CHAPTER XX (20)- Untraceable

Kizu spent the rest of the day thinking about Basil’s plan. Harvey wanted absolutely nothing to do with it, but Kizu saw some merit in it. On the one hand, Kizu had just barely finished digging himself out of a legal hole, and he suspected getting caught breaking and entering in truth this time would secure him a one-way ticket to expulsion. But on the other hand, Basil had been sneaking into the girls’ dormitories for years without anyone ever batting an eye. And the more he learned about his family’s relationship with his sister, the more likely it seemed that his family had scoured every last piece of his sister from the villa. If they were willing to completely redo their security measures, throwing out old trinkets and mementos hardly seemed far fetched. And, regardless, he still had no way into the villa.

It was a moot point for now. He still had the note with her hanko stamp’s imprint pressed into the bottom. He intended to try that out before he did anything else more reckless. He had half a dozen other things to worry about first.

When the bell rang, signifying the end of classes, he went to the library to distract himself from his thoughts. He had forgotten to ask for his stuff back during his meeting with Roba and the constable, so now the librarians wouldn’t let him check out another book since he’d yet to return his divination one. He dreaded the idea of going back down to the station to ask, so for now he just browsed the library’s many shelves, looking for anything that might help him with one of his projects.

After a few hours of searching, he received a pointer from a librarian and found a yellowing papyrus scroll on a dusty shelf that emerged from the ground when he stepped on a specific tile on the floor. The scroll detailed how to identify the uses of a particular article of enchanted clothing. He did his best to copy the ritual instructions on a different piece of paper and traced the pattern before replacing the original on the shelf. He hoped he might, at least, be able to use it on the mysterious necklace.

At dinner, he practiced sketching the new pattern. He looked at his shoddy handiwork and sighed. No matter how many attempts he made, his circles were lopsided and the lines a bit too shaky.

He flipped his newly stolen chalk between his fingers, squeezing it - the chalk snapped. His patience ran out. Kizu decided he was going through with it. So what if the lines weren’t absolutely perfect?

Finishing up his meal, he ordered a bit of fruit for Mort before heading back to his room. Once there, he collected his wooden box along with Mort and they made their way down to his new study corner.

When he arrived, he realized that choosing an out-of-the-way location under a flight of stairs at the bottom of the academy had its disadvantages. The floor was still covered in chalk from his divination rituals the other day. He did his best to scrub them away with his shoe, but it only left smudges. He sighed. A water elemental spell would have come in handy here. As would scrub brushes.

For now, he just drew his chalk circles next to his old drawings. After his third sketch, he began to run out of space. He decided the most recent one was good enough to attempt the spell. Carefully, he used his uniform’s sleeve to lift the necklace from the wooden box and set it in the center of the chalk. He channeled into it, opening his mind to the creator’s intent.

An open sense of freedom gripped his heart. A deep longing to remain unknown and untraceable created an ache inside his soul. The intent of the creator while enchanting it. Kizu tried to follow the train of thought. The creator’s idea of freedom was a lack of supervision. A lack of people watching. The necklace accomplished that. It gave the creator the freedom he yearned for. At first, Kizu thought it was designed for invisibility. But no, as he focused, he realized it went further than that, to a more fundamental form of stealth.

“It lets the wearer cast spells undetected!” Kizu exclaimed, jerking back from the chalk circle. He looked at Mort. “Nobody can trace the spells back to the user, and it has an aura around it that prevents magical detection as well. That must be why Professor Grove never commented on the box when I carried it before. As a wisp, she doesn’t have natural eyes like us.”

Mort looked unimpressed.

“Well, I think it’s pretty neat,” Kizu mumbled. “I wonder why the identification spell worked on it if it’s designed to be undetectable. Maybe it’s because I’m not analyzing it, but rather using it to link me to the creator’s intent?”

Mort had no answers for him. Instead, his familiar decided to leap down and chase after a wayward fruit fly. He found the bug far more interesting than Kizu’s technical musing on the nature of enchantments and divination analysis rituals.

Kizu took a risk and picked up the necklace with his fingers. Nothing. It felt like a mundane iron necklace. The only thing noteworthy about it was how heavy it was, but he assumed that was probably normal for the material.

“I wish I had some way to test you out,” Kizu said to it, passing it from hand to hand.

He set it to the side and decided to test out the other objects. Careful not to physically touch them, he attempted the same ritual on both. Both attempts resulted in nothing. He sighed. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy. He packed them back into the box and stored it away, but kept the necklace out.

With only a brief moment of hesitation, he slipped it over his head. The weight of the iron tugged slightly on the back of his neck. Other than that, he felt no change.

He tested out a few spells to see if the necklace altered anything about them. Everything worked just as it would have normally. If he hadn’t seen his anti-magic shield wink out on contact with the necklace, he wouldn’t have believed it was enchanted in the slightest.

Back in his room, he continued on with several other fruitless tests before he finally dozed off.

The next morning, Kizu left the necklace on his bed and made his way back to where Roba had seen him the day before. He pressed in on the six of the clock face, just as Evie had done. It opened inward and he walked into the underwater room.

Roba sat at her desk, looking over some papers strewn across it. She didn’t even look up as he entered. Schools of fish swam about the windows, looking in at Kizu as if curious.

“Good, I was worried you had overslept. You mentioned before that you’re usually nocturnal.” She waved a veiny, sun-spotted hand, and a bowl of porridge appeared on the desk. “Eat. Breakfast has been proven to be invaluable to academic achievement.”

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Kizu did as bidden, spooning the porridge into his mouth. It was bland and lumpy, but he ate without complaint. It stuck to his stomach. When he was finished, he set the bowl aside. Despite the lack of flavor, he felt rejuvenated.

“Now, tell me what you’ve studied this week. Be quick about it.”

He told her about shield training, elemental heating and cooling of water, the enchantment theory they’d discussed in class, and his potion debacle with Sene. He explained that he was working on putting together the different constellation names. With every name he managed to translate over, astronomy class became exponentially easier. Already he felt he was far beyond the rest of his astronomy class. He even added as a side note that Ione had taught him a little about conjuring.

“And your divination?” Roba asked.

“Divination? I’m not taking a divination class this semester.”

“The library records show you’ve checked out a book on divination. What did you learn from it?”

He wasn’t sure how to answer. He hadn’t planned to discuss divination with her. But, then again, it’s not like he was actually breaking any rules by studying it. No one had ever said he couldn’t look for his sister.

“I’m looking for someone,” he admitted.

“I didn’t ask why you were studying,” she reprimanded him. “Only what you learned.”

“I’ve been working on a ritual that helps me locate others. I got it to work, but only enough to give me a bit of validation that the person is alive. If I want to actually figure out where she is, I think I’ll need to use a personal object of hers as a conduit.”

“Impressive.”

“Divination was always the crone’s strong suit,” he said. “But she said I didn’t have much of an aptitude for it when she taught me the basics.”

“Hmm.” She rapped her fingernails against her desk. “Show me the spell.”

“I don’t have any chalk,” he said.

She reached down behind her desk and, with a grunt, lifted and dropped his satchel onto it. From it, she withdrew a piece of white chalk from a side pocket and set it on the table.

“You got my bag back?” Kizu’s spirits rose. That was one less thing for him to stress about.

“Obviously.”

Kizu took the chalk and began outlining the ritual circle on the floor. He’d sketched it enough in practice that he didn’t even need to check the book.

“Redo that line,” Roba directed, when he drew one a bit lopsided. She pointed at it and the sloppy line vanished.

He did as she said.

“Do you think you could teach me to do that?” he asked as he redrew the line. “It would be a lot simpler than scrubbing the floor every time I make a mistake or need to clean up after myself.”

“Scrubbing will do you some good. You’re young and spry. Best way to stay that way is to scrub floors and haul heavy objects for your elders.”

Once he’d finished, she eyed the chalk markings. Apparently satisfied, she ordered him to attempt the spell. He did, and soon felt the familiar tug. It faded after only a moment, though.

“No aptitude?” the administrator muttered. “No anchor to speak of and he still elicits a response. If that’s not aptitude, what is?”

Kizu just stood awkwardly, awaiting her judgment. A moment later, the markings all vanished with a wave of her hand.

Next she had him demonstrate the elemental magic he had been practicing. She gave him pointers on his technique. By the end, he could freeze a cup of water and boil it within a minute.

“You claim to know potions?” she asked next. “What would I need to brew a potion of water breathing?”

He listed the ingredients.

“Fire immunity.”

He listed them.

“Keen senses.”

Kizu squinted. “Which ones?”

“All of them.”

He listed the ingredients for a potion that enhanced all basic senses. He knew of a few more that bolstered more esoteric senses, but not as package deals. The administrator accepted his answer without comment.

“Love.”

He listed four different variations based on the level of intended attraction, noting which was which.

Next she started upping the difficulty, by asking for specific techniques used in brews. Thankfully, he had at least one answer for each of the questions.

“Very well,” she said after a dozen more inquiries. “How about your history and music classes?”

He reluctantly told her about his lack of progress in both classes and she nodded, visibly unsurprised.

“Krimpit is notoriously hard on his F class, while Ignis is notoriously neglectful of his. I’ll consider this an opportunity - it’s nice to have eyes on the inside. Every year I have a few first years run errands for me and keep me informed on the conduct of their professors, but they’re usually the overachievers. I’ve been needing someone to monitor the F’s.”

Kizu didn’t know how to respond to that.

“I believe you know more than the placement tests gave you credit for. Especially in regards to astronomy,” Roba continued. “Next week I want you to retake every test and see how high you move up in the rankings. Repeat this process every two weeks. Quantifying your progress will help push you forward faster.”

“Every two weeks?” Kizu repressed a groan.

She considered it. “Not the brewing test. You’re in the S-ranked class already. Knoff will move you up and down as he pleases.”

At least that was something. Though that joke of a test had only taken a few minutes to fill out, anyway.

“And the combat test?” he asked, recalling Harvey’s explanation of the very public testing method.

“Yes. I suppose Arclight might have difficulty finding you an opponent of comparable rank. Usually the higher ranks are the ones who want to compete. But that will be good for you in its own way - teach you some humility. I’ll make sure you have a spot on the roster, don’t worry.”

He currently had a thousand different worries, and that did nothing to dispel any of them.

“Right then. What do you want to learn?” Roba asked when he had finished.

Kizu thought about it. Something to help him in combat would be useful. Fireballs and earthquakes were always handy. But then his mind went to something entirely different.

“Can you teach me to jump?”

Roba let out a raspy cackle, which sent shivers down Kizu’s spine. She sounded exactly like the crone. It was eerie.

“Spatial magic? Now that is a gem of a request. Nobody has asked it of me in years. Extremely difficult and even more dangerous. The only subject more hazardous would be that of temporal magic. No professor is permitted to teach either subject at this academy. Those who learn spatial magic are taught in a selective post-graduate program upon special recommendation only. There isn’t a single accredited professor on this island that would risk teaching a first year how to jump. It is highly regulated.”

“It is?” Kizu’s heart fell. That must be why he hadn’t seen anyone using the spell since leaving the crone’s hut.

She snapped her fingers and suddenly appeared standing beside him.

“Fortunately for you, I am not a professor.”