Chapter 8 - Good or Bad

"I knew I sensed a child of magic." Says Nina, standing by the door to Ara's cabin.

"What?" She responds.

"The magic."

"Oh. I can only do some basic healing techniques."

"What I saw in the alleyway was not healing."

"What did you see?"

Nina gazes at Ara as she did in the alleyway, her eyes gleaming in a sea of skepticism.

"Destruction," Nina replies, still holding her gaze

Ara lowers her eyes in embarrassment. Still unsure of what she had experienced.

"It's as if there were two of you. But one had only just woken up."

Ara doesn't know what to say, feeling completely exposed for not knowing herself.

"I know you're Chaung's sister, and you have your family issues or whatever. But if you try killing him… I will stop you."

Ara looks back up at Nina with a rising sense of danger overcoming her. Nina's pupils slowly expand to encase the white of her eyes in a deep blue, as if it were a shield guarding her mind against entry. At the same time, her incisors slowly extend outward, as a predator would flash its fangs to an intruder.

"I don't want to kill him, I just... I guess I was angry." Ara admits, timid and hoping honesty will calm Nina down.

"Then we have no problems," Nina says as the white in her eyes returns, and her fangs slowly retract. "The last thing I want is to kill you either," She giggles.

Ara looks away again, still nerve struck by Nina's display.

"I'm sure your brother wouldn't like that."

"You can sense magic?" Asks Ara, trying to join Nina in lightening the mood.

"Yeah, all Valantians can," She responds, placing her hand above her belly button.

"It's like I feel it here. Most people are barely noticeable, but stronger ones like yours are hard to ignore."

"Yeah," Ara says, placing her hand on the same spot.

"I feel it here too… It never goes away though. It just gets really bad sometimes."

"I had a friend back in Valantis, she was a child of magic too- Her name was Kaya. She was brave but shy. A bit like yourself... She'd always hold her hand on the same spot, giggling as it became more intense. As if it tickled. She'd speak to it and I think it would speak back to her. Deep down she knew what it was, I'm sure you do too."

You do. Ara's mind intrudes.

"What happened to her?" Ara asks, ignoring herself.

"She grew braver. Which in turn, made her less shy. The Tutel Coprii took her when we got a little older, and I haven't seen her since."

"Could you sense it in her?"

"Not in the beginning. But I remember the first time I sensed it in her, She was angry too."

"Why?"

"I don't know. It had something to do with her family but she never told me. By the time I asked, I knew it was too late."

"Too late?"

"Yea," Nina says, zoning out her focus to the floor. "I don't know how to describe it, but when I looked into her eyes… She wasn't Kaya anymore."

"That's when she got taken. There hadn't been a Valantian child of magic in decades." Nina adds.

"Oh, I'm sorry-"

"Listen, that thing inside of you is dangerous. I'm sure your family meant well when they taught you those healing techniques, but they fed it. If you don't tame it, then it will feed on you."

"How? How do I tame it? I don't know anything about it and it's never been this way before."

"I don't know. Chaung told me what happened to your family... I think that's how it woke up."

"I've heard that magic knows no evil or good. It is merely an extension of the user. Other than that, I know nothing else. Finding any teachers or books to aid you is unlikely outside of Valantis." Nina adds

"I don't understand."

"It's called 'magic' because no one understands. Maybe your parents were some of the last people who did."

"Then what do I do?"

"I don't know. It's illegal for a reason, Ara. The history books don't date older than four millennia and magic is the reason for that."

I hate this. Ara's mind sighs as her frustration grows.

A bell rings twice from down the hall, echoing through the ship.

"I think the food's ready." Says Nina, pushing herself off the cabin wall to peer down the hallway.

"Alright," Ara responds, as she stands up to follow Nina.

"The answer you seek will come from within."

- Unknown

"What is this?" Ara asks Matsuko as the mushy grey 'food' slowly slips off of her spoon.

"You got a problem with my cooking?" Chaung pipes up from further down the table.

"Yes," responds Kimi, giving the sludge the same analysis as Ara.

"I'm guessing the attempt here was to combine the food groups into a single one. For the sake of portability and a high nutrient density." Says Nina.

"Exactly," Chaung chuckles.

"Hmm. I'd rather you didn't." Responds Ara.

"It was his idea," adds Matsuko.

"Matsuko, you're supposed to be the one making sure he doesn't cook like shit." scoffs Kimi.

"She thought it was a good idea too," Chaung adds, laughing harder at Kimi's remark. "But it wasn't."

"You're such a child," Matsuko dismisses as her face rests in her palm.

"Seriously though, it will most likely solve the problems we've been having when eating on the move," Yasuke adds, chowing down the mush. "It's not that bad."

"Yes, it is." They all remark.

"We'll try it for a little while in Dantas and then re-evaluate from there," Chaung smirks, as he starts digging into the food.

They all follow suit, trying their best to scrape it down for the sake of shortening the experience.

"How's your wound?" Mumbles Kimi as she swallows a handful of slime and braces herself for the next.

"Way better now. It's like nothing happened." He giggles with a full mouth of food.

"Thanks for the help, Sis."

"Sure," She responds, looking down at her food.

"Sorry for hurting you."

"It's not my first scar."

"First time we've had a child of magic with us," Matsuko remarks, "We often get paid to kill your kind."

"Often?" Ara asks.

"Well, no. But more than we've protected em' for sure."

"Politicians, elitists, diplomats. They're all concerned their power isn't the only power." Adds Kimi with a full mouth.

"Never seen one actually do magic though," Matsuko Says. "What you did to Chaung there was pretty cool."

"It wasn't supposed to hurt him."

"No, no, that's the cool part. This idiot deserves a little pain every now and then. What better way to do it than by helping him at the same time." She chuckles.

Ara laughs, curious about how this group interacts with one another.

"So, are you guys mercenaries? Thieves?" She asks.

"Nope," Kimi responds. "We just go where the money goes."

They collectively chuckle.

"Why kill children of magic who don't know how to do anything with it?"

"We ain't kill them because they're of magic. We killed them for other reasons." Comments Matsuko.

"I see,"

"Are you judging us in that head of yours?" Nina asks.

"No. I'm just trying to understand why Chaung chose to leave his family,"

"Oooh, Burn!" Yasuke yells out, only now acknowledging anything other than his meal,

"Very funny," Giggles Chaung as the others laugh too.

"We try helping the little guy as often as we can. Kill a few syndicates, free some slaves, kill a few politicians. Whatever will help the majority y'know,"

"So you're the "good' guys?," Ara asks sarcastically.

"Good and bad are a little more complicated than you think. You'll learn that very quickly," Kimi replies.

"We were in West Nihil a few years back, trying to empower its people." Says Matsuko, as she finishes her meal.

"We got hired by one of the high-born families to kill a high-born kid that rivalled their business. This kid, he wasn't right in the head, y'know? He'd been so spoiled as a child he didn't see his slaves as beings with souls. He simply saw them as machines that his Father would use to build their water company… The kid always had 3 slaves he would keep by his side so he could cut them when he was stressed, he'd keep them alive for as long as he could though. His cuts weren't to kill, but he liked to see how weak he could make them over time. Cutting and cutting until they lost the will to scream or cry in pain… That's when he would get bored of them, and he'd let them free. One of his men would be sent to follow the slave and see if they survived after their will to live had been broken. He said that they would kill themselves. Every. Time… He's the type of shit I would not hesitate to carve," Matsuko says as she wipes away the well of tears building in her eyes.

"Here's the interesting part though. He wasn't an idiot. His 'business' was providing water to the West Nihilian cities at quite a cost, and he developed a system that would connect his water source to any Nihilian city or household that would request it. Using his army of slaves and machines to build a web of tunnels underneath Nihil. He designed them in such a manner that he could destroy them all with a series of prebuilt explosives, levelling the foundation of any city he chose… So, when we killed him, four cities of eight thousand each were destroyed and all of Western Nihil was left without access to water. His men murdered all thirteen thousand of his slaves and then disbanded." A droplet falls from her eyes.

"Elites spend a lot of money to make sure collateral damage is inevitable when trying to save Luná. By the time the highborn who hired us had seized their rival's water sources, we had killed nearly one hundred thousand innocent people by our hand," She says as she wipes her cheek and stands up to leave the table.

"Tell me, Ara. Did we do good or bad?" She asks.

"Fearing Death is equally as strange as fearing life." - Prophet Origi