Chokers
Chapter Six
Disclaimer: Magi does not belong to me.
A/N:
The pairing poll is still up, please vote. Updates may be irregular, I'm going to the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong.
Warnings:
Slavery (sort of), foul language, romantic relationships between males (though not for quite some time or maybe not at all), potential OOC, blood, gore, death…please tell me if there's something I forgot…
"Aladdin. Aladdin, wake up. Aladdin."
Big blue eyes fluttered open drowsily to gaze at the crimson-haired girl standing in the room, staring down at him. "…Mor-san…? Why are you here?"
"Yamuraiha-san just finished her examination of the choker from the collared who died yesterday – "
The three occupants of the room reacted almost in unison – evidently, Judal and Kouha had been listening in to the conversation.
"Someone died? What the hell, why didn't you tell us?!" growled Judal irritably.
"Who died? What was their name?" blurted Kouha, looking worried.
"What did Yamu-san find?" questioned Aladdin curiously.
"- and Aladdin is to attend a meeting to be informed of the results. I will take Kouha-san and Judal-san to meet with the other…" Morgiana searched for a sufficiently non-offensive way to address the collared. "The other prisoners who have guardians at the meeting."
She left it to Aladdin to answer their questions, and he dutifully began to do so, looking slightly uncomfortable.
"Sorry, I forgot to tell you both last night with the attack and all," Aladdin said ruefully, one hand going to tug on his long braid in a nervous gesture. "Not everyone survived the attack from the prisoners under compulsions last night- two guardians died, and one of the bonded was killed when his guardian didn't hold himself back enough. I think his name was Heng."
Kouha relaxed a little bit- he hadn't known him, had never even heard him name before, so it definitely wasn't one of his men. Judal was… somewhat pacified; not fully, but enough to go along with Morgiana for now.
Aladdin smiled at them, then hurried to the door. "I'll see you all later!"
The three remaining in the room waved half-heartedly after him, not that he could see it.
Dashing into the meeting room after once again getting lost, Aladdin realized that he had made it just in time and it was about to start.
"Sorry I'm late, I got lost!" he panted out sheepishly.
"Ah, Aladdin. Come in," Ja'far waved him to a chair. "Now that everyone is here, I'll start this off."
He pulled a thick scroll from within the folds of his sleeve.
"We questioned the two bonded that killed their guardians on what happened and why we found every single person in the palace grounds unconscious and with chokers around their necks, and they told us that they were just going about their business as usual and they woke up with those chokers." Ja'far glanced at the scroll again.
"We're assuming it was a palace wide spell by Ren Gyokuen, or a synchronized spell by many magicians in Al Thamen, since no one outside of the palace has been affected. From our initial counts, it appears there are a hundred and fifty three bonded, a hundred and fifty two now that one of them is dead. Yamuraiha will continue with her information gained from her examination of the choker from the dead prisoner."
Yamuraiha glided to Ja'far's side, a bundle of papers in her hand.
"It appears that the compulsion was meant to last only one night, hoping to kill some of us in a surprise attack. It looks like the choker also gives off a sort of emotionally influencing magic that heightens aggression and anger of every person in a certain radius from what we can see- it's using the magoi of the bonded to do this, which is the reason they can't fight like they usually do."
There were murmurs of unease at this. Magic that influenced the emotions was forbidden and looked down upon, and to find that half the people in the palace had something that could influence their emotions was more than a little bit unsettling.
"However, the chokers also make the bonded highly vulnerable to magical suggestion- I would like you to take them to me or the magician's squad so that we can make sure they do not attack you." The blue haired magician looked a little distasteful as she said that. Aladdin frowned.
"In respect to the matter of the chokers being removed, we've found that it came off the neck of the dead prisoner easily, but we were unable to take it off the two bonded who killed their guardians. It has been hypothesized that only if the pulse of the person wearing the choker stops will the chokers come off." Yamuraiha paused warningly, her usual gentle expression suddenly stern and unforgiving. "We have not tested this yet, and we do not intend to test it either- it's cruel and inhumane."
Ja'far continued for her. "Since many people have expressed that they do not want to maintain their responsibilities of guardianship, they must find either a magician or a magoi manipulator more powerful than themselves and therefore able to overpower the magoi already in the choker who is willing to take up responsibility for the bonded if they wish to transfer guardianship. Please be warned that adding too much magoi to the choker will likely cause cases of irrational aggression. We encourage you to be on guard at midnight, and not to fall asleep before your charges do. That is all for now."
As the members of the meeting scattered, Aladdin hurried over to Yamuraiha, who looked like she was expecting this.
"Yamu-san, using magical suggestions on them isn't right-!" he started, but she cut him off with a sigh.
"I know, but there's no other way we can be assured of our safety with so many prisoners. Sinbad and Ja'far thought for a long time on this, and they couldn't find another solution I'm afraid." She brightened a little bit. "But don't worry, it's only one to keep them from attacking people. We won't give them any other suggestions."
"Still…" The magi trailed off and lowered his eyes. "…Never mind, Yamu-san."
Some time ago, with Morgiana, Kouha, and Judal…
"Where are we going?" Kouha yawned, rubbing at his eyes. Next to him, Judal's back made a series of cracking noises as the dark magi stretched in an attempt to wake himself up a bit.
"We are going to get Koumei-san and then we will meet up with Masrur and the Fanalis Corps from Reim in Alibaba-san's room." Morgiana informed them, not bothering to embellish further. They turned a corner and she stopped in her tracks, staring straight ahead for a second.
"What? Hey, muscle girl, what's the matter?"
There was silence. The tension in the air was so thick it could be cut with a knife.
Then Morgiana turned to look at Judal with a look of irritation on her usually blank face.
"Aladdin went the wrong way again."
A/N:
If anyone is confused about the things I explained in this chapter, don't be afraid to ask. Don't forget to vote for pairings either!
FireLark
(P.S. Shameless advertising for 'The Courting of Spartos'.)