“Okay, here are the basic rules on soul magic,” Lillian said, as they ducked behind one of the flower beds and waited. “Unlike metal and life magic, soul magic can be cast at a distance. It’s effect weakens with the distance to the target.”
“Then why did you touch us to get your message across?” Lia thought back to the moment on EDEN when she revealed their destinies to them.
“Because of another rule: I can’t target a single individual with this magic. Everyone in the range of the magic is affected. By touching you, I could confine the effective range to all I touch. But anyone that touched me in that moment would’ve been able to listen in.” And at least Omor had been able to see what she was doing.
“But … when I … hit Amir …”
“He was the closest to you. If Joy had been any closer, you would’ve affected her, too.” Lillian took a deep breath and looked carefully around the raised flowerbed made of concrete they were hiding behind. “To be honest, I was impressed by your control back then. Maybe you only succeeded, because Joy had jumped back as Amir’s body shot up.”
Lia shivered. Soul magic was dangerous, extremely dangerous. It was banned for a reason. Or probably even several reasons.
“They’re coming,” Lillian whispered. “We’ll continue the lesson later.”
Lia pressed herself closer against the concrete. She could hear her heartbeat racing in her ears. So far the zombies were still only patrolling, drooling donar with the ability to use magic. Still, they had recovered remarkably fast from Amir’s loss, according to Ludwig at least.
She didn’t look over the flower beds, too afraid to be spotted by the donar. Since Lillian hadn’t said anything about their numbers, she could assume that there were no more than four of them. All she could do at the moment, was wait, until they overwhelmed the group and the queen attempted to free one of them.
Winter and Summer would be working together to shield the rest, as they overwhelmed the donar one by one. Fall, Spring and Ludwig would each take one, and the opposite season team would try to get to the last. Then …
Suddenly, Lillian stormed out of her hiding place. Stones hit the concrete Lia was hiding behind, and she heard shouts. There were a few more crashes, and then silence.
“Lia? Come,” Lillian called, and she stood carefully. Four students lay on the ground, unconscious. The queen had pulled one away from the group, and waited for her.
Nervously, she walked over to the queen, and gulped. She didn’t recognize any of them, they had to be of a higher class. The young man laying next to the queen had blonde, almost white hair.
“Okay, look closely at what I’m doing. I’ll try to explain later, but the important thing is to watch what I’m doing first.”
Lia nodded, then touched the queen on the shoulder, prepared a strand of soul mana, and watched. As with Joy, yellow mist arose around her hand, but formed into lines that quickly spread over the donar’s body until it reached his head. There the yellow lines clashed with dark lines that seemed silver where the two colors touched. The blackness faded into something Lia couldn’t see only a centimeter past where they were visible.
Lillian grunted, frowned and drew more of her power, as the yellow lines began overwhelming the dark ones, pushing them back.
It was as if Lillian was fighting several dozens of battles at once, but slowly, all too slowly, her magic seemed to win.
Finally, the light repelled all the darkness around the donar’s head, and Lia almost perceived a snapping sound. Lillian took her hand from the individual, and took a deep breath. “I think I managed to free him.” Then she looked at Lia. “How’s your mana?”
“I’m okay. I think I used roughly half of my reserves.”
“Half?” Lillian stared at her for a moment, then shook her head. “Seems I made the right decision,” she muttered to herself. “Anyways, we should probably wake him now, and see whether I succeeded to save his mind.” She stood and waved to Omor. “Summer, could you heal this donar? I want to see whether I’ve succeeded.”
The pirate looked to the winter captain, and both moved over to them. Lia could see the magic at work, how it caressed the donar’s body. If it changed anything she didn’t know, or couldn’t see.
A moment later, the donar opened his eyes.
“What happened?” he asked and looked around. He did seem normal. “My head hurts when I try to remember.”
“There was an accident,” the spring captain explained, and when the donar looked at her, it was with wide eyes.
“The queen,” he whispered.
“Former queen. Now, please follow Ludwig. We’ll evacuate you, while we try to help the others.”
The donar nodded, without asking what kind of accident had happened. Ludwig might not be that lucky, but she could imagine him brushing the question aside with a simple “that’s classified.”
“It seems to work,” Omor said while watching the donar’s retreating back. “What we haven’t taken into account is that you need time to rest after each one.”
Winter nodded and had her gaze on the donar as well. “At one day a person, it might take several years to free everyone.”
Lillian shook her head. “It’s slow going, yes, but we might be faster than you think. Lia still has reserves for one more donar.”
Both captain’s heads whipped around and both of them stared at Lia. Suddenly she was far more interesting than the freed donar.
“You have more than double my soul mana pool?” Winter asked. “Mine is supposed to be one of the largest that are known.”
Lia looked away. She had no idea what to say, and right now didn’t seem the right moment to tell them that her mana seemed to behave differently.
“That’s something we should discuss another time. Let’s free another donar.” The queen turned to her. “Look as closely as you can. I’ll try to explain what I’m doing this time, then, after you’ve regenerated some mana, you’ll try one yourself.”
“Me?” Her question was more a squeak than an actual word, but Lillian understood her nonetheless.
“Yes, you. It is far more efficient for you to do it yourself, than me having to control foreign mana.”
“I … what if I …” Lia grabbed her robes and squeezed the fabric in her fists.
“You will have to learn. I guess you could do at least four at once, and we are pressed for time. I will watch and advise where necessary. The important thing for you is to take your time.” Lillian stared into her eyes. Hers were the color of an amethyst.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Omor put a hand on Lillian’s shoulder. “Give her time. Students usually need a whole semester to learn how to safely operate on a mind. Don’t expect her to learn it within a few hours.”
Lillian sighed and backed away. “I just fear that it will get harder the longer Fornax has its … its … whatever in them.”
“We’ll do what we can, but don’t expect her or us to work miracles.” Omor squeezed the shoulder of the queen, then let go.
He walked back to the other three, while Lillian looked at his back. When the queen turned to her, it was with a look of regret. “I’m sorry. I just feel pressured for time, and if Fornax has some kind of plan … then he’s had it for hundreds of years.” Lillian averted her gaze. “Enough time to plan for every eventuality.”
Lillian walked to the other captains as they separated the second donar from the group. Lia looked at her hand. The hand that wiped Amir’s mind within a second. She feared using that power, but she might be the only chance they had. Still, when she tried to even think of using that magic, she shivered.
“Lia?” Omor asked. When she looked up to him, he continued: “We’re ready.”
Sighing, she went over to them, and, putting a hand on Lillian’s shoulder, they began to free the second donar.
Lillian began just as she had done with the first, but when the two magics clashed, she also tried to explain what she was doing: “These are foreign thought patterns that are overriding the person’s own thoughts. I’m trying to remove those and only those.”
She fell silent and Lia saw how she pushed these patterns further and further back, until it stopped again. “Look closely. Do you see these spikes that point inward? These things here are especially tricky, as they’re invading the donar’s mind. Left unchecked they could alter their personality completely.”
Lia leaned forward and squinted. There were miniature spikes that pointed toward the donar’s head. Since nothing happened, she answered: “I see them.” After that, Lillian continued and only stopped when she arrived at the very last vestiges of the invading magic.
“This is an anchor. I believe it somehow leads back to Fornax. Don’t ever follow it, even if you feel you can. Invading a mind is a total different beast than freeing one, and I fear you’d be lost far faster than you even know that its happening to you.” Finally, Lillian pushed the last bits of foreign magic away, and Lia felt that snapping again. It was almost as if she felt a ripple in her own magic when it happened.
Lillian wiped the sweat from her forehead, some of her hair was plastered to her head.
“Guys?” The fall captain asked all of a sudden, his voice wavering. “I don’t think the rest of the zombies like what we’re doing here.” He pointed in a direction, and when Lia followed with her gaze, she saw several Zombies approaching. And not slowly as they had before. These were actively pushing themselves toward them, already throwing stones, blasts of air, and water. There was even one that somehow extended the flame of a lighter into the resemblance of a flame thrower.
“Shit. Retreat!” Lillian commanded and pulled the unconscious donar behind them. Lillian generated some gravity for them, which looked like smoke, or rather little black vines, that pulled them to the ground. Seeing magic like this was unsettling.
The local gravity allowed them to dodge and outmaneuver the zombies. While their pursuers did start to show some kind of coordination, they still seemed clumsy at best. Omor and Winter could redirect some of the projectiles that would’ve hit one of them otherwise. It didn’t take them long to reach the corridors and then to hide in one of the rooms. Ludwig was already there, waiting with the other donar they had freed.
“Seems like Fornax won’t allow us to pick them off one by one,” Fall said, standing next to the door with his saber. Then he looked at the rest of them. “So, what do we do now?”
While they all looked at each other, the donar asked one question: “Who is Fornax?” Everyone looked at him, but no one answered. Then, the donar raised his hand, and part of the table formed into a solid ball. “And why can I do magic?” This prompted everyone to look at each other again.
“I think, we have a lot to unpack here,” Ludwig said with a sigh. “The only positive being, that we can recruit allies.”
The donar looked at Ludwig. “I don’t understand.”
“Let’s wake your fellow student first,” Omor said, “and then explain to you both.”
* * *
“So, this Fornax-thing has taken control of all the vaccinated donar?” John looked at them one by one. “And that vaccination is the reason I can do … this.” He formed the ball of marble into a ring.
“Basically, yes.” Lillian nodded.
“Doesn’t this also make us part of the Royal Family now?” John leaned forward.
“Technically … Yes.” Lillian seemed quite uncomfortable answering that question. “Though your rank within the royals depends on how many elements you can control.”
“I see …” John murmured and kept playing with his magic. Lia watched in fascination and tried to learn. She had a lot to catch up to. A part of her was envious that John seemed to be able to use his magic instinctual, but when she considered how he gained that ability, that feeling turned tail and ran.
“The thing is that we need your help to free even more donar from Fornax’s control,” Lillian explained. “And we do not have much time. It seems that Fornax is gaining more control of your fellow donar and will try to stop us.”
John’s magic cut off and the ring-like marble spun slightly in the air. He groaned. “And of course new duties are already thrust upon me.” Then he showed a half-smile to the former queen. “What’s the plan?”
The queen didn’t bat an eye at John’s reaction. “We have to isolate more donar and break Fornax’s control on them.”
“Sounds easy enough.” John smiled and looked at the other student that was still silent.
“It’s not as easy as you think.” The queen shook her head. “I fear that if any of the zombie-donar touch you, you’ll get reinfected.”
“I knew it wouldn’t be this easy,” Sam whispered. He kneaded his own hands while floating through the room. “Do we have to help? I’d rather leave the station and not risk having this thing ravage my mind again.”
“We understand your feelings,” the queen began, but was interrupted by Ludwig.
“Like it or not, but we’re currently isolated on the academy grounds. The whole station is swarming with zombie-donar. Even if we wanted to just put you onto a ship to leave the crystal citadel, we can’t. Not right now. You’d have to help us reach the docks.”
“Of course that’s also not so easy …” Sam seemed to shiver. “How can you all be so calm?”
“We’re not calm.” Omor turned toward the student. “We’re afraid. Afraid of what could still happen. Afraid to lose our lives. But we know we have to move, to do something. If we do nothing, we’ve already lost, but while moving, we still have a chance to turn all of this around.”
“It may be foolish for us humans to cling to hope as long as we do. First the hope that things change without doing much ourselves,” the winter captain looked at the fall captain and then at the former queen, “and then the hope that we can still change things, even though we’ve lost control of the situation.” The white-haired woman shrugged. “But we won’t give in, as long as that little bit of hope still exists. People often say that hope is the last do die. It’s not quite true. People die after losing hope. So it’s the next to last thing to die. And we refuse to let it die, because then we, ourselves, are next.”
Lia stared at the pirate captain donar.
“That was deep,” John commented.
“Anyways.” The former queen cleared her throat. “The point is that we need your help to reach the docks. I can’t promise that you can be evacuated from there, but it’s the best chance either of us has at the moment.”
“But how?” Sam asked, looking toward the door. “All those zombie-donar are patrolling this level, and it sure won’t be better on all the other levels.”
“We’ll be using the maintenance shafts and corridors.” Lia concentrated on the ring-marble and tried to use her own magic on it. Brownish strands reached out to it and some sank into it, while others pulled and pushed on its surface. The object reacted, but quickly became an unsightly mass of glass before breaking into two halves. John had really made it look easy.
“And who are you?” John turned to her. “You look like a former donar. Has this Fornax also manipulated your mind?”
“N… no. I wasn’t.” Lia felt like hiding somewhere.
“No.” Lillian looked at her, and then back at John. “She was a donar, yes, but she’s acquired full control over her magic in another manner.”
“Ah. I bet it was more comfortable than what we had to go through.” John smiled.
Lia shook her head. She saw Orphelia in front of her eyes, floating in front of her, and tears formed in her eyes. “It was bad, really bad.”
“Oh.” John fell silent. Lia didn’t look at him, while she tried to hang onto her composure. This wasn’t the right moment to burst into tears.
“There might be one more thing you need to know about her.” Lillian’s voice sent shivers down Lia’s spine. “Remember how I told you that the rank within the royal family depends on the number of elements one controls?”
Lia looked up at Lillian and shook her head. It was neither a good idea to tell them that she was high-ranking or that she had access to all the elements, but what Lillian said next made things even worse.
“She’s the new queen.”
There was a moment of silence. Then several people at once, including the pirates and the school’s principal, answered with a single word: “What?”
Only Ludwig seemed completely unfazed, while the queen smiled at her. A smile that somehow reminded her of staring at Fornax’s Grave.