Chapter 113: Chapter 113

The smell of greasy meat wafting through the door at the end of the infirmary brought a rumble to Damien’s stomach. He and Sylph wordlessly made a beeline towards it. A small kitchen sat on the other side of the doorway, separated from a wooden table by a long countertop.

Gavel stood before an oven, inspecting something within it. The others sat at the table, chatting amongst themselves. Tenbi raised a hand in greeting as the two students walked inside.

“Are you two feeling a little better?” Tenbi asked.

“Significantly so,” Damien said. “My head doesn’t feel like a bowl of scrambled eggs anymore. Granny works wonders.”

“I’ll say,” Volt said. “I bet you guys are hungry, and I’d love to hear about what happened now that you can see straight.”

Damien’s stomach grumbled its agreement without waiting for his brain to approve it. He and Sylph sat down next to each other at the table. A moment later, Gavel strode out from the kitchen area. He set a large plate of sliced bread and butter down on the table before everyone. The mage returned to grab two more plates – one piled high with a multicolored salad soaked in a brown dressing, and the other a cutting board with glazed meat piled high on it.

“I thought we were going to wait for Whisp to arrive,” Tenbi said.

“She could have gotten here an hour ago,” Gavel said. “Whisp will show up whenever she wants to and not a moment sooner. No point waiting.”

The rune circle on Damien’s head grew warm. His lips pressed together and Sylph shot him a worried glance. He wiped his expression and gave her a nearly imperceptible nod. A moment later, the air behind Gavel crackled with dark purple energy.

A wormhole opened up and Whisp stepped through it, her motley cloak rippling behind her. Her gaze swept over the room, pausing on Damien for an instant longer than everyone else. A slight frown crossed her face, it disappeared as quickly as it had come.

“You’re right about that, Gavel,” Whisp said. She sauntered over to the table and pulled out the chair beside Damien, sitting down and pulling the huge metal gauntlets off her hands. She set them down on the ground beside her feet.

“Wash your hands,” Yaga told Whisp. “I know where you stick those things.”

Whisp rolled her eyes. A wave of dark fire crackled over her hands and a small puff of smoke rose up into the air as she incinerated anything that might have been left over on her skin.

“Happy?”

“No, but I suppose it’ll do. Don’t you have an example to set for the students?” Yaga asked.

“They’ve gone on a quest with me,” Whisp said dismissively. “Nearly died from what Granny told me. They can live through me dropping the Dean act for a bit. I’m not even the real Dean anyways.”

“Whisp,” Gavel said sternly, pulling out the chair on her left and sitting down. “Are you drunk?”

Now that he mentioned it, Damien did notice a slight flush in the woman’s pale cheeks. She rolled her eyes. “Only a little.”

“You need to lay off the bottle,” Gavel said wearily. “You’ve got a reputation to uphold.”

Whisp just grunted. She grabbed a strip of meat with her bare hand and took a large bite out of it, curling her nose up at the disapproving glances from the other mages. Damien and Sylph both grabbed some food for themselves, and the other mages followed suit.

“So, any idea what we went up against today?” Tenbi asked. “None of us have ever seen anything like it, and it was one tough bastard. Nearly killed me.”

“And me,” Yaga said, nibbling on an unbuttered slice of bread. “That acid was dangerous. If it wasn’t so dumb, I don’t think we would have stood a chance.”

“I didn’t get a great look at it,” Whisp said. “Holding up the teleportation block over such a large area took up nearly every once of concentration I had to give. We’re lucky there was just one of them.”

“There were two, actually,” Volt said. “One was apparently significantly weaker. It went after the kids, but it died after the main one did.”

“Hm,” Whisp said. “A younger one, perhaps? Or it had the ability to split itself. Do we have any idea why it was targeting children?”

“None,” Gavel said. “Nor do we know what happened to any of the people the creature got its hands on. I don’t think it’s anything good, though.”

“Not the best topic for dinner,” Tenbi said through a mouthful of salad.

Damien couldn’t help but agree with her. He speared some salad on a fork that had been set beside his plate and shoved it into his mouth. The vinegary dressing was the perfect compliment to the slightly bitter greens.

“Well, I’m sure the two of you are happy,” Whisp said, glancing in Sylph’s direction. “You earned a ridiculous amount of contribution points and all you had to do was nearly die.”

“Not a bad trade,” Damien said, watching his words carefully. The rune on his head grew warm again. Whisp’s eyes narrowed. She turned away and grabbed a slice of bread, applying a healthy amount of butter to it.

“Are all of the high-level quests this difficult?” Sylph asked. “I don’t know how much stronger we’ll get in school, and I’m not confident I could defeat one of those things at any point soon.”

“Not even close,” Volt said, chuckling. “Most of the quests that students get offered are vetted to make sure they aren’t too difficult. Don’t get me wrong, they can be dangerous, but you should be fine so long as you aren’t stupid. Blackmist doesn’t want to kill you, after all.”

“There’s a shortage of good adventurers,” Gavel said, nodding in agreement. “Too many pompous nobles and upstart commoners. The front lines grow closer and closer to us with every passing day.”

“I didn’t know that,” Damien said, blinking. “We’re getting pushed back?”

“The monsters are getting more aggressive,” Yaga said. “None of us fight on the front lines, but we’ve been called to assist more than once.”

“Do you know why?” Sylph asked.

“It’s hard to tell. We don’t have a team strong enough that are willing to risk their lives on a scouting mission,” Volt said. “At one point, there was a huge forest at the edge of the frontlines. The closer you get to it, the harder it is to use magic. The forest seems to have some effect on the Ether around it, and that gives monsters a massive advantage over us.”

“Maybe stop scaring the kids,” Tenbi said, pursing her lips. “They went through enough today. No reason to give them nightmares.”

“They’re students at Blackmist, not toddlers,” Whisp said. “However, I wouldn’t go around giving away information like that to everyone. It might not be classified, but it’s pretty close to it. We don’t need the general populous running around like headless chickens because they think the monsters are coming.”

“Judging by what we fought today, they’re already here,” Gavel said grimly.

The worried look in the man’s eyes was almost enough to make Damien want to tell him that there would only be four more of the Seeds, and it wasn’t likely that Gavel would ever run into another one.

They lapsed into silence and the rest of the meal passed quickly. Damien felt Whisp’s stare burning into him whenever he looked away from her, but he did his best to ignore the woman. Once they’d finished, everyone brought their dishes to the kitchen sink.

“Whelp, that was a fast quest,” Volt said, rubbing his hands together. “I suppose we can do another sweep for the kids, but I don’t think we’ll find much. Do you need a lift back to Blackmist?”

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“We’ll be fine,” Whisp said, walking back to the table and pulling her gauntlets back on. “It’s a long-range teleportation, but nothing I haven’t done before. I didn’t drink so much that I can’t use basic magic.”

“Suit yourself, but I’d hardly call teleportation basic,” Volt said. He nodded to Damien and Sylph. “It was a pleasure meeting the two of you. If you become adventurers, make sure to give us a note. If you managed to stay alive with one of those stone monsters on your tail, you’ve got to be quite skilled.”

“Blackmist only creates the best,” Whisp said, putting a hand on Damien and Sylph’s shoulders. “But we should probably be going. We don’t want to overstay our welcome.”

The door swung open and Granny poked her head inside the room. “Ah. Leaving already, are you?”

“We got work to do, mom,” Volt said. “We saved you some food, though. It’s on the counter.”

“Good. It was my food you were cooking in the first place,” Granny said. She gave Damien and Sylph a wide grin. “You two stay safe, okay?”

“We’ll do our best,” Damien said, trying to keep the flush from returning to his face. The woman winked at him.

“We’ll be heading out as well,” Whisp said. “Thank you for treating my students.”

“It’s my job, Whisp. It wasn’t so long ago that I was treating you,” Granny said.

“No,” Whisp said thoughtfully. “I suppose it wasn’t. Take care, Granny.”

“Come by to visit more often,” Granny said. She shifted her weight on the cane and smirked. “Just not too often.”

Gavel and the others raised a hand in farewell. Damien tried to hide the fear in his expression as he returned the gesture. Cold energy crackled to life around them and purple light filled his vision.

Wind rushed past Damien’s face so fast that his cheeks rippled. He squeezed his eyes shut, but that didn’t stop purple twirls of light from dancing on the inside of his eyelids. His body twisted and contorted into strange shapes that shouldn’t have been possible.

He slammed to a stop abruptly, staggering forwards and nearly falling flat on his face onto the black stone beneath his feet. Damien drew in a gasp and tensed as his stomach turned over. Bile rushed up his throat, but he forced it back down with a shudder.

“I appreciate you not throwing up,” Whisp said dryly. “My clothes are expensive.”

“No problem,” Damien said, glancing at the portals surrounding them. He could see the tips of the mountains surrounding them in the afternoon sky.

“When do we get our quest rewards?” Sylph asked.

“Straight to the point. Admirable,” Whisp said. “You can visit Auntie any time. The credits are already tied to your name, and she’s got your gold waiting for you as well.”

“That’s convenient,” Damien said. He yawned loudly. “Thank you for the quest opportunity, Dean Whisp. If you don’t mind, I think I’m going to head back to my room. I’m pretty exhausted.”

“Actually, I’d like to speak with you for a moment,” Whisp said. Damien’s blood ran cold, but he kept his expression neutral. Sylph shifted to stand beside Damien. Whisp glanced at her, then nodded towards the portals. “This won’t take long, Sylph. Damien will catch up with you in a minute.”

Sylph frowned and shot a look at Damien. He gave her a small nod. After one more glance at Whisp, Sylph turned and headed into one of the portals, vanishing. Whisp rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

“It’s not often that I see students bond as closely as you two have,” Whisp said. “That’s the goal of the living conditions, of course. But Sylph just looked at you to make sure you were okay with meeting me alone. The Dean of your school, and she doesn’t trust me. Isn’t that amusing?”

Damien let out a polite chuckle. Whisp rolled her eyes.

“You need to work on your lying. That was horrible,” she said.

“Sorry,” Damien replied automatically. He grimaced, but the Dean let out a small laugh.

“I’m not your enemy, Damien. You don’t have to be so guarded around me.”

If Henry hadn’t been hiding, Damien was pretty sure the companion would have let out a loud scoff.

“Of course, Dean Whisp,” Damien said. “Why would you say that? I don’t consider you my enemy. You’re the head of my school!”

“Standing head,” Whisp corrected. “But that’s not what we’re here to talk about, is it?”

“I’m not entirely sure what we are here to talk about.”

“Damien, you’re not going to get anything out of playing coy with me. You’ve done something that makes it hard for me to get deep into your thoughts, so you’re clearly trying to hid something.”

“Does this have something to do with that accusation you made regarding the missing student?” Damien asked. “Because I still don’t know what you were talking about when you mentioned that.”

Whisp blinked. She squinted at him for a few moments. “Hm. Either you’ve done something incredibly effective at keeping me from reading you, or you’re telling the truth. To be honest, I’m actually leaning towards the latter.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Damien said. “Sylph can vouch that I didn’t leave my room until we went to class, and she was with me that entire time. I couldn’t have done anything to another student, much less someone that nearly killed me the first time we fought.”

“Yes, Sean told me about that. He would have been punished severely had he not mysteriously vanished. And frankly, I wouldn’t trust a single thing Sylph had to say about your location. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the one that offed the kid.”

“Offed him? I thought you said he was missing?”

“We don’t know for sure,” Whisp said. “We’ll find him eventually, one way or another. But are you sure there isn’t anything you want to tell me?”

“I’m not sure what you want,” Damien replied. “Honestly, I don’t understand why you wanted me and Sylph to come on this quest. Aside from being bait, we didn’t really do all that much. Threatening me doesn’t seem like it was necessary.”

Whisp pressed her lips together. “I suppose a threat probably wasn’t the best way to do it. I had it on good word that you had to come on that quest.”

“Really? From whom?”

“If you aren’t sharing your secrets, then I won’t be either,” Whisp said, chuckling. “I already said this, but I’m not your enemy. I can’t make you talk without employing some methods that would certainly get me in trouble, so I suppose we’ll leave things here. I hope you got whatever it was that you needed out of the quest, Damien. If you decide you want to talk, just give Delph a shout. He’ll put us in touch.”

A purple portal churned to life behind the Dean. She stepped backward into it and the portal snapped shut, leaving Damien alone in the obsidian courtyard.

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