Chapter 35 - Refused Compensation

Those black marbles pierced her very soul. Cold, uncaring, unconscious. There was truly nothing behind that stare. It might as well have been a weapon with how there was no soul in its eyes. Yet it used rhythm – somewhere within that mangled form existed a soul.

Cryptids, what a bizarre existence.

Holly awoke with a start. She whipped around in a panic. A bed. Again.

She brushed a hand through her grass. “Gotta stop waking up like this,” she groused. It was the MA Office. Somehow, she had ended up in Solana’s room. It was sometime in the early morning, as the windows were filled with the light of the very early sun, though one would be forgiven for still calling it night. She had been laid on the bed closer to the bathroom. Peering across the gap between the two beds, Vivi and Lee slept soundly her opposite.

Now where was that Maestro of theirs?

After some time, she located the head chef, fast asleep between the twin beds. With a sigh, Holly plopped back against her pillow. What strange people.

They must have come to her rescue after she ran away. Definitely strange people. Holly wanted nothing to do with them, and yet they put themselves out for her.

The zalavan closed her eyes. When they opened next, dawn had long since passed to late morning. The other three were now awake and moved around the room with care so as to not disturb the plant. It made her feel weird waking up last, especially considering she had been up hours before.

Solana noticed Holly’s stirring and rushed over. “Good morning dear, how are you feeling?” greeted the chef.

“Like I got hit by a car,” the nature element bluntly commented. “Why did you save me?” she pointedly asked.

“Do I need a reason to help someone who helped me?” Solana quizzed back. “Since you wouldn’t let me pay you with money, perhaps your freedom was the next best thing?” she tittered.

Holly huffed, turning her head away. “What happened to that thing?” came the next question.

The chef furrowed her brows. “Yes, that… creature; we ran it off. Vivi is a very excellent fighter. She didn’t have much trouble with it,” Solana replied.

That tracked – Vivi did look quite athletic. She probably did plenty of exercise or something. Holly couldn’t be certain.

“He said it was a cryptid, a mirage Resonator.” Holly pinched her brows tight as she racked her brain for any more info. “It used spells of different elements.”

“Basic or advanced?” Solana asked.
Holly raised a brow. “Basic, why?”

Solana nodded slowly. “Perhaps it was a null element.”

Now there was something new. “Null?”

“Yes, Null elements can use basic magic of any other element, but lack any magic of their own. I think the saying goes ‘jack of all trades master of none’,” the chef explained.

“Ah, I get it, they trade the power and utility of the stronger spell types for a wide net of different elements.” Holly grasped the principle. Still, that meant there was an eighth mirage species out there that no one knew about.

Then again…

“Besides looking creepy, it was just like any other Resonator,” Holly breathed out.
“Maybe that’s why they’re unknown,” Solana suggested.

The plant nodded. She fell back onto her pillow staring at the ceiling. “It was very strong against magic. How did Vivi run it off?” Holly wondered.

“I kicked it in the face,” Vivi spoke up.

Holly turned her head toward the bathroom where the linsang stood, drying her hands. “It face-tanked a Saldatura ad Arco, so I got in close and kicked its teeth in,” clarified the fire element.

The zalavan sat up. “Like literally or?”
“Not sure if I actually broke any of its teeth, but yeah. It seemed to cave and run off after that.”

There was something they weren’t saying. “What about its Maestro?”

“What Maestro?”

Oh.

---

Holly soaked in the warmth of the shower. Her seed bag and apple seed satchel sat on the downed toilet lid. As the water pattered against her body, she continued to probe her own mind, recalling everything about last night’s encounter.

A clear-bodied tuner was that of a null element – good to know.
The man now after her was a high-up big wig that worked for that Mr. Noel character.
And he worked for the Rene Group; whoever that was.

At least with a name, she had a lead to chase down.

The way the Director dressed spoke of wealth. Most assuredly some kind of important person. What else did he say that stood out?

He referred to her as a “flowerpot” and took note of her possession of the apple seeds. Almost a confirmation going to be used for growing apples.

Also the cryptid; the Director mentioned he had gone through some trouble to bring it all the way here. He wasn’t from Selvica, and transporting the cryptid came with logistical challenges. Or at least that’s what she inferred based on her currently limited info.

There was one final thing that bothered her.

“Cryptids aren’t wrought by civilization – they are birthed from rumor and myth.”

It survived the fire ultimate attack – a spell that destroys anything birthed by civilization. People were considered in this category. Realistically, if the cryptid was a normal Resonator, it would have been melted within the flames of ultimate magic. Even Scherzando weren’t immune to the wrath of that spell. It was as close as one could get to sure kill magic. Yet, the Not Deer took the full force of the attack as if standing in a slight breeze.

It was something different. Something not of this world.

That only reaffirmed her thoughts from last night – whoever she had made an enemy of was not to be trifled with. They had the resources to subjugate this kind of power like it was a common Resonator.

And that was horrifying.

---

As soon as Holly stepped out of the bathroom after her shower, Solana was there and shoved a wad of paper bills in her face.

“Wha-?!”
“Please just take it!”

This time Solana wasn’t asking and forced the cash into the plant’s hands. She glared back at the Maestro. “I said I didn’t want it,” Holly grumbled.

“I feel bad about not paying you, please dear.”

“You already saved me from that cryptid, you’re letting me stay in this room, you let me borrow your Resonators clothes, AND you’re washing my clothes. You have already done enough for me, just keep your money.”

“No.”
“I said keep it.”
“No!”

Vivi and Lee watched Holly chase Solana around the room with shouts of “take it” and “keep it” earning some amusement from the two Resonators.

The joy and merriment came to an end as Solana’s tuners began ringing.

As Solana answered her tuner, Holly took the opportunity to sneak the cash back into her pocket and step back.

“Yes, I’ll be right there,” was what Holly caught of the conversation before it ended. The chef stared at her tuner screen for a moment. “I’ll be back in a little while,” she said after some thought. “Business at the front office,” she clarified.

“Alright, we’ll be here,” said Vivi.
“I’ll get Lady Holly’s laundry when it is done,” Lee added.
“Thanks you two,” Solana smiled.

As she stepped out of the room, she dropped the wad of cash on the counter, again leaving it for Holly.

The plant huffed, folding her arms across her chest. “What’s her problem?” she wondered aloud.

Holly didn’t expect a reply, and yet she got one.

“Lady Solana has been through a lot – she has a bit of a” Lee paused, considering his word choice, “unique perspective,” he decided.
“You won’t find a lot of people like her out there,” Vivi chimed in, though her attention was more focused on the television than the conversation at hand.

Holly dropped into the desk chair she had taken up yesterday. “She’s like some kind of important person, right? She name-dropped herself yesterday and the cop looked like he offended a sage or something.”

Lee chuckled. “Lady Solana doesn’t like using her status as leverage, but also recognizes it can be a useful tool over more violent methods.”

Another interesting piece of trivia for the plant. “So who is she?” Holly asked.

“She’s the heir to the Leduc family, they’re some of the best chefs in all of Riterra,” Lee informed the curious plant.
“And she wants nothing to do with them,” Vivi chimed in.

That was an interesting tidbit. Solana’s cooking skill was top notch and she knew her way around a kitchen, that much Holly herself had observed. Yet, what was this supposed world-famous chef doing out here in the middle of Selvica doing… whatever?

What’s more…

“How’d she end up with you two?”

Lee and Vivi perked up at the question. They looked between one another for a moment.

“Do you want to know?” asked Lee.
“Know what?” Holly asked back.
“How we met her,” Vivi clarified.

Holly remained quiet. She hadn’t ever heard how Resonators found or got found by their Maestros. If nothing else, it’d help sate that tiny curiosity.

“Uh, sure.”

Vivi muted the television and the two Resonators faced their smaller counterpart.

“My goodness, this was a long time ago,” Lee began to recall.
“Was a pretty shitty night, could have gone worse though,” Vivi added.

“Well, let’s start with how Vivi and I met; since all of us met on the same night.”