The Mantis Equilibrium - Book Two - 32. Chapter 32 - Sacrifice

The Messiah who had been chasing Tchama was now dead in the street. An eldritch bolt of orange energy from some unseen Shift farther down collided with the woman and killed her instantly. Her two short swords were on the pavement beside her corpse. That radiant blast was powerful enough to destroy the Messiah, but it also grazed Tchama and left her utterly ruined.

Ilya held her writhing body. One of the young woman’s arms was entirely gone and all that remained was the scorched and gory stump of her shoulder. The burn stretched up the side of her neck and down onto her rips where a huge chunk of flesh from her side was missing; the bones beneath were exposed.

Dozi was beside them, holding Tchama’s remaining hand. She looked up at Auntie Peg with tears streaming from her eyes.

Tchama was gritting her teeth and groaning.

Ninyani touched Dozi’s shoulder and knelt beside her. He took Tchama’s hand from hers and looked into the injured woman’s eyes.

She stared at him.

“They say if you eat this,” Ninyani told her in a quiet voice, as he reached into his pocket, “you’ll get better. I don’t want you to die.” He pulled out his little coin purse, opened it, and withdrew the photonova gland that was hidden inside. Tears began to stream from his eyes, and he repeated himself. “I don’t want you to die, Tchama.”

Auntie Peg and the mystic were the only two who had ever seen photonova glands in person, and for a moment, the others did not know what Ninyani was holding.

“Open your mouth,” Auntie Peg commanded Tchama, as Theolan extended her a thermos of water. “Swallow this, now.”

Tchama could barely respond but managed to obey. She gulped the tiny gem down her throat and drank as Auntie Peg poured a little water into her mouth.

Nothing happened.

Tchama continued to grind her teeth and squirm in her suffering.

The others looked at Auntie Peg in dismay.

“Maybe it was too old,” she whispered.

Then Tchama sucked air through her teeth, and she let out a horrible scream that made everyone jump. She gasped and clenched into a ball with her knees close to her chest. For a moment, she twisted in Ilya’s embrace. Then all at once she stopped and her eyes flashed open.

To everyone’s amazement, the gruesome wound that stretched from her neck down to her side healed before their eyes and became unblemished skin again. Tchama’s arm, however, did not grow back. A fresh layer of epidermis grew, but the bones and muscles and the entire limb remained gone.

Tchama took a breath, pushed herself up to a seated position, and she blinked a few times at them. Then she looked down at the place where her arm used to be, before turning her gaze to Ninyani.

“Tha… thank you,” she stammered, and her eyes filled with tears. Tchama brought her remaining hand to her face, dropped her head, and sobbed.

The others soothed her, and she accepted their comfort. It took time, but when the shock of it all subsided, she looked up and wrapped her arm around Ninyani. She kissed his forehead and he hugged her tight.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he said to her. He pulled back, looked at her armless shoulder, and asked in a quiet voice, “Does it hurt?”

“No,” Tchama replied, “it almost feels like it’s still there, but there’s no pain.” She touched it.

“You’re a Messiah now,” Dozi whispered.

“Don’t call me that!” Tchama snapped. “I’m not one of those monsters! I would never have done this, and now that I’m not on the verge of dying,” she wailed, as she looked around at them, “I feel so guilty! I should have just died! What kind of life is this? Now I’m one of them!” Tears spilled from her eyes again.

“I am, too,” Auntie Peg replied with a kind smile, “and I became one by choice. You have nothing to feel guilty about. Do you hear me, Tchama? You are not guilty of anything except living.”

Tchama broke down in sobs, and several of the others cried along with her. They eventually helped her to her feet, and everyone entered the mystic’s home.

When the group was settled, Dozi stated, “We need an alternate term.”

“I agree,” added Auntie Peg. “I’m an ex-Messiah, but Tchama, you’ve never been one. We’ll have to come up with something different. What did you all call Agrell?” She looked around at the group. “I know that she was raised like me, to eventually be a Messiah, but she didn’t live for a single day as one.”

“I don’t know,” Dozi replied. “We didn’t call her anything.”

“Except for Messiah a few times,” Ilya admitted with an apologetic grin.

“We’ll come up with something for you, Tchama,” Dozi declared, “a term that fits.”

Tchama looked at Ninyani and again she pulled him close and hugged the boy with her one arm. She repeated herself, “Thank you. You really are part of this family.”

Ninyani made an expression as if he suddenly remembered something, and he looked around the room with a furrowed brow.

“Where’s Lahari?” he asked✪