The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

  She focused on the blade dropping towards the Empress, on the sharp point that had frozen in its plummet to her heart. Since her body was temporarily frozen as well, she couldn’t take a good look around her and was limited to the sight that lay before her.

  She focused on everything in her vision, on the sword in Taylor’s sheath, on the blaster at her father’s side. She knew she could use either of those to take down the White Knight, but the chance of failure was too much. She needed something better.

  Her mind entered a more intense level of concentration and afterimages slowly appeared around her. This was the second part of her NOVA power. Her mind used its data on the past movements of everything around her and showed her exactly how each object was going to move as soon as she unfroze. It was a neat way of ‘predicting’ the future.

  With one look she could tell there was a huge problem with the situation she was in. Everything around her was static. The only thing that had any afterimages was the curtain in the room. Taylor and her father were both standing still. It would take too long for either of them to reach the Empress since they weren’t already in motion.

  A series of afterimages unfolded in front of Chris. Darn, she thought. I’m the only one who’s moving towards the Empress.

  The blade started to move faster toward Andrea. Chris panicked. Her powers were fading.

  CONCENTRATE, she yelled at herself. A surge of energy shot through her and the blade froze once again. But she still didn’t know what to do about the whole situation.

  I could use my crossbow, she thought, but she knew it was an unreliable weapon to use. She considered using her Elementa of Wind, but it was obvious she still didn’t have enough control over her wind attacks to use it and knock the blade from the White Knight’s hand.

  Only one option left, she relaxed, recollecting the afterimages she had seen. This is it, she thought.

  Her mind let go, and time immediately unfroze. Her momentum shifted her forward, but she knew she wasn’t fast enough. She used her Elementa of Wind and shot a blast of wind into her back. She flew through the air, landing right between the Empress and the White Knight.

  A piercing pain struck through her body and mind. She looked down to see a blade sticking into her chest.

  And that was the last thing she saw before she collapsed.

  ***

  A hurricane of emotions enveloped Taylor. One moment Chris was next to her, the next she was standing right between the White Knight and the Empress, right in front of the blade. One moment she was on her feet, and then next she was sprawled over the floor, her eyes closed, her chest wet with blood.

  Taylor’s mind went blank, and her body took control. A dark haze exploded from within her, covering the White Knight in a cocoon. When it finally receded from him, he lay on the floor, his body paralyzed, his face contorted with a look of pure fear.

  Taylor ran to Chris’ side. She pulled the blade out of her chest, and put pressure on the wound to stop the blood flow. She placed a hand on her wrist, and felt a pulse course through, a very faint pulse.

  “Is she still alive?” Commander Reagan ran over, a worried look on his face.

  She nodded, “But I don’t know how long she’ll stay that way. We need to get her over to the medical chambers.”

  “I have already alerted the medical facilities through my comm link,” he said. “What about the Empress?”

  “Leave that to me,” a voice said. Q walked into the royal chambers, a serious look on his face. “You take Chris to the medical chambers. I’ll protect the Empress.”

  “Thanks,” Taylor said.

  She and Commander Reagan rushed to the medical chambers. Commander Reagan, being the physical man he was, raced his daughter there in his arms. When they reached the underground medical chambers they could see men and women in dark robes impatiently waiting for them.

  The healers, Taylor thought. She had never seen them before.

  “Over here,” they revealed a hover-bed behind them - a flat, metal, high-tech bed that hovered in the air.

  Commander Reagan lay her on it, and the healers wasted no time dragging her into the isolated chambers behind a glass wall. Taylor’s face pressed against it as she tried to see what was going on. A black matte, box-like machine extended from the ceiling and hovered above Chris’ unconscious body. Its sides opened up, and eight long, robotic arms extended from it, lowering themselves down to Chris.

  Taylor didn’t want to watch anymore. She couldn’t. It was a little too much for her to take. She turned around, and saw Commander Reagan standing at the opposite end of the room, facing the other side.

  She calmed her mind down and walked over. He stood still, his eyes still staring out the glass wall at the empty medical chamber.

  “She took that blade for the Empress,” he said, as Taylor stood beside him.

  “Yeah, she did.”

  He kept staring at the glass wall.

  “Just why do you hate her?” she asked.

  The Commander remained silent, as though he hadn’t heard her.

  “She’s doing the best she can to be acknowledged by you, you know?” Taylor said. “She specifically asked - no, begged - to come on this mission, all because she wanted to see you, and you’re here treating her like she doesn’t exist.”

  “It is fine now,” he said. “I will treat her as she deserves to be treated.”

  “Because she took a blade?”

  “Because she proved she is a warrior.”

  “Are you crazy?!”

  “You would not understand,” he turned away.

  She grabbed his shoulder and pushed him against the wall. “I told you already,” she glared. “Stop running away. Tell me, why did you ignore her for so much of her life?”

  Reagan looked at her, and then down at the floor. “It’s because she did not grow up the way she was supposed to.”

  “You don’t like that she’s a healer?”

  He hesitated, “Has she ever spoken of her mother?” he asked.

  Taylor shook her head, “She hasn’t spoken of either of her of parents to be honest,” she said.

  He chuckled, “That is just like her,” he smiled. “Her mother was a fearsome warrior. Not a Dark Knight like I was. She was a criminal at first, a hard core mercenary who served only the most powerful of masters. When she got too out of hand the Dark Knights decided to intervene. I was the one who captured her in the end, and as fate would have it, I fell in love with her.”

  He sighed, as though he were reminiscing the memory, “She was from the Luxian race,” he said.

  And a piece of the puzzle snapped into place in Taylor’s mind. The Luxian race was known for two things; their inability to properly express or feel emotions, and their ridiculously short life spans.

  “Christina’s mother died just days after she gave birth to her,” he said. “She was just twenty years old then, but by Luxian standards she had lived through nearly two-thirds of her lifetime.”

  Taylor remained silent as everything sank in.

  “I remember it just like it was yesterday,” Commander Reagan said. “She lay there with a smile on her face, the baby right next to her. I could see that her strength was fading, that her life was washing away. She handed Chris to me, her lips in a proud grin, and told me her only wish; that she wanted our daughter to grow up to be a proud and strong warrior.”

  Taylor felt like she had been punched hard in the stomach.

  Commander Reagan turned to her, “Every day it hurt to talk to Chris. It hurt to talk to the only person who reminded me of the promise I failed to keep, of my own failure to fulfil my wife’s dying wish.”

  He smiled, “But all that does not matter,” he said. “For now Christina is a true warrior.”

  Anger boiled within Taylor. “You’ve ignored Chris her entire life, and now you suddenly say you’ve changed, all because she took a blade to the chest?”

  The chains on her emotions burst open. “Your daughter is a he
aler. Not because she’s a bad fighter, but because she chooses peace over violence, because she chooses to help people rather than hurt them. Does that not make her the strongest kind of warrior there is?”

  The Commander remained silent, but Taylor could tell he agreed.

  “Commander Reagan, you never failed your late wife,” she said. “The only one you failed is your daughter.”

  Alarms hit the air, and Taylor instantly jumped into attack mode. Commander Reagan, on the other hand, panicked. He turned around and ran to the other side of the room, towards Chris’ medical chambers. Taylor turned around as well.

  Oh dear god, her mind froze as she saw the red lights in Chris’ chambers, as the healers scrambled about her bedside, as the heart monitor showed her heartbeat slowly disappear like a water wave in a pond.

  Chris was dying.

  ***

  4-3

  Chris opened her eyes to warm sunlight shining on her face. She saw rays of bright light peek through the curtains over the window.

  “Aww, you’re awake,” a voice said, a voice that felt both familiar and unknown at the same time.

  Chris tried to move about but she was frozen in place. A lady’s face popped into her vision, her skin a flawless light brown. She tucked her luscious black locks behind her ear and bent down, close to her. Chris could see her emerald green eyes look into hers. She felt like she could lose herself within them, like she could just let herself go and feel as peaceful as ever.

  “You’re beautiful, Christina,” she said.

  At that moment, Chris knew who this lady was. She knew why she felt like she knew her, and she knew why she felt like she hadn’t. This was the woman she should have known her whole life, the one who left her before she could even remember she had existed.

  Mom, Chris thought. Mom. She tried to speak but her body was far too weak to get the words out of her mouth.

  “You have grown up so much, my dear daughter,” her mother placed her hand on Chris’ cheek. “And I will always be proud of you.” A gust of wind blew into the room, and her whole existence began to slowly fade away. “Goodbye, Christina,” she said, a faint smile on her disappearing face.

  Chris’ tried to reach out to her, to the mother she had longed for, to the mother she wished she had known. She yearned to jump into her arms, but her body was frozen still, unable to budge from its weakened state. Her vision blurred, leaving her with nothing but her final memory of the only person she had ever wanted to see again.

  ***

  Taylor rushed into the medical chamber, with Commander Reagan right behind her. The beeping on the heart rate monitor was rapidly slowing down.

  Don’t you dare do this to me, Chris, she thought. Her eyes watched in horror as the monitor’s line oscillated one last time.

  And then stopped.

  Taylor’s mind went blank. She couldn’t have actually died, she thought, Right?

  The healers all stopped hustling around the chamber and gathered around Chris. An elder lady held her hand, and a blue glow covered them both.

  An energy scan, Taylor noticed.

  The lady soon finished, and turned to them all. She shook her head, “Her life energy is fading away. I do not know how we can help her,” she said. “I do not know how anyone can help her.”

  She’s a lost cause, she realized. This was usually when her mind would’ve been wrecked with emotions, but right now she knew she had to stay strong for someone else. Commander Reagan stood beside Chris, his eyes staring hard at her now lifeless face.

  Taylor nudged the elderly lady, “You may want to give them some time alone with each other,” she said.

  “Very well,” she agreed. “But you stay here just in case something happens.”

  Taylor didn’t like the idea but she agreed to it. The healers bowed to Commander Reagan and left the room. Taylor plopped herself down in the corner and sat there quietly.

  Commander held Chris’ hand, his fingers brushing past her skin. The stern man’s eyes began to tear up. “I never thought I’d lose you,” he said, his voice a husky whisper among his silent sobs. “When your mother died, I promised myself I’d never lose someone else the same way again.”

  Taylor remained silent, trying hard to stop her emotions from overwhelming her.

  “I know I wasn’t the father you deserved,” Commander Reagan brushed the tears from his cheeks. “I regret it all. I regret not telling you why I was pushing you to the limit, I regret not telling you how I really felt,” his voice shook with every word. “But now it’s too late to change all that.” he covered his eyes as his emotions took over.

  Taylor walked to him, and put her hand on his shoulder. She couldn’t leave him alone when he was this rundown with grief.

  “You should talk to her as well,” he said abruptly and left them alone even before she could begin to protest.

  Taylor looked at Chris, her emotional walls beginning to crack. “So umm, hey, Christina,” she smiled. “I always wanted to call you that, you know? Christina. It’s a beautiful name. But I totally agree, Chris suits you much better,” she smiled.

  She put her hand on Chris’ forehead. “I wonder where you are right now. I wonder what you’re doing,” she said. “I’ll miss you,” her voice weakened. “Your dad and I are the only ones who know about what’s happened. We haven’t told anyone else yet.”

  She stared at Chris, at her calm and serene face. “I know how much you liked those white lilies from Earth,” she said. “So I’ll make a flower garden for you when we get back to Aliea Academy okay? And everyone will take care of it.” her voice trembled. “Me and Q, and Kai and-”

  A sharp beep rang through the air.

  Taylor’s eyes shot across the wall, and all her grief turned into pure jubilation. A small wave oscillated along the heart monitor, slowly becoming stronger as the seconds passed by.

  Commander Reagan rushed to his daughter’s bedside. The sounds of rough breaths came from Chris’ lips. Her chest slowly swelled and collapsed as she began to breathe normally.

  Her eyes inched open, and she turned her head toward her father. “Commander?” she asked, all confused. She blinked a few times and looked up at the snow-white ceiling. “I think I saw mom.”

  Commander Reagan leaned over and hugged her, his face full of relief. “Thank god,” he said. “Thank god you didn’t leave me.”

  Chris was utterly stunned for a moment, and then a surge of happiness lit her eyes. She put her hands around her father and hugged him tight. “I’m back, dad,” she smiled.

  ***

  4-4

  Q sat on the edge of the windowsill, his eyes facing the room. The Empress was already half awake from all the commotion that had just occurred. She sat up in a daze, and glanced at him, her dark hair covering a part of her eye.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  Should I tell her what just happened? he wondered and decided against it.

  “It’s nothing big,” he said. “Taylor, Reagan and Chris have left for the moment.”

  “Ah,” she said and lay back down onto her bed, her eyes facing the canopy above it.

  She’s quite a kid isn’t she? he smiled to himself.

  “You know, I never thought the Wielder of Light would be in a relationship,” she said.

  “Umm...what?”

  “You do realize everyone could see that innocent moment you and Taylor shared on the speaking grounds,” she grinned.

  Memories flooded into Q’s mind. He could feel his face become hotter. He had completely forgotten about what happened then. That was so embarrassing!

  “Umm,” he said. “Ummmm.”

  “Calm down,” she laughed. “But I must say, it was quite the refreshing experience to witness such an intimate moment between two people who love each other very much.”

  The very mention of ‘love’ was enough to make Q’s head feel like it was going to explode. He protested, “We’re not in love.”

  “But it’s am
azing you know,” the Empress cut him off. “I never thought I’d see Taylor become a sorcerer.”

  Q gladly went along with the topic change. “Well, technically she’s a sorceress,” he smiled. He jumped off the sill and leaned against the wall.

  “I wonder how she became a sorceress,” she said. “It couldn’t have been just because of her NOVA form. There’s no way she made the jump from warrior to sorceress with just that one factor.”

  “It wasn’t because of that alone,” Q said. “It all started during the attack on Aliea that happened a few months ago, the one that Levi and Albion orchestrated.”

  “Ah yes, how could I forget that attack.”

  “The enemy tried to use a horrid explosive, the Hades, to obliterate Aliea,” he said. “I tried to contain the explosions with my light shields but it was too much for me. In the end Taylor discovered her NOVA form and saved everyone by absorbing all the energy from the explosive.”

  Andrea sat up on her bed, a wonder-eyed look in her eyes. She clearly wasn’t aware of a few key things that had happened during that attack on Aliea.

  “My brother, Carlos, had presumed that Taylor would easily develop into a druid,” he said. “But even after a month he couldn’t observe any significant changes within her. He finally decreed that her power levels had stabilized at that of a mage.”

  “Wait, what?” Andrea looked shocked. “Taylor told me Carlos knew she was a Druid.”

  Q shook his head. “My brother knew absolutely nothing,” he said. “Taylor was a sorceress from the day she transformed into her NOVA form and absorbed the Hades,” he smiled. “It was just that most of her powers were locked away deep inside her existence. That was why no one was able to sense that she was a sorceress. A large part of her powers were completely hidden.”