A shake of the head, "I know you're not involved… at least I'm pretty sure. You're a freshman, you just started this semester."
"How do you know that?"
The typing stopped, and Swann smoothly turned the laptop around to face me, and I found myself looking at my own Facebook profile, unlocked, which should be impossible since we weren't friends. Swann's mouse pointer hovered directly over the information that declared me a freshman student at UD, it also listed by hometown in Virginia. Swann knew who I was and where I was from, seemingly within minutes of meeting me for the first time.
"How?" I managed to ask, "My profile is set to private."
Swann shrugged, "I hacked it. It's not hard if you know what to do. Also…" He turned the laptop back, made a few muted clicks, and then flipped it back to me once more. This time, it showed another profile, this one of a very familiar girl next to another that I didn't recognize. Both had equally wide smile, standing with arms entangled across shoulders in a successful attempt to clump closer together for the picture. The easy nature of their huddle spoke of a sense of easy camaraderie found in close friends- the kind of people you expected to spend a lifetime with.
It took me a long moment to recognize the girl in the left, to connect the broad laughing grin and bright hazel eyes with the slightly gaping stare and lightless orbs of the very dead young woman just downstairs from me. So different in life and death… yet they were one and the same.
Emily Albright. I now had her name. It only strengthened my resolve.
"She was nineteen." Jimmy said quietly, "Only a new initiate."
"Initiate," I repeated, "She was a part of the coven here."
"Yes." Was the short reply, but Swann didn't explain further, waiting for me to continue.
I didn't disappoint, "She was one of them and they killed her? Or someone outside of the coven, another mage killed her?"
A nod.
"Are you a member?" I asked the all-important question, watching Swann closely for his answer. It was possible, through air vibrations and magical sense to detect lies. However I didn't know the skill, or even have knowledge of the possibility at the time. All I could do was stare my fellow mage down and hope that I could read something from him.
Swann met my gaze steadily, "I'm not," He replied evenly, "But I'm going to join up."
I stared outright at him. He sounded completely serious, "Even knowing that they might be responsible for what happened to that girl?"
"Yes." He said with absolute certainty, and then waved off my next indignant protest, "Listen, Nick. Why did you come to UD? Wasn't it because you followed the clues left online for those talented enough with magic to recognize? The legitimately magical from the fantastically arcane. No User can learn to wield their magic without a coven backing them, and a mage who finds enemies within a coven is dead with no one to help them. It's cutthroat politics yeah, but it's the world we live in. Tell me I'm wrong, dude."
He wasn't wrong, and I knew it. That was almost exactly why I came here, and struck disturbingly close to the problems I had in the past with other mages, though not on all points. After all, there were other threats to mages in the magical world beyond other mages… but I wasn't about to expound on that to a stranger like James Swann, not yet.
Still, James had read me correctly, although in hindsight it couldn't have been very hard to guess why a freshman mage came all the way from Virginia to go to school in Detroit.
"You might not have ended up here, of course." James continued, "If you look deep enough there are trails all over the internet. Detroit, Chicago, New York, L.A, New Orleans. Anywhere in the United States that contains a significant population is statistically more likely to have a significant number of magical users. The trails are all there."
"Detroit doesn't fit that list." I countered, and it was true, the population here was south of a million. Nowhere near New York or L.A.
He nodded in agreement, "Yeah the city has been in decline, especially since the auto crisis. But I think that's one of the reasons its online trail is more pronounced than the others. It makes it easier to track, so more mages could find it." Swann leaned in, a mischievous spark in his eye made more pronounced by his smile, "This time and place, here? It's a time of opportunity. It's a turning point, and we can influence the turn."
I digested his words, weighing them in my mind, attempting to get a read on him. It was a tempting thing, power to change the world to our liking. It was a coveted ability that few had and many wished to gain. To be able to look in the mirror and lazily float my toothbrush above a single hand… I had done it many times. It was power, it came with the certainty that I could affect the world in ways that others couldn't, and make a real difference.
But the road to hell was paved with good intentions. The age old axiom still stood timeless for a reason, and I couldn't ignore that despite magic, I was still human. I could still mess up. The problem that comes with plays for power, when someone screws up, others pay the price. I met James expectant gaze and wondered what he wanted from me, exactly. Why had he drawn my attention outside the library in the first place?
"This coven…" I began slowly, "What is it called?"
Here, James hesitated. A single hand moved from the keyboard to grip the table for a second, and the response spoken was guarded.
"Its name…" Swann leaned in, eyes flicking left and right, as if afraid of invisible spies listening in, "Archanos. The Archanos Society."
"You're afraid."
Swann grimaced, "You're not? You saw that girl. I don't know why she died, but that could end up being one of us. Probably worse, no one would find our bodies… I have a feeling that was a message for someone."
"It was definitely a message." I frowned then recited, "Et in Fraternitatis Ego. Latin?"
"Yup." Swann gave a quick nod, "That was my guess, but I don't know what it means."
"Gonna try and find out?"
"Of course, leave it to me." He adjusted his glasses, "But we need to be careful, Stratus. Without the strength of a coven behind us, we're easy prey. I hate to say it, but that's why we need Archanos."
"Even after what they did to Emily Albright?" I challenged again, unwilling to just let it go, "Even if that could be us, next?"
James shook his head, "Look man, I'm not saying it's right. But we don't know what happened, and it's a cold world out there. You gotta know that. Mages play a cutthroat game and they don't really care who goes down if you get in their way. If they can cover it up, they'll do it. With the gangs in Detroit there's always a fall guy if someone needs to get dead fast, you know? So either ignore the fact that you have power, or get ready to play. There aren't any other options."
It was a blunt way of putting it, but James wasn't wrong. Those were the facts, scary as it was. I suppressed a wince at the spike of pain that casually trailed down my spine, reminding me of my limitations for the umpteenth time that day. My mind was beginning to feel the toll as well, the sleep I had gotten nowhere near enough.
I was tired, and I couldn't concentrate with the steady slow ache developing in my head which would no doubt turn into a bigger one soon enough.
James noticed, perhaps the slight tremble of my arms and hands, or the way my eyes drooped. "You okay?" He asked, "You don't look so good."
"Didn't get a lot of sleep." I mumbled the reply and leaned back into my uncomfortable chair with a sigh, "You're right, I know. I came all this way, and I didn't really know Archanos was going to be at the end of it, but I'm here now. I can't ignore the facts, I need to learn how to control my abilties and gain the protection of a coven. What happened downstairs… I definitely don't agree with that, but it doesn't change my goals… I can't let it."
"Good." James nodded, satisfied. He closed his laptop and packed it away in a few smooth motions before standing. His hand clapped me on the shoulder, "Let's get out of here and go eat. Then we'll figure out more about our next move."
I rose on unsteady feet, frustra
ted with how sick and tired I had felt. It was more than just magical fatigue, the stress compounded from last night, my grade from this morning, Emily Albright's death, and now Swann's insertion into my life… it was overwhelming. I needed time to rest and think, I was way too exhausted at the moment to be making any kind of decisions.
Swann and I fell in step on the way out, descending down the stairs and back into the library lobby, which had a large section now cordoned off by police tape. I stared at the red-stained tiles where Emily's body had lay, now taken away and replaced by a chalk outline.
For a moment, it was as if her death wasn't real. The body didn't exist in my life anymore, so who was to say she was really gone? Did vengeance matter anymore for a girl who I only knew because I had seen her dead?
It would be so easy to just forget about her. Join Archanos, try not to stir the pot when it wasn't necessary. Didn't I already have enough problems? Why bother?
The officers milled about, distorting my view of the outline that had replaced Emily's body. I didn't see Officer Rodriguez, though I spotted her partner from the morning at the door. He stopped us as we were heading out.
"The library is closed 'til further notice, boys." Officer Wilson said with a grim smile, "We were just about to play it on the announcement system. Also, classes are cancelled for rest of the afternoon and the evening as well."
That was a relief to me, since I had been considering skipping to sleep. Now I didn't have to deal with a guilty conscience… it was just this morning that I had vowed to improve. Couldn't really do that if I was skipping classes.
We nodded our mutual understanding and sidled around him without another word. However, instead of heading home we both took a direct route to the cafeteria building. The fact that classes had been cancelled had energized me temporarily, making the rest of the day seem so much shorter. After eating with Swann, I could go back to my dorm and rest over the weekend.
A stern-faced Eliza flashed through my mind for a moment and I repressed a smile. Of course, I would also be studying this weekend. A few long days of studying never looked so good after two days of hellish magical mysteries.
I had to suppress a wince that had nothing to do with pain as I handed my last twenty to the girl at the register after placing my order. I had come to the university with five hundred dollars cash no more than three weeks ago, now I was getting dangerously close to zero. I couldn't recall a single moment where I had spent money needlessly either. A good deal of it had gone towards paying for textbooks, most of which I hadn't even bothered to open except to skim a few pages.
Other than that twenty, the only money I had left was the forty dollars I had stolen from One and Two-Bit the night before. The idea of using that money left me feeling particularly squeamish, but it didn't seem like I would have much of a choice. It didn't seem like that would last me very long either, with the rate I spent money on campus. Frugality was never my strong suit.
Morosely I came to the realization that I would have to call home and beg for more money soon. Hopefully it would be my mom who answered, not my father. It was always easier to wheedle money from her than it was him. No doubt my father would think it a fantastic tale that books had cost me over three hundred dollars from his 'hard earned money.' Even if my mom answered, I would still get a lecture about finding a job and becoming independent, and a reminder that it was my idea to move away from home to go to college.
It wasn't enough to have supernatural problems, I thought sourly, I had to also deal with first world problems. If it came down to it I wasn't sure what would be harder; squeezing money out of my father or finding Emily's murderer. Even when you added the fact that I was trying to join the coven that probably had a hand in her death…
Getting money from my father would probably still be harder.
I trudged over and joined Swann at a round table near the back of the student center's eating area, which very much resembled a cafeteria in its set up. However, it looked a lot nicer than my high school's cafeteria with muted grey carpeted floor, floor to ceiling windows, and a high ceiling that rose above the second floor, opening it up to viewing from the first.
Jimmy had picked a particularly crowded area to sit, with three of the four tables near us containing small knots of students partaking in avid conversation. It was easy to hear the topic as well; everyone was talking about the death in the library. Emily's blatant murder was already cementing a place in school infamy.
There had been maybe twenty people present when Emily's blood had moved, and maybe half of them had a clear view of the words that had formed for less than ten seconds before the magic that held them together was broken and they descended back into entropy.
As Jimmy and I carried on an innocent conversation devoid of any magical discussions, we both listened in on what our fellow students had heard about Emily's death.
"Shot in the middle of the freaking campus…"
"The blood was moving…"
"…a trick, it has to be…"
"The guy who did it, no one saw him…"
"…Still out there!"
Jimmy had gone for faux-Mexican BS instead of getting a good old American hamburger like me, a travesty if I had ever seen one. Then again my burger, fries and drink had cost about three times what his meal had, so maybe he had the right idea.
Between mouthfuls of fast food we scrounged for topics of conversation. I learned that Jimmy was a Engineering major, though he admitted wishing he could switch into something a bit more computer intensive. In turn, I lamented about my pre-medical problems, though not in the detail I had somehow gotten into with Eliza.
"Keep a daily schedule," Swann advised, "Everything is easier if you break it up into parts."
"Not used to that," I admitted sheepishly, "I'm just a procrastinator at heart."
Jimmy smiled, "Then you're not cut out for success. Sad but true. It's your first semester so you have time to fix yourself… but I would do it quick. I don't know a lot about being a doctor but I definitely know how tough it is to get into med school if you can't keep up a decent GPA."
"I know, I know." I grumbled petulantly, annoyed mostly because Swann was actually right. I just didn't like being called out on it.
Sensing my displeasure, Swann pressed further, "Seriously dude. I'm not gonna go as far as saying that college is anything near the real world but it is important. Success here predetermines success out there, as does failure. Having… certain abilities that others don't… doesn't exclude you from playing the rest of the game. If anything, it's just extra responsibility. You have plan and push yourself to be better… if you do it right, you will be. You're not a stupid guy, I can tell."
"Forget engineering, you should be a guidance counselor." I joked, "Or a motivational speaker."
Jimmy smiled and shook his head, "Nah man, not me. I just sound like I know what I'm talking about. You're probably better off ignoring whatever I say."
The rest of our lunch was casual and lighthearted. It was nice to talk to someone on the level who really understood me. Granted I couldn't trust him any further than I could throw him (without telekinesis,) but still, it was cool.
The final thing we did was exchange numbers and made plans to meet up over the weekend, since both of us lived on campus and would most certainly be around. We headed out together and parted ways, Swann bayed me goodbye before heading towards the Atchison dorm while I began my trek back to UT.
It was a long enough walk for me to notice the biting chill carried well in the early September wind, fall's grip tightening day by day. I was glad for my jacket, though I found myself wishing it was a bit thicker as I shivered after a particularly powerful gust. The last thing I needed was to get sick. I was much more susceptible to illness during magical recovery.
When I reached the UT doors, I welcomed the warmth of the building like a dear friend, swiping my ID and buzzing myself in. I flashed my ID again to the female student at the desk. She spared me only a casual gl
ance and nodded me past without a word. A short elevator ride later, I was back on the familiar sixth floor. With all that had occurred, it felt like I had been gone for more than half a day.
The familiar squeak of my apartment door welcomed me home and I kicked off my shoes near the door before stepping into the small kitchen.
The TV was on, but louder than it had been in the morning. This time, it was my other roommate sitting in front of it, but unlike David the only thing Raj worked out was his digestive tract.
Although not really overweight, Raj was decidedly pudgy. He was the kind of person who had that kind of cheerful disposition that could either inspire you to feel better about yourself or just end up irking you. Maybe it was just because I was one of those people who didn't think it was possible that a person could- or should- be joking all the time.
Raj would cheerfully disagree, and then probably insult your mother. But there was a good chance that you would end up laughing right along with him.
The Indian boy swallowed and held up his plate, "Hungry? There's a lot more where this came from, my parents just dropped another week of food off." Unlike David and I, Raj lived near enough that at least one of his parents came to visit once a week to inspect the apartment and stock him up on food. I had met the pair only once before, but they seemed like nice enough people. It was easy to see where Raj derived his usually affable personality from. They were also kind enough to usually pack extra, no doubt in anticipation that Raj's roommates would be sharing in his weekly windfall.
I shook my head to his offer however, citing the food I had already eaten from McDonalds as reason. As I collapsed into the cushioned couch, I regretted the decision. Raj's food smelled and looked a hell of a lot better than that burger, and it wouldn't have had the cost of breaking my last twenty, either. I had the desperate need to become a bit more careful with how I spent my cash, or…
"I need to get a job." I grumbled, staring at the mindless reality TV show Raj had on. Has there really been anything more unrealistic than reality TV? Next to me, Raj seemed more interested in his food than whatever was happening on the stupid show, which centered around the life of a strange and eclectic group of characters competing for a cash prize that didn't seem worth the effort.
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