Dean Richmond was politely waiting on the other side of the hall, discreetly facing away. Tanwood, on the other hand, watched him intently. “I’ve said my goodbyes. What now?” Ezyk asked.

“Lord Tanwood will wait for you in front of the academy gates,” Dean Richmond said. “Neya is in her room, packing. I don’t think I have to say this, but you should consider yourself lucky. The only other option you had amounted to getting killed by the Xenshai.”

Ezyk fixed the dean with a flat stare. “I’ve considered myself lucky from the day my father saved me from a burning village,” he said.

Ezyk excused himself, and started toward the gate. As soon as he was out of sight, he began sprinting for the dean’s office. There was a teleportation circle in the back of his office, and there would be no way for Tanwood to track Ezyk if he used that to make his escape. In seconds, Ezyk made it to the office, wrenching the door open only to come to a stumbling halt.

In the center of the room, sitting on the Dean’s desk was Tanwood, kicking his heels against the hardwood. “So,” he said. “The question is, are you who I think you are?” Tanwood was poised to jump off the desk.

“Who do you think I am?” Ezyk asked, shifting his feet backward.

“There are only two Gifts left,” Tanwood said, smiling. “I’ve been searching for a very long time for someone who… beats people to death with chairs.” Tanwood gave wry grin as he hopped off the desk, moving toward Ezyk like a stalking cat.

“I don’t know what you heard, but that was exaggerated,” Ezyk said.

“Don’t insult me with-“ Tanwood began to say.

Ezyk surreptitiously pointed the toe with the fetching ring on it toward the dean’s desk and summoned it toward him with all his focus. The desk gave an ear splitting screech as it dragged across the floor. Tanwood glanced back, startled, as the desk gave him a light shove, before once more becoming inert.

Ezyk snaked his right hand into his pocket, throwing a spell at Tanwood. Tanwood looked back, off balance as the white clay ball burst on his stomach, revealing an iron rune. When the rune hit Tanwood, his eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed, convulsing on the floor.

Ezyk pulled out his handkerchief and delicately wrapped it around the iron charm, being extra careful not to touch O’tambwe’s powerful incapacitation spell. He put it back in his pocket, nestled next to the other two, still safely covered in clay. He let out a sigh, and headed towards the back of the dean’s office. There was the Teleportation Circle, meant for sending and receiving important packages, guests, and missives from the Empire.

The circle was a gigantic array of nested steel circles. Each circle was composed of complex runes, with a line marked at the bottom that showed where the runes would need to be aligned. The circles could each spin independently, and each alignment would send someone to a completely different place than any other. All Ezyk needed to do was spin the outer ring, then jump on. No one would have any way of knowing where he went. Well, Ezyk wouldn’t either, but that was a price Ezyk was willing to pay as long as he wasn’t dropped in the middle of the ocean.

He bent to spin the wheel when Pain burst from his right ear, causing his body lock up, and slowly sink to its knees.

“You think you’re the only one with a trick or two?” Tanwood asked, wielding a blackjack behind him. Ezyk rolled to one elbow, unable to do more than turn his body in its slow decent to the ground. The fingers of Ezyk’s right hand tremblingly sought out his breast pocket, and O’tambwe’s healing charm within.

Tanwood kicked Ezyk’s hand away, and placed his knee over Ezyk’s wrist. His right hand holding down Ezyk’s left, Tanwood pulled a small gem out of his sleeve. The gem was a smooth white quartz crystal that seemed to have been grown around an intricate rune. As Tanwood held it up to Ezyk, it began glowing, slowly at first, then emitting light that hurt to look at.

“Found you.” Tanwood whispered.

Through the glare, Ezyk saw a shadow move outside the door, prompting Ezyk to take one more chance. “Did you kill O’tambwe?” he asked.

“Oh, the wizard,” Tanwood said without looking away from the stone. “Yeah, he was unreasonable in regards to you.”

Neya swept through the door. Metal flashed, and a sword lanced through Tanwood’s armpit, skewering his heart and lungs. Tanwood’s eyes widened, and he slumped over like a marionette with its strings cut. Ezyk climbed out from underneath the body, His head still felt foggy, ear burning, and vision swimming.

“Caught drunk under an older man,” Neya said, with a bitter smile on her face. “Another Friday night for you, Ezyk? Seems like you’re always getting caught with your pants down, in need of rescuing.”

Ezyk groaned, bringing himself to his knees. “I didn’t get knocked out by a lookout I forgot existed.” He said.

“We’ll call that one a draw then,” Neya said.”Still puts me up by three.” Neya crossed her arms, glancing at Tanwood’s corpse.

Neya had saved him more times he could count, and he was sure the number was higher than three, but he wasn’t the official scorekeeper. She was. Neya teased him, but he could see the pain in her eyes.

“Why did he kill papa?” Neya asked, her voice almost breaking.

“I think it was my fault,” Ezyk said, holding his head. “He said he was looking for me.” Ezyk felt like saying it was making it real. The whirlwind of activity tonight had kept him numb, but it was starting to hit him.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Neya’s gaze locked on Ezyk. “Did you make him kill my father?” she asked. “No, he did it himself. You did not make that man’s decisions for him.”

Ezyk felt a weight lift from him. He still felt responsible, but knowing that Neya wouldn’t hate him made all the difference between hopelessness and determination. Ezyk reached into his breast pocket, and touched the golden charm. Immediately his head cleared, and ear stopped ringing. Pain washed away in moments, and when he took his had away, his body felt fresh and energized.

“I’m leaving the academy tonight,” Ezyk said. “O’tambwe gave me a vision last night, and I saw more people like him coming for me.” He said.

“Where you gonna go?” she asked, her head cocked.

“I’m going to spin that teleportation circle and jump on,” Ezyk said. “No one will know where I’ve gone. I won’t even know.” Neya raised an eyebrow.

“That sounds incredibly stupid,” she said. “But you’re right. No one will be able to track you.”

“What about you? What will you do now?” Ezyk asked.

Neya considered for a moment. “I’m going to visit the capital.” She said, turning to leave.

“Wait,” Ezyk said, stopping Neya. “This belongs to you!” Ezyk fumbled out the gold chain attached to the healing charm, holding it out to his sister.

Neya glanced back and gave him a grin over her shoulder, “You’ll need it more than me.” She said before leaving Ezyk alone in the dean’s office. Ezyk sighed and walked over to the teleportation circle, pocketing the charm and contemplating where he might find himself in the next few moments.

“That was touching.” Ezyk whirled around and saw Tanwood leaning against the wall. The sword had gone through him just under his armpit. His lungs and heart should be stopped. Ezyk thought to himself. The wound was beyond mortal, incapacitating two vital organs.

Grimacing, Tanwood gingerly reached over and began to tug on the handle of the sword. No blood was on either side of the blade, no blood anywhere. “I don’t suppose you’ll sit and… wait… while I… take this thing… out…” he said, grimacing with pain.

Ezyk turned back to the circle, grabbed the outer ring, and spun with everything he had. The heavy steel inlaid with gold clicked quietly as it began spinning on its well-oiled bearings

“I guess not.” Tanwood grunted, sliding the blade a bit further out. The tip of the blade no longer exited his other side. Ezyk glanced back one more time and witnessed Tanwood pull the last foot of the blade from his side as casually as a sheath, then jumped onto the circle.

Ezyk’s hands flung out wide as his feet were greeted by air.

An instant later, Ezyk was submerged in freezing water that stole his breath away. Ezyk clamped his mouth closed before he could inhale any of the silty water. Ezyk spun aimlessly under the cloudy water, blind and incapable of telling up from down.

Ezyk’s fingertips brushed against a rock, and a second later, he pushed off the riverbank, swimming in the opposite direction with everything he had. Agonizing seconds crawled by as he struggled to breach the surface.

Finally, Ezyk’s head broke the surface, and he gasped in a lungful of air. For a moment, he feared he would see endless ocean in either direction, but to his relief, there was a bank was roughly twenty feet away. In the opposite direction was a bank sixty yards or more away. The current wasn’t particularly swift, but it was bone-chillingly cold. Fine silt clouded the water that Ezyk treaded, irritating his eyes and turning the river opaque.

Ezyk began swimming to the closer shore. His breathing became labored as he came near. Ezyk could swim, but in his academy uniform it took most of his effort to keep his head above water. His fingers scratched against the riverbed under the muddy water as he came closer to the shore. Grabbing handholds and pulling himself up, Ezyk managed to get most of his body out of the river when his right leg snagged something.

Ezyk gave his leg a few experimental tugs and twists, hoping to get it unstuck quickly. He was no longer in danger of drowning, but if he stayed in the river long enough he’d die of cold.

Pain flared from Ezyk’s calf as it began thrashing of its own accord, pulling him back into the river. Adrenaline surged, and Ezyk’s other three limbs thrashed and scrambled, throwing up a spray of grey-brown water and pulling him further up onto the bank.

Ezyk only barely managed to pull harder than the thing attached to his leg, reaching a tree growing near the bank. Ezyk hooked his elbow around the tree trunk and finally looked down at what had him, and wished he hadn’t. A purple, veiny tentacle with a mouth was firmly attached to his calf.

The thing was a narlock, and specialized in preying on large animals trying to cross rivers. His calf was shredded and bleeding where the teeth had slid through the meat during the tug-of-war. A rhythmic pull began stretching his body, filling him with pain.

The tentacle pulled at his leg with a merciless rhythm. Pull. Tighten. Rest. Pull. tighten… the veins travelling the length of the purple tentacle pulsed in time with the tugs.

Ezyk’s knife was on his belt. He was sure he could cut the offending limb, but he couldn’t reach it without letting go of the tree. The world slowed as he drew the knife. He had a moment to consider that the feeling was very similar to what writing a spell felt like, before he let go of the tree and lunged at the narlock’s tentacle, snarling.

He was dragged back toward the opaque water now that he’d lost his anchor, and it wasn’t long until the blood from his calf created a red-brown eddy that disappeared into the river. He began hacking the norlock’s tentacle free even as more burst out of the water, aiming to immobilize his limbs.

He caught the first tentacle aiming for his arm on the point of his knife, and dragged it to pin another against the ground. It wasn’t until Ezyk had nearly severed a third tentacle with his teeth before at last they retreated below the surface.

The struggle may have been brief, but it felt like it had taken minutes. With his strange sense of time, it could have been seconds.

Ezyk dragged himself away from the bank, as far from the river as he could manage. Lightheaded, he searched his pocket for Otambwe’s healing charm, but he came up with nothing. Must have lost it in the river. Neya’s gonna be mad, he thought to himself.

Ezyk began looking for a place to lie down and sleep. The boulder butting against a moss-covered tree felt warm under his hands. Ezyk lay down on top of it, as comfortable as he had been in his cozy bed back at the academy…

Through a comfortable haze, Ezyk suddenly realized that he was hypothermic and bleeding, simply lying here would kill him. Ezyk tried to push himself up, his arm was numb, but he could control it. However he tried though, he couldn’t quite muster the strength to push himself off the rock.

“Damn it to every hell in sequence.” He said. It was one of O’tambwe’s favorite curses. Ezyk mustered all his strength and pulled a bit of charcoal from his waistband.

The rune for fire… Ezyk couldn’t remember it. The rune was similar to the one for Digestion, and he didn’t want the rock to eat him. Heat. Ezyk remembered the rune for heat was a triangle made from double lines radiating from a circle. Simple enough.

Ezyk forced his numb arm up with a grunt. As he began the circle, he felt the wizard’s trance begin, slowing time and draining even more of his precious energy. Hopefully I’m not killing myself. He thought as the trance gave him plenty of time to consider the consequences of failure.

Ezyke finished the last stroke, breaking his concentration, and the rock began to heat up. As heat returned to his body, Ezyk began shivering, suddenly aware of how cold he actually was. The rock felt like fire against his skin, but Ezyk held on stubbornly.

The shivering was the last straw, and Ezyk lost consciousness curled around a warm rock a dozen paces away from a river filled with man-eating monsters. The last thing that crossed Ezyk’s mind was wondering where the hell he had landed.