Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3) (38 page)

In that instant, he lost the boost from the Order
Obelisk. All that extra power vanished and, along with it, the additional
control it forced on him. He was able to feel and reason on his own again, and
that terrified him. All around him was a hostile landscape; merciless in its
constant change and ruthless in its power output. Laws and understanding were
held as whims of gods lacking both empathy and sympathy. There was nothing to
grab and nothing to hold on to. Having briefly known the security of Order, he
longed to go back to it.  

Once he set both feet in the snow, he yanked Annala through
by the leash.

She stumbled and fell face first into the snow. As
soon as she left the Order Domination Field’s influence, the Subjugation
Collar’s higher functions deactivated. Her eyes cleared, and she shook her head
and realized what happened. Her hands flew to her neck and tried to pry the
collar off. She gave up after five seconds. Subjugation Collars rendered
helpless elven soldiers and clergy; they could not be removed by a powerless
apostate. She dropped her hands and looked up at Nulso defiantly.

 “You won’t get away with this!”

Nulso spun around and Annala gasped. Nulso’s face was so
shrunken that his bones were clearly visible and his skin was so pale that his
veins and nerves bulged against it. Some of them had burst and dripped blood
down his cheeks, pooling with the blood from his nose. Ripped skin hung around
his eyes and mouth near the muscles. He bore a closer resemblance to a corpse
than a living person, but what scared her the most were the eyes.

All the original coloring was gone from his pupils and
replaced with solid silver-grey. The whites were choked by blood veins on the
verge of bursting like those on his face. The iris shined with the eldritch light
of Order and evoked all its parasitic greed as the order constructs he generated.

 “Nothing can escape the All-Controlling-Hand.” He tugged
the leash and Annala unwillingly stepped forward. “My hand!” He spun back
around and shouted, “Soon we’ll reach the border and…!”

The tightening of his own collar cut him off and he gasped
for breath.
He fell to one knee as he went into power loss withdrawal.
His body could no longer support its own weight. On all fours, he gasped and shuddered.

Annala marched over to him and jammed her heel into
his butt crack. He promptly face-planted into the snow. His grip loosened in
shock and Annala pulled her solid leash free of it.

“You should have accepted my help!”

With that, she turned tail and ran north as fast as she
could. Before she crossed three yards, the Subjugation Collar tightened. The
sudden force yanked her off her feet and onto her back. Looking over her
shoulder, she saw that Nulso was leering at her. In his hands was a leash of
otherworldly non-light.

“You can’t escape me, Golden Hair. You belong to me now.
Body, mind, and soul;
you’re my property!
”

“Blasphemy and hypocrisy! Lady Chaos abhors slavery and it
has been illegal in this country for five hundred years!”

With great effort, Nulso stood up. He yanked the collar,
but Annala refused to budge. He commanded her to stand and, despite her
resistance, she did. Her body moved on its own. The look of naked horror on her
face was balm to Nulso’s tormented spirit. It had all come to this moment; the
first step of his revenge.

His lips pulled back in a sneer and revealed teeth like a
dentist’s model; more plaster than flesh or calcium. He made the Sign of Order
over his face and said, “Subjugation Collar Model #548231554821 with
modification codename ‘Witch Enaz Hasina,’ initiate special command:
Excommunication!
”

A new series of runes came to life on Annala’s collar.
They dug deep into her body, down to the genetic level, and found the path to
the Seed of Chaos given to her by her mother when she was conceived in the
womb. The runic power of ordercraft erected a metaphorical cube around this seed
and tightened.

Annala’s breath caught in her throat and she felt a sudden
surge of weakness. Her legs would have folded underneath her if not for Nulso’s
control. Instead, she stood limply upright by the pressure on her neck. It was
similar to being hung. When she could breathe again, Nulso pointed to his hair.
She followed his glance and found a strand of her own hair that was different
from the others. Its color had changed; it was now as white as the snow.

She couldn’t believe it. Her mind simply couldn’t process
it. A strand of hair on her head without the rich color of chaos was
unthinkable. It was impossible! Her breath came quick and shallow as old fears
returned. A profound sense of despair settled into her mind and the collar
reinforced it. Nulso beckoned and she mindlessly obeyed.

“Kneel.”

She complied.

Nulso’s hand descended to her hair and both of them glowed
their respective color. Golden-brown sparks zapped Nulso’s hand and burned his
fingers, but he ignored the pain and focused on draining the chaotic power
within. Slowly and with great resistance, the energy of creation flowed up
Nulso’s hand, through his body, and to his personal mana supply.

“By the time this process is complete, I will have all the
power I need for another jump. When you wake up, you will be in Latrot, you
will be my slave,
and you will
love it!
”

The roar of an engine startled Nulso out of his energy
drain and he noticed the dark shadow covering him in all directions. From the
airship above dropped five feminine figures in silver-grey armor. They landed
in a box around him with the fifth directly across from him. Raising their
right hands, they trapped him in an Order Suppression Field.  

"Nulso Xialin A.K.A. Harry Butchin,” Kimberly said. “By
the power vested in me by Her Majesty, Queen Kasile Landros Ataidar the Seventh
of Ataidar, you are hereby placed under arrest for the following crimes:
assault, battery, kidnapping, obstruction of an international diplomatic
meeting, sedition, smuggling ordercraft contrabands across the border, sexual
assault, summoning monsters, theft of holy relics, and trespassing. You have
the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney, and the right to a speedy
trial. Please come quietly or we will use force. Do you understand your
accusations and rights as I have recited them to you?"

Nulso looked down his nose at the younger ordercrafter.
"You cannot beat me. I am an experienced true believer and you are
neophytes afraid of your own power."

Kimberly stared stoically in response. "You cannot
beat us. You are a rogue element and we are duly designated enforcers of this
land's law and stability. You are within our jurisdiction. We will take you into
custody and you will stand trial for your crimes."

Kimberly signaled to Taylor. She released her part in the
suppression field and stepped forward to claim Annala. Try as he might, Nulso
could not escape and so could do nothing to stop the girl from taking his prize
away from him.

“Request sent and permission granted,” Kimberly said. “By
the Power and Authority of Order, your status has been revoked. Internal
Affairs Interdict commencing.”

“What!? NO!”

Ethereal chains surrounded Nulso. They wrapped around his
neck, waist, and wrists and linked together over his chest in the shape of an
X. The chain end plunged into him and sank his ordercraft deep within his soul.
Then it faded from sight. Nulso yelled and spasmed as his soul contracted.
Prostrate and in tremendous pain, he whispered, "My god, my god, why have
you forsaken me?"

The five replied as one, "Woe to hypocrites."

Taylor and Daniela secured him with physical cuffs and Thuy
explained his future options to him. Jasmine examined the Subjugation Collar.
Annala’s fidgeting made it difficult, so she assured the elf that she meant her
no harm. Kimberly engaged her in small talk to hold her attention, but this only
increased her anxiety.

“I’m sorry. I was raised to think you’re evil.”

“Don’t worry, ma’am,” Taylor said. “We understand.”

Taylor and Daniela escorted Nulso onto their high-speed
craft, Kimberly scried in their report and Thuy joined Jasmine in examining the
collar. Now that Nulso was gone, Annala watched them work with scholarly
interest. It wasn’t often one got to see professional ordercrafters at work and
these were not her enemies, so there was nothing to fear.

“Miss Enaz, my analysis is complete,” Jasmine said. “
I
regret to announce that
I
cannot remove this collar at this time.”

“What? Why!? This thing is evil and sacrilege and get it
off!”

“It is custom made for you specifically and therefore is not
in my training or my handbook. Personalized control is peculiar because Order
does not like to recognize individuality."

“Indeed,” Thuy continued, “this collar does not bear the
mark of either King Epideus or the Grand Obelisk. This means Nulso constructed
it from start to finish on his own. It has no greater sanction and so no one
else can remove it except him and he is now powerless.”

Kimberly stepped forward and said, “I recognize the irony
that we ourselves are responsible for this paradox. If we had known in advance,
we would have acted otherwise.” She bowed her head and her two subordinates
followed suit. “Please forgive us.”

Annala waved her hands. “Oh no, don’t worry about it. I
didn’t know either and you’re the professionals and my mom is a genius and
this
thing hurts!
”

She desperately tugged at it, but it didn’t budge.

“I swear as an ordercrafter that we will do everything we
can to remove that collar without endangering or defying our queen and
country,” Kimberly said. “In the meantime, please come with us. We will escort
you back to the Summit.”

Annala curtsied. “Thank you, officer. Thank you very much
for rescuing me.”

“No thanks necessary, ma’am. This is our job.”

When Annala returned to the castle, she witnessed the
results of the attack. Royal Guards were tending to their injured and dead.
Servants collected debris and laborers tended to the castle itself. She saw her
father talking with the Knight of Justice and she overheard the word ‘regicide.’
Hiking up her skirt, she ran to hug him. Immediately, he forgot about the
Knight of Justice and hugged her back. Then he noticed her new collar.

“
WHAT THE INFERNAL ABYSS IS THAT?!
”

“A problem that we are working on, sir,” Kimberly said.
“As soon as Eric is released, we can implement a temporary solution.”

Annala spun back to them with new fear in her eyes.
“Released!? He’s imprisoned!?”

“He killed two people in the last hour,” the Knight of
Justice explained. “Both of them are still alive, in a matter of speaking, but
he has been detained for the time being. Her Majesty will speak with him once
she has recovered from fighting an enforcer.”

Annala smiled weakly up at her father. “I missed a lot,
huh?”

“Yes, indeed, my dear. Yes indeed.”

One hour passed for a preliminary security check and sweep
of the castle and grounds. More would follow and each one would be more
thorough than the last until Kasile was satisfied. During this time, the delegates
were found, gathered together, and assured of their safety. At the first sweep’s
conclusion, Fairtheora reported to Kasile in her room as ordered. At that point,
she was still asleep and he got into a shouting match with Siron, who insisted
that she remain undisturbed. In the end, she shuffled to the door while using
her IV stand as a support. She praised Siron for his defense of her but told
him to better prioritize next time. She rewarded Fairtheora with two more hours
of Royal Authority and commanded him to continue the Summit.

Thus, one hour and ten minutes after the crisis passed,
Annala was again standing in the Hall of Avatars. Her sash had been retied at her
waist and her Death Killer bow returned to its hiding place, but she had never
felt more exposed or vulnerable. All of the delegates were staring at her,
either suspiciously or expectantly. Some were outright hostile. It made her
wish Eric were present so she could hide behind him.

“Your terrorism isn’t going to work,
elf
,” said
Liclis’ administrator. “Humans are too smart for your trickster-style
intimidation.”

“Don’t flin' thet wo'd about like yo' knows whut it means,”
said Mahican’s head of state. "Yo' make me ashamed t'be hoomin.”

Fairtheora pounded Kasile’s gavel. “This meeting will be
conducted with the decorum required of our station. If anyone has a point of
discussion, now is the time to share it. Otherwise, we will conduct the vote.”

One by one, the delegates stood to give their opinions.

Some demanded that obelisks be built for the security they
provided while others said they were too dangerous and/or too unethical. This
led into discussions of “oversight” and “supervision” and terminated in a
question of “who guards the guards” when both would have access to mind
control. It became so heated and unruly that Fairtheora issued an ultimatum:
they could discuss with each other in a calm and polite fashion or they could
fight
him
in a dignified and honorable fashion. They wisely cooled their
tempers, even Najica’s dragon.

A third group refused to back Annala’s suggestion out of
paranoia; she erected the Order Obelisk to frighten them all into accepting her
idea. A fourth group claimed that was it Kasile’s idea or the ICDMM or the KUAKI
protestors (both sides of it). A fifth group abstained from the discussion
until the incident could be properly investigated. A sixth group was simply
suspicious of elves and The Trickster in general and therefore refused to
consider Annala’s proposal but didn’t want to back Lunas either; they suggested
continuing the status quo of funding mortal research. A seventh group wanted to
shut all three options down and simply condemn to death anyone that mana
mutated. This, they argued, was the cheapest, easiest, and most reliable means
of dealing with the problem.