Peter and the Heart of Alchemy (War of Contractia Book 5)

by Tj Dixon

  “Are you sure you should be doing this?” Gemma asks from behind me. She sounds badly hurt, but the evil threat in her voice is just as clear as ever. I close my eyes and send a blast of lightning at her, but she shields my attack and a moment later her lightning hits my unshielded body.

  I fall back against the tree, though I am still conscious and get my shield up. It is weak though and barely holds as Gemma attacks again. Then the rest of the gang join in and their lightning pierces my shield. For some reason their attacks stop before I am knocked out. My vision is completely blurred now so I can only assume they want to make me suffer more before granting the mercy of unconsciousness.

  “Elf…” Gemma whispers fearfully, but her words carry to me in the silence.

  “Leave here… now.” Dairon whispers and I can hear a fury in his voice I have never heard before. I sense five ports a moment later. It seems they left their friends behind.

  I hear footsteps and then a cool liquid flows down my throat. The pain fades and my vision clears. Dairon is now running over to Rose and pouring the rest of the vial of healing potion down her throat. I just sit against the tree, healed but still dazed. I feel another girl port away. It seems that one of the girls I knocked out woke up.

  “Thanks.” Rose tells Dairon and I realise I never thanked him. In fact I have a lot to thank Rose for too.

  “Thank you.” I tell them both with a teary voice. They both look over to me, clearly embarrassed.

  “It’s nothing.” Rose says with an embarrassed smile, despite having just put herself through hell for me. Then she frowns. “Why were they attacking you?”

  “The same reason as always. They hate me.” I tell her honestly, though it isn’t the whole truth.

  “Because she’s disgusting!” A girl shouts from where she’s lying, before porting away with her two unconscious friends. Rose glares at the ground where the girl just ported from.

  “This isn’t the first time they attacked you?” Rose asks with a simmering anger in her voice, though her anger clearly isn’t directed at me.

  “No, but don’t worry about it.” I tell Rose whilst trying to suppress my tears. I can’t though.

  “How can I not worry about it?” Rose asks in disbelief. The problem is that I don’t want her finding out how different I am, and hating me for it. Before I can think how to answer her we are surrounded by mages.

  “Where’s the elf?” Asks a mage, who after a moment I recognise as a teacher. In fact they are all teachers. Somehow Dairon managed to hide himself just as they were arriving.

  “What elf?” Rose asks with fake confusion.

  “We had sightings of an elf here. Where is he?” The teacher replies with a glare.

  “I didn’t see any elves.” Rose says and the teacher looks at me next. I just shrug and shake my head. The teacher then turns back to Rose.

  “You’re both lying and I’ll have you both out of the academy when I prove it. Oh, and you may want to take a look at her room before you decide to be her friend. If you’re human you’ll have second thoughts for sure. Of course it will be too late to save yourself from expulsion.” The teacher laughs and then looks back to the other teachers. “He can’t be far away. If you have any pride as Contractian mages, you’d better stake it on finding that elf scum.”

  The teachers port away and Rose stares at me in confusion. She walks up to me and I sigh, knowing what she is about to ask.

  “You want to see my room now, don’t you?” I ask and Rose nods. “You’ll hate me if you see it.”

  “I won’t.” Rose assures me, but I have heard those words before.

  “You will.” I sigh.

  “I promise that I won’t.” Rose tells me.

  “I don’t really have a choice. But promise me you’ll not tell anyone else anything. Not even Lily.”

  “Ok. I promise.” Rose tells me sounding confused. I’m sure she’ll break the promise, but at least she promised. I take her right hand in my own and port us into my room.

  I close my eyes and letting go of Rose’s hand I prepare myself for the worst. I hear her gulp in horror and then sense her port away. She didn’t attack me, but now the whole club will hear about it. I wonder whether I even dare turn up to training tomorrow. Tears run down my cheeks. Again.

  (Peter)

  Rin was angry. Of course she was angry. I have no idea how I heard her thoughts, but that was clearly what happened. I didn’t realise they were her thoughts, rather than her words, until too late. She wanted me to leave so I did, but now what? Will I still hear her thoughts the next time I see her?

  I’m waiting in the corridor for her to calm down. I am sure she knows I am here. I can’t hear her thoughts from here and there is nobody around so it seems the best place to wait.

  “Peter?” I hear Dairon’s nervous voice in my head.

  “Dairon?”

  “I was seen by some students and now the teachers are looking for me. They seem to be using some pretty advanced magic. If I stay here they’ll find me. So I’m retreating for now.”

  “How did they see you?”

  “They were fighting Misty and Rose. I had to intervene. I should have just attacked, but I was too angry to think straight.” Dairon admits nervously.

  “Why were they attacking those two?” I ask in confusion.

  “They seemed to know Misty. I think Rose probably just got caught up in it.” Dairon tells me, which reminds me that Misty had told me about getting bullied before joining the club. So it isn’t over yet?

  “Ok. Just try not to get caught.” I tell Dairon.

  “I’ll do my best.” Dairon replies and then the mental connection cuts off like normal. I’m sure Dairon will be fine, but this is frustrating. Why did this have to happen now, whilst I am away from the academy?

  “Peter?” Rin’s voice comes from behind me. I turn and see that she seems fairly calm now. “Can you still hear my thoughts?”

  “I don’t seem to, but I can’t be sure.” I answer, seeing she just spoke her question rather than thinking it.

  “Let’s have dinner now.” Rin suggests but sees my hesitation. “You don’t want to eat with me? Or are you just not hungry yet?”

  “There’s trouble back at the academy. The teachers are hunting Dairon.” I tell Rin who closes her eyes and sighs in frustration.

  “Come inside. I don’t want to discuss this in the corridor.” Rin tells me and then her voice trembles a little as she continues speaking. “We’d better head back, but you owe me a dinner date.”

  “Ok. Thank you for understanding.”

  “Like we could enjoy dinner now, when we’re worried about Dairon.” Rin sighs, shaking her head. Then she blushes. “You can answer me when we have our date. You should have your dates with Cherry and Midori first.”

  “Answer you?” I ask confused.

  “Answer my feelings.” Rin glares.

  “I thought I did.” I say confused and inviting Rin’s ire even more.

  “You need to make it clear. Will you marry me or not? I’ll wait until our date for your answer. Midori and Cherry probably feel the same way about you, but you can only marry one of us.” Rin tells me.

  “I have to get married?” I ask stunned.

  “Well, you don’t have to.” Rin says sounding rather hurt. “But if you love one of us you should. It doesn’t have to be right away. In fact it would be better just to get engaged to marry for now.”

  “What does it really mean to marry you? Or to get engaged to marry?” I ask confused.

  “It means that you love me, and trust me, more than anyone else. That I mean more to you than anyone else, and that you would do anything for me. And that I feel the same way about you.” Rin tells me, unable to suppress a blush. I find myself blushing too. “If you try to make me say any more embarrassing things I’m going to hit you. Anyway, for now let’s find our escort and head back to the academy.”

  It doesn’t take long to find our escort, because she is busy
drinking downstairs. She leads us to the Circle of Portals where we get led to a portal without anyone even inspecting us. The portal sends us back directly to the academy. In fact, directly outside my room. Apparently it is very unusual to leave Portalis like this, but unusual or not it is very quick and easy. I am relieved to get back so soon.

  There isn’t really anything to do about Dairon unless he gets caught, which I pray he doesn’t. If he does get caught I’ll need to talk to the head teacher. Since I have royal permission I am sure it would all work out ok in the end, but I’d rather not complicate matters. Especially when the queen has just helped me out again.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, Peter.” Rin tells me nervously.

  “Goodnight Rin. I’ll see you in lessons.”

  “Goodnight, sleep well.” Rin says and ports away. I think I caught a hint of a blush on her face as she ported, but I am not sure.

  I look at my door for a moment before pushing it open and entering. Hermes, Asuna and Angelika are all sitting at the table talking cheerfully. As the door opens they turn towards it and smile as they see me.

  “Welcome back, Peter.” They all say at more or less the same time. I close the door behind me before answering them.

  “Thanks.”

  “So how did it go?” Hermes asks.

  “It was certainly eventful.” I tell her with an amused smile.

  “Ah…”

  “In one way it went very well though. I have something for you.” I say with a smile and Hermes looks confused. I suppose she would be. I walk over to her and she gets up to meet me halfway. “This is for you.”

  “What is…?” Hermes starts to ask as I hand the piece of paper to her, but then she gasps. “Is this real?”

  “Of course.”

  “But… how…?!”

  “I asked the queen and she agreed.”

  “So… I’m free?”

  “Yes, by royal decree you are entirely free now. You are no longer a slave, but also no longer the property of your family. You are simply free.” I tell Hermes who just stands there staring in shock at the paper she is now holding.

  I didn’t tell Rin, because I thought Hermes deserved to be the first to find out. Hermes looks up at me with teary eyes and for a moment I wonder why she is upset. Then she hugs me tightly.

  “I love you, Peter.” Hermes says and I go bright red. “I didn’t tell you before. It would have seemed like I was just saying it because I was your slave. Anyway, as a slave I had no right to love you. But believe me Peter, I do love you. Peter?”

  (Hermes)

  “Peter?” I ask after confessing my love, because all of a sudden he went all weak. I was hugging him before but now I am simply holding him up. “Are you alright, Peter?”

  “He fainted.” Lucy laughs. “Maybe having two girls confess their love to him in one day was a bit much for the poor boy.”

  “Two girls?” I ask confused.

  “Rin confessed to him, and asked him to marry her.” Lucy tells me.

  “What…?! But how do you know?” I ask in shock.

  “I have my ways.” Lucy tells me knowingly, but clearly unprepared to explain. “As if he doesn’t already have enough to worry about. Dairon is currently hiding from the teachers. The faeries are helping him though, so there’s no way he’ll get caught. And Peter of course has his dates with Cherry and Midori coming up too. His mind must be spinning. No wonder he fainted when you confessed to him.”

  “I didn’t know all that! How could I have known?!” I protest.

  “Of course you didn’t. More importantly though, you’re now free. You must be relieved to no longer be a slave, right?” Lucy asks with a grin.

  “I’m very happy to be freed. You make it sound like Peter was a horrible master though. If I was going to be a slave, I can’t think of anyone better than Peter to be my master.” I tell Lucy crossly.

  “So are you going to just hold him up there, or are you going to put him on his bed? You could even just drop him on the floor now he isn’t your master.” Lucy says mischievously.

  “Like I’d do that!?” I protest, before laying Peter down on his bed.

  Chapter 4 (Water Lily)

  “What happened to you?!” I gasp as Rose ports in with her uniform so badly torn that it is definitely going to need replacing. She is unwounded, but there is no doubt in my mind that is only because she was healed. Her injuries must have been awful given the state of her uniform.

  “I got in a bit of a fight. You should have seen the others though.” Rose smiles.

  “There’s no need to hide it from me.” I frown.

  “Sorry, but I promised not to say anything.” Rose says shaking her head seriously now.

  “Did someone we know do this to you?” I ask barely trying to hide my cold anger.

  “No. I was protecting someone, but I can’t say who or why.”

  “I should have known you’d be protecting someone.” I sigh. “If I find out who did this to you though, I’ll make them pay dearly for this.”

  “I’d better get changed. We do still have a couple of spare uniforms, right?” Rose asks.

  “Yes.” I nod. “But we’d better get a replacement soon.”

  “I’ll get one in town during lunch tomorrow. I was the one who wrecked this one after all.”

  “That’s not your fault.” I protest. “Anyway, it’s the ones who attacked you who wrecked it.”

  “I suppose, but some of their uniforms were pretty badly damaged too.” Rose smiles and this time it is genuine. Then she frowns.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.” Rose says and starts to undress.

  “I don’t like it when you keep secrets from me.” I sigh, but Rose is stubborn. If she promised to keep a secret then she’ll keep it no matter what. I’m proud of her for it, but it is also frustrating and worrying. There’s no point bugging her about it though.

  “So what to do with these?” Rose asks looking down at the ruined uniform.

  “Other than your underwear you may as well just burn everything you were wearing.” I sigh, taking her pyjamas out of our small wardrobe. “Don’t burn these though.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m not stupid.” Rose grins. The ruined uniform is already ash of course. “Pass those to me.”

  “Wash yourself first. You may no longer be wounded, but there is still plenty of dirt on you. Especially your hands. I really want to kill whoever hurt you.”

  “Could you wash me? I’m kind of low on mana.” Rose says and I blink. I figured she was just ambushed, but to be fought to the point where she was low on mana she either fought someone very good, or it was a very unfair fight. Perhaps two or three on one.

  “Sure. Take a deep breath and close your eyes.” I tell Rose and then quickly cover her in cleansing water. I drain the water a moment later. “All done.”

  “Thanks.” Rose grins and then holds out her hands. I pass her the pyjamas which she quickly puts on. “I’m tired, so I’m going to bed. Good night Lily.”

  “Good night, sleep well Rose.” I tell her before changing into my own pyjamas and getting into bed too. I am too worried to sleep well myself but I do eventually get to sleep. I know that because I wake up again, though it feels like I have hardly slept at all. Perhaps it doesn’t just feel that way.

  “Good morning Lily.” Rose says but she looks like she slept no better than I did. Then I notice she isn’t just tired.

  “Were you crying?” I ask in shock.

  “No.” Rose lies, but she can’t hide it from me. Not just because she has tear stains, but because she can never hide a lie from me.

  “At least wash away your tear stains when you wash for lessons.” I sigh. Rose looks embarrassed but nods. She ports to lessons ahead of me because I am a little slow getting dressed. I am about to port too, but there is a knock on the door. I frown and open the door.

  There is a crowd of unfamiliar girls outside, in the same plain blue uniform as me, so from Year 2 or 3. Like me
they are all of typical Contractian appearance, though the lead girl is rather large chested. I bet she gets preferential treatment in wind lessons.

  “So, what did you think?” The lead girl asks. Has she mistaken me for Rose? Was she one of the girls who fought Rose last night? I glare at her. “What, you weren’t disgusted? If so, you’re as bad as Misty. If you’re going to side with that bitch, then we’ll have to pay you back for last night. You may be in that idiot boy’s club, but we’re in a club too. It even has Mayor Perry’s support, so you don’t want to mess with us.”

  “Coward. I’m the one who’s going to pay you back for last night.” I tell her, barely able to keep my voice steady and entirely unable to hide my fury.

  “You’re welcome to try.” The girl laughs.

  “And if you so much as touch my sister again I’ll kill every last one of you.” I tell her. I exaggerate. Slightly. She blinks.

  “Your sister? But you’re not wearing…” The girl says in shock and I frown. I hadn’t put on my Lily brooch yet, but… Wait, I don’t remember seeing Rose’s brooch last night. “I guess you just hadn’t put it on yet. Oh well, if you want to get her rose brooch back come alone to the forest at the start of lunch break. Just follow the main path. If you can beat me one on one I’ll give it back to you. If I win I get yours too. Come if you dare.”

  “I’ll be there, and I’ll definitely beat you.” I tell her with a furious glare.

  “Good luck with that.” She laughs and then ports away. The others port straight after her. Those brooches are important gifts. They may seem like simple name tags, but they mean a lot to us. There’s no way I’m going to lose to that arrogant evil girl. The hard part will be holding back and not killing or maiming her. I suppose she can’t complain if I end up seriously injuring her, but it would be a problem if I ended up killing her.

  “Lily?” Rose asks and I turn in shock. “Lessons are about to start.”

  “Sorry!” I apologise. I grab my brooch and then port to class before putting it on. Rose ports back and sits beside me as usual. I’m pretty sure Rose didn’t see or hear anything. I certainly hope she didn’t.