Chapter 21: Chapter 20 One Step Forward Two Steps Back

(Feydon’s point of view)

Colorful lights shimmered and danced through the night sky as our velociter glided through the city. The twelve towers of Sky Haven were each illuminated in different colors, shining through the night sky like a beacon for the lost and weary.

The journey back had been long and we were all exhausted. Unlike the others though, I couldn’t sleep. 

Every time I closed my eyes I saw Sydney’s desperate eyes, begging me for help. 

I wondered what she might’ve been thinking as blood gurgled out of her mouth. Perhaps she thought about her friends or maybe her future goals that she’d never have a chance to accomplish, or maybe she was just asking herself why me?

Then I asked myself as well. Why me? Why did I live and not her?

What was so special about me that the creature merely disabled, but didn’t kill me? It even protected me from the falling rocks. Yet all that remained of Byron was his severed arm. 

Then there was the voice as well, could I even trust this stranger?

I hadn’t forgotten the fox visions either. Taking the shield charm in my hand, I wondered what she could’ve meant by ‘free me.’ 

While pondering, I ran my thumb back and forth over the snake engraving. 

So many questions were piling up without a clear path to answers. The only hope I had of finding out more was the strange presence in my mind. The source of the mysterious voice that hadn’t left me, although it had remained silent. 

“Hey kid,” an enforcer grunted from the other side of the control console. “Life is just a game of chance.”

I struggled to understand what he was getting at or why he was even talking to me. 

“You got the face of a worrier, but no matter how much you agonize over things that have happened or things that might, you can’t actually change the outcome.” 

I mulled over his words for a moment, but ultimately rejected them. “Thanks for the advice, but I can’t accept that. If everything is just luck and chance then nothing I do… nothing anyone does even matters.”

“Yea, it’s a tough pill to swallow, but you live long enough and one day you’ll understand.” His eyes shifted away and he slumped back in his chair then quietly grumbled. “Everything is meaningless in their eyes”

I watched him a bit longer but didn’t probe him any further. When we entered a tunnel, the multi-colored lights disappeared, replaced by dim lanterns glowing white, like distant stars.

The tunnel let out inside Sky Haven’s velociter docking bay. We pulled in past several docking stations before coming to one that was empty. When the velociter docked, enforcers began waking everyone. 

Outside the velociter, Lenora waited, fidgeting anxiously and biting her lip. Valencia was there beside her, standing near a set of teleportation platforms, but not Kyla.

When the door opened, Carletta was the first out. Lenora bounced on her toes and beamed with excitement as she rushed over to embrace her sister. 

Seeing the two reunite, I wondered where my own sister was. I had sent her several messages over the course of the mission and even one to let her know when we were expecting to arrive back, but she hadn’t responded to any of them. I wasn’t even sure she’d seen them.

Cole slapped me on the back as he shuffled by, then out of the velociter. As I was stepping out, Fin rushed past me, knocking me aside, and continued on towards the teleporters.

Just before he reached them, Valencia stepped in his way. “Where are you rushing off to?”

“I need to go see my brother. Please let me pass, it’s urgent.”

Valencia shook her head. “I thought you might say that. Unfortunately I can’t let you pass.”

The lead enforcer came up behind Cole and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Your brother’s fine, but you need to get to a med bay.” Then turning towards the rest of us he said. “All of you do, and expect a visit from the MCI while you’re there.”

“What’s an MCI?”

The others gave me dumb looks, like I’d just asked what’s a CAD or is the sky blue.

Cole was kind enough to answer. “Magic conduct investigator. They usually investigate suspected rogue mages, but since we encountered a rogue mage they’ll probably want to talk to us.”

Having gotten the answer, I understood the reason for their stupefaction.

“Get to the med bay, all of you.” The enforcer barked.

One by one we used the teleporter, each arriving at the same medbay, but separated on arrival into our own rooms. 

It wasn’t long before Mr.Rotborn came into the room, looking just as irritable as I remembered him.

“Hello,” I said, “how are you?”

He raised both of his very bushy eyebrows, and gazed at me with his oddly round eyes. He opened his mouth like he was going to speak, then pressed his lips back together into frown. With a low rumbling growl he turned to the counter for a medi-CAD. 

I was trying to be polite and pleasant, but I should’ve just kept my mouth shut.

After picking up the mediCAD, Rotborn set it back down. “Are you hurt?” He asked without looking at me.

“No sir.”

“Good. Then when the MCI is done with you, you can go.” 

He muttered to himself as he left the room. I couldn’t understand much, but it was something about a switch thinking, 

Maybe he meant witch?

I heard the word inept, and can’t be the rogue… the rest was impossible to make out.

Again, I waited a short while before another man entered the room. He was dressed in a royal blue overcoat with gold trim. He wore black silk pants and black leather boots with golden snaps.

This must be the MIC

He pulled a chair off the wall and sat down in front of me. “They say you’re inept, that true?”

I nodded. “But I—”

“What do you know about rogue mages?”

“Nothing, only that they threaten our way of life and are constantly attacking the SAFE zone.”

The MCI nodded. “A textbook answer. I don’t think you’re a rogue, but one of your friends might be. We think we know which one, but I need to know if you noticed anything out of the ordinary. You shouldn’t have to think hard. A lot of rogue mages use magic differently than us.”

I was drawing a blank. The only thing I could think of was Fin using his CAD to direct lighting, but that hardly seems worthy of labeling him a rogue. 

“You might be inept, but surely you can think of something that seemed strange. Or out of the ordinary.”

I shook my head. “There was a rogue mage there, but it wasn’t one of us. Hasn’t anyone told you about the man in black with a mask covered in glowing purple runes?”

“Yea, heard all about him. Sick little fucker he is, but we’ve known about him for months. Even got a nickname for the bastard.”

“Because, this other rogue is a much larger threat. Mana density was at only a quarter of what it should’ve been. You probably have no clue what that means, but let’s just say it's bad. Especially given that those readings were taken at least an hour after he left the area. That means he damn near depleted all the ambient mana with one spell.”

It’s me.

The realization struck me like a gut punch. I hadn’t intended to do anything wrong, and I’d saved us… but that got me classified as a rogue mage.

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“I can see that you’re pretty shaken up. I should’ve expected as much from an inept. You’re as useless as the rest.” The MCI stood and replaced the chair against the wall. “If you do think of anything, be sure and contact me. My info’s already been added to your comm.”

“Nod!” Valencia’s voice shouted in my mind. She was so forceful that I obeyed without question.

The investigator left the room. Alone with my thoughts, and apparently Ms.Nordblums voice, I sat in a confused state of panic.

There was no good way out of this. If I ran away I’d look guilty. If I told the truth, they might not believe me, even if they did there was no guarantee they wouldn’t hurt me. For now at least it didn’t seem like anyone knew… no, Nordblum! But how did she know and why was she helping me?

You are helping me… right? I wasn’t sure if she could hear my thoughts, but I was now certain she was either a telepath or I was just insane and hearing random voices was just going to be a thing for me anytime I felt threatened. 

“Yes Fey, I'm helping you.” Ms.Nordblum said as she slipped into the room.

I breathed a mental sigh of relief. Partially because I had a powerful accomplice and that increased my chances of survival, but mostly because it meant I wasn’t crazy.

“I need you to trust me. Tell me everything that happened in the cave and don’t leave anything out.”

I still wasn’t totally sure I could trust her, but I also didn’t really have much choice, and since she was already in my head it seemed likely she already knew enough to get me arrested if she’d wanted to.

I began by telling her about the man in black, how he’d carved up the small creature and claimed he turned it into a spirit relic. Whatever he did felt more like necromancy, but the particulars didn’t really matter.

When I told her about the voice I heard and the instructions it gave, she asked, “and the mana actually listened to you?”

I nodded, “that’s how it felt.”

“And what about the mana you absorbed, did you feel funny afterwards?”

“No, not until the rest of the ambient mana was gone. It felt like I was in a vacuum and my body wanted to shut down.”

“Don’t tell anyone else about this. If the wrong people find out, you’ll endure a fate worse than death.”

“Then what should I do? Do you know what’s happening to me?”

“That’s a question for your father, for now you need to blend in. Just continue as you have and don’t talk to that voice of yours. There’s really nothing else I can do for you right now.”

“I understand.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if this had something to do with my dream. If maybe, all along I had been different and Titus knew it but never told me. 

I had forgotten to tell Nordblum about the fox I’d been seeing, but when I opened my mouth to tell her, she was already gone. I tried reaching her with my thoughts, but she never responded. 

I stepped out into the hall and looked around. There were enforcers standing guard at every door, including mine. Mr.Rotborn had just come out of one room and was heading into another. The MCI glanced at me in passing as he went from the room next to mine into the room across the hall. 

“You finally ready kid? Been almost an hour since they gave the all clear for you to leave,” said one of the guards next to my door.

“Uhm, do you know where Ms.Nordblum went?”

“No clue, she left as soon as you were all in your rooms.”

“Try the administration hall, that’s usually where she is,” the other guard added.

How could she have left that long ago if she was just in my room?

Either way, the guard was probably right. Ms.Nordblum had to be in the administrative hall and I needed to go there anyway since there wasn’t time for dorm assignments before the mission.

My anxiety was still running high, but for now I’d follow Ms.Nordblum’s advice and try to act natural.

After using the teleporter, it felt easier to breathe. There were no enforcers in the administration hall and that meant, at least for now, that I didn’t have to worry.

Aside from a maintenance crew, working to restore a handful of artifact displays that hadn’t been fixed yet, there was only a single clerk sleeping behind a reception desk. Given that it was the middle of the night, I wasn’t surprised to find the place largely empty and devoid of activity.

I rang the small bell on the desk, but the girl only jerked awake for a few seconds to mumble something about a ceremony, then she immediately fell right back to sleep. 

“Excuse me,” I whispered, then said again with increasing volume while repeatedly ringing the bell. “Excuse me, can you please wake up? I NEED HELP.”

The girl nearly fell out of her reclined chair as she startled awake, babbling and scrambling to grab onto something. After adjusting her posture and wiping a bit of drool from her chin, she leaned on the counter and rather aggressively asked, “Hey kid, can I help you?”

“Y…es.” I started awkwardly, unsure if I still wanted to ask for her help. “I’m new and I’ve just returned from a mission, only I don’t know where to go.”

“So what do you want? A map or something?”

“I need—” 

“It’s after curfew kid! Go to your dorm and go to sleep.” 

“I don’t have a dorm!” I didn’t intend to be forceful, but my patience was wearing out. 

With a sigh, she asked, “where’s your ID?”

The only ID I had was my SAFE card. Every citizen was issued a card two weeks after birth. But when I presented it to the clerk she scoffed, “your student ID,” then rolled her eyes.

Shrugging my shoulders I said, “I don’t have one. There wasn’t time befo—”

“This must be a prank! Every student has an ID.”

“Never mind,” I said, having given up on receiving help. I began walking away, but before I got out of the administration hall I heard Ms.Nordblum’s tired voice. 

“Here, these students should start coming any minute looking for their dorms and ID’s. I’ve already assigned them to their dorms, so when they come, just give them their IDs and direct them to the appropriate dorm hall.” 

I turned back to the desk in time to see Ms.Nordblum turn and swiftly make her way into the dark recesses of the hall. Figuring that she’d given the clerk an ID card for me I decided to just try asking for help at the desk again.

“Excuse me miss.” I began, “I’m Feydon Ray, and I think one of those cards might be for me.”

She was already flipping through the small stack of ID cards, making no attempt at all to hide her annoyance at the situation.

She pulled mine from the stack and looked up my dorm information, all the while muttering various complaints and curses. Then, before giving me my card she looked up the dorm information for each of the other new students and sent it all to my comm device. 

“Do me a favor and share that with your buddies. Also if you need anything else you better ask now because I don’t want to be disturbed again.” Her quarrelsome tone and contentious glare told me what she really meant. 

Part of me wanted to refuse and remind her that it was literally her job to help students, but instead I swallowed, nodded, then again began to walk away.

“Wait, wait, wait” she called after me. “You forgot these.”

When I turned around she was holding out the rest of the ID cards. “They’ll need them to get into their dorms and for a whole host of other things. Better make sure they all find the right owner.” There wasn’t a hint of shame or hesitation to be found in her voice as she shirked her duties onto me.

I hesitated for a moment as I contemplated reporting her, but ultimately decided against it. I wasn’t eager to go back to the medical bay with all those enforcers, but I was hoping I’d get a chance to talk to the others. I didn’t think any of them knew what happened, but I wanted to be sure. 

Snatching the ID cards I raced back to the teleporters, set the destination to Med bay three, and pressed a switch to activate it.

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