“It took me years to learn how to do that in such an oppressive atmosphere.” He took her hand in his. “I’ve got some friends outside waiting for us. Come on.”
For the first time in countless moments, she felt the sun on her skin and the wind in her hair. She also smelled blood. The town was now a tomb.
Human corpses were everywhere and always in many jagged pieces. Buildings were razed or obliterated. The obelisk, the symbol of Order’s dominance, was rubble on the ground. Directing this destruction was another elf.
Although he looked scarcely older than her rescuer, she knew he belonged to a previous generation. This was the Ordercrafter Killer, the Elf Rescuer, the Scourge of Chaos, and legendary warrior Meza Filef. It was his leadership that led elves to victory during the Conversion War, and his charisma that rallied them to the cause. Under his protection and guidance, she left the ruin of a town formerly ruled by Order.
Once they were far enough away, she broke down completely. Her tears were both a validation of Meza's efforts and encouragement to continue his struggle. However, it was Quando who comforted her. His arms were a shelter and his words a soothing presence, but she didn’t relax until she caught sight of the forest’s boundaries.
Annala watched her long lost daughter return from a crystal ball inside the forest. She ached to greet her child in the field, but an elf leaving the forest might give away their location. The moment she crossed the boundary, she was there, holding her child in her arms.
“I’m so sorry, Mom!” she said while sobbing into her chest. “You were right. Ordercrafters are evil! All the scripture and caution didn’t help me when I was trapped under that obelisk. I’m never leaving our village again!”
“It’s alright, dear, it’s okay. The important thing is that you’re safe now. The festival is coming up and we have much to celebrate: your homecoming, Quando’s promotion, and your sister’s pregnancy.”
She looked up from her mother’s bosom. “Nunnal’s pregnant?”
“Yes, with fraternal twins. She’s considering the names ‘Annala’ and 'Forge.' ”
There!
Eric, from his place on high, pointed to the village of Dnnac Ledo five months into the future. There the extended Enaz family gathered around their newest members.
A gust of wind blew out of a mound of dirt. It smelled of volcanic ash mixed with nasty coffee. Two people squeezed through a rough opening and dropped into soft snow. They melted it with their compound heat.
"Phfeww, Sis! What've you been eating?! Ga ha ha ha ha ha!"
Eric opened his eyes but felt too funky to move. He saw the sun low on the horizon. He saw houses made of trees with holly leaves and laurels hanging from their porches. He saw elves running and flying about with emblems and crates of vegetables. Annala lay beside him.
"What you just experienced was a divine magical illusion. You’ll feel strange for a few minutes, maybe an hour, but it will go away. What you experienced inside the illusion will not.”
He stomped the ground to prop up Eric’s staff and then touched its soiléir. An earth brown light the size of a marble left his fingertips and entered the crystal, joining the fire red and sea blue in orbit around the spirit black/grey. After a couple minutes, Eric sat up and babbled nonsense about lumber exports in Mahican. He shifted back and forth between human and grendel before settling halfway. He shook his head and fully came to. Annala did not.
Then, all of a sudden, she screamed. Eric moved to comfort her and she kicked him, shouting about enemies and a need to escape before screaming again. Just as suddenly, she curled up and hyperventilated. Several more minutes passed before she recognized her location and remembered her identity.
“I warned you,” Eaol said. “I warned you. You wished to experience the Conversion War from the elven perspective and to understand your aunt’s resistance. I have fulfilled your wish.”
“I was stupid...So stupid.”
Then she cried bitterly.
Chapter 12 Beyond the Pale and Back Again
Lying in her bed, Annala was unresponsive. She would not move, talk, or eat. No matter what anyone did, they couldn’t provoke any reaction at all. It was enough to drive Eric into a rage. Something was hurting his lady and yet he couldn’t kill it!
The human part of him, the memories he held as Eric Watley, recognized that the problem was time. Victims of trauma need time to come to terms with it, but the grendel part of him was still coming to terms with the idea of such abstract concepts and wanted something that it could rip apart. He settled for sparring in the Guardian’s Lodge.
Elven warriors were fantastic sparring partners. Because of their immortality, there was no need to hold back. Simulated battles could function as real battles. He could let loose in his true form without fear of killing anyone. By the dawn on his second day in Dnnac Ledo, he was about to clinch his fifth victory out of ten fights.
“RAAAA!”
Claws impaled his latest opponent on a wall, following his left claw grabbing his head.
“Yield.”
The elf nodded and Eric released him. He fell a foot, stumbled on shaky legs, and grabbed a railing to steady himself while his Seed of Chaos mended his injuries. Eric returned to full human form while his own seed did likewise. He had fewer injuries to mend than his opponent did, but that was mainly due to his grendel hide.
“You’re skilled,” he said to his opponent.
“You’re brutal.”
Eric shrugged. “I’m a mercenary who also happens to be a monster.”
“Demon.”
Eric shrugged again. “Anyone else want to take a shot?”
One elf stepped forward. He looked Annala’s age, so Eric assumed the boy to be a teenager like her. He had an athletic build and tanned skin. His golden-brown hair was cut short, putting his pointed ears on display. To Eric’s astonishment, there was a small tear in each.
“I will.”
“Alright. I’m Eric Watley.”
“Yes, I know who you are.”
“I know you know, but I remember that it’s considered impolite to ask for someone’s name before giving your own.”
The elf boy smirked. “Interesting. The demons at the lab never displayed this sort of behavior; they regressed to children. In any case, I am Ralm Pukang.”
Eric’s eyes slitted. “You’re Annala’s ex.”
“Yes.”
“You broke her heart.”
“A lie.”
Eric lunged forward in a superman punch. The right hand of the grendel hit nothing but air. Ralm had jumped aside to avoid it. Eric followed up with more punches and Ralm avoided them in the same way. Eric brought out his staff for greater reach and still Ralm did nothing but avoid him. Eric cast spells to corner him, but even here, Ralm found a way to dodge. After several rounds, both of them were breathing heavily. Then Eric’s lips separated into a grin.
“Marshy waters, I invoke you now. Make this land too soft to plow!”
He struck his mage spear into the ground.
“Quagmire!”
The lodge's floor transformed it into a marsh. Ralm tried to avoid it with an Air Disk, but Eric disrupted it with a Random Current. The elf fell back to the ground and his feet sank into the muck. He smiled and said, “I yield.”
“Huh?”
“To defeat an opponent, one has to strike in the right way.” Ralm’s voice carried a current of regret. “I don’t know her well enough to do so. I never did. The fact that I can’t recite a fitting passage from the Elven Tome or some other book is proof of this. I need you to do that. Please find the right way to strike with Annala.”
Eric return to human form. “You’re right. I’m wasting my time here. We’ll finish later.”
Ralm shifted his legs into that of a Xandu frog and escaped the quagmire spell with ease.
“I’d say I won this round.”
Eric rolled his eyes. “You have a hare’s victory.”
Ralm blinked his own. “A hai
r’s victory? It wasn’t close at all.”
“Forget it. I have stuff to do.”
Eric wandered the village thinking up an angle from which to stir his lady from her depression. He had already tried the boyfriend angle of listening, encouragement, sweet nothings, and physical displays of affection, but she either ignored him or recoiled. He tried the bookworm angle of reciting passages from The Strangesity and her favored philosophers, but all she did was mutter “useless” and roll over. He tried the moral duty angle, but she responded with self-deprecation.
Her family tried methods from puzzles (her father) to favorite food (her mother) to goading (her twin). Even Sister Sagart came by, but Annala refused to listen to her talk about the hope and despair duality of chaos. After this failure, and knowing she was responsible for it, Sagart excused herself for penance via flagellants.
What else can I try? Revas and Oito have known her longer, maybe they—that’s it!
With the stride of the grendel, he raced to the Universal Embassy. Through the empty field and past the tree sentinels, into the building, and stopping only at the office for the ambassador of Dnnac Ledo. Ponix was playing with a rotation cube and he quickly hid it under his desk when he heard footsteps. Without knocking, Eric burst in and exclaimed, “I think I know how to get Annala out of her funk!”
“Really!? I’ve been working on that puzzle since you carried her home, but it’s become more frustratingly complex than the cube I hid when you walked in.”
“Why did you….Never mind. The point is that you couldn’t solve the puzzle because you didn’t have all the pieces.”
“You do?”
“Yes, but it’s outside this village.”
“I was afraid of that. Is it human?”
“Again, yes.”
“That’s a problem. No human is allowed inside Dnnac Ledo. This has been fact and law ever since the Conversion War started back in my father’s day. You and Kallen don’t count because you’re both demons and you’re favored by our deity. He pantsed everyone that tried to prevent Kallen’s entry so no one tried to bar yours. That won’t work with a true human.”
“Tasio, Tasio, Tasio.”
The Trickster appeared at his side. “Yes, Eric?”
“Do any of the books in the Elven Tome say something to the effect of ‘Screw the Rules; I’m Doing What’s Right’?”
“Yes.”
He pantsed Eric and disappeared. Eric nonchalantly pulled his pants back up, and, because the zipper was mysteriously broken, looped a finger into the belt loops and held them up with one hand. Then he waited for Ponix to speak. Several moments passed before he did.
“I’m not saying I’m going to help you, but if I was, what would you need from me?”
Eric told him.
Ponix stroked his chin. Then he glanced at a picture of his daughter that stood on his desk. After another moment of internal struggle, he said, “In a purely hypothetical situation, I might be able to make that happen. For the sake of curiosity, I’ll let you know the details later.”
“Can I come and go as needed?”
“No. I can only open the gate for residents and family of residents. You will find four elves in this village that have voluntarily left since the Conversion War that are here right now: my daughter, my wife, Meza, and me. Meza is obviously out of the question and if I left for something other than a diplomatic meeting or a visit to my daughter, people would talk. My wife would appear even more suspicious because of her reputation as the Witch of Dnnac Ledo, and that her only reason for leaving would alarm people.”
“What reason would that be?”
“Visiting Ginger Hasina.”
Eric shivered.
“Exactly. Finally, if my daughter was willing to leave this village, then we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”
“So I need to find Kallen. I had no idea that an elven village would have so many rules and regulations. This is something I’d expect to find in Ozid.”
Ponix shrugged. “Ironic, isn’t it? They’re all concerned with the Chaotic Curtain.”
“That means the entire rest of the world is ‘beyond the pale.’”
“Sadly, yes. It drives my Nunnal mad because she can’t work with her human counterparts. Did you know she turned Harry Butchin into an animated suit of armor to get around the rules? She’d much prefer elves and humans coming and going as they pleased.”
“Until that day comes, where’s Kallen?”
“I heard her say she was going to the Shrine of Remho.”
The Shrine of Remho was a grand building in the classical style with Gromece columns. Within them were dedications to playwrights, actors, stagehands, etc. both elf and otherwise. The doorway was an empty space between two of them and a sign of their plays stood on a tripod next to it. The inside was similarly classical. The receptionist was even wearing a toga.
"Welcome to the Shrine of Remho. Would you like to see a play or a worship service?”
"Neither. I'm looking for Kallen Enaz."
“You just missed her. Sorry.”
Eric wandered about asking if anyone had seen Kallen. They ignored him in favor of preparations for their festival. In addition to the stage he saw earlier, the locals were setting up booths, an outdoor dance floor, and a dunk tank. All of them claimed to be too busy to help or talk to him. He was about to go to the library when a spear point exited the front of his chest.
Many barbs were attached to its length and, as the user rotated the spear’s handle, they tore up his heart and mangled his veins. When the user pulled the spear out, chunks of him came out with it. He fell face first into the cold ground while Meza stood over him, triumphant.
“Such is the fate of any human who trespasses in Dnnac Ledo.”
His look of triumph faded as chaotic energy filled the hole in Eric’s chest. It mended bones, patched his heart, recreated muscle, and spun new flesh. Eric gasped and breathed heavily three times before he was steady enough to stand up. He dusted himself off and said, “Then it’s a good thing I’m not human.”
Meza’s jaw dropped. “How are you still alive!?”
“I’m an elf too. The only thing you hurt was my pride.”
Meza’s face contorted in fury. “This is impossible! You’re from a shriveled fruit! You are one hundred percent human!”
Eric picked his ear. “Ever since Ceiha, I haven’t been one hundred percent anything. I take it murder isn’t a big deal here, right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have attacked me with so many witnesses.”
“Tasio, Tasio, Tasio!”
The Trickster appeared at Meza’s side. “Meza, for the zillionth time, I’m not going to make a legitimate attack on Roalt with my Tazul form.”
Meza pointed at Eric. “Did you give him a Seed of Chaos?”
Tasio picked his ear. “No, the penguins did it.”
Meza glared. “Is it possible for a god to commit blasphemy against himself?”
“Of course it is. Haven’t you ever heard of self-deprecation?”
When Meza continued to glare and other elves joined in, he continued, “I am nothing more than a sock puppet for Lady Chaos and it was the will of Lady Chaos that Eric be offered a seed of herself. You can accept him as one of your own, or you can’t. If Annala were in better spirits, she could quote something from your tome that would capture this sentiment in a poetic fashion, but she’s not. Eric, do something about that.”
“I was when Meza harpooned me. To do so, I need to find Kallen."
"Oh sure. She's over there at the edge of the village."
"Th—” Eric's gratitude was interrupted by red and orange vomit. “Is that spear poisoned by any chance?” he asked Meza.
"I knew I should have used Black Nut venom..."
"Just checking."
He turned his back on the person that had just tried to kill him and continued looking for Kallen, but this time, he spread his senses to cover other possible attacks. Missing that first one was disgraceful. Ba
silard would make him run laps around Roalt castle if he found out.
“If anyone here tells anyone else about Eric’s transformation, I will become their personal tormentor for the next thousand years,” Tasio said. “Fair warning.”
He disappeared. After a minute passed, Meza stopped waiting for him to reappear and went about his business. At that point, Tasio reappeared, pantsed him, and disappeared again.
Eric followed Tasio's tip to the edge of the village. Beyond houses, trees, boulders, and mounds of snow, he found Kallen. Bushes, flowers, weeds, and vegetables grew in a circle around her. A band of ice formed a second circle while a moat of lava formed a third circle. A series of eight lightning strikes formed a final circle around the girl wielding the white staff.
She struck to the northwest and a ninth lightning bolt shot into the distance. She struck southeast and a green shimmer gave birth to a path of plants. She struck northeast and a beam of magma soared over the area before landing in a perfect line. She struck southwest and a stream of frigid cold crystalized everything in its path. She struck to the center and a pillar of light radiated from all four rings.
Emily watched her from the foot of a tree, her mouth slightly open and her eyes wide. She hugged herself closer to ward off the cold. Eric clapped and this startled Kallen so much she jumped and became momentarily flustered.
“How long were you there?”
“A minute or so. Are you practicing a routine for another contest?”
“No, I was practicing avatarcraft for a religious ritual of balance and harmony.”
Eric pulled out his own staff and looked at the four lights inside.
“You mean these things? You know how to use them?”
“Yep. God-like power comes in handy for my line of work. You’ll have to learn how to use them too if you want to defeat Nulso.”
Eric pressed his hands together to dismiss his staff. “I thought as much, but right now, I need your help with something else.”
He explained his problem with Annala, his plan to solve it, and what he needed from her to make it work. She asked if he was serious, and when he nodded, she laughed. Eric waited for her to calm down, at which point, she agreed to help. It was crazy enough to attract the fancy of Lady Chaos, and with her, all things were possible.
Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3) Page 45