20 :: Incomplete Truths

A line of red-clad mourners burst apart as the distraught student charged at the door. His fists struck the wood, pounding frantically as tears streamed down his reddened cheeks. A hysterical sob slipped from between his two snarling lips. Two more students, a boy and a girl, darted out of the crowd after him, pulling at his arms to keep him from striking the unharmed door and causing injury to himself. The crowd stood stunned and gently backed away from the scene, whispering amongst themselves.

“I’m sorry,” another student announced, crouching down to join the three students on the floor in front of Professor Iskam’s office. “Could you please give us some space? My friend here needs some time to grieve. Professor Iskam was our private tutor and we would like some time to pay our respects alone.”

The members of the crowd looked around at each other in confusion before acquiescing to the student’s request. They shuffled their feet uncertainly as they made their retreat down the stone hallway. As the last of the observers faded away, Nora slipped out of the classroom where she had been waiting and joined the others.

“That was impressive!” she commended, leaning over the student who was still wiping away his crocodile tears. “What’s your name?” she asked, extending an arm.

“I’m Soma,” he answered, taking her arm and pulling himself up.

“And you two?” Nora continued, gesturing to the boy and girl who had been restraining Tibor.

“I’m Feri,” she answered. “This is Jeno,” she continued, nodding at the boy to her side, “and that’s Talan,” she finished, gesturing at the boy who had chased off the onlookers. Talan was the burgundy-haired boy who had examined her badge and questioned her earlier.

“Thanks for the help,” Nora grinned casually as she approached the door, “I’ll need some time to go through whatever Iskam left behind, and I don’t intend to make you all wait here. How should I contact you?” She directed her question towards Talan who seemed to be the unofficial spokesman of the group.

“We should decide on a signal,” he suggested after a brief moment of thought. “You can just place some kind of object outside the door once you’re finished and we’ll come by after classes that day.”

“How about a red ribbon?” Nora offered. “I can tie it here,” she explained, fingering the Warden’s crest where she was currently entering her combination.

“Perfect,” Talan replied. “We’ll lay low until then. If one of us needs something, we’ll knock.”

“Sounds good,” Nora confirmed. “Stay safe,” she commanded as she closed the door behind her.

Iskam seemed to have converted the entrance of his office into a typical office space. A desk sat across from one wall where Iskam himself presumably sat, and two benches sat pushed up against the opposite wall which Nora presumed were reserved for students or other guests. Nora rummaged through the desk, finding nothing of consequence. This office seemed to be dedicated entirely to Iskam’s position as a professor.

Nora continued past the office and pressed open the door which could only be opened by spatial mages. Iskam seemed to be a meticulous housekeeper. The floor was spotless. Not a single object was out of place and Nora had no difficulties in understanding his system of organization. She immediately targeted the large filing cabinet that stood to the left of his desk, rifling through its drawers. There were files on everything from Henrik, to this world and its structure, to his students.

Nora flipped through it all eagerly, trying to figure out where to begin. One label stuck out to her. It read “Kurtiel Varinius”. Nora’s hands moved unconsciously as she pulled the file from the cabinet and spread it open on the desk. Almost immediately, Nora’s jaw dropped. Her eyebrows creased as she read through the file at breakneck speed, eyes widening all the while. By the time she finished, a strange mixture of anger and dread had spread through her being. She removed several pages from the folio and folded them neatly before slipping them into her storage dimension. It had been a while since Nora last spoke to Kurt. Perhaps it was time to pay him a visit.

She pulled every file she could find on the Church of the Mother, as well as the basic information about this world, and stuffed it hurriedly into her storage dimension. Slinging her rucksack over her shoulder and stuffing the file on Kurt beneath an arm, Nora closed her eyes and recalled a memory of Kurt’s office. When she opened her eyes, she was there.

She crossed the foyer briskly, her boots tapping angrily against the checkered marble, and pushed open the door to Kurt’s private chambers. She was surprised to find that the room’s condition had dramatically improved since her last visit. All of the clothing and empty bottles had been removed from the floor, and it even seemed as if Kurt had dusted. The man himself sat at his desk, legs crossed and resting on the surface, looking up from within the pages of a book.

“Welcome back! You look angry,” he smirked as he uncrossed his legs and rested them back upon the floor.

“You’re a biological, third-generation Warden and Councilor Varin’s son?” she spat incredulously, thrusting the papers onto the table before him. “Spatial magic isn’t even hereditary! How does that happen?” Councilor Varin was a high-ranking member of the Council that governed all Wardens.

“Genetic experiments,” he answered with a shrug. Nora squinted her eyes in an expression of skeptical disbelief. “You think that Wardens have the technology to alter the genes of non-sentient lifeforms and they wouldn’t use it, at least once, to try and make more Wardens?” Of course they would, Nora thought to herself. She had never heard of any successes though.

“That destruction magic, then,” she continued, “That was…?”

“My father’s magic, yeah, and my grandfather’s before him,” Kurt chuckled, a smug grin crossing his face. Nora couldn’t believe her luck. She had been trusted with knowledge of a private branch of magic belonging to a Councilor himself and had almost immediately used it to kill a member of her own organization. Her face paled as she considered the consequences that her actions might have, not only on herself, but also Kurt. She ran her hands through her bangs, pushing them away from her face, as she struggled to calm herself down.

“You’ve made a mistake, Kurt,” she announced after a long silence. “You should not have trusted me with this magic.” At this point, Kurt began to realize that the situation was more grim than he had imagined and the smile began to slip from his face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I used that magic to kill a man,” Nora responded solemnly. She sank herself into Kurt’s sofa, buried her head in her hands and began to recount what had happened these past few days.

“That’s it?” Kurtiel responded, as she finished her story.

“Don’t give me that, Kurt!” she demanded, furiously. “I killed a Warden! Not only was he a Warden, he was a dedicated teacher, as well as my best lead!”

“The man was crazy!” Kurt responded dismissively. “You saved your own life. That’s what it’s for. How else did you plan on using that magic?”

“He was a Warden, though!” Nora protested. “He was a member of the same team. I’m going to be punished.”

“Not all Wardens are on the same team, Nora,” Kurt sighed heavily. “I’m the son of a councilor. I grew up surrounded by all of the fighting that goes down at Headquarters. We don’t exactly advertise it, there are all sorts of opposing factions within the Wardens. Most councilors have their own. It’s not like they fight openly or anything, but you can hardly say that we’re all on the same team. The Wardens are just as susceptible to politics as any other organization,” Kurt shrugged, “Besides, killing a Warden isn’t as big of a deal as you’d think. Obviously, we’d prefer to avoid it, but accidents happen. Even when it’s not an accident, the punishments aren’t too steep. It’s not like they can afford to kill us or anything. You’ve seen my file.”

“You mean this?” Nora asked, returning to the desk. Here, she opened the file and spread its contents out on the desk before him. The pages were covered by an overwhelming amount of black marks. Certain papers were missing entire paragraphs.

“Hmph,” Kurt frowned as he browsed through the papers. “You found these at the office of the Warden you killed?” he asked. Nora nodded. “Did you bring any other documents with you?”

“Yeah,” Nora smirked as she reached into her storage dimension and pulled out a stack of folders equivalent to several textbooks. She dropped them onto the desk with a thud. “I haven’t gone through any of these yet. What are you looking for?”

“I’m trying to find anything that might indicate which faction this man might have belonged to,” he explained. “My information wasn’t classified, last I checked. I’m just wondering who doesn’t want their men to know the full story about me.”

“And what is the full story?” Nora asked, narrowing her eyes with suspicious curiosity. “What caused a third-generation Warden and son of a councilor to wind up exiled to the Outer Realms?”

“Let a man have some secrets!” Kurt smiled, never looking up from his reading. “It’s not like I’m proud of it or anything. I just killed some Wardens is all. I had my reasons, but I don’t think it’s something that you really need to be hearing about right now.”

Nora frowned, but didn’t press it. She had already invaded his privacy enough for one night.

“That’s fair,” she shrugged. “I’ll be taking this though,” she announced, reaching to pull out a file from the stack. “I still have a lot of research to do. This cult sounds like bad news.” She brought the file back over to the sofa.

“The Church of the Mother?” Kurt asked, immediately abandoning his search and joining her on the sofa.

“Yeah,” Nora replied, “It’s possible they’re able to use spatial magic. Iskam certainly believed them to be a threat to his life. I’m not quite at the point of saying that they’re responsible for the disappearances of Outer Realm Wardens, but they’re the best lead that I’ve got. I’m just not sure where to begin looking. I need to read through these first.”

“Yeah,” Kurt agreed, “I’ll help.”

Within minutes of beginning to read, Nora was beginning to nod off. She hadn’t slept in over two days, and the emotional stresses were beginning to pile up higher than she could handle on such little sleep. Another few minutes later and she had fallen fully asleep, resting her cheek against the arm of the sofa. Kurt seemed to understand that she needed the rest and he gathered up the papers and began to relocate himself to the desk. As he left, he pulled Nora’s ankles up onto the sofa and placed a blanket atop her sleeping figure to allow her to rest easier.

Kurt continued to read through the files for several hours before he noticed the shaking start. He pulled his eyes away from the documents and stared with concern as Nora began to twitch and convulse in her sleep. Tears leaked from her eyes and fell onto the green fabric of the sofa, darkening it with little circles. Kurt chewed on a nail as he pondered whether or not he should wake her. He knew she had endured a rough couple of days and it wasn’t unusual for her to experience a nightmare or two. He wasn’t sure she’d be able to fall back asleep after waking up though. He finally resolved to wake her and began to approach the sofa. He could see her mouth trying to mutter something, but he couldn’t quite hear. He leaned closer, trying to make out what it was.

“Stay away,” he finally heard.

“Stay away!” Nora began to shout as she sobbed unconsciously. As Kurt reached out to rouse her, Nora’s eyes fluttered open.

“STAY AWAY!” she screamed.

The last thing Kurt could remember before losing consciousness was the feeling of a powerful pulse of spatial energy buffeting his body. After that, there was only burning.