Chapter XXVI (26)- The Stalker
One thing Kizu quickly realized was that he couldn’t actually feel himself or Mort with his spellsense. Even without the necklace. The bond that connected their souls was an altogether different kind of magic that bypassed spellsense.
Kizu cast an illusion on the floor in front of him, the stone tiles appearing to crack and crumble and sink down, falling into a bottomless pit. After the blood had been spent, Kizu could sense the magic in front of him - but only once the magic left his system. He couldn’t sense it as he cast the spell like he could earlier when his peers were enchanting glyphs. He wondered about that for a while, testing a few more spells and getting the same result each time.
Then he put on the necklace and tried another illusion. This time he sensed nothing at all, even after the spell externalized. When he took three steps away, though, it blinked into his awareness. That told him the necklace had a range. It didn’t just conceal him, but everything within arm’s reach as well. That offered a great deal more versatility. Whoever enchanted it must have been a master of their craft.
Wanting to test it with someone else’s spells, he wandered over to the library, looking for anyone he might know. Unfortunately, it was just about empty. As was the cafeteria, and every study room he checked after that. Eventually, he and Mort decided to head down into town.
It was late evening, but the town bustled all around him. Students and locals chatted, and several pubs had their doors wide open, letting cool autumn air in while rowdy music and laughter poured out. Kizu chose one at random and poked his head inside. In the first one, he saw that student from his dorm that he had punched on his first day. Deciding he did not want that drama tonight, he walked a bit further until he reached a pub by the docks. The Lizard’s Anchor was its name. Inside, adults chatted loudly and drank. Kizu was about to retreat again, when he spotted Harvey alone on the far side of the pub with his face down on the table. There were two empty tankards by his head, and a third down by his feet where it had been knocked from the table.
Kizu approached him.
“Harvey?”
The Tainted boy stirred but didn’t raise his head. Instead, he grasped blindly for one of the empty tankards, tipping it over and spilling the dregs onto the table.
“Everything okay?” Kizu asked.
“No. You shouldn’t be seen with me, Kizu. I’ve done enough damage to your reputation.”
Kizu rolled his eyes at the dramatic melancholy and sat down next to his friend. “Don’t worry about me, I have no reputation left to damage. I’m the crazy witch’s bog child, more monkey than man.”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t sink further,” Harvey muttered.
“Harvey, I have plenty of things I’m worried about right now, but I promise you my reputation is not one of them. If anything, you should be worried about being friends with me.”
After a bit more wallowing, Harvey finally explained himself.
“I try, Kizu. I really try to be friends with everyone. I want people to like me, but you’re the only person who seems to even tolerate me. Even my own cousins can’t be bothered to remember my name. I blunder through every conversation, and I know my mind jumps between topics in a way that confuses people. But I really try.”
Kizu glanced around and realized Harvey had probably come to this pub specifically to avoid their classmates. The gathered crowd was more sailors and dock workers than it was mages and scribes.
Kizu tried to think of how to phrase what he wanted to say to him. He thought Harvey was being a bit harsh on himself. The student body was largely apathetic to those around them, but most of the time not sinister. Harvey likely just needed a less abrupt approach. Kizu had managed to make a few friends in the last couple weeks. But how could he say that without making Harvey feel worse?
“In two days, I’m going to fight,” Harvey continued. “I’m not good at fighting, and they already know I use my flute to charm people. All they need to do is put some wax in their ears and I’m just a lump of lizard meat left to rot in the sun.”
“Back up,” Kizu said. “Why exactly are you fighting?”
“The kid I mocked told me I had two options. Face his half-troll brother in the arena under Arclight’s supervision and with Kateshi a stone’s throw away or face the brother in an empty alleyway with no one around to watch my back.”
“So you signed up,” Kizu concluded.
Harvey made a noise. Kizu deciphered it as an affirmative.
“Well, we’re in this together!” Kizu clapped a hand on Harvey’s slumped shoulder. He tried his best to mimic Harvey’s usual upbeat attitude. “Who knows, maybe we’ll actually be set to fight one another instead!”
“No. They’re spreading it around to everyone in the academy that only they will be allowed to fight. There’s a small group of them. So, it’s only us and them scheduled for the entire day. You need to pull your name out, Kizu.”
“Well, they can’t be that dangerous if they’re ranked so low,” Kizu said. “Not everyone who looks tough is actually an archmage. And even if they are that tough, you’ll probably be matched against me, not them. We’re definitely the more even match.”
“Their placements are closer to mine than yours is. One of them is under mine, even.”
“Then they can’t be that tough,” Kizu said, forcing a smile.
Harvey finally lifted his head from his arms, showing Kizu a pair of bloodshot eyes. “This is their first fight back since they permanently injured their opponents as first years. Now that their victims have graduated, Arclight apparently petitioned for them to be allowed back in on the weekly contests. Supposedly, they’re more mature and better at managing their tempers now.”
“Still, it’s not like Arclight will let you fight someone so obviously out of your league. She’d put a stop to that the moment she saw it.”
“It’s not up to her. The matches are regulated by agencies outside the academy as well. Arclight doesn’t have authority to change them outside the current structure. Kizu, I have tried to find a way out. I spent all week hiding in my room with a library book and questioning my scrying orb.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Well, at least they haven’t been getting the best training for the last few years. Not being able to rank up probably sabotaged their class placements.”
Harvey obviously doubted him, because the boy just put his head back down and moaned like he’d already been beaten to a pulp.
“What are you looking at ordering?” a waitress asked, stopping by their table. She looked Kizu up and down, scanning his worth.
“Nothi-” Kizu started.
“Two pints of copper ale,” Harvey said, cutting him off. His voice was still muffled, but it was clear enough for the waitress to understand.
“I don’t have any money,” Kizu said after she left. “I can’t afford a drink.”
“I’ll cover you. It’s just a couple Yennies.”
“Harvey, you just said the other day that your family was scrimping and saving to afford your tuition next year.”
The Tainted boy just groaned.
Unable to get any further conversation from his friend, Kizu observed the room. Despite the rowdy atmosphere, everyone seemed very amicable. Someone always seemed to be laughing somewhere in the pub. The waitress was almost dancing as she navigated the many tables. She spun, serving drinks and occasionally plates of food. She was actually very pretty, he noticed, and likely only a few years older than him. She had her hair tied back and covered with a head scarf, but a few strands of blue hair stuck out the sides. Likely from Tross then.
An idea occurred to him. Probably a terrible one, he acknowledged. But he was willing to take that chance.
“What do you think of the waitress?” he asked Harvey. When the other boy didn’t respond, he pressed on. “She’s kind of cute, though it might just be her skirt doing most of the work. Look at the legs on her.”
Harvey lifted his head from his arms to look. Kizu could see his cheeks were wet as his scales glinted in the pub’s light. He squinted over in the waitress’ direction.
“You’re right,” he admitted as he watched her. “But I think it’s the head cloth that really sells it. Makes her look mysterious.”
“Not being able to see her hair isn’t mysterious,” Kizu said. “If I put a hat on, it wouldn’t suddenly summon girls to my side.”
“I don’t know, it’d definitely make me more interested if you were a girl.”
“Well, whatever it is, I wish I had the guts to approach her. But maybe it’s for the best. I find sometimes art is better off examined from afar.” Kizu lifted the cheesy line from one of Finn’s adventure novels he’d read a few weeks back.
The waitress came over with their drinks soon after, smiling and asking if they needed anything else.
“My friend thinks you’re hot and wants to ask you out,” Harvey blurted out while handing her coins for the drinks.
The waitress laughed. Kizu’s face felt like it was on fire.
“I didn’t-! I mean- the context,” he attempted.
“You’re cute,” she said, still laughing. “But too young for me. Try again once you’ve graduated.”
“What was that?” Kizu demanded after she’d moved on from their table. He did his best to sound angry, but a smile still touched the edges of his lips. He’d set himself up to be the butt of the joke, and yet… it hadn’t even been the complete rejection he’d expected it to be.
Harvey laughed, looking far better as they went on drinking and talking about girls. A subject neither of them knew anything about.
“So that girl who sits behind us in History F, what do you actually think of her?” Harvey asked.
“Ione? She’s easy to talk to. Really laid back.”
“So she’s chill. That’s good.” Harvey stroked a nonexistent beard while he nodded half a dozen more times than any sober person might. “But as far as looks go?”
“She looks way too much like her twin,” Kizu said dismissively. “Dating her would be impossible. Every time I see her outside class, I have to play a guessing game to figure out which one she is.”
“Okay, so what girls have caught your eye then? Besides the waitress.”
Kizu thought about it. He winced. “Would you stab me if I said your cousin?”
“Depends on which one,” Harveys said noncommittally. Then his face lit up. “Oh! You mean Emilia?”
“I’ve barely spoken to her-”
“That’s great news!” Harvey cut him off. “I can get us into another party with her. In fact, one of her friends is throwing one right now.”
Harvey stood abruptly and teetered, catching his balance by grabbing hold of the table.
“I don’t know if you should be running off anywhere right now,” Kizu said. “How about we put a pin in it and try again another night?”
Harvey attempted to protest, but Kizu managed to help him stagger out of the pub and back onto the path towards the academy.
Kizu was reflecting on how grateful he was for Basil fixing his uniform’s enchantment when he heard footsteps behind him.
A shiver rippled down his spine when he turned his head and found nobody there. The footsteps stopped at the same time he did.
Harvey chose this moment to push himself away from Kizu and fall to the ground, heaving up everything in his stomach. Kizu looked away, tuning out the gags and splattering sounds, and tried to figure out where the footsteps had gone. He had just convinced himself that they were just Harvey’s dragging feet, when he spotted the faint, almost transparent, outline of a humanoid figure.
It wore white, otherwise he never would have spotted it crouched in the underbrush as far away from him as it was. It watched him from under ragged bangs. Not Harvey, who was actively making a scene and moaning. The figure watched Kizu intently. The figure’s heterochromic eyes glowed in the low light. One black, the other red.
“Harvey,” Kizu said. “We need to go. Now.”
“One second,” Harvey said weakly. Then he threw up the last of his dinner.
Wiping his mouth and looking significantly more stable, Harvey stood. The two of them resumed walking back to the academy. At an increased pace. Normally, Kizu would have been relieved to see his friend walk under his own power again, especially since the Tainted boy absolutely reeked. Now, though, Kizu found himself wanting to cling onto his friend.
Kizu kept looking back over his shoulder. The white-clothed figure remained motionless from where it watched Kizu. He expected the footsteps behind him to resume again, but apparently now that he could see it, it refused to budge. When it finally left their line of sight, Kizu turned his head and almost fell over when he saw it watching from a completely new vantage. Its single scarlet eye remained unblinking as it followed him. It must have jumped. He closed his eyes and focused on his spellsense. He felt nothing.
Kizu’s heart pounded. He pushed Harvey to move faster. The drunk first year complied with only a few complaints.
Stalked, Kizu realized as the figure’s face appeared again in some bushes a stone’s throw away. They were being stalked by some sort of monster, one that somehow gave off no magical aura. Even a ghost should have given off something. Professor Grove did. Kizu’s mind raced, trying to recall any mention of a monster or phantom with such an ability, in any book he’d ever read. Nothing. A creature like their stalker must have had some innate magical properties that witches could make use of in a brew, even if they were only made of its specific ectoplasm. And yet, nothing about it sparked any memories in Kizu’s mind.
“There’s something following us,” Kizu blurted to the James on duty at the academy gate.
James stared at him blankly. “Mr. Kaga, thank you for not breaking curfew again. Please return to your dormitory before lights out.”
“Did you not hear me? There’s something back there!” But when Kizu turned back to the stalker’s latest hiding spot, it had vanished.
James began to explain the efficacy of the academy’s security ward system, but Kizu stopped listening. He suspected the stalker was the same one who had pushed him to find the box buried on academy grounds. Which meant that both above and below ground, the academy was far less safe than James promised.