Chương 35: Revenge

The crowd had formed a circle around them by the time the second punch landed, and by the third, the younger boy had stopped trying to shield his face and started fighting back. He was not good at it. His arms were too slow, his stance was wrong, and his mana flared in uneven bursts that told me he was channelling on panic rather than training.

But he was fighting, which meant Kyren was no longer beating a boy on the ground; he was in a fight with a mage who was getting desperate enough to use magic in the middle of a staging area full of two thousand students and their shadows. Kyren seemed to welcome the escalation.

A spell was already forming in his off hand, orange and bright, Vashren fire, and the younger boy's hands were crackling with something unstable and blue that I did not recognise, and the thirty-pace radius around the two of them was about to become a very bad place to be standing. Then a woman dropped out of the sky.

She landed between them with one foot forward, her dark robes barely moving from the impact, and her right hand caught Kyren's wrist while her left caught the younger boy's collar, and both of them stopped. The spell in Kyren's hand died immediately, and the blue crackling in the younger boy's fingers went out as if someone had closed a valve on it. That was impressive, you needed an exceptional control over mana as well as a much bigger pool to cancel another mage's spell like this.

Which is why it did not surprise me when the crowd gasped. Several people said a name at the same time, hushed and sharp." Professor Ashara."" The Scarlet Steel." Oh, I knew that name. I studied its bearer. Ashara Vel, the woman who had held the Greymarch Pass alone against a barbarian incursion for eleven hours while the Crown's forces regrouped behind her, and who had, six years later, dismantled a rogue Vashren war cell in the southern provinces with four students and no backup.

She had been offered a seat on the King's Council twice and had turned it down both times because, as the story went, she found politics less interesting than teaching. She was shorter than I had expected. The red hair was darker than the illustrations made it, closer to copper than scarlet, falling in heavy waves past her shoulders. Her face had the sort of stillness to it that reminded me of Bellos.

She released both of them at the same time, making Kyren stumble back a step and the younger boy collapse onto his knees.

"Explain." Four academy guards were already pushing through the crowd behind her, taking positions at the edges of the circle, their hands on their weapons. Kyren straightened his robe and pointed at the younger boy without looking at him.

"This boy stole my pendant. A family heirloom, sealed to my bloodline. I cast a tracking glyph and found it in his trunk. Open it. You will find it inside." The younger boy looked up from his knees. His right eye was already swelling shut, his nose was bent at an angle it should not have been bent at, and blood was running freely from both nostrils down the front of his tunic. He was crying.

"I didn't— I didn't take anything, Professor, I swear, I don't even know who he is, I just got here, my trunk has been on the cart since—""Open the trunk," Kyren said. One of the guards crouched beside the trunk near the bollard and undid the clasp. He reached inside, moved a few items aside, and pulled out a silver medallion on a short chain. The metal pulsed faintly with a residual glow from Kyren's tracking glyph.

"See?! That is mine," Kyren said.

"My grandmother's seal! Vashren-marked, blood-bound. Ask any appraiser in this kingdom whose it is!" The younger boy stared at the medallion with his one working eye.

"I don't— that's not— I have never seen that in my life, I swear, Professor, someone must have— I don't know how it—""Enough." Professor Ashara took the medallion from the guard's hand, turned it once, examined the seal, and handed it back to the guard without comment. Then she looked down at the boy on his knees.

"If you took this item, say so now. A confession at this stage will be treated as a disciplinary matter and handled within the academy. If you deny it and a formal investigation finds otherwise, you will lose your place at Sartheon. There will be no appeal. Do you understand what I am telling you?"

"I didn't take it!" The words came out cracked and wet.

"Professor, please, I swear on my family's name, I have never seen that pendant before in my life, I don't know how it got in my trunk, I don't know, I—""He is lying," Kyren said, flatly.

"I am not!" Professor Ashara's eyes remained on the boy for another long second, measuring him, before she finally turned.

"Perhaps," she said.

"Or perhaps not. At present, I know only that the pendant was found in his trunk. I do not yet know how it came to be there." Kyren's jaw tightened.

"It is blood-bound to my famil!. My tracking glyph led straight to him."

"And that is evidence," Ashara said.

"Not a verdict." She turned to the guards.

"Take the pendant into academy custody. Record the names, Houses, and statements of both students. Open a formal inquiry immediately. I want the luggage handled, the route of arrival checked, and every witness in this circle identified before the hour is out." The younger boy looked up at her as if he was not sure he had heard correctly. Ashara's gaze shifted to him.

"You are now under investigation, you will continue your normal schedule and remain available to the academy at all times until this matter is resolved. You will not leave campus without permission, or interfere with witnesses. You will also not touch your belongings until they have been examined. Is that clear?"

"Y-yes, Professor." Her gaze shifted to Kyren.

"As for you: twenty points forfeited for public violence, and forty more for abusive conduct and the use of insulting language toward a fellow student and for bypassing established channels of grievance. You will also complete forty hours of disciplinary assignment before year's end. Fail, and I will recommend your expulsion."

"But professor he stole my p—" Professor Ashara stared at him without further word, and he shut it.

"Now," she said, turning back to the guards, "carry out my orders and fetch a healer immediately for the student." The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"H-he didn't take it!" My voice came out louder than I meant it to. It came out loud enough that Ashara stopped mid-sentence, Kyren turned his head, the guards turned their heads, the younger boy turned his one working eye toward me, and every student in the circle who had been holding their breath released it in a single collective exhale. Rael's hand found my elbow.

"Hey," he murmured, close enough that only I could hear." What are you doing, Aridis?" Professor Ashara turned to face me fully. Her eyes moved down from my face to my boots and back up again, unhurried.

"Aridis, is it?" Murmurs started before the second syllable had left her mouth. I could feel them moving through the crowd behind me and around me. I did not need to hear the individual voices to know what they were saying, because it was always the same: Aridis this, Axiom that, gasps, stares, whispers aimed at the back of my head by people who thought I could not feel them.

I was starting to wonder whether I would ever walk into a room without it rearranging itself around me, and for someone so uncomfortable with this kind of attention, I seemed to have a genuine talent for ending up in the centre of it. That thought did not make me feel better.

"I asked you a question, student."

"Oh— yes. Yes, my lady. My name is Howl Aridis, I—""We are at school, student. You may address me by my title." My face went hot.

"Yes, Professor. Sorry, Professor." Rael stepped forward beside me, his voice louder.

"Professor Ashara, please forgive him, Howl was actually in conversation with us when the incident occurred, and I believe he simply spoke louder than he—""I think Aridis can speak for himself, don't you think, Solenne?" Rael's mouth closed.

"... Right, Professor." His hand found my elbow again, and I heard him murmur, barely moving his lips:"Get yourself out of this. I cannot help you." Eydric's voice came from my other side, quieter than Rael's, and steadier.

"Just tell her what you saw. It will be alright." I took a deep breath.

"Professor, I saw what happened. The boy did not steal the pendant. It was taken from Kyren's case and placed in the boy's trunk without his knowledge." Ashara's eyes narrowed a fraction.

"By whom?" I turned and looked into the crowd. Dozens of faces looked back at me, tense, curious, some of them even leaning away slightly as my gaze passed over them, but I was not looking at any of them. I was looking for something smaller, that moved at ankle height and laughed at a pitch only I could hear. And soon enough, I found it.

It was sitting in a tree at the edge of the staging area, perched on a low branch about fifteen feet above the crowd, its too-many limbs folded around itself, watching the chaos it had made with an expression I could only describe as delighted. So I pointed.

"There. In that tree." Every head in the circle turned upward and looked at the branch I was pointing at, yet only seemed to find leaves, bark, and empty air. The spirit's delight curdled. Its head swivelled toward me, and the small dark eyes that had been watching the crowd with amusement a second ago were now fixed on my face with a very different expression. It frowned.

"What are you pointing at, student? A tree?"

"No, Professor. There is a spirit sitting on that branch. It is the one who took the pendant from Kyren's case and put it in the boy's trunk. I watched it do both." The crowd reacted before the professor could. A ripple of murmurs that was louder than the Aridis ripple had been.

"Are you gifted, student?"

"Yes, Professor." She opened her mouth to say something else, but the branch moved. The spirit had stood up. Its small body was rigid, its limbs locked at the joints, and the delight and the frown were both gone. It was looking directly at me, its mouth opened, and a voice came out of it that every person in the staging area heard, because the spirit had decided, in its fury, to stop being invisible." YOU DARE?!"

It materialised in a burst of sickly green light, and the crowd screamed as the spirit launched off the branch straight at me, even faster than the Thornwood beasts had been, and I was already pulling mana into my hands when a sharp clean sound cut through the air beside me and the spirit stopped. It hung in the air about six feet from my face, frozen inside a perfect transparent cube that had not been there a fraction of a second ago.

The edges of the cube glowed faintly with a pale blue light, and the spirit slammed against one wall, then another, then a third, shrieking, its small fists hammering against surfaces it could not break." Release me! RELEAAASE ME! I will flay the skin from your bones, I will—""A gobelyn." said the professor. Professor Ashara turned to the younger boy, who was still on his knees with blood on his tunic.

"Have you done something recently to offend a spirit? Damaged a shrine, disturbed a nesting ground, taken something from a place you should not have taken it from?"" —I WILL HOLLOW YOUR BONES AND WEAR THEM AS RINGS, BOY!" The gobelyn was still thrashing inside the cube, its attention fixed entirely on me now, cycling through threats with a creativity I might have found impressive under different circumstances.

"I— no, Professor, I don't— I don't think so? I mean, on the road here, there was a small clearing where I stopped to eat, and there were some stones arranged in a circle, and I might have… well, I moved one of them to sit down, but I put it back! I—""So you moved a wardstone."

"I— it was just a small one, I didn't think—""Gobelyns are vindictive spirits, student. They hold grudges over slights most humans would not even recognise as slights. Moving a stone in a circle they have claimed is, to a gobelyn, roughly equivalent to someone walking into your home and rearranging your furniture while you watch." She glanced at the cube. The gobelyn had shifted from threats against me to threats against the boy, which seemed to confirm her theory.

"As for Aridis," she said, without looking at me, "it appears the creature is angry with him for a different reason. He looked at it without its permission, which, for a spirit, is a serious breach of etiquette."" YES! YES IT IS! TELL HIM! TELL THE WRETCHED LITTLE—""Quiet." The cube pulsed once, and the gobelyn's voice cut out mid-word. Its mouth kept moving behind the transparent walls, furious and silent. Professor Ashara studied it for another second, then turned back to the guards.

"Add this to the formal inquiry. The gobelyn's testimony, if it can be compelled, will be included in the evidence. I will need statements from Aridis, Vashren, and the victim before the week is out. They will be summoned when the time comes." She looked out at the crowd that had not moved an inch since the gobelyn had materialised.

"The rest of you. This is not a theatre. First-years, make your way to the main hall for path selection. Returning students, you know where you are meant to be. This is the first day of the academic year, not a festival, and you have a great deal more to do today than stand in a circle. Move."

The crowd immediately broke as students peeled away in twos and threes, glancing back over their shoulders while the guards moved in to handle the gobelyn's cube and the younger boy was helped to his feet by one of the healers who had arrived during the commotion. Rael fell into step beside me as we started walking toward the main hall with the rest of the first-years and our shadows.

"So. Spirit Sight. You have Spirit Sight."

"... Yes."

"And you did not think to mention this at any point during the week we spent together in a forest that had spirits who could have told us where the flag was?"

"It happened after. During the break."

"Of course it did." Rael shook his head.

"The looks, the title, the mana, the score, the height, and now he sees spirits. Eydric, are you hearing this?" Eydric, walking on my other side, let out a small laugh.

"Come on, Howl. Why are you so perfect?"

"I am not—" Something suddenly hit me hard between the shoulder blades with enough weight and intent behind it that I stumbled two steps to the right and had to catch myself before I went into Rael. By the time I turned around, Kyren Vashren was already past us, his Shadow a pace behind him, neither of them looking back or slowing down. Just walking toward the main hall as if nothing had happened.

"Well," Rael said, watching Kyren's back disappear into the flow of students.

"That is going to be a problem."

"But why? I cleared the boy's name. If anything, Kyren should be—" Rael chuckled.

"Should be what? Grateful?" It was then Eydric who spoke before I could answer.

"You told a crowd of hundreds of students that Kyren Vashren, the highest-scoring candidate of last year's cohort, attacked a fellow student without cause. You did it in front of a professor, the academy guards, and every first-year he was about to spend the next three years trying to command respect from. That is the problem, Howl. You essentially humiliated him publicly."

I opened my mouth to say that humiliating him had not been my intention, because it had not been, and that I had only spoken up because the boy was about to possibly lose his place at the academy for something a gobelyn had done, which was true, and that any reasonable person in Kyren's position would have been relieved to learn the truth before the situation got worse. But I did not say that.

"... That is not fair." Rael patted my shoulder.

"Welcome to the real world, Howl."