Free Web NovelChapter 42: The One Who Wields The Shadows
"YOU BASTARD!"
Elias’s voice hit him from behind.
Arthur kept walking.
’HAHAHA.’ Vexis appeared at his shoulder, both fists raised, absolutely delighted. ’SERVES HIM RIGHT. DID YOU SEE HIS FACE? DID YOU SEE—’
Arthur pressed the relic stone.
The cafeteria disappeared.
Class A corridor.
He waited outside the door. Leaned against the wall. Listened to the muffled sound of a class wrapping up from the other side.
Should be ending about now.
A minute passed. Then the door opened and students filtered out and Cael came through last, bag over one shoulder, eyes already finding Arthur before Arthur moved.
Arthur tapped his shoulder lightly.
"I need to talk to you. Not here."
Cael looked at him. "Where."
"The estate."
Cael’s carriage was outside.
Arthur looked at it. Then at the road he would have been walking if he’d come alone.
I genuinely miss having a car. Not even a good one. Just anything with wheels that belonged to me.
He got in.
Vexis’s room. Cael dropped his bag and leaned against the desk with his arms crossed. Roz was on the window frame. The afternoon light was going orange at the edges.
Arthur removed his jacket.
"I have information about elven tears use at the culmination." He sat on the edge of the bed. "I think a student already has a vial."
Cael tilted his head. "Who."
"Elias Ignion."
A pause.
"That doesn’t fit," Cael said. "From what I’ve seen of him he’s not the type to use a shortcut."
"I know. But I have a source I trust." Arthur looked at Roz briefly. "And I need someone to confirm it. Your estate is near the Ignion estate."
Cael was quiet.
"You want me to scout him."
"Yes."
More quiet. The specific kind where Cael was running something over and not showing any of it on the surface.
"Look." Arthur stood. "If a drugged mage participates in the first format the damage won’t just be to him. Other students will be in that coliseum. He could hurt people who have nothing to do with any of this." He crossed the room and put a hand on Cael’s shoulder. "I need your help. Just confirm whether he has it or not."
Cael looked at Arthur’s hand on his shoulder.
Then he picked up his bag.
"You’ll hear from me tomorrow."
"Wait what does that—"
"I’ll update you with my findings."
Arthur stepped forward.
"Cael. Man. Seriously. Thank you. I love you."
Cael stopped walking.
The room went very still.
’WHAT.’ Vexis dropped down directly between them. Both arms out. ’NO. NO THAT IS NOT— CAEL THAT IS NOT ME. I AM NOT— I LIKE WOMEN. I HAVE ALWAYS LIKED WOMEN—’
"As a friend!" Arthur raised both hands. "I love you as a friend. That’s all I meant. Haha. Friend."
Cael looked at him for one long second.
Then turned and walked out.
Arthur stepped into the corridor after him.
"Just a friend! Okay? Friends say that! It’s normal!"
Cael kept walking.
’WOMEN!’ Vexis shouted after him. ’I LIKE WOMEN!’
His voice echoed down the empty corridor and came back at them.
Arthur stood in the doorway and watched Cael disappear around the corner.
Then he walked back in and closed the door and lay down on the bed face-first.
"Master."
Roz hopped off the window frame onto the armrest.
"The trace from when you bumped into that kid." He looked at Arthur. "I confirmed it. Faint but it was there. He’s already taken some."
Arthur turned his face sideways on the pillow.
"How much?"
"Not a full dose. A preliminary amount. Enough to prime the core." Roz’s voice was even. "The rest he takes tomorrow would hit a system that’s already been prepared for it."
Arthur closed his eyes.
That’s worse than a full dose taken cold. His core would accept it faster.
He pushed his shadow network outward from where he lay. Slow. Spreading across the estate floor by floor, anchor by anchor, feeling for the edges of his range.
His chest started aching before he hit 400 meters.
By 500 it became something he had to breathe through.
He pulled it back.
"That’s my limit for now," he said.
The ache faded slowly.
Roz didn’t say anything.
Arthur sat up. Looked at the window. The last of the orange light was going.
"I don’t want to bring anyone down with me tomorrow." He looked at his hands. "Theodore. You saw him. He’s picking up mercenary shifts at a tavern for credits. This is his actual shot at being noticed. At something changing for him." He looked at Roz. "I don’t want to ruin it."
"You won’t." Roz said it flat. Not reassurance. Just a statement.
’Just do what you always do.’ Vexis drifted down beside him. His voice was at the register it got to sometimes now. The one without performance behind it. ’Be weird. Use the shadow thing.’
I can’t. Not openly.
’Why.’
Arthur looked at the ceiling.
I want to control what people know I can do. The moment the wrong person understands what this magic is capable of I lose every advantage I have. I want to decide what they see.
Vexis looked at him.
His face did something. Not words. Just the expression of someone who had been told twice now that Arthur wanted things for him too and still hadn’t found anywhere to put that information.
Then: ’Why are you always spouting nonsense.’
He drifted away toward the window.
Arthur watched him go.
"You’re thinking about hiding it," Roz said.
"Yes."
The room was quiet.
Outside the window the city was doing what it always did. The last of the light went and the dark came in and the shadows across the floor deepened and settled and stayed.
Arthur looked at them.
Then he lay back down and looked at the ceiling and let the night come.
Roz stepped forward on the armrest. Small and unhurried. frёewebnoѵēl.com
"Your magic is yours brat." He said it the way he said things that had been true for a long time. "People will misread it. Call it black magic. Try to categorize it into something they already understand."
His red eyes caught the last of the light from the window. "They will never replicate it. They will never understand it. Because it came from you and there is no one else who thinks the way you think."
He looked at Arthur directly. Grinned.
"You are the one who wields the shadows."
