Breathe in the Embers

Part 27

It was not.

In fact, the tour was incredibly mundane and utterly boring. It was sort of fun seeing the dorm rooms, which were made from the old insane asylum cells, complete with metal door and retracting vision slot, though both now opened from inside rather than the outside. The padding on the interior was gone, but Martin thought it was rather cool.

Unfortunately, the rest of the building was quite ordinary.

The cafeteria looked like every other that Martin had ever seen in a school building or hospital. The only exciting bit was the satyrs who were the kitchen staff, but even then, they acted like anyone else. There was no awe or majesty, no mystery, just ordinary people. Even the fact that there was a meadery built out back lacked substance. Apparently founded on a miscommunication the first year Azimuth was open and funded by the food budget for the whole year. And while the idea was amusing, the reality was it just looked like another administration structure.

Just like the heroes. So much promise and potential rendered into something altogether too human and flawed. Perhaps it was appropriate that the school reflected it.

The classrooms were classrooms. The halls were halls. Even the gym that Comet was so very proud of, his own personal domain, was little more than a fancied up obstacle course folded up against the walls, revealing...a gym! Were it not for their final stop, Martin would have been depressed by the whole experience. Even the students, many of whom had the kind of physical alterations that had become commonplace with super powers, were regular students! Occasional horns, scaled skin, colored eyes, but nothing stranger than you’d find at any school in the country these days.

But fortunately, Comet did possess some sense of drama, if every other kind of sense seemed to elude him, and he saved the most interesting for last.

“And this....” he announced, the pause dragging on for a second or two longer than necessary, “is the magic class.”

He opened the door, the plaque beside it proudly stating “Mr. Ludo’s Office/Shop”, and Martin gasped as his breath was stolen away.

The floors were covered in an array of rugs, some of which looked rather expensive, occult in nature, or both, and it was unclear if there was anything beneath them at all. The walls were slightly more visible, but coated in bits and bobs of every description imaginable. Tribal masks, tiki figures, shrunken heads, religious symbols, scrolls covered in ornate writing, Martin couldn’t peel his eyes away. He could spend hours in here taking in all of the arcane artifacts!

Strangely, the least magical part of the place seemed to be the man responsible for it.

Mr. Ludo was dressed in an incredibly ‘college professor’ style. Tweed suit with patched elbows, matching pants, brown dress shoes, glasses. He was sure Ludo wore suspenders instead of a belt under that coat as well. Only the spark of amusement and power, with a dour sort of seriousness lurking behind them, made Martin believe for one second this was the proprietor of such an establishment.

“Greetings, greetings!” he called, striding across the room with the vigor of a man half his age. His hair was just going to gray, but the energy in his eyes and movements both showed that he was far from over the hill. “My name is Mr. Ludo, as I’m sure you have gathered. Welcome to my shop! Or is it my class? I suppose that rather depends on you. What brings you two here?” he reached out, shaking Margaret’s hand first, using both of his own to pump enthusiastically.

“Well, my friend here is hoping to get in, she wants to study magic you see…”

He got no further.

Mr. Ludo grabbed his hand, and the smile vanished, shock shattering it. The amusement fled from his eyes, and abruptly a dark and terribly intimidating magister stood before Martin, whatever the man wore. “Surely you mean both of you are seeking entry?” he commented, filling the silence created by Martin’s shock. “That is an amazing ability boy. Can’t let that go to waste.”

“Ability?” Martin asked, panic masked by the fakest smile he’d ever managed. Had Ludo sensed his contract? Did he now know the secret they’d tried so hard to keep hidden? What would it mean if he had? “I’m afraid I have no magical talent at all, and no powers either. I don’t know what I could possibly do here.”

Mr. Ludo laughed, resumed the handshake, the joy back in his gaze. “Ah, I see. And for a moment there I feared you were sent here for rather nefarious purposes. You just don’t know, do you? Well congratulations my boy, you do in fact have a power. A rather startling one I haven’t encountered before, in fact.”

“I...I do…?”

“Oh my yes. You have an astonishing will. Super humanly so, one might say. Not only does it give you excellent self control, as I assume you’ve noticed, but you are virtually immune to any and all magical effects. All magic is an external force that acts upon us and through us to change things from their natural state. You are fundamentally unwilling, or unable, to allow such outside forces to act upon you. Because of this, yes, I would indeed say you have no capability with magic.” Mr. Ludo laughed again. “That is a vast understatement in fact. There are quite a few villains who would be completely incapable of stopping you with their powers. Of course, bullets are often an issue.”

Mr. Ludo wasn’t done, not by a long shot. Martin would spend the next half hour or so listening to his excited chatter, his meandering suppositions and suggestions on Martin’s future, but he heard none of them. No, his mind had an awful lot of catching up to do. It was still stuck back at the beginning of the conversation.

Martin Kumalo had a superpower.