20: Dismal Magician

(Haris)

The way she glares at me, scold, exhort, react when called idiot, the way she laughs, murmur, talk, her persistence, her endurance, her confidence, her everyday mood, everything about her reminds me of Ainsley. Her soul tortures me. Pinching my conscience to fill my mind with guilt.

"Hey! Are you okay?" I'm sick of tracing the mouth's movement just to elaborate the speaker's words. And she noticed my grimace since she scolded me, I'm sure she's over thinking that I huff. I squint at her eyes staring at me. That look, the face of worried or somewhat angry, that's how Ainsley look at me whenever I lie. I look away. I felt her heavy sigh.

Countless reasons why I don't feel light with this girl. For me she's a ghost of the only girl I love. A reincarnation they say. But this woman in front of me is Ashti, a princess. But for me, no. I can't handle her better, specially when I do, I can see a smile that I can never see until eternity from the person I originally wanted to see.

"Hey!" I've been staring at the tree just beside me not in mind. I sigh with petulance. I wonder how long she can stay with my peevish treatment with her. I'm marveled with her patience.

"Okay! Fine I'm sorry!" what's wrong with her. Apologizing out of nowhere.

"What do you want?"

"I guess I've already read one whole novel talking here and without receiving information that your mind is a traveler too!" another admonishing words from her.

"Sorry, I'm not interested..."

"Wow! What makes you humble today?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Huh?!"

"Never mind." and there's her smile again, "Where are we going next?"

"You'll love traveling after seeing that place."

"Really? Then what is it?" she's too childish! A sudden change to a mood of excitement. Right, that's how Ainsley is, she's making me smile inside.

"Infinite Petals. We're done with the sea of waters and sea of sands, now sea of flowers. That place was created more than decades ago. A battlefield where many of the comrades died. A Queen who can control nature buried their corpses there and planted an undying different race of flowers. Some people called her the mother of nature."

"Infinite Petals? I think I heard it before." I look at her, digging some past in her mind.

"Is it a place where blue roses can be found?"

"Yes."

Then she jumps with extreme excitement.

"Let's get going! I wanna see that place right now!"

"We can go there today since this forest provides a dot part of the world map. However, this small forest is surrounded by cave, the entrance and exit are caves too."

"As long as it's not creepy then I'm ready to give a thousand paces just to see it!" she pulls me and run, I can't stop her because of Sdeing's strength stronger than me. She got lucky picking that book specially when it comes to me. She pulls me until we reached inside the cave. In the center of this cave is a wide space lighted up from the sunlight coming from above.

That is the big hole, an entrance to the Infinite Petals. The whole space is shining with the crystals half buried everywhere here. Those are countless. We're chasing breath, she holding on her knees and I on my hips.

"How idiotic," I mumble.

"I'm actually waiting for you to tell me the direction yet you just let me ran, does it mean I chose a right path?" now she's looking at me like a baby beggar. And I'm relieved that her attention was caught by the crystals like stars at night. Those are only tiny blue crystals

"What do you call this place?"

"To be honest, this is the first time I've seen these crystals. Which means this place is still nameless." We walk as we talk. We can spot the whole hole going up. I told Ashti that up there is the Infinite Petals, and as expected she replied with high spirit, until I felt an unfamiliar voice, a laugh of a little girl. I was suddenly alerted. This could be the human I sense before, an enemy. I show Ashti the sign of 'E' and she prepared herself.

That girl is hidden under a shady part. A little princess, judging from the way she dress, a blue fluffy cloak and white dress and boots. She's the cutest little princess I've ever seen. Her headdress is floral made in crystal. I gnash! This place is a snare! Crystals around us are slowly expanding. But I think first of Ashti's safety

"Haris—!/Ashti—!"

We utter at the same time. I ponder why I was paralyzed for few seconds looking at her and she's the same, could be an unexpected chaos may happen. I grab her by my arms

"Get down!"

I can't cover her completely! All crystals expanded just like Maruwie's ability and intended to stub us both. With my rigid body I'm safe, but with Ashti, she got pricked on leg and arm, fortunately I stop the other crystal targeting her head with my palm. Then she laughs again

"Seems like you can't protect her after all!" is she mocking me? Am I the target again? Ashti broke and pulled the crystal out same with her leg, she simply break it with her side palm. With those nonverbal response, I can read her wrath.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Oh me?! You can call me Mishuzyñel!" I just realized, she's sitting calmly on a throne built in crystal too.

"Meshu... mwel...?"

"Ugh princess, you're too slow..." and now she's mocking her too. Somehow a good idea.

"Why are you here?" my turn.

"I just wanna play...?" she snapped and all the crystals vanished like dust.

"Look, why not play inside your kingdom with your parents?! You're a nuisance, you know?!"

"Ashti what she meant is a death game."

"Gotcha!" something behind thrust us away. Of course that's her gift. We both flew away and clatter. My back aches, she got me there! I'm still adjusting from the pain we incurred when her next salvage move approaches.

"Don't let your guard down!" Mishu shouted. A big squared crystal is falling above us. With Ashti's original gift, she raised her arm and it explode to fragment. I keep my balance with the strong wave she released. Much better now that we're safe. I have to take this kid seriously. I use my cane as a sword and chew a gum. She slides and crystals giving her way coming closer here, she instantly made a sword and bash mine.

While she's on hold, Ashti kick her with intense force again. She flew away and clatter, serves her right. We run closer and she fought back. I let Ashti run in front of me, and here comes Mishu's sword. Ashti slide down and I catch her sword attack, below where Ashti made a move by punching her tummy. Mishu fly up this time, I whistle and Maruwie changed shape and attack her in the air. She bumped her head at Mishu and her body hits the side of the hole.

If I were her I better run and play mud inside the kingdom, however this kid is insane. Her face is cracked like broken mirror or a crystal. Mishu is mad now as she screams and the ground rises giant and thorny crystals. Ashti was pierced again at her left waist. I feel her rant expressing her pain.

"Ashti!" I suddenly got nervous!

"And you! You deter me!" Mishu blocked the whole hole above with her thick crystal. We're locked. On the other side of that is Maruwie trying to devastate it. I can't see Mishu because of these huge crystals. Ashti lean her back while gently touching her wound. Agonizing. And here Mishu goes again. Her attacks made me feel like fighting with assassin. She's fast. I keep on blocking her attack until Ashti subbed. Finally, she uses her sword. Adding shock waves every time she bashes her sword is creeping.

And we're just substituting attacks. Mishu block Ashti's incoming attack and it broke her crystal sword and her body got sliced. Unfortunately, she just turned to a fragment instead of corpse. Ashti is standing on my left side and sense Mishu beside her. Mishu kicked Ashti's severe wound. I caught her behind.

I bite my lip to release smoke. I carry her with my arms to escape for a while. Outside the smoke, Ashti asked me to let her go and I do.

"I can endure pain." She forced to move with a hoarse-like voice.

"If that's what you want." I paste the chewed gum one of the crystals and run off. I can feel Mishu chasing us behind. I turn to the right to impede her move but what happened is exactly I expected. Mishu's sword fly away and as I turn, I'm already pulling Ashti to support her wildest kick. That blew her back, it took hard time to land Ashti safely specially she can't give much aid for herself.

I got her and lost balance so we both fell, she's leaning on me. I look at Mishu trying to escape from my gum, like a prey of a spider. How lucky are we that she bumped there when Ashti kicked her. I use the power of the cane to float and lift us to stand leisurely. This is a good chance to finish her! We run closer.

After recognizing our raid, she screams and releases shivering snow storm coming from her mouth. She's looks like an exorcist. That doesn't prevail our steps, I use umbrella to shield us until we got her. I use the ferrule to smash her stomach and stop screaming. We grip her throat by our chain, I'm pulling it and Ashti does the same at the opposite side of the crystal.

And again, Mishu laughs even her neck is choked.

"You won't get away with this, child of the prophecy! I'll make sure that you will never lay a hand on the Queen!" then she scattered to crystal fragments. I don't feel her anymore. This cave is crashing and worsen when Maruwie broke the thick crystal above. I touch Ashti on her wrist, she's fatal. I turn the pendant, carry Ashti and fly up using my cane.

All these rocks falling are just passing through us. I got here on top

"Ashti, turn the pendant," good thing she's still conscious. When she did, I whistle to call Maruwie's attention and that we're safe. We fly higher and the whole situation of the area changed to a peaceful nature spring. I feel that the cave totally crashed under that big hole. I also forgot to get Ashti's sword after she inevitably let it go when Mishu kicked her wound.

I chose a spot beside a huge rock. I lean Ashti there. She's bleeding, her clothe is almost tatter. I use bandage again to cover her wound. I need to roll it around her waist and to do it closer

"Haris..." I look at her face only an inch away. She smiles and thank me.

"Shut up, you better sleep." At her condition she can still laugh.

"How am I supposed to sleep with this pain?" I'm done with the bandage when I noticed Maruwie smirking at me. She's back to a tiny dragon again. I have no intention with her teases. I addressed a small cup with spicy oil at her nose to smell it. That made her fell asleep. Judging from her status, I can't protect a single person. Maybe that's why Ainsley died.

Then maybe the prophecy is mistaken. I can't save one, which means I can't save thousands.