Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Ghost Hunt.
Thank you for the reviews. They keep me going so very well. I apologise for not responding to reviews individually but I'm pretty pressed for time this week and I thought it best to get this out asap before my mountain of assignments tumble down on my poor head.
Ten minutes later, and Oliver had yet to find a way to get Mai out of the shackles. First, they'd examined the heavy metal rings around Mai's wrists and found that not only were they solid, tough looking iron, there was also no keyhole even if there were a lot of arcane looking inscriptions carved all over the length of chain and on the bolt. Then, the sheet which he had wound around himself kept slipping off and Mai would blush and grumble as he rearranged it. Lastly, they had been forced to stand really close together.
Mai tried not to blush again. It was becoming a habit which she would prefer not to acquire. Oliver was leaning right into her as he scrutinized the shackles on her wrist, his fingers running lightly over the minuscule inscription. They were standing so close together that she could actually see the pale shadows of his eyelashes on his skin. Those blue eyes, she thought, I could look at them forever. "Ouch!" she protested when Oliver yanked on the shackle suddenly.
"Can't you be a bit gentler?" Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Oliver only continued pulling at it.
"It wouldn't have happened if you were concentrating on cooperating instead of staring at me like that," he said.
Mai sniffed disdainfully. "You must get the whole you're so good looking thing all the time. Aren't you sick of it?"
"Not particularly. The least that can be said is that you've good taste," he replied smugly.
Mai rolled her eyes. "Narcissistic jerk," she muttered under her breath and blushed again when Oliver seemed to laugh at her. Though, how she knew she had no idea because there wasn't any change in his smug expression apart from the way his eyes seemed, for a lack of better words, lighter.
"How did you escape?" she asked. "Don't you know any magic that could get me out of here? Oww!"
"I wasn't locked up like you are," he explained simply. "Besides, the kind of magic I possess isn't the sort which can be used to get you out."
Mai sagged. "Isn't there anything you can do at all?" she asked plaintively. Oliver looked down at the chains, his black fringe falling untidily over his eyes as he thought. "There is a way," he said at last, reluctance in his voice.
Malfina tapped her shoe impatiently. The rescue party had arrived far quicker than she had expected them to. Things were not going according to plan. First of all, the stupid girl from the mansion had somehow managed to tag along, managing in the process to disrupt her teleportation spell. The palace hadn't been her destination at all. Still, now that she was here, Malfina lost no time in fortifying the place. Nothing like striking while the iron was hot after all, and if she was going to take revenge, she might as well go all the way. Secondly, the spell she cast over the startled palace staff had had the mysterious side effect of simultaneously coating all the corridors and windows in dust. As the renegade enchantress drew patterns idly on the dust covering the delicate carvings around the throne room (done up in the best Rococo fashion), she was wondering if she had been right to ensure that the girl had been locked up with iron shackles. Like all magical beings that were powerful enough, Malfina had instinctively sensed the strange aura that surrounded Mai.
The prince on the other hand, she barely had had time to install in a room before being summoned by a magically magnified voice. "Malfina!" the voice shrilled into the throne room. "We know where you are! Get out here or I will thrash that room with you inside. I have their Majesties' permission."
Ever glamorous, Malfina vanished with only a light pop of displaced air before appearing on the front steps of the palace's main doors. She put a hand on her hip and yawned lazily at the small crowd before her. The only uncertainty she displayed was a brief glance back at the double doors behind her. It was too bad that she had to abandon her plans for the prince now and hope that the creature she had set to watch them would not do its worse before she could get a shot as well.
"What?" the Queen cried. "How did this happen? Wasn't Noll recuperating at Lady Ayako's?"
"Er…" Most of the party present looked sheepish.
"Sir Takigawa! Your leg! You really shouldn't be walking around like that!" she admonished before turning her eagle gaze on her son's robes.
"You've pierced your ears!" she cried in a scandalized tone suddenly.
Gene ran a hand through his hair. "It was for my initiation ritual," he said. "Mother, are you sure you're alright? Shouldn't you be more concerned that Noll has been…"
The King walked over and steered his wife tenderly to the road side. The Queen sniffed into her handkerchief. "We've only been gone half a day," she sighed. "Koujo, Madoka, you must rescue my son," she said, zeroing in on the most reliable looking of the lot. The Minister for Trade nodded curtly.
"You have our word we'll do our best, your Majesty," he said as Madoka strode forward to meet the brown haired girl who had materialized at the doors.
"What do you mean I have to break the chains?" Mai practically yelled. To her annoyance, the young man remained unmoved. "You are a spell breaker, which means you have the ability to negate magical will as it is manifest in this reality."
"If you don't mind, English please," she ground out irritably.
"Your gift is not stable though, and against a strong spell like that, it might have hardly any effect…" Oliver continued on as if he hadn't heard her. "Start by willing that inscription on the bolt to disappear. It might weaken the spell."
Mai snorted derisively. "I'm normal."
"You've used your abilities before." The young man before her looked perfectly serious and Mai stopped laughing.
"I have not."
"You were using them unconsciously then."
"Have you been spying on me? How would you know?"
"Gene told me."
"He never said anything to me," Mai said and looked a little upset. Oliver folded his arms and leaned on the wall next to her.
"Your abilities are latent. You wouldn't even have developed any abilities until there was a need for it." He turned his head slightly to look at her. "Trust me. Focus your mind on the spells that are written on the metal."
Mai sighed and drew a shaky breath before closing her eyes. Professional spell-breakers were rare even as magicians went. And, so far, Mai had had a normal childhood (with the exception of her parents dying, that is). She had normal friends.
"This had better work," she said nervously, her heartbeat suddenly racing. To someone who had more or less led a normal life and being abruptly told that she was not felt weird. Then, she felt Oliver slip his hand into hers.
"Now, will the spell to break," he said quietly.
Get off me, get off me, I don't want to be chained to the wall, she chanted silently. There was a clink and the shackles fell off. Mai blinked and sank down onto the floor. "I did it," she said weakly.
Oliver stared down at her. Somehow, the makeshift robe he was wearing made him look taller. "We should hurry. I can't think how Malfina hasn't noticed," he said as he helped her up. Mai nodded shakily, still stunned by the recent turn of events.
"I just hope Naru's alright," she mumbled.
INTERLUDE
It had been dozing when the human boy looked round the door cautiously. He had been looking the other way and it got up slowly on its four paws, careful not to make a sound. This one, it could sense, had strong magic and it would be ready to pounce should that boy turn his way, but then a loud voice pierced the air. "Let me out!" the voice had cried indignantly and the boy immediately headed towards her, with not even a glance in its direction. The creature hunkered back down, growling a little. This other one, he did not like. There was a feel to everything about her – smell, look and irritating shrill voice that spelled dissembler and banishment into the dark world of chaos from where it had been summoned by his mistress.
The noise died down eventually and it got up, sniffing the air delicately before padding down the corridor after the boy. Great strings of dribble hung from its cavernous mouth where two long tusks protruded through its snout. The creature snuffed at a footprint hungrily. It had been charged with a task, and it would finish it.
Author's notes: If anyone found this chapter and the previous one baffling, rest assured that explanations will come along with the forthcoming chapters. I ask only for your patience. =) I should also warn that the story would probably get a little darker from the overall tone so far. But, nothing like a little darkness before we get the bright light at the end of the tunnel right?