She smiled again. “You see, when I’m sent out here, it means that someone has made a mistake of such a magnitude that no one is going to forget it for generations. And in this case, that mistake was selling Valia out to the Tyrant in Gold.”
I heard a few gasps from the crowd. Apparently, the inability to speak hadn’t sealed off our ability to vocalize entirely.
Maybe I would have tried to use that if I wasn’t too terrified.
Move, damn you.
Her command was even worse than what Saffron had used. “Sit still” prevented me from moving at all, otherwise I would have tried to move my hand to my forehead to transfer my mana.
“Now, not everyone here can be equally blamed, of course.” The woman continued. “When Tenjin disappeared, your council was quick to seek another benefactor. Perhaps it was obvious that they would turn toward the most powerful option they could think of.”
The purple-haired woman sighed. “Frankly, I’m very disappointed with all of you.” She turned around, pointed a hand at the people on the stage.
Councilor Lanoy managed to struggle to his feet. “It is…not what…you say…”
“Oh? Did you have something to say in your defense, Councilor? I’d love to hear it.”
“Goddess…abandoned us…long…ago…”
“Oh? What makes you say that?”
Lanoy seemed genuinely confused. “Selys has not appeared in centuries.”
The purple-haired woman sighed, shaking her head. “Are the gifts that she has given to you insufficient? Spires filled with magic, and her own children to watch over you?” There was a hint of spite as she added, “Not all of us are so fortunate as to be the favorite children.”
“You call us fortunate?” Lanoy’s voice was clearer now. “You were born with greater power than any human can possibly achieve, Mizuchi.”
I shivered as I heard the name.
No, no no…
“Power, yes. I certainly have that.” Mizuchi laughed. “But you were the ones given freedom. And you’ve squandered it. Turned away from your benefactor at your first opportunity.”
Lanoy tilted his head downward. “You can have your freedom as well, Mizuchi. Let us discuss—”
“There will be no further discussion.” Mizuchi waved a hand downward and a blast of kinetic energy followed her movement, smashing Lanoy into the ground.
As Lanoy struggled to push himself back to his feet, an aura of lightning began to crackle around Mizuchi.
She took a step closer to the councilor. “Your words are empty. Your excuses are insufficient. You are guilty of heresy and treason. I will be your executioner.”
Lanoy traced a hand through the air. A dozen spheres of mana appeared around him, rotating in a circular pattern.
Mizuchi tilted her head to the side. “Really? You’re going to try to fight me?”
“You’re not invincible.” Lanoy snapped his fingers.
The spheres of mana each fired a series of blasts of white light, enveloping Mizuchi entirely.
When my vision cleared, Mizuchi stood in the same spot, completely unscathed. “Invincible? Not technically, I suppose. But I am close enough that there’s no practical difference.”
Lanoy unleashed another series of blasts with similar results, but that seemed to draw Mizuchi’s attention.
That allowed three people in the guest section to stand up and launch attacks of their own from a different angle.
A teacher called on a rain of ice from the above, sending shards of jagged frost in Mizuchi’s direction.
A Guardian jumped forward, blade drawn.
A woman stood and raised a longbow, firing an arrow that glowed with white light.
Mizuchi snatched the arrow out of the air, ignored the shards of ice, and spun as the swordsman arrived.
When her fist impacted his chest, the room shook like thunder.
The Guardian’s entire chest caved on the impact, and his limp body flew a dozen feet before landing at the foot of a table.
Someone managed to scream.
The aura of lightning around Mizuchi continued to grow.
“How are you outside of your spire?” Lanoy demanded. “Who sent you? Tenjin is gone. Is Katashi so vengeful that he—”
Mizuchi took another step toward the councilor. “You needn’t know the details. You wouldn’t live long enough to act on anything you learned.”
I had a few ideas, but none of that really mattered at the moment.
My focus was on getting enough of my will back to speak.
If I could speak, I could activate my necklace and send messages to Derek and Keras.
Elora was already here somewhere, but I knew she wasn’t at her best. She was still recovering from her mana scars.
Maybe, just maybe, the three of them would stand a chance.
I couldn’t imagine anyone else who did.
Lanoy hurled another attack, a more concentrated beam of light. Mizuchi side-stepped that one. Perhaps it might have been powerful enough to harm her if it had connected, but she seemed to avoid it without effort.
The councilor growled, sounding angrier as Mizuchi drew closer. “You cannot be here without the authority of—”
“Enough.” Mizuchi raised a hand. “I might allow a few survivors to spread the word about what happened here. But you won’t be one of them, Councilor.”
Mizuchi vanished, moving too fast for me to perceive. When she reappeared, her arm was sticking through the center of Councilor Lanoy’s chest.
He slumped forward, unmoving.
Mizuchi extracted her bloodstained arm, shaking her head. I thought I saw a hint of emotion cross her face. Disappointment, perhaps. “Traitor. That death was cleaner than you deserved.”
Mizuchi stared down at the body for just another moment, then raised her head and concentrated. The lightning around her lashed out, then forked toward the remaining people on the stage.
I managed a moment of worry for Lord Teft, still struggling to stand.
The lightning never struck.
It arced upward.
We’d all been focusing too hard on the few people who could stand.
No one noticed the one person who was floating above the entire area, now holding a ball of swirling lightning in her hand.
“Hello, Mizuchi.”
Professor Meltlake landed on the opposite side of the stage, tossing the ball of lightning into the air. It dispersed a moment later.
Mizuchi tilted her head downward. “At last.” She grinned, displaying teeth. “A hero arrives.” She clapped her hands together, a shockwave blasting outward in all directions. The few others on the stage who had managed to stand flew backward, smashing against the ground.
Professor Meltlake just floated back a few inches when the shockwave reached her, otherwise unaffected. She turned her longer, more traditional dueling cane toward Mizuchi. “Let the children leave. I’ll give you the entertainment you want.”
“Oh, no. And deprive you of your motivation? Why would I do such a thing?” Mizuchi turned toward us.
The students.
“In fact, if you’re so concerned—”
Meltlake didn’t say a word. Her cane just flashed and an inferno roared outward, overtaking Mizuchi in an instant. The intensity of the fire was so great that I could feel the heat, even hundreds of feet away.
The flames continued to swirl and smolder for several moments, before vanishing utterly.
Mizuchi turned back toward Meltlake. Her dress had been burned away, revealing purple scales in the place of skin. Only her face and neck looked human.