p align="left"Light./p
p align="left"A strange type of light./p
p align="left"Flickering both as Cter blinked, and in the fluttering flakes that shimmered in the cold air. "Wha..." the Monster Mage uttered through a swelling nausea that permeated throughout her, yet without the need to vomit. Her hand still came up to her mouth to quell, but what it brought with had her coughing and sputtering./p
p align="left"Was it...water?/p
p align="left"The cold of it woke her up enough that she could take in her immediate environment where she sat./p
p align="left"Wait, no. She wasn't sitting./p
p align="left"She was floating!/p
p align="left"Floating in the water of the Clinic Hill fountain with her arms and upper torso leaning against the stone heart in the center. She spotted blood as she turned her head around to it which prompted her to grab at the back of her head. There was blood in her hand, turning the lingering water in her palm a diluted red. A dark red to boot. It was half-dried, as was the blood on the stone heart. Cter reached for the back of her head again, stopping for a brief moment to realize that she might be opening up the wound she was prodding at, but there was no warm feeling down her neck./p
p align="left"Curiously she began to carefully scrape at the dried blood, digging through it to feel if there even was a wound there to begin with./p
p align="left"Which there...wasn't?/p
p align="left"Cter scooped up more water in her naked hand to wash away the dried blood. In small, loosened clumps it detached from her hand with quiet drops into the cold fountain water that she was floating in. Once all of it was gone she unveiled her hair to feel again for the wound that had caused her to bleed./p
p align="left"But there was none./p
p align="left""But how!"/p
p align="left"The haste which she dug at her head had her almost opening up one just through her dazed scratching. Yet again though, she found nothing. No wound which she had bled from and no scarring from said wound having been healed. It was smooth as it had been the day before. No injury to find whatsoever./p
p align="left"No injury…/p
p align="left""No injury..."/p
p align="left"Hearing the sound of her own voice had Cter gasping, also audible to her./p
p align="left"The calm fountain water became wrought with splashing that further diluted the dried clumps of blood swimming around in it. Cter scrambled up onto the middle platform where the stone heart was located, wringing herself with hearing every single of her hurried flails that connected with the fountain water's surface./p
p align="left"She could hear! Her hearing was healed!/p
p align="left"Why? Why was it healed?/p
p align="left"Cter remembered that her eardrums had been shattered. That she was running away from the dark. That it all was horrible somehow. What exactly it was she was running from and why was a blur in her head. The nausea, the dried blood, the hazy recollection of what had just happened. It was all signs that Cter had hit her head hard, and presumably against the stone heart behind her./p
p align="left"If she had hit her head as hard as was necessary for her to not remember what had happened then how was it that she was lucid enough to conclude that? How could she have been both experiencing the symptoms from hitting her head enough to cause her to be concussed while also feeling healthy enough that it might as well not have happened?/p
p align="left"That, if anything, was giving her a headache./p
p align="left"However, the fact that she could hear again meant that she had been healed somehow. The pouring from the fountain was loud enough to be the first thing she had ever heard, which in a way it was since her eardrums had been healed after having been broken./p
p align="left"So on the one hand Cter had nausea and memory loss from having been injured, and on the other she had her ears healed and no wound to show for the impact on the back of her head. She was both injured and healed at the same time./p
p align="left"Although…/p
p align="left"What and where she was healed was on the outside. Only her body, in a way. She did not like the mental image, but if the ruined gravel path was any indication then she had been thrown at the stone heart like a rag doll launched from a catapult. The impact surely must have been enough to have shattered her skull, so however she was healed it must have been both instantaneous in how it was applied, and also when it was applied. Right as she hit her head and with enough potency that it completely healed her from the impact. That she was thinking so clearly about it was just another proof to the matter./p
p align="left"There was no one around her, nor any indication that anyone else had been with her. The stone fountain was dry where she had not touched it with her wet robe and mantle, although that could have dried during the time that she had been unconscious./p
p align="left"And there was that too!/p
p align="left"Cter had been unconscious! Her injuries had been healed yet still fell unconscious for…/p
p align="left"It was only then that the Monster Mage noticed the silvery reflection among the dark of the water. Bright, light, and telling of something horrid./p
p align="left"That it had become night./p
p align="left"A cold, Xoffian night, like all the other nights./p
p align="left"Cter did not feel cold though. The water that soaked her robe, mantle, and hair was warm to the touch. Same with the water in the fountain. She could just as well have been at one of Xoff's beaches facing the ocean with how warm the water was./p
p align="left"Another mystery to the pile…/p
p align="left"So much that didn't add up!/p
p align="left""Dammit!" the vexed Monster Mage cursed into the cold night as she dove into the palms of her hands. "What happened to me!" What she wanted to do was to grind the heel of her palms into her forehead to cool her headache, but how could she if she only felt it metaphorically! If she didn't feel it physically she could not calm it physically!/p
p align="left"With an enraged howl Cter then slammed her hands into the water. Had she not felt such a fierce and ominous sense that she had to get herself together because the air around her was wrong and sinister she would have entertained the thought of floating on the water to think. With the shallow depth of the fountain water though she wouldn't have been able to let herself be submerged underneath the surface./p
p align="left"Slamming her fists down helped with catharsis though, and as the ripples settled around her wrists she had managed to focus her breathing enough to clear her head a bit./p
p align="left"The hazy memories still haunted her with warnings about running away, yet also staying to help, but with having calmed down a bit she was able to actually think. About her injuries, and the complete lack thereof. Her nausea and loss of memories were key, yet she had to figure out in what way they were key. She had hit the back of her head hard against the stone heart enough to have her lose consciousness while also having been healed of the injury immediately upon the injury's birth./p
p align="left"However though, she also felt nauseous which meant that some part of the injury still remained. Adding on top of that that she felt that she was forgetting something, and it slowly became clear to Cter that whatever it was that had healed her had only done it for a certain period of time and not completely fully./p
p align="left""Was it the same thing that healed me that threw me against the stone heart?"/p
p align="left"Strangely, it didn't sound wrong to Cter, even if it felt wrong saying it. As if it was...correct? Correct, but she did not know that it was correct?/p
p align="left"Dammit, there was that headache again!/p
p align="left"And her ears too!/p
p align="left"Ringing loud with her own name echoing./p
p align="left""Cter!"/p
p align="left"But wait...was it her own voice?/p
p align="left""Monster Mage!"/p
p align="left"No, no it wasn't./p
p align="left"With a wet flop from her hair and mantle slapping against the stone heart, Cter turned to the voice shouting her name and title. At the far end of the laid path leading towards the bend down Clinic Hill towards Clinic Village she saw an armored monster running with his large, curved weapon swinging wildly in his grip from his desperate steps. His other hand was waving hurriedly as he caressed the bend of the hill before slowing down along with his run./p
p align="left""Ziki!" Cter shouted at the monster as she stood up in the warm fountain water. She did so surprisingly unburdened, with naught but some soaked hair sticking to her lips. She brushed it away easily, and stepped out of the fountain while still eyeing at Ziki./p
p align="left"Why was he there? Did Cter call for him? When did she do that, if that was the case? She didn't remember telling him anything before that she needed his help. Nor when she left Clinic Village with Sarbor and…/p
p align="left"And…/p
p align="left"A dark shadow crept over the Monster Mage's face, casting it into complete dark./p
p align="left""No..."/p
p align="left"A strange type of dark./p
p align="left""Singe my soul..."/p
p align="left"A dark that came flooding back to her faster than she would ever have wanted./p
p align="left""Cter," the forlorn Royal Guard asked with his weapon carving a defeated ridge in the gravel behind him. "What's happened here?" He looked straight through her as he asked with his free hand closing over his mouth, yet not enough to quell nor hide it tensing with helpless loss. Likewise the gravel behind him his cheeks were carved, but by streams of thick tears rolling down from his narrowed eyes rather than him not having the strength to keep his weapon raised. "What is..." His throat finally choked, lodging his words inside of him where they stabbed like swallowed thorns. "What is all of this!"/p
p align="left"The pain in his voice had Cter turning around to look at Clinic Hill. She had not seen it after she had woken up. Glimpsed it at most when she turned her head to look at the blood on the stone heart, but not actually seen Clinic Hill./p
p align="left"Not actually seen the collapsed ruins of the three-storied house lit ablaze with colorful flames and various sharp and pungent smells wafting with the cold night wind. Nor the shattered walls of the two brick buildings standing weakly and teetering on falling over like their wooden-based sibling. One was illuminated by fire that raged within it akin to an oven. What it was that cooked inside Cter did not want to think about./p
p align="left"But the smell from it meant she did not have to./p
p align="left""My God..."/p
p align="left"What happened whilst Cter was unconscious? What had wrought such destruction upon the buildings that had stood so sturdy? Where the smoke was not from the large chimneys of the brick buildings, but from their imploded roofs playing the lantern to the reaching flames whipping wildly against the cold wind whistling a hollow tune foreboding a warning for none but Cter and Ziki to hear./p
p align="left""Blood..." fell stiffly from Ziki's tongue. An observation that had his aura colder than the air around him. Did Cter have some still stuck in her hair? If so it was a good idea to tell Ziki about it. To let him worry about what needed his worry./p
p align="left""It's from an already healed wound," said Cter as she turned to the Royal Guard. "The bleeding has–" Her right hand touching at the back of her head fell down at her side with a limp bounce when her eyes followed where Ziki were staring./p
p align="left""There's blood...everywhere."/p
p align="left"At the darkly crimson smear slowly pouring from a large, uneven hole in the wall where the entrance once was. Long, bloody fingers had used the destroyed side for grip, with the strokes of its fingers both fine and rough, as if a mixture of fur and skin painting the harrowing signs of destruction. Heavy steps in the gravel cratered less-bloodied, deep dents in the ground. The distance between each crater was unsettling, farther than any human could jump. Why Cter compared the heavy footsteps to a human she did not know, as the shapes were anything but human./p
p align="left""And dust..."/p
p align="left"Faint flakes of shimmering white were thrown in the air by the passing cold breezes from just inside the collapsed entrance brick wall, snatching with it a few handfuls that it threw in the air as it drafted by. Some of the dust stuck on the bloody prints, flashing red, green, and orange from reflecting the different fires from the three-storied building and the brick twin./p
p align="left"Unblinkingly, and with a quivering exhale, Cter followed the faint shimmer as it diluted in the air as her blood had done in the fountain water. It faded from her view quickly, and as it disappeared completely into the dark Xoffian night surrounding Clinic Hill, Ziki's aura turned a deathly gray./p
p align="left"It tore Cter away from the destroyed and burning buildings with how suddenly his aura dropped. "Ziki!" His body followed, falling to his knees with a loud, metallic rustle from his armor. He was only held up by his disciplined grip on his weapon, yet even that was about to falter./p
p align="left""Why is this?" he spoke through his tears and desperate sobs. "This is not what I sensed." His opened mouth hovered between wanting to curl his lips back and roar in anger, and also to close up and never open again. To never take another breath lest he inhaled either dust or blood. "This is not what I sensed!" The dark spots on his fur seemed to grow until all that was white on him were cast in shadow that could not be banished even by the mocking dance of the colorful flames bending towards him and Cter to feast in their defeat. "Why!" The disciplined hand finally loosened, and the Royal Guard fell down onto his forearms, lamenting his cries loud enough into the ground that the gravel scattered away. "WHY!"/p
p align="left"For as much as her aura did to sympathize with the Royal Guard there was something that he said that caught her newly healed ears. Something that shut out the ruined and torn landscape around her of fire and broken bricks. She squatted down next to the violent sulks that punched against the inner lining of the black armor. "Ziki," she addressed to the hopeless monster with her left hand on his shoulder. His aura was even more hopeless than when Cter had first met him. His cries of defeat she let reverberate inside of her sleeve, albeit not out of empathy or sympathy for the monster./p
p align="left"Cter was searching through Ziki's emotion to find what it was that he said that he had sensed. The way he shouted it hinted that there was something in it that he didn't understand. Something that he had not thought about, just merely reacted to. Not something that he put any thought to, yet acted on fully regardless./p
p align="left"Something fundamental that called within him to climb up Clinic Hill. More importantly, something fundamental that was strong enough to convince him to leave the children in Clinic Village alone during the night. Whatever it was that convinced him must have been deeper than his discipline and duty to protect the children of Clinic Village./p
p align="left"And that scared Cter./p
p align="left"What frightened her even more was that she did not feel any of what she was looking for within Ziki's soul. Even as she went through the Cooperative Connection she had inscribed upon his arm to help him watch the children through magical means during the night she did not find anything./p
p align="left"She did not–/p
p align="left"Wait!br /br /p
p align="left"The Cooperative Connection! The one Cter's inscribed on Ziki's armor! It was…/p
p align="left""Singe my soul!"/p
p align="left"It was changed!/p
p align="left"It wasn't the magic that Cter had given him! It was different! It was cut from a completely different cloth! On top of that it was deeper than what Cter had inscribed. Literally, even! It was like another layer of Cooperative Connection that enveloped the one Cter had inscribed. Enveloped it with…/p
p align="left""Barricade magic..."/p
p align="left"Wait!/p
p align="left"Was that why–/p
p align="left"Cter did not finish her thought before she dove deep into Ziki's aura again to look once more. If what she feared was true, then the reason for why she could not find on the shallow part of the Royal Guard's aura. What had called Ziki was deeper, covered in barricade magic. Hidden. That magic had been cast inside Ziki's soul the same way it had been cast inside Cter's./p
p align="left"From so far away? From the top of Clinic Hill to the center of Clinic Village? She as a Monster Mage wasn't safe in the immediate vicinity, and monsters weren't safe for yonder over yonder! Was that why she and Ziki had not seen any monsters around? What about humans? How close were they when it happened? Was there magic inside Sarbor's soul also? There weren't any humans around either that she could see./p
p align="left"No humans./p
p align="left"Only blood./p
p align="left"No monsters./p
p align="left"Only dust./p
p align="left"And deep within Ziki's soul, hidden by a layer of almost-permanent barrier magic, was a deeper extension of the Cooperative Connection Cter had given to Ziki. Deep enough to imitate a most primal desire that circumvented who Ziki was as a monster. From where his soul declared that it was something, and not nothing. So deep that Cter felt a disconnect with who she was herself as her aura traveled along the barrier-covered extension. With a tug away she managed to return her conscious to herself before she…/p
p align="left"Well, that she did not want to theorize./p
p align="left""Ziki," Cter spoke after her breath had slowed. "Why did you come up here?" Her question fell onto deaf, folded ears. "I need to know, Ziki!" She grabbed and turned at the shoulder she had just rested her hand on gently. The lack of life in the watery eyes had her flinch at them being just as gray as their respective aura, yet still she had to press the monster for an answer. "You left the human children, Ziki! Why did you do that? They're all alone in the village! Why did you leave them?"/p
p align="left"No answer./p
p align="left""They are still sick!"/p
p align="left"No answer./p
p align="left""They still need you, Ziki!"/p
p align="left"No answer./p
p align="left""What brought you up here!"/p
p align="left"No answer./p
p align="left""What did you sense?"/p
p align="left"No ans–/p
p align="left""Hope."/p
p align="left"The canine lips moved ever so slightly to produce the word./p
p align="left""I sensed hope, Monster Mage."/p
p align="left"Hope?/p
p align="left""More hope than I had ever felt in my entire life," the Royal Guard continued with his head still buried in the graveled ground. "It all radiated like a second sun from here. From on top here at Clinic Hill. Despite what I see around me, the destruction, blood, and dust, that hope still lingers on. It's still here! It's still present!"/p
p align="left"Rugged, angry breaths pushed aside more gravel, with a cloud of dry dirt huffed out from the cavern of Ziki's armored arms that began shaking with anger./p
p align="left""It's still here!" The gray of Ziki's aura flared with roaring anger in a flash, forcing his right fist into the ground with a loud, metallic thud. "I can feel it! It's here!" His armor followed with him heavily as he shoot up straight onto his feet. His eyes which had been so gray just a moment before were glistening in the colorful fire, as did his exposed teeth from his curled-back lips./p
p align="left"There was a ferocity to his breathing and distant leer that had Cter taking a step back from his balling fists that stopped just short of crinkling the metal on his gloves. "It's here," he repeated through a low growl as his eyes flicked from side to side. His left hand instinctively grabbed at his weapon's handle which he pulled up with a large motion of his shoulder. "Its false hope is still here somewhere!"/p
p align="left"Did Cter rip loose the barricade magic as she exited her aura from Ziki's soul? Was that why he suddenly turned so angry?/p
p align="left"Or was he turning the force of the hope inside of him into anger and animosity? Actual, concise animosity? Perhaps he was undergoing something akin to a Monster Hunter? His love for the children being the constructive and positive angle to his otherwise-threatening aura and–/p
p align="left""There!"/p
p align="left"With a wide, arcing motion of his right arm that cut the air enough to almost blow Cter back and into the fountain, Ziki turned his body around to the brick building that lacked the stains of blood and dust on its destroyed wall. Like a hammer he threw his right arm down, bringing with him in the wide motion his left arm holding his long weapon. At the apex of the arc he let go of his weapon with a furious roar. "Bastard!" His echoing voice blended with the harsh whistling of his spinning axe that made short time of the distance between him and the dark interior of the un-bloodied brick building./p
p align="left"The thrown weapon carried with it the furious aura disgusted by the false hope that had tempted Ziki. It carried with it the rage of a guardian that had been seduced away from the ones he had sworn to protect by a promise that was the opposite in truth. It sliced through the air in the headwind of Ziki's roar with might enough to make splinters out of the doors hung by their torn hinges./p
p align="left"A moment later the weapon connected with a wet and fleshy cut that rung out from inside the dark of the brick building. What followed briefly afterwards was another heavy and wet thud from inside the brick building, and a gentle wooden clonk./p
p align="left"Chafed breaths flowed in an out of Ziki's mouth as he stared into the brick building from his hunched posture waiting. Waiting for...something. His ears, eyes, and teeth were still sharp, ready to react to whatever was to happen next. "You need to leave, ma'am," the Royal Guard said with clarity. He was furious beyond belief at what his weapon had struck inside the brick building, but not a single drop of it was present as he spoke to Cter. His eyes and ears were still focused on the dark interior, yet his mouth spoke to the Monster Mage besides him. "Head to the Xoff military camp at the bottom and tell them that they need to bring everything they got back up Clinic Hill. Tell them that they are being invaded. Tell them that– Aargh!"/p
p align="left"Cter felt it too, and staggered while Ziki collapsed./p
p align="left"Another whip of powerful aura crashed against hers. Not enough to bring her down, but enough to bring Ziki down, falling. With a quick, magical shell around him Cter gave him a second's respite to catch himself on all fours. "No," he coughed the instant the shell closed around him. Before Cter had time to react Ziki flew up on his feet between her and the dark interior, completely covering her view with his armored body./p
p align="left""The children! Make sure–"/p
p align="left"Fine particles of blinding white replaced the worried expression underneath the eyes softened for the last moment they had to see. The empty armor crashed into Cter from the force behind it, throwing her into the stone heart fountain once more. As she slammed into it though, the pain did not have time to register with her before it faded away from her./p
p align="left"Her eyes stung as she opened them, with the warmth of the water around her shimmering brilliantly. More warmth than just the water she felt on her, layered thick and heavy on her and the heavy armor laying even heavier. She could do naught but cough and try and squirm out from the armor pushing her against the stone heart. Her magic failed her, lost to emotions not her own as she tried to summon it. It did not connect with her sleeve, but what laid on top of it in the thick layers, warm and shimmering. Her would-be magic flooded her with Ziki's memories too rapidly and too vividly for her to feel which magic was hers, resulting in her attempt at stasis magic on the armor petering out like a quiet sigh./p
p align="left"She saw herself in Ziki's memories. She felt how relieved he was to finally get help./p
p align="left"And then he was…/p
p align="left"He was…/p
p align="center""Z...i...k...i..."/p
p align="left"No…/p
p align="center""H...e...a...l...e...d..."/p
p align="left"A strange type of light./p
p align="left"Flickering both as Cter blinked, and in the fluttering flakes that shimmered in the cold air. "Wha..." the Monster Mage uttered through a swelling nausea that permeated throughout her, yet without the need to vomit. Her hand still came up to her mouth to quell, but what it brought with had her coughing and sputtering./p
p align="left"Was it...water?/p
p align="left"The cold of it woke her up enough that she could take in her immediate environment where she sat./p
p align="left"Wait, no. She wasn't sitting./p
p align="left"She was floating!/p
p align="left"Floating in the water of the Clinic Hill fountain with her arms and upper torso leaning against the stone heart in the center. She spotted blood as she turned her head around to it which prompted her to grab at the back of her head. There was blood in her hand, turning the lingering water in her palm a diluted red. A dark red to boot. It was half-dried, as was the blood on the stone heart. Cter reached for the back of her head again, stopping for a brief moment to realize that she might be opening up the wound she was prodding at, but there was no warm feeling down her neck./p
p align="left"Curiously she began to carefully scrape at the dried blood, digging through it to feel if there even was a wound there to begin with./p
p align="left"Which there...wasn't?/p
p align="left"Cter scooped up more water in her naked hand to wash away the dried blood. In small, loosened clumps it detached from her hand with quiet drops into the cold fountain water that she was floating in. Once all of it was gone she unveiled her hair to feel again for the wound that had caused her to bleed./p
p align="left"But there was none./p
p align="left""But how!"/p
p align="left"The haste which she dug at her head had her almost opening up one just through her dazed scratching. Yet again though, she found nothing. No wound which she had bled from and no scarring from said wound having been healed. It was smooth as it had been the day before. No injury to find whatsoever./p
p align="left"No injury…/p
p align="left""No injury..."/p
p align="left"Hearing the sound of her own voice had Cter gasping, also audible to her./p
p align="left"The calm fountain water became wrought with splashing that further diluted the dried clumps of blood swimming around in it. Cter scrambled up onto the middle platform where the stone heart was located, wringing herself with hearing every single of her hurried flails that connected with the fountain water's surface./p
p align="left"She could hear! Her hearing was healed!/p
p align="left"Why? Why was it healed?/p
p align="left"Cter remembered that her eardrums had been shattered. That she was running away from the dark. That it all was horrible somehow. What exactly it was she was running from and why was a blur in her head. The nausea, the dried blood, the hazy recollection of what had just happened. It was all signs that Cter had hit her head hard, and presumably against the stone heart behind her./p
p align="left"If she had hit her head as hard as was necessary for her to not remember what had happened then how was it that she was lucid enough to conclude that? How could she have been both experiencing the symptoms from hitting her head enough to cause her to be concussed while also feeling healthy enough that it might as well not have happened?/p
p align="left"That, if anything, was giving her a headache./p
p align="left"However, the fact that she could hear again meant that she had been healed somehow. The pouring from the fountain was loud enough to be the first thing she had ever heard, which in a way it was since her eardrums had been healed after having been broken./p
p align="left"So on the one hand Cter had nausea and memory loss from having been injured, and on the other she had her ears healed and no wound to show for the impact on the back of her head. She was both injured and healed at the same time./p
p align="left"Although…/p
p align="left"What and where she was healed was on the outside. Only her body, in a way. She did not like the mental image, but if the ruined gravel path was any indication then she had been thrown at the stone heart like a rag doll launched from a catapult. The impact surely must have been enough to have shattered her skull, so however she was healed it must have been both instantaneous in how it was applied, and also when it was applied. Right as she hit her head and with enough potency that it completely healed her from the impact. That she was thinking so clearly about it was just another proof to the matter./p
p align="left"There was no one around her, nor any indication that anyone else had been with her. The stone fountain was dry where she had not touched it with her wet robe and mantle, although that could have dried during the time that she had been unconscious./p
p align="left"And there was that too!/p
p align="left"Cter had been unconscious! Her injuries had been healed yet still fell unconscious for…/p
p align="left"It was only then that the Monster Mage noticed the silvery reflection among the dark of the water. Bright, light, and telling of something horrid./p
p align="left"That it had become night./p
p align="left"A cold, Xoffian night, like all the other nights./p
p align="left"Cter did not feel cold though. The water that soaked her robe, mantle, and hair was warm to the touch. Same with the water in the fountain. She could just as well have been at one of Xoff's beaches facing the ocean with how warm the water was./p
p align="left"Another mystery to the pile…/p
p align="left"So much that didn't add up!/p
p align="left""Dammit!" the vexed Monster Mage cursed into the cold night as she dove into the palms of her hands. "What happened to me!" What she wanted to do was to grind the heel of her palms into her forehead to cool her headache, but how could she if she only felt it metaphorically! If she didn't feel it physically she could not calm it physically!/p
p align="left"With an enraged howl Cter then slammed her hands into the water. Had she not felt such a fierce and ominous sense that she had to get herself together because the air around her was wrong and sinister she would have entertained the thought of floating on the water to think. With the shallow depth of the fountain water though she wouldn't have been able to let herself be submerged underneath the surface./p
p align="left"Slamming her fists down helped with catharsis though, and as the ripples settled around her wrists she had managed to focus her breathing enough to clear her head a bit./p
p align="left"The hazy memories still haunted her with warnings about running away, yet also staying to help, but with having calmed down a bit she was able to actually think. About her injuries, and the complete lack thereof. Her nausea and loss of memories were key, yet she had to figure out in what way they were key. She had hit the back of her head hard against the stone heart enough to have her lose consciousness while also having been healed of the injury immediately upon the injury's birth./p
p align="left"However though, she also felt nauseous which meant that some part of the injury still remained. Adding on top of that that she felt that she was forgetting something, and it slowly became clear to Cter that whatever it was that had healed her had only done it for a certain period of time and not completely fully./p
p align="left""Was it the same thing that healed me that threw me against the stone heart?"/p
p align="left"Strangely, it didn't sound wrong to Cter, even if it felt wrong saying it. As if it was...correct? Correct, but she did not know that it was correct?/p
p align="left"Dammit, there was that headache again!/p
p align="left"And her ears too!/p
p align="left"Ringing loud with her own name echoing./p
p align="left""Cter!"/p
p align="left"But wait...was it her own voice?/p
p align="left""Monster Mage!"/p
p align="left"No, no it wasn't./p
p align="left"With a wet flop from her hair and mantle slapping against the stone heart, Cter turned to the voice shouting her name and title. At the far end of the laid path leading towards the bend down Clinic Hill towards Clinic Village she saw an armored monster running with his large, curved weapon swinging wildly in his grip from his desperate steps. His other hand was waving hurriedly as he caressed the bend of the hill before slowing down along with his run./p
p align="left""Ziki!" Cter shouted at the monster as she stood up in the warm fountain water. She did so surprisingly unburdened, with naught but some soaked hair sticking to her lips. She brushed it away easily, and stepped out of the fountain while still eyeing at Ziki./p
p align="left"Why was he there? Did Cter call for him? When did she do that, if that was the case? She didn't remember telling him anything before that she needed his help. Nor when she left Clinic Village with Sarbor and…/p
p align="left"And…/p
p align="left"A dark shadow crept over the Monster Mage's face, casting it into complete dark./p
p align="left""No..."/p
p align="left"A strange type of dark./p
p align="left""Singe my soul..."/p
p align="left"A dark that came flooding back to her faster than she would ever have wanted./p
p align="left""Cter," the forlorn Royal Guard asked with his weapon carving a defeated ridge in the gravel behind him. "What's happened here?" He looked straight through her as he asked with his free hand closing over his mouth, yet not enough to quell nor hide it tensing with helpless loss. Likewise the gravel behind him his cheeks were carved, but by streams of thick tears rolling down from his narrowed eyes rather than him not having the strength to keep his weapon raised. "What is..." His throat finally choked, lodging his words inside of him where they stabbed like swallowed thorns. "What is all of this!"/p
p align="left"The pain in his voice had Cter turning around to look at Clinic Hill. She had not seen it after she had woken up. Glimpsed it at most when she turned her head to look at the blood on the stone heart, but not actually seen Clinic Hill./p
p align="left"Not actually seen the collapsed ruins of the three-storied house lit ablaze with colorful flames and various sharp and pungent smells wafting with the cold night wind. Nor the shattered walls of the two brick buildings standing weakly and teetering on falling over like their wooden-based sibling. One was illuminated by fire that raged within it akin to an oven. What it was that cooked inside Cter did not want to think about./p
p align="left"But the smell from it meant she did not have to./p
p align="left""My God..."/p
p align="left"What happened whilst Cter was unconscious? What had wrought such destruction upon the buildings that had stood so sturdy? Where the smoke was not from the large chimneys of the brick buildings, but from their imploded roofs playing the lantern to the reaching flames whipping wildly against the cold wind whistling a hollow tune foreboding a warning for none but Cter and Ziki to hear./p
p align="left""Blood..." fell stiffly from Ziki's tongue. An observation that had his aura colder than the air around him. Did Cter have some still stuck in her hair? If so it was a good idea to tell Ziki about it. To let him worry about what needed his worry./p
p align="left""It's from an already healed wound," said Cter as she turned to the Royal Guard. "The bleeding has–" Her right hand touching at the back of her head fell down at her side with a limp bounce when her eyes followed where Ziki were staring./p
p align="left""There's blood...everywhere."/p
p align="left"At the darkly crimson smear slowly pouring from a large, uneven hole in the wall where the entrance once was. Long, bloody fingers had used the destroyed side for grip, with the strokes of its fingers both fine and rough, as if a mixture of fur and skin painting the harrowing signs of destruction. Heavy steps in the gravel cratered less-bloodied, deep dents in the ground. The distance between each crater was unsettling, farther than any human could jump. Why Cter compared the heavy footsteps to a human she did not know, as the shapes were anything but human./p
p align="left""And dust..."/p
p align="left"Faint flakes of shimmering white were thrown in the air by the passing cold breezes from just inside the collapsed entrance brick wall, snatching with it a few handfuls that it threw in the air as it drafted by. Some of the dust stuck on the bloody prints, flashing red, green, and orange from reflecting the different fires from the three-storied building and the brick twin./p
p align="left"Unblinkingly, and with a quivering exhale, Cter followed the faint shimmer as it diluted in the air as her blood had done in the fountain water. It faded from her view quickly, and as it disappeared completely into the dark Xoffian night surrounding Clinic Hill, Ziki's aura turned a deathly gray./p
p align="left"It tore Cter away from the destroyed and burning buildings with how suddenly his aura dropped. "Ziki!" His body followed, falling to his knees with a loud, metallic rustle from his armor. He was only held up by his disciplined grip on his weapon, yet even that was about to falter./p
p align="left""Why is this?" he spoke through his tears and desperate sobs. "This is not what I sensed." His opened mouth hovered between wanting to curl his lips back and roar in anger, and also to close up and never open again. To never take another breath lest he inhaled either dust or blood. "This is not what I sensed!" The dark spots on his fur seemed to grow until all that was white on him were cast in shadow that could not be banished even by the mocking dance of the colorful flames bending towards him and Cter to feast in their defeat. "Why!" The disciplined hand finally loosened, and the Royal Guard fell down onto his forearms, lamenting his cries loud enough into the ground that the gravel scattered away. "WHY!"/p
p align="left"For as much as her aura did to sympathize with the Royal Guard there was something that he said that caught her newly healed ears. Something that shut out the ruined and torn landscape around her of fire and broken bricks. She squatted down next to the violent sulks that punched against the inner lining of the black armor. "Ziki," she addressed to the hopeless monster with her left hand on his shoulder. His aura was even more hopeless than when Cter had first met him. His cries of defeat she let reverberate inside of her sleeve, albeit not out of empathy or sympathy for the monster./p
p align="left"Cter was searching through Ziki's emotion to find what it was that he said that he had sensed. The way he shouted it hinted that there was something in it that he didn't understand. Something that he had not thought about, just merely reacted to. Not something that he put any thought to, yet acted on fully regardless./p
p align="left"Something fundamental that called within him to climb up Clinic Hill. More importantly, something fundamental that was strong enough to convince him to leave the children in Clinic Village alone during the night. Whatever it was that convinced him must have been deeper than his discipline and duty to protect the children of Clinic Village./p
p align="left"And that scared Cter./p
p align="left"What frightened her even more was that she did not feel any of what she was looking for within Ziki's soul. Even as she went through the Cooperative Connection she had inscribed upon his arm to help him watch the children through magical means during the night she did not find anything./p
p align="left"She did not–/p
p align="left"Wait!br /br /p
p align="left"The Cooperative Connection! The one Cter's inscribed on Ziki's armor! It was…/p
p align="left""Singe my soul!"/p
p align="left"It was changed!/p
p align="left"It wasn't the magic that Cter had given him! It was different! It was cut from a completely different cloth! On top of that it was deeper than what Cter had inscribed. Literally, even! It was like another layer of Cooperative Connection that enveloped the one Cter had inscribed. Enveloped it with…/p
p align="left""Barricade magic..."/p
p align="left"Wait!/p
p align="left"Was that why–/p
p align="left"Cter did not finish her thought before she dove deep into Ziki's aura again to look once more. If what she feared was true, then the reason for why she could not find on the shallow part of the Royal Guard's aura. What had called Ziki was deeper, covered in barricade magic. Hidden. That magic had been cast inside Ziki's soul the same way it had been cast inside Cter's./p
p align="left"From so far away? From the top of Clinic Hill to the center of Clinic Village? She as a Monster Mage wasn't safe in the immediate vicinity, and monsters weren't safe for yonder over yonder! Was that why she and Ziki had not seen any monsters around? What about humans? How close were they when it happened? Was there magic inside Sarbor's soul also? There weren't any humans around either that she could see./p
p align="left"No humans./p
p align="left"Only blood./p
p align="left"No monsters./p
p align="left"Only dust./p
p align="left"And deep within Ziki's soul, hidden by a layer of almost-permanent barrier magic, was a deeper extension of the Cooperative Connection Cter had given to Ziki. Deep enough to imitate a most primal desire that circumvented who Ziki was as a monster. From where his soul declared that it was something, and not nothing. So deep that Cter felt a disconnect with who she was herself as her aura traveled along the barrier-covered extension. With a tug away she managed to return her conscious to herself before she…/p
p align="left"Well, that she did not want to theorize./p
p align="left""Ziki," Cter spoke after her breath had slowed. "Why did you come up here?" Her question fell onto deaf, folded ears. "I need to know, Ziki!" She grabbed and turned at the shoulder she had just rested her hand on gently. The lack of life in the watery eyes had her flinch at them being just as gray as their respective aura, yet still she had to press the monster for an answer. "You left the human children, Ziki! Why did you do that? They're all alone in the village! Why did you leave them?"/p
p align="left"No answer./p
p align="left""They are still sick!"/p
p align="left"No answer./p
p align="left""They still need you, Ziki!"/p
p align="left"No answer./p
p align="left""What brought you up here!"/p
p align="left"No answer./p
p align="left""What did you sense?"/p
p align="left"No ans–/p
p align="left""Hope."/p
p align="left"The canine lips moved ever so slightly to produce the word./p
p align="left""I sensed hope, Monster Mage."/p
p align="left"Hope?/p
p align="left""More hope than I had ever felt in my entire life," the Royal Guard continued with his head still buried in the graveled ground. "It all radiated like a second sun from here. From on top here at Clinic Hill. Despite what I see around me, the destruction, blood, and dust, that hope still lingers on. It's still here! It's still present!"/p
p align="left"Rugged, angry breaths pushed aside more gravel, with a cloud of dry dirt huffed out from the cavern of Ziki's armored arms that began shaking with anger./p
p align="left""It's still here!" The gray of Ziki's aura flared with roaring anger in a flash, forcing his right fist into the ground with a loud, metallic thud. "I can feel it! It's here!" His armor followed with him heavily as he shoot up straight onto his feet. His eyes which had been so gray just a moment before were glistening in the colorful fire, as did his exposed teeth from his curled-back lips./p
p align="left"There was a ferocity to his breathing and distant leer that had Cter taking a step back from his balling fists that stopped just short of crinkling the metal on his gloves. "It's here," he repeated through a low growl as his eyes flicked from side to side. His left hand instinctively grabbed at his weapon's handle which he pulled up with a large motion of his shoulder. "Its false hope is still here somewhere!"/p
p align="left"Did Cter rip loose the barricade magic as she exited her aura from Ziki's soul? Was that why he suddenly turned so angry?/p
p align="left"Or was he turning the force of the hope inside of him into anger and animosity? Actual, concise animosity? Perhaps he was undergoing something akin to a Monster Hunter? His love for the children being the constructive and positive angle to his otherwise-threatening aura and–/p
p align="left""There!"/p
p align="left"With a wide, arcing motion of his right arm that cut the air enough to almost blow Cter back and into the fountain, Ziki turned his body around to the brick building that lacked the stains of blood and dust on its destroyed wall. Like a hammer he threw his right arm down, bringing with him in the wide motion his left arm holding his long weapon. At the apex of the arc he let go of his weapon with a furious roar. "Bastard!" His echoing voice blended with the harsh whistling of his spinning axe that made short time of the distance between him and the dark interior of the un-bloodied brick building./p
p align="left"The thrown weapon carried with it the furious aura disgusted by the false hope that had tempted Ziki. It carried with it the rage of a guardian that had been seduced away from the ones he had sworn to protect by a promise that was the opposite in truth. It sliced through the air in the headwind of Ziki's roar with might enough to make splinters out of the doors hung by their torn hinges./p
p align="left"A moment later the weapon connected with a wet and fleshy cut that rung out from inside the dark of the brick building. What followed briefly afterwards was another heavy and wet thud from inside the brick building, and a gentle wooden clonk./p
p align="left"Chafed breaths flowed in an out of Ziki's mouth as he stared into the brick building from his hunched posture waiting. Waiting for...something. His ears, eyes, and teeth were still sharp, ready to react to whatever was to happen next. "You need to leave, ma'am," the Royal Guard said with clarity. He was furious beyond belief at what his weapon had struck inside the brick building, but not a single drop of it was present as he spoke to Cter. His eyes and ears were still focused on the dark interior, yet his mouth spoke to the Monster Mage besides him. "Head to the Xoff military camp at the bottom and tell them that they need to bring everything they got back up Clinic Hill. Tell them that they are being invaded. Tell them that– Aargh!"/p
p align="left"Cter felt it too, and staggered while Ziki collapsed./p
p align="left"Another whip of powerful aura crashed against hers. Not enough to bring her down, but enough to bring Ziki down, falling. With a quick, magical shell around him Cter gave him a second's respite to catch himself on all fours. "No," he coughed the instant the shell closed around him. Before Cter had time to react Ziki flew up on his feet between her and the dark interior, completely covering her view with his armored body./p
p align="left""The children! Make sure–"/p
p align="left"Fine particles of blinding white replaced the worried expression underneath the eyes softened for the last moment they had to see. The empty armor crashed into Cter from the force behind it, throwing her into the stone heart fountain once more. As she slammed into it though, the pain did not have time to register with her before it faded away from her./p
p align="left"Her eyes stung as she opened them, with the warmth of the water around her shimmering brilliantly. More warmth than just the water she felt on her, layered thick and heavy on her and the heavy armor laying even heavier. She could do naught but cough and try and squirm out from the armor pushing her against the stone heart. Her magic failed her, lost to emotions not her own as she tried to summon it. It did not connect with her sleeve, but what laid on top of it in the thick layers, warm and shimmering. Her would-be magic flooded her with Ziki's memories too rapidly and too vividly for her to feel which magic was hers, resulting in her attempt at stasis magic on the armor petering out like a quiet sigh./p
p align="left"She saw herself in Ziki's memories. She felt how relieved he was to finally get help./p
p align="left"And then he was…/p
p align="left"He was…/p
p align="center""Z...i...k...i..."/p
p align="left"No…/p
p align="center""H...e...a...l...e...d..."/p