Chapter 56 - Becoming Whole Again

"Thank you again Mage Kalcifer." Princess Alessandria exclaimed as she squirmed around on a plush velvet cushion.

"Really, don't mention it. Now at least you'll stop your incessant complaining." He said as he whipped four horses pulling a large wagon.

They had left the border city a few hours before, heading south towards Morgania. Being only a small city, they did not have a wide selection of wagons. In the end, Professor Kal was forced to purchase a traveling merchant's wagon, including all the goods and horses, to find one large enough for all of them to ride. The price was exorbitant, but the Princess was the one to foot the bill.

A thick canvas cloth was supported by curved wooden ribs, designed to keep rain from soaking the goods inside. It did nothing to prevent the chilly autumn air from assaulting its occupants. There were also no seats inside, only a flat wooden bed that was twenty feet by ten feet. This made the ride extremely uncomfortable, especially when bouncing down the heavily pitted road. Professor Kal was forced to rummage through his storage ring until he found a few large, overly ornate, couches for the group to sit on.

"Ryan, can I look at the summoning amulet?" Professor Treffle asked.

Not finding an issue with her request, Ryan undone the small clasp and handed the piece of jewelry over to the curious Professor. She proceeded to turn the piece over, thoroughly inspecting the craftsmanship and runes. After Ryan had summoned the devil worm to stop the hellhound from killing Lilly and Princess Alessandria, he was forced to divulge the amulet and its functions. Professor Treffle wanted to study such an amazing object, now that they had a moment of peace.

As she held the amulet up to the light, she directed a question to Professor Kal. "Where did you find this? And you just gave it to a student?"

Busy driving the four horses, Professor Kal didn't bother to turn his head. "What's so special about it, it's nothing more than a glorified paperweight."

"Are you insane! An enchanted item like this is worth more than my family's manor."

"I'd hate to see what that looks like then, YAAH!" Professor Kal said as he whipped the horses faster. "And don't think about taking it for yourself, the boy's already imprinted it."

"I'm not a thief!" Professor Treffle snapped back.

"Well, if you dangle a big enough carrot in front of somebody's nose, they're bound to take a bite." He replied, shrugging his shoulders.

Furrowing her brows, Professor Treffle tossed the amulet back to Ryan who caught it in midair. "Don't let anybody else find out about that, the jackass is right, people would kill to get that from you."

Ryan gave a wholehearted nod; he knew full well how valuable the amulet was. The only reason he had told the Professor about it was because he trusted her to keep the secret. With those thoughts in mind, he turned to look at the Princess and her armed guard, Lilly.

"Your secret is safe with us." Princess Alessandria said, speaking for the both of them and giving him a warm smile while Lilly nodded.

"Thanks." He said, his eyes naturally drifting to the stump that was Lilly's arm. "Is it still bothering you?"

"No, it's not. The young miss's healing magic treated it quite well, though I do have some pain from where my arm used to be." She answered, scrunching up her face at the end.

"That's normal, at least that's what I read." Laura explained. "Some of the books my parents forced me to read said that many amputees experience similar symptoms."

"Forced you? Well, either way, I can't thank you enough for what you've done for me." Lilly said, not wanting to touch on a sensitive subject.

They exchanged smiles before an idea popped into Laura's head. "Professor, isn't there something we can do for her arm?"

"Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but you're right. We can't take care of a cripple when we have to keep the Princess's safety in mind, now can we?" Professor Kal stated seriously.

"But I didn't say that at all..."

"Now, now, although it was rather rude of you to just put it out there, we can't stand on social norms when lives are on the line!"

"But..."

Ryan stopped Laura from arguing with the Professor by putting his hand on her shoulder. He had learned long ago that trying to get through to the Professor was just a wasted effort. She looked over to Lilly, giving her a look that begged to say that that wasn't what she meant. Lilly just gave her a sad smile; she knew that she didn't mean anything by it, but she was still despondent about losing her livelihood.

Lilly was a knight of the Kingdom of Morgania, protecting the Princess was her duty and now that she was missing an arm, she wouldn't be able to carry that duty out. Although she was still able to swing her short sword, missing an appendage threw her off-balance, making her once pristine footwork sloppy and full of openings. She hadn't put much thought into it, but now she realized how useless she had become. She subconsciously clutched her stump, feeling the soft bandages where her arm should have been and let out a soft sigh.

"Don't worry Lilly, you'll always have a place at my side." Princess Alessandria said while placing her hand on top of hers, trying to comfort her longtime friend.

A clear tear slid down her sun kissed cheek. "Thank you, your Majesty."

"HA!" Professor Kal blurted out, ruining the tender moment between friends. "Finally found it. Here, put this on."

Professor Kal handed Lilly what looked like a long metal rectangle that was hollow on one end and resembled an ingot of plain iron both in weight and color. Lilly reached out with her only remaining hand before nearly dropping the ingot on her foot. Now embarrassed, she focused on the object while her ears turned beet red. It was smooth to the touch, her calloused fingers moving up and down the matte surface. Cautiously, she turned the rectangle around before slowly unraveling the white bandages and placing her stump into the hollow end.

Everyone's eyes were on her as the cold metal engulfed what remained of her arm. Nothing happened. Everyone continued to wait, but still, nothing. Professor Kal's face contorted into confusion, his index finger tapping his chin.

"It should have... hmmmm... Ah, I remember now."

He pulled out a shining mana stone. It's emerald light illuminating the already bright interior. He placed the stone onto the surface of the rectangular object, the golf ball sized gem melting into the now shimmering metal. Ripples spread across the solid surface, drawing in the gazes of those present. As they leaned in closer, watching what was happening with amazement, the liquid metal morphed into a familiar shape.

Lilly was awestruck. Although there was some amount of pain, and the weight was more than what she would have liked, she still smiled as she slowly opened and closed her fist. The metal had transformed into and exact replica of her amputated arm, mimicking it perfectly, even down to the small scar on the back of her hand. The only difference was that her left arm was now a dark matte gray color, not even close to resembling living flesh.

"Where do you get these things?!" Professor Treffle shouted out in disbelief.

"Pretty nifty, right?" He replied. "It's called Memory Metal; it forms into whatever its user visualizes. It's not normally used as a prosthetic, but I thought it was worth a shot."

"Then why did it have an opening for my arm?"

"That's where you'd stick your hand, obviously. It was extremely popular as a weapon, it could change depending on whatever situation the user found themselves in. Concentrate, try to change it into something else."

Following his orders, Lilly concentrated on her metal arm. Soon the surface rippled just like before, slowly transforming into a morning-star. She held her 'arm' out in front of her, her eyes wide, inspecting the head sized spiked ball that was at the end. The spikes were about four inches long and as big around as a finger. Having lost her focus, the morning star melted and quickly returned to the shape of her arm.

"Why does it go back to being my arm? I'm not even trying to keep it like that." Lilly asked.

Scratching the top of his head, Professor Kal answered to the best of his ability. "It must have something to do with how your mind still believes that your arm is still there. If you're up for it, I would love to do some experiments!"

The way he was looking at her made her skin crawl, it was like he wasn't looking at a person but at an animal he couldn't wait to dissect, but she didn't wish to be rude to someone that had given her life back. "O... ok."

"Wonderful!" He exclaimed before materializing bizarre looking instruments, some with long needles attached to them. The color drained from Lilly's face, her 'arm' unconsciously morphed into an oval shield that covered the upper part of her body.

"Fascinating." He said before moving in closer, holding a large syringe filled with a sickly green liquid.

"Uh, Professor." Ben interrupted. "I just have to ask. If you're back here, then who's driving the horses?"

Professor Kal stopped what he was doing as his head snapped to the front of the wagon. "Shit." Just then, the wagon started to rumble and shake as it went off the road.

…..

A pair of silver eyes watched as a driverless covered wagon meandered off the road as the four horses thought it best to sample the green grass growing not too far away. The mage she was supposed to observe scrambled out of the wagon and started to admonish the beasts of burden, desperately pulling on their reigns in an attempt to get them moving again.

"This guy's an idiot." Marissa mumbled to herself.

She was the noble vampire that Silus had ordered to find the mage responsible for the demon's death and to keep an eye on him. She was starting to question if she had discovered the right mage, maybe she had made a mistake? She couldn't smell anything special about him, then again, she wasn't used to her powers, and it was the middle of the day, when she was at her weakest.

She continued down the road, walking toward the stranded wagon. The mage had given up on physically moving the horses and had resorted to calling them names and insulting their mothers, of course, the horses couldn't have cared less.

"Do ya need a hand?"

Professor Kal turned to the voice, fed up with the obstinance of the four dumb animals. Standing on the road was a beautiful woman, she stood at five feet four inches tall and was wearing a wide straw hat concealing her short auburn hair. She had on a wool parka that covered most of her upper body and plain black slacks that concealed the rest. Her enchanting silver eyes looked at Professor Kal with indifference and her rosy lips curled upwards in a small smile.

"No, we're all good here."

Her smile turned upside down, Marissa didn't expect the mage to outright refuse her. "Are ya sure, I'm pretty handy with animals."

She insisted, her eyes widening slightly as an imperceptible red light flashed within her dark pupils. Professor Kal stared back blankly, his annoyed expression nowhere to be seen. He slowly nodded as he made his way over to the overwhelmingly enticing woman. Marissa smiled a victorious grin, pleased to see her innate ability overpowering this man's simple mind.

Professor Kal stopped just a few feet from her, his face a blank slate, he almost looked delirious. He leaned forward slightly, leaning heavily on his black staff. He opened his mouth to speak, then yelled in the woman's face. "Bugger off!"

Marissa took a step back, surprised by the unexpected turn of events. Before she could process what was going on they were interrupted. "Professor, who're you talking to?"

Seeing a way out of her awkward position, Marissa spoke up. "I was just offering up my assistance, seeing that your wagon had gone off course." A bright smile punctuated her sentence.

Ben was immediately infatuated, taken in by her unnatural beauty. He stared dumbly at the woman, a cheesy grin on his face. Marissa did her best not to laugh, she hadn't even tried to charm the boy, his raging hormones done the job for her. Several more pairs of eyes popped up behind the dumbstruck young man, curious about what was going on outside the covered wagon.

"Professor." Ryan started. "We can't just leave her to walk."

His comment earned him a sharp poke in the ribs from Laura. Richard on the other hand was quietly nodding his head in agreement.

"Shut up boy, you don't even know what's going on. No one said anything about giving her a ride, just don't poke your head out and butt in!" Professor Kal admonished his pupil.

"Well, I have been walking for quite some time." Marissa added on, emphasizing the word have and adding a small pout on her face which caused the boys' to redden.

"I think we have enough room for one more." Another voice from the peanut gallery spoke out.

Professor Kal slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. "My gods! Who said anything about giving her a lift?!"

Princess Alessandria argued back. "It's the right thing to do! That poor woman is probably exhausted, we just can't leave her on her own."

Throwing his hands up in defeat, Professor Kal stomped back to the horses that were still filling up on grass. "I don't even know what's going on anymore.. Bunch of idiots!" He cursed to himself.