Chapter 24 The Fallout.

I’m a flower, pretty and dazzling!

I hold the world’s heart in my palm!

My beauty is unmatched!

Yet, I’m full of poison.

Mayan, the ocean fairy.

{27} Lokamesh (May) the 23rd

I wake up in my bed, alive and well. I open and clench my right hand, to my relief it’s functioning again, even if it feels a little odd. I rest my head back on the pillow and let out a sigh of relief, I am alive.

This was close, very close… I’m tired of being this weak. I’m tired of coming so close to death each time, and I’m tired of losing people I care for…

I have to become stronger. I have to become a full mage if I want to survive in this world, and of course to keep the people I care about alive… I will find my way back home! I will find my sister and my mother, and I’ll find a way to keep living!

I close my eyes as the deaths of Purson and Nalfit hit me. I knew Purson longer, and his death should’ve hurt more. But for some reason, Nalfit’s death hurts me the most. I idolized the woman to a degree. She managed to remain her cheerful chatty self even after all the torment she went through in this miserable tower, which required a unique personality. I wish I could be more like her...

Purson is gone too, what am I going to tell Janara? How am I supposed to face her after this?! And what about Lezere? Is she alive? Is she dead? I’m tired of people dying on me…

My stomach growls. I am ravenous, I haven’t eaten in days after all. I get out of my bed, get dressed in my black uniform robes, and go out to the kitchen in order to make myself something.

The food tastes like ash in the empty kitchen. I keep thinking about how to approach Janara with this, but I don’t have much time to think. Janara herself shows up in the kitchen, but she ignores my presence as if I am not even there. “Janara I’m sorry…” I utter hoping to apologize somehow, but she simply ignores me.

Oshi behind her lets out a throaty laugh. “Oh precious. You actually think she’d forgive you after you sacrificed the love of her life for some gems?!”

“Excuse me?! I did not sacrifice anyone! We didn’t know there was a…”

“You will not even admit it! The gall!” Oshi’s dramatic voice is obviously fake.

“We didn’t know there was a mage in there! I would’ve never approached if we did!” I call out angrily.

“Yes! And the moment you saw the mage you pushed her lover between you and him in order to get away! And now you’re here apologizing!”

What?! Ohhh right… so that’s what Oshi did in order to escape… I see… now she’s pinning it on me… is it because she’s feeling too guilty? Or because she’s just a sociopath? Janara’s teary eyes looks at me for answers.

“I did no such thing! I attacked the mage directly and almost died for it!” I soften my voice quelling my anger and ignoring Oshi. “Kolag and Lezere were there, they can confirm, ask them.”

“Lezere will tell me what you want her to tell me, and Kolag refuses to talk about what happened there. He locked himself up and refuses to see me. Kolag is a man of honor, and if he acts like that… after what Oshi told me, I can see why he’d act like that… and if you… if you really did that.” Janara breaks and cries. She runs out of the room, leaving me alone with Oshi.

Oshi looks at me victoriously. “You can’t hide what a monster you are Marisha!” she exclaims loudly, more for Janara’s sake.

What do you want Oshi? Turning my friends against me turns you on or something? What’s your goal you twisted bitch?! I observe the black-scaled girl. She grins at me. To my astonishment she takes a weird seductive pose, then blows a kiss and stick her tongue out in my direction, before she leaves the kitchen.

I look at my meal feeling hollow inside. What am I going to do now?

“That’s Oshi at her best.” Tiara’s sarcasm wakes me up from my numbness.

“She’s done that before?”

The pale girl inhales from her smoking pipe, picks two loaves of bread and turns to leave the kitchen before speaking again. “Too many times. She planted gems in Nalfit’s ex’s room, provoking a fight between those two. She got another girl to fight with me too. Stay away from her if you can.”

She’s a psychopath… ”Nalfit is dead,” I say. The words hollowing my heart further.

“I heard,” Tiara says apathetically and leaves the kitchen with her bread.

That’s it?! I heard?! That’s all you can say?! They weren’t close, I can’t blame her for not caring… I hate this… I hate losing all these people…

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I finish my meal with a heavy heart, then head to the squires’ dorms, hoping to find Lezere and Kolag.

I let out a breath I never knew I held when I find Lezere shooting arrows at a dummy. She doesn’t see me and keep shooting over and over, hitting the straw with a deadly focus. I sit there and weirdly enough I find joy watching the muscular half-orc for a while. She’s my friend, and currently she’s some of the only family I have left, even if we don’t have blood ties. Only when she finishes the arrows in her quiver does she finally notice my presence.

“Hello chief, good to see you’re finally up and about. You did well on our last venture. Purson is not your fault, he died a warrior’s death! I… Was there something you wanted chief?”

The idea hits me. “Do you know if there’s a place around here we can light a small fire? Like camping outside?”

“Not that I know of chief…”

“Then a place we can stay just ourselves?”

She frowns. “What for?”

“I want to make a small funeral for Purson, like with Sina. Get us all around a fire and drink for him, Janara… Janara thinks I killed him to save myself.”

Lezere’s frown deepens. “I told her it was lies by the twisted tongue of that twisted shaman, why would she think something like that?”

“Oshi made up some stories, Kolag wouldn’t talk to her, and she thinks you’ll say what I tell you to say.”

“Twisted! Lies! I’m honorable! You’re my chief, I’ll follow you but I’d rather choke on my fangs than twist my tongue for you! I’ll tear out that lizard’s fangs and stuff them in her throat!”

“Thanks Lezere, but it’s not you I need to convince. Can you get someone to help me access Kolag’s room?”

“Right this way chief” Lezere lead me in the blue hallways. She gets a young man to open the door for Kolag’s five men dorm and points at Kolag’s private room.

I knock on the door. “Kolag?”

“Go away!!!”

“Kolag? It’s Marisha! I need to talk to you.”

“Go away Marisha! I don’t want to see you!”

“The things you said to me while I was petrified, I heard it all.”

The reply is a deathly silence. What now?

“I love you too Kolag!”

“Go the hell away!!!” He explodes. “By Noxi, Just stay away from me! I don’t want to see or hear from you!!!”

Right… he thinks he’ll lose control and hurt me again… I sigh. “Kolag, I promise I’ll find a way to either cure you of that curse or kill you, I love you! Now get out of that room!” Do I truly love him?

A part of me does love him… and does it matter if I love him or not?! As long as it’ll get him out of there I’ll say whatever for now. He said it himself, it’s not like he can demand anything from me being in that armor… So I don’t have to act a lot on it… No, I shouldn’t lie about such things, but I have to admit a part of me does love him… I’m not sure what that part is… not sure it’s romantic or not… with all the death around me. I don’t think I can commit to loving someone like that, not if they just die…

I won’t find out if I won’t try. Besides, I might die tomorrow too… Better to enjoy what I have now… And he’s safer to love… he won’t die easily with that armor... and once someone gets past that armor they have to deal with a demon…

Only silence answers me, there is no reply. “I’m going to wait right here Kolag! I’ll sit here for days if I have to! I’ll wait until you come to your senses and come out of there you hear?”

“Hello dear~” master Rushmia’s sing-songy voice surprises me from behind. “Don’t concern yourself with him, you are to come with me.”

“Yes mistress.” I reply obediently, I don’t have a choice when it comes to mages. What does she want? My heart drums up. Janara looks at me from behind the red-robbed witch. Her green eyes are filled with pain.

The mage leads us both through the blue hallways, taking a few turns and going through a few doors within the tower. At the end, we emerge at the tower’s large gates on the ground floor.

This is the first time I leave the tower on foot. The area outside the tower is a massive arena-shaped courtyard with the gigantic tower itself in the middle. There are six smaller blue towers placed in a circle around the main tower, they are based in the blue thick wall surrounding the arena-like yard. The tower itself is a huge structure, thick enough to house a town on its first floor alone. I can’t see the top of the tower, not from here, it disappears above the clouds.

The arena-like yard serves as a market and a bustling market at that. Potions, scrolls, books, gems, metals, various magical items are all here on sale. Black-robed men and women are both the customers and the traders who own these stalls. A few colorful robes are seen among them, all receive a great amount of respect from the apprentices wearing black.

Various languages can be heard. I recognize Toml’a, my native tongue, but there are at least three other ones in use, and Toml’a is clearly not the dominating tongue.

Statues of Kilako god of trade are placed everywhere, below them sit the merchant-priests who are responsible for appraisals of goods. Sometimes a pair of arguing apprentices hire their services to determine the real value of a certain item.

How come I’ve never heard of this place… I only advanced into this rank a few months ago, and I focused on meditating and studying, I should get out more…

Master Rushmia passes through the busy market and heads toward the gates in the blue wall surrounding the circular yard. “Where are we going?” I ask, trying to calm my drumming heart.

“You’ll see dear, all will be answered in time, now come along~” her reply couldn’t get any more cryptic. Should I try to run and disappear in this market? No… I doubt I can escape from her just like that…

A carriage and a coachman are provided for us at the large gates leading outside. And soon, the carriage rolls across the paved stone road out of the tower.

I sit inside with Rushmia and Janara in utter silence. I look at Janara, still wanting to explain myself to her, but the presence of the red-robed mage makes it impossible. I don’t think Janara wants any explanation either, I can see the pain in her green eyes, it’s impossible to talk to her right now.

Time keeps crawling in the awkward air within the carriage, and the morning becomes noon. It is the afternoon when the carriage finally stops.

Master Rushmia gets up from her seat and wordlessly gestures for us to follow her outside. She steps forward on an open field of poppy flowers.

Janara holds my wrist as I am about to leave the carriage. “Run! She’s going to kill you!” She whispers urgently.

*~*~*

Power level: 2nd stage apprentice.

Mana pools status:

Crown-knot: Affinity 10:

Neck-Bridge: Affinity 6: formed: max amount of gems drained per day: 66

Abdomen-storage: Affinity 5:

Air: Affinity 4: formed: 18 gems

Fire: Affinity 2: formed: 9 gems

Light: Affinity 3:

Water: Affinity 6:

Earth: Affinity 1:

Wood: Affinity 2:

Gravity: Affinity 9: formed: 41 gems

Cantrip known:

Air: Shavi’s Breeze, Shavi’s Sword.

Fire: Nuriss’ Flame.

Gravity: Lumina’s Kinetic Burst. Tukado’s Repulse. Tukado’s Lesser Shield. Imari’s Minor Telekinesis. Leo’s Pull. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s Light body. Alino’s Heavy body.

Focus capability: 9 patterns

Social status: An apprentice.

Wealth: X

Items: X

Companions:

Janara of Winemaker village.

Injuries and scars: X