“…that was Touko Aozaki.” The girl with gray hair spoke softly, her face tucked behind her black hood. It disturbed Liam how she continued to wear such clothing in 90° Fahrenheit weather.
He wore a much more appropriate attire-a light blue button up with short sleeves. He would’ve preferred to just wear some regular t-shirt, but seeing as how everyone at the Clock Tower had more formal clothing, he would have felt awkward not following it. It was the morning after the conspicuous woman had encountered the Lord and Gray, so Liam figured he’d ask for the details now.
“Aozaki… they’re a big Japanese family, right?” Liam questioned, struggling to take out the relevant information from his head. Frankly, remembering all the important bloodlines and politics of the Tower was harder than actual magic. “Doesn’t one of them have a Sealing Designation?”
Gray made a sort of head movement more resembling pure confusion rather than an actual answer. “I don’t know, but me and Master have encountered her. Several times.” She explained. Her eyes moved to one corner as memories surfaced within them, but Liam tried not to pry too much. Instead, he looked forward. The orange sun poking through the purple clouds drenched the roads and sidewalks in a somber shade of dark blue.
“She seemed… odd, to say the least.” He went over the encounter in his mind, bringing forth the image of the woman with red hair. “She was nice, but it feels like she isn’t. Like she should be more sinister. That make any sense?” Liam turned over to Gray, who gave only a nod in affirmation. He himself gave a small sigh, expecting slightly more interaction, but he reminded himself of her tendencies. Before he resigned himself to spending the rest of the walk in silence, she spoke again,
“Are you really going to the Tomb?”
Gray was the one to turn this time. The sudden turn of topics sent a jolt through Liam’s nerves, squeezing his fingers harder around the paper envelope he held. He felt a horrible urge to give some sort of uncommitted response. The irony forced a laugh out of him while he shook his head.
“It can’t be that bad. I mean, I made it through these past few weeks, didn’t I?” He laughed again, albeit without the genuine emotion behind it. He just needed to do something to relieve his anxiety about it. Gray’s expression seemed grim for a moment, tying Liam’s stomach into many horrible knots, but an odd expression of optimism graced her pale face. It was one he had never seen before from her.
They gave their goodbyes and parted ways shortly after, as Gray had to go to the Lord’s apartment, as she did many mornings. Liam himself continued onwards to one of the many buildings of the Secret Autopsy Division of the Tomb. There were four stable entrances to the Tomb, and the organization that controlled it placed themselves there so as to control who enters and exits.
Unlike many things within the Clock Tower, the Secret Autopsy Group was very much separate from the politics of the Tower. Neither the Democratic nor the Aristocratic factions had any impact on the workings, to the point the one could even say the group wasn’t even part of the Tower. Their sole purpose was to oversee the Spiritual Tomb of Albion, and all operations within.
He came up to the simple looking building. It was made up of mostly dark brown wood, along with white drywall and clouded windows that resembled a sort of English Tutor style of house. Liam calmed his breathing as he entered to submit his application.
- -
“Quantum Entanglement.”
The words echoed throughout the smaller lecture hall as he wrote the letters with crooked, large letter onto the black board. The teacher continued to write beneath the large letters in a much smaller font, drawing small circles to accompany them.
“Such words may drive a stake through any mage’s heart. In quantum mechanics, this is a phenomenon where two particles are in such a state, ‘entanglement’, that information of one is know by observing the other.” The Lord continued, referring to the two circles he drew beneath his written explanation. Inside one was an upwards facing arrow, and inside the other was a downwards arrow. “Should you observe one of these particles and notice that it has an upwards or downwards spin, you will know what the spin of the other particle is.”
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Liam sat with his head propped up by his hand, his other hand laying on his leg, which bounced restlessly. He knew they probably had better things to do than immediately process his request, but he couldn’t help but think about entering the Tomb. It’d been almost six hours since he’d given them his application, but he was almost certain it would take a few days before they accepted it.
Nevertheless, the very thought weighed on his mind, only allowing half to pay attention to the lecture in front of him.
“…as some of you may know from the Lord of the Creation Department, this state of Entanglement has a similar counterpart in magecraft and general occultism-Sympathy.” Liam managed to make out the next sentences, snapping his attention back to his professor, who was now writing more upon one of his six black boards. “Like affects Like. As Above, So Below. The concept of an unseen connection between two existences. The stereotypical image of a Voodoo doll. A magecraft which may bring an effect upon a target from a considerable distance through the use of an effigy or other representation of… the subject.”
The Lord eyed a clock on the wall at the back of the room, hanging several meters high. With an almost dissatisfied sigh, he laid down his chalk with a “clack” and returned to his podium.
“That’ll be all for now. I’ll give you your assignments tomorrow.” He announced as he began to sort through a chunky stack of papers on said podium, replacing them with such speed that Liam doubted he even bothered to read whatever was on them. The class collectively stood up and made their way to exit the room, Liam being on of the first. His nervousness bled into his body and it’s actions, moving him faster than he would like to normally.
As he left the more rustic building, he heard an odd sound coming from the hall behind him. A sort of rumbling-like a rock being kicked across an asphalt road. Turning back, he was shocked at how on point he was.
A purple, almost gem-like spherical rock the size of a soccer ball rolled across the brick floor towards him. Many students had to leap out of the way, or else the mass of earth would assuredly run over their feet or break through their shins. Just when Liam thought he would have pull a similar maneuver, the rock came to a halt in front of him. An almost hexagonal column of rock emerged from the top of it, holding a few stapled papers within a small slit. Kneeling down to grab the papers, he got a better look at the rock.
It was almost certainly a sort of gemstone, most likely amethyst or some other purple crystal he didn’t know about. The only thing that brought doubts into his mind of the conclusions as the sight of small yet numerous veins within the rock. They glowed a soft white, and sprawled all through the crystal in all directions. He swore he could see a substance traveling through the minuscule tubes, cycling all throughout the Golem, but he had already taken the papers before he could investigate further.
“…Thanks?” Liam attempted to say, but the Golem had already retreated the moment he took the papers. He attempted to straighten them out of their crinkled state before reading over them.
Much to his surprise, although there wasn’t much else the documents could be from, the Secret Autopsy Group had already responded to him. He was granted access to become an excavator for the Spiritual Tomb of Albion. He would be performing this job for an indeterminate amount of time, which will be decided after his arrival to the Tomb, as well as the details pertaining to the acquisition and selling of materials within the Tomb.
‘Indeterminate. Of course.’ Liam scoffed as he read the words. In reality, he wasn’t that surprised. Many of the magi who applied for an excavation placement within the Tomb, especially those of young bloodlines, were essentially trapped down there. Yet, this knowledge didn’t soften the blow caused by the words right in front of him. Shoving the still crinkled papers into his bag at his side, continued down the hall to reach his dormitory.
“So what was that? A secret mission from the higher ups!?”
A familiar voice came from behind him. Liam didn’t have to guess at the identity, since they had already reached his side.
Flat arrived next to Liam, wrapping one of his arms around his shoulder in an energetic manner. The sudden movement almost made Liam tear away, but he quickly recognized the assailant and brushed off the hand with his own.
“Even if it was, who would the ‘higher ups’ even be in that scenario?” He questioned, making air quotes with his fingers.
“Other Lords like our Professor of course! So it is a secret mission?”
“No, although you of all people could still frame it like that. I’m going to the Tomb.”
The boys blue eyes widened for a moment, but his smile returned after only a few seconds.
“Wow, so you really are broke, huh? When’ll you be getting back?” He asked, shoving his hands into his shorts’ pockets.
“Good question. Apparently, even they don’t know.” Liam replied, his voice tinged with irritation. Flat gave a silent ‘ah’ has he understood his meaning. The walked only a few more meters before they had to break away.
“Well, make sure you save me a souvenir when you get out! I always wanted to go down there.” The boy with the golden hair hummed.
Liam only gave a laugh as a response before waving goodbye. He exited the Modern Magecraft building, the material under his shoes crunching as it transitioned from a white brick to a bleached gravel. He had spent all of one day back in Britain before he had to leave again.