To Sir, with Love: An Unofficial Legend of The Secret World (Unofficial Legends of The Secret World Book 1)

by Blodwedd Mallory

  Gypcie ignored the accusation in my comment and stayed on the offensive. “I’m so afraid, and I can’t afford to stop paying attention,” she fumed, “because you never do!”

  “That’s not fair!” I said, indignantly.

  She held out her hand and started tallying on her fingers. “You ruin the mirrors we need. You fall asleep in the library. You run into a pack of familiars, forget the plan, and almost get yourself maimed. You hold back on the fight with the wraith and you let me…” Her words choked off at the end, and she bowed her head, her shoulders shaking with silent tears.

  “You’re right. You’re always right,” I said, chagrin and emotion coloring my cheeks. I scuffed my feet on the floor and looked down. Eating crow was getting to be a habit these days it felt like. “I haven’t been doing my best. I really was thinking about that just now, but it wasn’t the time. I’m so sorry I let that happen.”

  She covered her face with her hand, rubbing her temples, then sighing, she looked up. “You’re the one who is right this time. That wasn’t fair. But the part of me that feels like I can’t let loose, like I have to pay attention all the time, is true. Like the chaos is always in control with you. When you zone out or act rashly, I feel like I have to be the one in control of myself so I can pick up the pieces.”

  Oh, Gods. Had I been that selfish to Gypcie? I felt one inch tall. I couldn’t make eye contact with her. I was a terrible friend.

  “Look at me. You need to know how it feels when I let myself work with elemental magic,” she continued, staring me right in the eye, her face intense and her hair starting to lift off her head with a static charge. “I feel like I could burn the world down. Like I could freeze the oceans. Like I could call down lightning from the mountaintops. It is the opposite of feeling in control. But if I don’t feel like you have my back, I can’t let it loose. And not being able to use both of our powers fully gets us annihilated.”

  I was stunned. It had never occurred to me that part of Gypcie’s fear of using elemental magic was directly related to me. I didn’t know what to say, so I told her that and promised to do better.

  “Let’s start by looking at the mirrors,” she conceded. “How screwed are we?”

  I held up an empty frame from the box. The mirrors had disintegrated into powder from the force of my reality fracture spell.

  “Screwed. They’re all ruined,” I put the frame back in the box, and pushed the lock of hair off my forehead. Gypcie’s shoulders slumped in defeat.

  “Wait, wait. Let’s think this through analytically,” I said, mimicking Headmaster Montag. I could be serious and still make jokes, right? “First of all, we know that there’s at least one mirror we can use in the Council of Venice powder room, right? The dreaded ‘oh gods what happened to my nose’ mirror?”

  Gypcie smiled faintly at that.

  “So that’s our fall back plan. But what do you think of this?” I asked. “We use the spectrometer, and we see where it takes us. The wraith can’t pop out at us if there’s not a mirror for it to manifest from, right? That gives us a chance to scope out the lay of the land and plan the fight a little bit. We can search for more mirrors around the campus while we’re at it.”

  “That is a plan,” she said, smiling more widely now. “One thing that’s been bugging me. It called itself a name when we were fighting it…what was it?”

  “Mal-something. I remember because at first I thought it was saying, ‘Mallory,’ which means unlucky. Well, duh,” I said and pointed at the box of broken mirrors. That had to be worth at least 50 years of misfortune for me. Ugh.

  “Mal’un! That was it. I’ll look it up,” she blurted out excitedly, then clapped her hand over her mouth. We both hunched our shoulders and looked around cautiously. Neither of us wanted to discover if the wraith could be summoned by name in the supply closet.

  But nothing happened. Maybe the old seven-years’ curse superstition really was crap.

  Once she was sure it was safe, Gypcie whipped out her phone and started typing with her thumbs.

  “Wikipedia?” I asked.

  “Nope. Google,” she answered. “Here it is in an English-to-Urdu dictionary. Mal’un means ‘accursed one.’”

  “So our villain is Mal’un the Accursed. We have to be able to use that somehow,” I said, tapping my chin.

  “I’m not sure True Names work on wraiths. You’re thinking about demons.”

  “Mal’un, Mal’un, bo-balun, banana, fana, fo-fana. Fie fi fo-falun. Mal’un!” I sang, tempting fate just a little.

  “Will you stop that?” Gypcie rolled her eyes. “My gods, how ancient is that song anyway?”

  I shrugged my shoulders happily. I was in a good mood, filled with relief that Gypcie wasn’t angry with me any longer. “My mom used to sing it to me when I was a kid.” Once again I felt a longing for my mom, but it wasn’t sorrowful. It was with a sense of joy and pride.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Absolute Certainty of Rectitude

  With a new sense of determination to rid Headmaster Montag of the threat of the wraith, we once again turned on the spectrometer and awaited the indication it was warmed up and ready to go. I set the transmittance, and the device responded with its shrill knocking chirp. The blue beam shot out from where we were standing at the base of the north stairs in the foyer in a south-western direction. Apparently, we were headed toward the first-floor classrooms on the south end of the building.

  We crossed the foyer near the entrance to the Administration Office and peeked around the corner at the Bingo cola machine. The area was clear, so we progressed toward the south side library entrance that sat at the junction to the hall to those classrooms.

  The blue beam clearly indicated we needed to enter the Cryptozoology classroom, which was the furthest from us on the right side. And in the middle of the hall about halfway down, four familiars—two Anatomical Specimens and two Surgical Specimens, by the looks of it—had congregated again, blocking our access to the room.

  “I got this,” Gypcie said. “You get my back.”

  I gave her a thumbs up as she raised both hands in front of her summoning a crystallized manifestation of ice which encircled us in a greyish blue circle. Frost sparkled across the wooden floor of the hall. She then flung her left hand out, like she was tossing a Frisbee, and flung a flaming bolt of fire at the nearest familiar. It screamed and disintegrated on contact with the bolt. The remaining three familiars turned, arms outstretched and ran toward us, but Gypcie’s frost manifestation had already begun to weaken them. The elemental focus at her hip glowed slightly, looking eerily like the animated familiars she was targeting. She cast one, two, three more fire bolts, hitting each mid-chest and causing it to burst into flame, while I scrambled to determine which spell I would use to stop them if they reached close range with us. The last of the four was within arm’s reach when it died.

  “Nice job!” I felt a little useless, but I was proud of her. Her pistols had remained firmly holstered at her side. She smiled broadly at her success.

  The hall now, at least, was clear.

  We proceeded carefully down the hallway, avoiding the open threshold of the Summoning Theory classroom, sticking to the lockers that lined the right side. There was no sense in alerting anything hiding in the other classrooms to our presence. The door to Cryptozoology was propped open, so we peered carefully around to look in. The classroom windows looked out over the back lawns of the campus. A teacher’s desk sat at the front of the room, immediately to our right, while student desks had been pushed to the sides of the room. Scattered papers covered a large portion of the floor, and a bookcase lined the south wall between the windows.

  However, the thing that caught my attention the most was the full-length mirror, hinged on a stand, in the south-west corner. It was framed in ornately carved wood, and we could see ourselves reflected in the image. Naturally, the spectrometer was still raising a ruckus, and its blue beam reached out toward the mirror. I heard the gadget giv
e a loud hum as the spectrometer found its target. A cold thrill filled me as I realized we were just moments away from confronting the wraith again.

  “Let’s stay back a minute,” I said. “Last time we did this, the wraith appeared quickly. We need a moment to plan. Last time it snared us both in place. No one wants a repeat of that.”

  “Agreed,” Gypcie said, seriously. “We need to prepare for that again so we can get out of it.”

  I swallowed hard. “I think you should stay back out of its swing with the scythe, so if I get caught, you can try to help me.”

  She pressed her lips together firmly. It was clear that Gypcie didn’t like the idea, but realized one of us had to. Since both of her talents could be used from range, she was the logical choice.

  I handed her the spectrometer. “Shall we try it?”

  She took the device and waited while I moved forward closer to the mirror, staying just enough left of it to keep out of the direct path the beam of the spectrometer would need. I took the chaos focus from my back and focused on the relic, pulling my awareness from the present to the multiplicities of possibility. Once I had that shift in consciousness established, I put the focus back in its straps, and I reached for my athame and ritually cut my hand to prepare for my blood magic.

  It was time, and I was ready. I signaled for Gypcie to begin.

  Gypcie moved into position with the device, which still clicked wildly. The beam crossed the classroom and connected with the reflection of the mirror, creating a blue blossom as the concentric circles bounced back into themselves.

  I felt a cold sting as the wraith began to appear, a white beam of energy catching my body in a snare. It was trying to scythe through me right out of the gate! I looked at Gypcie in a panic.

  Gypcie spun the barrels to her pistols, while lifting her hands over her head, then thrusting them down to her sides, allowing their magic to free my movement. That gave me a clean slate to start the fight. I stepped back out of the range of the wraith as it manifested fully, the scythe swinging wildly in front of it, missing me completely.

  I distorted reality to try to keep it off balance. Paradoxes bloomed around me, the green circles pulsing with energy, as the spell hit.

  The wraith flung its scythe up into the air, which began to swirl above its head of its own accord. I ducked to avoid the swirling blade and fractured reality, covering the floor in a spider web of green and purple energy underneath the wraith. It nimbly dodged the fracture and closed the distance between us.

  Gypcie cast her crystallized ice manifestation, slowing the wraith. Its scythe warped through Time, creating a white fog above its head and blurring reality outside of the classroom windows. All movement and sound from outside stopped, and my heart leaped into my throat.

  “YOU FOOLS.” The wraith roared in a voice of deep thunder, as it picked the scythe out of the air. “I SHALL BE YOUR DEMISE.”

  Terror welled up within me, and I hesitated, paralyzed like the world outside the room.

  Gypcie started to sing: “Mal’un, Mal’un, bo-balun.” With a choking laugh, I blew out a breath and joined her. “Banana, fana, fo-fana.”

  The wraith stopped in confusion, giving me the time to step in close to pummel its skeletal frame with chaos deconstruction.

  I could feel the terror start to dissipate, so louder I continued, “Fie fi fo-falun. Mal’un!” and called in pandemonium. Pulling at the chaotic power within the wraith itself, I gathered the energy into a whirlwind, catching it up in the swell of power and flinging it to the ground. Three multidimensional Wedds popped in beside me, and we all channeled more entropy and deconstruction at the wraith until one by one they popped back to their home dimensions. Awesome.

  Gypcie chucked a steady barrage of fire bolts and fired dual shots from her Harmonizers at the wraith, her shots booming in the relatively small classroom. Despite that, I swear I heard her continuing to hum “The Name Song.”

  The wraith’s solidity wavered, portions of the wall behind it suddenly visible through its robes as it returned to its feet and charged me.

  “HOW DARE YOU MOCK ME?” it bellowed and swung again at me with its scythe, as I edged away south along the wall. “I WILL DESTROY YOU BOTH AND PUNISH THE BETRAYER FOR ETERNITY!”

  I ducked, and fractured reality again under its feet, then pointed my right finger and cast maleficium, backing away from the wraith as I did. The spell began to suck the hellish energy that allowed it to manifest. I could feel the intensity of the corruption climb within me as the spell drank the dark aether, darkening my mood. This chased the fear within me out as I began to fill with anger instead.

  “Not on our watch, you bastard,” I seethed as the wraith struggled against the grip of maleficium.

  Gypcie renewed her frost manifestation and fired off a trick shot, the two bullets swirling from her pistols into the wraith’s chest. They exploded as they hit and the wraith physically buckled under the impact.

  The wraith stopped attacking and fled to the mirror looking for an escape. Its body grew smaller and smaller until it shimmered into particles, entered the reflection of the mirror, and disappeared. I rushed in behind it and smashed the glass with my fist, splintering it into a web of shards, which fell out of the frame and onto the floor.

  I bent over at the waist with my hands on my hips and breathed hard, trying to catch my breath.

  “Damn it, damn it, damn it! I missed the shot.” Gypcie cursed. I looked over at her. She was fumbling with the camera on her phone and trying to holster her pistols, with the spectrometer under her arm. “I am not an octopus. There is no way I can do all this shit at the same time!”

  “It looked like we hurt it at least,” I said, taking the spectrometer back from her. “Let’s try again and see where it has gone.”

  She agreed, but added, “We need to figure out a way to take a picture as it dissolves when it’s headed toward the mirror to escape to its own reality.”

  “Right. I also need my own way to get out of its snare. It was a little too close for comfort this time, but thank you for freeing me.”

  I looked down at the spectrometer and noted with a frown that we’d left it on during the entire fight and while it was still chirping away—the blue beam was angling through the wall near the door—that the chirping seemed a little fainter. We’d need to be careful that we didn’t drain the batteries. Who knew where we could find more?

  We followed the beam, pausing at the door to make sure that more familiars hadn’t gathered in the hall while we fought. Thankfully it was still clear. We scrambled across and paused at the door of the Demonology classroom. Fitting.

  The classroom, like most, was a chaotic mess. Blinds had been torn from the windows, and the slats littered the floor. Sections of the suspended fluorescent lighting had been torn down and joined the mess. A giant splatter of blood covered a world map hanging on the south wall, and the large green blackboards had been torn from the wall on the north. A teacher’s desk sat diagonally in the south-east corner, but all the student desks had been shoved along the walls.

  Again, there was a full-length mirror, hinged on a stand—this time in the south east corner. Like its counterpart in Cryptozoology, it was framed in ornately carved wood. The blue concentric circles from the spectrometer raced across the room and targeted the mirror, the spectrometer letting out another satisfied hum as it targeted in on the wraith’s hiding place.

  Staying at long range during this fight was a priority. That meant that I needed to use blood magic as my primary weapon. My left hand was still bleeding from where I’d cut it, and I was a little tired, but generally was feeling fired up as the corruption in my blood decreased.

  Gypcie and I stood in the doorway while the spectrometer chirped for a few seconds, but nothing happened. We looked at each other and waited some more. Finally, I spoke.

  “It’s not going to appear unless we move into a closer range,” I fretted. “And we need to turn the spectrometer off, so we don’t run
down the battery.”

  “Can you stay out of range and put it over on the teacher’s desk?”

  “I think so.”

  Hugging the north wall, I moved over to the desk, turned off the device, and set it down on the desk.

  “Everything set, Octopus Girl?” I teased nervously.

  “I’m better now that’s out of my hands,” she said, pointing at the spectrometer. “Move closer to the mirror when you’re ready, unless you want me to?”

  I shook my head no, and moved straight toward the mirror, avoiding the fallen tin shade from the light fixture above. Again, I felt a cold sting and a white beam of energy trapped my body in place. But the wraith was nowhere in sight.

  “It’s bigger this time,” Gypcie shrieked. I turned as best as I could in the snare and discovered it had appeared behind me. Pulling my body around through sheer force of will, I faced my attacker as it attempted to scythe through me.

  I was prepared and loosed entropy on it, which I hoped would hasten its demise as the spell sucked the wraith’s thermal energy into disorder. The spell had an effect, but not the one I wanted. Instead of freeing me from the snare, the spell seemed to enrage it. The wraith roared and disappeared. I barely had a chance to look over at Gypcie in alarm when it reappeared in a burst of red and white energy and renewed its attack a few feet away, splashing into the room in a pool of blood that covered most of the floor.

  I moved to close with the wraith, slipping on the now-slick floor, hearing the echo of Montag’s voice call out “No running in the halls, they’re quite slick with gore,” in my head.

  It swung its scythe and the blade sliced across my chest, scoring it. I grunted in pain as the deep cold burn of the wound registered in my brain. I could feel the blood start to drip down my chest and did a backflip to give myself some distance from its weapon. As I landed, I tripped on the fallen tin cover from the light fixture, slipped on the blood and fell back, taking the brunt of the damage on my backside and elbows. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Ow! My elbows screamed with nerve pain that nearly outshone the cut on my chest. I did my best to ignore it and scrambled back, crab style, struggling to regain my feet.