บท 53: 2nd Lifetime: 'Saving' Jaquine

Cornelia looked at Mai and slowly shook her head. When Mai had turned her head back to look at Jaquine, it was after a loud 'thump' was transmitted to her ears.

Mai flinched. She dreaded the next moment, but it had to be done. Slowly turning her head around and with her eyes closed, she faced the tombstone that Jaquine was on just moments before.

She opened her eyes.

Jaquine was on the ground. She wasn't moving.

Mai's heart clenched. Her nails were digging into the skin of her palm so hard that she knew she drew blood.

"Don't move!" Cornelia hissed at her, grabbing Mai's fist.

Mai shot her a glare but stayed in the same spot. Jaquine landed on her bakc. If anything, she should only have had the wind knocked out of her and nothing too serious.

Please, let it not be serious.

She watched as a young priestess with the same brown robe walk to Jaquine. She bent down and placed her hand above Jaquine's mouth. After a few seconds, she straightened up and turned to face the crowd. "She's alive."

Mai felt a weight lift from her shoulders and her worry quickly trickled away to be changed to a burning anger.

She watched as a different brown-robed priestess poured a bucket full of what she assumed to be cold water over Jaquine's head.

Jaquine sputtered and coughed, waking up immediately from her short little "nap". She shot up from her laying down position and sat with her feet extended in front of her.

"What?" she looked around, her eyes as large and as innocent as a doe.

A different brown-robed priestess walked out from the crowd, and Mai watched the way she walked as well as the girl's posture. She was sure that it was Ophelia.

The girl walked over to Jaquine and crouched down, reaching for a lock of Jaquine's hair. "You're such a pitiful girl."

With just her voice, Mai confirmed that the girl was indeed Ophelia. She took a deep breath and released her clenched fists for a moment before clenching them once more. She can't teach them a lesson yet.

"Stand up," Ophelia looked at Jaquine as if she were a bug, "you still haven't finished your ceremony."

"What?" Jaquine croaked. She looked completely lost as she looked at the older and more authoritative figure of the girl before her. Mai's heart went out for her.

"Exactly what I said," Ophelia stood up and accepted a handkerchief from the same girl that had poured a bucket of water on Jaquine. "You aren't done yet."

The other priestesses in the crowd chuckled- it was in complete contrast to the expression that Mai had: completely anger.

The girl that checked Jaquine's breath lightly kicked Jaquine's foot before she said, "You need to find something."

The other girls laughed again in a knowing way.

Mai jabbed her elbow towards Cornelia, but Cornelia shook her head ever so imperceptibly. Even though she knew that Cornelia had a plan, she was reaching her limit. So what if this was the Cardon faction? Did this mean that she had to stop everything because the other was an organized group? Hadn't she defeated the revolution with just herself and a few others? Sure, it was suspicious, but she still managed to do so.

Shaking her head to get rid of her unnecessary thoughts, Mai watched as Ophelia turned around to address the crowd of priestesses directly.

"It will be a scavenger hunt." her voice rang throughout the graveyard, bounding and echoing on the tombstones.

Silence remained for only a few seconds before the girls began to clap their hands and stomp their feet in approval.

Why hasn't anybody noticed this? Or perhaps they do, but they choose not to?

Is this something that all factions go through? But why was Cornelia surprised about the ceremony then?

"This potential candidate for the Cardon faction must find three objects," Ophelia's voice boomed and was received with a grand welcome from the priestesses.

She looked behind her and saw that Jaquine had stood up. Grabbing Jaquine's arm, Ophelia triumphantly looked back at the crowd once again. "What must she find!"

The girls stomped and cheered for quite a while before another girl stepped out from the crowd. She did not speak until the crowd quietened down, her voice eerie in the quiet of the graveyard. "She must find a golden globe, light in weight but heavy in meaning."

The girls cheered again until another girl stepped out from the crowd. "She must find an overlooked fabric, always there yet never noticed."

Mai watched Jaquine's face carefully. She was still pale from her fall earlier, but Mai could tell that she was turning paler as she listened to the words from the two girls.

Mai tilted her head to listen to the third and last girl. She swayed in an almost mystical way as she grinned, "She must find a needed companion, helpful only when controlled."

When the last girl completed Jaquine's final 'hunt', the graveyard became completely silent. Only the rustlings of the trees and the sound of grass grazing stone could be heard.

Finally, after a short while passed, Ophelia walked forward, pulling Jaquine along with her using her left hand.

Ophelia raised her other hand, her palm raised towards the moon. "Goddess Vestia, please look upon our newest candidate kindly! Guide her so that she completes her given tasks!"

The girls then repeated Ophelia's last two words, increasing their volume until Mai's eardrums burst.

It was longer than she had expected, but finally Ophelia pushed Jaquine behind her, where there was the entrance to a large forest.

Jaquine looked at her and shot Ophelia a pleading glance. However, she eventually stumbled her way into the forest once she noticed how nobody was going to help her.

It was at that moment that Cornelia tugged at Mai's sleeve.

Finally.

They were going to help Jaquine.

The two of them discreetly weaved their way through the crowd and entered the forest at a different location.

"Do you know where she's going?" Mai asked Cornelia, her breath coming in short gasps- it seemed that she needed to exercise more.

Cornelia shot her a look of annoyance. "No, but if we're fast enough, we can catch up to her."

Mai quietened, and her mind immediately drifted to the riddles that Jaquine needed to solve.

A golden globe, light in weight but heavy in meaning.

An overlooked fabric, always there yet never noticed.

A needed companion, helpful only when controlled.

Obviously, the overlooked fabric was a welcome mat, something that almost all of the houses of the common people have. Mai remembered it when she had went back to the Vestigal castle with Jaquine after they had assisted the sick and elderly.

The 'needed companion' could be two things: water or fire. However, since this was a forest, they probably meant fire as Mai was sure that the technology hasn't advanced to making dams like in her first life.

However, she had no idea for the golden globe.

What could it be?

Cornelia- with Mai behind her, following her footsteps- dodged under the branches of a large tree. She ran with single-minded devotion.

Mai, on the other hand, had her mind elsewhere.

Suddenly, Cornelia gave out a surprised hum as she noticed a running shadow in front of her.

It was Jaquine.

Cornelia broke out into a run, weaving past the trees, branches, and roots with relative ease. It took a few seconds for Mai to follow, yet she managed to keep up with the older girl.

When Jaquine was a foot away, Cornelia lunged for her, successfully managing to latch onto her feet and preventing Jaquine from running away.

Jaquine struggled, terror in her eyes. There was no recognition at all.

Mai slowly walked towards her and patted her head. "It's us, Jaquine. No need to be afraid."

It was as if Jaquine was a puppet whose strings were cut- she had abruptly stopped moving, her arms and legs flat on the ground.

"Municia?" Jaquine's voice was more like a mutter than anything else. She turned her head with widened eyes when she noticed Mai's figure.

"What am I? Chopped liver?" Cornelia said, releasing Jaquine from her hold.

Jaquine didn't stand up, instead, she fixed her position so that she sat with her legs crossed before Mai and Cornelia. "What are you two doing here?"

It was Cornelia that answered. "We're here to kidnap you."

And it was both Mai and Cornelia that answered. ""What?!""

Cornelia smiled deviously. "You can't become an official Cardon faction priestess. If you do, a Cardon faction teacher will be moved to become a part of the Vestigal court. And we can't have that."

Shooting a look towards Mai, Cornelia gestured with her hands for her to help in dragging Jaquine away.

Mai looked at Cornelia in disbelief.

Cornelia gestured even more furiously with her hands.

Sighing, Mai shook her head more forcefully and looked at Jaquine. "Just come with us, Jaquine. We'll figure out what to do from there."

Jaquine nodded, and the three girls made their way to a clearing.