Erratic Magic

1. Through the Ruins-2

Oh no...She focused instead on Khalil and holding his hand, letting Zaid worry about the group that was now coming up to the door. The heat in her abdomen settled, marginally. The voices were right outside and brought her attention immediately back to them. Zaid raised his dagger a little higher, preparing to strike.

A loud yelp came from further up the street followed immediately by someone sobbing. Kinza could not take it anymore and moved to get up, but Zaid threw a hand in her direction, motioning for her to stay where she was. The voices were moving away toward the direction of the sobbing. Tears rolled down Kinza’s cheeks as they listened to what could only be a woman being beaten.

Eventually the sobbing stopped and Kinza could not contain her own tears.

Shh, Kinza. It’ll be okay, it’s nothing, Zaid said inside her head, almost startling her. They both knew it was a lie, but the voices retreated further down the street. She had forgotten about this new mental connection they had developed just the day before. Zaid said that all Anunnaki could speak telepathically, at least those who didn’t live on the outskirts of the city. Anunnaki who spent too much time outside the city walls started to lose their telepathic abilities. She, of course, was an anomaly.

Shh, Kinza. It’ll be okay, it’s nothing, They waited, frozen, Kinza’s tears and Khalil’s quick breaths the only movement in the room for several minutes. Eventually Zaid relaxed and she released a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding.

* * *

Zaid stalked across the room and knelt at Khalil’s side. He heard Kinza’s galloping heartbeat start to slow, but Khalil’s heartbeat was slowing faster and for a much more worrisome reason.

“Khalil, can you hear me?” he asked his friend. They had met when they were children, Khalil was just a few years older than Zaid and had been his best friend for most of his life. He had been born to a poor family out here on the outskirts, earning him disdain from many people in a way not unlike Zaid had.

This area of the city was still inside the psionic barrier that surrounded Rhapta, but outside the walls. In truth, the walls had never been built to protect from invaders since no one knew the city was even here. It was built to separate the wealthy and the powerful from the poor and disgraceful. Poor families, and those with no or useless abilities were slowly forced out. The Elders claimed that they tried to help everyone equally, but the better resources were always given to those inside the walls.

Along with losing their telepathic abilities, people in the outskirts had other diminished or stunted abilities. All Anunnaki healed insanely fast, but those out here healed slower and sometimes even sicknesses spread; it was almost like living in the slums of a human city. Very few Rhaptan healers deigned to come out here and heal those who truly needed it, but Khalil was different.

Khalil’s family was both poor and had almost no or menial abilities in over three generations. When he was ten, Khalil’s ability came, astounding many in the city. A healer, from the outskirts? He had been offered a home near the central plaza, a luxury very few people would ever receive. But Khalil had declined, choosing to stay in the outskirts and help those who actually needed his ability. A relatively quiet man, you could still see the disdain on his face anytime a messenger came asking him to come to the warriors’ quarter and heal a pupil who was too impatient to wait for his injuries to heal. All the while, he was curing diseases and viruses that spread like wildfire through the ramshackle huts out here.

When Zaid had been tapped to become a venari, one of the bounty hunters that hunted the ubir and brought them back to Rhapta, Khalil continued to be his friend when the rest of the city shunned him. Venari seldom had many friends, but Khalil never treated Zaid any differently after he found out. A friend that loyal didn’t deserve to die like this.

venari, Venari this.Khalil’s breathing was starting to slow, in time with the slowing heartbeat Zaid could hear in his chest. He had to do something, but Khalil was the healer, not him. He reached out with his own Aura, searching for Khalil’s.

Tell me what to do! he shouted to Khalil. But he could not find the man’s Aura. This was bad.

Tell me what to do! Kinza, who was silently crying next to him, suddenly gasped.

“What?” Zaid asked. Kinza was staring at Khalil, eyebrows knitted together.

“I think,” she said, “I think he’s in my head or something. Is that an Anunnaki thing?”

“You mean like telepathy?”

“Well, yes, no, kind of. He’s not speaking, but it almost feels like a...tugging?”

“I just looked for his Aura and could not find it. Without the Aura there is no telepathy, and regardless, Khalil has lived at the edges of the city for a long time now. His telepathic ability is mostly gone anyway. There is no way you would be connected to him.”

That was more words than Zaid had spoken in a long time and he realized how hoarse his voice was from breathing in the smoke. It reminded him that the city was still burning and those men were still out there. He did not know what had happened. Was it the ubir? Or one of the rebel groups? There were a few that lived on the fringes and operated in the city’s shadows, but he had just been here less than a week ago. His mother, was she....dead? He shoved the swirling thoughts down into the dark place he had created in his mind to hold these types of things. What remained was cold clarity as he looked back at Kinza.

“Tell me what he’s saying.”

“I think I’m supposed to...” she trailed off, looking over Khalil’s body in confusion. Her head snapped up and looked around the room for something. In a moment she was across the room digging through the bottles that were shattered around the floor, the glass making little cuts at her feet and ankles and healing almost immediately. She didn’t even wince as she was so focused on digging through the vials.

“Ah, yes,” she said, holding up a small sprig with tiny leaves running along its edge. It was covered in more of the ash that coated the room and she wiped it on her shirt.

“What is that?” he asked. Medicinal herbs were not his specialty and he hadn’t realized Kinza knew anything about them either.

“I have no idea,” she said, easing open Khalil’s mouth and placing it inside. Ah.

Ah.“Now what? Are you sure it’s him talking to you? I can’t find his Aura at all and I never showed you how to look for one. Do you see a dark green light anywhere? That’s what his looks like.”

“Shush for a second, I can’t concentrate on both of you,” she snapped. Her eyes remained focused on Khalil, the tears having stopped. She hesitated and placed one hand on his forehead and the other on his left bicep, where one would find his tribal tattoo under his sleeve. After a slow exhale she closed her eyes.

At first nothing happened for several seconds and Zaid was losing his patience. Khalil was dying and there wasn’t a lot of time left. On a good day he would have had a hard time speaking telepathically with his friend, but now? How was Kinza able to connect with him? Nothing made sense today.

Kinza gasped again, softly this time, and a faint, dark green light started pulsing under her hands. At first it was slow and sluggish, then erratic and frantic, and finally evened out; steady as a heartbeat. Zaid listened for Khalil’s heartbeat and realized his heart was actually beating in time with his Aura.

It wasn’t common for Anunnaki to need extensive healing such as this, so he had only seen this kind of work once or twice in his life. It was usually done to speed up their natural healing ability for more fatal wounds. Despite healing quickly, Anunnaki were not indestructible. If the wound did damage faster than the healing could keep up, they would die. As he watched Kinza, it looked almost like she was drawing Khalil’s own Aura to the surface, coaxing it to heal faster.

Zaid sat still as a statue for several minutes before Khalil’s legs started shifting. The bones popped back into place and the man moaned in pain, still with his eyes shut. The cuts on his legs, from what Zaid could see between the tears in his pants, started healing much faster as well. Khalil groaned much louder this time and his eyes opened.

popped “I am fine, I am fine,” he mumbled, spitting out the leaves.

Kinza’s eyes popped back open as well and stared at him incredulously. “Oh, so that actually worked?” she asked. Zaid wanted to roll his eyes.

“Yes,” Khalil said, struggling to sit up. “I should hope my own methods would have some measure of effectiveness.”

“Khalil,” Zaid said, relieved his friend was okay, “what happened?” He shoved some broken bits of stone and bottles aside so Khalil could lean back against the wall behind him. His normally neat hair was in a wild disarray and he looked more haggard than ever, but he was whole. It gave Zaid the tiniest bit of peace and he would take whatever he could get.

happenedKhalil coughed and said, “Are they still outside?” He eyed the door across the room.

“No, there was a group that crossed by a few minutes ago, but they kept moving. Khalil, I need to know if my mother is even alive. What happened?” Zaid asked.

What happened?“The Unfettered, I’m pretty sure at least. Two nights ago, I was here working when I heard screaming coming from outside. I have no idea how it happened but I went out and the city was on fire, Zaid. Rhapta was on fire.” He coughed again. “Within minutes fighting broke out, people were scared and running, and these men started going through the streets attacking people. I recognized a few as being part of the Unfettered. I had a boy in here I was healing, Tashiq, I hurried him home to his parents and ran back. I was almost caught by one of the groups but they got distracted. They were going through the outskirts and setting fire, home by home. I came back inside and shut the door, but another group came through and sealed the door somehow and set fire to my roof. I was in here when it collapsed and have been basically in and out of consciousness since.”

He took a deep breath.

“I’m pretty sure the only reason I’m alive is because it rained yesterday, putting out most of the fires. That, and due to the fact that both of you arrived.” He turned to Kinza who was still staring at him, clearly befuddled at what she had done to help him. “It seems I have you to thank,” he said to her with a tired smile.

“Um, hi, I’m Kinza,” she said.

“I know, I heard you,” Khalil replied.

“Oh, ah, right.” She cleared her throat.

Zaid sighed. “It’s a long story, but yes, this is Kinza, she was my target but apparently she’s Anunnaki...and most likely the origin of the prophecy. You know which one I’m talking about.” That was a whole other mess that needed to be dealt with.

Kinza’s head snapped up to him. It’s fine, he said in her mind. I trust no one more than him. She relaxed slightly at that.

It’s fine, I trust no one more than him. Khalil grunted and sat up a little higher. “Fascinating.” Zaid truly hadn’t expected much more from him, little could shock him. One of the many reasons they got along so well.

“How exactly did you manage to connect with her though? I could not find your Aura at all and we haven’t spoken telepathically in years.” Zaid kept one ear toward the door, listening for both voices and heartbeats nearby. He could detect a few in the distance, they might have been moving closer.

“I’ll explain later, right now we need to get somewhere safe. I suspect the Unfettered are still looking for survivors and I don’t want to be here when they get back.” He struggled to his feet, Kinza immediately helping him.

“The Grand Hall?” Zaid asked. “I’m not sure what is considered safe if the whole city was sacked.” Zaid looked toward the door, there were definitely voices coming closer, and not those of frightened people.

Kahlil looked toward the door as well, hearing the voices, too. “I don’t know but I think we need to just go. I’m sure you could take a few on your way down, Zaid, but I really don’t want to attempt it. I think we should go deeper into the city. Maybe some of the abandoned sectors are still standing.”

The voices were right down the street now.

“I second this motion,” Kinza said, “I don’t want to die here. No offence,” she said the last part to Khalil.

He sighed, “None taken.”