Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3) (6 page)

Beyond the dais, the sky was cloudy, the ground was snowy,
and everything was dark. In the distance, Eric could see the lights of Roalt,
but none of the roads leading to it or anything else. This puzzled him. He
remembered being able to see in the dark as well as he could in the light.
Further puzzling would have to wait, because he leaned over and heaved into the
snow.

Kallen rubbed his back and waited for him. The
teleportation nausea was as bad as he remembered, but there was also something
new. He stared at the vomit in the snow and mourned the lost food. He was about
to lick it up when he stopped himself.
Why did I even consider that? A human
wouldn’t do that.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kallen said. “We’ll get more food
later.”

“You did it again!”

“Did what?”

“You read my mind! I was thinking about lost food just
now. I remember you did the same thing when we reunited in Mambi about Emily
being the second new kid.”

Kallen shrugged. “It wasn’t hard to guess.” Smiling, she
continued, “I’m flattered that you still remember that.”

What Eric didn’t tell her was what else he remembered
about that day. He had watched Patrick Lumberson, a human man like he used to
be, transform into a Fizger. After that, there was nothing remotely human about
him. Kallen had to put him down, and then she dissected him. There were already
people who wanted to dissect Eric the otherworlder, like Captain Hasina. What
would happen now that he was an otherworlder
and
a mana mutation survivor?

Kas, are you there?

Eric!? Is that really you!?
A warm and happy, yet
annoyed, cloud of emotion embraced Eric.
Dear Ancestor! I thought you were a
monster!

Eric winced at the mental shout.
Yeah, it's me. I ran
into a little trouble.

Trouble!? I have a report from Ceiha saying you blew up
part of a mountain! Their High Council started another wave of anti-magic
propaganda! Lunas had to clean up your mess!

Lunas? As in, Prince Lunas Latrot from across the
border?

...Yes...Why?

Eric hopped onto a snow-covered bridge railing and walked
across it. Then he hopped off, removed his shoes, and walked it in his bare feet.
Shoes felt unnatural.

You're on a first-name basis.

Her blush could not be more visible if she were standing
in person before him.

It is important for neighboring monarchs to have a
friendly relationship.

Did you give him a handkerchief as a sign of that
friendship?

Of course not!

Eric jumped off the railing and landed lightly. Kallen
told him to put his shoes back on before he got frostbite. He could do it
during the summer months if he didn’t mind the attention.

Kas...

Such things must be done at a joust or in private: he
missed the last joust and Siron won't leave us alone. Not that I want to be
alone with him! It wouldn't be proper… You're okay, I mean, nobody believes I'd
compromise my chastity for you. No offense! It's just that you're my minion and
he's a prince and—I just called you a “minion,” didn't I?

Eric wondered if their mental link was working right.
Did
my bout of monsanity affect it?
Kasile, a fiercely independent queen,
sounded like a lovesick schoolgirl. It flew in the face of everything he
remembered about her. Aside from a passionate make-out after the rescue in the
sewer, she never acted like this with Culmus.
She's still a teenager, but
Lunas has ordercraft. I need to keep his claws out of her...Let's see, Captain
Quando, Basilard, Kas' team, the tricksters
...

He spared a glance to Kallen and added her to the list.
Between her association with Tasio, her work with mana mutation, and her
experience as a monster, she was steeped in chaos. There was no one better when
mounting a defense against Order. She also had extensive knowledge of this
ordercrafter in particular.

We can team up and split the meat. I mean, spoils.
I
don’t care about the meat on Lunas’ bones, although he’s definitely well fed
and... Stop thinking like that!

To Kasile, he thought,
Do you want me to come by and
talk?

About that. I'm glad you asked because I didn't know
how to bring it up. You don't have to come to the castle anymore.

Say what?

I've been thinking about what you said before leaving
for Ceiha and you're right. I can't demand that you drop everything whenever I
want to vent about something. It isn't fair to you and potentially dangerous,
considering what happened with the villainous Duke Selen. Anything we need to
discuss can be done with our link.

A red flag flashed and a klaxon alarm blared in Eric's
mind. He decided to put his reunion with Annala on hold until he spoke with the
anti-ordercraft group. The more Kasile's words spun in his head, the more
territorial he became, and the more his thought process became less human. When
he spotted monsters ahead of them, he showed fangs instead of teeth.

It was a pack of Xulfs; mammalian monsters the size of
dogs. They had five legs and fish fins that allowed them to fly on currents of
air. Their fur turned white for the winter, but Eric could still see them
because the fins stayed blue all year. Watching them eat snow and tree bark
made Eric remember the food lost due to the teleport.

"Fishing time!"

Snow flew behind him as he dashed toward the monsters. By
the time they noticed him, he impaled one on his spear and stunned another with
a mana bolt. He grabbed a third with his teeth. The rest scattered and Eric
crouched on all fours while he ripped the three apart.

Kallen sighed. "I have a lot more work to do."

She stood next to the humanoid creature gorging itself and
waited. After a minute or so, he suddenly became aware of himself. Hunched over
in the snow, covered in blood, and eating a corpse, he was behaving like a
monster. He jumped into the nearest snowbank to hide himself and the blood
dripping from him dyed it red.

“Run away! I might eat you next!”

“Eric,” Kallen said softly, “we talked about this.”

“I lost control…I’m dangerous!”

Kallen hummed a tune. It had a slow rhythm and gentle tone.
Then she began to sing,

 "Am I sapient or a monster? Hope or Despair? Where
have I come; where do I go? The Trickster grins. The Trickster grins. The
Trickster grins."

"What's that?"

"A nursery rhyme my foster mother taught me about the
River of Chaos, or as humans call it, the Universal Flow of Mana.”

Plunging her arm into the snowbank, she pulled the human
boy out. Then she hugged him. Comfort flooded his mind as she spoke, “You are
what you choose to be. The Trickster will be amused either way. Whether it’s a
human or a grendel, what I hold in my arms right now is a dear friend.”

Eric embraced her in return. “I’m lucky I’m second,” he
whispered in her ear.

“You have no idea,” she whispered back.

Eric picked up the pieces of meat he hadn't eaten yet and
wrapped them up in a skin. To hold the skin together, he generated needles from
the dirt beneath his feet. Kallen complimented his technique by saying it was
more than any monster could manage.

Other genuine monsters attacked them on their way to Roalt
and Eric insisted on fighting them all. He wanted to prove he was a mercenary,
not a monster, and could fight like one. Weak from hunger and cold, they were
no threat to a professional warrior mage. The real challenge was to remain
human.

At the start of his training, Basilard lectured on the
incredible will to live in all monsters. In the face of adversity, they
surpassed the limits of their bodies and defied sapient science in their bid to
continue living. They fought and killed and little else. Even herbivores
defended territory and killed hostile plants. Fighting them was nothing
compared to his own monster.

It wanted to eat them and then replicate itself with the
young and strong monster accompanying him. It challenge his human sense of self
constantly, and the more he tried to suppress it, the more it fought against
him. He lost the struggle every time.

When blood was spilled, he gorged himself. When the
moonlight struck Kallen just right, he tackled her and tugged at her winter
clothing. Then her crystal would flash and he would come back to himself. In
either case, he scurried away, bowed his head, and apologized.

“Repeat the song.”

“Am I sapient or a monster? Hope or Despair? Where have I
come; where will I go? The Trickster grins. The Trickster grins. The Trickster
grins.”

Then the process began all over again.

When they crested a hill, a stone’s throw from Roalt’s
city walls, Eric stopped. The city was society. It was innocent bystanders. It
was not the place for him. He retreated from it. He would have turned his back
and searched for a cave if Kallen hadn’t grabbed his hand.

“It’ll be fine.”

“No it won’t. I can’t go back there. I’m dangerous.”

“I’m the same as you and I’m not dangerous.”

“I tried to
rape
you five times on the way here,
and not once did I realize what I was doing. What if I get hungry during a
mission and chew on
my teammates
?”

“That won’t happen.”

“Why not?”

Kallen flipped her hair. “No human guy can control himself
around me. That’s why my sidekick is female.” She squeezed his hand.
“Seriously, it’s a good thing that you’re worried. It shows that you don’t want
it to happen and that you’re still sapient at your core.”

Eric glowered at her. “Was that the real point of this
walk? Shame the monster by rubbing its nose in its poop?”

Kallen smiled all the sweeter. “Could a monster make such
a deduction?”

Still holding his hand, she led him back to the top of the
hill. With gentle prodding and smiles, she led him down towards the city.

“By the way, we’re not ‘monsters.’ The proper term is
‘demon.’”

“Whatever politically correct term you use, we’re not
supposed to go into the city. I don’t want to get locked up again.”

He continued walking in that direction nonetheless.

“Don’t worry about it. We’re not going
inside
the
city.”

Snow was piled up against the capital's wall and in
crannies on the main gate. This was to clear the ground in the immediate
vicinity for an art fair.

There were ice sculptures and snow sculptures by the
dozens in the field. Mages hung from scaffolds and arranged snow and ice into
formations on the city walls. Their staffs acted as a maestro’s baton. Beneath,
stands for hot chocolate, coffee, fast food, and nutrition bars did a brisk
business. In their midst, booths boasted of music both old and new. There was
even a live band playing holiday music on a glimmering winter stage.

All of this was illuminated by the lights Eric saw
earlier. They were powered by mana or elemental light energy so the artists
could see their work without by-product heat melting it. Eric remembered elemental
light energy being a problem for him in the immediate past, but he felt nothing
against it now. This led him to conclude that the special darkness powers he
was polishing before Ceiha were inactive.

"This is the Winter Blaze Festival. I'm surprised you
haven't read about it. Artists labor through the night to create works of art
to greet the Sun. It’s the formal start of Dormancy.”

“Dormancy?”

“If you’re not a follower of Fiol, then you call it
‘winter.’” 

"Ah. So the fire in their hearts keeps them
warm?"

Kallen nodded. "That's the idea."

They stopped at the hot chocolate booth to warm themselves
and the fast food stands to sate their hunger. Eric bought one of everything
despite the fresh meat he carried with him. He felt more comfortable consuming
processed human food. On Kallen’s suggestion, he arranged a trade with one of
the merchants and it made him feel all the more human for participating in a civilized
act like bartering.

With their drinks and food, they browsed the rows of ice
statues to admire them. There was a Xethras, a Cerci, the Tazul that attacked
months ago, and that giant monster worm that tried to eat Cutlass Bridge, among
others. Then Eric's gaze fell upon a monstrous human.

It was rough but clearly female. There was a smooth bulk
about her neck and shoulders that could have been a mantle or a mane. Two lumps
extended from the back in, what Eric guessed were supposed to be wings. A third
line extended between them and lower on its body as the start of a tail. In its
right hand, it carried a club that might become a staff and, in its left hand,
it bared block fingers or claws.

Emily stepped out from behind it wearing a heavy coat and
gloves like the other artists. Also like the others, she was equipped with a
chisel and a small saw. When she saw Eric, she stopped working, marched up to
him, and poked him in the chest with the chisel.

"That's not you." She spun on her heel and
looked upon the statue with adoration in her eyes. "It's Kallen."

"A labor of love?" Kallen herself asked.

At once, Emily became red as a cherry. “B-boss!? I-I
didn’t see you there…! I…um…” She looked away bashfully.

Kallen slung an arm around her shoulders and said, “It
looks good so far.”

“You really think so? I…I was afraid it would offend you.”

“Nonsense. I’m a chimera and a human and this unites both.
I’m sure you’ll win.”

“I didn’t know you wanted to be an artist,” Eric said.

Emily scowled at him. “I don’t, but first prize is a
ticket to the Mana Mutation Summit and their statue displayed as the meeting's
centerpiece. I’m going to be there to support Kallen."

“I’m lucky to have you in my corner.”