Chapter 7: Is a clouded mind and unstable body still good for a carp?

Indeed Shrieker had exploded. The mimic however was mostly fine. It’s mouth had blown open and it had belched forth not only a sizeable amount of the explosion but both the man in red and Olice too.

The man in red skidded on the ground, staying on his feet, a thin red rod shot out from his inner arm and he grasped the rod, pointing at the mimics. The mimics fled quickly, there was no way they wanted any part of anything that managed to escape from a mimic of their level. Shrieker, shrieking in fear, shuddering with a roiling flame gouting from its inside, crawled away as fast as it could.

The man in red sigh and leaned against a nearby wall.

“Um, can you let go of me please” Olice asked politely though a bit irritated.

The man startled, and in the process accidentally dropped Olice.

“Ooof!”

Thankfully the man hadn’t been holding her far above the ground.

Gander wearily opened his eyes and moaned, slipping off Olice’s neck. He quickly retreated into Olice’s shadow, he had suffered quite greatly taking on the brunt of the mimic’s insides, not only that he had helped protect Olice and the man in red from the explosion.

“Ah, I’m sorry, you aren’t hurt Hiko?” the man in red said, quite concerned.

As he helped Olice up, he got a better look at her and his mind was not nearly as clouded as it was before. A wave of nausea passed over him, and some insight came to him.

“You aren’t Hiko?” He was quite perplexed.

He put a hand to his aching head, unfortunately it was the hand that held the rod, thus he ended up poking himself far too close to his eyes.

“Agh! Ow, yes, I remember, I was trapped in that foul creature. You, you aren’t Hiko, but you helped me out. Thank you”

Olice felt quite satisfied. “Why yes, I did save you!” She confirmed pridefully, head held so high she was in danger of standing on her toe tips.

Then Olice remembered her noble court manners.

“How rude of me! I am Princess Olice Hjord, apprentice of the Witch of Dimensions” she announced curtsying.

The Witch of Dimensions had drilled it into her that she was to announce that she was her apprentice. Ira may have had a few enemies, but few beings would be willing to draw the wrath of the Witch of Dimensions if they knew of her. As the Exemplar of Dimensional Magic, Ira’s combat abilities were truly terrifying, but what held more fear in the hearts of others was that magic focused on spaces was horrifyingly formidable in capturing people and more than that there was any number of cruel things that one could do with such a power. Ira did not have a reputation for being vicious, but there was not many who were willing to see how far she could be pushed.

If the man in red knew of Ira, he showed no indication of it.

Instead he was rudely staring at Olice in disbelief. He pulled a hand through his shaggy hair.

“Haha, A princess. A witch? I’m really not in… where was it?”

He noticed Olice scowling at him, he crouched down to her level.

“Sorry Olice, My name is Yacobs, Toro Yacobs, I again thank you for saving me”

Toro did a strange motion where he placed both hands on his chest and then splayed them out at his sides.

“Since I have saved you, I can claim a mortal favour!” Olice declared, not at all thinking how Toro might be unaware of her land’s customs.

“Well, I suppose I’ll have to oblige” He said, smiling. He saw no problem in humouring the little girl before him.

“You own a magical device, a red giant armour, don’t you?” Olice asked.

Toro Yacobs didn’t know what she was talking about, but a stabbing pain went through his mind, and more of the fog in his mind lifted. He almost fell over.

“How could I have forgotten, the Trans-Hazcarp. I’m not from here, yes. Where am I from? Ah, my head”

Toro clutched his head, then to Olice’s horror, Toro flickered and parts of him were away from his body like they were mere puzzle pieces. His suit lit up with glowing red lines, and he quickly reassembled.

“Oh dear! You aren’t fine at all!” Olice said.

She was looking at Toro and she didn’t know how he was alive at all. Normally most beings have a heartflame and give off motes of magic along with larger sparks of magic. Toro however did not, Olice could see beneath the man’s blazing patterns, there was not a heartflame, but a very small crystal. This crystal was far too dim for Olice’s magical senses, she could not even make out its colours. Not only was there this small crystal, but what came from Toro was nothing but motes of crystallized magic, Olice was almost unable to notice the dustmotes. Olice could see that his hot patterns weren’t meshing well with the flow either.

Gander poked his head up.

“He isssn’t from another dimenssssion, but from far away, not Kigan or Awarth, musst be from ssssomewhere in the Void, he mussst not be coping with the change, like how mossst beingss are moving between Kigan and Awarth” He remarked, quite curious.

“Oooh! What does it matter where he is from if he can get us back! Sir Yacobs!”

Yacobs looked up, he still wasn’t completely there.

“I am not from here either! If we go back to your… Trans-Hazcarp, do you think you can bring me back to where I belong?” Olice asked.

Gander came fully out from Olice’s shadow.

“Where doesss Olice belong I wonder~” He cackled.

Toro Yacobs leapt up at the appearance of Gander, pointing his rod at the shadowy spirit.

“Its fine! Don’t worry, this vile spirit is my familiar!” Olice said.

“Huh, the rude little child callss me vile! Don’t believe her!” Gander rejected.

“A spirit… those, weren’t they only in stories. Ah, where I came from, there isn’t spirits… but I know what a spirit is?”

Toro was quite confused.

“Oooh! Nevermind about that! I’ll lead you to your carp thing.”

Olice still had the ribbon that connected Toro and his hazcarp.

“Why is it called a carp anyway, it doesn’t look anything like a fish” Gander quibbled.

Toro laughed.

“Well, carps are actually called some horrible mess of words, one of the words is carapace and long ago someone started calling them carps, easier than the other names.”

“You mean such magical devices are common where you come from”

Toro frowned.

“Yes… no… ah I get it. My Trans-Hazcarp is special, but yes, carps are pretty common…”

Toro winced.

“I can’t remember why though”

Olice shivered, the dankness of the barrow getting to her.

“Enough! Let us move Sir Yacobs!” Olice said imperiously.

This brought a smile to Toro’s face, the sight of little Olice trying to act so dignified was a little silly, he didn’t argue of course, but followed her as she traced her way back.

Again, all manner of spooky sounds could be heard and Toro got quite jumpy, but as when Olice had entered before, they didn’t encounter anything.

However, what Olice found was that the entrance of the barrow had mysteriously sealed over. As soon as she put her hands to the new wall, a deep moan resounded throughout the barrow!