Back to School

John stepped onto the bus, feeling like it had been an eternity since Monday. The usual assortment of his peers sat like nothing major had happened to them, refreshed after the unexpected break.

‘As if I wasn’t already an outcast among them,’ he mused and made his way to an empty seat, a small smile on his lips. ‘Eveyone got a break. I had several fights against monsters.’

Strangely, the fact that he had lived more in those two days than he had all through high school left him feeling more energized. Before he hadn’t really had a place; he was smart but wasn’t one of the educational trailblazers, striving for academic excellence. Rejecting that niche in the social order, he was adrift, making him the optimal target for bullying, actions that prevented any friendly connections.

Now he had two girlfriends and actual friendships with Mason, Cammie and Teri, even if they were on wildly different levels at the moment. And he resolved to try and increase that number today, thinking about his only classmate who knew he was a part of the Abyss.

His musings were cut short as he walked past the bench where Frank was sitting, the football player quickly sticking his leg out. John tripped on the offending limb, but between the increases to his physical stats and his growing self-confidence, he caught himself before falling, hand grasping onto the back of the seat.

“Nice catch, Nerdman,” Frank taunted. “Let’s see if you can do that later in gym class.”

John ignored him, old habits of cowering from his longtime bully surfacing.

‘Not like I can actually do anything to him,’ he lamented as he righted himself and slouched to an empty seat, the reality being that despite his newfound powers and willpower, he didn’t have a real way to change things. He shook his head, dispelling that dark thought.

‘No back sliding,’ John resolutely thought. ‘I might not be able to fight, but I can stop being their doormat. Frank’s not scarier than that tree abomination.’

Pushing aside thoughts of the mundane, John activated Arcane Sense, spreading his supernatural awareness over the bus, hoping to find the person with the talisman he’d unintentionally Observed on Monday. To his disappointment, none of his fellow passengers stood out from each other, their auras noticeably weaker than Aeolia or Vivian’s.

‘Either they aren’t here or it was a false alarm,’ John thought, letting his extrasensory perception fade. ‘But if it’s the latter, why did it trigger the ID quest? And if it’s the former, why aren’t they here today?’

With no way to divine an answer, John focused on the more pressing issue of how to slip Moira Brighton the letter without getting caught.

‘What exactly was the wording of it?’ John thought back to when he received the quest. He blinked as the pop up reappeared before him, with some small alterations.

Quest: Stealth Informant
Find a way to clue in the Order of the Golden Rose to the goings on without getting identified.
Reward: 1500 EXP, 1 rare item
Status: Active

‘Huh, guess I won’t have to rely on memorizing these things,’ he thought as he re-read the quest. ‘Just need to think about it. Handy.’

‘I wonder if the “don’t get identified” part only counts towards delivering the info, or if they have to never find out just who gave them it? Guess we’ll see once I drop off the letter. Would suck if they open an investigation and I never get the rewards.’

John willed the quest screen away and pondered his next move. Figuring out where Moira’s locker was sounded like a good start to him and he tried to visualize the school’s layout. He knew an upperclassman like Moira would have their locker a hallway over from where the underclassmen did, given out in alphabetical order, but beyond that he didn’t know where the first one had been assigned.

‘Guess I’ll have to tail her and check which one she stops at,’ he decided, a knot of nerves coiling in his gut as the bus neared the academy. He quickly texted Vivian, letting her know he reached school and was proceeding with the plan.

When he got up to exit the bus once it had stopped, he failed to see a pair of eyes following his actions intently.

John quickly stopped at his locker, if only to keep up appearances since his books were in his Inventory, then he moved towards the upperclassmen’s hallway. As he turned the corner, he began to sweep his eyes over the crowd, looking for the distinctive red of his target. At first glance, she wasn’t around and John walked as normally as he could, hoping he could catch sight of her before classes began.

‘Does she take a bus?’ he wondered. ‘Or does she drive herself here? It's weird someone like her isn’t already here. She’s one of those upright rule types.’

He noticed the time slipping away as he caught sight of a wall clock and he sighed as he altered course for his first class. Then he saw Moira Brighton round the far corner, looking as imposing and proper as always even with the distance between them, her head above most of the nearby people.

‘Of course she would show up right as we have to head to class while I’m at the wrong end of the hallway. I don’t think I can make it close enough to get her locker number without looking weird by speeding over there. At least I know the rough area.’

Not wanting his first attempt at the quest to be a complete failure, John lined himself and once there was no one blocking his line of sight, fired off an Observe at the back of Moira’s head.

John didn’t get the chance to read the sheet as Moira’s head snapped in his direction. The distance between them made it hard to read her expression, but it seemed like she was looking for something. Or someone.

‘Shit,’ John cursed as he froze for a second before turning sharply, hoping to disappear into the crowd. ‘She can sense Observe! Why didn’t I think about that? The whole thing’s about to fall apart because I can’t stop myself from trying to know things!’

Suddenly, a hand grabbed his arm and with surprising force, dragged him down a less occupied corridor before quickly pulling him into an empty classroom. John stumbled into the room and turned to see Beth staring at him, her arms crossed over her chest.

“You know,” she said, her tone hard, “you could have said you went here the other day.”

“Would it have changed anything?” John asked as he straightened himself.

“Probably not,” Beth answered, her posture relaxing slightly, and she let out a sigh. “Look, I know I said it back there but I’m sorry for barging in on you guys. And, I was wondering if, if… Fuck, I can’t do this.”

Perplexed, John asked, “Do what?”

“What period do you have lunch?” Beth asked instead.

“Um, fourth period,” he replied.

“Great. Meet me by the science wing cafeteria entrance,” Beth instructed as the first bell rang, signalling three minutes before class began. And then she darted out of the room.

‘That was weird,’ John thought as he followed after her, losing her to the throng of students moving about. ‘What was she going to say? I don’t think the invitation for lunch was what she actually wanted.’

Pushing aside his confusion, John made his way to class, a final thought crossing his mind.

‘Still, if Beth hadn’t yanked me away, the quest could have gone up in smoke.’

A small gust blew back Vivian’s hair prompting her to look up from her work to see Aeolia moving through some of her fighting stances on the opposite end of the table, wisps of lingering wind trailing off her glaive. She watched her diminutive lover swing around her weapon as she weaved around imaginary foes. Her expression was serious, focused intently on her exercise.

That determination inspired Vivian to return her attention to the half designed array before her.

‘Aeolia made a good point earlier,’ she thought as she reviewed her notes. ‘If we’re going to separate for some time, it makes sense to have something to assess our conditions. We can’t always rely on phones so having a simple tripwire sort of thing to alert us if we’re attacked. Something that only needs a simple input to send out the SOS.’

The idea seemed simple, but the application was far from it. She knew she’d need to make sure it could transmit through Barriers, even ones constructed to block phone signals, a daunting task. She tapped her pencil on the page, thinking of how to get over that hurdle.

‘Trying to power through a hostile Barrier is a tough order. A overpowered signal might be able to breach one, but if that was doable, we’d just be able to break out.’

She noted that idea down for later then returned to her musings.

‘If we can’t broadcast out of the Barrier, then having it send out a regular ping is the next best option. For that to work, we’d need some way to know where the signal is coming from. Set up collection points in town like cell towers? No, that’d be way too material intensive and runs the risk of them getting noticed or ruined by weather. We need a simple solution.’

“Brain lock up?” Aeolia asked, jolting Vivian from her musings, her head jerking up from her notes to look at her companion as she sat across from her, a bottle of water in hand. “You haven’t written anything down for a bit.”

Vivian smiled softly at Aeolia’s concerned tone and nodded.

“This is a lot harder than I thought,” the redhead admitted, craning her neck back to relieve some of the tension in it. “Hitting a roadblock when it comes to figuring out how to deal with a Barrier that can block signals going in and out. I figure using something like how a cell phone pings off towers and that logs location requires too much setup to be worth it, but I can’t think of a better solution.”

“Can’t we just use one central point?” Aeolia asked. “Like have these things just send a signal back here?”

“That won’t give us location data though,” Vivian explained. “At best it could give us what direction…”

Her words died as a new idea came to mind and she began to jot down some notes, pencil sketching excitedly.

“That might work,” she muttered, chewing her lip. “Set up a four, no, eight point receiver here aligned to the cardinal directions. That way we can know the direction the signal was coming from. Still need to figure out how to track the distance though. And how to make sure the range is good.”

“I figure that last part would be easy,” Aeolia chimed in. “Just pour more mana so the signal can reach back here.”

“Yes, but unless we want the signal to run at full strength all the time,” Vivian began then paused, a thought crossing her mind. “Wait. That might be the solution.”

“How?” Aeolia asked, her head tilted in confusion.

“If we can figure out the minimal amount of mana needed to get a signal from the outer edge of town, then we can compare that to the signal strength needed to reach back here from just outside the Barrier,” Vivian elaborated, excitement in her voice. “Then we can figure out the power drop off per mile. We’ll still have to deal with only a rough idea of where it came from, but it’ll work.”

Aeolia smiled at Vivian’s breakthrough as she stood up. “Sounds like you got it! I’ll leave you to it. Mind if I use the room we danced in for training? Want to do some more intensive stuff.”

“Might have to fully repurpose that room into a gym at this rate,” Vivian quipped. “Go ahead.”

Aeolia gave her mock salute before flying out, pausing only to land a swift kiss on Vivian’s cheek. The redhead rubbed the spot with a fond look on her face before she refocused on her notes, driven to at least create a blueprint by the time John got out of school.

John wasn’t sure if it was the increases to his Intelligence or the insane events that had transpired since Monday had left the lessons, even supposedly college level courses, feeling boring.

‘Or maybe it’s because I have a lunch appointment creeping up,’ he mused as that time ticked closer. ‘Glad I remembered to grab her yo-yo thing from storage this morning. That should help to smooth over any tension, right? A show of good faith.’

He still wondered about her odd behavior. When he saw that she had been the one to drag him to safety, he briefly expected her to interrogate him, or something. But her attempt at asking him something changed his mind and he wondered what she wanted.

‘I’ll let her talk about it first,’ he thought as the bell rang. ‘No need to stick my foot in my mouth.’

John filed out of the room and proceeded to his rendezvous with Beth. His path towards the science corridor entrance took him down the upperclassmen’s hallway and he slowed his steps as he turned down it, hoping that Moira was at her locker.

‘There she is,’ he thought excitedly as the tall redhead came into view, speaking cordially with a tomboyish girl of asian descent in front of the lockers. His joy increased as Moira moved to open the container and John quickly committed its number to memory. Target memorised, John hastened his steps before either girl could notice his lingering.

By the time he reached the cafeteria, most of his fellow pupils had made it to their next class, making it easy to spot Beth waiting near the door, the short girl tapping her foot in a mixture of impatience and nervousness. When she noticed him, she glanced around then marched over to him.

“Come on,” she said and moved to grab John’s arm, but stopped before making contact and instead began to walk down the hallway.

John spared a longing glance at the cafeteria, then followed after her.

“You could have let me get some food first,” he grumbled.

Beth kept her mouth shut and led him to an empty room, opening the door and ushering him in.

“Um, is it okay for us to be going in here?” John asked as Beth shut the door.

Beth shrugged, slung her bag off her shoulder and set it down on a desk, digging into it. “Been slipping in here often enough for them to catch me. Guess they don’t really care as long as things don’t get broken. Here.”

She pulled out a bottle and tossed it at John. He caught the bulbous container without much fumbling, eyeing the pale yellow mixture with suspicion.

“And this is?” John asked as he cast Observe on it.

“Mac and cheese in a bottle,” Beth replied, confirming the Observe info as she pulled out her own bottle then sat in a nearby chair. “My sis is an alchemist and whips these up whenever she’s going to be out of town on a job for a while. Cheers.”

She opened hers and took a hearty swig. John followed suit, the scent of cheese wafting out as he removed the top. As he tipped it back, the concoction warmed until it was just the right temperature and John gulped down a mouthful of liquid pasta.

“Man, that's weird,” he commented, taking a seat next to Beth. “Tastes great and all, but still like…”

“Having a mac and cheese smoothie,” Beth finished with a grin. “Said the same thing when I tried it. Still beats paying for whatever they’re calling a hamburger back in the cafeteria.”

“Yeah,” John agreed, taking another sip. “So…”

“So,” Beth echoed, her face growing dour as she set down her meal. “Look, I’m not good with this talking stuff, so I’ll just spit it out. Let me tag along with you guys sometimes, all right?”

Before John could respond, she continued, “I know I was a right cunt and I bet if that fairy chick was here she’d veto it right away, but I’m going crazy being locked up and I hate that I can’t do anything.”

After a moment of stunned silence, John managed to say, “Sounds like that was something weighing on you for a while.”

“You have no idea,” Beth grumbled, her shoulders slumping. She scratched at her right wrist as she seemed to argue with herself. “My sister’s overly protective. Like ‘I’d lock you in a box in a basement to keep you safe’ kind of thing. I mean, I’m glad I still have her, but she’s gone overboard with her current safety net.”

“I’m going to guess whatever your sister did makes it so you can’t make Barriers,” John guessed, drawing out a nod from Beth.

“Yeah,” she answered dejectedly. “I can enter them, obviously, but I can’t make my own, even empty ones. And there’s probably some other stuff the leash does but I don’t know what.”

John found himself empathizing with the girl, knowing the feeling of being stuck in a rut. Despite him feeling for her, a small part of him wondered if there was more to it she wasn’t sharing.

‘She didn’t seem to notice Observe before,’ he thought, thinking back to the tavaren Barrier and his recent use of the skill on their lunch before casting it on her.

‘Well, looks like she’s being honest,’ he concluded and dismissed the screen, a small wave of guilt making his mac and cheese filled stomach churn unpleasantly. To ease his conscience, he smiled at Beth.

“I can’t speak for Aeolia or Vivian,” he said, “but I don’t have an issue with you joining us. But there’s something you should know about what we’re up against.”

Beth’s excited expression at his acceptance of her request fell as he finished his statement.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“There’s a group out there,” John began solemnly, “killing other guilds. And taking their blood for some reason. Aeolia’s guild got wiped out by them. And they attacked me on Monday. Pulled me into a Trap Barrier right here in the academy.”

“Well, that’s ballsy,” Beth remarked, not sounding put off by that revelation. “Going to guess that you guys were gearing up to fight them when I barged in, huh? Gonna need to step it up then.”

“You’re not bothered by the fact that you’re about to join up with a bunch of people with a target on their heads?” John asked, dumbfounded that Beth was still keen on joining them.

Beth shrugged. “I mean, I don’t want to die or anything. But between being mother henned by my sister or doing something that might end me, I’ll take the riskier option.”

Her expression grew serious and she continued, “I know the Abyss is a cruel place. But if I don’t use the talents I was born with, then what’s the point of having them? And being able to stop some assholes from harvesting people? Sign me up.”

John had a feeling there was a deep meaning to her logic but he knew now wasn’t the time or place to explore it. He sighed and finished his unusual lunch. “Right. Well, guess this is a provisional welcome to the team, then. You’ll have to meet with Vivian and Aeolia later. I’ll see if they can do it today after school. Try and hang around after last period for me to let you know.”

Beth smiled and saluted. “Won’t let you down, boss.”

“Not sure if I’m the boss,” John shot back with a small chuckle. “We’ve been kind of winging it. Just like I’ve been winging the thing I need to do today.”

Beth looked at him curiously as she finished her drink.

“And that would be?” she asked.

John sighed. “Guess there’s no reason not to tell you. Basically, we’re trying to inform the Order about what happened, anonymously. We figured the easiest way to do so would be to slip a letter to...”

Beth snorted, cutting John’s explanation shot. “Your big plan is to slip their Warden a letter like this is some cheesy high school rom-com?”

“Uh, yeah,” John answered, deflating as Beth’s description of their plan made him feel like an idiot. Beth read his expression and patted him on the shoulder.

“It’s not that it’s a bad idea,” she explained. “It’s just, my sister said something about Wardens once when she moved us here. Something about them being utterly devoted to their duties, to the point of not even taking lovers. So you slipping a letter into her locker like some crush is just really funny.”

“Didn’t know about that ‘married to the job’ thing,” John said, his mood improved by the slight validation of the plan. “Wonder why Moira’s in the academy then.”

Beth shrugged. “Don’t know and don’t really care. So, we need to find an opening to do the drop, right?”

John nodded. “The more hidden I can be, the better. And we figure keeping magic to a minimum would be best.”

‘Especially since Moira seemed to sense my Observe earlier,’ he thought.

“So making the area around her locker ultra slick and tripping people up would be a no go, huh?” Beth asked with a jovial smirk. “You don’t have to do this like, right now, right?”

“I’d like to get it done today,” John replied, running a hand through his hair. “If it's good enough to get them to investigate, then the sooner, the better.”

“Okay. How about this? We pass each other during the period change and I bump you into her locker,” Beth supplied. “You brace yourself against it and slip it in.”

“At least that gives me an excuse to be in contact with the locker,” John said. “And it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been knocked into the wall. Wish I knew the next time Moira would go to her locker, but that can’t be helped. Best to get it done next period shift.”

“I’ll try to be gentle,” Beth joked. “I’ll circle around and try to go around the corner. The same hallway from before, yeah?”

“Yeah,” John replied. “Oh, before I forget.”

He reached for his bag and once his hands were out of sight, pulled Beth’s yo-yo out of his Inventory. Then he presented it to her.

“You dropped this.”

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.