Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3)

by Brian Wilkerson

  Annala let Eric go so he could answer and catch his breath.

  "Yes. If that's all, I'd like to continue my date with my girlfriend."

  Tasio snapped his fingers and disappeared. He reappeared with Annala’s coat, hat, and mittens. Then he disappeared again.

  “He seems fond of you.”

  Annala shook her head. “He’s like this with every elf because he’s our doting grandfather.” She put on the various garments without leaving Eric’s arms. “I just happen to have his attention right now.”

  Once outside, Annala pulled her coat’s hood over her face and then snuggled deeper into Eric's embrace. He cast Air Disk to avoid patches of ice. With the strength of a grendel, Annala felt light as a feather. When he arrived at his destination, he wasn’t winded in the least. Instead, he whispered threshold jokes in her ear.

  Her face turned an adorable shade of red and she squirmed again. Eric placed her on her feet just outside the door, but he still insisted on opening it for her. Once they placed their order and sat down, Eric asked, "Is there anything I should know about being an elf, culture wise? I couldn't find anything but speculation, gushing, or hatred on the internet and the library is just about empty."

  Annala expressed exasperation. "Our first date and you want to talk about cultural anthropology?"

  "Nerd mating dance, right?"

  "Okay, how about holidays? Torch Day is two weeks away and Ataidar commemorates it as the day that Fiol stepped down as queen in favor of her daughter. Elves have a similar holiday, First Flame, to remember Tasio teaching humans the first magic spell: Fireball."

  “When is that?”

  “In the spring.”

  “Okay, anything coming up?”

  "The most holy of elven holidays is about a month away. It’s the Festival of Arin's Ascension colloquially known as 'Elven Origin.' It's a carnival with games, dances, and food, but at the same time, it’s more than that. It’s the only time of year that every elf returns to their home village. We travel the world just to see what's there because otherwise, we'll go stir crazy."

  "Because we're immortal."

  Annala nodded. "We had to lock up Grandpa Nueces. He stayed in one place for a full millennium and he started thinking squirrels were chasing him."

  Eric thought of an old man running through a village, yelling, “Squirrels!” and then tripping over his long white beard. He cracked up laughing.

  "I'm serious! It’s especially bad when he thinks they’re in his pants!"

  That only made his laughter worse. When he finally stopped, Annala continued, if just a little annoyed.

  "Anyway, elven families are dispersed all over the world and the Festival of Arin's Ascension is usually when they all gather.”

  "Is this how your aunt and uncle met?" Eric asked.

  "They brought back a Lofnir they killed," Annala said. "Which brings me to the most important part of the festival: the annual play. It's the story of a herbalist and her guardian as they wandered, much like elves do today. They're the mother and father of the elven race."

  "I'm looking forward to it. I'm tired of learning about elves through war documentaries."

  "It’s the opposite of what...Tasio...wanted, but...those wars happened."

  "So the reason elves are so secretive is the same reason humans know anything about them at all?" Eric sat his chin on his fist. "Is it the chicken or the egg?"

  They spent dinner debating the subject. They framed their arguments using reason, philosophy, religion, biology, and other subjects. The winner of each round had to pay the penalty of feeding the other a fry. Eric pulled Annala into his lap to make the exchange more pleasant.

  The move startled Annala because she didn't expect him to be so bold. His hands didn't wander and his arguments didn't falter, so she relaxed. Eric was still Eric. The fundamental nature remained unchanged despite appearance.

  A metal utensil on a glass cup rang in the restaurant. All eyes in the room centered on Kallen. She stood on a table that Emily sat at.

  "Fellow patrons of this fine restaurant, allow me to present the winner of the 2000 AA Winter Blaze art gallery, Emily Tompson!" She clapped and other customers followed suit. Emily stood and took a bow. "She will accompany me to the Mana Mutation Summit, where her statue of me in all my monstrous glory will be on display for everyone to see!"

  Her eyes traveled over the restaurant to drink in their amazement and they connected with Eric, who didn't look away in time. She jumped off her table and speed-dashed to Eric's table. The eyes of the room followed her. Annala pushed herself off his lap and tugged her ear.

  "My, my, what a coincidence! Eric Watley, the Modern Demon." Kallen picked up a spoon and thrust it forward like a microphone. "Mr. Watley, are you excited for the Summit?"

  "Kallen, get that out of my face." To the crowd at large, he said, "There's nothing to see here, only a trickster's choice making dribble bottles for people that stare at him."

  At once, he was as invisible as if he'd cast the Dark Veil.

  "Mind if I join you?" Kallen asked.

  She slipped into the booth opposite them without waiting for an answer.

  "Kallen...how...what are you doing here!?"

  "I thought that would be obvious." She gestured to her own meal and Emily.

  "Are you stalking me?"

  "Why not? You're a handsome warrior," Kallen said flirtatiously. "Then again, Annala's pretty cute too..."

  Eric did a spit-take and all over her too. Annala was unimpressed.

  “I feel sorry for your assistant if she has to put up with your teasing every day.”

  Eric wiped himself off while Kallen did the same.

  "What are you really doing here?"

  "I came to see the happy couple," Kallen said sincerely. "Tasio told me you hooked up, so I thought I’d say congrats."

  "Kallen, we're not married," Eric said.

  "Technically, no," Kallen reached over and tweaked his currently rounded ears, "but you are considering it and I'm happy for you. I was hoping you would ask her out."

  "You were?" Annala asked.

  "Me and Tasio both." Kallen sipped her hot chocolate. "He doesn't give out Seeds of Chaos to just anyone."

  "Kallen, what are you up to?" Eric asked.

  "I'll leave you to your date now." She pulled out her money pouch and put coins in Eric's hand. A jolt of happiness and peace shot through him when her fingers brushed his palm. It was replaced by a twinge of longing. "Here, have one of those Big Chocolate Couple shakes on me."

  "You’re as outrageous as ever," Annala said.

  "You know her?" Eric asked.

  "Long story short; we used to live together."

  "Okay, now I want the long story."

  Chapter 5 The Power of Order

  Sisters; they were sisters. Eric asked Annala to repeat herself to make sure he heard right.

  “Kallen’s immediate family was wiped out in the Siduban Chaos Explosion and her relatives either couldn’t be found or refused responsibility. My mother, who had been her mother’s business partner in similar manner to Auntie H, adopted her in order to treat her mutation and my father made sure that loophole was in effect: ‘humans that belong to an elven family by way of marriage or adoption are considered part of the village and thus are exempted from technology bans and other laws forbidding and/or restricting human/elf interaction but not those laws whose purpose is to otherwise govern such interaction and prevent abuse.’ She had a room down the hall from mine in Dnnac Ledo and she helped me adjust to life in a human city when I decided to study abroad. Thus, it would be accurate to call her ‘my big sister.’”

  “Okay, I think I understand this time. So she took you under her wing like she’s doing to Emily right now?”

  “Yep!” Annala chirped. “She played with me, shared dessert with me, let me sleep in her bed when I had nightmares, and protected me from bullies. She’s the best big sister ever!”

  Eric ate a fry.

&nbs
p; “Then how did she end up in the ICDMM? I figured she’d work for your mom.”

  Kallen swallowed a piece of chicken tender before replying. “I wasn’t The Trickster’s Choice back then. Although I was legally part of the Enaz family, I was not accepted in their community. It was dangerous for me there.”

  Like Zettai and the Bladi Clan...

  “It was safer for me to be among my fellow mortals,” Kallen continued. “Plus, Nunnal hoped I could provide them with clues to solving mana mutation on their own and serve as a bridge between our two worlds. They exploited her goodwill and treated me like a lab rat. I went back to Dnnac Ledo as often as I could, and once I inherited Albatros IX, I stayed as far away from the ICDMM as possible for as long as possible.”

  “Then during my stay there, you —”

  Kallen stuck the rest of her chicken tender in his mouth. Since she had bite marks in it, Eric wondered if this counted as a kiss. He decided that was ridiculous and swallowed.

  “Yeah...bad memories...but it’s in the past. Right now, the important thing is the Summit and making sure ‘Loony Lunas’ doesn’t derail it.”

  Eric sweat-dropped, then he wondered if Kallen read that from the article he was involved or if she called him that herself.

  “That reminds me. I haven’t remembered how to read yet. I'm a high school graduate so I should know how to do that.”

  “I should hope a high school graduate can do that much,” Emily muttered.

  Annala sipped her drink. “The Summit is scheduled for the day after Torch Day,” she said. “We have plenty of time for you to re-learn reading and anything else you like.”

  “My girlfriend wants to do research with me; I’ve died and gone to Elysium.”

  Annala stood and walked off. “You have to please the gods to get there.” With a sly look over her shoulder, she finished, “And right now, Death doesn’t like you.”

  Eric stood and raised his hands like a Rattlelance actor. In a stage voice, he proclaimed, “The mind is its own place, and in itself, the mind can make a paradise out of a wasteland or a wasteland out of a paradise.” He sidled next to Annala and put his arm around her. “My paradise is right here.”

  She nestled. “Oh, Eric….”

  Emily gagged. “I don’t know what’s worse. Their PDA or that he’s quoting Paradise Lost to start it. Right, Boss?”

  “Yeah….”

  “Uh… you know, Boss…We could do something later…” She colored. “…if you want.”

  Kallen placed her under her arm. “Thanks, Emily.”

  In the library, the first couple checked out simple books and sat down for lessons.

  It was an odd experience for Eric. He remembered reading the collective work of Rattlelance and could quote all of them, but he couldn’t decipher the written words. Annala was a patient teacher and guided him in the shapes of letters and the sounds they made. Next was how to string them together into words and sentences. It was a stumbling and halting process, and sometimes, Eric forgot something he had re-learned five minutes previously. Then he had an epiphany.

  “Magecraft! This isn’t any different from spell study. Every night with Dengel’s Introduction to Magecraft. Prologue: Magecraft is Not Necrocraft. Spells are words and words are letters. Letters are sounds and sounds are necessary for novice mages. The master uses thoughts that sound like sounds until only the feeling is needed. THUS!”

  He grabbed the nearest book to hand and read it out loud, disturbing the other visitors with his triumphant voice. The librarian threw a silence spell at him, but he deflected it on reflex. Then he jumped onto the table, assumed his true form, and declared, “I’m going to read every book in this library before the Summit!”

  This tremendously bothered the library patrons. Many of them turned to “shh!” him. Others raised their scries to take a picture of him. Only a couple were scared of him, and all they did was check that their weapons were close at hand.

  “Eric! Get down!” Annala hissed.

  She yanked him by his metallic hand until he resumed his seat. Then she told him to change back and he did. This too was immortalized in digital media and posted to Carrier Pidgeon. The tagline was #WhoNeedsBeowulf.

  “Anyway, the Summit is ten days away. You’d have to take a leave of absence from the Dragon’s Lair, eat all your meals here, pee into a cup, stay up all night, every night, and even then you would not make it.”

  “Between my recovery and ‘preparing myself for the Summit,’ I think I can swing the leave, meals aren’t a problem because of the cafeteria, Grey Dengel taught me waste treatment spells for just such an occasion, and the chaos seed will prevent me from building a tolerance to caffeine, right?” Annala nodded. “Then I can do it.”

  Thus began Eric’s second nine-day library stay. Considering he didn’t have to sleep, he gained a net of seventy-two extra hours, so it was more like twelve days. Between the library’s books and its access to the internet, he read about every academic subject in five sub-areas of interest, current events throughout the world dating back one year, six web comics up to their fifth story arc, and upcoming holiday deals so he’d have something for his friends.

  “So this is why elves are so much more advanced than humans; you don’t sleep!”

  Annala placed a brown paper bag at his table. It was littered with such bags and other trash beyond counting. Most of it was fast food from the local Sandwich Queen, but others were vitamin water and salads from the café. She sat down across from him and said, “You have to sleep eventually; otherwise, you’ll end up like Grandpa Nueces.”

  “There’s so much to learn…and so much is relevant to the Summit! Do you know how long the Mana Mutation Method of Mage Moderation controversy goes? It’s an extreme theory to say the least, but it would no doubt be effective in its goal, but it would also leave them unable to deal with the monsters that remained after the mana level dimmed and not to mention the long-term consequences! On the other hand, it’s certainly something Order would want; more of a side-benefit than a side effect, but I do not doubt that Loony Lunas will push this at the Summit. His country operates under different technology and so it wouldn’t be an issue for him, but how would he persuade the rest of the world go along with it?”

  Annala began the process of cleaning up the mess. Eric was clearly in no state of mind to do so and the librarian was the verge of attacking him over it.

  “I thought you didn’t care about The First War,” she said.

  “I don’t. Not in the slightest; Chaos and Order can both jump in a lake for all I care.”

  He took a swig from an energy drink and then tossed the empty bottle into a recycling bin.

  “But this involves my little sister and she’s counting on me to make her latest plan work by supporting the side of the tricksters. Thus I care about this tiny little front of The First War and only this tiny little front.”

  “Little sister?...Oh….Monster mindset.” She resumed stuffing wrappers into a trash bag. “So you consider Her Majesty to be your little sister?”

  “She’s younger than me, relies on me, annoys the abyss out of me on occasion, and I protect her from evil suitors because she’s important to me. That makes her my little sister. Anyway, I’m only doing this because of her and to become immortal; in other words, because of you, which is both selfless and selfish of me because I’m performing an unpleasant task for the sake of another but only to fulfill my own objectives. It’s like eating; speaking of which, I am hungry and for more than the lunch special salads in the cafeteria.”

  Annala gathered up all the bottles, shot tubes, and dark chocolate containers that had fueled her boyfriend’s marathon study session. There had to be over ten thousand milligrams of caffeine in total.

  “What you need is sleep.”

  “If you insist, my lady, then I shall sleep like a baby because no one can kill me…No one can kill me, right? There’s not some weird weakness I’m unaware of that Loony Lunas will exploit as soon as
I close my eyes, right?”

  Annala tossed the trash bag over her shoulder. Eric waited for her to answer. After a deliberate pause, she said, “Now that you mention it, we’re deathly allergic to pickles.”

  “Really?!”

  “No. Go home and go to sleep.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him out of his seat. “Come on. I’ll tuck you in myself.”

  “Aww, I thought you were going to join me.”

  Annala grimaced and continued pulling. “Because you’re sleep deprived and have more caffeine in your veins than water, I’m going to ignore that.”

  With effort, patience, and an intellectually stimulating discussion about the struggle between Chaos and Order over the world fruit of Noitrearc, Annala successfully extracted Eric from his temporary lodgings. With honeyed smiles and sweeter words, she lured him from the library to his apartment. Finally, she tucked him in.

  “Tomorrow is Torch Day with plenty of parties to celebrate. If you rest and go back to the guild, then we’ll go to one at the end of the day. You have my word as a lady of chaos.”

  The next day, Eric hummed to work: he had a girlfriend, it was Torch Day, and his job's greatest occupational hazard was no longer an issue. There was every reason for him to be happy.

  He read about Torch Day on his first day at the library. Despite its focus on the veneration of Fiol, the Avatar of Fire, its roots were far older. It was practiced by Fiol’s mortal ancestors in the days before the written record. Its symbolism and meaning could be traced to humans discovering fire for the first time.

  A torch illuminated the area around itself even in the darkest night. It lit the way for all around it. Sharing this fire meant sharing warmth, which in the winter could mean the difference between life and death. The holiday was marked by rituals to the Fire Goddess; it was a full day of observance and special behavior for the entire community. Now only the royal family and devoted adherents still upheld them.

  In modern times, commoners were more involved with festivities like the party for the statue contest (which he had a date for), special holiday food, a torch runner from Mt. Fiol (an active volcano and holy site) to the capital and secular seat of Fiol’s power. There were CV specials and a reenactment of the historical event.