Capítulo 8: Now It's Mine
{Establishing Secondary Poison Resistance}
My eyes snapped open, and I immediately rolled over to dry heave. Shivers raced through my body; even my organs were no exception from the creepy-crawly sensation. Nothing came up but air, and eventually the shivers disappeared and my stomach settled. I fell back onto the leaves.
My mind was a mess. I remembered being dead and my conclusion that I acted immaturely in this young body, but I also dismissed that conclusion. I felt perfectly fine. Why would I have ever questioned myself? But that was the problem in the first place. Would I spend the rest of this life questioning myself?
"Reinka?" I glanced around. "Are you there?"
"Yes." I felt a slight weight on my chest and she appeared kneeling there, her expression sulky.
I grinned. "Were you hoping that I had forgotten about you?"
"We're not supposed to talk until you turn thirteen." She rubbed her hands on her dress. Her irritated tone was adorable. She may have looked like a teenager and talked like an adult, but she was the size of a kitten and her voice was more high-pitched than a one-year-old child. It was a pity that she was too small to hug without squashing her and lacked the necessary fluffiness.
"And if anyone comes to punish us, I'll take the blame, OK?" I very carefully poked her tiny nose. "Before that happens, though, I have a question."
She exuded even more sulkiness.
"I still don't think that—"
"Not about holy magic." I was getting tired of craning my neck, so I gently picked her up (she squeaked) and sat up before placing her on my crossed knee. "Before I died and after I came back to life, I heard a voice. It sounded like my voice, but more robotic. It mentioned something about getting poison. Do you have any ideas?"
She was finally distracted from her tantrum.
"Getting poison? Are you still hurt?" She sparked the connection again, though this time I could feel it. It was as uncomfortable as it looked and I had to stop myself from smacking her off my leg. "Your health is fine. There's something strange, however. Wait two minutes."
Precisely two minutes later, she looked up from her meditation. Her eyes were wide with disbelief.
"You have a new permanent spell. It's not as expansive as your holy magic, but it can be used immediately without training. In addition, your constitution has changed."
Permanent spell = abilities = this new life really isn't all that different from my past one. I sighed.
"What's the new spell?" I asked, though I had a guess.
"Poison Bite. And you are now immune to poisons. Not completely, but enough that it would be very, very difficult to be hurt by most poisons. How did this happen…?"
"Do I have any other permanent spells?"
"That's not enough for you?" She raised her eyebrows at me.
"No, I'm very satisfied. I've always wanted to kill people by biting them," I replied with no little sarcasm. "But there may be another spell that explains all of this. Unless holy magic can do this?"
"No, it can't. Wait two more minutes."
This must have been her own special ability, because two minutes later again she was looking up, her eyes quickly shedding the glazed look.
"You have a… how would one describe it? A thief spell? It activates under a… special… circumstance…." She frowned, shooting a pensive look at me. "I don't think you should know this."
"Why not?" She just gazed at me. "That's not fair. You've already told me most of it, just tell me the rest." She shook her head. "What's so wrong about it? Why can't you tell me?"
"I'm worried about your safety."
"Can't we just heal me if I'm hurt?"
"That's the problem!" She hit my knee. "You're too careless with your own life! You almost died! And yet you don't seem to care at all. You were a ghost, and it never bothered you. If you knew that you could gain spells by almost dying, you would be trying to kill yourself left, right, center, up, down…." She gasped, her hands flying to her mouth.
We stared at each other.
Finally, I asked, "Is it any spell?"
"No. Just the one that almost killed you." She sighed. "Do you understand? There is no purpose to this spell except to go around getting yourself almost killed by others with spells. This is just perfect for someone who doesn't seem to care whether she lives or dies!"
"I care," I replied softly. "After all, if I die, you die, right?"
"Yes, exactly!" She stopped. "That's not the point! You should care about yourself more. You're only 3-years-old. You shouldn't be running into death."
I smiled. "Then think of it as an extra challenge to keep me out of it. In the meantime, how do I make sure that I'm getting the right spell?"
"You really don't care, do you? You should have heard the spell before you were bitten. Once you hear the spell, you will have at least half a minute before it is cast, enough time to escape, counter, or… well, whatever you want to do about it. Personally, I am hoping that it does not involve killing us."
"No, just almost killing us." I laughed as she jumped up, her wings fluttering madly. I kept laughing right up until she leapt at my face and punched me square in the nose.
"Hey!" I rubbed at the sore spot. "That wasn't nice!" She punched me again. "All right, all right. I'm sorry for laughing." And again. "I'm sorry for being careless?" And again. This time I had put up a guarding hand. "Come on, give me a break, Reinka!"
I paused. "That's not your name, right? What's your name?"
"I told you," she said, rubbing her fists while sitting on my left shoulder. "I don't have a name."
"Then can I give you one?"
She snorted, which totally didn't match her fairy image, but seemed to suit her well after she had relaxed.
"Of course, you can. Who else do you think will? Choose whatever you want, just make sure that it's female, because I use the she/her pronouns."
"You what?"
"I use the she/her pronouns." She scowled at me. "Did you just assume that reinka followed the hominid's binary genders? We personify magic, and magic comes in many different forms, so naturally there are many different genders."
"So, are all holy magic reinkas female?"
"Of course not." She shook her finger at me. "Even holy magic has different forms."
"Then are you female because I'm female?"
"It is an absolute coincidence. We may be bound for life, but we are still different beings." She patted my ear. "Think about my name, not my gender. I would like a nice one, please."
She seemed to have gotten snippier with me ever since she discovered my second ability. I guess I couldn't blame her. I was lucky that her hands were too small to strangle me. Actually, I was lucky about a lot of things. Just when I almost died, she had happened to be there to not only save me, but also explain everything. In the future, I would probably rely on her a lot as well. If not for her, I would never have known that I had a second ability. Not to stress the point, but I wouldn't be even alive to take advantage of that ability. It was an unbelievable coincidence. She was my own deus ex machina.
Ah, dea ex machina.
"Maxine." I smiled widely. "We'll share the same first letter in our names and it has a strong feeling to it, while at the same time being a female name. What do you think?"
My reinka Maxine tilted her head, and then nodded.
"I like it. Thank you."
"You're welcome." I stood up and patted the dirt off my clothes. "We should go home now. Mom's probably worried, or asleep and in need of help from healing magic. But first…" I turned to face that log with a huge grin that I'm sure looked pretty evil, since Maxine's face had suddenly gone pale. "I have a snake to catch."
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder