Chương 12: Chapter Twelve

That night, I dreamed. At first it was pleasant. I was surrounded by my mana, gently swaying in a relaxing motion. Then, my mana started moving. At first, it wasn't much. A small change in the way I was swaying. But then the movement increased and I found myself moving alongside my mana. Then the voices started. I didn't like the voices. They sounded like Mom and Evan worried. Boyan crying. And others. Some sounded familiar, but others completely new. Can dreams do that? Make someone new?

I started feeling something... wrong. But I didn't know what. Fear gripped my stomach at the hidden danger. I tried looking for the wrongness, but even the mana that wasn't following this flow was agitated, making it hard to see. I wanted to stop and suddenly found myself stationary, though my mana was still moving. More voices. Yelling. I couldn't hear, and I couldn't see. I wanted my mana to stop but I remember what happened yesterday. If I force it to stop it will hurt. I need to slow it down. Quiet it.

I needed it to let me think.

"Shhhhhhh." I said. Did I say it? I don't know. But the mana slowed and almost stopped. The agitation left. And I could hear Mom.

"What do you mean you can't wake her?! You're an expert in curses!" Mom's voice floated within the sea of cyan.

"She needs to… I can… hear." The sea was moving again blocking my senses. I frowned. Wake up! I need to wake up! I didn't wake. I quieted the waters occasionally looking for the wrongness, and trying to hear mom again but I couldn't. Suddenly Mom's voice cut through, her voice almost yelling.

"Lyra! Listen to me! You're under the effects of a spell. You need to fight back. Try to break it. Try…"

"Lyra!" Evan's voice cut over her.

"You need to stop your mana. Remember what you did yesterday? We need you to do it again."

"… fight…" The voices were gone again. This is a spell? The sea was swirling again and I shushed it until the waters stilled. Then looked, but told the sea to not block my vision. How did I tell the sea to do something? I don't know. And that makes me nervous. But it worked. And the sea moved out of my vision as I looked around. It still moved, just around me. I'm not sure about time, but I had to quiet the sea three more times before I saw it. A sickly purple, almost black, sliver of mana sticking into the sea.

And where it touched it was injecting mana that quickly turned cyan. But that mana was moving. I move to the foreign mana and grab hold of it. It tries to flee, but a quick "knock it off" stills it. My attention is drawn back to the sea of my mana, rivers within moved quickly in accordance to whatever the spell was doing, but not yet effecting the rest of the sea after the last time I quieted it.

"It should have happened by now! Why haven't they reported that the anomaly is complete?" A woman said I didn't recognize. She talked funny.

"It doesn't matter. She's a child, she doesn't have the power to fight this. Push harder. We need the Guard to notice the disturbance from that child so we can take possession..." Power? Oh, I know that. Neera talked about it. I smile as I see my status expand, and just like in real life I had three unassigned points. I put them into Spell Power.

"Uhg…" The first voice groaned.

"This just got a lot harder!"

"I don't care, push everything you have…" It was getting harder to hear.

"… I don't care if you kill her! Get her mana to…" They want to play with my mana… A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. I look at the purple mana wrapped around my arm feeling oily and foul than at the rivers of cyan flowing faster than they had the other day. I held up the icky mana.

"This way." The river shifted immediately slamming into the purple-black mana instantly shifting shades to match as I felt lurch in my gut… I bolted awake to screams. Both in my dreams and around me as the room shook. Was I stuck under my blanket? I couldn't tell I had to take care of my mana which was moving as fast as I remember from my dream. To many things were happening! Even my system was screaming for my attention. I wanted to scream but didn't have breath. Whatever was on me was heavy! And I couldn't…

Wait, I don't have to breathe. The thought calmed me and I looked inside, slowing my mana in the same way I did in the dream. I was done before the room stopped shaking. When it did the weight lifted, and I saw that the weight on me was Evan who threw himself over me. Some of Mom's mana surrounded us, and her, and… wow there are almost a dozen people here.

"What in all the hells was that?" Benna asked looking around worriedly.

"Did I blow up?" I asked drawing everyone's attention.

"Lyra!" Mom and Neera were both beside me before I knew it. Evan looked like he was making room, but after rolling her eyes Neera pulled him until he tripped over the bed landing beside me.

"You're okay! Oh thank the heavens." Mom started crying and Neera backed away a little.

"You didn't blow up. Obviously." Neera said standing.

"What happened?" I asked around my family. I didn't know the man who answered. The hood of his cloak was thrown back so I could see he was horribly pale, with pointed ears. I would call him an elf if not for his pure-black eyes and pointed teeth. He was wearing a heavy cloth armor with leather reinforcement all in dark grays and blacks.

"Someone cast a spell on you. A curse." He said in a rather meandering fashion. I can't tell what the curse was doing other than stirring up your mana, but there were multiple casters. Which is how they got through Benna's wards, and prevented me from stopping it." I felt as though he was trying to dissect me with his colorless eyes"Are you perhaps the last heir to a fallen house? A princess in disguise?" He asked and I sputtered.

"No!" The remark got a chuckle out of Neera and Evan.

"Hmm. The other options are significantly less interesting." He said sighing.

"Politics, power, or greed. What I wouldn't give for it to be a heir of a fallen house for once."

"Fennor, she isn't one of your story books." Another man said. He was dressed in similar clothes as Fennor, but had Benna's wings, dark skin, and alabaster horns. He also had his hand to his ear and his head tilted as though he was listening to something I couldn't hear.

"The guest house of the La'Tithe estate just exploded." He grimaced.

"And a lot of the yard and the main estate has partly collapsed. There were casualties." He looked at Mom questioningly.

"Lady Miranda, I know this is improbable, but considering the size of the crater they are reporting I have to ask: did you attack House La'Tithe?" I thought Mom would be mad. She wasn't. She just held onto me as her tears fell.

"No, Leon." She responded calmly.

"Unless they were attacking Lyra, I would have no reason to." He looked towards Fennor.

"No idea. I have the mana signatures for the five people, and there were five people casting the spell. If you give me targets I can compare them against the signatures and narrow it down. Oh, and I am not certain, but I believe they used blood as a focusing element. It's the only way they could target Lyra without being able to see her." Leon looked over at Mom and Evan who were looking at each other confused. I scratched my cheek.

"Lyra, do you know how they got your blood?" Neera asked noticing my movement.

"Uhm, the only times I've bled were the day before yesterday when I tried to practice Mana Control and yesterday at the Herbalists shop."

"You bled at Fenly's?" Mom asked, her mouth tightening. I nodded.

"A prickly plant poked me before we left." Evan had her hand on Mom's arm.

"I would believe you would harm our children before I believed Fenly would." Evan said placating before scratching the back of his head.

"Actually, I wouldn't but it would be close." Mom nodded.

"We'll look into it." Leon said. Making a hand sign and the six people dressed like him started to leave.

"We're going to look into the explosion. It'll be a pain working around the elves, but that's nothing new. Tell us if you have any idea who might be targeting you and we'll start digging. Until then…" He shrugged.

"No one who wasn't here or involved should know about what happened. I'm sorry we can't do more Lady Miranda." Fennor stared at me.

"You might be more interesting than a heir to a lost house. I still haven't figured out how you escaped that spell…"

"Enough." Leon said slapping Fennor on the shoulder and turning him towards the door. Mom nodded and they all made their way out.

"Who was that?" I asked as soon as the door was closed.

"That was Leon De'Cause, the head of the Lethion Order here in Tenoth. The Order is…" She tapped her chin.

"A cross between a military order and spy network. They protect demons regardless of the sovereignty. All the clans help maintain the Order, so when events like this take place we have someone to turn to." Neera began.

"She doesn't need to know that now." Mom said, stopping whatever Neera was going to say.

"Actually…"

"No." Mom cut off Evan.

"She's going to spend the day getting better and practicing her Mana Control." Evan raised his hands in surrender, while Neera just gave her a disapproving look before leaving. I bit my lip. I wanted to know. But I also wanted to practice mana control. I let the question lay too long and found it decided for me. I practiced mana control. At some point, someone came in and gave mom a letter.

She became furious and stormed out of the room for a while, leaving me to practice on my own as she was sure I wasn't going to blow the place up again. Wait, I didn't blow it up the first time! I managed to glimpse the paper before she left. … the same five that attacked Lyra. Explosion doesn't make sense, and would take a group of ten demons acting together to get this result. Even more elves… As I turned in after the day's lessons I opened my status page. Skill: Mana Command Leveled!

2 → 3 Skill: Mana Command Leveled! 3 → 4 Stat increase: SP 3 → 4 Stat increase: SP 4 → 5 Stat increase: SP 5 → 6 Skill: Mana Command Leveled! 4 → 5 Skill: External Mana Expression Gained! Level 1 MANA: 12, 431 / 15, 015