Mia
Of the many ways someone could have answered her hypothetical question, Kevin’s response was one she could never have imagined. She glanced around the room to capture the looks of shock and disbelief that came so naturally to the group she had been swept up in. But Sara and the male redhead had been conspicuous among the group in that they looked completely unsurprised. In fact, it was the priestess who spoke next.
“That’s what I thought,” she mumbled. That was it. She didn’t seem to have much will to continue this conversation. That was frustrating enough as Mia had come to count on Sara to make sense of all of this religious crap.
Kevin raised his eyebrows in surprise. “You knew?”
But Clint was the one to respond to him. “Come to think of it, you could have hidden it better. Kevin, the champion of Kerun? Besides, I heard you were using some of Kerun’s power. None of the other gods gave us powers!”
Mia scoffed and shook her head. “Speak for yourself! I wasn’t born shooting lightning from my hands!”
“Some people are,” Seth said with a shrug. “Instinctive magic like that is hereditary. One of your parents was probably a storm mage.”
“What about you?” Mia snapped at the spellwarrior, choosing to ignore his comment. “I’ve spent long enough impersonating Hem Academy students to know that black… whatever you did in the RGT final isn’t on the curriculum.”
“I learned that from a priest,” Seth replied. “It was Chaos’ idea, but if the theory can be taught by a temple Patriarch, it’s not exactly exclusive to the gods, is it?”
Mia sighed and shook her head. “So, we have our god right here. We just have to kill him and this weapon is finished, right?”
Kevin/Kerun nodded and smiled. “I know it seems like a paradox to kill the God of Life, but there’s no other way to infuse the Storm of Mercy with my power.”
Mia looked around at her companions, especially the other three champions to gauge how they were handling this. Sara looked aghast, probably because doing anything violent to a god was beyond her values. Clint and Seth were harder to read.
“Guys! What is there to think about?” Mia snapped impatiently. “If this boy needs to die for us to be done with all of this and he’s volunteering, I don’t see the problem!”
“The problem is that ‘this boy’ has saved my life twice!” Sara replied in an unusually impatient tone. “What we are to do to him in return is unjust!”
“Not to mention the very obvious question that I have,” Clint added quietly. “Why--”
“Why don’t you just take her out yourself if what we needed was your power?” Seth interjected.
Kerun sat back down and sighed. “To be honest, I don’t get it myself. What my sister is doing is very much the rest of my family’s problem and the last time she came to this mortal plane, our father was the one who dragged her home. This time, however, he seems dead set against her falling to mortals. He hopes that it will humble her.”
Seth rolled his eyes and said, “That sounds about right, actually. Chaos loves for shit to be as hard as possible on us.”
“My father only treats mortals in the way he does to make them strong,” Kerun said. He seemed prepared to add to that statement, but the spellwarrior nodded understandingly.
“Yeah, I know,” he said impatiently. “If that’s how it has to be, so be it. So, is there a ritual, or…?”
Kerun shook his head. “No, you need only strike the chest of this mortal vessel. I created it myself, so you won’t be ending a real life. I just have one condition.”
He turned to Mia and said, “I want her to do it.”
This shocked Mia to the core. After such a short time with these champions, she never imagined she would be entrusted with something that was apparently so important. “Why me?”
“It would be a symbolic gesture,” the deity replied. “You are the only one here who has been fully immersed in my sister’s nature. To take a life is a terrible burden that no one here understands better than you.”
Mia looked at each of the others in disbelief. “Wait, am I really the only person here who’s killed anyone?”
“Not if you count what happened to Ricardo,” Seth said bitterly. “But that was by accident. While I was unconscious.”
“That’s not on you, mate,” Clint said with a wry smile to his friend before looking toward Mia. “But honestly, the fact that you had to ask makes Kerun’s point for him.”
Mia rolled her eyes and said, “Fine. It looks like neither of you have it in you anyway.”
Clint handed her the massive golden halberd, which she quickly found was about as heavy as you would expect the product of four different weapons to be. She strained somewhat under the weapon’s weight and began to glare at everyone in her line of sight.
“This is going to take some setting up,” Clint said thoughtfully as he took the halberd back. “Come on.”
So Clint led everyone back to his room. There, he arranged Kerun at the foot of the bed, laying down so gravity could do most of the work for her. With everyone watching, Mia climbed onto the bed and stood over the god. As she looked down at him, she began to wonder what the gods really were, to submit to something like this. Kerun looked up at her with a nervous expression. Could it be that he was afraid of feeling what it felt like to die, or was he willing her not to chicken out? Well, if it’s the latter, he doesn’t know me that well.
Mia lifted the halberd with all her might, aimed the blade carefully for his chest, and dropped it into him. For the first time in years, she felt unnerved as she watched the boy gasp, his eyes glazing over. It was one thing to watch someone die--she’d caused this to happen on more than one occasion--but quite another to see someone go without a hint of fear or regret. What was happening was according to the plan. This wasn’t exactly the dying message she was used to seeing. What startled her more was that he still found it in him to speak one last time.
“That you haven’t gotten more help from us was an oversight that I will fix when I get home.”
Mia released the halberd, letting it fall into Seth’s hands. That seemed to be all there was to it. No great flash of light, or otherworldly sounds. She had killed yet again and now it remained to be seen what they had to show for it. She found her answer in the expression the spellwarrior gave as soon as the shaft of the Storm of Mercy touched his hands.
“Holy shit!” He exclaimed as he removed the blade from the newly emptied shell of a boy. “This is going to work! I feel unstoppable!”
“Let me see!” Sam said as she barged toward her master to grab a length of the pole. “I don’t feel anything special here!”
“Clint! You try!” Seth said as he held the weapon out for Clint to grab.
This time, when he touched the metal, Clint declared, “Yep. It’s done!”
Sara and the others crowded around the finished artifact, taking turns touching it. Neither Maya nor Millie could feel anything different, but Sara was quick to concur with the other champions. This made the point of the power up clear, so that when Sara beckoned for Mia to touch it, she shook her head.
“There’s no point,” she mumbled as she jumped down from the bed. “I can take you on your word that it worked and I know I’m not strong enough to actually wield the damned thing.”
Clint released the weapon back to Seth with a sigh. “Thankfully one of us has the training to use this kind of weapon.”
“There’s nothing stopping us now,” Sara mumbled somberly with a glance at the body. “We have only to find Maula and use this weapon to defeat her.”
Seth held the weapon aloft with a grunt, at which point Mia noticed that he had slightly more difficulty than before with holding it. Great! It’s gotten even heavier! “I’m up to it! When do we leave?”
“We can go any time,” Clint said with a stoic expression. “Between the spellwarriors’ information and what’s been going on in the city, we have a good idea of where to find her.”
“Then let’s go!” Seth said impatiently. “I’m about ready to break this damned curse!”
Seth had nearly barreled his way out the door, but was held back by Maya, who pointed toward the other two champions. “They aren’t, though!”
Mia looked at Clint and Sara again to see that the witch was right. Sara looked like she was in mourning while Clint looked incredibly nervous. Seth was too riled up to see any of this as eager as he was to move forward. I guess I’m going to have to be the one to do this, Mia thought to herself with a sigh.
“Listen, guys. All the crap we’ve been through these past few days has us all on edge, but it’s almost over! One way or another, we’re going to end today either done with it all or dead, so stop worrying about it!”
The others all looked toward her for a long moment of tense silence. Then, Seth burst out into laughter.
“I think we’d better leave the pep talks to Sara from now on,” Clint said with a smirk.
“Oh, fuck you guys!” Mia snapped.
“It’s okay!” Sara said with a wide smile. “You are right, after all! I wouldn’t have worded it the way you did, but it definitely helped!”
“Well, I’m glad I slowed down for this!” Seth said as he came down from his mirth. “Since you’re feeling so helpful, you should take Clint and Sara and go scout the temple. I need to talk to the others.”
Clint nodded in agreement as he glanced at Seth’s girlfriend, then his apprentice, then the other spellwarrior. Mia and Sara followed without a word, but when they were clear of the room, Mia asked the question she had been left.
“What do you suppose he has to talk to them about that we can’t hear?”
“He’s getting rid of them,” Clint said simply.
“This was our journey from the very start,” Sara added as the walked down the stairs towards the lobby. “Now that we have the Storm of Mercy, we are about go somewhere no one else can follow.”
Mia rolled her eyes yet again. “Whatever you say. I wouldn’t have turned down another spellwarrior’s help.”
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, however, it was to find the inn in complete disarray. Dozens of people in familiar black leather suits and red face masks that resembled birds had barged into the inn, kicking over everything in sight as they settled in. This was a trick the Starlings had taught Mia to intimidate her targets. The more trouble you guarantee them in the future, the more seriously they’ll take you in the present was the lesson. But now that she encountered the Starlings once more, she instantly knew she was the prey this time. Fuck that!
Without waiting for any further cue, Mia whipped out her pistol and began firing into the crowd. One, two, three, of her former brethren fell like little towers of blocks. Suddenly, blocks were all she could think about. The joy that she once felt in another life came back to her while the Starlings began to fight back. Clint and Sara backed away up the stairs and pulled her along as they went. As she did so, she realized that she no longer felt the stairs. She was going up without moving her legs at all. Startled, she looked down and realized not only that her feet weren’t touching the floor, but that her body was enveloped in a bright blue glow.
“What’s happening?” Clint asked wildly as he tugged her back to the second floor.
“This is a thing storm mages have been known to do!” Sara tried to explain. “Her emotions are coming out in such force that it’s giving her a palpable aura and amplifying her magic!”
Is that so? Mia struggled out of the others’ grips and descended the steps once more, this time without touching them. She had been planning to see what this aura of hers did to her lightning, but no matter what she did, she couldn’t make the lightning appear. What am I doing wrong?
The Starlings all stood still as someone else walked into the room. First was Anthony Clark, the man who only barely escaped her wrath before, and Lady Dinorah, the woman who raised her. They swept into the demolished lobby with murder in their eyes. When those eyes found Mia, levitating in her ethereal light, the latter smiled sadly.
“I had hoped that your sabotage of our plan was a temporary mania on your part,” the governor said with a sigh. “But here, I see living proof that it is your destiny to be on the wrong side of history.”
“Why?” Mia snarled in disbelief. “Because I don’t think everyone has to be monsters like us?”
“Mia! Come back here!” Sara called desperately from above. “We’ll stand the best chance together!”
“That was one of your new friends, was it?” Dinorah asked casually.
“Sara Marle,” Clark said with a smirk. “I treated her for a fall just a few days ago. I can control her again if necessary.”
The abhorrent look on the Doctor prince’s face should have filled Mia with rage, but she somehow felt her thoughts drifting back to those blocks in a nursery. The last place she had felt happy. It was like Salica was keeping her centered by manipulating her emotions.
Instead, she asked. “Who let you out of the dungeon?”
“Do you really need to ask?” Clark said in a singsong voice. “The Starlings finished the work I paid them for by killing my sister and releasing me. Now, the capitol is in an uproar again and I’m nowhere to be found! How does it feel to know you’ve only delayed the inevitable?”
“It feels like I should have killed you when I had the chance!” Mia retorted as she thrust her hands out once more.
Once again, no lightning. Ah, fuck this! She aimed her gun and squeezed the trigger once more. Though she thought her aim was perfect, her bullet whizzed harmlessly past his ear. Clark chuckled once more as Dinorah looked on with distaste.
“What a shame!” The doctor called out cheerfully. “Your memory seems to be going! As a reminder, you can’t hit me!”
Mia threw the gun back up the stairs with an impatient grunt. “You really don’t want to test me right now, Clark. Why don’t you all turn the fuck around before you get fried?”
Dinorah shook her head calmly. “That would be a worthy threat to anyone who knows nothing of storm magic. For some reason, you’re not angry enough to make your lightning appear again!”
“Go to hell!” Mia shouted impatiently. It was all she could say knowing that Dinorah was right. She wanted, needed to be angry right now, but all she could think of was that damned nursery.
“Young lady, how many times must you be chastised before you learn to clean up your language?” Dinorah quipped with a smile.
“What do you want?” Mia said a little more calmly as she felt the fight draining from her.
“We want you, and everyone else who dares to oppose Maula, to receive their just rewards,” Clark replied. “Sure, Operation Lighthouse is going swimmingly, but you--”
Clark’s words were cut short by another gunshot which nailed him in the chest. Mia wheeled around to see Clint and Sara, the former holding her gun.
“I’ll be sure to keep this ugliness a secret from Alexis,” the man said sternly. “She deserves better to know that she has been worshiping a murderer like you!”
Clark slumped to the ground and stared at Clint in disbelief. But as he drifted off towards a much-deserved death, the Starlings began to stir once more.
“The client is dead!” Mia shouted desperately to her former brethren. “Is this fight really still worth it to you?”
“He wasn’t the client!” Dinorah retorted mirthfully. “He was yet another puppet of the gods! He will be rewarded by his mistress in the afterlife!”
The Starlings advanced toward the Champions with weapons raised. Several of them circled around Mia while the rest made their way up the stairs. But Mia found her focus drawn away yet again, this time to a new mental image. A memory. There was blood all over her precious blocks but she didn’t understand why. She could see her mother laying on the ground next to her. She might have been asleep, but the blood pooled around her told another story. With her whole body shaking in fear, she wandered through a house she hadn’t seen in forever until she found her father. He was also sleeping in a pool of his own blood. What’s going on? She shook the man desperately to get him to wake up, but her actions were fruitless. She heard footsteps. She willed herself to look up and saw…
“DINORAH!” Mia cried as an unnatural wind began to circle her.
The air quickly picked up speed until she found herself surrounded by a tornado. The Starlings who were caught in her wake began to struggle to keep their footing, but the air only began to move faster. Soon, everyone in the room was being carried along through the air, bumping and crashing into ever wall or fixture in their way; all except for Dinorah, who remained impossibly rooted to the spot. The reason why made itself apparent only when a flying table collided with her head. Something like this could have easily killed someone, but she only watched with an amused smirk.
“Well, I guess the secret is out,” Dinorah said as she walked calmly toward her stepdaughter. “Everything that has happened so far has all been for me.”
“Mia, get away!” Sara’s voice called out faintly, almost drowned out by the tornado. “That woman might be possessed b--”
“Not happening!” Dinorah shouted as she grabbed Mia’s leg.
With a devilish grin, she then yanked Mia downward by her ankle with a supernatural force, which was strong enough to knock the wind out of her when she collided with the floor. The tornado stopped as Mia struggled to look up to her enemy, but her vision was beginning to fade.
“Let’s continue this conversation in my home, shall we?” Were the last words Mia heard before losing consciousness.
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