“Maybe you should consider moving her to a non-magical medical facility. If you can’t help her, maybe they can.”
“That’d be inadvisable.” Mara looked at Xander, who nodded his agreement. They’d grown increasingly de facto telepathic in recent days.
“If magic doesn’t work, then maybe science will.” Bruce shrugged. “What do we have to lose?”
“What magic has caused, magic must typically undo. If we can’t help her, then the next step will be to bring additional healing specialists in, not take her to a hospital. She’s barely stable as it is. If we’re not careful, we could make things worse.”
“Why can’t you undo the spell? Is it too powerful?” Bruce nodded at the door. “If you need me to go pick something up, I will. If you need me to use government contacts to try to get something special, I can do that, too. If it’s a matter of risking the PDA showing up, I think we should take the risk if you think it’d help the girl. That ship has sailed after this incident.”
Mara leaned back and considered the possibilities in her mind. “The fundamental problem is that we don’t know the spell yet.”
“Not even the type? I understand that you said it wasn’t dark magic, but I figured you at least had a general idea.”
“Unfortunately, no. The magic residue on the glasses is unlike anything I’ve ever run into before. I wouldn’t even begin to know what to ask for even if I sent you out. Powerful spells cast through unknown means, such as when Xander was poisoned, can be countered, but that still requires insight into what’s going on.”
Xander frowned. “Exactly.”
“Then it’s some sort of attack,” Bruce replied. “I checked with my sources in the government. Nothing unusual has been reported about Arc Eighty-Eight. It’s only been a few hours and they’re still checking, but the only injuries have been associated with people not paying attention to their surroundings or misinterpreting something or someone as being in the game when it wasn’t. Nothing like what we’ve seen here. Nothing even remotely close.” He gestured to the glasses. “If you detect strange magic and there’s a problem on the outside, the most likely conclusion is that the school’s under attack and those glasses are weapons. Maybe some wizard’s tampered with them or something like that.”
“Maybe. I’m not denying that’s a possibility.” Xander rubbed his chin as he thought it over. The agent’s non-magical perspective was useful in illuminating different possibilities even if he didn’t agree with them. “I understand why you’d come to that conclusion, but something doesn’t make sense to me.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a very sporadic and ineffective attack. Of all the troubles we’ve dealt with at this school, this would be surprisingly subtle. What’s the point of something so haphazard? Why not claim it?”
“One of our students is in a coma.” Mara slapped her hand on the desk. She didn’t like feeling helpless, certainly not when one of her precious students was in danger. “I don’t care if it’s subtle. We need to figure out what’s going on.”
“I know, Mara. But a lot of people played the game when the semester started, and even though it’s far fewer now, if it were some sort of attack, why did it take months to come to fruition? And why would it finally only affect one girl? It doesn’t make sense to me.”
“Are we so sure it only affected one girl?” Bruce looked from one to the other. “Maybe there was an earlier attack and we simply didn’t notice?”
“What do you mean?” Mara asked.
“The boy who went missing, Jordan. Remember what he said?” Bruce gave her a meaningful look.
“That he was fleeing some monster in the game and then fell and hit his head. They might be related, but I’m not sure how.”
Bruce shook his head. “That’s not all he said.” He tapped his forehead. “I made sure to pay close attention because something was suspicious about the whole thing. He acted like he saw something else before he fell, and then he said he couldn’t remember the rest of the details.”
“That’s not inconsistent with a head injury, but I see what you’re getting at.” Xander grimaced. “You’re saying it was an earlier attack, then?”
“Maybe. I don’t know a wand from a spoon compared to you two, but I’ve dealt with my fair share of criminals in my time in the FBI. Sometimes, they have to make a dry-run before they get the info they need to pull off their crime.” The agent frowned as he ran through scenarios and tried to adapt them to a magical environment. “The important thing now is to limit potential victims and try to identify any possible suspects.”
“Do you think someone from the school is responsible?” Mara asked, her voice unnaturally calm.
“It’s the most likely possibility. A lot of times, the victims know the culprits, but I’m not discounting outsiders. I trust your wards, but the culprit might have relied on all these kids to bring these glasses to school. A Trojan Horse attack. They might have even waited a while for you to let your guard down. A lot of non-magical cybercriminals use tactics like that.”
“That thought also occurred to me. In any event, I’ve already banned Arc Eighty-Eight throughout the school. Students have been informed of what has happened and instructed to turn their glasses in, but that doesn’t do anything for Emily.”
Xander stood. “We should check the vault to be sure there’s no unusual activity from there. We should also double-check the wards.”
“I agree.” Mara turned to Bruce. “Do you have any more suggestions?”
His jaw tightened. He didn’t like what he had to say next, but it was important for them all to be on the same page. “You need to prepare yourself for what’s coming next.”
“For what?”
“More victims. In these kinds of slow-burn situations, people rarely get lucky. Even if you’ve banned the game, there might be some sort of delayed effect, especially if this was an attack.”
Mara sighed. “I know, and I’ve already asked anyone who played Arc Eighty-Eight who is experiencing any strange symptoms to come forward, but I pray our suspicions are wrong.” She stood and pushed her chair in. “For now, we’ll continue to look for anything else out of the ordinary. It might be the only way to save that girl.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Raine sighed and shook her head. Movie night didn’t help her to relax, even though she sat snuggled up beside Cameron. She couldn’t concentrate on Low and Slow: A Tale of Two Cooking Worlds. The biographical drama focused on Nadina, an elf who’d won on a barbecue cooking reality show several years before and went on to some minor fame despite initial controversy with human pitmasters about whether an elf could capture the so-called “true spirit” of barbecue.
In the current scene in the movie, other contestants taunted Nadina backstage during the filming of the reality show and accused her of only winning by using magic rather than pure skill. Raine thought it was stupid to taunt an elf known to have magic, but given what she’d dealt with in Grand Rapids, maybe it shouldn’t have surprised her.
Cameron’s stomach rumbled. “All these scenes of people cooking barbecue makes me hungry, and snacks just aren’t doing it. No movies about food unless we have that kind of food in this room.”
“Maybe I should use some of my fire magic to become a pitmaster,” William mused. “I’d like to see what they’d say about a half-Ifrit going on their barbecue show.”
Philip pointed to a half-eaten pepperoni pizza. “If you’re hungry, have some of that. It has meat.”
Raine leaned over to grab the remote. She hit pause. “I’m sorry. I can’t do this.”
All her friends looked at her with concern.
“I know the professors want us to continue as normal, but someone’s in a coma. I bet you dark wizards are involved. If not dark wizards, then crazy wizards like Gunnar.”
“Maybe they are,” Cameron said with a shrug. “But there’s nothing we can do. I know how you feel but worrying about it won’t do much good. It’ll on
ly make you sick.” He ruffled her hair. “And come on, you being sick won’t help Emily.”
Evie offered her a soft smile. “I know how you feel, too, but we can’t solve every problem at this school. This isn’t like with the druids. A lot of people are aware of it, and the professors will take care of it.”
Raine stood. “There has to be something we can do, too. I can’t sit around. It’s driving me nuts. Maybe som—”
The door to the movie room flew open, and Kayla stumbled inside wearing Arc Eighty-Eight glasses. Raine had spoken to the freshman witch in the common room a few times but didn’t really know the pretty dark-skinned girl well, other than that she had a fondness for singing.
“Raine!” Kayla shouted. She jerked her head back and forth until she locked on Raine. “Help me.”
Cameron jumped over the couch to interpose himself between Raine and Kayla, his jaw tight. The others all stood and stared in shock.
Raine raised her hands as slowly and non-threateningly as she could manage. “Kayla? Are you okay? I want to help you, but you need to explain what’s going on.”
“No, I’m not okay.” Tears streamed down the girl’s face. “She’s coming. I told her I want to leave, but she’s coming. I tried to take them off earlier, but it hurt. I should have listened to the headmistress. I don’t want to go. Help me. I know you can help. You mentioned her before. I heard you.”
“Who is coming? Tell us so we can help you.”
“M—” Kayla’s eyes rolled toward the back of her head, and she pitched forward with a groan.
Cameron rushed forward and caught the girl before she hit the ground. He lifted the small figure in his arms. “We need to get her to the nurse.”
“Take the glasses off,” Raine said, and her voice shook.
The shifter swallowed and nodded. He yanked the glasses off and tossed them to the ground. After a moment, he stomped on them several times before they were nothing but broken shards and twisted metal.
“It’ll be okay, Raine.” Cameron patted her shoulder as they sat together again in the movie room. The friends weren’t watching anything, but they wanted a private place where they could gather and discuss what had happened.
“How?” Raine shook her head. “Nothing about this is okay.”
“You heard what Headmistress Berens said. They’ll go through room by room and make sure no one has glasses left. The professors have the seniors doing it first, and they’ll do a sweep themselves.”
She sighed. “But it’s too late for Kayla, not to mention Emily.”
Besides Kayla, two other Arc Zombie holdouts had fallen unconscious around the same time, which brought the total number of victims to four. All seemed to be in deep comas and didn’t respond to magic.
Adrien cleared his throat. He’d paced back and forth, frustrated. “We need to face another possibility. I thought we should stay out of this, but now, I’m not so sure.”
“Dude, you’re freaking me out.” Philip took a deep breath. “And this situation is freaky enough. What are you getting at?”
Adrien stopped pacing and stared at Raine. “You played Arc Eighty-Eight, and recently.”
Cameron growled and his hands tightened into fists. It was hard to protect his girlfriend when he didn’t even know what the threat was.
Raine waved a hand dismissively. “I played for a tiny bit at the beginning of the semester. If it was simply anyone who played Arc Eighty-Eight, there would be a lot more people than only Kayla and the other three, right?”
“We don’t know that.” Adrien narrowed his eyes. “You’ve trained with Agent Connor. What do your FBI instincts tell you about Kayla?”
She looked at the floor and her stomach tightened. She had worried in the back of her mind, but hearing Adrien say it aloud made it seem more real. “I barely know Kayla. That means she had some sort of reason to come to me—a connection.”
“Exactly.”
Evie and Sara looked anxious. Cameron scrubbed a hand over his face and Philip and William’s faces contorted in anger. They were ready to help defend their friend against whatever hidden attacker struck the kids down at the school.
Sara folded her arms. Her face was lined with tension. “Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe Kayla happened to be close to the movie room and it has nothing to do with her.”
The shifter dropped his hand. “I’m not leaving Raine’s safety up to coincidence.”
“Nor will I,” Adrien replied. “We can’t be sure that not playing the game anymore will protect her, so we have to figure out something. The way Kayla talked, it sounded like she thought Raine knew who might be targeting her.”
“Fine.” Raine nodded. “I wanted to get involved anyway, so I don’t care, but I don’t think I am in danger.” She ran her tongue inside her cheek as she tried to remember what Kayla had said. “Kayla was scared, just like Emily in the cafeteria.”
Philip frowned. “But in the cafeteria, Emily went off about lightning cannons and dragons. Kayla talked about someone coming after her.”
“They were both scared.” Adrien looked to the side for a moment as he pondered. “There has to be some other connection, some clue.”
“She’s coming,” Raine repeated. “That’s what Kayla said. Before she passed out, Emily mentioned something about someone who was supposed to help her.”
Sara shrugged. “Wasn’t she talking about Tori?”
“I don’t think so.”
Evie frowned, still angry with Emily for swinging at her friend, even if she was under the influence of a strange game.
Raine’s eyes widened, and she gasped. “Maeve.”
Everyone stared at her, confusion on their faces.
“Maeve?” Cameron said. “Who’s that?”
“The tutorial fairy in Arc Eighty-Eight. Maybe that’s who they were talking about. Jordan mentioned Maeve in the library when he got in trouble, and Kayla started to say something that began with M. I’d know Maeve because I met her in the tutorial.”
William shook his head. “But there’s no tutorial fairy in Arc Eighty-Eight. The tutorial character is a gnome named Ichabod. That’s what all the guides say.”
Raine frowned. “A jade-skinned woman with pointed ears and different color eyes named Maeve. I think I can tell the difference between that and some gnome named Ichabod.”
“And you’re sure Jordan mentioned Maeve?” Sara chewed on her lip and tried not to show how nervous she really was.
“Definitely. Even if Kayla was going to say something else, I one hundred percent know Jordan mentioned her.”
Adrien headed toward the door. “Let’s talk to some players and see what they say, FBI Trouble Squad.”
Cameron frowned. “FBI Trouble Squad?”
“Christie said some people call us that now. We might as well live up to the name.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Headmistress Berens looked back and forth from Raine to Cameron. The rest of her friends waited outside. “I’d like to say I’m surprised that you’re here, but I’m not. If you have anything you need to tell me about Arc Eighty-Eight, please do so. Any information that could help the victims would be appreciated and helpful.”
Raine took a deep breath. “We’ve investigated the incidents.”
The headmistress. “Of course you have. Again, I’m not surprised. And what have you found?”
“A possible clue.”
“Go on.”
Raine looked at Cameron. He squeezed her shoulder for support.
“Jordan might not have gone into a coma, but he mentioned a tutorial character from the game—Maeve. Kayla started to say something that began with M before she passed out. Emily, in the cafeteria, complained about someone who was supposed to help her.” Raine straightened, now more confident in her deductions. “A few of the students who were near the other victims mentioned them saying something about Maeve.”
Headmistress Berens nodded slowly. “That’s interesting, but I’ll admit I don’t
see how it’s useful. We already know that whatever is happening is linked to Arc Eighty-Eight. We merely don’t know why, so the fact that they mentioned a character from the game isn’t helpful.”
“You don’t understand. We also checked with the hardcore players. They all mentioned a tutorial gnome, Ichabod. A few people had heard some other players mention Maeve, but they hadn’t run into her. We also checked and found out that every player who has claimed to have seen Maeve started playing while at the School of Necessary Magic.”
“I see. You have performed a thorough investigation.” The headmistress leaned back in her chair, her hands still folded in front of her. “You’re saying this Maeve isn’t a game character, then? But someone else? Someone responsible for the attacks?”
“Something like that. I don’t know how she does what she does, but she’s the link between everyone in a coma.”
“And are there any other students who have seen this Maeve who aren’t in a coma?”
Cameron’s arm tensed, and he lowered it.
Raine sighed. “Yes.”
“Who?”
“Me.”
“You?” The headmistress blinked. “You’ve seen her?”
“Yes. I tried the game when I first arrived on campus but only for a short while. Maeve was very…realistic, like she was alive, and also insistent that I stay and play.” She shrugged. “I thought she was simply a game character. I didn’t think anything of it until recently.”
“So we have a suspect now,” Headmistress Berens murmured. “But I don’t know if that helps because we don’t know where the suspect might be. We don’t even understand the magic of the glasses, so it’ll be difficult if not impossible to trace her through it.”
Raine took another deep breath. Her heart pounded, and she wasn’t sure about what she was about to suggest, but it was the best plan she could think of to save the students in comas. “I have an idea.”
Cameron frowned at her. They hadn’t discussed anything other than passing the information onto the headmistress.
Oath Of The Witch: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (School of Necessary Magic Raine Campbell Book 4) Page 17
