Un-Chain

It didn't take long for Harvet to arrive at one of the entrances to the dome. Like every single other entrance, it looked like a blank white wall. The cell warden had placed many such openings in various locations for his convenience.

If it weren't for her past experiences in the isolation cells, she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between this wall and an ordinary one.

From what Harvet could recall, every time she was sent to an isolation cell, it was the warden himself that would cast the spell. She would then be enveloped in darkness and then she would find herself directly within a small room which would then be encased by a blue bubble.

Once the warden was done breaking her mentally, her seniors would then come in to educate her in the proper way to behave within the Guild. Those would usually end with many bruises and sprains.

When they deemed her fit to leave or once they grew bored of her, she would leave through the platform and would slide through the wall of the dome to the outside, which would usually be one of the blank white walls like the one she was in front of currently.

Harvet paced back and forth.

She never did quite find out how the dome seemed to have known when to let her out. The warden and her seniors were never there to send her out themselves, since they were busy moving onto the next cell.

Looking back at the wall, Harvet adjusted her grip on Judith. It finally dawned on her that it was more of an exit than an entrance.

Since her and Uteu's arrival to the Guild she had seen the warden twice. Once, when he had shoved Uteu into the chasm to send him to an isolation cell.

The earthquake itself, the one that had formed the chasm, seemed to have been the aftermath of whatever the Association had done to the Guild. The cell warden was alerted and sent out to control and detain any people that he didn't recognize as being part of the Guild. He was able to move quickly and pin point all of the intruders very quickly.

How?

The second time she saw the warden was when she met up with Uteu at the exit closest to her living quarters.

The person that had helped Uteu, the one from the Association, was toying with the cell warden and had revealed a door from the dome with his ability.

From what Uteu had told her, he even broke apart the bubble barrier of the isolation cells after a bit of concentration.

He broke the bubble barrier but did not break the dome. Harvet narrowed her eyes. Did that man know anything about the dome? Was that why he treated it in a much more gentle manner?

Perhaps she was overthinking it, but Uteu had revealed to her that the Psyche children were in the dome, powering it as if they were batteries. She couldn't help but feel that someone with barrier related abilities would easily be able to feel such an anomaly. This was a strike against the Association in her eyes.

Harvet could not keep her thoughts in order, trying to stay on track was getting more and more difficult. Her palms felt clammy and a cold sweat broke out across her forehead. It wasn't just because of how close she was to the dome, it was something else as well.

She darted her eyes back and forth between the white wall, her body and at Judith. Something was off but she couldn't quite tell what it was. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on her abilities. She could feel the energy wrap around her legs, so it wasn't that.

With her eyes still closed, Harvet searched for her sense of unease and traced it. Seeing where it lead to, she realized that she couldn't properly feel her connection to Uteu.

It felt muddled and far from where he was, as if he was behind a door that she couldn't open. Harvet stretched out her energy but it simply bounced back, unable to reach him.

Mere moments ago she was sure he was still sporadically calling upon her strength and she had been more than happy to lend it to him. But now, she could hardly feel connected to him at all.

Harvet let out a shuddering breath.

Although it was difficult to feel, their connection was still there, it wasn't snapped like Judith's, everything would be just fine.

Shaking her head to clear it, Harvet tried to think. She had to figure out a way into the dome.

Getting to one of the exits was easy.

The problem was finding a way in.

She knew that the cell warden wasn't the only one powering up the dome. It was possible that the blue bubble barriers were the only things being kept up by the warden.

This somehow made him seem much more human to Harvet.

The bubbles took a while to fully encircle the isolation cells. The warden had to be there himself to activate the barriers to trap people within. She could deal with this. If she had to fight, she felt that she could overcome her fear of the cell warden to fight him, to beat him. She was no longer a child nor a young teenager, she was much faster and more powerful now. She would find her chance to kill him.

Wait, that didn't help her figure out a way into the dome.

Harvet brought a hand to her forehead to massage it. A headache was growing and Harvet still had no idea what to do.

Unease knotted in her stomach as she placed her hand against the wall. She stared at the ground and her hair covered her face. Why was she feeling so fl.u.s.tered and unsteady?

Suddenly, the feeling of loss quickly overwhelmed her. She choked and her breathing grew ragged, she nearly dropped Judith who was stirring in her arms.

She could not feel him at all! While it was a slip of a feeling earlier, it was now completely gone!

She couldn't feel Uteu through their connection and she couldn't stop herself from hyperventilating. Something must have happened to him, she never should have left him. Just like when she was selfish and dealt with Jude alone, he had gotten heavily injured. She failed him, she failed her brother. She had promised to help them! And now, now something much worse must have-

A small hand rested on top of her's and she darted her eyes over to see worried brown eyes staring at her face.