Mercy Chapter 17

Author's note. As I must for each chapter, it seems, I must apologize for the delay, and how short it is. Comments and kudos appreciated.

As difficult as it was to get comfortable with a cast, eventually Faith fell asleep. When she woke, Mrs. Carson was there.

“Hey sweetie, how you feeling?” Mrs. Carson said, smiling.

“Okay, I guess.” Faith answered.

“Good. Now, how much should I chew you out for peeking into another student’s mind, especially without their permission?”

“What? Oh ... “

“Yes. Oh. Those rules exist for a reason, Faith. You are not a trained therapist. You could have damaged Jane while trying to help her. You understand that, right?”

Faith fought back tears, and said, “Yes, Ma’am.”

“Good. Now, try and describe what you found out.”

Faith swallowed her tears, and said, “It was like a trap in her head. Unless the right circumstances happened, she would go on as normal, not even knowing anything was wrong. But if the conditions of the trap were met ...”

“Like her being asked to spar with you?” Mrs. Carson asked.

“Yeah. Then it would be activated, and overwhelm her with hate and a need to kill me if she could. So ... is she gonna be okay?”

“We have very good councilors here. She’ll get all the help she needs to get past this.”

“Good. So ... what do I do now? I ... considered leaving the school, to protect the other students from this kind of thing. But ... someone reminded me that out in the world, there would be even more people Brand could use, once he realized I was no longer here at the school.”

“They were right. I’ll be conferring with our chief of security, and our magic staff. Now that we know what to look for, we’ll make sure it doesn’t work twice.”

“So what do I do now?”

“Rest and heal up your arm. Then back to classes. And you’re going to owe me an essay on the ethics and responsibility of being a telepath. Understand?”

Faith replied, “Yes, ma’am” in a quiet voice.

“Good girl. Don’t worry. And to be honest, i don’t think this was an attempt to kill you. To test you, to shake you up, maybe, not not kill.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because there is no way Sensi would have let the two of you spar without his supervision, and no way he wouldn’t have stepped in, as he did, to stop it before anything fatal could have happened. And Brand must have known that, so this was ... a message, maybe.”

“And what do you think the message was?”

“Study hard, learn all you can, get as strong as you can. Because he’s waiting for the rematch.”

“I was going to do that anyway. Speaking of learning, that’s going to be a little easier now that Donovan has learned his lesson. Thank you for taking care of that.”

“You’re welcome, dear. Donovan needed the lesson, and I’m glad he’s learned it.”

“Yeah, well, he’s not a bad kid. Just got a little arrogant, entitled, and lazy.”

“The fact that you can see the good in him is one of your best qualities, Faith. That’s why I believe when the time comes, you’ll handle Brand too.”

Faith blushed.

“Anyway, you need to rest again, so I’ll let you get to that.” Mrs. Carson said, and then she left.

****

The next week saw Faith slowly return to her regular routines. The cast came off, and soon she could do range of motion exercises without pain. She returned to her classes, caught up on her homework, and did her essay for Mrs. Carson, who praised it.

Along the way she discovered that her ability to absorb manna didn’t just apply to the raw stuff, but she could in fact take manna from spells, especially if they were cast on her or if she touched an object with a spell cast on it.

She was warned that this draining could only occur if she had less than full manna stored. Once full, she could take no more until she cast a spell to use some. They recommended that if she was fighting a mage, she could cast some small spells to drain enough manna to absorb most or all of any spells placed on her.

She was also warned that this only applied to spells placed directly on her. “Area of effect” spells cast near her would not be absorbed as quickly, even if she was low on manna.

Another week passed, and Faith and Donovan finished their project and got an “A” each for their presentation. When Faith told Talia, she said, “Good. There are a few girls with some good grades to celebrate. Come around to the back of Poe on Friday after your last class.”

Friday afternoon finally came, and Faith went around to the back of Poe cottage, and found an amazing sight.

Someone had erected a giant tent, painted it pink and purple, and decorated it with flowers. Faith went in, and found it fully stocked for a massive sleepover, with a giant TV in one corner with comfy looking chairs and pillows near it, a portable kitchen from which she could smell something sweet cooking, and in the back a large “bedroom” with several sleeping bags and pillows.

Talia’s girlfriend Lisa came up to Faith, and gave her a quick hug. “Come on in, Talia’s just about done making snacks, and the rest of the girls should be arriving soon.”

“How did you guys make this place so fast?’

“It’s a prototype that one of the devisors has been working on. I don’t understand the science, but the whole structure is held in a pocket dimension until you summon it. When the weekend is over, we just push a button, and the whole place will go back inside the pocket dimension.”

“Way cool.” Faith said, and went to the kitchen to help out Talia.

Soon, other girls started to arrive. Arwen came, and Ivy, and Seph, and a few more from Poe as well.

But just when Faith thought everybody had arrived who was coming, there was a knock at the door. She went to answer it, and saw Jane standing there looking shy, and beside her was Vantier.

Despite her size, Jane seemed to be slightly shrunk into herself, and she said in a soft voice, “Vantier here suggested I come. Unless that’s a problem ...”

Faith responded by giving her a hug, and saying, “No, please come in. How are YOU doing?”

“Me? But I broke your wrist, almost ..”

“It wasn’t you, Jane. And my wrist is fine. See?” Faith said, wiggling her fingers.

“You sure you want me here?” Jane asked softly.

“Yes!. And it sounds like you need some fun! Come on in, they’re getting a movie started!”

Jane and Vantier came in, and Jane seemed shocked when all the other girls came over and hugged her and asked how she was holding up.

As they settled in to watch the movie and eat pizza and snacks, Jane whispered to Faith, “I ... I thought everybody would hate me.”

Vantier, who was on the other side of Jane, said, “How could we hate you for something that wasn’t your fault?”

Faith nodded, and said, “Exactly, Jane. Now, let’s watch this movie. I’ve heard it’s pretty silly!”

****

Eventually, the movies were over, and girls started to head toward the “bedroom” to slip into pj’s and get ready for bed. Faith saw Vantier holding back, so she went over to her, and said, “Thank you for bringing Jane. Hopefully, this helps her recover.”

“I just figured that while you could tell her she wasn’t at fault, and that you didn’t hold it against her, it might be more effective to show her.”

“Actions speak louder than words.” Faith agreed, “So thanks again.”

“You’re welcome. Now, let’s join the others. I’m rather curious as how this ‘slumber party’ thing goes.”

“Me too,.” Faith admitted. “Let’s go find out together?”

“Let’s.” Vantier agreed, and the two girls went hand in hand into the bedroom.

****
To be continued ...