Chapter 27

Raiel rushed home, eager to get a better look at that precious text they had somehow managed to get their hands on. He still wasn’t sure whether it was a good idea to trust that shrewd, old, and most likely devious old professor, who had claimed to be willing to hand over his valuable notes out of almost nothing but sheer curiosity.

Raiel could definitely understand the immensely strong pull of curiosity, mystery, and the unknown. That was what had driven him to attempt to infiltrate the human settlement he found himself in, after all, so maybe he should not judge others to act on the same grounds. Yet, it was very likely not a good idea to trust that man. That did not necessarily mean he had the luxury of not accepting the offer, however, and that book was now waiting, tucked away into the deepest part of his drawer.

No, trust, as Raiel had found, was not and should not be given easily. Currently, there were only two people, whom he felt certain only wanted the best for him. Yaeth, and the old warden, Komren, who was actually his oldest friend. Whether it was within their power to help him was another matter, and frankly, not as important. Komren’s inability to help him while he was imprisoned, despite the man’s seemingly good intentions showed that wishes and possibilities did not always align, even for those who had been living in society for their entire lives.

Additionally, Raiel was quite certain, that Eryna was completely harmless. Her bubbly and slightly annoying personality somehow mitigated most feelings of distrust for her, even if she had pulled that crazy stunt, where she sedated him out of pure excitement.

Apropos, he would need to find her sometime soon, so he could apologize to her for his outburst at the lunch table. For humans, apologizing was a good way to show one’s remorse for past actions. He could easily understand the reasoning behind a thing such as an apology, since it repaired and maintained bonds between people. Apologizing for something in the moment came naturally enough, but finding someone even days after the fact was something he had to get used to.

He had to remind himself to abide by all these social conventions, lest people begin to avoid or despise him.

His bruises and scrapes were light but numerous, evidence of the two-hour training session he had just gone through. When he began to get used to consciously keeping his infusion in a more or less suppressed state, he could finally focus more on the actual fights. This allowed him to realize just how many various fighting styles these children used.

Practically flying up the stairs in the dorm, Raiel flung open the door to their shared room, finding Yaeth already flipping through the pages of the notes. Yaeth looked up as Raiel went onto his knees next to him, taking a look at the pages.

“Did you find anything yet?” Raiel asked as he tried to decipher the shabby, handwritten text. The words looked like they had been hastily copied down onto the paper, probably since the notes weren’t publicly available.

“I found that list, yeah.” he answered without lifting his eyes from the text, tapping a pen against his lip in thought. “And it is literally a list of noble families, whom the author believes took part in the persecution of low born people with a talent for infusion.” He scribbled a little on a piece of paper in front of him, copying something down.

“What are you doing?”

“Just taking notes of what is probably the most important parts. I mean, we never know if Professor Graven is suddenly going to ask for us to give back the notes.” he said, “There are some comments about who may or may not still be involved, at least at the time when these pages were written. To be honest, it all seems incredibly speculative…”

“It’s… speculative?”

“Yeah, like the author is just kind of guessing based on this and that.”

“Oh.” Raiel sighed.

Yaeth saw the dejected look on Raiel’s face and chuckled lightly, “But still, that conflict between the families of whether or not to share their powers definitely happened. On top of that, the list of names itself also seems pretty legit. It’s just that a lot of the extra stuff comes off as an analysis of history, not confirmed facts. Then again, this is of questionable legality, so you know… what can we expect.”

“I suppose.” Raiel said, pretending to have understood more of that than he actually did. “So, do you know any of the names on that list?”

“I do, yes, and so do you. Clavic Maledes’ family is on there.” Yaeth said with gravity. Raiel didn’t know if he should feel surprised or not by that revelation. Clavic was without a doubt the rottenest idiot Raiel had ever met, spiteful and full of hate just for the sake of it. He seemed to despise everything that did not align perfectly with his own personal interests. And yet, would he take part in something as sinister as the extermination of tens, maybe hundreds of people, just to satisfy his need to feel superior? Then again, he might still be too young to even have been told about any of it.

The fact that this list and all its information was based on events in such a distant past was really confusing and made it irritatingly unreliable. But someone definitely was hunting his kind, quickly confirmed by the notice that slaver had been in possession of.

“And there’s another, although, according to the comments here, they dropped out of that feud pretty early, instead voting themselves indifferent and taking distance from the conflict.” Yaeth said, as he read through a specific passage in the notes that he had found while he spoke “The Arnwulf family is mentioned here, as well.” Yaeth observed Raiel to as he uttered the words, trying to glimpse a reaction on his friend’s face. All he got was a blank stare, however.

“Who?” Raiel asked.

“What do you mean who? That’s Eryna’s family, you hollowskull” Yaeth exclaimed.

“Wait, so they’re a part of it?” Raiel’s eye went wide with surprise and dread

“Well, I’m not really sure. Looking at the comments, they also seem to have abandoned that cause, although they did it a little later than the Maledes family did. To be honest, it’s quite vague.” Yaeth leaned back in the chair, scratching his jaw in thought. His brows were furrowed in concentration. “I just don’t know how in the world we’re supposed to solve this stuff. I mean, you hardly remember any of the stuff that happened to you, right?” He threw Raiel a questioning look, hoping to find some sort of enlightenment there.

“No, but maybe I will remember more later. I didn’t remember any of it at all, until that night.” Raiel pointed out.

“I suppose that makes sense…”

“But… I just can’t believe Eryna would do that kind of stuff.” Raiel muttered.

“Well, first of all, she wouldn’t. It would be some, maybe even only a small part of the older members of her family. I don’t think they’d involve her in that kind of stuff.” Yaeth seemed relaxed and convinced, that she did not know about any persecutions. “Secondly, they apparently did not retain that same view for long. I imagine many of the opposing families did not see a long-term benefit to disagree with the majority on such an important topic. If the notes are to be believed, it’s been a few hundred years since they held those views. That’s long enough for families to crumble to dust, gone and forgotten, or for new families to prosper and climb to the top of the noble ladder. Literally everything can change in that amount of time. We can’t judge yet.”

Yaeth poked Raiel in the ribs, eliciting a shocked squeal. “You got it?” he said as he kept poking his roommate in the side, each stab accompanied by a word. “Don’t. Start. Accusing. Anyone. Of. Anything!”

“Okay, okay! I wasn’t going to do that, anyway!” Raiel managed, throwing himself onto his bed to get away from the torture.

Yaeth finally took a closer look at Raiel, a smirk sneaking onto his face. “What’s wrong with your face?”

Raiel sighed inwardly, then sighed again out loud, dreading the many future classes, where he can expect to be below class average, walking home with a bruised everywhere. “Combat practice. I have to suppress all of that infusion stuff, you know. That’s why I’m getting my ass kicked like this.” He pushed a finger to the side of one nostril, forcefully blowing air through the other, sending a glob of dried blood flying out to roll briefly across the floorboards before coming to a stop against Yaeth’s bare foot.

Looking down, Yaeth felt a shiver run through him. “Uuh… I can’t believe I have to say this, but do not snot on my floor again, please.”

“Sorry.”

“Anything else happened?” Yaeth asked.

“Clavic was there.”

“Oh shit, really? What did he do?”

Raiel narrowed his eyes, biting the tip of his thumb as he recalled the day. “Nothing, actually. It was a little weird. He just sort of stared when he noticed me, but then ignored me for the rest of the class.”

“Do you think he’s afraid of you now? After you trashed him, I mean.” Yaeth wondered out loud.

“I don’t know. Could be.” Raiel rose from his knees, beginning to pace around the small room, unable to sit still as he thought over the situation. It could be simple. Clavic could have avoided starting anything because there were so many witnesses. That seemed more likely than anything else. He seemed like the kind of guy who would not dare to do anything unless he felt in complete control. “Do you think the M-person who signed that note I found on the slaver is from the Maledes family?”

Yaeth’s breath caught in his throat as he mulled over that thought for a few moments. “Could be. To be honest, I know far less about Clavic’s dad than I know about Clavic himself. How the family thinks as a whole is something I’ve never really bothered to investigate.”

He quickly flicked back through the notes, stopping near the beginning, his finger tracing the lines of text written on the page. It was the list of names. He pointed at two specific entries, directing Raiel’s attention. “See here…” Yaeth mumbled, tapping the paper lightly, “There are two other names that start with an ‘M’.”

Raiel leaned in, phonetically fighting his way through the names, feeling slightly embarrassed about still being such a slow reader. “Mar – lee… Marlian.” he managed, “Mor – gan… Morghan. Marlian and Morghan. Do you know them?” he asked.

“I’ve heard of the Marlian’s, but never the Morghan’s. Then again, I am far from the well of knowledge you treat me like.” Yaeth chuckled, “I don’t know anything about the Marlian’s though, neither negative nor positive. It could be either of those three families, or none of them. They could all have abandoned the cause, and a completely different group could have taken their places. We can’t really know from this. It’s too old and too unreliable.”

“Huh…” Raiel’s response was muted and distracted, his tired brain trying its best to figure out all the stuff he desired to know. It was not difficult to realize, that this book was not the instant solution to every mystery that he had hoped it would be, instead creating an array of new and complicated questions, further confusing his addled mind.

They sat silently, staring into middle-space as their thoughts swirled around inside their heads, accomplishing little of significance. Yaeth, who had been slumping lazily in the chair suddenly sat up properly, turning to Raiel, who had likewise slumped against the side of his bed with his eyes about as alert as those of a dead fish.

“Are you free this weekend?” Yaeth excitedly asked.

It took Raiel a couple of seconds to exit his half-drooling stupor, pushing himself up with his elbows. “Weekends? Oh, right, the free time. Yeah, I think so. Why?”

“I’m going home, and I was wondering if you want to come with me for a visit.” This made Raiel perk up, coming to his feet as his heart began to beat rapidly.

“Yes, of course I want to come!” he exclaimed.

“I’m going back after classes in two days, the last day before weekend. We can take a carriage together.” Yaeth explained, leaning over the notes again, his eyes scanning the pages for any crucial information he might have missed the first half a dozen times he went over it. He chuffed in frustration and leaned his weight back onto the chair, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers,

“I need a break from this…” Yaeth stood and stretched his back, arching with a groan. “I can’t concentrate right now, anyway, so I’ll go get something to eat. See you later.” He sat on his bed and pulled on his boots, throwing a coat over his shoulders even though the weather was quite mild.

“Yeah, see you.”

Raiel went and took a seat in the chair, going through the list of names, but quickly gave it up. What would he accomplish by himself with this information? Not only was his vocabulary so limited that many of the slightly more complicated words were completely foreign to him, but his practically non-existent knowledge of the world meant that, even if he could understand each individual word and phrase, any implication and significance they might hold would largely escape him.

He sighed loudly, feeling the same frustration that Yaeth had expressed wash over him. It hurt to admit, but this didn’t seem to tell them anything of value, not without concrete evidence, at least. Raiel was at a loss and knew he could not make any progress without Yaeth’s help to decipher the scraggly letters. Maybe there was no way around it, but to do something drastic.

Raiel closed the book and stowed it away in his drawer before climbing onto the wooden table, working the latch on the window. As the window swung open Raiel relished the mild breeze that swept in through the room, his eyes closed in contentment. The weather was gradually becoming cooler, the leaves starting to fall from the trees, crunching underfoot. He wondered if the buildings and structures the humans constructed could keep out.

With a small grunt, he leapt from the windowsill and landed deftly on the closest branch, the one he always landed on. Knowing that his arm should be kept at rest, he took a bit more time than usual to make his way across the narrow surface, careful not to slip. It embarrassed him that he was performing at a personal substandard and he hoped no one was around to watch it.

Touching down, Raiel jogged into the forest, enjoying the sounds around him, the sky beginning to darken as clouds gathered above. The birds still sang in the canopies, their joyous chirps ringing out through the forest. Everything always felt a little better out here, problems seeming to lighten just a bit, worries growing distanced from the mind. Soon, his favorite tree came into view, its leaves piling up beneath. He let himself fall back against the rough trunk, sliding down to sit by the prominent roots.

Leaning his head against the bark, Raiel closed his eyes and tried to fall into a trance, hoping to meet with the giant to learn more of his past. Surely, as a being seemingly deeply connected to him, that mysterious humanoid could be another path of discovery, a well of knowledge, if only he could manage to avoid its confusing speech and difficult words. He would have become smarter to pull the answers from the giant’s mouth, and stronger to know himself more clearly. Knowing himself was to know the giant, that felt obvious in a vague sort of way.

Alas, through numerous attempts to send his mind back to Raha forest, his home, and the place where he and the giant always meet, Raiel had to admit that it was not going to happen. Not yet, at least.

He sought out the energy in the air and in his body, beckoning for the substance to gather around him, wanting to feel in control. In his body the call was answered and by his request, it flowed as he willed it, traveling vigorously through his limbs, bringing along a surge of power wherever it touched. In the air the substance stirred but otherwise remained inert, the reaction disappointing.

Letting the energy permeate his body from the tip of the fingers on his left arm to the shoulder and down his back to his hips, he searched for and picked up a palm-sized flat rock. Standing, he spotted a tall tree in the distance and hurled the stone with all the infusion-powered might he could muster. He watched the deadly projectile sail through the air with incredible speed as it rammed into the trunk of the tree with an audible, wet thud, leaving the stone embedded in the wood, half its width buried.

Raiel cheered inwardly at his own performance. Looking down at his hands, the nails of his throwing hand had elongated significantly, beginning to expand further into his fingers, like the claws of a predator. As he watched, they shrunk back again slowly, almost as if to show him the process. He turned his hand about, studying it and hoping the transformation would repeat itself.

This time, he felt the substance inside him rush to comply with his wish. He felt it when it lodged itself into his fingers, and he felt it when his body manipulated itself, molding a part of him to fit the image in his mind. He willed the nails to grow further, willed them to dig deeper into his fingers and fasten more firmly. Everything happened as he wished, the energetic substance eagerly obeying. Quickly, his nails, if they could even rightfully be called nails anymore, became the length of two of the joints in his finger, their sharpness terrifying. He did the same to his canine teeth, the change coming easily and smoothly with no pain.

Was this a reward for his ordeal? A gift given in exchange for hardships? When he tried to take it even further, growing his whole body larger, an immense pressure appeared and threatened to tear him apart. Only when he willed the energy to rest did the pressure fade. So, he was not at that kind of level yet.

Perhaps it was a matter of acclimation, his body having to gradually grow used to greater power flowing through and altering it. For now, simple practice with the transformations he could do, and perhaps a bit of experimentation seemed the safest and most logical way to progress. The last thing he wanted to do was fuck it up for himself again, like what happened with the kovals in the forest. That had been one of the most painful experiences of his life, and he was not looking to experience it a second time.

Control was key. Back in the forest, he had been in desperate need of power, and had accepted it wholeheartedly when it offered itself to him. With control, he would hold that unfathomable power in check, slowly earning the strength to harness it.

Tomorrow would be another day and he would also return to his part-time job, where hopefully, he could scrape together enough coin to buy himself another set of clothes, as well as a few cream puffs if he was lucky. Come weekend he would go to the city to eat a delicious dinner in Yaeth’s home. The thought alone made him nervous.

Starting back towards his room to look at his homework, he continued to grow his nails into claws, then returning them to their regular size, over and over again, familiarizing himself with the feeling.