Arcane Dropout

by Edmund Hughes

  He could almost pinpoint the instant that Mattis realized that his line of inquiry was aimed at a specific target from the way one of her eyebrows shifted slightly upward. She nodded slowly and surprised Lee by stepping in a little closer.

  “I know what you’re asking, Initiate Amaranth,” she said. “There was an incident here, around five years ago. I don’t know the specific details of it. The college was shrouded in secrecy at the time, even from members of the Order. For whatever reason, it sparked a mass exodus of instructors from the school. That’s all I can tell you, I know nothing more myself.”

  With that, the Lead Instructor nodded to Lee and left the room. He chewed his lower lip, feeling as though he’d taken one step toward his answer and two steps back. Something had happened, but none of the instructors would be able to tell him anything about it. The archives were likely his only real shot at finding another clue, assuming they contained the type of information he was looking for.

  He was in an introspective mood as he stepped out into the hallway and nearly ran straight into Eliza because of it. She jumped back and made a small, surprised noise before clasping her hands together and flashing a smile.

  “Oh, hey,” said Lee. “Thanks for your help before. I sometimes get my casting stances, uh, a little mixed up.”

  “I thought that might be the case,” said Eliza. “It’s easier once you’ve studied them for a while. I’ve been practicing since I was in middle school.”

  Lee nodded, and his attention briefly flickered to the edge of the hallway, where Tess was making her way to stand behind Eliza with a mischievous smile on her face. Eliza was looking at him expectantly, and she brushed a lock of curly auburn hair away from her forehead.

  “So, I was going to head into town with some of the other initiates,” she said. “There’s this tavern that claims to have a special liquor license to serve the students of Primhaven, even if they’re underage. They just have to be 18.”

  “Uh, what?” asked Lee. “I’m pretty sure that’s not a thing.”

  “Yeah, I know, it sounds ridiculous,” said Eliza. “That’s part of the reason why I thought it would be cool to go check it out. If you wanted to come with the rest of us, maybe we could…”

  She hesitated, then let out a surprised gasp and clapped her hands over her chest. Her face turned bright red and she looked away, not meeting Lee’s gaze.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Fine!” said Eliza, a little too quickly.

  One of her curly bangs had fallen loose again, and Lee recognized what the problem was as she moved her hand to fix it. Her breasts, large as they were, hung with a noticeably increased level of freedom. As though someone—perhaps a mischievous ghost—had just unhooked her bra. Lee looked past Eliza, shooting Tess a knowing glance and giving a small, disapproving shake of his head.

  “Sure,” said Lee. “I would love to come along. Where are you guys meeting up at?”

  “Um, we’ll wait for you by Primhaven’s gate,” said Eliza. “I—have to grab something from my dorm first, um, so it’ll be a few minutes.”

  Lee felt like he was forgetting something, and he realized what it was as he considered what and who he would need to grab from his own dorm room.

  “Toma would also love to come,” said Lee. “It’s fine if I bring him too, right?”

  “Um…” Eliza shrugged. “Yeah, I think it’ll be okay?”

  “Cool. See you in a few minutes.”

  Still blushing, Eliza flashed him a parting smile and started to walk off. She slowed her pace after a few mesmerizingly bouncy steps. Lee gave a silent thanks for tight initiate robes and mischievous ghosts.

  CHAPTER 14

  A fluttering, tingling, cold chill rippled through Lee as two ethereal blue arms wrapped around him from behind.

  “That’s kind of a jarring sensation, you know,” he said.

  “Then maybe you should take the hint,” whispered Tess.

  He smiled and extended his mystic stream, giving the ghost embracing him from behind proper, feminine form. Lee could feel the softness of her chest against his shoulders. He turned around, making sure they were alone in the hallway as he set his own hands on her petite hips.

  “Exactly how many pranks have you pulled today?” he asked.

  “Pray tell, do you really think I keep count?” asked Tess.

  “I know you do.”

  Tess giggled. “Fine. Thirteen, though half of those barely meet the definition.”

  “How many of those were you unhooking bras, like you just did with Eliza?”

  “Three,” said Tess. “That’s not so much a prank as it is me pouting about the unfairness of, well, you know.”

  She thrust her own chest forward and wiggled slightly. Her bosom was small, but still sizable enough to provide a pleasing jiggle.

  “Come to me the next time you feel like pouting.” Lee slid his hands up her body, letting his thumb and index finger form a shelf just underneath each of her breasts. “I’ll change your mind.”

  “Ooh, I like the sound of that,” said Tess. “Unfortunately, it sounds like you have places to be right now. Speaking of which, would you care to do me a small favor?”

  “Well, I’m technically still contractually obligated to,” said Lee. “What is it?”

  “Just pick me up a few things from the store in town,” said Tess. “Nothing major. A box of chocolates, marbles, some string, oh, and glowsticks!”

  Lee was about to ask what she needed the stuff for when a different question came to mind.

  “Why don’t you just come with me?” he asked. “It’ll be fun.”

  Tess hesitated, opening her mouth and closing it. She flashed a smile at him, but there was something depressing about it, and it didn’t seem to bring her dimples out like her normal smiles did.

  “I can’t,” she said. “I mean, I actually can’t. I’m not a strong enough ghost to travel that far from Primhaven.”

  “Oh,” said Lee, feeling dumb. “Right.”

  It was such an obvious thing, and yet still so easy for him to forget. Tess was filled with so much spunk and vitality that he’d started to think of her more as just a playful, spirited, and cute young woman. A young woman who just happened to be more than a century dead.

  “I’ll come find you later tonight,” said Lee. “Or you can come find me.”

  “I would really like that,” said Tess. She scowled, noticing Lee’s expression. “Mercy me! Get that look off your face. If you want to mope over my circumstances, do it by buying me an extra box of chocolates.”

  “You’ll get fat if you eat too much chocolate,” said Lee.

  “I’m a ghost! I can’t get fat.”

  “That’s what they all say,” said Lee. “It’ll go straight to your hips.”

  He reached down, groping her butt and giving it a small pinch. Tess let out an exaggerated squeal. He pulled her against him and kissed her, running one of his hands through her soft, chestnut brown hair.

  “Lee?” called Toma. “Uh, what are you doing?”

  The surprise interruption ruined Lee’s focus and he pulled his mystic stream in on reflex. Tess blew him an ethereal kiss and sneaked off to the side, phasing through one of the walls.

  “Practicing,” said Lee. He shifted into one of the casting stances Mattis had gone over.

  Toma didn’t look convinced, so Lee decided to avoid the problem by changing the subject. “Hey, you interested in going into town? There’s this tavern that will apparently serve us even though we’re underage.”

  Convincing Toma that the outside world was a place deserving of their presence was a larger task than Lee had been expecting. It continued even as they made their way back to the dorms to grab their jackets, and even as they headed toward the gate.

  “I wanted to check out the computer lab, though,” said Toma. “Maybe the internet is better when using an actual PC.”

  “Toma, trust me, this will be more fun,” said Lee. “Bes
ides, Eliza said she and the other initiates will meet us by the gate. We shouldn’t keep them…”

  “You were saying?” asked Toma.

  They’d come into sight of the gate, and the area surrounding it was empty of any other students.

  “I guess they went on ahead,” said Lee. “It’s no big deal. Come on, I’ve still only seen a little of Gillum. You probably know it better than I do. You can show me around.”

  “Lee, what do you think the reason is why they went on ahead?” asked Toma.

  Lee shrugged. “They’re probably excited about a tavern that serves students and just couldn’t wait any longer.”

  “Or,” said Toma, “they think we’re a pair of losers and decided they didn’t want to include us, after all. Which, unless you’re totally cracked, seems to fit with the rest of the available evidence.”

  “I must be totally cracked then, because I think we’re more like outcasts than losers,” said Lee. “And by showing up anyway, even though we’re making the trip on our own, we’ll go from outcasts to rebels. It’s all about how you expect to be treated, Toma.”

  Lee wasn’t entirely sure how the gate opened, but he set an experimental hand on the wood in the same way that Lead Instructor Mattis had when they’d first arrived. A rune flashed underneath his palm, and the double doors slowly began to creak open.

  Staring out into a frozen landscape, complete with hissing wind scattering snow with whirling gusts, was a jarring sensation. The weather seemed to end at Primhaven’s door, as though an invisible, intangible layer of perfectly insulated glass separated them from it.

  “Ready?” asked Lee.

  “No, I’m not,” said Toma. “Why am I letting you drag me along with you?”

  “Because you know I’m right,” said Lee. “Trust me. Ninety-nine percent of succeeding at anything in life is just showing up.”

  CHAPTER 15

  “Sorry, we’re at capacity,” said the doorman. “Come back in a little while and see if there’s room then.”

  “Oh, come on!” said Lee. “We came all the way here. We’ll stand instead of sitting. We’ll tip really well too, I promise.”

  The doorman shook his head and motioned with his thumb for them to move off down the icy street. Lee could see into the Frostfire Tavern through the front window. Kristoff was sitting next to Eliza, and she, along with the rest of the initiates in attendance, seemed to be having an incredible time. Lee could also hear Toma’s chattering teeth, which got in the way of what he was trying to say.

  “M–maybe we should go back?” asked Toma.

  “Screw that,” said Lee. “Come on, I have some errands to run, anyway.”

  He patted Toma on the shoulder and started down the street. Gillum was a small, secluded town with strange sensibilities. Most of the houses and stores were built from wood and heavily insulated, with walls and windows that were far thicker than anything Lee had seen before.

  There were few buildings over two stories high, giving the town a squat, spread-out appearance. Snowmobiles seemed to be the preferred method of travel in place of cars or trucks, which made sense, given how there also didn’t seem to be any real roads leading more than a few miles out of town. The airstrip that served Gillum and Primhaven was apparently the only way in or out of the greater area.

  In the face of the extreme climate and remote surroundings, a certain tenacity bled through into the town’s ambience. Almost every structure was painted in a way that made it stand out, sometimes garishly so. Some houses had murals depicting happy families, presumably the current or former residents. Others were striped with color, a few seemed splattered with various paints at random. One or two were covered with graffiti tags of varying artistic ability.

  “I think that’s a general store over there,” said Lee.

  “Do you th–think it will be warm inside?” asked Toma.

  “I guarantee it,” said Lee. “Hey, sorry about all this. I think I underestimated just how cold Alaska can be.”

  “Thaaatsssokay,” said Toma. His lips were worryingly blue. Lee hurried him forward, pushing through the door of a hot-pink building with white lettering that read “Cherry’s Goods” on the outside.

  The interior was dimly lit and rustic, with shelves made of rough, unvarnished wood and a kindly old woman standing at the register. It was warm, just as he’d promised Toma, who he split off from as he began searching for Tess’s requests.

  Surprisingly, he managed to find all of them, even the candy. The store had a small section of random holiday items that were perpetually on sale outside of their in-demand seasons, and he picked out a small box of chocolates in the shape of a pink heart.

  Toma came up to him just as he was grabbing the marbles, looking remarkably more lively with color back in his cheeks.

  “What do you need that stuff for?” he asked.

  “Uh…” said Lee. “To practice my telekinesis.”

  His tone made his answer sound more like a question, and Toma didn’t seem convinced.

  “I would have thought that you’d gotten enough practice in Meta-Magic class, what with the way you were untying people’s shoes and unhooking girls’ bras.”

  “Ah,” said Lee. “You noticed that?”

  “I’m your friend, Lee, of course I noticed,” said Toma. He shot him a grin. “Kristoff almost ate it when he tried to stand up fast at the end of class. Though if I were you, I would probably cool it for a while.”

  “That’s good advice,” said Lee. “I think I’ll take it.”

  He smiled, feeling oddly touched that Toma considered him to be a friend. He’d come to Primhaven under a false pretense, and even now, his secrets put distance between him and the other students, even if he was the only one who could see it. Lee felt a little guilty admitting it, but he was starting to have fun.

  “Come on,” he said. “I’ll pay for this stuff, and then we can head back to the tavern and give it another shot.”

  He didn’t have much money left after what he’d spent on his plane ticket, and he was relieved when the prices weren’t overly inflated, as they oftentimes were in remote locations. Lee carried his bag in one hand as he and Toma headed back up the street to the Frostfire Tavern.

  They arrived in time to see the doorman letting in two disciples, the green and yellow of their robes visible under the bottoms of their coats. Lee and Toma walked up, and just as before, they were stopped before they could enter.

  “Sorry,” said the doorman. “Two people leave, two people get to go in.”

  “That’s fucking cracked,” said Toma.

  “I don’t make the rules, I just enforce them,” said the doorman.

  Lee scowled, feeling more intent than ever on getting into the tavern. The seat next to Kristoff was empty now, and he wondered if Eliza had decided to venture off into less arrogant and obnoxious pastures.

  “Well, at least we tried,” said Lee. “Sometimes you just have to accept the facts.”

  He set a hand on Toma’s shoulder and began leading him up the street, toward the road that led back to Primhaven.

  “You’re giving up?” said Toma. “I know I wasn’t thrilled about this idea before, but…”

  “Of course not,” said Lee. “I was talking to you before, not him. The relevant fact in this situation is that the tavern probably has a back door that we can sneak in through.”

  They headed down a small alley in between buildings, looping around to the Frostfire’s backyard. There was a fence separating its outer lounge area, which included tables that Lee doubted got much use from the nearby houses. He clapped Toma on the back and started climbing.

  “This is trespassing,” muttered Toma.

  “It’s not a crime if we don’t get caught,” he said. “We’ll be good little initiates and leave if they ask us to.”

  He went up to the door and tried the handle, feeling a rush of success when he found it to be unlocked. He opened it slowly and gestured for Toma to head through first.
/>   “See,” said Lee. “What did I tell you?”

  “You’re a little crazy, Lee Amaranth, but I like your style,” said Toma.

  A hallway led from the tavern’s exit toward the main taproom. They passed by a small, currently unstaffed kitchen area and the men’s bathroom. As they were passing by the women’s bathroom, a familiar, unpleasant, cold chill ran down Lee’s back, making the hair on his neck stand up straight.

  “I’ll catch up with you,” he said. “Nature calls.”

  Toma nodded and somewhat reluctantly headed forward without him. As soon as his friend was out of sight, Lee swore under his breath.

  He knew that feeling. He’d known it ever since he was a child, too young to realize what it meant. Part of being a mystic was being able to recognize the sensation of being near a powerful specter. There was an entity inside the women’s bathroom stronger than anything he’d encountered in a very long time, perhaps ever, and he was the only one who could do anything about it.

  He pushed his way through the door, heedless of the consequences. A muffled scream came from the bathroom stall furthest to the left. Lee didn’t hesitate. He threw the stall open and felt his heart sink as he took in the scene on the other side.

  Eliza was standing in front of the toilet, her head lulled forward, eyes blank. The specter stood directly behind her, and already had one ethereal hand thrust into her body. Lee hurled himself forward, but it was already too late.

  It was like watching a person put on a costume. The specter pulled its way into her, dropping directly into Eliza and taking full possession of her body.

  CHAPTER 16

  “Eliza!” shouted Lee.

  He knew it was already too late, but he also knew that his options were limited. Eliza let out a thin, cracking screech as she hurled herself forward, completely under control of the specter. She head-butted Lee in the stomach, which both caught him by surprise and hurt far more than he’d been expecting it to.

  He tried to grab at her leg as he went down, but she rushed by him. She disappeared into the hallway, and Lee quickly picked himself up, swearing through clenched teeth and fully intent on going after her.