22 The End? (1/2)
snow has started to fall and it is winter.
It is the end of our first school year. I really did a lot of work with Margerie during that time. I think we have now a solid scientific foundation to develop the world's economical structure into the direction, we want it to.
Tongord is training us really hard, putting his own life on the line in the process. I admire him for his ability. I really want that cheat! It is so unfair!
Sarda, Senda, Iris and Gabriel somehow ended up forming their own little group during combat lessons. On the other side are me, Celes, Tanja, Sven and Sandra, who is a nice girl, if you get to know her better. I don't think you could call us friends like we are with Tanja. We are more like good acquaintances.
It's hard to build up any sort of relationship with someone, who you see just for training and who dashes off as soon as the lesson ends.
Strangely enough the Sarda group made no trouble for us any more and laid low. Celes calls it the silence before the storm, whenever we talk about it.
Stephen isn't pestering us about gods any more, because we decided to avoid his questions. So he is now helping his sister to put everything to practice, which I taught her.
Strangely enough Margerie never asked where my knowledge comes from. I guess my parents shut Margerie up by dropping a few heavy words on her parents.
Everything else follows the daily rhythm of going to school, listening to lessons and going back.
There is only one little problem!
We will fail this year! It is the end of us, our parents will turn around our necks and pop off our heads for sure!
I will fail in the art class and Celes has no chance pass the test in rune magic. Her marks are just too bad! We sure broke our own legs in the beginning of the year by choosing the wrong subjects.
There is no hope, because we are sure to fail Samarin's random question test too! If we try to talk to him about it, he won't budge.
Right now I am sitting in the school yard and try to make sense out of this mess. There has to be a possibility. I don't like to just hope for my luck with Samarin.
Celes ran off somewhere with Tanja. I don't care, I am not her babysitter.
In the evening there will be the last test and everyone has to bring something of great artistic value to Mrs. Jeniva. It sucks. I have no idea. As the snowflakes dance down from the sky, I start to shape the snow in the school yard with my mind and start to build a snowman.
It's no problem for me by now, the training with Tongord gave me the necessary experience to use my new body's mana more efficient.
I let my mind wander and try to drown myself in memories of a better time. I think of a time long ago, when I loved a fine woman and had a big family with her. I think she was the first person, I ever really yearned for whenever we were separated.
That was before I became a god and when we died after a long and good life, I searched for her for many lives. But how do you find someone again who doesn't remember his past life?
An impossible task.
”BOOM!”
An explosion shakes me out of my dreams and I jump up. That came from the front gate? I run into the direction but I am soon stopped by a stream of screaming people, running my way.
”The school is under attack! Everyone to the shelters until the security can solve the situation!” A teacher calls out to the students.
The stream of people carries me away, while I try to find someone I know. Unfortunately I have no idea where the others are.
I keep looking until I arrive at the shelter, where a few teachers and Tongord are protecting the entrance.
”Have you seen Celes, Tanja, Margerie and Stephen?” I ask him about the very few people in this school, I have any sort of deeper relationship to.
I don't ask about Sven. First of all, because I don't really talk to him that much – though he is a good friend of Tanja. Second, because I know that he can take care of himself by running away if he wants to. When Sven starts to run, nobody can catch him, and he has the judgement to do so.
With the others I am not so sure, they are more the types to fight instead of using their heads and run away.
”The Cygnus siblings are inside! The others I don't know of!” Tongord answers.
Well crap, two people to search for. I turn around and want to run off, when Tongord grabs me by the neck. ”Where do you think you are going?”
”To search my fiancee and my friend. And if you try to stop me any longer I smear you over the entire hallway. Should give me enough time to run away.” I answer Tongord with a grave expression.
He drops me. ”Come back as soon as you find them. And run if you meet an enemy. You can't survive daggers from the shadows like me.”
I nod and walk off, trying to imagine where Celes and Tanja could be. We were waiting for the last test to start.
They couldn't have run off too far. I wander the school yard again which is now void of people. I walk very slowly, while I hear the noises of fighting from the gate.
I hope those two wouldn't be so stupid to run into a full blown fight. The only place I can think of is the cafeteria. Maybe they wanted something to drink? While walking I pick up two fists of snow.
With a little concentration I melt the snow and freeze it again, forming about twelve icicles.
I walk into the direction, when I come across a black robed guy, carrying an unconscious student. The guy drops the student at my sight and reaches for something under his robe.
But it did cost him too much time in any case. I didn't hesitate and send one of my icicles on it's way. It embedded itself into the robed persons left eye, driving all the way to the brain.
For a second the guy just stands there, until his body registers the loss of control. And then the person just slides down without a sound.
I walk up to the robed guy and confirm his death. Too often I died, because I thought my enemy was a goner. Check always the enemy first and the ally second! That's an iron rule. Never violate it.
Then I check on the student. What I find amazes me. An unconscious Iris, but she is not wounded!? Strange, I would have thought the attackers would belong to her faction? So there is another party playing here?
So what to do? The battle noises from the school gate are dying down. So some side is loosing. Haaah. I hope I wont regret this.
So I pick up Iris and carry her over the shoulder, while I hold my icicles in front of me with telekinesis. Then I walk into the direction of the cafeteria again.
Thanks to my bloodline, its not a great bother to carry a person, who is lighter than me, around.
When I arrive at the correct hallway, I look around the corner and see five persons at the entrance. Two are casting firespells into the cafeteria, while another two are backing them up with shield spells.
The fifth guy is shooting with something like a musket from time to time.
Suddenly one of the casters drops backwards and moves no more, a familiar hairpin standing out of his forehead.
I use the disturbance, jump around the corner and unleash all of my projectiles on them from behind.
Two are hit in the head and are taken out instantly. A third just takes an icicle to the knee and drops out of his cover and into the gate. Another hairpin ends his life a second later.
The second shield-caster drops to one knee and looses concentration, because of the icicle, which penetrated his flank. Trying to pull out the icicle, I feel how his mana flow is disturbed and his magical defences evaporate.
I reach out to his brain with telekinesis and pop some important blood vessels, a very clean and cost effective method to get rid of someone, who lost his magical protection.
The last one drops to the ground like having his strings cut.
I walk up to the entrance. ”Is it safe in there?” I call out. I don't want to be the next one with a hairpin in his head.
”Angrod?” I hear Celes voice. ”Yes!” I answer. Then I hear how a table is kicked to the side and Celes storms with Tanja in a princess carry around the corner.
”HEAL HER!” she screams at me with tears in her eyes. Tanja is seriously burned and breathing heavily.
I put a hand at Tanja's forehead and concentrate, feeling how my mana flows into Tanja's body to repair the damage. I concentrate on her lungs first. Then her upper body.
After I have depleted three quarters of my mana, I stop. Tanja is now unconscious, but I can see that she can breath easier now. I don't want to become completely defenceless. ”For the moment I can't do more. But she is out of immediate danger. At the shelter we can patch her up completely.”
”Thank you.” Celes eyes are red from crying. She became very good friends with Tanja, during the last year.
”Who... Who is that.” She asks me while blinking. ”Iris, she is unconscious too. I picked her up on the way here.” I answer.
”You should have left her where she was!” Celes is clearly angry. ”Hah, I thought that too, but obviously for other reasons than you. I don't think her party is behind this, as she was attacked too. And I don't think that we should hold a little child responsible for anything her parents did or told her to do.” I answer.