Meja cursed in frustration and slammed his fist on the table, causing Kaldros to jump in surprise.
"Why is it not working?" he growled, knocking the herbs off the table and onto the floor and grabbing his bag, rummaging through the medicines angrily.
"You should probably calm down – White and Blue mana doesn't react well to the presence of anger of disorderly thoughts," Kaldros suggested,: "Take a break for a few minutes, refocus your mana."
"Okay, okay," Meja replied, heaving out a sigh and sitting down on the chair next to Kaldros's bed, using magic always tired him out.
"How did you use all your mana?" the Jeskai idly asked, tapping his fingers on the arms of the chair.
"I don't want to talk about it," Kaldros uttered, his soft voice inflected with deep despair. Meja nodded, and they sat in awkward silence for a few seconds, the Mardu staring blankly at the Jeskai who tried to avoid his gaze.
"You aren't like your brother," Meja suddenly spoke, eager to break the tension building up in the room. Kaldros grinned, breaking free from his reverie and nodding.
"No, not really. He is quicker to act and shows his emotions more. Jakhan is also occasionally very overprotective, which is sometimes nice and sometimes downright annoying, although normally about half the time he acts like a rival That's also irritating, as he forgets his own strength and wants to wrestle with me."
"You sound like you don't get on very well," Meja interjected, wondering what it would be like to have a brother. Kaldros's smile broadened and he laughed.
"This is where he'd say something like: "He's a part of me." Jakhan is the only person who has ever made an effort to understand me, although if I am being brutally honest, he really doesn't. But I appreciate the effort."
"So I assume it was your brother that caused that?" Meja inquired, motioning to the ugly bruise on the albino's neck. Kaldros rubbed it, wincing in pain, and replied: "Yes, though it was my fault. I kept pushing him, and he reacted. It was scary, I thought he was going to kill me." His voice took on an almost imperceptible undertone of fear, but Meja picked up on it. Kaldros is terrified of his brother! he realised.
"May I?" Meja asked, his hand flaring up with soothing White mana, "I may as well do something of worth before I hand you over to Arethe."
Kaldros nodded and pushed his chin up, trying to ignore the images of Jakhan choking him that popped into his head. Meja placed his hand around the younger boy's throat, letting his magic flow into the bruise and winking reassuringly at Kaldros when he saw his worried look. Meja noticed Kaldros shuddering slightly and increased the pace of the healing, not wanting to put the boy under any more torment. How could someone do this to their own brother? he thought, and his opinion of Jakhan worsened. If he had a younger brother, he would do everything in his power to protect them, not hurt them like this. Meja resolved that he was going to try and keep the albino safe, and tried to raise Kaldros's spirits.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you. If you were Jakhan, I might do, but since you are his twin and much easier to get on with, I don't think I will."
"I'm not surprised you don't like Jakhan – he has an annoying habit of making anyone of a similar age and the same gender as him a rival."
After a few seconds, he let go – the bruise had disappeared. The Mardu thanked him, telling him that the pain had gone.
"I should probably tidy those up," Meja said, bending down to the scattered herbs on the floor and pulling the bag off the table. As he did so, the silver pendant that he had bought earlier and forgotten about fell out and clattered onto the floor.
"Where did you get that?" Kaldros questioned suddenly, the image of that same pendant being pressed into his hand thrusting itself to the forefront of his thoughts. He did not know where the image came from, and the Jeskai scooped up the pendant, running his thumb over its edges.
"An Abzan trader just gave me it to me for free to go with the Eltos. He just said that it was some junk they had found. I was going to give it to Arethe." Meja replied and held it out to Kaldros,
"Take a look,"
The second the mage touched the collar, a huge explosion of mana radiated out from him, slamming Meja into the walls, the last thing he saw before unconsciousness was Kaldros standing up, magic swirling around his pale skin.
.*.*.*.
Dragin led them out of the library and down into the sewers, a narrow passageway that the two males had trouble fitting their bulky frames through. Arethe was still extremely suspicious of the orc, but Jakhan could not be dissuaded – he insisted that if he ignored the warning and something happened to Kaldros, he would never be able to forgive himself.
"Besides," he had said, "What is the harm in it?"
Arethe had thought there was quite a bit of potential harm in the endeavour, but had kept these thoughts to herself as she knew that Jakhan would refuse to listen to her. She used her Blue mana to try to detect if anyone – or anything – threatening was nearby, but it was no use, the natural build up of Black mana in the sewers was clogging her ethereal senses like thick tar.
"Why don't you just tell us your warning now?" she asked, planting her feet on the ground and determined to get an answer.
"Actually, I don't know the specifics, I just know that the twins are in danger," the orc shouted back, continuing to progress down the tunnel, his gruff voice bouncing off the walls and creating a series of haunting echoes. As they were walking, the claustrophobic tunnels anathema to Jeskai, who preferred to be outdoors and in the open air, ended, and they entered a large, dark chamber with an exit several hundred metres in the other direction. There were huge pipes on either side of the room that filled the area with the sound of rushing water.
Dragin turned to look at the youths, continuing his explanation of the situation.
"Iniedra, a spirit speaker and my "sister", summoned an ancestor spirit that talked about twin brothers of the Mardu clan – you matched its descriptions fully. It refused to share anything other than that you were in grave danger until it could speak to one of you. That's why we went into the tunnels. Travelling above-ground would have been a huge mistake."
Arethe saw the movement in the shadows too late, an object blurring past her vision and slicing into the orc. She conjured up shields of Blue and White mana as more arrows, touched with the corruption of Sultai magic, thudded into it, corroding the Jeskai's defensive mana. Dragin snarled in pain, tearing the arrows out of his chest, but the poison had already sunk in.
He grabbed Jakhan as he slumped to his knees, trying to speak but the only sound that came out was a gurgle. Dragin slammed his fist in frustration on the ground, and died.
Jakhan drew his axe, the edge shining with the reflection of Arethe's rippling mana shield, and stood up sighting his enemy, vengeance in his brown eyes. There was a shambling horde of slavering zombies, rushing towards them, and behind that a hissing naga holding a golden bow that sparkled with dark auras. He launched venomous bolts at Arethe's shield, the defensive magic flickering and the Jeskai grimacing in concentration. He had to stop the undead from getting to her – maintaining the shield took most of her magic and without it they would be easy prey for the emerald naga archer.
Jakhan ran, swinging his axe in a cleaving arc and hacking through the zombies that quickly surrounded him. He could smell their putrid breath in the air as they tore at him in a frenzy, his leather deflecting some of the strikes. He focussed his anger at Dragin's death and shouted, a pulse of raw Red mana erupting from him and flinging some undead back.
The Mardu had been practising the spell for a quite some time, and while it was crude it served its purpose, distancing him from the Sultai. Jakhan swung his axe downwards at a corpse that attempted to get past him, and continued hacking at the rest of the mass. There was no strategy to the fight – it was kill or be killed, just how Jakhan liked it.
Arethe diverted some of her magic into a large wave of fire that incinerated a swathe of zombies – but there was too many. Jakhan felt like he was being overwhelmed and swung his axe frantically, trying desperately to get some space. He felt panic well up in his mind, and tried to quash it, but like the unrelenting tide of the dead, it kept on coming. One zombie waded through Arethe's scorching magic, its necrotic flesh melting from its bones, and a flash of Blue mana erupted from it.
The naga archer sprang forwards, and Arethe tried to somersault backwards as its scaled tail wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer, Black and Blue mana oozing from it and clogging her thoughts. She screamed as the Sultai jabbed a fang into her shoulder, paralysing the Jeskai's body and causing her to spasm in pain.
"Arethe!" Jakhan shouted, ignoring the unmoving zombies and rushing towards the naga, his axe held high.
"You wouldn't want me to hurt her, would you?" a sibilant voice hissed, "Put down the axe and come peacefully, and the Jeskai wench will be unharmed,"
Jakhan stopped his charge, his face showing equal amounts of anger and fear for Arethe.
"Good, we wouldn't want the Mardu child to go on a tantrum," the naga laughed, caressing Arethe's hair tenderly and running its forked tongue down her neck. The youth stood still for a few seconds, loosening his grip on the weapon as the naga leaned forwards, atavistic greed glittering in its golden eyes. Jakhan threw the axe. Showing an incredible amount of physical strength, it arched through the air and sliced into the Sultai, green blood exploding from its eviscerated corpse as the heavy weapon bisected it. The Mardu ran over to Arethe, who lay slumped in the naga's unmoving tail, when he heard a sickening cracking sound.
The Sultai burst from its own corpse, drenched in glistening emerald fluid that glowed with an unnatural dark light. It launched itself at Jakhan, who was defenceless without his axe. He thrashed at it, throwing punches and kicks that bounced off the scales and elicited a hissing laugh from the naga.
The reptile grabbed onto him and smashed Jakhan into the ground, its muscles swelling with Green mana and stretching its new skin tight. Jakhan cried out in pain as the stone underneath him cracked under the force of the naga's grip. He rammed his head at the naga, but the Sultai snapped its neck sideways and dodged the blow. It shot forwards, and its venomous fangs clipped Jakhan's cheek just as he shoved its head away. The naga slithered onto him, and Jakhan tried to move to get away from the Sultai.
Agony shot through his limbs as he tried to move them, tears welling up in his brown eyes at the extreme pain.
"You thought you had killed me, you disgusting human," it jeered, laughing as Jakhan snarled in pain. Darkness swarmed around the edges of the Mardu's vision, and the last thing he felt was dead flesh seizing him and carrying him off.
.*.*.*.
Mana poured into Kaldros, revitalising him and filling the mage with a sensation of power – he felt far more powerful than ever before. He looked around him, seeing the room with greater clarity. Kaldros noticed a figure with a Blue and Red aura lying slumped against the wall, and remembered Meja, the older Jeskai boy healing him and tending to the Mardu. He knelt down and shook the larger adolescent, who suddenly snapped into action and jabbed a hand at Kaldros.
The albino caught the blow, his enhanced magic augmenting his lack of strength as Meja pulled away.
"Oh! Sorry about that," he apologised sheepishly, rubbing his head and grinning with embarrassment, "It was automatic."
"It's fine," Kaldros replied, and he smiled back, energy swirling around his slender half-naked form. "You healed me, after all. I'm not sure how I can repay you."
"I really didn't do much. It was the pendant," Meja admitted, looking around for the silver piece and nodding when Kaldros held it out to him. The Jeskai held his hands up, and exclaimed: "You keep it. It obviously reacts well with you."
Kaldros thanked him and fastened it around his neck, his playful red eyes lit up with the rejuvenating energies flowing through his body.
The sensation was interrupted by a sense of urgency that thrust itself to the forefront of Kaldros's consciousness – Jakhan was in danger! Meja sensed the sudden change in the younger boy's demeanour, and was about to ask Kaldros what was wrong, when the mage leapt upwards, smashing through the wooden roof in a burst of magic, wings trailing behind him.
"And here I was, thinking he was the more subtle of the twins," Meja muttered, and sprang through the gap in the timber, somersaulting across the rooftops and following the Mardu.