Chapter 32 Melodia

About an hour later, the other three girls sat in one of the booths, processing what they heard. In front of them was Tina nodding with a friendly smile on her face. Between the humans were the four holders sitting on the table. Pickati was on Tina’s side, with the rest of them on the other.

“So magic’s was gone and now it’s coming back?” Claire asked as Tina nodded. Marvin sat in the other booth next to Arturo, trying to salvage one of his damaged dolls. Across from them was Clancy, who was doing something weird to my blood, and me, who was having something weird done to my blood.

At least I didn’t have to worry about my parents freaking out at my injuries. I’d take having to see my injuries healing on fast-forward over that any day.

We’d arrived at the café a while ago. It was supposed to be empty, but apparently Marvin had the key as well as an understanding with the owner. Not sure what the understanding could be, but I didn’t question it.

So far, we had mostly filled the other girls in on a bunch of stuff. Mostly the fact that other magi exist, who everyone was, as well as the starving time. Now with all of that done, we could finally get to the part where we got our own questions answered.

“So here’s my first question,” Pickati floated up until he was looking down at the six people in front of him. “Arturo and Melodia were kind enough to inform me of your lack of training schedule, could I ask why none of you are teaching these girls magic?”

“Well you see,” Sobeti came forward and gulped, the other two looking like they wanted to be anywhere but here, “after you disappeared, we decided teaching the girls magic was a bit too risky and they could get by with the spells they started with.”

“A theory that has already proven itself false,” Pickati interrupted with a growl as the rest of the holders let out scared squeaks.

“We also figured we were already asking them a lot with the whole doll fighting business, and it’d be best to let them live their lives as they wished. We had no wish to steal their childhoods.”

I saw something crack in Pickati’s eyes. Arturo didn’t even need to see them with the way his own eyes widened. He turned around so we could both lean in to see how this was going to go.

“You didn’t want to steal their childhoods?” I was pretty sure I’d never heard Pickati’s voice go that low and quiet before. Now I really needed to see how this would play out.

“Well they are just kids,” the hummingbird Vitati muttered. Pickati was in her face in the blink of an eye.

“They are just children. The reality of our situation meant we had no choice but to choose them as our soldiers. The least we can do is make sure we do everything in our power to make sure they make it to the other side of this in one piece,” Pickati’s volume had been steadily increasing the longer he spoke. He was almost shouting now. “You didn’t want to steal their childhoods? You know what else would steal their childhoods? Having them get crippled or even killed because they couldn’t fight at full strength!”

He dashed to the other side until he was in front of Melati. The little lizard gulped.

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“Melati, why is Claire limited to a slow mist? The concept of freeze should allow her to freeze things at a touch and even slow down time itself!”

He moved back to Vitati.

“Vitati, why can Rashell only move quickly and shoot air in burst. She should be creating wind blades, tornados, and even using air friction to create flames!”

Finally he turned back to the one in the center.

“And then there’s you Sobeti. Light magic is supposed to be one of the most powerful schools of magic in existence. It can break the rules of magic and reach heights other magic users can only dream of! And somehow the only thing Anna ever does is make shields and punch things!”

Pickati let out a huff, everyone backing away from him. He took a deep breath to collect himself before staring daggers at the other holders.

“You three will start training your girls in the magical arts, and they will be joining us on weekend training,” he sounded like he wasn’t giving them a choice in this. “Just because we have more allies now, doesn’t mean we don’t need the girls going at full power.”

“You need it more than you know,” Marvin cut in. We all looked over to him as he sighed and placed the doll down on the table. “I lost a lot of my dolls in the fight against Shatter. It’ll take me time to come back from the losses I took. To be honest, I’m not sure I can pull something like that off again. Not without becoming a doll mage with no dolls.”

“And most of my expertise is in making magical tools,” Tina added with an embarrassed smile. “They’re useful in certain situations, but I’m not exactly a frontline fighter.”

“And I already explained why my magic doesn’t help against them,” Clancy finished before looking back at my arm and giving it a light tap. “Looks like we’re done here. The rest of your injuries should heal up by the time you leave. You’ll feel really tired in a bit, but make sure you eat something before you go to sleep, and make sure to have a big breakfast tomorrow.”

“I think my point is made. So are we all clear?” The rest of the holders nodded.

“Hey don’t we get a say in this?” Anna said, Pickati floating over to her in an instant. She flinched back as he smiled.

“No.”

“Oh… I guess we’re learning magic girls,” she nervously chuckled as the other two nodded their heads. She started turning around as the rest of the girls started doing the same. I shrunk back, bracing myself for whatever she had ready for me.

“Looks like we’re all on the same side from now on,” she said as she reached her hand out for some reason. What… what was happening?

“I think she wants you to shake it Melodia,” if my brain was working better, I would’ve gotten mad at my traitor of a brother.

“Oh,” I said as I hesitantly reached out and took her hand. I gave it a weak shake, expecting something bad to happen any second now.

Instead she let go of my hand, just like that.

“You have trouble talking or something, don’t you?” Rashell added from the sidelines I felt the clouds parting over my head. Was this it? Was this the end of it? “I guess it kind of explains a lot about you. Actually it explains a lot.”

“She can talk, she’s just no good around new people,” my brother quickly corrected, “she should be able to talk to you normally in… how long ago did she become friends with Ray?”

“I’m not sure,” Pickati shrugged, “and we’re getting distracted. The point is that you will find Melodia to be quite the ally and maybe even friend if you give her the chance.”

We waited for Anna to answer only for her to stay silent. We all turned to her and saw her with her eyes wide open and staring ahead blankly. Almost like she was having a flashback to something.

“Oh my god,” She suddenly crouched down with her hands over her head. “All those times… It all makes sense now. I… I was the bad guy all along.”

I took a step back and glanced over at my brother, hoping for some sort of instruction on what to do. He shrugged and glanced over at Pickati who looked equally lost.

“Okay while Anna recovers from this,” Claire got out of her seat and walked up to me, “I guess it’s up to me to invite you to the team.”

“Ah yeah, all four guardians together at last,” Rashell cheered by pumping her fist into the air.

“It took us long enough,” Claire added with a more restrained smile.

“Guardians?” I asked, Anna still crouched down on the floor in front of me. There was something about the word that sounded right.

“Yeah, Guardians of the seal,” Claire explained. “It’s what Anna decided to call us. You joining?” She smiled as I glanced over at my brother. He was giving me thumbs up. Pickati gave me a quick nod before I looked back at her.

I took a deep breath and nodded.

“Okay.”