by Tj Dixon
“Of course.” Midori says and forces herself to stand but she is clearly in pain. Both Midori and Hermes are out of breath.
“Rin, stand that side and put your arm under Midori’s. I’ll do the same on this side. Hermes, keep your senses open for enemies.” I tell everyone and Midori’s aura improves the moment I put my arm under hers and against her side. It is fortunate that she is only slightly taller than me or this would be much more difficult.
“Thank you.” Midori tells me with a gentle smile.
“We just need to get far enough from the corpses that we stand a reasonable chance of not being found. Then we can rest and recover our power. We’ll head in this direction, since that is where we are heading anyway.” I tell her. I look at Rin on the other side of Midori to see if she is ok and notice her aura is really dark. After everything that happened I suppose it is to be expected, though it didn’t seem this bad just now.
“Let’s go.” Midori tells me sounding much more confident now.
“Ok. Let me know if it gets too hard for you.” I tell her and we start walking. With our help Midori is able to keep up a reasonable pace.
“Peter…” Rin says and I look over at her. She remains quiet for a few more steps and then looks at me seriously. “Saving me and sacrificing yourself like that… Please don’t do anything like that again. You promised me that you wouldn’t die. You would have broken that promise if Midori and Hermes hadn’t shown up when they did.”
“Sorry, but I don’t want you to die either.” I tell Rin.
“Let’s just focus on not letting anyone die.” Hermes says looking back.
“Especially Peter.” Midori says cheerfully.
“I’m not going to let anyone here die.” I declare and pray that I truly am able to keep everyone alive.
“Is everyone safe at the academy?” Rin asks.
“They were when we left.” Hermes says.
“Except the slaves who were sacrificed to raise the main ward.” Midori says and I look at her in horror.
“What do you mean?” I ask with a shiver that has nothing to do with the cold weather.
“They sacrificed twenty slaves. They didn’t have enough mana so they used twenty souls to power the spell.” Midori tells me with both sadness and frustration in her voice. I force myself to keep on walking despite my desire to simply stop and stand here.
“How did you get out of the academy?” Rin asks, though I suspect it is just to distract me.
“You remember the tunnels that you fought in during the tournament?” Midori asks me.
“Yes.” I nod.
“We found one that wasn’t fully covered by the main ward. I doubt anyone could find it from the outside, but from the inside it was easy to port out of.” Midori explains.
“How did you find the gap?” I ask, rather impressed.
“We had a little help from Sor.” Midori answers.
“She was a bit angry at me before we left, so I’m surprised she helped you.” I frown.
“Emi insisted that she help us, but Sor didn’t seem too bothered. Oh and Emi said to bring Rin’s bag. Hermes has it.” Midori tells me.
“Did you bring any food?” Rin asks.
“Yes. We brought food, clothes, healing potions, money and two beds.” Midori answers, though she is still looking at me.
“Hermes, get some food out now.” Rin snaps.
“Nothing that we have to stop for or that we need to use magic to heat up.” I tell Hermes quickly. I’m hungry too, but I don’t want to die because we stopped for a meal or because we wasted vital mana and potentially exposed ourselves to the enemy.
“Yusa prepared some enchanted nuts. One nut should relieve hunger for a while. I thought it might be useful to have something like this when I heard about your time in Nirvali and the Kuroneko’s forest, so I asked her to make these just after you got back from Nirvali.” Hermes tells us and hands us both a nut.
“Thanks Hermes that was good thinking. I’ll have to thank Yusa too when we see her again.” I say and then put the nut in my mouth. As soon as it touches my tongue the hunger in my stomach starts to fade. I chew on the nut and my hunger is soon gone altogether. “You really did come prepared.”
“Of course.” Midori smiles.
“So how did you find us?” I ask and Midori gulps.
“We got lucky.” Midori lies with an embarrassed look on her face. Hermes turns and frowns at Midori.
“You seemed awfully confident you would find Peter.” Hermes says dubiously.
“I just… I just thought I’d be able to guess where you’d go.” Midori lies, looking guilty and extremely worried.
“You saved us, so I’m grateful you did find us. I suppose it doesn’t really matter how you did it.” I tell Midori who breathes a quiet sigh of relief.
“I’m curious though.” Rin tells Midori with a suspicious glare.
“What are those mushrooms?” Hermes asks, pointing at a circle of seven round, pink mushrooms. They’re close to an especially large tree.
“They’re poisonous.” Rin says with an annoyed glare at Hermes.
“I wasn’t suggesting we eat them.” Hermes protests.
“No. You were just trying to change the subject, so Midori doesn’t have to explain herself.” Rin tells Hermes with an icy glare.
“Midori and Hermes did just save us.” I remind Rin.
“I know, but I bet Midori has some sort of enchantment on you.” Rin says and although Midori doesn’t react, her aura seems to suggest that Rin guessed correctly. The thought is a little unsettling.
“What does it do?” I ask Midori.
“I never said I had an enchantment on you.” Midori protests.
“But you do, don’t you?” Rin asks accusingly.
“No.” Midori lies.
“You know that I can tell when you’re lying, so you may as well admit it.” I tell Midori with a sigh.
“Fine, but it’s just to help me keep track of where you are.” Midori tells me and I can’t tell from her aura whether she is being honest or not.
“But why did you use an enchantment like that?” I ask.
“Because I love you.” Midori says and I can tell from her aura that this is clearly the truth. I blush a little. Rin glares at Midori again.
“Then you should trust Peter.” Rin says fiercely.
“I do, but you were about to get him killed when we got here.” Midori says and this time Rin goes bright red from embarrassment rather than anger.
“That’s enough, both of you.” I sigh. “We need to work together. We’ve got enough enemies without fighting amongst ourselves.”
“At least tell her to remove the enchantment.” Rin tells me firmly, but I shake my head.
“It might come in handy if we get separated.” I tell Rin who frowns but doesn’t argue. “At least we get to sleep in a bed, even if it will be weird to be in bed out in the middle of a forest.”
“That reminds me. Hermes, I want my bag back.” Rin says and Hermes takes Rin’s bag out of her pocket and hands it to Rin, who puts it in her own pocket.
“Was it always that small?” I ask.
“You can change the size.” Rin shrugs.
“You never told me that!” I protest.
“You never asked me.” Rin points out.
“I never imagined it could do something like that.” I tell her.
“Well I would have thought it was obvious. It uses dimensional magic to change its size on the inside, so why wouldn’t it be able to change its size on the outside too?” Rin asks me.
“Well, it wasn’t obvious to me.” I tell her, but both Midori and Hermes seemed unsurprised to learn it could change size, so perhaps it was obvious to them. If it wasn’t they don’t speak up.
We walk on in silence for a while. The leafless dark brown trees seem to be getting bigger the further we walk so we must be heading to an older part of the forest. Eventually I decide this is far enough. No matter how far we walk we can’t escape the
enemy, so walking too far is just as dangerous as not going far enough.
“Let’s stop and rest here.” I tell everyone.
“That suits me just fine.” Rin says and quickly removes her arm from Midori.
“Are you ok to stand on your own?” I ask Midori who smiles and nods.
“Of course she is.” Rin says as I slowly remove my arm from under Midori’s.
“Hermes, are you ok to keep watch whilst we get some rest?” I ask.
“Yes, I’ll be fine.” Hermes assures me.
“Did you say you only brought two beds?” Rin asks.
“Yes. We brought both the beds from the room I was sharing with you. There wasn’t much time, because the teachers were rounding up the students when we left.” Hermes tells us.
“Why were they doing that?” I ask nervously.
“They seemed to be worried that the academy might have been infiltrated before the main ward went up. Everyone was going to live in communal rooms. The arena ‘room’, the lunch room and the flight hall. Our club was going to be in the flight hall. The academy was turning into more of a castle than a school now it is under siege.” Hermes explains.
“I hope everyone’s ok.” I mutter darkly. I already knew the situation was bad, but this is even worse than I thought.
“Lucy and Sor are with them. I’m sure those two will keep them safe.” Hermes tells me confidently, but with a tremor of doubt in her aura.
“I’m sure you’re right.” I tell Hermes with a confident smile of my own. Except my confidence is fake. Those two are powerful and can work miracles, but our enemies are powerful too. The situation doesn’t look good for Contractia as a whole either.
“Let’s get those beds out.” Rin says and takes her bag out of her pocket.
“I’ll share a bed with Peter.” Midori says and Rin goes bright red.
“You will not.” Rin tells her firmly and the two glare at each other like two predators sizing each other up.
“No fighting.” I tell them firmly.
“Then make it clear that you will not be sharing a bed with her.” Rin says glaring at Midori.
“I don’t mind.” I tell Rin who clenches her fist. Midori grins triumphantly, but Rin’s eyes go glacial.
“Ok, never mind, but you’ll have to share a bed with one of us then.” I tell Rin whose glacial fury melts and is replaced by embarrassment. Midori on the other hand looks angrily at Rin.
“I’ll share a bed with you then. There’s no way I’m letting you share a bed with Peter.” Midori tells Rin furiously.
“Of course. I wouldn’t dream of sleeping with Peter.” Rin says through her blush. From her aura I get the impression it is a lie, which makes me blush. I only said it as a joke. Sharing a bed with Midori or Rin would be way too embarrassing, though part of me would actually very much like to do so.
“Rin, could you get the beds out?” I ask, because Rin is just standing there in a bit of a daze.
“Of course.” Rin says, clearly still more than a little embarrassed. She then reaches inside her bag and pulls the first bed out. The bed appears just outside of the bag as if ported. Smaller objects come out the same way they would from a normal bag but, huge objects that would never fit inside the bag, come out like this. The beds are of course just single beds.
“Will you both be ok?” I ask Rin and Midori, a little worried.
“I’d rather share with you, but I’ll be fine.” Midori tells me with a smile.
“Of course we’ll be fine. We’re both girls, after all.” Rin shrugs. She looks at her bag and then at me.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“I want to get changed into one of the spare uniforms, so get in bed and close your eyes.” Rin tells me rather hesitantly.
“Ok, but tell me when you’re finished.” I tell Rin and then quickly get in bed. I close my eyes.
“Turn over.” Rin tells me firmly, so I turn over. I hear what must be Rin changing. She is obviously in a hurry so it isn’t long before she tells me. “I’m done. You can open your eyes again.”
I open my eyes as soon as she says it and then turn back over so I am facing upwards again. It is probably late morning now and the sun is bright, but it isn’t long before I am asleep. I wake peacefully and feeling really refreshed this time. The stars and both moons are up. I must have slept through the day. The moons are both full and the stars are not blocked by clouds, so though it is dark there’s still more than enough light to see by.
“Peter…?” Hades asks cautiously.
“Hades?”
“Are you awake?”
“Of course I am. I’m talking to you, aren’t I?”
“Hmm… The elders are growing restless. Father is angry and impatient.”
“Isn’t he always?” I chuckle.
“Not like this.” Hades tells me very seriously.
“Aren’t you going to get into trouble for talking to me like this?”
“It’s too late to worry about that.” Hades laughs.
“So how have you been doing?”
“I’m still alive.” Hades sighs, which is so unlike her.
“Of course you’re still alive.”
“How do I look, from down there?” Hades asks and I frown at the unexpected question. I look at her closer and realise something odd.
“You’re not as bright as normal.” I tell her seriously.
“If I fall, will you catch me?” Hades asks and I choke.
“Don’t even joke about it!” I yell furiously.
“About what?” Hermes asks.
“About what? … I don’t know.” I answer her and try to recall what Hades just said. I can’t though. I guess it can’t be anything that important, though a small flame at the back of my mind tells me that it is.
“Then don’t yell like that.” Rin scolds me quietly.
“We should probably move from here quickly, in case anyone heard.” Hermes says, looking around as if expecting an enemy to appear at any moment.
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” I tell her apologetically and quickly get out of bed. I then quickly cleanse myself with magic.
“Don’t worry about it.” Hermes tells me with a small smile.
Rin and Midori get out of bed sleepily but the cold quickly wakes them up. Rin puts both of the beds back in her bag.
“Everyone hold on to me.” Rin says and we walk towards her.
“Where are we going?” Midori asks Rin.
“A small beach town. It’s probably been overrun by the enemy though, so we’ll port outside town.”
“Then I want to wash first. There doesn’t seem to be anyone around, or we’d have been attacked already.” Midori says.
“Fine, Peter turn away.” Rin says.
“I don’t mind if Peter watches.” Midori says and I blush, but seeing Rin’s furious expression I quickly turn away from Midori. I hear Midori say quite openly. “We’ll have to wait until we’re alone, Peter.”
“I’m watching you Midori.” Rin mutters angrily.
“Sorry, but could you turn away from me Rin, and Hermes. I’m not comfortable taking my clothes off whilst you watch.”
“But you wouldn’t mind Peter watching?” Rin asks incredulously.
“Of course. I love Peter, but you’re just friends.” Midori says nonchalantly.
Chapter 20 (Hermes)
Rin ports us and then all hell breaks loose. There are lightning bolts, fireballs, ice shards, stone shards and more flying in every direction and the night sky is lit brightly by the constant magic. Wind knocks me to the muddy ground face first and a moment later an ice shard passes directly over me. It would have hit me in the back if I had still been standing up.
Rin and Midori are on the muddy ground too but Peter is still standing. He calmly dodges a hail of metal shards and then sends a powerful lightning bolt in the direction they came from. I open my senses as wide as I can and try to make sense of the chaos around us.
There are at least
five groups of mages and we appear to still be in the forest, though the trees are much shorter and thinner here. More like saplings really. It takes a few moments to work out that one group of mages is fighting the other four groups. The main group is only using fire magic, whilst all of the other groups are using the four main elements. The four groups attacking it seem to be mostly men, whilst the main group is entirely female, so I assume that the main group is Contractian. There is also now a port block up, though there wasn’t one a moment ago.
Peter is helping the fire mages by attacking their enemies with wind slices and lightning bolts. His attacks have overpowered the shields of two mages so far. Both are now charred corpses smouldering on the ground.
There are so many attacks flying through the air that I dare not stand up. My power is also weak, because I kept watch whilst everyone else slept. Rin seems to have made sense of the situation too now and having recovered her power she sends a hail of ice shards down on the enemies in the nearest group.
A deafening roar of lightning strikes down at one enemy from all around him. His shield fails and he is instantly killed. It must have been Midori’s lightning strikes, because Peter was attacking a different mage with wind slices at the time.
A hail of metal rains down on us but Rin and Midori shield. I sense the mage who sent the metal shards at us and I throw the few stones that were buried in the mud around him, up at him. He easily shields but the hail of metal weakens a little. Only a little though.
Peter blasts the mage with an even more powerful lightning bolt than the previous ones. The mage’s shield, having been partly focused downwards against my attack, fails and he is reduced to a charred corpse. I should feel disgusted or guilty at the thought of killing people like this, but strangely I don’t feel anything other than a little relief that it isn’t us dying and scared that it might soon be. Fighting monsters wasn’t this scary.
All of a sudden the port block drops and the enemy mages all port away at exactly the same moment. I breathe a huge sigh of relief and carefully get to my feet. I look at the group of fire mages and can’t help thinking that they look familiar. Their charred mage robes don’t reveal their identity but after a moment I recognise one young woman. Trinity Divine Flame. She saved us when I messed up by taking the bounty hunt for the goblins. I’m not sure but I think I recognise a couple of the other women as mages from the Divine Flame family guard.
