Cling! Clang! Shling!
My grey blade clangs and scrapes across Rider's large two-handed sword. I barely manage to deflect his surprisingly strong attacks
With each slash, he moves his whole body with it, pushing and twisting every part into one swift motion
His muscles tense as he braces for another strong swipe
The sword glints in the midday sunlight as it swings towards me at a blinding speed
Just as it is about to cut into my arm, I will my mana out, creating a thick sheet of ice. But it isn't enough. The edge shatters the ice and bounces the blade towards my face
Rider's eyes widen at this. He twists his body, driving the tip of the sword downwards at the last second
"Great Rider! Nice control. Now, again!" Ms. Rhea yells out
I rush towards him
"Chilled cut and smashing freeze; manifest a tool for my aid!"
A pair of small, icy stilettos manifest by my hand, spinning as I run
With a finger gun, I fire them towards him
He easily cuts them away with a tight, circular twirl, knocking them away
His blade brushes the ground, so I slam the pommel of my own into his, pushing it further down
Catching him off guard, Rider's weapon dips and catches the ground. I go to drive my sword into his side
But as I look triumphantly at him, I catch his eyes… and I hesitate
There's a slight glimmer of fear in them
Just what am I doing to my friend?
It has been…gods, has it already been a year? The years have passed at a snail's pace before, but I guess having a friend does make things easier. Maybe I have been having more fun than I realized
Our mothers must have been planning on this. A few months ago, we started training together, alternating between Mother and Ms. Rhea leading the training for that day. Today is Ms. Rhea's turn, she usually commands us to face each other in close combat until one of us falls to the ground from exhaustion first.
Rider takes my moment of empathy to deal a counter
The wind is knocked out of me as he punches me in the gut, sending me crumpling onto the ground
It may be a different opponent, but the results are the same
Just how many times am I going to get knocked on my butt in this dusty arena?
"And… That's game, good work you two." Ms. Rhea says, now marching towards me. "Jace, you still have some work to do, work on your close qu-"
But the rest of her speech just gets muddled in my mind, just tightening the noose hanging around my thoughts
"Alright! That was awesome! Did you see that? You made your ice thingy, I really thought I was gonna lose with that." He starts walking over to me
"But then it was like Kerrash!" Rider joyfully exclaims, making a hacking motion in the air as he does.
"And I shattered it, and those little knives? Whoa! Awesome! Magic is so cool! I Just see new and new things from you and your ice every day! Can you show me how you do that! C'mon Jace, please? Please?!"
His puppy dog eyes look at me pleadingly
"Oh right, here you go." Rider drops his sword, clattering to the ground. He reaches out his hand to help me up
"Another time, sorry." I say shakily
"Oi, you two should get some rest, tomorrow—" Ms. Rhea says with a, kind of scary grin "—You'll both be facing me, so go, go have fun"
That… is totally not scary… Not at all
"Hey." Rider says to me, putting one arm around my shoulder, stealing me out of earshot of his mother. "I was thinking of getting some more food for Ms. Eve and the others, I was thinking of some beef this time-"
I brush his hand off my shoulder
"Another time Rider. I uh… I'm gonna… go, sorry…"
"Oh, ok… I'll come with you!"
"No, not this time, sorry"
Rider begins to look a little down. "Ok then, see you tomorrow Jace." He starts to walk back to his mother
I want to call out, apologize. But some invisible hand grabs that thought and pulls it back
I walk through town, my mud caked shoes sloshing through the brown sludge
Though the sun is high in the sky, it is still a dark, grey day. From all the rain yesterday I guess. It was the first time it had rained all day here, it makes me think of a story I read about the gods of this land
Long ago, the god of the rain Garp was a merry sailor who fell in love with a mortal priestess, a worshipper of his mother Aqis "The Pure", god of the ocean. They fell into a deep love, and went on to sail the seas together
But Aqis became furious, furious to get a priestess stolen from her, and furious that her son dared to lovingly look at another. In her rage, the seas boiled and churned. She killed the priestess, drowning her with a massive whirlpool and "purified" her
Garp cried and cried, wailing into the night. His tears feeding weeks of a torrential downpour in the material plane, and became known as Garp "The Mourner"
But his father, the god of the wind, was sad to see his son's tears. He took pity on him. He plucked the lightning of his sky, and sparked life back into the priestess, resurrecting her as a demi-goddess, Jun "The Storm Bringer"
The two divine lovers reunite at last, Garp finally ending his torrential cries.
Since that day, whenever there is a significant loss in the world, Garp mourns for the world's loss, his tears feeding heavy rains
I have never been to a funeral before, not in this life or the last
But I get a sort of sense of Déjà vu, a sad little rock in my chest when I see it rain now
I just...
I don't know
Suddenly, a chill goes down my spine, a familiar sense of unease and nausea
"Oi! You little shite! C'mon here!"
I pass by an alley
This scene feels weirdly familiar
As I peer in, I can see a burly man struggling with a familiar looking kid, wrapped in tattered grey and black clothes in the middle of the alley
It looks like one of Ms. Eve's orphans, the kids Rider and I have been stealing the food for. It seems she got caught herself or something
I'm sure stuff like this happens often enough in this world
"Not my problem." I whisper to myself
What can I do? I can't even make a little mud to save my life
"Someone! Please! Help me!" I hear her scream out
"Shut up! No one's gonna help a hollow like you!"
Hollow?
She seems quite a few years younger than me
There has to be someone around here who hears this, right?
"Aw, fuck me"
I grab the piece of grey cloth from my belt, I have been using it as a mask for Rider and I's "Heroic escapades". I wrap it around my face, leaving a slit open for my eyes.
I grip the hilt of my short-sword tightly
"Hey!" I yell as I approach, "Let her go!"
"And the hell's do you think you are kid! Some little shite that fancies himself a hero?" The man says tauntingly
He grips the girl by the scruff of her smock, and throws her to one side, banging her against the wall of a building
I guess Rider is rubbing off on me a little
"I am the grand Boreas, Unhand her!" I say, unintentionally puffing out my chest a little
I drop to one knee
"Cool, slow and sliding: Tundra!"
My hand familiarly feels sucked to the ground. This time, the icy tendrils quickly shoot out of my hand, much faster than before. Each one with its own tendrils coiling out from them, their icy fingers multiplying exponentially across the muddy road. Maybe I put a little more in this one than I intended
They grip and grow onto the man's legs, holding him in place as he struggles against the ice
I rush over to the girl
"This damned hollow is not worth the sweat boy, I'll make sure you disappear with them skanks!"
I can see his nose flare out like a bull's
"Warmth in the icy blizzard, a flame to survive:Heat!" He snarls
His body begins to glow a faint orange. My lips begin to chap
My icy grip on the ground begins to melt
I freeze in my step, the girl is practically in arm's reach.
He stomps towards me and pins me, throwing me up against the nearest wall
I try to unsheathe my grey blade, but he grips and twists my wrist away. My hand instinctively drops the blade, sticking up hilt first in the mud next to us
I see the girl get up and slam her fist against the man's side, but he just kicks her in the gut, sending her flying towards the wall
"Now that I get a look at you," He forcefully grips my face, "you're the Bell brat, aren't ya?"
He turns his head and spits onto the ground
"Well no matter, the hunt is coming, we'll purge all you people. Especially-" he looked down at the girl. "-their filth from this town"
He releases my face
"Congratulations number two, you'll be the second person to die on our grand conquest. I'll get to number three-" he kicks the crumpled girl, who lets out a painful moan. "-In a minute"
He crouches down to pick up my short-sword, bringing it towards my throat
Fuck fuck fuck fuck!
What the hell?
Something, anything
I frantically look around
Um
Uh?
My mind is racing
Searching
I can feel my heart beating through my chest
I'm too close to cast anything
I'm still a fuckin child, can't over power this fat ass
And why the fuck do I still feel like I am gonna puke my guts out!?
Um
Uh
I manage to spurt out the first incantation that comes to mind
"The waters of purity, frozen in time. An aegis-"
He looks at me confused as I chant
"-against the coming storm. Sheets of ice to protect the bosom of strength. Douse those in the-"
A light of recognition appears in his eyes
"-howling syzygy of snow with spears of ice—Silt Cloak!"
I can feel my body go numb as my throat becomes dry
Spiderwebs of frost cross my body, each one of our heavy breaths forms sparkling strands of ice
My head becomes light from the strain, but I push through
I grip his arms, trying to keep my own blade as far away from me as I can. I can see the freezer burns start to form on his now reddened skin
The strands of frost spread onto his arms, slowly creeping up it
I try to kick him, each kick feeling more sluggish than the last
My mind feels like each thought is being drowned by a dense snow
I can hear the man begin to grunt in pain
I try to tighten my grip, to rip his arms off from my neck, to keep one of my only birthday presents from this world from skewering me
The tendrils grow faster and faster—maybe a bit too fast—coiling more and more around his thick arms
Horrifyingly, the arm holding my blade begins to crumble, the skin now a stark white
There are the sounds of ice shattering and snapping, as his wrist falls off from his arm
Where I had been holding him crumbles away in shards of pale and red
"whaahaaAA!" The man screams out in pain, gripping the stump of his arm.
Once he releases me, I fall hard to the ground
I can see rage burn in his eyes. "Damned brat! I will have your head on a pike! I will be back for you two!" He begins to back out of the alley on the opposite end. "I will hunt you and your family to the ends of the earth and shite on your corpses you damned Bells!"
He leaves the alley, trailing red as he does
I feel like I am going to pass out
I try to get up, but I just fall to my knees
My hand grasps around the ground until my fingers reach the familiar leather bound hilt of my grey blade. Horrifyingly, a few fingers of the hand still trying to grip it
My eyes seem locked on to it in horror
Gingerly I peel off the remains and return my blade safely to its sheathe
There is an impossibly long minute of silence
"Hey, are you okay?" I finally ask
I can see her heaving body as she cries
I get up with a groan, before squatting in front of her again
Silently, she crawls onto my back, locking her hands around my neck
She feels impossibly light, so unhealthily skinny
She continues to sob as I carry her out of the ally and into town
I could take her to the church, it is around the corner I think. They have skilled holy magic users and healers there. But that feels like it could have some problems or something
I think I heard about a clinic. It should be a fair distance away, I don't know how far away exactly, but I have to
I can barely think straight, every muscle in my body screaming at me.
I can see townspeople look on at us. Some look worried, with fear in their eyes. Others, very few, look on with disgust. Either way, no one comes to help us
Time feels like it is moving at a snail's pace, our town has never felt bigger.
After what feels like forever, I can finally see a small wooden building with a thatched roof, a hand painted-wooden red cross hanging above the doorway
I guess some symbols are universal in every world
My body begins to give out, one leg at a time as I fall to my knees
Just as my vision is about to go black, I can see the body of a woman, wearing a long white gown, walk towards us
————————————————————
"Ah, there you go. Morning! How are you feeling?"
As I awake, leaning over me is a contrastingly soft smile of a rough looking man.
He is a young man(?) with crimson, almost scaled skin. A singular goat-like horn, twisting out of the right side of his forehead and peeking through his thick black hair. His black nails contrasting with the sleeves of his long white coat as he twirls a pair of vials between his fingers
He pokes my arm
"Hey, you hear me?"
"Um, I'm…"
But as I look at the pale linen sheets of the cot I am in, I can only help but feel… Just tired
I would have imagined I would feel sore and beaten, feel some kind of pain that would have been masked by my adrenaline, though my body does feel heavy. But-
"I'm ok, tired. Still really nauseous, but ok"
My voice feels weak and groggy
"Where am I?"
"Oh, sorry." The devil stands up, his thin, pitch-fork tail peaking out from underneath his lab coat
"I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Fallen, Fallen Loyde, welcome to my cli-"
"Can't you tell what a healer's home looks like boy?" A woman's voice cuts in, firm and commanding. And out steps a woman to match
She is a thin, fairly tall woman wearing a long, hanging white gown. Her blonde hair hanging loose over the collar, hiding her impossibly pale skin of her neck
But what stands out the most is her eyes
Her blood red eyes seem to look at every inch of my body at once, like a soldier, waiting for their opponent to strike or an opening to kill
"And you, Lady Reinhart, should be in bed!" Fallen says, briskly walking over to her before stopping in front of her
"Also, don't go talking to him like that. You'll go scaring off my patients! Maybe you're the reason I don't get many." He says scoldingly, wagging his finger at her
My body tenses. It's as if I'm watching some pedestrian walk into the lion enclosure at a zoo, I'm waiting for her to bite his finger off
But surprisingly, her face softens a little
"You are right." She turns to face me, "I must apologize"
"I am sorry." She gives a slow bow as she says it
She walks over to sit by the bed
I can see Fallen fumble around with some vials and glasses in a cabinet in the far end of the room, looking for something
"You really got to work on that more, that whole stern thing. No wonder Akari doesn't visit as often anymore, though you did surprise me when you carried him and the girl in… Also, what were you doing outside? I thought I told you to stay here while I was out?" Fallen says absentmindedly, now making way to the door of the room
"It was just a sort of feeling. I thought it was sunny out, so I went out for a wal—"
Then I finally remember something, cutting her off
"Right! The girl! Where is she? Is she okay?"
I can hear Fallen yelling from another room. "Ya, I patched her up. She was pretty beaten up," He pokes his head back through the door frame," I had to practically peel her off of you"
Then he disappearing once more
Sort of frantically, I look around the room, until I spot some movement from under the sheets
I lift them up, revealing the small frame of the girl clinging onto me, now wearing a light yellow dress. Her long, dirty golden hair laying on her back, obscuring her face. She is calmly sleeping, using me as a pillow
A heavy sense of relief lifts from my shoulders as I let my head fall back limply onto the pillow
I look down at her, I can't help but find her adorable
I was an only child in my past life, I'm still one in this life too I guess. It is quite lonely at times
I was weirdly envious of my friends who had siblings, despite hearing their "horror" stories of them, I couldn't help but wish for one, though that never happened
I would have loved to have someone like her to spoil, there's a deep part of me that just wants to protect someone like her
I think all this while stroking her hair, the women eyeing me suspiciously
"Did you do this to her?" she asks
"No!" I say louder than I expected, catching myself by surprise
"Good." she says, crossing her legs. "You may call me Ms. Reinhart or Ms. Misha by the way, none of that lady business"
"Why would I do that?" I ask
I can see a quick glimmer of anger in her eyes, but it is quickly quenched
"Well, you were born a little before I took my leave, I will give you that. That doesn't matter"
She feels weirdly familiar, but I can not put my tongue on it
"So, who did this to you boy?"
"It was... It was nobody." I mutter
"Can nobody break three ribs in this poor girl? Can three ribs make you, a healthy young boy, nearly dead from mana exhaustion? Stop lying boy and tell the truth"
I hesitate to speak
"It was this fat man. He called her a 'hollow' or something, and said 'the hunt' was coming. He didn't escape unscathed"
She grabs my wrist firmly. I recoil a little
It had stopped stroking the girl's hair, shaking. It continues to shakily open and close in Ms. Misha's grip
She releases me, grabbing my hand instead, softer this time
"I am sure he did. I apologize for my rudeness, I'm sure your mother taught you well. I would be surprised if he still had a hand"
I wince as I hear that
"Oh," she says, "How interesting. I would have loved to see that"
"Hey! What did I say? No scaring my patients!" Fallen says, coming back in, holding something surprising
He is holding a catheter and IV bag, made out of what looks like animal parts
"Move." He says to Ms. Misha, using a shooing motion with his full hands
She begrudgingly does so
"Alright, this should help speed up your mana recovery. I can't really help with the nausea as long as this little one is clinging onto you. Alright, let's get this thing in ya"
Wait, what? What does he mean? I have so many questions
He flicks his hand. With a popping sound, he summons a small steel scalpel
"Okay, chew on this." He says rummaging around in a pocket, before producing a small circular leaf, and placing it in my open palm. He looks at me expectingly
"What is it?" I ask
"Has a bunch of names I think, the leaf of the Para root I think, I always call it numb-mint. What about you Lady Reinhart?"
Ms. Misha gives him a look before answering, "we used strength, not tricks"
"Ok then." Fallen mutters under his breath
I put the leaf in my mouth and chew it. Fallen's name for it is very literal, it tastes sort of like mint toothpaste, the heavy duty kind dentists use where the flavor is very over powering
But as I chew, it tastes like the mint keeps getting stronger and stronger, almost making me want to gag
"Is it strong yet?" he says beginning to tie a cord tightly on the upper part of my arm
"Uh, ya"
"Okay, now swallow it"
As I gulp down it, I can feel as it travels down my throat until landing heavily in my stomach
"Can you feel this?"
"Uh, no. What did you do- Ahhh!"
The fuck?!
Looking down at my arm, I can see the scalpel stabbed into my arm, standing straight up
"Uhaah! what the hell did you do to me?"
"You didn't feel it, right? See," He flicks it with a finger, causing it to sway back and forth
"Ghu! don't do that!"
"It's fine," he tries to reassure me. "The root is a powerful paralytic, do you know what that means? It can cause your body to go limp. Its leaves, luckily, are much weaker, only removing pain and making you bleed less, up to a certain depth in the body at least. letting me do my work"
As he says that, I do realize that I can't feel a thing, even the little girl sleeping on top of me is now gone. I can still move my arms, but I can no longer feel the sheets on my legs and feet
He begins to enlarge the cut made from the scalpel sticking out of my arm, sliding the open end of the tube of the catheter into my arm. Using a small clear thread, he ties up the incision and secures it to my arm.
"All done, see?" he says, placing the bag on a hook on the wall, above my head
"Wow"
"I know right? I would like you to stay for another day, let my 'magic' really settle in and work"
He stands up and begins to leave the room
"Wait! What do you mean?" I hastily ask, trying to stop him in his tracks
"What? Oh! You see, the root uses your circulatory system to get to the nervous system, which then num-"
"No," I interrupt him, "About the nausea thing"
"Oh, you hadn't noticed? She was born as an Anti-mag"
"What do you mean?" I ask, setting my hand back on the little girls head
"You really don't know boy?" Ms. Misha asks me. "I would have Imagined you'd have stumbled on this by now"
"Well, you see." Fallen sits on the edge of my bed. "Our mana originates from a man called Mithris 'The Mad', our lovely god of magic. He likes to experiment with things: Lycanthropy, Vampirism, the Eldritch parasites, hell, even the entire category of monsters known as aberrations. All were formed from his mind and power." Fallen says, tapping his forehead
"One of which was the Anti-Magic curse. You know how we all possess some amount of magic right, it's the basics of our biology?"
"Right"
"Everything has it, us, beasts, monsters, even rocks; all have some amount of mana. He was able to curse the birth of some people, turning them into unique creatures. One of his greatest experiments was this curse, creating things born with zero mana, unable to cast or be affected by magic, including healing magic. So, it was a good thing you brought her here instead of to the priests. That unease, well, nausea for you, is because of that. Luckily, it gets better the more you're around them, so I imagine you should be fine in few days as long as she keeps clinging onto you like that"
He gets up again
"It's strange, I thought the last anti-mags that lived here left a few years ago, though I don't know why. Many people hate them just because of that unease by being near them, so it's a little surprising to see her"
"Wait!" I call out again "why is it good I came to you? This wasn't magic?"
"Nope. I'm an apothecary, trained to study the body and take care of it without magic. Now shut up, and sleep. You don't want to wake her up do you?"
"Ok." I sheepishly say, bringing the blanket back up to cover us
"Get some sleep, Especially you" Fallen says, now pointing accursedly at Ms. Misha "How many times do I have to tell you, you shouldn't even be on your feet. Out!"
Ms. Misha lets out a "hmph" with a frown, before exiting the room, Fallen closing the door behind her
I lay in the creaky cot in silence, trying not to move, now hyper aware of my current status as "Pillow"
My mind is racing, there is so much I want to think about, so much I feel like I HAVE to think about, but my head still feels a little foggy
But along with my body, I feel like this is a strange opportunity to fully-for the lack of the ability to think about about another word in this scenario-go numb
With that final thought, I fall into a deep sleep