Chapter 15

Jason went back inside his pocket realm to find himself in the middle of a food fight, mush was flying left and right as delicacies of every type of food imaginable were carelessly grouped together with the cheapest of junk foods.

“YARGH!” Peyton yelled as he threw a pie, the food flew through the air, trailing yellow smoke before exploding upon impact, showering all those nearby in apple and custard. Gwandere and Ilios seemed to be the main targets for they screamed behind the makeshift barricade of chairs as the scraps pasted themselves against their clothes and skin. Now that Jason could look closer he noticed that the kids seemed to be in two teams, with Ilios and Gwandere behind the chairs Jason made, and Nasha teaming up with Peyton behind the upturned table. The fight was looking really one sided as all the food was on the table, thankfully, team NashPeyt had the brilliant idea of flipping the table towards themselves, giving themselves convenient access to the ammunition, while also covering themselves with the food.

Jason watched in amusement as team IlGwan was peppered with yet another volley of exploding food before going over to the table to see what was happening. Reaching it, he looked behind to see the two huddled figures of Peyton and Nasha desperately sprinkling a strange yellow powder on a seemingly inexhaustible amount of pies. They had a good team going on with Nasha dropping a few drops on the pie which in turn would quickly start smoking, the pie would then be handed down the production line and into the hands of the Peyton-o-matic. A machine that fires a continuous stream pies at the enemy.

“Damn, I’m impressed” Jason nodded appreciatively as a melting salad bowl was thrown past him, hitting Ilios and Gwandere yet again.

Team NashPeyt didn’t seem to have noticed him so Jason walked over to the opposition.

“Having fun?” he asked the two girls.

“We’re out of Kiwi fruit! The Nachos are the only thing we have left but at this distance it’s not gonna be effective!” Ilios cried desperately.

Jason thought for a second before saying “Alright, I think I can help.” He clicked his fingers and a pile of giant caviar appeared next to the girls. The caviar was oozing a sort of purplish goop and had the strange smell of watermelon, nevertheless it was ammo and the IlGwans needed everything they could get their hands on in these dark times.

“Thanks Jace!” Gwandere smiled happily with just a twinge of evil.

Jace? Jason chuckled at the name but left them to their own devices, settling back to watch the chaos unfold. It was spectacular to say the least, yellow and purple mixed through the battlefield, their blood of juice and innards of fruit flowed freely in the name of victory, but the outcome was never in question. With the superior artillery provided by Jason, the NashPeyts were quickly driven back and forced to raise the white flag (table cloth) in surrender. The decider, Jason reflected, was the fact that Gwandere and Ilios didn’t have to prepare anything beforehand, they just took aim and fired. While Nasha and Peyt had to sprinkle theirs before firing, a single step was all that it took to decide the battle, and the fact that Jason’s ammo was better in every possible way.

“Did you guys have fun?” Jason stood there, amused as the four approached him.

“We sure did!” Peyton exclaimed, even though every single one of them was covered in food from head to toe, it did little to wipe of the massive grin that adorned their grimy little faces.

“I’m glad. What was that yellow potion by the way?” Jason asked.

“Groot tails mashed with blistering sunflower petals. My own invention.” Peyton proclaimed loudly.

“Well done, the results were spectacular.” Jason smiled warmly at him, “Now let’s clean you all up.”

With a click of his fingers, Peyt and the girls were immediately cleaned, their clothes in pristine order once more.

“Now I did leave a bit of a mess while you guys were in there but we’re in the elevator now so it should be alright.” Jason said as he transported everyone back to the real world.

“What’s an elevator?” Nasha asked?

“A thing that lifts people from somewhere low to somewhere high.” Jason replied.

Nasha looked confused, “But how?”

Jason shrugged, “Dunno, magic I guess.”

Inside the elevator the group was once again amazed at the strange decorum, it was just so out of place with what you would imagine from a mage. There was a mirror, buttons to the side and even a little meter that showed what floor they were on, Jason pressed the button labelled number thirteen and they waited in silence, staring at their own reflection as the elevator slowly made its way up the tower.

After an unknown amount of time the lift dinged, revealing something totally unexpected. A penthouse like office, (Jason was really getting tired of offices by now) and a giant one at that, it also had a bar of to the left, a giant window covering the entirety of the back wall, giving an unparalleled view of the entire city, a desk so big you couldn’t even reach across it and a luxurious leather chair.

Death was sitting in that chair.

“Jason!” Death cried as he stood up. “It’s so good to see you man!”

Jason grinned “Didn’t expect to see you in a place like this. You look older.”

Death raised his eyebrows. He had indeed changed his appearance, giving himself something more accommodating for his new job, but nothing as drastic as Jason.

“I should say the same to you, what’s with the beard?”

Jason laughed. “I always wanted to have one.”

“And who’s hiding behind you?” Death asked, motioning to the kids behind Jason.

“Oh these? My adopted nephew and nieces. Kids? Say high to Mister Death.”

A chorus of hello’s greeted Death.

“But where are my manners? Come! Sit, sit.” Death motioned to the couches in the middle of the room, he himself plopping down on one of them.

“Now what happened?” he said as he made a drink appear in hand.

“Well after I left with Peyton here to go to their house I had a brain wave, what if I made one of the poorest families into the richest and most influential noble house? Slowly expanding their influence before taking over the entire kingdom?”

“City-state” Death replied.

“What?”

“We’re in a city state, there are kingdoms but we’re not one of them.” Death continued.

“Huh” Jason thought about that for a moment. “Do we have that Japan thing going on with the elves?”

“The Feudalism exchange of hostages? Yeah, pretty big deal.” Death replied.

“What about the Dwarfs?” Jason asked.

“Tighter than a virgin” Death replied.

The girls around the room went red but didn’t gasp.

Jason frowned. “Come on man. Not in front of the kids.”

“Getting soft are we?” Death chuckled, but nevertheless he took a sip from his drink. “There, if we swear now it will just convert the sound to something more pleasing for their ears.”

“Thanks, so what happened to you?” Jason asked as he motioned with his hand at the room.

“Well, after you left me I drank myself to oblivion before leaving to go to the red light district, I fucked so many bitches you wouldn’t believe.” Death chuckled “I passed out, later finding myself press ganged into some sort of cult, I was gonna be a sacrifice but I was woken up as they wanted me to be awake when they were about to carve my organs out, for the pain and stuff. Well I ripped apart the chains and went on a murderous rampage, turns out they’re really into that stuff so I was kind of looked upon as if I was their god or something.” Death chuckled to himself “After that I hung around, turns out they’re great guys who knew how to run parties. They’re all obscenely rich as well, with most of them being quite high up the power ladder, no Royalty unfortunately.”

Jason let out a long whistle. “I’m impressed”

Death shrugged modestly “What can I say, I’m amazing.”

Jason laughed at that “Yes you are, but that isn’t the reason we came to visit you.”

Death nodded along “Of course, what can I help you with?”

“Is this really a Magic Academy?”

“Yeah, my friends gave me the position of Arch-Mage, kind of like the principal. But I get to do whatever I want as long as I keep making high quality mages. The actual campus is out in the country, you know, magical discharge and all that.”

Jason thought a bit “How bad is the indoctrination?”

“Not that bad, aside from unswerving loyalty to the City they’re left alone, mostly.”

“What about the students?” Jason asked.

Death snorted “A bunch of self-entitled pricks with gold coming out of their ass, they always bully the scholarship students.”

“Why don’t you stop it?”

“Those that survive it are the only really capable mages we actually make, they have balls of steel and are the ones we send out at war times.”

“What about those that don’t?” Jason asked quite seriously now.

“They turn into slobbering dogs that follow their tormentors as loyal servants for the rest of their life.” Death commented casually.

Jason sat back thinking for a moment. “I was planning to enrol Nasha to your school you know.”

Death shrugged “I don’t think you should.”

“What should I do now?” Jason asked, more rhetorically than anything.

“Get a private tutor.”

Jason blinked at that “That’s a great idea actually.”

Death took a sip from his drink “I know, I came up with it.”

“Any recommendations?” Jason asked.

Death put down the drink on the coffee table. “Do you want morality or power?”

“Morality” Jason said immediately.

“I know a guy, handsome fella, fresh from graduation, he’d probably sweep your girl off her feet.” Death grinned.

“Would he grope?” Jason looked at Death suspiciously.

“Not without your permission.” Death said, trying to hold in a laugh.

“How good is he?” Jason said letting the topic slide for now.

“Magic wise? He’s alright, won a few tournaments, finished top three in the cohort. How progressive is he? Light years ahead of the entire magic community.”

“How so?”

“He doesn’t think women are only useful as breeding cattle.”

“Wow, we’re that far behind?” Jason looked stunned.

Death shrugged his shoulders. “It’s your world man, you made it.”

“Touché” Jason smiled. “What do you know of the army’s and noble’s schools?”

“They’re basically the same, except they provide different extra-curricular activities.” Death replied.

“Like?” Jason asked

“One lets you learn music, the other trains you how to crawl through mud and shit undetected.”

Jason chuckled at that. “No but seriously.”

Death nodded, “The Noble one is excellent, great staff, great students, the principal is part of our cult but we make sure to only sacrifice people from the poorer districts.”

Jason smiled “I’ll take it, and the other?”

“It’s literally army training, lots of physical stuff and grunt work, but they don’t leave out the theory, they won’t teach you the intricacies of quantum physics but you’ll be able to count the number of corpses on the battlefield.”

“How old do you have to be in enrol the school?”

“Sixteen.” Death replied.

Jason suddenly turned to Peyton, “Peyt how old are you.”

“Eleven and a half” Peyton replied promptly.

“Damn.”

“I suggest another tutor,” Death added,

“Who?” Jason asked

“Woman, twenty five, I take it you want the kid to be strong?” Death asked.

Jason nodded,

“She can teach letters and numbers, basic science, she can also teach swordsmanship and survival.”

“Elaborate on survival.” Jason said.

“Imagine a training montage as the kid becomes more and more badass until he becomes an ultimate warrior of herculean strength.”

Jason was impressed. “Anything else?”

Death grinned “She got a nice ass.”

Jason laughed, “Thanks man, send me a message when you get the details ironed out.” Jason said, standing up. “Alright kids, let’s get going.”

Everyone got up and headed to the elevator. “Thanks Mister Death, sir.” Peyton called back.

Death chuckled “Don’t thank me yet kid, I’ll be seeing you around.”