A/N: Thanks to our loyal reviewers! And to a couple new ones who showed up last chapter. All are appreciated. This chapter, therefore, is for you guys. Enjoy!
"Explain something to me, will you?" Rhea asked Jordan, swaying to the movements of the immortal surging beneath her. "When we get to the field, find the correct passage - assuming, of course, that we don't get attacked while doing that - how are we going to beat the forces that are sure to oppose our seeking of the scroll."
"The same way we've been doing it all along. At least that's what I presumed."
"Didn't you say that they're a larger group than we are, with more members in each skill set, of which they are varied, and that they're all good at what they do? I know we're good, but I those are odds that are going to be...difficult to contend with."
"Of course it won't be easy, but a win is attainable..." Jordan's eyes widened as she looked over at Rhea. "Isn't it? I mean, we have Sara, your black magic, and Hazel and Shade's powers, which we haven't even explored yet. We don't know the bounds they have."
"And we can't entrust our safety or victory on something that hasn't been tested."
"Then why don't we test them?"
"Test them?" Rhea sputtered, unsure of her next words. The suggestion was so simple, and Jordan's delivery was so innocent that she couldn't form the words to reject the idea.
"Yes. Then we'll know."
"We've already lost so much time...we couldn't possibly..."
"Why not? What's another day prolonging the battle?"
"We don't..." Rhea's words faded into silence as she realized that she had nothing with which to oppose Jordan's argument.
"She actually has a point." Sara said. "As much as I appreciate getting a lead on the competition, I can also see the intelligence in staying here another day. We're out of harm's way, and there's really no harm in prolonging our lives another day."
"You make that sound as if we're marching to our death." Rain joked. "Could you be any more morose?"
"Uh...Rai? She's not actually...kidding...at all." Violet said.
"You're just screwing with me, right?"
"No. Neither of us are. Sorry, hon."
"Ah...fuck." Rain yelled.
"Calm down."
"Are you joking!? We risk our lives, our reputations and our trustworthiness to overthrow Caprety's leader and take the job for ourselves, just in time to get killed!? You try calming down after that!"
"Raiiiiiiiiiiii," Violet groaned. "I am calm."
"I want out." Rain kneed her mount angrily in Sara's direction. "I don't want to fight. I don't want to die."
"That's your choice." Sara looked pained, aware that in saying it, she was losing a competent warrior who owed her on a large scale.
"She's not leaving." Violet stared deep into her sister's bright aqua eyes, sending a message through her deep purple ones.
"Yes, Violet, I am. I waited too long to free Caprety. I'm not dying right after I've done it. You come with me. We'll rule Caprety together and live."
"No. I'm staying." Violet's steel will turned her voice to ice. "I followed you into the Caprety plan. I did exactly what you wanted, even though it was against my better judgement, and I helped you right up until the end. This time I'm doing what I want. Sara's the best, fairest, most just Ruler I've ever been ruled by, and I'm not backing out on her now, especially since I owe her the ability to trust me. And you're not leaving."
"Yes I am. I'm not dying for this. For anyone, no matter how great they are. Sorry Sara."
"It's alright." Sara sighed. "We'll make do without you, I guess."
"No, you won't." Violet glared at Rain. "She's staying."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes," Violet's gaze bore down on Rain heavily. "You are." As she said it, she locked their gazes, and fiery streams of purple magic shot from Violet's indigo eyes into Rain's piercing, icy aqua ones. Rain's body convulsed briefly, and Violet had to wrap her arms around her sister to keep her from falling as she shook. Soon Rain went limp, unconscious in her sister's grasp. Violet didn't looked pleased with the result, but her still-steely gaze was filled with the resolve that accompanied the completion of a job that had to be done.
"Did you just kill her!?" Shade looked frightened by this new, strange mage who sacrificed her sister.
"No." Violet looked equally disgusted by the suggestion. "I couldn't let her leave us. I had to change her mind. It knocks her out every time. Something she's never grown out of."
"What did you do? And how?"
"I'm a mind reader. What makes you think that if I can see into your mind, I can't manipulate it too? It's difficult, and something that only mind readers - those who have the rare power to transcend blocks your subconscious naturally creates - can do. I simple got into her mind through her eyes, which are the simplest portal that offers the least resistance, and I found the thought rooting her to the idea of leaving, and changed it. When she wakes up, she'll be resolved to stay and fight."
"Will she know she's been manipulated?"
"Of course." Violet sighed. "Most don't, but Rain always has. I think it's a genetic connection type of thing, but I've never really been motivated to study it. She'll understand her original intentions, but won't be able to make sense of her motives or sort her thoughts out enough to form another plan to leave. She's bound to my will until I release her."
"Have you manipulated her to accept it?"
"No. She'll be livid when she realizes, but there's nothing she can do." Violet massaged her temples. "I hate taking away someone's free will, but it had to be done. Just...understand that?"
"We do." Sara said guardedly. "And as morally wrong as what you just did is...I...I appreciate it. The motives and the effort. I really really couldn't afford to lose her help. She's got talent."
"But no brain to lead that talent with." Violet hugged Rain's limp form tight to her body. "That's Rain for you."
"You're sure that this won't have any lasting effects?" Rhea asked, studying Rain.
"Positive. She should be up in about an hour."
"Remind me of this the next time I wrong a mind-reader."
"Don't worry," Violet laughed. "Not everyone can do it. It takes years of arduous training before it's even possible, and even more years after that to refine." Her expression darkened infinitesimally. "And it's hard to use perfectly. More often than not, whoever tries it mangles their victim's thoughts to such an extent that repair is impossible. Their brains turn to...nothing. It's almost like turning them back into newborns."
"Is she okay?" Sara's eyes flashed to Rain's limp body. "You didn't harm her?"
"Oh god, no. Rain will always be safe. I've never ever done it," Violet whispered, her eyes focused on something only she could see. "not to her."
-------
"The way we're going to do this is simple," Sara explained, skirting a tree stump in the clearing they had found. It was simply packed down dirt and sparse, flattened grass sprinkled with rocks and stumps from clear-cutting the previous Ruler had done to expand on the Grand Council Ministry Building. Everyone was assembled in a rough half-circle facing Shade and Hazel, simulating the possible five-to-one scenario.
"I want this kept clean," Sara continued. "No injuries, no bruising, no tossing anybody to the ground. Anything you're doing, keep it safe. If you throw anybody, let them down gently. Pinning them is as far as you go, and you touch them with your fingers to secure a kill. You will not touch them with a blade unless it is by mistake. If you make that mistake, you're fighting in the extreme back lines of our battle. At this point, you should have complete control over yourself and your weapons. If you don't, you're not risking our lives."
"I'm on the same side as Sara concerning every part of this. We're risking plenty by doing this exercise, but it does need to be done. Even though that fact still remains, we need to do this in the safest way possible. Nobody but our enemies will profit from anybody getting injured in this battle. We're not confining you to blank magic because that will never prepare you for a real battle, so you have to exercise extreme caution. Understand?"
"It's understood." Grissom answered, adding a voice to the nods of his companions.
"Then let's go," Rhea smiled wickedly and a dark stream of magic wound its way from her fingertip to the centre of the group. Jordan grinned at her and sent a lazy wave back. It rippled through the air like wake from a boat, moving no more than a half-inch a second. Sara shot a small blue-green ball through Jordan's ripple, dissolving it upon impact.
"Oh, it's on now, mage girl." Jordan laughed and shot back at Sara amid flying streams of magic in electric, shining colours, moving along with the sounds of swords clashing and people laughing. The mock battle was supposed to be serious - a means by which to test Shade and Hazel - but it was turning out to be more of a celebration than anything. A celebration of being able to use their power without fear of being hit from behind.
Shade and Hazel were performing exceptionally considering the powers they both possessed. Shape-shifting was Hazel's power, and extremely difficult to use in a versatile manor. As she ran around the mock fight, knocking down people as she went, sealing their "deaths", she jumped in the air and threaded her way through the battling members of the group. Each jump she took, she shifted midair into a crow, soaring around the area once or twice, weaving through the streams of magic following her. Whenever she was caught between two warriors, she dropped down to the shape of a small, lithe ferret and scurried out of the way. Any other time, be it dropping from the air onto the backs of her opponents or coming up behind them unheard, she assumed the shape of a large black panther. It was clear that this was the shape in which she was most comfortable, for she moved with the grace and boneless motions of a cat, as if she had been born one.
Everybody had thought that Shade had shown them the extent of her powers when she had flown them through the air and to the manor, but they were all wrong. Since the beginning of the battle, she had not moved an inch from the out of the way spot she had chosen for herself. Sitting cross legged on the ground, she had her eyes half-closed and her hands working in the air above her. When anybody got remotely close to her, they could feel a heavy dampness in the air around her, and the branches that drew towards her almost magnetically kept them away. The winds wove around her with each movement of her hands, creating an impenetrable bubble of rushing air around her, protecting her from warriors who dared get closer than the water and the earth would allow. The mages' magic was also useless against her powers. Each time they sent waves towards her, she brought together her hands and directed balls of fire at the magic, dissolving it midair. Only Sara's had gotten through the initial fireballs, but Shade only needed to open her mouth on that one occasion and Sara, too, was rendered almost powerless.
When she added her voice to the air, earth, water and fire, each element wove with her extreme soprano tones, strengthening at the sound of the cadences she created. The notes she created were in perfect harmony with the inexplicable sound of rushing water, howling winds, rustling of leaves and crackle of flames. When the elements' sounds combined with her voice into the eerie, haunting song, the air around her buzzed with power, and she flung the combined forces at Sara. Taken aback at her ineffective powers, Sara had been forced back, though unharmed, and had been rendered motionless as well by the earth that seemed to have claimed her feet as their own, forcing their binding with the ground almost as if Sara herself had grown roots. After years of working together, Hazel needed no prompting to take the next step. She came up to Sara with the speed of a cheetah and pressed one jet black paw to her neck, claw barely touching her leader's skin.
"Gotcha." She purred, her panther-formed eye winking at Sara.
The combined forces of Shade and Hazel were gratifyingly effective, and together, they had "killed" every member of the group but each other, leaving no doubt in anybody's mind about their power or their ability. As an added bonus to the team, they secured a stronger sense of safety. That, combined with their devotion and already professed loyalty made them, in the eyes of both Sara and Rhea, almost the perfect warriors.
A/N: This hopefully resolves some of the Shade/Hazel questions. Please review!
