Road to Ruisea

❆ ❆ XXXII. KUMARI ❆ ❆

Kumari falls on her knees at Jae's side, as the worst shriek rips through his throat, dagger slipping from his fingers as he collapses in the dead grass.

Chiro's too busy yelping and kicking the burning book, but once it's a safe distance away — and not seeming to catch the field on fire with it — he too, kneels by Jae's side.

"Is he okay?" Kumari asks Chiro.

"I don't know," he babbles. "I've never seen anyone get possessed before. I managed to remember the spell to deal with it, sure, but I've never seen a non-magician try to perform any spell before either, let alone one so powerful—!"

But then, a groan comes from Jae, and Kumari stops paying attention to Chiro, paying attention to Jae again, whose eyes are open... And they're blue again, not black.

"Shukur Allaha," she gasps, brushing the few cyan streaks of hair out of his face.

"What does that mean?" He croaks. "I've heard it before, but..."

She smiles, "I'll explain later. Let's help you up first..."

Jae nods, taking her hand into one of his palms, and Chiro's hand in the other, but before they can help him up, he falls onto the ground again, clutching his side, and coughing violently.

He's coughing and choking and spitting something out. At first Kumari thinks he's coughing up blood, but the liquid that's oozing out of his mouth is all black. He coughs, more and more violently, throwing up more and more black sludge. Kumari and Chiro have to support him, grabbing onto his arms, holding his hair back...

Once it seems like he's done, Jae shifts his arm to wipe his mouth free of the remaining few drops of the ink around his lips.

"I'm good," he reassures, but then coughs just a little. "I think."

"Let's get away," Kumari throws a nervous glance at the black puddle in the grass.

Chiro and Jae both nod in silent agreement, and as they head off, Jae limping, Kumari noticing that he's looking around for something...

"Oh!" She remembers. "Your jambiya. Let's go try to find it first."

"Kumari nooo," Chiro says, trying to reach out and grab her, but he nearly knocks Jae down in the process.

As Kumari walks around the grass, there's a snarl at her feet.

She looks over to where it came from, and her eyes catch sight of the black puddle.

But it's not a puddle anymore.

It's Tadao.

"Ew," Jae says weakly from behind her, while Chiro shouts, "Get AWAY from him!"

"Kumariii," Tadao reaches out a hand, but he's not in human form anymore. He's all shadow, smoking and flickering, not seeming as dark, red eyes not seeming as bright. He smiles, but it's not charming. Rather, it's all sharp spines for teeth. "Won't you help me out?"

"No," and she turns away, continuing to look for the jambiya. She's frightened out of her mind, but she refuses to give Tadao the satisfaction of even one last scare.

And Tadao makes more noises, speaking in a language she doesn't recognize.

He howls and screams and shrieks but Kumari won't turn. She gives one glance out of the corner of her eye, though, and sees that he's being dragged towards the still-burning book... There's nothing there, but he keeps moving towards it, while he desperately claws at the ground in front of him.

"I don't understand!" He's the one who sounds scared now. "That boy is just an illusionist! There's no way his spell would've worked, he's Qilucan! Qilucans are all earth-based magicians."