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Hey guys, lost track of the days, thought it was saturday for some reason.
Anyways, here's your update~
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Vera heard the chair beside her shift, Káel now held in his seat by the bulky man behind him. She felt a hand grip her arm, the ill manners of Earth pulling her final straw. The flimsy cuffs had finally broken, and this was the perfect time to catch them off guard.
She whipped the loose cuffs across the man's face, scowling as he didn't even flinch.
Oh well. Something else would have to do.
Feeling his grip still digging into her arm she twisted around, snatching a sheathed Cursimian off the table and clubbing the man in the side of the face. If the soft flesh over his temple wasn't there, she would have half expected a loud clang.
He was a rock.
A golem? Vera's heart quickened, losing a tug of war with the blade that the man slammed back on the table after an audible zap. Earth didn't have Lumience or magic. Golems were impossible.
She gritted her teeth, feeling her feet drag as the man tugged her towards the door. Lumience or not, anything was flammable with enough fire. "Cinder!" she felt the phoenix squirm in her jacket, a soft warmth tickling her neck as glowing red feathers swept by her corner vision to engulf the man dragging her in flames.
She felt the hands slip, safely escaping the wall of flames without even a smoldering lock of hair. Earth's hijinks were no match for her guardian, no match for raw fire magic that could shame even the thirteen guards of Shamassara.
There was nothing-
A white cloud consumed her back, biting with cold ice as the fog stabbed at her eyes and dried her nose. She turned to see the spell's source, squinting painfully at the blonde woman who was wielding a bright red capsule in both hands. It spat forth the white cloud with a loud hiss, drowning Cinder's flames in a matter of seconds to leave a choking smoke and foamy white floor.
Vera's heart stopped when she saw a small mound on the ground, red feathers poking through without their fiery glow. "Cinder?" she knelt, scooping her guardian out of the choking ice to cradle her in her palms. Cold to the touch. She wasn't moving. "Cinder!"
A click reached her ears, a shadow sweeping over her as she looked up at Káel's back.
"On your feet and hands up," the woman spoke, the red capsule was now on the table, and a new device in her hand. It was small and silver, not nearly as intimidating as the bright red weapon that breathed like an ice dragon.
"And what's that going to do?" Vera seethed, pressing Cinder closer to her chest.
"Kill us," Káel whispered. His voice was shaking.
Vera rose, the fear she should have felt flattened by disappointment. Frustration. If only she'd grabbed the branch quicker. If only she could do something for herself without having to be saved at the very last second.
Every plan she had always burned to ash. Lighting the guard on fire hadn't helped their escape. She'd nearly gotten everyone killed with the Valerans, and blamed Káel for running away and dragging them with him, when she knew the only person to truly be blamed was Ray.
Even a plan as simple as making friends to show her family she wasn't just the heartless and callous Latos Fireball ended with assaulting one in a hallway, and now stood beside another as a mysterious threat of death loomed over them.
She was just a fireball. Pretty to look at, and born to destroy anything that came close.
Hurting more people trying to help than doing nothing at all.
"Hands up!"
Vera stared wide eyed at the woman, focused on the contraption in her hand. It likely shot something small out, perhaps a poison dart.
The woman slowed her words down, as if they both were uncivilised enough not to have translators. "Drop the dead bird dear."
She stepped up so Káel was no longer in the way of the device, a sharp scowl greeting the woman's creeping smile.
The woman's lips curled, no longer caring to hide the sadistic smile. "I gave you your chance."
She felt a force rip her down, a thundering crack unlike anything her ears had witnessed filling the room, followed by a clang like a sword hitting armour. The air quickly filled with a buzzing tingle, Káel's chest warming as he stiffly hugged her to the ground. The energy swarming his necklace finally burst, washing out the room with a howling blast that destroyed the strange unenchanted lights and enveloped them in darkness.
They sat like that for a few painful seconds, Káel's breaths as quick with fear as her own.
As he lifted off of her, she could barely see the silent room. Every object was pushed back in a scorched circle, the fragments of the lumience crystal glowing in the wreckage like a sheet of stars. The woman looked to be at the far wall, dust and rubble settled around her as she lay motionless, the two guards that were near them more visible from the corridor's light that was still intact even after the door blew out. Like the woman, neither moved, a fizzing zap sparking light at one of the guard's necks where a chunk of stone had ripped the skin.
She felt a tug on her arm, lifting with Káel's support. More guards would be on the way, and they didn't have the branch.
Taking the lead, Vera laced her fingers through Káel's, pulling him out the door and leftwards, opposite of where they had walked up to the room and past a floorplan filled with lofting guards. She couldn't handle that many. A single door sat at the end, a light like stained glass spelling exit in red above it.
She pulled Cinder to her chest to protect the phoenix as a wall of icy droplets rained on them, tugging Káel closer to make sure his slowing steps didn't get them caught by another guard.
Without a visible way to open it, she threw herself against the heavy and handle-less door, feeling a slot in its middle press inwards with a click and shove open. As as she tumbled through, she stood upon solid rocky ground, looking up at the empty and darkening sky of Earth.
There was a smelly green container a few skips away, and she dragged Káel to it, her nose scrunching from the smell. When she turned to question his pace, a face contorted by pain met her's, Káel's steps slowed by the small trickle of red that had dribbled from his right shin down to the sole of his shoe, leaving half a scarlet footprint as he limped.
She helped him down, staring at the small hole that had torn into the fabric. "What happened?!"
Káel tried to twist the expression into a smile, but the pain still squished his face as he half laughed, and half growled through words. "I think I got shot."
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The most innocent face.
Truvius frowned. That piece alone hadn't decided the fate Sora chose for him, he was more than skeptical about her original plan with the tiny earth crossbow. She said if you raised it to the sky and fired once, people listened to you orders.
It was a ridiculous notion.
But now he was walking into the home of Iridis' guards, The Police Station they called it. With cutting a new branch not even being an option, he had five minutes to find the branch they had taken, any longer and it would turn to Sora's plan.
And that's where his innocent face came in.
He easily entered the Police Station, the small space laced with strange earthly decor that he couldn't pull his attention to. It was calmly coloured, the uniformed earthlings inside smiling as they passed him, and the one without matching dress ignoring his tossing gaze. It was weird.
As the narrow hall widened to a drab lobby, he saw familiarity. The cherry haired woman was sat upon a thin and dangerously brittle looking chair, a tiny cup in hand as the man simply stared at the floor.
Truvius would have done the same if he didn't have only five minutes. It was more of that course hair that matted the lower floor of Káel's house. But this one was coloured like rotting vegetables in a fluttering mess of shapes.
Truvius ripped his gaze away, walking towards the pair with a stiff smile. No distractions.
He closed the last few skips with a timid front, softening his smile for an even gentler appeal. Giving them the power was the key to conversation.
He stood in front of them without a word. The woman was staring inside a flimsy book covered in beautiful paintings and strange phrases, and didn't lift her gaze until the man nudged her.
Truvius gave a little wave as they both stared him down.
"Let's talk with this one, I don't detect any sort of hostility like that girl," the man said, smiling as the woman lowered her book with a sigh. "The conversation will be safe without any restraints."
"Conversation?" the cherry haired woman replied, her lips pricked with amusement. "I don't speak Elvish."
Truvius tried to chuckle, but it squeezed out a little too nervous for his liking. Káel could outrun unicorns, and this man shrugged off a full assault from a winter tree. Earth was just a terrifying place.
He smiled. Is that how Káel felt on Lumi?
"You know what I'm saying?" the woman said, snapping the book shut when Truvius nodded. "Then talk." she softened the stab of her voice as she nodded at the man. "We don't bite."
Truvius opened his mouth, wincing instead as he shook his head. She definitely wouldn't like it if he kept talking up a storm in Mizer tongue.
The man wasn't irritated like the woman, unable to rip his gaze off of Truvius as he thought. "Perhaps it's not the language, but he reads something else."
The man was clearly wrong. But there was a way to communicate with them, the same way he'd spoken to the Garaean Sailsmiths on the Mizer Islands before they gave him a translator. It was a language everyone knew.
Truvius quickly skimmed his surroundings, not a quill or brush in sight. A tiny spell would have to do.
He muttered a soft light enchantment, tracing his glowing fingertip through the air to make a curving line and two big dots above it. A smiley face was the friendliest gesture he could give them.
They gawked at the fading glow of his spell, the woman feeling the air long after the spell had dissipated. But she quickly stopped her childish wonderment, a part of her drawn to some mysterious duty that required professionalism. She cleared her throat, lifting from her chair with a pressed smile. "You shouldn't do anything else like that in the open. We'll talk somewhere private."
Truvius didn't budge, moving to cast another spell for a drawing when the man quickly pulled a pad of ghastly green paper from his pocket, and a see-through stick with a single black vein running down its center.
He stared in awe at it's intricate nub, blue ink marking the paper with a fine line when he pressed down, and never running dry no matter how long he made it. Satisfied by the strange drawing tools, he followed the two across the quiet overgrown rug, finishing his drawing as they welcomed him into an smaller room. A loud snap pulled his attention to a window, woven together strips of white cascading down to cover the view.
But the split second image was enough for him to see Sora entering the Police Station.
"So," the cherry haired woman started, oblivious to scene that was undoubtedly about to unfold beyond the closed door. She motioned to the wooden table, center to the dim storage room, and took a seat beside the man. "I would like to start that our intentions are peaceful. I have questions, but I'll let you start."
Truvius seated himself, the strange chair cushioning only half his back. He had tons of questions, starting with the various trinkets cluttering the desk. But there was only one goal he needed to keep in mind.
He flashed them his drawing, thankful the branch was a bunch of sticks to begin with.
"The branch," the man said, staring at the woman for some sort of permission. He was almost as disappointed as Truvius when the woman shook her head. "He still isn't displaying hostility, the only notable shift was a spike of anxiety when you closed the door."
"And if you're wrong, you'll be decommissioned," the woman retorted, her voice lowering to a hissing warning. "You'e on a field test."
The man smiled. "How about we compromise and he can look at it then? I have no problem with being decommissioned again."
"Well I have a problem with being attacked." The woman paid Truvius a glance, satisfied enough with his weak demeanor to let out a sigh. "Fine, he can look at it."
The man grew excited again, pulling some stretchy see-through gloves from his pocket to snap on like a second layer of skin. He moved to one of the shelves to Truvius' right, pulling out a long black box to unlock it with the mere brush of his hand. He popped the lid and Truvius had to suppress a grin.
The branch.
"It hasn't moved, but you can never be too cautious," the man said, gently lifting it from a bed of light to slowly approach the table.
And then, a sharp crack rang from a distance, all three of them tensing with surprise to stare at the bare wall to their left. Before any of them could question the noise, a roar rumbled the air, the ground trembling as a mysterious force sang destruction through the building.
The woman shot from her seat, shooting the man a worried glance as she beelined for the door. "Stay with him Simon."
Truvius feigned ignorance as he exchanged confusion with the man.
But he definitely knew one thing.
Where there was an explosion, there was a Unicorn Boy.
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Káel sucked in a sharp breath as Vera tightened the arms of her jacket around his leg.
He'd only felt a fiery nip at first, the muscle in his leg pinching while he followed Vera from the building. But now that they had rested beside a dumpster, he could feel the bite starting to swarm.
He needed a distraction from the pain while they decided their next move.
His eyes fell on Cinder, the small bird limp in Vera's lap. "Is Cinder..."
"She's alive," Vera muttered, caressing her damp feathers with her thumb. She was trying to keep her head turned, most of her quivering lip kept to the shadows. "I'm sorry."
For what?
Káel didn't pry to see her face, knowing what he'd find but confused all the same. There wasn't a thing he could think of for her to apologise for, meanwhile his list could run a round trip back to Cobalt. "I should apologise."
Vera lifted her gaze, riddled with the same confusion Káel probably had for her. "For what?"
Before Káel's face could drop, it stiffened and twisted with the surge of fiery pain that ripped through his leg, a growling grunt drawing for a few seconds while he waited for the wave to subside. He squeezed his voice through the wall of stiff muscles, a soft scoff the closest thing to a laugh he could manage. "For one, I almost got you shot."
Vera sighed, head resting back on the brick lining for her wet hair to paint it. "If I had held onto the branch for a few more seconds no one would have been shot."
"If you hadn't chased after me with Truvius and Talli, I never would have even made it to Fairez Stella." Káel smiled, wincing as another surge of pain threatened to wash over him. "There's no point in arguing, I'm the king of screwing up."
"Yeah?" Vera replied, the challenge lifting her lips into a smirk. "You saved a baby dragon from a rampaging queen, is that screwing up?"
"What can I say? Sometimes I even screw up screwing up. I'm that good," Káel replied, the dip in Vera's smile whittling away at his joking cover. He pretended to wince, taking a chance to rest his head against the wall and stare at the evening clouds peeking over the flat brown backside of a shop.
Vera was right, the sky was empty.
Spare the strange guests, Iridis was just like he'd left it. A place where he mistook predictability for the comfort of a home.
"There's always someone there at the last minute." Káel focused on the chill of his wet clothes, discomfort a distraction from the pain of his trophy of failure clawing at his leg. He could feel Vera's gaze on him again, but couldn't bring himself to meet it. "I wish I could do just one thing by myself. Prove my head wrong."
"You are the voice in your head. Or voices in your case," Vera replied, her smile returning at the jab as she grabbed a rock and rubbed at its grainy surface. "My mother always said It's everyone's dream to stand on their own and fix every problem. But maybe you don't have to do everything to do something right." She flicked the rock at the bricks in front of them. It bounced off the thick obstacle, tumbling back to Vera's feet as she shifted her emerald eyes to Káel. "You can't expect a pebble to bring down a wall without help, but it tried, and that's got to count for something."
Káel winced as he moved to snatch the rock. He couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it all, landing Vera's attention with a grin. "Don't underestimate rocks."
"I won't, so long as it doesn't underestimate itself." She pulled her gaze away, now smiling to herself as she massaged Cinder's belly, the phoenix stirring, weak with exhaustion. "Those guards are taking a while to come and finish us off."
Káel looked left to the large green bin blocking his view, knowing full well he shouldn't laugh, but doing it all the same. "Don't jinx it."
A door crunched open, footsteps clapping against the road. Their pace giving away a multitude of people moving too quick for Káel to even bend his leg, let alone getting to his feet to hide. Vera knew this, body tensed as she pulled Cinder closer and prepared herself to let out a rastastrill big enough to blow the building across from them and cut the ritual.
But what came around the trash bin wasn't a police officer, nor a strange man in black. It wasn't Truvius or Talli. It was wide stormy blue eyes, ponytail whipping over her cheek as she skidded to a stop and gawked at him and Vera.
Sora.
She seemed to take a moment to process the sight of Káel. Relief, exhaustion, and confusion all mixing together as she shoved a handgun into the rim of her shorts and dropped to her knees in front of him. But before she reached out for a hug her gaze flipped to Vera, taking a second go at the sight as her jaw dropped.
"Vera freaking Strylaz?" Her voice rang down the alley, Talli and Brick coming into view and assessing their role in the situation as Sora's voice rose. "In the flesh?! You couldn't score a single friend here, but you go to Lumi for a few months and come back with a living goddess!?"
Sora's entire sentence derailed in Káel's head, the flaming wreckage blocking any words as he hung his mouth and stared at her.
Vera's lips curled in distaste at the sight of Sora, uncaring for the accusation in her voice. "What are you doing here?"
"Saving you guys I guess," Sora replied, smacking Káel's knee and jumping at the yelp that came out of her friend. She stared him down again, finally noticing the tie of cloth around his leg. "They shot you? Oh my god!" She poked the fabric, shock melting to sorrow as she stared at the red stain like the cloth had been attacked instead. "Was this her jacket?"
Káel bit past the new pain surging in his body, thankful for the distraction it gave away from thinking about Sora. A girl from Earth wouldn't know Vera. He sucked in a sharp breath as Sora gripped his leg to squeeze at the wound, his voice starting with a growl and ending pitched. "Stop. Touching it."
"This won't do," Sora muttered, ignoring the second yelp that came out of Káel as she released his leg and rose to her feet. "We're going back to Fairez Stella."
Káel looked at Talli and Brick, the third space he expected empty. "Wait... where's Truvius?"
"Holding whatever branch you guys are obsessing over, hopefully," Sora replied, muttering something under her breath as she closed her eyes to focus.
Káel's heart sunk lower. She was casting a spell.
A girl from Earth didn't know Lumience either.
Her palms lit with a sharp white glow, the light rising like specks of dust that swarmed and wove into delicate strings. Through the web of lumience she cracked a huge grin, the strands weaving into scales, lining a glowing illusion of a dragon rising to the skies. "Let's screw with the earthlings a little bit." She gave Káel a wink. "For screwing with us."
As the dragon completely broke from her palms, Káel felt a buzz surround him, pressing into every inch of his skin as a white light ripped through the colours around him and forced his eyes shut. The sensation was merciless on his leg, the light burning with the skin around his wound as he let out a cry of pain. The spell almost felt like fingers worming their way into the hole, trying to tear it wider as the lights climax matched the final stroke of pain. White, suffocating, and unrelenting, until the black pulled him into peace.
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COMMENT/CRITIQUE/(VOTE IF YOU WANT)
Quality Quip #54:
'Confidence is that quiet, assured feeling you get just before you fall flat on your face.'
~ Anon