Lainey and the Magicians (First Draft)

Chapter 30

 "Come, Lainey. We have to get the spell off you," Piopold belted. Lainey wanted to get the spell off her, but she wanted to get to Mars quickly. It was cowardly and she had said that to Codebreaker earlier, but she wanted to find her way to a better planet. She recalled her time in the shower when her Rider nature had confronted her and how she had spilled the blonde dye out of her blueish-green hair. She hadn't used the memory-erasing device, but she still kept the note on her nightstand that she had written about getting an Anti-salt suit. She would buy some equipment when she got on Mars and she would live far out on the outskirts. She would become an old maid and she would live on Mars until she died. She would never get married or have any kids. Couldn't she simply use her powers to transport with them to Mars?

 "Take Piopold's offer. You'll get better revenge on Pumpkin that way," her Rider nature said in her mind. This had been the second time today when she had spoken into Lainey's mind. She didn't want to take revenge on Pumpkin or venture to Vanshire Castle to defeat him. Pumpkin was unshakeable. Nothing could stop him. The spell had been in effect inside her mind for a long time now. She still pondered what had happened to her parents and sister, but she took loopholes in her mind to think it. She couldn't think it directly. Lainey knew that she had to take Piopold's offer. Once she answered all their questions, she could get to Mars faster.

  "Okay," Lainey said. She followed Piopold and David to a hidden elevator to a subfloor she hadn't been taken to on the tour. The door opened to the elevator. They entered into a dark cave with an array of equipment scattered throughout. There was even a hanger for David's ship in one of the docks. No people were down here. Robots protected the entrance to the hanger. Where they any other ships here? Before she could see if there were more ships, they made a sharp left turn toward a dark room with chairs and orange liquids on tables close to microscopes.

 The orange liquid was Nipiod which had been made in Minapo and was the only drug that didn't have any negative side effects. David or one of his scientists must have been analyzing to see if Nipiod liquid and Nipiod candy made people more prone to adore Pumpkin, Minapo, and the Magicians. If Lainey didn't know any better, she would assume this intriguing-looking room and the black tiled floor was a torture chamber. David didn't seem like the type to do that.

 "What have you found out about Nipiod?" Lainey asked as David pulled a comfortable chair out for her to sit in.

 "I've found out that when Asir took it, it gave him free will to break away from Darkness and the dark thoughts/directions inside his head. I've going to be running some more tests about how Nipiod affects pumpkins, but I don't think it will destroy them. That's a good thing. Everyone deserves a chance. Nipiod is sanctioned by Minapo and it eases thoughts. Some of the old research we'd had about Nipiod had been destroyed and our old scientists killed, but we are managing to conduct new research based on some of the last notes scientists had hidden deep in their labs. We'd managed to find it before the Magicians did. We could use Nipiod to make Pumpkin break away from the influence of the Riders, but that is a stretch. It will take several tests and deconstructions of the atoms inside Nipiod until we can figure out if that will work. We'll need more victories in this war before we can break into the stronghold of Vanshire Castle. No one who's ever gone there has gotten out alive. There have been legends and myths about Vanshire Castle over the years, but none of them have been confirmed. Minapo itself is a depressing place even if it hides behind a perfect facade. What did you first see in your dream last night?" David asked, following up with another question. David walked over and grabbed a board. Lainey had seen boards like that before. They connected people with the Spirit World. Would they be contacting spirits like the Photonic light Spirits to see what the best course of action to vanquish the spells off her would be? Lainey had contacted people with boards before, back when she'd been a Magician. She'd even freaked influential people out and her powers had given them nightmares for days.

 She shuddered. Being Shadow Rider was a curse. She couldn't believe all she had done.

 "I saw orange circles with golden ringlets in the middle that seized me and they surrounded the atmosphere and they turned it to the color of blackish orange. Ashamed, inhuman faces with their shoulders slumped surrounded me in four dark corners. A dark, scary fire blazed underneath me, and a few signs surrounded me close to where the inhuman figures were. All of the signs read 965. Emerald and Pumpkin showed up later when I was in the other dimension. You must be asking about Minapo," Lainey said, sensing unrest inside David with her powers.

 "Yes, what you've described can be how Minapo is like. If you haven't forgotten, Pumpkin and Emerald's number combined is 965. Did you see a Lady with a black leaf and a green leaf?" David inquired, his fingers pressing on the board.

 "Yes, I did. She took me through Memory Lane, but we didn't get to finish the memories. The memories might have been cut off by a spell, my own mind, or dark forces intervening inside my mind. There is a lot of symbolism in the first part of the other dimension. I had many different theories about the Lady. Who is she exactly?" Lainey inquired.

 "The Lady of the in-between. She shows people who they're supposed to be and she shows people all the things they don't want to admit. She fights for the light when she feels like it, but she usually remains neutral," David's eyes lit up with green energy as his fingers fiddled with the board. Piopold watched and he sat down next to Lainey.

 "Do I have to join in?" Lainey asked.

 "No. The Riders are looking for you. You can't trust your Rider nature. Did she make a deal with you?" David asked. The room glowed with green like a covering.