Chapter 302

  Missing A Little Chaos In Our Lives

  (Valeria)

  The cloud of purple mist and poison slowly began to dissipate. Still, as per proper protocol we had to wait an hour at the minimum before a cleaning team would be allowed to go in and access the area.

  These were the rules.

  Odd to think that someone so small would cause such chaos.

  Penelope of course was not the only one who was nervous, as everyone seemed to come out to inspect the school and see what was happening.

  “I’m sorry, why all the tension?” Valeria Spray-Healer, Dr. Spiritlight’s stolen apprentice asked. She is noted as stolen as she originally found her way here by being chosen directly by Dr. Spiritlight, right before she disappeared for a month.

  “Can you see the purple energy?” Penelope asked, wondering just how developed Valeria’s Perception Attributes had risen.

  “Yes, I mean kind of hard to miss something that shines for hundreds of feet in the air like an aurora borealis,” Valeria responded.

  “Well, that purple energy shouldn’t be here,” Penelope stated, as just looking at the odd energy sent chills down her spine.

  Worse, Kujo who was hiding nearby was also frightened by the odd energy. In this case, Penelope chose to go with Kujo’s own animal instincts about dangerous areas, over her own observations.

  For these reasons, and many more that Penelope could not quite explain, she held her distance.

  “What do you mean shouldn’t be here?” Valeria asked, a note of frustration filling her words as it was clear she finally had a chance to learn from the Doctor, but was still being separated ‘for her own good.’

  “What she means is that those purple sparks of light that you are now seeing are not supposed to be on BiPrism, that they are literally causing a distortion in the balance of the world. That distortion is now appearing as the aurora borealis, as you so eloquently put it,” Gwendolyn Spiritlight, the daughter of the Doctor replied, adding her own voice to this conversation.

  “Okay, but why are we not allowed to be any closer?” Valeria asked, a slight note of petulance filling her voice. Though to be honest, Penelope couldn’t blame the Apprentice, for her life had been fairly miserable to this point. She had been allowed to stay at the campus, to help try to find the now missing books.

  Yes, when the double explosion occurred at the faculty building a few books died. Most concerning was the fact that Gwen couldn’t even Resurrect the burnt-out bindings that remained of the sacred books. Making the loss of knowledge just that much more disastrous.

  The loss of books was not a conversation Penelope wanted to have with the Doctor.

  No, the loss of books would be a Mallory subject.

  In fact, most of the subjects that needed to be covered were going to be spearheaded by Mallory.

  Once again, Penelope was thankful she chose to follow Mallory and the Midnight Hunters, for these were not conversations she wanted to have with the mercurial being. Not that the Doctor ever got mad, no, her mercurial nature came with the fact that she often tried to fix problems, before anyone knew they were problems.

  Of course, the very act of fixing a problem before it is a problem can be seen by many as invasive.

  “The reason we cannot get any closer is that we could be exposed to particles,” Gwen replied.

  “Particles?” Valeria inquired, now her skepticism was on full display.

  “Yes, particles. It is a catch all term that describes what happens when loose energy reacts to her.” Gwen stated as if it was a matter of fact.

  Valeria just glowered for a moment, but then finally asked, “okay, so what is the worst that happens if we are exposed to these particles?”

  “Well, you could begin to forcefully awaken your bloodline,” Jhonny stated.

  Groan.

  At that comment, Penelope and Gwen both groaned and rolled their eyes in unison.

  “And that’s a bad thing? Don’t we all want to have the blood of royalty? Or ability to create powerful dynasties?” Valeria asked.

  “Just look at her,” Jhonny stated while pointing to Dr. Spiritlight who had her ephemeral wings flapping, though in this case the wings seemed to be grabbing purple particles of energy and condensing them inward, from there they would then be absorbed directly into her body. A body that glowed bright purple.

  If Valeria stared just enough, she would see that not only were her two natural eyes glowing bright purple, but the vertical eye in the center of her forehead also glowed bright purple. The third eye glowed so brightly that it could be seen, despite being behind a layer of nearly perfect porcelain skin.

  “Yeah, she’s beautiful,” Valeria spat out, once again in awe of the Doctor. Having had time to practice what little she could away from the Doctor, Valeria could now see touches of magic that coursed about the giant pixie. Like a near life-sized floating doll, one that screamed of delicacy and grace.

  “What?” Everyone called out at once, as by now everyone who had gathered round could hear the conversation.

  “She is, like a little doll that you just want to stare at and cuddle.” Valeria continued.

  “Are you okay?” Jhonny asked.

  “One second,” Gwen replied as she began casting a probing Healing spell on the Apprentice to make sure she wasn’t suffering from in any way. “No, she seems okay?”

  “Oh goodness, then she must not know,” Penelope added, turning her conversation to Jhonny and Gwen.

  “How could she not, she was there the day when she Resurrected her and hundreds of others?” Jhonny questioned.

  “That might be it, the Resurrection lag caused a bit of time to process everything. Then mom left, before she had time to truly know,” Gwen replied.

  “To know what?” Valeria asked anger clearly filling her words as she felt she was now being mocked by the others who had mostly taken her under their wings and been supportive during this past month. A month when she was effectively a prisoner of war, and not fully accepted as a member of the Midnight Hunters, but was clearly unable to go back to the Legrand Empire due to some inexplicable need to stay here and wait for her, the Doctor, to come back.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Now that she was back, Valeria couldn’t help but feel that odd connection once again coming to life within her chest and causing her to feel drawn to the Doctor.

  “The fact that, she is not dainty or delicate,” Jhonny stated.

  “The fact that if anyone tried to treat her like a porcelain doll, they would likely have their hand bitten off, or worse,” Gwen added.

  “They are correct, honestly, I’m surprised that Cass let me dress her up in hot pink, with black trimming. Had it not been for the bonuses offered, I’m pretty sure I would have been quite possibly tortured in some way.” Penelope responded.

  “She wouldn’t have hurt you,” Gwen stated skeptically. Even Jhonny looked like he wanted to argue this point as well.

  “Oh, she wouldn’t have tortured me in that sense but change my senses so all I smell is curdled milk or made it so my tastebuds only tasted sour foods,” Penelope listed examples.

  At that both Gwen and Jhonny nodded their heads.

  “Yeah, if you ticked her off enough, I could definitely see her doing something like that,” Gwen agreed.

  “She wouldn’t?” Valeria asked, a note of concern in her voice.

  “Oh yes, she would. Then you would have to wait for two things to occur, in order for her to change it back,” Jhonny noted.

  “Two things?” The girls all asked in unison.

  “Yeah, first you would need her to feel guilty enough about what she had done to change it back.”

  At this, Gwen and Penelope both nodded in agreement.

  “Wait, couldn’t someone else just undo her spell?” Valeria asked, trying to understand how getting rid of such an enchantment couldn’t be too hard, “or just wait for the spell to wear off?”

  Laughter.

  Hearing that, the trio just laughed.

  “Oh, you think she wouldn’t make these changes permanent? That she wouldn’t be able to shrink your tastebuds until they could only process one flavor that would get sent to your brain?” Gwen asked.

  “Or the fact that she would only play with the tastebuds figuring that was where you would look, but really she just altered the synapses to your brain, making it so no other chemicals were sent other than sour?” Penelope added.

  “They make good points, but the answer is anything she did would be so subtle and permanent that even your own body would think it was at its natural state, even when drastically altered. In fact, she might even make it so the annoyance comes with a perk.” Jhonny quipped.

  “A perk?” Valeria asked.

  “Yeah, like making it so you are extremely beautiful in the process. One where it almost seems that having the annoyance of never being able to taste anything other than sour foods was worth the tradeoff,” Jhonny quipped.

  “You speak as if she is some kind of monster?” Valeria spat.

  “Um, that’s what we are trying to tell you,” Penelope noted, then once again gestured to the giant pixie. “She is cute, but don’t let that outer layer fool you. She is more than capable of settling a score that she has in her mind.”

  Silence.

  At that, only silence and the sound of magic particles swooshing about in the background could be heard.

  Finally, after watching the Doctor for a moment, Valeria turned back to Jhonny.

  “And the second thing?”

  “Second thing?” Jhonny parroted.

  “Yeah, you said there would need to be two things that happen. The first is her feeling guilty enough to change everything back?” Valeria responded.

  “Yes, the second thing would be for her to remember that she actually made any changes to begin with.”

  At that Gwen and Penelope both nodded in agreement as well.

  Valeria for her part just looked at the trio. She knew that these three above almost everyone else, save the Guild Leader, treasured the Doctor the most, which was why it was so odd to see them all seeming to pick on the Doctor.

  Still, she didn’t have enough to counter their claims.

  In the end all she could do was take the words with a grain of salt and turn back. Only to see her and once again be reminded of her original question.

  “So why again is it a bad thing to have your Bloodline awakened?” Valeria asked.

  “You should ask the remaining students in the Bloodline Awakening courses,” Jhonny stated.

  “Or find out what happened to the lecture hall where Doctor Spiritlight taught her last Bloodline Awakening class,” Gwen stated as she raised a finger and pointed towards the still destroyed lecture hall. The one that appeared to have half its roof melted off.

  “Wait, that was a class taught by Doctor Spiritlight?” Valeria asked.

  Chuckle.

  At that question, the three just chuckled to themselves as if hearing the punchline of a particularly funny joke.

  “I mean, she was supposed to teach it,” Jhonny began.

  “But she somehow always got Mallory, I mean, the Guild Leader, to teach it in her stead,” Penelope continued.

  “Every time, but the last time,” Gwen stated and once again gestured at the half-melted building.

  There was a pause, “again, what happened?”

  This time Jhonny just pointed forward, past the demarcation line that blocked off a zone of safety around the currently occupied open class courtyard, and towards Doctor Spiritlight.

  “Something like that happened,” Jhonny stated.

  “But more up, than out,” Penelope clarified.

  Turning back to see the Doctor, Valeria paused and looked, truly looked. This time, even from this distance, Valeria swore she could feel an intense tingling sensation coursing through her body as waves of energy seemed to course over and through her, even from this distance.

  “Are we safe here?” Valeria asked.

  “Probably not,” Gwen replied honestly.

  Tension.

  The hairs on the back of Valeria’s neck began to rise as she felt something.

  “Oh, is she about to do something impressive?” Valeria asked, suddenly turning to watch the Doctor, only to be surprised that the tension she was now feeling seemed to be acting contrary to the Doctor, who now seemed to be absorbing the glowing purple particles.

  “Kujo, out now,” Penelope chided.

  Whoosh.

  Then as had become a custom, Kujo, the terrorizing Dire Phase hound and dripper of acid slobber appeared out of nowhere.

  As it appeared, it had within its mouth one tiny but ever-growing ball of fur. A tiny ball that was easily a hundred pounds or more of pure muscle and fur, as Valeria had been forced to hold the quickly growing weight. And it was a weight, regardless of what it looked like, or how much fluff packaging came with it, the thing was a dense weight that no healer should be forced to lift.

  “Oh, you knew momma was coming?” Gwen asked, as she reached up for the pup and somehow lifted the colossal beast.

  Yes, Gwendolyn Spiritlight apparently had a near-mythic level Healer Class, one that somehow enhanced her Strength. That or she had some other way to enhance her Strength. Regardless of where the increases came from, she clearly had them in spades and was able to lift the oversized fluff ball. Even going so far as to rest the beast in her arms while pressing her finger into the pup’s mouth and feeding it the odd food mixture that only she and Dr. Spiritlight could both produce for whatever reason. Oh, and Redding Spiritlight, who also chose to be the same type of healer class as Gwen.

  For her part, Gwen had tried to teach the spell to Valeria, but it was just too complex for her mind to fully grasp for whatever reason.

  Yeah, that was a blow to the ego, a spell that Gwen, and Redding both learned at level 1 could not be learned by her, even after being hundreds of levels higher than the two.

  Honestly, Valeria didn’t know what the Doctor saw in her. But the fact that she had seen something, and then managed to supposedly make a three dimensional model of her spell while in mid-cast was astonishing.

  Valeria had kept that three-dimensional spell model. Trying to use it for inspiration, focusing on the part that Dr. Spiritlight found so interesting. Though she couldn’t see her spell, at least not the way the Doctor allegedly could.

  For a moment, she thought the Doctor had either made it up, or was just lying to her. But apparently magic was one of the few subjects where the Doctor never lied. Which was odd, for everyone paused when they said that, and then gave the same wide-eyed look of remembrance, before nodding in affirmation.

  Whatever prank the pixie might do might be done with magic, but she would never joke about someone having the potential for magic.

  It was from these tales that Valeria began to understand some of the mythos of the Doctor.

  A doctor who, even in her absence was apparently causing more destruction and mayhem to the Legrand Empire than the last ten nations Legrand faced combined.

  How was this possible?

  Valeria still didn’t know, not for certain. As the Apprentice, she was allowed to stay, but not quite truly accepted. As such, all she heard were stories told in secret.

  Much as many of the stories that she heard about the Doctor’s prowess with magic were spoken about with hushed reverie in the Legrand Empire. Now it seemed that tales of her continuing exploits were told with similar hushed whispers here. Tales of how she created a species of sentient killer robots and set them loose upon the Legrand Empire before she left.

  There were other tales.

  Tales of how she destroyed Timult by summoning a God to the sacred city. Or how she cursed Legrand spies by turning them into crippled monsters that would be forced to suffer endless torments.

  Other stories about how she brought killer books to life, and then set them free in the world to spread and multiply.

  Though one thing was undeniable.

  After seeing the battles firsthand, it was clear that a Spiritlight trained caster or fighter was head and shoulder above the elites of the Legrand Empire. Despite having the mechanical advantage, the Legrand empire still lost, despite overwhelming numbers, funding, and coordination.

  From what Valeria found out, most of this was due to behind the scenes actions, most of which were silently attributed to Dr. Spiritlight.

  In fact, there were so many tales, that it was clear most were made up. But which ones?

  From her sources, that is the sources from the outside world, all confirmed the findings.

  Odder still was the fact that each source told her unequivocally that she needed to take this opportunity. That Dr. Spiritlight would return one day and that when she did, Valeria needed to be there as the first Apprentice.

  That was why Valeria had endured.

  Not that her stay was particularly terrible.

  Other than having Kujo sneak up on her when she was attempting to sneak off at times. Or finding a skill book out on a field. One where she went over to read it, only to have the skill book violently bite at her finger before somehow flying away.

  The place was crazy, but after being here for so long, it also felt like home.

  Taking one last look around, Valeria saw the people that had been assembled. The people that comprised the core of Dr. Spiritlight’s team. There was the Tailor, who was now also a Mythical level beast tamer, only because the Doctor didn’t want to be in charge of caring for pets. The daughter, who was a Legendary Healer class. The Granddaughter, who was also the same Legendary Healer class, and a Spiritlight to boot. Then the bodyguard Jhonny who could use both Qi and Mana, but was more than humble around anyone. And of course, the only one who was seemingly powerful enough to keep everyone in line, the Guild Master herself, Mallory Valhalla the scariest woman in the world.

  Turning to see the Guild Master, Valeria saw her reach out her hand and do the impossible.

  “Get over here,” Mallory called out. And like that, Dr. Spiritlight, the one being who was immovable, immutable, and all together unstoppable looked cowed for a moment as she was forced through space and time to float right in front of the maiden warrior.

  “I can explain,” Dr. Spiritlight said, holding up one finger to stop Mallory.

  The finger did its job, Mallory did stop for a second. Only to then charge forward and crush the pixie in a giant bear hug. One that would have likely crushed Valeria’s spine on the spot, but somehow the pixie seemed to endure.

  “I bet you can,” Mallory replied, as she just buried her head against the Doctor.

  It was probably just a flicker of light, maybe an inadvertent bead of sweat that was at the wrong place at the wrong time. But for a moment, Valeria was almost certain that she could see a tear on the normally stoic Guild Leader’s face. A tear that was wiped away in the cosmic colored hair of a now purpled eyed Dr. Spiritlight.