RAYNE (Xiao Hong Song)
Rayne struggled more than she thought she would. Fire and air were coming to her, but the damage it did to The Aged Charmer was minor compared to the destruction her twin threw around. She had seen Ming-Yue in action before, but this was the next level. She was taking the creature into the portal alone, without her help. Rayne continued to support with fire and air, throwing everything she could toward The Aged Charmer. Blood was still pouring from her head wound from where it had nearly broken through her mental defences. Pale and shaky, she held herself upright with what determination she could muster, given the mess this was becoming.
“Throw it in,” Rayne shouted to Ming-Yue, glowing form, power radiating from her sister. “Hurry, Ming-Yue, don’t play with the damned thing.”
Rayne watched a dark light flicker over her sister’s eyes before she finally began to force the creature into the portal. The screaming still echoed everywhere: through her mind, the forest, even in her bones. It never seemed to end. It filled her to the brim, the charms failing to protect her mind. She could feel it crawling in her neural pathways, demanding her to free it, cursing her sister binding it, and the pure rage.
She began to take unsteady steps toward the creature and her sister—mixed intentions bleeding through her mind, heart, and soul. Rayne fought to keep her fire and air spells locked down, not wanting to distract or harm her sister. There was enough of The Aged Charmer leaking through her to force her forward, to help it somehow. It could have made her use her powers at this point, but it was breaking down her barriers.
“Ming-Yue, hurry, it is in my mind. I can’t stop it,” Rayne shouted at her sister.
Another step forward, the shaking had stopped, and her body looser, preparing to follow someone else’s commands.
“Understood,” Ming-Yue replied in Chinese. The next step turned Rayne toward her sister, raising her arms. She felt her magic attempting to rise within her. It was being dragged out of her. Her thoughts were carried into thick molasses of darkness as something else took over, a muddle of chaos. She couldn’t understand the words, just the feeling of stopping her sister. She had to stop Ming-Yue from taking Nián Lǎ o de Mèilì Zhě through the portal at all costs. The fire within her roared to life and lashed out to slam directly into her sister’s side. It burned through Ming-Yue’s protection charms. The fire and air combined, burning hotter and faster than she could do normally. The fire starter, she could only dream of something she could do as she watched herself from an odd sideline within herself.
Ming-Yue cringed as the last of her protection charm shattered, leaving her open for another attack.
“Fight it, Xiao Hong, stop it. I have to finish getting it through the portal,” Ming-Yue shouted back to Rayne. She had to concentrate everything she had on the spells containing The Aged Charmer and the portal. She had no time for fighting her twin.
Rayne knew this logically, but the raw magical power ripping through her mind clutched on tightly. She bucked under its control, trying to get any footing not to attack again, but the brilliant spark began to form as her control kept disappearing under the slick molasses of darkness she slipped under.
Another whip of flame struck her sister straight on her side and back, violent and fiery, fed with air, making it vicious in its assault. Rayne heard her sister scream in pain but did not lose a hint of concentration.
The net spell and portal started solid under her rock-solid focus. Her glow flickered from a white-golden light with a flash of gray and orange pain. Something else flashed. Rayne didn’t understand the unnatural glow that the clamp of power understood and reveled in what it saw. Rayne struggled with her thoughts, trying to regain control, but the darkness kept sucking her into its depths. This dark magic kept her body for itself and her mind in this quicksand she couldn’t escape.
“Rayne, for the love of all the gods, fight back. I can’t fight you right now,” Ming-Yue thundered through gritted teeth. “I only need a bit more time, and it will be through the portal.”
Rayne heard her sister through the tangled web of her mind, still trying to get control even if she was floating through the darkness. Neither up nor down, she was floating. She was still attached to her body but getting further away from the control of the physical part. She screamed at her sister that she was trying, but no words left her throat.
The fire boiled through her system; it would never burn her but everything around her if it exploded outward. The air whipped into a frenzy as it began to slip the uneasy control of the vessel, she once called her body. The Aged Charmer was oxygenating the area. It would light up in a blaze once the flames were triggered. Rayne kept swimming through the darkness towards her body, trying to get it back under her control. Fighting for the fire and air that were her powers, not Nián Lǎ o de Mèilì Zhě . She couldn’t allow it to destroy her twin, the other members of the circle, and everyone else around.
Tendrils of air reached back to her through the darkness, tugging her back, helping her swim through the darkness faster. She felt her body was controlled despite not seeing a way out. Rayne had mere moments to stop herself from doing the worst thing ever: killing everyone in close proximity. She had to stop The Aged Charmer. Its rage poured through her fire, intensifying everything to unimaginable levels. The ease of the air guided her home, back into herself. The calmness that air could give, the necessity it was to everyone, everything—life itself.
Rayne felt the uneasy grasp within her body again. Vision swam in through her eyes. Her hands stretched out with flames flickering at her fingertips. Fire roaring through her veins, heat beating at her, blood boiling, and words flowing out of her mouth of a spell dangerous even to attempt. Especially when she didn’t have complete control over her body. She had to pick how to stop herself quickly.
She never thought about stopping herself and knew she had to function for the next creature afterward. She felt the spell about to go forward towards her twin and jerked her hands upward. She faced the sky, and the spell of Hellfire went upward in a massive ball of molten fiery doom that she prayed wouldn’t hit any random plane going by at that moment. The ball of brilliant red-orange fire kept flying, hitting nothing as it continued upward. She crumpled to the ground, exhausted from the pure magical drain of energy that the spell she should have never dared draw upon. No witch should be alone. It was a spell only to try with a ritual casting with a group. The screaming in her mind weakened as The Aged Charmer’s power lessened.
Rayne felt the ground rushing up under her face and a new darkness approaching her. It rushed in. Her thoughts blurred before unconsciousness took her in its velvety embrace.