by Rain Oxford
* * *
We had a quiz in Metals, which I passed easily, surprisingly. Of course, I was expecting Mrs. Ashcraft to call me to her office at any time. She didn’t, so I headed to my next class. I felt someone watching me and the sensation of danger an instant before I was shoved against the wall by an unseen force. Remington, who had been somewhere behind me, marched up to me, anger radiating from her.
But she was sexy when she was angry. Or maybe that had to do with her long legs on display by her pleated black skirt. Her shirt was bright green satin, fitted, with a low neckline. She also wore a thin black choker necklace with studded red jewels. I didn’t like it because it made me think of blood. Oddly, it looked like her ire was cooling as she approached.
“You missed your appointment,” she said. Her eyes were still seething, but her voice was matter-of-fact and her teeth weren’t clinched.
“I was---”
“No excuses. If you’re not at the lake tonight, you’ll be out of here before tomorrow.” With that, she walked away.
In Potions, Professor Langril wanted us to learn how to prep ingredients for use. Unfortunately, I was distracted and feeling quite dejected. It sucked being the only human in a class full of wizards.
When the professor asked us to cut the sandalwood, smash the coriander, put the scream-worm in water, and burn the frog’s tongue, I really thought I got it. I was normally very good at instructions. Instead, I smashed the frog’s tongue, put the sandalwood in water, fed the coriander to the scream-worm, lost the scream-worm in Mack’s backpack, and accidentally set Becky’s hair on fire.
Professor Langril didn’t ask me to do anything else, as if he knew I had other things on my mind. There were times when I refused a case based on a moral dilemma, but I never dropped one after I began. I never failed.
I went back to my room about an hour before dusk and began packing my bags. Let the wizards go to war with the vampires. Damn wizards with their damn backstabbing each other. They’re just as bad as vampires. At least, that was my excuse.
The door opened and Darwin rushed in before slamming it shut behind him.
“Who did you piss off now?” I asked.
“Nobody! Just decided this was the safest room and it was a good time of day to hide.” He looked at my bag and froze. “Are we going on a trip?”
“No. I’m leaving.”
“You solved the case?”
“No, and I don’t care.”
“But… man, the vampires must really bother you,” he said. Right then, Henry opened the door and gave me his most serious look.
“There has been a murder.” He looked at my bag deliberately. “Are you going somewhere?”
I sighed. I should tell Hunt about the vampire and let him shut down the school. “No. I’m just reorganizing my stuff.”
“Good,” he said, nearly back to his prim and proper self. The effect would have worked better had there not been a hickey under his right ear. He walked out and we followed.
The dining hall was swarming with students trying to get a peek of the body while professors rushed to hide it. I managed to catch a glimpse before a sheet was placed over her. White-blond hair, small facial features, young… I couldn’t image anyone who looked that innocent did anything to warrant being murdered.
I found in every case I had ever taken, there was a motive. There wasn’t always a bad guy, but there was always a motive, whether it was reasonable or not. Someone had a motive for stealing, lying, or cheating. Even the person who hired me had a motive; whether it was paranoia, justice, revenge, or whatnot, someone always had a reason.
But I had seen the two punctures in her neck. Her yellow sundress was sopping with blood.
Vampires didn’t need motives to kill.
Teachers demanded that the students return to their rooms or face harsh punishments. I took Darwin’s arm by the elbow, careful not to touch his skin, and nudged him towards the stairs.
“Don’t you have to investigate?” he whispered.
“I have seen what I needed to.” The three of us headed back to the room and I pulled out my notebook. “Do either of you know who she was?”
“That was Susan Walker,” Darwin said. “She is… was fae. I talked to her less than an hour ago.”
“Who was she with? Where was she going?”
“Um… Well, I asked her if she would go to the library with me because I didn’t want to go alone, but she said she had a date. She seemed shy about it and wouldn’t tell me with who, so I think it might have been with a teacher. I can ask around and see if anyone saw her staying after class to talk with someone.”
“Good. Just be subtle about it.”
“Why do you use paper? Shouldn’t you have an iPad or something?” Darwin asked.
“You can’t hack a notebook and I can burn it if I need to.” I wrote down what I knew and afterwards sat back to see them both watching me impatiently. I sighed. “The killer wanted the body to be found. Her throat was bloodied and her dress was soaked, but there wasn’t a drop of blood pooling on the floor. Whoever killed her moved her into the dining room where they knew she would be found quickly and by many.”
“So… her throat was ripped out? This was a vampire attack?” Darwin asked.
“It wasn’t ripped out,” Henry corrected.
“And vampires only tear into their victims if they’re angry,” I told him. “This was two small punctures, which is indicative of a vampire attack… However, there was a lot of blood, which means this wasn’t about feeding.”
Henry stood and went to the door. “Where are you going?” Darwin asked.
Henry ignored him and left. “Is he mad?” I asked.
Darwin turned back to me. “I told him it was rude to have his girlfriend in our room, so I think he’s been to her room like five times today. He’s been really distracted the last few days. More than you have even.”
I glanced at my watch and cursed. “If I don’t get to the lake right now, I’m not going to live long enough to solve my case.”
I did in fact make it to the lake before Remington’s scowl reached the volcanic eruption level. She waited impatiently until I made it to the water’s edge. Once I stood in front of her, I realized that there was a boat. It was one of those small, wooden row boats that mutant, freshwater mega-sharks always attacked in B movies.
“Did you study the correspondences of water?”
It was pointless to lie. “No.”
“Why are you here? Why did you come to this school?” I had no answer for her and, after a few minutes, she pointed to the boat. “Get in.”
I hesitated, but since whimpering and begging was against my nature, I sucked it up and got in the boat. She stepped in behind me and the boat started moving on its own… or at least, by her magic.
“The mood would be a lot better if there was a candle or something,” I said to break the awkward silence.
She smirked.
Sort of.
And then it was gone. “What does water mean to you?”
I thought about it. I couldn’t give her some textbook wizard answer. “It stops thirst. I get leg cramps when I’m dehydrated, so it stops that. Every living thing on Earth needs water, I think. I read that in adult men, about sixty percent of our bodies are water. But it can also be really destructive. Flash floods can destroy roads and houses. And although people say to fight fire with fire, firemen normally use water.”
“So what does it mean to you?”
“It doesn’t really mean anything. It’s a fact of life; you need water to live.”
“Can you swim?”
“No.” I had never bothered to learn.
“Well then, today is a good day to learn.” The boat suddenly halted. When she stood, it didn’t even rock an inch. “Spend every single minute of your free time studying the correspondences of water. Meet me here Monday at dusk.” Then she stepped out of the boat, her boot touched the calm surface… and it held. Like ice, the water was undisturb
ed by her weight as she stepped out of the boat and walked away.
She walked on water.
I reached over and stuck my fingers in, only to be instantly nipped by something in the murky waters. When I looked up, Remington was gone and I was alone in a stationary boat, at night, in the middle of the lake.
* * *
An hour later, I had decided the witch wasn’t coming back for me, so I figured I wouldn’t stress over it. Surely she wouldn’t have really put me in any actual danger. I was just about to nod off when the boat rocked. Startled, I sat up.
The boat rocked again.
I hesitantly leaned over to see what was rocking the boat and nearly shrieked. Its skin was greenish yellow like a reptile’s and it had straw-like, bright red hair that stuck straight out to the sides of its head like a hat. On top of its head, however, was a bald cavity filled with water. The creature’s face was predominately beak and eyes, as the beak was wide and brown while the eyes were huge and round. There was no white in its eyes; it had light brown rings surrounding large pupils. I couldn’t see its body in the water except for its brown and green, webbed hands that reached out of the lake to push the boat.
“Stop,” I said.
The creature squeaked with surprise and vanished into the water.
I hadn’t meant to scare him. “Wait, come back!” He didn’t immediately return, so I mentally searched for his mind. I sensed fish, but their minds were too simple to communicate with. Soon, I felt one of the oddest minds I had ever encountered. This was a creature driven to be mischievous, obsessed with politeness, and compelled to repay a debt. I explored the creature’s mind for joy and I found, of all things, cucumbers. He liked cucumbers. “If you come back, I will bring you cucumbers tomorrow.” Assuming he couldn’t understand English, I envisioned him returning to the boat and then myself tossing a cucumber in the lake at dusk. I knew he got the thought I sent him.
A few minutes later, the creature’s head poked out of the water a good six feet from the boat.
Politeness and favors. “Hello,” I said as softly as I could. “Thank you for coming back. I will bring you a cucumber tomorrow.” As I spoke, I visualized my promise. “Can you move the boat to the shore?” I asked.
He sent me a feeling; not a picture but an affirmative thought.
“I will owe you a favor if you get the boat to the shore. Then, when I bring the cucumber tomorrow, you can tell me the favor. As long as it doesn’t mean hurting any person or animal, I’ll do what I can to help you.”
I knew it was a big promise, but if the creature was malevolent enough to ask me to do something unethical, I could exploit his weaknesses. They were clear in his head. After only a moment of hesitation, the creature slipped back underwater and appeared at the edge of the boat. His webbed hands turned the boat easily and guided it back to shore. I stumbled out, a little amazed at my luck, and turned back to the lake.
“Thank you,” I said, but he was already gone. As quickly as I could, I headed for my room, where Henry and Darwin were waiting up.
“You made it alive!” Darwin exclaimed excitedly.
“Yeah, don’t act so surprised.” I told them about Remington leaving me out in the boat.
“She’s kind of a bitch,” Henry observed. We both stared at him because he normally didn’t talk that way. “So you used water magic to escape?”
“No, I didn’t know any magic to use to move the boat.” I didn’t know any magic at all, but I didn’t trust them enough to tell them that. Then I told them about the water creature and the deal I made.
“Wow. You caught a kappa. That’s pretty awesome, bro. I didn’t even know there were kappa in the lake.”
“What are kappa?”
“They’re Japanese water monsters known for drowning horses and causing mischief. The bowl of the top of their heads has to stay full of water. If a kappa tries to attack you out of water, you can trick him into bowing. The water will pour out and he will freeze solid. Then you can refill it with his home water and he will serve you forever. They also love cucumbers.”
“How do you know so much about them?”
He shrugged. “I made it in here because I’m brilliant.”
“Yeah, about that, you never did show me what your power was.” He blushed and looked away. “I’m not going to tell anyone.” Especially since he was more powerful than me the moment he was born as far as magic went.
“I…” He trailed off and reached for the wall behind his desk. The white paint flashed with a bright light that spread in every direction until it reached the edge of the wall. What was left when the light faded was dark green paint instead of white.
Henry and I shared a look. “Wow. That’s more magic than I can do,” Henry said.
“It’s not anything like Devon can do,” Darwin argued.
“Don’t be so quick to praise my powers.”
* * *
I woke slowly to a strange sensation. Instantly, I knew I wasn’t alone, but it wasn’t a threatening presence that I felt. The small pressure on my chest, however, could not be ignored. I sat up quickly, knocking the small intruder off. Instead of falling, she hovered in the air, right in front of my face.
She was a beautiful young woman.
And she was six inches tall.
The sound that I produced, although unintelligible, adequately expressed my shock.
She smiled warmly. “Do not fear me, Devon Sanders. I am here to help you,” she said.
Her voice was young and warm, like a child’s. She looked to be in her early twenties, but on account of her size, I wouldn’t make the assumption that she was actually that young. Her eyes were light blue, as was her waist-length hair. Her face was rounded and youthful. She wore a dress made of some kind of ethereal, translucent, sparkling material that changed shades of blue with her movement. Her wings were iridescent on the side of blue, but that may have been a reflection of her hair.
I looked at my roommates, neither of whom had stirred. “They will sleep,” the creature said.
“What are you?” I had meant to say “who,” but I couldn’t manage to be ashamed. “Are you a fairy?”
“I am an undine; a water elemental.”
“Like a mermaid?”
“We appear as we will, Devon Sanders.”
“Why are you here?”
Her smile was regretful, as if she was afraid for me. “We fear you are going to follow a path that will not end well for you. You have the attention of dark forces. I have come to guide you.”
“But I’m not a wizard. I’m just here to solve a case.”
“Devon Sanders, your problem is not with power but with your heart. You allow hatred and suspicion in your heart instead of love. It blinds you. It has blinded you since---”
“Stop it,” I interrupted.
“The only thing that can overcome your hate is forgiveness. It is your choice how this will end.” With that, she vanished.
I couldn’t go back to sleep after that. When I checked my watch, it was only a few minutes before the teachers’ assistants started knocking on doors anyway, so I got up and headed for a shower.
* * *
“We talked about knowledge being power,” Alpha Flagstone said. “Today, we will discuss the Law of Self-Knowledge, which is that the most important kind of magical knowledge is about oneself. Familiarity with one’s own strengths and weaknesses is vital to success as a magician.”
“It’s vital to success in anything,” I said without thinking. When everyone turned to look at me, I cringed.
“Go on,” the professor prompted.
“We have to know our weaknesses to overcome them. We also have to know what we excel in to really be efficient in problem solving.”
He grinned, but it wasn’t a malicious one. “Know thyself. Very good, Sanders.”
After class, I made a detour to the bathrooms instead of heading straight for class. There was a student following me and I didn’t want a confrontation where other s
tudents could get in the way. I got to the bathroom, checked the five stalls to make sure I was alone, and waited. I didn’t have to wait long.
Five guys entered and the last one in locked the door behind him. There was a clear leader of the pack; a man who had short black hair, a dark, not-inherited tan, with shady, deep set, brown eyes. He was tall, but no taller than me, and was much thinner with no visible muscle tone. Still, I knew they were all wizards, since they all had one class or another with me. And I was just human.
I had brought a knife to a gun fight, metaphorically speaking. I had no knife.
The kappa was in my mind for some reason; probably because I owed him a debt. This made me think of the undine from that morning. Could she help?
“Everyone is talking about it nonstop,” the guy said. I realized I hadn’t been listening to what he said.
I may have only been a few years older than this guy, and he was possibly a very powerful wizard, but I had my pride. There was no way I would cower or whimper in fear from this younger man. Maybe he thought I was an easy target because I didn’t go around attacking people. Either way, his actions were a sign of weakness and jealousy.
No one backed me into a corner.
Even though five against one wasn’t very good odds, I was resourceful. They weren’t shifters, so I couldn’t read their thoughts. Still, my instincts were impeccable, and I focused on the sensation from this morning. When the undine was there, I felt a sense of peace and harmony even though her visit was unexpected. That was water.
Water was emotion, love, and healing. I held onto that peace and serenity, because that was ultimately what my goal was to achieve in life. At the same time, I focused on the anger that these five men would try to gang up on someone because they were jealous of another’s power.
He held out his hand and a sphere of fire formed above it.
Let them see what they’re up against.
Pipes erupted from the tile and concrete floor like furious snakes, spewing water all over the guys. They weren’t the only objects that burst, however; the toilets and sinks exploded and shot streams of water at the five men.
