“But this is ridiculous! How can there be ‘a bullet with my name
written on it?!’” I exclaim.
Terra eyes the now fully
reformed bullet again and then shakes her head, “In all honesty? I
don’t know. But this bullet clearly was meant for you. And it was
not supposed to leave behind any traces.
“Never fire an arrow
that could come back to you…” I mutter, recalling the old
proverb. Someone was afraid that I’d survive and trace the bullet
back to them...but how would I even…
“Say Terra...you up for
helping me find the person who did this?”
Terra gives me a
slightly irritated look and then puts her cocky smile back on, “The
way I see it, there’s exactly two ways this little meetup will
end...either you help me find the piece of shit that
shot my sister and just maybe they’ll live, or I will do it myself.
And trust me, you won’t be getting any of your precious answers
from them any more once I’m done with them.”
My detective
mode kicks back in and I ask, “...you’re saying you have found a
way to make sure people stay dead in this place?”
“...no,
but ‘death’ isn’t what I had in mind anyway. I have a few
things in my toolbox that are infinitely worse anyway…”
I
find myself gulping at Terra’s threat of vengeance. ‘Infinitely
worse than death’...now that I think about it, there’s plenty of
that, actually. People often tend to think that ‘death’ is the
worst thing that could ever happen to them. But that’s not true.
Torture for example. Keeping the poor sap alive to inflict more and
more pain. No, death is really not the worst thing. If anything, it’s
the end of suffering...and joy...and...well, everything really.
Though now, that I am stuck in this place where the supposedly dead
reside, not even that is true. Not even ‘death’ is the end of it.
I know that a bunch of religions speak of an afterlife, but I doubt
any of them prophets ever imagined it to look like this...not even
remotely.
I shake
my head and extend my hand, “Very well then, glad to be working
with you then.”
Terra takes it to shake it, but immediately
her face distorts into a pained grimace, but her hand is like iron
around my own, I would’ve needed to cut it off to get away from
her.
But fortunately the seizure like attack doesn’t last long
and Terra lets go of my hurting hand and I ask, “What in the world
was that?!”
Terra looks up at me, something dark and wild in
her eyes and just for a moment it feels like I am not sitting across
a humanoid girl, but some hungry beast that looks at their next
meal.
But just as quickly as it came, the murderous intent
disappears from her eyes, she turns away and holds her head as if
suffering from a heavy migraine.
After
recovering, she says, “Well, that one was new…” as if it was no
big deal whatsoever.
“‘New’? You looked as if you were
just about ready to keel over! What happened?!”
“...a
vision. When I took your hand. I saw...a grand abyss. Where none who
dare tread can ever return from...just who...or what are
you?”
“...sorry to say this, but your guess is as good as
mine…” I reply, unsure what to make of that. She touched me
before, why’d that vision pop up now? Because of what happened?
Because she let her guard down? I really don’t get any of that
magic stuff.
Terra
wipes off multiple beads of sweat from her forehead and extends her
hand again, saying, “Alright dude, I’m ready to go
again.”
“Excuse me?!” I exclaim, jumping to my feet. This
girl must be frigging nuts if she wants to go through...whatever that
was again! I mean, I wasn’t even part of it, but it sure looked
painful.
“Pshaw,
the vision just got me on the wrong foot, that’s all. But I want to
know what triggered it.”
“And what do you promise yourself
from that?! I mean, what—”
“Listen up, pal!” Terra says
with a sharpness that commands absolute respect, “Visions like
these always mean something. I made the mistake of disregarding a
vision once and it just about cost me my home, my identity and almost
my life! I’ve learned my lesson. Now hit me again or I’ll hit
you!”
“Um...well...you’re not going to jump into my face
or go all psycho on me...right?”
Terra gives me an annoyed
look and grabs my hand...but nothing happens. Something that’s
obviously not lost on Terra as she lets go of my hand again and
mutters, “Of course…”
“...you...didn’t see anything
this time...right?”
“Right. And I also don’t feel any
magic from or within you.”
“...could’ve told you that I’m
not magic,” I retort, chuckling involuntarily.
“You’d be
surprised how many people are ‘magic’ without knowing. Either
way, since I messed up this chance to learn something new, we need to
use our heads instead...so what’s the next step?”
I take a deep breath and go over what I’ve learned thus far. Always a good idea when you’re unsure on what to do next. Though it should really be apparent. I need to find the guy who went to the trouble of making an iron-coated bullet with some sort of heat spell on it. Which is actually what I wanted to ask Terra about prior to the little episode.
“Right,
you’re knowledgeable. Who do you think even could ‘enchant’ a
bullet with this spell?”, adding in thought, ‘Please don’t say
“Just about everyone here…”’
“...any decent sorcerer
could do that, really. But you’re right, the spell is probably our
best bet. Let me check if I can recognize the signature.”
Terra
picks the bullet up again, but then starts cursing violently as the
bullet suddenly combusts into nothing but smoke and ashes right
before my astonished eyes.
“W-what happened just there? Didn’t
you there…”
“...damn it all, that frigging smart-ass...he
hid a second spell beneath the first one causing the bullet to
destruct immediately if anyone tried to use magic to look at the
first spell.”
“...self-destructing evidence? How every
convenient…” I mutter, looking at the ashes, “So much for that
clue.”
“…let’s go,” Terra says, getting up, pulling
out a knife from seemingly nowhere.
“...go? To where?”
Terra
gives me a wry smile and then says, “Why, dear detective, we’re
off to go see the wizard.”
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