Twenty-eight students were taken from Brightsail Academy. Two from Fire Kite, and one from Green Book. It cost the cult of Harpis seventy-three members and thirty-two demons, including the greater demon that Sen killed.
Encapsulation carried Sen as he sped over rooftops, scanning in every direction with eyes and magic senses for the fleeing cultists. Not that much time had passed. They shouldn’t have been able to escape the city. But the cult had planned this, and they had help from the inside. Of course they’d have an escape route. He stopped, his momentum carrying him several feet before he came to a halt. Mori landed beside him. “Anything, master?”
Mori had made it back to the school shortly after Sen learned what had happened. The two of them had set off in search of the missing students almost immediately. They weren’t the only ones. Professor Ladia and a few of the fourth-year students who had held their own throughout the academy also searched. The town guards and mages were searching as well. They’d closed the gates of the city, and no one was allowed in or out. But his instincts told him they wouldn’t find the others. The cult of Harpis was long gone.
“No. Let’s head back,” Sen said.
“But master, Ilm’s out there!” Mori swung his hand to gesture toward the town.
Sen frowned. “I know. But we need a plan, Mori.” There was also the fact that the faculty members were interrogating some cultists as they spoke. Searching for the missing students blindly had always been unlikely to succeed, but they had to try. If a trace of the students or any of the cultists were still around, they would’ve found it. They needed to gather information, to plan, and to find any opening they could exploit. Before today, the cult of Harpis had been a minor distraction, something to deal with when he could. But now they’d skyrocketed to the top of his list.
He wouldn’t stop until he’d annihilated every single member of this disgusting cult.
When they returned to their dorm, they quickly pieced together what had happened to Ilm. She’d been in the room when the invasion started, and Sen had hoped she’d stay inside behind their defenses. It appeared she had, but she also opened the door. He could sense the presence of many other students. They’d left since, but it became obvious what had happened in an instant.
Mori realized it too. “She opened the door so that others could come inside. She wanted to use the wards and door guardian to keep them safe.”
Sen’s heart wrenched at that. She’d attempted to save others. It was admirable. He turned to look where the door had been ripped in half. Their defenses hadn’t held against that thing he saw in the vision Crosp showed him. That was troubling. Between Mori’s expertise in barriers and Sen’s creation magic, their defenses really should have held. Which forced him to think about the thing he’d been trying not to.
“That creature I saw, the one that took her, it reminded me of something,” he said slowly.
Mori’s lips folded. Tutor had shown him the memory as well. He’d likely come to the same conclusion. “Me too.”
“A flesh golem.” Sen had created the flesh sculpt technique for its variety of combat applications. But he’d later learned it could be useful for healing and fixing others as well. Temporarily cutting through the body as if it were clay had a variety of uses, and a skilled enough magician could do a lot with it. But he’d always theorized it had darker applications as well, so it was one of many techniques he’d never passed along or allowed others to learn.
Unfortunately, the tome where he’d recorded his research was one that had been lost in the flow of time. There was a non-zero chance that someone had found it. That someone who’d studied his work had created the creature. And now, it had taken two people he cared about, a teammate from the Academy War, and dozens of other students. His own technique.
Something scraped the ground underneath Mori’s bed, and the two of them readied spells in an instant. Mori peeked under it and gasped. “You’re alive?” he asked.
The door guardian whimpered. It crawled out. Its head was like that of a purple dog, or at least a child’s drawing of a dog. Its face was extremely boxy, and its ears and eyes were triangular to a point. The creature was strong. It had to be for them to sleep well at night, and it should have been the ultimate authority over the door to their room. Sen still wasn’t sure how it had been overwhelmed.
And then he realized the guardian was still whole, and he sighed. “She released it while it was fighting.”
Mori frowned at that. “But why? It should’ve held.”
The door guardian slowly peeked its head out further, a worried look on its face. It saw the door split in half and whimpered again. She’d had compassion for it. The door guardian may have been losing the fight, even if it had been killed, their wards would’ve absorbed it to strengthen themselves. But if Ilm had felt bad and released it, the wards wouldn’t have been enough. “If the door had broken with the guardian still in it, it would be dead. She wanted to save it.”
Instead, it had taken her.
He felt a presence approaching. Of course, there were dozens of students coming and going up the hallways. Some examined their rooms, others looked for missing friends, and even a few volunteers had stopped by to ask if Sen or Mori needed any help. But this one was familiar, and so Sen turned to greet her. “Hello, Samara.”
Her blade was on her back, and she wore a determined look. “I brought this from Professor Ladia,” she said.
A small note. It was exactly what he’d been waiting for. Information. As he opened it, he felt a whisper of Crosp’s magic.
“Historia, Memory Letter.” Sen made a mental note to study up on this magic. It had more practical uses than he realized.
Before the illusion could overtake them, he threw up a barrier so no one outside the room would see.
Ladia
Professor Sikar slammed his fist on the table. “What do you mean? These are our students! We can’t abandon them,” he shouted. His freshly healed wounds were still tender, and he winced at the sudden movement, but the anger on his face remained.
The dean stared at him. “We don’t have the resources. The prisoners aren’t talking, even with Dean Calle’s…persuasion. Laurette plans to return to Green Book to gather more professors, and the Flamelord has summoned Fire Kite Academy’s leadership. Our allies are leaving. We’ve lost almost a third of our faculty members to the fighting, and numerous fourth-year students were taken. If that isn’t enough, Mayor Tobias has asked us to stand down. He’s afraid if the feud goes any further the townspeople may be endangered as well. My hands are tied.”
Ladia wouldn’t be surprised if Sikar grabbed his staff and swung it across the Dean’s face. But he simply glared in disbelief, his nostrils flaring. Crosp was unusually silent, but she knew he agreed with Sikar. He had talked little since his near-death experience. It had shaken him.
The other professors were mixed. Some wanted to go after the students; some had already turned in their resignations, but the majority would go along with whatever Dean Withershade said. He was their leader, and people look to their leaders in times of distress.
Even if those leaders were wrong.
Her eyes locked onto Crosp, and she nodded.
With a sigh, he began the spell. Ladia scribbled a brief note, and an illusory bird grabbed it and flew over to Crosp before disappearing. She had mixed feelings about leaking information to students, but if the dean wasn’t going to use their tremendous resources to help the students, the boy she’d watched scare off a trio of greater demons might just be their only chance.
This time, a mouse formed and grabbed the illusion-carrying letter and made its way toward the door. Samara would be waiting outside.
Sen
He hadn’t expected to hear so many of her thoughts. He looked at Mori and Samara, but they simply waited for him to talk. To his surprise, he realized they hadn’t seen the illusion at all. The message had just been for him. “The faculty members aren’t able to help. Dean Withershade has abandoned the students.”
Samara reached back for her blade’s handle just to have something to squeeze.
Mori looked disgusted. “What now? We go after them on our own?”
[If you do that, you’ll be acting outside the orders of the academy. Star student or not, you’ll likely be expelled. You’ll fail any class quest connected to the academy, miss out on the remaining rank rewards, and you’ll lose the ‘legitimacy’ you desired.]
Sen frowned. In the past, he’d been a powerful person who came from nowhere. It made it hard to earn people’s trust. He had no story. He’d enrolled in the academy to avoid that this time. If people believed he was some prodigious student, they’d be more willing to trust him. He could find a place in this world. Now, he’d have to abandon all his progress. He would, of course. Ilm was like family to him. As much as he disliked Snake, the boy had tried to save her. Then there was Milim. She was his friend, and he’d promised to meet her. He wouldn’t let her down, and he wouldn’t leave any of them, nor the other students, in the hands of the cult.
But even if he abandoned the academy, that left one major problem. They didn’t have any idea where the cult of Harpis had taken their hostages. It was just like their first quest, where they’d saved Samara. The cult had hidden the students deep under the town of Bright Sail. If they were that resourceful, the students could truly be anywhere.
Something dawned on him. He looked to Samara first. “Go find Oliver, bring him to the front gate, and wait for Mori.”
She looked between him and Mori, but the seriousness in his voice ushered her along. “On it.” She hustled out, brushing past students moving up and down the hallway.
Sen turned back to Mori. There was a way to move forward without leaving the academy. They could save their friends, and right now, the only ones who could stop them were having a meeting upstairs.
He already knew where he needed to go, but first he needed some help. Sen knelt and held a hand out to the door guardian. “You were the last one to see Ilm and that creature. Would you like to help save her?” he asked.
The door guardian grew serious. It crawled out from under the bed and shook itself free. It grew to its full size and was now about the size of the bed it had been hiding under. “Ruff,” it barked. He wondered who’d taught it that? It wasn’t supposed to speak or make noise. The door guardian was designed for combat, but it already had the general shape of a dog. With a few adjustments, it might be able to track something for them. Or someone. Sen patted it on the head and looked back at Mori. “Enhance his senses. I won’t be gone long. Make sure you’re done in time to meet the others. Bring them to the guild hall when you’re finished. This has to happen as soon as possible. We’ll need to hurry before they can react.”
Encapsulation wrapped around Sen. He hadn’t had time to locate what he needed to cover Ilm in the protective markings he’d given Mori, but he had cast a powerful protective spell over her. It would protect her and nearby allies for at least three days. In that time, they needed to locate the cult of Harpis and make preparations. This time, they would deal with the cult for good. But first, it was time to go see an old friend.
Orttha
Once a week he spent time meditating in the special library per his contract. During that time, he was not to be disturbed for any reason. Nor could he be. Orttha remained in total isolation and studied in secret among the glass cases full of stone spell tablets. It was one of his conditions for coming to work at Bright Sail Academy when Dean Withershade had personally sought him out. He took one last look over his notes, and then carefully placed them into a desk drawer. With a flick of his hand, two bookshelves ground as they moved aside. With another hand motion, the desk slid into the revealed alcove. He had total authority over the entire library, but the special library was uniquely protected. This was the only place his notes were safe.
He felt a knock on the downstairs door of the special library. That was expressly forbidden. The wards on the door wouldn’t even alert him unless there were extenuating circumstances. They’d probably just gone bad. He sighed, and the desk stopped moving before it reached its hideaway. He’d fix it in a moment. First, he’d see which student he’d be expelling from Brightsail Academy. He rolled his neck and smoothed out his robes as he made his way leisurely down the stone steps. If the troublemaker was smart, they’d scurry out of the library before he opened the door.
When he reached it and the door slid open, he furrowed a brow. He hadn’t expected Oliver of all people to break the rules. “Oliver? What are you—” Orttha paused. He skirted past the blonde-haired boy and hurried over to the railing. The library was full of students. Some were lying on the ground, others on tables. They were chattering far too loudly, and the noise-suppression wards were straining to contain it all. “What’s going on?” he demanded. He turned back to Oliver for answers.
Oliver swallowed. “Sorry…Mr. Orttha, the academy was attacked.”
Orttha tilted his head. “Attacked? By who?” He sighed and threw up a hand. “The dean will handle it. I’m sure everything will be alright.” None of the students looked too bad. Scrapes and bruises. Calling this an attack was probably an exaggeration on Oliver’s part. The boy was a living ball of stress sometimes. “I have to get back to my studies.”
“Orttha…the Cult of Harpis took students,” Oliver called out.
Orttha paused. He turned to look at Oliver over his shoulder. “What?” He frowned. If the school’s defenses weren’t holding up, he’d need to move his plans forward. He couldn’t afford to slow down even if this place was in danger. “I have to get back to work, Oliver. When you see Milim, tell her to stop by.”
“Sir…she was one of the students they took.”
Orttha’s world froze. This time he turned and hurried toward Oliver. He grabbed him by the shoulders. “The Cult of Harpis has Milim? Why didn’t you start with that, boy!”
Oliver’s eyes widened, and Orttha released his grip. He shook his head and stumbled toward the door of the secret library. He took the stairs faster than he had in years. Behind him, Oliver’s footsteps echoed on the stone stairs. That was against the rules. He didn’t have a pass. Right now, Orttha couldn’t care less. He hurried across the floor of the special library and ripped out the drawer in his desk. He pulled his carefully compiled notes and flung them to the side. Precious and valuable to him just moments ago, and now they were just fragments of knowledge in the way. The false bottom of his drawer slid open, and he pulled the tome out. It was thick, too thick to hold in one hand comfortably, but he managed. He placed the book on his desk even as Oliver hurried over. Orttha ignored him. The book was titled ‘The Principles of Mathematical Conversion.’
“Reveal Knowledge,” Orttha chanted. The title changed before his eyes.
‘Utilizing the power of a single stat to enhance all others. The power of hybrid stats.’ He felt the latent power of the book flow into him as he connected with it.
His stats converted quickly, soaking up the power of the book.
Strength: 0—> Mana Aggression 99
Speed: 0—> Mana Encapsulation 99
Magic: 50—> Magic: 99
Constitution: 0—> Mana Protection: 99
Power flowed through him. Orttha wasn’t strong. He’d never had a natural affinity for magic, and he wasn’t able to dominate opponents on his own. But this book bridged the gap. It held the power of the God of Magic from a thousand years ago. In modern times, it wouldn’t let him compete with anyone on the king or god level, but between this and his research, he was a formidable opponent while channeling the book’s strength. A tome left behind by the God of Magic himself. He paused, noticing something he hadn’t before.
When this book had first been passed down to him, he’d immediately sensed that it’d been covered in an illusion. He had a knack for such things. He’d broken through it and realized what he was reading was the ancient work of the God of Magic. But he’d never realized a second, deeper illusion had been placed over it. He focused his attention.
“Reveal Knowledge Maxim!”
The pages of the book flapped widely, and the glass cases shattered all around him. This book was one of the first journals on magic theory written by the God of Magic. Apparently the gods’ practices had changed in his later years. Orttha had seen other journals, but never one that had been signed.
He read the name signed on the inside of the front page. A name he’d heard only recently for the first time.
Sen Locke.
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