Chapter 306
Gale and Erin passed through the rift. One foot was still in Kair, and the next was back somewhere in the Northwest Territories. A crowd of Aurians had gathered around the exit, centred around a familiar face that felt like it had been so long since he last saw her.
Edward was there talking to the people who came out of the rift. Most of them were asking a lot of questions. Some were directed to other checkpoints of the rift entrance.
"Ms. Edward, someone has closed the rift. Who was it?"
"I paid a goddamn fortune to have my half year vacation in this rift. I want my money back!"
"Can we get refunds too?"
"Wait, everyone hold on!" Edward shouted. "The rift is really closing?"
"Yes!" a woman said.
Everyone said the same thing. From the look on Edward's face, she couldn't deny what was happening. The rift behind Gale and Erin was also starting to shimmer and falter as its edges grew more cracked.
Then, Edward saw both of them standing in front of the rift entrance. Pushing her way forward through the crowd, she waved at them. "Gale! Erin!"
Both of them moved towards her, and the crowd parted as they walked forward to meet Edward.
"It's only been 2 days. You already solved the rift?"
"Yeah, I guess?" Gale said. "What about my Aur coins?"
"No, seriously. How did you do that?" Edward whispered. "This rift's been in service since the 1980s. No one has managed to even find a clue."
"I can see stuff with my eyes," Gale said. And he really could. He saw the corruption behind the knights' back, so simply, there was corruption that needed to be cleansed in order to resolve the rift. "Do I still get my Aur coins?"
"Fine... fine!" Edward said. "I don't have them with me though. I'll register your closure of the rift, and then you can withdraw it from Neutral Grounds."
"Why would you say you have the Aur coins if you don't have them?" Gale asked.
"Did you really think I thought you'd solve it?"
"Yes."
"Well, I don't, so tough luck. Withdraw it from Neutral Grounds later."
"Do I still get my milk tea?"
Edward suddenly signalled to one of her guards. Get the boy's milk tea. ASAP.
Gale smiled. He hadn't had something sweet in a while, or anything filling that could make his stomach bulge.
"Enough of this idle chatter. Why must you block our way?" Erin floated forward beside Gale.
Edward moved out of the way immediately as she heard the words. More Aurians came from behind, exiting the rift. That was when the whispers began to grow again.
"They solved it just a duo?"
"You think that blue hair is natural?"
"Those two rode a gryphon divine beast."
"Looks like Aur is about to get noisy again."
Gale felt the numerous eyes on him and Erin. They were the only ones that never gone to the resort. Based on Aurians' sense of hearing, they probably already heard everything that they talked about with Edward.
Soon enough, the thing that Gale had been waiting for arrived. The milk tea. He popped it open immediately with the straw and drank half of the cup in one gulp.
Looking beside him while sipping, Erin stood there without even a bat of an eye towards the attention they were getting.
"Wanna leave now?" Gale asked.
A blue outline formed around them instantly. The next moment, they lifted off. Gale and Erin flew through the sky as he panicked about putting up a Distort orb around them. In just a few more seconds, the Distort orb covered them, making them invisible to those on the ground or not looking closely at the hazy fast moving object.
Pulling up his phone, he tapped on the messaging app and then on the group chat with Mia, Jacob, and Andrew first.
[Jacob: yo where u at]
[Jacob: gale]
[Jacob: GALE]
[Andrew: He said he was going to a rift, idiot]
[Jacob: oh right.]
[Mia: idiot.]
[Jacob: but i wanted to show him this meme]
[Jacob: [image of a shadowy figure perching on a building with the captions 'the hero the city needs']]
[Mia: That's not even funny]
[Jacob: youre not funny]
[Gale: Hey guys, im back.]
[Jacob: GALE, DID YOU BREAK THE GOPRO?]
[Gale: i got it with me, relax.]
[Jacob: Fudge yea]
[Mia: Dont get your hopes up yet]
[Andrew: Welcome back, Gale. Hang out in the weekends?]
[Gale: definitely]
[Jacob: stop being a joykill, mia]
[Mia: Pretty sure the footage isnt going to be what you expect]
Gale put down the phone for a moment and looked at Erin. "Do we really have to go back on the plane?"
"It is the custom of this world we must follow according to the woman of fire. Rules and laws are meant to be followed," Erin said.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Gale sighed, then turned the phone back on. This time, he saw a new group chat had been added to his list of messages from just yesterday. This one was made by Rachel and contained Ollie, Lily, Kyle, Clyde, and himself.
[Rachel: Whenever everyone sees this, come to Neutral Grounds Medical Bay in Fairmont Royal York.]
[Kyle: what's up?]
[Clyde: you sound serious. something serious happen?]
[Ollie: ?]
[Rachel: [image]]
[Kyle: be there asap]
The image that Rachel had sent was of Lily in a hospital bed with a drip IV. She had a clear cut on her neck that was already healed but still red. Jeanne and Marine were also around the hospital bed that Lily laid in.
[Gale: i'm back. i'm coming now.]
Turning back to Erin, he said, "Erin, take us directly to Toronto."
"We must use the primitive contraption to travel long distances. That is the law of this world."
"I don't care, Erin. Take us to Toronto."
Erin stared into his eyes. She glanced down at his phone, peering through his message. "An exception could be made this one time."
"Thank you, Erin."
"Your gratitude is noted."
*
Neutral Grounds Medical Bay. Below Fairmont Royal York. The dark wood that trimmed the red paper walls seemed to dampen every noise. Sounds from outside could barely be heard even when Gale tried to hear what was outside using Presence Between.
Lily lay in the hospital bed. Usually, she was already pale. However, she was paler than usual. Dark circles had formed under her eyes. Parts of her hair had been cut unevenly. An IV drip was connected to her arm, feeding into her veins.
Kyle and Clyde stood at the foot of the bed, both having tension in their clenched fists. Rachel sat in one of the chairs beside Lily. Jeanne and Marine flanked the other side of the room with a basket of apples.
"Gale..." Rachel said.
He walked up to the bed and looked down at Lily. She tried to smile, obviously putting on her best effort.
"What happened?" Gale asked.
"The Blue Witches tried to arrest the three who've been fighting over Toronto's power vacuum. We caught Bonnie. She's in the Ann Family cellars right now."
"And the other two?"
"Yuxuan and Sombra were fighting each other when we arrived. It was chaos," Rachel said. "Lily got caught in a sneak attack by Yuxuan. His sword nicked her neck, and that's how Marine and Jeanne found her passed out by Princess St."
From Lily's neck, there was a thin scar. If Yuxuan had cut her just further back the neck, she might have not lived long enough to be sent to the hospital. She would've passed out immediately from the blood loss.
"And there's something wrong with her ether," Rachel said.
"What is it?"
"Something murky is inside her veins."
Lily shifted in the bed, pushing herself up slightly against the pillows. "I'll be fine after resting for a couple of days. It's not like this hasn't happened before."
Her voice was weak, barely a whisper with a coarse texture. The usual Lily had a confident, stern tone whenever she spoke, almost like Erin's, except with more emotion. Seeing her like this reminded Gale of the basement in Blue Haven. She was so weak then, and now he was seeing it again.
Analyze.
[Lily Grace]
[Race: Human]
[Stage: Attuned]
[Status: Afflicted]
[Description: A member of the Blue Witches blessed by the Blue Moon. The loving daughter of Daniel and Mila Grace.]
Afflicted? That was new. Gale hadn't seen that before on anyone. Looking to Erin, maybe she'd know. "Is there anything that you can do about this?"
Without a word, Erin floated forward, moving past Gale and the others towards the bed. She moved her eyes closer to Lily, close enough that they'd almost touch noses.
Lily did her best not to flinch, though she couldn't really hide her discomfort at the invasion of her personal space.
After a long moment, Erin moved back. "Intriguing."
"What is?" Rachel asked.
"The blue ether within this girl is fighting against the infection," Erin said. "The mechanism is analogous to your primitive concept of vaccination. Her system has identified the hostile signature and initiated cleansing."
"That's good, right?" Kyle asked.
"It is neither good nor bad. It simply is." Erin's eyes narrowed. "However, I require more information. Quiet woman, explain the source of this blue ether within you, or I shall conduct research upon your body directly."
Lily almost shrank back to the pillows behind her. As Marine was about to say something, Lily held up her hand to stop her from speaking.
"It's fine," she rasped. "I'll explain."
Taking a deep breath, she continued, "during the days in the Eclipsed, under Blue Haven, we were bathed in the blue moon's ether every day. It was part of our... conditioning. Those who've gotten enough of her light were fed the next day to who Elliot called 'Her Majesty.'"
"And your Awakening process?" Erin asked.
"When I awakened..." Lily glanced at both Jeanne and Marine on the side. "I mean, after I awakened, I heard constant whispers and saw dreams telling me to kill women and bring them back to her Majesty."
Erin glanced at Gale for a split second before turning back to her. First time Erin actually ever did that.
"The more I went to rifts and increased my stage, the more I was able to control it until it fully became mine," Lily continued. "The whispers stopped and I no longer see those dreams. And just one day, I learned how to call upon the blue moon to strike down my enemies."
Erin immediately spoke. "Your story is clear. You cannot use ether because it is working autonomously against the affliction you have contracted. All of your ether is redirected to combat this infection."
"Is it serious?" Lily asked.
"Your origin state is currently unstable," Erin said.
"Can you give more than that? Like what does that mean? Is she going to live?!" Rachel raised her voice.
"The quiet woman's body is fighting against it by using up all her resources. Once she runs out of resources, she will die," Erin said.
Kyle smashed the railing of the hospital bed. "FUCK!"
Gale felt the same. Whoever did this to Lily needed to pay with their life.
"Can't we do anything?" Clyde asked.
"Describe the cause of this infection," Erin said, pointing at the scar. "The source is right there."
"When Yuxuan's sword cut through my neck, I felt something enter my body. Then I passed out. Marine and Jeanne carried me back here," Lily said. "That's really all I know."
"You think it might be poison?" Kyle spoke up. "Yuxuan Lin's a fucking flunkie of the Wutang. Started using Poison arts after moving to North America."
"Tangmen's got a bunch of stations around BC too. That's where he came from," Clyde said.
"Her bodily functions operate normally. Her organs show no signs of any decay. It is her ether that is causing the functional issue," Erin said.
"Isn't ether and biology different?" Gale asked.
"Once an individual awakens, the ether becomes part of the biology," Erin said. "However, they remain two distinct systems, each governed by its own intrinsic rules. This poison is not normal."
Erin raised her hand again. A magic circle the circumference of a basketball formed instantly in front of Lily that originated from her hand. Millions of patterns overlayed on top of each other, turning and rotating like gears.
The next second, the circle spun slowly right and left at the same time. After several seconds, it slowed, then faded away entirely.
"This requires more research," Erin said.
"Why?" Gale asked. "What did you find?"
The affliction on her is caused by a corrupted thread. However, it is not sufficient to confirm whether there is a creeping corruption present on Earth. More data is required. Erin telepathically messaged him.
Wait, wouldn't that mean there was a growing infection caused by the corruption? It was just like how the knights of Kulbran became blind to their own actions. And the King as well that had formed that ghastly deranged smile behind him in front of him.
"Why does it need more research?" Rachel asked, her eyes darting between Gale and Erin.
"The cause of infection is based on ethereal sources. It is not something that can be detoxified using normal means. Therefore, I must conduct further research before a treatment can be developed," Erin said.
"Aren't you a billion years old or something?" Kyle asked.
"Yeah, shouldn't you already know how to fix this?"
"The corrup-" Erin stopped herself. "Though I am old, I am not omniscient."
Lily pushed herself up in the bed, her arms shook from the effort. "I feel fine. I'm just weak. I can still help out with those two idiots fighting over scraps."
Her legs swung over the side of the bed, but the moment she tried to stand, they gave out beneath her, and Kyle caught her before she could hit the floor.
"Sit down and rest," Kyle said, picking her back up and then settling her down onto the bed. "I mean it."
"Fine..." Lily smiled weakly.
"Those two idiots just poked the tiger's den," Clyde said. "They don't get to walk away from this."
Jeanne looked around the room. "Where's Ollie?"
"He's been resting," Rachel said. "Don't ask."
Jeanne and Marine nodded.
"Good," Kyle said. "Better he stay out anyway. But those two idiots need to know who they just messed with."
Everyone in the room turned to look at Gale.
Rachel stepped closer to him. "Your call, Gale."
Seeing Lily like this made something creep up his chest. Anger at someone hurting his friend. Even worse, it wasn't the normal kind where she just got punched. This one was probably a deliberate attempt at killing her.
If this Yuxuan bitch was right in front of him right now, he might not even make it to the Ann Family prison. Not after he was done with her.
Gale looked at Lily one more time. Her closed eyes and heavy breathing made his heart ache.
"Everyone..." he said, looking at each one of them. "We hunt tonight."