A Tale of One Deviant (Book One)

Chapter 49: Plans of Before, Changed

As I flew back over the ocean at an extremely fast speed, trying to not run out of mana as I sputtered on fumes towards the hospital in the form of Firea, I realized something.

     Today was the thirtieth of Juley, two and a half months since I disappeared. I really needed to get home, but there was just so much unfinished business here it was ridiculous.

     Getting home would also have to wait a little longer since I was about to black out. Seeing how my counter would reach zero extremely soon, since a lot of my mana was spent in maintaining that Knight form, flying, and stupidly enjoying the scenery by sketching down a quick capture of it on some of the paper I stole from Debrah, I was rushing. It was early morning, somewhere after dawn, so people would be waking up.

     I used an intangibility spell again and went through the door, eyes starting to shut. I barely kept from slamming onto the floor as I pulled up, landing on my feet while stumbling. The office was just so dang far away.

     My feet slapped on the floor as the dawn started rising, and I got my hand on the door handle just as it opened. The confusing thing was that I hadn't twisted the knob yet.

     Above me was Adoray, who was looking down at me with a blank face. Actually, it was an I-knew-it face.

     Behind him was something unexpected. Church members.

     And on the desk, there was a familiar-looking crystal. Sitting cuffed on a visitor chair, was the young man I had spared. The one from the night Knight decided to make an appearance in the hangar, the one with the sister held captive.

     I noticed, they were about to commence whatever mind reading thing on the man that they had been talking about earlier with a soul crystal.

     My tiredness was still there, just pushed back when I saw the crystal. It was because...

     ...it was the same one Margaret had used on me when I got my soul broken.

     I almost flipped when I saw it, stumbling back until I ran into something.

     Legs. Marinette's, I realized when I looked up and only saw one and a half rabbit ears.

     She was looking down at me with a concerned face, scooping me up before I could protest and carrying me in.

     "No..." I mumbled, seeing my mana counter running down to zero awfully fast. "Don't let them near me with that thing..." I pushed against Marinette's chest, trying to force her back even though I was being held.

     When she saw my stuffed urgency to get away from the room, she paused and looked in. Then, her eyes flashed when she saw the soul crystal, the crooked Church members, and put two and two together.

     Marinette frowned as she turned and walked away, reassuring me that the incident she had heard of would never happen again, I wouldn't be subject to the soul crystal. The young man would.

     His eyes were still as hollow as before, covered in shadows as he was forced to put his hands on the crystal while Father James was on the other end. There was a small smirk on his face as he did is, planning something. A shared glance with the one he had been talking to yesterday, a glare at the Sister I had saved while her back was turned.

     The last Church member from the capital that I had ignored so far simply stared blankly out the window behind my sleeping chair, focused on something in the distance.

     My mana counter was already at 115, and dropping about two points per second. I was frantic at having it leak out from my soul even faster than usual, in the presence of enemies that could have their way with me and their soul crystal if fate decided to be cruel to me. I struggled to stay awake, but as Marinette trudged towards the front of the hospital while trying to put me to sleep, my tensions were rising.