kealie madera

This Chapter will be told from Kavella's Point of View.

 I immediately wake to the sound of a blaring alarm, and I do not know what is going on. Portia is next to me, and she bolts out of her resting place in a frenzy. She grabs her scythe, or should I say Merava's scythe, and she gets ready to leave.

 I want to stop her, now that she's distracted, but I can't do it. It will take me some time before I can free myself from these ropes. I am bound around the ankles, and also the arms. To make matters worse, my arms and legs are further linked together.

 There's a way I can free myself. It is an Animus technique that very few people are aware of, and even fewer are able to use. It allows the user to break through things like rope by producing extreme amounts of heat. If I prepare myself for the technique, it will allow me to weaken the ropes that are binding me and get out of this. As far as I know, it's the only Animus technique that can be performed while in a prone position. 

 Portia jumps out of the back of the wagon and I hear screaming. There are voices; the voices sound terribly like Sigmund and Kael. I wonder if they have come to rescue me. I'd be ecstatic if they did, and it makes me want to free myself even more. I need to help them. I doubt they'll last long against Portia and Teumi.

 There is a side effect of this technique. If I use it to burn through these ropes on my arms and legs, it will also burn my wrists and ankles. The burns will be incredibly painful and might scar me for the rest of my life, but I do not have any other options. Either I get out of here and save my friends, or I stay in here and die to my father.

 I release the Animus technique and I feel an extreme burning sensation all over my body. I quickly feel the ropes burn away and I stop using the technique.

 I can't help but to let out a scream of pain as I do this. The burns are unbearable. It feels like my hands and feet are on fire, and I am struggling to breathe. The intense pain has caused me to go a bit lightheaded.

 I have to fight through the pain. Even as my wrists are smoking from the intense, scorching fire, I grab up my staff and jump out of the carriage. Holding something in my hands and standing on my feet intensifies the pain, but there's nothing I can do about that other than go.

 I see Portia hasn't entered the fray yet. She's still getting herself ready. Her back is to me, and this is a perfect time to strike. Sigmund and Kael are both fighting with Teumi, and they are keeping him preoccupied. Their attacks are slow and sluggish, and I can see they are tired. I hope they can hold off Teumi until I finish the job with Portia.

 I strike at her, but she must have sensed the attack. She swings herself around and deflects my staff attack with her scythe. I had a feeling my attack wouldn't be successful, though, and I am already preparing an Animus technique. It is an Animus technique that works on humans as well as Spirits. It is called Electrode, and it releases a powerful shock that can hit a wide area.

 I jump back, because I do not want the technique to hit me, and then I use it. The lightning sparks above Portia, but as she raises the scythe it is dispelled. So Merava's scythe can block Animus techniques. While my attack wasn't successful, I learned something useful from it.

 She swings her scythe and I have no choice but to block it. I push into my staff with all of my energy, trying to overpower her. To my surprise, this short girl has a lot more strength than she puts off. She's not overwhelmed by my force, and she's holding her own against me.

 I throw a kick at her legs, a trick I learned from Natalia. If anyone can fight, its her. Portia isn't expecting a tricky maneuver like this, so it is a success. Her knees buckle and she loses her strength.

 I knock the scythe out of the way and strike her in the left shoulder with my staff. It makes a loud thud against her and sends her stumbling backward about four steps. I know the blow did quite a bit of damage, but it wasn't enough. I was aiming for her neck, to settle this quickly. I was not so lucky.

 Portia recovers and then starts to swing at my wildly with the scythe. She is leaving herself open to many attacks, but I do not feel comfortable taking any chances. If one thing goes wrong here, that scythe will tear me to pieces. I must live, no matter what. Now is not the time to die.

 She quickly becomes weary from the onslaught of attacks, and I notice they are gradually becoming more and more sluggish and slow. She's an amateur, and she's nowhere near as strong as she thinks she is. She takes one pathetically slow swing, and I use all of my power to knock the scythe right out of her hands.

 She's defenseless, and I go for the kill. I knock her on the side of the head with my staff, and she goes down. I didn't hit her hard enough though, damn it. She's still conscious. She shoots up to her knees, pulls out a knife, and then she jams it into my leg.

 Meanwhile, Sigmund and Kael are getting the upper hand on Teumi. Teumi is just as smart as Kael, it seems, so their strategy isn't working as well on him as it could. Teumi is also just as strong as Sigmund, so Sigmund's attacks aren't going through. Teumi is still getting tired, though, and he won't be able to keep up his defense much longer.

 When Portia stabs my leg, I fall to the ground. She reaches up to stab me again, but I strike her with my staff in the chest. I probably broke one of her ribs, because I feel some give halfway through the strike. She drops the knife and starts to limp away.

 "Damn, Teumi, we have to go!" Portia wails. She jumps in the front of the carriage. I'd stop her, but the pain in my hands and legs is too great, not to mention a bloody wound on my thigh. I simply can't run and chase her.

 The carriage starts to roll as Portia flees. Teumi sprints toward the carriage and jumps on the back as it is picking up speed. Kael and Sigmund futilely chase it, but the horses are running at full power. The carriage gets away, and it leaves the three of us. We have lost contact with our enemy.

 I am defeated, but Sigmund and Kael are still strong. They see the wound on my leg, and they immediately know it will be hard for me to get around. They also see the burns around my hands and ankles. They're probably wondering about that.

 I open my mouth to speak, but a surge of pain runs through my body and makes it hard to communicate anything.

 "Kavella!" Sigmund cries, and he leans down next to me. "What the hell did they do to you?" He's referring to the burns, I think.

 "I used an Animus technique to escape, and it burned me," I pant. "We should go. This is a military zone, isn't it? They're going to start patrolling soon, I heard Portia talking about it. They'll shoot us if they see us."

 "We can find a way around that," Kael says. "We just need to walk south for a little while, and then west. We'll end up at Whitewind. I'm sure Laela, Cabel, and Noah will head over in that direction once they recover enough from their wounds. We all agreed we'd meet back there if anything bad happened, didn't we?"

 "What if they're still waiting in the cave for us?" I ask.

 "They won't," Kael decides. "Laela knows that it is too dangerous to stay in that cave, and she needs to get Cabel and Noah some medical attention. She wouldn't have waited there all night. She'll be on her way to Whitewind right about now. We should go too."

 "I can walk," I insist. I don't want these two to do something stupid like help me walk. "I'm going to make it. The cut on my leg isn't too deep."

 We begin to work our way slowly to the south, and then when we think we are out of the military zone, we start walking west. We don't know exactly where Whitewind is, and none of us have ever been here before. We're led by nothing more than faith and Kael's intuition.

 Because of the injuries on my leg, it feels like we walk for an eternity, but after a while the trees thin out and I see the scorched village of Whitewind. I've never seen a more welcome sight. We head in, through the wreckage, toward the little part of town where the precious few survivors have holed themselves up. We go through everything quite quickly, and before long I find myself in a hospital bed next to Natalia. My injuries are not severe, but they do need to be treated. The doctor that is serving me seems genuine and nice, and I feel safe being with her.

 It would seem that Laela and the others haven't come here yet, so Sigmund and Kael take off to go find them. I am left with Natalia, who at the moment is sleeping. She seems to be in a coma due to a lack of Vitarine elixir.

 "Doc, that girl over there needs some Vitarine elixirs," I smile. "It's a medical emergency."

 "We do have some clinical Vitarine, funnily enough. Old stuff, but those things have a long shelf life." the doctor notes. "I discovered it going through the old hospital in town. There were precious few things we could salvage, but Vitarine tablets were one of them. I suppose I could mix them with some water and whip together a makeshift drink for your friend. You just keep your leg up, okay? I'll be right back."

 There are two other patients in beds, besides Natalia and I. The other doctors seem to have left, and there is only the female doctor still around. She has two attendants. One is washing something, and the other is talking to one of the men on the other side of the room.

 While the doctor is gone, Sigmund and Kael reappear. They come with Laela, Noah, and Cabel. It seems that Noah is doing fine, but Cabel is still being supported in between the two of them. I'm glad they're all safe - safe enough, anyway.

 The doctor comes in and starts to treat Cabel, and Noah utterly refuses the doctor's treatment. Laela knows an Animus technique that makes Noah fall asleep, though, and when he is out the doctor tends to his wounds. When I look around and see all of us in hospital beds, I realize we must look pretty pathetic. The whole lot of us, covered in cuts and bruises. There's one thing I can be happy about, though. We made it.

 Our mission was to kill Merava, and we were given two months to do it by Ms. Borden, the Spiritguard Instructor who put everything on the line with this mission. We did our job in less than a week. That says something, doesn't it? Hell, we did far beyond what our job required. We also took down a Spirit King, and a Spirit Lord named Andrakias. That's something to brag about.

 With Merava dead, all of my injuries are superficial. We have saved the world by preventing her from raising an army of Spirit Lords. If that Spirit King had been allowed to return to full power, it's possible the country would have fallen. At full strength, I doubt anyone would have been able to stand up to his ferocious power.

 I look over and I see Sigmund is standing next to me, looking down. It's a little bit unnerving, because I had no idea he was there. "Hi," I state dispassionately. I don't want to show appreciation or surprise.

 "Hey," he replies. "How are you?"

 I look around and laugh. "I just walked for hours on a bloody leg, how do you think I'm doing? Why are you caring about me, though? Everyone else is in pretty bad shape. Look at Natalia. Look at Noah, and Cabel. They're not doing anywhere near as well as I am right now. They're all unconscious right now."

 "Exactly," Sigmund grins. "They're unconscious. How am I supposed to ask them how they're doing?"

 I roll my eyes. "Thanks for caring."

 "I do care," Sigmund says instantly. "I care a lot, actually. Kavella, I…"

 I feel my heart take a quick pause. "You what?"

 "I…I've known you for a long time, of course I care about you. I want you…I want you to get back to Arcona Village in one piece, so that you can receive credit for fighting and killing Merava. Without you, it wouldn't have been possible."

 "You could have done it without me," Kavella laughs. "I barely even hit her, or Andrakias."

 "Even if that's true, it was your staff that attracted Cabel," I say. "It was Cabel that led us to Noah and the Alchemist. It was at the Alchemist's house that we met Laela. If you hadn't come with us, it would have just been Natalia, Kael, and me. There's no way we'd have gotten through it. You were around, and that's what brought everyone together. Also…those fights would have been a lot harder without your support, Kavella. You're excellent."

 I feel myself blush, and I hate it. I'm not the type of person who blushes. Ugh…what's becoming of me? "Thank you, Sigmund."

 He sits down next to me and looks down reflectively. He looks like he is in deep thought. His stare is making me uncomfortable, though, so I turn over and face the other way.

 "Stop staring at me, weirdo."

 "I'm sorry."

 "Go talk to Kael."

 I look back at Sigmund. He has looked away from me, but the expression on his face hasn't changed. As I look over, I see that Kael has hopped on one of the empty beds and is taking a nap. "Sigmund, you should get some sleep," I suggest. "It's been a long, long day."

 Sigmund snaps back to reality and looks around at all of the empty beds. They were prepared for patients to come in from the burning town, but almost nobody made it out of the flames. The Imp Spirits must have been picking people off before they lit the fires to ensure nobody would escape.

 "Yeah, that might be what I need, actually," Sigmund states. "My head is feeling a little…I don't know. I feel different right now."

 "Get some sleep, Sigmund," I feel a faint smile appear on my lips. "I'll talk to you later. Take care, friend."

 "Take care, Kavel…is Kavella your real name?" he suddenly blurts out.

 I blink my eyes. "My name is Kealie Madera," I admit. "I am the only daughter of the House of Madera…"

 After that, I proceed to tell him my life story. I try not to leave out any detail, because if I do end up dying, I want my memory to live on somehow. I have chosen Sigmund to be the bearer of my memories. I tell him about the nine knights I grew up around that were sworn to protect me at all costs. I tell him of my abusive mother and father, the two of them who would frequently beat me and then 'forget' to feed me for days. I then tell him about my father's discovery that my sacrifice could lead to the awakening of the Spirit Queen Andromeda. I tell him that I escaped my house with the nine knights, and how they all died on the way over to Arcona Village. Then…I tell him about arriving in Arcona Village. I don't tell him any more, because he already knows the story. He was with me for the rest.

 He listens to my entire life story, and he doesn't ask a single question. He just listens to what I have to say, and looks at me with eyes that show emotion. Deep emotion. It looks like…it almost looks like he genuinely wants to know more about me. Like he…wants to understand me.