Chapter 11: Chapter 10: The Deal

“So you… merged with this dream woman? Physically?” says Kittpey, nose scrunched.

“Why are you saying it like—” you grimace, realizing the implication. “Not, like sexually, I mean like literally I disintegrated into her or something, and then both our minds were in one body, but like… we weren’t two separate minds? Not fully? It was weird.”

“But not sexual.”

“No!!” You see Umeso stifling a laugh behind your blonde friend.

Kittpey crosses her arms. “And so you met this girl how long ago?”

“A few weeks?”

“So around the same time you two became friends,” she says, nodding her head toward Umeso. “And around the same time you decided to stop holding me at arm’s length constantly.”

Maybe you should’ve said it was a few months ago. “...Yes?”

With a sigh, Kittpey shakes her head and shrugs. “I suppose this dream girl has been a decent influence on you, then, at least.” You release the breath you didn’t realize you’d been holding. Kittpey lets her arms down and says, “Well this whole thing is… weird. But we’ll have to talk more later. They want anyone with even a little bit of healing magic to go help out Professor Tawnee, and I shouldn’t put it off any longer.”

She waves, you and Umeso say goodbye, and then she’s gone, off down the cobblestone path.

Taking a few steps toward where you lean against a tree, Umeso says, “When are you going to tell her?” They put a hand on your arm.

“I was not ‘holding her at arm’s length,’ com’on, what’s that about?” says Ruem, perched on Umeso’s shoulder.

Ignoring the grumpy ball, you say, “I don’t know. Later.”

“No really, tell me, what was she on about?”

Also ignoring Ruem, Umeso says, “What is holding you back?”

You shrug. “I just… I don’t want her to hate me.” Umeso raises their eyebrows and tilts their head to the side, encouraging you to continue. “You know, because I’ve been lying to her.”

“However she reacts, continuing to lie to her will only make it worse.”

Groaning, you say, “That’s not encouraging…”

Shouting at the top of her… well you’re not sure she has lungs, Ruem says, “Hey, fuckos. I’ve been saying words. Stop ignoring them!! What am I, mute?”

“No, just annoying,” you grumble.

Ruem’s eyes go wide. “Bitch!!” She rolls down Umeso’s arm and starts headbutting you. It feels like a beach ball whapping your skin over and over again; more amusing than anything.

“The sooner you tell her, the sooner she can get to know you, instead of thinking Ruem has become sweeter.” They gesture at the sphere that’s still futilely assaulting your arm.

“I’m plenty sweet already!!” Ruem shouts, finally giving up on her crusade. She glares up at you and shouts, “But they’re right, you should tell her. I don’t want her thinking I’ve gone soft.”

“What a tragedy that would be.”

She hits your arm with her face again. “Hey! I said thank you for rescuing me from that horrible monster! And I’ve been trying to be nicer!!”

You raise an eyebrow. “How have you been even a little bit nicer?”

The angry orb blinks at you. She looks at your unbruised arm, softens her expression a bit, then looks back at you. At least half a minute passes in silence. “Look, I said trying.”

Rolling your eyes, you pull away from Umeso, and Ruem disappears. “Okay, fine, I’ll go talk to her, I guess. But can we get some lunch first? I’m starving.”

“The dining hall was partially destroyed, so we will have to sit outside, and the food options are limited.” They smile. “But yes, we can do that. I will eat a salad.”

~~~

Shuffling your way down the crowded corridor, you do your best to quell the anxiety that’s steadily rising inside. It’ll be fine! You’ll just ask Kittpey if she can talk for a few minutes, pull her aside, and tell her that you’re an imposter who’s been lying to her face this whole time! She probably won’t even hate you for having taken advantage of her kindness and sympathy! She probably won’t think you’re a creepy weirdo for letting her think you’re a girl this whole time! It will go totally fine and won’t end terribly and won’t permanently ruin a budding friendship and—

Your outstretched leg halts, just a few paces from the doorway to the medical wing. A block of ice must have encased you, since try as you might you cannot get your leg to move.

It won’t go okay. If you take just a few more steps you won’t be able to turn back and then you will talk to her and she will hate you. She will hate you forever and you will deserve it and it will destroy you. You absolutely cannot go through that doorway because then your friendship will be dead and gone and it will all be your fault.

Pivoting, your foot finally finds purchase on the ground, allowing you to do a 180 and start marching back the way you came. Regret tugs at your gut but your decision to waylay the inevitable is made. You have chosen the path of cowardice, and now you must reap its unfortunate rewards.

“Ah, Ms. Phasos! There you are!” calls a voice that chills you to the bone. A little ways down the hall, Headmistress Onpertet waves at you. She takes long, confident strides in your direction, and you feel your heart plummet. You’d really thought those reaped rewards would make their way to you at least a little later than this.

As you’ve been standing there, frozen, the Headmistress has made her way over to you. She sets a firm hand upon your shoulder. Smiling in a way that shows some of her pointy teeth, she gestures down the hall the way you were going and says, “Shall we?” Numbly, you nod and begin to walk to your doom.

Headmistress Onpertet walks just barely in front of you, enough so that it is clear she is the one choosing your direction, but not so much that it is difficult for her to talk to you. “Do you mind if I cast a bubble?”

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It takes you a few seconds to process this. “Um… bubble?”

She nods. “Yes. It will allow us to speak privately, despite being in public. Unless you’d rather go up to my office?”

Being alone in a locked room with her again sounds terrible, so you make your decision quickly. “Sure, the bubble’s fine.”

Turning her head toward you, she says, “Ah, sorry, I really need you to say ‘yes, you consent to the bubble.’ For the magic to work, you see.”

Oh. Well that’s… good, you guess? That people can’t just cast bubbles of silence without both parties approving? “Yes, I consent to the bubble.”

“Excellent.” She makes a few short movements with her hand, you briefly see green sparkle in the air, and then… nothing. Did it work…? As though in answer to your question, the Headmistress makes a short, loud bark sound, something that immediately draws your eyes, but the eyes of absolutely no one else. She grins at you, raising her eyebrows in a silent ‘see?’

Turning away again, she says, “So, did you work on your little problem? Take that maybe to a yes?”

The two of you make your way outside, walking down a cobblestone path that is cleared of debris but still marked with holes, and completely gouged away in one area. With a small frown, you say, “Still kind of a maybe? I mean Ellemenie is safe so theo—” Your eyes go wide. Her name, you hadn’t… “I—I mean—”

The Headmistress’ eyes glint, her smile all teeth. “Ellemenie?”

“Yes, the girl in my dreams. Without her I—” you clamp your hands over your mouth, desperately trying to stop yourself from speaking. Your lips keep moving, but you think you’re able to muffle the words enough to obscure them.

Letting loose a short, sharp laugh, the Headmistress flicks her hand, and your still moving mouth stops. You stare at her in horror, and she simply smiles back. The both of you come to a halt, in the middle of a groove dug in the ground by giant hooves just the other day. Headmistress Onpertet leans in close, her smile dropping away. “That’s the sort of thing you need to be careful of here, girl. You’re clearly not used to magic, and more than that, you’re not used to being manipulated.”

She starts walking again, and you follow, glaring back at her even though she’s no longer looking at you. What does she know of your previous life? Nothing!! How dare she. “I’ve d—dealt with more than you think. Don’t act like you know—”

“Oh? So you’re just bad at dealing with manipulation, then.”

Blood boiling, you try to find words, the fire in your brain making it difficult. “I—I… It’s not that— If you—”

“Let me guess, you dealt with it by running away from the people who did it. From the people who hurt you.”

It’s not just anger now. A maelstrom of emotions whirl within you, threatening to bring you to tears or maybe to violence of some sort. “Stop— stop just saying— I—”

The two of you come to a stop once more, and you dimly realize that you are behind a building now, away from most prying eyes. The Headmistress turns toward you, her expression blank, then bends down, putting her face level with yours.

“I’m sorry.”

You blink, unsure how to respond. Really, you’re afraid that if you say anything at all you’ll just lose it completely, and you don’t want to give her the satisfaction.

“It’s fine, you don’t have to forgive me. You don’t have to like me. But you need to understand, whoever you were before, whatever you did to cope, it’s not going to work here.” She stands back to her full height, gazing down at you dispassionately. “You can’t run. You have no idea where to go, and it’s not even your body. I’m sure you’re not going to steal it from your friend.” She looks to the side, expression dark. “And if my hunch is correct, whatever is happening isn’t something you can so easily escape from anyway.”

Heroically, you’ve managed to keep your tears reigned in, not allowing a single one to leave the confines of your currently-glassy eyes. You breathe in, making a ragged, snuffling sort of sound and preventing a drop of snot from dripping down your face. Staring the Headmistress down is all you can manage now, though; speech is still beyond you.

Her head cocks to the side. “Biat. You’re from another world, right?” Shaking a little, you nod. “Why? What happened to yours?”

It takes you a moment, maybe half a minute, but you finally get your mouth moving. “I—It w—was des—” You take a big gulp of air. “Destroyed.” Remembering is hard, it’s all such a blur and you don’t like thinking about it. “By m—monsters? L—light?”

Her eyes narrow. “Light? They weren’t black, dark things, like the one you fought?”

You shrug helplessly and shake your head from side to side.

The Headmistress crosses her arms, looking away from you for a moment. “I don’t know if that’s better or worse.” She looks back at you, eyes hard but carrying a dollop of compassion — not something you’re used to from her. “You need to learn to protect yourself, Biat. From liars, but also, from magic. Can you change into that powerful form while conscious?” You shake your head again. “So it’s not something you can rely on. You need to learn magic, and not just what your little friends can teach you. Not just the sort of magic you can learn at a school like this.” She leans in. “You need to learn magic from me.”

Your feet immediately propel you backwards, but unfortunately that just leads to you pressing your back against a wall. “N—no!” you force out, shaking your head vigorously.

“I’m not going to force you,” she says, one hand held out in a soothing motion. You do not relax. “But you need to think about the wellbeing of your friends.”

Heart racing, you glare daggers at her, fists clenched. Is she threatening them!? You’re so… you’re so furious you can hardly—

“I like the energy, but down, girl. I don’t mean it as a threat. Not from me, anyway.” Your simmering blood cools a bit, but you’re still on edge. Talking to the Headmistress is a trial in and of itself. The giant demon pig would be preferable. “What I mean is, if you can’t protect yourself, then how can you protect them when the next threat comes along? But agree to learn magic from me, agree to defend this school, and you’ll protect everyone, your friends included. Don’t you want to be able to protect everyone?”

Through your haze of emotion, you can see the sense in her words. The fact that it’s her words still makes you want to write them off, though. Taking a deep breath, you try to focus, try to really think about this. She seems to be offering to teach you martial magic. Defensive magic. Because she thinks whoever sent the monster will send something else. You think back to your dream, of Ellemenie in the dungeon, and that goblin woman. There’s some sort of ‘boss’ involved. Is that who sent the evil pig? And the goblin — Eeozi — works for this boss, and maybe Ellemenie does too? But she doesn’t want to. She helped you. And she was punished for it. Clenching your fists again, you imagine fighting whoever it was that hurt her. Well, Eeozi did it, but you don’t feel like fighting her would help much. It’s this boss. They’ve got to go, and you can’t assume Ellemenie will always be able to help you. Do you even want her to help, while she’s in their clutches? She’ll just be punished again, get hurt again. You’d do anything to prevent that. Even make a deal with a devil.

“Biat? You still with me in there?” says Headmistress Onpertet, waving a hand in front of your face. You have a strange urge to bite it, probably from your residual rage, but you push the urge down.

“Y—yes.”

She cocks an eyebrow. “Yes you’re still with me, or yes to learn—”

“Yes,” you reiterate, fists still clenched. It won’t be pleasant, you’re sure of it, but she’s right. You need to be stronger than you are now. For her. For all of them.

A toothy grin overtakes the Headmistress’ face. “Perfect. We’ll start tomorrow.”

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