Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3) (26 page)

“Her Majesty’s Pet and the ambassador’s daughter; this
country is going to the elves.”

He signaled his buddy on the other side to lower the
wall's defenses. Most of the Summit’s attendees arrived via airship, and so
passed different security. Team Four, members of the press, and other local guests
were the only ones using the land entrance. Basilard assured Eric that Hasina
was not one of those guests because of what she did at the last Summit.

One of your soldiers just called me your “pet.”

Does that bother you?

No, but when I’m pushing one of your agendas, it makes
me feel like your trickster.

That would make me Lady Chaos. Eric, I'm flattered. You
know, if you really wanted to work for me, the position of Royal Mage is open.

First of all, no, and we’ve been through why as early
as an hour ago. Second, I'm nowhere near
qualified, and third, why's it
open?

Cicerone Sequitor quit. He said he couldn't stand
working for a “little brat” and was going somewhere where his talents would be
put to better use.

He finally said it to your face, did he?

It made him so happy.

The five walked through Royal Town to the castle gates
where their invitations were examined once more. Once inside the castle walls,
they could shed a layer of clothing thanks to the heating system built into the
castle's towers.

As they took off their coats, Eric realized his teammates
had dressed up as well. Basilard wore a masculine version of the formal wear he
saw Zettai wear in Ceiha, but there was a key difference: the contrasting color
was white instead of black.
I bet it’s something involving plasma or white
blood cells.
Black blood is dead blood.

Nolien wore something similar to Eric but in Heleti colors
and with Heleti symbols, thus making his oft denials of belonging to that
family all the flimsier. Tiza wore the blue dress she found in Dengel’s Lair
because it was certainly the only formal clothing she owned. Before he said a
word about it, she justified it.

“I’m wearing this because it’s what I wore when I
developed monsanity. The reason is purely scientific. It’s not because
Tenderfoot said I look good in it.”

Eric knew better than to contradict her.

Annala hung off his arm as they approached the audience
chamber, beaming the whole way and rattling off facts she'd only seen in books.
Tiza and Nolien walked behind them completely platonic, although their hands
brushed once or twice. They reacted as if burned and stepped apart, only to
drift back together. Basilard read his dirty book while walking.

At the audience chamber entrance, there was a line. Two
members of Kasile’s Royal Ordercraft Security and Compliance team checked the
IDs and invitations of each and every guest. Even visiting royalty had to
indulge them, but they let Eric through without a fuss.
Either I'm Her
Majesty's pet, making it rude, or The Trickster's pet, making it moot.

Their destination was the Hall of the Avatars. Instead of
a celebration of Fiol alone, all ten gods received their accolades here. Forol
bringing life to the Gaurmonian Desert decorated one wall. Waol’s conquest of
the World Serpent was cast in bronze. Laol composed his
History of the World
with Eaol on another wall. A third housed a painting of Fiol’s Last Stand
to halt the advance of the Divine Emperor.

Before the Avatar Alliance, Tariatla was a harsh world to
live in. Between an unstable environment, frequent warfare, and legendary
monsters, mana mutation was the least of their worries. It was because of these
ten godly avatars that the world enjoyed the peace it had for the last two
thousand years. They quickly put an end to global conflicts and resolved the problems
underlying them. They did not allow anything that threatened the world itself
to exist.

No doubt Kasile chose it because she descended from one
of them and they did not.

 Over one hundred twenty nations gathered here; the sum
total of the world. Considering the size of some of the visitors, fitting them
all in was quite a trick. Grey Dengel suggested the elven infinite space
technology known as Zerofinite.

There were humans, orcs, dwarves, mermaids, dragons,
mana-breeds, animals, demons, and beastfolk in one score varieties. All of them
had their own place at the enormous round table with specially designed chairs
to fit their culture and physical stature. Kasile's ancestors spared no expense
because nowhere was it more prudent to show tact than here.

In the center of the table and on a raised platform,
Emily’s statue stood tall and proud. It was indeed in the likeness of Kallen,
and in a partially transformed state. Her hair gathered around her neck and
upper back like a mane and two wings came out of her mid-back. Her right hand
held her staff and her left hand bore claws. From the waist down, the statue
was human save for a snake tail emerging from her lower back. Some of the
delegates were admiring it when Eric came in and one of them was an elf.

He was as tall as Basilard and didn’t look a day over
thirty but all this meant was that he was fully grown; he could have been
thirty thousand. He wore a full-length robe that depicted heroic scenes tied
together with the Flower of Chaos. At the hem were games of tic-tac-toe made
from fresh charcoal. When he caught sight of Eric, his eyes narrowed, and that
was when Eric noticed the resemblance to Annala.

“Who are you?” he demanded. “Why is my baby girl on your
arm?”

Annala refused to fidget. Instead, she stood tall and
said, "Dad, this is Eric Watley, my boyfriend. Eric, this is Ponix Enaz,
my father."

Ponix shifted his head into a gigantic blue form with red
eyes and a forked tongue. In a booming and sinister voice, he asked, “What is
as big as a mountain and full of hot air?”

Without thinking about it, Eric responded, “Dengel’s ego.”

The elf diplomat hooted with laughter and his giant face
deflated with each chuckle. Then, still laughing, he slapped Eric on the back.

"Terrific answer! It is both metaphorically and
literally accurate! Now, I’ve always wanted to ask this of a mana-born demon:
what do you see me as?”

“Honestly, sir? My instincts are screaming ‘threat.’”

“Good.” He reached into his robe for a pouch of smoked
beans. “Want some?”

Annala was mortified. "DAD! You're not supposed to
eat those in public!"

“Oh yes, I thought I was forgetting something..." He
turned in thought and the teens saw a horn poking out the back of his head and
tail from under his robes. “Oh yes! Nunnal wanted me to give Kallen a care
package.” He extended his neck above the crowd to scout the room and pinpointed
her location. “There you are.” He walked forward and hit his head on a
chandelier. Annala winced.

“Your dad’s a flake.”

“Yes, he is, but he’s a good ambassador.” 

Kallen sat at a small table in satellite to the larger
main one. When she saw Ponix, she stood up and hugged him. She certainly didn't
look like a field agent today. Like everyone else, she dressed up for the
Summit.

A sky blue dress decorated with clouds; it was a simple
knee-length without any frills or ornaments. She didn’t wear jewels or even
monster teeth or claws like Tiza, but her green hair shined and the
golden-brown streaks sparkled. The last time he saw her this way was at Roalt's
New Scepter Contest.

Must be her standard formal wear
.

Emily stood at her side, similarly formal. She wore the
same cocktail dress that she did when she arrived in this world, albeit
tailored to her younger stature. It stirred memories in Eric of the time they
dated. He had mixed feelings about them because they took place on Threa, and
throughout the relationship, he could only think about Annala.

“My dear Kallen, have you made friends?”

“Yep!”

There was a cat girl holding a fishbowl containing a
piranha scaled with metal and cotton fringes. Sitting across from her was a
human man with a jellyfish that looked like a dog with seaweed skin sitting on
his head. Next to him was a bird woman holding a bunny that had electric
sockets growing out of its skin, screens in its ears, and solid honey fur that attracted
static electricity. Finally, there was an old dog-demon dude with a
whale-insect half his size. These were all monsters, yet they looked tame.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Eric Watley," Kallen
said.

The old dude invaded his personal space in order to smell
him. As he was part dog, Eric took no offense. He was only thankful that the
guy was sniffing his front.

 "Were you really a grendel?"

"Technically, I still am a grendel."

"You've pulled a 180..." The old dog dude petted
the fuzzy head of his whale/insect/thing. "I wish my son could do
that."

"He seems docile enough..." Eric said.

"Oh yes, he's much better than before. He can be
around people without trying to eat them and even allows others to pet him. "

"We're the lucky ones. That's why we're here," said
the cat girl with the piranha. She stuck her hand into the jar and the piranha
licked her fingers. She pulled the fish out and nuzzled it. "You're a good
little mutant fishie sister, aren't chu?"

Eric turned to the guy with the seaweed jelly-dog. “What’s
this breed of monster called?"

"Human," the seaweed jelly-dog said.

"Oops...sorry."

Tiza laughed at him. Basilard gave her a rap on the head
so she laughed at the jelly-dog instead. Nolien face-palmed.

"No problem," the jelly-dog said with what
amounted to a shrug. "It happens."

"That must have been a severe mutation to cause so
much change.”

"The
real
mutation's in his mind. Isn't that
right, Cousin Fester?"

"Fart lightbulb skateboard," the monster human
said, completely serious. “Climb the moon and rinse the socks.”

“That’s a
non sequitur
,” Annala said.

“Yes, it is,” the jelly-dog replied forlornly.

“No, I mean it’s a form of poetry. My grandfather writes
them.”

The jelly-dog narrowed his eyes. “Is this an elven prank?”

Annala returned the stare. “No. I do not joke about my
grandfather.”

“Then…” The jelly-dog choked on the words. “You mean my
cousin
isn’t
spouting random gibberish?
There’s a thought process
behind it!?”

Annala closed her eyes and held up a gloved finger. “To
quote the Bard of Avalon, ‘though this be madness, there is method in it.’”

The jelly-dog jumped off his cousin’s head, onto Annala’s,
and hugged it. “
Thank you…Thank you…Thank you…”

The others gathered around Annala, imploring her to
determine whether their family member was more than a mindless beast. At first,
she was scared by the attention and the nails of Eric’s right hand became
claws. Then she calmed down and exuded a reassuring air as she reassured the
desperate souls.

“My mother is an expert on mana mutation and its
applications in medical technology, so I see a lot of victims,” she said while
looking over the piranha. “There’s always
something
left of their mind
after the mutation.” She stepped around the whale-insect and minded the
stinger. “Usually, it’s attachment to friends and family.” She skipped over to
Eric and took his arm. “For instance, my Eric used to have trouble deciding who
he could and could not eat, but myself and others helped him to find himself
again.” She leaned into him and he laid his head against hers. “It’s possible that
your loved ones can have the same success.”

All of them cheered and thanked her, shaking her hand and
clapping her back. At last it became too much and she deferred their praise to
her adoptive sister, the real mana mutation agent. Kallen stepped in and
provided the details Annala lacked to greater acclaim. Some nearby dignitaries
overheard them and their spirits rose. Then Lunas entered the room.

The Prince of Latrot cut his way through the pre-summit
crowd. No one wanted to be too close to him for fear of his power. Latrot
worshipped Order and its royalty practiced the art of Absolute Control. It was
an invisible power that could dominate minds and crush souls. It scared anyone
who could not fight him off, which was all but a handful of people in the room.

He sat down on one side of the round table and folded his
hands in his lap. Ten faceless guards stood behind him. Rumors stated that they
were zombies whose souls Lunas ate to increase the power of his own. His
opposition to Medical Mana Mutation was well known and thus he was unpopular
with Kallen’s new friends.

Kasile sat down gracefully at the other end of the table
and arranged her skirts. Siron pushed her chair in and stood behind her with
the rest of her guards. Each one of them was a different race or species and none
of them wore helmets to emphasize this fact. One of her ordercrafters
accompanied them to prove that Lunas did not have a mandate from Order for his
opposition. Her support for Medical Mana Mutation (or rather her late mother’s)
was well known and thus she was popular with Kallen’s new friends.

The room continued to fill as more big wigs took their
seats. An administrator from the Autocracy of Liclis sat next to Lunas, while a
dwarf duke from the Republic of Acemo sat as far away as possible. Abbot Tolis
from Our Lady of Benevolent Mischief
in Rlawader sat next to Kasile
without a word. A Support Beam from Mithra sat on her other side. Her demeanor
was serenity itself, but Eric could feel her anxiety. Once everyone was seated,
Siron pulled out her chair, and she stood up and said, "I thank you all
for coming. May this meeting bring us closer to a full understanding and
resolution of Mana Mutation. Before we begin discussion, allow me to introduce
the artist of our centerpiece. Emily Tompson, please step forward.”