided to go home since he hates hospital rooms for many reasons,' she stood and left the table at that moment.

"I don't feel like eating today," she told her friends and raised her hand to silence anyone else who had questions. With that they let her be and she walked out of the cafeteria. On her way out she past by a new face. She was definitely new to school. She was insanely pretty and had jet black. Ciara was in a hurry, but this girls appearance was odd enough tto get her attention for that short a time. When she was finally in one of the empty classrooms, she focused her mind on the balcony she had been to the previous night and let the magic of teleportation take her there.

Ciara wasn't the model student who always attended all lessons and never missed even a single one. The rest of her friends had explained to her that morning as Kevin was running late that it was completely unusual for him to skip a class under any circumstances. She now stood at the balcony which was wide open. The wind blew the white curtains open and her eyes finally landed on the being she had spent her afternoon looking for so far. He lay unconscious in his bed and a woman sat beside her with a tear-stricken face. This woman looked like she had been crying for a long time for her eyes were still red and her face still looked wet from tears.

The woman turned to face her and beckoned her to come in, "You're Ciara, aren't you?" she asked. Ciara had decided to conclude that this was Kevin's mother, "You're Dave's daughter, right?"

It stung to here herself being referred to as Dave's daughter, "Yes, I am."

"Then could you tell me what's wrong with my son," she said pointing at Kevin. Ciara approached him and touched his forehead, but quickly withdrew her hand regretfully as the boy had a really hot temperature. Artras got sick weirdly. She was almost amazed he wasn't steaming.

"Why is he heating up?" she whispered almost to herself.

"I don't know. He just showed up here extremely dizzy and staggered to his bed before he passed out. I checked his mind, but all I was able to get was your name and face, but not how you relate to all this. If anything that could be what his mind was trying to hide. His thoughts were too incoherent to keep track of," she explained. Ciara surmised that his mom was probably an artra from the previous generation just like her dad. At this point Ciara could not deny why the Siege was reacting like this. Even the blind could see what was happening here. She needed to talk to him somehow.

Jacob's words rang through her mind again. She could tell he was being cautious, but she also knew that her feelings towards the Siege were not out of remorse for taking his memories. No, if anything she hadn't thought about that for a while until Jacob mentioned it eatly that morning.