11.3 - A Moment of Silence

Being in Anomaly's house, there was no doubt the entire place was also my enemy.

I had to pay attention to my surroundings, in case a renegade floor board, a random lamp, or even the shelves and sofas came to life to attack me.

There was nothing I could trust about this Mage.

Not anymore, at least.

I had to be fast, efficient.

I again summoned three crimson arrows of solid light, and I shot them at her.

Anomaly weaved her arms once and blocked the arrows, dissipating them with her crude shield of cyan-colored Magical energy.

"Jace..." she said, terrified. "Don't...Please, don't do this...!"

I kept silent and attacked her again.

Her eyes widened. "Stop...!"

Anomaly rolled out of the way to dodge the next set of red arrows. She got to one knee and reached out with her left hand.

I braced myself, anticipating either a column of light or a crescent of energy.

But nothing escaped her open palm.

Instead, Anomaly closed her hand into a fist and pulled it to her.

I felt a flat surface slam into me from behind and I fell onto the mahogany floor. There was a cyan glow around me, and I glanced back to see that the slab of Magic blocking the front door had slid forward.

I cursed at her and jumped to my feet, cautious of the floor.

"Can we please...stop this?" she pleaded.

Again, I refused to reply, and tried again to use two more solid light arrows against her.

But, as soon as they manifested, they never left the space next to my arms. They remained there, frozen.

I kept looking back and forth between the arrows. Their red hues suddenly changed to cyan, and a sudden cold swelled next to my arms as the arrows morphed into ice.

I backed away as the ice arrows melted.

Anomaly had her arms raised. She weaved them twice, and the floating droplets and streams of water circled her.

"Stop it, Jace," she begged. "I don't...want to do this!"

I remained silent.

Using my own arrows may not be an option, after all.

However...

I noticed the lamps glowing along the wall behind her.

If I couldn't generate my own light, perhaps...

I reached out with my right hand, focusing on one lamp, and Anomaly winced in fear.

At once, the lamp burned out as its shining radiance flew to me. I then guided it towards Anomaly, and the streak of golden orange light crashed through the mini rivers of water around her. One streak of solid light slammed into her, and she collapsed to the floor. No longer under her control, the floating waters fell and soaked the hardwood.

Anomaly jumped back up and glared at me angrily.

I glared back and commanded the streak of light to fly at her again.

Anomaly reached out just before the streak hit her, but, to her dismay, she could not control it. She crashed through the wall by the stairs, and some of her putrid artifacts fell to the floor.

The golden orange light swirled around me in a way similar to how Anomaly controlled the water. I walked over to the middle of the living room and positioned myself in front of the hole in the wall.

Anomaly appeared a moment later, walking clean through a bookshelf to the right of the hole.

She didn't say a word, but I could tell by her expression—she was confused as to why the light around me did not obey her. I had my guesses, but I'd not dare share them with her. She observed me, pondering her next move.

The crescent moon hairpin above her left eye glowed a cyan light, and she breathed deeply.

She clasped her hands together, and I took the initiative to prevent her from casting another Spell.

I glanced back at the energy slab still blocking the front door, and I figured I'd have to either knock out Anomaly or try escaping another way—the back door, or the windows, perhaps.

I forced the swirling golden orange light to split into two streaks and ordered them to slam into Anomaly again.

Anomaly manifested two oval shields and blocked the streaks, just before they hit her. The dual impact caused sparks to fly at the points of collision, and I backed up towards the doorway leading into the kitchen.

The back door was my goal.

But just before I made it to the doorframe, Anomaly ducked, dissipated her shields, and reached out with her left hand at me—or rather, at the space behind me.

The golden streaks of light crashed into a bookshelf and the wall to my right.

I kicked off the ground to get away and immediately backed into another glowing slab of cyan energy—in the same size as the one blocking the front door.

I tried punching the energy slab, but every strike only made my arms hurt even more.

"Jace!" she yelled. "Stop it! You're only hurting yourself more!"

I stared at my enemy. "You cannot keep me here, Anomaly! Let me out!"

"And let you join Molecruel?! Absolutely not!"

She outstretched her arms and extended her fingers, before lowering her hands slowly. I watched as more slabs of glowing energy covered the windows to her left and right.

The entire living room now glowed with a vibrant tint of cyan.

I growled. "How long do you plan on keeping me here?!"

"Until you promise you won't join the Science Division. Until…you come to your senses…!”

"You cannot control me, Anomaly."

"I'm not trying to control you, Jace! I'm trying to help you! There's...something else I need to tell you..."

"I'm not interested in anything you have to say!"

"Then I...I can't let you go...!"

I glanced at the hole in the wall where Anomaly crashed through.

There was a wooden table to my right and a single cushioned chair on my left.

I took a deep breath. "All right..." I said to her. "All right...I'll listen to what you have to say."

"...?"

I placed my left hand on the top of the cushioned chair and tapped my fingers a few times.

"You...mean that?" Anomaly asked, still keeping her arms raised.

"I do," I nodded. "Yeah. Whatever you need to say...just...just say it already."

She lowered her arms and relaxed her shoulders.

"Jace..." she said softly, and it reminded me of our past conversations at Old Canal. "All right. So, uh...where do I begin? Um...So, my grandma, Mitsuki. She and I were—"

I tightened my grip on the cushioned chair, imbued it with a forward trajectory, and pushed it swiftly at Anomaly.

"Aah!" she yelped.

I didn't hesitate. I reached for the wooden table to my right and did the same—imbuing it with a trajectory and hurled it forward.

A cyan glow engulfed the cushioned chair, then the wooden table.

But I was already a few feet from the hole in the wall, just a few feet away to freedom, when—

A circular slab of light suddenly blocked the entrance, and I slammed into the glowing wall, collapsing to the hardwood.

"Aagh! Nngh!" I felt my head as the pain seared.

I blinked several times as the light surrounded me. I panicked and tried to stand, but the pain in my head kept me down.

I breathed heavily and tried to get to my knees.

I raised my head and saw Anomaly with her right hand stretched out to me.

"I'm sorry," she said.

I gritted my teeth. "No...you're not...!"

"I am," she frowned. "Also, I knew you'd try that little trick. Pretending to listen, then trying to catch me off-guard. You're an idiot, you know that?"

"N-Nngh!" I clutched my head.

"I'll heal your head if you agree to hear me out."

"I don't wanna listen to what you have to say! Don't you get it?! You're a liar! You can't be trusted! I can't even believe I trusted you before! I should've known...I should've known better!"

"No, Jace," she said. "I'm the one who should have known better...I should've known better than to think I could have used you for my own selfishness. I was wrong not to tell you the truth from the start. About me, about my grandmother, and about why I'm after Molecruel."

I kept silent.

Anomaly shook her head. "I should have told you about Ambrigado when you returned the Spellbook to me. But I didn't trust you, or really anyone back then. I only had myself and my Spellbook. I mean..." She placed her left hand on the silver book locked by three bands of leather at her left waist. "...This is all I have left of my grandmother, and it's kept me safe all this time...But then...then I got to know you. I got to spend time with you..."

"Save it, will ya? I'm not...your friend..."

"Yes, you are," she insisted. "You've always been my friend ever since we met. On the day I accidentally delivered you that damn bomb."

"You're...insufferable."

"I know," she grinned, "But that's why I have you to straighten me out. And I would rather die than see you join the Science Division."

I blinked again and suddenly noticed the glowing box of Magical energy all around me. Anomaly moved her right arm, causing the box—and me inside it—to hover in front of her.

"I don't blame you for being mad at me, Jace, I really don't."

"Then...why won't you let me leave?!"

"Because I don't want to lose you to Ambrigado, I told you. You're my best friend, and I...I can't just let you—"

"Another lie," I sneered.

"No, I'm not lying! I mean it!"

"Best friends would know each other—they'd know each other's history. You don't know anything about me, and I don't know anything about you!"

"...Then, will you give me a chance to tell you my story, Jace?"

I placed my hands on two sides of the glowing box and pressed forward in both directions. At once, the glowing box shattered into a million pieces and burned off into nothing.

Anomaly did not react. She only stood there, standing between me and the front door.

I got to my feet and stood, facing her.

Our eyes met, and, for the first time, I wanted to hate her. I wanted to hate this girl who lied to me, this girl who used me, this girl who nearly got me killed plenty of times because of her own personal vendetta.

But I couldn't.

I knew I couldn’t, and I hated that I could never hate her.

But I needed answers.

And, if she wouldn't give them to me...

I glanced at the hole in the wall with its glowing circular slab of energy. I looked back to Anomaly, who simply shook her head.

"Tch!" I scoffed at her, and I again dashed to the hole.

I punched it seven times, when it finally cracked open. The cyan energy broke away, and I was about to pass into the next room—a library with a large window leading outside, when—

The entire library room went black, and I nearly fell into a dark void of nothingness.

I felt something tug at me from behind and I was hauled back into the living room. Anomaly remained where she stood—her arms both outstretched. She levitated me back to the middle of the space.

She exhaled. "And now, we can finally talk," she said confidently.

"What do you mean?" I demanded. I then noticed that the glowing slabs of cyan light covering the front door, the kitchen doorway, and the windows were gone.

Anomaly just stood there, waiting for my next move.

"So? What's it gonna be? Talk to me, or continue your tantrum?"

"We have nothing to talk about," I said again.

She squinted her eyes at me. "Huh. So, tantrum still, huh?"

I turned my body to see that, beyond every possible exit—any doorway or window—was the same dark void that led to nowhere. "Wait, what...what is this?"

"One of my aces," she replied. "Boy, I'm glad I learned this before today!"

I punched at the floor. "I said, what is this place?!"

"It's a pocket dimension," Anomaly explained. "It's a space where I can talk to you one-on-one, where we can finally hash things out, as we should."

I did a double take at the open kitchen doorway behind me and pointed to it. "What if I just bolt out of here now?"

Anomaly shook her head. "I wouldn't, if I were you. All exits here lead to nothing. Even I don't know where you'll end up if you step beyond that doorframe. There's no guarantee I'll be able to catch you in time, either, so...Jace, can we just talk?"

"..."

"Please..."

In this "pocket dimension" where time and space seemed irrelevant, I found no other options. This was a level of Magic I couldn't even begin to comprehend.

For now, I had no other choice.

The Mage won this round.

I met her eyes again. "How do I know you're not gonna lie to me about anything else beyond this point? How do I know I can trust you?"

"Because I've never allowed you to die in any fight we fought together. And I'm not gonna let you die the next time we face Molecruel."

"We?" I raised an eyebrow. "You assume we'll be all right with each other after this?”

Her expression was solemn. "I hope we will be."

"So...you're saying I just have to take your word for it?"

Anomaly unshackled her Spellbook and tossed it onto the sofa closest to her as she took a seat on a cushion. She raised her head at me.

"I have nothing to hide from you, Jace. I just want to tell you my side of things for once."

I resigned myself to whatever fate would come next. Maybe this was a time of silence we both needed, I thought. I grabbed the overturned cushioned seat and kicked a trajectory on the ground to turn it right side up.

I sat down and relaxed my body, meeting Anomaly's eyes.

"Go on, then. Tell me your damn story, Ela. Everything." I removed my hood, exposing my head to her for the second time in our yearlong friendship. I leaned back on my chair, feeling the pain in my head fade away. "If I find out you're lying to me again, I will kill you," I warned her.

Elaina smiled. "All right," she replied. "Bet."