Chapter 12, Back to Amal Ialad

*~~Tenso~~*

He had intended to sleep, but it was always hard when a new team was sent out for the first time. Or maybe he was just worrying too much. Ingya thought so. Even though she had wished to go there herself. If it wasn’t for her, though, he would’ve had sent another team with them.

The two of them had watched in horror as the girls had been captured once again, it was always horrible and worrying to watch scenes like that. Wondering if they were going to die or not. He was angry with the girls, too. They had let themselves get captured twice, even Charlotte and Eleanor, who were going to save them, got captured. Maybe he was just being unfair, but he knew what situations like that could lead to. Other teams did also get into those situations, yes, but they were experienced.

He had left when they were taken away to new cells. They would probably escape from there, too. But the Ruricans were clever, they would probably make it harder for them to escape this time. He still felt uneasy, though. He didn’t know anything about the bearded man. And how where they able to knock out Tegon and nullify Arabella’s powers? And what had they done to Hannah and Wilma? He would need to understand those things, but he was far too tired to think of things like that. It wasn’t a good thing, getting tired.

“TENSO!” Ingya opened his door and breathed hard. He hadn’t heard her come, but she was barefoot, so he never did. “Tenso…You need to come! It’s about to happen again!” It was as if something lit up inside of him. He rushed out of bed and together they walked to the Mirrors.

A lot of people were there, The Top (like Ingya and himself), Selectors, Advisers and Mirror Men to name a few. They were talking to each other and trying to get a glimpse of the big mirror the girls had been sent through. He became even more scared. The people moved so Tenso and Ingya could reach the mirror. The angry and frightened voices of the highest ranking men and women from each group could be heard. But they all turned around when Tenso and Ingya came into the room.

“See, Tenso, what did I tell you?” Urora, the head of the Selectors, said. “I told you, didn’t I? You can’t trust the people of those girls’ world!”

“They haven’t betrayed us, so calm down.”  Roren said. Then he sighed. “I still wonder how you became like that.” He got an angry stare from her.

Roren had just been selected as the Head of the Mirror Men, the MM, and Tenso was happy he had been able to convince the Selectors. But Urora still hadn’t accepted him. “He doesn’t know anything about responsibility” she had said. Roren had been infamous for his lack of discipline before, and Urora should, of all people, know, but he had changed drastically when he came to Amal Ialad. They kept a distance to each other, even after all these years. Nowadays it was no use to tell those two to stop fighting every time they saw the other.

“What is the situation?” Tenso asked and tried to make them believe that he wasn’t afraid. The mirror showed the bearded man and his underlings yelling things to a cheering crowd. And the girls…They were all like Hannah and Wilma had been, and were. “They have been escorted out of the cells.” Roren said while turning away from Urora. “And taken to where…the Rurican’s execute people.”

Tenso felt the familiar lump of fear in his chest, he had known this would happen when Ingya came to him, but he had hoped…

“I say we bring them back.” The Advisor, Advol, said. He had been old when Tenso came, and now people wondered when he was going to leave his position and die.

“I agree.” Urora said. “They won’t be able to get out of this one.”

“We can’t just bring them home, they’ll never learn.” Unvis, Advol’s eager helper said. He hadn’t been here long, but had been formidable in his team.

“They aren’t like you were.” Advol said.

They aren’t as experienced, either.

 “I have been here a very long time.” Advol continued with his slow voice. “I have witnessed many situations and many personalities. I have been here so long that I can predict how and what thing might happen. I say we bring them back.”

Tenso did also want to bring the girls home, the situation was too dangerous. He couldn’t just say that, though. He was the top of The Top, he had to listen, observe and then say what he thought.

They didn’t get any further in the discussion because someone yelled:

“They’re doing something to the guy!”

Everyone’s eyes were on the Mirror. The bearded man’s underlings had brought forth Raenton. He didn’t look like himself. A young woman yelled to the crowd and got a huge response.

“Is it possible for you to make us hear what they say?” Urora asked Roren in a high voice. They could hear the crowd. They were roaring and almost drenching the young woman’s words.

“We’ll show them!” She screamed. “We’ll show them what’ll happen when they poke their white noses in our business!” She raised her arm and Raenton got pushed at her feet, he didn’t try to escape or fight back at all. A man came forth with a sword in his hands.

“Get them back!” Tenso screamed to the dead silent room. “I want them back right now!”

Everyone started to move, The MM rushed to get the Mirror ready to be able to send people through, and Healers pushed themselves through the crowd on their head’s order. Everyone stopped when they heard cheers. Tenso hadn’t been able to look away and was now filled with rage. Raenton’s arm had been chopped off, yet he hadn’t screamed at all. He just sat there while the young woman held his arm over her head in triumph and screamed along with the crowed. Then she turned to the bearded man, he nodded and she smiled.

“Next!” she screamed.

Tenso didn’t react, because when they brought forward Charlotte he was overflown with memories.

“TENSO!” Ingya screamed and gripped his shoulder tightly. Her face was just inches from him and he thought she looked scared, but he was too caught up in his memories to be able to know whether it was reality or not.

He thought he saw that Charlotte had been put in front of the woman, she wasn’t tied up, she just sat there, staring at things that probably weren’t there, just as Raenton had. The man with the sword went forth again and kicked Raenton away. Tenso didn’t know whether the crowd screamed “treason” or “show them”. That scared him. He hadn’t known that the memories still were so vivid.

“Is the Mirror ready?” Ingya demanded to know. She didn’t wait for an answer. She turned into a butterfly and went through the Mirror. He knew saw her taking the man’s sword and hit him with its flat side. Then she took Charlotte, dropped the sword, turned to the butterfly again and came back with Charlotte. She went back immediately and came back with two more, this she did until everyone was back.

Tenso hardly noticed what was going on in Rurica, he was so relieved that the girls and Raenton were back. Ingya had once again taken action when he had gone back into his past; he didn’t doubt that she would do it many times more.

Healers rushed towards the youths. Most went to Raenton. He would have to live with that all his life. They couldn’t grow limbs back.

The girls could walk, all except Hannah and Wilma, the Healers had to lift them. As the girls and Raenton were taken away, Ingya came up to him.

“Are you back now?”

“Yes…” He cleared his throat. “Thank you…For taking them back.” She smiled a faint smile and put her hand on his cheek.

“Everything for you.” He childishly wanted them to stay like that. But he backed away from her and said:

“We have to discuss with the Heads…about what will happen now.”

“Of course. Hopefully Urora and Roren won’t kill each other.” She smiled her amazing teasing smile.

~~*~~

It had been two days since the girls had gotten back, and now they had told him that the girls were strong enough to welcome visitors. He was in the Healers’ building, it wasn’t attached to the main building, but you didn’t have to walk far to reach it. The building was white on the outside, like everything else, but on the inside it had been painted blue. It had been a scandal when a Head had repainted it. But that had happened long ago. The current Head, Ea-Eae, a middle-aged woman with slits for eyes, walked him to the girls’ room.

“The Ruricans gave them some kind of drug, Man of Men.” She had been a noble in her own world and hadn’t lost the habit of using honorifics, from her own country, to her superiors. “We do not know all of the ingredients, but we suspect they put in a flower that causes hallucinations, it’s called Dazzelill. It also seems that the drug will kill if it stays too long in the body.”

“You don’t happen to know anything about the bearded man, do you?”

“That you must ask the World Knowers, Man of Men. Neither I nor my people have the time or the people to find out, I am afraid. We are not many, and I am pleased that Miranda has our powers, she will be valuable when her time comes.”

He hadn’t expected her to know, and he had already asked people to find out who he was and what he could do.  

They walked past rooms filled with people from other groups that had been hurt on their missions. When they came to the girls’ room everyone sat up in their beds except for two, Hannah and Wilma, who had been exposed to the drug the longest, and Charlotte who just stared at the ceiling. Raenton wasn’t there.

Arabella waved slightly when he came in. They all looked exhausted.

“How’s Raenton?” Natalie asked in a hoarse voice.

“He will be fine, Friend of Dragons. But his arm is forever gone.” Ea-Eae said. Natalie blushed at the honorific and mumbled something. The room went quiet and he heard painful breaths. He looked at the two beds in the back.

“They’ll be fine, won’t they?” Arabella asked while looking at the beds.

“Yes, Bravest of Girls.” Ea-Eae assured her.

“I’m not that brave.” Arabella said.

“In our country there is a poem that every child knows. It’s about our country’s civil war.” Eleanor said. “One part goes like this:

’I called them home.

But home they did not come.

I called yet again.

But home,

my children did not come.’

That won’t happen to us, right?”

He became sad. He couldn’t say if that was going to happen to them or not. People had become injured or died, one or two people or the whole group, but that was extremely rare.  What should he say to the concerned faces looking at him? Not many had had a first mission like that; it was understandable that they did think about it. In the end he decided to tell them the truth, it was better that they were careful. They would surely become scared, but he didn’t want to lie to them.

“I cannot say.” He forced himself to look at the fear in their eyes. They knew they had to go on more missions. “But it’s rare.” It wouldn’t be of much help, but he knew that they would still say those words over and over again in their heads, when they were afraid of the possibility. He had been there himself.

“How many days has it been?” Arabella asked.

“Since you came here? Two. But Four days since you left your world.”

“Four days, huh?”

“Will we stay here much longer?”  Miranda asked Ea-Eae.

“You five must only stay for at least one more day, but the other two I do not know.”  The woman answered. “Do you remember your last moments in Rurica?”

“No” They answered, except Arabella who said “A little.”

“What do you remember, Bravest of Girls?” Ea-Eae asked while turning her head to Arabella, who seemed to get a little nervous. Ea-Eae’s eyes were very different to what the girls were used to see in their world.

“Well, I remember the room with all the men and women, the others do, too. And I think I remember somethin’ ‘bout some sword. But I dunno, I dreamt a lot.”

“Alright. That is good.” Ea-Eae said. “Now, Man of Men, if you could go so I may speak to the girls in private about what has happened?”

~~*~~

Arabella, Miranda, Charlotte, Natalie and Eleanor were released two days later, but they refused to go home without Hannah and Wilma. They got released three days after, and so they went back to their own world. He knew they were going to have a hard time falling asleep the following nights, and that they would think much about Rurica. He remembered that he had almost convinced himself that everything had been a dream after his first mission.

“Tenso! Come. It’s time to send the other team to Rurica.” Ingya said. “And I think you should send me to Raenton’s group so that I can tell them what happened to him, no matter what the Advisers said.”

“Sure, sure.”

But now he had since long ago accepted that this was his reality. And it would be for many more years to come.