I didn’t know if it was post-exertion malaise or some other mysterious ailment, but soon after the duel, I got sick. My whole body felt sore and my joints ached. Light and noise hurt my head terribly, and I resented even the faintest footsteps going down the hall. Fever had me resting fitfully, drifting in and out of sleep.

I dreamed I was burning up in fire. There was a crow watching me.

“Don’t you have any self preservation instincts?” I said. “Shoo. Go away.”

It hopped like it wanted to come closer, but the fire wouldn’t let it reach me. Soon, it gave up and took flight, disappearing past the smoke.

I was opening my window to let in the night air. My arms trembled as I struggled to heave the glass pane aside. It was unfair. A whole new world, healthy and beloved, but I was still experiencing such a terrible heat. My vision swam. It was hard to make out the stars.

Around me, everything was burning. My blood sizzled and evaporated in the air. A crow cried out, and Luka looked at me, red eyes shining through the smoke.

“I saw your duel with your brother.”

Oh yeah, I’d been assigned a new brother recently. Though of course, I had no intention of calling anyone Brother again. “Did you really?” I said. “Then I guess it’s more than Linden saw.”

He didn’t laugh at my joke. “I don’t understand. You weren’t angry, and you didn’t hate him. In fact, you felt sorry towards him. So why did you go through with the duel?”

“Haven’t you ever heard of a threat display?”

“A threat display is what you do to prevent any fighting,” Luka said dryly.

What? “No, it’s a display that you’re capable of being a threat. So if they don’t believe you, that’s exactly why you should fight.”

Luka looked at me like he wanted to say something, but in the end, he didn’t. Aha! My flawless logic must have convinced him.

The crow on his shoulder hopped onto his head and cawed raucously.

Luka reluctantly opened his mouth.

“Are you okay?”

I tilted my head. “Hm?”

“After the duel. Are you okay? Where did all these bodies come from? Why is everything burning?”

What a silly question. “Because we’re in hell, you know.”

Luka frowned. “But why are we in hell?”

“Why are you so surprised? People create their own hells all the time.” I thought of Linden and laughed. “Just look at their World Proofs.”

“Then are you the reason that this place is this way?”

“This rotten place was ruined from the start. I just dragged a few people down to hell with me.” I gave him a playful look. “But you’re from a different world from me. Why are you here? You should leave before it’s too late for you, too.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“You’re still alive, aren’t you? But if you stay in that fire for much longer, you’ll die.”

I smiled. “You’re a funny guy, Luka. Aren’t you the one who swore you’d kill me once you escaped?”

Luka frowned harder. The crow let out a sharp cry and flapped its wings.

In a swirl of black, it transformed into an avian tattoo curled around his upper face like a mask, with a single silver sigil looking out from between his eyes.

I felt a strange frisson in the air and shivered. My vision split in three. I saw myself in shades of gray, and I saw myself with a single white thread floating out to connect with the gaze that watched me, and I saw Luka looking back at me.

“Acacius,” Luka said. “Are you okay? Have you had any contact with other spirits lately? What does this dream mean?”

“It means this whole world…”

Wherever his gaze touched me, I felt cold and heavy. I shivered again.

“They killed my…”

My voice trailed off. What? Why was I answering?

I shuddered under his gaze. Or was it my gaze? I couldn’t tell. My face was cracking, sloughing off in pieces. No, I’d made a mistake. It was a mask coming off, not my face. I tried to hold it together, but in one of my overlaid visions, something spilled out, unrolling in delicate tendrils like the leaves of a fern.

“This isn’t…”

Like a tangled fishing line, colored threads drifted out from the cracks in my body. I tried to gather them and hold them in. He wasn’t supposed to see that. But my hands passed through them like air, unable to touch them at all.

“Why are you…”

I coughed. My face was falling off. Everything was spilling out, slipping out of my grasp.

First came golden threads, spinning in the air.

My joy.

I staggered forward.

“Acacius?” Luka said. He took a step closer, past the burning bodies and into the flames. “Can you… see them?”

Then came silver lines spilling out, glimmering as they floated away among the columns of smoke.

My love.

The world twisted in lines of black and fire brightness. I was watching myself from inside and out. I reached out and seized Luka. He struggled in my grasp like I would ever let go. There was a sword in his hand, and then there was a blade in my chest. It tore me wide open.

Jagged knots of red tumbled out, a fractal web of emotion that gushed out in wave after misty wave.

My anger.

“Stop looking,” I hissed, digging my fingers in. Layer after layer of masks were flaking away, leaving empty gaps where I should have been. I couldn’t tell how I was speaking anymore. “Who gave you the right? Go to hell!”

But he didn’t stop looking at me. His gaze kept pulling it all out like an unwinding spool.

The red weave unraveled into thick black threads at the base, heavy as a chain, snaking out dark into the hot flames.

My hatred.

“Acacius,” Luka said. “What is this? Why do you feel this way?”

It was all his fault.

I grabbed his face with one hand, gripped, and pulled. In a screech of feathers and wings, the tattoo peeled away into my grasp, solidifying once more into the shape of a crow. Its talons scratched frantically at me, tearing my body open.

Out from the widening cracks, deep blue threads unwound and billowed up in endless clouds, enough to blot out the skies.

My despair.

The crow tried to struggle free, but I tightened my grip around its neck. Luka impaled me with his sword, again and again. I could barely feel it at all.

“I told you,” I repeated. “Stop looking.”

His sword flashed. I squeezed.

Abyssal blackness exploded around us, darker than any night.

…

“Acacius?”

My head hurt. There was pounding on the door.

“Acacius, are you in there?”

Slow and dizzy, I dragged my eyes open. For a moment, in the darkness, I couldn’t tell if I was still dreaming.

What had I been dreaming about, again?

The fierce knocking scattered my thoughts.

“Acacius, say something already!”

It was Cynara.

I didn’t want her to see me like this.

“Stop—” I coughed. I sounded terrible. “Stop yelling. I’m coming.”

Despite the soreness and the hot and cold flashes, I forced myself to sit up and properly pull on Acacius’ coat, smoothing out his pajama collars into a neat approximation of a dress shirt. The window was open, letting in a cold breeze. When had I done that? There was a tangy feeling in my mouth; I’d started bleeding from the nose while asleep. I combed my hair into place with my fingers and wiped my face clean before opening the door.

I felt sorry about the way Cynara’s face changed when she saw me. Maybe I shouldn’t have answered the door after all.

“You look awful,” she said.

“Haven’t you heard the saying that appearances are deceiving?” I said.

“You’d have to become a saint to keep that statement true.”

I held back a smile. Not so worried she couldn’t come up with a smart remark, huh. “What’s so important that you’re screaming at my door? Is the sky falling?”

“I wasn’t screaming. Unlike a certain someone, I’m mindful of my surroundings. It was just that you weren’t answering like you usually do.” She crossed her arms, but glanced at me askance from under her eyelashes. “Are you sick?”

“Aw, are you worried about me?” I said, though I was careful to keep a flat tone. “Don’t be. It’s probably just a cold.”

“Liar,” said Cynara. “I bet you’re as bad at taking care of your ‘cold’ as you are at doing anything else. Let me in.”

Without waiting for a response, she forcefully shouldered her way inside.

“Aren’t you afraid of catching something from me?” I said, amused.

“As if. You know I won’t get sick from this.”

“Is that so?” I trailed after her into the kitchen. “Then you shouldn’t mind if I do this.”

I mimed sneezing on her. She recoiled in disgust, which made me laugh, and then she punched me in the shoulder, which made me go into a coughing fit.

Cynara looked a little sorry, but she didn’t apologize. She said, “Go lie down and don’t do anything. That’s all you’re good for, anyways.”

Oh. Well, I did love slacking off. “Okay.”

I turned around to walk to my bedroom.

“Hey! You’re really just doing it?”

“You don’t like it when I don’t listen to you, but you don’t like it when I do, either,” I observed. “Life must be hard for you.”

I dragged my bedroom window shut with aching arms and closed the curtains before lying down.

I must have drifted off for a while, because the next thing I knew, Cynara was by my bed with a bowl of soup in hand.

I sniffed it as I pushed myself up. “Did you burn something?”

“No, that would be ridiculous,” Cynara said. I think she wanted to shove the hot bowl into my hands, but she thought better of it and just set it down on the bed stand too hard instead. “Father sent you another letter, by the way.”

“Did he?” I said, peering at her soup. The vegetables seemed mushy and overcooked. “Let’s hear it.”

“Why am I reading it to you?”

“I figured you wanted to pry. Plus, I’m busy eating.”

“Whatever,” said Cynara, but she pulled out the letter to read as I tried out her new concoction.

The gist of it was that Cyprian had heard about the duel’s results and found it unsatisfactory. According to him, the next head of the Duval family ought to have the power to eliminate any potential threats to the house. He was disappointed in me and hoped that I would take some time to reflect.

So basically, it was a whole lot of nothing.

Cynara was looking at me like I’d killed her dog in front of her or something, though. I didn’t take her for someone who cared about Cyprian’s opinion that much.

“When you make soup, leafy vegetables should go in last, since they cook quickly,” I said. “However, root vegetables should be added early over a medium heat so they can be cooked more evenly.”

Cynara flushed slightly. “Forget about the soup! Did you hear what I said?”

“Yes, I’m a disappointment to the family,” I said, waving a hand. “So, not much different from the status quo. You don’t need to look like the world has ended. Did you taste test the soup?”

“I’m not — if you don’t want my cooking, just say so!”

“Who said I didn’t want it? I’m just informing you how to do better next time. Don’t you think a genius should have skills to match?”

That seemed to sting Cynara. “Oh, because you’re so good at cooking now?”

“You don’t believe me? If you had my food you wouldn’t be saying that.”

“Why would I want your food?”

“I’ll show you how to cook something better next time you come over. How about Friday? It can’t be Thursday because you’re going to the Fellowship.”

“I just said I don’t need your food.”

“Okay, Friday it is.”

“Stop making decisions on your own.”

“Why? You can decide to come over without my input, but I can’t decide that you should come visit?”

“That was because I came to talk to you about important things!”

“My soup is also important.”

Cynara let out a little frustrated scream.

Despite her sharp tongue, she didn’t actually have a lot of resistance towards teasing. It was kinda cute.

In any case, perhaps due to Cynara’s care, my fever finally broke a few hours later. This was good for me because I couldn’t afford to miss class. I was already behind enough.

Fortunately, since I’d been sick on the weekend, I only missed one day of class. I got some extra looks from my classmates when I showed up the next day, but since I’d successfully gone a few weeks without talking meaningfully to any of them, it was no problem at all.

Honestly, I was just glad that the duel turned out as well as it did. I’d learned a lot about fighting in this world, Linden was neither dead nor threatening me, and it seemed like people wanted to talk to me even less than before. That was great. Of course, Linden confronting me about faking the end of the duel was a minor hiccup, but he hadn’t spread it around, and I’d even gotten some important information out of him, too.

Based on the family tree Linden had given me, other than the dead eldest brother, Yarrow, I didn’t have any other surprise siblings to worry about. I’d also learned that Linden and Yarrow’s mother, Vivian Duval, was dead.

However, Acacius and Cynara’s mother, Lily Song, was alive. I couldn’t tell if she’d just kept her maiden name after marrying into the family or if she and Cyprian had divorced.

Well, the important thing was that no one had mentioned her before and she wasn’t here right now, so I didn’t have to worry about what Acacius’ relationship with her was just yet.

The other key piece of information I’d learned from Linden was the name of his World Proof, which would have screwed the duel over if I hadn’t been on guard. In my vision, because I hadn’t been expecting it, it had gotten the jump on me. Drinking my blood gave it power to attack again, and attacking again let it draw more blood from me. Talk about a vicious cycle.

I’d finally gotten another World Proof for my arsenal, but it sounded like crap. I didn’t want to touch it at all. You had to be out of your mind to think that regularly using something called [Regretful Devourer of What He Loves] was any good.

Hopefully Linden could figure out his problem. Far away from me.

Since I was feeling better, in the evening, I went to visit Etienne at the Pearl Dive.

“Hey, pal,” said Etienne. “You haven’t been around for a while. I was starting to think you’d dipped.”

“Sorry, something unexpected came up. I probably won’t come around to practice as often.”

“That’s a shame. I’m a big fan of your deep pockets.”

“Let me treat you to a meal, then,” I said. It would be my thanks for helping me so much.

“Think you can get me into one of those fancy restaurants up the hill?”

I evaluated Chen Xiarui’s beat up clothes. They weren’t dirty, so… “It could be worth a shot.”

“Well, shit. Let’s go.”

I followed Etienne to a more upscale neighborhood, where trees and hedges were neatly trimmed and the pavement was decorated with subtle but elegant patterns. The guy at the door gave us skeptical looks, but after I swaggered up confidently and tossed a few coins his way, he didn’t have a problem letting us in.

Etienne took a shine to a private booth by the window that let us look down the hill towards the river, where the warm lights of traveling boats drifted peacefully along the dark water. He ordered a fish stew called psarosoupa, a sort of baked vegetable dish known as moussaka, and stuffed pita bread and wine. I pointed to a couple other meat dishes on the menu and didn’t bother trying to pronounce them on my own.

Since Etienne wasn’t following the table utensil etiquette I’d observed at the Fellowship, I ignored it too. For a while, we mostly just talked about our impression of the food and pointed out stuff for the other to try.

“By the way,” Etienne said, during a lull in conversation, “I was wonderin’. Why’d ya go lookin’ for help at the Pearl Dive in the first place?”

“Asked a guy I knew if he could hook me up, and he pointed me there.”

“Who?”

I shrugged. “Not sure if there’s any point in telling you. He slips out of people’s heads real easy. They just forget they know him.”

“But you don’t?”

“Guess not. He likes me for some reason.”

“Huh.” Etienne leaned back in his chair, picking at his teeth with his fork. “And you just took the suggestion of someone like that? D’you even know what the Pearl Dive does?”

“You don’t know my name, either,” I said. “Let’s not dig too deeply, yeah?”

Etienne grinned.

“You know,” he said, “there’s a lotta information that passes through that bar. And me ‘n’ my pals, we’re good at payin’ attention to things that other people would overlook.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. Where was he going with this?

“You seem like a guy with a lot goin’ on. So if you ever need someone with ears around the block, or some extra hands to help out, you can look for me. I’ll give you a discount for customer loyalty.”

“Trying to make up for lost income now that I can’t come every day?” I joked.

“Hey, can’t blame a guy for makin’ a buck where he can. That ain’t the only thing, though.” He leaned his elbows on the table. “You ‘n’ I get along pretty well. Plus, you’re quick, perceptive, and adaptable. I don’t think ya really need the money, but if ya want an extra job, or just feel like selling off some good info, you can always ask for me or Thais at the bar.”

I couldn’t help but be amused. “Am I getting a recruitment pitch?”

“Doesn’t have to be that big a deal.”

“Good, ‘cause I’m not really an organization guy.”

“Free spirit?”

“I guess you could say that. Plus, I don’t really trust large groups. Doesn’t matter how shiny their ideals are, everything that grows big rots from within eventually.” I shrugged and smiled. “Still, I can learn to trust one person.”

Etienne raised an eyebrow. “No gangs, just individuals, huh? I can respect that.”

“Then here’s to getting along,” I said playfully, and raised my cup in a toast.

“To our future dealings,” Etienne said, cheekily tapping his glass against mine.

We drank.

I was ready to return to my previous school schedule of note-taking and self study, but my home room teacher threw me for another loop the very next day.

I’d asked him during home room if he could help me catch up on the material I’d missed during my absence, and he’d offered to give me a quick lecture after my last elective of the day. It was an offer I was more than happy to take him up on.

Finishing up with my last notes, I said, “I appreciate the extra time you’ve given me, Professor.”

“Of course,” said Professor Raoul. “It’s a teacher’s pleasure to have a student as self-motivated as you. Now, it’s a bit late, so I’ll have to end things here, but if you have any questions, feel free to speak to me again.”

“Understood.”

“Ah, and have you received all the forms to fill out for the trip?”

I blinked. “The trip?”

Professor Raoul paused. “Has your partner not spoken to you yet?”

“My partner?”

Professor Raoul sighed.

“I apologize for the communication gap. As you know, Nithemoore emphasizes practical application and experience, and as such, our Year 2 Governance track will be visiting an unsolved Fantasm World under the control of the Broken Kaleidoscope in Fulsgate. We will depart next Monday morning and expect to return by Tuesday evening. Since you were absent, I paired you with Verica, who I entrusted with the task of conveying this information to you. I see that this has not yet happened.”

“Do you know where I can find her?”

“It’s against policy to give out students’ personal information,” Professor Raoul said apologetically. “However, you can speak to her during home room tomorrow. Here, take these forms and make sure to fill them out by Friday. If you don’t, you won’t be authorized to enter Fulsgate or the Fantasm World, and you’ll automatically fail this assignment.”

I flipped through my folder to check my course syllabus.

Grade Breakdown:

• Homework: 19%
• Quizzes: 1%
• Midterm: 25%
• Final: 25%
• Special Assignments: 30%

“Is this a special assignment?” I asked, to be sure.

“Yes, the first of three.” Professor Raoul shuffled through his desk and gave me another sheet of paper. “This is the rubric and deadline. Recommended supplies and materials are on the back. This Fantasm World’s frame is non-exclusive, so you can bring a certified artifact for any frame you want to use within.”

“Thanks, Professor,” I said. “I’ll review it carefully.”

Getting supplies, figuring out this certified artifact business, and preparing to enter a Fantasm World…

It looked like I’d be changing my evening plans once again.

Chapter 16 Back to Index