Chapter 11 - Among the Flowers, History

The Plaza was filled with new people by the time May had returned from her work in the now clean woods. From her privileged position among the trees on the left side 一 especially now that the left wing was little more than smoky rubble 一 May could see all three parts of the building complex, only having to turn her head to look at the helpers, knights and employees moving.

At the front of the central building 一 with the smaller houses and open buildings surrounding the lake and statue still emanating that tingling, rejuvenating energy May could feel even from here 一 volunteers walked around trying to assist the wounded and attendants of the Plaza. They carried supplies, helped take care of the wounded and even let some of the tired employees of The Brimming Plaza take a moment to breathe and begin to cope with what they had just experienced.

May saw more than one of the men and women wearing the business’s uniform crumple in tears after they managed to stop for a moment. The sound of their wailing as the weight of what had just happened to them settled in was a pained cry, choked and guttural as they fell to the floor and wept.

She couldn’t even begin to properly empathize with the loss of so many acquaintances at the same time. Watching one of the girls curl on the grass after a volunteer took a bundle of blood-stained cloth from her hands 一 the eyes frantic as the moment of inaction opened the floodgates of her feelings 一 May’s mind went back to the remnants she had organized and scrapped off behind her.

How many of them were friends with the still living? How many were family members of the ones left behind? She didn’t know how to act in the face of so much untampered grief, so May closed her eyes for a moment and moved on.

The young doll and servant knew there was little she could do to the already lost; her first lesson about her Gift was her inability to bring back the dead after all.

Eyes moving to watch the remains of the building and its walls, it was a sigh of relief that May saw the strong and working knights in their purple armor. Many moved the earth with either Gift or spell in a display that left the mana in the air thrumming with energy, and it all worked.

The sight of different races moving the heavy bricks under the pointed fingers of their colleagues 一 who seemed to be able to detect what was beneath the destruction 一 and carrying body after body out of the dust, left May relieved.

They worked well and almost silently. Respectful to the losses that occurred here. It was a sight so moving that May almost forgave them for their slow response to the attack.

Almost being the key word here. Incompetence, if it was the true cause of their delay, should be punished.

Nevertheless, they kept on working, and May had the privilege to watch as they seemed to find the first survivor under the destruction. A man 一 wearing the colors of the Plaza 一 unconscious for now, but definitely breathing.

It wasn’t with loud cheers that he was saved, however. The joy of the first survivor was present in every person seeing the rescue, but it was a contained, almost melancholic version of happiness. To May, it appeared more like a sigh of relief.

Her eyes moved again, this time taking in the last of the three parts of the Plaza she could see from here: the garden. For a place she had fought, planned and was humbled on, the flowers and bushes looked particularly dull.

No animals walked the grass now 一 those that hadn’t become Kreacher’s new bodies had fled deep among the trees during the combat, and it was unknown if they would ever return 一 and the slight fog that had blanketed the area had faded entirely under the summer sun.

May was even beginning to sweat under her clothing, the scorching rays of the morning making her skin clammy as the body she wore tried to regulate its temperature. The biological process, however, was stopped by a mental order May gave to her Ability, using the information provided by the whispers early on to try and figure out how far Control affected her fleshy body.

And, by the way she felt the skin tightening as it responded to her order of ‘no more sweat’, the versatility of [Skin Walking] seemed even larger than expected.

She began walking towards the remnants of a flower bed, back turned to the death and wounds in the manor. It was exhausting to watch all that pain in their faces, and her inability to do anything to help made her heart ache.

So May chose not to see it. A conscious effort on her part as her empathy 一 that crumpled, broken emotion her feelings were still able to produce 一 demanded she saw the destruction. It ached inside her chest, wanting to be seen, to be engaged.

But May was good at ignoring intrusive requests. She had been doing it for months now.

She hugged herself, unconsciously, as she looked closer at the disturbed garden. Hibiscus, camellias and orchids, with their stems broken and petals on the grass 一 dead; victims to the fallout.

May didn’t walk deeper to see the scars the battle and her plans had left on the earth. Consequences she didn’t think about when plotting the demise of her enemy.

It was worth it. That was a certainty for her. But… May still wished it wasn’t necessary.

Her musings were cut short when she saw Bel-Alis enter the garden from the glass door. Kreacher on her shoulder, inhabiting their new lizard body as if it were theirs all along.

The doll in human skin didn’t engage. Not yet. She watched from her place among the bushes and flowers and decided she would do it all again if necessary. This was the type of plan that she would need to make if she wanted to protect Hector.

Bel-Alis noticed her and waved, free hand moving as the other held her cane in place. Kreacher, from their place on the woman’s shoulder, seemed to say something to which the Priestess laughed at.

May looked… and gave a smile of her own back. And with every step she took towards them, after all the trouble earlier, she didn’t feel so alone anymore.

***

“Is that blood on your pants, youngster?”

Kreacher examined her from head to toe, slitted pupils checking May with veiled concern.

“Ah, this? I was cleaning the… remains.” May pointed back at the trees she and Kreacher had first seen the bodies, and the lizard nodded, understanding. Bel-Alis, however, frowned.

“Bodies? There are more of them?”

“Not entire ones, no,” May said. “But there are many parts. I was going to tell Madam Leticia about them later.”

“That’s… gruesome, to say the least.” The Priestess shivered. “But it’s good that you’re helping out, May. Leticia will appreciate it, I’m certain. Did you find anything interesting with them? Maybe some armor?”

“Armor? Not really. There were some accessories, but nothing like that.”

The question was a little weird to May, but she labeled it as curiosity from the woman. Alis could be odd like that, she believed.

“Humm. Is that so?” The woman hummed, thinking and leaving May and Kreacher in the dark. The lizard, when she gave them a questioning look, only raised their front paws in what looked similar to the reptilian version of a shrug.

The Priestess shook the thoughts out of her head, the small smile she always wore returning with an intensity that made May waver. “There’s something more I have to say, isn’t there? To the both of you in fact.”

May had the time to tilt her head before Alis hugged her so tight she had trouble moving. The action took her by enough surprise that May squealed against Alis’s stomach, feeling the fabric of her clothes covering her face.

“Thank you so much for saving me earlier! I was so scared seeing the both of you run to that woman, but you guys had a plan all of your own, didn’t you?” The Priestess squeezed tighter and May nodded as well as she could, embarrassed.

Bel-Alis kept on showering them in thanks, and Kreacher even got a kiss on top of their scaly head, before she released May 一 red-faced and with her hair all over the place.

All that care at the hands of Cathy and Miranda had long become for naught.

“W-well 一 there’s no n-need for thanks… Um, anyone would do the same, right?” May said, stumbling through the words even if she did feel some pride in her plan and execution. Something about having someone grateful for her, made May’s throat itch in embarrassment.

“No need to be humble, May! Leticia will definitely thank you as well.” Bel-Alis said and May dreaded the idea of another session of professed thanks. The hugs were… all right at least.

She wouldn’t mind another later on.

Nevertheless, May brought another topic up for now.

“What are you two doing here, though? Shouldn’t you be helping the knights?” May asked, feeling the warmth on her cheeks receding.

“We’ve found the illusion source.” Kreacher said, puffing their scaly chest.

“And I’ve talked to them already. But they’re… cagey about what they know, so I’m going to investigate it myself. You in?”

Bel-Alis didn’t need to ask twice. May nodded, feeling that a little subterfuge and investigation was just what she needed to take her mind off the earlier events.

The Priestess smiled and resumed her walking, followed by the two stormtouched.

“Alis, can you tell me about them? The ones that attacked you?” May finally inquired, wanting to know more. Bel-Alis thought for a second, face grim, before clearing her throat.

“There’s little to know about them, May. They are extremists. Gifted extremists.” The Priestess remembered the woman’s cruelty and disdain towards her, and couldn’t help but pause. “Organizations such as theirs are known to every Faithful.”

“Why though?” Kreacher asked, tail pointing forward as they focused on both the conversation and on guiding them to the artifact.

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“I’ve studied them growing up. In fact, I believe every place where many of the Faithful unite usually know the stories. They hunt us down, destroy our places of worship, cull our influence both economically and politically.” The Priestess licked her lips, reminiscing. “Why would they do that? If I’m correct, the reason depends on the organization. Some believe the Gift is the only true Path, and therefore they are superior to all races. Others act like that woman did, claiming to be in a mission to reap all Faithful from the land.”

Alis’s words gave place to silence as the trio walked into the woods at the back of the garden, following Kreacher. In the meantime, May considered what she was told.

“It doesn’t matter then.” The doll realized.

“What doesn’t matter?” Bel-Alis asked, moving a stray branch out of her path.

“The reason why they do it, I mean. They’re just… hateful.”

“And is hatred not a good enough reason to act? Don’t get me wrong, they are harmful to everyone 一 and their actions usually don’t consider innocent lives at all 一 but I’d still like to know where all these ideas of superiority are coming from.”

“And let them run free all the while? That doesn’t make sense.” May said, appalled by the idea of letting a threat run free to satisfy some curiosity. There should be no space for mercy against plotters against her Master.

“Ha. Perhaps it doesn’t make logical sense… but I’d still do it all the same.” The Priestess admitted, almost embarrassed under the wide-eyed judgmental look May was giving her. “I just 一 want to know things.”

Their conversation was cut short when Kreacher tied his tail around Alis’s neck, ceasing to indicate the way.

“We are here.” The iguana said, tongue flicking as May saw the artifact for the first time, and she couldn’t help but be disappointed.

When Kreacher had first said the woman they fought against was carrying a metallic artifact, she was expecting something… more. What they got to see, instead, was a strange, thin metal pole as tall as May was, embedded into the soft earth of the area and buzzing lightly.

The only thing that made it look at least a little bit cooler, according to May’s opinion, was the fascinating amount of runes carved on the surface of the artifact. A careful array of drawings grabbed her entire focus as she saw it.

“This is it,” Bel-Alis whispered, brows high as she stared at the impressive work of enchantment.

Ignorant of it all, May walked closer to the pole, but Bel-Alis’s hand stopped her.

“Don’t touch it. Nobody touches it, all right?”

“What is it?” May asked, feeling the mana in the air pulse every few seconds, the pole doing something to it.

“A generator. And converter. Can you see the runes at the bottom? Those are gathering-runes 一 they pull the mana from the air and use it to charge the array.” Bel-Alis explained, entranced by the sophistication of the symbols.

“Can we use it?” Kreacher asked, finally, before the Priestess lost herself too much.

“No. I think… I think it’s a single-use device.” Bel-Alis walked around the pole, inspecting the carvings on its cylindrical surface. “Here! There’s a lock-array. This will only function with the mana of its enchanter 一 there should be a reservoir for it inside, but it’s… waning.”

May listened and pointed at the artifact, clinging to the words at the end. “So it will stop functioning?”

“Hum? Oh, definitely. Maybe in an hour if I’m reading the pulses correctly.” Bel-Alis said, fingers twitching around her cane. “But this is good. Better than expected, really. It should work a lot more with their mana in it.”

“What are you going to do, Bel-Alis? You didn’t explain to us.”

“Ah. Well, guys, we are going on a slight trip.” The Priestess’s grin was absolute, eyes twinkling with mischief. “Down the river of time itself. You ready?”

May looked at Kreacher and both of them sighed. They at least understood that the woman’s ability to talk as if everything was a secret could be useful sometimes, but it made it difficult to learn certain things.

“You know what? Sure.” May took the Priestess's outstretched hand and the woman smiled. Kreacher only tied their tail tighter around the woman’s neck.

The Priestess's smile turned to the artifact, and May could see the darkness occupying the place where her eyes should be expanding. It grew and flowed around her face like a black cloud as Bel-Alis focused on whatever she was doing.

At the exact time, Bel-Alis had focused enough to add May and Kreacher to the effects of her Ability, the words spilled from her lips, unprompted.

“[History Before My Eyes]!”

And the trio felt the world shift.

***

May stood in a large room, filled to the brim with different tools and blueprints. Glowing crystals stood on top of the multiple workbenches dispersed around the space, along with multiple unfinished workings. At one of the tables, sitting on a stool able to support its hunched form, a man she had seen before worked with concentration.

No. She was mistaken. The man that attacked the Plaza had dark green skin 一 and although both of them resembled humanoid frogs, their long, webbed fingers being a testament to that 一 this one was of a deep brown, with splotches of even darker color all over his slimy body.

Not only that, but he didn’t wear the mixed armor of leather and metal May had seen, but a comfortable cotton shirt and leather pants, covered by a leather apron that seemed to be for protection. That and the large goggles that made the frog man’s eyes comically large as he slowly carved something on a plate.

“Where are we?” May heard Kreacher asking, and she remembered what they were doing. This was Bel-Alis’s Ability.

“I don’t know…” Bel-Alis admitted, before slowly walking towards the large window at the back of the room, and May realized they were incredibly high. As she looked from the windowsill with the Priestess, the doll saw they definitely were in a city. A tight area that grew upwards in towers and buildings, instead of the sprawling Crystalia.

The city seemed to be surrounded by mountains, some of them so tall that May watched with her mouth agape. There were even a few with smoke coming out of their peaks, and May remembered one of the children’s books she had read before. Those were volcanoes.

Between the mountains 一 as vegetation seemed so sparse around here it was almost absent 一 May watched a scenery never before seen by her. Endless blue stretched beyond the valleys and rocks, water so abundant it seemed almost fantastical.

The sight made Bel-Alis swear under her breath. “I was right. Shit, I was right!”

Kreacher looked at their friend's slow freak-out and slapped his tail across her nape. “Again, Alis. Where are we?”

“This is Pirian. The Choked City itself. This is where they came from.” The Priestess said, turning around to look for something inside the room. She gave an aha! after a little while, pointing at something resting against the wall.

The very same metal pole they had found at The Brimming Plaza. Its runes were still incomplete in their carving.

“I’ve… I’ve heard of it before.” May said, remembering the time she had spent listening to the conversations in that bar in the slums. The Wet Falcon. “Something about… twins?”

Bel-Alis bit her lips, frantically looking around. “Don’t know about twins, May, but this is… concerning already. Although it makes sense they would come here. If they tried to land on the harbor of Rosemia, they would have been blown to smithereens.”

“So they are occupying a city on the 一 coast? Is that it?”

“Not occupying.” The woman cleared her throat before explaining, looking at a few papers on top of the desks. Bel-Alis was unable to move them, the trio existing only in the most astral of forms inside the vision, but she read what she could.

“A few years back, soon after I arrived in Ethios, there were some reports about Pirian. You see, the city is at the eastern coast of Asden 一 beyond the Ashen Plains even 一 and they lack in water. No river from the jungle gets this far, and the volcanoes make any aquifer below undrinkable without a costly process.”

May listened to the woman intently, noticing that Kreacher was also paying rapt attention.

“The problem is, a few months earlier, the Governor stopped paying the deal that grants them drinkable water. Weird, right? How would the population live without anything to drink?” Bel-Alis questioned in that lecturing tone of hers. It was something that always made the impromptu lessons more dynamic in May’s opinion. “So what were they doing?”

The doll considered the possibilities, but none fit. There was the sea… but she had heard stories of its salty waters, so they should be undrinkable. In the end, May shrugged.

“A water mage. That’s what the reports said. Cas-Inar managed to find one of them at the time, after the palace sent an envoy.”

“And they were able to support the whole city?” Kreacher asked, more astounded than May who lacked the repertory to fully understand the problem.

“No, not at all. Pirian had always a very strong presence from the Tearful Woman. Her Faithful being able to produce water and rain and all that. But this new person brought technology with them. Sopan technology.”

“Sopan?” May questioned the unknown word.

As a response, Bel-Alis pointed to the frog man in front of them. “Sopans. Amphibious people from the swamps of Freiniard. Known for having incredible hydromancers on pair with sirens from the deep. And a history of hatred against the Faithful in their communities.”

“You think the water mage is one of them? An extremist?” May said, finally understanding.

“Oh, most definitely. I think whoever it is, it has started the slow process of expanding power in the city completely unseen. And now? Now they’re expanding their reach.” Bel-Alis said, thinking back at the human and goblin that were following the sopan that attacked the Plaza. Those were probably new agents, considering they were not as strong as their leader. Maybe they’ve been getting new people from Freiniard, now that their influence has grown enough?

May, in the meantime, considered something else. If they have been growing their influence against the Faithful far from Pirian, then what happened to the ones there?

The Priestess bit her lip and turned back to the pole. Besides it, one of the tables carried multiple diagrams depicting the construction and prototypes of the runes to be used. And not only of the pole, but other items as well: one that fairly resembled a sword and other which was… spherical and multifaceted. Bel-Alis studied them quickly, hoping her memory would be enough to hold the knowledge for as long as necessary until she saw a glimpse of a tight formation in one of the pages.

“Well… this is bad.” She whispered and Kreacher sighed in defeat at her tone.

“It gets worse?” Bot lizard and doll asked, simultaneously, trying to see what in the diagrams prompted the response. May approached from her quiet observation of the frog man, curious about his biology.

If she threw salt at him, would he choke like the smaller frogs? She had seen some children doing it once and it was… quite funny to watch them squirm and jump along the floor.

Brutal. Abuse. Animals. Wicked. The whispers said from their place, voices a little disgusted by her line of thought.

“Oh, please. It could be useful knowledge! We never know when we will face them again.”

Focus turning to the Priestess as she began to explain what she had seen, May saw Bel-Alis point at one of the runic prototypes at the diagram for both the pole and the sphere.

“You see this? Energy, accumulation, attack, mana, finish…” The woman read some of the symbols scribbled down by the sopan man. “I can’t read the others 一 I think they are higher concepts. But… this is a self-detonation array.”

Bel-Alis stared at the other runes, trying to comprehend their meaning, but they hurt her brain to stare at. Instead, she focused on only one: two sets of what she found similar to ribs 一 one on top of the inverted other 一 forming the vague shape on an hourglass. Hunger.

Kreacher slapped the back of her head with their tail, and the woman returned suddenly, her stomach aching. May looked at the scene uncomprehending but chose not to dwell on it.

“We should leave then.” The doll said, thinking back at the location they were physically in.

“I-indeed.” Bel-Alis admitted. “Let’s return, we got what we needed. And I think we can get something even better with this secret.”

With a twist of the Priestess’s hands, the world shifted.

***

When their minds returned from Bel-Alis’s Ability, the trio remained standing in their previous positions, but for only a moment as the Priestess of History knelt under the expenditure of her own mana.

May barely had time to react, trying to stop the woman from falling completely. Kreacher left Alis’s shoulder for May’s, trying not to weigh the woman’s body even more.

“Sorry 一 can’t feel the mana while using it.” Bel-Alis shook her head, taking deep breath after deep breath. “Makes for a nasty self-made trap, doesn’t it?”

“You tell me about it, Alis.” The lizard said, concerned. “You should be more careful. Bringing us with you can’t have been cheap.”

“It was worth it, though.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s talk about it later, alright?” May side-eyed the artifact and remembered Bel-Alis’s analysis of its self-destructive properties. “Preferentially from a place where we don’t have the risk of being blown up. We’ve just survived one explosion this morning.”

“Ha. It’s alright, May. It will only self-destruct when its mana ends.” The Priestess concentrated, trying to feel the pulses of illusion mana coming from the artifact. “We have half an hour at least.”

Kreacher stopped flicking their tongue at the air for a moment. “Half an hour? How long did we spend in the vision?”

“I think times flow differently there.” Bel-Alis answered, and sighed soon after. “Abilities really should come with descriptions.”

The trio began to distance themselves from the structure, May walking in front. “There isn’t a book with all of them?” The doll asked, expecting the Priestess to have access to such knowledge.

“Hum? No, not really. I think we tried it once… but it didn’t work out.” Alis said, thinking back at her classes. “Anyway, no one talks about what we saw, alright?”

“It would help them, Alis.” Kreacher countered, looking at the Priestess, who only gave a smile back.

“Maybe if they didn’t already know we would. But I believe the palace 一 and the Order are aware of what’s going on. And we need it to remain a secret.”

May shook her head. “Why?”

“Secrets can be traded.” The Priestess of History said, simply. Although she mumbled soon after. “We're gonna have to wait for the right moon, though."

As Bel-Alis got up, the trio returned to the manor and their work, new information shared among them.

May could only hope no one would walk into the woods when the artifact exploded.