Linus Toria

Chapter 26

Gaspard was conflicted. On one side he was happy that Lina was back. On the other side he wanted to wring Manon's neck for attacking her. Now things had turned akward between their two groups. And who was her companion anyway?

Was that really a manticore? Those chimeras usually weren't capable of making sound decisions. Yet it looked well behaved for the moment. Why was it accompanying his saviour in the first place? Then the beast blew his mind further by speaking up.

„Look, I think you've misunderstood something", it rasped with a heavy accent that Gaspard couldn't place, „Viki isn't-"

„Shut up", the manticore was once again kicked.

„But-"

„No buts, I'm doing the talking"

This Lina gave off a complete different aura and Gaspard wondered what had happened to her in such a short time since they parted ways. She now seemed to welcome violence and he was taken aback by her blood thirst.

„As I was saying, I came here to retrieve something but it's already gone. So I won't bother you anymore and just go", strange Lina declared.

„Maybe we saw something that would help your search. Don't you want to ask any questions?", Mathieu tried to stall for time.

„As if you could provide any assistance to me", she snorted, „Come on, Kor. We're leaving. Mayhaps we can still catch up with her"

„Wait", Gaspard didn't want her to desert them again, „My earlier proposal still stands"

That got her attention real fast. Maybe his wording was at fault. In the blink of an eye she appeared in front of him and pressed a knife against his throat. „What proposal?", she asked with slinted eyes.

„Great, here we go again", the manticore muttered.

Gaspard didn't understand what had warranted this reaction. „What did you propose? Speak, homunculus!", she ordered and pressed the knife harder against his skin so that blood started flowing.

„I told you to join our team. We would welcome you with open arms", he promised empitily. While Gaspard knew that these words would always be true for him he could no longer say the same about the rest of his team. After all Manon just attacked her.

Strange Lina seemed to share his thoughts and snorted: „Yeah, sure. I think you meant 'welcome Lina with arms with released safety catches'. But that's okay as long as that was all your proposal entailed"

„What else could it entail?", Gaspard asked puzzeled. This placated strange Lina and she stepped away from him and stalked back to the manticore's side. „Nothing. Just stay away from Lina in the future and no harm shall befall you"

Watching strange Lina mount the chimera and flying off Gaspard had no idea what just happened. And when did Lina pick up the strange habit of speaking in third person?

„What was that?", he asked his leader who was supporting Manon.

„Don't ask me. You were our 'Lina' expert. Let's just avoid any further interactions. That just now was too strange for my taste", Mathieu declared.

Gaspard slumped down but could see where his leader was coming from. To distract himself he asked: „How's Manon?"

„Her body is fine. But I'm not sure if there is still help for her mind", Etienne quipped after she had taken over her friend, „What were you thinking, Manon? Have you lost your mind now?"

„We'll talk about this later. Tend to her injuries first", Mathieu decided.

Gaspard saw that Elodie was handling Manon just fine and sat down next to Etienne. „Do you still bring your 'Atlas of magical Creatures' everywhere you go?"

„Of course I do. Do you want to look something up?", Etienne replied.

„I wanted to freshen up my knowledge on manticores", he explained.

Etienne looked troubled by his request. „I'm afraid my book doesn't include any articles on maticores mainly because they are man-made and not natural. Also this atlas focuses on the old knowledge and they were only created during the Great War. Therefore there isn't much information about them. But I've done some research on my own. Just ask me what you want to know"

„How are they made?", Gaspard questioned.

„That's still unclear and one of the reasons why they are so rare. It is only known that they consist of a lion's body, a scorpion's tail, wings and the face of a human with a large mouth and three lines of teeth. It is assumed that they were created by alchemists but the details are not clear. There are also some conspiracy theories that the two appearances of them during the war are connected but nothing was proven"

„What about their abilities?"

„That's a difficult question. Until now the only thing I thought to know about them were their abilities. But that manticore here was more skilled than it should have been possible so I am most likely misinformed", Etienne admitted.

Gaspard had hoped for his friend to tell him that what they saw just now was completely normal but he was disappointed. Etienne's level of information on manticores was coherent to his own and the beast just now had acted out of character. At least according to their information.

„I've never heard that manticores could fly", mused Gaspard unhappily.

„Me neither", Etienne shrugged, „Perhaps somebody enhanced their abilities further?"

„And gave them a bigger brain while they are at it?", Gaspard finished Etienne's thought, „I hope not. Manticores are too unstable for my liking. If somebody made them smarter that would be the same as letting psychopathic killers roam free"

„Speaking of psychopathic", Etienne changed the topic, „Did you see Manon's reaction? She had that mad glint in her eyes and gave me a good scare. Luckily, the other party didn't insist on finishing what she started. Otherwise our team would have one head less to feed now"

„Yeah, that fight was crazy. But I told you before that there was something off about Manon", Gaspard reminded him, „And Lina was acting strange as well"

„Lina?", Etienne asked incredulously, „That wasn't Lina, you idiot! That was a different person!"

„Stop kidding me", Gaspard waved him off, „If that wasn't Lina, who else could it be?"

„I don't know", Etienne conceded, „Yet I do know that her aura had completely changed"

„You inspected her with your magic sight?"

„Originally, I wanted to study the manticore's composition and noticed that hers was different from when we were underground. So she was either posessed or we just met the sister she is searching for"