Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3) (74 page)

“Ah, my bestest friend. Do you mind giving me a hand?”

“Not at all, Roomie.”

The Trickster in human form knelt and slung Eric’s arm
over his shoulder. Then he walked with him to
Albatross IX
.

By the time
Albatross IX
returned to the village
square, stability had been restored.

Throughout the battle, the Supreme Council struggled to
activate Dnnac’s offensive capabilities. They had prepared for the fact that
Order himself might invade and for that reason they crafted the Sage Tree’s
branches into turrets for holy light. However, these and other features did not
active until after Order was kicked out of the village. At that point, Dnnac
bombarded the enforcers. Neither those within the village nor those attempting
to spirit away elves escaped its divinely power wrath. It was unanimous that an
investigation into the failure would commence at once and that their first
resource would be Nunnal Enaz.

 Without Order to direct them, the enforcers fell into
disarray and their power faltered. With the morale generated by both of these
events, Meza and Alexis successfully rallied corps and civilians alike and put
them to rout.

Nolien had successfully kept the HPLC confined with his
Heleti Unicorn form and spells. His family and not-girlfriend assisted with
their own spells and specialized nets. After the battle concluded, the Alphabet
Guys herded the remainder back into their pens at Hariana Inquires.

When
Albatross IX
landed, there was nothing for the
new chaos mages to do but fall into beds at the Universal Embassy.

When Lord and Lady Heleti came to congratulate them on
their victory, they instead exclaimed on how dreadful the pair of them
appeared. Their bodies had become a random mix of their true and human forms
and glistened with light that was both ghostly and more concrete than anything
nearby. Neither of them had the energy to do more than grin. Most alarmingly, a
part of them occasionally mutated into something else, only to instantly change
back.

The nobles immediately set about examining them and called
Nunnal for assistance. Emily and Annala answered their questions as their boss/master
was unable to do so, but only Emily could provide answers concerning chaos.
Annala's were strangely biased against it.

Then Ponix and Nunnal burst into the room. Having resolved
matters on their own ends of the battle, they rushed over as quickly as they
could.
They hugged Annala, assured her of
their love for her, and checked her over for injuries that would no longer heal
on their own.

“I’m sorry, sweetie,”
Nunnal said brokenly. “I’m so sorry.”

“Excuse me, Mother, but I fear I do not understand the
cause of your concern. My life and future belong to a kind young man who cares
greatly for my well being and happiness. What need is there for condolences?”

Nunnal simply hugged her, stroked her milk-white hair, and
cried all the harder.

At the elven mother's insistence, the Heleti examined her
as well. There was nothing wrong with her physically, other than a terminal
case of mortality. Neither was there anything wrong with her mentally or even
spiritually. There was no strain or damage as would normally be the case with
supernatural brainwashing. As a result, they called in a third expert.

“Thus says The Trickster, ‘Beware the thrall of Order,’”
Sister Sagart recited, “‘for it is a siren song leading to enslavement without
a collar and a prison without walls.’ Following this advice, Jason and his
followers plugged their ears with swamp gunk and their minds with praise to
Lady Chaos, their grandmother in the Primordial Sea at the Root of Creation.”

“What does that mean in English?” Emily asked.

Kallen stared at her. In obedience to her boss, Emily
smacked herself on the head.

“Order is exploiting a desire,” Sister Sagart explained. “That’s
what he does to control; exploit, redirect, and manipulate. In this case, he
has expanded Annala’s desire to make Eric happy until it took over her entire
consciousness. Instead of ‘small gestures of affection for my boyfriend,’ it is
‘lifelong service for my beloved master.’ It’s like making a mountain out of a
molehill. That’s why there’s so little strain on her mind from the
brainwashing. It’s not causing any because it is in line with one of her
natural desires, only inflated to serve Order’s purpose.”

“Will our plan to remove the collar undo the
brainwashing?” Nunnal asked.

“Unfortunately, no. Order is very good at this because he
has had plenty of practice. The changes he made were fundamental. Reversing
them will likely do more harm than good. Even if the collar is removed, she
will not return to normal. She will have to do that herself.”

“I do not wish to, for I am perfectly happy serving Master
Eric for as long as I am able.”

Nunnal turned her right hand into a scorpion’s tail and
stung herself. Venom that would kill a human ran through her body. It was
quickly neutralized by her Seed of Chaos, but it was painful nonetheless, so
she did it again and with both hands this time. Ponix stopped her.

“Darling, stop! This wasn’t your fault.”

“Yes, it was!”

“
No, it wasn’t.
Your technology is amazing, but not
even you can be expected to stop Order himself.”

Little did he know that she
was
expected to stop
Order himself. Nunnal set the power rating for the Chaotic Curtain far above
ordercrafters, even if they were high on
kon
and
paku
, and placed
Sagart’s chapel at the nexus of the Sage Tree’s branches specifically to
maintain this power. She even requested the aid of Parsec, the trickster god of
Stability, to prove it for her.

“Ponix, you’re a wonderful husband, but this is something
you can’t comfort me on.” She returned her hands to normal.
“I suppose the situation could be worse. The boy she’s
enslaved to once killed an orc to protect her. I’m sure he’ll take good care of
her.”

She turned her attention
to Eric and the boy felt the full force of her Evil Eye. Fear of capture and
spiritual corruption, screaming in unholy pain from inhuman experiments, a
hopelessness of escape; all these feelings assaulted his psyche.

“
Won’t you?”

He remembered all the
scary things in her lap and that she was best friends with Hasina. She was
fully capable of making everything he just felt reality. Snapping to attention,
he shouted, “Yes, ma’am!”

“Good.”

Without another word, she fled the room. Silence entered
in her place.

“Well, doc, what’s the damage?" As one of the two
people left that knew what was going on, Eric felt it was his task to break the
tension. Kallen would have, but she wasn’t healing as fast due to lacking a
Seed of Chaos for herself.

“Ah yes, Eric Watley and Kallen Selios, we believe you are
simply exhausted from channeling and exposure to raw chaotic energy,” Mebalos
said. “You’ll be fine with bed rest.”

He brought out a device resembling a standard clipboard
and generated a magical holographic display from it. It listed the traits and
aspects of the chaos mages.

 “You two have the most eclectic biological make-up we
have ever seen. A combination of human, grendel/chimera, and elf along with
some kind of spiritual bracing that we don’t understand. We’re secular healers,
not priests.”

Kurami said, “If we were, then we would suggest that Tasio
is molding the pair of you into chaotic super soldiers.”

Eric groaned. “Abyss no. There isn’t enough gold in the
world.”

The two mages were bedridden for days. The strain
caused by the Chaotic Starlight made them unable to feed themselves. Eric
considered this a blessing in disguise, since it was Annala who fed him. She
was prompt, attentive, and polite. If he brought up of her favorite subjects,
she would go into long and complicated discussions like always. It was a
distance that bothered him; she didn’t act like his girlfriend anymore but his
servant. It made him feel like Tahart.

The rest of Dnnac Ledo spent those days rebuilding.

 Many elves lost their homes and businesses to the
fighting and they were determined to spend the near future starting anew. In
fact, many were seeing it as a chance to do better than they did last time.
What could not be reclaimed was their sense of security.

Looking around the wreckage of their homes convinced them
that they couldn't make a perfect cocoon. While they could keep out one hundred
percent of ordercrafters, if any of them were possessed by Order himself, their
defenses meant nothing. As a result, many decided that if they were no safer
here than anywhere else, then they were going to travel.

Within Hariana Inquires and safe inside the director’s
private office, Tasio patted the director and himself on the back.

“We got everything we wanted. The humans call this
‘hitting pay dirt.’”

The elf matriarch was less cheery. Her head lay on her
desk and hidden by her arms. She had just finished explaining to the Supreme
Council why all of Dnnac’s defenses from the Chaotic Curtain to the Holy Light
Cannons “malfunctioned.” It was a mix of exact words, technobabble, circular
logic, and outright deception. In other words, she had lied through her teeth
to the people in charge of running her society and, by extension, to the
society itself.

“This decision will haunt me for the rest of my eternal
life. Such a tremendous risk…My daughter may be brainwashed permanently and the
only assurance I have that this will not backfire catastrophically is the
promise of an entity I believe to be evil incarnate."

“Order does not abide lies, and if you’re unconvinced,
let’s take a look at the contract.”

Tasio took on the clothing and bearing of a shrewd and
bespectacled Ivy-league lawyer. This was not one of his authorities; he just
wanted to cosplay. He sat down on the opposing side of Nunnal’s desk with an
air of exaggerated self-importance. Reaching into his mouth, he pulled out a
scroll, unfurled it, and read it.

“"I, Nunnal Enaz, will tell you, Order, the First
Born, the Universal Stabilizer, the Enemy of Elves, the Source of the Power of
Control, Namagomi, the Mana Eater,
The Embodiment of Truth
and Guarantor
of Promises
the location of Dnnac Ledo, disable its Holy Light Cannons,
weaken its Chaotic Curtain, and the rest of its many defenses so that you can
attack and attempt to enslave its populace, but in exchange, you must agree to
the following conditions:  1.) You may only send a single ordercrafter and this
ordercrafter must be Nulso Xialin, A.K.A Harry Butchin, the human man I used to
work with in mana mutation research 2.) For every enforcer you send, you must
order King Epideus of Latrot to unconditionally free one elf. After one hundred
are freed from Latrot, then you may alternate with Liclis or some other country.
3.) If you fail, you may never ever attack, infiltrate, monitor, harass,
coerce, obliterate, or attempt to subjugate or enslave Dnnac Ledo again. 4.)
You must never ever tell anyone about this contract. 5.) You must never ever
tell anyone the village’s location, not even Nulso Xialin, A.K.A. Harry
Butchin, the human man I used to work with in mana mutation research. You must
lead him to Dnnac Ledo and prevent him from discovering, figuring out, or
deducing his location or the location of Dnnac Ledo. If he comes to learn the
location of Dnnac Ledo by any means, then you must erase it from his mind
immediately, and before he can pass this information to anyone else. Signed by,
Nunnal Enaz and Order and witnessed by Tasio the Trickster."

He rolled up the scroll and stuck it down his throat,
where it disappeared into a pocket of chaos removed from Noitearc and out of
reach of everyone save the one who swallowed it.

“By my count, Order sent at least
four hundred
enforcers,
which means four hundred freed elves. Most of these elves will come from
Latrot, which means it will be weakened: economically in its labor force,
militarily for their power, and socially because it can no longer be seen as a
black hole where elves are drawn into and never seen again.”

“That is precisely the fate that awaited my entire
community! My family, my friends, my employees; all of them could be wearing
that cursed collar
stuck on my daughter’s neck!
”

Her arms became a rock golem’s and she brought them down
on her desk in a fit of frustration. It broke into four pieces and crumbled.
Tasio didn’t react. Then her arms returned to the slender elf.

 “But they’re not and we’ve formulated a plan to help your
daughter. You remember the plan, right? I don’t have to explain it for the sake
of the reader, right?”

Nunnal paused her pity party to look up at him in
confusion. “What reader?”

“Never mind. Your daughter will be free again soon and —”

“I still don’t understand why you can’t break it yourself
right now.”

Tasio slouched. “Okay, I’ll explain.” He looked at the
reader and said, “Are you paying attention? Here we go: trying to break the
collar myself carries the risk of breaking her. My power is so great and this
particular collar is so stubborn that any attempt to remove it externally could
leave lasting damage on her mind and soul. Furthermore, it wouldn’t resolve the
root problem. We’d be back at square one. This is an opportunity to heal and
advance. It will also be much safer. In the meantime, she has the most
benevolent master in the world.”

“True. If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t be able to sleep
at night. When I sent her out into the world after her power loss and break-up
with Ralm...”

“At
my
suggestion, may I add?”

Nunnal nodded. “I didn’t expect her to meet someone like
Eric, although I suppose I should have.”

At this, she sent a pointed look at him. Tasio shrugged
innocently.

“Not everyone will have such a good experience. I’m not
sure if it was the right thing to do. So many have been traumatized that our therapist
hasn’t slept since the Summit ended.”