I would have enjoyed launching a volley of gunfire at my opponents in that moment, but I did not have the ammunition to spare. Having used four rounds to keep them away while I retreated into a better position, I was left with twelve. Whoever was organising this excursion into the unknown was being a seriously cheap asshole and skimping out on the bullets. I reloaded while they were too scared to come up on me. Eidos fired another bolt at his knife, but I was already too far away to fall for that trick.
He couldn’t do that too many times in the first place. He’d already used his lightning magic three times. Even the best mages could only manage four or five before starting to feel the effects on their own body. It would start with fatigue, then sickness, loss of balance, and unconsciousness. If you were really stupid and cast a powerful spell at the last stage of magical deprivation it could kill you. Eidos was an idiot – but relying on him crossing that threshold and killing himself was like hoping to win the lottery.
But Eidos wasn’t alone in having a handful of magical party tricks to use. I expanded my senses and entered the trance, spreading my sight beyond the physical. There wasn’t much material for me to use offensively, and firing a bolt without a point of conduction to attract it would require even more focus, time and training that I didn’t have.
What I could do was manipulate the currents. A stray bullet had broken the window at the far end of the hallway, and now a stiff breeze was rolling through. The theory on this particular spell was as far as I got during my reading, but nothing forced a person to learn like immense pressure; enough to turn coal into diamonds. I was going to combine two simple spells into one complicated one. By extending the principle sense and combining it with draft manipulation, it was possible to sense the position of moving objects, or people in this case.
I was already very proficient at utilising my extra senses, but I wouldn’t describe myself as a prodigy as the teacher so often did. I struggled just the same as everyone else did, as I came from a world where no such magic existed. I had to get over two hurdles, one in which my previous persona refused to accept its existence, and the other being Maria Walston-Carter getting to grips with a complex set of rules and best practices that were woefully vague despite their emphasis.
I needed to zone out from the noise and the smell of smoke, and keep a close eye on the way that the wind tendrils wrapped and deformed around what they encountered on the way. Easier said than done as they continued to fire recklessly down the hallway in an attempt to get lucky and hit me. Even an experienced killer could get startled by a loud gunshot when they weren’t expecting it.
Focus.
I took a deep breath and submerged myself to the layer below the corporeal. My body was stretched outwards as my nerves realigned to come into a cordial symphony with the winds. My mind was carried on a strong current. I slid through the hallway, the smoke and the chaos. I brushed past the gunpowder and the corner at the top of the stairs, and there I felt the disruption of moving bodies. One of them was making a run for it, presumably to gather the rest of the men and launch a full-scale sweep of the manor.
Eidos was idle, another was turning the corner.
But I was already aiming at him, waiting for the moment that he exposed himself for another try. The gun pulled back on my arm. I shot before he could even comprehend what he was facing. It was almost too fast; in my eagerness, I almost hit nothing but thin air. The bullet ripped through his chest and sent him rolling down the stairs to his left. I snapped back to reality and returned to my previous position before Eidos could retaliate.
Eidos noticed what I was doing, “She just used magic! She shot him before he even got around the corner!” Felipe told me that talented mages could detect when another was using their magical senses. Eidos didn’t strike me as the studious type, but he was well-read enough to know that I was using the currents to spot where they were hiding.
“Shit, what are we going to do?”
Eidos didn’t want to concede so easily, but he had no choice. His position was weaker and they’d already blown through so much ammunition chasing me. He was making a serious gamble. Was I upstairs because it was where Felipe was hidden? Or was I merely seeking and destroying as many of his gang members as I could find?
“We don’t have time for this, the police are going to be here soon!” Eidos yelled.
“Are we calling it?” his compatriot asked.
Eidos delayed for as long as he could, but there was no saving this operation now. If a staff member hadn’t called the police already, the noise coming from inside would surely attract attention. They’d already lost so many men trying to get to Felipe, but the arrival of the police would ensure that every single one of them wouldn’t get the chance to try again.
“Call it. Get the boys together, we’re leaving.”
He couldn’t have sounded less enthusiastic if he tried.
They scarpered away, grabbing the bodies of their friends and trying to drag them down the stairs with them. They quickly realised that it was a bad idea. They needed to get out fast and carrying a dead man with them was just going to slow them down. I charged after them and came out at the top of the steps, firing at them as they fled through the front door. My shots missed, ripping through more of the upholstery without causing any damage to my targets.
I stared at the carnage for a second before breathing a sigh of relief.
I couldn’t justify chasing them into the garden. That was just asking for trouble. There were men hiding in the dark outskirts of the gardens with their guns at the ready. Now that the main threat was blunted and Eidos was beating a hasty retreat, I needed to preserve my cover. I took the gun and holster and wrapped it around the leg of one of the dead. Afterwards I returned to the bottom floor and rushed for the washroom. The man I bludgeoned earlier was still out cold, so I grabbed his body and shoved him outside into the corridor to deal with later.
I was completely soaked with blood, sweat and dust. I grabbed a towel and wiped my arms, hands and face until they were clean. It would be easier to explain my lack of makeup than being covered from head to toe in viscera and gore. With that done and a convenient cover story in place, I exited the washroom just in time to see the doors burst open and several of the captives escape from the hall. I pushed past them and discovered that the rest of the gang had broken one of the windows and escaped without having to go through me.
“Where in Walser were you?” a voice asked. It was Max and Samantha. I acted fast to come up with a convincing lie and get them off my back. Start with the deflection, and then change the topic of the discussion.
“Hiding. What happened here?”
Maxwell sighed and slicked back his dishevelled moss-green hair, “If you’re talking about those scumbags with the guns, somebody knocked on one of the windows and told them to clear out, so they broke it and ran. Is Felipe okay? They were demanding to know where he was.”
“He’s fine. He barricaded himself in a room upstairs.”
Samantha smiled, “Thank the Goddess for that.”
“What? Not worried about me?” I asked, more as a joke than anything.
“I get the impression that this wouldn’t be enough to kill you.”
The staff members were hard at work making sure that nobody was harmed, and soon enough they hauled my unconscious quarry into the hall with his arms and feet bound with rope. The police would have some serious questions for him about what they were planning, hopefully it’d lead to clues about the identity of their employee. I stood at the back of the room with Samantha and took a moment to calm down. It was an intense fight.
Not to blow my own horn, but holding off several men long enough for the police to arrive was one of my greatest feats yet. The odds were stacked against me – but some good fortune and quick thinking saw me through to the end. This sort of large-scale battle wasn’t my wheelhouse. I preferred to kill my target and be away before anyone knew I was there. It was safer that way.
Having bruised some egos, killed some criminals, and successfully protected Felipe from their machinations, I was left to wonder about the consequences of this incident. The heightened level of security at the academy was already notable. Now there had been a second attempt on Felipe’s life in as many months. Would the academy be forced to close its doors, or would Felipe be asked to step away from his schooling to protect the other students? That was ignoring the personal consequences for the Booker and Escobarus families. Rumour and innuendo were the number one pastime at the school. This story was sensational enough already.
Everyone and everything would be blamed for their involvement, but the blame would ultimately lie with the undeserving. I wearily eyed Beatrice through the crowd and watched as some came to console her for such a traumatising experience. How long would that sympathy last? There were already angry faces in the crowd who believed that this event was too much of a risk to take.
Ten minutes passed before Claudius and Felipe returned to the hall. He received the same display of mock condolences from his fawning admirers, but there were daggers hidden beneath those smiles. They would never pass up an opportunity to make noise about this. I wanted nothing to do with these silly games – but my position as a reluctant queen bee at the academy meant that I was expected to have a strong opinion on it.
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Felipe jumped up onto the stage and motioned for some quiet, “Everyone, may I please have your attention? The police have just arrived at the manor, and they’ll be checking the scene. If any of you are injured, please go to them and ask for aid.”
If the police were here for the party, they were too late.
I kept my silence and strolled back through the lounge to take my leave, certain that the worst of it was over with their arrival. The bodies were already being moved or placed under white sheets to protect the eyes of the innocent, though even with those measures it was still a gruesome sight. I did not envy the job of those who would be tasked in discerning what happened here. When I reached the bottom of the steps at the front of the house, Samantha was finally determined enough to catch up with me.
“Wait a second, Maria!”
I stopped, “What is it?”
She stared at me, unsure of how to phrase her statement; “Are you okay?”
“Okay?”
She repeated herself with flushed cheeks, “I mean – that was a really scary thing to go through, wasn’t it? I know that you like to put on a composed image, but that doesn’t mean you were calm about it.”
“There is no need to worry about me.”
“There may not be a need, but I would like to help you if that’s possible.”
I frowned, “There are many more people who are both more deserving, and needier than I. I do not speak lies to you. I am just fine.”
Samantha looked into my eyes and saw something that caught her interest. I didn’t know what it was. “You seem different to how you usually act,” she said, “That’s why I wanted to ask.”
“It would be very strange if I weren’t a little shaken up by all of this, would it not?”
Samantha didn’t have an answer to that.
----------------------------------------
“It’s so typical of you to wander off and get caught up in something like this,” Max said as Claude finally returned to his side.
Claude was unusually sober about the situation; “That was scary, I’m not going to lie. I even saw some of the bodies from the shootout.”
“Seriously? That sounds awful.”
“I won’t be forgetting it in a hurry,” Claude said with macabre humour, “But... who was the one fighting with them? They were wearing the same uniforms as the rest of the attendants. It looks to me like they infiltrated the party by posing as guards.”
Max was naturally disbelieving, “You’re saying that every single one of them was in on the plot?”
“I don’t know, you were the one who witnessed what happened in here.”
Max couldn’t ignore the fact that the man at the head of the gang, and the rest of them who took part, were all supposed to be keeping an eye out for trouble. Claude’s conclusion wasn’t totally out of left field like they normally were. It was strange to imagine the Bookers stumbling their way into a situation like that.
“Okay – so all of the people causing trouble in here were wearing the uniforms.”
Claude nodded, “And there were other people out there who weren’t police officers too. I don’t think that they were passing by and decided to help out. They must have been keeping watch.”
“Where are you going with this? I’m waiting for the punchline.”
Claude hesitated. Max was just going to pour cold water on whatever he came up with, but the intrusive thought wouldn’t leave his mind no matter how credulous he attempted to be. There was only one person whom he saw during the ordeal, one who was armed with a gun and in the position to kill several of the men.
“I saw Maria while I was trapped out there, and she was carrying a gun.”
Max’s brow furrowed, “You think she killed all of those people, on her own?”
“It’s just a theory!” Claude said defensively, “But she had a gun, and she’s a very good shooter as well. I know that it would be almost impossible to win a fight against this many people – but if anyone can do it, she can.”
Max shook his head, “I’d leave it to the police. They’ll be able to figure it out.”
It was better than how he usually reacted. Claude heard a thousand different admonishments about his theorising even when he felt it was undeserved. Max never gave him the time of day, he wished just once that he could be vindicated and show him that he wasn’t messing around.
“Even if she wasn’t the one who killed all of them, it’s still weird that she was running around with a gun. Where did she even get it from?”
“Are you sure it was a gun?”
“Yeah, I got a clear look at it and she seemed pretty mad that I figured it out.”
Max grimaced, “That’s one girl you don’t want to have going against you, Claude.”
“She was downright pleasant when we studied together.”
“So why do you keep accusing her of being a villain?”
Claude pinched the bridge of his nose, “I’ll admit that I was getting ahead of myself back there. This is completely separate from that particular set of accusations.”
“I don’t know, killing a bunch of people seems like a worse offence than being mean.”
“If she did it to protect the people at the party, I don’t see why it would be such a big problem.”
“It’d be pretty bad for her reputation, even if it were for a good cause,” Max replied. It would be seen as both barbaric and very unusual for a girl her age to do something violent, and even something like a physical altercation was enough to put a black mark of shame on some young nobles. He noticed that Claude looked out of it, “Are you sure that you’re fine? It must have been rather distressing to see those bodies. I got really shaken up years ago when we saw my Grandfather’s body in the hospice, and he didn’t suffer any injuries like they did.”
Max could recall it in crystal clear clarity. His Grandfather had been suffering under ill health for many years by that point, even the most powerful healing magic and advanced technology couldn’t keep him up and about under his own steam for long. Inevitably he’d find himself with reduced mobility and various other health issues that prevent him from living comfortably. It was to be expected from a man who reached the age of eighty-seven.
One day his Father came to him with news of his passing, and the family visited the place where he was under supervision to pay their respects. It shocked Max just how gaunt his form was by that point. Simultaneously bloated yet thin. His skin was covered with dark, angry bruises where he bled uncontrollably after making minor contact with solid objects in the room, but there was no colour in his face at all.
It was entirely different to what he expected. Max was assured with images of dignity and stillness, but his body told a different story. He was a man who was fighting to his very last moments. Max was forced to step away from the room to keep his emotions under control. He stared at the floor until it was time to leave, even as other relatives arrived and spoke of the good memories that they shared with him. He knew that it wasn’t disgust that he felt - it was distressing for a variety of other reasons. But part of him was glad to have witnessed it. For better or worse it was the last time that Max ever saw his Grandfather before he was buried. He felt that he would have regretted it had he not exposed himself to a small dose of reality.
Claude looked uneasy as he described the scene, “Well, it was a lot worse than seeing a deceased relative in bed. They were everywhere, bits of them torn to bits and strewn about. My Dad deals with things like this every day. What kind of detective would I be if I got all fussed up over a little blood?”
It sounded like a lot more than a ‘little blood’ to Max. Claudius was stubborn by nature and wouldn’t want to admit to something that contravened the image he was trying to present. It was frustrating to deal with but he’d crack eventually and ask for Max’s help. That was how it always went.
The mood of the party had taken a serious turn now that the spectre of the hostage crisis was hanging over proceedings. It was unlikely that things would get going again now. The Bookers were going to be left with a big bill for a party that didn’t last an hour before getting cancelled. Samantha returned to the hall and quickly located her friends.
“They let you out of here?” Max asked.
She nodded, “They’ve covered up the bodies and rerouted people through the other door. I only caught a small glimpse of what they were doing.”
“Maria made one heck of a hasty exit. Did you see her leaving?”
“I tried to talk to her, but she wasn’t interested. I think she spoke with one of the police officers about what she saw and then went back to her carriage.”
“Sounds about right.”
Claudius poked his nose in, “Did she seem suspicious to you?”
Samantha shook her head, “I wouldn’t say that she was suspicious, but I do think that she was affected by what happened here more than she likes to let on.”
The police dropped by the hall and started working their way through the crowd. Every single person needed to be asked about the events of the evening, what they saw, heard, and if they were harmed. It was a long and arduous process that almost eclipsed the allotted time for the ball in the first place. Some were more distressed than others, but support from the adults ensured that a full picture of the incident was presented to the investigators.
Once that was done, the people were dispersed and asked to leave the premises. Beatrice and Felipe were already gone by that time as they were key subjects for the police to interview and guard against any further attacks. The entire party had turned into a complete disaster because of an unseen conflict brewing at the top of noble society.
“Do you think that Beatrice is trying to get out of her marriage to Felipe?” one student murmured in a small huddle by the steps. Max had to use all of his restraint to stop himself from stepping in and chastising them for making such absurd rumours moments after a life-or-death situation. He hated that kind of talk more than anything else.
“I really hope they don’t suspend school,” Samantha worried, “Now that something even worse has happened, they might close the campus until they can arrange better security measures.”
Max agreed, “Or they could ask Felipe to stay away in a safe place, not that I want him to stop tutoring us in magic. They’ll do whatever protects their bottom line the most even if it puts people in harm’s way, anything to avoid closing up and losing out on the revenue our families pay.”
“I’m a little different since I’m on a scholarship.”
“But you still have to pay something – and for a farming family like yours, it’s still a huge part of your income.”
“I didn’t know you were so well-versed.”
“Ah, my Father never shuts up about it. It’s all about revenue and profit margins, and how much he can get by buying crops from one place and shipping them to another. Sorry to say, but he’s very concerned about giving the farmers a big haircut too by undercutting their market prices.”
Samantha recalled something along those lines, but her Father had ways of mitigating the impact of imported food. Recently there’d even been talk of a farmer’s union forming and playing hardball with the buyers to get a fairer cut. That was all above her level of understanding beyond the basics.
“I’m not going to take it personally. Who do you take me for?”
Max shrugged, “You’re very opinionated when you want to be.”
The trio watched as the boys and girls mounted their respective carriages and left the site into a wet and miserable evening. All three wondered if they should have been more disturbed by the events they were a part of. Now that they stood aside and took a second to breathe – it seemed almost farcical. Samantha was already exhausted. The entire academy would be doing nothing but talking about it for weeks or months, relitigating every little detail or spreading idiotic theories about why it happened.
All she could conclude was that Felipe was in serious trouble. While she didn’t sport the same close relationship with him that Maria did, she was still extremely concerned about his safety. He must have been stricken like a statue, paralyzed by an ever-present paranoia. His life was in danger and people were actively trying to take it from him. It was something she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemies.
“We’d better head back, though I don’t know if the school grounds are going to be kept open with all of this trouble.”
Max led Samantha and Claude back to his family’s carriage to join the rest of the student body. Answers would come in time, but they may not have been the ones they were hoping for.