It turned out Mr. Garry didn’t actually have all the answers. At least not the ones Ed wanted. To be honest, it was actually a little frustrating.

Mr. Garry’d packed him up into a very used-looking brown sedan and sent him off with Serah back to his house. It was going on midnight now and it was only every minute or so that Ed saw another car. The lakepark roads had always been rather wooded off to the sides and there were not a lot of intersections or turns but since they seemed to be taking a bit of a detour that had suited Ed just fine, it gave him a lot of time to think over, well, everything.

Why’d he been kidnapped? Would he be considered a mage? If he was, why him? Why now? Was this sort of thing common? They weren’t actually in a world war three right?

The answers to most of those had been a rather firm no. While the ones that couldn’t actually be answered with a no had turned into some rather long winded explanations that could basically be summed up into ‘it’s complicated… but it doesn’t actually concern you so you should be fine’ sort of deal.

It wasn’t very satisfying and when Ed had tried poking a bit deeper Mr. Garry’d eventually relented and told him that he wasn’t actually a historian and that if he wanted to know why Vespasian was such a common middle name for vampires then he’d buy him a portnet ticket to the Clocktower and he could go look it up himself.

Which… had actually turned into a whole ‘what's the Clocktower?’ sort of deal and by the time Ed knew it Mr. Garry had been checking his watch and after a final quick checkup by Serah was rather hastily ushered out the door.

A signpost whipped past and Ed quickly pressed his nose to the glass. Luckily, he caught the tail end of the numbers as it disappeared into the darkness. “This isn’t the way back to my house.”

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

“Tamtilus gave me instructions that if we were followed, I should drive for an additional mile before taking you back to the school.”

“I think we’re a bit further than a mile.”

“I also have an errand.”

That wasn’t actually what he’d been gunning for. But despite prodding her a few more times, Serah didn’t seem to want to give him anything else. At least, until she pulled up to a seemingly random patch of trees off to the side. There was a rough crinkle of gravel as she pointed the headlights down at what he now realized was a rather scraggly bit of dirt road.

“Stay in the car.”

“Is there a point to—” But before he could finish the thought; she’d already clunked the door in his face. “—this.”

“Sure.” He pulled his sleeve down and rubbed the glass so he could see through the bit of fog that had started to cloud it.

She seemed to be shining a flashlight over some sort of fluorescent mark on the tree. After reaching into the satchel she’d brought with her she appeared to spray paint the mark over with something dark, then turn to the neighboring tree, pull out a stencil of all things and spray paint that over with what he was pretty sure was the same fluorescent stuff from before. She returned the stencil to her bag and walked back to the car.

Ed gave her some room as she slipped back into her seat.

“So uh… are you like not allowed to tell me anything or what?” Ed said as she backed out of the dirt in a surprisingly human-like manner. “We’re not like, in danger or anything right?”

It didn’t seem like they were in danger.

She glanced at something in her satchel as they hit a small bump in the road. “Nineteen remaining.”