Chapter XXVI (26)- The Stalker

One thing Kizu quickly realized was that he couldn’t actually see himself or Mort with his spell sense. Even without the necklace.

Kizu cast an illusion on the floor in front of him, making it appear like a bottomless pit. After the spell left him, Kizu could sense the magic in front of him, but only once it became external. He couldn’t sense it as he cast the spell like he could earlier when his peers were enchanting glyphs. He mused about that for a while.

Then he put on the necklace and tried an illusion next to him. This time, he sensed nothing even once the spell became external. But when he took three steps away, it blinked into 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 the 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 pretty much empty. As was the cafeteria. And every study room he checked. Eventually, he and Mort decided to head down into the town.

It was late evening, but the town bustled all around him. Students and locals chatted, and several pubs had their door’s wide open, letting the autumn air cool off their common rooms while letting out rowdy music and laughter. Kizu chose one at random and poked his head inside. The Lizard’s Anchor. Adults chatted loudly and drank. Kizu was about to retreat, when he spotted Harvey alone on the other side of the pub with his head down on the table. There were two empty tankards on the table next to his head and another one knocked over down by his feet.

Kizu approached him.

“Harvey?”

The Tainted boy stirred but didn’t raise his head. Instead, he grasped towards one of the empty tankards, tipping it over and spilling the dregs onto the table.

“Everything okay?” Kizu asked.

“No,” Harvey said. “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 to damage. I’m just a crazy witch boy who’s half a monkey.”

“Doesn’t mean you can’t sink further,” Harvey muttered.

“Harvey, I have plenty of things to worry 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 don’t bother remembering 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 because of the lack of other students. It looked like a lot more sailors and dock workers than mages and scribes.

“In two days, I’m going to fight,” Harvey continued. “I’m not good at fighting, and they already know I charm with my flute. 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?”

“They told me I had two options. Face them in the arena under Arclight’s supervision and with Kateshi a stone’s throw away or face them in an empty alleyway with no one 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. 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 good of fighters if they’re placed so low,” Kizu said. “Not everyone who looks tough is actually an archmage. And even if they were, if I sign up, you’ll probably be placed against me, not them. We’re definitely at more of a similar skill level.”

“Their placements are closer to mine than yours is. And there’s one under mine as well.”

“Then they can’t be that tough,” Kizu said, putting a smile on his face.

“This is their first fight back since their first year when they each permanently injured students. Now that those students graduated last year, Arclight apparently appealed for them to be allowed back in the weekly contests. Supposedly, they’re more mature and better at managing their tempers.”

“Well, at least they haven’t been getting the best training for the last few years. Their lack of ranking up probably messed up their class placements.”

But Kizu doubted his own words. It wasn’t just that they looked tough, it was how they carried themselves. And the fact they seemed to be pals with the second highest combat student. Rationally, his words made sense, but he couldn’t really make himself feel them.

Obviously, Harvey felt his doubts too because the boy just moaned piteously, as if already beaten to a pulp.

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“What are you looking at ordering?” a waitress asked. She looked them up and down, as if scanning their worth.

“Noth-” Kizu started.

“Two pints of copper ale,” Harvey said, cutting him off. His voice was still muffled from his head in his arms, 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 schooling for 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 from somewhere in the pub. The waitress appeared to almost dance as she navigated through the many tables. She spun, serving drinks and occasionally a plate of food. She was actually very pretty, he noticed. And likely only a few years older than him. She had her hair tied back in a cloth, but a bit of blue hair tumbled out. Likely from Tross then.

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, but maybe it’s just her skirt doing most of the work. She has quite the pair of legs on her.”

Finally, Harvey lifted his head from his arms to look. His eyes were bloodshot and puffy around the edges and Kizu could see his cheeks were still wet. He squinted over in the waitress’ direction.

“You’re right,” he admitted as he watched her. “But I think it’s actually the cloth over her hair that really makes her a babe. It makes her more 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 definitely would make me more interested if you were a girl.”

“Well, I wish I had the guts to approach her. But 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.

When the waitress came over with their drinks, she smiled at them and asked 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 as Kizu’s face felt as if it erupted in flames.

“I didn’t- I mean- the context,” he attempted.

“You’re cute,” she said, still laughing. “But still too young for me. Try again in two or three years.”

“What was that?” Kizu said once she left 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…it hadn’t even been the complete rejection he’d assumed it would be.

Harvey laughed, looking far better as they continued 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?”

“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 ask probing questions 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 ahold of the table.

“I don’t know if you should really be running off anywhere right now,” Kizu said. “How about we put a pin in this idea 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 to the academy.

Kizu was reflecting on how grateful he was for Basil fixing the enchantment on his uniform as they walked up the hill, when he heard footsteps behind him.

A shiver rippled down his spine when he turned his head and found nobody there. The footsteps stopped the same time he did.

Harvey chose this moment to push himself away from Kizu to fall to the ground where he began heaving up everything in his stomach with verbal gags and splatters. Kizu looked away and tried to figure out where the footsteps disappeared to. He had just convinced himself that they were just Harvey’s dragging feet, when he spotted the small, almost transparent, figure of a humanoid.

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 attentively with glowing mismatching eyes. One black and one red.

“Harvey,” Kizu said. “We need to go. Now.”

“One second,” Harvey said weakly. Then he let out a final spew of half-digested food.

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 be grateful about Harvey’s regained balance. Especially since the Tainted boy absolutely reeked. But Kizu found himself wanting to cling onto his friend.

Kizu continued to watch over his shoulder. The white clothed figure never moved 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 almost fell over when it was watching from a completely new angle. It must have jumped, he thought to himself. He closed his eyes and focused on his spellsense. But if it gave off any sign of it being there, he felt nothing.

Kizu felt his heart palpitating at a new record. 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. He and Harvey were being stalked by some sort of monster. But one that gave off no magical aura. A ghost should give off something. Professor Grove did. His mind flexed, trying to recall any sort of mention of a monster or phantom like that in any book he ever read. Nothing. A creature like the stalker must have some sort of magical properties witches could make a brew from, even just 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 safety and wards of the academy, 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 the academy was far less safe than James promised.