"She never stopped teaching us. After Riot Force Six was disbanded, even after the war started with the Großartig Kaiser... Nanoha was always our combat instructor. We were blessed to be her friends and family, we were lucky to be her squadmates. But to us, she was never the White Devil. She was our teacher."
-Subaru Nakajima, at the memorial service held for Nanoha Takamachi, TSAB Calendar Year 0089
Chapter Three
Lessons to Learn
Ixpellia woke to the smell of roasting meat, an odor that made her stomach rumble and set her mouth to watering. She pushed herself upright just in time to feel the fire rising in her chest. She doubled over again, coughing twice. The offending core dropped to the ground, landing in the loam with a soft tap. The back of her hand wiped across her mouth, and then she realized she could feel eyes upon her.
"Does it hurt?" She glanced up to see Nanoha looking at her from across the fire, concern etched on her features.
Ixpellia felt the heat rising in her cheeks, looking back down at the small green sphere on the ground. "...a little bit. It's not so bad when I'm relaxed, at least. I'm used to it." She picked the core up and rolled it around in her hand for a moment. "The.. jewel seed, you called it? It feels a little different, though. It burns, but it feels... clean."
Nanoha nodded, turning the spit. "Well that's good, at least. It sure looked like it hurt a lot." The woman looked at her again, and Ixpellia knew her face was bright red by now. "...what's wrong?"
"I'm embarrassed! I've never had someone watch me produce a Mariage core before!"
"Why is it embarrassing?"
Ixpellia huffed, crossing her arms. "Would you like it if I sat here and watched you ovulate? It's not quite the same thing, but it's close enough."
That got the desired reaction. Nanoha looked away, a faint tinge of pink coloring her cheeks. "It's kind of personal for you. I get it, I get it." The Ace of Aces busied herself with the rabbit she had caught for breakfast, and the next few minutes passed in silence. Ixpellia let her head tilt back to rest against the tree, watching the sky through the trees.
Light, wispy clouds flitted slowly through clear blue. Everything was vibrant and clean, from the air to the leaves on the trees, and even the dirt on the ground seemed fresh. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then let it out. "What time is it?"
"Late morning. You seemed like you needed the sleep, so I didn't wake you." Nanoha took the spit off the fire, setting the rabbit aside to cool for a few minutes. "How did you sleep?"
"Well enough. It was restful. I had a dream, but I can't remember anything of what it was about. It wasn't at all like my long sleeps. Those are just lengths of time gone away. I slip into a... a coma, and when I wake up it's time to make more Mariage." She grimaced, shaking her head, and opened her eyes. "I think I much prefer little naps like this."
That earned her a laugh. "I can believe that." There was a hiss of complaint from the fire as Nanoha started throwing mud on it with her hands, smothering the hot coals underneath a mantle of wet dirt. "So I wanted to ask. Do you remember where you woke up?"
Blinking, Ixpellia nodded. "I remember what it looked like, yes. But I couldn't tell you how to get back there. I was running from them for hours, even before... well, even before they became Mariage."
"Damn. I thought we might have been able to get some answers out of them." Nanoha stomped on the remains with a magic-encased foot, then went to the stream to wash her hands.
"Well then what should we do?" Ixpellia had to raise her voice, wincing a little. It seemed that her throat was still a bit sore from the day before.
"Raging Heart says I can maintain a flight spell as long as I don't push myself very hard, so that will be a lot faster than walking." Ixpellia wondered at the non-sequitur, but held her tongue and waited. Nanoha came back into view after a moment, shaking her hands to get the last of the water off them. There was a troubled frown on her face. "I think something's wrong with my linker core, because I'm not recovering my mana reserves the way I should be. The smartest thing to do would be to find a medical facility so we can both get a check-up. You've got that Jewel Seed in your forehead, after all."
It made sense. Having it mentioned made the Jewel Seed seem to itch in her forehead, and Ixpellia reached up to rub at the glassy-smooth lump. "You're going to carry me, I hope? I can't fly. I never could."
"Mm-hmm. Can't have you walking on those feet until they heal, too." Nanoha bent down to scoop up the cooled rabbit, but paused. Ixpellia could see her staring at the red orb set into the back of her hand.
A moment passed, then another. The woman's pensive expression flickered, and suddenly she was smiling again as she handed Ixpellia the rabbit. "Here you go! Don't worry about me, I caught one earlier while you were still asleep. Eat up, then we'll be off."
Ixpellia knew what flight was. While incapable of it herself, she had watched flight-capable mages hurl through the air as easily as birds took wing on a breeze. She had been a passenger in flying craft countless times during the warring ages, had looked out at the ground through scrying screens and monitors, and once through an actual window.
But she had never experienced this. The rush of the wind rushing through her hair, the immediacy of the air on her face, chilling her skin and invigorating her at the same time. Arms clasped around Nanoha's shoulders, she laughed in sheer delight as the forest canopy sped by hundreds of feet below. Carrying Ixpellia on her back, the Ace of Aces smiled brightly from being able to share the simple joy of flying free with someone who had never done it before.
Nanoha had been right; flying allowed them to cover ground far faster than walking. In the two hours since Nanoha had helped Ixpellia onto her back and lifted into the air, they had covered what surely had to be as much distance as Ixpellia had managed to run from the laboratory over the course of an entire day.
Still, they wouldn't be able to stay in the air for too much longer. Ixpellia could feel that tell-tale tingle deep in her chest, the first warning hints of another core maturing. She leaned in close to Nanoha's ear, having to shout a little over the roar of the wind at their passing. "We should land soon! I'll have to make another core within an hour!"
"I agree, my master. Your mana reserves are very low. You shouldn't push yourself!"
Nanoha had started to nod, but frowned at Raging Heart's reminder. "Just a few more minutes and we'll find a place to land!" She accelerated a little more, and it was Ixpellia's turn to frown. Raging Heart had just warned her not to push herself, and here she was striving even harder. All of a sudden, Ixpellia was very keen to get to the ground as soon as possible. Is she showing off? There's nothing to prove here!
A few minutes became five, and then ten. Ixpellia leaned in to shout again. "Nanoha, we should really land! I don't want to- eeaaagh!"
She was cut off as Nanoha banked hard to the right, narrowly avoiding a hail of magical bolts and beams that shot up from the forest. They were many different shades and colors, and a small part of Ixpellia's mind couldn't help but think the fusillade of light was beautiful, in its own way. Then the rest of her reminded her that they were being shot at, and she started screaming.
The Ace of Aces jinked left, dodging a follow-up shot as she narrowed her eyes and fought for more speed. With a stuttering jolt, Flier Fin cut out, and they started to lose altitude right before an angry red bolt slammed into Nanoha's belly.
The force of the blast threw Ixpellia from Nanoha's back, and they flew apart. Ixpellia's scream became a wail of fear as she tumbled through the air, her world reduced to a sea of green rolling into blue and back to green. She threw out her arms, reaching in vain for the blur of white that was plummeting next to her.
The Ace of Aces shook her head, clearing the dazed look from her eyes. Ixpellia was able to watch as Nanoha rolled aside in mid air, not even bothering with a spell as she dodged a beam attack that would have enveloped her from head to toe. Then Flier Fin reignited, magenta flares blazing from her ankles, and Ixpellia found herself caught up tightly in her arms.
They arrowed away in a controlled dive for the treetops, Ixpellia burying her face in Nanoha's neck and squeezing her eyes shut. She could feel the clamminess of her skin, a cold sweat breaking out as Nanoha forced herself to go faster. The bright light of a barrier formed around them as they plunged into the trees, the sound of snapping branches all Ixpellia could hear. She opened her eyes just in time to see the thick trunk of an evergreen shatter the barrier into shards, and knew no more.
Everything hurt. Ixpellia groaned as she pushed herself up onto her hands, shaking her head. Nanoha's barrier had taken the brunt of the impact with the tree and saved her from broken bones, but her entire body felt bruised and battered from the tumble down through the branches to the ground.
Next to her, Nanoha was curled on her side with her arms clutched to her chest, shivering violently. Ixpellia crawled to her side, her own pain forgotten. The woman's eyes were squeezed shut, trembling gasps issuing past her lips as she struggled to breathe. Underneath the blackened and tattered remnants of her tunic, her stomach and chest were badly burned; blood and serum leaked through the cracks in her charred skin. Those blasts were meant to kill, this was lethal magic!
Shouts echoing through the trees caught her ear, snapping her attention back toward the way they had come. Ixpellia bit her lip, able to make out the barest hints of the words. Their attackers were tracking the two of them down, likely following the impossible-to-miss trail of broken tree limbs they had left behind.
Motion caught her eye, and she looked down to see the Mariage core she had birthed earlier had fallen out of a hole in her makeshift pocket, and was rolling almost merrily across the fallen leaves toward their pursuers. She dove, catching it in her hands and hissing angrily. "No! No more of you! I don't need you anymore, I just... I just need to help Nanoha!"
The shouts and calls were closer now, but still some distance away. She hurried back to the Ace's side, slapping her own cheeks a little to try to drive away the terror. She needed to concentrate. "Okay, okay... you're hurt and you need healing. Healing is something I've... never been able to do." I've never been able to do anything other than make Mariage, because that took all my magic. But Nanoha says that this Jewel Seed they put in me holds a tremendous amount of power, and... and...
A blue seeker bolt zipped through the trees, flying over her head and embedding itself in the trunk of a nearby tree. It stayed there, pulsing, and she heard a cry of victory at having found them. Ixpellia winced, touching the jewel in her forehead. "There's no more time! Listen to me, you... Jewel Seed, or lost logia, or whatever you're called! I need to heal Nanoha, and you need to help me! If she can't fight for us, we'll be taken by them, and that's it!"
There was no response, not even a hint of a glow against her hand. Fear rose in Ixpellia's belly, cold and biting. "D-dammit! Stop being so fickle and help me! You're stuck in me now, you're part of me! Help me heal her!" She felt something, the faintest flicker of attention, dusting across her thoughts. She grabbed at it, desperately. "Help me make her better!"
The world turned white. Liquid power flared through her head, flowed through her veins and burned the fear away like shadows would flee the light of a torch. The magic thundered into her heart, down her arms, and felt like fire at her fingertips as she laid hands on her protector.
Eyelids fluttered, then opened. Purple eyes stared wide at the ceiling of leaves, a deep breath flowing into no-longer-laboring lungs. Ixpellia choked back a sob of relief, and pulled harder on the clean burn of the Jewel Seed's power.
Color returned to Nanoha's face just as the first buster beam flew through the clearing, missing them by barely a foot and boring a hole through the tree that had stopped their flight. Nanoha sat up scowling and threw out her hand.
"Protection!"
Raging Heart flashed from the back of her hand, and the next flurry of bolts and blasts richocheted off into the trees, deflected by the shield spell she summoned. Nanoha staggered to her feet as the first man broke through the underbrush a hundred feet away, and Ixpellia gasped. Her wounds didn't heal at all!
The first man stopped a dozen yards away, breathing hard from the chase but laughing as a half-dozen of his comrades came up behind him. They all had the hard-bitten look of scavengers, wearing piecemail clothes and bearing an assortment of weapons. "Well look at that, she's tougher than she looks! I killed the last man I hit with Redshift Ray."
"She sure looks pissed, boss." That from a man in the back, holding a pistol with an oversized barrel. Another chorus of laughs, taunts, and jeers directed at them, and Ixpellia found herself hiding behind Nanoha. It was quite clear what they were planning to do to her once Nanoha was out of the way.
"You all are pathetic!" The laughter cut off as Nanoha glared at them, letting her continue. "Only two of you are even wearing proper barrier jackets, let alone maintaining any sort of defenses! And you four, what are those pieces of crap you're holding? Single-spell shooters? Do you even know how to use your magic, or do you just let a dumb device drain it out of you like some... amateur?!"
Nanoha was just getting started, it seemed, when the leader brought up his rifle-shaped device. "You talk too much for someone about to get beaten, lady! Ruby Bullet, blast her!"
"Redshift Ray." The flat, robotic tone announced the beam attack that had brought them down from the skies, and the furious crimson beam shot forth toward them.
But this time, it detonated impotently against Nanoha's barrier spell. Raging Heart didn't even bother assisting. "And you? You were just lucky you caught me off-guard and tired. Your buster spell wouldn't have bothered my Forwards on their first day of training. My best friend hit me harder than that when we were nine years old!"
"The hell are you getting at, stupid? There are seven of us, and you're about dead on your feet!" The man gestured, and his goons started to spread out.
"What am I getting at?" Raging Heart flashed, and Skirmish Mode's gauntlets flashed into existence around Nanoha's fists. "It's training day, and you seven are about to learn just how far behind you really are."
"Wide Area Protection." Raging Heart held the defense for a solid ten seconds until the incoming fire stopped, then let it drop to reveal the untouched circle of ground where they were standing. Two of the attackers took a step back, glancing at their leader.
Nanoha looked over her shoulder and gave Ixpellia a smile. "They're a bunch of C and D rankers, Ixy. This'll just take a moment."
The man groaned weakly as Nanoha hoisted him by his collar and tossed him into the pile of unconscious bandits. "Raging Heart? Lock them down for a bit. Two hours should give us plenty of time to leave them behind."
"Yes, my master! Mass Restrict Lock." Nanoha turned away even as bands of pink light wrapped around the men, binding them to both the ground and each other.
She stooped to gather up the items she'd liberated from them, bringing them back over to where Ixpellia sat waiting. "Sorry that took so long! Raging Heart can't do much in the way of shooting magic right now, so I had to chase them down one by one. You okay?"
Ixpellia nodded, wiping her mouth on her forearm. A new core glistened in her hand next to the old one. "I'm fine. You didn't get hurt worse, did you?"
Nanoha shook her head. "Not at all. They really were just rabble. I'd have probably had to sit there and let them charge up for them to even have a chance of breaking Raging Heart's automatics." She dropped the bundle onto the ground, sitting next to Ixpellia with a cheerful smile. "I actually feel better than I have since fighting your Mariage yesterday. I mean, everything still hurts, but it's not slowing me down at all."
Ixpellia nodded, concern still written plainly on her face. Eventually, she glanced at the bundle. "What's all that?"
"Oh, just a pair of jackets, some bandages for your feet. Two bare-bones storage devices, four single-spell shooters. You know. Just some things." Nanoha's grin widened as she lifted one of Ixpellia's feet in her hands, spraying the scabs with a disinfectant before wrapping the bandage around it.
"Eeep! That's cold!" Ixpellia squirmed, giggling as Nanoha treated her other foot. "Why didn't you take that one guy's intelligent device? Ruby Bullet, I think he called it?"
"Actual intelligent devices are finicky. For whatever reason, that one likes him, and they tend to not work well for other people if their original owner is still around. I'd rather not deal with it being difficult." Nanoha nodded, and helped Ixpellia shrug on a camouflage-pattern jacket festooned with pockets. Three sizes too large and tailored for a man, she felt like she was wearing a tent, but she wrapped it around herself all the same.
Nanoha stood up, putting on her own jacket to cover the bare remnants of her damaged tunic. Ixpellia dropped both of her Mariage cores into one of her pockets, then zipped it shut with visible relief. "Thank you. This is a lot easier than holding them the entire time."
"I thought it would be. Anyways, I questioned them for a bit, and they said there's a town nearby that they... acquire a lot of their gear from. About an hour's walk due south of here." Nanoha knelt next to Ixpellia to let her climb up on her back, then stood up and took to the air once more.