by D. Levesque
“Well,” I begin, trying to get my thoughts together. “What if, and I am pulling from stories from my world for this. What if I am a Cultivator?” I hear the word come out in English.
“Cultivator?” Leeha repeats the word.
“There are stories I would read, and remember that these stories in my world aren’t real, but I am still wondering. Cultivators would gain power by converting energy and by training their bodies to handle a more condensed kind of power. What if I have power right now, but this energy from my Chakra is the second stage for me? I have seven Chakras to open, right? Does that mean as I open each one, I will get more powerful?”
“More powerful than an Elemental Summoner?” Leeha says in astonishment. “Alex! They have always been powerful! And now you think you can become even more so?”
“I doubt that,” I tell her with a laugh. “Bridget, can you check what that energy is doing to my body where it’s seeping into it?” I ask her.
“I can try, but how would I do that?” she asks me hesitantly.
Shit. Let’s see, how can Bridget check? Not like she knows anything about biology or molecular levels. Wait a minute, she might! Context! I throw the stick I’d been holding into the fire and I shout, “Context!” making both of them jump in surprise.
“Context?” Bridget asks me, perplexed.
“Yes! You said you have context, from my God, not the experience. What do you get when I say molecular level?” I ask her eagerly. Please let this work!
She frowns at first, but then Bridget’s face lights up. “I know what it means! It’s looking at the molecular level of your genes! I didn’t understand it before when you kept saying germs, but somehow, now I do!”
“I guess you needed certain trigger words to come together. All right, let’s try this. Though I’m not sure what power I should be using. Since it’s my blood, and it’s living, I would say water. That sound about right to you?” I ask her.
“I have no clue!” she says, but she is grinning and she moves closer to me, her knees touching me.
“I don’t get it?” Leeha asks in a confused voice.
“So, what I am going to do is get Bridget to look at the inside of my body where the energy is seeping. It’s similar to what I said before about germs. She is going to check my genes, which are just as small as germs—the tiny living version of myself,” I explain to her. “Sorry,” I say, blushing. “I wish I could explain it better, but once I teach you more English, I hope it will make more sense.”
Leeha puts a hand on my leg and says, “As long as we figure out what is going on with you, Alex, I am good with not fully understanding. I just want to make sure that what is happening to you isn’t killing you.”
“Agreed, I don’t want to die either,” I tell her.
I really hope that with Bridget I can find out and make sure that what is leaking out isn’t dangerous, so I don’t end up dying from radiation poisoning or cancer or something.
“Water. Go on a molecular level and see what is happening to my body where the energy is leaking out of my Chakra.” I tell Bridget.
Bridget quickly changes into water. She lifts her hand and places it against my forehead, and then she closes her eyes. We both sit like that for what feels like a good ten minutes. After a while my back starts to hurt, but I don’t dare move, in case Bridget’s finger on my forehead is her only connection. Then, when I feel I can’t hold still anymore, she blinks her water eyes and opens them, and looks at me in shock.
“Alex!” she says in wonder. “The changes that are happening are amazing!”
Chapter Thirty-Two
I look at Bridget in dismay. So it is changing me? “How?” I ask her quickly and with worry in my voice.
“I am not sure,” she says, her eyes still wide with wonder. “It’s changing your cells, so they are stronger. I don’t even know what that means! I just know what to tell you!” she says, but her voice is tinged with frustration now.
“I wonder if it’s rebuilding my cells to be stronger in order to handle the extra power? Or maybe it’s getting me ready to handle a different type of energy,” I say, thinking out loud.
“You think that it’s doing this so that you can handle whatever this new energy will be when you open this second Chakra?” Leeha says.
I turn to her and nod slowly. “I mean, it makes sense. If the energy after the second Chakra breaks is too powerful, my body, as it currently is, might not be able to handle it, and it might kill me. Maybe, that is what the slow seepage of this power into my body is doing; it’s conditioning me. For example, all the running I have been doing in spurts with you two has made it so that I can run longer. Maybe the slow seepage of this energy into my body is training me?”
“It would make sense,” Leeha says thoughtfully. “So, do we need to worry about it in the immediate?”
I turn to Bridget, who has a frown on her face. “No. I think Alex will be fine in the immediate. Though, I would suggest he does not use his healing powers or that he uses them sparingly until he can get his body used to that energy.”
“Agreed,” Leeha says before I can say anything. She looks at me hard and says passionately, “Alex, I just got you. I am not about to lose you already!”
“Hey, I am one hundred percent on board on not using my healing since it means I am not getting hurt,” I say with a chuckle.
“That’s the hard part. We don’t know, Alex, if healing will increase the rate of your cells changing, or if letting it change you at its current pace will be enough,” Bridget says with sadness.
“Hey,” I tell her, putting a hand on her leg. “This isn’t your fault. Leeha, what’s the plan for today?” While I know they are both worried for me, worrying myself sick about this isn’t going to help me. The thing to do is to move on.
“Well, we are about a day’s journey from the Elders,” Leeha says. “I saw the mountains last night through the break in the trees. We can either push and get there tonight before midnight, or camp somewhere for one more night and push on in the morning, which will get us there before noon,” she says.
“I vote another night with a hot tub!” shouts Bridget excitedly.
I can’t help but laugh, and so does Leeha. “I vote the same thing,” I say out loud.
“Agreed, another night with a hot tub would be nice,” Leeha says with a grin. “Though, you should probably hide that one when we leave,” she says, pointing to the still steaming hot tub.
“Or, we can clean up before we head out,” I tell her, with a grin on my face. Leeha looks at the hot tub longingly, torn between making time, and taking a soak.
“Well,” she finally says, getting up and undressing quickly, “the hot water will loosen the muscles for our run today.” That last part is muffled as she has her head in her shirt.
“Yay!” shouts Bridget, losing the clothing she has on as well.
I’m not sure where the clothing goes. Lahana had given Bridget a full new outfit. It disappears when Bridget transforms into an Elemental, but when she transforms back to an elf, it always comes back. Whatever, it’s magic. Getting up as well, I begin to undress and gaze at the two naked girls wo are already in the hot tub, both of them looking my way with smiles. God, if you are listening. Thank you for this amazing morning.
“Something is wrong,” Leeha says, looking through the trees.
The Homestead where the Elders live should be through those trees, but Leeha suddenly stops and crouches down when we approach. I do the same and get down next to her. Bridget is in her Wind form, as she didn’t want to run with us this time.
“What do you mean?” I ask quietly.
“There should have been guards posted, and they should have challenged us. Like when Marken challenged us,” she says worriedly.
Suddenly Water Bullets appear next to her. Thinking it might be trouble, I bring up Fire Bullets and six of them appear as well. She points to her left and puts her finger to her mouth. I nod to her, getting her message. She wants us to go quiet
ly.
As quietly as I can, which is loud compared to her, I follow Leeha. We creep from tree to tree without being challenged once. After a few minutes, Leeha stops abruptly, but then she is running full tilt into the trees. I follow her as fast as I can, but then slow down when I see what she is standing in front of—dead Elves. Leeha is looking down at one of the bodies. She bends down and turns it over.
When I walk up behind her and look, I see it’s an older-looking Elf, but still beautiful, even in death. It looks like he has been stabbed in the chest by something, but there are also burn marks around the area. Did a Fire Sword kill him? I look around and see about twenty or thirty dead Elves. No children, thank God.
“What happened?” I ask her quietly.
“I am not sure,” Leeha says, strain in her voice. I walk up to her and hug her from behind, and she turns quickly into my arms and cries. “Who would do something like this?” she says into my chest.
“Should we look for survivors?” I ask her, kissing the top of her head.
Just what the fuck happened here? As we walk around, checking each body, I see they have all been stabbed, and I can tell that it was with magic swords. Two types, Water and Fire. All the wounds are either wet or burned. So we are dealing with magic users then?
“Humans,” Leeha says vehemently.
“What?” I ask her, perplexed.
She points to another body which I thought was another Elf, but as I turn it over and look down at it, I see what she means. This is not a beautiful Elf, but a squat human, wearing one of those robes I saw the magic users in the city wear. This one is blue, so a Water mage. The dead human is short, with black hair and a beard.
“Slavers,” Leeha growls with such heat that I am surprised the body in front of her doesn’t explode.
“Why would someone do something like this?” Bridget says from behind me. Turning around, I see she is staring at the bodies in confusion.
“If Leeha is correct, they are human slavers. Magic users on top of that,” I tell her. “Leeha, is that why I don’t see any children?” I ask her quietly.
She finally looks away from the dead human on the ground, but while there is anger in her eyes, there is also fear. Fear, I am sure, for the survivors.
“How long ago?” I ask her.
She bends down and touches the dead human. “Not long, he is still warm. He died by a Fire Arrow to the heart.” That’s when I see a scorched hole on his chest, over the heart. “Maybe twenty minutes? Why?” she says dejectedly.
“Because we are going after them,” I tell her, anger in my voice.
How the fuck can someone do this to other people? I am so fucking pissed at the humans on this world. My God might not have put me here to fucking change things, but now I am so pissed that I am about to change these slavers for good. From alive to dead.
“Alex,” Leeha says slowly, “this is not your fight.”
“Like fuck it isn’t Leeha,” I tell her. “These humans took your people, and you’re my wife. I want these fuckers dead. Can you track them?”
She doesn’t say anything at first but then walks over to me, puts her arms around my waist, and looks up at me. “Thank you,” she says, and kisses me on the lips.
She turns around and begins to look on the ground, for what I have no clue. Suddenly, she bends down, looks into the woods on our right, and points. “That way.”
“Lead the way,” I tell her. “Bridget, be ready for anything. I want to take them alive at first, so go with Mind. Sleeping Arrow.”
“Oh, I like that idea,” she says, and there is zeal in her voice.
I look over and she is a swirling, purple-colored female-shaped Elemental. Staring at her too long makes my head almost swoon.
“Oops, let me turn that down,” she says, and then she is just a solid, purple-colored female-shaped Elemental.
I run over to Leeha, who is waiting for me near the treeline. Once I am with her, she turns around and begins to run. One good thing about the last couple of days of running; my body has gotten used to it. But what is interesting is, I am getting used to it too quickly. Like, not at a normal pace. I wonder if that is part of the energy seeping into my body? Am I somehow healing myself without knowing it? I will need to ask Bridget about that.
We follow whatever trail that Leeha had found for a good hour, none of us talking the way we normally would. Leeha has come a long way in her understanding of English, since all we have been doing all week when running or walking has been practicing. But now we are quiet, so as not to give ourselves away.
Without any warning, a wall of Air comes up in front of Leeha, making her stop short. But it’s the arrow that the wall stops, that truly bothers Leeha.
Out of the woods comes a man in a robe, and next to him is the archer who had shot the arrow. The man is tall and human, and he is in one of those fucking robes, a green one. Earth mage. The mage is bald, with a clean-shaven face, and he doesn’t have eyebrows. What the fuck?
He suddenly rubs a finger on the spot where an eyebrow would be and says in a nasally voice, “I thought we had gotten all the Elves, though, she must be yours. Too bad for you. We lost some Elves and we need to fill our quota, so we will take that one from you,” he says pointing to Leeha. “She seems young; she will do well to work in the mines.” Weirdly enough, as he speaks he proceeds to do the same eyebrow thing with his finger on the other side. Fucking hell, he must have rubbed them off doing that all the time.
“I’m sorry, did you say you would be taking my Elf?” I ask him through gritted teeth.
“Of course. You don’t seem to be wearing a robe, so you aren’t a mage,” he says with a grin. “So it should be fine, right?”
“Bridget, Sleeping Arrow the archer.”
Suddenly a purple streak goes past my ear right for the archer, and before he has a chance to dodge it, he gets an arrow in the chest. He looks down at it stupidly before crumpling to the ground, asleep.
“Bridget, Stun Arrow,” I tell her. And as quick as I think it, another purple arrow zips past me and hits the Water mage in the chest. The mage gets a stunned look on his face and doesn’t move, since I, well, just stunned him. I wasn’t sure about that spell, but I wanted this one awake. Glad it worked.
“Is there a way to stop him from using his magic?” I ask Leeha quickly.
“Yes, you can bind his hands together so that the Elemental can’t come into his palm, and you can also gag him.
“Bridget, Earth. Use vines to tie his hands and put a wooden gag in his mouth.”
“Yes, Alex,” she says gleefully. As we watch, vines grow quickly out of the ground at the Water mage’s feet then run up his leg and yank his arms together, palm to palm. Then another vine goes up, lashes across his mouth, and then turns into a stick, with more vines sealing his mouth shut.
“Just in case, ground him so he cannot move,” I tell her.
As soon as I say it, the mage’s feet sink into the ground. Just in time, too, as the stun wears off of him. He brings his hand up, I am sure to try to cast a spell, but then he notices they are tied together. He turns to try to run, but then he realizes he can’t. He looks down at his legs and then looks up at me quickly, and there is fear in his eyes now.
“Oh, you fucked with the wrong person today,” I tell him with a growl.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The Water mage is struggling now, trying to break out of the vines that are binding his hands together, and vainly trying to pull the wooden gag out of his mouth.
I walk up to stand in front of him and he stops struggling and looks at me with terror in his eyes. Good, be scared you fucking shit, because it’s about to get scarier.
“Now, I am going to take that gag out but first, I want you to understand something. If you utter a spell or try anything, you’re dead. Do I make myself clear?” I growl at him.
He nods quickly but I don’t trust him, so let’s make sure he does what I tell him. “Fire. Fire Arrow.” I repeat it six t
imes until around us are thirty-six flaming, burning Fire Arrows, and every single one of them is aimed at him.
You have used the spell Fire Arrow. You have used 10 points of power.
You have used the spell Fire Arrow. You have used 10 points of power.
You have used the spell Fire Arrow. You have used 10 points of power.
You have used the spell Fire Arrow. You have used 10 points of power.
You have used the spell Fire Arrow. You have used 10 points of power.
You have used the spell Fire Arrow. You have used 10 points of power.
I didn’t think it was possible, but the Water mage’s eyes get even wider. “Remove the gag,” I say in English, so Bridget knows I am talking to her.
The vines at the back of the Water mage’s head loosen, and the stick falls out of his mouth and to the ground. He slowly licks his lips, looking around desperately. For what, I have no clue.
“You can cast more than one type of Elemental Magic?” he asks me quickly.
“Sorry,” I tell him with a smile, “but I am the one who will be asking the questions. Let’s start with who are you?”
“No! you need—” he starts, but suddenly all the arrows move closer, and he closes his mouth quickly, looking at them worriedly.
“No, I think you misunderstood me. I wasn’t asking you for permission. Open your mouth for anything other than what I ask, and one arrow goes into your leg. Understand?”
“But you can cast—,” suddenly his questions cut off as one of my Fire Arrows does exactly what I said it would. It shoots straight into his left upper front thigh, and he screams in pain. With a thought, I make the Fire Arrow disappear, leaving me thirty-five more to play with.
“Now, shall we try that again?” I ask the whimpering Water mage. “What is your name?”
Through pants of pain, and with his bound hands grabbing at his leg, he says “Tiggy.”
“Thank you, Tiggy,” I tell him. “What are you doing here, Tiggy?”
He looks up at me, and now not only is there fear in his eyes, but there is pain there as well.
