Ambroxia Guillen

"W-who are you?" Mino stuttered a bit before calming down.

"Me? Heh...Guillen. Ambroxa Guillen."

The girl appeared before Mino. She was the same one who was

laughing like a maniac. Her glossy purple hair poured down like

cream, reaching her waist. As for her eyes, she seemed they

were a rich shade of turquoise.

"Here, let's greet ourselves with a handshake. There's no need

to introduce yourself, I know you from yesterday."

Ambroxa held her hand out. Mino decided that shaking hands

wouldn't be much of a problem, since she had her binding collar

on. Mino didn't know her ulterior motives, so he exercised

caution.

He wouldn't be accepting her help, except for any piece

of advice she herself provided him with.

Nevertheless, Mino reached his right hand and gripped her

hand. The skin was not very smooth and there were calluses

on her hand, showing that she had worked hard just like every

other person there.

And a disturbing thing also caught Mino's

attention. Her hands, neck, and even the legs had scars on

them. Numerous scars. And the wounds which left those scars

couldn't be minute either.

Only the legs upto her knee was visible, but Mino was sure the

scars continued till her thighs.

Her skin was healthy, fair and clean, but the scars were paper

white, marring her beauty to some extent.

Mino got what Ambroxia was trying to say. He had to meditate

and try to grasp the feeling of Mana! And he had a lot of time for

that! But the thought of the painful headache made him shiver a

little bit. He wanted to ask the matter to Ambroxia, but was a

little hesitant.

Luckily, she understood what he was trying to say. She spoke

up her usual cold voice.

"You have to endure the pain. The fact your head hurt is proof

that you were doing things correctly. It will hurt even more as

you continue. But by the time you finish, you will be able to feel

mana a bit more clearly. And yes, this pain is because your

mana-meridians are damaged. Would you like my help in

countering the pain?"

A tempting offer after a generous explanation.

Mino had already prepared himself for it. He brushed his hair to

show that he was confident enough, and spoke out,

"Why do you want to help me? What do you want?"

"Someone's being a little self-conscious, hehe..."

the cold voice

seemed a bit more lively,

"...well, it's hard to explain. Perhaps

I'm trying to get in your good shoes?"

"To get some use out of me?" Mino's incessant questioning

didn't stop.

"Suit yourself Mino. You will be needing my help quite soon. I

will tell you the cause when you accept my help."

She walked away with quick steps, her voice tinged with

dissatisfaction lingering in the air.

"Furloc, who's she?" Mino asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"Long story. Just like the boys are divided into two groups, girls

are too. The only thing is that the two groups of the girls are

nearly equal in strength. Erudin may be arrogant but she won't

take an initiative in bullying. Errr...she might, if you don't show

her some respect..."

Hearing Erudin's name being mentioned brought a frown to

Mino's face. But Furloc hadn't answered the question

completely.

"Yeah, but is Ambroxia one of the leaders?"

"It's good that you catch on quick. Do you want to hear her

story, as far as I know?"

Furloc offered while performing a diagonal plank.

"Fine, tell it."

"Hmm. She's an A-Jack."

"What's A-Jack?"

"Jacks are supreme affinity holders. She has A affinity in all

elements except light and dark, which are variable and inverse

to one another. Jacks usually don't have affinity in astra and

netheron, but a high affinity in mana. The highest jack we have

found is S-Jack. And that person had a decent B light affinity, as far as I

know."

"Woah...no wonder she could tell that I would be able to use

mana..."

"At first, she was not at all like her current self. A bit moody, but

helpful and unselfish. Her leader like selfless attitude kept the

girls bound together tightly."

Mino didn't like where it was going. He had read and played too

much novels and games to not know what was gonna happen next.

"Someone betrayed her?" he piped out.

"Pffft...that's cute. Reality's not so forgiving."

Furloc laughed in a deep baritone.

Hearing this gave Mino a shock.

[What's this guy saying! What did he mean by that!]

"Sir Iso just warned you not to mess up in collection tasks. Why

so?"

"Cuz something's wrong with the person who doles out

punishment."

"Heh...that's not punishment." Furloc snorted while smiling

wryly.

"Then what?" The conversation was giving him goosebumps,

and he wanted to finish it as soon as possible. He felt a dreadful

feeling clawing his heart. Mino regretted asking Furloc about

Ambroxia.

"It's not punishment...it is-"

"Pure torture."

Jespoh completed Furloc's sentence. Ignoring Mino who was

really scared after hearing that, he continued the narration on

Furloc's behalf.

"There's a dedicated torture room with all kinds of torturing

tools."

Even Jesoph's voice was getting shakier as he was

describing. Mino was slowly starting to understand what might

have really happened.

"That guy who tortures is also a general. A total nutcase. And

depending upon his mood, he may even resort to... sexual

violence."

The last few words were delivered in whispers, but they were

clearly audible to Mino. As soon as the words entered his ears, he felt as if he was plunged into a tub of ice cold water.

Ambroxia's scars resurfaced in his mind. Now he knew their cause. Body shivering like

anything, he looked at Furloc and Clarq with eyes full of fear.

"Mino, it's just as you think."

Eustus told it, placing a hand on his shoulder.

The three others nodded to Mino, who was looking at them.

"Even though the torture room is far away, that night we couldn't

sleep. Normally, that crazy bastard tortures people for an hora

or so...but..."

Furloc was having trouble continuing.

"Her recurring screams kept us from sleeping. Screams filled

with pure terror, pain, calling for help, choked with tears. We

never felt so powerless before. Even Zay... looked down."

"From then she took a face-heel turn. Quite natural to do so.

Her nature became enigmatic. The first time she's openly

talking with others in full sentences, is today."

Clarq finished the story.

Mino slumped down. The story was too heavy for him to digest.

Cursing BlazedSigma in his mind, he decided to divert his mind

by re-attempting to feel mana.

Sitting cross legged,he restarted his breathing exercises. They

helped his heart beat to stabilize.

Deep down, he was afraid,

worried and disturbed. But there was only one way to get rid of

suffering. When you lose something, you gain something too.

So Mino decided.

[I will lose my suffering and gain strength.]

With this thought, he started focussing. Within a couple

minutes, he felt himself getting secluded from the rest of the world, as if he was becoming more and more distant from his

surroundings.

A tiny bead of some kind of whitish blue energy. He imagined

that beat to be spinning. The bead turned into a cone and

started permeating Mino's body. That while moving diagonally

downwards and inwards, as if trapped in a vortex.

The

headache triggered instantly, rocking him to his very core. But

Mino couldn't give up. He had just started! It was too early.

Ambroxia's voice echoed in his mind.

["The fact it was paining means that you were doing it right.]

He had furrowed his eyebrows as beads of sweat started to

gather over his forehead. Even then, he broke out into a thin

smile as an attempt to counter the pain.

What were Mana meridians?

Perhaps a network, a circulatory system of sorts for Mana. So it

must have a heart, for pumping the mana? Mino guessed the

heart as well as the vessels were badly damaged and leaked

out the mana. Blood also leaks out of the capillaries as tissue

fluid, since they can't directly give oxygen as they are flowing

through vessels.

Then, couldn't he apply the same logic to

Mana? But there was a flaw in Mino's logic. When you used up

some Mana, you need some time to regain your mana.

Why

so? There's already Mana in the air. But you can't use that

directly, it's unprocessed Mana. Your body needs to take it in,

and process for your body to use.

That's where the Mana-meridians help. The central part, located

below the heart and behind the solar plexus, it processes the

Mana and stores it, both in itself and in the vessels.

Other two

forms of energy also need processing and have dedicated

meridians, provided the person can use them. If the processed Mana leaks out of the meridians, it gets reconverted into

unprocessed Mana, and hence Mino couldn't use it.