Chapter 190: 190-Putting it back
Taratoya had never run so desperately in her life. Katrina lay in her arms, her once-youthful face now marked by unnatural wrinkles. Her hair had lost its luster, and her body felt frighteningly light against Taratoya’s chest.
Every breath Katrina took was shallow, each one sounding weaker than the last.
"Stay with me," Taratoya whispered, tightening her hold. "Katrina, you hear me? You’re not allowed to die on me."
The usually active mixedblood didn’t reply. Taratoya’s jaw clenched.
She had seen the change happen before her eyes. One moment, Katrina had been standing beside her, demanding answers about Zazen and the strange conversation she had interrupted the other night. The next, her body had begun to age as though centuries were being torn from her in seconds.
Taratoya had tried everything she knew. Healing magic, blood restoration, protective barriers and nothing worked. Whatever was happening to Katrina had reached beyond ordinary injuries and illnesses.
Something was taking her lifespan and Taratoya intended to find whoever was responsible.
She would tear apart every corner of Veris Academy if she had to. She would drag the culprit before her and make them regret ever laying a hand on someone she loved.
"Hold on a little longer, darling," she murmured, pressing her cheek briefly against Katrina’s forehead. "I’ll fix this. I promise."
She rushed through the corridor toward the courtyard, where the disturbance had originated. The closer she came, the heavier the air became. An oppressive force pressed against her skin, making every instinct scream at her to turn around.
Taratoya ignored it. She had no intention of abandoning Katrina, she moved until she reached the courtyard entrance and stopped.
Bodies littered the stone pavement. Guards lay unconscious beside their fallen weapons. Professors leaned against walls, barely able to remain upright, while students who had come to investigate the commotion were crumpled across the steps. Some appeared decades older than they had moments ago.
The air shimmered with five colors of all bloods. At the center of the devastation stood Maisa Loven.
Above the redblood’s head floated a magnificent five-petaled flower, each petal radiating a different color of vampire blood. Its beauty was almost unbearable to look at, but the power surrounding it was far more frightening.
Taratoya stared and for a moment, she forgot Katrina’s weight in her arms. She forgot the promise she had made to find the culprit. She forgot even how to breathe.
The flower of fate had manifested and it was not in an ancient painting or a forbidden manuscript and nor some half-forgotten legend whispered by vampires who feared the dawn of their own extinction. It was right there before her.
Above a girl who looked as though her heart had been torn out of her chest. Taratoya’s arms tightened around Katrina. "What have you done, little girl?"
She tried to take a step forward but the flower pulsed. A violent wave of energy struck her.
Taratoya’s vision went white and then black. Her knees gave way, but she never reached the ground as she felt something else catch her.
It had watched from the darkness for a very long time and inside Taratoya’s mind, a door opened and another consciousness stepped through, knocking the hybrid out.
---
The world fell silent. Within the darkness of Taratoya’s mind, a young woman opened her eyes and her appearance started to manifest in place of Taratoya’s.
Her hair was white, long and luminous, falling around her like a waterfall of moonlight. Delicate flowers bloomed among the strands, their petals shifting through colors that did not belong to any known season.
Tiny blossoms floated around her shoulders, circling her as though she were the center of a garden that existed beyond time. She looked almost exactly as Maisa remembered her.
The white-haired girl surrounded by flowers. The mysterious figure Maisa had briefly encountered when she woke during her stay at the Night Castle.
The girl who had watched her with an expression that seemed to contain both affection and immeasurable sorrow. She had appeared for only a moment then, leaving Maisa with more questions than answers when she snapped her fingers and vanished.
Now, she was here again. The girl glanced at Taratoya’s unconscious consciousness, which had receded into the deepest corner of her own mind.
"I’m borrowing your body for a little while," she murmured to Taratoya who couldn’t hear her anymore. "Don’t worry. I’ll return it to you."
Her voice was gentle, almost playful and then she turned toward the courtyard and faced toward the flower and towards Maisa.
The white-haired girl lifted one hand. Taratoya’s eyes opened.
They were no longer the eyes of the dangerous vampire who had rushed into the courtyard carrying Katrina. The color had vanished entirely, leaving them an extraordinary, luminous white.
The girl rolled Taratoya’s shoulders as though testing the body she now inhabited.
"Hmm. You really should take better care of yourself, Taratoya."
Her gaze dropped to Katrina and for the first time, the faint smile on her lips softened into something resembling genuine tenderness.
"Poor thing. You got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time."
She adjusted Katrina in her arms, ensuring the aging vampire was supported comfortably and then she looked at Maisa.
The flower pulsed again. The girl’s expression changed. "Ah. So you’ve finally awakened."
She took one step forward and the courtyard trembled with her every step.
Every vampire still conscious felt the pressure shift. Regina, who had been struggling to remain upright, raised her head sharply. Addessa tightened her arms around the unconscious Varitreya. Zolani and Lumi remained motionless against the wall.
Even the flower seemed to recognize the newcomer. Its five petals stopped rotating. For one suspended heartbeat, the courtyard became perfectly still and then the white-haired girl moved her fingers and the flower responded.
All five petals bent toward her hand. A collective gasp escaped the few vampires who remained conscious.
"What..." Regina whispered.
The flower that had been draining their lifespans was obeying someone. Someone who was not Maisa.
The white-haired girl smiled faintly. "That’s enough, little flower. You’ve made your point."
She turned her palm upward. Five streams of light descended from the petals, winding around her wrist. They moved like living ribbons, each color pulsing in time with the ancient magic flowing through her.
Maisa slowly lifted her head and for the first time since Evelyn’s death, her gaze moved away from her aunt’s face. She looked at the girl standing across the courtyard.
Something about her felt familiar. Not familiar in the ordinary sense like a face she had seen before or a voice she had once heard. It was deeper.
The feeling of standing before something that had existed long before the world she understood it’s existence.
The white-haired girl met her gaze. "Hello again, Maisa."
Maisa’s lips parted. "You..."
She remembered the Night Castle, the light after she was taken to the garden of flowers where she met the white hair and the flowers floating around the mysterious girl’s body.
"You’re the girl I saw that night."
"Very good. Your memory is working perfectly fine," she said. "Indeed, it is me."
The girl smiled. She curled her fingers inward and the flower of fate shuddered, it’s effects lessening.
Maisa felt something seize her chest. "Aah!" she groaned.
She clutched at her dress as the five-colored light rushed downward. The flower above her head began folding inward, one petal after another, its radiance drawing into a narrow stream that sank through her skin.
Maisa staggered as the sensation was unbearable. It felt as though something enormous were being forced through a space too small to contain it. Her knees struck the stone, and she gasped for air.
"Stop!" she cried.
The white-haired girl didn’t stop. "Be still. I’m not hurting you."
"You’re...you’re taking it away!"
"No, dear. I’m putting it back where it belongs."
The final petal folded inward. The light vanished into Maisa’s chest.