[41]

Cen-Boleman told the truth that day. I had fun, though maybe not in the way he intended.

A senior class of red-coated martial studies students in the scout-ranger program waited to assist us in our training. Our sadist instructor, fearing that our bodies would not be developing fast enough after a morning of “lounging around”, invited them to practice with us on Fifthdays. I knew it would be bad from the start; Cen-Boleman preemptively handed out a stamina and healing potion to every student.

We were halfway through the sand portion of the course when they hit us with the first ambush. Blunted arrows and spears from behind dunes fell onto us in a cloud of pain. Skirmishers with wooden swords burst from the sandy floor, attacking us with painful lashing blows before fleeing under the covering fire of their allies.

After each ambush, Cen-Boleman would have us stop where we were and do strength training so the scout students could advance and set up another attack. It was during one of those moments that I had my idea.

A large bird flew overhead, casting a shadow along the ground that made me roll to the side. Cen-Boleman yelled at me for messing up the weight squat I was in the middle of, but I was not sorry. I had genuinely assumed that it was another attack by the martial students. The instructor decided on punitive measures to teach me the error of my thinking.

Tedric laughed at me. And I made sure it was the biggest mistake of his life.

For the rest of the class, I let Haunt bombard him with hallucinations. It was simultaneously the meanest and funniest thing I have ever done. During the canyon crawl, Cen-Boleman punished Tedric four times for holding us up, when he either uselessly screamed “Attack!” or threw himself behind cover. Tedric knocked Reynold off the climbing wall with a back fist, sending them both tumbling to the ground. It was only because of the safe fall rings that they did not die on the spot. On the climb down, Tedric figured out that he was under a magic effect and quit reacting to the ambushes at all. The martial students zeroed in on the large man who refused to duck, giving the rest of us a much needed respite. By the end, Tedric had received so many bruises and cuts that he had to take three healing and two stamina potions. Reynold was beyond furious with him, sputtering in rage at the incompetence of his meathead companion. Raxx only made the situation worse, throwing out jeers and cackles every time the boy erred.

To ensure that Tedric thought the curse was class related, I ended the hex as soon as we finished. There was a small chance that Florence told Reynold about my ability to curse on the way to campus, but I did not think it was likely he gave her much attention. At the time, his full focus had probably been talking to Elaine, and not one of her friends. I needed to keep my abilities as close to my chest as I could.

The training wore me out, but I was in wonderful spirits. There was no substitute for ruining your adversaries.

At dinner, I found out how the others did on the dungeon run. Elaine and Raxx passed it with flying colors, which was expected. Though Raxx admitted that he would have died soon after because of the infection. Joy, who I learned used a bow as her primary weapon, also finished without incident. I expected her to be on the same footing as me, given that she had grown up in a library. However, for a reason she chose not to share, the dungeon did not challenge her. Leaving me as the only one of my companions that failed.

Raxx made me feel better by shooting milk out of his snout—a thing I had not realized was possible—when I spoke of my death by donkey. The Harak laughed so hard and long, giggling in his high-pitched staccato that I could not help but laugh along with him. Soon, all five of us, including Izzy, were banging the table or roaring, drawing severe looks from the rest of the dining hall.

Before we split up for the evening, Joy gave me a pouch of grubs, which I am sure confused Elaine by the look she gave me. It was not until we were almost back to the safe house that it occurred to me that Elaine might think I was making the grub dish with white wine sauce for her. I hoped that was not the case; kitchens were an alien realm full of arcane devices that made little sense. My experience with them was to take food and never to create.

I felt slightly bad about continuing to keep Ugz a secret from Elaine. It made little sense logically, but emotionally the notion that there were things about me she did not know was appealing. A last bit of mental resistance was all that kept me from sharing.

After dinner, Izzy and I stopped off at the library for the second time that day. The “copy” section of the soul ledger could only hold a finite amount of books. I estimated the limit to be around 1,000 pages, but was not confident of that number. Pages of different size and scripts copied into the soul ledger from the original sources, making the true capacity difficult to discern.

I mentally reviewed what I needed for my presentation tomorrow on a beast called a Degaloo, then grabbed as many entries as I could about warlocks. It turned out there was not much.

“Sir, can you please come this way,” announced a library attendant.

I turned to see Claudia, the guide that introduced me to campus on my first day. From the look on her face, I could tell she recognized me, but was trying to remain aloof.

“Hey Claudia!” I said, walking after her.

Alarmingly, she remained indifferent to my greeting. I looked to Izzy for an explanation, but the dwarf just shrugged.

Claudia led me to an office with a young man in a white robe sitting behind a desk. Without a word, the man pointed to a chair, watching me like a hawk as I sat.

“Why are you gathering books on Warlocks?” he said without preamble.

“Oh! Is that what this is about?” I asked, smirking.

“Answer the question, please,” he said, but the “please” was far too harsh for it to be considered polite.

“I completed my first dungeon run today. There was a warlock in it, and I was curious. That’s really all there is to it.” I said with open palms in the air.

The man looked at a book on his desk, sliding a finger down the page. I waited patiently for him to figure things out.

A few minutes later, I got bored and started talking to Ugz about the grubs I was going to bring him. I could tell through the bond that he was happy, but impatient. Ugz began sending me messages to hurry my tail up soon after.

“Did you hear me?” the man asked, looking peeved.

“What? Sorry, you took so long I started daydreaming.” I said, apologetically.

“Information on warlocks is restricted to seniors and graduates only. A brand new student coming here asking about them flags you in our information stone. For obvious reasons, we cannot have the rituals and pacts to create warlocks getting out among the general populace.” The man said.

“That’s stupid,” I said.

He did not like that.

“What if I have to fight one on my excursion? My first trip in a dungeon was against one.” I continued.

“The one in the dungeon is weak, and it is highly unlikely that you will encounter a warlock in the yellow zone at your end of the year excursion.” he countered.

“What about the undead horde assaulting Lanvers? What if a warlock is there in Ergentein right now?” I said.

“How did you know about the attack on Lanvers,” he asked, sounding suspicious again.

“Oh, good grief! The arcanorail I was on stopped on the way here to let off troops.” I sighed.

“Very well, you may go,” he said after a few moments of a staring contest.

Once we were outside, I looked over to Izzy. “What the abyss was that?” I asked, finding myself legitimately agitated.

Izzy gave me a look I could not decipher. “Eh… He’s new at his job and takes his role seriously. He may have come on too strong, but it's better than the alternative. Don’t let it get to you.” she said.

I went back to the library menu and copied books about alchemy. My second choice would have been to read about descended, but I was afraid of that causing a repeat conversation with the librarian tyrant. At least with alchemy, enough might sink in before my class in the morning to boost my understanding of the subject.

Izzy and I had just left the tower when I spotted her. Standing almost exactly in the last place I last saw her, was Angelina.

“You’re back!” I said, stalking toward her with a huge grin on my face. It was astonishing to me how grateful I was to see her friendly face.

Angelina saw me and nearly jumped out of her robes, a look of conflicting emotions running rampant across her face.

“H-Harald?” she asked with an uncharacteristically low voice. She was every bit as surprised as I was, it seemed.

“I thought I might never see you again,” I said. A long week had passed.

A male voice interrupted us. “You must be Mr. Horste! Angelina has told me such great things about you.”

Turning toward the voice, I spotted a boy about my age wearing a blue robe. His face was pudgy, but exceedingly friendly, made more so by the bushy purple colored eyebrows over his bright blue eyes. Sharp, parted purple hair, the beginnings of a goatee, and thick glasses completed his look, presenting him as an erudite noble.

The boy gave my hand a fiercely affable handshake.

Angelina mastered herself and introduced us. “Harald, I would like you to meet my betrothed, Ambrose Catesby. First son of Baron Catesby.”

That took me back a little. “It is nice to meet you,” I said.

Ambrose slapped me on the arm. “The pleasure is all mine!” The weird thing was, he really looked like he meant it.

“So, you’re back?” I asked Angelina.

Ambrose answered for her, “Of course, of course. I could not in good conscience take my beloved away from her studies. Especially since she is only two years away from completing her program. What kind of man would I be—no, what kind of precedent would it set if she were anything less than an equal?” A controversial opinion for any noble to have, much less a male one.

“It’s true,” Angelina confirmed. “After my father arranged the new marriage, Ambrose insisted we return to appease me.”

That made me feel a tingle of joy. Angelina would have been an exceptional match for me. I would have gotten wealth, status, and luxury from our pairing. Yet, for her, it would have been terrible. She got nothing out of it except seeing my beautiful face, and I believed even that would have eventually lost its luster.

This Ambrose, on the other hand, seemed like a decent sort who would do right by her. I sincerely felt happy for her.

“Well, it is very good to see you. I hope we can all meet together soon and catch up,” I said.