16: Reglear

"Kiara is strong." Lyra said proudly as she came up behind Vo. She was a lot calmer after her bickering match with Zen, where she won the round.

"The girl is syn, not into her powers yet so can pass as a boring human. The enthrallment was for humans and non magic, so naturally didn't work so well on her. Stroke of luck." Zen dropped the fact.

"Syn? She can't be."

Zen chuckled at Lyra's disbelief. "What, that she's syn or that you don't want to admit that your bestess buddy Sam was keeping a secret from you." He sarcastically patted her shoulder and moved past her.

Nothing more was said when the three trekked down dank corridors. The thrumming drone started again. They saw the moss patches replaced with jagged silver flecks and small protruding square shaped ends of the raw lagnea mineral.

"My head is burning... I can't..." Lyra heaved for breath and dropped to the ground.

Vo pulled out a vial and struggled to see it. "One left." He flipped the lid, sipped a bit and knelt to hold it before her. "Healing vial to clear the head."

Lyra pushed off some of her face cloth, sipped a bit he gave her. Vo rose to give Zen the rest.

"Thanks buddy." Zen slapped his back.

"We have to find a way to deal with lagnea..."

"Before it melts our brains to mush? I'm on it." Zen clicked his tongue and gave a cocky thumbs up.

Nothing more was said, as they kept their mouths closed with efforts to reduce lagnea exposure.

The further they were around the silverish raw mineral, they felt their minds being pulled.

"My head... feels... so heavy." Lyra moaned.

Vo shook his head, doing his best to ignore the throbbing to his temples. His eyes watered, struggling to keep a clear sight of the way.

Let's go Vo...

A young blond girl in a navy dress raced ahead of him. She beamed with a glorious and beautiful smile as she extended her hand to him.

"Akari?" He reached out for the fleeting image and felt his body wobble.

Stone fall alerted him to the truth of his situation. He had nearly tumbled off a narrow ledge. He shook his head and fixated on the non contaminated dark stone to keep his mind to the present.

They eventually stepped into a small alcove, which was free from the lagnea taint and could breathe.

"By Anul, that stuff is potent trippy shit." Zen huffed and slumped down, propping his back up against a wall. "Why any sane mage wants to ingest this natural drug baffles me."

"Have you come up with something?" Lyra's ask came across rather snappy.

Zen didn't have the energy to snap back so just clicked his fingers to stir an ice breeze around their heads, clearing away some of the headache. "I can starve off the effects with my magic, but it doesn't help if I'm affected myself. So we could go well with some reglear. That red rock has a counter poison that absorbs lagnea energy."

"Bad idea. Fight poison with poison." Lyra huffed.

"Well we don't have any so you, being an airflow for our heads, will have to do for now." Vo patted his back. "But, let's think of a better plan. We're no good if we can't keep our heads."

"You can use me. With a passive spell, I can redirect the lagnea into me, keeping it off you." Shane added.

"Be like a sponge? No, it'll damage you Shane."

"If your ice buddy consistently applies his ice mist magic over us, it will slow the lagnea absorption. And usually where there is strong lagnea there is reglear in clumps."

"Ok, we'll look for reglear while you keep our heads clear. But at any time you feel yourself slipping, stop."

"Your sword say something or it got the shakes?" Zen impassively noted as he stared at Vo's sword, which had stopped trembling.

"I have a plan. It seems reglear grows where lagnea is the strongest. We carry a tiny piece of that red rock, it'll starve off the raw lagnea effects without leaving a poison in us."

"Oh, right, so that's how the miners would've done it."

"Done?" Lyra asked an obvious dumb question.

"Small brain, miners have to use something to keep their heads on. Where there's lagnea there usually is reglear." Zen condescendingly patted her head and yelped, crying out with pain when she grabbed his hand and twisted it. "Okay, okay, I was being rude. No need to get all power girl on me."

She let it go.

He shook and blew on his sore wrist.

"Let's look for some. Can't be far. The lagnea here is lots and strong." Lyra suggested.

"My sword can absorb the lagnea effects for a short span. So we don't have much time to search." Vo rose and rechecked his gear. "Zen, if you can cast an ice mist over us while we search, it will help keep us sane."

"Got it boss." Zen winked.

They left the alcove and carefully examined the wild growing lagnea mineral. Vo noticed Lyra's movements go sluggish and approached her. Shane absorbed the lagnea impacts on her.

"Don't stray far."

She nodded and groaned at Zen's tacky smile.

The three of them wandered down the tunnel until they saw a small red clump among the dirty silver stone. Vo pulled out a dagger and vial. He tipped some of the vial's contents over the dagger's blade, stowing the vial, carefully pried off some red rock. Two tiny pieces were placed in the palm of Lyra and Zen's hands.

Vo had Shane deactivate his magic. "So, is it working?"

"Oh my head is still clear." Lyra nodded with a smile and placed her piece in her breast pocket.

Now that everyone was able to keep a clear head, they continued. The way opened into a vast cavern where they couldn't see the ceiling and a steep drop was below. They heard a calamity of shouts, stomping and steam noises. Potent stench of fish, iron, acrid-clay and sulfur wafted up their noises

Vo crouched and carefully stepped toward the ledge. The others followed.

They peered down to the happenings below.

"By Anul, what is this?" Zen gasped, horrified at seeing the human monstrosity below.