by Eric Vall
I watched Sleet’s reflection in the glass and saw the glimmer in his eyes. He knew there was something else after all. Was there anything that this man wasn’t keen to?
A silence hung in the air, but then Varleth cleared his throat.
“The monsters that ignored me in the town, when I was searching for the real catalyst … they were speaking,” he muttered.
I whirled around then, eyes wide again. “What?”
“I couldn’t make out anything they said,” the banisher continued. “It wasn’t in a language I knew, but they were definitely conversing, and they had no interest in me whatsoever, almost as though I was invisible to them.”
A language he didn’t understand. That seemed to be an occurrence more and more often these last few months. Did the monsters have their own language, or a dialect similar to a language we already knew?
Sleet didn’t seem troubled, though. In fact, he looked positively elated.
“Fascinating,” he drawled.
“What is?” I crossed my arms as I frowned, and my eyes followed him as he continued to pace from one end of his desk to the opposite window, then back again.
“Monsters with intelligence, Mr. Gryff,” he clarified. “One never thinks too much on whether or not the creatures we slay have tangible thoughts, yet here we’re learning they are capable of cognitive thought, and thusly, perhaps able to make their own decisions and opinions as well. To think, we share a universe with a species of creature that may share a similar, if not more advanced system of neurological processes than us.”
I let the thought settle in me, and I had to say, it didn’t feel pleasant based on my own experiences. That angel monster wanted us dead. It wanted to consume humanity. It had no regard for us in a positive light and used our fear of them against us. So, while Sleet was hopeful, I had my doubts. I trusted him, though, and that was worth more than the one experience I had with one rather large and more-than-mildly terrifying monster.
Sleet looked to me then, expectant, and I ran my hands through my hair.
“I found another piece of the cipher,” I told him.
The Headmaster’s eyes lit up. “Did you now?” I nodded, and he stepped closer to me, clearly excited about my find. “Come on, let us see.”
I pulled it from the pouch on my hip and handed it over to him. As he turned the stone over in his hands and examined it closely, I sighed.
“What does it all mean?” I asked.
Sleet’s demeanor grew serious again, and he straightened with a furrowed brow.
“To be honest, I can only hypothesize, but please rest assured that myself and many others are taking these findings seriously.” He flourished his cloak and set the cipher down on his desk. “We know the book, the tablet, and the ciphers are all connected, but without all of the ciphers, we’re unable to do much aside from speculating wildly.”
I nodded. That made sense, but it wasn’t the definitive answer I had hoped for.
“What happens when you do find all of the ciphers?” Varleth questioned from his seat. Even he didn’t look entirely bored with the subject, and that was no small victory.
“Well, I’m not sure, Mr. Prost,” Sleet answered honestly. “Ideally, we want to believe it will give us some insight as to what the monsters want, or rather, a way to keep them from entering our world again and again.”
“Seems like a bit of a pipe dream.” Varleth made a face.
“But it’s worth looking into if there’s even a slight chance the outcome will help spare humanity,” I chimed in.
While I was unsure of a great many things in regards to the monsters and this whole cipher business, I wasn’t so blind as to not see humanity was in great need of some help that we as mages were no longer capable of with our given powers alone. Vanquishing rifts and traversing the Shadowscape was all well and good, but when the protection mechanisms, in this case, the xanayrstones, were no longer preventing the attacks, then it was time to look into another means of protection.
Both Sleet and Varleth nodded at my statement in agreement.
“You’re both dismissed for now,” Sleet told us, “but stay nearby today. I may call upon you later, once I’ve spoken to a few others.”
Varleth stood and the both of us bowed in unison. “Yes, sir.”
We made our way to the stairs, and Sleet called after us. “You’re free to use the lift, gentlemen.”
Varleth and I shared a look of relief. Oh, thank the Maker. We waved our gratitude, and we took the lift back down to the ground floor. When the door opened, Varleth stepped out, but I hesitated.
“What’s the story between you and Miriam Sharpay?” I asked.
Varleth looked over his shoulder to see I was still in the lift. The door started to close, and he slammed his hand on the door to keep it open.
“Get out of the lift, and I’ll tell you.” He rolled his eyes, and the jokester in me had half a mind to stay in the lift just to tease him, but I thought better of it. I’d already teased him enough this morning with the hair thing.
I stepped out of the lift and held out my arms as if to prove some benign point that he had to tell me what I wanted to know. Then Varleth shook his head, and we fell into step side-by-side. I didn’t know where we were going, or if we really had any destination in mind, but it was still early, and the grounds were quiet. A little aimless stroll might be nice.
“My first year at the Academy, she paid Sleet a visit,” he began. “I was in his office when she came flouncing in with her fish lips and flowy scarf demanding that she speak to him at once. I don’t remember what she was on about, but she spoke as though I wasn’t there, so I pretended to simply not hear her. Every time she came to visit after that, and for some reason, she was there a lot my first year, I pretended to be deaf when she came.”
I almost stopped dead in my tracks. I stared at Varleth, incredulous, and then broke into a fit of giggles.
“You did what?” I managed.
“I pretended I was deaf,” he repeated with a smirk. “She would be speaking to the class, and I would stare off into space. One time, I stood up in the middle of one of her lectures and walked out of the classroom. When I was later reprimanded for it, she stood there and berated me. She told me my magic was useless, and that I was a blemish on the reputation of mages across the world.”
I gawked at him. I knew she was nasty, but to say that to a first-year student she didn’t know, even if he had walked out of her lecture, was just wrong.
“What did you do?” I asked.
Varleth shrugged. “I let her say what she wanted to say. Then sat down in front of her, pulled out a deck of tarot cards, and showed her the death card.”
I mentally bypassed everything else he had said in that sentence and got hung up on one particular detail. “You have a deck of tarot cards?”
The banisher eyed me, then discreetly pulled open his coat. Inside the breast pocket was a deck of black and silver backed cards.
“You just carry those around?” I was shocked. I didn’t know how I never noticed them before, but there they were.
“Not anymore, but they happened to be in the coat I grabbed this morning when Petyr came to fetch me,” he explained as his lips curled up into a smirk.
I shook my head and sniggered as I jumped back to the story. “That’s dark.”
“Only if you don’t know the meaning behind the card,” he explained. “The death card can mean a great many things when coupled with other cards, but of course, she took it at face value and stormed off. Ever since then, she’s sworn I was going to be the death of her.”
I laughed out loud without any care of who heard me. Who knew stoic Varleth had such a deep sense of humor?
“It was always something,” he continued. “I threw a smoke bomb at her once instead of one of the sports balls we use in field practice, and another time, she had asked us to use practical magic, so I tried to banish her.”
I outright roared. Tears pricked my eyes, and
my shoulders shook as I laughed uncontrollably. Now we stopped, and I leaned against one of the pillars that separated the west corridor from the outer grounds. It wasn’t an area I ever found myself in, and I would have liked to have gotten a better look at it, but I couldn’t see anything with how tightly my eyes were squinted from hysteria.
“You done?” he asked after a moment.
“I think so,” I huffed out, then righted myself. I wiped my eyes as chuckles still slipped from between my lips. “Man, you’re too much.”
Varleth chuckled too, and he shook his head as we fell back into step with one another.
“How did she find out you weren’t deaf?” I asked finally.
“I slipped up eventually. I answered something directly while she was standing there, and she all but had a fit,” he explained. “Naturally, she demanded I serve some kind of punishment. She wanted me expelled, but Sleet talked her down to giving me detention. That’s why I went on that mission with you to the tavern.”
All this time and she had only just figured out Varleth was, in fact, not deaf, a few months ago. This was golden.
“You’re a madman, you know that?” I chuckled in-between my words.
“It’s no less than what she deserves. She has no right to treat anyone the way she does.” Varleth scoffed a little, and it brought me back down from the high of my amusement.
I looked around us and noticed we had wound up near the front gate. It was hard to believe that only twelve hours ago, I stood there and said goodbye to Nia. It already felt like forever.
The sound of a stomach rumbling caught my ear, but it wasn’t mine. I looked to Varleth, who patted his stomach sheepishly.
“I guess I’m off to get some breakfast.” He smiled a bit and tilted his head in the direction of the dining hall. “You comin’?”
Normally, I would have said yes. I almost never turned down an excuse to eat, especially when the food was so good. My appetite just wasn’t with me, though, so I shook my head.
“Nah, you go ahead. I’ll catch up with you later,” I replied.
The banisher shrugged and waved to me as he walked away. “Suit yourself. Later.”
“Later,” I called back. Then I stood there for a moment longer before I found myself wandering again.
Maybe it was time I paid Arwyn a proper visit outside of the infirmary.
Chapter 2
The halls were still quiet as I wandered them that morning. Even as I passed the dining hall, there were still only a handful of students and teachers who mulled about. I supposed now that exams were over, there was no urgency to be found anywhere. The only thing left for any of them to do was to make preparations and arrangements to head home for the holiday.
I myself needed to figure out what I would do for the duration of the two months away. I considered rejoining Maelor and traveling alongside him and Cyra for the time. As much as I would have liked to simply relax, I couldn’t be contained in one place and routine for too long. It was part of my nature I guessed.
I just didn’t know what my options were at this point.
I thought of my conversation with General Kenefick in the infirmary before he took Nia back to Hartmire. Had he really wanted me to stop by sometime? As if I ever could. Hartmire was a week ride from Varle, and I certainly didn’t have the means to take an airship. Still, part of me wanted to show up anyway, if only to see Nia, but I knew she needed to have time to herself. Witnessing the death of a teammate, even if he was only temporary, had to be traumatizing. I didn’t think I’d ever forget the horror-struck look on Nia’s face, nor the sobs that shook her shoulders hours after it happened.
I did miss her, though. It had only been half a day, but there was already a void where her presence used to be. Her smile always brightened my day, especially when I wasn’t at my best, and her quick wit kept me on my toes and pushed me further, to be better. Even if she wasn’t next to me, I knew she was nearby, and that alone had been enough of a comfort while I was here. Now, Nia was miles away, and she had taken a part of me with her.
As I rounded the corner, I found I had instinctively been drawn to Arwyn’s classroom as opposed to the lab she was now working out of. I laughed a little at myself. Served me right for operating on autopilot so early in the morning. I took a chance, though, and I knocked on her door.
Much to my shock, the door opened. I hadn’t actually expected her to be in there. I shouldn’t have been, in hindsight. After all, this was where she slept as well, and based on the sheer white robe she donned and tight nightgown beneath, she hadn’t had the chance to even start her day yet.
Arwyn smiled when she saw me and stepped aside to let me in. I slipped inside, and she shut the door behind me.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you so soon,” she commented, and I scratched the back of my head.
“Me either,” I chuckled sheepishly.
My eyes roamed her body and drank in the sight of her. Of course, I’d seen Arwyn in many states of dress and undress, but there was something incredibly sexy about how her pure white nightgown clung to the shape of her breasts and did little to hide the pertness of her nipples. The robe, which now that I had a closer look at, provided less cover than an actual robe would, and it looked like satin on her creamy skin.
She looked positively angelic.
Arwyn caught me staring and smirked as she crooked her finger to summon me closer. Her fingertip dragged along the underside of my chin, and I leaned down to kiss her. It was slow, and I savored every second of our lips as they molded together.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of spending my morning with you?” she cooed.
“Just checking in, as promised,” I replied. My hands found a resting place at the small of her back, and my thumbs traced circles along the curve of her spine.
Arwyn hummed and wrapped her arms around my neck, a coy little smile on her lips. “Is that so? Go on, then.”
“The dagger you gave me had a weird reaction while I was in the rift,” I started, and then I went on to explain how my baroquer came to my aid, and how both it and my dagger began to glow a fiery shade of pink, and that was how I had been able to defeat the final pyrewyrm.
As I told my tale, Arwyn stepped back and recessed into a thoughtful pace. She bit her lip as she processed what I told her, and we were silent as she sorted her thoughts. After a moment, she stopped in front of her desk and snapped her fingers.
“I can’t be sure, but it sounds to me like it reacted with your mana,” she concluded.
I quirked an eyebrow and tilted my head, confused. “What?”
Arwyn began to pace again, clearly excited about this discovery. It was cute how new knowledge brought a certain light to her eyes, even if it was before breakfast.
“Part of your mana has to be infused into the crystal for you to successfully capture a monster, and the rhin can only be activated with mana. My hypothesis is that the affinity you share with your baroquer through your mana caused the rhin to react in a similar manner, so it gave your dagger a strength boost as well.” Arwyn grew more animated as she explained her thoughts with me, and I laughed a little.
“What’s so funny?” she asked, and I shook my head.
“Nothing.” I held up my hands defensively. “I think you’re onto something. Your theory makes a lot of sense.”
I wasn’t lying, either. It would explain the cool blue tone the dagger had while I was neutral, and how it glowed an angry shade of red when I was in real danger. It must have sensed it from my mana somehow.
Based along those lines, though, I wondered something else.
“Arwyn, if rhin is concentrated essence, and it reacts to mana based on the user, would that maybe have something to do with how the essence manifests monsters?” I asked.
I watched as the expression on Arwyn’s face changed. She started to pace again, and a deep line set across her forehead as she worked through her thoughts.
“That isn’t such a farfetched theory,” she mut
tered, though it was more to herself than in response to me. “We would need a lot more data to make a solid case, but that might be a good starting point.”
I sat behind her desk and listened. I didn’t mind it, actually. I was absolutely fascinated and intrigued by Arwyn’s intelligence in and out of battle. She stopped in front of me and placed her hands on the desk as she leaned close.
“You know, you might consider taking up one of the research classes next term,” she suggested, and I blinked, taken aback.
“Excuse me?” I laughed a little. That certainly hadn’t been something I had given much thought to at all.
“You’re a smart man, Gryff,” she complimented. “You grew up in the wilds and have a great amount of experience in the dealings with monster rifts now. You might have a lot of valuable insight a lot of us don’t, especially those who grew up in an Enclave.”
I sat up and leaned closer to her as well. “What about you? Did you grow up in an Enclave?”
Arwyn nodded, but it was short. I had the impression it was something she didn’t want to offer any more details about, so I didn’t press.
“Just consider it,” she reached her hand out and ran her fingers through my hair. “I’d love to see more of you throughout my day.”
I smirked as she accentuated her last sentence with a wink. “Yeah, I’ll think about it.”
I would. It wasn’t a lie, either, but the only thing on my mind in that moment was how delicious Arwyn’s lips had tasted, and how I craved to devour her again. I closed the gap between us, unable to keep myself from temptation, and I delighted in the soft gasp that escaped her as our tongues slid together.
I cupped the back of her neck and drew her closer still, until Arwyn had taken it upon herself to crawl across the surface of the desk and into my waiting lap. Her legs straddled my hips, and her hands made expert work of releasing me from the confines of my pants. Then her fingers wrapped around me and stroked in hasty motions.
