Arcane Dropout

by Edmund Hughes

  From the table, Lead Instructor Mattis loudly and deliberately cleared her throat. Odarin flinched and shuffled the cards in his hands.

  “As I was saying, uh, welcome to Primhaven,” he said. “This may not have been the school all of you might have chosen for yourselves, but you’ll still receive—” he flipped to the next card, “—top-quality education. Some of you may feel like outcasts, or like you’ve been rejected from regular magical society, or just as though you’ve been dealt an unfair hand in life, but rest assured…” Odarin glanced down at his speech materials and shook his head. “Damn it, I think I’m missing a card. Well, I’m sure you get the point.”

  Lead Instructor Mattis had risen to her feet. She set a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. Odarin was taller and older than her, but he still seemed to deflate slightly in her presence.

  “I think what the Head Wizard means to say is that Primhaven can still be a home for all of you, if you put in the effort,” said Mattis. “It may not have been your first choice of school, but the instructors are qualified, and the education you’ll receive will still be adequate. It certainly was for me when I was a student here. I also quite enjoyed the... serenity of the surrounding area.”

  A few chuckles came from around the room.

  “Let’s all have a great year,” said Mattis. “Orientation will be held for the new initiates tomorrow morning, while returning students will begin their classes immediately.”

  Everyone’s attention was now squarely focused on the Lead Instructor, which made it easy for Lee to quietly slip his chair back and quietly make his way away from the table. Toma shot Lee a questioning glance, which he replied to with a simple, self-explanatory “okay” sign with his hand.

  CHAPTER 8

  Primhaven’s central campus was just as empty as Lee had been hoping it would be. It was late enough at night for the lampposts to provide the main illumination for the courtyard, though he suspected the pale, green light they gave off did more than just allow people to see at night.

  He tried to stick to the shadows as he followed the path he’d planned out earlier in the day that would take him toward the library. If all went well, he could get inside, figure out what had happened to Zoe, and slip back to his dorm unseen. Getting out of Primhaven once he’d found the answer he was looking for would likely be far easier than getting in had been.

  Lee was heading past the statue of Shay Morrigan when he saw something that forced him to slide to a stop. A pale blue ghost in a dress that fluttered in the wind had climbed up the front of the statue and appeared to be drawing a mustache on it with a magic marker.

  He almost kept going, not wanting to pass up even a second of the opportunity he’d been given to explore the college with everyone else distracted. The ghost had helped him out, however, and he knew he still needed to express his thanks.

  She was climbing back down the statue as he approached. Lee waited for her to turn around before smiling and giving her a small wave. She just stared at him, her expression completely bemused.

  “Hello?” he said. “Can you hear me? I’m the guy you helped out earlier with the snowball. Don’t tell me you’re one of those ghosts with an insanely short memory?”

  The ghost opened her mouth, closed it, shook her head, and then folded her arms.

  “Bless my bonnet,” said the ghost. “You can actually see me? Can you hear me as well?”

  Her voice was soft and fluid, with a slight accent to it that sounded formal and a little British. Lee let out a small chuckle. He nodded to her and extended his hand.

  “I can both see and hear you,” he said. “Lee Amaranth. Nice to meet you.”

  “Is this some kind of cruel joke on your part?” asked the ghost.

  “Oh, shit, I forgot.”

  Lee exhaled, extending his mystic stream outward to encompass the ghost. She let out a surprised gasp as color and form returned to her body, flickering across her features as though a photo filter had been applied over her very existence.

  The girl shuddered and wavered on her legs. Lee caught her before she could fall to the ground and found himself at a loss for words.

  She was beautiful. Her hair was dark brown, with a straight, glossy quality to it. She had a light dusting of freckles across her cheeks, a round, girlish face, and deep green eyes. She blinked said eyes several times before giving him a small, unsure smile, which revealed a ridiculously cute set of dimples.

  “Tess,” said the girl.

  “What?”

  “My name is Theresa Holloway, but I go by Tess for short,” she said. “It’s a pleasure to formally make your acquaintance, Lee Amaranth.”

  “That’s an awfully proper way for someone who’s been doodling a mustache on a statue to introduce themselves,” said Lee, with a chuckle.

  “Do you have any idea how boring being a ghost is?”

  “Better than most do, to tell you the truth.”

  Lee was still holding her, and he found himself not wanting to let go right away. He could smell her, which was something he usually only noticed with a ghost when it was unpleasant. Tess smelled like wildflowers, freshly plucked and full of the fertility of spring.

  “What is this trick you’ve done?” asked Tess. “Why do I feel so…?”

  She turned her face back toward him, her lips barely inches from his. It felt good to have her in his arms. A little too good for a certain, overeager part of him.

  “I... just wanted to thank you,” said Lee, quickly. He released his hold on her, pulling away one hand that had been positioned far closer to her breast on the side than he’d realized. “For what you did during the admissions test for me.”

  Tess took a small step back and brushed her hands off against her skirt. She frowned slightly, looked down at herself, and then tapped a finger against her lips.

  “You’re some kind of mystic, aren’t you?” asked Tess. “You’ve used some type of magic field on me, if I may presume?”

  “I call it my mystic stream,” said Lee. “But more or less.”

  “That’s far from the most original name.”

  “I was eight years old and fighting a ghost when I first came up with it. Not exactly a time when I was brimming with creativity.”

  Tess crossed her arms and drew closer to him. She was short, a teenager like Lee, though probably a little younger than him given the median age of what he’d seen of Primhaven’s students. Her breasts were small but noticeable, if only because of how petite the rest of her body was. Her eyes were at the height of Lee’s shoulders, but she still seemed to hold a level gaze with her stare.

  He was still looking at her when a noise came from somewhere in the dark to their right. Lee all but dove as he threw himself forward against the statue, pressing his back flat against it and hoping he hadn’t been discovered.

  One of Mattis’s druid-bonded deer galloped by, not stopping for long enough to suggest that it had caught sight or sound of him. He breathed a sigh of relief and turned to see Tess still standing where she’d been, flashing a dimpled smile at him.

  “Well, I do say! I know that expression. Lee Amaranth, you’re up to no good!”

  Lee scowled, though her words were a reminder of what he needed to be focused on. “I’m not up to no good. I’m trying to find information on a missing person. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

  He nodded to Tess, and as he continued toward the library, he wondered if he’d get a chance to see her again. The question proved to be moot, as the ghost girl hurried her step to keep pace with him, staying within his mystic stream and maintaining her form.

  “Interesting,” said Tess. “I think your cause is noble. I’ve decided to help you.”

  “I think I can manage on my own.”

  “I doubt that very much,” said Tess. She caught up with him and looped an arm through his, skipping alongside Lee even as he did his best impression of a stealthy crouch walk.

  “Come on, just go chill out somewhere,” he said. “You’
re just going to distract me.”

  “Like I distracted you during the admission’s exam?” asked Tess. “Can you even cast spells, Lee? I have to wonder what your original plan was supposed to be.”

  “I already thanked you for that,” said Lee. “Are you seriously going to guilt trip me over throwing a snowball, something I think you were planning on doing yourself, anyway?”

  “Guilt trip is such an ugly way of phrasing it,” said Tess. “Think of it more as a whimsical stroll across the starlit campus grounds with a beautiful girl on your arm.”

  The library was northwest of the statue, within the building that had been labelled the “Seruna Center” on the map Lee had seen on his door. There were several entrances into the building, one leading into the library directly, all of them locked.

  “Fuck,” muttered Lee. “I guess I should have seen this coming.”

  “The library?” asked Tess. “This is where you think you’ll find information on your missing person?”

  “Yeah…” Lee suddenly turned and stared right at Tess, realizing something. “Hey, were you, uh, present at this school five years ago?”

  He phrased the question with as much tact as he could manage, but from the way Tess glanced away from him and stared off into the night, it still hadn’t been quite delicate enough.

  “Was I present?” asked Tess. “You mean, was I dead?”

  She closed her eyes and smiled, as though trying to contain the rest of the bitterness that had just been in her voice.

  “Sorry,” said Lee. “I just mean that my sister went missing around that time. If there’d been an incident at the school, I thought maybe you might have…”

  “I’ve been... the way that I am... since nineteen-oh-six,” said Tess. “However, I’m a hibernating ghost. I can only manifest for the week or two around the anniversary of my... um…”

  “Your death,” said Lee, feeling like it was kinder for him to finish that sentence for her. Tess nodded. He was curious about the how and why of Tess’s current circumstances, but he had enough sensitivity to hold his questions for the time being.

  “Yeah,” she said. “Sorry. I wish I could help.”

  Lee swore under his breath, then had a thought. “Maybe you still can.” He tried the library’s locked door again. “Can you get past this door and unlock it from the other side?”

  Tess let out a small giggle and grinned at him. “Well, I say, you are up to no good! To answer your question, yes, I could do that. If I wanted to…”

  “Please?” said Lee. “I’ll take you on another whimsical stroll.”

  “It’s going to cost you more than just that, Mr. Amaranth,” said Tess. “I would like a kiss.”

  Normally, the prospect of kissing a girl who looked like Tess would be an offer that Lee would’ve been insane to refuse. But Tess, as pretty and mischievous and lively as she seemed, was not a girl. She was a ghost.

  “I can’t,” said Lee. “I don’t know how much you know about your abilities as a ghost, but it would be dangerous for me. You’re reasonably powerful, too, which only makes it worse.”

  Kissing a ghost was tantamount to inviting it to take control of a person’s body, even drain their life for the underlying magical essence. Lee had almost made that mistake once before with a particularly seductive female ghost during his early days of freelancing, and it was a lesson he’d only needed to learn once.

  “That’s why I’m asking for it, silly,” said Tess. “I’m not naïve, Lee. I’ve survived far longer than most ghosts, in part because of how much time I spend hibernating, but I know how most in my situation come to their end. Usually it’s at the hands of someone like you: a mystic who decides that a ghost is dangerous or inconvenient.

  “I wonder if that’s why I reacted the way I did when you pulled me into your magic stream, or whatever you call it. I know that as wonderful as it feels to have a body again, this also makes it easier for you to kill me, doesn’t it? It made me so vulnerable, but you’ve been so charming, I guess I just thought… but no. I’m not naïve, Lee. If you don’t destroy me, another mystic eventually will, assuming I don’t fade out completely first.”

  Lee stared at Tess, unsure of how to react or what to say. She was smiling, which made it worse. It was a smile that tore not just at his current emotional state but at a hundred memories he had of forcing other ghosts into his mystic stream right before he banished them. Tess slowly shifted her gaze up from the grass, letting her eyes linger on his, asking a question without saying a word.

  Lee stepped forward, pulled her into an embrace, and kissed her.

  CHAPTER 9

  The moment stretched out into several seconds of warm, intimate glory. For Lee, the experience of kissing a ghost he’d pulled into his mystic stream was usually like kissing anyone else.

  It was different with Tess. Her lips only barely responded to his at first, and then as though a switch had been flipped, she was against him. The kiss ended without ever ending, joining with another kiss, then another after that, and then Lee felt his hands moving and touching her body…

  He pulled back and cleared his throat. He told himself it was because he’d dropped his guard too far, and that was true, though not in the way he wanted it to be. His heart was beating too fast. Tess was smiling her dimpled smile, and her cheeks were flushed in a way that made her freckles look as though they were little dots of sand that could be brushed right off.

  “There,” said Lee. “Happy?”

  “Extremely,” said Tess. “I think I mentioned this to you once before, but things get pretty boring as a ghost.”

  One of her fingers was slowly twirling through a lock of her hair, and she kept looking at him, seeming to take delight in the way that it threw him off.

  “The door?” said Lee. “If you would be so kind as to honor your end of the bargain.”

  “Nothing would please me more,” said Tess. “Can you release me from your mystic stream?”

  Lee nodded and slowly exhaled, feeling the change first in his eyes and then in reality. The pretty, petite brunette in front of him appeared to have the essence of her form blown away by the wind, becoming a mixture of ethereal blue and swirling fog.

  It felt like a punch to the gut even though nothing about it went against his expectations. Tess was a ghost. He needed this, he told himself. It was both a reminder and a reality check of how the world worked and what his place was within it.

  Tess ran her hands through her ghostly hair, seeming unconcerned by the change, then dove through the door like an Olympic swimmer entering the pool. Lee heard a soft clicking noise from the other side. He tried the handle again and it swung freely.

  “Nice job,” he whispered, carefully shutting the door behind him. Tess drew in close next to him, and without really considering whether it was necessary, Lee pulled her back into his mystic stream.

  “Thanks,” she said. “Can I have another kiss?”

  Lee chuckled. He really, really wanted to say yes.

  “No, but if you want to help me search the library, maybe you could earn another one after,” he said.

  “Is that so?” Tess’s smile was infectious. She reached her hand over and let her fingers briefly slide across Lee’s shoulders. “Well, I should get to work, then. Where are you anticipating finding information about your sister, and what’s her name?”

  “Zoe Brock,” said Lee. “There might be a few records out in the open, but I’m expecting what I’m looking for to be in the archives.”

  The library was a sprawling interior, with more shelves of books than any place Lee had ever seen before. He didn’t have time for more than a cursory exploration of the general area that was accessible to the public, but even just walking from the entrance to the checkout desk took a surprisingly long time.

  “There,” said Lee. “That door must lead to the archives, right?”

  “It does,” said Tess.

  It was an impressive door, made of old wood, with strips of
metal reinforcing running across it. It looked heavy and was, unfortunately, impassable. The handle didn’t budge when Lee tried it.

  “Tess,” he said. “Can you help me out again?”

  “For a price,” she cooed.

  “I’ll give you another kiss,” said Lee.

  “This door doesn’t look as simple,” said Tess. “It’s going to be more than just that this time.”

  Lee sighed. “I’ll hear your price out, but I do have limits. For example, as much as I appreciate your company, I wouldn’t consider something like forming a pact.”

  A pact formed between a mystic and a ghost was similar to the way a mage could bond with a familiar, except far more extreme. It bore all the same risks that letting his guard down for a kiss did: possession, having his essence drained, along with an innate sharing of energies that would strengthen both Lee and the ghost in question. It was dangerous, and the few mystics Lee knew who’d formed pacts with specters had either died, gone completely insane, or committed horrible murders.

  “Relax, I’m not asking for a pact,” said Tess.

  “What are you asking for, then?”

  Tess tapped a finger against her lips and furrowed her brow. “How about... fifty more kisses, which I can redeem over any amount of time. A date night... no, one date night per month for the semester. And you have to help me with my pranks! Bless me, I almost forgot about that.”

  “You aren’t asking for favors, you’re asking for a boyfriend,” said Lee.

  Tess laughed and moved in closer to him. She didn’t stop until her body was nearly pressed against his, then stood up on her tiptoes with her chin jutted out in a defiant manner.

  “Do you want me to open the door for you or not, Lee?”

  Lee rolled his eyes, a smile creeping onto his face despite his frustration.

  “Whatever, I’ll do it,” he said. “Though I should warn you that I doubt I’ll even be here come next week. I don’t have the Potential, so I can’t pass for a mage for that much longer, and I only came to Primhaven to find out what happened to Zoe, regardless.”