The duo stared at the corpse for an uncomfortably long time. Gaius breathed heavily as the holes in his chest began to seal themselves, covering up the orange light under his skin that managed to peek through for a few seconds. He could feel Felix’s confused stares on his back, as though Felix was trying to burn another hole through him.
Gaius did not blame him. After all, no Magi can heal themselves so quickly without a healing potion. And unlike him, Magis normally bled red instead of light.
The Sorcerer turned his attention to the room before Felix could poke his nose into his unusual anatomy. It was a long story, and he was exactly in the mood to recount that painful memory at the moment.
Thankfully, Felix chose not to probe.
“Hey, shouldn’t we be going after Angelo?” Felix asked.
“I highly doubt she’s going to be a match for the rest of our team if she goes anywhere near the hostages now. So what are you waiting for?”
Felix stood outside the door to relay the message while Gaius walked into the dark room, pretending as though he had not just heard Felix mutter “How rude…” under his breath.
He could not care even if he wanted to; the throbbing in his chest was getting unbearable with every step he took. The Sorcerer quickened his pace, following the forceful guidance of the magic energy that dwelled within him.
The annexe room was strangely empty, which made the leatherbound spellbook sitting in its middle all the more conspicuous. The tome was flipped open, and a bloodstain cut through the undecipherable symbols drawn on its yellowed pages. Gaius picked it up.
And immediately fell to his knees as an abnormal surge of magical energy seemed to travel back and forth between his fingertips and the book. He struggled to open his hand to let go of the tome, but the magic in his body seemed to be holding his fingers and the book together.
Thankfully, the oscillating pulse of magic gradually stabilised itself after a few more seconds, and Gaius finally managed to pull himself back to his feet.
“Hey.”
He almost jumped, and he silently turned the book invisible before sliding it into his pocket. Gaius turned around, staring at his colleague who had apparently floated in without a sound. He tried his best to keep his thoughts empty. If the rumours were right, Meta Felix Pagonis could also read minds. And he’d be royally screwed if Felix started questioning him about the tome.
Not like Gaius was one to steal crime scene evidence, but there was certainly more to this book than some sick ritual. He had to find out why his magic had reacted in that manner, and if it was related to his parents’ death—
“The hostages have been rescued, but Lucia Angelo managed to escape,” Felix said. “C’mon, let’s rendezvous with the others.”
There was a pregnant silence.
“You alright there?” Felix tilted his head. “What’re you doing in this dark place anyway?”
“I was… looking for evidence,” Gaius mumbled. “But I couldn’t find any.”
“Eh, let’s leave the investigation to the constables.” His colleague casually floated out of the room, none the wiser to what had just happened.
Gaius breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
~ ~ ~
“Can’t believe the criminal escaped. I knew we shouldn’t have left two teenagers to do the work. What a waste of our night.”
Felix scowled, looking away from the Mage, who was either too oblivious to notice his obvious presence or purposely trying to rile him up. For some reason, he was hoping it was the latter. And the Magi seemed determined to prove him right.
“That Deusdedit guy fights weird too,” Palladius sniggered. “What kind of Magi casts spells with his bare hands? So crude and inelegant. He’s like—”
“A Meta? Like me?” Felix stood up aggressively. “Y’know, you may not be a criminal, but you better stop acting like a hero. You did jackshit while we were out there risking our lives. I didn’t expect you to be capable of gratitude, but the least you can do is keep that foul mouth of yours shut.”
A deathly silence fell over the airship as Palladius walked up slowly to him. He smiled slightly, leaning into the unflinching boy.
“Watch your words.” His voice dropped to a menacing whisper. “I can fling you across this ship without moving a muscle, filthy Meta.”
“So can I.”
“That’s enough!” A loud clacking of steel boots interrupted the quarrel before it could escalate into a full-blown fight.
The two of them parted for the Guardian Council Leader stepping in between them, although they were still glaring at each other. Warlock Vulcan towered over the two feuding teammates, looking sternly at them. He was almost two metres tall, and probably rippled with enough muscle to knock out a criminal without even tapping into his vastly destructive magic.
“Severan. Like it or not, you have a Meta within your ranks, and there will be more to come in the near future. I’m sure you don’t need me to remind you that our job is to help people, regardless of their race.” Vulcan folded his beefy arms. “It will serve you well to erase that prejudice of yours if you intend to stay with the Guardian Council. And Pagonis—”
Felix glared back at his leader.
“There’s a time and place for your emotions to run loose. Learning not to be so easily provoked will go a long way in life.”
Soft snores from the magically anaesthetised hijackers punctuated the silence in the air.
“Deusdedit, a hostile was pronounced dead.” Vulcan turned his attention to Gaius, who was leaning against a window with his arms folded. “Our job was to subdue them non-lethally. May I know why you saw the need to put him down?”
“He was out of control,” Gaius answered simply. “I had to execute him before he endangered any more lives.”
“I want a comprehensive report about tonight’s mission from either of you,” Vulcan said. “Which means embedding the Veritas spell within your report as evidence of tonight’s events. I know you both have school tomorrow, so I don’t expect—”
“I’ll deliver the report by tomorrow afternoon,” Felix replied curtly, sitting back down.
“If you say so, Guardian.”
~ ~ ~
The next day arrived in just a few hours’ time, and Felix Pagonis returned to his regular life in Auraveil High School.
His eyes flashed inconspicuously under the cover of his hand as the closing words wrote themselves onto the parchment. The pen dropped back to the table with a loud thud as he released his telekinetic grip on it. He stretched, looking around at his classmates’ serene sleeping faces.
The subdued morning light streamed in through the large windows of the classroom, reflecting off the bare beige walls. Whoever painted them must have had the imagination inspired by a used teabag. Then again, wasn’t that what the standard Meta education was about? Filling their minds with minimal skills to survive the workplace instead of granting them actual education about magic?
Felix leaned against the window pane. At least he had a nice window seat.
A golden button-like device flew into his palm as he pressed it against his temple, pretending to rest his head on his hand. The Veritas rune embedded into the technomagick device heated up slightly as it began extracting his memories of the previous night’s events into itself. He decided to at least try and pay attention in class while it worked its magic.
Felix found himself in social studies class, which explained why everyone was completely knocked out. The teacher droned on, reading line by line from the textbook in her hands. She would occasionally call on students to read each paragraph in a meagre effort to keep them awake, but it seems even she was about to nod off today.
After all, a historical story about Magis discovering Arcani and being graceful enough to share it with their underprivileged Meta cousins was not exactly an interesting tale.
Felix yawned. He was beginning to suspect the social studies textbook was secretly a sleep-inducing spell written by a mischievous soothsayer. The high school senior could practically recite the textbook word for word ever since it was introduced into his secondary school syllabus when he was eleven.
And it was the only subject that reused the same content for seven years. It was almost as though the government wanted to drill that historical lesson into everyone’s head.
There was a faint buzzing from his ear, and it took Felix a few seconds to realise it was coming from his Veritas rune. He quickly put his hand down and embedded the button in the parchment together with Gaius’s rune.
The bell rang right on cue, waking the entire class from their stupor. Felix stuffed the report into his bag as he briskly walked towards the classroom doors.
“Hey, you there. Know someone called Felix Pagonis in this class?”
Felix stopped in his tracks, eyeing the girl who had blocked his path and was tapping her foot impatiently. Her hair was a bombastic red, while her eyes were a striking blue.
She sported a neat dark green Magi school attire, making her stick out amongst the sea of Meta students in light blue uniforms streaming out from his classroom. Her nose twitched in annoyance as she opened her mouth to repeat herself—
“Yes, of course I know him.” Felix grinned. “He’s me.”
“Ugh, finally. Follow me.” The girl rolled her eyes, clearly unamused at his lousy joke. “Warlock Alcaeus Vulcan wants to meet you on the school roof.”
~ ~ ~
“So, you must be some kind of hotshot if Warlock Vulcan sent you to find me.” Felix’s voice echoed in the empty stairway.
“You ought to pay attention to your schoolmates more,” the girl hissed, climbing up the stairs steadily without a hint of breathlessness. “I’m an honour student.”
“Well, I’m sorry. Meta classes don’t have honour students,” Felix floated along beside her. “It’s hard to have any when our classes are so simplified that almost everyone gets perfect scores.”
“It’s not every day a girl comes looking for me, let alone a pretty one like you.” He grinned cheekily. “To whom do I owe this honour?”
“I can’t believe you don’t even know your student council president.” The girl rolled her eyes. “My name’s Kleopatra. You’d know that if you paid attention in morning assembly.”
Felix furrowed his eyebrows; that name did ring a bell. He finally widened his eyes in realisation.
“Hang on, Kleopatra as in Kleopatra Vulcan?” He looked at her in bewilderment. “You’re Warlock Vulcan’s daughter?”
“His errand girl, more like,” Kleopatra muttered under her breath and pushed open the doors to the roof.
Felix pulled out the report from his blazer and walked towards the towering figure looking in the distance with his hands behind his back. Looks like he didn’t need to head over to the Guardian Council headquarters, after all.
“You didn’t need to come all the way down, Mister Vulcan. I was already planning to drop this off at the council.”
“Right, the report.” Vulcan received the parchment absentmindedly. “To be honest, I completely forgot about it.”
“Why are you here then, sir?” Felix tilted his head.
“Indulge me for the moment, Felix, and let us speak as equals.” Vulcan had a grim look on his face. “I need your help.”
“Do go on.”
“Do you recall that rabid Meta you fought last night? Was there anything that struck you differently about him? Any potential causes to his crazed state?”
“Not really.” Felix shook his head. “But Lucia Angelo seemed to know when he was about to lose control and was stalling us for that to happen. His power also seemed abnormally strong, almost as though it was amplified beyond normal human levels. He even broke through the Arcani nullifiers. How’s that possible if he isn’t a Tier Five Meta?”
“Hmm…” Vulcan put his thumb and index finger on his chin, deep in thought. “This is still classified information, but that Meta isn’t the first one to completely lose control of his power. There has been a series of kidnappings that only seem to target Metas recently. The strange thing is, they reappear after a few days, all crazed and wreaking havoc with their abilities. All of these have got to be linked somehow, and I’m investigating this Meta problem. I could use your help.”
“Meta problem?” Felix raised an eyebrow. “Surely you know other more competent Metas? I’m just a student; I’m not involved in any Meta criminal activity.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Vulcan said quickly. “I’m not involving you just because of your race. You’re getting this opportunity because you’re a Guardian.”
“With all due respect, sir, I only signed up for the Guardian Council because my sister wanted me to use my powers for the greater good.” Felix looked away. “I don’t appreciate people thrusting additional responsibility onto me.”
“Hey, you entitled brat!” A shrill voice made him jump. “Nobody gets to choose what responsibility to take up. How about you appreciate the offer instead of shirking your duty?”
Felix turned to Kleopatra, who had folded her arms and was glaring back at him.
“Calm down, Kleo.” Vulcan raised his hands in a placating gesture. He turned back to Felix. “I know it’s a lot to ask of a mere eighteen-year-old, but you are more than qualified to be involved in this operation. If I’m being honest, you’re the most powerful Meta I have ever met, even for a Tier Five. Even Cleric Nerva finds your power level astounding. Surely this is a more responsible way of using your powers?”
“Does she know about this?” Felix asked quietly.
“She doesn’t need additional stress added to her hectic schedule. Elpis is going to be pretty busy training Kleo here for the Guardian Council tests.” Vulcan smiled. “So technically speaking, Kleo’s your junior.”
“You were trained by Cleric Nerva as well?” Kleopatra scoffed. “You must not be very good then.”
“Kleo,” Vulcan said in a sharp tone. “It will serve you well to respect that lady. Her magic abilities rival even those of Grand Mage Benedictus. You will have much to learn from her.”
“Oh, please.” Kleopatra rolled her eyes. “She’s a Cleric. All she’s good at is blessing and healing people. I’m a Warlock like you, Dad. You know we don’t do any of those things. And if you really think her competent enough, then why didn’t Sister train under her? She’s in the Guardian Council too, isn’t she?”
“Because—” Vulcan’s voice raised a little, but he took a deep breath. “Forget it, you won’t understand.”
“I wasn’t trained by Cleric Nerva, but she was my appraiser for the Council tests.” Felix cast his eyes downwards, recalling the report she wrote about his performance.
‘Natural-born hero’, ‘Impressive ability to think on his feet’, ‘Mentally strong’.
These were just among the few phrases she had used to describe the entrance tests he breezed through. He had thought nothing of it back then, being all too eager to begin his new extracurricular activity as a Guardian.
A tinge of regret tugged at Felix’s heart. He barely even wanted to take responsibility for his own life; why did he sign up to take care of the entire population of Sirius City?
Felix barely noticed the huge hand on his shoulder as Vulcan walked past him.
“I’ll leave you to think about it.”331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK836y9pAu0
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