Infestation I / Venoms and Poisons

“Stairs… so… many… stairs.” Shina’s pace slowed to a crawl as we reached the third floor of the tower, though her moans of discomfort had started long before that.

“Hurry up. They’re waiting on us,” I said, though I did feel a little bad. If I were in my original body, these winding staircases would’ve left me out of breath, too.

“Why couldn’t Professor Seris call us to an empty classroom or something? It’s evil of him to make us climb to the top of this stupid tower.”

“Shouldn’t you feel bad for him instead? He probably has to make this trip at least once a day.”

Shina let out an incoherent grumble in response.

“Want me to carry you? I think it’d be pretty easy.”

“Of course not. Don’t you realize how embarrassing it would be if someone saw us?”

Well, sure, but it was obviously a joke! It’s weird if you take it seriously!

“How about this, then: we’ve been practicing wind incantations in his class, and I’m actually kind of decent at—”

Walking backward to face her as we ascended the staircase, I nearly tripped when my left foot struck air where a step should be. Stumbling for a moment before regaining my balance, I stabilized on level ground. I’d reached the highest floor of the tower.

It took Shina a good 15 seconds to finally catch up, and as she approached, I spun to face the large door adjacent to me. Aside from the spiraling staircase tracing the inner circumference of the tower, the rest of the space was taken up by these large interior rooms. A plaque affixed to the entrance was labelled “Seris”, marking it as his personal office.

Proud of how easily I managed to read the text, I stared at it with a smile as I waited for Shina to step next to me. As she did, she turned and rapped on the door to announce our arrival.

“Huh? You never knock on my door before you barge in. Why does he get this treatment?” I had grown so used to Shina marching straight into my room without warning that I didn’t realize she was capable of such courtesy.

“Hm. I guess that’s true. I haven’t really thought about it before, honestly.” Based on her tone, I was pretty sure she wasn’t kidding.

“Then think about it! It’s weird!”

“You should really start locking your door even when you’re inside, you know. What if a creep shows up?”

“One does! Almost every day!”

My exasperated cries were put on pause when the door swung open from the inside, the face of the professor peeking out. “Ah, you two have arrived. Come in.”

Shina and I nodded, stepping into the room after him. As I scanned the insides, my first thought was that it looked closer to a library than an office. Huge bookcases lined the walls on both sides, filled to the brim with tomes of all shapes, sizes, and colors. On the far side of the room was an ornate desk with gilded windowpanes at its back, creating a view that overlooked both the nearby cliffside and the town of Fordin in the distance.

In addition to these fixtures, however, a number of people I recognized were scattered across the chamber: Kerne, sitting patiently in a chair; Mara, idly thumbing through books with a look of complete disinterest on her face; Fleur, possibly napping as she leaned against a bookcase with her eyes closed; and Akio, who ran up to meet us as we entered.

“About time! There’s nothing but books here! It’s my own personal hell,” he whined.

Shina, on the other hand, was mesmerized by the sight. “I would’ve been way more motivated if I knew how amazing this place was,” she whispered under her breath.

“Uh, is she okay? She looks like she’s gonna pass out from shock.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” I reassured Akio. “This kind of place is just paradise for a nerd like her.”

Shina shot me a dirty look that screamed, “Don’t call me a nerd in front of other people!”

“I didn’t mean anything bad by it,” I started to explain. Before I could continue, however, Professor Seris strode past the three of us to the front of his desk and clapped his hands to gather our attention.

“Now that you are all here, I would like to begin so as not to take up too much of your time.”

“No Vandan, then?” Mara asked, not bothering to look up from the pages she was skimming.

“I do not believe he would care to listen to anything I have to say. If any of you are able to get through to him, however, feel free to share the details of today’s talk.”

A shrill yawn sounded from my side. “I’m shocked you let me in on whatever this thing is. I thought you hated me, Seris.” Fleur, stretching her arms above her head, gave an exaggerated pout in his direction.

Professor Seris sighed. “I would never hate a student of mine, even one as troublesome as you can be at times.”

Fleur probably had an easy time messing with a strait-laced individual like Professor Seris, and given how he had spoken about her previously, I assumed there was some level of bad blood between them. Still, there was little reason to believe his words now were dishonest.

Fleur had no interest in genuinely engaging with them, however. “Awwww. Hear that, everyone? He just can’t bring himself to hate me. Oh, it must be love; that’s the only explanation. Ah, the forbidden love of a student and her teacher: so sacred, yet so scandalous. Why must we—”

“Fleur, shut it. I want to get out of here.” Mara slammed the book she was holding closed as she sliced into the conversation. “Professor, get on with it already.”

He gave an understanding nod to Mara and began. “I called you all here today to disseminate some information you would otherwise not be privy to.”

“I-is it about the attack?” Shina asked in a quiet voice, clearly uncomfortable speaking up around this many people. After the professor nodded, she continued, “And are you supposed to be telling us any of this?”

I wasn’t sure what she meant, but he must’ve, as he shook his head before speaking again. “The faculty was told to keep everything we know a secret, even from you all. As such, I am speaking to you unofficially today. Or, to put it more honestly, I am disobeying my orders.”

“Why does the administration insist on treating us all like children? We were the ones attacked. We were the ones forced to fight. Why aren’t we being kept in the loop?” Shina looked frustrated, but I was still confused as to what was going on.

“You know why, Shina,” Kerne said, cutting in. He looked to be as discontented as she was, however.

“Hold on, what’s going on? What do you mean?” Akio’s gaze bounced around everyone in the room before resting on Professor Seris. “The school is keeping secrets from us?”

“Not by choice, but yes. We have been pressured by outside influences to keep everything about this security breach confidential until the situation is resolved and the culprits are caught.”

“Why? That seems crazy. And what’re these ‘outside influences’, anyway?” It felt like Akio and I were the only ones missing context.

“There are many powerful parties across the world with a vested interest in the Inheritors. As much as the academy would prefer to ignore their requests, things are not always that simple. As Shina said, there are many who would rather control you as obedient children than empower you to make your own choices.” He looked no less displeased than Shina or Kerne at the situation.

“So? Did you figure out who tried to kill us?” Even though I felt like I still didn’t have a full picture of things, Mara seemed done with this conversation and once again tried to push it forward.

“Not exactly,” the professor responded. “I come today with more of a warning than an answer: we have determined that, more than likely, the perpetrators were fellow students of yours, rather than outsiders who snuck into the campus.”

Everyone’s eyes widened at the claim. In retrospect, I should’ve considered a possibility like this already, but it hadn’t even crossed my mind. I didn’t want to believe any of my peers could be behind something that awful.

“What led you to this conclusion?” Kerne asked.

“We discovered where they copied the sigil formulas from.”

He turned to grab a book from his desk and flipped it open to a specific page. Painted over the text, an intricate drawing had been inked into the paper. The sigils used to summon the Fragments looked extremely complex, so this sketch must’ve only been a fraction of the whole spell.

“We found these scribbled into a handful of volumes in our last library shipment. They were in a large batch alongside hundreds of clean books, which must be how they managed to slip past our inspection procedures.”

“So? I don’t see why that’s incriminating to…” Akio trailed off as he reached the same conclusion the rest of us had.

“If a group of intruders broke in, they would not need to smuggle in sigil-crafting guides using such an indirect and slow method. These actions imply outsiders supplied allies who were already on the inside.”

“Can’t you review the library logs to figure out who checked the books out?” Shina asked.

Fleur giggled at her suggestion. “They were stolen, silly. No would-be murderer would go through the proper channels. The academy may have top-notch security to stop anything outside from getting in—well, most things—but there’s not much policing us from the inside other than the professors. It’s easy to get away with a bit of theft.”

Uh, that last part wasn’t worded as a hypothetical, Fleur…

“Precisely.” Professor Seris’s voice was solemn. “I wish I had more to offer you, but we are still investigating this lead. I felt you all had a right to know what we have learned, however.”

Even though I’d had brushes with them a total of three times now, the Iccasius Army still felt like some kind of foreign adversary, disconnected from my ordinary day-to-day life in every way. But with just a few words, that comforting illusion had been ripped away.

The air in the room grew tense as the visages of our classmates cycled through each of our minds. Anyone could be our enemy, and we just didn’t know it yet.

It was ironic. I had lived my entire life viewing people that way.

But now of all times, I’m forced to do it again. Fate really is cruel sometimes.