Gisela’s declaration falls on deaf ears. Yet, somehow, they cheer. Just like they’d been cheering since Ernest started talking. They’re still being controlled by Shout. Absolutely and utterly. I put a hand on Gisela’s shoulder and nod for her to keep going, but she doesn’t even notice me. It’s like she doesn’t care if the audience is listening.
Scraping noise rips through the air. I snap to the source; Shout, bringing his bizarre grey claws down through the air like an artist would their brush. Silence shears away and his noise bursts forth; growling anger and spitting curses that are barely audible under the former. Warning shivers down my spine as I stare at those claws; he stole Gasp’s ability. There’s no way to know what else he stole.
“Step aside, worthless whore.” He spits as I put myself between him and Gisela. “You don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t know the consequences.”
I snort and call more coins to my hand. “Pretty sure I know exactly what I’m doing. How about you? Are you a mindless little worker bee, charmed by Ernest’s sweet words, or are you actually so stupid to think he won’t throw you away like he threw away Gasp?”
Shout raises his hand without the claws. Magic condenses at his fingertips; raw, potent, and sharp. It doesn’t look like he wants to say anything else. I toss three coins at his feet, fill them with projectiles, and detonate them without hesitation.
His fingers ball into a fist. The magic he was preparing shifts as my salty whirls of absurd power threaten to tear him limb from limb, and suddenly, they all die out. My projectiles, the stuff on his fingertips, and even the claws on his hand. But not the mind control. That stays up.
“What kind of power was that…” He mutters quietly, his fingers shaking ever so slightly. “You shouldn’t be this powerful. They’re just… coins.”
I raise an eyebrow and summon a few more coins. “Making excuses already? Are all you speakers really this weak?”
An angry noise bubbles out of his throat. “I am not weak. Whatever you are… you aren’t human. Just like the freak in gold.”
“Hey!” Noland pouts and crosses his arms as Zeze clutches her throat. “I’m one hundred percent human. Just like Sheby’s thirty-three percent human. It isn’t our fault you idiots measure your power against each other instead of the actual challenges the other world gives you.”
“Shelby is completely human!” Fleur cries. “Just because her biology slightly changed, it doesn’t change the quality of her person!”
Pearl coughs. “I think he’s referring to what Illumisia and I did to save her, not her character.”
“...Oh. In that case, I apologize for my outburst. Carry on.”
I smile to myself and take a step towards Shout. He flinches for a split second and quickly gathers himself, but he can’t hide his fear. His claws flicker back on, but a single coin plinks off his chest and he nearly crumples to the ground in panic.
“It’s empty, dipshit.” I sigh and shake my head “There’s no way in hell you’re the best the Preservation has to offer. Honestly, I doubt you’re the best the Preservation has here today. What happened? Did you push away all the really strong people when the weaklings started taking power?”
Shout just falls to his knees without an answer. I grimace and flick another empty coin at his head, but he doesn’t even flinch this time. He just falls flat on his face, his claws harmlessly at his side, and his magic somehow still active.
“Dude… that’s just pathetic.” I glance over at Gisela, who’s still going on about her ideals, then down at Ava and Gasp. Who… both seem to be listening intently. “Noland, you have to see this. It looks like Gisela’s getting through to them.”
He turns on a dime and tilts his head. “Really? Now this I have to see; oh, but give me two seconds first.” He glances over his shoulder at a wide eyed and teary Zeze. “Tell everyone at HuSt that if they try anything funny, we’re going to kill them. No mercy, no questions, just a swift and brutal death. Am I understood?”
Zeze doesn’t answer; she just raises a hand to her neck and gently prods at a golden bruise shaped like strangle marks. Noland sighs in annoyance and kneels down, grabs her by the hair, and forces her to look at him.
“I remember what you did, silencer.” He whispers just loud enough for me to hear. “Do what you’re told or die pointlessly. I really don’t care which.”
She swallows hard, then nods in acknowledgement. Noland offers her a cold smile, shoves her away, and starts walking towards Shout. He steps over him like a piece of suspicious cloth on a summer sidewalk, all the while watching Gisela give an impassioned yet roundabout speech to a crowd of basically zombies.
“Nice words. Too bad they’re going to deaf ears.” He says, then presses something into my hand. “They’re starting up the robot right now. But they suck at it, so it’s going to take about three minutes before they’re all done. Take Gisela, follow the arrow on that thing, and do the thing when it changes to a check mark.”
I look down at the small digital display in my hand. “Why are we still doing this? Isn’t the party a complete wash now?”
Noland shakes his head. “For the Preservation and HuSt, sure. But not for everyone else. In fact, this is the perfect time for Gisela to get her schmooze on with all these freshly-betrayed influentials. Remember, we’re still here because of the coins–and their purpose hasn’t been finished just yet.”
Even though it feels like a half-assed explanation to me, I honestly don’t give a shit. Kicking the Preservation to the curb and stomping a few times is more than enough of a reason for me to keep going. So I clutch the display in one hand, give Noland a confirmatory nod, and gently but firmly grab Gisela by the elbow.
“Swap time.” I whisper into her ear.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Her muscles tense up. “Thank you, everyone and anyone who found truth in my words. And I leave you with this: magic is not some tool, or weapon, or even a resource; it is a new truth. Something fundamentally different that we have to accept is part of our reality now. These next few years will determine how we see that truth, and if we leave it up to selfish powermongers, it will be squandered and dished out how they see fit.”
She steps away, scanning the crowd as she does. All she sees is two eyes and a faceplate locked with her own–though whether it’s out of admiration, disbelief, agreement, or hatred, I can’t tell. Gisela points directly at Ava, then at Gasp, and finally takes my arm and gestures for us to get going.
When we’re out of earshot, she sighs and holds her free hand to her chest. “Well, that was the most humiliating thing I’ve ever done. I can’t believe that I didn’t manage to sway anyone at all from the Preseration’s cause.”
“Well… isn’t that because they’re… you know…” I wave my hand over my eyes. “Mind controlled?”
Gisela frowns. “I thought that stopped when Gasp died.”
“Uh… couldn’t you still feel it? Or at least see how everyone was still completely zombie-like?”
“No. To me they were just… silent.” She pauses in thought for a good few seconds. “Did I get affected by Gasp’s magic? Did she actually die, or was that just my imagination?”
“She definitely nearly died. Ava did something to bring her back, but she didn’t reactivate her magic afterwards. Because she didn’t have to; Shout did something to steal it. Just like Noland did.”
Gisela seems taken aback. Didn’t… didn’t we talk about it? Was she affected by Shout’s magic way more than I thought?
“Oh. Oh my.”
“Yeah, oh my.” I agree and look down at the display. The arrow shifts a little to the right, and so do I. “I was wondering why you gave an impassioned speed to an audience of two. You ready for the swap?”
She nearly stops. I stumble at the sudden weight on my arm and twist around to look at her, expecting to see… something, but instead, I get the blankest expression I’ve ever seen.
“Gisela? What’s wrong?” I shake off her arm and look around. “Is someone here? Are you in danger?”
Dumbstruck is the best explanation I can think of; Gisela’s completely dumbstruck by something. She blinks slowly, like she can’t believe what she’s seeing, even though I know she’s not looking at anything. Unless…
I whip around and hiss out a curse. “Shout’s damn magic. You stay here–I’ll go get Noland to–”
“No!” She snaps out of it and grabs my arm. “It’s nothing that serious. I… I was just… excited and worried. Even though I think I sowed the seeds pretty well, if it turns out I couldn’t convince everyone, I just made Gisela’s job infinitely harder.”
Ah, self-doubts. That makes sense. I sigh in relief and grab Gisela’s arm, pulling her into the fastest walk she can manage in heels. It still feels like there’s something she’s not telling me, but it’s definitely about their company’s standing with everyone else here. Now that I know Noland has an emergency button labeled ‘destroy the world’, I’m a lot less bothered by the prospect of alliances between regular-ass people.
HuSt and the Preservation, though, I want to be as powerless as possible. So, in some way, Gisela bartering alliances sort of helps us.
“So you’re fine? No issues right now?”
Gisela nods. “I’m perfectly fine. Once I get away from Shout, I’ll be even better.”
“Alright. Then let’s keep moving.”
We quickly make our way to a secluded corner of the floating platform. The little display still shows we need to go further, but Gisela’s starting to slow down. It looks like her vitality is slowly draining away, but no matter what I do, I can’t feel any magic on her. I gently put a hand on her shoulder and try to get a feel for it, but she brushes me away with a thin smile.
“Everything’s just catching up to me now. I promise I’m fine.”
I have a little harder time believing her this time, but there’s absolutely no evidence to prove my suspicions. Unless I want to slow everything down, I have no choice but to keep following the arrow. Pearl and Fleur are pretty quiet, save for the occasional whisper that I can’t make out, and I assume that one of them would chime in if something was actually wrong.
So we just keep walking. Gisela gets a little worse with every step, her breath hitching every dozen or so steps and her footsteps growing unsteady enough that she stumbles a little too much. I open my mouth to ask her again, but a glare shuts me up right then and there. Whatever’s happening to her, she knows what it is. And from how she isn’t panicking in the slightest, it isn’t something new.
“Tell me what’s going on.” I say as we crest the edge, and the arrow shifts to a checkmark. “Is it something mundane?”
She huffs as she struggles up the small hill, the ground far below sprawling out in a desert wasteland. With barely anything but a single limousine waiting down below.
“Exhaustion. Social anxiety. And a heavy helping of a lot of uppers wearing off.” She sighs in relief. “I get way too worried about what people are thinking. Like… what if they find out that I’m not Gisela? What if I’m not doing a good enough job? But that’s all done now. So I’m going to take a long nap in the limo until I have to leave.”
Her hands cross in front of her hips, and her shoulders sag something fierce. She turns to me, and any remnants of Gisela wash away like drawings in the sand. Leaving nothing but a very exhausted, anxious, and relieved Dora to shyly glance down at my neck. Then, with a deep blush, she instead chooses to look away completely.
“Thanks for helping me keep up the charade.” She says quickly. “It’s fun being Gisela for a little while, but I like being myself for ninety five percent of the time. Keep my sister safe, okay? She has–”
Before Dora can finish her sentence, a portal appears right next to her. I frown into it, where Ursula waits right next to the real Gisela, who’s dressed exactly like Dora is and is watching… something on a screen. It kind of looks like… me. Or my shoulder, at least.
“Good work, Dora.” Gisela grins, sets the tablet down, and steps out of the portal. “Leave the rest to me and go have a nice nap. Don’t forget to set an alarm.”
Dora smiles sleepily. “I won’t. It’s way too important.”
Gisela pulls Dora into a deep hug. “I know you won’t. Love you, sis.”
Dora reciprocates the hug, and even pushes her face into Gisela’s shoulder a little. “I love you too.”
After a few more hug-filled seconds, Dora breaks away and shambles through the portal. She basically collapses onto one of the bench seats, and Ursula quickly takes her pulse before looking over at me.
“We’re still on track. Fill me in on whatever shit you two got yourselves into when we’re done, yeah?”
I nod. “Will do. It’s shaping up to be a damn good story, too.”
An explosion of heat and magic punctuates my point. I glance over my shoulder at a sea of shaking trees and heat haze, emanating from something in the distance that glows a sickly green.
“Seems like you’re at an action point right now, so I’ll get out of your hair.” Ursula salutes with a grin. “See ya!”
“See ya.” I repeat, and the portal crumbles into nothing. I turn to Gisela, who seems way too calm for this. “Let’s catch you up before we move.”
She shakes her head and latches onto my arm just like Dora did. “I got the gist. Let’s go see if Dora’s speech actually changed a few hearts. Oh, and don’t let the mech kill us, please and thank you.”