The Fourth Zaldizko 11 Mind Shield

"Was wondering on that. You were a bit stinky." Death joked.

I cussed at him and splashed water at this face. "Well you try to smell fresh when you're shooting out Banshees."

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Death's smile dropped with sober reality. "Gat s.h.i.+em is gone. It's hard to believe. Our home, so many centuries of magic history, just gone."

His voice quivered with tears.

"Yeah." War sighed when he entered the water next to him. "Meh and yah be only ones carryin' all dat history in our heads."

"Not true, right? All the Library Tower and Archive Tower's knowledge being stored in your puny brains?" I asked to reconfirm. "Do you even have s.p.a.ce for it?"

War snarled. Death looked insulted. They both lunged at me with a head lock and a dunk.

I submerged and resurfaced, spluttering out warm salty water. "Okay! I believe you guys."

The three of us fell to silence and our pensive, sad moods. The water absorbed all the tears we shared together for the loss of our home and family.

"We have to save Pesti." I voiced my determination.

"No disagreements there. Especially after that Pale Rider incident." Death chewed on a nail.

"Yeah, sensed it too. Dat rider back there felt like Pesti." War's body tensed. His face was contorted with a frown.

"That's impossible! Pesti can't be that thing! Pesti's nothing like that!" I protested.

No way in h.e.l.l that thing was my brother. I won't accept it.

"Felt like him. Didn't say it was him!" War grumbled.

If it was him.

"I miss our brother." I mumbled in the water to stir up bubbles.

_"Yeah. We didn't see eye-to-eye most times. He's meh brother. He's one of dem good ones,"_ War said in my mind.

"I've been wondering this whole time." Death mused, still chewing his nail. His voice lowered to a faint whisper. "Why are these knights helping us?"

"That's who they are?" I innocently answered.

Death stared at me with one of his 'you can't be that stupid' expressions.

"Famine. Didn't you say you were found in a demon's lair within that prison labyrinth." Death recapped for me.

"Yeah. Small Cap and I, then the knights helped me find War in one."

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe they placed you in there?" Death's voice was dangerously low, so it almost sounded like a murmured breeze.

I frowned at the thought of it. If they did, it wouldn't make sense to rescue me from it and make me one of their own right?

"I don't get it."

_"Keep yah friends drinkin', yah enemies in yah bed."_ War provided a crude answer in my head.

"Stupid! That doesn't mean anything." I flicked water at his smug face.

"What doesn't mean anything?" Death asked.

"What this git said? You didn't hear it?" I looked at Death, perplexed.

Death looked at me with his own perplexed expression.

_"Death. You can hear this now can't you?"_ I spoke to him in my head.

_"Git. Death's signature ain't here. He's no access to yah mind."_ War answered for me.

I sighed. "I get it. No mind speaking War."

"On that note." Death moved closer to my side and cupped both my ears. "Sorry, but this is going to hurt... a lot."

"WHAT?!" I protested and try to struggle out of his hold, he reacted before I had a chance to slip away.

He said a spell that sent bone splintering pain down my ear ca.n.a.ls and a mad rush of stabbing needles to my temples and the back of my head.

"UGH!" I yelped as my limbs thrashed about the water from the sensation of pins stabbing into sections of my brain, obstructing pathways and openings to thought channels and memory doors.

Death's voice became silent. The pain eased to a hot throbbing headache. He released his hold on me and moved away.

I stopped my thras.h.i.+ng, panting with my heart pounding against my chest.

War wrapped his arms around my waist and cooed into my ear with a tone of voice that would calm my pain and rapid heart beats. He released me when he saw my body had resumed something of normality and calmness.

"Now. Try speaking to War again with your mind's voice, whilst thinking of something else." Death issued a simple order.

My eyes crossed with the complexity of his "simple" order. I was never good with this sort of multi-tasking. So, I decided to keep it simple. I think.

_"War's a stupid git."_ I spoke in my head whilst thinking of a fat savoury ganmodoki patty going into my mouth.

War chuckled. "Yah the stupid git when yah drooling. Guess yah thinkin' about food."

"Point is. You said one thing in your mind, whilst thinking of something else, right?" Death asked, with a smug att.i.tude.

"Yeah," I grumbled, feeling hungry. "I'm hungry now."

"Excellent! At least, your thoughts are yours whilst the Mind s.h.i.+eld I wrapped around your inner mind is in place."

Death informed me of the magic s.h.i.+eld he had placed over my mind to protect my thoughts from deeper intrusion beyond conversation. It was a skill Shuso had taught him when he was performing his duties as an Alchemist. Daily exercises were required to refortify the s.h.i.+eld otherwise it would weaken and become defective. He warned me that if the s.h.i.+eld should break or become so worn down that it was beyond repair, it would likely deteriorate parts of my brain to render me brain-dead.

"What the h.e.l.l, Death?!" I snapped at him. "You do s.h.i.+t like this to my brain?!"

"What else is there to do?! We have no time to teach you proper ways of mind s.h.i.+elding. Right now, you're a walking meat suit!"

I felt my anger at boiling point. "Says the one who allowed a Hiruda to take over his!"

Death gasped. He lowered his eyes.

My anger turned to apologetic guilt. "I'm sorry Death. I know you mean well. It freaked me out, is all."

"No. You're right to be angry. I should've told you upfront," Death soberly said.

He got out of the water.

"Hey, Famisto. Cut Death some slack, alright?" War's voice was mellow.

"Yeah. I didn't mean it. We've been through a lot." I whispered.

We rose from the water and left the pond.