literature

The Manaless Part 3

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I had heard of stories like these. They’re not entirely uncommon in a kingdom where men are constantly off to war, and women are left in lonely beds. Though it must have been quite a scandal if it happened to the royal guard.
We turn at a split in the path as Ruby continues her story. “Nevertheless, my parents loved me and raised me as true parents. My sister and I spat, like normal sisters do, but they never showed any real favor towards either of us. At least, until we came of age where we could start training.”
“My sister showed all the promise and potential of our family’s line. She could use fire magic almost as well as an elf, and her swordplay skills were completely unmatched. I remember her out on the training fields single-handedly taking on the entire royal guard (with the exception of my parents), and managing to stay upright for a full two minutes.
“On the other hand, I never amounted to anything. I was clumsy with the sword, and I couldn’t even make a spark of magic. My mom kept reassuring me that I was simply slower to learn, and that I’d be sure to be the honor of the family on day. And that was enough to keep me trying, even after my sister became ever more distant from me.
“My sister joined the royal guard at 17. We had a great party for her, and I could only admire her strength and skill. But I always believed what I had been told – that through hard work, anything is possible. My swordplay had improved immensely over the years, and although I was years away from reaching royal guard level (and further still from my sister’s), I still had no ability in magic. Without magical prowess, one cannot ever dream of staying by royalty’s side.
“My parents called in an elder of the forest elves one day. They said they needed to discuss a strategy against the dark elves that had been encroaching on our lands. I greeted the elf in proper form, complete with curtseys and the dresses they love so much, and he patted my head, as usual. Immediately, I took an interest in him. He was so different from everything I had ever seen before, I wanted to find out what I could.
“I eavesdropped as he went into the back room with my parents. They thanked him for coming out here, but they weren’t talking about the dark elves. Instead they said, ‘thank you for coming to check out our daughter.’ At first I thought they were arranging a marriage for me, and my heart beat fast. Sure, an elf-human marriage would certain strengthen our ties, but I never looked at that elf in that way.
“But after he thanked them, he told them what I had never expected. ‘It’s as you feared. She’s one of the manaless.’ I nearly cried out then, but I felt a cold hand on my shoulder – my sister’s hand. ‘It’s not nice to eavesdrop,’ she had said. I shook her off and said, ‘they’re talking about me!’ And then she revealed everything to me about their suspicions and their disappointments in me. They were planning to send me off to the elves to teach their students math and statistics – the only thing I had ever been any good at in life. I wanted to be a member of the royal guard, not cramped up in a tree teaching kids how to do fractions!
“My mom approached me the next day about it, telling me that I’d always loved kids, and that this would be a nice temporary job until I could learn enough about fire magic from them to join the royal guard. But for the first time in my life, I told her no. ‘I know what the elf said,’ I told her. ‘But I’m not one of the manaless. I will learn, and I will show all of you. I’ll become even better than my sister!’
“She slapped me, of course, telling me to stop being so ridiculous. But as a fifteen year old, I had too much stubborn pride. I told her that I was leaving and heading south. I would not return until I could best my sister in a duel.
“And so I headed south to the city of DragonHeart. Not wanting to rely on my parents, I joined the guild, hoping for money as well as the opportunity to practice my skills. With that, my swordplay has increased exponentially. I’m sure if I had to fight my sister with swords and weapons alone, I’d be sure to win. But when it comes to magic…
She holds out her hand, and not even a spark flies out.
She bows her head. “No matter how hard I try, I can’t do anything. Listen, Caitlin, Kairi, I’m done running away. I’m done trying to be someone I’m not. I’ll admit it to you now. I am one of the manaless. I’ll never be able to use magic much more than making my sword a little hotter than usual, and I’ll never be able to join the royal guard back home. My life is clear. I can either serve in DragonHeart as a third wheel, or return to the elves and become their math teacher. Selfishness versus selflessness.”
We stop walking as the lakes comes into view. I jump and throw my arms around Ruby.
“Kairi?!” she shrieks. “What are you doing?”
I smile. “Listen, Ruby, I don’t care what you are. You’re our friend, and I’d never call you a third wheel. I want you to be with us on our missions.”
Caitlin nods. “If you need help with anything, don’t be afraid to ask us. I might not be able to keep up with you in terms of speed, but I’m not opposed to summoning elementals to spar with you.”
“But, I just said it’d be best if I went and taught math and…” says Ruby.
“You’ll be better following your dreams,” I say. “And admitting your weaknesses is the first step. Yeah, you’re unable to use magic. So what? Admitting it is the first step, and you’ll only become stronger because of it. From now on, let’s stop focusing on what you can’t do, and instead focus on what you can. You’re fast, and you’re great with a sword, and you do come up with a bunch of good strategies for us, whether it’s a matter of how to complete a mission, or how to steal a pancake from the mess hall.”
Ruby wipes a tear from her eyes. “You guys…” she laughs. “So, you’re really all right with me?”
“More than all right,” says Caitlin. “In fact, if you ran from us to teach math, I don’t know if I could ever forgive you. We need you, Ruby.”
She nods. “I’m sorry for acting like I have. I’m done pretending. I’ll admit to being a manaless. More than that, I’ll wear it as a badge of honor. I’ll show the world that I don’t need magic to achieve success in life. Most humans don’t, so why should I?” She drew her sword. “Come on life, I’m coming for you!”
We laugh as we reach the lake’s edge. “So, what do we do now?” I ask. “This is a huge lake.”
“We split up,” says Caitlin. “You check the north side, and I’ll check the south. Ruby, can you handle the east?”
“No,” she says.
“No?” asks Caitlin. “It’s not a particularly big side or anything, and it has a ton of brambles to cut and…”
“I’m not leaving you alone,” says Ruby. “You’re an elf, remember? Elves are the ones being targeted. I’m going to defend you if anything happens.”
Caitlin seems as if she wants to complain about how she can defend herself. Of course she can, she’s one of the most powerful people I know. But I shoot her a glare to let her know to keep her mouth shut. Ruby just broke out of her shell. Don’t drive her back in.
“Very well,” says Caitlin. “I’ll trust you to be my knight in shining armor! Though your armor does look to be getting a bit blurry.”
“Hey, I’ve been stuck on missions for three weeks now without polish!” Ruby frowns. “Don’t blame me!”
After a quick laugh, we split. I set my fox ahead, looking for any possible clues. Caitlin wasn’t kidding about these brambles though, as they bite into my legs with every step. I wish I did have Ruby’s sword helping me up here.
“Seriously?” I ask as my half-cape catches on a thorn. I turn around and work on untangling it. Then a vision comes into my head from my familiar. It’s not exactly clear, but it’s enough to see that it’s somebody lying on ground.
I rip my half-cape off and sprint towards my familiar. Under the brambles I see the person my familiar did. I don’t take long to look at her though, since the first thing I notice is the blood on her back.
I splash water from the lake onto the brambles, and with a word the water spreads and freezes around them.
“Come on,” I lean down to say to her. “The thorns won’t bite you anymore. They’ll just feel a little cold.”
The girl gazed up at me and nodded. She crawled on her hands and knees under the brambles, wincing every so often when a thorn brushed her. But cold ice is nothing compared to the sharp needles that would have torn into her skin. When she gets out, I pull her up and lean her against a tree.
“Wow, those really did a number to you,” I say as I start getting to work magically healing her injuries. “Why were you under there?”
“It was the only place they wouldn’t find me,” she says. Now that I’m not panicking, I take inventory of her features. She’s obviously a forest elf, given the points of her ears and her larger than normal chest. But she seems strange. Every elf I’ve met thus far has had a sort of inner light in their eyes, but this girl seems to have darker eyes.
“They?” I ask. “Were you playing hide and seek?”
She winces as I hit a tended spot. “I wish that was all that it was.”
“What happened?” I ask.
She shudders, recalling a dark memory. “My name is Teresa. I am a second lieutenant of the elven army, an honor for a manaless like myself. Yes, I can see your shock. That’s why my eyes are so dark compared to the other elves you know. We’re usually hidden away to do menial chores outside the kingdom like running messages or gathering wood, but he took pity on my parents and trained me in swordplay.”
“I understand,” I say. “I have a manaless friend myself. But, please, go on.”
She nods. “Well, I was out here trying to determine the cause of the disappearing elves with my party. We thought we saw something here, and when I came here, all my companions… they… they went rabid! They attacked me, bound me hand and foot, and carried me to this cave filled with all sorts of gems. And there they… they were going to do all sorts of nasty things to me, along with all the other twisted elves in that cave. I don’t know why I was spared their insanity. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have magic? But either way, I need to get back to the kingdom and warn the elves not to come near here.”
My heart drops. “Caitlin!” I shout.
“Is that your companion?” she asks. “Is she one of the manaless?”
My heart races. Caitlin could be attacking Ruby right now! “We have to get to them,” I say. “They’re in trouble!”
Teresa staggered to her feet. “I can’t exactly run,” she says, “but I’ll follow.”
I sprint to the other side of the lake. Ruby and Caitlin spin around at my rushing figure. “Kairi?” asks Caitlin. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s not female elves,” I tell her. “It’s magic. They’re targeting magic users. We have to get out of here or we might attack Ruby and…”
“Slow down!” says Caitlin. “Who’s they? And why would we attack Ruby? What’s going on?”
“I can explain,” says Teresa, walking up behind me. She curtseys as customary. And so, she explains to them what she did to me.
Caitlin cocks her head. “That’s weird, I don’t feel any different,” she says.
Teresa holds her hands. “It’s too late for you, I’m afraid,” she says. “Let me lead you to the cave so you can avoid harming your friends. They should rush back to the kingdom and tell them my message. They can’t trust anyone who’s gone near this lake.”
Caitlin frowns. “Every elf’s gone near this lake. It’s a rite of passage at birth to take your first bath here.”
“Then trust nobody,” says Teresa. “Anyone could turn, just like my companions.”
“I suppose I should come too,” I say. It’s just as Caitlin says – I feel perfectly fine. But if I head back with Ruby and turn… I can’t beat that thought. “Stay safe, Ruby.”
“No, you’ll be fine,” says Teresa.
“How can you say that?” I ask, summoning my familiar. “I’m magical too, so I’m subject to this curse.”
“It’s… it’s not like that,” says Teresa. “It, well, it only…”
Ruby scowls. “Or you’re lying to us.” She turns to the two of us. “We can’t trust her. She’s too suspicious.”
“Ruby, she’s a forest elf,” I say. “She can’t lie.”
“Nor can she steal, but that didn’t stop that girl in the castle earlier, did it?” she asks. “No, I think we need to bring her back to the kingdom for further questioning.”
“Do you really suspect me just because I’m one of the manaless?” asks Teresa. “Kind of strange that you’d have the same discriminations even if you’re one yourself.”
Ruby bites her lip at that.
I smile at Ruby. “If it makes you feel any better, why don’t we all go?” I ask Ruby. “I’m sure you can fend the two of us off if worst comes to worst.”
“That doesn’t solve anything!” says Teresa. “It’s either Caitlin alone or nobody.”
“Nah, we’ll all go,” I say. “Lead us on.”
Teresa grows red in the face. “Fine,” she says. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Teresa leads us down a path deeper into the forest. The forest becomes darker with every step as the trees grew closer together. Not only that, but they seem to grow greyer and more dead, as ash trees began to replace the colorful oaks of before.
“Should be right around the corner here,” says Teresa as the path bends. She walks around it and out of sight. “Come on, the cave’s right here.
We follow her lead.
“Watch out!” yells Caitlin. She flings her arms up in the air, and a mass of swirling air forms a dome around us, creating a shield. It’s just in time too, as a slew of arrows bounce off it.
I turn around to see Teresa, charging at the shield with an axe. “What the hell?” asks Caitlin.
“You protect Kairi,” says Ruby, jumping out of the shield to meet Teresa with her blade. Another flurry of arrows comes, but as I suspected, none of them landed near Ruby. Whoever had fired them didn’t care about her.
“Enough with the arrows. Charge!” I hear a girl scream.
From all around, elves leap out of the bushes and run towards us. But these elves aren’t all forest elves. “Since when do forest elves work with dark elves?” demands Caitlin, her eyes aglow. The wind kicks up around her, and she fires a beam of it at the nearest one.
“Get the elf first!” shouts Teresa. “We’ll kill the redhead, she’s worthless. But the light-blue haired one might be an interesting specimen.”
“You won’t dare!” I shout, lifting my hand up. My favorite pole of ice forms, and I grab onto it, wincing at its chill. I should really start wearing thicker gloves when I summon a weapon…
I leap at the nearest elf and smack it with the pole. It flies into the tree and dissolves on contact. I guess that’s a dark elf. I don’t take any time to gloat in my victory and hit an forest elf with the backswing.
Caitlin propels herself up in the air and out of the range of the elves. “Kairi, some ice please!” she shouts down.
I smack away the nearest elf and with the three seconds that buys me, throw up a million shards of ice. Caitlin smirks and spins them, breaking the larger ones up. In one deadly second, they hold still, free of the wind. And then she throws her arms down.
The shards crash onto the ground at supersonic speeds, pulverizing the elves below. They shriek as the deadly projectiles jolt through them, leaving the dark ones to disintegrate, and the forest elves to fall over, unmoving.
But it isn’t enough, as another swarm bursts in to take their place.
“Kairi!” shouts Caitlin.
I move to send her some more “ammunition” but as I do, an elf puts me in a chokehold. I cough as he puts a knife to my throat just close enough to draw blood.
“Let her go!” yells Ruby, ignoring Teresa to run to me. But this is enough of a distraction, as Teresa remains focused and smacks her on the back of her head with her axe. Ruby falls to the ground, unmoving.
“RUBY!” I scream.
Caitlin is even worse, and lighting crackles out from her. The sky spirals above her where dark clouds form. I’ve read about this before. If she unleashes this spell, everything within two kilometers will die.
“Do you really wish to kill your friends?” asks Teresa.
Caitlin has tears running down her face. “You’ve already killed one, and you’ll kill another soon. I’ll kill you all!”
“Calm down,” says Teresa. “Your manaless friend is still alive, and I’m sure we can reach some sort of a deal.”
“Deal?” she asks.
“We’ll let your friends live. They’ll become our captives. You will come down from there and submit to us as a captive as well.” She motions to the elf who has me, who draws the knife closer. “Or, you can keep your little rampage going, and we’ll kill everyone you know and love here.”
“Don’t worry about me, Caitlin!” I yell. “Remember what the prophet said! Don’t lose hope!”
But my words don’t reach her. Instead, she floats downwards, and Teresa smacks her on the head with her axe. She collapses just as I feel something hard hit me as well.
“Affix rubies to the elf and the light-blue haired human.” I hear her say as my vision goes.
“What about the red one?” asks a man.
“She’s one of the manaless. It’s not worth wasting one on her,” says Teresa. And that is the last thing I hear before my vision turns to black.
A soft rain falls on my head, waking me up from a deep slumber. It pushes my bangs into my face. I want to push them aside, but when I try, I’m met with resistance. My arms won’t move. They’re stuck on something.
Behind me, I hear a girl groaning. I also hear the sound of feet striking against wood.
The rain falls harder. But when I open my eyes, my vision is blurry. Combined with this awful headache, I really think I must have died and gone to hell. Though did I really do anything to deserve this kind of fate? I thought I was a good person…
“It looks like the other captive’s come to,” I hear someone say.
“Good. We’ll begin to drain her mana.”
I blink, and my surroundings come better into focus. Trees surround us, though they’re moving from right to left. Moving trees? Why would they be here? Oh, wait, they’re not moving – I am.
I squint, trying to bring the picture back in focus. And as I do, I see my predicament.
I am bound against something. I guess it’s a pole from the way it feels, but it doesn’t exactly matter. These bonds are no simple lashings like the forest elves did. These elves have made certain to restrict any possible motion in my body, creating an intricate pattern to lock me in place.
“Wff dff…” I start, but that is enough to inform me of my mouth’s situation. A small piece of cloth has been wrapped around my head and pushed between my teeth. I have no hope of talking, much less negotiating a release.
The elves walk by the wagon like statues. There are all kinds of elves there – male, female, dark, and forest. But, I notice, all the forest elves are female. Maybe that insanity epidemic Teresa had talked about only affected females?
No, you silly girl, she tricked you. She’s one of them.
To be honest, the ropes don’t hurt. They are annoying, for sure, and I wish I could move about, even if I am to be a prisoner. But worse than anything else is how I don’t know what’s happened to anyone else. Where’s Caitlin? Is Ruby alive? What is Teresa? Will I ever get home?
I hear feet slamming against the wagon again.
“Hey, manaless, quit yer stugglin’” says a dark elf walking by the wagon. “Yer friends deal is preventing us from killing ye out of yer sheer worthlessness, but nothing will stop us from killing ye if ye try to escape like that.”
The noises come from behind me, so that means that Ruby’s on this wagon as well.
“Quite a sword you carried back there, manaless,” says another dark elf. This one I can see, and he’s inspecting a blade that can only be Ruby’s. “Never thought I’d get one that’s been reforged this many times. Quite a strong blade by now, to say the least.” He flicks it with his finger, and it emits a low dinging sound.
The wagon bumps on a rock, sending Ruby and I up in the air. With no way of breaking our fall, we land hard on our butts. I’d cry out in pain if not for this cleave gag in my mouth.
“This looks like a good spot,” says the dark elf with the blade. “Let’s halt and eat.”
A rough looking elf hops up onto our wagon, and smirks. “Lunch time,” he smiles, tearing the gag off me. He reaches into his bag and pulls out a moldy piece of bread. My stomach curdles, but it knows as well as I do where that bread is going. I do my best to avoid gagging as he stuffs it in my mouth.
“Magical human should be more appreciative of lunch,” he laughs. He grabs the gag to tie it back around me.
“You really don’t need that,” I say.
He stares at the gag and shrugs. “It’s my orders, so I’ll do what I’m told.”
“I’m not going to be talking in the first place,” I say. “I have nothing to say. You took my true friend away from me, leaving me tied back to back with this disgusting manaless filth.”
Ruby bursts out, but all I hear are some muffled curses from under her bag.
“Oh, you’re not friends with her?” asks the guy.
I shake my head. “She keeps tagging along, thinking she’s going to be helpful, but in the end all she does is get in our way. I’d rather rot at the bottom of that lake than talk with her.”
Ruby’s shrieks have ended. She must be crying by now.
The elf sighs. “Fine then. But when we tell you to shut up, you better shut up, or the gag goes back.”
I give him a cute smile. “I’ll be sure of it.”
In the end, they didn’t give Ruby lunch. “Those who struggle, starve,” they said, passing her up.
The elves settle down by a tree and close their eyes for a nap. Of course they do – Ruby and I are in an impossible predicament. Thanks to this red jewel around my neck, I can’t use magic, nor the rest of my body thanks to these ropes. I can’t see Ruby, but it’s enough to know that she’s probably in the same physical situation, if not worse. Her red jewel wouldn’t be doing much of anything other than serving as decoration. Well, that is…
“She’s one of the manaless. It’s not worth wasting one on her.” Teresa’s voice echoes in my head.
I smile. I knew I wasn’t lying to that lunch guard for nothing.
“Hey, Ruby,” I whisper soft enough for the guards on watch to ignore.
She shrieks some curses into her gag.
“Shh, shh,” I say. “Listen, I didn’t mean any of what I said, and I’m sorry I had to. But it was the only way I could get to talk to you like this.”
She mumbles inaudibly.
“Listen, I know how much you hate getting tied up and…”
“I dof not hafe getting tied uf…” she manages to get up.
“Shh, don’t talk. Simply listen. Ruby, I think we have our way out.”
“Hmph?”
“You don’t have a red jewel on your chest right now, do you?”
I wait for a second in dreadful silence. Every bit of hope I have depends on that answer.
“No,” she says.
“Good. That means you can use magic.”
She curses again. I manage to get the word “mocking” out of her muffled rants, but that’s about it.
“Listen, Ruby. I’m not mocking you. I saw you working on your sword day after day. You did manage to reforge its edge every day, even if it took hours of work. Being a manaless doesn’t mean that you’re incapable of using magic. Yeah, you can’t do even some basic skills, but you can at least make stuff hot.
“What’s thaf got to do wif anything?” she mumbles.
“These ropes… they’re nylon.”
“So?”
“When nylon gets hot, it melts.”
Ruby doesn’t respond.
“Listen, Ruby, I know you can do it. I’ve seen you do it. All you have to do is try. You have to trust me on this.”
She sobbed. “I… I can’t! It doesn’t work like that, Kairi. I can focus onto my sword fine, sure, but that’s from years of hard work and practice. To ask me to do something like that…”
I close my eyes. “Is perfectly normal,” I say. “Just imagine that you’re young again. You don’t know anything about this world, outside of what’s in your imagination. The sky is the limit, and you’ve got the wings to get there. It’s not a rope anymore. It’s a butter, and your ability to make objects hot is your hot knife.”
“Kairi,” says Ruby.
“Yes?” I ask.
“How much longer are you going to go on about that?”
I open my eyes, and Ruby is standing in front of me, grinning from ear to ear.
“See, I told you that you could do it,” I say just soft enough for her to hear, but not the watch guards. “You just needed some encouragement and…”
“Nah, I did it the instant you told me what to do,” she says. “Surprised you didn’t notice when I could talk normally.”
“Wait, then why didn’t you tell me?” I ask, eyes wide.
She smirks. “Caitlin’s right. You’re kind of cute when you get desperate.” She leans down and gets to work untying my bonds.
A few minutes later, I’m sitting at the edge of the wagon, running the rope marks on my wrists. I pull the red gemmed necklace off my neck and sigh. “Now what?”
Ruby points to the sleeping elves and the guards on watch. “The prophet told me that I’d have some indispensable use on this trip. I have a feeling that I have met my purpose now. It’s your turn to shine.”
I laugh. “Very well,” I say.
I hold my hands out wide. This rain is so perfect! I don’t need to even bother gathering up sources or spraying water on people.
The water condenses, creating huge swirling balls of ocean on either side of the elves. The guards notice this time, though.
“Get up!” they yell. “Prisoner escape!”
But they’re too late. I clap my hands together, and with it, the balls collide. The elves are caught up in a tempest of rain water, and do all they can to stay afloat in it. I snap my fingers, and just like that, they turn to ice.
“We’ll come back for them later,” I say to Ruby. “Come on, let’s go find Caitlin.”
I turn to follow the wagon’s cart tracks when I feel a sharp pain on my cheek. Did one of them escape and hit me with an arrow?
But when I turn to see my assailant, all I see is Ruby’s ungloved hand. “Sorry,” she says, “but my family’s honor can’t let what you said about me go unpunished, even in jest. This makes us even.”
I guess she’s right about that.
She picks up her sword from the ground and slings it over her back. Her armor seems to be nowhere to be found, so she’ll be stuck in that light dress she wore underneath. But a weapon is better than no weapon. I’d hate to know whatever happened to Caitlin’s staff.
We follow the mud tracks of the wagon through the twists and turns of the forest. We can’t have ridden for too long, because before we know it, we can see the sparkle of the lake through the trees.
“Caitlin can’t be far,” I say. I pull out my fox familiar and set him off searching for any sorts of clues.
“Look!” says Ruby, pointing below. “This must be where we fought.” A whole host of footprints are below us, some heaving than other, given Ruby’s heavy armor.
“Where do they lead?”
She looks around. “One set comes from the lake. One heads towards where we came from. And the last set… it goes that way,” she points.”
“Then lead on.”
We follow the tracks and come upon a cave. It’s just like Teresa said. Inside, everything glows eerily as the various gems on the walls provide the only source of illumination. But when we head in, we see the solution to the entire mystery.
On the walls are hundreds of cages. In each one sits a forest elf in various states of distress. Some rattle the walls of their cage, trying to break free. Others sit silently, waiting for rescue. And others still lay down hopelessly, as if rescue is an illusion. I crawl to the edge to look down, and Ruby follows (although she doesn’t dare get as near to the edge as I do). At the bottom, I can just make out Caitlin, who has been tied up to a pole of her own.
“Who are you people?” she asks, her eyes darting around the room. “Why are you doing this?”
Teresa laughs and walks up to her. “Because it’s how we survive.”
“Survive?” asks Caitlin. “You’re insane! All you forest elves in here, come to your senses! I don’t know what about that lake made you want to kill all of us, but I know you’re inside there. You can break free, I’m telling you! Manaless or not, you’re still elves!”
“You really bought that story, didn’t you?” asks Teresa. She holds her hands out to the sides and snaps her fingers. A swirling tempest of fire erupts from her hands, not exactly targeted on anything, but simply a display of power like Caitlin had done in the hall of the elf king.
Caitlin gulps. “But… you’re a manaless. I can see it in your eyes and…”
She laughs. “You have a lot to learn about this world, Caitlin.” She beckons to a dark elf, who walks forwards. He hangs a second necklace over her neck – this one outfitted with a purple gem instead of the red one that’s preventing her from using magic.
“An amethyst?” asks Caitlin. “But… why? They don’t do anything.”
“Incorrect,” says Teresa. “Sure, you forest elves have no reason to use them, but us dark elves certainly do.”
“Dark… elves?” she asks, bolting her head around. “That’s impossible! Sure, plenty of you have the typical darker skin, but there’s no way you can pretend to be tall and fair like us. The gods ensured that.”
Teresa laughs. “Oh, that ancient fairy tale?” she asks.
Caitlin nods. “Once, all elves were the same and lived in harmony. They learned many great crafts and skills, and moved together towards a brighter future. But some elves thought higher of themselves than even the gods. They challenged the gods to a competition, seeing as to who could build the biggest statue in a set time. While they challenged them, the gods saw that most of the other elves did nothing to stop them, instead minding their own business. Only a select few spoke out against it, but they were far too few to make a difference.
“In the end, the gods won the battle, and with it, they cursed the elves. Those who had sinned against them in their hubris were cursed the worst. The light of creation was stricken from them, their skin darkened, and their abilities lost. They were forced to dwell in caves and dark places, unable to truly build or create anything of beauty. But the elves who didn’t participate weren’t let off easy either. They chose not to participate for good or evil, so the gods removed their ability to choose, forcing them to always do the right things for eternity, becoming the forest elves. Only the few elves who spoke out were blessed, given even further knowledge and wisdom, becoming the high elves. Never would anyone be able to disguise as one or the other, as per the gods’ command.”
Teresa smirks. “Well, that’s true enough. But you’re forgetting something, Caitlin. Stealing a body isn’t disguising.”
“Stealing?” asks Caitlin, her eyes widening.
“We never could overcome you forest elves in straight battle,” she says, “so we’ve had to resort to other methods. Namely, infiltration.”
“That’s impossible! We’d always see a manaless or a dark elf…”
“Of course,” says Teresa. “But it’s not too hard to fake a light. Use a little bit of fire magic, and you can imitate the light of creation quite easily. But, you don’t have to worry, we haven’t started infiltrating villages… yet.”
Caitlin scowls. “You’ll never get away with it!”
“Oh, but we already have,” she says. “You saw that elf at that castle. A simple test run, and a successful one at that. Nobody doubted his identity for a second, and suspicions about the forest elves popped up all over the world. Such a simple sacrifice and such a huge gain. Those gains are worth so much more than that diamond you managed to scratch.”
“How… why…?” asks Caitlin.
Teresa puts her hand on Caitlin’s head. “I’ll answer you second question first. Why? There’s quite a lot of benefits for us in posing as a forest elf. First off would be your longer lifespans. We’re no longer bound to a dark elf’s life when we take over your bodies, instead living as you do. And when we get too old, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of forest elves to transfer our bodies too again. Essentially, we have achieved immortality thanks to a tiny discovery our leader made when interrogating a captive.”
She smirks. “Another reason why? Notice how every captive here is female? There’s a reason for that. Men always succumb to their lusts, no matter what their race. They’ll find us, we’ll bear their children, and when their children come of age, they’ll be able to rise up in revolt. Of course, our dark magic only works on females in the first place, but this is as good of a reason as any.”
“As for how, well, it’s quite simple. You said that amethysts are useless. Sure they are, because you don’t need them. But they simply negate your magic.”
Caitlin cocks her head. “That’s what a ruby does.”
“No, a ruby suppresses it,” says Teresa. “It stops it from being used at the present moment. An amethyst takes the magic you have and renders in null and void, never able to be used again. In other words, Caitlin, it drains your magic from you, until you are weak and powerless.”
“You’re… turning me into a manaless?” asks Caitlin.
“You didn’t pay attention in class, now, did you? Your mana comes from your heart, so unless we kill you, you’ll never stop producing mana. But mana to a magic user is essentially life itself, so by draining it, we can weaken you at least temporarily.”
“But… why? Couldn’t you just take over our bodies without torturing us?”
“Would be useful,” shrugs Teresa, “but it’s not a perfect method. If the target is not severely weakened first, their soul might win out against ours. If we tried to take over your body as it is now, you’d kill whoever tried it. But let’s see what happens when you’re the same state as April.”
“April?” asks Caitlin, her eyes wide. “Don’t tell me you’re talking about…”
Teresa motions to a dark elf. He walks up to a cage and unlocks it. The elf inside doesn’t even move to try and escape. She has long flowing red hair, and a birthmark on the side of her face shaped like a heart. She looks awfully familiar. In fact, she…
I gulp. She’s the same elf I met that day in the forest years ago. So she did survive.
The dark elf throws her on the ground, and she lies there, hardly moving. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she’s dead already. He puts his hand on her head and starts to chant something slowly.
“No!” I yell. Ruby pulls me back and puts a hand over my mouth.
“Do you want to get caught?” she asks.
“But… that’s the girl I met in the forest and…”
“And she’ll be gone whether you scream or not,” says Ruby. “But I can tell you this, if you do scream and draw attention to yourself, not only will she be gone, but Caitlin as well, and we’ll be food for the crows.”
I gulp, trying to hold back my tears. I crawl back to the edge, where the elf is still chanting.
And then he drops down on the floor and disintegrates to dust. The female elf begins to convulse, her head bobbing and her eyes wide open. Yet then it slows to a stop, and she takes a deep breath. The light fades from her eyes, and she smiles.
“How do you feels?” asks Teresa.
“Like complete crap,” says the female elf.
“Don’t worry, we all do. Guards, remove her amulets and bring her to the recovery room.” The guards pick her up and walk away.
Caitlin’s eyes remain wide, and she shakes a little. “But… she’ll win back, right?” she asks. “Her powers will return, and she can take over the body again, right?”
“No, Caitlin. Haven’t you been listening? Once the takeover is complete, they’re done for. She’ll forever stay in a state of suspended animation inside her head, unable to ever escape or think on her own again. There’s no coming back.”
Caitlin’s hands tighten. “And that’s what you’re planning to do with me?” she asks. “Your current body isn’t good enough?”
Teresa laughs. “Me? I have a body I love. No, this’ll go to Marga. Come on out, Marga!”
The elves separate to form an aisle. From the end of it comes a woman who has to be nearing death’s door. Her face is layer upon layer of wrinkles, and her eyes squint through some really thick glasses. She hobbles forward on her cane. “Is this the girl you’ve brought for me?” she asks, inspecting Caitlin.
Teresa drops to a knee. “Yes, my master. I hope she will be to your liking.”
Marga walks around Caitlin, inspecting her. “Well, she’s pretty, I’ll give you that much. But is that the only reason you chose her for me? You know after forty years of looking like this, I don’t really care much about beauty.”
Teresa bows her head. “Her skills in wind magic are unsurpassed. She took on our entire squadron and would have wiped us out if not for our quick thinking to threaten her friends’ lives.”
“Interesting,” says Marga. “But you’ve brought me powerful elves before, and our generals took them for their own. What’s so special about this one that I shouldn’t give it to another one of our generals? I still have months to go before my death date, so I can wait.”
Teresa grins. “She’s a member of the DragonHeart guild.”
This brings a matching smile to Marga’s face. “DragonHeart, eh? I guess that means that the elves have started going against their own kind to face us. Who’d have imagined Gerald to bend the knee to them? Very well then. It’d be pretty useful to have someone infiltrating into DragonHeart as well, if they’re going to be against us. Maybe I can even convince the guild master to start working with us instead of against us.”
She turns to Teresa. “You did a great job. I will take this body as my own. I want her mana drained by tomorrow night.”
“Lady Marga, I do apologize, but if we go that fast she might die from the shock,” says Teresa.
“Then let it happen,” says Marga. “She’s far too dangerous to be left alive. If she’s that powerful, people’ll be looking for her. Her friends might have escaped and reported back to the village by now. Because I don’t see them here, now, do I?”
Teresa smiles. “I didn’t want to cause a fuss, so I had my lieutenants take them out to the countryside. They’re bound, and even though I can’t kill them personally due to the oath, nothing says that my lieutenants can’t.”
Caitlin gasps. “You… you can’t! You promised!”
“Of course, Caitlin. I won’t kill them. But my lieutenant will.”
Caitlin turns pale.
“Or, well, they have. They should have reached the execution site by now.”
“Ruby…” Caitlin bows her head. After shedding a tear, she stares back up to Teresa and looks her right in the eye. “But even so, Kairi’s still alive, right? She’ll be coming here and…”
“Kairi’s a human,” laughs Teresa. “Human bodies can’t survive the process.  No, you silly elf, they’re both dead by now. Nobody’s coming to save you.”
“No, that can’t be…” says Caitlin. “No, it’s not. No… No… NO!” She screams, and her voice echoes off the walls in the cave so loudly, even Ruby and I have to cover our ears even though we’re at least a hundred meters above her.
“Bind her!” yells Teresa. Two elves grab her by the hair and a third one quickly wraps a cloth around her mouth. The screaming stops, but her agony continues. “Start the draining process. We’ll exceed Marga’s expectations and have her ready tonight!”
The elves surround Caitlin and get to work.
I look over at Ruby. “Ruby, what do we do?” I ask.
She has stopped paying attention below, instead looking around at the surroundings. “I think I have a plan,” she says. “Listen and we’ll see what we can do.”
We wait for the elves to stop congregating in the middle of the cave. It seems like at the bottom there are all sorts of passageways and corridors leading deeper into the cave. “I guess they need to sleep somewhere,” I say.
Ruby sighs. “We’re about to risk our lives for our friend, and that’s the only thing you can think of?”
I shrug. “Would you rather I think about food?”
Ruby doesn’t respond. “Well, are you ready?”
I nod. “Are you sure you can handle it though?”
Ruby gulps, looking out over the edge. “Is it all right if I scream?”
“As long as you don’t puncture my ears.”
She smirks. “If you dare tell anybody else in the guild about this, I’ll have your head.”
I laugh and grab her in my arms. With her armor, I’d never have been able to do this, but she’s surprisingly light as I back up to the edge.
“Ready?” I ask.
She hardens her grip on her sword. “It’s our only option.”
With all the might I can muster, I leap backwards off the edge. Ruby keeps to her word and screams the entire way down. But I don’t bother paying her any heed. Instead, I fire a jet of steam downwards, slowing our decent. The steam sprays all over the room at the bottom, leaving the elves in the middle moist and coughing. They break their focus on Caitlin to look up at us.
I land on my feet a little harder than I’d like, but the steam did the trick. It felt like a jump from maybe two meters above instead of well over a hundred.
“Intruder!” they shout.
I smirk. The steam’s all over the walls. I didn’t miss a single cavern. I snap my fingers, and the steam condenses on the walls. Small snowflakes form and spread, covering the passageways.
“Come on,” I urge it. It’s a shame I had to use superheated steam, or it’d be frozen by now…
“Get them!” shouts the elves running in the hallways.
“Come on already!” I yell as the ice creeps closer to it.
Several elves jump through the ice sheets just as I finish closing it.
“You’ll pay for this!” yells one of the elves. I turn around to see her, and notice that the three elves that had been attacking Caitlin had also frozen in place. Oh yeah, they got hit as well. But does that mean Caitlin…
She sits there, gagged and struggling. But while she’s wet, she’s still free.
Ruby runs to Caitlin. “You handle them,” she says. “I’ll deal with untying her.”
“Ignore the water use, get the manaless!” shrieks Teresa. I guess she managed to escape as well.
I condense the water in the air in my hands, forming a pair of scythes connected with a chain.
“Scythes?” asks Ruby. “Seriously?”
I shrug. “I thought it’d look cool.” But I have no time to mess around, as an elf is already rushing in on Ruby. I slash her with the scythe, and she flies against the wall.
Teresa sends a blast of fire at me. Oh, that’s right, she’s an expert at fire. That’s bad against ice, but wonderful against water. I let my scythes melt to a water state and slash at the ball, which sizzles and goes out.
Ruby is already hard at work with Caitlin. Caitlin’s arms are freed, but her legs still need work. Caitlin muffles something.
“What?” demands Ruby as she saws at the ropes around her legs. “I know it hurts, I’m working on it.”
Caitlin screams within her muffle.
“Seriously?!” demands Ruby. She reaches up and tears off the gag. “What is it? What’s so important?”
“Why didn’t you start with the gag?” Caitlin cries.
“Ugh, you’re hopeless,” says Ruby as she returns to Caitlin’s legs.
I spin around, my far scythe smashing into elf after elf. The ones that get close enough are caught up in the chain. From the few that disintegrate, I suppose that some of them are dark elves hit far too hard to survive. I hope that there’s no forest elves dying here… I’m sure we can save them somehow.
“Got it!” shouts Ruby as Caitlin staggers to her feet. She takes off the amulets and tosses them feebly. Caitlin really looks in bad shape. I don’t know how she’d ever run against all these elves chasing her down.
And it really is all the elves. Teresa sets out a ball of fire that splits, smashing against the corridors. My thin ice sheet melts on contact, and a whole host of elves runs towards us.
Ruby, with Caitlin in her arms, and I back up onto the spiraling ramp leading to the entrance. “They’re gaining on us!” shouts Caitlin as we get a few meters of height of them.
“All part of the plan,” I smirk. I move my hand across the ramp, and a wall of solid ice forms with it. Teresa, the front leader, just manages to jump over it before it solidifies into an impassable wall.
Ruby lays Caitlin on the ground. “You bring Caitlin up the ramp,” she says, pulling out her sword. “I’ll deal with her.”
“But…” I say, looking on the other side. Several fire mages have already set to work on melting my barrier. It’d probably only hold out a couple of minutes.
“Stick to the plan, Kairi!” shouts Ruby. “I’ll handle her.”
I nod and trudge up the ramp with Caitlin grasping onto my shoulder for support.
“Quite a bit of a show you gave us,” smiles Teresa, summoning a tiger made of pure fire. “But it’s not like you could ever win. After all, you’re one of the manaless. What can you do against me?”
“I don’t know,” smirks Ruby. “But it doesn’t matter. Caitlin’ll be freed, and your plan will fail. You’ll have an army of forest elves here, and your allies will be killed, and the forest elves freed.”
“Freed?” asks Teresa. “And how are you going to do that?”
“We’ll find a way,” says Ruby. “We have all the time in the world to reverse it.”
Teresa laughs. “You won’t have that opportunity. When the forest elves come knocking, we’ll kill all our hosts, myself included. The forest elves will be weakened no matter what you choose.”
“No!” shouts Caitlin. But I tighten my grip on her shoulder, letting her know we have to keep going up.
“Well,” says Ruby, “we’ll see about that!” She lunges at Teresa, but is quickly blown against the wall by a fiery wind.
“What are you planning to do?” laughs Teresa. “Kill me? I have your sword’s movements down to a science. A manaless is exactly that – a predictable piece of trash. You have no variation with your magic, so you rely on sword play handed down from years of experience. Anyone can learn it, though, so when you’re going left, I’ll know it.”
She smirks. “Predict this, then,” she says, kicking Teresa in the stomach. Teresa obviously didn’t predict it as she falls into the pit below.
“Seriously?” asks Teresa. She casts her hands out and a rope of fire scales the walls. I suppose that’d be a good idea for the fire mages working on my icy wall instead, but they’re too focused on it to think like that.
“Do it!” yells Ruby, slashing at the fire tiger as it leaps on her.
I nod and wave my hands. In front of me, and large magic circle hovers in the air, right over the ground.
“What?!” demands Teresa.
And then I cast my hands down. A torrent of water pummels down to the ground. Teresa is knocked clean off her ladder, landing with a thud on the ground as the water level rises. The water pours into the hallways and before I know it, has completely submerged them.
The level rises higher, pulling the fire mages in with it. All the while, Ruby runs up the stairs away from the fire tiger and the water.
“Now!” yells Ruby.
I swing my hands out, and the water stops pouring. The pool below flashes, and in that instant, it turns to solid ice.
Caitlin pants, looking out at the clear sheet. The elves are in various states of animation down there, but they’re completely frozen solid. “Did you… kill them?” she asks.
“No, they’re still getting oxygen,” I say. “They’ll stay like that until we can get to the village and back.”
Caitlin gulps. “But… what about that cages down there and…”
“You mean the ones on top of the ice?” Ruby smirks. She points to the cages, each one lying above the ice with a scared elf inside.
“What… how…” Caitlin gasps. “They were below the ice level before!”
“Ruby thought of it,” I say. “This is a long ramp, and there’s a lot of cages – far too many to carry by hand. They had to get down there somehow, and the easiest way to move something, outside of wind magic, is water magic. But if they used water magic on them, they’d drown their occupants.”
Ruby nods. “That’s why they had to make the cages waterproof. They float.
Caitlin pants, not sure if she can buy that logic. “Well, if it works, it works,” she says. “But, now what?”
I smile. “We do the obvious thing and free the prisoners.”
---
“I don’t know how to thank you,” says King Gerald. The entire army of elves lines the path below the elven city, along with thousands of cheering citizens. “You didn’t only find our missing sisters, but you prevented what would have been a complete catastrophe for the village. We are eternally in your debt.”
The queen walks up to us. “I am authorized to give each of you a gift,” she says. “Name any one thing, and it will be yours.”
She looks at Caitlin first. “Sister, what would you like?”
Caitlin sighs. “I already told you what I wanted. There are at least a hundred forest elves we managed to rescue from Kairi’s ice prisons who’ve been dominated. I want you to promise me that you’ll dedicate as much manpower as you can to try and figure out how to save them from the dark elf domination.”
The queen laughs. “That’s no wish, Caitlin, as we will be doing it anyways. But, I can grant you something else should you wish for it.”
Caitlin folds her arm. “Very well then. If I can be selfish, how about removing that traitor label from me? You know, I would like to come home now and then and have some of the deep fried mutton.”
The queen checks back at the king, and he nods. “You’re no traitor, Caitlin,” he says. “You and your friends are heroes of the village. I lift the title ‘traitor’ from you, and you are welcome to stay here as long as you wish.”
Caitlin smiles. “Thanks, though I’m going to be travelling the world searching for a salvation for the dominated elves. You know I can’t stay in one place for long.”
The people laugh at that.
The queen then turns to Ruby. “Oh manaless one, you’ve shown us all that sometimes we rely too much on magic, and not enough of our cunning. Please, tell me the gift I can give you.”
Ruby casts her eyes aside. “You’ve already done me a big favor by having this ceremony on ground level instead of in the trees.”
Everyone bursts into laughter as Ruby turns red. “Oh, shut up!” she yells. “I’m not afraid, I… I just get surprised, that’s all.”
The queen smiles. “It’s all right,” she says. “But, do you have a true wish?”
Ruby kicks at the dirt. “Yeah, I do. Stop barring the manaless from your kingdom. We’re people too. In fact, let’s take that a bit further. Let all humans come in if they can prove themselves worthy. And let Kairi and I come and go at will without having to be tied up.”
The king laughs this time. “Very well, then, Ruby. Your wish is granted. You and your human friend can come and go at will.”
The queen then turns to me. “And you, Kairi. I don’t know what you might wish for, but your water magic really turned the tides for all of us. Please, state your gift and I’ll make it happen.”
I turn my eyes aside. “I don’t really have much,” I say. “You’ll be giving us our payment in the first place, right?”
The queen points to the several horses loaded with bags full of coin. “But that is what is required, not what is appreciated,” she says. “I am offering you a gift, not an obligation.”
I think back. “One of my favorite fairy tales was the Old Man and the Porcupine. I really liked its ending where the king and all the people bowed down to the heroes. Can I have that kind of ending?”
“Kairi!” gasps Caitlin. “Do you want to insult them or…”
The king chuckles. “Quite a brave little girl,” he says. “But, very well. If you’re brave enough to ask something like that, I’m humble enough to give it. Men, show our respects.”
And all the kingdom gets down on their knees. Immediately that wish comes back to bite me, as a wave of embarrassment flushes over me. How could I be so stupid? I don’t want attention, I want peace and quiet!
But, in the midst of my shock, a voice of the past comes back. I mumble, “When a manaless shall be granted leave in the kingdom, humans shall swarm in unopposed, and the elves shall bow down on their knees to them.”
The king looks up. “I guess the prophecy is fulfilled,” he affirms.
We head off from the village, our loot at hand, and smiles on all our faces. “Man, I can’t wait to see Ryuji!” laughs Ruby. “It’s been far too long since I could relax at home.”
“Oh, I thought you hated him,” I giggle.
Ruby grows red. “Of course I do! I’m going to shove all this money in his face!”
We turn down the path and trot on, joking and laughing the entire way.
“I should have asked for a new set of armor,” Ruby complains. “This dress makes me feel naked.”
I shrug. “The dark elves have scattered. We’re at no risk anymore.”
Caitlin gazes off. “I’m going to ride a bit ahead,” she says. “I think I see something up there.”
“See ya,” I say as she trots off.
Ruby moves in closer to me. “By the way, Kairi,” she says. “Did you think about Caitlin any?”
“Huh?” I ask. “What do you mean?”
“You know, how we were talking about her liking you as more that a friend. What do you think of her?”
I gulp. Before this trip, I would have given an outright no. But, when I thought about how she could have died there, and the emptiness in my heart… Did I like her? Did I not? Did I…
“I don’t know,” I finally say.
Ruby laughs. “Then we’ll leave it like that.” And we gallop off after Caitlin and towards the edge of the woods.
Fantasy Commission for :iconheavenandearth80: using their original characters. :) (Smile)
© 2017 - 2024 Meliran
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xxCantgetupwithaname's avatar
Is this finished now?
Because if it is, I'd like a sequel