The Mantis Variant - Book One - 8. Chapter 8 - Dozi & Agrell

Before the evolution of Shifts in the world, magic was relegated to the realms of fantasy and fiction, but that all changed in the Advanced Era. In those first few decades before the Lost War, scientists made some startling revelations. They realized early on that not only did consuming a Shift's photonova gland provide the eater with invulnerability, but those researchers who experimented on the glands were able to perform what many viewed as miracles.

Over the decades, those who tested the limits of what was possible by using the glands, adopted for themselves old and abandoned monikers. They called themselves alchemists and mystics, and an entire subculture arose around them.

The connection to cosmic energies in photonova glands allowed those who manipulated them to perform wondrous feats that indeed seemed to many like magic. These neo-alchemists provided a plethora of lesser charms that allowed them to achieve things, which people who used to call themselves witches wished they could have performed.

Potions for love or endurance or wisdom were common concoctions. Among those enchantments often requested of mystics were spells that gave a person an advantage over their enemies, or helped couples to conceive, or assisted one in finding that which was lost.

It required only a single photonova gland for mystics to produce a vast quantity of potions and spells. However, the alchemists eventually learned how to use a fresh gland to perform enhancements on unevolved humans. A single gland allowed a few dozen humans any number of incredible abilities, but the powers stolen were always far inferior to the abilities of the Shift whose life was taken. Enhanced humans saw themselves as above their homosapien siblings, and they took for themselves a new name. They called themselves Demifae.

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"Hey, skinny girl!" Dozi called over the noise of the Frozen Fair crowd. "Yeah, I'm talking to you!"

Agrell's attention turned from the two men that seemed to be discussing being 250 years old, and she focused on a young woman vendor behind a table of mushrooms.

"You look like a fish out of water," Dozi stated, "and you're one serious string bean, kid."

Agrell thought that she looked no less of a kid herself.

"You're right out in the middle of things. Come back here with me and get out of the way. I'm Dozi," she commented, as Agrell followed her instructions.

She stepped up next to Dozi and pulled her cloak tight. Agrell was not ready to have anyone else recognize where she was from by her community attire.

Dozi was in baggy and bulky clothes. There was a knit hat on her head that was blue and white with sparkling thread running through it. She wore a confident smile and looked right into Agrell's eyes.

"You lost, kid?" Dozi asked her. "Look like you've never been to a market before." She chuckled.

"I never have," Agrell replied. "This is my first time."

"Well, then welcome! It can be a lot," Dozi commented, and she looked around at the busy fair. "There are so many people here, and this is the first day of the festival, so everyone is excited about it. It's one of the highlights of the year. I’ve been selling mushrooms at markets around the city for a few months now, but this is my first Frozen Fair as a vendor."

Dozi was not providing much opportunity to reply, but Agrell was feeling rather dumbstruck. The overstimulation was intense and she was grateful to be behind the table with the other woman. Watching the festivities would allow her to get her bearings.

"If it's your first time," Dozi asked, "are you new to the city?"

Agrell did not answer and stared out at all the people and other vendors. Performers in bright costumes danced and played musical instruments while they sang songs.

"I'll take that as a yes," Dozi replied to Agrell's silence. Then a customer approached the front of her table to purchase mushrooms.

Agrell watched the exchange take place, but she was far too distracted by the exciting festival to pay close attention to what was happening with mushrooms and money. The customer was older, a tall man with broad shoulders and a thick beard with a little gray in it. In the community of Agrell's childhood, no one ever grew out their facial hair. The customer was wrapped in a heavy jacket with a fluffy collar; his hands were gloved and a thick hat was on his head. He smiled at Dozi as he handed her several coins, and Agrell thought that the man's eyes were very bright. He tucked his purchase into a sack and bowed to Dozi, but then he also bowed to Agrell. She did not know how to respond, but then he turned and mingled back into the crowd.

A dark-skinned woman all in white meandered down the row of vendors. Her body was very curvaceous and she swayed as she walked. With skin the color of rich chocolate, she looked radiant in her wintery ensemble. Not only were her coat and leggings white, but her boots and gloves were white as well. Even the hair that crowned her head was as bright as the snow that sometimes fell on the highlands outside of Teshon City. She peeked at the wares offered by one seller and then another, and she smiled at the two young women as she passed Dozi's table of mushrooms.

Suddenly a fireball flashed off to one side, and Agrell was amazed to look over and see a man breathing flames. He was not accomplishing it by spitting a spray of oil from his mouth in the direction of a torch, but instead, the man was simply ushering a jet of flames into the air like a dragon. Nothing else about the man appeared reptilian; he did not have a tail or horns. He just seemed to have the natural talent of expelling fire from his mouth.

Agrell was in awe, but then she got a taste of the city's darker side.

"Boy!" roared a man in a voice that Agrell could tell was full of rage. "Knock that Shift shit off and keep it in your own fucking neighborhood!"

Dozi said under her breath, "Oh, great, Messiahs."

Several scowling individuals shoved their way through the happy crowd, and they were bearing down on the firebreather.

"We have no interest in seeing the disgusting shit you can do," continued the man. He bulged with muscles and stood a head above his companions. "Keep your damn mouth shut. If you spray fire again, you'll deal with us."

Before the growling man could say another word, a jet of flames blasted right at the gang. However, instead of delightful little fireballs, now it was like a blast furnace. Chaos erupted, and all around, people began screaming and fled for their lives.

The flames hit the oncoming beast of a man in the chest. He put his hands up in the way, but he roared as the blaze ripped into his empowered flesh. Even being a Messiah was not sufficient protection against the onslaught. He fell to his knees, as his arms disintegrated to scorched bones before Agrell's eyes. The blast raged into the huge man's chest and peeled his body open like the petals of a hideous flower. He was eviscerated by fire, until his head bobbed and rocked and then flopped back, barely still connected to his neck.

The flames vanished and the firebreather shut his mouth.

Sprawling on the ground like some sort of otherworldly extra-dimensional being of twisted and vile flesh, the meat of the Messiah man’s upper body was roasted away by the blaze. Smoke curled from the charred bones that protruded from it.

Agrell's eyes were fixed on the deadly encounter, and she did not see the other approaching enemy, as one of the smoldering corpse's companions snuck up to the firebreather from behind.

Then everything went horrible.

A woman kicked the man in the back of one knee and it buckled. He stumbled to the ground, and flames again came scorching out of his mouth, but she upprcutted him in the jaw. His mouth slammed shut, and smoke came out of his nose. He coughed, then turned his flames towards the woman, but she was armed with a dagger and stabbed him in one eye. His blaze shot wild, spraying around the fair, and several people were hit by the inferno. More screams rang out across the old airstrip.

The scuffle grew worse, as the woman stabbed the Shift in his other eye. He clutched at his face, maybe wailing in agony, but the roar of the flames that gushed from his mouth muffled any sounds he made. His fire burned down the festival.

Agrell was agape and staring, appalled by what she witnessed. She stood frozen, and flashed in her mind back to the murder of her cousin, mere days ago.

Fingers gripped into her arm.

"Let's get the fuck out of here!" Dozi shrieked, as she stuffed her mushrooms back into their carrying case.

"What is happening?" Agrell yelled over the commotion.

"Later!" snapped Dozi. She slammed the lid of her case shut, grabbed Agrell's hand, and dragged her away from the chaos.

Agrell looked back and saw the Messiah woman with her knife. She was standing over the firebreather and wearing a hateful smile. He was dead. Like the red priest with the poor murdered boy, the woman now sliced deep into the man's neck. Flames continued to sputter out of his mouth, even though his life was spent. One terrible yank severed the firebreather's head from his shoulders, and the fire died as well. She gripped a fistful of hair in one hand and raised her knife in the other. The woman then licked the blood from the blade.

Dozi tugged Agrell away from the violence and down an alley. The two women made their way along a narrow path with buildings looming above them, and as they wove through the city, more than one panhandler reached out and begged for whatever they could spare.

They rounded one of the base's old warehouses, and the two young women stopped in their tracks as they were confronted by a lecherous old drunk. He was leaning against a wall, mumbling incoherent syllables, and slobbering on himself. His trousers were unzipped and one hand was down his pants. When his bleary eyes focused on Dozi and Agrell, he started making animal noises and pulled his sweaty hand from his waistband. He clawed for them, as they tried to slip past, and caught hold of Agrell's cloak.

She pulled to free herself, but inadvertently caused him to stumble against her, and he slung an arm over her shoulder. The man leaned into Agrell, sloshed some of his booze onto the pavement, and he pressed his dirty face to hers. His stubble prickled her skin. Then he licked her cheek.

Agrell caught a whiff of the sharp spiky aroma of alcohol, mingled with putrescence from whenever he last vomited. His tongue felt pasty against her face. She recoiled in disgust and her hands found his torso. Agrell pushed him with all her might.

"Let go of," Dozi started, but her voice vanished.

The man flew back, his body smashing into the wall behind him. The bricks cracked and the mortar between them buckled from the impact. His eyes glazed, blood seeped out of his ears, and he wheezed out his final exhale as he slid down the wall.

"What the fuck?" Dozi mumbled in shock. She scanned Agrell, and noticed the hidden clothes beneath her cloak, but she grabbed her hand and raced off around another corner. "What the fuck? What the fuck?" she kept repeating to herself. She turned down a few more alleyways, then finally stopped running and held up her hand. Dozi shook her head and said to herself, "I must be out of my damn mind." Then she added to Agrell, "Come on!"

Dozi led her quite a ways through the neighborhood until she ducked under the overhang of a building and they stepped into a shadowed corner. She turned to Agrell with her fists on her hips and arms akimbo.

"You’re a Messiah?" she asked. Without waiting for Agrell to reply, she added in a shocked voice, "You really did it? You actually went through it?"

"Went through what?" Agrell replied.

"You're one of them, right? You’re a Messiah?"

Agrell dropped her head but did not answer. Her little cousin's dead face was tattooed behind her eyelids, and she saw him every time she shut them.

"I mean," Dozi continued, "isn't there only one way to become a Messiah?" She hesitated, and despite that no one else was around, she continued at a whisper. "You ate a person?" Even in the gloom, Dozi's expression looked both surprised and disbelieving.

Agrell exploded with pitiful sobs and she fell to her knees on the dusty floor of the alley. Her face dropped into her hands, and her long hair draped down around her fingers. She wailed into her palms with her arms trembling.

Dozi was caught off-guard by the outpouring of emotions. Agrell's body shook with her sorrows, but Dozi put a gentle hand on her shoulder. Agrell immediately leaned into the other young woman. She wrapped her arms around her waist and cried against Dozi's stomach.

The layers of thick clothing that Dozi always wore provided a soft padding against which Agrell sobbed her sorrows, and although Dozi felt awkward, she put her palms on Dozi's back. She looked down at the skinny young woman and tried to soothe her, uncertain of what caused the reaction.

After Agrell released that tiny fraction of her overwhelming pain, she was again calm, and Dozi spoke to her in a quiet voice.

"Whatever you went through was not your fault," she comforted. The immense shame that Agrell felt was palpable to her, and Dozi was not going to blame her for anything the cult did.

"It was my decision," Agrell whimpered.

Dozi grabbed both sides of the cape that Agrell stole and tugged it open.

"Hey!" she cried out in protest.

Dozi ignored her. "But you're from that cult, aren't you? I know your people's clothes."

Agrell did not understand the word Dozi used. "We are Messiahs," she replied and pulled the cloak tight again. "I was born there. I was," she hesitated, "I was raised to believe that Shifts were an abomination of nature. I was told that I would take part in our blessed ritual," Agrell's voice broke, "but they murdered my cousin! He was just a boy and they killed him!" she wailed. Fresh tears burned her eyes. "They murdered him," she said again, but then her voice dropped to a whisper, "and I was covered in his blood. They cut his head off right in front of me."

She kept speaking through her tears. "The elders surrounded me, and they were chanting when they broke open his head and took out his mantis gland. All of them were staring at me and they kept repeating the word and stomping their feet, and I did it!" she blurted out. "I did it; I swallowed it!"

Agrell balled her hands into fists and screamed. It echoed through the empty alley, and Dozi's gaze shot all around the streets, worried about who might be drawn to her cries. Then the area fell silent again, and Agrell took another ragged breath before she spoke.

"I made the decision," she declared. "No one forced it down my throat. No one made me swallow it." She growled through gritted teeth, "Why did I do it?"

Dozi repeated herself in a gentle voice. "It wasn't your fault," she consoled and reiterated. "That horrible thing was not your fault. What the cult put you through," and her voice trailed off, as she tried to ease Agrell's suffering, but Dozi could not help feeling a twinge of jealousy.

That mantis gland could have empowered a lot of us humans, she thought to herself, but guilt instantly washed over her for even thinking it. She cradled the distraught girl who lost her cousin, and although Dozi felt a little awkward doing it, she gently stroked her fingers through Agrell's hair as she sobbed✪