by Elon Vidal
One, two…
The social media princess had some slick moves up her sleeve. Ella had underestimated her.
Nerka shielded them again with her Space enhanced barrier.
As soon as Luna landed, she dropped to one knee, rolled to the side, hopped up again, pulled her last two knives and flung them at Juro as he reeled away.
It was a tough task, but he used the Attraction and neatly caught each of them in a line up the staff. He tapped the staff’s end on the ground, then bowed to her.
Athos clapped into the silence. “Well done.”
Luna was breathing heavily, hands loose at her side. She waved toward Cielle and the ferret scampered toward her with the knife pouch in her mouth. She crawled up her owner’s arm and nuzzled into the girl’s flushed cheek.
“That was amazing!” Ella said, unable to contain it any longer. She pumped her fist and ran a few steps into the ring. Social media princess, she might be, but Luna impressed yet again.
Luna smiled and wiped her face on her sleeve. She gestured for Juro to hand her the staff so she could retrieve her knives.
“Are those Nariasi?” Ella asked.
“Of course.” Luna began taking the knives out of the wood. Some of them had gone in pretty deeply. Ella wondered if that was the power of the throw or the power of the Attraction call. Ella forgot the disdain she had felt while watching her livestreaming. She now began to realize why QT would want to follow her feed, a ferret tamer she hadn’t fully appreciated during her livestream.
Nerka and Teffa joined the others.
“I am pleased with your skills. Both of you.” Athos took the staff, looking at the splinters. “Of course, Mr. Carp, you will need to demonstrate your other skillsets. And the Attraction call you wield needs more practice. It should be focused so that not everyone around you feels its effects. If it wasn’t for Nerka, I’m certain the rest of us would have been watching the last bit of your demonstration from pools of our own vomit.”
Nerka crossed her arms as Juro nodded his thanks.
Good enough… As long as the two strongest warriors can tolerate and make each other stronger, we can build up the team.
Luna finished putting away her blades and noticed Ella looking at them longingly. “I can introduce you sometime.”
“Huh?”
“To Nariasi. I will introduce you to her sometime. She’s quirky, but she’d probably have a weapon to your liking.”
Ella could hardly contain her excitement at the prospect of meeting the famed bladesmith. Not only that, but potentially choosing a weapon from her personal stock… That was unreal. “You know her?”
Luna rolled her eyes. “I know lots of people. The more difficult fact is that everyone knows me.” She turned to give Cielle soft pets, but Ella didn’t miss the sadness in her last words.
Athos stood in front of them and clapped his paws again. “Nerka and Juro, your control over your Crystals is one of the most important things that you can do while dueling. I would like to work with you two on that for a bit. That means Teffa will be working with Luna and Ella. Let’s work hard for another hour and then we will call it a day.”
The minicorn flipped up into the air in front of the two girls, his golden horn sparkling. “Just wait, you two. I can’t wait for you to see what I have planned.”
A murmur of discontent grumbled in Ella’s chest. She wasn’t entirely over the mishap in the market from Teffa’s theft and it seemed like the banyan VR simulation was his idea, too. Athos listened to him and somehow Teffa was accepted even for his misdeeds among minicorns. How could anyone like that be trusted? And how did he and Athos know each other? The one so serious, the other with hidden tricks, barfing rainbows and flashing colors in his wake. What a strange couple.
Teffa’s eyes gleamed at her, their purple rims glossing against the yellow shine. Does he know what I am thinking? Does he know I doubt him?
“I’ve seen your plans, Teffa. Is this one going to end with rainbow vomit?” So, I’ll just misdirect with humor. Perfect.
Teffa winked. “Only if you’re lucky.”
Luna laughed and Ella even smiled. “All right, then. We await your instruction.”
Teffa flipped his tail and headed toward one of the smaller training rings. Ella looked over her shoulder where Nerka, Juro, and Athos were deep in conversation. They looked to be settling into meditation, one of Athos’s favorite pastimes and answers to finding balance. As a sacred medium and companion to the Durgic myth and folklore, Athos was constantly preaching those methods and Ella found herself ready to believe in it more and more. She knew that her Keeper abilities depended on it. Nerka and Juro might be more of the warrior side of the Durga, but they had to achieve balance, too.
Maybe more so. They were two of the Chosen Wielders, after all. Ella looked away with a touch of sadness that she hoped wasn’t jealousy. What is that like? To feel the power of reality and time coursing through you and be able to design it to your whims?
Ella imagined it wasn’t that controllable at all, actually. And maybe even more intoxicating because of that fact.
CHAPTER TEN – GREEN OOZE
The hour of training with Teffa passed quickly. It mainly involved Ella trying to match Luna’s pristine gymnastic balance as they battled on tight ropes and high beams at dizzying heights.
“Sure would be easier if I could fly,” Ella muttered as Luna brandished a staff in front of her, nearly knocking Ella from a balance beam to the net below.
“Sure would be easier if you stopped talking long enough to learn the lesson I’m teaching you,” Teffa quipped back.
“I got it, I think, Master Teffa,” Luna said with a quick twirl and jump from the beam that had her land gracefully ten feet below. Cielle was a scrambling fur scarf in white wrapping circles around her neck. “You’re teaching us about focus and free will, right?”
Teffa nodded. “Miss Turum, what about this exercise demonstrates free will to you?”
“I can choose to keep fighting on a perilous beam or I can take the fight below to the training ground’s level surface.” Luna flicked her purple hair back behind her shoulder.
Ella rolled her eyes and dropped down beside Luna, swinging at the girl as soon as she landed. The princess blocked it easily and stepped back a few paces. She was developing a good connection with the minicorn and Ella felt being a couple steps behind. Perhaps it was that they both shared sparkly, colorful hair. Was she being too rigid in her thinking, or perhaps too concerned with how she was being perceived instead of flowing?
“Wings. Can I choose wings as the medium for fighting next time?”
“Where do you think you’ll find wings, Miss Larisse?” Teffa asked, teasing humor in his golden eyes. “I know I like the art of the steal, but I am not sure even I would stoop to stealing you any.”
“Well, what if we head to the Balite Mines and ask for a ride on some dragons someone knows… Learn to fight in their company…” Ella narrowed her eyes at Luna, who wiped a grin from her face as Teffa looked at her.
“You think you can just ask the dragons for a ride?” Teffa sounded amused.
Luna bowed low and tossed the staff to the side, tired and done with the training session. “If I ask nicely.”
Teffa flipped in the air and flicked his tail. “I think you overestimate your power.”
Ella tossed her staff next to Luna’s. “Sometimes blind confidence can get you a win. You know, if you have a bit of luck in your pocket, too.”
Teffa grinned. “Well, that, I know how to steal.”
“Luck? You can steal luck?”
“I can tell you a secret. See, the Dark Fae that used to be--”
Teffa stopped talking, his eyes going wide. A cool ripple of energy struck through the training ring. The only ones left at Athos’s place were Luna and Ella training with Teffa and Nerka and Juro with Athos just one ring away.
Ella felt it too. A shiver, a flash and streaks of light casting weird shadows on
the training center’s walls. She turned around, following Teffa’s sudden stare. A gleaming portal had opened into the central ring. They all stopped and stared as QT emerged from the Underworld.
Silence overtook the young warriors with the flood of unease that permeated the rings. It was like QT’s quivering, darker, Underworlder-tainted Durga was pressing up against Ella’s and that of the others, causing an unsettling disturbance. QT appraised the room quickly, then turned to pace toward Nerka with purpose.
Ella, Luna, and Teffa ran toward the other ring. Athos and Juro put themselves in between QT and Nerka as the others came up to stand beside her.
Ella’s heart was thudding. Her eyes flicked to Athos and he patted the air with his paw to calm her but she could hardly ignore her racing thoughts. QT is here! We can keep him here! We can rescue him from the possession! Her attention turned towards connecting again with the Eye.
QT focused on Nerka. He was following the mission Heroki Sintila had given him: to get the Wielder of the Space Crystal.
Teffa floated in front of Luna, beside Athos. Juro and Nerka stood side-by-side, facing QT as he approached. Ella shuddered as she watched QT’s animalistic prowl, the way he analyzed the situation. He had to be surprised to see so many people there. He must have expected only Nerka and Ella training with Athos.
“QT!” Ella shouted.
“Stand back Ella, he isn’t here,” Athos commanded.
The energy emanating from him made Ella feel uneasy. The air was jittery, unsure, anxious. The Chaos Crystal inside him was unseating the meditative calm that had just been pulsing through Athos’s training area. Now there was a rippling of unease. Ella could see it on all their faces.
They were also all waiting on her move. If they could capture QT here, keep him in this realm, and find a way to cleanse him of the Underworlder magic, then they didn’t even need to seek out any of the other steps. No Saion, no werewolves, no Underworld portal.
He had come right to them. This was their chance.
Every step QT took, he left a smudge of green ooze trembling in his footprints. Even as his hands swept in front of him at every step, they seemed to vibrate a residue through the air.
Ella’s hands brushed over the daggers at her hips and QT’s gaze swung to her, sensing a threat. He was keyed into an awareness a level above what he had ever absorbed as a Scorpene Guard in training. Now his swirling green eyes took in her motions and tried to anticipate her motivations.
Ella gulped against the reality she had to face: he was a targeted tool on a mission.
QT tucked into a low crouch and sprinted for Nerka.
Nerka threw up her hands and the Space Crystal responded, throwing a shelter over all present, similar to what she had placed in between her and Ella when Juro confronted them outside Luna’s safehouse.
QT skidded to a stop, staring at the ripple of energy between him and his prey.
“True power awaits you if you cast aside your alliances here.”
Ella heard the same strain in his voice as she had heard when watching through his vision in the Underworlder Realm. He is still in there! He is fighting!
“Listen to me. You’re our friend.” Ella tried to take advantage of any potential break in his possession. “We don’t have to do this. You’re not yourself right now. Heroki Sintila is not--”
“I know my mission. I know my purpose.”
It sounded like a well-practiced litany. QT took another step closer to Nerka, the shimmering green flaring up like a tiny, coagulating flame as he walked.
Ella stepped through Nerka’s shelter bubble, knowing that Nerka’s defense distinguished her from her possessed best friend. His eyes swirled rapidly at her movement and his hands beckoned, as if he could pull Nerka from her Space shelter, realizing there was an easy impermanence.
“QT, no!” Ella roared.
QT’s head jerked, recognizing his name, but little else. He grabbed a knife from his belt then flipped it toward Ella, flinging it at her, now that she was no longer behind a shielded space.
No! Ella stared at the blade as it flipped through the air, its silver sheen illuminated by the pulsing of green ooze that clung to the handle. The panic in Ella’s mind competed with the despair in her heart. Dive behind the shield again!
As she lunged back toward Nerka, her heart in pieces at her feet, Juro ripped the blade from the air, and sent it, instead, flying into the wall beside Ella’s head. The surge of the Attraction call pummeled them all. Ella doubled over from the wave of nausea that struck her.
QT glared at Juro, his swirling green eyes lit even brighter. Ella straightened, fearful of what Juro had just revealed. Heroki Sintila would now know that there were two Crystals for her to seek out here. Not just Nerka’s Space Crystal.
The energy that seemed to swell from QT became more pronounced, as if it had a new focus. He whipped his hands through the air and laughed. Ella flinched: it didn’t sound like QT’s laugh.
As the laugh ended, the air began to jitter. Ella’s hair prickled and her heart skipped. QT’s eyes were laser focused on the two Wielders.
What the--
Nerka and Juro turned toward each other, their teeth grit, fists clenched, dragging their feet as they tried to resist the pull. Their backs were rigid, every muscle tensed. Their eyes were wild as they looked from QT to each other.
The Attraction pull pulsed again as Juro strained to control the crystal’s power. Nerka’s shelter ballooned out over everyone, but it was as if QT was forgotten and the two were urging their Crystal powers against each other. Ella turned to Juro, wanting to make him focus, but he seemed to struggle to control his own gift.
The foreign sound that wasn’t QT’s laughter erupted again as the Attraction pull and the Space shelter surged, swiping against Ella and the others, rocketing them between nausea and relief.
Ella staggered forward, thinking that if maybe she was able to put a hand on Nerka’s shoulder, she could get her to stop her rampant pulling at the Space Crystal and focus it again on QT. The Space shelter mowed them down as the Attraction pull overwhelmed them with nausea during its sweep through their bodies.
“Ella, stay down!” Athos shouted, his voice strained as he lay flattened against the training floor surface, bowled over by the rolling flood of energies from the Crystal Wielders.
With a sucking snap, QT called a portal into being in front of him. It was larger than Ella had ever seen him beckon. It swirled and sparked, dizzying in its array of blues and purples. QT swung his vacant, green eyes toward her, but she wasn’t even sure there was any recognition.
Then he stepped through the portal and was gone.
As QT’s portal whipped closed, it was like a great breath that had been held was released through the training area. Nerka and Juro stumbled forward onto their hands and knees on the mat. Athos ran to them.
Ella staggered back against the wall, looking for support, wanting to feel the cool of the stone against her cheek.
She nearly touched the dagger that had flown too close to her body when QT had thrown it and jerked away from it, sliding down to the ground underneath it.
QT… What have they done to you?
There was no denying he was more powerful… But at what price?
Just breathe… Just breathe…
Ella pressed her cheek into the wall and paced her breath.
“Chaos breaks symmetry…” Athos’s words broke through the haze that still swelled over Ella’s mind. The fennec was speaking to Nerka and Juro. She glanced up, but it was like looking through a pool of water.
Nerka and Juro had managed to get back to their feet. She rubbed her arms, like she was uncomfortable in her own body. Juro flexed his fists, as if he was acutely aware of how useless they had been. Nerka’s voice was flat. “He was able to use us against each other…”
Juro cursed and looked toward Ella, then away. “...volatile…”
Ella shuddered and closed her eyes.
I don’t
want to hear any more… He’s my best friend…
Ella focused on capturing her breath, trying not to let her thoughts be overwhelmed by the swimming memory of QT’s green eyes boring into her, but every time, there they were. His sweet, warm stare, filled with incisive kindness and compassion, had been wiped away by a cold, calculating darkness she did not recognize. The ferocious glare she had seen in the seriports flung on the kill had also taken over her friend. It had all happened so fast. What had made him leave when he seemed to be so capable of threatening them? The threat of two Crystal Wielders that he wasn’t sure he could beat? The need to tell Heroki Sintila in case she wanted to give the mission a different direction?
More than anything was the thudding memory of how sure QT had been when he threw the knife directly toward Ella’s heart…
She opened her eyes and looked for a distraction. Her mind was still hazy, but she managed to focus on Teffa as he flitted around the training area. The others were all still a blur, but the turquoise minicorn’s rapid flight, darting, twirling, stopping, vomiting, then twirling away again was riveting enough to keep her attention.
The rainbow glow he vomited swirled a dust cloud of glitter over the shimmering green smudges that hovered in every place that QT had stepped or touched. The smudges curled away from the glitter, then sizzled as the rainbow minicorn vomit enveloped it. The Underworlder remnants fought against the cleansing purge, throbbing and pulsing, then quenching to tiny dots that disappeared with sharp pops.
The minicorn can cleanse the Underworlder magic… Can he cleanse QT entirely…? We have to figure out how to free him… QT can’t be lost forever… Ella kept her eyes on Teffa as a distraction from the darker thoughts. She flinched as he came to stop before the knife that QT had thrown at her. A smudge of green goo hovered around the handle. More vomit ejected from the minicorn’s mouth and soon the silver shine of the metal was restored.
Ella made an explosive gesture with her hands from her mouth toward Teffa, mimicking vomit. “Is that something you can teach us?”