It was the expected kind of price to pay for Camile Jensen, but she was not expecting it to be this heavy, this harsh, and this … restraining.
“How are you doing, young Miss Jensen?” the metal door of the room in which she was locked opened up, and a woman with a mask covering half her face walked in, with two figures in cloaks behind her. If one looked closely, the woman’s robe had the symbol of a crow on her left chest, as did the cloaks of the two who were following her.
“I don't know, is this how you treat those who have helped you gather all those spells, codices and enchanted materials?” Camile Jensen raised her head and tried to move her arms and legs, which were chained up against the thick metal bars of her metal cage: “I mean, you’re careful, I get it, but...”
“But you are not the one who has survived centuries in this world, managing to hide from all those who try to oppress us, and flourishing in the moment.” the woman said: “And, since you are a Jensen, we’ve got to extend your… quarantine period by a few more days.”
“What for?” Camile Jensen asked with a wheeze: “Don’t tell me you’ve never dealt with Jensens before.”
“We have, we have, which is why we - uh, we have to lock you in this very very special cage.” the woman explained with a smile: “You’ve heard of the name, Abigail?”
“That’s … that’s my great grandmother, how…?”
“She used to be one of ours.” the woman said and pointed at her mask: “This - this was thanks to her.”
“She was one of you? How is that possible?” Camile Jensen asked with a frown: “She was … well according to my other family members, she was mediocre at best. She’s sweet - a little distant, but ...”
“But she was never a good magic user, she was never a good investigator or crime fighter, is that right?” the woman chuckled: “Yeah, yeah, you remember that correctly. Her magical powers are, as you just said, mediocre at best. But she made up for it in some other ways, her understanding of energy theories, and as it later turned out, her ability to communicate with powerful beings without being driven mad or permanently incapacitated.”
“Fascinating, I’ll remember to check my family’s historical records when I have the chance. But what does that have to do with me?” Camile Jensen scoffed.
“She was the one that realized the inherent curse inside of your family bloodline.” the woman said: “And she was willing to try anything to cure it.”
“It’s not a curse, it’s a blessing.” Camile Jensen shook her head: “We are the only magical family in the magical world, where every new member of the family gains magical affinity before they are even born.”
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“That’s the story of your parents’ generation, isn’t it?” the woman said: “I bet you don’t know this yet - the other benefits of this ‘blessing’ is that there is a magical bind between your blood and the central altar in your family’s secret chamber, with which your family elders can easily find out where you are, what kind of situation you are in, and even what you have been doing. It’s a very, very interesting spell, one that was developed by dear Abigail to alleviate the result of the curse.”
Camile Jensen narrowed her eyes and did not respond, she had heard about some rumors about something like this, and though she was never able to find any concrete proof, through asking the elder members of her family she became more and more certain that they were hiding something.
“It should be done now. Let her out.” the woman told her two followers.
The two figures in cloaks walked to two sides of the metal cage and turned two handles at the same time. The metal chains on Camile Jensen’s extremities loosened and eventually fell off. The door at the front surface of the cage opened, and Camile Jensen was able to just walk out. The woman with a mask covering half her face handed Camile Jensen a silver metal bottle and said: “Here, drink this.”
“This is - this is elemental energy blocker!” Camile Jensen sniffed the mouth of the bottle and asked: “Why? Isn’t locking me in this element and energy blocking room enough?”
“Elemental energy blocker, plus a few things. This is to keep you safe. ” the woman said: “And to give you a little taste of what would happen with your ‘blessing’ if not for your great grandmother.”
Camile Jensen drank all of the slightly sweet and cool liquid from the bottle, then walked out of the room with the woman and her two followers.
The room had two special arrays underneath the room, one of which blocked almost all elemental power and magical energy from the outside world, and the other would sucked the energy and elemental power away and diverted somewhere outside of the room, in turn creating a space that was almost completely devoid of them, and anyone trapped inside would be enduring the effect of their power slowly leaking away from them.
When Camile Jensen walked right outside of the room, the magical energy and elemental power that filled the air outside rushed into her body like air and water rushing to fill a void. A sharp pain like that of her flesh and bones being torn apart jolted from all extremities of her body and went up her spine right at her brain. This caused her to fall down on the floor immediately in a fetal position and cried in pain.
“Yeah, imagine this kind of pain, but for a newborn baby.” the woman knelt down beside her and said: “Just imagine, how… interesting it is for a baby like that to make it to 3 years of age.”
Camile Jensen stared at the woman in the eyes, but she was not able to say anything because of her tight clenching teeth.
“Help her up.” the woman said to her two followers, then she looked Camile Jensen in the eye: “Don’t worry, you will get through this without much of a scratch, and your family’s elders will only think that you are dead. Join us for dinner, I bet you’re starving.”
The two figures in cloaks held Camile Jensen up, and practically carried her through a long boardwalk connecting the room, which was on top of a lone stone pillar in a grand underground structure, and the platform of an underground castle.