Nova, Maram, Sam, and Ruby, also known as Team A, made their way into the chamber. Ruby pointed to a spot in front of the entrance. "Ian told me you fell here," she said to Nova, giggling.
Nova glared at her. "I still have your smartphone; don't make me break it." Ruby quickly focused and proceeded forward to Nikola.
Team A walked over to the corpse with Ruby. "What exactly should we do with it?" Ruby asked.
Nova walked next to Ruby. "I would say let's revive him, but we can't do that; he has no heart or brain."
"I could pocket him, and then we can get a cleric's favor to revive him, and we'll be done," Maram said, beginning to prepare her Manick ability, but Nova stopped her.
"If we move him now, we're putting Nikola's spirit at risk," Nova said, re-examining Nikola's shell of a body.
Ruby tilted her head in confusion. "Why can't we? I've seen multiple people do it before."
Sam butted in and explained, "Spirits are bound to their body. You wouldn't know that because back then—"
"Don't start prattling," Maram interjected.
"But what about his organs? Why do we need them?" Ruby wondered aloud.
Sam continued to educate Ruby while looking around the chamber. "We need his mind, body, and soul: his brain, the physical body, and his heart. You probably witnessed a high follower perform the resurrection when you were younger. They can just wave their hands, and bam, a fully restored corpse."
"Well, we're a sect, and Nova has been here the longest. Why can't he pray to Jenti? He should have the most faith out of any of us."
"We're a sect, but not a sect with enough followers for our god to have that much power, although it isn't impossible."
"What now?"
"Well, first we can revive him at another sect, but that'll be expensive. Second, we could find a ritual that could revive him, but that's too cumbersome. The third option is to leave him and send him off."
Nova spoke up. "Absolutely not. I'm not letting him pass on unless it's his call, and I'm sure it's not."
The others looked to Nova, expecting more to his statement.
"We don't have his brain or heart, but we have the body, and we're too broke for a cleric's favor. So we're going to continue with our lives as is."
Ruby, rightfully confused by Nova's decision, exclaimed, "Whoa, hold on. You just said we can't let him die; now we're just gonna leave him to rot?"
Making his way over to Sam, Nova answered, "We'll talk it over with the team."
Maram gagged a little and started fixing her cloak to cover her nose. "Let's not forget why we're here."
By the time Maram had fixed her cloak, Nova and Sam were already investigating. Sam stared at a trail of blood drops leading away from the wires where Nikola's body was found.
"Any thoughts?" Nova asked, walking alongside Sam and following the trail.
"This is impossible. If he was killed in the bath, he had to have been placed there," Sam said. He crouched down, studying the droplets. "The higher the fall, the bigger the droplet." Following the trail back up, Sam explained to Team A, "The shape of blood drips can help us determine whether Nikola was dropped, carried, or hit so hard that he fell into the wires. So if you look—"
"Prattle!" the other three yelled in unison.
"He was carried here and then dropped after taking a hit to the head," Sam finished, annoyed.
"Great, case closed. Can we go now?" Maram asked, hoping to get out of the chamber as soon as possible.
Sam walked over to where the blood trail ended near the wall, with Nova following behind him. "What now, Sam?" Nova asked.
Sam looked around for more clues and spotted a vent with a missing screw. "You see that? Would the head of security and our resident scientist leave a vent unsecured like that?"
"No, I don't think he would," Nova replied.
Nova studied Maram, or more specifically, her manick signature. He traced his finger through the air, making a circle with Manick joules. They formed a strange portal, glimmering with fading particles of violet light. He reached in, pulling out a small, beat-up twine doll. It had Nikola's dirty blonde hair and was decorated with blue buttons for eyes.
Everyone stared at Nova. Nobody said a word until a few moments later, when Maram broke the silence. "What. is. that."
Nova presented the doll to the group. "There's a ritualist who taught me how to make soul captures. We can just transport Nikola and his soul together."
Sam took the doll from Nova's hand and studied it. "Why didn't you mention this before? And how did you not know about this, Maram?"
"These are really hard to make, and I don't want the team to use the idea of coming back to life as a crutch." As Nova took the doll back and soaked it in Nikola's blood, turning the brownish twine into a deep red color, Maram answered Sam's second question, "Nova copies my ability; therefore, he copies the rules of my dimensional space. His space and my space are completely separate; there's nothing I could do about him putting his things in there."
Sam looked at Nova putting the doll back into the pocket space. "Now that we have his soul, Sam and I will figure out what's wrong with this vent. Maram, start to get his body into your pocket space."
While Team A investigated the vent, Team B sat outside, bored. Ian was still meditating while Gala tried to convince Ourania to get her nails painted since Ruby's session had been cut short.
"If you let me paint them, I'll give you my dessert tickets for a week," Gala offered.
Ourania smiled weakly. "For a whole week?"
"Keep asking me questions, and I'll make it four days," Gala teased.
Ourania and Gala interlocked their index fingers, outputting a little manick energy—a show of good faith among mages. The more energy you put out, the more important the promise is.
Gala reached into her cloak pockets for her nail kit but was interrupted by a slight buzzing or flapping sound. In front of Team B appeared a metallic scarab. The team was startled by its arrival. It began to turn on its axis as if it were looking for something.
"What's it doing?" Ian asked.
"It's obviously flying; keep up, man," Will said, trying to hold back his laughter as Ian looked at him, bewildered.
"Did Nova ever activate it? Or is it trying to return?" Ian wondered.
"I have no clue, but just to be sure, we should crush it," Gala suggested.
The scarab zipped past Team B, trying to reach the door, but Will was faster. Activating his Manick ability, his forearm and hand bloomed open, exposing all of his tissues. He trapped the scarab by turning his phalanges into a spherical cage. He looked back at the rest of Team B, expecting praise, but Gala was covering Ourania's eyes while also closing her own, and Ian was barely facing Will.
Will retracted his bones back into his arm while keeping his hand in a cage formation. "Well, at least I caught it," he said with a heavy sigh.
Ian apologized. "We're sorry, we tend to forget how **gnarly** your powers are."
"You think my powers are cool?" Will asked hopefully.
"No. Gnarly in a disgusting way."
"NOVA! WE CAUGHT A BEETLE!"
All of a sudden, a rattle came from the bone cage. Ian and Will looked at the scarab; it flapped faster and faster, trying to escape.
Will moved his hands to face each other horizontally, combining his bones to make an ellipsoid cage. Ian winced at the sight but gave Will a reluctant thumbs up.
Team A rendezvoused with Team B.
Nova looked down at Will's hands. "I assume that's the beetle?"
"No, it's just balls for my roulette machine," Will expressed with attitude while the Scarab jittered around in his hands.
Nova rolled his eyes and demanded Will, "Let me see the beetle." Will opened a small window. Nova attempted to grab the scarab, but the elytra hit his finger, bruising it.
"Well, that's a problem. Sam, grab it."
"Hold on, why me?"
"'Cause you're perfectly suited for this."
Sam approached the small hole. The bones moved around his hand, allowing Sam to snag the scarab without it escaping.
"I got it!" Sam took out the beetle, but the beetle felt off. Sam had held the beetle a couple of times for Nikola and Nova; it had never felt this heavy before.
Sam put the beetle back slowly into Will's cage.
"Sam, why'd you do that?"
"The weight is off."
Nova gave Sam a confused look. "How much did it feel off?"
"Heavier by a few ounces."
BOOM! The beetle released a small explosion on Sam's palm. His hand had beetle remains in it, though he wasn't bleeding.
Everyone stared at Sam, but not with concern; with anticipation of his **Manick ability**. Just then, his skin started to pop the shrapnel out one by one. As the shrapnel was pushed out, the skin instantly healed the scar tissues.
"I told you, you're dummy-proof. Nothing can kill you." Nova slapped Sam on the back and picked up the scarab parts. He took a pouch off Ruby's belt, then stored the scraps in the pocket space.
"Alright, guys, I have a plan, but we need to make it back to the library."
The mages made their way back to the library. Despite the fact the team had only been gone for an hour, when they got back to the meeting room, they found Wisdom passed out cold.