Chapter Nine: Wonder’s Flight

Wonder was never a particularly brave girl, in fact she was downright terrified of most dangerous things. Even when the Guardian Hearts had been a complete team of seven people she had been too scared to go into most encounters against monsters and the like. She only had two schools of magic, and out of them only one of them the only good one was not meant for combat.

So when she was faced there with three different monstrous humans, each one looking more terrible then the last, she found herself facing off against the fear all by her lonesome. Yet even with her failing in the past, there was a reason that Wonder too had become a guardian. She always had one thing up her sleeve that nobody else did; she had hope.

Nightshade was moving ever so slightly faster then before, with those long legs it wasn’t hard. “Oh sweetheart, you weren’t thinking about running now were you? You know it wouldn’t work out for you at all. And if you ran I couldn’t promise that I could contain myself from capturing you and… having some fun.”

Wonder had already sent enough magic into her wand to perform the simple spell. Fear might have collected into her very being, but she took that fear and pumped it into the spell to give it an extra amount of oomph. With everything she had she activated the most useful spell she had right then.

Wonder crouched down into a ball and wet herself.

Ngithshade flapped her wings and leapt back a few feet at the display of total cowardice. “Oh my, I hadn’t meant to go quite that far. Quite unappetizing now, aren’t you. Oh well, I’m sure I can find someone else to delight myself with.” Nightshade looked back at her two friends. “Noct, your big and noisy, keep an eye on the girl.”

Noct looked over at her and nodded.

Mind Sliver slithered over to the edge, his body moving in a very awkward fashion that made him look like he was unstable on those feet. The voice he had was horse and came out more like a deathly whisper than anything else. “I can feel only a handful more of them inside. I could call some of my friends to entertain them.”

Nightshade shook her head. “No, we will take them by surprise. Right now they have no idea that we are here.”

Mind Sliver hissed. “I will wait… for a little while.”

Nightshade jumped up onto the ramparts and spread her wings. “Meanwhile I’ll go make sure that nobody is going to surprise us.”

Mind Sliver interlocked his knuckles together. “Then I’ll keep an eye on things.”

Nightshade leapt off the castle wall and into the air. She began slowly circling the castle walls. Meanwhile Noct stared down at Wonder. “You stay.”

Mind Sliver didn’t look sideways but he nodded. “Or else we will stop you.”

That was enough to keep Wonder still and unmoving if it hadn’t been for one thing. Wonder was currently invisible and tiptoeing away while the illusion of the wet and shamed version of herself sat huddled up into a ball. There was only one thing that Wonder was good at; illusions.

And Wonder was damn good at it.

Walking down the steps to the floor made every ounce of her muscles ache with fear. The further she got from the illusion the more she was afraid they’d either realize that it was just that, an illusion or that the illusion would break. In all honesty Wonder was trying to keep two illusions active at once, and moving illusions at that. A slight headache was already forming in her temple from the effort of this alone.

Her last attempt at testing this gave her about fifty seconds to use both illusions at the same time before dropping one or both of them. It took her thirty whole seconds to just get down the stairs quietly. The moment she hit the hard packed earth she booked it for the nearest door of the castle proper. Which was of course the kitchen door.

At any moment she feared the illusion would drop and that Nightshade would realize she had turned herself invisible and give chase. The moment Wonder hit the door she swung it open threw herself inside and both shut and locked the door behind her. She laid her back against the wall and slid to the ground slowly. There was a migraine building in her skull and looking at her trembling hands told her two things, one; she pushed herself doing that, and two; the illusions had dropped.

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She hadn't even felt it when the tension of the energy left her. The worst part was that she didn't know how long she'd been visible for either. This was a very bad position to be in, but at the very least she was safe in doors.

Brian stood in the kitchen staring down at Wonder from the pot of stew that was cooking on the stovetop. “Wha-“

Wonder didn’t give him any time to finish his question. “We have intruders! Lamont and Saturn need to know.”

Brian turned to go to the doorway but was stopped as the window exploded inward sending shards of glass and wood splinters everywhere. Nightshade swooped in and tackled Brian to the ground. Her fangs sunk into his neck. Brian’s body stiffened and his eyes went wide. She pushed herself off of him with twin trials of crimson running down her chin.

She looked back at Wonder and smiled. “I don’t much like the taste of boys, but at least I know I’ll get to try out such a cute, youthful creature next.”

Fear hit the pedal on Wonder’s body and she flung her wand arm forward screaming in fear and challenge. A bolt of lightning flew out towards Nightshade. One of Nightshade’s black wings folded over the front of her body. The lightning hit the wing and bounced off of it. The pounding in Wonder’s skull doubled.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Nightshade said. “Now I have to punish you!” Nightshade leapt from her place on Brian. She flew at Wonder with such speed that Wonder wasn’t sure if anyone could dodge it. Still Wonder didn’t have to dodge.

Wonder closed her eyes tight. A ball of light formed at the tip of Wonder’s wand and exploded in an instant. The light exploded in Nightshade's face, the bright flash had the woman reeling to the side screaming in blinding agony and rage.

Wonder for her part was seeing everything covered in a thick layer of white but she was able to maneuver over to where Brian was. She reached out for him, but saw his muscles were stiff as stone. Whatever Nightshade’s bite did, it had left him completely frozen. The last thing Wonder wanted to have happen was for that to happen to her. So she pushed through the door with a raging vampire woman behind her and entered into the great hall.

There was only one person in here, and that was Fiona. She was watering the ferns in the corner, and had a push cart full of cleaning supplies next to her. Wonder raised her hands as she ran towards the older girl. “You need to run! There’s intruders in the castle!”

Fiona looked back at her. Her lower lip trembled and her eyes widened as she stared at Wonder. Things were feeling a bit dizzy inside and the throbbing pain inside Wonder’s head had grown much worse after the last spell. Halfway to Fiona, Wonder lost her balance and fell into the kings table. She put all her weight into the table to keep herself standing upright. Something wet ran down from her nose and fell onto the white table cloth staining it red.

“Oh… I certainly pushed myself too far,” Wonder said staring down at the table. This wasn’t good, she was already past her limit with magic thanks to the dual illusions, now she was having trouble moving. She already knew she’d be unable to finish her task, but that didn’t mean she would fall in vain.

There was a horrible shriek from door she had vacated. “HOW DARE YOU FLASH ME!”

Wonder looked back at the doorway and saw Nightshade standing there. Her beautiful features were twisted into the very picture of malice and hate as she stared down Wonder. Wonder laughed and forced herself up onto her wobbly feet. “I might not be able to stop you.” A wave of dizziness passed over her and she was forced to lay her right hand down onto the table to keep upright. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll give up.”

Nightshade’s features calmed a little as she looked from Wonder to Fiona and then back to Wonder. “Oh I do like it when they fight back.”

Wonder raised her left hand, seeing the lavender heart on her back of her hand gave her strength to keep going. “I have one thing you never will.”

Nightshade was already walking toward her. “Oh and what is that?”

Wonder glanced at Fiona and whispered, “Close your eyes and run.”

Fiona nodded.

When Wonder looked back Nightshade had her hand on the back of one of the chairs and was staring her down with a pair of black eyes. Wonder swallowed and put everything she had into her next words, “I have hope.”

Wonder began charging all her remaining aether into her left hand. With one quick movement Nightshade picked up the chair, swung it and let it go. The chair flew mighty and true slamming into Wonder’s chest knocking her off her feet and onto her back hard. Pain shot through her chest. She landed hard and it was nearly impossible to breathe.

Nightshade leapt on top of Wonder, putting her full weight down onto the girl. A pair of fangs bit into Wonder’s neck with a piercing pain. The pain was quickly replaced by numbness and spread through her limbs. Despite all her effort she couldn’t move a muscle.

Nightshade licked the fresh blood from her lips. “You see my dear, my saliva and blood have been gifted with a paralyzing venom that leaves my victims numb and defenseless. This gives me all the time in the world to… play with my pets. Of course, I still have one more target left before I finish my mission.”

Nightshade stood up and stared down Fiona. She gave one quick glance down at Wonder and added, “Don’t push yourself like that again my pet, or else you might actually succeed in killing yourself. With your limited power, it’s far from worth it.”

Wonder still had energy built up in her left hand. She didn’t need to move her muscles to do one more thing. With Nightshade’s ankle still touching Wonder she was able to channel the electricity from her arm into Nightshade’s leg causing the woman to throw her head back and arch her back as she was being electrocuted. The following footsteps told Wonder that Fiona was finally running away.

The energy was gone soon enough and the world was starting to be devoured by a swift blackness. Maybe Wonder could only buy a few extra seconds for Fiona, but hopefully that was all she would need…