"You can't send them off into the village. They have no idea where they are going." Dakarai said.
"Do you know where Tarrika lives?" Baset asked.
"Well yes, his home is on my regular patrol routes." Dakarai said.
"Then you should have no problem escorting them." Baset said. Dakarai frowned and crossed his arms.
"I am not a tour guide." Dakarai said adamantly.
"No but you are our escort here to help us find your Warden. While Chase may be going on a wild goose chase I'd rather he didn't get lost." Baset countered. Dakarai sighed then looked at Astrid and I.
"Fine. Come, his home is on the other side of the village and we have some walking to do." He said then turned and started back down the stairs. I glanced at Astrid then hurried after him with Astrid following close behind me.
When the three of us reached the street Dakarai started heading north towards the other end of the village. There was a fair bit of traffic moving through the village as people rushed all over either cleaning up the rubble and occasional sonic viper corpse.
Word must have gotten around that the elders cleared us of being involved in the attack because no one ran up to us and tried to assault us or curse at us. Instead people kept their distance with a few muttering amongst themselves and pointing to my farm crystal. I ignored all the attention as we walked.
"You know I have a bone to pick with you, right?" I said to Astrid over my shoulder. She looked surprised and walked a little faster to walk beside me.
"What do you mean?" She asked, still speaking in Torapos.
"I heard that you're planning to withdraw from our duel." I growled. She stared blankly at me then frowned.
"I don't understand, I thought you would be please with this." Astrid replied. "You didn't want to do the duel in the first place."
"I don't but now it pisses me off that I got dragged into the middle of bumfuck nowhere and have been attack by all manner of creation for two days just for you to change your mind!" I snapped. She looked at me incredulously and frowned.
"Jesus Christ there is just no pleasing you is there! The only reason I challenged you was to try and bring some honor back to my name! However there is no honor to be found in fighting you. You beat my team when the cards were stacked against you and we were cheating. Luck might have played a part in that but I can't ignore your obvious raw talent. In one week you have achieved what most splicers spend decades of study trying to!" She spat bitterly.
"So basically you just want to try and save face! It's a little late to talk about honor after you already cheated!" I snapped back then took a deep breath. "You want to back out of the duel, fine. Like I said I never wanted to duel you in the first place, I just wanted you to know that now I'm pissed about it!"
With that I looked away from Astrid and walked faster to keep up with Dakarai as we worked our way through the streets.
Eventually the gate of the village came into view at least a thousand yards away further up the road we were on. Dakarai turned into a small alley lined with four wooden doors on the left side of the dead-end alley. Dakari walked up to the first door and knocked on it.
We all waited a couple seconds when a young woman, probably in her early twenties, opened the door a crack and poked her head out at us. She had a black eye and looked really nervous as she looked up at Dakarai.
"Can I help you?"
"We're looking for your father. Is he in?" Dakarai asked. The young woman eyed Astrid and I and started to look uncomfortable.
"Who are they?" She asked.
"The star keeper and his outsider companion. They've been ordered by the council to find Warden Geryo." Dakarai explained. The young woman looked astonished when Dakarai said star keeper. She immediately looked to my farm crystal and her eyes grew wide.
"Are you okay?" I asked as I stepped beside Dakarai. The young woman looked surprised that I was addressing her. I pointed to the bruise over her eye. "How did that happen?"
"I fell and hit my head. I'm fine." She said quickly.
'Something is going on…' I thought as I nodded assuredly to her.
"My name's Chase Kingston, this is my classmate Astrid Folders. We really need to speak with your father but have you gotten that looked at?" I asked again pointing to her bruise.
"My father isn't here and there is no point, I learned the mana-nana manipulation spell so healing enchantment spells don't work on me." She explained.
'Bone, can you scan the area?' I asked.
I felt a wave of annoyance and anger coming from Bone-lasher. A short pulse flew from my body as my vision darkened. It highlighted the four of us and the inside of the house it was small and there was no one else inside but the floor in one of the bedrooms looked a little hollow.
"Chase…?" Astrid said questioning. I switched to Gaelic and spoke to her.
"That girl's been beat recently, that black eye is fresh happened within the last two days. My liger shark says there is something weird inside one of the bedrooms." I said. Astrid narrowed her eyes at the girl then looked back to me.
"That's not a good enough reason to want to search her house." Astrid said in Gaelic.
"Something you two want to share?" Dakarai asked. I looked to Dakarai and shook my head.
"Would you mind if I took a look at your eye?" I asked the young woman. She looked hesitant but nodded and opened the door slightly so I could see her eye.
I held my right hand up over her uninjured eye and started cycling mana into my hand. I directed that mana into her eye and the surrounding skin. I closed my eyes and used my mana to scan her genetic makeup. I worked fast and thoroughly as I entered the data I saw into a lysdale script. When I was done I opened my eyes andoved my hand over to her injured eye and started cycling flesh mana into it. I recalled her lysdale script and copied the data from her healthy eye onto her injured eye, making minor changes to make sure I didn't change the shape of her eye.
"You know I spent my entire life getting abused by one person or another. The one that did it the most was my brother." I said in Torapos to the young woman while my mana went to work healing her eye. "Honestly I used to think it was my fault he hurt me so much but it wasn't. He was normal, people pitied him for having me as a brother, some looked down on him. I soon realized that he only treated me like crap to make up for feeling like crap."
I finished working on her eye and smiled. She reached up and touched her eye and gasped Dakarai gasped as well.
"How?" She breathed.
"I found a work around to the enchantment/utility rule." I said. My expression turned serious. "Now….about your father?"
The young woman looked conflicted and a little bit uneasy. She looked down to her feet and tried to close the door. I threw my hand up to stop her.
"I know about what's under your dad's bedroom floor!" I exclaimed. She suddenly looked terrified then turned to look at Dakarai but I pulled her attention away from him and back to me. "Your dad has been acting strange lately, hasn't he? You asked him about it and that's why he gave you that black eye." I said.
The shock in her eyes told me I was right, so I pressed. Astrid and Dakarai both stood back and let me talk, Dakarai probably just now figuring out that I might be onto something.
"I understand, you never want to think the worst about those you love, even those that treat you like shit. But you know what I know don't you?" I asked softly. I could see it in her eye that she suspected all along what I had only thought about not too long ago.
The young woman looked down at ground, tears streaming from her eyes as she shook her head adamantly in rejection of the truth.
"What's your name?" I asked softly. She sniffled and refused to meet my gaze, gripping onto the door as if it was the only thing keeping her standing.
I felt mana suddenly well up in my farm crystal. It glowed a light blue as my mana flew towards her and wrapped around the square shaped crystal on her forearm. Her farm crystal glowed blue in response and I felt a rush of information flood my brain.
"Raziri " I said softly. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. Both our crystals glowed brightly as I reached out and took her hands into mine.
[You know your dad is behind the attacks Raziri. You don't want to admit it because then you have to admit that you did nothing to stop it.] I said, not with my mouth but with my mana. Through the connection of our crystals I spoke into her mind.
[No!] She screamed woefully, I could feel the sadness and regret echoing in her words.
[Yes. Everyone else in the village underestimates him because they deemed him inferior, in talent and knowledge but you know him better than anyone. You know that out of everyone in the village he's the only one that has the knowledge to do this.] I replied.
[He's your father and you love him, I understand that but how many more people have to die before you stop protecting him?]
[Someone has too! The whole village treats him like he's lower than a beast! Why? Because he has no talent for anything other than splicing Sonic Vipers! The only person that treated him with any sort of decency or respect left the village.] She sneered.
[Lulu'nala.] I said softly.
[Yes…when they were both your age…] She confirmed softly.
[Lulu'nala was my grandmother…] I said. On hearing this Raziri looked up at me, astonishment in her eyes. […like she did before me, help me protect him! You can help us stop him before anymore people get hurt! Before he goes too far into the abyss!]
Raziri sniffled and looked me in my eyes. She was scanning for something, after a few moments she sighed and opened the door fully.
"Come in star keeper…"