Most classes had already ended for the day, and the other students Lee saw moved in groups mostly segregated by their rank within the college. A group of initiates in blue and grey robes joked amongst themselves as they headed for the dining hall, while a pair of disciples in green and yellow headed for the main gate.
A squirrel ran across the path in front of Lee and Tess, briefly stopping to glance up at them. Lee hesitated for a moment. Primhaven’s Lead Instructor, Alora Mattis, was a druid, and she’d formed bonds with basically every animal on campus. In fact, the college’s grounds were technically her grove, an area in which she, as a druid, had high levels of control over plants, trees, and basic animal life through her nature magic.
Lee was always aware of how easy it would be for Mattis to discover his secrets using her ability. All it would take would be for him to share his thoughts aloud with Tess at the wrong time, in the presence of a creature Mattis was actively watching. It was another fact that he reminded himself of as often as he could to keep himself grounded in his purpose for being there.
“Oh, hold on,” said Tess. “Let’s go this way!”
She pulled him to the side, which she wouldn’t have been able to do had Lee not still been extending her mystic stream. The two of them passed underneath the shadow of one of the Zephaphine Islands, the floating hunks of displaced land that hovered around the First Tower, perpetually suspended through a link to the arcanum crystals that also provided the energy for Primhaven’s climate.
“I’ve always wondered where the islands came from,” said Tess, gesturing upward. “Like, were they originally islands in the ocean that were brought here? Or did they come from some far-off land, way back when the college was first founded?”
“If I had to guess, I’d say they just came from right here,” said Lee. “Most of the buildings have basements. I’m assuming the mages who built Primhaven just reused the land they dug out of the ground.”
“You have no imagination, Lee,” said Tess. “Oh! Maybe they came from outer space! Like, they were asteroids that had to be frozen in midair to keep from destroying the college.”
“I think my theory is a bit more practical.”
Tess stuck her tongue out at him. Lee grinned and increased his stride, realizing that their detour had taken them farther off course than needed. He reached the Spell Range just as the last few students were making their way inside the first-floor dueling chamber.
The practice duels were sanctioned by Instructor Mattis but run by the Initiates themselves. Three times a week, a handful of students would each take their turn pulling a name out of a hat at random to determine who they’d duel.
The Initiates interested in putting their names into the hat gathered by the entrance, while those only interested in watching sat alongside the wall of the circular chamber. Toma had already arrived and taken a seat amongst the onlookers. Lee smiled when he saw that Kristoff and a few of his friends were also sitting with the non-participants. He couldn’t help but feel a little responsible for that.
He added his own name to the hat without much thought. Eliza was waiting in the center of the chamber, but she seemed intent on avoiding his gaze. Once all of the interested students had signed up, she walked over to the hat, reached inside, and drew out a strip of paper.
“Lee… Amaranth,” said Eliza.
A few whispers came from the assembled audience. Lee had only done one practice duel up to that point, but he’d beaten Kristoff definitively enough to develop a bit of a reputation. He hesitated for a moment before moving to take up a position across from Eliza. She continued to avoid looking at him.
“Hey,” he said. “I’m sorry about before. Really, I am. I have no idea what happened with that spell.”
“Oh, it’s fine,” said Eliza. “No big deal.”
She finally met his eye, flashing a flat smile that was unnerving in its intensity.
“Are you sure you want to duel against me?” asked Lee.
“The rules are the rules,” said Eliza. “I picked your name, didn’t I?”
Lee furrowed his brow at that. He looked at the piece of paper in Eliza’s hand. She quickly crumpled it in her fist and stuffed it into the pocket of her robe.
One of the other initiates hurried forward, holding his arm up and looking back and forth between them.
“Are you both ready?” asked the Initiate. “Anything goes, remember. The chamber’s enchantments will stop the duel automatically.”
“I’m ready,” said Lee.
Eliza slowly nodded, rubbing her hands together and looking a tad overeager. Lee shot a sidelong glance at Tess, who simply shrugged and took a step back.
“I hope you’re not planning on holding back, Lee,” whispered Eliza.
“I wasn’t,” he said.
“Good.”
The initiate dropped his arm and quickly backed out of the way. Despite what he’d just said, Lee didn’t immediately drop into a casting stance, feeling a little unsure of how to approach dueling someone he considered to be a close friend.
Eliza didn’t appear to have any similar reservations. Her arms immediately shifted into the elemental casting stance: hands straight, elbows bent. Lee knew her well enough to know what spell she was about to cast, and he flung himself to the side not a moment too soon.
A blast of rushing water more powerful than a firehose and several times as thick hissed through the space where he’d been standing a moment earlier. Lee rolled across his shoulders and then back to his feet, watching Eliza as she retargeted her spell.
Her face was part glare, part furrowed concentration as she cast the water blast a second time. Lee slammed his forearms into an x-shape, pulling from Tess’s spirit essence to cast a basic spell shield. Blue spheres of defensive magical energy spun into orbit around him. Eliza’s spell struck the invisible barrier created by the spheres, the water splashing off it like a faucet pattering against a pane of glass.
Lee’s spell shield held for no more than three seconds before the crushing power of Eliza’s water blast burst through. He took the spell full in the chest and was flung off his feet. He landed in a sprawl on his side, clothes soaking wet, hip bruised and aching.
The duel wasn’t over, though. Lee scrambled to his feet as he heard Eliza’s footsteps approaching. His spell shield wasn’t strong enough to counter her water magic, but that wasn’t the only means through which he could defend himself.
This time, as Eliza cast her swirling stream of water, Lee adopted his own elemental casting stance. He focused his will, pulling spirit essence from Tess and focusing on casting a fire spell. Fire and water were opposing elements, and he hoped to render Eliza’s powerful water blast into an ineffectual cloud of steam.
A small puff of flame emanated from Lee’s palm, barely more than what a particularly strong zippo might have emitted. Eliza’s water blast connected with him an instant later, but this time it didn’t knock him back.
No, Eliza had learned a new trick, and it was profoundly unpleasant to be on the receiving end of it. Water forced its way up Lee’s nostrils and into his mouth, filling and blocking off his throat. He tried to shout for her to stop, but no sound came out. He tried to breathe, and immediately wished that he hadn’t.
An innate, primal sense of terror took hold of Lee as every instinct in his body told him that he was on the verge of drowning. His reaction was caught between desperately sucking in air and trying to cough up the water keeping him from doing so. His arms and legs thrashed. He was on the ground, but couldn’t remember falling over. Everything went black, and not a moment too soon.
***
“Lee! I, I’m so sorry! I swear I didn’t mean to! Lee! Oh god, Lee!”
Eliza’s voice was shrill and panicked, and she continued to plead with him, gently shaking his shoulders in a desperate bid to wake him up.
Lee did her one better. He threw up, mostly on himself, but at least partially on one of her hands.
A chorus of far-off-
sounding laughter came from around the edge of the dueling chamber. Lee groaned and rolled over onto his side.
“I’m alright,” he muttered.
“I didn’t know…” said Eliza. “You didn’t say anything, at least not at first. I thought you’d have some trick to deal with my suffocation spell. I wouldn’t have used it otherwise.”
“Did we just watch a duel, or a domestic dispute?” called Kristoff in a mocking voice. “Perhaps both?”
“I’m so sorry, Lee,” whispered Eliza.
She squeezed his hand. Lee finally opened his eyes, feeling his face burn with embarrassment.
“I said I was fine, and I meant it,” he said, pulling his hand back.
He wasn’t ashamed of losing the duel, or losing to a girl, or any such nonsense. Eliza’s spell had felt more like a form of torture than anything he could fault himself for not being able to defend against, and he wasn’t even a real mage to begin with.
No, it was the way Eliza’s face looked that did it. Her eyes were misty with tears, and her expression was a mixture of guilt and pity that absolutely gutted him. Maybe it was because of how sincere her emotions seemed. Maybe it was because of how unnecessary and inappropriate they were, given the truth.
For some reason, Lee found himself remembering a fake mystic he’d once encountered back when he lived in Montana. The man had been an opportunistic charlatan, taking people’s money and pretending to commune with their dead loved ones. It had almost felt like a personal insult to Lee’s honest work, and he’d made a deal with a couple of ghosts to expose the man and force him out of town.
He couldn’t help but wonder now how long it would be before he was revealed for what he was. How long before he was forced out of Primhaven? How would Eliza and Toma react when that day finally came?
“I’m okay,” muttered Lee. “The duel’s over. You win.”
He stood up, wincing at the uncomfortable sensation of his wet socks squishing inside his shoes. Eliza still looked like she was about to cry, but she didn’t stop him as he made his way toward the exit. Toma looked torn over the decision of which friend to offer support, and he eventually hurried to Eliza’s side.
Lee was glad for that. He felt like he needed to be alone.
CHAPTER 4
“You should probably head to the infirmary,” said Tess. “Just to be safe.”
Lee didn’t answer her. He ignored the stares of some of his fellow students as he continued across campus.
“Lee, come on,” said Tess. “Talk to me. Lee!”
“I’m not really in the mood,” he said.
He pushed his way into his dorm and immediately began changing out of his wet clothes. Tess stood behind him and deliberately cleared her throat. Lee sighed and pulled her into his mystic stream.
“Look, it’s as much my fault is it is yours,” said Tess. “In part, it has to do with what I was talking about before.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“The fire spell you tried to cast,” said Tess. “It didn’t work.”
Lee kicked off his jeans and slipped into his closet. He found a dry pair of boxers and some dry socks and made the necessary switch.
“You’re saying that my lack of ability with elemental magic is because of your influence?” he asked.
“It’s complicated, but that’s more or less it,” said Tess.
Lee scowled and sat down hard on his bed. “In other words, I won’t be able to effectively cast from the main offensive school of magic.”
“Uh…” Tess smiled awkwardly. “You’ll probably also have trouble with alteration spells, beyond just a normal spell shield. I wasn’t very good at those, either.”
“If that’s the case, I better start preparing my exit strategy,” he said. “I’m not going to be able to stay afloat at this college if I’m limited like that. Especially if it’s on top of only being able to cast three spells per day.”
“Well…” Tess shrugged and sat down next to him. “Everybody encounters their limits sooner or later.”
“I’m not encountering my limits, I’m encountering yours,” he said.
Tess let out a girlish giggle. “I guess that’s true. There is an alternative, if you’re open to it.”
“I’m listening.”
“The pact between us is what allows you to utilize magic through me,” said Tess. “I’m basically lending you the seed of my ability.”
“I get that,” said Lee. “It’s kind of like you’re a sorcerer’s staff, or a familiar.”
“I don’t really appreciate being compared to an animal or an inanimate object.”
“Even if it’s accurate?” asked Lee.
Tess pouted and shot him an exaggerated glare. “My point is, if you water the seed, the garden will grow.”
“That’s a very flowery-sounding analogy, but what does it mean?”
“It’s a matter of efficiency, both when it comes to how many spells you can cast per day and which schools of magic you’re capable in,” said Tess. “You were still able to make a small flame when you tried the fire blast during the duel. If you’d poured more essence into the spell, it would have worked, though it wouldn’t have been all that efficient. You just need more essence, and as I’ve mentioned in the past, I can gather more if you assist me with siphoning it.”
She had mentioned it to him before, once or twice. Which is to say, she’d brought it up almost every day since she’d first suggested the idea. As Tess had explained it, there were two ways in which Lee could render a supernatural entity into a state where she could siphon essence from it. Either by beating it into submission or getting intimate. Deeply intimate.
“Ah,” said Lee. “Well, now I know why you were so keen about me heading to the nurse’s office before. We’ve talked about this, Tess. I’m not really interested in whoring myself out for the sake of casting spells.”
“Lee, come on,” said Tess. “You don’t have to phrase it like that! Besides, if you’re worried about me getting jealous—”
“I’m not.”
Tess scowled at him. “Well, you should still consider heading to the nurse’s office. You fell pretty hard when Eliza’s spell was affecting you. It’s possible you could have a concussion.”
“You’re only saying that because you want me to bang Nurse Susie again.”
“Oh my goodness, Lee, don’t be silly,” said Tess. “I’m concerned for your health. It has nothing to do with the fact that Nurse Susie is a succubus pulsing with lust essence and desperate to jump your bones. But, even if it did, it wouldn’t change my argument.”
Lee sighed and finished getting dressed, pulling on a t-shirt and pair of sweatpants.
“Look, I’ll think about it,” said Lee. “It just… rubs me the wrong way for some reason.”
“Trust me, you won’t be saying that once she gets started,” said Tess. “Just from what I observed last time, I’m pretty sure Nurse Susie knows how to rub in exactly the right way.”
“Would you give it up already?”
He stretched out across his bed, and Tess cuddled up next to him.
“Sorry,” she said. “I just want what’s best for you, Lee.”
“I know,” he said. “It’s hard to explain exactly why I’m not thrilled by the idea. It just feels like the more effort I put into this deception, the harder I’m setting myself up to fall. It’s all going to come crumbling down, eventually.”
Tess hugged him tighter. “But I’ll still be here, even once that happens.”
Lee ran a hand through his hair and kissed her on the lips. Her eyes fluttered at him as she pulled back, and he became acutely aware of how much of their bodies were in contact.
The door slammed open before Lee’s burgeoning ideas could come to fruition. Toma rushed into the dorm room, grinning with purpose. He had a mischievous gleam in his eye, and he locked the door behind him, pulling out a chair from one of the desks and sitting down in it.
“Feeling any better?”
asked Toma.
“A little.” Lee sat up on the bed. “What’s got you looking so shifty?”
Toma grinned at him. “Are you ready to go on the pilgrimage to the holy land?”
He reached into the folds of his robe and extracted a small corked vial. He held it out so Lee could take a close look at it, wiggling it back and forth.
“Am I supposed to know what that is?” asked Lee.
“It’s the stuff of legends,” said Toma. “An invisibility potion.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah!” said Toma. “I, uh, borrowed it from the alchemy lab. Lee, think about what we could do with this!”
Toma’s face reddened, and he flashed a familiar perverted grin that told Lee all he needed to know.
“You want to sneak into the women’s dormitories,” he guessed.
“No,” said Toma. “Think bigger. The women’s steam baths, Lee. Can you imagine? Scratch that, we won’t have to imagine! We can just sit there and watch…”
Toma stood up from his chair and, almost simultaneously, Tess moved to stand in front of Lee.
“You aren’t seriously considering this, are you?” asked Tess. “Lee, this is wrong!”
“Just watching seems like it would be okay,” said Lee. “It’s not like we’d be engaging with anyone under false pretenses or anything like that.”
Tess scowled at him, while Toma nodded and grinned wider.
“Exactly!” he said. “No harm, no foul!”
“This is peeping!” hissed Tess. “There’s no consent involved. It’s dirty and low and foul and gross!”
“Boobs, Lee,” said Toma. “Think of all the boobs.”
Tess made an irritated noise and crossed her arms over her own somewhat smallish-sized breasts. Lee smiled, feeling a little triumphant at the fact that he’d triggered her jealousy in such a backwards, roundabout manner.
“Hmmm,” he said. “It’s tempting, but I think I’ll sit this one out.”
Toma didn’t look all that disappointed. “More potion for me. I was actually a little concerned about whether I’d have enough for both of us, anyway.”
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