by John Bierce
Still, he was a little surprised that dancing had come to him so easily, or that he’d enjoy it as much as he did.
It was a fairly sedate song at the moment, so Hugh had a moment to think as he and Avah slowly spun to the music.
Today was the one year anniversary of Alustin picking Hugh as a student. It somehow felt simultaneously much longer and shorter than that to Hugh. He wasn’t exactly sure how he’d explain it to someone else, but it felt like this was his new normal now— friends who he actually felt safe and confident around, an amazing girlfriend, and opportunities to actually make something of himself.
Hugh actually wanted something more from his future than just being left alone now, and he wasn’t entirely sure when that had become true. He was sure when it had started, however— the day when he first encountered Alustin, when the paper mage had rescued him from Rhodes and his cronies.
He couldn’t help but frown a little at the thought of Rhodes. Why was Rhodes trying to talk to him? During their encounters, Hugh had automatically tensed up, expecting the worst, but in retrospect… Rhodes hadn’t sounded angry, or like he was looking to entertain himself at Hugh’s expense.
There wasn’t a lot of chance he’d be able to be this rational next time he encountered Rhodes, though. As much as he hated it, Hugh would probably feel just as much fear then as he had every time before.
Hugh forced himself to stop thinking about Rhodes, tonight of all nights.
The song came to an end, and Avah slowly unwrapped her arms from around Hugh.
“We’ve been dancing for hours,” she said. “I need a break.”
“It hasn’t been…” Hugh glanced around him, noticing that the dance floor was significantly emptier, and that the wine he’d drank earlier had mostly worn off. “Has it really been that long since our last break?”
Avah smiled at him. “I’m going to go get some air on the balcony, would you mind grabbing us drinks?”
“Of course!” Hugh said. “No, wait, I mean of course I would be happy to grab us drinks, not of course to me minding grabbing drinks…”
Avah giggled at that, then headed over to where some of the others were sitting.
Hugh sighed. For all the ways in which he’d gotten better, he still couldn’t go very long between bouts of being a nervous idiot.
As Hugh wandered over to get more wine, he tripped on something heavy lying on the ground. He managed to catch himself before tripping, and turned to see what he’d tripped over.
It was his spellbook.
Hugh glared at the book. Its green crystal cover seemed to be projecting an image of innocence and confusion.
“I know for a fact I left you in my room. My locked room. How did you…?” Hugh asked it.
The spellbook excitedly sent him an image of it flying out the window, followed by several of it chasing sand drakes and stealing someone’s hat.
Hugh folded his arms. “No more stealing from people. Even if their hats look tasty. How do you even taste things, anyhow?”
The spellbook gave him a sullen look, then spat out a chewed-up hat. Hugh felt relief for the hundredth time that the book didn’t have spit glands.
“I expect to see you in my room when I get back,” Hugh said as sternly as he could manage.
The book flipped over sullenly, then took off flapping into the air. He knew it didn’t need to do that to get around, but it had picked up the habit from the books in the Grand Library.
Hugh shook his head wryly, then noticed that quite a few people were giving him weird looks. He blushed, then hurried to get the wine.
Hugh found Avah leaning against the balcony balustrade, staring out into the Skyreach Range. The balcony was only lit by the stars and the surprisingly small amount of light that leaked from the ballroom, so it took a moment for Hugh’s eyes to adjust. Once they did, however, he could see for miles and miles. He was fairly sure that many of the larger peaks he could spot in the distance had their bases well past the horizon.
The night air was cold, but it felt good to cool off after hours of dancing.
Avah smiled as he handed her a glass of wine and gave him a quick kiss. They didn’t say anything for a few minutes, just stared out into the mountains.
He was starting to feel the need to say something when Avah shivered and rested her head against his shoulder. He smiled and wrapped his arm around her.
He wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that before a group of journeymen who had clearly had too much to drink wandered past them. Avah turned to look at them, giggling slightly at their antics. Hugh sighed quietly, wishing they had chosen to wander somewhere else, even though he’d started to feel cold. As he turned, he noticed another couple making out against a pillar a good ways down the balcony.
“Is that Talia and Phusan making out down there?” he asked.
“Where?” Avah said.
Hugh pointed.
Avah grunted. “I can barely tell there’s anyone down there. How good is your night vision?”
“Better than I thought, apparently,” Hugh said.
Avah chuckled, then took another sip of her wine. “Good on them,” she said.
She took another sip, then set her glass down on the balustrade. “I think I’m about ready to head out,” she said. “I’ve had more than enough dancing for the night.”
Hugh’s heart sank a little, but he forced a smile onto his face. “I’m glad you came, I had a lot of fun tonight! Do you want to meet up sometime tomorrow? I…”
Avah rolled her eyes. “I didn’t mean by myself, dummy.”
Hugh’s brain took a second to catch up, then promptly stopped working. He managed to stammer out something incoherent, to which Avah only laughed and began leading him back through the ballroom by the hand.
They passed by Godrick, Irrick, Sabae, and Artur’s table on the way out. All four looked like they’d had a bit too much to drink— which for Artur and Godrick, was truly an astonishing amount.
“Hugh, you remember your cantrip lessons, right?” Sabae called out, then the whole group burst into laughter.
Hugh turned bright red, which made them laugh even harder. He also caught Irrick winking at Avah, who seemed to be enjoying the whole scene immensely.
Hugh realized he was still carrying his wine glass, and downed the rest of his wine in a single gulp.
As it turned out, not only was his spellbook not in his room, but it had left him a pile of chewed-up hats on the floor.
He didn’t really care much at the time, though.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Narrowing the Field
If Godrick had thought second year was difficult before Midwinter, he’d been sorely mistaken. The four of them— well, except for Sabae— started off the second half of their school year behind already— Hugh and Godrick had been spending as much time with Avah and Irrick as possible before they left, and Talia had gotten caught up in her thing with Phusan, leaving all of them much less time to study than they really needed.
Sabae was willing to cover for them somewhat, but she couldn’t maintain all of her friends’ grades on top of her own.
Avah and Irrick left a few weeks after Midwinter, and Hugh and Godrick started to catch up on their studies. Talia and Phusan broke up about a week after that.
Godrick couldn’t say he honestly minded. Phusan might have been gorgeous, but he was a bit boring. Godrick definitely did mind having to repair the stone of the walls and ceiling in their hallway a few hours after the breakup, but thankfully no one other than Godrick, Sabae, Hugh, and Hugh’s spellbook had seen the damage Talia did to it.
The spellbook hid whenever Talia was around for a solid week afterward.
Once catching up on their studies began in earnest, they hardly had time to sleep, let alone pursue their investigation. Complaints to Alustin only received blithe assurances that he had complete faith in them.
So, of course, it ended up being sleep that they were missing out on.
Sabae was
n’t doing much better than the rest of them, unfortunately. As her grandmother’s visit grew closer and closer, she spent more and more time on the investigation, spending hours at a time poring over dusty council minutes dating back years.
One of the reasons they were missing out on so much sleep was something of a mixed blessing— Alustin had added an entire additional class onto their workload. It was a weekly seminar on battle tactics for just the four of them. They weren’t learning any new spells or combat tricks, but were instead being taught to apply their current capabilities more effectively and creatively in battle, both individually and as a unit.
It was certainly an interesting class, but that wasn’t enough on its own to move it from the curse category to the blessing one— the extra workload was far too exhausting for that.
No, what moved it into the blessing category was the fact that it was being taught by Anders vel Siraf, Dean of Skyhold and one of the suspects for the council traitor. It gave the four of them an excellent opportunity to get to know Anders and try to determine his guilt or innocence.
That was what moved it into the blessing category. Though, to be honest, Godrick was definitely considering moving it back into the curse category at the moment.
He had his back pressed to a stone pillar that barely hid him, and he was cautiously peering out into the mist that filled the training hall. He clutched the enchanted rod in his right hand a little tighter, took a deep breath, and dashed out of cover, towards where he knew the next row of columns would be.
He was sure he felt something fly past him in the thick mist, but he couldn’t see anything more than a couple feet in front of his face. He could only tell where the stone columns were thanks to his affinity sense.
Godrick and the others were supposed to be hunting Anders through the mist and columns, but Godrick’s affinity sense wasn’t proving much use at the moment. Anders wasn’t carrying anything steel that he could detect, and while some stone mages could detect footsteps and other vibrations in stone, Godrick hadn’t put in the years of training that skill required.
Maybe, though…
Godrick tapped into his scent affinity. He used it far less than his other two— it was a lot less powerful than they were, for one thing, and he couldn’t do much before he exhausted his scent mana reservoir. He also simply had much less training with it. Until they could find him a teacher, they’d have to puzzle out his scent magic from books.
Which left him with a few scent spells of somewhat questionable utility that did things like make food taste better, and a single stink bomb spell that completely drained his scent mana reservoir with a single casting.
The biggest advantage that he got from his scent affinity, however, was his associated affinity sense. It… well, it basically just made his regular sense of smell much, much more powerful.
One of the few spells he knew was quite powerful in combination with it— it made the direction of smells he encountered much more apparent. It wouldn’t last more than a minute or two, but…
Godrick envisioned the spellform and powered it, then breathed in deeply through his nose.
He could smell Sabae and Hugh to his right, while Talia was some distance straight ahead of him. They were all staying quiet in the mist, trying to sneak up on Anders.
Anders himself, though… Godrick frowned in confusion and brushed one of his curls out of his face. He could smell Anders, but he wasn’t quite sure where…
Godrick looked up and smiled. He stopped visualizing the scent spellform, tucked the enchanted rod in his pocket, and constructed an old favorite of his in his mind’s eye— the basic stone sculpting spell he’d used back in the labyrinth last year.
He focused the spellform on the stone column, then started envisioning the shapes he wanted the stone to take. These sorts of sculpting spellforms were incredibly versatile, but were also slow and required a significant degree of focus to pull off. Crafting the ladder in the labyrinth had been absolutely exhausting last year, and he’d barely pulled it off.
This time, though, he’d constructed his ladder and ascended it to near the top of the room in under a minute. Part of it was just the growth in his mana reservoirs— they had to be well over twice the volume they’d been last spring. The rest, however, was all just practice and improving his skills.
Once he’d gotten high enough, he pulled the rod back out of his pocket and re-envisioned the scent direction spellform. He still couldn’t see farther than a few feet— he could barely make out the nearest couple of columns through the swirling mist.
Godrick took a deep breath through his nose, seeking out Anders’ scent again. He picked it up, but from the other side of the column he was on.
The back of Godrick’s neck felt oddly warm, but that was probably just from the climb.
He tucked away the rod yet again, dismissed the scent spell, and began crafting handholds to move to the next side of the column.
Once there, he readied himself again. Rod out and pointing in Anders’ general direction, he waited cautiously for the silk mage to draw closer.
At first he thought he was just seeing the mist shift, but then he realized what he was seeing— a long, thin ribbon of silk reaching out and wrapping about a column. Several more followed, with even more striking another visible column. They all pulled, and Anders drifted into sight.
The distinguished, grey-haired mage was suspended between the columns by countless ribbon of silk— he almost resembled a spider contentedly sitting in their own mobile web. More ribbons and threads dangled towards the ground, all converging with Anders’ voluminous robes.
Unfortunately for the metaphorical spider in question, he was below Godrick, and too busy looking downwards for apprentices to wrap up in his web to look up.
Godrick slowly, quietly adjusted his aim and prepared to channel mana into the rod. The back of his neck felt uncomfortably warm now, but Godrick ignored it as he began to channel mana into the rod, which began to glow a faint pink.
Before Godrick could fire, though, a burst of pink light hammered into him from below. His limbs and body went limp, and Godrick plummeted from the side of the column. Above him, he heard Anders yell out in triumph.
Right before Godrick hit the floor, the training hall’s safety enchantments kicked in, slowing his fall to almost nothing before he hit the ground.
He lay there limply for a few seconds, but the mist was already fading, and he could feel control over his body returning.
Godrick sat up and groaned.
“Well done, apprentices!” Anders called. “Two of you almost had me that time!”
Anders’ ribbons carried the bound forms of Talia, Sabae, and Hugh over to Godrick, then released them. They all sat up, groaning.
“Godrick especially impressed me. I didn’t even notice he was above me until after he fell!” Anders called. He came back into sight through the last of the mist. Unobscured, his robes were a brilliant cascade of color. He had dozens of different shades of silk sewn in, with even more colors of thread embroidered throughout. On anyone else it might have been garish, but on Anders, with the way swatches of silk were always orbiting him, plastering themselves to his robes, and sliding about, it went from garish to utter and complete visual chaos.
Looking at him actually hurt the eyes a little.
“How’d yeh get me if yeh couldn’t see me, then?” Godrick asked.
“I didn’t!” Anders called back cheerfully as his silk ribbons lowered him to the floor. “Talia did!”
Godrick gave Talia a confused look. It made sense— the spell effect that had hit him was what the training rods did— but what were the odds that Talia would randomly hit him as he was about to hit Anders?
Anders laughed at Godrick’s visible confusion, then strode over to Godrick. He reached behind him and pulled something from out of the back of Godrick’s collar.
It was a pin with a blue bead on the end and tiny, intricate little spellforms all over the needle.
/> “Talia planted this on me before the exercise started,” Anders said. “It was certainly clever, but my affinity senses gave her away the instant the needle was stuck in my silk. I transferred it over to you before the exercise started as well. Talia was spending the entire exercise hunting you using the tracking pin, and I was lucky that she got you just in time to save me from a loss.”
A big part of Godrick highly doubted that they would have won even if Talia hadn’t shot him off the column. Anders always had another trick tucked away in his robes. He probably had some kind of glyph embroidered into his robes that would have just disrupted the rod’s shot entirely, or something of the sort.
Anders chuckled and handed the pin back to Talia, who tucked it away in her clothes, grumbling to herself.
“There’s definitely such a thing as being too clever, Talia,” Anders said.
“That’s why I prefer just destroying things,” Talia snapped.
“Honestly, that’s a fairly viable strategy in a lot of limited visibility situations,” Anders said, “so long as you don’t have to worry about hitting any allies.”
Godrick sat down against a nearby column to listen to Anders lecture them on low visibility combat. Even if they weren’t getting any clues for the investigation, the silk mage was an absolute treasure horde of useful advice and lessons on combat. He specialized in mage to mage combat, and he had seen more of it than nearly any other mage Godrick had ever met. He learned more in a single lesson with Anders than he did in half a dozen with most teachers.
On top of that, Godrick had never seen Anders in anything but the best of moods. He was always cracking jokes, insisting that others call him by his name and not his title, and always seemed genuinely curious about how the apprentices were doing when he saw them.
A big part of Godrick really hoped that Anders wasn’t the traitor, and he definitely understood why Alustin was so vocal about feeling the same.