Sorrowful Return

The scene outside of Ashcroft Academy was a hectic one as the student body was corralled by the administration while firefighters and police personnel secured the building and examined the issue at hand. With all the chaos, John was able to wait several paces away from one of the throngs of students, his general disposition amongst his fellows giving him the perfect cover to remain separate from them.

'How long is this going to take?' John pondered, his balance shifting as he swayed impatiently. Within his backpack, Aeolia shifted as well, movement John took as a sign that she echoed his thoughts.

His eyes drifted over the barely organised mob; the relative calm after the last hour gave John time to reflect and think.

'I wonder where Aeolia’s HQ is? I guess it would have to be in one of those Barrier things, so it could be anywhere. Good thing I’ve got a Student Bus Pass,' he mused. 'Kinda wish I could see if Instant Barrier would give me any insight if I pulled up the Skill sheet, but Aeolia was right, I do look weird tapping at nothing. Unless…'

John called up his Inventory screen, and after making sure no one was really looking in his direction, summoned his phone to his hand. He brought the phone inline with the Inventory screen then willed it closed, pretending to tap his phone as he did.

'Hello solution,' John thought gleefully, now free to summon up his various screens without looking like an idiot at best, or attracting unwanted attention at worst. 'Do I check my Skills for more info about them?' John pondered, thinking back to the change Hex underwent back in the Trap Barrier as well as seeing what options may be available for Instant Barrier. 'Or should I just go back to casting Observe on everyone?'

John spent a few moments weighing his options. 'I need to know more about what I can do. I need to see if Hex’s info sheet will tell me just what happened when I used Dark Mana to cast it. And I still want to see if Instant Barrier has more information about just what I can do with it.'

His decision made, John opened his Character Sheet and tapped Hex.

'Where there’s something new,’ John thought, tapping the Effect Mods portion of the Skill sheet.

Effect Mods - Unlocked when 50% or more of Skill Cost is covered by Elemental Mana.

Dark: Gain (Skill Lv. x 5)% of applicable Effects and Attributes from target during the duration of Hex.

'Well that’s a nice upgrade,’ John thought, closing the Hex sheets, 'but I can only get this bonus if I use mostly Dark Mana. I wonder if I can move the Mana from my knife to my ring?'

Unable to test that possibility, John moved his attention to Instant Barrier.

John tapped the word ‘Create’, hoping it would display a list of options, but no additional pop-ups manifested. John tapped at ‘Modify’ and ‘Exit’ just to be sure, but when nothing appeared, John closed all the screens, a bit dejected.

'I wonder if I can only see the options when I use the Skill, or if I need to use the Skill first to be able to view extra info from the Skill screen.'

John cast his gaze over the crowds, hoping to see the administration about to announce either the suspension on the day or their readmittance. To his annoyance, there was no sign of any organisation amongst them.

“Hey,” Aeolia’s whispered voice emanated from his bag, causing John to jolt slightly, “am I going to be stuck in here forever or what?”

John cast a quick glance around before whispering back, “Sorry, they still haven’t announced anything.”

Aeolia let out an annoyed hiss and settled herself back down in the pack, her movement causing her glaive to press uncomfortably through the bag’s fabric and into John’s back. The Gamer shifted his bag carefully to alleviate the discomfort and froze when he noticed someone looking in his direction.

A slim, plain-looking young woman had him in her line of sight, and for a second, John worried that she had seen him talking to Aeolia through his bag and might interpret his actions as something suspicious and alert a teacher. Thankfully she remained in place, impassively staring in John’s direction.

'Did she even see anything,' John thought, the tension in his body abating slightly as he monitored his unimpressive looking classmate. 'Maybe I should Observe her just to be sure. It’s not like that wasn’t what I was planning to do anyway.'

'Well, that’s one boring character,' John internally remarked, dismissing the vanilla woman’s sheet, casting a glance around for another target. Before he could, the distinct honk of a megaphone being primed rang out over the crowds, and one of the administrators, one John didn’t recognise, began to speak.

“Attention students,” the man said, his amplified voice quieting any remaining conversations, “since the fire department has to investigate the cause of the alarm, we will be dismissing you for the day. We cannot allow you to enter the building to retrieve items from your lockers, so if you need to contact a family member, approach one of the staff. Buses are currently en route for those who take them. Thank you for your patience.”

With the announcement made, the student body began to break apart, some heading towards their own vehicles, others towards the bus area. Very few made their way towards a small number of teachers for assistance, and John made his way alone to a secluded portion of the grounds.

After checking for any observers and cameras, he slipped off his pack and fully opened it, letting Aeolia poke her head out.

“So, we’re in the clear, right?” she asked after taking a breath.

“Yeah,” John replied. “Just where do we need to go now?”

“Our base was in the downtown area,” Aeolia informed him. “Give me your phone. I’ll pull it up.”

John did as she requested, a little amused at how the diminutive woman had to maneuver his phone to use it. To her, it was closer to an oversized tablet and she had to brace it with her knee to effectively use it. Still, she quickly brought up the phone’s map app and typed up an address.

“Here,” she said when done, handing the phone back to John. A quick glance let him know their destination was in the northern end of the Electronics District, a location that was a ten minute walk from the nearest bus stop.

“Well, you ready to go?” John asked, giving Aeolia the final say. The winged woman took a deep breath and nodded, dipping back into the pack. John zipped it mostly closed and headed for the nearest bus stop.

One uneventful bus ride and short walk later, John stood outside of a building of sun faded brickwork situated on a quiet street. It didn’t stand out from the other buildings around nor did it seem like it hid a base for a group of magically inclined people.

'Though that makes sense,’ he conceded to himself. 'If the threat of utter destruction if I pulled back the curtain hung over my head, I’d make sure nothing stood out to normal people.'

“So,” John said, twisting his head back towards the open part of his bag, “how do we get in?”

“Go down the alley to the left,” Aeolia responded with an anxious voice. “There’ll be a door on the side.”

John did as he was instructed and traversed down the alleyway, stopping at a slightly dented and weathered steel door.

“OK, we’re at the door,” John stated, “now what?”

“Give me a second,” Aeolia responded, moving about in the pack. A second later, John heard the sound of metal striking metal, drawing his attention back. He saw Aeolia’s glaive poking out of the pack, the blade pulling the zipper open.

“You could have asked me to let you out,” John dryly remarked as Aeolia hopped out of the more opened backpack, gliding towards the ground for a second before beating her wings to ascend.

“Is this even a safe move?” John asked as she landed on his shoulder.

“Rule one about setting up a Barrier base,” Aeolia said with a weary smile, “set it up somewhere mundane humans are not going to go. Rule two, have a security system in place. When you get in, say ‘Cumquat’ clearly.”

“‘Cumquat’?” John asked quizzically.

“Don’t ask,” Aeolia sighed, her tone a mix of embarrassment and dismay. “At least it isn’t something someone would just say, so it works that way.”

“And what would happen if I didn’t say cumquat?” John asked nervously.

“You’d get attacked by our sentry golem,” Aeolia stated plainly. “Anyway, just open a Barrier right in front of the door. You’ll get pulled right in.”

Her instructions given, Aeolia hopped off John's shoulder and glided towards the door, hand raised before her. Then she vanished into thin air.

“OK, just open a Barrier and say a password before I get mauled. Pretty easy.”

John took a calming breath and used Instant Barrier.

You have entered the Dawnseeker’s HQ Illusion Barrier.

John lurched without moving, barely noticing the display as it popped up and vanished. He braced himself against the wall, the texture slightly off from his memory of rough bricks.

“Cumquat,” he wheezed out, the word coming out nearly slurred with his haste. For a moment he worried his use of the safeword wouldn’t work, that it had come out too fast or unintelligible to not trigger the security golem.

But no creation came to bash him into the ground. John straightened himself out, and took in his surroundings, his face contorting into a frown when he saw that things looked very much the same. The only difference he could see was the sky was overcast where before it was sunny.

And that the steel door was wide open. Wide open and heavily dented.

John’s pulse quickened as he stepped through the open frame, nearly tripping over the shattered remains of something made of stone. He ignored whatever lay on the floor and quickly opened his inventory and withdrew his knife. The interior of the building had been trashed: walls smashed down, doors torn from their hinges and furniture tossed around.

John made his way deeper inside, eyes darting about for Aeolia or any threat. He was greeted by the same scene as the entrance, the destruction of walls and furniture continuing down the hall and through the few rooms he passed. Then he heard it, the soft sounds of barely contained sobbing.

John stowed his knife and followed the sounds towards the center of the headquarters and through a smashed set of double doors into what appeared to have been something of the main base of operations, if the tossed around number of desks were any indication. In the center of the room, Aeolia stood, one hand gripping her glaive so tightly John thought she might have been able to snap it. Her wings quivered as her lungs tried to hold in the sobs.

'Is there anything I can do?’ John’s thoughts were as useless as his legs as he helplessly watched Aeolia valiantly keep her despair at bay. 'Man, I don’t know how to deal with something like this. Do I say something like, “We’ll get the guys that did this,” or…?'

In that moment, John hated being indecisive more than any other time in his life.

'I’m never this useless in a game,’ he thought with a sour grimace, 'but I’m still the same socially paralyzed dork, now with magic powers.'

“Not a word,” Aeolia’s worn and uneven voice broke John from his downward spiral and he focused his eyes on her as she turned towards him. Her form still quivered with contained jolts of despaired sobs and her yellow eyes were rimmed with red.

“Aeo….”

“I said,” she shouted, tears leaking out, “not a word. I don’t have time, for, for…”

Her words were beaten down by the **** sobs that were trying to tear from her throat.

'Damn it, John,’ the Gamer cursed his patheticness again. 'Come on think of something to say!'

He racked his brain for any sort of line he could use to ease the situation, but none came to him.

“It’s OK to cry,” the words spilled out of John’s mouth with no real thought behind them, and once loosed, he couldn’t hold them back. “I mean, fuck. I’m not good with words, but, um, I’m here for you. No, wait, that sounds, er…”

“I know what you’re trying to say,” Aeolia managed to **** out with a sad and faint smile on her face, her voice thick with emotion and phlegm. “You suck at saying it, but I get your meaning. Just, let me, process things and calm down. Maybe you can use that ability of yours to find any info.”

“Yeah, um, I can do that,” John said lamely and left the small woman to deal with her emotions.