Chương 63: Stolen Piece

Ryland was a little nonplussed by his discovery. Or lack thereof. Going through all the trouble of getting into the time-gated restricted zone of the Department of Herbology and Potions only to find a cheeky Glyph of Baiting awaiting him. One powerful enough to fool even his Glyph of Questing.

"So hold on," Tyra said.

"Whatever you were looking for isn't present. Instead, a high-Tier Glyph replicated its signature and tricked you into thinking your target was here." She had jumped to conclusions Ryland himself was only just starting to entertain. Because yes. Why else would someone go to the trouble of using a Tier [20] Glyph of Baiting? What other reason could there be besides distracting him?

"The implications of this are… concerning," Ryland said. The High Academ's expression mirrored his consternation.

"They are. Someone knows very specifically about your search and acted accordingly." She squinted.

"Perhaps multiple someones. The effort and foreknowledge required…"

"Are you suspecting people inside the academy are involved, ma'am?" Sint asked.

"Few can access the restricted zone without proper authorization. Even you with your rifts, Ryland, would find it no easy matter." Ryland wasn't quite certain about that, though he could freely admit it wouldn't be a simple matter. Which was good. He had been counting on that level of security to keep the piece of himself safe. Except, it was now gone, if it had even been here in the first place. To have been fooled by a Glyph of Baiting… his confusion was now accompanied by slight embarrassment.

Tyra squinted at the pedestal's marker.

"Ryland… this says it stored a Grade-5 ancient treasure. That's the highest classification we've got for a resource. Incredibly dangerous, impossibly potent, requiring passage through multiple layers of red-tape to use without repercussions…" Sint's leonine pupils thinned and her breath grew a little shallow. Ryland clicked his tongue.

"You flatter me too much, High Academ." Tyra stared at him.

"What was it that you were even looking for?" she asked with befuddled wonder.

"Why is it so important that someone would go out of their way to trick you?" Ryland took a deep breath. It was time to elucidate.

"Back when I was Sint's age, I was enthralled by the idea of traversing great distances because I believed that long-range movement was one of the fundamental freedoms holding all of magekind back, and I sought to correct that via my research and experimentation, which succeeded but had an unfortunately powerful drawback of splintering my body into a thousand pieces—""Slow down, my good man," Tyra said.

"I've run out of breath just listening to you. I can only imagine what you're feeling." Ryland raised his eyebrows.

"I'm not feeling anything in particular, for I don't need to breathe." Sint and the High Academ both stared at Ryland. Ah. This had to be another of those moments where he revealed something that held far more weight to others than he realized.

"Anyway," he said after coughing into his hand.

"I suspect a piece of me was here, because the Glyph of Baiting was cast to replicate the actual target of my search."

"A piece of yourself…?" Tyra asked. She shook her head.

"How are you sure?"

"One of my self-Inscriptions suggests the Glyph is recent. In other words, it wasn't moved. But we can confirm. [Rewind]." Ryland's Soul Glyph of Time anchored the brilliant spell circle that reverted the temporal reality around them to his targeted time. Sint and Tyra both gasped a little as the world around them shifted and twisted, sounds and shapes warping. Time flew back.

Ryland had inserted an extra Subglyph of Enmeshing to ensure his [Rewind] complied with their current circumstance without messing with the Time Gloves.

"There, you see?" Ryland said. His spell, which was a far stronger version than the one used at the vault with the Calamity Vestige, essentially made them feel like holographic interlopers in the far more realistic fake reality. A reality that showed a suspiciously cloaked figure approaching the same pedestal they were standing before. All three of them remained hushed as the suspect took a tiny vial from the pedestal, replacing it with an old-fashioned Glyphic Rune.

As the figure left, the rune cracked, and the bright, red-gold Glyph of Baiting formed right where they saw it in actuality.

"Your suspicions were entirely founded." Tyra sounded almost underwhelmed as the spell's effect ended.

"And proven extremely easily…"

"Sadly, we still don't know who that was," Ryland said. Tyra began leading them away.

"There is an easy remedy to that." They headed back the way they had arrived. The High Academ moved with purpose rather than confusion, and it became clear why moments later.

"You return empty-handed!" the old Archmage's ghost crowed upon seeing them.

"Ha! I was right to believe you possess naught of what it takes to handle the treasures stored within these honoured halls." Tyra was clearly in no mood to entertain the Remnant's eccentricities.

"Answer me, Archmage. Did you allow someone else through recently? Someone within the last day or two?"

"Day or two? How am I supposed to count days when no time passes in this chamber? Do you see a window anywhere nearby through which I might glean the movements of the sun, the moon, or the stars? Do you—""This is urgent. A Grade-5 treasure was stolen. A treasure you were supposed to protect." The Remnant stood straighter as he bristled.

"Impossible. Nothing can be stolen from under my purview. You lie about the theft." Tyra seemed to realize she had mischaracterized what had happened, so quickly amended herself.

"Someone rather shady took something we were seeking. We suspect it was performed with nefarious intentions. So please, tell us what you know." If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. The old man stroked his beard thoughtfully.

"I did allow someone through earlier. Sprightly fellow. His cloak and gait were indeed suspicious, but he passed the test rather admirably and with a reassuring familiarity, so I had no reason to deny him entry."

"Thank you." Sint looked like thanking was the last thing on her mind, but she remained silent. They headed back the way they had come. Ryland could feel the old man's satisfied smirk prickling the back of his neck. An odd contrast to how he had been before he had passed away. The Realmbreaker Wars had changed him, both hardening him while also mellowing him out in other areas. Tyra raised her gloves once they reached the end of the restricted zone.

"I'm about to get us back to real time. Is there anything else you need here?" Ryland deliberated for a moment.

"No, it should be alright." Tyra nodded. Sint looked troubled, though, which Ryland understood. The situation was concerning. If one knew enough to steal a piece of himself, and he was starting to suspect just who might have done this, then their plans had to be alarmingly nefarious. Yet, like most things Ryland encountered, he couldn't exactly force himself to show the requisite amount of trepidation. He hadn't lied to Tyra about challenges, after all. That didn't mean he was uncaring.

A strong part of him was determined to recover what was his and prevent anything untoward from occurring, which was undoubtedly his adversary's main goal. Just as it had been with the Incursion. [Rewind] had confirmed the theft had occurred barely a day ago. Suspicious timing, considering the Incursion and its master, the theft of the Vestige, and now a piece of himself too. Tyra tapped her glove.

"We can figure out who it was once we get back." It didn't take very long at all. Just as with Ryland's spell, just as their first traversal through time, they soon returned back to the familiar timestream they inhabited, one that wasn't edged with a strange light. The weird sense of displacement he had felt in the restricted zone was now gone. The High Academ didn't waste a single moment. Their reappearance had drawn the attention of the attendant who had brought the gloves.

"Bring the register, please," Tyra commanded in a tone that brooked nothing but immediate obedience. The Head of the Department was unleashed.

"Don't tarry." The attendant nodded, then dashed off, returning before long with the register that held the record of everyone who had entered the restricted zone. Ryland and Tyra briefly conferred about the exact time his [Rewind] had shown them.

"Aha." Tyra tapped a spot in the ledger. A wrinkling frown clouded her brow.

"This is… Academ Folis?" The name certainly didn't ring any bells in Ryland's head, so he looked to the High Academ for further context. Unfortunately, she appeared just as nonplussed.

"This can't be a mistake," Tyra said.

"No one else was accessing the restricted zone around the same time. And there would be no point in him taking the Time Gloves and handing them off to someone else because only a few approved Academs know how to operate them. So everything points to him being the culprit." The attendant confirmed that this Academ Folis had indeed been hidden within a cloak with a hood drawn tight enough to hide his face. Even more proof that Folis had pilfered a piece of Ryland.

Ryland decided against conjecturing why too hard for now. The real question was how the culprit of the Incursion and the Vestige was linked to this professor.

"Let's go see what our dear Academ has to say for himself," Tyra said. Ryland wasn't so certain.

"If he is still present within the academy. For all we know, he may have been asked to retrieve his theft to take it someplace else."

"He, um, can't," Sint said.

"Academ Folis is supposed to be in class right now." Ryland and the High Academ both turned to her, which led to her whiskers bristling. Now that was a strange development. He couldn't have been thinking of using it as an ingredient, right? Because why use a Glyph of Baiting to trick Ryland, then?

"Did you memorize the new semester's routine or something?" Tyra asked. Sint flushed a little.

"His was one of the classes I'd have needed to take if I hadn't shown proof of my advanced credit placement."

"Well, let us go see if our shady Academ is present."

"Perhaps we can rift there?" Ryland suggested. Tyra and Sint both looked dubious at the suggestion. He didn't blame them. Rifting took a toll on one's body when one wasn't used to it, as poor Viren had discovered a few weeks ago. But Ryland considered it important in their current circumstances. The situation could spiral into urgency. That Glyph of Baiting could have been a distraction while something worse was building. As such, better to err on the side of caution.

"Are you certain that's necessary?" Tyra asked.

"No," Ryland said.

"I'm merely hoping we're not too late." The potential for danger was implied well enough for the High Academ to finally nod in approval, if begrudgingly.

"To be fair," he said as his Soul Glyph of Rift materialized.

"You don't have to come with me. Merely state where the Academ's class is supposed to occur, and I can get myself there to check things for myself." The High Academ shook her head, frizzy hair waving about.

"No, that won't be necessary. I have a duty to see to. Let's go together." Sint was the last holdout, but she quickly professed that she had no qualms about rifting across space and time, despite her body language implying the complete opposite." [Dimensional Barricade]," Ryland incanted, creating safeguards against rifting for his companions.

"That should help."

"We'll be fine." Tyra turned to her protégé with a smile.

"Right, Sint?"

"Undoubtedly," she said, though her eyes screamed not at all.

"Then let us proceed." Ryland took a moment to understand the Academ's classroom location. His Soul Glyph of Aegis was replaced by his Soul Glyph of Rift." [Translocate]." A gold-edged black rift opened up before them. A slight trepidation tried reaching for Ryland's heart, but he shoved aside the feeling. He might not know how long this had been brewing. He didn't know what the ultimate goal of the perpetrators were. He wasn't sure why this was all occurring right this moment.

What Ryland did know, however, was that he wasn't about to let anything happen to Arcoryx Academy or anyone within its halls.

They stepped through the rent in spacetime to arrive at their next destination. While Ryland was perfectly fine as ever, both Sint and Tyra struggled despite his assistance. Sint was breathing harshly, eyes wide and panicked, pupils thin, whole body in fight-or-flight mode. All while she appeared queasy green. Meanwhile, the High Academ was clearly trying to suppress her natural reaction to translocation. Her body was wracked with shivers, but she remained admirably focused on their goal.

"He's…" She looked around, returning the jaw-dropped expression of all the students with a flat but inquisitive stare.

"Not here…" That was concerning. If he wasn't here, then where else could he be? Where had he taken Ryland's piece? A quick look around assured him that the High Academ's conclusion was correct. The "classroom" was more of an open-air affair, a small grove set with desks and chairs for the students with a clear area at the front where their teacher was supposed to have delivered instruction. It was conspicuously lacking a teacher just then.

"Did your Academ ever arrive?" Tyra asked. Her words were barked out with such authority, several students in the front row of seats jumped to reply.

"No, High Academ," a young woman said.

"Academ Folis never came today, ma'am," said a gangly young man. Ryland noted that they were all graduate students. While he recognized some of them from the Entrance Trials, all of them appeared to know exactly who he was, going by their surprised but knowing looks.

"His office, Ryland," Tyra said urgently.

"Let's check there." She faced the class.

"You are dismissed for today. There will be a make-up class. You will be notified about it. That's all." Ryland was already casting another [Translocate] after some direction from Sint. As soon as they stepped through their second rift, Ryland felt it. An oppressive energy pulsating in the air. An otherworldly presence spiking out an aura that was driving near-fatal impulses straight to the souls of everyone who was present. It felt like space was on the verge of collapsing, time was seconds away from petrifying.

And all of it was coming from behind the door before which they had just appeared. Ryland recalled the sensations very acutely from the last time he had been in High Academ Tyra's presence.

"I'm afraid we're a little too late."

"Is this…" Tyra didn't even finish her sentence, unable—or perhaps, refusing —to comprehend what was going on. Ryland slowly nodded against the spiritual pressure pounding out from behind the closed door. How much harsher would it be if the door was opened?

"The piece of me we were looking for… is nearly another Calamity."