Thirteenth Sacrifice

Massimo awoke in absolute darkness, unable to move.

But he could hear voices speaking in the darkness.

"No mistake was made with the twelveth. Even if things didn't run as smoothly as we would like, at the end, things ended just as we wanted them to. If anything, the only thing we can do to assure that the summoned one doesn't threaten us is to harm the anchor before the ritual."

"Did you do that?"

"Yes, I cut the tendons in his knees."

Was this true? Massimo was horrified. He tried to move his legs, but he couldn't. The problem was that he couldn't move any part of his body, so he really was in the dark about his physical state.

"The anchor is awake."

Announced one of the voices. Massimo felt he was about to cry, but the tears couldn't fall from his eyes, which was irritating them.

A man with a dagger stabbed Massimo in the stomach, and a second one took a sample of his blood.

"His mana is lower compared to the other lambs but is enough to whistand the process regardless; he also has enough compatibility with one of the two. Proceed with the ritual."

"Con questa saga spezzo il corpo e la mente per raggiungere l'anima."

The person with the dagger stabbed Massimo straight in the belly button.

"Madre Natura e Padre Tempo creano leggi inviolabili." 

But Massimo wasn't thinking about that; he was trying to remember when did all went wrong. He knew that he went with that detective, but after that, his head was all messy and couldn't think straight.

"L'anima è selvaggia e incontrollabile."

Outside of the residence, there was the most beautiful car he had ever seen, and the detective asked him to get inside. He hesitated, but the detective said that he was undercover and no one would expect this car to belong to a member of the police. Massimo thought he was making sense and agreed to get in the car.

"Oh, anima di ieri, accetta l'anima di oggi e squarcia il velo dell'ignoto."

Then the detective offered him coffee to make him relax before they went to the station. After drinking, he felt confused and dizzy.

"Anime simili cercano anime simili."

The man who kidnapped Cosima was probably the same who kidnapped him.

"Oh, tu che sei come l'aria, accetta quest'ancora e salta le leggi del padre tempo!"

"Rituale di creazione della vita eterna, tredicesimo sacrificio del nuovo mago e del vecchio mago."

He felt as if he was torn out from the inside; suddenly, he became unable to breathe, as if someone heavy was sitting on his chest, stopping his lungs from working properly.

Symptoms of asphyxia started to appear, and his whole life slowly passed like a movie in his mind. He was going to die.

The pain simply stopped.

"What is your name, manasi."

A man was sitting on top of Massimo. Where did he come from? He couldn't tell.

His skin was as dark as the wood of a nogal, his hair white and unruly as a cloud, his body looked so strong that he might stop a bullet with his hands, and his eyes were blue and looked wild and uncontrollable, like the sea. If Massimo had to guess, this man was thirty-something years of age.

One of the voices said, Massimo couldn't tell if it was one of the ones talking before or not.

"Masarabi Ihmanar."

Was Massimo going to survive? Apparently, the focus of attention was the man who manifested from thin air.

"What do you search?"

"Eternal life."

"What would you do to achieve it?"

"I would commit every sin."

"Then do so, manasi; your efforts will be compensated. Leave now, or do you have queries?"

"Wait. I have a question."

"Speak manasi."

"What happens if I kill my anchor?"

Massimo's heart skipped a beat. 

"Right now, it would send you back to the circle."

"And after?"

"When the summonings are complete, nothing will happen."

The man stood in silence, thinking about his next move.

"I demand clothes."

He ordered, his voice compelling the ones who heard it to obey immediately.

"I demand to know what will happen after the summonings are completed."

"The conflict will begin. Every couple of manasi will fight until just one remains; that one will then be rewarded."

"What will happen if only I come out alive?"

"Only you would be rewarded."

"I have no use for the anchor then. Kill him if you want."

Clothes were given to Masarabi, and then he left, leaving Massimo behind, the wounds made by the dagger aching so profusely he couldn't think.

Twenty minutes had passed before someone approached him.

"Massimo Zanini."

A voice called, and this one he was able to recognize; it was Domenico's. Massimo tried to say something, but his mouth simply didn't move.

"I have something I want you to do."

Domenico took out a letter and put it on Massimo's right hand.

"You are going to give this letter to Cosima; she should be at the residence. What happens to you afterwards it's your responsibility and only yours, do you understand?"

Massimo looked at him, unable to do something.

"I'm going to make you drink something that will make you sleep. When you awake, your body will be partially healed, and you will be near the student residence. Consider yourself lucky; the manasi didn't want you, and I'm doing this as a favor, but don't get me wrong; from the bottom of my heart, I do not care if you live or die."

Domenico took out a bottle with a violet liquid inside and forced Massimo to drink it. He quickly fell asleep afterwards.

He awoke in the middle of the night in a park. He could hear the sound of a river nearby and some cars far away. Soon, he discovered he was on a bench. He didn't know how much he had slept today, but he felt more tired than ever in his life.

Massimo moved slowly; his body hurt everywhere, especially in the knees.

With difficulty, he was able to stand up. He noticed that they had returned his clothes and had the letter in his pocket.

Next to the letter, he found his keys and his phone. He had an idea of where he was, but with this, he would be able to confirm it.

He was between the Parco delle Cascine and the Arno River. It would take him an hour and a half to walk to the residence in his normal state; right now, it was impossible, so he decided to call a taxi.

While he waited, he started to reflect on what happened yesterday and today.

First he got a roommate, then she got kidnapped, and after that he got kidnapped too, drugged, stabbed, used on some kind of cultist thing, spared, and now was going to reunite with said roommate.

"What a day! What even happened? I didn't even understand what they were talking about. What drug did they even give me? My head is still spinning!"

Not like Massimo knew anything about drugs; he hadn't even drank alcohol.

The taxi driver arrived, and Massimo felt an excruciating pain on both his knees when he tried to stand up.

In a second, he decided not to go to the residence yet.

"While I was waiting for you, I accidentally hit my knee with the beach, and I think I dislocated it, so can you take me to the hospital, please?"

The taxi driver looked at him from the window, holding back laughter. He didn't think Massimo was lying. And who could blame it, after hearing something so ridiculous no one would think its a lie.

Massimo himself didn't know why he just lied; he could simply have said, take me to the hospital, but he felt he needed to lie, like some type of primal instinct made him search for an excuse and not reveal anything that could give a clue about what happened.

"How hard did you hit yourself?"

"I lost balance and hit it with all my weight right in the corner."

"That must hurt like hell, man!"

Soon after, Massimo was seeking treatment at the hospital. After telling a completely different lie and omitting the part where he was drugged, he discovered the tendons in his knees were in a bad state. But the voices said that they had been cut, so maybe Domenico wasn't lying when he said that the thing he drank would heal him. Also, there was no trace of the other wounds caused by the dagger on his body.

But how? What type of medicine could repair a muscle lesion in less than a day? Whatever it was, it must have been magical!

"You have tendinitis in both knees. I have seen cases like this lots of times; don't worry, we are experienced."

A doctor said after a while, giving him an analgesic and telling him to hold ice for twenty minutes over his knee. He had a dark blonde hair and his uniform was stained and dirty on the bottom. He probably had worked without rest.

What the hell was happening!? How could he have had tendinitis when his tendons were cut!?

Some hours later, another doctor told him the tendinitis was not as bad as they thought and he could go home if he restrained himself from doing sports or highly demanding activities. But Massimo knew the truth. The first diagnosis wasn't erroneous; while he waited, his knees had healed to the point where it was a minor injury.

Massimo left after half an hour had passed. There weren't many people in the hospital, so he was able to be treated quickly.

Walking around the hospital's entrance, he was stopped from behind by a man.

"I was visiting my nephew and I heard about your lesion, aren't you too young to have tendinitis? Are you an athlete?"

Massimo was taken aback by the question; he didn't expect to be approached. When he turned around to look at his interrogator, he was impressed. The man was almost two meters tall, and his skin had a yellowish tone that made him look sickly, probably jaundice.

"Oh? Me?"

"Yes! Those knee problems are dangerous, you know, but you seem to be healing fast. The benefits of youth, am I right?"

"Ah, of course! I'm a swimmer, but I usually don't warm up before practicing, and these things happen.

"Should be more careful then."

"What does your nephew has? I hope he gets better!"

"Nothing to worry about, he is about your age but not as strong, ha ha ha, he likes ghost stories and magic so I went to tell him some stories. Are you interested in magic too?"

"Oh not really, I only know what is in the movies."

"You know, I bet you two could get along, maybe you could run into each other once he gets better!"

"I would like it."

With nothing more to say, Massimo said goodbye and left in another taxi, this time going to the residence, unable to wrap his head around what was happening to him. The whole encounter with the man made him uncomfortable. There was something about him that made chills run down his spine.

Saying goodbye to the taxist, Massimo walked the distance between the entrance of the residence and his house. Seeing the lights on inside, he knew that Cosima was there.

He stood in front of his door and took the keys. Who knows what they could have done with his keys? He should ask Adrianna to change the locks.

"Finally, now I'm going to see Cosima."

He opened the door and saw two women instead of one. The three of them just stood there for a moment, but they felt as if time had just stopped.

"Massimo?" 

Asked one of them after a moment, it was a woman his same age that looked like a candle.

"Cosima?"

He responded with a question, thinking about how he had never seen before how someone could look like a candle.

Cosima went pale and started blushing, as the guy that came from the door was beyond words. If she had to describe him, she would say that he looked like the sculpture of El David from Miguel Angel in color and was brought to life. His skin was smooth and tanned, his eyes green as emeralds, and his hair was a hue between jade and black. But what Cosima thought was the most attractive part was how healthy and strong he looked.

"Gabbia di dodici fiamme!"

Twelve points in the space surrounding Massimo suddenly ignited on fire. He couldn't react to what was happening before a flaming line connected the points, effectively locking him inside a cube.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING ELOISA!?"

The candle girl exclaimed immediately. The other made a gesture as if she were brushing away a fly.

"Prevention."

The second one now spoke to Massimo.

"What type of manasi are you?"

But Massimo didn't answer. He remained completely immobilized, ignoring the pain on his knees, his eyes wide open.

"You can speak; if you answer thruthfully you shall receive no burn."

She insisted while pointing him with his index.

This made Massimo react and put an expression between scared and confused. Before, he was paralyzed by fear, now he was shaking.

"W-what the hell is happening!!! What are you people!!!???"

"What?"

Now the women were the ones confused.

"You are Massimo, Cosima's roommate, right?"

Eloisa asked further; she was doubting herself, thinking that maybe she attacked a guy with casually the same name.

"Y-Yeah! What are you!? Where did this fire came from!? Why is all of this happening to me!?"

Cosima realized they weren't going anywhere, so she tried to relieve some tension by asking a question.

"By chance, do you know a man called Domenico Abato?"

"Y-YES! Please let me go!"

His fingers were shaking, but he tried to remain still. The woman who made him captive had such a presence that he gave himself the idea she would kill him for standing in a way she didn't like, but what did she like? He didn't knew and that scares him the most. However, he didn't felt she was worse than Masarabi; had he not been paralyzed back then, he was sure he would have pissed himself.

"Wait."

Eloisa looked at Cosima with the intention of sharing a thought she had just had.

"Cosima, I believe this man is a manasi, but he doesn't know it."