Mistress Ariessa Ricon is in her office filling some paperwork. She has just finished doing some follow up treatment for a seriously injured fourth year student in the infirmary and is looking forward to wrapping things up here, locking up the office for the night and joining the rest of the faculty members for dinner. A third year student on watch duty will keep an eye on things in the infirmary before being replaced by one of her friends in another 6 hours. Just as Mistress Ricon is about to finish doting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s, a sudden series of knocks breaks the silence of the room, shocking her and nearly making the 25 year old teacher spill a bottle of ink all over her forms.
Mistress Ricon looks up from her table to see a handsome man standing at the doorway. The female teacher has made it a habit to leave the door to her office wide open (she got tired of her panicked student-assistants bursting through the closed door during emergencies and making her messed up filling her forms).
The reason why Mistress Ricon was taken by surprised just now is because she can usually hear people walking along the corridor that leads to her office. The man in front of her did not make any footsteps at all.
“I’m sorry Mistress Ricon. Did I startled you?” the handsome man apologizes as he enters the office.
“Not at all, headmaster. I had too much coffee and got a little jumpy.”
“You shouldn’t drink so much on an empty stomach.”
“Yes, I was about to head down to the North Hall for dinner with the rest of the faculty members and students. Will you be joining us as well?”
“No, I’ve just returned from out of town. I’m thinking of calling it night and head back to my quarters.”
“I’m sure the students and teachers would miss your company.”
“If you could avoid mentioning to them that I have returned during dinner time, I would be deeply grateful.”
“My lips are sealed.”
“So did anything happened at the school while I was gone?”
“Well… there is one case.”
“What is it?”
“…”
“You can tell me Mistress Ricon.”
“Three days ago they found a badly injured commoner student in the morning by the stables. It looks like he was attacked the previous night and was left for dead there by his attackers.”
“That’s deeply concerning. How badly was he injured?
“Five cracked ribs. A dislocated left shoulder. Right arm broken in three places. Plus he endured a cold night out in the open.”
“And he’s still alive after all that? Sounds like a survivor to me. And how is he now?”
“Well he contracted a fever while he was here. A little touch and go but the worst seems to be over for now.”
“And did he managed to name names?”
“That’s just it. He wouldn’t say who did it during the times he was conscious and could talk.”
“Must have been afraid of the reprisal. I’ll look into it in the morning.” the handsome man stops in front of a bookshelf.
“This book seems interesting. May I borrow it for a while?”
“Help yourself to it. You can have a student return it to me anytime, Headmaster Haithur.”
The handsome man gives a little nod in appreciation and smiles.
***************************************************************
Headmaster Haithur double backs and walks towards the infirmary, his footsteps intentionally kept quiet. Mistress Ricon and the handsome man have already parted ways. She was on her way to the North Hall for dinner while he was supposed to be retiring for the night. Well, he planned to do exactly that but there’s something else he has to get out of the way first.
As he moves closer towards his current destination, the handsome man replays back to the conversation he had with Mistress Ricon. They have been colleagues for many years now, and the woman still has her guard up against him. Any other woman would have jumped at the opportunity to spend time with Headmaster Haithur, but the female teacher had never failed to keep a respectable distance. Even when asking for her book back, she used a student as a buffer between them two.
That’s what Headmaster Haithur had always liked about Mistress Ricon. Not romantically of course, he wasn’t a horny schoolboy chasing every skirt he comes across. Just a professional curiosity. She isn’t playing hard to get, like a cat acting uninterested until a mouse becomes too bold and gets pounced for its foolishness. No, there something unsettling about Headmaster Haithur, and Mistress Ricon belongs to the very few and far between who could sense it.
I wonder what is it that gave me away… are my teeth not white enough? ponders the handsome man as he pauses beside a window. During night time, Headmaster Haithur can see his reflection well enough in the window pane.
Never mind, I’ll give that puzzle a crack another time. Maybe corner her in a room alone and have a heart-to-heart conversation with the woman. But for tonight, let’s unravel this one first.
Usually, a third year student will be on watch outside the infirmary keeping an eye out for emergencies, but Headmaster Haithur has already taken care of it. No one will be here for the next six hours until another student who was supposed to show up and take over the night watch, giving the handsome man plenty of time to do what he set off to do.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
He opens the door to the dimly lit infirmary room and enters it before heading towards the only bed which is occupied. All the rest of the beds are empty, another puzzling thing if one was inclined to notice it. Usually this time of year, the infirmary would be filled with sick and injured students but due to Headmaster Haithur’s mechanism, no such thing occurred.
Mistress Ricon would have commented on this anomaly as well, but since she was overburdened with work as well as tirelessly treating and trying to save the life of her latest patient, the matter had slipped her mind.
The handsome man stops at the foot of the bed and stands in front of it.
“Are you awake?”
It takes a while before a weak voice replies.
“…yes…”
“Good. Do you know who I am?”
“…of course… I’ve seen you around school…”
“We also met last year in my office when your father came to reclaim you. Do you remember that?”
“…he’s not my father…”
“Well, agree to disagree. Are you comfortable right now? Do you need anything? Pain tablets? An extra pillow? A glass of water?”
“…no, I’m good at the moment… thank you…”
“Are you okay with answering a few questions tonight?”
“…not for long… getting a bit tired and I can’t keep my eyes open…”
“As you should. You deserve a rest after what you’ve been through.”
“…please make it quick though…”
“Then I guess I’ll get straight to it. Do you know who did this to you?”
“…no… I didn’t manage to get a good look at their faces…”
“Are you sure?”
“…yes…”
“If you’re afraid of retaliation, I give you my word I can keep you safe.”
“…I really don’t know who they were…”
“If I promise to give you a considerable amount of coins, can you tell me their names?”
“…the answer is still no…”
“Then do you know why you were attacked?”
“…no…”
“Have you recently gotten in an argument with anyone?”
“…no…”
“Have you made any enemies while you’re in this school?”
“…no…”
“Have you ever done anything that warrants you to be attacked?”
“…no…”
“Are you seriously telling me you have no idea why those seven students attacked you?”
“…”
“What? What is it?”
“I’m beginning to get an inkling on why I am here… as well as the person responsible for putting me here…”
“Oops, it looks like I’ve slipped up. I shouldn’t have told you the number of students who attacked you.”
“I have never revealed it to anyone.”
“And I wanted to continue probing you for answers to see what little left I can get out of you. It looks like we have to have a heart-to-heart talk now.” sighs Headmaster Haithur as he goes to get a folded chair propped against a nearby wall. The handsome man pops the chair open and places it beside the bed before sitting on it and crossing his legs.
“What happened to your role as a concerned and sympathetic teacher?”
“And what happened to your role as a weak and feeble student? You’re sitting upright in your bed now with sharp eyes glaring at me like a hawk.”
“…”
“Now let me tell you a little bedtime story. As you know, I am the headmaster of this academy, and it is the headmaster’s job to look after the school and its inhabitants.”
“…”
“For the last couple of years I’ve been inundated with cases of students getting involved in misfortunes in this school. A few minor mishaps at the start, you see, a couple of food poisoning here, a few horse riding accidents there. Then the severity of the accidents increased. A flower pot suddenly falls out of an empty classroom and onto an unsuspecting passerby. A student gets stung by an ordinary scorpion and develops a severe allergic reaction during a hiking expedition.”
“…”
“Now… I, like the gods, do not play with dice and do not believe in coincidence. When all sorts of terrible catastrophe start to pile up, you will eventually see a pattern. All the victims involved in these incidents were male, they belong to elite classes, and most importantly, each and every last one of them were suspected to being involved in bullying cases although they have never been convicted nor the allegations proven.”
“…”
“As the accidents involving elite students started to climb up, the bullying cases against commoner students started to go down. You see where I’m going with this?”
“So how did I slipped up?”
“You’re not even going to play dumb and deny the accusation? Good. I like that. It was six weeks ago during the monthly students’ outing to Sunnyvale Town. A gang of hoodlums got in a fight with a group of elite students, accusing them of pick-pocketing their gang leader’s coin purse.”
“Shit. I knew I should have just left the coin purse on the sidewalk for those assholes to find.”
“Yes, but instead you got cocky. You intentionally walked into the same store as them, flashing money for everyone to see, thus ensuring those asshole students relieved you of that burdensome fat coin purse… What? What is it?”
“You’re sure it’s all right for someone such as yourself to call them asshole students?”
“If they weren’t asshole students, they wouldn’t have gotten beat up in the first place now, would they?”
“I guess that’s true. Can I ask you a question?”
“Go ahead.”
“Just wondering, if I said at the start of the interview that I found a coin purse during my previous outing and maybe I got attacked because some elite students blamed me for them getting trashed, would you have believed me?”
“No.”
“I thought so as well.”
“How could you be so sure that I won’t believe you?”
“Don’t insult my intelligence. Look at where we are right now. No one on night watch. Suspiciously empty infirmary. I’ve been sent here enough time to know that it’s never this vacant.”
“Then I won’t ask you to insult my intelligence by asking you to hand it over.”
“…”
The fourth year student sighs and lifts the bed cover. He tosses a medical scalpel towards the sitting man.
“Worth a shot. I was too weak to use it effectively anyway.”
“Good. Now, the other one.”
“…”
The boy reaches under his pillow case and takes out a pair of scissors. He obediently hands them over to the headmaster.
“Never in a million years would I have guessed someone like you to be the one who shows up.”
“So where do we go from here?”
“You tell me. You’re the one who sent those goons to attack me so I can be brought here. How are those assholes by the way? It’s weird because I don’t see them winding up in the same place as me.”
“Five of them were heavily injured when you fought back. I had them sent to recuperate in a secret place.”
“Secret place? Must be good to be elite students.”
“They harbor a grudge against you and are looking forward to kill you next time.”
“Please, don’t intimidate me with threats of death. I wouldn’t be doing the things I do if I was scared of being killed once my secrets got out.”
“Then I guess I’ll get straight to it. Do you want to learn things? To really learn?”
“I don’t… I don’t understand…” the fourth year student is puzzled by the question. “I’m in school, aren’t I?”
“Not about being a knight or that Order of Enahel crap. I’m talking about learning about people.”
“People? I already know about people.”
“No, you just saw the things people want you to see. They’ve showed you some things for sure but you haven’t really understood them.”
“…”
“You ever do a puzzle? You know, the kind of puzzle that has the picture on the outside of the box? That's what people are… pictures on the outside, pieces inside.”
“…I think I’ll have that pain tablet and a glass of water now. I’m developing a headache.”
Headmaster Haithur passes to the fourth year student the book he borrowed from Mistress Ricon’s office.
“This book is about the human puzzle. You study this, you learn it, and you know how to take people apart, put them back together, understand them.”
The fourth year student studies the title of book in the dim light of the infirmary, “Human Body: An Illustrated Guide to Every Part of the Human Body and How It Works”. He looks up and notices the chair is empty. The fourth year student turns around and sees that the headmaster is already heading towards the door of the infirmary, his footsteps ever so quiet.
Headmaster Haithur reaches the doorway of the infirmary and held out his hand to grab the knob to close the door. As he turns to look one last time into the darkness of the infirmary room, the handsome man notices his latest recruit deeply engrossed in reading the book in front of him.