Bartholomew looked around nervously, Ventus was roosting on his hand as he carried the bird. Gamma to his side, with Dr. Mendel in front of them, alongside them was Beta, who likely was why Bartholomew felt the chill up his spine.
I'm not cut out for fighting. He thought.
Danger, danger, take care, the one with eyes of blue looks at you like a hunter after injured prey. Waiting for you to show a sign of weakness.
THANKS, VENTUS! I WOULDN'T HAVE GUESSED THAT MYSELF. Bartholomew was angry, and tired, and frustrated, and hungry.
"Doctor," Beta began, "Forgive me, but why are you bringing this boy along? You didn't designate him for experimentation, but you also didn't leave him in the holding cell like the others for later shadefication."
Dr. Mendel smiled, "I received news that the fool Rembrant died, and was outed as a member of our cause. I can't trust any of his allies, so I need a new bank." He turned to Bartholomew, "This boy's the nephew of Mortimer, one of the richest men in that city, Mortimer doesn't strike me as a political man, and based on what we found on the boy, he dotes on him decently enough." He laughed, "Besides, it seems Gamma finds him comely, and I'm not a cruel master."
Great, a hostage situation. Bartholomew thought. As he lifted Ventus to his shoulder he felt something press on his back sharply. Turning he saw it was Beta.
"The doctor may keep you in his good graces for now, but do not take that for granted."
Bartholomew nodded, but rolled his eyes as he turned. Eliciting a laugh from Dr. Mendel, "You are quite calm."
"It's not my first kidnapping, a lot of people realize my uncle's rich, yes." Bartholomew walked with them. He worried for his newfound friends.
Seya looked on in rage as she and her friends did their best to defend themselves from the combined mental onslaught of the enhanced children. But they were exhausted. Alpha laughed as her mind pressed down on Seya's.
"Poor little Omega. Are you mourning Epsilon? You'll be joining him soon."
"Her name's Seya, not Omega you bitch…" Alpha turned to look at Venka, who's eyes filled with a red aura. "And his name is Faris!" Alpha's eyes widened as the ground below her exploded.
"So, this is how it ends…" Damien looked at Anya. "You know, I'd say this was a pleasure, but I think I hate you only a little less than you hate me."
"You're awfully calm for someone about to die." Anya looked at Damien oddly.
"I mean, I've died before, though I don't remember the pain being this bad. But really…" Damien grinned, "hehe… this is really bad…"
"How long does the brain have before oxygen deprivation starts killing brain cells?"
"4 minutes. And we have about 3 minutes 56 second seconds left." Damien looked like he was extremely strained. "This is a mind scape, so I can make these minutes feel like hours. But the longer we go, the weaker our faculties and resources are… So, we really have until 1-minute left before it's too late."
"Since Faris is… out of it, do you know what's going on outside?"
Damien sighed as he tried to send information around and sense things. "Nothing…"
Katya poured her minute reserves into Faris, she was aided by Alanna, and Dusan, Morgan, even Nya, but they hadn't the energy left to overcome whatever was preventing Faris's healing. Seya and Atlas were busy aiding Venka. Whose eyes were on Alpha the entire time. It was three on four, with Alpha, Theta, Zeta and Eta on one side, and Venka, Atlas, and Seya on the other. While Venka and Seya were both injured and exhausted, Atlas hadn't yet expended much of his resources since their last fight. And while he was temporarily weaker after recently reviving, he was still quite powerful. Alpha, Theta, Zeta, and Eta had spent the day fighting off Shades, who attacked them at invariable moments, to make matters worse for them, they hadn't been able to restore energy by resting, or increase in power by killing and absorbing spirits, some spell Tartarus had casted had insured the spirits would be quickly expelled from a dead shade. The shades they fought and slew before attacking the first years were no exception, and that battle had been especially grueling.
Atlas charged Alpha, attempting to get the girl in his arms to crush her, Alpha was exhausted, but had the speed to dodge his attempts. Seya had to contend with Eta and Theta. Theta was the stronger of the two, and Eta was faster than Seya herself.
"What's wrong?" Eta teased, "Too slow?" She ran circles around Seya, striking at her blind spots and clearing the way for Theta to try and knock Seya down. All the while their minds struck at Seya's attempting to crush it in a double coil. Seya could only defend her vitals, she knew any blow knocking her out, even if only for an instant would end things. Even as she fought, she felt some reservations, Eta and Theta were physically and mentally children, barely older than Faris by her reckoning, and had gone through similar tortures to achieve the power they had. Though she had no idea what they may have gone through while under the mad doctor's influence. This had been a bad time to let her thoughts wander, as she dodged and blocked their attacks, they pushed her back further and further.
Theta grinned as he forced Seya down. "I honestly don't see what the doctor sees in you, you may have been something great before. But Alpha's the top dog now." Seya struggled, blocking his punches on her prone form to the best of her ability, but she didn't have the speed or number of arms to dodge Eta's kick.
The thwack caught Venka's attention, who screamed out, "flutningr!" (carry), dragging Seya back through the air towards her, Seya's neck protruded oddly, slowly snapping back in place, Venka hid any squeamishness, already remembering how she repaired broken limbs before, instead she worried at the slowness of her healing, the enhanced children were overpowering them. The problem is that girl. Venka turned to Delta, who's eyes glowed an ethereal violet, like ghostly wisps her magic danced around her. If Venka wasn't exhausted, she thought she'd maybe be able to beat that girl, but both of them were tired, but the girl had more in reserves, and was a better magic user. Often Venka was on the back pedal as the girl lobbied spell after spell, doing her best to drain Venka's reserves.
"…Are you okay?" Seya said, wincing as the pounding in her skull slowly ceased and watching in awe and worry as Venka's protective wards blocked the combined might of Delta, Theta, Eta, and Zeta.
"I… I'm handling…" Venka said, but she was worried, it wasn't like a magic duel, where they fought to defeat the opponent, both sides wanted to kill. She felt momentary relief as Atlas barreled towards the enhanced children, covered in flames from Alpha's doing. "He's hurt."
"Better him than us." Seya got up, "Every second the shade buys us is a second we have to live, if they kill each other in the process…"
"But he's helping us…" Venka said, but she was halfhearted about it, even the momentary relief of Faris returning to them and the shock and anger of Alpha's sneak attack didn't get rid of the fear and trepidation. Shades were the nightmares, the boogeymen. Durza wasn't merely legend but a memory fresh in the minds of thousands, dying less than thirty years ago, but having far reaching implications. And the bodies, the mutilated bodies, all likely the doing of shades that they encountered. After nearly getting killed by Hruk, putting their faith in another shade wasn't a real possibility. They had even fought Atlas, he had almost killed Seya, and the elves. Through this they watched as Alpha fought against the odds.
He did not remember who he was. He did not remember who he was to be. All he knew was that what he was, struck fear in men, but what he was felt nothing, neither pleasure nor pain in his actions, nothing but grim satisfaction in completing his goals, and whatever tasks put before him. The man with glasses had him lift heavy objects through the utterance of strange words, then conjuring fire, levitating, and a whole host of other seemingly useless tasks, at the end, he'd always be placed in chains, his connection to the power behind the words severed, and left there. He knew it was what ripped his original memories away, and he always viewed the chains with distaste, as if somehow, he felt or understood its alien-ness from himself, and everything he was. He was left without food or drink, and to let his magic drain out slowly, along with his blood. Yet as long as his heart wasn't pierced, and the chains kept him from using his power, he would not die. When the young shade found him, he felt fear for the first time. The enhanced children intimidated him, but their looks of contempt merely spurred indifference. What the shade had looked at him with was a mix of curiosity, and malice. The fear was the feeling of something stirring within him, as if the shade understood what he was, what shades were, and would help him regain his purpose and identity. That is why he pledged allegiance to Tartarus, that is why he took the name Atlas. When he had dived into Faris's mind as he took it back from Tartarus, he realized two things, the curiosity and malice, they were not the shade's reactions, his emotions were indifference, indifference and bloodlust. No, the boy's eyes radiated that malice. The second thing was a garnered truth of Atlas. Atlas for all his strength had chosen the losing side in the war between Titans and Gods, sticking to his Uncle, and fighting the would-be usurpers. Atlas had been smug, when the Gods threatened to slay their forebears, he stated that if Kronos and his three brethren who held the sky in Ouranos's stead perished, that the sky would fall and embrace the earth, destroying them all, Zeus, the king of gods, had laughed, for he had already determined Atlas's punishment. The titan of great strength and endurance had one duty, and to this duty he was forced. He was to hold the sky, bear the burden to protect the world that rebuked him as much as he rebuked it. Perhaps this knew knowledge gave him an epiphany, but he began to realize his old bloodlust, but even with this old bloodlust, a new emotion, a new thought, that perhaps living like Atlas, bearing this weight for the ones he was to hate, though now of his own choosing, as opposed to having no choice, would be an interesting endeavor.
"Blautr Deloi!" The earth around Atlas became soft and pliable, spreading out quickly, the enhanced children found their movements slow and unsteady on this new ground, as they were unable to get the full traction they were afforded before. Atlas took advantage of this to launch several large stones towards them, weakening their wards as they fought not just against the force of his magic pressing the stones down, but gravity and momentum as well.
"Skaja!" (stick out) Alpha shot to the surface of the dirt, shaking free of the sinking, she struck at Atlas, who deftly blocked, taking out her sword, she and the enhanced children surrounded Atlas, who hunched forward, rumbling like a bear of the beor mountains. The children began attacking him in earnest, aiming for his tendons, to their surprise they found he had not yet fallen or slowed.
Atlas smiled as he employed the hardening technique, he had seen the girl do, whilst she used it for her arms and legs when attacking or landing or doing violent movements, he spread it all across, he had neither the skill nor foresight to protect one place. The fact he did not yield seemed to have the greatest effect on Theta, who struck repeatedly with his blade, attempting to hack off even a bit of his armor. The air around Atlas began to heat up and the children backed up as flames erupted from him, similar to his strike against Gamma. Whilst the enhanced children moved cautiously and Atlas smiled cockily, Morgan could only look on in worry, he was resting as well as he could, recovering as much magic as he could as Katya and the elves ran their ministrations over Faris, attempting to heal him, they still had little luck, while the exit wound to his heart had been righted, there was still the issue of connecting the correct valves and tubes that made the organ. Katya moved slowly, laboriously reconnecting one piece then another, but given what was going on, she and the twins did not have much time left.
"Nya…" Morgan began… "On my mark, we need to go and help him, he only used that fire attack when he got desperate, and they'll realize it too, despite what he says, their attacks probably tear into and weaken his arms more than he'd like to say."
Nya nodded, "Alright, what's the plan?"
"Remember the ground flood team? Nya winced, "No don't worry, if they sink that quickly into the ground it's perfect, we just need to break their concentration and force them down." Morgan sighed, "We've got one shot, they're faster than us, stronger than us, though I wouldn't say they're smarter than us, though they are definitely cocky. Show them what we've got!"
Alpha felt she was nearing victory, Atlas unleashed the flames more often, and his arms and legs moved more sluggishly, she cried out a silent victory as Eta's blade lodged itself in Atlas's shoulder, and Theta's blade stabbed into the shade's knee, she charged forward, prepared to stab him in the heart and win this battle.
Nya picked up a piece of rubble, as she and Morgan ran forward, she cocked her arm back, with expert precision she used a tiny bit of her magic to enhance the muscles she needed, a bit of her back, shoulders, triceps and even wrist, even her glutes and hips helped in twisting to launch her deadly payload. Just as she launched the rock, she cast two more spells, one to force it from her hand, it was already moving at max speed, she added a superhuman impetus to the mix, and combined it with her spell piercing, directing the ancient language to make sure the point would make it first. The stone sung through the air before striking Alpha hard in the hand causing it to break and hang limply. Nya kept herself from winching as she saw past the torn skin and muscle and into the bone, which was slowly knitting itself back together. Alpha stared hard at the furrow in her hand, screaming in rage and charging towards Nya.
"Garjzla!" light, Alpha blinked as a flash of bright light appeared before her, even as it passed harmlessly, she found herself without the target she had aimed for. Morgan smiled innocently as he cried out his second set of spells. "Thringa Fram!" "Vaetna deloi!"
Alpha saw the already soft earth below her begin to form a depression, spinning almost like a sink hole, immediately followed by a downward force from Morgan's spell. She was about to word a retaliation when Nya leapt from the ceiling, striking down with her foot and launching Alpha into the waiting sinking earth, this combined effort launched her down to the bottom, creating a muddy crater, the earth though did not spread out, but instead began to flow back into the hole, burying Alpha quickly as Nya and Morgan chanted rapidly in the ancient language, growing paler by the second. The other enhanced children attempted to stop them, but Atlas, joined by a still exhausted by slightly rested Seya and Venka held them back. The earth began to bubble and hiss, heating up rapidly until everyone was launched back. Alpha, wreathed in scarlet flames looked incensed as she rose from what had almost been her tomb. "Hamarr!" Morgan and Nya scrabbled back as the dirt began to harden, the outcroppings jutting out as if in order to cut into them. Eventually Seya leapt in, grabbing them and leaping out of the way as Venka and Atlas pushed back the stones.
The enhanced children by now had exhausted themselves enough to no longer push themselves out of the dirt, standing ankle deep they began to send out their final mental assault, preparing to slay their interlopers.
"…They, they're healing him it seems." Damien said, but… it's not fast enough, and we still don't have a way to restart his heart. And we lost too much blood."
"You're in dire straits it seems." They looked to see the spirit, the bindings holding it now nonexistent. Damien could only look on in exhausted resignation as he felt the spirit subsume all their egos, becoming Tartarus again.
"…Dammit…"
Katya didn't move from her spot as the enhanced children railed against her friend's meager defenses, she didn't move when they broke through and charged towards her, she didn't move even when the enhanced human cut into her shoulder, concentrating on healing her friend she was only moved finally when she was knocked away. The twin's ministrations on her kept her conscious, but she looked in horror and shame as they raised their blades to finish their job and kill her friend. Her expression changed to shock as they were blown back, a shock matched by her friends as Faris stood back up.
"Faris?" Venka looked on with hope, then desperation as she saw the glowing red eyes again, the color of hate.
"Shush… all of you…" Tartarus looked at the enhanced children, then at his hosts friends. "You thought you won, didn't you? You all? Thought you had your friend back, you? You thought an enemy was finally slain. But you are all wrong, I will turn back the dreyma(illusion) of victory you sought to achieve." He laughs. "Galdr iet strengr lif! Galdr iet sharjalví! Herdtha iet lam!" (strengthen my vitality, enhance my speed, harden my hands) "Herdtha deloi unin iet gata" (Harden the earth in my path) He moved with greater ferocity than even the enhanced children, blowing past and striking them with his attacks, each movement used to brake a bone, even as they attacked him mentally and struck with magic to break down his wards he attacked.
Dammit! The spirit still had so much power?! No matter, he's on his last legs like us anyway, we'll kill him… Alpha's hopes were dashed as Tartarus seemed to fade out of existance.
"I'm up here," Looking up, they saw he had conjured what appeared to be a massive amount of steaming air, panicking they marveled at the energy required, and the heat radiating off it, even from the ceiling they could feel the heat.
"We! We're here too Faris!" Nya called out fearfully.
"I don't care." Tartarus crowed, "Thringa!" The mist came down, the children began to feel unbearably hot.
"Svell!" (ice) The enhanced children screamed in unison, encasing themselves in a block of ice to protect themselves from the heat, for some reason, they still felt the great heat, even as the cold slowed them, and caused them to shiver and shudder. Tartarus smiled, his form dissipating, the heat along with it.
"I told you, the illusion of your victory was never there to begin with. Though neither was my heat." He turned to his hosts friends, they huddled together, pale and frostbitten from the children's spells, turning to the enhanced children they were half buried in the mud, which now froze from their spell and kept them immobilized from the waist down. The cold was likely unbearable, which led to them being slowed, even then their magic was keeping them alive, activating to keep them warm and warm the ground around them, in hopes of saving them. Tartarus hummed as he walked along, he needed to quicken the pace of their deaths. Crouching before them he spoke. "Eenie, meenie, miney, moe… catch a tiger by its toe, if it hollers let it go, eenie… meenie… miney… moe…" His finger stopped in front of Eta, who seemed the most cognizant of the children still. "Oh…" Concern seemed to drip from his voice, "You must be so cold…" His hands closed in around her neck. "I'll quicken it for you…" Tartarus smiled, humming as Eta struggled against him, her cracked voice crying out choked sobs of pain. The other enhanced children turned to try and stop him, but they were too cold to think coherently, and barely able to move. Tartarus's smile widened as the girl's life began to fade before him.
"STOP IT!"
Tartarus twitched as Faris struggled to regain supremacy. "Just stay down, you've already proven how incompetent you are, you want to leave them alive to kill you?!" He tightened his grip both around Eta's neck and on Faris's mind.
"STOP IT!"
Tartarus felt his hands fall slack, he grunted in anger. Eta began to cough and breath, the panic seeming to wake her up and alert her, dragging herself upwards she screamed in pain, even though Tartarus was on his knees in front of her, her fear was too great, and she ran from the room, running for her life to find help however she could find it. "Great, now she's going to-" He was interrupted when someone smacked him hard. "Who wants to die…" He turned around, freezing in place as he saw Venka. "Dammit, what do you want bitch." He forced himself to relax, suppressing his bloodlust. Any false moves would allow Faris to take over.
"Give back Faris!" Venka cocked her fist back to punch Tartarus, Tartarus blocked it, using the movement to pull Venka into him.
"I'm sorry Mario but the Princess is in another castle."
"What are you talking about!?" Venka cried out, struggled against his embrace, she attempted to head butt him, but struck his chin, hurting herself instead."
Dammit! It wasn't even my fault that time! "Malthinae!" (hold) Venka shook in surprise as she was suspended in movement, floating eye level in front of Tartarus, who put his hand to his chin. "For someone with a hard head, you are pretty on the eyes. No wonder he's head over heels for you." He pulls one of the enhanced children's swords from the ground. Eliciting a look of fear and anger from Venka, who struggles against the magic holding her to little avail, however much power he put into this spell, it shouldn't take so long for her to break out. "Trade secret darlin." Tartarus winked, "Now," He turns to the enhanced children. He's interrupted by a rock hitting him in the small of his back, he collapses in pain as the first years tackle him, they strike his mind, attempting to hold it down. Tartarus laughs as they do.
Venka uses what little of her magic left to enhance her friends as they pool their resources to invade the shade's mind, Faris had broken out once, and they hoped his hesitation in strangling Eta meant he was still fighting back. Nya and Venka hammered at the shade's walls, with Morgan and Dusan looking for any purchase or flaw to enter and take hold. At times they held the Shade down, but his defenses never gave way, most of the time he'd be on the offense. And the combined effort of Katya and Allana was their saving grace. Allana's great defense gave no purchase for Tartarus to burst through easily, and the few times he did he had the laborious task of worming his way past Katya's multiple barriers, only to be surrounded and constricted by the group. Even as he fought them in what seemed an eternity, Faris fought against him from the other side, whenever an attack from his friends was on the rise, he'd attempt to push away barriers and interrupt the flow of thoughts. Tartarus felt greater and greater desperation. "Fine! You want your body back so badly?! Not with my magic!" Uttering words in quick succession too quick for any to understand or counter Tartarus cried out in pain, collapsing, his mind broke down, revealing only blackness as Faris's friends pulled out of his mind.
"Did we…" Nya began, they looked at Faris, breathing sighs of relief as his chest slowly rose and fell.
"We… we need to get out of here," Venka began, looking away, troubled."
"Yeah…" Morgan got up, looking around. "The shade… he's gone." They looked and saw that to be the case.
"Good riddance." Seya began.
"But now he could be wreaking havoc topside." Katya said, panic beginning to rise in her voice.
"No, I didn't sense…" Alanna began, shaking in exhaustion. She huddled near Dusan and the others, they shared in the meager warmth they had in the freezing room.
"Let's leave no while we can." Dusan said finally, gingerly getting up.
"No one's leaving." They turned in fear to see Beta, walking in, face a mask of hatred. "You are all dead."
"No… no they aren't." It was Beta's turn to turn in rage as the main entrance opened, revealing a few dozen guards and mages. Leading them was Celica and Rakus, right behind them was Bergan, Merigold, and Maya, who was nursing a broken arm. Bartholomew stood at the very back, Ventus in a cage. "Stand down." Celica spoke, hiding her rage barely.
Beta's facial features smoothed as he calmed down, taking a more diplomatic tone he spoke again, "It seems we are at an impasse." He smiled, "If you strike out to kill me, I'll kill those children you care about, and I can escape your attacks… But I want my allies, how about this? You promise me that if you let me take my allies and leave this room, I'll promise to take them and leave those kids of your alone." The teen's smile was perfectly sculpted, masking whatever truth he may have had hidden.
"You first."
Beta promised, on the grounds that if they made an oath in the ancient language to allow him and his allies freely out of the room, would they be able to take the children out safely. After making the corresponding promise in turn the two parties began their work, looking at each other the entire time. It was only until the procession made it out of the cave system that they allowed themselves time to breath in relief. The first thing that happened then was Bergan walking up to Venka, who sat by Faris, she looked at him dumbly, unable to react in time as he smacked her.
"You all were stupid." He began, "You could have gotten yourselves killed, and then what? We declare war against a group we don't even fully understand?!" Venka merely looked down. Bergan grit his teeth and shook his head. "You all are in a lot of trouble. The elves will go ballistic when they find out."
"They won't." Alanna began. Dusan followed.
"We all made the choice to go, you can insult and berate us for our foolishness, but don't punish our friends more for our collective decision." He looked at Bergan evenly.
"That settles that then…" Celica muttered, looking forward. "Nya?" Nya looked fearfully at her big sister. "I heard you faced a shade, and won, is this true?"
Nya nodded, "But we got captured in the end anyway…" She was surprised when her big sister ruffled her hair.
"You did a good job all things considered. But you are in a lot of trouble, father is livid." Nya was too exhausted to groan.
The procession continued on until they reached the capital. They entered like heroes, doing their best to mask that they were missing a third of their number, and doing their best to keep the public from seeing the looks of soberness in the eyes of their returning heroes. As soon as Sona got a look at Faris she rushed him to the emergency room, for that reason she was missing from the council deliberation that took place the following week. Not just the council thirteen were present, but teachers, administration, and even a few of the Queen's personal mages were in attendance.
"Lord Jaya, whilst I understand that it is fortunate the children made it back alive, I must say I'd find it disconcerting if there was no punishment at all." Lord Jaya turned to look at Trianna. She had been angry when she discovered he had sent mages to rescue Faris without letting her know. He maintained that it was for security reasons, as there was a spy. While he was correct in there being a spy, a vestige of Rembrant's influence, he was still disliked for his choice as many felt the casualties of the mission to be too much. Lord Jaya agreed, but he didn't need to kowtow to Trianna.
"I understand, but we must tread carefully, this situation is as much our doing as theirs."
"Oh?" Trianna opened her eyes in mock shock, "And how so?"
"Please, Rembrant was trusted, by all of us, we disagreed with his anti-mage sentiment, though I know some of you agreed. He was able to fool us all, Faris still committed a crime, but we wouldn't have had this rescue if not for Rembrant, and now the boy struggles for his life."
Venka looked up, "What?"
Ignoring her Jaya continued, "That doesn't take away what they've done, I know. But they also did admirably against the enhanced children, who had defeated Bergan, Merigold, and Maya and their mages and warriors."
"I find this notion of enhanced warriors somewhat absurd."
"But it explains Faris does it not?"
The first thing of note when one had seen Faris's unconscious body was that Faris's hair had become a deep scarlet, even when his eyes flickered back to their true color, his hair was still dyed red, as if the after effects of the magic took hold and would stay, as a reminder. For the squads who entered Dr. Mendel's lair, the shades were the first things that came to their mind when they saw the unconscious Faris, but the children's pleas kept them from killing the boy as a precaution outright. Bergan had found himself at an impasse at that moment, and perhaps it had been best that Faris hadn't woken up during that trip, as a sign he was either alright or truly turned would have broken the man either way. It was an uncomfortable topic, especially when combined with the children's testimony of a shade fighting the enhanced children, and the occurrence of several shades, at least 10 by their reckoning, though likely more, and truthfully more. Seya's hair only turned white sometimes, so no one thought to connect her and the enhanced children luckily.
"Perhaps, but even then…" Trianna began. "Whatever punishment it will be, it serves two purposes, these children did admirably, but they broke our rules. The punishment must take into context their actions, but take into context that the rest of the mages in training look on. We cannot let them go so easily."
Lord Jaya nodded, "I have the perfect punishment then, Silver Initiates."
The council leapt to arms, even the others flinched in surprise, the children looked on, feeling like crying.
"Wait…" Lord Jaya kept them from speaking out, "I understand your surprise, but it's the only punishment that works. We can't afford to revoke their magic, or take them from their classes, what we can do is lower their status amongst their peers. Losing their Pearl Initiate status takes away natural hierarchy in many parts of the school, they can work to regain it, but it has still been lost. Losing their Pearl status also revokes the payment of energy students had been giving them. They now would have to refight their way to the top. And…" He looked at the mages, "Being left with only so much magic leaves them lacking."
"And what about you Lord Jaya?" Trianna began.
"Well, it's my responsibility for the casualties." Lord Jaya smiled, "It's only right I take a leave of absence from my position as I contemplate and rethink my actions, is what you're going to say right?" He frowned, "Who's my replacement?"
"That will be determined." Trianna gritted her teeth, even when back peddling Jaya seemed to grate on her nerves. She missed the times she worried more about her enemies than her allies.
"What about Faris?" Venka asked, much to the chagrin of Trianna.
"Oh? The boy…"
The news of the first-year's punishment spread quickly through the school, many reacted with joy, others with sadness, though everyone was shocked. Venka cared little for their shocked reactions, she and her friends sprinted down the field, rushing as quickly as they could to the hospital. Rushing up towards Faris's room they were stopped by a nurse.
"What are you doing! Think about the patients!" She hissed.
"We need to see Faris." Morgan began.
"You need to calm down, the patient should be asleep, we just administered some minor anesthetics and-" She was cut off as they all heard something tumbling to the floor. Rushing past her the first year former Pearls ran in to see their friend.
The first to react discernably was Katya, who covered her mouth with her hands.
Faris's skin was blotched and discolored from the neck down, several fractal like scars covered him, like he had been struck by lightning and it had branded him with its mark, arcing across his arms and legs, in the center of his back was the deepest discoloration, dark purple dots lined the center of his back vertically, like they interacted with the jutting points of his spine, and 8 lines seemed to arc out from the center spot, like a spider. Faris's iris's lacked true color, coming across as a milky white, as if he was a ghost. His pupils looked small in comparison. His lips were chapped from slight dehydration, and his cheeks wet as he scrabbled across the floor. "Stenr reisa!" They followed his outstretched hand, looking emaciated, like the rest of his form, a few inches away from his prone form was a tiny stone pebble. Faris cried out in anguish, not from the excruciating pain he was in, but at the stone in front of him. "Stenr reisa!" He screamed, his friends held their breath, waiting for the stone to rise. Waiting for it to lift in the air, do a somersault, cartwheel, anything at all, just not stay there. Faris glared at the stone, he looked up at his friends, eyes glazed as he seemed to not recognize them, slowly he did, but his expression did not change for the better, it simply twisted in shame. Looking away he clutched the stone, placing it in the palm of his hand.
"Faris…"
Faris looked around his battered mind scape, he felt himself, but felt no one else. It dawned on him then. There was no one else, it was his magic all along, his magic allowing him to interact with the memories he took. Except Tartarus, he thought he could treat the spirit the same, he deluded himself in treating it as the same thing. But he was wrong. Now, without magic, he could hear no one else, feel no one else, be no one else.
"…Stenr reisa…." His voice was tinged in desperation, "please…"