Falling with folded wing.., p.32
Falling with Folded Wings 3: A LitRPG Progression Fantasy, page 32
Smiling at the memories, Olivia felt her eyes grow heavier, and sleep pulled her into oblivion. Though she dreamed quite a lot, when she woke to the hushed conversations of her cohort getting ready for their first class, they fled her mind, and she had no recollection of any of them.
“Mmff,” she grunted, rolling over onto her back and pulling her pillow into a ball beneath her head. “Is it time to get up already?”
“Guess you’ve been getting lazy in your time away from the academy, huh?” Adaida teased, coming over to sit on the side of her bed. “Must be nice not to have to go to most of your classes!”
“Well, I have to go sit with Oylla-dak while we interview people vying to be my new taskmaster!” Olivia scooted up, both enjoying and feeling the familiar pit in her stomach at Adaida’s proximity.
Just as she opened her mouth to say something, a piercing scream sounded from the hallway. Suddenly, Olivia’s pleasant, fuzzy demeanor shifted, and she veritably flew out of bed, her nightgown-clothed body blazing like a white-blue torch.
“Get back!” she commanded Adaida and Veena, the only other members of her cohort near the door, then she summoned a ball of crackling blue plasma and pulled the door ajar, peering into the hallway.
A student, Ulya ap’Tine from Wood cohort, was standing with her back to the wall, a hand over her mouth, her entire body shaking while she gazed upon the scene of a slaughter. Olivia stepped into the hallway and took the girl’s wrist, guiding her into the dorm to Adaida and Veena; then she went back into the hall, pulling the door closed behind her.
Some of the other dormitory doors opened a few inches while other students peered into the hallway, trying to see what the scream was about. They quickly closed them when they saw Olivia’s torchlike figure standing amidst the carnage, and what carnage it was! The remains of a female student were strewn up and down the hallway. Viscera and blood liberally painted the walls and floor, and even the ceiling dripped with the fleshy matter.
Olivia wouldn’t have been able to identify the remains as a person if not for the perfectly intact headset purposefully in the center of the hall. Olivia studied the floor, noting the sprays of arterial blood and the footprints left by Ulya as she’d stumbled into the scene.
“How did she get so far into it before she realized what she’d come upon?”
Olivia carefully tiptoed through the mess, looking up and down the hallway but not seeing any sign of the aggressor. Realizing the authorities weren’t anywhere near yet, Olivia moved back to the center of the slaughter and the decapitated head that sat there, surveying the scene of its own massacre.
“Poor thing,” she said, squatting down to peer into the cloudy violet eyes. The victim had long white hair, the ends of which were painted crimson by the blood on the floor. Smooth, pale blue skin and tiny antennae told the story of the girl’s heritage—part Ardeni and part Ghelli. Olivia glanced at her face more closely, a thought like a thunderbolt running through her, and then she saw it. “Oh God! Shathi …”
She hadn’t known the girl well, but there were only so many cohorts, and they had several classes together; of course she should recognize her! Olivia had thought the girl from Silver cohort was beautiful and sweet and hadn’t ever had cause to complain about her. She wasn’t overly competitive. She never gossiped out of turn, and in fact, she’d once helped Olivia with one of her alchemical recipes after she’d been in detention.
“Stand slowly and turn to regard me!” The voice was firm and loud but very calm, so Olivia didn’t overreact. She just rose to a standing position and slowly turned toward the voice, still holding her ball of crackling plasma. When she saw Carlu, the investigator, still wearing blue-and-white striped pajamas, she relaxed.
“Hello, Inspector. What a horrible thing to wake up to, wouldn’t you say?”
She ended her spell, and the sizzling ball of Energy winked out, reduced to a wispy line of blue smoke that shortly faded into nothing.
“Oh, Miss Bennet.” Relief was evident in his voice. “I was alerted to the scream of a student and feared I might have stumbled upon the killer.”
“No sign of the killer to my untrained eye. The girl who screamed is in Copper cohort’s dorm here.” Olivia gestured to the closed door between them.
“Well, let me see what I can find. Please don’t move for a few moments— the less you stir up the Energies before I can do some scrying, the better.”
“Oh, I should have thought of that. Did I ruin the scene? I, um, wouldn’t mind getting into some different clothes.” Olivia was suddenly self-conscious about standing in the hallway in her white, silky nightgown.
“I beg your patience,” Carlu said, fiddling with a pair of brass goggles. They sprouted a half dozen different springy antennae and emitted a buzzing, crackling sound as he powered them up. Olivia watched as he slowly moved his gaze over the hallway, lingering on this spot or that and seemingly staring at her feet for a long couple of minutes. After darting his glance here and there, he reached up and turned a dial on the side of the goggles until visible electrical currents began to arc between the antennae. Then he knelt and stared down the length of the hallway, seemingly forming some sort of impression.
Olivia folded her arms over her chest and frowned, tapping a foot, glancing at the various dormitory doors that opened and closed as curious students poked their noses out. Finally, Inspector Carlu seemed to finish, and he reached up to click off the weird goggles, pulling them from his face.
“Thanks for putting up with that; it was good that you weren’t mixing more of your Energy signature with the killer’s. While I had you standing there, I was able to isolate the signature of the victim and, I believe, a trace of the murderer. We’re looking for someone with a Spirit Core and an affinity for death Energy.”
“A Spirit Core? Death Energy?” Olivia repeated, sounding almost like an echo.
“Not a common combination in civilized circles, I’m afraid, though that might work in our favor. I’ll deal with the administration if you’d like to return to your dormitory now, Ms. Bennet. Thank you for so bravely coming forth in the defense of your fellow students.”
“Oh, well, you’re welcome. Thanks, Mr. Carlu,” Olivia said, pleased that the investigator was giving her the benefit of the doubt.
She quickly tiptoed between smears of blood to her dormitory and went inside.
“Liv! What in the roots? Why’d you run out there?” Adaida asked the instant she came inside.
“Why? I was hoping to catch the killer, of course.”
“Hah, of course she was. Conqueror of the Proving Grounds that she is!” Rald slapped his hands together. “Is it true?” He gestured to where Ulya was sitting on Veena’s bed, sobbing into her hands while she spoke softly to Shani and Veena. “Was it Shathi?”
“Yes,” Olivia said with a sigh. “Poor thing. If I could pick anyone from the first years who didn’t deserve to be killed like that, she’d be on the list.”
“This is hitting rather close to home, isn’t it?” Hanwol’s voice was even more morose and sonorous than usual.
“This is terrible! Poor Shathi! She reminded me of my sister, and not just because their names are similar.” Adaida sat at the foot of Olivia’s bed and stared into space, almost like she was in shock.
Olivia glanced at Shani and Veena, still comforting Ulya. She supposed the blonde Ghelli was similar in features to the victim, but Shani was far more acerbic and outgoing than Shathi. Still, there was no accounting for how other people felt, and if Adaida felt they were similar, who was Olivia to judge?
Rald opened the door and poked his head out, only to have a school official bark at him to wait within until they were cleared to leave. “Looks like we’re missing Enchantment today.”
“Is that all you can think about?” Adaida asked, her eyes beginning to well with tears.
“No! Come on, you know me better than that! I liked Shathi, too, all right?” Rald sat down on the wooden bench that flanked their doorway. Olivia often used the bench to put her shoes on, and she wondered if Shathi had used a similar one to put hers on that morning. She cleared her throat and walked over to Ulya.
“Did you see anything, Ulya? How’d you get into the middle of that mess?”
“What?” Ulya looked up at Olivia, her blue face swollen and her eyes bleary and red.
“I mean, the hallway was a disaster. How’d you get so far into that mess without realizing it was a murder scene?”
“I was running! I stayed with Garnet last night! I was hurrying back to the dorm to change.”
“Oh?” Olivia prodded.
“Yes, if you must know, Pirk and I were … studying last night.”
“What?” Veena spoke. “You slept with him in their dorm? I hope you didn’t mind the audience!”
“It’s not like that! Haven’t you been to the gemstone dorms? They all have separate rooms that open into a hallway.”
“What?” Rald asked, stunned. “That’s hardly fair!”
“It’s called money,” Ulya replied, sniffing loudly. Just then, a loud knock sounded on the door before it opened. Inspector Carlu stood there with a black-robed administrator whom Olivia had never met. He cleared his throat, stepping forward with a short bow.
“Pardon me, but you did say the witness was within, is that right, Miss Bennet?”
“Yes, Ulya is from Wood cohort. She’s the one who screamed.”
“I didn’t witness anything! I just stumbled on that horrible mess!”
“Nothing to be upset about, Miss ap’Tine.”
“How do you know my name?” She sniffed loudly, wiping her nose on the back of her sleeve.
“Oh, I took it upon myself to memorize the current rolls. Would you mind coming with us, please? I have some scrying spells I’d like to use to try to jog a few details loose in your memory. Things you might have noticed without realizing it.”
“Yes, come along, Ulya,” the administrator indicated. “You all may head to your class now; we’ve finished with the hallway. I would encourage you all to stay together and avoid spreading rumors. Very little is known at this point, and speculation will only cause harm to the academy. Is that understood?”
“What?” Hanwol stepped forward in a very uncharacteristic show of confrontation. “You have the nerve to ask us not to speculate when our classmates are being slaughtered wholesale in the hallways?”
“That’s exactly the kind of talk we’d like to avoid, Mr. Fenash! Would you like the alumni to pull their funding? Would you like the great families to call their children home? The academy doesn’t exist in a vacuum!”
“In that case, you should work to solve these murders, sir. It’s hardly our fault this is happening,” Hanwol replied, not backing down even an inch.
Olivia smiled, watching the interaction. Hanwol’s blue-painted face hid all of his emotion, but his red-shot eyes were steady and unblinking. Hadn’t he said something about wanting to be a solicitor or something? Perhaps he felt a calling to stand up to authority.
“As I said, please refrain from spreading rumors,” the administrator concluded, turning and exiting. Inspector Carlu took Ulya’s elbow and guided her out of the room, and then Rald stood up and gave Hanwol a thump on the back.
“Nice one, Han! Don’t let them push us around!”
“It’s easy to be brave when you have Olivia watching your back, eh, Han?” Adaida added. Olivia hadn’t noticed, but she’d moved close to her again, and now she reached out to, quite literally, hang onto her shoulder.
“Listen, you guys, I promise, anyone who comes into this dorm looking to hurt any of you is going to get reduced to slag, but I can’t be with you all the time, so please, please stay together, as the professor said. Do you all promise me?” Olivia looked around the dorm, meeting eyes with each of her cohort members.
“Say it! Promise me!”
She stood in front of the door with her arms crossed until they each promised her to stay with the others.
“What about you?” Adaida asked, still clinging to her arm.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll stay on high alert, alright? I’m on my way to see Oylla as soon as you all leave, anyway. I don’t think anyone will mess with me as long as I’m with her, right?”
Olivia
Come in, Olivia! Sit down! I heard about your morning. What a terrible thing to wake up to. Your cohort was lucky to have you around.” Oylla motioned for Olivia to come into her office, gesturing to the pair of couches over by the window, which, uncharacteristically, had its curtains pulled wide, allowing bright morning light to fill the office.
“What makes you say that?” Olivia asked, sitting on the indicated couch.
“What? That your cohort was lucky you were there?” Oylla sat next to her, a foot or so between them. “I suppose I was thinking of worst-case scenarios, if the murderer were still present or seeking further victims. You have more raw ability and power than nearly any other student on the grounds; few professors would try to match you in pure Energy potential. I think the killer would have been rather startled had he tried to murder you the way he did poor Shathi.”
“Is it? A man? Or are you just using that term generically?”
“Inspector Carlu seems convinced the killer is a man, but he did allow for some small doubt. Now, I know this topic is burning through the hallways of the academy, and I’m sorry to add fuel to the fire. Still, we need to focus on a different matter today: you and I have interviews to conduct, and the first prospective mentor-advisor will be here in just a few moments. Are there any concerns or questions you’d like to go over with me before she arrives?”
“Who’s the first interview with?” Olivia sat up straighter, reaching for the cup of tea that sat on the coffee table before her.
“First up today will be someone you know. She indicated to me that she was the one on duty to greet new students when you arrived: Professor Yunsha.”
“The Bogoli woman? Can you explain why some Bogoli, like my cohort members Veena and Hanwol, have surnames and others don’t?”
“It’s not that Professor Yunsha doesn’t have a surname; it’s a matter of her choosing not to use it in public. Some Bogoli believe there’s power in a name and avoid sharing their full name with the general public.”
“Is that true? Should I be guarding my name?”
“It’s true if you believe it. It’s one of those things which seems to be affected by one’s perceptions. If you build up the power of your name in your mind, you open yourself to the possibility that someone can use it against you. If you, however, tell everyone your name and don’t dwell on its importance, it’s difficult for anyone to use it against you.”
“What would be the benefit of believing like Yunsha, then?”
“Well, having that secret allows for rituals that involve trust. If Yunsha shares her intimate name with someone, that person can work certain magics designed to take advantage of her full trust. It’s difficult to explain, but it might be something you learn about if you accept Yunsha as your mentor.”
“Will we have time to discuss the interview before the next one?” Olivia sat back on the little couch, smoothing out her robes, trying to avoid any of her usual nervous ticks.
“Oh yes. I’ve tried to keep the pressure on by only scheduling fifteen minutes for each meeting.” Oylla smiled and leaned forward, picking up her cup of tea. Olivia took a sip from the cup she held and smiled at the smooth, tart taste. It was remarkably like Earl Grey with a hint of lemon in the aftertaste.
“Good tea,” she said.
She was tempted to remark about how strange it was that people on Fanwath drank tea in the same way they did on Earth, but she knew that rabbit hole would lead to a more extended discussion than they had time for at the moment. Instead, she set down her cup and closed her eyes briefly, clearing her mind for the upcoming meeting. Oylla sipped from her cup, set it down, and, at just that moment, a delicate knock sounded on the door.
“Come,” Oylla said, sitting back and crossing her long, red legs, her knee exposed through a slit in her black, silky robes. The door opened, and Yunsha came into the office, walking quickly to the couch opposite Olivia and Oylla.
“May I?” the Bogoli asked.
Olivia noticed the woman was quite a lot taller than Veena or Hanwol, though she didn’t seem to have advanced her race as much as Gwinna; her eyes were still natural looking, though the reds of her sclera and the glitter of her bright blue irises were striking, nonetheless.
“Of course,” Professor Oylla-dak said, gesturing with a palm toward the couch. Yunsha sat and cleared her throat, reaching for the cup of tea nearest her.
“I know I only have a few minutes, so I thought I’d get straight to the point, Olivia. You should allow me to take you on as a mentee because I’ll be able to teach you things about manipulating spatial Energy that most professors can only theorize about. I’ve heard you’ve had some luck creating spells which allow scrying and even teleportation, though I can assure you, there is much you don’t know. I’m a master—the only master at this academy—of such types of magic.”
“I can confirm that Yunsha speaks the truth. She is peerless when it comes to spatial manipulation,” Oylla said with a slight nod, sipping from her tea.
“Oh, that’s very interesting, Yunsha. I am extremely keen to learn more about that sort of magic, though it doesn’t necessarily match my talents.” Olivia wasn’t just trying to be polite—she really did find the use of Energy for instantaneous travel to be one of the most fascinating subjects she’d learned about so far.
“Nonsense. Just because you’ve an affinity for elemental Energies doesn’t mean you can’t learn to use raw Energy to fold space. Among other things.”
“So that would be the focus of my study under your tutelage?”
“That’s correct. With your raw talent and reserves of Energy, I think we could make some great strides in that area.” Yunsha nodded primly, her face neutral but held in such a way that made it seem like she was bending every rule in the book by paying such a compliment to a potential student.
