NOVEL WEB 19
‘I’m disappointed in you, Magus. I put you in charge and you let your entire squad get wiped out?’
‘Ya, well how many of the other teams made it back at all?’
‘That’s not the point. You disobeyed a direct order and it cost us the mission.’
‘Are you kidding me? That order was suicide! All for the one-off chance that that pig’s kid was still alive. The tower was the best chance to stop the waves.’
‘You’re a soldier. You follow orders. That’s it. Anything else is insubordination. On top of that, you destroyed a major Mana generator! Half of the quadrant is out of power now. How many lives is that going to affect?’
‘And how is the situation in Geltown now?’
‘It’s stabilized.’
‘And what about the wave?’
‘…’
‘It stopped, didn’t it?’
‘That doesn’t matter. Orders from above say you are off the team and inactive until further notice.’
‘Pink was right. We’re all screwed if we let the bureaucrats run this war. I’m out.’
‘Where do you think you are going? You are a servant of the Order. You made an oath to protect this country until your dying breath. If you walk out that door then I'll report you as AWOL.’
‘Go ahead. They don’t have the resources to track me down anyway. So stay there sitting behind your desk wiping the brown off your nose and watch as the world gets overrun. But hey, you followed procedure. I'll take the people who actually care that this world is getting overrun and do something about it.’
‘…’
‘Oh, and one more thing. I use to look up to you. You were everything I aspired to be. But somewhere along the way, you lost your soul for another star on your shoulder. So you know what Dad, I’m disappointed in you!’
‘Magus! Don't you walk away! I'm not done yet! Magus!...῏̶̡̥͚̭̎͗͜Ί̴̡͇̞̺̘͋̾́ᵳ̷̜͕̉̕ᵩ̶̯̜̈̇̏ᵫ̴͇̭̪̓̓̍̈́͝͝ԅ̷͍̑́̈͗͝Ԓ̸̰̙͉̠̜̓̀̒̉̕̚Ӂ̴̧̦̬̩̠̃̑͌̏͊ҵ̷̧̖͇̲̙̾͒Ѻ̸͇̱͔̉Ѧ̷̧̢̡̠̏̏̽̽̐љ̷̼̤͔͊̽̅͝ , wait!’
-
‘Samantha!’
I shook my head as I recovered my senses from the flashback. My body still tingled like the last time but it hadn’t knocked me off my feet. The sour mood of the memory still lingered. I rolled my shoulder to get the incessant shaking hand off of it.
‘Lay off me, Pink! I’m trying to recalibrate.’
‘What?! What did you call me?"
I gained a little focus back and realized I had just snapped at the princess of possibly the last human population left on the planet. She was staring at me wide-eyed like I'd just grown a third eye. I closed my eyes to lessen the input overload so I can focus a little more.
‘Ah, sorry Princess. I guess I have a bit of explaining to do. Absorbing Aura throws my mind for a loop. I didn’t mean to be rude.’
The blond knight walked over and handed me a towel and a flask of water. I took a deep swig and realized that I was sweating profusely.
‘That Aura should have torn you apart. How are you not dead? And how did you kill that Quicksilverback so fast?’
‘It’s a bit of a story. I’ll explain some on the way back. Let me get cleaned up and we can talk in the carriage. No use staying out in the open and risking another attack.’
I cleaned up and we returned to the carriage. When we were settled, the princess called for the driver to continue. I sat in my seat and looked out the window as the trees rushed by. I used a second dampened towel to clean out the rest of my hair and then threw it out into the wind. No one protested me not keeping the blackened cloth around. We sat in silence for a while as I let myself process the emotions and information I had gained in the memory. The princess was the first to talk.
‘So who are you? Are you actually a Fairybond?’
‘No. I have no fairy. Let me ask you this first. What did you see when I killed the Revenant?’
‘Nothing. You jumped out the window and by the time the driver stopped and we got out, it was dead! You expect me to believe a Bondless can do that?’
‘Why not? You even told me the way to do it.’
‘Me?’
I materialized an apple from my locket and tossed it to her. She caught it and stared at it like it was some sort of puzzle box she had no idea how to tackle.
‘An apple?’
‘Hunger, you said. It leaves itself open if it is eating something. I fed it and then cut its legs off. Mobility is its strength, so without its hind legs it was just a squishy mess of a bean.’
The black-haired knight had a huge grin on his face when he realized what I had done.
‘You cheeky little minx! You outwitted the beastie.’
The blond-haired knight still wasn’t convinced. He grabbed the apple and looked at it intently.
‘There is no way that thing would give up going after you for a single apple.’
‘Your half right. If it was a normal apple.’
I took the apple from him and pushed a little Mana into it. They all stared as it glowed a faint shine of blue.
‘Which brings me to Aura. I pushed a bit of Aura into the apple before throwing it. It worked as a perfect lure. He jumped in the air for the apple and I cut him down.’
The princess grabbed the apple and examined it closely. She attempted to take a bite but was reflected by the Mana surrounding it.
‘Ouch! Ah, so you can manipulate Aura? How? Isn't Aura green? I remember you saying that you wanted to go to the Wilds to gather a bunch of it to get home. What can you do with it?’
‘Well, Aura seems to be a force on par with fairy magic. How I can do these things, you will have to ask Victoria. She sealed all of my memories except for my sword-fighting skills. The Aura, however, seems to counteract the mental binding she put on me. That major disorientation was me having a flashback from my previous life. If I gather enough then hopefully I can remember my name, which is apparently the key to returning back to my world.’
‘So who were you before you came here?’
‘No clue. At first, it came in waves and flashbacks. Since I got my hands on my first bit of Aura it has been slowly coming back to me day by day. The more I get, the faster it comes back. I gather that I was some kind of soldier in a war against the Revenant on my world. Things didn’t look so good for us over there either.’
‘By the Twelve! So the beasties aren’t just attackin’ on our world, but all over?’
Everyone slumped back into their seats to take in everything that they had learned. After a long pause, the princess spoke one more time.
‘Hey S…Miss Rye, um…dear?’
‘Sam.’
‘Pardon?’
‘Just call me Sam.’
‘Oh. Um…Sam?’
‘Yes?’
‘Who is Pink?’
‘Huh? Oh. Sorry, I can’t remember. I have bits and pieces of memories and emotions. I get the feeling she was…is someone close to me. I can’t remember her face though. Why?’
‘When you were zoning out, you called me her. I can’t imagine what it’s like to not even remember the people you love. That must be hard.’
‘Mm, it’s a bit emotionally draining. But it keeps me focused. Life is a bit easier if you have a goal.’
We both turned to look at the black-haired knight. He was watching intently and a single tear fell from his eye. His facial expression remained stoic. The princess gave him an annoyed glance and then settled in to get some rest. I did the same. After a long pause, she broke the silence again.
‘Hey, Sam.’
‘Yes, princess?’
‘It’s Clementine.’
‘Hm?’
‘You don’t have to call me princess or Highness. Just call me Clementine.’
‘Sure thing, Clem. I’m going to get some rest now.’
‘Ok, have a good…wait. Clem? Isn’t shortening it a bit too soon?’
‘Goodnight Clem.’
‘Oh, hmm…goodnight, Sam.’
I peeked through the slits of my eyes to see the princess looking at me with a giant smile on her face. I pretended to sleep as I meditated on my mental palace. I had a date with a giant stone slab to allocate some Mana.
-
‘And then your sisters did what?! I’ll never understand those two. They are all so hell-bent on their opinions being the absolute law. Life is too chaotic to hold those kinds of standards. Just live and enjoy it! I always say.’
‘Mm.’
‘Oh look we have a visitor! Magus, come and join us!’
I had appeared in my temple facing the Magus Stone. I was surprised to hear the voices of two people behind me. One was clearly Iggy. I turned around and saw her sitting at a table just outside of the temple doorway with…a small child?
I walked over to see who the guest on my personal leaf could be. The table looked like it had grown directly out of the ground and a large leaf acted as an umbrella to block any of the Sun’s rays that somehow made it through the myriad of other leaves. On the table was a large selection of cookies and cakes. A very floral teapot was in the center.
Iggy’s robe had been replaced with a vegetative form of a Victorian-era dress. She even had a small hat pinned sideways on her hair. The child that sat in front of her looked to only be three feet high and five or six years old.
Her feet dangled in the air as her tiny grey boots sat together in a proper position. She had a frilly grey dress that stopped at her knees and made her upper half look like some kind of topping on a cupcake. There was a good six inches between the back of the chair and her long wavy black hair that stretched down past the seat. Breaking through the hair were two cute little metal wings that were barely six inches long. On her cute little child’s face was a blindfold with the crude painting of an eye.
‘Apocolyptia? Is that you?!’
‘Mm.’
