Chapter 90: Total Chaos
Six years ago.
"Don't forget your sworn duties, Kristen Harred!" The harsh voice grated on Seiren's ears. She hovered outside her bedroom door, unsure if she should investigate the ruckus downstairs. But the strange man's voice knew her mother's name, so it should be well, surely? She glanced down the corridor. At the top of the stairs, her parents' bedroom door was ajar. A small makeshift bed lay at the end of the double one, all empty. Madeleine was down there, too.
Seiren plucked up the courage to join the rest of her family there, and then froze when she heard her father's voice.
"This is madness, Kristen! You can't decide the fate of the entire country between you!"
"What does a layman like you understand about magic and politics," sneered the stranger. Seiren didn't like the tone he used with her father. She wished he would go away. "Come on, Kristen. The time has come. You said you would back me up. We need to go."
"Kristen, don't do this!"
There was a scuffle. Mother yelled. There was a hiss, followed by a yelp.
And shortly after that, a scream Seiren knew well.
And then it all fell silent.
It must only have been a few seconds when Seiren stayed rooted to the spot, then she wrenched her feet off the ground and shot downstairs, one hand barely clutching the banister on her right. Before she hit the bottom, the scene unfolded before her.
A dark-skinned man with pale eyes, almost like the Hannans she'd read about and occasionally seen in newspapers, clutched her mother's arm by the bicep near the door. The scent of something acidic hovered in the air. Her mother stared just to Seiren's right. She followed her line of gaze, her eyes falling on the collapsed two by the table that lay up-ended on the floorboards, loose bits and pieces everywhere.
"Daddy! Maddy! Wake up!" Seiren sprinted over and shook her father, but his eyes were glassy, one arm tucked awkwardly behind him, his glasses askew. His head lolled like a limp doll's. A weak, gasping noise made her turn to her sister. Madeleine's hair covered her face, but a few strands bobbed with her shallow easing breath. Seiren scrabbled over and pushed the hair off her sister's face. She'd cut her forehead and a trickle of blood pooled beside her, soaking into a necklace that'd flown off the table and landed on the floor. Her eyes were half-open, her cheeks pale, and her breathing rattling. "Maddy, oh runes, Maddy, please..."
Seiren's mind was numb, blank. Flashes of nonsensical images flew through her mind's eye. Her heart slammed repeatedly against her chest. Her body went hot and cold. With shaking hands, she dipped her finger in Madeleine's blood.
"It's okay, Maddy, I g-g-got you..."
There was only one image fixed in Seiren's mind. The last book they'd pored over together when Mother was still out on king's mage's duties. Her most current research in a secret tome tucked behind the bookcase farthest in the study. Soul-tether, it was labelled.
She'd never used magic before, but that thought didn't occur to her then. She sketched it perfectly using the only medium she had. She pressed her hand to Maddy's chest, the movements of which were getting weaker by the second. She would be leaving soon, if Seiren didn't do anything.
But nothing happened.
There was a flurry of movement behind her. She didn't get to catch it before what felt like a wall of air slammed into her face, knocking her onto her back. She crashed onto the ground with a gasp.
The distorted shout of her mother reached her ears. Seiren's mind was so numb she could barely think. Mother yelled and gestured at the mage, who threw his arms out in response. Mother snapped her fingers. The ground trembled and the wall around them collapsed, exposing the endless wallow of a night sky.
"Don't leave any evidence." The stranger's voice was a rumble in the background roar from whatever it was that hit Seiren.
"You know me better than to risk that," said Mother, picking her way over and paused over Seiren's desperate sketch in blood. She let out a soft sigh. "Oh, honey."
She crouched in front of Seiren and touched her cheek. Her fingers were frozen.
"Please, she's all I have... please," Seiren whispered, icy tears falling down her cheeks. The world made no sense. Her skin tingled, numb, and each thought was sluggish and distant.
"I know," Mother mouthed, a stricken look on her face. She touched the blood rune. An unnatural swirl of magic picked up alongside the blood. The amulet beside her glowed the same colour. The last of the strength drained from Seiren, leaving her shattered and unable to even lift a muscle. Through heavy-lidded eyes, she could only watch as her mother drew a fresh rune and pressed it to Seiren's chest, the indigo light blinding. "I only hope your mind can give you some better memories."
Everything went black.
****
When Seiren came to, she met the concerned face of Felora, who mopped her temples with a shaking arm. Peron stood as lookout close by, his gun drawn. They sat in a small alcove in the dark tunnels. The area was quiet, save for heavy breathing from them.
"What happened?" Seiren rubbed her forehead. She was drenched in sweat.
"Kommora used you as a shield to get Jarsdel..." Felora was in disbelief. She patted Seiren's shoulders down. "I couldn't believe it."
Seiren shook her head. "That's the plan. No sentimentality. We need to save the country."
"But you're still just a child..." Felora bit her lip, her face pale. "This is the adults' war. You shouldn't be involved."
"Yeah, too bad my mother's the one who started it all."
"She... started it?" Felora's voice became hushed. Even the stoic Peron stiffened.
"I remembered everything." Seiren sniffed, sitting up straight, her hands clenched into fists. "Zor Jarsdel came to my house six years ago. He... I don't know what it was about. But he was talking about Mother's 'sworn duties', and my dad... he said something like 'you can't decide the fate of the entire country'. Then Jarsdel killed him. And Madeleine. I think he wanted to kill me, too, but didn't. I..."
She held a trembling hand to her lips.
"I tried to bring back Madeleine, but I couldn't. The rune didn't work. Mother activated it for me. She was the one who tied Madeleine to the necklace..."
"Mage Haigh."
Kommora appeared, breathless, her usually-neat tied-back greying brown hair in a bird's nest around her head. She held a light rune in her left hand. The long sleeve from her mage's uniform on the right side, along with about a third of the cloak material that had previously covered it, were eaten away. Her right forearm was an angry mix of dark and light pink and she winced when the cloak swept over it.
"I can heal this," Seiren said at once, jumping to her feet. To her surprise, Kommora held her at bay with the light rune. "Kommora?"
"If it's chaos magic you're about to use, I wouldn't. Not for this."
"But it heals you as good as new! There's life and death happening out there--"
"Chaos magic saps at your magic reserve. Permanently."
Seiren's jaw snapped shut, shocked.
"What?"
"Loren Rummage had a remarkable reserve so she didn't realise, but I felt it when she was in the hospital. The amount she'd spent on the children in Bicknor after it came into use is not recoverable. She never used it to the extent of realising its toll yet, but that magic is too good to be true. I'd save it for true life and death situations. Or we'll truly be screwed when we see Kristen Harred."
Seiren paused, biting her lip.
"I'll just use a green rune," said Kommora. "It'll be slower, but it's better than nothing."
"How could Loren not know its price? She pioneered it."
"Loren Rummage didn't pioneer chaos magic."
She stared at Kommora, who grimaced as she awkwardly slapped a pre-prepared green rune on her injury. She hissed, the green light bathing her injury, and sighed.
"Chaos magic was developed by Cronin Sallows, the previous king's mage before Karis Bonneville took his place. It was as a countermeasure when we had suspicions Kristen Harred started meddling with the old magics. Sallows developed it from the same old texts she'd been researching. It's actually celestial magic... the original Karma magic. Your mother's attempts to recreate it with flash and rune became organic magic -- just a mimicry of the real thing. Nowhere near as flexible or powerful, but still trumps that of burst, rune, or flash."
"How did Sallows come to have this?"
"Teirrin." Kommora sighed. "The country of Teirrin used to be a part of Karma. The first people who tried to recreate celestial magic sacrificed the country of Teirrin for it... They succeeded. That was how the wastelands came to be. Sallows managed to find the descendants of those people, who manage to survive the wastelands thanks to that magic, and further developed it from their documents."
"And Loren?"
"Edden Rummage was part of a team sent by Harred to retrieve that research under the guise of investigating Sallows' treason, but Edgard Woodbead caught onto what she was up to." Kommora hissed again as the green rune began to heal her, and shut her eyes. "I knew the family well and I trust Edgard Woodbead. We convinced Rummage to seal it away."
"Into Loren." Seiren's mouth was bone dry. She swallowed, reeling from the information before her.
"She manifested the healing in exchange for her own magic reserve, but that wasn't the full extent of celestial magic; at least, not as far as Sallows had developed. I persuaded her to name it 'chaos' to draw the king's mages' attention away from what it truly is, not that she suspected anything. I reckon the reserve compromise put her at a severe disadvantage when the king's mages attacked her. She was almost dry when I saw her."
"No... that would be because--" Because she gave me everything she had left.
"I'm aware of what she's done with that celestial magic -- the chaos magic." Kommora's eyes bore holes into Seiren. "And I'd be careful about how you spend your reserves. Especially if you want any future involving magic."
Seiren swallowed and nodded.
"And I apologise for using you to block that attack earlier." Kommora seemed quite brusque in her apology. "I had to ready my runes and for some reason, he wasn't keen to attack you. You were my best bet."
"We have a greater mission." Seiren hesitated, and then told Kommora about what Jarsdel's attack triggered: her memories of the events six years ago. Kommora's facial expression did not change. Her eyes remained severe as ever and her lips almost disappeared.
"Now you know what we're against." Kommora opened her mouth but snapped it shut, holding her hand up. Her wounded arm now at least settling, she fished out a glowing violet rune, which pulsed. Seiren frowned. Its configuration reminded her of a tracker but it was altered. Kommora turned over her shoulder.
There was a sizzle and then the nearest brick wall exploded, sending chunks raining all over the four of them. Peron shielded Kommora and Felora shielded Seiren with their bodies.
"He's not dead?" Seiren said, whipping out runes.
"Apparently not," Kommora said with gritted teeth. "I'm sorry to ask you this, Nithercott, but it seems I'm going to need your help. On a better day I'm sure I can take on two of him, but not right now."
"Of course." Seiren's heart thumped. There were greater issues at stake right now.
"After the next attack, we're going in. Felora, Peron -- you two cover us. If you can get a good shot at him, do it as soon as you can. And be on the lookout for anyone else joining the party."
The two soldiers nodded, readying their guns.
Kommora sketched a red rune with a curved outlet. Seiren had never seen such a design before. The crossover areas were focused near the outlet, meaning the starting energy would be low but increase as it moved. Kommora activated it. The energy shot out of the rune and curved round the corner, the whistling increasing in volume before striking something. On cue, there was a hiss. Thick water vapour poured round the corner and shot outwards. Kommora and Seiren ducked behind the archway. Seiren recognised the steam flash magic.
"Come out and play, Kommora Haigh," called out Domic Butterworth.
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