The Undying Illusionist

by Candy Crum

  "It's impossible to identify some of them, is that what you were going to say?" Amelia asked.

  "I don't know everyone here, certainly not the Boulevard people. Even with Adrien in the Academy tower, I was locked away in the Capitol building for years. I did my best, but I'm ashamed to say that I couldn't even hold my lunch, let alone stand there long enough to identify someone I’ve probably never met. I’m embarrassed, but that's how it was."

  "Don't worry, Marie, I'll take a look. And don't be ashamed for not having the stomach to look at all that. It just means you have a pure heart. If I hadn't seen so much blood myself recently, I doubt I'd be able to either." Amelia stepped forward and pulled the girl into a reassuring hug, then moved back. "It'll be okay. Why don't you go home for the day? Either go home, or go talk to that sweet man back there who’s more than likely been staring at you this whole time. I can take care of the rest."

  Amelia was happy when Marie didn't argue. Knowing what she was about to have to do, the Chancellor had no desire to stand there and try to convince the woman to leave work.

  Though she had to admit, she was very proud of Marie for trying to solve the problem herself before running to her. She'd certainly come a long way in a very short amount of time.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Things in the Girard house were becoming more familiar to Arryn and Cathillian once a routine had been set up and their training had resumed.

  Today, however, things would be a little bit different for them.

  With Arryn wanting to get more serious about training and improving all the time, Cathillian wanted to give Arryn what she'd asked for—to train like a traditional warrior.

  On top of that, Cathillian wanted to work on his own skills. Teaching Arryn new things or helping her get stronger was always great, but he wanted to make sure to challenge himself as well.

  After the big fight with Doyle, Cathillian had realized Arryn was more than ready for the harder training that warriors took part in.

  That, and he wanted to do anything she asked for to make up for killing the man who had possessed information about her father before she could ask him even a single question.

  That morning, the plan was to go just outside the city walls, where they would have a wide-open field to train in without hurting anyone.

  Having the late Lord Girard’s nice big house to live in while in the city was one thing, but the lack of a large enough yard to train in was something else, though his home had certainly had one of the biggest yards in the city.

  According to Amelia, that was where Hannah’s small group had trained, but with as active as the druids were, they needed more room—especially when long range weapons were brought into the mix.

  For what they had planned, they needed a much larger area where they wouldn’t accidentally kill the neighbor’s chickens.

  When they arrived out by the trees that Cathillian had been growing with his new students, they set their things down and prepared themselves for what was to come.

  The sun was only beginning to rise, and the early spring air was crisp and cool, though they would warm up quickly enough once they began training.

  "Just don't shoot me in the head or chest and we should be fine," Cathillian cautioned, smiling a bit as he pointedly locked eyes with her.

  "Damn. With all these rules, you're just taking the fun out of everything, aren’t you?" Arryn replied.

  Cathillian smiled as he lifted a hand, signaling for her to stay put. "Oh, I know. Don’t turn your back on an enemy. Don’t shoot Cat in the face. There are just so many things to remember! How will you ever remember them all?” he quipped. “That being said, if you do shoot me, it just means my ass was too slow. Don't worry too much about it, just don't aim anywhere vital."

  Arryn stretched her back and arms, reaching as high as she could and brushing the tips of her fingers against the underside of the leaves on one of the lowest branches of a tree.

  She smiled. "I didn't plan on it. The worrying about it part, I mean.” Picking up her staff, she began twisting it in circles, allowing the weight to relax her wrists. “I totally plan to shoot you. This is the best opportunity I’ve had in a long time!"

  Laughing as she pulled her bow from her shoulder, she asked, "Is this gonna ruin my arrows? I spent a long-ass time making these. Your mom even helped a little. Speaking of which, have you sent a note back with Echo this week? We don't need her tearing down the Arcadian gate."

  Cathillian looked at her incredulously. "Do you honestly think I’d forget something like that? Of course, I did, because even though she doesn't know physical magic, I'm still not sure she wouldn’t rain hellfire down on everyone if she thought we were in danger." They both laughed, having fun joking about Elysia and the terrible temper she displayed when she was angry. "I sent Echo back this morning. And I think your precious arrows will be fine."

  Arryn pulled an arrow from her quiver and nocked it, waiting for further instruction. She knew exactly what he wanted to do, but she had to wait for his go-ahead or risk hurting him worse than anticipated.

  He planned to make himself a moving target while she attempted to shoot him. He would deflect her arrows by any means necessary—dodging, jumping, ducking, or by sword.

  With anyone else, it would have been truly dangerous. It was for them as well, but since Arryn was great with a bow and they could heal, it made the exercise far less threatening.

  Cathillian drew his sword before nodding. Arryn wasted no time and began shooting. One after another, Arryn loosed a barrage of arrows at him, each one missing: either flying past him as he dodged, or was cut in half by his sword.

  “You lying bitch! So much for not destroying my arrows!” Arryn pouted, nocking another arrow and shooting it only a moment after it had been pulled back.

  The druid moved so quickly as he spun out of the way of one of her arrows that she nearly missed him pulling a knife from his belt before throwing it directly at her.

  She jumped to her right before dropping and somersaulting once to come back up, bow drawn. She shot another arrow, this time hitting him in the thigh.

  "Fuck!" Cathillian yelled before hissing in pain. "You actually got me! Damn, that was a good shot."

  He snapped the end of the arrow off without hesitation, allowing him to pull it the rest of the way through as he once again hissed in pain. He threw the broken shaft to the ground and placed his hand over the wound.

  Arryn looked behind her and found the knife he had hurled buried in one of the trees Cathillian had helped the loggers grow during their magic lessons. Their magic was still weak, so it was mostly him, but they were learning.

  Still, it was a pretty impressive tree.

  She turned and made her way over to Cathillian, who had been gathering up arrows. As they met in the middle, they traded weapons.

  "How is the class, by the way?" she asked, nodding toward the tree. "Seems like it's going well."

  Cathillian shrugged. "It could be better, but I can't complain. It’s taken a couple weeks to teach them, but they’re learning. It's slow, but as you can see, the trees are growing nicely. Unfortunately, only two of them have been doing most of the work, other than me, of course. The rest are a lot like you were when you first started."

  She smacked him in the chest with her free hand. "Hey!" she scolded, her angry expression belied by the smile on her face. "I’m an excellent student, I'll have you know. And a fast learner."

  "Yeah, now. Before, you completely sucked at it. You got better, though." He winked as he turned and began heading in the opposite direction. "Go again?"

  Arryn laughed. "You're the one being shot at here, not me, so you call the shots.” She paused for a moment, thinking over her last sentence, and laughed. “Damn, I'm witty without even trying. How can you stand it?”

  He rolled his eyes. “I just do my best, I suppose. Sometimes it’s really hard.”

  She smiled. “But seriously, you only have two good students out of all of those who�
�ve taken to nature magic? That's too bad."

  "Well, there would be another, but he avoids learning magic at all costs. He wants nothing to do with it. And yes, we will be going again."

  Arryn was confused. She couldn't imagine why anyone wouldn’t want to learn, especially when the men Cathillian was working with were no strangers to hunger, death, and struggle.

  "What do you mean he doesn't want to learn? Did you tell him that it could save his life? That it could save the lives of others he cares about?"

  Cathillian smiled. "It's your friend, Samuel.”

  Arryn’s eyes widened, immediately knowing the significance of his statement.

  “He's a rearick. You know how much they hate magic. There's no way in hell he's gonna wanna learn, but he still shows up every day, and he still plants. He just makes somebody else do the magic part. Now, get ready. We're beginning again."

  Arryn had knocked the dirt from her salvageable arrows and put them back in her quiver. She drew one and waited for his signal.

  Cathillian ran at her, but Arryn saw him coming and was easily able to move before he slammed into her.

  She twirled around him as she dodged his attack, then headed in the direction he’d just come from. Dropping to her knees, she slid across the grass before turning and releasing her shot.

  She only barely missed Cathillian, but he was quick to return fire.

  The grass around Arryn quickly grew, wrapping around her right arm before pulling it to the ground and pinning it there. She looked up to see Cathillian charging and quickly pulled the knife from the sheath strapped to her thigh, cutting the grass before diving out of the way, leaving her bow on the ground in the process.

  Looking back at the tree she'd been standing in front of when they'd first arrived, she saw her staff leaning against its sturdy trunk. As she ran for it, an unmistakable, searing pain ripped through the back of her leg.

  Arryn knew Cathillian's knife was buried in her thigh.

  She stopped and pulled the blade from her leg, spinning to throw it with surprising accuracy at her opponent.

  Not waiting to see if it made contact, Arryn gazed back at the tree and extended her hand, her eyes going black as she used physical magic to levitate the staff.

  The weapon launched toward her with impressive speed, and she was quick to catch it, whirling it around and bringing the end to the ground in front of her.

  Cathillian charged after her so quickly she barely had enough time to conjure a barrier before he slammed into her.

  The force of the impact threw her back a couple of steps, but she recovered quickly, dropping the barrier and planting a foot in his chest, kicking him back even farther.

  Once there was enough distance between them, she swung her staff low, connecting with his knees and causing him to fall. She ran again, heading for her bow this time.

  Arryn dropped to the ground before picking up the bow, nocking an arrow, and loosing it. The first one missed, Cathillian spinning out of the way at the last moment yet still somehow not losing footing in his run.

  She quickly sent another, this one grazing his shoulder as he once again tried to dodge it.

  Jumping up, she pretended to brace for the impact but instead lassoed his head with her bow and pulled as she spun out of the way, catching him hard around the neck with the wood and easily taking him down.

  She wasted no time stepping down on the wood, knowing it was unbreakable under her weight, and she quickly dropped next to him, pulling an arrow from her quiver to point it just above his left eye.

  "I win!" she cheered, moving the arrow away and taking her weight off the bow.

  "What the shit was that, and where the hell did you learn it?" Cathillian asked, a large smile on his face.

  "Honestly, I thought that was fighting pretty dirty, but after you ran my leg through with that damn knife, I didn't really care much. I just wanted to take your ass down."

  Arryn collapsed back onto her left hip, careful to avoid putting pressure on the right leg because of the knife wound.

  "I planned to stop once I hit you with the knife, but you kept going, so I did, too. I didn't even mean to hit you, so I'm sorry. Don't hate me." He gave her a cheesy smile, and she laughed.

  "It hurt like hell, but you guys are all rough-and-tumbly. I’d also just shot you with an arrow. You didn’t even whine like a little girl at all like I’d expected, so I wasn't about to let you make a little bitch outta me. So, no hard feelings. Like you said, we deserve it if we’re slow enough to get hit."

  Cathillian laughed and shook his head. "I did say that. And yeah, I suppose we’re a little extreme when we train, but it's all for a good cause. If anything bad ever happened to you, I'd never forgive myself. I'd rather you take a knife to the back of the leg because you turned your back on me and learn the lesson never to do that again. It might save you from taking an enemy’s much larger knife to the back because you didn't learn. Now, turn over so I can heal you."

  Arryn rolled onto her stomach, exposing the large wound in the back of her thigh. She jumped a little as she felt his large hands gently caress her leg on either side of it.

  A blush rose to her cheeks since she hadn’t expected to react in such a way, especially with the significant amount of pain she was feeling. But then the pain quickly faded, and all that was left were his hands.

  They lingered for a moment before pulling away.

  "There you go!" he chirped before slapping her on the ass. "All better!"

  Arryn rounded on him, punching him in the arm as she did. "Hey! Uncalled for!"

  He put his hands up in surrender. "Don't act so angry. You know you loved it."

  Cathillian's brows rose in shock as he jumped back, knowing she was about to come for him. She only narrowly missed him, but that didn't stop her from getting to her feet and readying herself to go after him again.

  "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Don’t beat me up. Truce?"

  Arryn rolled her eyes. "Fine. But next time you slap my ass, you get a foot to the balls."

  He laughed. "Okay, deal. It's time for us to quit for today, anyway. About time for you to get to class. Speaking of which, how is that going?"

  Arryn gathered her things, still feeling a bit awkward about her reaction to Cathillian. She shook her head to clear her mind as she hung her bow over her shoulder and began walking back toward the city gate, staff in hand.

  "It's not too bad. I brought some flower seeds in—you know, something small. I'm trying to do essentially the same thing you are, but using things that are far easier to grow. My students are still having a hard time, so don't give your guys too much shit when they can't grow big-ass oaks. As for physical magic, it's been going well, too, though it's mostly remedial at the moment."

  "That shouldn't be too bad, since you already have a handle on the basics. I think you'll do fine," he reassured her. “Just relax. You'll learn the big stuff soon enough.”

  Arryn thought that over for a few moments, debating just how good her physical magic was. Just how good any of her magic was. She wasn't exactly sure if she would ever really master the different forms, but she had decided when she came back that she was sure as hell going to give it her best shot.

  "I’m nervous, but I know it'll get better over time."

  The guards at the gate smiled and nodded as the twosome walked through. They had become very accustomed to seeing Arryn and Cathillian going just outside the gate to train every morning.

  They’d watched and even complimented her on her form, and one mentioned his interest in archery. Arryn understood why he’d want to learn, especially after she found out the city didn't have any archers.

  The city had always relied too heavily on physical magic and magitech weapons. Adrien saw no reason to have them because the Hunters were well trained and the Guard was nothing to be messed with.

  The need for archers was never there. After the Battle for Arcadia, it was something that hadn’t yet been thought of, but with the
Guard being highly inexperienced and lacking even the most basic knowledge of physical magic—for most of them—the need for archers was there.

  When the guards had shown interest, she told them their best bet was to go to Amelia and tell her. She thought talking about the interest in further training would do more good coming from them rather than an outsider who had only been in the city for a few weeks, even if she and Amelia had gotten much closer after the fight with Doyle.

  Knowing Amelia and her desire to do right by everyone, Arryn was quite sure the Chancellor wouldn’t turn down additional skills for her army.

  When Arryn and Cathillian got back to the house, she ran upstairs to jump in the shower, needing to wash the blood off her and relax herself and her mind before going in to teach at the Academy.

  Celine, Arryn’s aunt, had breakfast waiting on them as she had every morning lately. She’d moved in after everything that had happened with Doyle. For the first week, she’d been staying over quite a bit anyway, so it was the logical choice for her after finally having someone in her family back in her life.

  It had only made sense for them, and Arryn loved having her aunt with her.

  As Arryn got out of the shower, she groaned. While she loved her job, she hated going there and seeing Talia. Every day, she still had to psych herself up to be able to face the seemingly perfect Dean of Students, without giving away her discomfort—a discomfort that hadn't been alleviated but rather had only worsened as time went on.

  As she finished getting dressed, Arryn decided there was only one thing to do about that situation.

  She needed to talk to Amelia.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Samuel considered himself an easy-going rearick, but he wasn’t someone to mess with when he was on a mission.

  The job at the factory was almost finished, and he and the others had decided to go to Sully's to have a few drinks to celebrate. He could certainly use the drinks after all the—free—hard work he’d been putting in for a city he wasn’t the biggest fan of.