NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16: Letting Loose
Raphael lounged in his dorm after class, waiting for the last of his friends to get there.
“Would you like more tea, master?” An elven girl standing behind him asked. She was tall for her age, with short brown hair and green eyes. And, of course, she was wearing her maid’s uniform; she was the maid that Raphael’s grandma had assigned him, after all. She came from the Windkeeper family, a long and prestigious line of servants-for-hire and was currently working under Raphael as a form of tutelage before a permanent master would be assigned to her.
Raphael waved his hand dismissively. “Sure, Emily, but make it quick. I need you here for the discussion we’ll be having.”
Emily gave a curtsey and disappeared into the kitchen, returning a few minutes later with a cup of tea. Raphael grabbed it, taking a sip. It wasn’t as good as what the servants at home made, but it was passable enough.
“Right, is everyone here?” He asked, setting the cup down on the coffee table in front of him. He glanced out over the assembled students, then nodded to himself. “Seems like it. So, I’m sure you’re all wondering why I called you here today.” Not waiting for a response, he continued. “I’ve been doing some investigative work on my own, and I’ve come to the conclusion that Lilith isn’t who we’ve been told she is.”
He took a moment to relish the look of surprise on everyone’s face. “I mean, you all surely knew that there’s something…off about her, but I think it runs deeper than that. She’s way older than any of us, but knew way less about magic, and picked things up far too quickly. So, with that in mind, I had Emily do some digging.
“There are no Clements families under the umbrella of the important human families, so she’s not some scion of those. But what was even more suspicious was that we couldn’t find any record of a Lilith Clements anywhere, and the company she keeps isn’t much better. Kali is the Kali from the Council, yes, but everyone else is an enigma.
“We can’t even find a last name for Alex, and she spends most of her time under careful watch of a teacher, often Tunem himself. Vithi’s some djinn that disappeared a long time ago, and Judy is apparently Lilith’s aunt, though she doesn’t have any records either.”
“That’s weird, but what’s your point?” A dwarven boy asked.
“My point is that some completely and utterly unknown woman has entered school here and been put into the beginner magical classes with us, despite the fact that she seems more like she’s putting on an act of not knowing magic than anything. But, more importantly, she spends most of her time here in private lessons, which I think is pretty odd.
“And then Kali said that I wasn’t important enough to know who Lilith was, which is an obvious fabrication. This is made more suspicious by the fact that Lilith doesn’t seem to realize who I am, and anyone with any sort of importance at least knows my name and what I mean to my grandma.”
Raphael smiled slightly as he began to edge closer to his conclusion. “So, I had Emily read the minds of Lilith’s companions. But, before she could, Kali stopped her, which I think means that the story we’ve been fed about there being some dangerous ability protecting Lilith’s mind is a lie.
“So, I’ve been left to draw the conclusion that there is some grand, treasonous, conspiracy that Kali is perpetuating, and she and Lilith are here trying to undermine…something that I’m not sure of yet, perhaps my education? Grandma always told me not to trust Kali, and I’m starting to see why.”
Raphael stood up in excitement, banging his fist on the coffee table. “I think we should go teach her a lesson. She’s not a good actor when it comes to not knowing stuff, and we’ve all fought her once or twice; we know we can take her on. We’ll give her a kicking, make her spill everything, then take her to Tunem and be heroes!”
“Are you…sure about this?” One of the kids asked, looking uncertain. “Treason is a serious accusation, and I don’t know if someone so high-profile could be so discreet about it for so long.”
“Kali’s a mastermind at manipulation.” Raphael said dismissively. “If anyone could hide it, she could. Besides, what’s the worst case scenario here? We beat her up, the adults don’t listen, and we get in a bit of trouble. But we at least let her know that we won’t let her get away with this.
“That being said, if you don’t come with me for this, consider yourself out of our little friend group.” Raphael said, smirking as he delivered his ultimatum. “I don’t need to be friends with cowards.”
The rest of the children shared uncertain looks, but eventually they all agreed to help Raphael out.
“Perfect.” Raphael said, clapping. “We’re doing this tomorrow, I’ll give you more information then. You’re all dismissed.”
“…And that is what happened.” Emily said, watching Kali’s expression carefully. To her surprise, Kali smiled.
“I was wondering what Raphael was scheming.” Kali said. “Don’t worry, we’re not planning anything like that. Would you like to know the truth?”
Emily hesitated, but before she could answer Kali spoke again.
“The answer is yes.” She said. “When someone offers to tell you information and you don’t think there are any ulterior motives, always say yes.” She instructed.
Kali was, unbeknownst to most, in charge of the Windkeeper family. The Windkeepers made up an integral part of her information network, keeping her updated on what all the most important families were doing. In return she helped fund them and protect them if they ever got into trouble.
So, when Raphael had ordered Emily to investigate Lilith, she had immediately informed Kali of everything that had been happening. Occasionally they would meet under the guise of detention for the ‘invasions of privacy’ she had made in her investigation, and Emily would update her on how things were going.
“Understood.” Emily replied. “Then, yes, I would like to hear the truth.”
Kali grinned. “Lilith is actually the fifth Perfect Chimera. She was made into one after a magical accident of sorts. The reason why she doesn’t know anything about magic is because she’s from Earth, and she’s picking things up faster than normal because she’s a Perfect Chimera.”
That…made sense, now that Emily was thinking about it. If she framed everything that way, all the odd behavior seemed to slot in perfectly.
“So, Carmen,” Kali said, grinning at Lilith’s double, “you’ve been an awfully good girl, I think you deserve a chance to show what you can do, don’t you?”
Carmen returned her grin. “I happen to agree. Lilith’s too soft-hearted to properly deal with this, so why don’t we let her have a bit of a nap while I do some cleanup?”
Kali raised an eyebrow. “And how do you intend to make that happen?”
Carmen shrugged. “Well, I haven’t actually shared any of the memories of my studies with her, so I’m hoping that dropping them on her all at once will be enough of a shock to briefly knock her out. After that it should only take a moment to deal with a few rambunctious kids.”
Kali nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” She paused, then a mischievous smile crossed her face. “Say…do you think Lilith could do with a maid? I think it’d be good to always have an agent close to you two after you graduate, that way we can get in touch with you if need be.”
Carmen gave her a wary look. “What do you have in mind?”
Kali laughed. “I think we should reassign Emily. Raphael needs to be taken down a few pegs and making him do all his own housework would be a good start.” She turned to Emily. “What do you think?”
Emily shrugged. “I’m ambivalent. She can’t be worse than Raphael, I hardly have any time to study because of him.”
“Fine.” Carmen said. “But only so long as I’m able to put a contract on her to ensure she won’t try and backstab us.”
“Done.” Kali said. “Just clear it with me first, and then we’ll take care of it after everything tomorrow.”
The next day, Raphael gathered all his friends and intercepted Lilith on her way from class to one of her private lessons. “The jig’s up, Lilith!” He said, pointing an accusatory finger. “You’ve got one chance to come quietly and confess everything, or we’re going to take you by force.”
“What?” Lilith asked, faking being taken aback. “I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” Raphael said, grinning madly. “And that was your one chance! Come on, let’s get her!”
All of a sudden Lilith fainted, and Raphael turned to face the other kids. “See!” He gloated. “I told you it would be fine!”
But the other kids didn’t seem to notice. Instead, they were looking behind Raphael with fearful faces. He slowly turned to find Lilith standing upright, an unhinged grin on her face and her arms folded underneath her chest.
“I’ve heard that you’ve been spreading some horrible rumors about Lilith.” Carmen drawled. “And I’ve been told that you could do with some punishment. I’ve been dying to have some fun lately, and fortunately, you’ve all been very naughty. So, I’ll play your little game.” She spread her arms, grin growing wider. “Come, ‘take me by force’, and then we’ll go talk with the grownups, okay?”
A pit formed in Raphael’s stomach, but he shook his head. Carmen may have caught him off guard once, but she wouldn’t do so again. “She can’t take all of us at once! Let’s go!”
There was a pause as the assembled kids gave Carmen a wary look, so Raphael decided to spur them into action. “Remember what I said yesterday about cowards?! Go!”
Most of the other kids cast spells at Carmen, but she simply smiled and raised a hand, a barrier comprised of what appeared to be an infinite number of impossible shapes appearing in front of her.
The shapes danced in the air, swirling around and overlapping each other, appearing and disappearing at random, their strange movements captivating Raphael. He barely even registered as the spells the kids cast hit the barrier, reflecting and striking their casters.
Then the barrier dropped, and Raphael snapped back to attention. All of the children who had cast spells were unconscious, leaving only Raphael, Emily, and one other kid standing. “F-fine, no spells!” Raphael yelled. “I’ll take the left, you two take the right!” He began to run but was distracted by a thud from behind him.
He whirled around to find Emily standing over the kid, hand outstretched as if she had just cast a spell. She knelt down and quickly checked him for injuries before standing back up. “He’s fine, I’ll go check on the others. Carmen, I assume you can handle Raphael?” Not waiting for an answer, she moved on to the other children and began looking them over.
“I can indeed.” Carmen said, causing Raphael to look back at her. He could focus on the betrayal later, he had to deal with Carmen now, even if his confidence was rapidly fading. He hadn’t ever seen anything like that barrier she had just made, and he was beginning to think that perhaps he had greatly underestimated her.
He jumped to the side as a tentacle lashed out from Carmen’s hand and struck the ground next to him, oozing with some sort of pungent fluid. “You…monster!” Raphael yelled, watching in a sort of revolted fascination as the tentacle retracted, eventually morphing back into Carmen’s hand. “What…are you?!”
Carmen smirked, fiddling with a ring on her other hand. After a moment she had the ring off, and a devil’s tail and angel wings appeared behind her. She gingerly placed the ring on the ground and then turned to Emily. “Emily, would you please be a dear and make sure this ring doesn’t get too banged up? I’ll have to have Lilith remake me or get another one from Tunem if that one gets destroyed, and that sounds like a hassle.”
She turned back to Raphael, flashing him a smile. “Well, since you asked so kindly, I figure I might as well let you know. I am Lilith’s alternate personality, the…aggressiveness to her passiveness. We’re the fifth Perfect Chimera, and I’m afraid you’re in way over your head.”
Raphael’s stomach lurched. “Don’t lie!” He yelled. “Grandma would tell me if you were!”
Carmen laughed. “Don’t put so much stock in your grandmother. She clearly doesn’t think as highly of you as you think she does; she’s known about us for a long time, and clearly hasn’t told you yet. You weren’t even aware there was a fifth when Geb brought it up in class.”
“T-that’s…” Raphael trailed off, then shook his head. He couldn’t bring himself to accept that, not when so much of what he believed was based on it.
“Look around you, Raphael.” Carmen said. “Your friends are all hurt because you thought you were more than you were. But…honestly, can you even call them your friends? They clearly didn’t want to do this, and I’d be willing to bet they only hang around you because their parents tell them to, or because you provide them with some sort of influence.”
She gave Raphael an infuriatingly pitying look. “It’s not too late to change, though. You’re just a kid, so there’s plenty of time to learn from your mistakes and grow up. So, I’ll give you a chance. Apologize, and we’ll let this slide. Don’t, and we’ll be forced to take more seriously measures.”
Raphael glared at her. “Fine.” He spat. “I suppose I can let you off of the hook this time. But don’t expect such mercy next time!” He turned and began to march away. Fleeing like this made his stomach turn, but he couldn’t afford to try and fight her on his own. If what she said was true, he’d need more than just himself and a few kids to expose her.
Suddenly, Carmen was right in front of his face. “Wrong answer.” She said, grabbing his shirt and effortlessly lifting him into the air. “The hard way it is.”
“I said I’d let you off!” He protested, struggling ineffectually against her grip.
“I said apologize and we’d let this slide. I think you need to be taught a lesson, and I know just the thing. Nighty-night!” Carmen’s other hand metamorphosed into a tentacle dripping that pungent substance, and she grabbed Raphael’s arm with it. There was a sensation like ice flooding his veins, and then everything went black.
