Author's note:
Sorry for not having any chapters last week. Was completely exhausted, like passing out at the keyboard exhausted. Also had crazy headaches.
Finally better today.
Should be seven chapters today, possibly more.
...Magelord...
With the sun starting to peek its way over the eastern horizon, Bevel fought to keep a smile on her face. The conversation with Papa had been too short.
He was visiting the City on the Water. And he’d met an old friend. It all sounded so exciting.
Instead she was stuck in a stupid bog, going to watch a stupid tournament with stupid Bolly.
Technically she was going with all of her friends. She just didn't like that Bolly was going. Auntie Nexxa had locked him away, and said she wouldn’t have to see him again.
That had lasted until the previous night.
Bevel glanced upwards, looking at the man with red skin who'd shown up. He was the same man who'd had dinner with her papa back when Sezzie, Dethin and Bolly showed up in the first place.
It had been the red-skinned djinn-souled’s insistence that got Bolly out from under Tender’s lockdown, despite mama Ari's protests.
Auntie Nexxa had grumbled something about not simply dropping the boy in a dark hole.
“You look like a goat ate your favorite dress,” Ahma said quietly from beside Bevel. Bevel’d dropped to the back of the group to avoid having to walk too close to Bolly. Her gaze moved to the boy, who was even then talking over his cousins, cutting Sezzie off in the middle of his sentence.
At least he'd given up his pursuit of Ahma.
Her friend had been rather irritated to find out he'd been attempting to sabotage something as important as a Waygate. At least, that had been her understanding. Ahma had raised an eyebrow and dismissed him, saying, “if you can't appreciate Bevel, you most certainly can't appreciate me.”
Bevel let out a long sigh. “I have to keep an eye on Bolly. He's going to try something.”
“I’ll assist you,” Ahma said, giving her a shallow nod, “Two heads are better than one after all.”
“Unless it's a Hydra,” Bevel countered, shaking her head. On one of their recent calls, Papa told her he’d sucked a Hydra into himself. She hadn't been able to get a full explanation since their conversations were so short these days but it sounded like he'd been worried he'd end up with eight heads. Luckily he only ended up with the one. Bevel wasn't sure she could handle it if he ate breakfast with more than one at a time.
“I don't know. I'm pretty sure a Hydra is better when it has more than one head.”
Bevel giggled, looking at the older girl. “Thanks.”
Ahma raised an eyebrow, then shrugged.
They continued talking as they moved towards their seats in the arena. Bevel took the opportunity to look around at the new structure that had risen in the last few hours. She'd seen some of the early concept sketches but the seating was super neat. It wasn't as utilitarian as some of the earlier stone works and buildings had been. She noticed that it was happening a lot more lately: people using any excuse to work art into their stone sculpting.
The main motif for the day seemed to be inferno drakes and frost wolves, which seemed appropriate considering that she’d seen people riding both of the aforementioned animals in a pen just outside.
Bevel’d been a little bit more focused on making sure that Bolly didn't go running after children or whatever else someone as mean as him might get up to. She was starting to wonder if maybe he was like Baltham. Someone who was broken in the head.
Her gaze went to him and the storage amulet they’d given him as an ‘apology’ for his imprisonment. It was important he didn’t slip it off. Not that he should be able to, but Bevel didn’t trust him.
Even so, her mama had told her to do her best to enjoy the day even as she’d apologized. So Bevel did her best to push the thoughts to the side, answering one of Ahma's questions about the way the food was set up.
“Nope, no Waves,” Bevel explained, gesturing towards the stand where food was being given out. “Everybody can eat for free.”
“Doesn't that undercut the merchants who would've been selling food?” Bevel blinked at the unexpected question, which had come from Cahmie not Ahma. The younger sister had been silent for most of the morning.
“The merchants aren't allowed here.” Bevel scratched her cheek, squinting as she thought. “Not to sell stuff, anyway. They could probably come as guests.”
“Why’s it free anyway?”
“Morale?” Bevel wasn’t too sure. It did cause her to glance up. “‘Cause of all the monsters falling.”
Even then there were monsters falling. Most weren't striking the shield. Not with her auntie Nexxa covering the sky in a non-stop cascade of lightning. The booms were barely audible, even though the lightning was bright enough to rival the morning sun.
“Amazing what you can get used to,” Bahm grumbled from the other side of his sister. “I keep forget that’s even happening.”
“Honestly, if the people in the tournament are even one tenth as cool as your aunt, it’s going to be a marvelous performance,” Ahma said while keeping her neck craned back to stare up into the sky. There wasn't a lot to see from so far below but Bevel had seen it up close and it could be very impressive.
Since she’d visited the Front and seen all the monster there once, Bevel was going to ask what Sezzie thought. Then she remembered she was with Bolly.
“Would it be being a bad friend if I invited Sezzie to sit with us instead of her cousin?” Bevel’d decided to just start asking what made a good friend after a very long and confusing talk with her mama Ari.
“I think it’d be the opposite,” Bahm grunted. “He’s worse than our grandmother.”
“At least she cares about more than herself,” Ahma said, nodding in agreement.
“Sezzie, come sit with us!” Bevel called, waving her arms.
Sezzie froze as she’d been adjusting her dress. She looked between her cousin and Bevel.
Seeing her friend’s reluctance, Bevel stepped towards her, doing her best to ignore Bolly while holding her hand out to her friend.
A small smile broke through as Sezzie nodded, accepting Bevel’s hand and muttering a “thank you,” so softly Bevel only caught it with Winds Within.
“What do you think you're doing?” Bolly demanded, shoving Bevel's shoulder.
The action was rather ineffective considering how many of Tender's trials Bevel had been through. She might look like she was, a lanky and growing teenager but… okay, yes, she was still lanky and growing.
But it didn’t mean she was weak. In fact, her strength was higher than her Papa's. By quite a bit. And that was before things had gotten all messed up for him.
“I'm letting Sezzie sit somewhere where she can talk.”
Dethin chuckled at that and Bolly turned towards him with a glare.
“Guess I should invite Dethin too,” Bevel stepped in the way of Bolly's glare. “You should just sit by yourself for a bit. You know there's only one reason you're even here.”
Bolly didn't reply. He just crossed his arms and sat down on the bench, his hand tugging at the amulet.
Narrowing her eyes, Bevel checked to ensure it was still secure. The Winds Within told her it wasn’t moving, no matter how hard he tugged.
Good.
Soon another family moved over and sat beside him. One of the children started gushing about the Wolf rides and the other drew Bolly into a conversation. That allowed Bevel to relax and enjoy the conversation with the rest of her friends. She should’ve done that weeks ago.
“Well that's one way to deal with him. Aren't you worried that he's going to get upset at us talking back here?” Ahma asked, though her smirk told Bevel she… well, that she was thinking something she thought was funny.
“No he can't hear us.” She didn't explain that she was keeping their conversation private from everyone. She didn't have to. She’d told Ahma she was able to do so after the incident with the Waygate.
They'd ended up spending nearly two hours talking about different ways to achieve the same effect as Ahma worked to find a way to use her own Lunar magic to do the same thing. She couldn't steal the air but she could alter the sounds so they appeared different. Once Bevel figured that out they started working on ways to simply alter the sounds so that the difference was that they sounded like nothing.
It’d been a lot of fun.
According to Ahma, it’d opened up a lot of other ideas too.
Soon the tournament began. There was a lot of people gathered in the stands. If she hadn’t been so distracted with her friends, it would’ve bothered her.
Instead, it was… exciting.
Bevel was a little bit surprised at how little magic the fighters were using. There was a bit to enhance their speed or their strength but they weren't competing the way she was used to with Papa. There was no testing of spells or magical finesse. It was all punching or grappling.
Some people were cheering but most were as interested in the the Untethered flying overhead in between matches.
“Why are they flying over?” Ahma asked, watching them soar past.
“Mama Ari wanted it to be a full festival.”
“Makes sense,” Bahm said, leaning back his eyes fixed on one of the female Untethered who was one of Keria’s friends. Her sister was theoretically somewhere in the crowd too. On a date. So weird.
“That’s good. Not everyone’s interested in people punching each other,” Dethin said, his tone much smoother now that his soul was partially repaired. Only one more session and they’d be able to pull the bombs out. They were going to do them yesterday, but the red-skinned man showing up had interrupted the process when he demanded to see them.
“Yep,” Bevel agreed. She hadn’t been watching the fights much either. Not with all her friends there.
“Did you hear about the weird priests who’ve been making the rounds?” Cahmie asked, leaning forward from the far end of their bench. Despite being on the opposite end, Bevel ensured no one had a hard time hearing her. Was so annoying when someone missed part of the conversation because of a little thing like distance.
“The ones spreading the word of the new healing magus?” Dethin replied, his eyes lighting up.
“Nah. Pretty sure those are just a bunch of people who got saved by a wandering dragon-souled. I’m talking those weird flesh priests. The ones talking about submitting to the will of the beyond.”
“Oh. Those are bad,” Bevel said, shaking her head. “Mama says they’re working with the enemy.”
“That’s what makes it so interesting,” Ahma said, chuckling softly.
“I saw one,” Dethin said, leaning forward. “He had three tentacles for his right arm.”
“That’s so gross,” Cahmie said, even as she leaned closer. “How are they allowed to walk around?”
“I mean, he was being escorted out of Southport by one of those fancy knights who ride the drakes,” Dethin said, shrugging while gesturing in the direction of the pens.
Bevel nodded. “They’re trying to spy on us. Not very good at it though.”
“Probably more hidden out of sight,” Bahm said, gesturing to the crowd around them. “All they’d have to do is keep quiet, have less modifications.”
Bevel tilted her head. “There aren’t any here. I’d know.”
“How can you tell?” Sezzie asked, squeezing her hands as she glanced around at the crowd.
“They breathe weird.”
“You can find them by the way they breathe? Even in a crowd like this?” Ahma asked, her eyes glinting with what Bevel knew was excitement. “Could you hunt them down?”
“I… I think so?” Bevel said, her nod less certain than usual.
“We should go on a priest hunt. To help keep Aeternia safe,” Ahma proclaimed, squeezing her hand into a fist.
Bahm rolled his eyes, as if the idea was silly.
Bevel didn’t think it was silly. She glanced upwards, thinking of how useless she’d been when the red-skinned Djinn-souled showed up. She was only Pegasus.
“Hey, wh-what’s Bolly doing?” Dethin asked. Clearly he still needed that therapy.
Following his outstretched hand, Bevel realized there was a problem with cutting off sound. It meant she hadn't noticed when he stood up and started shouting.
Judging by the way the crowd was shifting to look at him, he hadn’t been at it for too long.
His hand was on the amulet, tugging incessantly. It wasn’t moving. Maybe they shouldn’t have made it stick to him so much.
Bevel let the sound through, his words reaching them halfway through his sentence. “-take them all with me. You can't stop what's coming. No one can. You should have listened to my grandmother. She was fighting this but you just had to be greedy.”
“What is he talking about?” Ahma asked, leaning forward. “And why is he… glowing?”
“He's glowing because he thinks he's going to blow himself up,” Bevel huffed the words out though she kept them from reaching Bolly's ears. He'd stood up even further, climbing up on the top of the bench. Not that it’d do him any good. She'd cut his words off from everyone now except for their group. The sight of him screaming silently and waving his hands around was drawing some laughter from the crowd.
Waiting for the amulet to save them seemed like a silly choice, so Bevel just cut off his air.
It wasn't even that hard. She'd had a lot of practice finding ways to do it in ways that wouldn't hurt people too much. Sure, he’d need a little bit of healing and would have a headache for a while but he'd be fine.
At least that's what Bevel assumed.
What she hadn't counted on was the interference of the Djinn-souled over her head. Even as Bolly went to one knee, her control over the Winds Within was contested.
Bevel thought he was going to free Bolly from her grasp, so she attempted to counteract by pulling tighter.
Instead, to Bevel's horror, the man pushed her winds inward. Bolly fell to his knees as the winds cut into his flesh.
Then, despite the changes they’d made to prevent harm from triggering the bomb, his soul exploded.
The amulet kept it from going anywhere, the storage device successfully sucking the shockwave in.
But it didn’t save Bolly.
He’d been mean, and stupid, and…
And Bevel’d wanted him to stop, but she hadn’t wanted him dead.
His body lay just in front of her, empty eyes staring at her accusingly.
More damningly, the Winds Within couldn’t detect even the weakest of breathing.
“Bolly?!” Sezzie screamed, kneeling down next to her cousin.
Ahma glanced at Bevel, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. She didn’t feel it.
The soul-bomb had been modified. It… it wouldn’t have killed him. The amulet had done its job. No one would’ve been hurt, if she’d just trusted her mama Ari.
Instead, she’d been stupid. So stupid that… Bolly…
Bolly was dead.
It was all her fault. And she realized stupid… stupid wasn’t nearly enough to cover how she felt.