Mia's Magic, Chapter 13
CHAPTER 13
"Animal, vegetable, or mineral?"
Cye thought a moment before answering, "Animal."
"Is it an invertebrate or a vertebrate?" Rowen asked.
"Vertebrate."
"Does it live in the water?"
"Nope."
"Is it a mammal?"
"Yup."
"Does it have four legs?"
"No sirree Bob! Five down, Rowen!" Cye replied. If you haven't figured it out already, they were playing Twenty Questions to pass the time. It was Cye's turn to pick something, and he was starting to feel peppy. At his last check of the fight, Jared had been in very bad shape, thanks to Ryo and Mia's teamwork.
"Does it have a tail?" Rowen asked, feeling just a bit less cheerful than Cye. The sewer-smelling water had dampened his mood a little. (No pun intended . . . or was it?)
"Negative!"
"Does it even have fur?"
"Not really."
"Is it a person, Cye?" Cye snickered.
"Yeah."
"And does this certain person happen to be a friend of ours?"
"Uh-huh!"
"Does this human friend of ours have a large appetite?"
"You betcha!"
"Is it Kento?"
"Correctamundo, Rowen! Your turn!"
"You know Cye, maybe we should focus more on getting out of here," Rowen suggested. "It'll make things a lot easier on Ryo and Mia if we're already free, don'tcha think?"
"You have a good point," Cye agreed. "What do you think we should do?"
"Well, I've been thinking . . ."
* * * * * * *
When the light finally faded, Mia saw only darkness. She opened her eyes, but it did no good. She had been blinded, and Mia knew that Jared had cast a blinding spell. Without her first sight, Mia would be at a disadvantage until she adapted to her second sight-Jared could attack her or Ryo without warning, and they would both be nearly helpless.
"What is the deal with bad guys blinding me?" Ryo asked out loud. "First Sekhmet with his venom, and now Jared with his magic. What next? A clown with acidic cream pies?" (Thank the Flying Chancey for that one, folks!) Mia rolled her eyes (just because she can't see doesn't mean her eyes don't move) and found her second sight. Ryo was in about the same place he'd been when they found Jared a moment ago. Speaking of which . . .
Where had Jared gone?
Ryo was a bit shocked when Mia began to spit out every curse word she knew. He recognized the Japanese words, of course, as well as a few English curses, but other than that he was pretty lost, except that Mia was _not_ happy.
"What's wrong, Mia? You can't see either, I take it?"
"Not with my physical eyes, no, but I'm using my second sight. The problem is I can't see where Jared went. I think he might have high-tailed it outta here after casting that blinding spell," Mia explained.
"Then I guess we'd better find him again. Do you know any way to counteract the spell Jared used?" Ryo asked.
"The spell should only last a few more minutes, but in that time Jared could take steps to ensure his victory," she replied. "Right now, I guess the best plan of attack is to destroy as much of the castle as possible. Hopefully that will make Jared too weak to finish the spell against me-it's a _really_ big spell."
"Mass destruction, huh? Kento's gonna be sorry he missed this." Ryo smiled a bit as he said this.
"Where do we start, Mi?"
"I figure right here's good. Your sure-kill should be sufficient, I think. You aim this way so you don't toast me, okay?" Mia turned Ryo so that he was facing away from her, then turned and faced the other wall. Holding both jittes tightly, she prepared to use the attack Kayura had herself utilized many times in the past. Mia raised the two swords until their hilts were in front of her face, and they began to spin. The hilts joined together, and Mia leaped into the air with the spinning, double-bladed weapon beneath her. Longs beams of light shot from the Star Swords-they were red now, consisting of Mia's Love magic-and blasted through everything in their path. Behind her, Mia heard Ryo shouting his own attack.
"Flare Up Now!" Mia sensed the magic of the attack more than she saw it, but turning around she saw that Ryo had blasted through three walls. Feeling a lot more optimistic, Mia got back to work.
* * * * * * *
As another blast shook the castle to its foundation, Jared stumbled around a corner. Only moments ago he had fled from his Morgan and the armored fool called Ryo, hoping to gain enough time to cast the spell on Morgan ahead of schedule. Things weren't going as planned, however, because the combined factors of severe blood loss and the destruction-in-progress of his beautiful magic-generated castle were causing him to lose strength rapidly. He was growing so tired.
Sitting on the floor, Jared remembered the battle a few minutes ago. When Morgan had been winning, he could have sworn he saw Fire magic flowing from Ryo to her. When he'd tripped Morgan and gained the upper hand, that had been pure luck. Then that blasted Ryo had attacked him and given Jared the two wounds he suffered from now. Frowning, Jared leaned back against the wall. He would only rest his eyes a moment, then he could proceed with his plan.
Closing his eyes, Jared welcomed the blackness.
* * * * * * *
Yuli had been asleep for a few hours, but a blast nearby woke him up. Rubbing his eyes, Yuli realized that he was feeling better now than he had before. The boy also realized that he was no longer seeing the different magicks around him, but what was actually there. There was another blast, and Yuli rolled across the floor as a black wall was blown to bits by a blast of red. Yuli coughed, and through the dust saw a vaguely familiar figure approaching.
"Who's ::cough cough:: who's that?" he asked.
"Yuli, is that you?"
"Mia? What happened to you? Why are you wearing that armor?"
"I was fighting Jareda while ago, but he managed to get away and is most likely hiding somewhere in the castle still. Here, let me help you up." Mia knelt beside Yuli and helped him stand as Ryo walked into the room Yuli had been imprisoned in.
"Jared just likes to beat you up, huh kid?"
"Being the youngest sucks," Yuli replied. Ryo and Mia laughed a bit at this, but the laughter was strained.
"Yuli, we're gonna get you outta here," Mia said a moment later. "I think I should be able to make a portal back to the house now, so Sage and Kayura will be able to take care of your injuries. Cye and Rowen will be along as soon as we find them, so don't worry about that. You ready?" Yuli nodded. Then Mia visualized the living room of her house and said "~Portal!~" {don't forget that "~this stuff~" is said in French}. The air opened up, and Mia gently shoved Yuli through. The portal closed behind him, and Mia felt a bit better knowing that at least one person had been rescued successfully-not matter how long it took.
"Well," Ryo said. "Looks like we're a lot closer to finishing this."
"That's what it looks like," Mia agreed. _But looks can be deceiving._
Back to the Index