The Esper of Algol: Protector

Into Baya Malay

Tall heavy red iron double doors, adorned with reliefs of mantichors in place of knockers, loomed in front of them. The towering gate of Baya Malay had no discernible locks, handles, or gap between the two doors. Attempts to force them open resulted in nothing but a shallow ax dent below a mantichor and a bruise on Odin's shoulder.

"It's obviously locked with magic," Myau chucked at his long-time friend.

Odin grumbled at the cat as he rubbed his injury. Noah approached the door next, placing his hand on it. Alis walked up next to him and followed suite.

"So what do you do?" she asked him. "How did you unlock Suelo's door?"

He gave her a sidelong glance before responding, "Suelo's door was a normal lock. Reaching out with magic and visualizing the mechanics, I could sort of magically pick it."

"Where'd you pick up that trick?" she asked.

"Suelo's backyard."

Alis sighed slightly and rolled her eyes, but grinned a little. "I don't feel anything but wild magic buzz," she said after a moment's concentration.

"Me neither," Noah admitted. "It's not like when someone gathers magic. This is... protecting the whole door, something like that."

"What about that doohickey that you have," Myau suggested. "Think that would help?"

"Doohickey?" Noah's brow knitted toward the feline.

"You're talking about that prism thing," Odin clarified, "that showed the black spell around the hospital on Dezolis?"

From its spot on Odin's backpack, which held most of their things except the laconia pot of nuts strapped to Alis' back, HAPSBY ejected the triangular clear object. Alis took it and gazed through. "Oh!" she whispered, then handed the prism to Noah.

"That's it?" Noah almost laughed as he looked through the prism at the doors. The building itself did indeed have a faint shadowy magic lingering, but the door shone with a very simple string of magic that wrapped around each door then tied itself into a knot on the front. Now that he knew what to do, he swept his hand gently across the door as if untying the knot with one hand, and the spell broke, causing the small gap between the iron slabs to appear.

"That was easy," Alis commented as she and Noah started to push on the heavy door. At least it was moving now. Odin stepped forward the help them, favoring his injured shoulder.

The doors opened into a long dark hallway, which was painted blindingly red. Myau bounded in as soon as the doors were opened, but waited for them just inside the darkness. Odin followed him in, keeping one hand on his axe, the other hitching up the pack that held HAPSBY.

Alis hesitated before entering herself. "Stay here and survive," she said to Noah, keeping her eyes on the hallway ahead as she spoke.

Noah had already taken a step in. He turned back to her. This again? "I'm not leaving you."

She finally looked into his eyes, "I'm not supposed to affect your decisions, Lanai." So that was the angle she was going for? "If we die, who will be left to protect Algol? It's what you're supposed to be all about, right?"

"We've all gotten here together," Noah responded, turning back to the hallways and starting in again, "I'm not backing down now. And you seem to forget that we all have a price on our heads; I can't do much Algol protecting on the lam."

She grabbed the sleeve of his frad mantle. "Please," she begged one last time, "stay behind. At least be a fail-safe."

It was a decent argument, and a younger him may have taken the offer, but he'd long ago made up his mind. "Come on," he said, gently removing her hand from his robes, "You're asking me to stay behind and do nothing? After... everything? Not gonna happen." He walked in, joining the monster hunter and the Musk Cat. Alis took one last deep breath and followed him in, doors closing behind her.