23: Kin Fight

"Aishmalen... what are you doing here?" I mutter but he heard it.

"I have business with this kid, you may leave as you please."

"But—!" I was shook when water splashes on me. He melted Mishu's crystal attack to me. Haris pulled out the cane from his glove and stamp it.

"Wait—! What...?" I was expecting a sky diving thing down to our destination but no. We're standing in front of the orphanage with an open door. Right from this spot we can see blood spills flowing like a river through the doorway. I can't stop my tremor and became worst when I saw the kids' corpses.

All of them are laying dead. My knees will surely kneel down from intense shudder however, Haris held my hand and I was calmed. He did the same to me when I was shivering with the help of Elaiyh. He take me inside a room where I can hear cry of a child.

Elionh. He's holding the nun's hand. She's dead, laying on her own blood. It's strange, Elionh is severely wounded but he's still alive. I'm aware of a cross tattoo on his arm. We kneel in front of him, still weeping and trembling. Maruwie is unconscious, she's not wounded which is a good sign.

I carry her with my arms but I'm still worried about this boy.

"Elionh, it's okay... we're here..." I touch his hand and he jerk away from me. He's like a dog traumatized by humans.

"Come with me," Haris said calmly. I guess I know why, he's into this kind of scene too. Elionh shook his head and moving back from us. "I'll take you somewhere safe." then he's extending his hand for Elionh, still, he's rejecting us. Haris snapped his fingers and Elionh fell asleep in an instant. He took him with his arms.

"Prepare to meet Ms. Tony again."

Does it mean we're gonna turn around and change location? He started the count down and turn at the same time. Again we changed place. We're standing in front of the big picture frame now. We get inside the frame and I shout Ms. Tony's name. We caught her drinking coffee with books on the table and mirror facing her.

She's bewildered and check the child's condition. Haris lay him on the sofa, he want me to put Maruwie inside the magician hat again and he wear it.

"What happened?!"

"An ambush. That boy is peculiar. Please take care of him."

"His name is Elionh," I said. And how come he's peculiar?

"This tattoo... so he finished one of Mr Holland's book. This is a mark of immortality, as long as you have it the only way for you to die is suicide and oldness," she explained. For short, no one can kill him but himself. Such a peculiar gift. And I'm missing Sdeing's strength.

"It's been a long journey. Have some coffee with me."

"No thank you. We still need an explanation from someone," he's speaking straight forward. I know he's talking about Aishmalen.

"Are you sure? You two must rest, specially you!" she's pointing at Haris.

"Ms. Tony we have to leave." Her eyebrows meet but I know she's worried.

"Princess Ashti, please take care of him," I nod. Reviewing the past, he's using too much teleportation which could cause his death. When Ms. Tony snapped her finger in front of us, we came back inside the orphanage, where the nun is laying dead. We had a moment of silence here, I look at him. I wonder if he's sleepy or praying for the dead souls.

His eyes are closed. I feel sick with this rotten smell of blood. "Let's go," he said for a sudden and stamps the cane again. I tried to stop him but it's obvious that it's too late. A thick white and cold smoke converged us after the teleport and I found Aishmalen kneeling wounded behind me.

In this scene, did Haris intend to shield him from Mishu's attack? I touch both of his shoulder, panting.

"What is the meaning of this Haris? I thought you hate me?"

"Of course I am. But I hate your brother even more." Aishmalen grinned. He cover his wounds with his scales and stand on his own.

"So you came back!" Mishu exclaimed. Her evil and loud guffaw echos through the space.

"Thanks for buying some time."

He walk forward and slaps the air, of course that's not his purpose. The snow surrounding Mishu melted and gathered that turned to a water ball with her inside it. She's using her gift to escape, however Aishmalen is melting those crystals and increases the size of the ball. He's walking slowly toward her and hush.

The water boils and from here, I can hear her scream. Now she's ferocious.

"What is he doing?" even though she almost caused my death I'm still pitying her. Specially she's only a victim of hypnotism.

"That is one way they interrogate a criminal. They boil the person inside until the investigators received answer. If the criminal was found guilty, they'll kill them by poison. That only works on Merfens, if they use it against humans, the poison will drag them to a state of coma."

Aishmalen opened the water ball and leave Mishu's head exposed.

"Who are you?"

"I... I will... kill you!!" he hush again. If I were on Mishu's foot, I can't stand that pain anymore. I run immediately, good thing Haris didn't stop me. I extend my arms and slap her, my palm stays stick to her cheek. I just wonder if I could heal curses too. She bite me, whenever I try to pull my hand out it hurts.

She let me go when he hushes again, we step backward and bring the ball back to its shape. I touch my wound, what made her bite severely painful was her fangs covered with crystals. A crystal teeth. Aishmalen licked his finger and penetrate it inside the ball, a black smoke spreads throughout the water ball, this could be the poison Haris was talking about.

"How idiotic."

I glare at Haris.

"Why did you do that?" Aishmalen approaches, he held my bitten hand to shed a water drop and the amount increases on my palm to cover my whole hand. It's warm, I can't feel the pain.

"I just... tried to stop her," I said in a low voice. And he smile at me, I forgot if he showed me that smile before but it's so charming. If only he don't have scales.

"Thanks for saving me before. That was a big help." Haris simply roll his eyes away his glance from him, how rude!

"So, what are you doing on land? You're suppose to stay under the sea, right?"

"Absolutely. However, I can't. This strange, powerful King destroyed my kingdom and killed my brother and race. That King poisoned the whole sea. I came all my way up here to ask help from my relatives, but everything is just the same here." Both Haris and I are in the state of silence, pondering if I should have compassion or not.

"Mishuzyñel is my cousin. She's sweet and caring, completely the opposite of what she is now. I know she's under mind control by someone. Seeing her like this drags my hope down from saving my kingdom. And that's all because of you, humans..." this time we both glare at him. But he's smiling.

"Listen, we may be humans but we have different perspectives. Some of us are just victims, innocent, trying to be a hero to stop this war. So don't compare us to our rivals!"

"Thanks for the lecture. My only intention for now is to kill that King and restore my kingdom. But I guess I can't do that without help from humans like you. What is your objective anyway?"

"To kill the King."

"To kill the Queen."

We said at the same time. Haris is more interested in killing the Queen. Yet I want to take revenge because of the King.

"So we all have the same goal!" he said in excitement.

"Are you the only one left?" asked Haris.

"No. There are some survivors like me hiding inside Paco's tummy."

"How long can they stay there?"

"Maybe half of the year."

"I want assurance."

"Oh, less than 7 months." Haris look somewhere far away.

"We can leave Helmeayess' territory for 2 days and reach Quede nation for 2 weeks. 7 months are more than enough to wait for your return. In Quede nation, people gather for alliance with this matter. We can ask help from them. Probably right now, they're making a move against the enemy."

"So it means that I should join in your journey."

"No. Because you're a Merfen, and I don't trust them."

"Haris!" And there's me trying to warn his arrogance.

"Shall we revive the trust between Merfens and Humans right at this moment?" he open his palm and water flies like snake above it, slowly making a form of a knife. He slice his palm, his wound doesn't bleed but his blood draw a tattoo mark on it.

"Today until the day we killed the King, I will be your ally."

"Was that a blood of oath?" I ask.

"Yes. We make a deal with our own blood, if we betrayed our covenant, this will kill us like poison spread throughout your nerves."

That's dangerous.

"Sounds like you're making your own death," Haris mocked.

"I don't mind, I never broke a covenant once."

I heard a rumbling sound inside the water ball, it's expanding and changing shape.

"Oh crap! We gotta get out of here!" Aishmalen exclaimed. Mishu is trying to free herself. What if she's back to normal?! I saw Haris holding his cane again. He's about to stamp when I stop him. I said that he shouldn't use teleportation again. I heed Ms Tony's warning. Aishmalen melt all the snow around the whole place and build a wall made in water.

A boundary against Mishu. But it didn't worked. Consequently, Aishamalen was blown away, the water falls like tsunami and I'm scared like a kid, I raise my hand and look away, waiting for the pain but nothing happened. A strong force of wind keeps us unbalanced. I can't imagine how we look like while enduring this kind of power until everything is calmed.

I look around, huge crystals that almost cover the whole kingdom, I feel like inside a cave of crystals again. And I'm more fascinated with a tall wall of black color stone that served as a shield for us. We're both startled, looking at each other like blaming who did that. I thought it's Haris, judging from his look he didn't. Did I?

"She's beyond insane!" Aishmalen is panting.

"What is this?"

"One of her deadly moves. Seeing these crystals above it forms a giant rose. This can kill thousands of soldiers on a battlefield."

I saw the way out onward. I pull Haris' and Aishmalen's hand to run away. I feel like escaping with my two old sons. Afterwards they're running faster than me, like I'm the one being pulled here. I was shook with their unforeseen break from running. They both block me with their arms to stop too. A crystal appeared abruptly from the ground to deter us on leaving this instant cave.

We heard her scream from behind, she devastated the stone shielding us. Just like before, she look like an exorcist and somehow different now, she's gripping her head, a reaction of severe pain. A migraine? Or she's fighting someone inside her mind. I heard a smooth clatter, it's Haris preparing to sleep.

"Hey! This isn't the right time to sleep!!" I shake him and slap both sides of his cheeks still not working. "Ugh great! He's asleep..." I leave him laying his back to the crystal that hinder us. I inhale and smash the crystal, and just like waking Haris up, nothing happened.

"Is he always like that?"

"Yes... specially in this kind of circumstances..." I answer in pale. He laugh. He noticed my hand covered in cement or more like a sloughed rock, fragments are slowly falling from my skin. Are these rocks protecting me? Mishu is having a trouble approaching us, her pace is stagger.

I thought of another idea to escape, I search for the Goodluck necklace, when I found it I make sure we have skin contact

"Aishmalen, lend me your hand!" he never doubt and we hold hand I turn the pendant. I guess he doesn't know what happened but Mishu is unable to see us. Now is our chance, but I can't just take Haris around while he's sleeping. If only I could carry a man like what they does to a woman.

"Ashti, did we turned invisible?" Aishmalen asked me, his glance stayed on Mishu.

"Yes." I'm still thinking on what to do. He let go of my hand and stood up to face Mishu, she can finally see him. I tried to stop him when Aishmalen turn his head on my direction, unable to see me.

"I know you can hear me, but thanks for the heal," he said. His wounds are gone and he's even stronger than before. He spread his palms on the air raising his arms on opposite side and the crystals cracked and became water. He stick his palms together and the water merged. I'm lucky I can breath in this kind of situation during this state.

I feel like inside an extraordinary aquarium size. Aishmalen's scales lusters like how the sunlight every sunset reflects on the sea surface. It was such a stunning scenery. Judging from the glow of his scales, he enjoys the water. He made a step once and dash forward like lighting to punch Mishu on stomach.

At first she defend herself with thick crystal but scatter once his fist touched it. He's fast! Which means he's more stronger underwater. It could be that he's waiting for Mishu to do this deadly move to serve as his advantage. He hit Mishu's nape, a vital part, and she lost consciousness. Then he took Mishu on his arms.

What if everything is still the same when she woke up? The water parted to give air for me. I turn the pendant again.

"Can you take him?" my eyebrows meet.

"No. Hah... such a burden."

"Snow storm is coming. We should get inside the castle for shelter tonight," I nod. The distance of the castle from here is far, that wasn't a problem for me if only I could wake Haris up.

"What about this water?"

"If I let it go, surely it will splash us like tsunami."

"I think that would be better." he look at me and think of an idea. Or more like he agreed to my idea.

"You're right! Let's give it a shot." He took my stupid idea seriously?!

"No, I'm just kidding—!" he let the water free, it splash us away, I don't have to grab Haris' hand because of the chain. And this charming fish prince is insane like Mishuzyñel, well attitude also came from bloodline. The water took us here exactly in front of the castle door. I'm shivering. The water spread around the kingdom including the water absorbed by my clothes.

"That idea definitely worked!" he's still laughing while Mishu laying on his arms. If I travel with him, another gifted being will give challenges to my daily journey. Ever since I travel, stuffs like these often happened, I shouldn't be surprised next time.