Alex
As I fell to my knees and my vision began to blur, I weakly swung myself around as I collapsed to the ground to get a glimpse of whoever was behind me.
Jace?! But I had just cut him in two mere moments before!
Right as I was about to demand an explanation for how Jace was alive from the man himself, I saw his lifeless form revert into a liquid that appeared to be clear like water yet ever so slightly tinted black out of the corner of my eye. I would like to clarify that I did not manage to turn around entirely, and I ended up laying down on my back facing about 45° to the right of where Jace stood. The liquid released a stench that became exponentially more vile as the two small pools of the gel-like liquid converged.
Jace: "Wow, I cannot believe that the same trick actually worked on all three of you. I predicted that it would be successful once or twice, but I had not thought for even a moment that it would work thrice. All that you had to do was keep an eye on your allies and you would have been fine."
Alex: "I will... I must... k..."
Twilight (coming out from behind a tree): "Did he seriously pass out in the middle of interrupting your monologue?"
Jace: "I was not monologuing, Twilight. I was setting an overpowering overtone to the discussion so that he would be easier to interrogate."
Twilight: "Why do you seem... how do I put this... moooooore... formal, maybe?"
Jace: "I don't know what you're talking about, Twi! I'm as relaxed as ever."
Twilight: "Are you seriously just going to gloss over that?"
Jace: "Gloss over what?"
Twilight: "You... I know I am often selfish and assertive, but none of that compares to how defensive you are. You never once let slip anything about yourself since we first met."
Jace: "I don't know what you're talking about; I'm as open and honest as can be!"
Twilight: "HHEEh, huuUuh... So, what are you going to do with—wait, where did he go?"
Hazel
Hello everyone, and thank you all for coming here today. Some of you feel as we do, and others only came here as a formality. Either way, you all came to hear the full story, the true tale. My memory isn't as good as Alex and James and I didn't write down my thoughts and conversations like Quartz and Jace did, so I'd appreciate it if you all would take everything I say with a grain of salt.
After being hit from behind, I wavered between conscious and unconscious for about thirty seconds. As I went to sit up, I saw a fierce fight swiftly come into focus as my eyes readjusted to the sudden light. After about thirty more seconds, I was once again fully mentally awake. Within that single minute, everything had changed. The night had turned to day and the hunter had become the prey. Seeing that Jace was talking to an individual with striking purple hair, I knew I had to get away before the two noticed I had regained my awareness. At the time I hadn't heard a single story about witches, so I just thought that she was from one of the major continents.
Right before I fled, I saw that Alex wasn't dead. Something deep inside my heart told me that I couldn't leave him here. Alex tries to come off as abrasive and controlling, but North and I knew the truth. Alex is an absolute softie. Whenever North and I argued, Alex would make himself the villain so that we would find a common enemy in him instead of bickering endlessly between ourselves. Since Alex appears to be either extremely flustered or distressed or maybe even both, I'll get to the point: I couldn't bring myself to abandon Alex.
What I didn't do is look for North or even consider dragging North along as I fled. At the time, I had entirely forgotten about North's existence.
What I saw was Alex limp on the ground with blood all over him—I couldn't tell whose blood it was at a glance. At the time, I had no idea that my own emotions were what allowed me to save Alex. That man didn't even understand how to cope with his own grief, so it's obvious that he wouldn't be able to control the emotions of others. The closest thing to motive manipulation that he could manage was imprinting his own emotions onto others while changing the target of their ire, distrust, and disdain from the object of his own.
At that moment, my artificial hate and grimoire greed were overpowered by my genuine feelings—I didn't want to lose Alex.
Despite my boorish behavior, I consider myself to be quite intelligent. Despite my immensely confused emotional state, I was able to recall a vital piece of information which I had once heard mentioned only in passing since I was eavesdropping with wind magic:
James: "So, how's your hearing?"
Jace: "Are you sure no one is listening?"
James: "Every individual that shouldn't hear this won't be able to."
Jace: "That is... an oddly specific answer to a generalized question. Could you just say that no one is listining?"
James: "Yes, I could say that."
Jace: "You know what? Nevermind. Well, as far as my hearing goes, I am as concerned as I have always been at the fact that the effects of... that part of my life... still persist to this very day. As far as my supernatural hearing goes, however, I have had no issues as of yet."
James: "Jace, why don't you drop the reserved attitude and way of speech? It's been years since we first met; don't you think I deserve even just a little bit of your trust?"
Jace: "..."
James: "Jeeeez, what's with the glare? I was just joking around."
Jace: "...I do trust you..."
James: "What did you say? I didn't quite catch that."
Jace: "Oh, don't worry about that. I was just thinking aloud."
I couldn't see their expressions since I was listening in from afar.
Knowing that Jace would hear me if I let any noise reach him, I began to expend an exorbitant sum of stamina to create enough magical energy to materialize two bubbles of pure mana, one around Alex and one around myself, as I began to lift Alex into the air with flight magic. Since there were no air particles for the sound to travel through and sound cannot travel through pure magic energy, Jace couldn't perceive the rustling of Alex's clothes and my clothes and the crunching of grass beneath my feet as I stood which would have otherwise immediately informed Jace of my actions. Once Alex was hovering right above my arms, I merged our bubbles into one small film of mana around our bodies and let his limp body lie in my arms.
I don't mean to waste anyone's time unnecessarily, but, seriously, you all have to see Alex's face right now. Let's all just take a second to appreciate how his face is redder than a tomato.
Alex
She did... she what... she carried me... in a princess carry? I was... carried... unconscious... I... was carried... in a princess carry. I was? I was.
I, uh, need to go to the, uh, please let me excuse myself I need to go outside for... for a moment please, okay? Okay.
Hazel
Oookay then, that was more of a reaction than I thought I'd get. He's usually very composed, so I can't resist messing with him whenever I get the chance.
Quartz
Hazel, are you not also getting flu—
Hazel
COOOOOOOOOOOOOOONTINUING!
A-after I had gotten the two of us inside the same film of mana, I was confident that I would be able to get us far enough from Jace to be sure of our safety before I ran out of stamina.
Flying for but a few minutes at the fastest speed that I could handle while assuring absolute safety for Alex and me, I managed to get both of us all the way back to the outskirts of Barracoon. Without even the energy to stand, I collapsed to the ground then and there.
All I have left to say is that I wish Alex was still in here so I could make him describe how he reacted when he woke up to me sleeping on top of him with my arms around him.
Quartz
Then could you not simply go out and invite him back in? In fact, you could just have him tell that part of the tale when he calms down and comes back in on his own.
Hazel
No, I don't like either of those ideas.
Quartz
Why do you disapprove of both ideas? I thought you wanted him to tell that part of the tale, did you not?
Hazel
Well, that's, it's just, it's just that I've never heard that described before, and, well, I'd be, to hear about it...
You know what? I think I'm going to go and check on Alex. Yeah, I'm going to make sure he didn't get lost. Where did he say he went? Well, I-I'm sure it won't be too hard to find him...
Quartz
It would seem that those two will be gone for a while.
