Ballistic Coefficient

When Pale awoke, it was to complete darkness. For a moment, panic lanced through her mind, but she was quick to calm herself when she realized that something was loosely covering her head, just enough to conceal her vision but not enough to cut off her airflow. Suddenly, the memories came rushing back to the forefront of her mind.

Clearly, they'd been kidnapped by whoever had seen fit to invade their room. Pale wasn't sure where they'd been taken, but she could hear other people awakening around her. A few of them were clearly afraid, if the small sniffles they were letting out were any indication, but Pale paid them no mind, instead trying to get her bearings.

"Kayla?" she called. "Are you awake?"

She didn't get a response. Pale tried to move her arms, but they'd been bound behind her back with rope. On top of that, her weapons were gone – she still had on her usual clothes and her body armor, but her handgun, rifle, and all her ammunition were missing, along with anything else she'd been carrying on her person at the time.

"Kayla?" Pale called again. Once more, she received no response. Her brow furrowing, she turned, trying to listen for someone else who was awake that could be of use to her.

It didn't take her long to locate someone else who was awake. From the sound of things, it was a young man, probably around Kayla's age, who was gently sobbing to himself a few feet away. Pale's brow furrowed; he didn't sound like much, but he would have to do.

"Hey," she said, trying to get his attention. "Think you can do something for me?"

She heard him sniffle. "W-what do you-"

"Do you want to get out of here or not?" He didn't immediately respond, and Pale heaved a tired sigh. "I'll take your silence as a yes. Follow the sound of my voice, I'll get us out."

"Y-you can do that?"

"Whatever I can do, it'd beat sitting here and waiting for something to happen. Now hurry up, before whoever took us comes back. I know you probably can't see, so follow the sound of my voice."

That seemed to get his attention, as she heard him stand up and begin to carefully walk over to her. He tripped over several other people as he walked, but managed to avoid falling. Eventually, he made it to her, and collapsed to the ground next to her.

"Okay," he offered. "I-I'm here… what do I-"

"Back-to-back with me," she said. "The ropes around my wrists don't feel too secure. If yours are anything like mine, I'll be able to get you loose after a bit, and then you can do the same for me."

"Okay…"

The two of them began to shuffle around, until eventually, they were back-to-back with each other. Pale fumbled around in the darkness, trying to reach for the ropes around the boy's wrists. Eventually, she managed to find them, and sure enough, they were pretty loose. After a bit of pulling on them, Pale was able to pull them free, and the boy gave a small gasp as the ropes fell off from around his wrists.

"There," Pale said. "Now free me."

"R-right," he said. "Hold still, I'll get you out."

Pale didn't move as he pulled and tugged on the ropes binding her, and after a few seconds, she felt them fall away. The moment she was free, she pulled the hood off her head and tossed it aside, then looked around, trying to find the young man who had helped her.

She turned around, and was stunned to find what appeared to be a very dark-skinned young man staring at her. His skin was an almost ash-gray, and he had bright red eyes that seemed to almost glow in the dark. Immediately, her thoughts went to Vincent, the elder vampire that she and Kayla had defeated a few months prior, but she quickly pushed those thoughts away. This boy was far too young to be a vampire of that caliber, and in any case, if he had been a vampire in the first place, she would be dead already. Clearly, he was something else entirely; if the pointed ears were any indication, he was likely some kind of elf, but it was impossible for her to tell, and given their current situation, she wasn't exactly willing to ask too many questions, anyway.

"Thanks," Pale said, giving him a grateful nod.

He fidgeted nervously. "N-no problem… um… what's your-"

"Call me Pale." She looked around, her gaze landing on a familiar white-furred tail. "Hold that thought."

Pale stood up and moved over to where Kayla was still unconscious, then gently pulled the hood off her head and began to shake her.

"Kayla, wake up," Pale urged.

Groggily, Kayla let out a tired groan as she cracked both eyes open. "Pale…? Where are we?"

"No idea. Do you remember what happened last night?"

Kayla blinked as the memories came flooding back. Slowly, she nodded. "I do… so they've taken us somewhere?" She looked around the darkened room, frowning. "Guess we're not the only ones… How many are there?"

"By my count? Around two-dozen. And before you ask, I've got no idea why we've been taken; I just woke up a few minutes ago."

"Mm." Kayla peered past her, her gaze landing on the boy behind her. "A dark elf…?"

The elf jumped at being recognized, then began to fidget nervously again. "H-hi… I'm Nasir Leonan."

Kayla nodded in understanding. "I'm Kayla." She turned back to Pale. "Think you can free my wrists?"

"Yeah, give me a moment," Pale said, coming up behind her and pulling on the ropes. Same as her own and Nasir's, they came free with minimal effort, which Pale couldn't help but take notice of.

"Kayla, I think these ropes were designed so we could free ourselves," she noted.

"You do? What makes you say that?"

"They're tied too loosely, for one. If they truly didn't intend for us to escape, they would've made these knots a lot more secure." Pale looked around the room, trying to note anything that seemed unusual. For the most part, it was completely nondescript – just a simple rectangular room made from solid stone, with a single torch burning overhead to help illuminate things, and a single metal door on one of the walls.

"What do you think is going on?" Kayla asked as she rubbed her wrists.

"I have no idea. At first, I thought that maybe some of those people from town had decided to make their prejudices towards us a bit more overt, but this all of this seems far too deliberate to be coincidental." Pale looked around at the others again, frowning. "And besides, you're the only Beastkin here. Clearly, something else is going on, I'm just not sure what."

Kayla nodded in understanding. "Okay. For now, let's free the others, then start thinking up ways out of here."

Pale let out an exhale. "...That's going to be difficult, even assuming we can get that door open. They took my gear, so I'm next to useless in a fight at the moment unless I call down a pod, and I'd prefer not to let our captors know we're awake just yet."

"I still have my magic," Kayla offered.

"I'm aware, but whoever took us, they seem to be powerful mages. I tried shooting at them, but they had a barrier in place, not to mention how they somehow pulled the air directly from our lungs. We'll have to be careful and play it safe for now."

Kayla nodded. "Okay… let's get the others free first."

Together, the two of them and Nasir began moving around the room, freeing the other students and waking them up. As they did so, Pale made sure to question them all, trying to understand what happened or who had taken them, but she got very little from everyone. Most of them hadn't even seen their attackers, and the few that had reported a story that was consistent with Pale and Kayla's – masked figures dressed in all-black breaking into the room of wherever they were staying, knocking them out through magical means, and then dragging them back here before they knew what was happening.

That being said, there was one thing that Pale noticed – all of the people who had been kidnapped were around her and Kayla's age. And that led her to yet another question, though she suspected she already knew the answer to it.

"Settle down, all of you," Pale ordered as the group before them muttered among themselves. "One more question – show of hands, how many of you are here for the Luminarium's entrance exam?"

There was a pause, but then, to Pale's amazement, everyone raised a hand. She blinked at the sight of it, then nodded in understanding. Suddenly, it all made sense to her.

"Pale?" Kayla asked. "What do you think?"

"I have my suspicions, but I'll wait to confirm them until after we're out of here," Pale explained.

With that said, she moved over towards the only door in the room and examined it. From what she could tell, it was very sturdy – too sturdy to move or be broken. Shaking her head, Pale moved on to the wall around it instead. Like she'd suspected, it was made of solid stone, which gave her an idea.

"Do we have any Earth Mages here with us?" she asked.

The crowd of people around her exchanged glances with each other before a few of them cautiously stepped forward. Out of the around two dozen people there with them, four of them were Earth Mages, which was perfect. Pale motioned to the wall next to the door.

"Think you four can get us through that?" she asked.

The mages exchanged a look, but then, before Pale could say anything further, they all raised their hands, and a crack formed in the stone wall next to the door. As Pale watched, the crack grew, eventually turning to an outline of the doorway; the four mages then collectively pushed, and several feet of solid stone gave way, forming a large cutout that led to a darkened hallway. Seeing it, Pale nodded, then motioned for Kayla to follow her as she stepped out into the hall. As Pale looked around, she saw several other metal doors lining this hall, along with a single curved pathway at the end.

The two of them made it just a few steps before several people in cloaks came around the corner. Pale tensed, her hand going for a gun that wasn't there, meanwhile Kayla conjured lightning in her hands. But as the two of them watched, the cloaked figures stopped. One of them, an elderly-looking bearded man, stared down the hall at all of them, his hands crossed over his chest.

"Welcome to your entrance exam," he said. "Unfortunately, it is with great regret that we have to inform you all that as of now, you are all failing."