by HDA Roberts
I smiled, hugged Tethys again and walked out, feeling a bit better now that Tethys was on the case. As an information broker, she was a genius. If there was anything to be learned about what was going on, she'd find it for me.
I went back to school, arriving just after eight. I showered carefully, changed and went into breakfast, where I found Cathy waiting for me. She seemed to sag in relief when I came in. Bill and Belle were there, too, and everyone wanted details. I told them a watered down version, avoiding the torture, the mutilations and the ridiculous Tethys role-play.
Cathy squeaked and clapped when I told her about the Pixies and the rest of them. Belle was more interested in my smashing a Golem. And naturally Bill wanted to know about the Princess.
"Don't even think about it. I wouldn't be surprised if she keeps a couple of people as pets," I said, warning my friend.
"Would there be stroking involved?" he asked, his eyebrows waggling.
"Oh for heaven's sake," I said, rubbing my eyes.
There was a clatter and another girl joined our group. Pretty and tall with curly blonde hair and the kind of face that seems to project mischief. Once lured me into a trap, I'd mostly moved past it.
"I hate that Hellstrom bastard!" Courtney Wilcox said, sticking her fork into a sausage with indecent force and making the men at the table wince in sympathy.
"Preaching to the choir," I replied.
"I still think he's cute," Belle chimed in, earning her three glares, which just made her smirk.
"How do you keep forgetting that he's going to turn into a Mage-eating monster?" I asked.
"A what?" Courtney asked.
"Um," I said, "Don't tell anyone I said that. His mother gets homicidal when that idea gets brought up, and the last thing you want is that bitch's attention."
"You're not telling me you're scared of her?" Courtney asked, her eyebrow raised.
"I'm scared of a lot of things," I said, "That's what keeps me alive."
"Hadn't thought of it like that," Courtney said.
"Fear is there for a reason, it lets you know when you're about to do something stupid," I said, buttering my toast, "I get scared a lot."
My friends sniggered at the joke, a little too hard, actually...
"Why do you hate him?" I asked, "Not that I'm judging."
"He's... creeping on me. He follows me around; he waits at my classes, outside my house... I don't like it. I don't like the way he's watching me. And then yesterday he came up to me and told me flat-out that he wants me. He wasn't polite about it, either. It made me feel sick."
"He did what?" I asked, my voice was very low and cold. Cathy, Bill, Belle and Courtney all tensed at my tone.
"It wasn't so bad," she said quickly, "He's hardly the first creep to come into this school. I got used to Bill, I'll get used to Hellstrom."
"Hey!" Bill complained.
Courtney smiled.
"Go to Hopkins," I said, "Today, and that bloody Leopold, what's her name? Prewett. Tell them both. In fact, do it as soon as you're done eating."
"I'm not a snitch," she said, frowning.
"Learn to be; now. There is no grey area here. And I can't believe I'm actually going to utter these words, but Shadowborn are dangerous. That one is a hundred times worse because he's tasted the Black. If Ted Bundy starts paying you compliments, you stock up on bodyguards. Same principle."
"You really think so?"
"I think that you take no chances with a poisonous snake that thinks your rump is worth sinking its teeth into. Sorry for how that sounded, regret it already."
Courtney smiled, "It's nice that you're thinking of my 'rump', there may be hope for you."
"Girlfriend, sitting right here," Cathy said with a scowl.
"Sorry, sorry," Courtney said, winking at me.
"Today, Courtney, please," I said.
She nodded, putting down her fork.
"Okay," she said, "I'm going now, alright?"
"Good," I said.
"You owe me breakfast, this was my cheat day," she said, hopping up and walking away.
I let out a breath.
"You really are worried about that little freak, aren't you?" Belle said.
"Yes."
"Can't you do something?" Belle asked.
"I want to. But it's not up to me. I don't have that right."
"I don't get it," Bill said.
"He's saying that the only thing he could do would be to hurt him," Cathy said.
"Or wipe his mind or put him in a permanent coma, it all amounts to much the same thing in the end. A dead kid," I said, "and I don't have that right. And I sure as shit don't have the stomach."
"Language!" Cathy said.
"Sorry," I replied automatically.
"What if he kills someone, and you could have stopped it?" Belle asked.
"There's a difference between fighting someone in the middle of doing something bad and killing them in cold blood for what they might do. It's the same reasoning people keep using for killing me!"
"Ah," Belle said, "that is a pickle."
"Isn't it, though?"
I barely noticed at first, but I got a few stares at the bandage. As the rumours started circulating about how I'd been hurt, the stares increased in intensity. I didn't bother to correct them as they were coming up with some pretty good stuff. My favourite was one that Bill heard from a couple of first-years; apparently I'd taken a wound while fighting a tyrannosaurus.
Another group thought Cathy did it to me during some sort of... amorous activity, I liked that one too, but I didn't repeat it to Cathy, who'd likely have turned red as a tomato and got stuck that way.
The day wore on, as days normally do, and I was starting to feel relaxed around dinner time, so naturally that was when that wretched murderer-teacher walked up behind me and told me to come to her office. I followed her into the Big House, to a room on the first floor with a view of the woods. The office was a modest one, a desk, a chair on the far side, two on the other. There were a few shelves, some pictures on the walls, nothing exceptional.
"Sit down," she ordered, taking her seat.
I did as I was told, facing the woman.
"I don't like vendettas, Graves," she said, her voice unpleasant, a calculating look on her face.
"Beg pardon?" I asked, thoroughly confused.
"You sent Courtney Wilcox to tell me tales about the Hellstrom boy."
"Are you saying that she made that stuff up?"
"She told me that you made her come to me. That she didn't really want to."
"What she meant was that she was reluctant to complain. The complaint itself is valid."
"Says you," she said with a dismissive snort.
"No, says her."
She rolled her eyes, "If I hear about you trying to discredit another student again, I'll take you to the headmaster."
"Are you stupid or something?" I asked, now completely out of patience.
"What did you say to me?" she snarled.
"Did I stutter?"
"You are in very big trouble, Mister Graves," she said acidly.
"A girl came to you, worried about a Magician, and you focus on me?"
"I think you're the Magician she needs to be worried about! I've heard the rumours. I know what you're going to become. Compared to you, Hellstrom is a gnat. Bearing that in mind, everything you do has to be considered a manipulation, something you do to advance your cau- where are you going?"
"We're done here," I said, opening the door.
"Graves, come back here!"
"No," I said turning to glare at her, an expression of complete contempt on my face. She actually paled and leaned back in her chair. I shook my head and left before I could make it any worse.
I stomped off, a little shocked and quite disappointed. Horrific aura aside, she was supposed to be the one person a Pureborn could rely on when Magicians became problematic.
That especially annoyed me because her lack of professionalism meant that
I now had to do something really unpleasant.
I found Hopkins in her classroom. I felt the bile rise in my stomach at the very sight of her. But needs must.
"May I have a word?" I asked.
She looked up and gestured for me to come in.
"Did Courtney Wilcox come to talk to you today?" I asked.
"No, should she have?"
"Yes."
I laid it out for her, and she listened. I still trusted her to do the right thing where other Mages were concerned.
"That Prewett is not what I had hoped she would be," Hopkins said.
"How's that?" I asked.
"She was a soldier, fought in one of the special brigades they set up to deal with magical threats. I expected her to be a bit more reasonable, but then perhaps I shouldn't have. She did some very ugly things in Afghanistan when those end-time cultists tried to open up a Hell-Gate."
I winced at that. Having met one Demon, I wasn't inclined to meet another, much less the thousands that can pour out of something like that.
"I thought someone like her would be paranoid enough to be useful with so many Shadowborn around. I'll have to re-think things."
"Can I leave that with you?" I asked, eager to be out of there.
"Yes, of course."
I nodded and stood up.
"You'd trust me with this?" she said as I opened the door.
"I trust that you wouldn't let an innocent girl come to harm, certainly not from a Black Magician. Whatever things you may do to me, I have to believe that an Archon looks out for people like her, or we're all screwed."
"You truly hate me, don't you?" she asked, looking down, a hurt look on her face.
"No," I said sadly, which made her look up, surprised, "but that hardly changes the situation; just makes it worse, if anything."
I walked away.
She made everything official, made sure that the school was notified, along with Hellstrom's parents and Courtney's. If anything happened to the girl, his would be the first head the Conclave ripped open, and he knew it. He kept away from her. And I made sure to keep an eye on Courtney, just in case.
I started working down my detentions, getting back into a routine, it felt good. The rest of that week went by, and then the next. It was... normal. I learned things, spent time with my friends, and more importantly my girlfriend. Apart from the usual timesaving things, I didn't even bother using Magic that whole time, I didn't need to.
It felt... peaceful.
My bandages came off for good about two weeks after I'd been cut. The scars were... not attractive. There'd been enough news coverage of the other attacks that what had happened to me became public knowledge very quickly. People stared, but I didn't really notice. Or care for that matter.
Cathy didn't seem to mind at all, Bill said they made me look dangerous, and Belle made strange girly noises every time she saw them. It helped.
It was the third Monday after I'd been hurt, well into the term, things had been calm for a while. Tethys had come up empty on her sources, and I'd turned what I knew over to Kraab and his merry men, for all the good that would do.
Hopkins found me while I was actually catching up on some work for a change. I was in the library, surrounded by piles of paper and books; time spent with Cathy had left me a bit behind and a lot of that stuff was due within the next twenty-four hours.
"We need to talk," she said, sitting across the table from me. I felt Magic, a muffling spell.
"Regarding?" I asked, putting my pen down carefully.
"Your declining performance," she said, putting her hands together on the desk, sitting carefully, in that controlled manner she uses when she's trying to avoid screaming at someone.
"I'm addressing that," I said, gesturing at the heap.
"Hardly; your grades are dropping across the board. You've gone from top two to bottom seven in your classes, and that is not on."
"I'll try harder," I said; the staple response.
"You are distracted, and, coincidentally, so is Miss Campbell. I can only conclude that your relationship has become a distraction."
I suddenly felt cold inside and intensely angry. It was only with a massive effort that I kept my voice under control.
"And what, pray, does that have to do with you? It's my life, and it's hers. As long as the A-Level results come in, what do a few tests and essays matter?"
"That's not what I'm worried about! I'm talking about your Magic! You haven't been to a single class since the first one, and I'm willing to bet real money that you've stopped all work to progress on your own."
"The Magic Class is optional. I'm opting not to take it."
"It's optional for non-Magical students. Not for you."
"Nowhere in the paperwork my parents signed when I started attending this school was there any mention of compulsory Magical courses. I know because I read it."
"No, but it says plenty about compulsory attendance at classes deemed 'necessary to a student's wellbeing and the furtherance of their education, the definition of which is at the discretion of his or her teachers and / or headmaster', I read the paperwork too," she said a little smugly.
There was a time when I would have been impressed by that kind of sneaky preparation, that so closely matched my own. Now it just reminded me that there was an intellect that rivalled or even surpassed mine, and that it was arrayed against me, attached to a Magician that outclassed me by quite a way.
Probably, anyway. Like I said, she didn't seem to be that much stronger in terms of Well capacity, at least on spec. It was a very odd thing, comparing other Sorcerers to her, there seemed to be rather a whopping disparity between her and them, but when I tried to compare my own Well to hers, she only seemed to have about a fifth more power, it was confusing as hell.
Don't get me wrong, a fifth is still a lot, an awful lot when you bear in mind how strong I am, but she may not be stupidly out of my league in terms of wattage. Skill is another thing, mind. She's got centuries on me, and she can cast multiple spells at the same time, something I could never hope to duplicate, not for a few hundred years, anyway. I digress, the point is that she's clever, she's dangerous, and she doesn't have my best intentions at heart.
"Fine," I said.
"Class is tonight, I believe you know the way?" she said, standing up and walking away.
"Yes."
I was angry, unhappy and more than a little mutinous, but as always, it comes back to the fact that she's an Archon, and if I don't do what she tells me, then she can make me.
For now.
Chapter 9
Back to class.
Terrific.
I wouldn't let Cathy and Bill come. Which is to say I had to beg them not to. And Cathy nearly overruled me, which led to another discussion. It took a while, but I convinced them that being in the same proximity as Hellstrom and the other Shadowborn wasn't the best idea.
The room was empty except for Magicians. Last term, regular students would come to these things, but there wasn't anyone there now who didn't have to be. I sat with Belle, at the back so I wouldn't have anyone behind me.
"Anything I should know?" I asked.
"The Shadowborn formed a clique, the rest of us hate them, one of the new girls is a hippie, but she's alright. The Wizard's a tool, but okay, really. The last girl's nice, I like her, Shelly!"
She waved to the aforementioned girl who went pale at the sight of me.
"That happens a lot these days," I commented.
"Come up, Shelly, he won't bite," Belle said. The girl was plain-looking, but she had kind eyes and a friendly look to her. She was the Air Adept.
"Hi Belle," she said in a cheerful tone, sitting on Belle's other side. They chatted while the others came in. The Wizard, who Belle told me was called Wilbur, was apparently also quite the hit with the girls, strong and tall, broad shouldered, dark, piercing eyes, the whole nine yards. He was a strong Wizard, probably quite dangerous as those things go.
Shelly went
quiet as Wilbur came in. I concealed my grin.
The original Windward acolytes came in and took seats near Belle and I, nodding to me. The last new girl came in, and she was actually quite cute, if a little vacant looking. A quick peek with Mage Sight told me why.
"Oh, druid," I said to Belle as Lilly came towards us.
"What?" Belle asked.
"She's going full-hippie. She's trying to bond with an elemental, hence the look," I said.
"You know druids?" Lilly asked optimistically.
"Legally, I'm obligated to say no," I said, remembering an encounter a while back. It hadn't ended well, "But I should warn you that bonding with an elemental that doesn't want to be bonded to can be problematic. And lethal."
"What would you know about it?" she said, her expression turning frosty.
"Enough," I said, thinking of Moria, who was still flying around the place, she visited from time to time.
The druid-wannabe made a dismissive sound and turned away from me.
The Shadowborn came in. And didn't they look like they were trying to be impressive? They must have practiced. The big doors opened and Maria and Darius led the way, the other four in their wake, all looking very serious, moving with a confident lope that was horribly affected. The rest of the Mages in the room looked worried and impressed.
I burst out laughing.
I couldn't help it, they were just trying so hard to be intimidating.
Belle jumped as the laugh escaped, Maria and the Shadowborn stopped to glare, which just made me laugh harder, they somehow even had that synchronised.
"Problem, Rat-eyes?" Darius asked as I managed to get my mirth under control.
"Not at all. Your choreography made my day."
A few on our side sniggered, Belle the loudest.
"How dare you?" Maria hissed.
"Yes, shame on me. I sure wouldn't want your gang of Shadow-toughs with nothing to lose on my tail," I said, descending into sniggers again.
The other mages were laughing openly now.
"We're going to mess you up, little man," said another Shadowborn, stepping forward.
I'd just started to come down from my laugh, and that started me up again.