Secrets of Shiryoku: The Gift - Part Four

      I knew that wasn’t a good sign. However, merely common sense alone could have told me that morbid fact.

      My safety was being compromised being in that dank room; again, common sense would’ve been able to warn even the dumbest individual of that fact. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t. I sat on the mouldy floor of the dungeon-like room with my hands bound behind my back.

      However, I wasn’t alone. Besides me were Hanso, the Captain of the Guard, and Nikkou. Hanso and the captain were both knocked out and completely oblivious as to what was going on. However, Nikkou was different; her head whipped back and forth vigorously, as if she was having one of her Shiryoku visions. I figured that was the case, and I also figured that Nikkou’s vision was exactly what he or she was looking for.

      The figure gracefully stepped forward. With each step he or she took, the faint light of the room dimly illuminated her shadowy veil. I tried to figure out who the Neopet was. Each detail, to me, was so unfamiliar and perplexing at first. However, I eventually realized who the Neopet was.

      She was the Speckled Xweetok that I saw at the library back when I first met Nikkou. Her scornful complexion was the same harsh and sinister one as the day I (casually) met her at the Faerieland Library. Her dark green hair was wild and untamed; her relaxed purple dress was worn and tattered. The only difference regarding this particular rendezvous was that her circular glasses were no longer adorned on her face.

      Nikkou referred to her as Xandra. Xandra was her first student, her only student, and her worst student...

      ...and she soon became my nightmare.

      Xandra crouched down and met at eye level with me. She gave me a cursory examination, then recognized me. “I remember you,” she admitted. “You were that girl who was nervously reading that book about shrubbery in the Faerieland Library before the crash.”

      “...which you caused,” I added as I muttered the very words under my breath.

      A burst of anger ignited in her worn eyes. “I don’t want to hear lip!” she dictated. “After all, I just got released from my stone prison... thanks to a certain faerie.”

      A sinister grin stretched across her wretched face.

      “Are you suggesting that Nikkou set you free?” I asked, baffled. “She always vented to me about how much she hated you!”

      “But how do you know if she’s telling the truth? How long have you two known each other? Five minutes?”

      “About four months, thank you very much!”

      “Whatever. She could have lied to you. Not the first time she’s done so...”

      “Pardon?”

      Nikkou’s eyes slowly began to open. Her eyelids pounded open and closed a few times as she began to regain consciousness.

      “She’s a liar, I tell you! I should know; she taught me everything I know about magic. I lived in this very room for a great length of time. This is where I nearly destr—I mean, taught her a lesson about honesty. She taught me everything about magic, but squat about integrity and the true power of the faeries.”

      After she fully regained consciousness, Nikkou jerked her head in various directions, trying to absorb her surroundings. Her eyes darted from one corner of the room to another, and each glimpse gave her a ghastly, fear-filled pallor. “Xandra... what have you done?”

      “You freed me, don’t you remember?” she asked the light faerie.

      Nikkou looked genuinely shocked. “Never! I dare not do such a thing, likewise I dared not to ever return to this horrid place ever again.”

      “Nikkou,” I asked, suffering from stark confusion, “where in Neopia are we?!”

      “Xandra’s old dorm...” she began to say. She nearly choked trying to say the next few words: “...when she used to study under my guidance here in the Hidden Tower.”

      “But... but how did we get here? I thought that you said that it was impossible for her to return—“

      “I told you that she’s a compulsive liar,” Xandra pointed out, “but you didn’t listen.”

      Nikkou whispered in my ear, “I’ll explain everything later... just help me get us out of here before something bad happens.”

      “Yeah,” I replied sarcastically, “because this isn’t bad enough.”

      The faerie elbowed me, then asked Xandra in outrage, “What is the meaning of this?!”

      “Simple: you have an ability to see into the future,” she explained. “Shiryoku is the reason why I ended up becoming stone... that is, until the presence of a certain force released me.”

      What does she mean by “a certain force?” I thought, confused.

      Xandra continued: “With your ability, I can render you powerless AND make myself more powerful. With this ability, I can change the future in my image. I can finally wipe this planet of all its winged tyrants!”

      I saw tears gather in Nikkou’s eye. “You had so much promise, Xandra. How could you become the real tyrant?”

      “ME?! A tyrant?! Preposterous! I loathe the thought.”

      Xandra pulled out something from a bag on the floor. It was a hand-crafted, blown glass vial with a glass stopper enclosing it. It shone in the dim sunlight and gave off an extremely radiant sparkle. It was such a beautiful object, but I was sad to consider the fact that Xandra was going to use it for one of her wicked deeds.

      She chanted an incantation as she raised the empty vial into the negative space above her. She then pointed it at Nikkou. Right as she was about to uncap it, something remarkable happened. Hanso somehow broke free of his binds and jumped on top of Xandra. The vial fell to the ground, but didn’t shatter. Regardless of that unfortunate fact, Xandra was distracted. He got off of the vain Xweetok and ran over to untie the captain, then Nikkou and me. I grabbed the vial and shoved it into Xandra’s bag (which was technically mine, because she seemed to have stolen it from me when she brought us to the Hidden Tower). I strapped the bag across my shoulder and tried to open the door, but it was charmed with a spell and wouldn’t unlock.

      Xandra got up and tackled me to the ground. She tried to get the bag off of me, but I resisted as best I could. Nikkou seemed to be casting numerous spells to try and unlock the door, and Hanso was desperately trying to awaken the captain.

      In other words, I was on my own.

      I tried to force Xandra off of me, but I wasn’t strong enough to do so. Xandra continued to peck at my messenger bag, and I tried my best to keep her from obtaining it. “Hanso,” I asked as politely as I possibly could, “do you mind taking a break from waking up that guard? I’m kind of being—“ I then said this part in Xandra’s face: “—attacked by stupidity.”

      “How dare you!” she cried, repulsed at the sound of my insult.

      Hanso turned around and looked at the two of us. He found the remark to be very funny. He directed his attention away from the Kougra and back at the villain and me. He head butted into her side and knocked her over. He quickly helped me up, and then he went back to waking up the girl.

      The Captain woke up at the same time that Nikkou seemed to have figured out the correct spell for opening the door. She cast it, then quickly slammed the door open. The lot of us ran out and closed the door behind us. Nikkou quickly cast a spell on the door to detain Xandra—at least for a little bit—then we all ran as far away from the room as we could, trying to get outside of the Hidden Tower.

     -x-

     When we got outside, I fell to the ground and began panting. “I’ve never run so fast in my life,” I complained, “and that’s coming from me!”

      Hanso was breathing heavily himself. “I’d have to agree with you there.”

      Nikkou glared at the tower and thought out loud, “She’s still up there. With all of that power, she could escape easily. I think that we need to return to Shenkuu and hide with Heiwa again... but I don’t know if she’d be okay with extra visitors.”

      Hanso remembered something. “Or,” he suggested, “we could go to a little hideout that I happen to have in Brightvale.”

To be continued...