Alix shifted in her sleep. The bed beneath her creaks as she slowly woke from her rest. With how exhausted she was yesterday her sleep was incredibly deep. So it was no surprise that she could hear the movement of the others outside.
"I need to get up." Alix grumbled. She pushed herself to sit up straight and moved to the edge of the bed. Her feet hit the floor which let her feel the cool stone through her cozy socks.
Wait, stone?
Alix quickly opened her eyes and saw that her feet had in fact rested on stone. She was also laying in a normal bed instead of the hammock that she'd grown accustomed to after a month at sea!
"Where in the world am I?" She analyzed her surroundings. The walls seemed to be made of a similar material as the floor except darker. There was a single window in the room that let the Blaze light trickle in and rest upon a bedside table. A table that Mo was happily asleep on.
Alix walked over and tapped on the glass. "Mo? Mo, get up!" Mo's face scrunched as he was forced awake. He looked up at Alix crankily. Alix could tell he was asking, "Why the hell did ya wake me up?"
"It's morning now, Mo. And we're not on the ship anymore!" Mo's eyes narrowed at Alix. He looked around the room. It did not take long for his narrowed eyes to burst wide! He looked back at Alix questioningly.
"I don't know how we got here!" Alix let out a frustrated groan and paced around the small room. "Maybe, Tyrant and the others woke up, saw that you and I were still asleep and carried us over to Amal? Then once they arrived in the town they set us down in one of the buildings and went to check things out without us. What do you think?" Alix asked for Mo's input.
"Blub. Blub." Bubbles floated out as Mo opened his mouth.
"Very funny, Mo." Alix rolled her eyes. "But now isn't the time to be joking around. I need you to be serious about this!" Mo nodded and went to speak again but the same thing happened.
Alix frowned. Mo joking was normal but he always had enough sense to stop should the situation get serious. Why was he being so stubborn about this one?
'Here, we'll just use telepathy. So will you stop blubbing and just talk to me?' Alix waited for a response but one never came. 'Mo? Can you hear me?' Alix made eye contact with Mo. She saw no sign that he'd received the message?
Her eyes slowly went round as a horrifying realization had dawned on her. "I can't hear you anymore." Mo cocked his head in confusion. "Something's happened to our bond! I can't speak to you anymore, not aloud nor telepathically! It's just like when I first met you!"
Mo waved his fin dismissively. He then stared intensely at Alix for a full minute before he came to the same realization that Alix had just come to. Mo frantically started pointing from himself to Alix!
"Yes, our bond has somehow been disrupted. I don't understand how this happened but it did." Mo shook his head. He pointed at his chest then back over at Alix. Alix quickly put the pieces together and tried to summon her heartstrings. She closed her eyes and focused on her heart and the bonds that she'd formed over the last few months but, nothing happened.
She couldn't find Mo's heartstring. Nor could she find Nuka's, Trouler's, or even Tyrant's heartstring! Alix opened her eyes. Panic started to flood her mind. She had never foreseen anything like this happening! Could she have lost her ability? But, all of her research and the work that she'd put into understanding it. It would all become useless if the ability itself was gone!
And worst of all the ability was directly connected to Omnia Nexus! What was she supposed to do now?! Alix's breathing became erratic! Her heartrate quickened and she felt her stomach turn! She fell down to her knees and tried to gain control of her systems but that only seemed to make things worse! She became hot. So hot!
She ripped her spellcaster's robe off and threw it to the side! It was too hot to keep on! Alix sat on her knees trying to think about what she could do to fix this situation. To get her ability back, so that her spell still worked and she still had everything in line to get back at Ponali Yenders!
As soon as the woman of many of Alix's nightmares came to mind the symptoms seemed to worsen! She clutched her chest tightly! She'd just been pushed so far behind in everything that it felt impossible to recover!
"I-I-I c-ca-can't...This can't happen to me! Not now! Please, anytime but now!" Alix tried to breathe but her chest only felt tighter. She tried to think but her thoughts were in disarray. She wanted to move but she was shaking far too much. Everything was falling apart!
*Splash*
Alix flinched as water was splashed onto her by Mo. She looked over to him and saw him staring back at her with kind eyes. She could tell that he was trying to say, "Chin up, Lexi! You don't know how bad things are yet!" Alix reached over to the bowl and snuggled up with it. Just as she had done for the several panic attacks that she had before this.
Mo reached out of the water and gently patted Alix on the face with his fin. A gentle reminder to the girl that he was still watching over her. Even without the heartstring, he'd always been there and would always be there. It took another few minutes for Alix to completely calm down.
When she finally did, she realized that she could still hear sounds outside. "Right, they might have left someone behind to tell me about the situation!" Alix picked herself up from the ground with Mo's bowl still tight in her arms. She put her spellcaster's robe back on and looked around the room for the rest of her things but couldn't find them.
"Where is my satchel? Did those idiots not bring it?" Alix's most important things were in the satchel. Including her prepared spells! Without it all she had to rely on was her fists and the techniques that she gained from her...
...Oh, yeah. She doesn't have those anymore. Alix lamented the loss of the most useful part of her Heartstring ability. Shw shook head to bring herself back to reality. "It's fine! I've been practicing with spell script for a few months now. I should be able to cast spells still it'll just be a bit more troublesome! Besides, I still have the martial arts that my mother drilled into me." Mo grinned in an attempt to comfort Alix.
It was clear that he was trying to say, "Don't worry, Lexi! You've beaten plenty of things up to this point with just those fists of yours! Besides, ya still got the gloves!" And he did have a point. Alix gave up on looking for her satchel. She'd wasted enough time in this room as is!
She swung the door open and was met with a dining room. There was a tall table made of wood with three chairs resting around it. Alix looked around the rest of the room but found it to be rather empty. There was a kitchen with a pantry, a cooking fire and a few chairs to sit around the fire to converse but that was all.
"And no one in here either? The sounds must be coming from outside then?" Alix quickly located the door and exited the building. A building that looked remarkably undamaged despite the many years its been since its possible construction!
'Must have something to do with the spell surrounding this place?' Alix reached forward and opened the door. Upon meeting the outside, a chorus of voices entered her ears. She could smell many different foods, perfumes, and smoke.
She looked around and saw plenty of people walking the streets! But none were people that she knew. In fact, several of these people were dressed as though they were living about five centuries in the past?
"Are we really in Amal?" Alix asked aloud out of utter surprise.
"That you are, traveler!" Alix jumped as a stranger answered her question. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" Alix turned to the stranger. It was an ebony skinned man that was quite a bit taller than her.
"This is Amal?" She asked again still a bit shocked
"You bet it is! The one and only home to our savior Amalgamate!" Alix regained her composure after the man once again confirmed that she was in Amal.
"Do you know how I got here?"
The man looked around as though he thought Alix was asking the question to someone else. "L-like do I know how you got to the town? Because, and I don't mean to be rude, how would I know something like that? I just met you!"
...
"That makes sense. You can go now! I don't need anything."
The man frowned. "Are you sure? In the time that I've known you, you asked me if you were in this town twice then if I knew how you got here? Now, I'm no doctor or anything, but that doesn't sound like someone that doesn't need anything?"
Alix grabbed her chin in thought for a moment. "If I need anything it is to find out where the Amalgamate Mystic would be." The helpful stranger's face eased up.
"Well, that is something that I can help with! All you have to do is-"
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!!" Alix and the stranger both flinch as a nearby girl shouts at the top of her lungs. They turned to see what could be going on. The girl had her fists clenched tightly, a vein looked like it is about to burst out of her head, and she was more red than a full jar of cherries!
The intensity of that rage was something that Alix didn't see often. What could have happened for her to have become so upset? On the other hand, the man next to Alix let out an amused chuckle.
"He's at it again, huh?"
"Who are you talking about?" The man answers Alix by pointed back over to the girl. Alix looks and finally takes notice of a boy that seemed around the same age as the girl. Though, he had a completely different energy about him.
For one, he wasn't even standing straight. He was leaning against a nearby shop stall! And he had this disinterested look on his face while this girl continued to lay into him! It looked like he didn't care that the girl was mad at him? He was just annoyed that she was keeping him hostage.
"Esmenda, please calm down!" The boy said while inspecting his nails. "What are you even upset about?"
"You don't know?!" Esmenda stumbled away from the boy with her mouth agape! "I can't believe that I ever went out with you?! You don't know why I'm upset? Are you serious right now, Vorza?" The boy simply shrugged nonchalantly which only served to further the rage of the girl.
At this point, other townsfolk had stopped to see the reason behind the disruption.
"Oh, it's Vorza!"
"Is that boy at it again? I keep on telling him that he needs to stop treating people like that!"
"That's just how he is! He'll never learn!"
"One of these days, he's gonna try this and it's gonna cost him something dastardly!"
Alix listened to how the townsfolk described this boy. She didn't usually care about things like this but, something about this scene was interesting to her. They seemed to think him some sort of troublemaker? A boy that was always up to something, always got caught but, never seemed to learn his lesson or try to change his ways?
'Similar to how people tend to respond to me?' Alix noted. She then noticed that Vorza looked past Esmenda and instead to the crowd that had formed during the argument. And that was when Alix saw it.
It was quick. Almost imperceptible! Vorza smirked. Not at anyone, just to himself. Alix squinted her eyes inquisitively as Vorza started to speak.
"Look, Esmenda..." He pushed himself away from the wall and locked eyes with the girl. "...I understand that you're upset. If I did anything to make you feel like this I deeply apologize! You gave me your heart and somehow I have tripped up and left it a broken mess! For that, I sincerely beg for your forgiveness!" Esmenda was shocked when the boy suddenly started to apologize.
She became even more shocked as he knelt before her and grasped her hand gently in his! "You are a blessing on this town and to hurt you is thus akin to committing blasphemy! I have done my master's name wrong in hurting you so! I implore you to leave me as I do not deserve the love and care of a woman like yourself!" The red on Esmenda's face became pink as she started blush from Vorza sudden change in attitude.
"O-oh! Well, I don't think I'm anything like that-"
"Of course you wouldn't think so!" Vorza shot up from the ground. He was just inches from Esmenda's face and squeezed her hand tighter than ever. "An angel in a world filled with darkness could never tell that they were the ones emitting the light! As no matter where they travel they always see the light! That is what makes them, and you, special!"
Esmenda stumbled a bit. "I-I don't know what to say?"
Vorza gently placed a finger on the girl's lip. "Then don't say anything. Just walk away, leave me! Don't let this devil of a man further attempt to ruin the light that you bare! I will do nothing but drain that light like an endless abyss while you..." Vorza waved his hand over the ground emitting some sort of gas.
From the areas that the strange gas touched yellow roses sprouted from the ground. "...you spread beauty wheresoever you traverse!" Esmenda stood staring in Vorza's eyes, unmoving. Her mouth was open ready speak but her breath seemed to have been stolen from her by Vorza's deep act of praise!
Vorza decided to give her a hand, slowly spinning her around and gently pushing her in a direction. Esmenda walked away completely lost in thought as yellow roses followed her as though she was truly spreading them by simply existing!
...
The crowd of bystanders all simultaneously let out an annoyed groan. "What the hell was that?!"
"You didn't even find out what you did to upset her?!"
"How do you always do that? What is the Mystic teaching you in the temple?!" Vorza looked at the crowd and bowed deeply like he just finished giving them the performance of a lifetime.
And he kind of did!
"Thank you all for coming to yet another one of my glorious showcases! I apologize if the story ended in a way that left you unsatisfied but it is difficult to control how the heart feels! The performance of our dear Esmenda should not be chastised but celebrated!"
The crowd started to laugh.
"We weren't talking about Esmenda!"
"Yeah, we were talking about you!"
"You're such a trashy guy, Vorza!" Vorza laughed alongside the crowd as they continued to insult his character but....kindly?
Alix and Mo watched the entire seen and had the same thought.
'This guy's jerk!' They didn't know much about Vorza but seeing the performance that he was able to put on all just to avoid being yelled at.
"He literally showed no sign of remorse only to suddenly be so apologetic like he had some sort of change of heart! That's the most jerk thing that any jerk could think of doing!" And yet...Alix felt something was even more strange about this situation. Why couldn't she dislike the boy?
This guy managed to trick several people in this town into supporting his twisted personality! That's some high grade manipulation! But, Alix still felt like he was someone...trustworthy? What the hell is going on?! Alix squinted at the boy when she finally noticed that gas from earlier was still there.
That 'gas' was just pollen now that she was really looking at it. Of course, seeing pollen during this time of year wasn't anything to be surprised by. Just like the constant sound of leaves rustling in the wind that she heard. Or the sweet smell of flowers that had been filling her nose since she'd-
Alix's eyes widened as she'd finally realized what was happening.
The man next to Alix chuckled. "Oh, that Vorza! Oh, right! I was about to tell you where to find Amalgamate!"
"No need." Alix raised her hand to stop the man. "I have something else to deal with first. Hold this please." Alix pushed Mo into the arms of the stranger then stomped away from the man without saying another word.
"Thank you! Thank you all! Hmm?" Vorza noticed Alix approaching him and smiled at the girl. "Ah, so one of my fans wishes for a personal meeting with me! I apologize but will a hand shake do for now? I don't have much time!" Vorza extended his hand to Alix.
Alix didn't hesitate to knock the boy's hand away and in the same motion go to punch him in the face with her other hand. "Keep your filthy hands away from me!" Alix swung her arm with all of her might. Her fist pushed into the boy as Alix felt she'd met her target. Until that feeling faded and she found her fist slamming into the stand behind the boy, breaking it apart.
Alix was disoriented! She could have sworn that she'd punch him right in his face so how did she end up hitting the stall behind him instead?
"That's not a greeting that I'm familiar with?" Vorza's voice sounded out from behind Alix. She quickly turned around to see the boy standing completely unperturbed and uninjured just a few steps behind her.
"Tell me. Where are you from?"