Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3) (64 page)

Tiza was a wreck. She cried while shadow boxing. She
alternated blaming Nolien, herself, or Dosh for this situation and then Nolien
again for forbidding her from hurting Dosh. She was so full of anger, that when
she heard a knock on the door, she threw a dagger at it. The throw went wide
and stuck harmlessly into the wall.

“Go away! Unless you’re Tenderfoot, come in so I can kick
your ass!”

The door opened and Hailey stepped in, grim-faced.

“It’s your fault he’s gone. You’re the team’s tank and yet
he fought two people alone because you couldn’t protect him. You couldn’t even
tell him that you’re in love with him. You’re a failure as a warrior
and
as a girl. You should go back to the gutter where he found you.”

“Don’t give me that! You’re just a tent! Your fancy
clothes cost more than my heavy armor and yet they do nothing but appease your
vanity. You know nothing about hard work, fighting, or love. I bet you string
along boys so they’ll pamper you. Go back to your ivory tower and wait for your
prince.”

Calmly, Hailey removed the top layer of her dress,
revealing a knee-length one underneath. She folded the skirt, placed it on a
table, and then her heels on top of it. Then she took a fighting stance and
gestured with her forward hand.

Tiza bumped her fists in front of her chest.

“If that’s what her ladyship wishes, then I am honored to
oblige.”

She lunged forward and feinted with a right punch, then
used the momentum to turn into a knee strike. Hailey nimbly dodged left,
grabbed her left arm, and pulled. Suddenly, Tiza was on the ground with Hailey's
heel against her throat. She fired dual mana beams at the other girl’s head,
but Hailey’s barrier negated them both; she responded by pressing down on
Tiza’s throat.

Struggling for breath, Tiza wrapped her legs around Hailey
and pulled her backwards. Hailey fell into a cartwheel, spun in place, and
jumped back, punching Tiza's stomach as she got up. Tiza gasped and stumbled,
then glared at Hailey. The noble girl was bouncing on her feet, hands at her
sides.

Tiza tried the same feint and, this time, Hailey moved to
grab her leg, which Tiza anticipated. She planted her foot on the ground
mid-kick and hammerfisted Hailey’s nose. It crunched and she stepped backward,
clutching it while Tiza struck her solar plexus with a roundhouse kick while
her guard was down. Hailey landed on her back and automatically rolled away
from Tiza’s heel stomp.

She tried a leg sweep, but Tiza back-stepped and mana-beamed
her. She flinched and bit her cheek to suppress a scream. Aching all over, she
rose to her feet, wiped blood from her nose away from her face, and aimed a
knife hand for Tiza’s neck. She grabbed it and Hailey clenched, digging her
fine nails into Tiza’s skin. The warrior yelped and punched with her other
hand. Hailey grabbed it and held it in place.

“There’s no way a tent’s gonna beat me in a shoving
match!”

She stepped forward onto Hailey’s bare foot, twisted her
body to give herself greater strength, and head-butted Hailey. Thus stunned,
Tiza punched her square in the eye. She grimaced and released a mana bolt from
her knife hand into Tiza’s head, stunning her in turn. Then she punched high
and low like a boxer. Tiza recovered her senses after the first five and they
slugged each other without concern for dodging, guarding, or any other tactics.
In the end, a simultaneous haymaker ended the brawl and both combatants went
down.

Then there was silence as each girl caught her breath.

“You’re a tent!”

“I’m a
noble
. We rule because we can kick ass while
looking fabulous.”

She pulled out a compact mirror and appraised the damage.
Her other hand glowed with the light of a healing spell and, wherever it passed,
her bruising disappeared and swelling faded. When she was done, her face was as
dainty and refined as if the fight had never taken place.

“It’s just like a tent to care more about her appearance
than anything else.”

“Really?” Hailey arched a perfect eyebrow. “You have
bruises from a fight and, given the scene we made, they will assume it was with
me. Since I am not injured, they will think I won.”

 “Why you!”

Tiza stood up, but Hailey put out a hand.

“I can scream until help comes. I remember you were once
treated for monsanity. What do you think will happen then?”

Tiza growled impotently.

“Exactly.” She snapped the mirror closed. “Winning the
aftermath of a fight is more important than winning the fight itself.”

“...That’s exactly what Spider Daylra tells me to do.”

“Spider Daylra?”

“Oh, I mean Sathel Aranid. ‘Spider Daylra’ is a mentor nickname
I use for her.”

“Sathel Aranid is your mentor!?”

“Technically, Basilard Bladi is my mentor. Sathel is my
mother—I mean, adoptive mother. Why do you ask?”

“Her company made a significant part of my wardrobe,
including my hunting outfit.”

 “
You
have a hunting outfit?”

“I can’t spear plague wolves in a frilly gown, now can I?”

“
You
hunt plague wolves?”

“They’re endemic in Eastern Ataidar and it’s the duty of
House Heleti to keep them under control. You didn’t know this?”

“No…”

“You know, something hasn’t seemed right since I met you;
all nobles are responsible for the monster population in their jurisdiction and
are forbidden from hiring mercenaries to do it for them. This has been the case
since the founding of Ataidar and part of the reason there are noble houses in
the first place. Yet you don’t know this?”

“Excuse me for not going to school. I had more important
things to do like cope with amnesia, find food, and avoid predators. You know; typical
‘gutter girl’ things.”

“I…I’m sorry I said that.” She downcast her eyes and
squeezed her shoulder. “I miss my brother and you were an easy target.”

Tiza sighed. “Tenderfoot’s a great guy and you know him
longer, so I guess you would.”

“That’s another thing: why do you call him ‘Tenderfoot’?”

“Because he was squeamish when collecting bird poop on our
first mission.”

Hailey giggled. “Yes, he was like that despite Mom and
Dad’s attempts to change it. Whenever they told him to do something ‘menial,’
he grumbled in protest.”

“Like this?” Tiza assumed a deeper voice and said, “‘Servants
are paid to do this stuff!’”

Hailey giggled again. “That’s it! That’s it exactly!” Her
hand glowed again. “Here, let me touch up those bruises.”

Tiza smirked. “I thought you wanted to claim a fake
victory?”

 Hailey smirked. “If anyone asks, we’ll say it was a
draw.”

They spent the next three days together, inseparable. They
talked and sparred and braided each other's hair. In the process of the last
one, Hailey told Tiza that she knew someone who developed a fighting style
based on hair and Tiza confided in Hailey that she grew hers out to impress
Nolien. When Kurami found out about their new friendship, she asked, in
exasperation, if all she had to do to avoid the drama of days past was let them
fight. They shrugged and chorused, “Yeah.”

For the duration of the three-day wait, Ponix arranged for
them to have free rein to wander as long as they stayed out of trouble. Meza
and his crowd didn’t like it, but Ponix told him it was an opportunity to prove
that elves were more civilized than humans were. After all, killing diplomats
and violating sacred hospitality was something that only the fragile and
short-lived
mongrels
did. This made them even more upset, and they
reluctantly agreed.

Annala showed them all around as their tour guide, talking
about places and their history. She also provided embarrassing-yet-harmless
tidbits for Isuna to put in his newspaper. He acted affronted at the assumption
that his newspaper was solely anti-elf propaganda, but wrote them down
nonetheless.

On the third day of Nolien’s mutation, Nunnal called his
friends and family to the lab. The unicorn that was his mutated form was still
in the gravity pit, and paced restlessly. Its horn sparked, its head shook, and
it snorted in frustration.

“Our final test is the path to Nolien’s cure,” she
explained. “In our experience, there is at least one person that the victim
relates to on a deep emotional level and it is this person who can pull them
back to sapience. Once we determine if that person is here, we will use this
device to connect to their mind.”

Nunnal held up a plaster white helmet that had a
microphone hanging out near the mouth and sea blue crystals affixed on its
surface.

“At that point, Nolien should respond. The process is
technical, but the short of it is that the voice will guide him through mist
and into the light. Who wants to go first?”

All present raised their hands.

“Don’t you want to know if there’s a safer method?”

“We assume that you would tell us the safest method first,”
Kurami said.

“Oh! Did you hear that, Meza?”

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, I did. I’m standing right next
to you.”

“There is, in fact, a method that doesn’t involve jumping
into a pit with a monster, but it is not any less dangerous.”

“What is it?” Mebalos asked.

“It’s a journey to the center of his mind where you will
piece together Nolien’s personality and memory. You will do this one piece at a
time, by hand, and without getting lost, eaten, or violated. Not even elves can
bounce back easily from something like that.”

They conversed with each other and Kurami announced their
decision.

“We will take the first one.”

“Okay, why don’t you go first? As his parents, your
emotional bond should be exceptional.”

Mebalos and Kurami readied their staves and dropped into
the pit. They called to their son and the unicorn regarded them curiously. They
talked of their past together; studying healing, games played, trips to other
countries, hugs after school, bedtime stories, and other things. They
approached cautiously but casually. The monster eyed them with suspicion but
didn’t attack. When they stepped into arm’s reach, it gored Mebalos.

The man grimaced and cast a field of force to push them
away from each other. Then Kurami tried a stern lecture approach, but it zapped
her before she finished. It slipped past her barrier and caused her momentary
paralysis. Her husband prevented the beast from pressing its advantage and held
it at bay with a paralysis spell of his own. By the time he healed himself and
his wife dispelled herself, the unicorn did likewise. The two adults flanked
the creature and leveled their staves.

“SLOTH!”

A transparent web of energy engulfed the Heleti Unicorn
and its movements dropped to a crawl. Kurami stepped in its path, grabbed its
face, and looked it straight in the eyes. Inside them, she found only savagery.

“Sweetie, it’s me, Mommy. Please say you recognize me!”

 
It tried to bite her head off.

The minutes passed and the only thing that changed was the
humans becoming increasingly frantic. No matter what they tried, their first-born
child did nothing but attack them.

“I’m taking you out,” Nunnal said.

“NO! WE’RE MAKING PROGRESS!” Mebalos shouted.

“If you die, elven technology cannot bring you back.
G-Guy, reverse the polarity of the graviton.”

“Yes, Director.”

A field of intense gravity forced the unicorn to its knees
while a field of light gravity levitated the humans above the pit.

“ABYSS TAKE YOU, DAGGER EARS! I ALMOST HAD HIM!” Mebalos
shouted. “DISENGAGE THIS RIGHT NOW!”

Kurami didn’t say a word in protest. Her face was a stoic
mask. It was marred only by a single tear.

They were levitated away from the pit and into the company
of elves, who gave them blankets and tended to their injuries. At the same
time, they administered something to help them relax. Mebalos laughed at their
attempts to sedate him. Without a word or gesture, he both cured his own
injuries and nullified their spells. Kurami did likewise but didn’t feel a need
to make a show of it. Instead, she quietly watched their daughter take her
turn.

 Hailey jumped into the pit with her hunting outfit and
staff. She dodged the unicorn’s attacks while reminiscing about their lives as
Heleti siblings. The chores at the family hospital, studying at the Holy Wiol
School for Healers, and pranking their baby brother Dosh were the subjects of
her appeals. By the end of it, her dress was ruined with pus, gunk, and her own
blood. When Nunnal ordered her removed for her own safety, all she could say
was, “I thought we had a better relationship than that.”

She hugged herself and then Tiza gave her one.

Eric jumped in and assumed his true form. This bout was
less an “I Know You’re In There Somewhere Fight” than it was a “Let’s You And
Him Fight,”
as there was more fighting than
talking. At the end of it, Eric was sitting on him and holding his head down in
a way that he couldn’t use his horn. Nunnal extracted him because he looked
like he was enjoying himself too much. He was then smacked by the entire Heleti
family and Tiza.

Tiza herself was last. She felt the stares of everyone as
she approached the gravity pit. She was their last chance. If she couldn’t connect
to him, then Nolien could be gone forever. Their only other option was
something still more dangerous. She jumped in.

As the unicorn turned to face her, she unstrapped the
gauntlet on her left arm
and tossed it aside. She dodged a spell and a
charge only to draw her dagger across her bare arm, along the lines of her old
scar. When she finally went on the attack, it was to shove this scar into its
face.

“You’ll remember
this
, Tenderfoot. The first battle
wound you ever cured on Team Four.”

The unicorn stopped and smelled.