NORTHERN MARKETS
EPISODE FIFTEEN: Azure is haywire

Bob never heard a word of the conversation- the noise of the machine were too loud. Then he heard loud clinking and the metal slab he was laying on slid back out.
A minute later, Bob was fully dressed. “What time is it?” he asked.
“It’s 3:15” Dr. Hemming said.
“You may not remember it, but Azure is right” Shuma said. “I looked at the images the machine made of you and it shows massive healed scarring.”
“It’s like you were ripped to shreds and healed back to 100% in two minutes” Dr. Hemming added.
“I guess there’s no denying it then” Bob conceded.
“This leaves a gap in the field report.” Shuma advised him. “You can’t leave here until this is cleared up” she reminded him.
Bob said nothing.
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All day Azure was barely awake. Clerics, or anyone working or volunteering in the infirmary always checked on her when they passed her room. At 2:30 in the afternoon, her critically low pulse scared the crap out of the people in charge of her. She woke up once around 5:00 and was barely able to drink the soup and health fuel the clerics gave her. They had to hold her up and make her drink through a straw. After she ate, she fell asleep again.
At 8 or so, the clerics moved Azure to a room closer to the office where they worked to keep a better eye on her. Her body temperature also dropped scaring them. They had a debate about what they thought was going on, and used power crystals to keep the girl warm.
Then at 11 at night things completely changed.
Azure woke up, shaking and sweating in the dark from that same dream again. She could hardly see a thing in the dark room and in panic kicked off her blanket. The power crystals went flying and hit the floor. One broke. The echo of shattering glass scared the crap out of her.

The blue crystal lights above came on, and Azure covered her eyes. The clerics rushed in.
“Are you allright?”
She looked up at them. Two were women, one was a guy. “Where am i?” she cried.
“Relax, kid, youre at the infirmary. We moved you to a different room.” the guy cleric said.
“What’s wrong?”
Azure tried to relax, but her heart was beating faster and faster and she started to feel pins and needles in her fingers, arms, legs and it spread and started to hurt. Then her head hurt alot, along with her arm and then that searing shot of pain she gets from that dream kicked in.
“Calm yourself!” one of the clerics shouted.
“Agh!” Azure screamed in agony.
“This isn’t good!”
“The mana’s going up like crazy!”
“Get a hold of yourself!”
Then suddenly, Azure jumped from the bed, stepping on crystal shards and cutting her foot-but that didn;t stop her.
She bolted out of the room and dashed down the hall. The clerics chased after her.
“Go away! LEave me alone!” Azure was shouting, hands on her ears, then as she ran, she felt like she was hit by 66 billion volts of magic from the inside. The shot paralyzed her and she tripped over her feet and fell. She siezed on the floor forcing herself to breathe.
The mages rushed up to her.
“OMG! Her magic is way out of control!”
“There’s too much magic in her body! She can’t handle it!”
“I told you not to give her all those pots!”

Azure then stood up. The clerics saw she was glowing- wrapped in a bright blue haze.
“This is not good!” one of the clerics said.
“we gotta get her to get it out!”
Then when they tried to pick Azure up, she spazzed out- then
As she put her hands up to push the lady cleric away, her hands glowed real bright.
“Look out! She’s gonna blow!”
“Sheilds up! Take cover!”
BOOM!
All that energy-a huge freakin bolt of lightning fired out of her palms. The energy bounced off one cleric’s esther sheild, shattering it, then the bolt hit the walls and dust and smoke filled the hall!
The deafening boom of thunder rattled doors and windows in the infirmary and woke up everyone up in that section of the Institute. The thunderous boom echoed through Ellinia.

After the dust cleared, more people came, finding Azure passed out on the floor again, burnt arms and hands, along with one of the clerics too injured to cast her heal spell.

Saturday morning, Madam Shuma went to infirmary to check out what had happened.
“Azure did that?” she asked in disbelief, looking at all the burn marks on the wooden walls.
“According to the night shift clerics and nurses, she discharged enough magic for a small lightning bolt. That would explain the thundering boom we all heard last night. I’m surprised that didn’t kill her. Everyone is even more surprised she sustained minimal injury. A magician her level would have been burnt to a crisp!”
Shuma nodded. The magic doctor continued. “On Monday, we;re having her scanned again”
She nodded. “How is she now?”
“We’re not feeding her any more mana. Her body did not use it then suddenly processed it all at once and produced that lethal surge of energy. She is sleeping, but her body seems to be in a more relaxed state. We’ll have a better idea where she is going tonight”

All day Azure slept again, but she dreamed constantly. She would be flying in the stars, then everything would become a rapidly changing world as her mind took images of buildings, people, land features (mountains, trees,rivers, etc) places and planted then removed them. Azure would run through this messed up changing dream, haunted by whispering voices. She couldn’t figure out what they were saying. Then what she figured were memories not her own assaulted her mind. It became a swarm of dreams of her being attacked again and again by high level enemies and GMs. Then the memory of that hunter asshole from the Free Market came, but in this dream he shot her in the neck and face with arrows. Then a hacker appeared out of the confusion screaming ‘Be a hacker!’ and threw a black magic ball, hitting her right in the heart—

Azure woke up sitting bolt upright in bed. She grabbed a power crystal before it hit the floor, and put it on the table next to her.
A minute later, she was running like hell down the dark hallway, the white gomushin shoes on her feet barely making sounds as her feet pounded the hardwood floor. She snuck into the office while the clerics went out and stole the icarus cape hanging on the door.

10 minutes later, a magician trainee nurse was checking the patients on a routine check when she came to the room. “Azure? Are you awake?” she asked, turning on the light. She ran from the room. “Masashua hurry! She’s gone!”

9:35 PM
Across town on Victoria Road was the Bath House. It housed pools, hot tubs, a sauna, even pools used for cleaning clothes. The water was heated by hot water that was shot up from the geysers at the bottom of the forest 500 feet below Ellina. Stone pipes guided the hot water up to the Bath House.
The Wolfboy brothers- Wolfboy183- level 14 rogue and Wolfboy184, level 31 hunter were at the laundry pool washing their clothes in the water.
Other people were there too. A permanoob named Jamie, level 17 beginner and her noobie friends were hanging out.
“So, yeah, I trained my ass off to get my 2nd job advancement!” Wolfboy184 was bragging. The rogue guy was fed up- sick of hearing this guy brag and brag and brag, it was getting annoying. He was right now trying to clean his garnier claw and get the smell of sweat out of it. They were supposed to be in Orbis at the guild meeting, but because the idiot hunter wanted to look at some stores and had trouble making a choice to buy something, they missed the the flight. The rogue guy thought their guild boss Malarky was going to be pissed, like she always was when guild meetings went out of control. He just wanted to get his stuff cleaned and go to sleep in the rooms they had there for overnight guests.
“So yeah, I mean, like the bus broke down just five miles out of town, then the next one was cancelled because of some snow storm up in Perion!” a girl named Laney complained on her messenger. Jamie was also in the dryer room wit her, but while Laney- level 17 beginner- was waiting for her clothes hanging on wires above hot rocks, Jamie got to use the electric dryer. Her shirts and pants seemed to be dancing as they spun and spun and spun. After getting drunk on mana and shooting snail shells at windows, buses, GMs and random people all day, she was tired and watching her clothes dance in the dryer was kind of amusing.
“It’s not fair. We waited all day Friday for that Azure girl to get off work and we haven’t seen her! What an idiot!”
Jamie scowled at the prissy girl. Her friend wasn’t an idiot. She was a really nice person. Jamie figured Azure got tied up in school – or work.
The dryer finished and she put her clothes into her portable hamper, then slung it over her shoulder. She waved to Laney who hardly noticed and walked out.
Jamie walked out the service door in the back and through the rain to the door to the rooms. Short cut-
Azure rounded corner.
“Azure!” Jamie yelled and ran up to her. “Are you okay?” she said, all worried.
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i’m dead tired i was talking out my ass when i wrote this. If this needs to be changed, I’LL CHANGE IT
nite…..