Chapter Sixteen

I'd be lying if I said it wasn't amusing to see the guard connect the dots. The relaxed pose he was in vanishes and suddenly a professional stands before us; his posture straight. Percy is just as nervous though, so they make a good pair.

“Sir! Welcome back! I will inform the lord!” says Percy’s employee, and heads off. I notice how my friend seems surprised at how quickly he leaves until I see the guard switching direction, heading the other way. Embarrassing, to say the least.

“Should we wait here?” I ask Percy, who has a stiff look on his face.

“We could,” he admits, “But I don’t think we’d get far.” And with that vaguely threatening sentence, I notice the source of his dismay. A girl is walking our way, and judging purely from her confident walk; and also Percy’s slight twitching, I’d say it is his sister.

Now comes the second question, which one is she? The geomancer, or the pyromancer. As I’ve done so many times since waking up in the village, I miss being able to use magic for whatever I want. The urge to shoot a spell her way to see how she reacts is distracting me.

Preventively, I place a hand on Percy’s back; making sure he doesn’t try to bolt. I doubt he even noticed how much he was moving backward. I am such a good friend to him, though I don’t think he would agree with me based on the betrayed look on his face.

“I don’t have to meet her right now,” he mutters, “I could let her know from a distance?” What is she, a bomb? But unfortunately for him, his hesitation costs him. Whichever sister it may be, she’s noticed us now. And it seems she noticed her brother’s identity.

Her previous confident stride is nowhere to be seen as she takes off towards us. Percy told me she’s bad at aeromancy but it feels like she’s flying regardless. I take a step backward to properly witness their touching reunion.

My question regarding if she is Demeter or Persephone is answered when fire shoots from her legs. Her brother lets out a whimper, I’m detecting some mild trauma, or perhaps his image of her just grew and twisted while he was away. The fire doesn’t seem to add anything but perhaps it is a stylistic choice? It certainly adds an element of danger.

And then it’s collision time, as siblings reunite after a year of distance. It is an explosive event, not in the least because she creates an entire cocoon of flames around the two of them. She barely chanted for it too. The usage of the fire magic already implied that this is Demeter, but this all but confirms it.

My common sense regarding the magic in this world is lacking, but I’ve seen the mages that James employs cast, and this is on par with some of their favorite spells. Firmly ranking her among the better students, or at least among the applicants. The exams haven’t happened yet.

The scorching fire in front of me does bother me, it obscures them and that means it is taking away a huge source of amusement for me. Fortunately, while casting spells is something I should avoid, manipulating existing spells is a lesser evil. Mental strain is the only risk of that since it doesn’t consume any mana. I also want to show off in front of Percy’s sisters, because I frankly find the idea incredibly funny. So with that motivating me, I casually dismiss the construct.

The fire dies down now that the magic no longer feeds it, and inside I see Percy on his knees. Demeter is scolding him harshly, though she’s flustered about her magic getting dismissed now. I wave at her with a smile on my face.

“Who’s that,” she interrogates Percy, and I feel kind of bad for him. It doesn’t outweigh the immense amusement I experience at his plight though, so I’m not very inclined to help him out.

“That’s Samual, he’s a friend,” her brother reveals, and I wave again.

“Hi!” I greet her enthusiastically, “Sorry about the fire, but I’ve been looking forward to seeing Percy’s reunion, you see. He deserves some company while it happens don’t you think?”

Percy quickly gets up, but while he tries to get to me, Demeter grabs him by the collar.

“This is a family affair,” she says coldly.

“It is,” I agree, “But not helping a friend in trouble would be unforgivable,” Her eyes narrow at that. Luckily for both of us, the rest of her family is hurrying toward us.

It’s quite the sight, a young girl that looks identical to Demeter is running at full tilt towards her brother, and her father is hot on her heels. Percy’s mother is more laidback, but though she’s walking gracefully she’s not lagging behind, somehow. I don’t notice any magic aiding her, but at this distance, her mana pool could very well cover it up.

Persephone is shouting words that I can’t make out, she’s moving rapidly and it’s terrifying to see. Her pace is deceptively high, and I almost think that she has me under some illusion. Until I notice the ground at her feet is subtly waving. The movement is helping her speed up, it is a weird thing to see. Again, I am tempted to mess with spells but I don’t want to risk injuring her. Interrupting anyone moving at that speed is a dangerous proposition.

Then she arrives at her siblings, still spewing words but since she’s so out of breath I don’t think anyone can understand her.

“Exactly! He can’t just disappear like that!” her sister shouts in agreement, disproving my earlier claim. I’m amazed she understood even a word because I didn’t get anything from that. This means a lot because I don’t do language the way they do. I hear what their soul means to say. Which in this case was gibberish. I guess the sheer amount of emotion overwhelmed any verbal meaning attached to it.

I’m not sure if that explains why I couldn’t understand the people from the Order back then though; nor why I could understand Alan just fine.

My pondering gets interrupted by Percy taking cover behind me, his existence momentarily forgotten as his sisters share their frustrations with each other. A small prickle of energy gets me moving and without hesitation I drop to the floor. Behind me I can hear an explosion and I hurry to look at what caused it. The small but noticeable crater behind me is reasonable cause for alarm, the perpetrator makes themselves known too.

"You dodged that, tch,” Percy’s father says. Instinct takes over as I raise both my arms and a barrier in front of me. Nothing hits it, the projectile came from my side instead. It hits my ribs and rips straight through. My figure evaporates like mist.

“Don’t try that again,” I say coldly. The man before me stiffens as he feels the heat from my spell. A blazing orb is readied before my hand, positioned right behind him.

He does not take my words to heart, however, and, without chanting, he raises a barrier while turning around. My spell blows through his shield like it was wet paper, blowing away most of his left arm. As he screams from the pain I let that illusion fade too.

We are back where we started, the crater behind me, though I am now standing slightly to the right. Percy’s father blinks away the tears in his eyes.

“Wha… huh?” he questions, voice hoarse. Innocently I wave at him, smiling all the while.

“Dad!” both sisters exclaim, they are at his side in moments. He looks at them in confusion while his brain tries to catch up to what his mind just experienced.

“You!” Demeter shouts at me, I can only tell that it’s her because she’s the only one to have reason to suspect me. Before the situation escalates, however, her mother steps in. If I recall correctly her name is Maria. I only know because James refused to enter the city without her support. She’s the lady that helped Percy depart, I admit I’ve been curious about what kind of person she is.

With a clap of her hands she catches everyone’s attention, the sound is amplified and it reverberates throughout my body. That it makes me slightly queasy is a testament to how much power she put into the spell. An accomplished aeromancer, that much is certain.

“Relax, no harm was done,” she tells her family, then looks at me, “Right?” I nod my head at her question.

“He just saw an illusion, none of it was real. Just… straining his mind. He’ll be fine after some rest.” Maria smiles at me, though I can still feel how unhappy she is with my treatment of her husband. While I understand that, he attacked me first. The sisters don’t hide their real feelings nearly as well.

“You attacked dad!?” they shout, the stereo of it is freaking me out a little bit. They really are identical twins. Triplets, technically, but Percy is the odd duck of the bunch.

“In some sense of the word, he did throw some explosive spell at me first though,” I tell them while I gesture at the crater behind me. Before my very eyes, the hole fills itself up again. I twist my head in confusion. Until I look back at Persephone, who is concentrating and mumbling something that is no doubt an incantation. These damn physics defiers.

“How did you dodge that!” The dad pipes up, I’m surprised he got over the shock of losing his arm so quickly.

“Could we maybe not put me in the spotlight like this?” I hesitantly ask, they are not inclined to follow my suggestion though, not until Percy stands up before me. He had been trying to hide until now, but I’m pleased to see that his earnest desire to help his friend shook him out of it.

Or at least, that’s what I thought, right up to the moment where he takes cover behind his mom instead. Silently I mouth the word ‘traitor’ at him, he looks away. His father is covertly trying to cast, but at this distance, it is easy to notice the mana bundling up in front of him. With a quick twist of will, I rip the whole structure to pieces. Not as subtle as I could have been, but I am getting annoyed with the hostility in this man. I didn’t do anything to his family, aside from dismissing the spell his daughter cast.

“Look, Percy’s dad, what did I do to you?” I ask him frustratedly. He glares at me, and I expect him to try another magic spell but he answers me instead.

“You took my son away from me!” he shouts, I glare right back.

“That’s ridiculous, I wasn’t even…” in this world a year ago, I finish in my head.

“You weren’t even what!”

“I had nothing to do with your son’s departure! I’ve only known him for a week and a half,” I tell him. Though he doesn’t seem to believe me, not until his wife claps her hands in the same devastating manner as before.

“Jason,” she says, “I’m the one that helped Percy escape.” Her husband is completely taken aback by this reveal. Meanwhile, I’m wondering why she didn’t tell him before all this, she had a year to explain the situation.

“Maria? You helped? But why!?”

“He asked,” she responds, shrugging her shoulders, “How could I refuse when he asked sincerely to see more of the world? We are supposed to teach him as his parents, he won’t learn those lessons from inside this castle.” There is a tense moment between the two before Maria sighs audibly.

“Speaking of the inside of this castle; let’s go there,” Percy says, the first words he’s uttered in front of his family since the moment he left the city. In return for his bravery, I give him a thumbs up. His family, except his mother, glares at him instead, though they still follow him and Maria back inside. I, too, walk with them.

“Does he have to come?” one of the sisters asks with her voice full of venom. In response I mockingly act like she just broke my heart, falling to my knees. For a second I can see both of them react in a genuine fashion, a small half-step towards me with kindness in their eyes. Then they realize I was just messing around and they both refuse to make eye contact. Hastening their steps to walk further ahead. Leaving me to walk next to Percy’s dad. Who has seen better days, he’s rubbing his left arm and it twitches when it touches his side.

I feel a little bad about it, phantom pain is no walk in the park, though this variety will pass in a few days at most. That said, there are ways I can help him with it, they just take more mana than I am willing to spend. The types of illusions that occur only in a victim’s mind are intensive, and I wasted a lot of mana with how rapidly I had to cast it. I can only hope that I’ll find those potions tomorrow because otherwise, I will be in hot water, and not in a comfortable way.

I marvel at the flowers while we walk through the courtyard, there are many colors spread throughout the foliage. I couldn’t name most of the plants but I can at least recognize the roses. Some low hedges separate the area into parts and it has a positive effect on the overall feel.

We enter through two large doors when we reach the other side of the garden, a marble floor decorates the interior. I also spot two staircases curling upwards, some paintings hang on the walls and there are even a few pedestals with sculptures on them dotting the corridors to each side. We head for the stairs and follow the corridor. The sheer amount of doors that we pass by reminds me of an office building from home, or perhaps even a hotel.

Percy slows down his pace until he matches mine, taking the time to explain some things about his house.

“Many of the rooms behind these doors are combined offices and sleeping quarters. They’re multifunctional guest chambers. Our rooms are a bit ahead.”

He barely finishes his sentence when his mother suddenly stops in front of a door with the number sixteen hanging painted on it.

“I expect you will stay the night? James will only leave in two days, so you are free to stay here until then. This will be your room, remember the number.” Maria tells me. I express my gratitude before we start walking again. Not far though, we walk into what looks like a dining room shortly afterward.

“It is about time for lunch I’d say,” Percy’s mom says,” I will inform the cooks. Behave while I’m gone.” I exchange an awkward smile with her son, while the rest of the family is glaring at me and him. When she leaves the room, they begin their verbal assault.

“Now spill, why did you leave?” Demeter says unless they’ve switched spots while I wasn’t looking. Percy takes a deep breath and tries to calm his nerves.

“I wanted to see the world,” he eventually states, “To learn about myself.”

“You were going to the Academy already!” Comes the reply, but my friend shakes his head.

“I am going to the Academy,” he corrects her, “But I will have both of you watching over me, I needed some room for myself before that. To make mistakes, to prove myself!” His voice picks up by the end, as he’s venting his frustrations.

Both sisters are taken aback by the emotion in his voice, while his father isn’t totally present. His face is worryingly pale. I furrow my eyebrows at the sight, my illusions shouldn’t have this much of an effect. I barely notice the sound of Percy shouting with his sisters as I take a better look at his dad.

He doesn’t even notice when I stand right in front of him, I can see how much he’s sweating from this distance. It’s a tense few seconds as I think about what to do here. Mind magic is a touchy subject, and besides projecting illusions, I am woefully underqualified. Especially when it comes to helping the man in front of me. I hold my chin as I study him until I experiment with sensing his mana pool. Without hesitation, I act.

Wordlessly I cast a spell as I push him down, the wooden floor grabs his limbs though he barely struggles regardless. The rest of the family notices my actions now and both sisters start casting; for about a second. Then they stumble and I manipulate their clothing to restrict them. Percy is looking at me with fear on his face.

“Sam!?” he shouts, but I ignore him. His father is barely responding to any of this and I know why. I rip off his shirt and confirm my suspicion, there’s a form wriggling inside of him. Reminiscent of a vein, it’s burrowing just below his skin.

“You fucking pest,” I growl as I try to get a hold of it with magic, my efforts go unrewarded as it slides past all my containment attempts. Making a decision, my hand shoots to the side, and a small knife flies from the table and onto my waiting palm. I try to slow the creature inside by flooding it with mana, which works for a moment. But just before I use the knife to carve it out physically, I get tackled. Percy mounts me and starts punching my face, his year of hauling crates pays off because I feel my nose cracking.

“Wait!” I try to say, but it doesn’t come out cleanly. It stops him for a moment though, and that’s enough for the spell to do its work. Percy falls to the floor, sound asleep.

I push him to the side and confirm his siblings are still contained, they are, though they’re mumbling through their fabric gags.

When I get to Percy’s father again, I realize my nose is bleeding, but it barely registers as I see the shape again. In a desperate effort, I freeze the entire patch of flesh where it’s located in. This helps significantly, and when it stops moving I jam in the blade.