NOVEL NEXT Chapter XX (20)- Untraceable
CHAPTER XX (20)- Untraceable
The rest of the day Kizu spent thinking about Basil’s plan. Harvey wanted absolutely nothing to do with it, but Kizu understood the plan’s merit. On one hand, Kizu just barely finished digging himself out of a massive pile of trouble and could see how getting caught might offer him a one way ticket for expulsion. But on the other hand, Basil had been sneaking into the girls’ dormitories for years without anyone ever batting an eye. And the more he learned about his family’s relationship with his sister, the more likely it seemed that his family probably had scoured every last piece of his sister from the villa. If they were willing to completely redo their security measures, throwing out old trinkets and mementos hardly seemed far fetched. And, regardless, he still had no way into the villa.
He still had the note with her hanko stamp’s imprint pressed into the bottom. He intended to try that out before he did anything else more reckless. So, he decided Basil’s mischief wasn’t a priority for the time being. There were half a dozen other things to worry about first.
When the bell rang, signifying the end of classes, he went to the library to distract himself from his thoughts. They wouldn’t let him check out another book until he returned his divination one, but he still browsed the library’s many shelves, looking for anything that might help him with one of his many projects.
After a few hours of searching, he received a pointer from a librarian and found a yellowing papyrus scroll on a dusty shelf that emerged from the ground when he stepped on a specific tile on the floor. The scroll detailed how to identify the uses of enchanted clothing. He did his best to copy the ritual instructions on a different piece of paper and traced the pattern before replacing the original on the shelf. He hoped he might, at least, be able to use it on the necklace if nothing else.
At dinner, he practiced sketching the pattern. He looked at his shoddy handiwork and sighed. No matter how many attempts, his circles were lopsided and the lines a bit too shaky.
He flipped his newly stolen chalk between his fingers. His patience ran out. Kizu decided to go through with it and attempt the identification. So what if the lines weren’t absolutely perfect.
Finishing up his meal, he ordered a bit of fruit for Mort before heading back to his room. Once there, he collected up his wooden box along with Mort and they made their way down to his new study corner.
When he arrived, he realized that choosing an out of the way location under a flight of stairs at the bottom of the academy had its disadvantages. The floor was still covered in chalk from his divination rituals the other day. He did his best to scrub them away with his shoe, but it only smudged. He sighed. A water elemental spell would come in handy. As would scrub brushes.
For now, he just drew his chalk circles to the side of his old drawings. After his third sketch, he began to run out of space. He decided the most recent one was good enough to attempt the spell. Carefully, he used his uniform’s sleeve to lift the necklace from the wooden box and set it in the center of the chalk. He channeled into it, opening his mind to the creator’s intent.
An open sense of freedom gripped his heart. A deep longing to remain unknown and untraceable created an ache in him. The intent of the creator while enchanting it. Kizu tried to follow the train of thought. The creator’s idea of freedom was a lack of supervision. A lack of people watching. The necklace accomplished that. It gave the creator the freedom he yearned for. At first, Kizu thought it was designed for invisibility. But no, as he focused, he realized it went to a more fundamental form of stealth.
“It lets the user cast spells undetected,” Kizu said suddenly, jerking back from the chalk circle. He looked at Mort. “Nobody can trace the spells back to the user and it has an aura around it that prevents magical detection as well. That must be why Professor Grove never commented on the box when I carried it before. As a wisp, she doesn’t have natural eyes like us anymore.”
Mort looked unimpressed.
“Well, I think it’s pretty neat,” Kizu mumbled. “I wonder why the identification spell worked on it if its design is to be undetected. Maybe it’s because I’m not analyzing it, but rather the intent of its creator?”
Mort held no answers for him. Instead, his familiar decided to leap down and chase after a wayward fruit fly. He found the bug far more interesting than Kizu’s technical theoretical questions on the nature of enchantments.
Kizu took a risk and picked up the necklace with his fingers. Nothing. It just felt like an average iron necklace. The only thing noteworthy about it was how heavy it was, but he assumed that was probably normal for iron.
“I wish I had some way to test you out,” Kizu said to it, passing it from hand to hand.
He set it to the side and decided to test out the other objects. Careful not to physically touch them, he attempted the same ritual on both. Both attempts resulted in nothing. He sighed. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy. He packed them back into the box and stored it away, but kept out the necklace.
With only a brief moment of hesitation, he slipped it over his head. The weight of the iron tugged slightly on the back of his neck. Other than that, he felt no change.
He tested out a few spells to see if the necklace altered anything with them. Everything worked just as it would normally. If he hadn’t seen his antimagic shield wink out on contact with the necklace, he wouldn’t have believed it enchanted in the slightest.
Back in his room, he continued to attempt several other fruitless tests on the amulet before he finally dozed off.
When he woke up, he forced himself out of bed, dragging his feet as he got ready for the day. As he departed from his chambers, he looked longingly back one last time at the mattress. Jealousy spiked in him as he spotted Mort sleeping on a wooden beam over the room. Just as he stepped out of the doorway, he remembered he still wore the necklace. Not wanting to bring attention to it in front of the academy’s administrator, he tossed it onto his bed where it landed with a soft thump as he left.
Kizu made his way back to where Roba had seen him the day before. He pressed in on the six of the clock face, just as Evie had done. It opened inward and he walked into the room.
Roba sat at her desk, looking over some papers strewn across it. She didn’t even look up as he entered. Schools of fish swam about the windows, looking in at Kizu, as if curious.
“Good, I was worried you had overslept. You mentioned before that you are usually awake late due to your bond to a nocturnal.” She waved a veiny, sun-spotted hand and a bowl of porridge appeared on the desk. “Eat. Breakfast has been proven to be invaluable to academic achievement.”
Kizu did as bidden, spooning the porridge into his mouth. It was bland and lumpy, but he swallowed without complaint. It stuck to his stomach. When he finished, he set the bowl aside. Despite the lack of taste, he felt rejuvenated and a bit more awake.
“Now, tell me what you’ve studied this week. Be quick about it.”
He told her about shield training, elemental heating and cooling of water, the enchantment theory they discussed in class, and his potion debacle with Sene. He explained that he was working on putting together the different constellation names. With every name he managed to translate over, astronomy class became exponentially easier. Already he felt he was far beyond the rest of his astronomy class. He even added as a side note that Ione had taught him a little about conjuring.
“And your divination?” Roba asked.
“Divination? I’m not taking a divination class this semester.”
“The library reports you checked out a book on divination. What did you learn from it?”
He wasn’t sure how to answer. He hadn’t planned to discuss divination with her. But, then again, it’s not like he was actually breaking any rules by studying it. No one ever said he couldn’t look for his sister.
“I’m looking for someone,” he admitted.
“I didn’t ask why you were studying,” she reprimanded him. “Only what you learned.”
“I’ve been working on a ritual that helps me locate others. I got it to work, but only enough to give me a bit of validation that the person is alive. If I want to actually figure out where she is, I need to get some personal object of hers.”
“Impressive.”
“Divination was always the crone’s greatest magical strength,” he said. “But she said I didn’t have much of an aptitude for it when she taught me the basics.”
“Hmm.” She rapped her fingernails against her desk. “Show me the spell.”
“I don’t have any chalk,” he said.
She reached down behind her desk and, with a grunt, lifted and dropped his satchel on it. From it, she withdrew a piece of white chalk from a side pocket and set it on the table.
“You got my bag back?” Kizu’s spirits rose. That was one less thing for him to stress about.
“Astute.”
Kizu took the chalk and began the markings on the ground. He’d sketched them out enough in practice that he didn’t even need to check in the book.
“Redo that line,” she directed after he drew one a bit lopsided. She pointed at it and the chalk disappeared from the ground.
He did as she asked.
“Do you think you could teach me to do that?” he asked as he redrew the line. “It would be a lot simpler than scrubbing the floor every time I make a mistake or when I need to clean up after I finish everyday.”
“Scrubbing will do you some good. You’re young and spry. Best way to stay that way is to scrub floors and haul heavy objects for your elders.”
Not that she did those activities to help stay young, he noted with slight exasperation.
When he finished, she eyed the chalk markings. Then demanded him to attempt the spell. He did as commanded and felt the familiar tug. It faded after only a moment though.
“No aptitude?” she muttered to herself. “Barely even an anchor and he still manages a response. What could this boy accomplish with aptitude then?”
Kizu pretended not to hear. Instead he just stood awkwardly until the markings all vanished with a wave of her hand.
“You claim to know potions? Ingredients in a potion of water breathing?”
He listed them.
“Fire immunity.”
He listed them.
“Keen senses.”
Not knowing which sense, he listed the ingredients for a potion that enhanced all basic senses.
“Love.”
He listed four different variations based on the level of intended attraction.
“Very well,” she said after a dozen more questions. “How about your history and music classes?”
He reluctantly told her about his lack of progress and she nodded, as if just wanting him to admit his failures.
“Krimpit is notoriously hard on his F class. And Ignis notoriously neglectful. It’s nice to have eyes in the classes. Every year I have a few first years running errands for me, but they’re usually the high achievers. It will be nice to have someone in these low skill level classes.”
Kizu didn’t know how to respond to that.
“You seem to be moving along in your classes quicker than standard,” Roba continued. “Next week I want you to retake every test and see how high you move up in the rankings. And every two weeks after I want you to repeat the process. The visualization of that progress will help push you forward faster.”
“Every two weeks?” Kizu repressed a groan.
She considered it. “Not the potions test. You’re in the S ranked class. Knoff will move you up and down as he pleases.”
At least that was something. Though that joke of a test only took a few minutes to fill out anyway.
“And the combat test?” he asked, thinking about Harvey’s explanation of the very public testing method.
“Yes. I suppose Arclight will have difficulty finding a contestant of your low rank. Usually the higher ranks are the ones who want to compete. But that will be good for you as well, teach you some humility. Your name will be written on the roster, don’t worry.”
He currently had a thousand different worries, and that did nothing to dispel any of them.
Next she had him demonstrate the elemental magic he had been practicing. She gave him pointers on his technique. By the end, he could freeze a cup of water and boil it within a minute.
“What do you want to learn?” Roba asked when he had finished.
Kizu thought about it. Something to help him in combat would be useful. Fireballs and earthquakes. But then his mind wandered to something entirely different.
“Can you teach me to jump?”
Roba let out a cracking cackle, which sent shivers down Kizu’s spine. She sounded exactly like the crone. It was eerie.
“Spatial magic? Now that is a gem of a request. Nobody has asked it of me in years. Extremely difficult and even more dangerous. The only subject more hazardous would be that of time magic. No professor is permitted to teach either subject at the academy. The people who learn spatial magic are taught in a special higher education after graduation. It is highly regulated.”
“It is?” Kizu’s heart fell. That must be why he hadn’t seen anyone using it since leaving the crone’s hut.
“Fortunately for you, I am not a professor.”