Okay... This chapter was originally titled 'My Name is Mana!' However, due to a (slight) plot adjustment to account for Fae culture, a name change was necessary. Especially since the original title was no longer exactly fitting.
So, yes. Very little actually gets done in this chapter, however, next chapter ought to be quite interesting, since Luke will be getting a pretty good culture lesson from Mithri in that one.
Not a hundred percent sure about the song for this one, as it applies more to Mithri than to Jade, whose POV the chapter is from, but it's fitting enough.
How can you find
A Heaven in this Hell?
When the shadows remain in the light of day
On the wings of darkness he'll retaliate
Arc III - Conflict of Interests
Chapter 8 – A Demon's Fate
Chiastre
Jade frowns as he waits for the maroon-haired girl to wake up. He's been sitting in this cabin for hours now, puzzling over the strange girl. The other two aren't quite sure where she came from, either, though those clothes suggest that she may be a noble. The red hair even suggests a Kimlascan noble, though Luke—whom Jade is certain is a Kimlascan noble—insists he never met her before waking up in Tataroo Valley.
Much to the colonel's chagrin, the redhead also refuses to cooperate unless the girl Jade's now examining also cooperates.
Jade wonders at the likelihood of that as he thinks back to how they'd ended up in this situation.
Jade's thoughts are a whir. What was Ion thinking?! Ligers?! If the boy isn't dead yet, he'll be lucky. Anise is somewhere behind him, Jade lost track of her some time ago now. He's much more concerned about getting to the Fon Master before he turns into monster food than anything else.
He spots a bush sitting oddly and shoves it aside, seeing the den entrance instantly. This is it!
He runs into the den, the fonons of his spear hovering just over his skin, ready to form properly at a moment's notice. Jade spots a gathering of ligers at the entrance to a larger cavern, but they disperse upon seeing him. He stops in the cavern's entrance and starts gathering fonons immediately, heart pounding.
There's the queen, and—wait, what's wrong with that girl? No, don't worry about it, kill the queen before she can kill the others! She's already thrown two into her nest!
The girl who had practically thrown herself out of the liger queen's nest looks up, face twisted in pain, even as the liger queen spotted him and roared. Jade scowls, but is grateful for the amount of time he's had to cast, because it means he can finish this in one strike.
"I, who stand in the full light of the heavens, command thee, who opens the gates of hell—"
"No, Frinyenri!" the girl screams as the liger queen starts to charge at him. The girl then looks to him, already getting to her feet. "Don't finish that arte!" the girl screams.
'What? Ugh, too late...' Jade grumbles mentally. "Indignation!"
The arte strikes true, even as the girl rushes toward the liger queen. She screams as she gets caught on the fringes of it. The liger queen shifts and growls softly, and the girl murmurs something that Jade doesn't catch before the liger queen dies and its fonons start separating.
"Jade!"
Ion sounds upset, and Jade pauses, glancing over at the rather distraught Fon Master. The angered yowls of the other ligers echo around them, but Jade doesn't see any of them.
"Mithri! Mithri, are you okay?!"
The other boy, the other one who'd been in the liger queen's nest, jumps out carefully and runs over to the girl's side. Another young woman shifts, glancing back and forth between the girl Jade's arte hit and the nest.
The maroon-haired girl Jade hit pushes herself up shakily, hand reaching into her satchel and drawing out a thick book. She flips it open to a bookmarked page and lets her hand hover over it. Jade watches, surprised, as the words on the page light up a golden-brown.
"Mithri?" the red-haired boy says again. Jade guesses this is the girl's name.
"Stoneskin," the girl mutters. The words on the page flash, and then a fonic glyph forms around the nest of liger eggs.
Then her eyes come up, and Jade is shaken by two things—the striking difference in color between them (he's seen heterochromia before, but usually with the color combinations of green and blue, or brown and blue, never blue and gold) and the sheer disgust she's aiming his way. He barely notices that she's flipped to another page.
"She didn't deserve that, you bastard," the girl says, voice soft, but positively saturated in hatred.
"Mithri, don't! He was just trying to help!" Ion cries as another page lights up. This time, the words are an ominous violet, and Jade gets the sinking feeling she's about to cast an arte on him.
"Help?" Mithri echoes in disbelief. "How the hell was killing the liger queen, who was doing absolutely nothing, HELPING?!" Jade tenses. "Dark Force!"
He manages to dodge, but only barely, and he trips over something as he goes. He glances at whatever had tripped him up, then has to look again.
A sheathed sword, and someone's staff. He glances at the redhead next to Mithri and the other woman. While he can see throwing knives on the woman, the boy doesn't appear to be armed.
"Mithri, please!" Ion pleads as the book lights up again after Mithri flips the pages. This time, the light's a soft, golden-white. A sixth-fonon arte, then.
Mithri pauses, glances at the green-haired boy, then clenches the hand that was hovering over the open book. The light fades, and Jade can feel the gathering fonons dispersing. The girl turns and walks over to the nest, standing in front of it protectively as she continues to glare at him. "Get out."
Jade scowls as he stands up. "And leave you in the middle of a cavern full of monsters?"
"Get out!" Mithri snarls, flipping back to the page with the second-fonon arte on it. What did she call it? Stoneskin?
The redhead runs over and grabs the sword and staff, tossing the staff to the other female before strapping the sword onto his back. "Mithri..."
"I'm sorry, Luke. But I won't leave the eggs until I'm sure they're safe. Stoneskin!"
Once again, the golden-brown glow envelops the nest, except this time, Mithri's close enough for it to cover her as well. A small, cat like monster that is definitely not a liger hops onto the edge of the nest and ducks her head, looking at the eggs curiously. Jade huffs.
"If the eggs hatch here, the newly hatched ligers will likely attack Engeve in search of food. I can't allow that to happen."
Mithri snarls again, a sound more akin to the noises the unseen ligers are making than anything a human should be able to make. Jade sighs as Anise finally catches up, and he gives her a look, then nods toward Ion.
This girl obviously isn't leaving without a fight, and Jade can't in good conscience just leave her here. She's already casting again, anyway, the first fonon arte again.
And while Jade is very curious about her method of casting artes... Well, he'll have to wait to ask her later.
Under normal circumstances, Jade knew he could withstand a couple of low-level artes without flinching, even while he was casting. It was part of the reason why he was so interested in Mithri all of a sudden. Dark Force wasn't an arte he was familiar with... However, that didn't mean it didn't hurt. Being what appeared to be a dark version of Photon, a bit of pain had been expected.
The sharp, biting sensation of having his strength sapped hadn't been, and it had surprised him enough to interrupt his own casting. Due to that, Mithri had gotten in not one, but two hits before he'd landed a Blessed Drops.
Much to his surprise, it had apparently been enough to knock her out.
Unfortunately, if the ligers hadn't already been pissed off from him killing their queen, his defeat of the maroon-haired girl had resulted in them having to leave then, before he could destroy the eggs.
"Hi, Jade!"
The chipper, now-familiar voice is enough to drag the colonel out of his musings, and he looks up at the newcomer. She's about the same age and height as Mithri—perhaps a bit taller—but has vibrant blue hair, with eyes just a shade darker. Her clothes are a bit odd, but then again, Jade muses, the girl herself is rather odd, so he lets it slide even as he glances over the black top, brown jacket, and denim skirt again.
"How do you fight in that?" he finds himself asking for what must be the twentieth time. The girl grins and bounces a bit.
"Quite easily, thanks for asking for the thirty-third time."
Jade raises an eyebrow. "Is it really?"
"Yup! Or at least, Alyna'aou says it's the thirty-third time. She's got a better memory than I do." The girl shrugs. "Anyway, Luke's getting antsy. Oh, and Alyna'aou is about to eat the cheagle, but that has nothing to do with Luke getting antsy. But Tear's trying to run damage control and it's not really working and I don't want to get involved in that because Ku'aru's still griping at me for messing up her name—which I just did again—so I thought I'd come see if the other girl was awake yet. Huh. You know she's actually kinda familiar? Can't tell you why though... Oh! Ion wants you to know that he thinks taking her lexicon was a terrible idea."
After taking a moment to translate all of that, since she said it all at once without breathing in between—and how she manages that, Jade isn't sure he wants to know—he sighs. "Thank you for the update," he says, before frowning and looking at the girl again. "I'm going to go check on things on the bridge. Watch her, and alert me if she wakes before I return," he orders, standing up and walking out of the cabin. He's been sitting there for a couple of hours now, waiting for Luke to either make up his mind without Mithri, or for Mithri to wake up.
His patience is starting to run a bit thin.
He barely makes it to the bridge before a purple blur shoots in. *Mithri's awake!* the tiny dragon announces. Jade takes a deep breath and counts to three before releasing it slowly.
Marco gives him a sympathetic look. "It's just not your day, is it, Colonel?"
Jade sighs, turns around, and doesn't bother to answer that. Alyna'aou jumps up, flaps her wings a couple times to get a bit more air, and lands on his shoulder. She's roughly twice the size of the cheagle, and Jade knows she can't actually fly in this form. Her full-sized form, however, takes up half of the maintenance deck, so it really makes more sense for her to be in hatchling form, much as he knows it irritates her.
"So, I heard something about certain purple dragon trying to eat a cheagle," he says as he walks. If he's stuck carrying the troublesome creature, he might as well poke some fun at it.
He gets a tail to the back of the head for his efforts. *It's almost more annoying than you are. I don't know why Mana likes you so much.*
Jade sighs, wondering idly why he thought that was a good idea. Mana might be easy to poke fun at, but her dragon? Oh, no. Alyna'aou was quiet, gentle soul most of the time, but she had a very low tolerance for idiocy.
So... how did she deal with Mana, again?
'I'm going to give myself a headache trying to figure these two out,' he thinks, and not for the first time. And now he gets to add Mithri to that pile as well.
He reaches the cabin he left Mana and Mithri in and opens the door. He's not too surprised to find himself meeting Mithri's glare again the moment she spots him.
Which, of course, is the moment he steps into the room.
Alyna'aou immediately vacates his shoulder, gliding over to settle on Mana's instead. And while Jade is grateful for the weight being gone, he's also a bit miffed with the dragon for leaving him alone under Mithri's scrutiny. He's not unused to being the target of a glare or two, but Mithri seems to be capable of putting a whole other level of pure abhorrence into hers.
"Where is my father's lexicon?"
Despite the quiet tone and the deceptively calm cadence, Jade can hear what he already knows in this girl's voice as well.
Mithri absolutely, positively despises him.
Which means he's got to get at least grudging cooperation out of her if he wants Luke's help.
'Marco said it earlier, and I find myself agreeing now. This is just not my day.'
Mithri's eye twitches. "Where is it?" she asks again.
Jade takes a deep breath. "I will not return it until you've calmed down."
Mithri's jaw clenches. "I'm about as calm as you're going to get me, murderer."
Mana tilts her head to the side innocently. "It was just a liger."
Mithri spins to turn that dangerous glare on the blue-haired girl, already snarling. "Do you know how rare it is for any kind of predatory monster to allow not one, but three humans into their nest when there are eggs in it?!"
Mana squeaks and jumps back about a yard, Alyna'aou holding onto her shoulder tightly so as not to be dislodged. Mana swallows, glances at the purple dragon, and shrugs. "Um... Really rare? I know a lot of dragons with clutches don't allow anyone but their mate and their Bonded human, if they have one, near their nest," she admits. Mithri snorts.
"Exactly. And most monsters don't Bond the way dragons do. That's the second nest I've been in. That the liger queen let me in was a surprise. That she let Luke in as well because I was trying to teach him something shocked me more than you can imagine. In fact, I was almost more surprised about her letting Luke in than I am pissed at that blædür ghâddra!"
Mana and Alyna'aou gasp at the two words that, to Jade, sounded like nonsense. Mana's eyes are so wide, Jade wonders idly if it's physically possible for them to get any wider. Still...
"And what, exactly, do those last two words mean?" he asks.
"Mithri, please, please, please take it back!" Mana cries.
Mithri snarls, turning that dangerous glare back on Jade—and is it just him, or is her left eye flickering back and forth between blue and gold?—before clenching her fists. "Where is my father's lexicon?!"
Jade sighs. This is not going well. "I'm going to go tell Luke you're awake." Maybe he can calm Mithri down enough to be reasonable. "As I said before, I'll return it once you're calm." He turns to leave, and hears Mana gasp and a hiss of steel against a sheath. Self-preservation instincts prompting him to turn around, Jade narrowly avoids getting stabbed by Mana's sword. The blue-haired girl lunges at Mithri and manages to tear the weapon back out of her grasp, and Alyna'aou is on his shoulder again, yelling at him telepathically to run.
He doesn't run, but he certainly doesn't stick around, shock at Mithri's action and Mana's reaction overriding sense, which says he'd have no problems dealing with Mithri on his own. Still... "Will Mana be okay?" he asks worriedly. As annoying as the girl is, he's gotten quite used to her being around over the past few months, and he'd hate to be the reason why she's gotten hurt.
*She'll be fine,* Alyna'aou assures him. *After all... Mana's not the one Mithri's declared to be a blood reaper.*
Jade inhales sharply. "Blood reaper?" He's getting the feeling that's not a good thing to be called.
Alyna'aou makes a sad chirping sound. *There are five different terms for someone who kills in that particular language. The one I know you've heard before, because I've called you it multiple times, is meldra. It means 'soldier.' Two more are ghilvïe meldra, a mercenary, and aislinghar, an assassin.* The dragon pauses. *There is also lhædh. That's the usual word for a murderer.*
Jade freezes in the middle of the hallway. "And I'm going to guess that a blood reaper is even worse than a murderer."
The dragon's wings, already folded tightly against her body, seem to press even closer. *If anyone else knows what blædür ghâddra means, and they hear her call you that, they'll kill you on sight. That's why Mana immediately started asking Mithri to take it back.*
"Won't Mana be in danger? Guilty by association?" Jade asks as he starts walking again.
*No. Mithri seemed to recognize her, but didn't really get a chance to say anything before she realized where she was, and... well... Yeah. From what I can tell, Mana had just finished explaining when you walked in, and you saw how that ended,* Alyna'aou said. *And didn't you say you were gonna go get Luke?*
"Yes. Why—oh."
He's been so distracted by the problem of Mithri that he's walked right past the cabin Luke and Tear are in. The dragon on his shoulder chirps, and this one sounds more amused than concerned.
*Don't worry about it too much. I'm sure once Mithri calms down, she'll see how unreasonable she's being with calling you that,* the dragon says. Jade sighs as he reaches for the door handle.
"I hope you're right."
"Hope who's right?" Luke asks as he opens the door, leaving Jade with his arm outreached for nothing. The colonel sighs and shoves his hand back in his pocket.
"Mithri is being a bit..." He pauses and frowns. What would be a good word...?
*Unreasonably pissy.*
Jade sighs again when he sees the look on Luke's face at that comment. "Not quite as eloquent as I was hoping for, but... Well. Close enough." Alyna'aou's tail lashes back and forth agitatedly.
*She just needs some time to calm down. It... may be best if you tell her about Jade's request, Luke.*
Luke groans. "Alright, alright. Which cabin is she in?"
"Twenty-four," Jade answers easily. He pauses and sighs. "And... I doubt it will help my case much, but would you mind passing on a message?"
Luke scowls. "And you can't tell her yourself because...?"
Alyna'aou's claws dig into Jade's shoulder painfully.
*She'll kill him if he goes back now.*
Luke groans once again.
