Mia's Magic, Chapter 5
Mia's Magic: Chapter 5
Written by diamondgirl
_Blinding light. Intense, deadly heat, fueled by her own fiery will power.
Flames licked at her, the pain threatening to consume her all too soon. Where
was Jared? Why wasn't he saving her? She could hear the villagers cheer as she
burned, eager to destroy anything different. Then, through the fire, she saw one
face that stood out. The face of the person who had sworn he wouldn't let
anything happen to her, had sworn to rescue her, had sworn they'd always be
together.
"Help me, Jared!" she screamed, the last of her life being consumed now by the
flames.
Jared seemed not to have heard as he turned away. He walked away, leaving her to
die. It felt as though her heart was being ripped out. If she'd had the
strength, she would have sobbed with grief. She stopped struggling to live, and
finally her body shut down completely, consumed in fire._
Mia screamed in pain as she returned to consciousness. She had remembered the
burning as if it were happening at that very moment. Mia took a deep breath and
sat up, trembling. She felt hands trying to push her back down, but Mia refused
to lay down again. Her vision cleared, and she realized that Ryo, Rowen, and
Sage were all looking at her. Kento was sitting on the floor a few feet away,
looking as though he'd been thrown over there. Mia decided it was probably
better not to ask.
Cye appeared from the kitchen, still wearing his apron that Mia got him as a
birthday present three years ago. It was white, and "Real Men Wear Aprons" was
written in black. The guys had teased him sometimes before that, especially
about the time when Cye used his mother's somewhat frilly apron while his was in
the wash. Of course, he ended up getting more female attention than the others,
since he had been known around the college campus as the only straight guy who
could cook. He had been taking classes with every intention of running a
restaurant, and now he owned the best place for any non-seafood dish in Japan.
"What's wrong? Was that Mia screaming?" Cye demanded as he entered the room.
"No, that was Kento screaming. Of course it was Mia! How's it coming with dinner
and those spells?" Mia noticed that Ryo's fuse seemed shorter than usual.
"We couldn't find anything that would help while Mia was still unconscious, but
I did find something that we should be able to do now that she's awake. So how
are you feeling?"
"I'm fine, Cye. Just exhausted and shaken up from a memory I hadn't come across
yet. Don't worry about doing any spells, I just need to eat. Which means Kento's
not going to get as much to eat for lunch today."
"Why?"
"Going to and fighting in battle-form uses a lot of a magic user's energy. After
such a battle, the magic user needs to eat more to regain all lost energy.
Basically, I'll be eating like a pregnant female version of Kento."
"Oh." Cye went pale, then went back into the kitchen to make more for lunch.
After a while, the guys decided to start asking questions.
"What was your memory about?" Sage asked. Mia sighed and took a deep breath
before answering.
"I remembered when I died. Everything about being burned, even wondering why
Jared wasn't helping me. It was awful, and only reinforced my anger toward
Jared." Mia's hand balled into a fist, and Sage was afraid he was next to get
tossed across the room. After a moment, though, Mia's hand relaxed and her
shoulders sagged. Kento finally stood and rejoined them, shocked to see tears
streaming down the young woman's face. Only Ryo had ever seen her cry, and that
was only when her grandfather had died early in the first Dynasty War. Mia had
always seemed so strong inside, stronger emotionally than anyone else any of
them had known.
Now Mia was crying because she'd remembered when she died. Kento knew most
people would probably be much worse off than Mia.
"Lunch is ready!" Cye announced. Everyone filed into the dining room, and lunch
was eaten in silence. Afterwards Mia went to bed, and no one followed, knowing
that to do so would almost certainly be suicide.
* * * * * * *
When she reached her room, Mia closed her door and began to pull things out of
her walk-in closet. Finding what she was looking for, Mia opened an old photo
album. The first page had pictures from her parents' wedding, when her mother
had worn a traditional kimono and her father had worn a western-style tuxedo. At
the reception they'd changed so that her father was dressed in the traditional
style while her mother wore a beautiful white dress.
Moving the photo album, Mia unfolded her mother's wedding kimono. It was
beautiful, and Mia and her mother had always agreed that Mia would wear it at
her own wedding. Then Mia's parents both grew mysteriously ill, and died before
her eleventh birthday.
Mia carefully folded the kimono and replaced it in the box, then continued to
look through the old photos. They ranged from wedding photos to baby pictures to
pictures taken just before her parents got sick. The memories hurt so badly . .
.
Furious with herself for deliberately summoning so many painful memories, Mia
threw the photo album across the room, where it hit the wall. Burying her face
in an old, worn stuffed tiger, Mia lay down and began to sob.
* * * * * * *
Downstairs, the sound of the flying photo album shocked the guys. They looked at
each other, then silently came to a decision. Ryo suddenly found everyone
looking at him.
"Oh, all right," he said, and went upstairs to Mia's room. He knocked on the
door, opening it when there was no answer. "Mia? You okay in here?"
Ryo was shocked to find Mia curled up in a fetal position on the floor, sobbing
into a stuffed animal. "Mia?" Still no answer. Quietly, he sat down behind Mia
and put a hand on her arm. She didn't respond, and Ryo pulled her into a hug,
rocking Mia like a small child. When the sobs finally died down, Mia seemed to
notice Ryo for the first time.
"What are you doing in here, Ryo?" she asked, pushing away slightly.
"We heard a thump in here, so I came up to investigate. I found you crying on
the floor. You wanna talk about it?"
"I just . . . well, I dug up some memories from years ago that turned out to be
too painful."
"Oh. So, care to introduce me to your friend?" Ryo asked, indicating the stuffed
white tiger.
"This is Byakuen. Dad got him for me when I was a baby, to keep the monsters
away. He was my very best friend, just like a real pet, but without all the
maintenance." Ryo and Mia continued to talk for a while, until Mia had
completely calmed down. Then they went downstairs, where everyone was busy
again. Kento and Yuli were playing a video game, Rowen was playing chess against
himself (Mia was the only one with the guts to play him), Sage was meditating,
and Cye seemed to be reading one of Mia's spell books.
"Having fun, guys?" Mia asked. Chess pieces and one _very_ old spell book went
flying. Mia caught her book easily, and had to laugh at her jumpy friends.
"We didn't hear you come down, Mia!" Cye said, embarrassed. Rowen was picking up
his scattered chess pieces, so Mia handed her spell book back to Cye and went to
help him.
"You need to lighten up. I'm the one Jared's after, got it? I won't let him get
you guys, so stop being so jumpy. We're safe in here, anyway. C'mon, Ro, I'll
play you in a friendly game of chess." Rowen smiled when she said that.
"Friendly? _You_ play chess to kill, Mia. Even when I was a kid I never lost so
many pieces in one game!"
"So I'll go easy on you." They finished setting up the pieces and began to play,
while everyone else went back to whatever they were doing. The rest of the
afternoon went smoothly, and the predicament with Jared was put on the back
burner.
* * * * * * *
In the Netherrealm, Mia and Jared's battle had not gone unnoticed. When Mia
tapped into the universal magic, the rings on the Ancient's Staff went nuts.
"Kayura, will you shut that thing up?" Kale demanded. "That noise drives me
crazy!" The former Warlord of Darkness and Corruption was covering his ears with
his hands.
"That doesn't sound too hard, Kale, but I have no idea why it's acting this
way." Sekhmet suddenly appeared, looking confused.
"You won't believe what I just saw," the ex-Warlord of Venom said when he
realized where he was. "I was out in the woods near Mia's house when I got this
sense of . . . I don't know, _wrongness_. It was coming from the area of the
house, so I went to investigate. When I got there, I saw Rowen battling an
odd-looking demon. Then a man standing on the roof of the house threw what
appeared to be a ball of energy at Rowen, but it was blocked by a similar ball
thrown by _Mia_. It seemed she could handle the man by herself-that's what it
felt like, at least-so I left to tell you."
Kayura considered this information, then opened a window to the mortal realm.
They watched the entire battle, as did Dais, who walked in halfway through.
After Jared left, Kayura reached a decision. Turning to the three men. "It seems
we'll be visiting the Ronins and Mia, boys."
* * * * * * *
Mia was fixing dinner when she felt a tugging in the back of her mind that
signaled Kayura needed to talk to her. Mia muttered a quick spell to keep
everything going, then pulled the message orb from her front left pocket, where
she always kept it. A translucent image of Kayura appeared, shaking a bit, in
the kitchen.
"Hi, Kayura. You look tired. Guys giving you trouble again?"
"No, not really, Mia. Tickles swallowed the message orb again," the blue-haired
priestess replied. Tickles was one of Sekhmet's king cobras, a newer addition to
his collection of poisonous pets who seemed to enjoy the message orb's flavor.
"The reason I was calling was to see if we can come over in a bit. We saw that
battle you were in earlier, and I want to talk to you about it."
"Of course you can come over. I'm fixing dinner right now, I won't mind cooking
for a few more."
"Great! We'll be there soon, Mia," Kayura said, and broke the link. Mia went
back to cooking, magically altering the recipes to feed four more people.
Suddenly there was a thump in the dining room, followed by an angry yelp. Mia
smiled. It was Rowen's night to keep Kento out of the kitchen, and he always
found a clever way to do it. Mia sensed a lot of magical potential in him, as
with Cye. She got back to cooking, singing along with the radio as dinner was
prepared. She hoped that tonight wouldn't be too interesting.
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