Arcane Dropout

by Edmund Hughes

  She was sitting on his bed and leaning back on her arms, smiling a dimpled smile. Lee noticed the way her eyes flicked from him to the bag he’d left in the room earlier, and he raised an eyebrow at her.

  “You didn’t go through the things I bought, did you?” he asked.

  “Of course I didn’t!” said Tess. “They’re gifts. What fun would it be if I didn’t wait for you to give them to me?”

  “Let’s eat first,” said Lee. “I’m starving.”

  “I beg your pardon?” said Tess. “Is that another joke on your part, Lee Amaranth? I’m a ghost, in case you didn’t notice.”

  “Here,” said Lee, offering her a chip. She slowly reached out to take it, letting out a tiny gasp as she pulled loose one of the strange copies that could exist only within his mystic stream.

  “I can... eat food while I’m around you?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” said Lee. “I thought you knew that already. Why else would you ask for the chocolates?”

  “I just think they look pretty,” said Tess. She crunched on the chip and made a face. “It’s so salty. Is this really how crisps taste now?”

  “They’re called chips, and yes,” said Lee.

  The two of them sat cross-legged on the floor as they ate. Lee told her about the specter and what had happened to Eliza, and he was surprised when she seemed mostly unconcerned.

  “You should be okay,” said Tess. “You’ll be able to see him coming, at least.”

  “It’s possible that he could attack me in my sleep,” said Lee.

  “Then I’ll watch over you at night. Problem solved.”

  She seemed serious about it, and Lee wasn’t sure how to express just how much relief the thought of having her serve as his lookout brought him. He picked up his bag of purchases and grinned as he reached inside of it.

  “Here,” he said. “I only ended up buying one box, but it’s pretty big.”

  Tess’s face lit up with delight as he passed her the heart-shaped container. It felt strange, seeing such happiness in the expression of a girl he’d come to care for so rapidly. A ghost he’d come to care for, rather. She pulled the lid off and plucked out one of the chocolates, which still left the original, as per the laws of his mystic stream.

  “Do you really think I’ll get fat if I eat too many?” asked Tess.

  “What?”

  “That’s what you said earlier.”

  Lee shrugged. “At the very least you’ll get a stomach ache. Here, I got the other stuff you asked for, too.”

  “Ooh,” said Tess. “These are perfect. Well, almost.”

  She frowned as she took a look at the glowsticks and shook her head.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Lee.

  “They’re pink.”

  “That was the color I thought you’d prefer,” said Lee. “What do you even need them for, anyway?”

  Tess gave him a teasing smile and shook her head. “You’ll see. I might be able to still make them work. Maybe.”

  “Come on, tell me,” said Lee.

  “A proper lady is allowed to keep as many secrets as needed,” said Tess.

  “A proper lady?” Lee frowned and made a show of looking around. “Where?”

  “You prat!” Tess flicked her finger against his shoulder. “I was considering telling you, but now I’ve changed my mind.”

  “Tell me, or I’ll tickle it out of you,” said Lee.

  “Tickling is for children, and I’m a proper lady, far above that sort of… hey!”

  Lee pushed the box of chocolates aside and began his onslaught, getting a hand into Tess’s armpit before she could stop him. She burst out into a mixture of laughter and pleading before deciding that the best defense was a good offense.

  The two of them were shifting from tickling to wrestling, both trying to pin the other on the carpet. Lee was obviously stronger, and after a minute, he was straddling her and holding her arms above her head. Tess’s face was flushed, and she slowly licked her lips as she looked up at him.

  “What else do ‘proper ladies’ consider themselves to be far above?” asked Lee.

  “You fiendish rogue!” said Tess, in an exaggerated voice. “For you to touch my body as if I were a cheap courtesan.”

  “Oh, I think I’ll do more than just touch it,” whispered Lee.

  “Ooh,” moaned Tess. Lee kissed her and felt her instantly respond to him, angling her hips upward and spreading her legs.

  Part of him knew that he was playing with fire by letting Tess get so close and so intimate. The rest of him didn’t care. Again, she wasn’t wearing any panties, and it only took Lee a second to get his pants down and his robes out of the way. He watched the way she bit her lower lip as he thrust his cock into her and almost came then and there.

  He pulled her sundress further up, and Tess let out a surprised, though not displeased squeal as he lifted it over her head. She blushed, which brought out the otherwise faint freckles dusting her cheeks. She tried to cover her breasts with one arm.

  “They’re too small,” she said, in a voice that sounded genuinely insecure.

  “I prefer the term fun-sized,” said Lee. “Let me see you.”

  He pulled her arms back above her head, pinning them with his hand, though it wasn’t really necessary. Tess’s body was pale, petite, and perfect. Her breasts weren’t huge, but they weren’t as small as she seemed to think they were, either. Lee cupped one of them with his hand, smiling as he ran a thumb over one of her nipples, which were almost as pink as little candies.

  Lee kissed her and started moving again, running his hands across her soft, flawless skin. She was a hot little thing, and he felt a perverse desire to spend a day or two using her tight, young body for all it was worth. A proper lady, indeed.

  “Lee?” The door to the dorm room creaked open, and Toma stepped in. “Why are you lying on the floor.”

  Tess squealed, and in his surprise, Lee accidentally released his mystic stream. He fell forward onto the carpet as Tess, now in her ghost form, fled in a panic through the wall. There was no chance of Toma seeing her, but it seemed as though the impulse to run upon being caught in the act ran extremely deep.

  “I was, uh, just lying down,” said Lee, shifting his robes to cover the truth.

  “Weird, but whatever,” said Toma. “Hey, we have to talk about what happened after you got kicked out from the tavern. Eliza had like, a meltdown or something.”

  “Can we talk about it tomorrow?” asked Lee. “Or maybe like, an hour from now?”

  He stood up and made himself decent. As he stared at the wall Tess had disappeared into, he did his best to brush off the complex mixture of rage and disappointment unique to being interrupted during hot sex.

  “Why, it’s not like either of us have anywhere to be,” said Toma, with a laugh. “Also, I wanted to talk about us and our upcoming classes. Do you think we should set up, like, a study schedule, or something? Given how much we both struggled with the entrance exam, it seems cracked not to be proactive.”

  “A study schedule,” sighed Lee, sensing that Tess wouldn’t be coming back that night. “Sure.”

  Maybe he could get Toma to study the mechanism of knocking before opening a door.

  CHAPTER 19

  “Take these with you,” said Tess. “Make sure they’re in your pockets during your alteration class.”

  Tess did eventually come back, though it wasn’t until the next morning, right when Lee was on his way out the door. She’d picked up two of the pink glowsticks she’d had him buy and was holding them out to him.

  “What?” He furrowed his brow. “Why?”

  “I promise, you’ll thank me later,” said Tess.

  “Uh, okay,” he said. “Hey, sorry about last night. I’ll lock the door next time, I promise.”

  Tess flashed a wicked, dimpled smile. “What’s to be sorry about? If anything, I should thank your roommate for interrupting your attempted defilement when he did.”

  “I think
calling it ‘attempted’ is a bit of an understatement,” said Lee.

  “Is that so?” asked Tess. “I suppose I’ll have to be on guard to keep it from happening again.”

  “I hope that doesn’t mean you’ve decided to start wearing panties.”

  “Bloomers, my dear Lee. They’re called bloomers.”

  Toma had already gone ahead, so after giving Tess a quick kiss, Lee headed off to the Seruna Center. He found the alteration classroom without much trouble. Toma was sitting in the back row, as was often the case for them.

  More surprising was the fact that Eliza was also sitting away from where Kristoff and the more popular initiates held court up front. She was more over to the side, with a perimeter of three or four empty seats around her.

  She had a bandage on her forehead and wore a wrist compressor, which made Lee think that she might have hurt more than just her head during his tackle. She didn’t look up to meet his gaze as he entered the room, and the instructor arrived before Lee could make his way over to see how she was doing.

  A tall man in a white button-up shirt, tie, and slacks walked in with a briefcase. He didn’t look over at any of the students as he sat down at his desk, instead placing the briefcase on top, opening it, and closing it. He sat with his back perfectly straight for several seconds, looking straight ahead at all of them, and none of them, at the same time.

  “Can you hear me?” asked the instructor. He held his hand up to his mouth and made a humming noise. “Hello?”

  “We can hear you,” said one of the initiates in the front row.

  “Oh. Nice.”

  The instructor was silent again for several uncomfortable seconds.

  “My name is Instructor Daniels,” he finally said. “That’s D-A-N followed by... the word ‘yells.’ I will be teaching you alteration, yeah? To help protect you against attacks... against the body and mind.”

  He waited and nobody said anything. Lee was actually impressed by the restraint of his fellow initiates. Instructor Daniels was still staring blankly at the back wall, his eyes somewhat unfocused, as though he was in the middle of a particularly vivid daydream.

  “Alteration spells are... useful,” said Instructor Daniels. “Many different types exist. I will be teaching you alteration. My name is Instructor Daniels.”

  At this point, whispering finally broke out among the students. Instructor Daniels didn’t seem to notice or take offense, continuing on with his basic, rather repetitive introduction.

  “Your mind and body need protection,” said Instructor Daniels. “Alteration spells can do that. It’s D-A-N, followed by... an I, an E…”

  “Really?” said Kristoff, in a loud whisper. “Can he spell ‘Instructor’ too, or is that what we’ll be learning next class?”

  Lee felt bad for Daniels, though his dazed mannerisms certainly raised valid questions about his competency. He was about to head up to the Instructor’s desk to see if there was anything he could do when another teacher walked into the classroom.

  Instructor Harper’s entrance almost felt like a switch being flipped. The initiates immediately sat up straight in their desks, and an edge of authoritative tension filled the room in place of their whispering. Harper was dressed in one of the black and gold Instructor’s robes, which fit her so well that it brought back Toma’s remark about there potentially being a tailor on campus.

  “Sorry I’m late, Instructor Daniels,” said Harper.

  Daniels slowly swiveled his head to face her, blinked once, and flashed a wide smile.

  “Instructor Harper,” he said. “Yes. Thank you for making time. I will be teaching alteration, yeah?”

  “Yes,” said Harper. She slowly came to stand next to where Daniels sat at his desk and addressed the room. “I’m sure you’ve heard of Louis Daniels, the Shield Warden. The man who single-handedly saved Auckland from being rolled over by a group of rogue sorcerers.”

  Lee hadn’t. But from the way a few of his classmates glanced at each other, some of them obviously had.

  “He will be your alteration instructor for the semester,” said Harper. “I will be assisting him for the first few weeks, as we’re both new to the school and in the process of finding our stride.”

  Nobody spoke up. Lee was tempted to, if only to needle Harper a bit, but her presence seemed magnified in class, as though the respect the rest of the students gave her was a weapon at her disposal.

  The class continued, with Harper gently prompting Daniels into explaining different facets of alteration. He was knowledgeable, though it did seem as though some incident in the past had locked away his knowledge—and much of his focus—in a place that he could only reach with assistance.

  Lee had assumed that alteration was mostly about shield spells, but Daniels also explained enhancement spells and how they could be utilized. There was more flexibility to the magical school than he’d initially realized. A powerful enough altmancer, as those who specialize in alteration were called, would essentially be a nigh-unstoppable juggernaut, with spells to enhance their strength and speed and shields to defend against attacks.

  “Today’s focus will be a basic spell shield?” said Daniels, though with an inflection at the end that made it sound like a question.

  Harper nodded to him. “Form into groups of three or four and begin practicing the casting stance while focusing will into the arcane patterns we just discussed. I would like to see each of you casting a shield by the end of this lesson.”

  Lee swore under his breath. Toma was sitting next to him and nodded, seemingly in agreement.

  “Groups of three,” muttered Toma. “We might have to split up.”

  Lee shook his head, barely even concerned about that aspect of the lesson. He looked around the room and spotted Eliza, who was still sitting apart from the rest of the class and hadn’t been invited over to join the groups formed from her normal clique.

  “That’s not an issue,” said Lee. “Eliza can join our group.”

  “Eliza?” asked Toma. “As in, the super pretty, confident, talented Eliza? The complete opposite of us Eliza?”

  “She’s not an alien, Toma. Relax.”

  He stood up and headed over to her. She sat up in surprise when she saw him.

  “Oh, hey Lee,” she said. “I never got a chance to thank you for what you did yesterday…”

  “Yeah, uh, it’s no problem.” Lee scratched his head. Possession victims often had varying degrees of recollection concerning the experience of being directly under a specter’s control. Most only remembered scraps, small details and emotions, all of it twisted and made dreamlike by the influence of the entity’s foreign perspective.

  “I must have made such a fool of myself,” muttered Eliza. “I can’t believe it. It might have ended even worse if you hadn’t found me when you did after my fall.”

  She blinked a couple of times and looked like she was about to cry. Lee set a hand on her shoulder and gave her a few seconds.

  “If you don’t have a group to join, do you want to work with me and Toma?” he asked.

  Eliza nodded. “I would love to. You’re... so nice to me, Lee.”

  She tentatively set her hand on top of his and looked him in the eye for a second before blushing fiercely and reaching over to grab her notebook and bag.

  “Uh, we should get started!” said Eliza. “I can already cast a spell shield. I can help you both with it.”

  “Let’s hope so,” said Lee.

  For a couple of minutes, Lee was able to disguise his complete inability to cast any spells by just hanging back and keeping his mouth shut. Toma was also struggling with the spell shield, and Eliza patiently explained the details of the breathing, casting stance, and arcane pattern he would need to hold in his mind. Her attention seemed to fluster Toma, which was entertaining, but not to the extent that it took Lee’s mind off his own issues.

  Why did Harper have to be one of the instructors? Given the friction between them, she would go out of her way t
o ensure that Lee met the same requirements as everyone else. He wouldn’t be able to get by with sneaking off to the bathroom or faking an illness. She’d use the fact that he couldn’t manage a spell shield as more evidence to fuel her suspicions.

  He’d put the Cropping and what it entailed out of his mind for the past day or so, but the risk was still there. If he were expelled or consistently failed to meet the school’s requirements, he was done. Not only would he never uncover what really happened to Zoe, but he’d forget all about her.

  “Lee?” asked Eliza. “Are you listening? It’s like this—”

  Eliza stepped behind him and took hold of his arms, gently pulling them into the alteration casting stance, an x-shape across his chest. She stood a little closer to him than she might have otherwise needed to, and Lee felt the distinct sensation of her breath tickling his neck.

  “Ah, so that’s it,” said Lee.

  “Then from there, picture the arcane pattern in your head. Swirling, protective spheres in orbit around your body.”

  Lee had already tried it several times during that class period, if only to prove to himself that he really couldn’t cast spells. He sighed and figured that once more couldn’t hurt.

  “Sorry!” cried Tess. “I’m so sorry! I’m late, I know. There was this squirrel, and it was chasing its tail, and it was just the funniest thing I’d ever seen…”

  Lee glanced over at her out of the corner of his eye. She was doubled over, panting, with a wide, dimpled smile on her face.

  “I know you can’t talk right now, but hopefully you won’t need to,” said Tess. “You put the glowsticks in the pockets of your robe, right? Just stay calm, and don’t move.”

  “Lee?” said Eliza. “You look distracted. Are you actually trying the spell?”

  He didn’t say anything. Tess had moved in close and was rummaging through his pockets. He closed his eyes, reset his alteration casting stance, and took a breath.

  “Whoa!” said Toma. “He did it!”

  Lee blinked his eyes open, wincing at the slight chill he felt due to how close Tess was standing to him. She’d taken out the glowsticks and begun whipping them into fast circles around Lee. The effect was similar to the glowing spheres that sprung into existence when the other initiates cast their spell shields, with one small difference.