by Bob Dattolo
At least one of the therapists didn’t understand why I didn’t fight back earlier. Why I didn’t do anything earlier other than make it seem like I was pretty much okay being there and the things he’d do to me. Have me do to his friends.
I was working hard to not be foolish.
When you stand zero chance of getting away or getting revenge, making your move is pretty stupid. Unless that’s what you’re willing to do. For me? I want to live. Yet at the end there, I was willing to risk it. I figured I had maybe a fifty-fifty shot of making it out of there if I could kill the two of them. If Reggie had been there, I kinda expected him to kill me. I just would have made it happen quickly enough that I wouldn’t have suffered. Once I was sure he was there, I was pretty much gonna end it. Fighting him would have been a no-win situation.
Yet in this with Captain Garrison? I know he’ll get to what he wants to tell me. Be it now or tomorrow or next week, it’ll happen. It’s not worth derailing his thinking.
Finally, he shook his head, “Your memories…the spell did a number on them.”
“It did.” The testing was pretty freaking thorough, just like the spell.
“You remember a remarkable amount, but the specifics are gone.”
“Can’t have a stricken if they remember who they really are.” I didn’t mean for my voice to go dead with that. Shut up, Maddie!
Another bout of silence, followed by, “Tell me, what do you recall about the academy?”
I’ve been thinking about that off and on. “Umm, I’m not really sure? I know about it, them, I guess, but I’m not sure what all I may be missing. If anything. I swear I am, though.” His brows came together. “Missing things?” Is that his confusion?
Quick nod, “Okay, what do you remember?”
That took some dredging, even though it’s information I’ve tried to access pretty recently, “Oookay? The academies are around the world in various countries? I don’t know if I ever knew how many there are. There’s one for North America, but with Mexico killing all supernaturals or throwing them out, that means that it only has people from Canada and the US in it. The islands have their own. I think…there were issues with their people not fitting in?”
He nodded, “Right. About 40 years ago, there were a few years where every Hispanic attendee or attendee from the islands all were killed. It was found to be a coalition of kids and their parents and they did it on purpose. A second academy for North America was created, but it specifically excludes Canada and the US since those were the kids responsible for the killings.”
“Huh, okay, I’m not sure if I ever knew the specifics.” That’s messed up. “Umm, beyond that? It’s called…uhh…Sorrowfeld Academy?”
Now that’s not a happy smile. “The official name is The North American Magics Academy. However, you’re right, most people call it Sorrowfeld Academy. Do you know why?”
“No clue.” I can’t tell if it’s holes in my memory doing that, though.
More silence.
Okay, that’s getting to me. “Look, get with it, already. If I had to guess, it’s because of the deaths?”
Slow nod, “You’re right. It’s been known as Sorrowfeld for centuries. It’s attributed to the trials that are conducted at the end of each year.” He stopped again.
“Captain Garrison? Just tell me, already. I was a psycho’s fuckdoll for four years, I’m not sure what you’d tell me that will be worse than that.”
My clipped tone changed the look in his eyes. It almost looks like pride. That I spoke up for myself? No clue. “Maddie? We may not know what you are, mage or dragon, but you have to go to the academy.”
Ahh, it’s right out in the open now. “You expect me to go somewhere known for the students being killed, when I’d be going there with zero magical skill and the other kids have been training since puberty? Why would you think I would do that?”
Another slow nod, “That’s…that’s it, right? Here’s the reality of the situation, though. Do you know what happens to students that refuse to go?”
“Uhh, no? I knew it at one point, though, so I have to think I lost it from the spell.”
“You’ve already experienced it. If you refuse to go to the academy, you are stricken by law. Mortmagi are used, and you’re stripped of your powers. And your sight. That means, until you, you’ve lost it forever.”
Ooookay. You know what? I have a feeling I’ll be attending the academy if that’s my alternative. “Umm…”
A small smile formed, “Right? I had a feeling you’d agree to go once you knew that. Here’s the reality, though. As you noted? You have zero training. You’ve been a captive for more than four years. You’ve been blind and stunted since you were nine. You are aware that our culture hates the stricken, correct?”
That part’s clear to me. “Yeah. I got that. I’m frankly shocked everyone’s treating me as well as they are. As they have been.” I really am. I’ve been waiting for the snide comments. All of it. It’s just never really come.
“You’re in a strange situation. You hit all of our triggers as a stricken. Your last name. Your scars remind us of it. Yet you have power. That puts you back into the not stricken category. As a people, seeing someone that has been stricken causes an almost visceral reaction in us. Hatred, in many cases. I’ve heard from psychiatrists that it’s a fear of what could happen to us. The rest of us. We are powerful, yet we can be brought down to weaker than human all too easily.” His eyes closed, and I swear he was reliving some sort of pain before he cleared his throat and opened them again. No sign of what he just experienced remains behind. “For you? You have two choices. Attend the academy, or you get to experience the mortmagi again.”
“You know what way I’ll go on that.” No sense beating around the bush.
“As I thought. Now, what do you remember about the rest of the time there?”
Hmm, “Umm, three years? It’s not quite college, but they do have some courses like them. Almost all of it is around magic?”
“Right. What do you recall about the end of each year?”
More holes. Dammit, that’s so frustrating, “I know kids die each year, I just…I don’t know why. Not really.”
He patted my hand, something he’s rarely done when visiting. I swear he can pick up my frustration. That has to be it since he’s reserved those touches for pretty much the perfect time.
“You’re correct. Classes are dangerous enough, although they’re not typically too bad. The worst danger comes from the trials…”
He continued on, filling in the gaps in my memory. I just wish he didn’t do that.
Each year at the academy ends with finals. Called trials. They’re not gladiator competitions between the students, they just might as well be. You’re not required to take part, but if you don’t? Say hello to your very own eye bling and stripped powers. At least for year one. Needless to say, most take the trials.
Too many don’t survive, though.
You’re not required to kill. You’re not required to fight to the death. However, and this is a big however, if you fail your trials? Your power is stripped. Without mortmagi, which is probably a plus. The other caveat, and the reason why fewer people lose in that fashion, is that if someone beats you during a trial, your power is usually stripped when you die, and they absorb it. That makes them that much stronger. It’s not a one-for one, based on what he said, but it’s not that far off. He gave me the actual percentage, I just…too many other things to remember.
Year two ends with another trial. You’re allowed to opt out of it, this time without mortmagi being used. If you do, your power is stripped down to 25 percent of what you had before. But at least you retain some of it. It was pretty clear that many kids opt out. They become the worker bees of the supernatural world.
And where the lion’s share of anger and hatred come from within the society.
He was very clear about that.
The painful part is that if you make it through the second year and f
ail but someone doesn’t kill you, you still lose all of your power. No mortmagi again. Those that think they’re gonna lose or might fail tend to go for the 25 percent right quick.
Year three has another trial. Way more kids opt out at this point. They lose 50 percent of their power if they do. No mortmagi. He brought up an interesting tidbit I hadn’t thought about. If someone did well in the first and second trials and absorbed enough power to be more than twice as powerful as they were to start, then opting out here makes sense if they think they might lose.
What’s the price if you lose?
Death.
There are no losers in the third Trial that don’t result in you dying and your power being absorbed by the winner.
At that point, everyone is graduated. Those that opted out of first and second year are gone already, as are those freshly opted out and reduced to 50 percent. Those that survived the trial are then faced with the Ascendant Trial.
I’m still unclear on that last one. It’s supposed to rank you against society at large. I recall that ranking is huge out there. Those that are at the top end of things don’t let competition into their area. If you’re a powerful earth dragon, there may be zero other earth dragons in your area other than those way on the weaker end of the scale. Same with mages.
Why?
I’m not sure? He mentioned that it cuts in on business and things like that, I’m just…missing it, maybe? I recall that the supernatural world runs on power and money and fighting is pretty common. I just don’t get why. Why not share? Seems like a better idea to me.
I guess not everyone sees it like that.
Captain Garrison paused near the door. “I’m sorry we had to meet under these circumstances. What you went through…I have no words. I’m proud as I can be at seeing how you’re handling everything. I expected you to break. I would have. Yet you haven’t. As for everything else? The academy? You can’t change your name in time before you arrive there. They may not understand what it means, but someone will. They’ll see the scars. They’ll have people with connections out there. They’ll put two and two together. You’ll become a target…maybe not number one, but very close to it. Killing outside of the trials isn’t normal, but it’s not too far out of the norm. Challenges exist, although they have to be reviewed to make sure they’re legal. Accidents happen, though. All too often. We didn’t have any in my class any of the three years, but the year ahead of us? I think seven died mid-year the first year. 10 the year after that. Three the year after that. Watch out for it. I would tell you to make allies as quickly as possible, but…”
“But I’m stricken?”
Another nod, “But you’re stricken. I’ve given advice like this to any number of kids getting ready to go off, but it’s more important for you. Watch everyone. Watch everything. Don’t trust until you’re certain it’s real. Don’t make allies until you’re sure they have your back. You will need them. Unless you prove to be heinously powerful, allies will get you through the trials.”
Huh, “How many times do the allies turn on you during the trial just to absorb your power?”
He touched his nose, “And there’s the issue. Trust your allies. Just don’t blindly trust them. Vows don’t hold when the person you vowed with has killed you and sucked up your powers. No one will care what they promised, just the outcome. Even legally, nothing will happen to them. Until the trial ends, everyone in there with you is a potential enemy. Even those you trust the most. Defense, defense, defense, with some serious offense abilities in the mix. But unless your offense is so powerful that it destroys instantly, your defense will save your ass and get you through.”
He touched the door and took a deep breath, “I don’t know if you’ll make it to the trials. I don’t know if you’ll go through them. Although I think you will. Given the alternative for the first year, the vast majority walk into the trial. Having your power stripped without going blind and without being stricken is preferable to the alternative, which you already lived. Some kids in my first year headed in and then promptly fought to lose before anyone could kill them. Honestly? I have to give them recognition for that. That’s huge.”
“How many were killed before they could do that?”
His face sobered, “18 that I know of, but others died after that point too.”
“How many were killed by allies?”
“18.”
“How many did you kill?”
He swallowed hard, “None. I promised myself that I’d try to hold firm and not go after any of my allies. I knew I wanted to be a cop from the time I was little, and I didn’t think I could do that and take out an ally. That being said? One of my stronger allies killed two of our weaker before I even knew it. Both dead and gone and he absorbed them.”
God, that’s fucked. “This is messed up.”
“It is. It’s part of our world, and it reduces the number of insanely powerful people out there.”
Hmmm, “Wait, you’re a cop. You’re powerful, at least from what I understand. Yet you’re talking like you didn’t make it through the third trial. What’d you do? Absorb enough the first two times around and then opt out of the last one?”
Another touch to the nose. “Exactly. I ended up taking down two the first year and one the second. It pushed me up above double. Opting out of the third? I never would have walked out of that one alive. Never. That ally I mentioned? He told me afterwards that I would have been first on his list. Which I already knew.”
“That’s messed up.”
“The worst part from your perspective? We’re still friends.” He smiled at my look. “It’s part of our world even when people hate aspects of it. Just…be careful, is all I’m saying. The academy isn’t all killing. It’s not. You can make lifelong friends there. Normally.”
“Except stricken.”
“Right. I’m not saying you can’t. You probably can. But it will help if you can learn everything you can and prove to the others that you know your stuff as quickly as possible. You need to be powerful. Very powerful. Be that, and at a minimum you’ll gather the outcasts around you. Assuming they’re weaker. They’ll want to use you as a shield for them and as a primary target for others, while also taking advantage of your protection.”
“What would I get out of that?”
“Support? It’s not all one sided. Just don’t believe everything everyone says.” Another tiny blip of silence before his voice dipped, “And, my recommendation?”
“Oookay?”
“I’ve been watching you. I know you’ve been holding off. Hiding things about you. Your power level. How strong you are. How fast you think. Your knowledge. Continue doing that. You will be an automatic target when you arrive there. Your name and your scars…if it takes a day before everyone knows about you, I’ll be shocked. Hide your potential as long as you can. Make them underestimate your abilities. Make them think you’re weak. Then, when you step out? Like you did when we found you? Tear them to fucking pieces and drain them dry.”
Holy crap! “That’s your ultimate recommendation?”
Serious nod, “It is. Let them see maybe 50 percent of what you can do. Then, when the time comes, use it all. Hiding that you’re doing more than people think you can do. That’s hard to do but try to do it. Seriously.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” A thought hit me, “Umm, if I’m going to be shipped off to the academy and no one knows if I’m a mage or a dragon, what am I going to do for money? I have this gown and that’s it.”
His eyes twinkled again, “You’re not completely destitute. I chipped in some money to a fund for you to get you some supplies. It’s not a lot. Then again, I did also manage to work with my team, and we were able to get you some funds from Reggie. It’s also not a lot, but it’s something. Schooling is free, so there’s that. Don’t spend all of it too quickly, because that’ll be it.”
Holy… “Thank you, Captain Garrison.”
“You’re welcome, Maddie.”
He left w
ithout saying another word.
Chapter 7
My mind has been going wild. So wild. It’s been three days since I last saw Captain Garrison, and the information he gave me has been hitting me hard pretty much nonstop.
He did give me some money, with his not a lot coming in at just over ten grand. It looks like there were a number of contributions, although I wasn’t able to track back to who they came from. I did see one for five of it, so I have a feeling that’s from him.
Since he never came back to see me, I didn’t get a chance to really thank him in any real way. He at least deserved a hug. Same for the other people.
The money from Reggie is way more, being a hundred grand. That’s a lot of money to suddenly have access to, except I know that mage and dragon families tend to be loaded. I don’t know if we were, but I’m pretty sure we were. I swear I remember an indoor pool at times. It’s just that everything is so shredded, that I can’t really tell for sure what’s real and what’s maybe from a television show or something like that.
And that’s something weird. Even things like that are gone. I think the issue is that if I watched anything with my family or friends, it’d be wiped away. I remember that I watched entire series of shows, but I can only remember bits and pieces. In every situation, I was watching alone. I know I watched the entire series from beginning to end…but nope, no memories other than yes, I watched them.
So freaking weird.
Yet that’s been only a tiny subset of my thinking.
Once he left, additional testing was done by the doctors, more magical testing, and then some additional psychological things were done.
Just like before, none of them really told me what they were doing or what the results were. I picked up some things anyway from the way they were interacting and when they didn’t think I could hear. Just not everything.
Physically, I seem to be in fantastic shape. Better than they ever could have hoped for. One of the nurses mentioned being told by the police about my exercise routine. I fought hard to hide everything from Reggie, so used to work out multiple times a day, hoping he would never quite put two and two together. It’s their general consensus that I was hiding things in my tests here, at least physically. They weren’t too put out by that, so it’s all good.
