A New Beginning In A Mana Apocalypse

Resigned I had Nala push everyone farther away. I wanted to disperse them completely but Megan stopped me from doing that. Something about not trying to hide things from the people. I didn"t think it mattered but deferred to her anyways.

While we waited for Caly to finish healing I told Kayda we would speak to the observer once we returned to the house. Kayda was about to object, she really didn"t like the feeling that came with the observer calling for our attention, but she relaxed as the feeling disappeared. Apparently the observer agreed to what I said and stopped pestering Kayda.

With that resolved all we had to do was wait for the man to wake up. Caly was still working on his injuries but it shouldn"t be too long before he woke up. I moved over to Grace"s side pulling her into my arms. She leaned into my chest quivering. She might be fine, but it was still not a pleasant experience to go through.

"If there is ever a next time, don"t hold back." I told Grace quietly.

Grace nodded. "Sorry." she mumbled into my chest.

I rubbed her back in silence for a few moments, my anger eased a bit knowing that she was fine, but it was a bit of a revelation to me. I knew I cared for my girls, but since none of newer girls had been in any danger by themselves, I hadn"t realized how much I cherished them. There was the time when Megan went to the store to shop when I was meeting Derek for the first time, but Megan was someone I had known for a while.

The panic I had felt made me realize that I cherished the other girls just as much as Megan and Karen. While I knew it was wrong I had thought I cherished Megan and Karen more as I had known them longer. It was a thought I had deliberately been avoiding before, but now I wasn"t so sure. I wasn"t stupid enough to claim I cared for them all equally, I couldn"t. However the fear and panic that came with knowing Grace had been put in danger and worse the fact that she could have died scared me. Why was I doing this if it wasn"t to protect my family?

Shouting from the audience drew my attention as a woman struggled to get past the beasts Nala had ordered to stand guard.

Catching sight of the woman I was surprised. Not by the fact that she was a very attractive platinum blonde with bright blue eyes and a killer figure, that was enjoyable but not surprising. Instead I felt another unusual energy emitting from her. It wasn"t nearly as severe as the man with the fire elemental, but it was there nonetheless.

With a mental command I told Nala to let her through.

Megan noticed the direction my attention had shifted too and caught sight of the pretty woman who was being let through. With a sigh she pinched my side making me flinch and getting my attention. "Behave, Michael has been courting her." she told me.

I raised my eyebrows, why did that matter? "That isn"t why I want to see her." I replied.

Megan rolled my eyes obviously not believing me.

"Oh, your eyes are sharp!" Annitte said finally noticing the woman who was let in by the beast guards and was rushing over.

She wanted to rush to the man"s side but I stood in her way. "Wait." I told her. "He is being treated."

"He wouldn"t need it if you didn"t attack him." the woman retorted angrily glaring up at me. She really was pretty, but not as pretty as Grace or Monica.

"I wouldn"t have attacked him if he wasn"t hurting my wife." I replied coldly a bit of anger seeping out. I was not satisfied with the man"s treatment. He had hurt Grace and was currently being healed by one of my other wives. It didn"t sit well with me, but I needed information, even more so after Annitte told me about the elemental.

"He wouldn"t." the woman said defensively.

"Yet he did, there was an entire crowd who witnessed it." I replied curtly.

She flinched under the pressure of my gaze.

"Who is he?" I asked.

"Nathan Rastron, my elder brother." she replied.

"And you are Felicia?" Megan asked b.u.t.ting into the conversation.

Felicia nodded.

Megan smiled. "Don"t be mad at Daryl, he is very protective of us." Megan said taking control of the conversation.

I opened my mouth to steer the conversation where I needed it but Karen moved into my side pressing herself against me momentarily getting my attention. When I looked over at her she shook her head at me.

I rolled my eyes. Did they forget that we could communicate silently?

"I"m sure he didn"t mean it." Felicia told Megan looking down at her brother helplessly.

"Maybe, but his actions after that could have put a lot of people in danger." Megan replied.

Felicia sobbed and quivered. "I"m sorry, please don"t kick him out. I will do whatever you want, just don"t kick him out!" Felicia begged tearfully.

"Tell me about the elementals." I told her.

Felicia stared at me surprised. "What? Elementals?" she asked.

I nodded.

Felicia seemed to rack her mind then shook her head. "My brother and I are trying to specialize in a particular element, he is using fire, while I am using air." she told me a hopeful look on her face.

I frowned at her. I wasn"t sure if she was lying or not. Her brother was clearly possessed by a fire elemental and even she was giving off what I was now thinking of as energy from an elemental. It wasn"t as crazed as her brother"s though.

"It is possible they don"t know." Annitte spoke up.

Everyone shifted their attention to my sister.

"It has happened a few times in the haven. Sometimes when those who specialize in an element they gather too much energy inside of themselves in an attempt to further their understanding. In those cases the surplus energy harms them fracturing their minds, a part of their mind then merges with the energy creating a new elemental." Annitte told us.

"Seriously?" I asked skeptically.

Annitte shrugged. "That is the theory. Like today the situation always turns bad as the newborns crave a great deal of energy to sustain themselves and grow. If they don"t get it they will die. Few of those instances ended as well as this one. The fact that he targeted Grace saved us as you were informed sooner than later, even a few minutes could have caused a great deal more damage."

I listened but I had a feeling there was more to it than that. Grace had the red mist in her inner s.p.a.ce. That would have meant it gave up some of its energy, which didn"t fit Annitte"s theory.

"For having been around for a several hundred years. You don"t seem to know that much." I commented.

"I know more than you. Besides this isn"t my specialty." Annitte replied tersely.

"Do you mind if I look into your inners.p.a.ce?" I asked Felicia, "You are giving off an energy similar to the elemental that had possessed your brother."

Felicia shivered a look of fear on her face. Then nodded quickly. Obviously the fear wasn"t directed at me.

I reached out and laid my hand on her shoulder.

"Daryl!" Michael shouted angrily from the line of guards.

I ignored him and closed my eyes.

Unlike her brother Felicia"s inners.p.a.ce looked normal. She had a green core, four elements; earth, wind, water, light, and the body ability. Three of her elements hadn"t been awakened. Just her body ability at two stars, and her wind element with six stars. It was the most stars I had seen in anyone other than my own.

However I noticed a problem immediately. Her core only had two stars and appeared strained like it was about to break and her inners.p.a.ce was filled with a mist full of air energy just as the red mist was full of fire energy.

Releasing Felicia shoulder I looked over at Annitte, "How many levels can abilities exceed the core?" I asked.

Annitte frowned, "I wouldn"t suggest more than one, two at most. If an ability exceeds the core to much it causes problems." she replied.

"Problems? Can you be less vague?" I asked.

Annitte shook her head. "No, it is something we have seen before but still don"t understand, and few are willing to harm themselves so we could research it. Though we do know that it depends on the ability. Mind and Body can be a lot higher than the core without causing much harm as they are a direct part of you. Elements are the worse as they bring in a lot of external power. Beyond that I don"t know, again it wasn"t my field of expertise and the few who went to far, didn"t leave us much to investigate."

I sighed, maybe the observer could help out with this, her call had been to soon after dealing with an elemental to be unrelated.

"Daryl!" Michael yelled again, he had gotten past the guards and was walking quickly towards us.

"Calm down, Felicia is helping us investigate the attack on Grace, nothing more." I told Michael when he was close enough I didn"t have to shout.

"And how would she be any help?" Michael asked suspiciously.

I narrowed my eyes at him, I didn"t like the way he was acting towards me. "It was her brother who attacked Grace." I replied seriously.

Michael looked over at Nathan then stopped a look of surprise on his face.

"Even so, there was no reason for you to touch her!" Michael replied angrily.

I stiffened my anger soaring.

"Enough!" Megan yelled getting between us glaring at her brother. "Daryl was checking her inners.p.a.ce now calm down, you"re scaring her." Megan yelled at her brother clearly as angry as I was.

Michael glanced at Felicia to see her having inched herself behind Nala and Kayda.

Michael took a deep breath trying to force himself to calm down.

I glanced at Felicia myself. She was pretty, but I didn"t see anything special about her beyond the air elemental energy she was emitting. I guessed that Michael was worried I would take her into my harem, but honestly the idea hadn"t crossed my mind.

"Sorry." Michael eventually forced out though he didn"t seem happy about it.

I wasn"t the best ladies man despite the number of wives I had, but if that was meant to rea.s.sure Felicia, he failed utterly. Which was really unlike Michael. I stepped forward closer to Michael and grabbed his shoulder before he could react. Peering into his inners.p.a.ce I noticed that he had advanced to a blue core, and like Felicia he was specializing in wind. He had three stars in his core and five in his wind element so the imbalance wasn"t as sever.

"It"s not as sever, but he is doing it too." I told Megan.

"What?" Michael asked as he shrugged off my hand while glaring at me.

"Current theory is Nathan"s fire ability outgrew his core to much making him unstable.

"Not just unstable, the fire burned up his core and abilities. If he wakes up he will probably be a normal human." I told them.

"What?" Felicia asked.

"Is that what caused the damage to his inners.p.a.ce?" Caly asked from beside Nathan.

"Yeah, even after getting hit he kept gathering fire energy like nothing else mattered. It seemed odd so I checked his inners.p.a.ce, by then there was only the fire energy burning his core, no signs of any abilities. I pulled all the fire energy out and had to throw it into a s.p.a.ce pocket." I told Caly.

Caly frowned, "but he seems to healed for that." she responded.

"I fed him some of my energy, it sucked it up and restored a lot of his inners.p.a.ce, but I didn"t see any trace of his abilities being restored." I explained.

Caly shook her head. "There aren"t any, he is an unawakened." Caly told me.

Felicia gasped then cried.