I vaguely feel like I'm asleep for some time. The nightmares come, but I can't even focus on them. They float by as nothing but hazy feelings of terror and pain. They just don't really bother me that much.
Eventually, my eyes flutter open. I'm so drowsy, I wobble up to sit. Where am I? I gaze around in a stupor. There are armored men everywhere. Guards... am I in the garrison?
"Hey, it looks like you're up," one of the guards says as he walks over. He looks... kind of... oldish I guess...?
"What... what time is it? What day is it?" I ask vaguely. "How did I get here?" I put a hand to my head as I think, slowly dragging the memories from my heavy brain. "That's right, we were running from those kidnappers..." I shake myself more awake. "All the kids got away, right?"
"Yeah, they're all safe. Thanks to you, from the sound of it." Thinking more clearly, I look at him again. A bit old with black hair and shiny armor.
"That's great, I'm so glad they're fine..." I just feel relieved for a bit, before I think to look around. "They're not here anymore?"
"No, you've been asleep for a while. We had some guards take them home to their parents," he says.
"That's good." I nod happily. My head is still foggy, but it's starting to clear bit by bit.
"What about you? The other kids didn't want to say anything about you except that you saved them." He shakes his head with a shrug.
"So they didn't tell anyone about me?" I ask, immediately waking up more as my heart rate spikes. They didn't tell everyone I'm a rail unit?
"I don't know, they just ran in here shouting that there were kidnappers trying to take someone away. You were barely standing when we got there. Honestly, I'm amazed a kid like you could stay up with injuries like that." He rubs his chin. "I'm surprised anyone could take injuries like that..." He finishes by gesturing to me and I finally look down at myself. It seems that they stripped my clothes off and wrapped me in bandages all over. My arms, legs, chest, and there's even one around my head.
"These were the worst though," he looks to the knife wounds on my arms. "Parts of the knives were still embedded in the bone and we couldn't get them out entirely when we tried. The metal was too soft and the bones seemed to be encasing the metal already. Never seen that before. I can't tell you what'll happen, but we treated the wounds for now. Just pray they don't get infected," he shakes his head.
I gaze down at the bandages on my forearms. I think I can still feel the bit of metal in my right forearm, just below the wrist, and the left, near the middle. I can just barely sense it, but I can't seem to control the mana around them. In fact, I push and pull a bit, finding none of the mana around the bandages responding properly.
"What...did you treat these bandages with? I can't control my mana properly..." I say. Crap! It's only after I say that, that I realize just how much earth mana there still is inside me. I can't talk to them like this, I'll tell them everything!
"Huh?" he doesn't seem to understand.
"Sorry, nevermind! I hit my head really bad so I can't think too straight right now." I lie back down in bed, trying to signal that I'm really tired. I have to cut off my questions there, I can't talk about that topic right now. Unfortunately, he doesn't really take the hint and continues talking to me.
"Well, we wanted to take a statement as soon as we could. First, what is your name?"
"Aria," I say simply.
"Do you think you can tell us about the men who tried to kidnap you? Just try to remember anything you can."
That's a safe question, so I just let all of the information out. "There were three men. The first had black hair and a black beard. He seemed to be the leader. He has four slashing wounds on his legs, one on his the right side of his waist, four on his left arm, two on his right arm, and a stab wound on his left hand." The guard blinks rapidly a few times.
"O-ok... I'm assuming... no, nevermind." He shakes his head. "Continue."
"The second man is very tall. Kind of thin and lanky looking. I think he has brown hair?" I mentally kick myself, they taught us better than that for getting physical descriptions for reports. "He has two slashing wounds on his left arm, his right arm is broken at the elbow, and he probably has some broken teeth." The guard appears uncomfortable as I describe the men. They were really awful... "The last is very short. He is bald, very heavyset with big muscular arms. He has four slash wounds on his legs, one in his side, two on his right arm, and a pretty deep puncture wound in his left shoulder."
"A puncture wound?" he asks with a confused look.
"From a door hinge pin." Is this really relevant?
"A what?" I start to search for them to explain, but remember they took off my robe.
"I had them in my robe," I say, still looking around. He goes over and grabs it from somewhere nearby. It's completely soaked in dried blood, most of it probably mine. I don't... think I feel anemic from blood loss...? It's hard to say, it's one of the few injuries I'm not as familiar with.
In any case, I guess I'll have to wash my clothes again. I search through them for a few moments. It's really hard to move my arms. They're shaking and burning from the wounds and abuse I put them through. Then I find and draw out the pin. Just holding it between my fingers is difficult.
"Oh, you were holding one of those when we found you..." he mutters. "You used this to injure an adult man?" He looks understandably skeptical. I didn't expect to injure him either.
"Well, I only meant to stun him, but it turned out to be a lot more effective than I thought it would be," I shrug.
"Sorry, I don't get it," he shakes his head. "How did you injure a man with a thing like this?"
"I used my-" I barely manage to force overly honest self to change directions, "knowledge of weird metal interactions. It's kind of complicated and hard to explain." He just folds his arms, showing that he won't be denied.
I have no idea if he'll understand, but I can't stop myself from explaining anyway. "Ok, so basically, there are some metals with Up and Down ends that attract opposite types and repel same types, so I used that to create a powerful repelling force to launch it at him. I figured it would stun him long enough to get open a path for the kids, but it was a lot more effective than I expected, and it pierced into his shoulder."
"Uhhhh..." he clearly doesn't understand anything I just described. "Honestly, that kind of sounds like made up nonsense... If you just don't want to tell me, I get it."
"Well, I guess you can kind of say it's made up," I reflexively try to scratch my head, but can't really lift my arm up enough, so I let it fall awkwardly, unsure how to really explain. "I came up with the words myself since I couldn't think of any better way to describe it..."
"I don't follow." He shakes his head slightly.
"Well, I guess the easiest way is to see it." I glance around, but what I need is right in front of me. "Here," I shakily attach the pin to his breastplate and it stays there when I let go. "It's basically like this," I say.
"W-what?" He stares dumbfounded at the pin sticking to his armor all on its own. "How?"
"I don't know how it works, but I figured out how to make use of it. I came up with the words to describe it myself since I've never heard of it before." I shrug and remove the pin. Judging by the look on his face, this isn't common knowledge? Or at least this guard doesn't know about this. Maybe I should ask someone who knows more about metal, like Gremory.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The guard clears his throat, trying to get back on topic. "Ok, I've gotten your description of the kidnappers. Next, could you explain how you escaped from them? The other children didn't really seem able to explain it."
"They trapped us in a little room. So we took the pins out of the door hinges to knock the door down." I easily explain. "That's how I got the hinge pins in the first place."
"I see..." He doesn't ask, but probably just assumes I used the same metal interactions to accomplish that.
"Next, can you tell us about your parents? Where do you live?"
"I don't have any parents, I live at the orphanage." I explain, silently thanking those kids for not telling them I'm a rail unit.
"Alright. That's everything we need for our report. We'll have a guard take you back home, sound good?" I don't know why he's asking, it doesn't really feel like I have a choice.
"Yes, thank you for the help." I say. Then I realize I haven't properly thanked him yet. "Also, thank you for saving me from those men. I wouldn't have been able to get away on my own." I bow in deep gratitude, though it makes my whole chest throb.
"Just doing our jobs," he chuckles.
"Umm, I don't suppose I can take any of those metal things with me, can I?" It's worth asking at least. Those metals are incredibly useful.
"We're holding onto the knives so we can look into where they came from. I guess you can keep that other... door hinge you called it?"
"Yeah." Close enough. "Thanks a lot." He walks into another area. While I wait, I struggle back into my robe. Now that I'm doing more than just moving my arms a little, I realize just how sore I am everywhere. Really sore, like falling in the river sore. Even if using my mana can make me stronger, it looks like I might end up destroying my body in the process... Then he returns with the pin a little while later.
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The guard looks around, just as another man walks into the barracks. He calls the man over. "Hey, you're late. Take this kid home." The guard quickly runs over, adjusting his armor as he approaches. He starts introducing himself nervously.
"Hey, I'm Trent, I'll help get you home," He looks really young for a guard too. Fifteen maybe? That makes him an adult, right?
"Thanks a lot, Trent. My name is Aria."
I check that I have everything. Two scraps of cloth, a tin ball, a bit of rust, three nails, and two hinge pins. And I still have that nuvrite coin, I never got a chance to give that back to Aiden. It's kind of hard to hold it all in the folds of my robe, I'm worried some of it will come loose and fall out at some point. I need a better way of carrying things. I briefly glance around. It looks like the guards here attach things to their belts. That might help.
For now, I get down from the counter or table, or whatever it is they used as a bed for me. I'm not too surprised when my legs nearly give out under my own weight. I put my entire body through so much abuse today, it's a wonder I can stand at all. My head spins and I catch myself on the side of the bed and I try not to use any of my mana as I grit my teeth and straighten up. I don't know exactly how it makes me stronger, and I don't want to hurt myself any more than I already have. Trent raises an eyebrow at my hesitation, so I start walking.
I walk on wobbling legs out of the barracks. It feels like they're on fire. As soon as we're outside, I look all around to memorize the location. Finding this building was the whole reason I got into this mess to begin with.
Of course, I've been forced to recklessly figure out so many things today to escape the kidnappers, I think I already learned everything I intended to ask Francis tomorrow anyway.
I pay close attention to the couple turns we take to reach the main street so I can get back there in the future. Then Trent stops ahead of me. When I reach the street after him, I begin heading north, and he quickly moves along with me. I look up once we're in the wide open street. Even though it's really hard to walk, looking up at the bright moon overhead is nice. It's high up in the sky, so it's probably pretty late at night. I think it's called a full moon when it's a full circle like it is tonight. I don't see the other, smaller moon though. Is this the night when that one doesn't light up at all?
I can't wait to get back and see Emily again. No matter what, I have to apologize. It's going to take a while walking like this though. Even as he matches my slow pace, my legs feel like they're wearing down quickly. They burn worse and worse as I go. I need to rest tomorrow. Especially with all the injuries I have everywhere. Wait, when we get back to the orphanage, am I going to have to explain missing curfew to Mister Fredricson? I'm sure he'll understand that I got kidnapped... right? But even then, I still have way too much earth mana. I have no idea what information I'll let slip. I have to convert as much as I can before we get there. Not to mention, the bandages all over my body are interfering with my mana. Or maybe it's the injuries themselves? But the injuries weren't a problem when I was in combat, so...? I don't know enough to go anywhere with the thought. I never was aware of my mana enough to say exactly how it acted around injuries before.
Even so, I get to work, forcing as much earth mana apart as I can, mixing it in with colorless mana, and slowly getting it to integrate again. I can only break up so much, and split my attention so many ways, but I'm definitely getting better at holding a whole bunch of little pieces of mana at once. But my head is spinning and it's hard to focus through the pain, so the process is very slow. Just controlling the mana is tiring.
I keep walking slower and slower, I can't keep this up. I've only made it three blocks from the barracks, but my feet are dragging along the ground, the pain is blinding and I can't even lift them. I can't go any further. Trent passes me, then stops, looking back curiously. "Is there something wrong?" he asks.
"I'm sorry, I don't think... I can walk any further," I pant. I slowly sink to a knee. My injuries from overworking them with my mana and forcing myself to keep fighting are even worse than I realized. They won't support my weight anymore. It feels like I've shredded all of the muscles in my legs. I did use my mana a lot more in my legs than my arms while running and fighting, and I did a lot of things that pushed me too far, like throwing that man.
"Oh, you're tired," Trent chuckles. "It is really late for such a little kid. Let's get you home and in bed." He scoops me up in his arms, starting to continue north. "So where do you live?"
"The orphanage."
"The orphanage?" He asks for some reason.
"Yes, the orphanage." I don't understand the question. My head feels funny. Everything hurts and I'm still using most of my attention to work on converting earth mana. And I'm really, really tired. Even after getting some sleep, I'm exhausted from fighting so hard.
Trent begins carrying me north. "So, what brought you to the barracks tonight? Looks like you bumped your head?" It seems like he's trying to make small talk. Doesn't he see my robe? Oh, the whole thing is dark brown, he might not realize it's all dried blood...
"That's right, you weren't there earlier, so I guess you didn't hear," It seems I'm still saying most of what I think. "A bunch of kids got kidnapped, but we got away. I got hurt pretty badly though." I pull up the sleeve of my robe so he can see the bloody red bandages wrapped around my arm. Wait, is the wound still bleeding?
"Oh?" He looks shocked and it seems like he doesn't know what else to say in response. I can see his eyes go over me more attentively now, noticing how there is the color of my robe and realizing what it means. "You escaped from kidnappers all on your own? That's really impressive."
I shake my head. "The kids got away and called the guards. They saved me from the men. I wasn't strong enough." My head falls back in his arms. Just talking is too tiring. "There were only three," I mumble, "and they weren't even that strong. I'm just too weak..." It's hard to focus. My breathing seems shallow as I stare up at the bright full moon. I think I'm losing consciousness? It's kind of hard to tell. The pain just keeps getting worse.
At some point, we arrive at the orphanage. Trent knocks on the door. It doesn't take long for the door to open. "Hello sir, sorry to bother you at this time of night," Trent says.
"What happened?" Mister Fredricson sounds both worried and annoyed.
"Some kids were kidnapped. They escaped from the kidnappers, but this one got pretty hurt. I'm not too clear on the details, but she said that the other kids called the guards, so I guess she got caught when escaping. Probably how she got all banged up."
"I see. Thank you for your work," Trent hands me to Mister Fredricson, then the door closes. He looks down at me while holding me in his arms. "Hmm..." He mutters. My vision is so blurry I can't tell what kind of expression he's making.
"I'm sorry Mister Fredricson..." Speaking makes my chest hurt. "I missed curfew."
"Yes, you did."
"I got the cloth to pay you back though." I shakily reach into my robe and withdraw the scrap of cloth I bought today.
"Uh huh..." He takes the cloth and sets me down on the floor. "Just go to bed for now," he dismisses me. I crumple to my hands and knees. The pain redoubles, shocking me awake somewhat. I groan, gritting my teeth.
"Understood," I can hardly growl the word through my clenched teeth. It’s a struggle just to move, but I force myself forward anyway. My legs can't hold my weight, so I have to crawl.
"Come on, you're not that badly injured, are you?" He grabs me by the arm, picking me up. A strangled cry escapes my lips and my eyes roll back as he squeezes directly on the knife wound in my right arm while holding me. He drops me immediately, flinching away. I land flat on my back, the hit sending waves of pain jolting through every part of my body. Even living with the rail units, I never suffered injuries this extensive, not all at once. I also never fought so hard, or kept standing through so many beatings, so I shouldn't be surprised.
Nothing is broken, but this level of pain is more than I can take. I roll, unable to really control myself, with my vision fading in and out. I gasp a few times, unable to breath right. I think my lungs are bruised.
I'm only vaguely aware of Mister Fredricson stripping my robe off through the pain as I slip in and out of consciousness. The next thing I know, I'm being carried again. Then I'm lying down somewhere. I feel like I'm comfortable, but at the same time being set on fire. But... also somehow happy at the way everything turned out? I don't really get it. I think I'm asleep. Am I asleep? There are nightmares, but they seem distant and it's hard to feel scared. I'm just sort of happy. Even though I'm scared? I can't comprehend anything clearly. The vague, happy, scary, painful sleep continues for some unknown length of time.