Austin fidgeted with his hands along the hem of his shirt. He was nervous and too aware of his own body, especially his facial expression and the sound of his footsteps striding down the corridor. Professor Dereey had his office in a separate building on the Falden grounds, one meant specifically for faculty members. A building that most students weren’t allowed inside. It was the teachers’ only reprieve from nosy youths with too many questions.
But Austin wasn’t one of them. He didn’t have to play by the same rules as everyone else. He knew this. It wasn’t why he was nervous walking into this place made for only adults. He was nervous because he wanted something. He needed to borrow Professor Dereey’s tuning forks. He was the only one Austin knew who had a complete set of twelve. Not only the four elemental tones and the three decoys, Austin owned himself.
According to Mel, Austin needed the extended set. It was among the twelve that the note for the double imbue could be found. The one Austin needed to learn.
He had practiced what he would say to Professor Dereey on his way over here. But now that he was walking up to the office door with the word Professor in golden letters glued on it, he felt his confidence waver. Would Professor Dereey believe him?
Austin forced his hand to knock two times on the door. After only a second, Professor Dereey told him to enter his office and Austin did. Inside there was a large desk and two chairs, one occupied by the elderly professor's body. He looked up through his spectacles and a frown spread over his face.
“Taveck, what are you doing here?”
Austin licked his lips. Maybe this would work. Professor Dereey was already referring to him by his last name. Something Austin thought was a good sign. He might be a student at Falden, but the professor seemed to see him as a Taveck.
“I need to ask you for a favor. I’d like to borrow your…or the school's tuning forks.”
“Why?”
Austin sucked in a deep breath and released his hands to his sides, forcing himself to look relaxed. Even though he felt nothing like it. “I’ve been drafted into the elemental warriors, as you might already know, and I need to brush up on the notes. Of course.”
Professor Dereey’s eyebrows dipped, and Austin’s heart skipped a beat. “Why? I know you have your own set at home.”
Austin’s heart sank to his stomach. Why did the professor know this? He hadn’t planned on him knowing that.
“Despite, can’t you use the ones provided to the elemental warriors? I know you should have access to a set of seven at the headquarters. I don’t think there is any need for you to use my set of twelve. There’s just more decoys, harder to train with.”
“Yes, of course.”
Austin’s shoulders sank toward the floor and he deflated at Professor Dereey’s words. Yes, he had access to several sets of seven and he didn’t need the extended set of tuning forks for anything else than the double imbue he’d brought with him. How could he make the professor let him use his set?
His lies hadn’t worked so far, and he doubted they’d work more if he kept insisting. He needed to come up with another angle. A better angle.
Austin scratched his head until he finally hatched an idea. “Look, I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but I can’t use the ones I have access to. For the simple reason that my brother can’t know. He recently drafted me, but as you know, I’m not fully trained yet and he wants me to join the fighting already. Fight alongside fully trained, experienced warriors and I’m scared. Not because of the beasts or even the dragon, but scared that I won’t live up to the reputation of a Taveck. Would it be okay if I use your set and brush up on the notes? Maybe that will stem my fears and I can convince myself I can do this.”
Professor Dereey’s steely eyes softened at the edges. He tilted his head to one side and regarded Austin with an open expression for a moment, almost like he felt compassion for him. But then, just as abruptly as it had come, his face constricted once more into a thin line and his eyes regained their hardness.
“No,” he said, clipping off the word.
Professor Dereey stood from his chair and straightened his shoulders. He walked past the desk and past Austin, opening the door. His free hand waved Austin toward the corridor, gesturing for him to leave.
“Why not? It won’t cost you anything? Just for a couple of minutes? Please.”
“No.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The word echoed around the room and Austin knew he had lost this. He wasn’t good at lying or convincing people of anything and at this moment, he didn’t understand why he had even thought this would work. All his life he had tried to convince people he was different from the other Tavecks in his family. That he was not someone to look up to or admire.
No, he had tried to convince Professor Dereey that he was scared and just wanted to impress his brother. Of course, he hadn't believed him. Austin was actually these things and if it was one thing Austin knew, it was that no one believed the truth about him.
Austin dragged a hand over his face and steeled himself for a last effort. “I need the tuning forks, Dereey. I’ve asked you nicely twice now. But since you refuse to listen to me, I will ask you one last time, but I won’t be nice about it. Give me the tuning forks or suffer the consequences of disobeying my command.”
Professor Dereey turned to look at Austin and, for the first time since he’d entered the room, he met his gaze. The professor looked angry, furious even, and his nostrils flared a little. His shoulders squared and his chin lifted, but he didn’t look the least bit surprised. Instead, he looked like this was the Austin Taveck he had been waiting for and he’d finally showed himself.
“At Falden, you’re just another student, Austin. Don’t come in here with your commands and try to muscle me into giving you what you want. You know perfectly well that the school needs these tuning forks for lectures and tests. They’re not yours to take.”
“So, you’re saying that the school and the students' need for learning is greater than that of the elemental warriors in the pursuit of killing the dragon?” Austin forced his lips into an evil smile. “I wonder what the governor would have to say about that.”
Austin could practically hear Professor Dereey’s teeth grinding in his jaw. “You would go to the governor with something petty like borrowing tuning forks?”
“It’s not petty at all. Sure, I lied about why I needed them. But only because you’re not allowed to know the reason. But I can assure you the need comes straight from the governor and the mission he’s tasked me with.”
It wasn’t a straight up lie. The governor had tasked Melissa with creating a double imbue strong enough to kill the dragon and so by proxy, testing the weapon must also be within the realms of that task.
“Perrole, that two-faced…” Professor Dereey’s eyes widened at his own comment and Austin was sure he hadn’t meant to say that aloud. “Fine, use my tuning forks, but I need them back by tomorrow morning.”
Professor Dereey released his grip on the door and walked over to his desk, pulling a large black case out from under it. He handed it over to Austin, his face flushed red and his eyes burning with fire.
“Now, leave.”
“Thank you, professor. I–”
Austin tried to let him know how much it meant that he had agreed to borrow his tuning forks, but Professor Dereey wanted none of it. He pushed Austin out through his door and slammed it closed in his face. Austin stared at the golden letters on his door, exhaling a long sigh.
He hated that he had to be the evil Taveck to get what he wanted in life. He wished there was another way to make people do what you needed, but Austin suspected there wasn’t. He suspected a big part of why his father and brother were the way they were was because they needed to be. Otherwise, no one listened to them.
#
In his bedroom, Austin unpacked the black case with the twelve tuning forks and placed them down on the floor. He had locked the door to his room, and he had checked the entire house before he’d decided it was safe enough to practice with the extended set. Even though he didn’t think his father or Derek would think it that strange if they heard notes coming from his bedroom, he didn’t want them to think anything was suspicious if they heard a note that was different from the elemental tones.
He unwrapped the crude dagger from the piece of cloth Melissa had wrapped it in. It looked small and gray in the sunlight streaming in from his window. It was barely a knife, more like a shiv some lowly criminal would use, and Austin let out a groan of frustration.
Everything would be so much easier if he could practice with it first. If it held more than just a scrap of magic inside or if the blade was actually sharpened and wouldn’t require him to hammer it into a beast first.
He knew Melissa had gone to great lengths to get him this and risked everything to smuggle it out of the dragon forge. But he wished she would have focused on actually making it a better weapon, too. It was really like she didn’t know anything about being an elemental warrior, which he guessed was true since she was a mage smith after all. But she’d used the dagger from her great grandfather before. Shouldn’t she know it required quite a bit of magic to last for more than one use?
Austin hit the tuning forks one after another in a methodical approach. He had done this many times in his life, looking for the four elemental tones and training for the day he would be drafted. But today he was looking for something else, for the double imbue note. Something between fire and earth, a tone perhaps mixing them both.
He hit the tuning fork against his floorboard and the earth note rang through the room. The shiv flickered on the cloth and Austin’s eyes widened in fascination. He knew it would do that, but it still surprised him. It was so strange from what he was used to, something being a half of something.
He hit another tuning fork, and the note rang out, but nothing happened. The dagger didn’t react, and Austin didn’t recognize the note as one of the elemental ones. He picked up another tuning fork and hit it against his floor.
Finally, the small blade glowed and the light spread across the room, bathing his floorboards in orange. Austin stared at the blade until the veins disappeared and it regained its dusty silver color. He hit the fork once more, and the glow came back.
Austin shivered. There was something disturbing about that orange glow. He thought it just might be from thinking something was impossible and seeing it happen right in front of his eyes. But an uneasy feeling lingered in his stomach and didn’t want to leave him.
Austin ignored this feeling, focusing on the note.
This was the sound he needed to fold into his brain like a new neurological pathway to a fifth limb. One that was magic instead of flesh.