Sorcery and Scholarships

  "It's just that I'm spending a lot of time on work that isn't strengthening my Maleficium."

  "I know what you mean. I've had to attend so many classes and learn so many things, yet I can't actually do all that much."

  That pulled Blake's gaze down. "Given the ability to bend the laws of physics with magic, anyway."

  "Well, that can just be taken for granted."

  "I assume they're afraid of getting sued. Before they give us ways to hurt ourselves, it's all about defenses and the building blocks of bigger things."

  "Don't get me wrong, it's a lot better than blundering around with directions from the internet. I mean, I was doing some kind of mix of Propitiation and Fetishism, then trying to power it with Maleficium energy." Keisha could probably tell her a dozen other things that were wrong about the Propitiation ritual, but she kept that to herself since she'd decided not to mention her with Blake. "The weird thing is that I wouldn't have understood that sentence a month ago."

  Blake didn't respond, apparently lost in his own thoughts. He did that sometimes, but never in public when he was messing around. Since she preferred not to think about that, she kept talking.

  "And I shouldn't complain about anything that lets me do this." She released a burst of flame from one finger. Only when Blake's eyes shot over to look at her did she remember that he hadn't seen her do that before.

  "I suppose you're limited to simple magic like fire, levitating, and mind reading."

  "No, no, no." She waved her hands in protest. "That's the only exciting thing I can do. Well, maybe I could shoot out water in the same way, but I haven't tried it. In Manifest Arts you do a lot of work that teaches you to do one thing, then you start all over again with something different."

  "Fireballs have been done to death, anyway."

  "Right, I feel like such a poseur. Now you. Turnabout is fair play, what abilities are you hiding?"

  He watched her for a moment, then shrugged. For a moment, Aki had been worried he wasn't going to answer. They got along fine when they were talking about games and movies, but there were so many things they never brought up. He probably didn't talk about his family because they were boring, just like her, but it made her wonder.

  "Obscure Arts is a lot of work that doesn't pay off for a long time. I preferred Drawde's teaching, but he's disappeared and I've been stuck with a grad student. So right now I can do a little moving between realms, but I can't even tunnel through reality like apparently everyone can."

  "But that's not all you're taking. Aren't you in the class for people with Essences?"

  "Yeah. To be honest, they feel a little like cheating, since it's easy to learn things that would take a lot more work by other methods."

  "Go ahead, rub it in."

  Blake pulled himself to his feet and stretched. Though Aki did the same, she didn't think he was intending to leave. There was a different kind of look in his eyes, an intensity that vanished when he glanced at her playfully. "Sure you want to see? Such evil was not meant for human eyes."

  "I use the internet; I've already seen a lot of things I wish I could un-see."

  "You're setting yourself up for something unpleasant, but luckily for you I can't make images." As he spoke, however, he was shifting. There was a growing area around him that seemed drained of color. It was an interesting effect, but Aki didn't see anything particularly evil about it.

  Except that the world wasn't just becoming shades of grey, it was darkening. Shadows spread across Blake's face. The process accelerated and suddenly the world around her was nothing but shifting darkness. Even though it made no move to threaten her, she shifted nervously. Blake was at the heart of it, dark except for incongruous blue eyes. If the power closed in, would it consume her entirely?

  "Sure, it looks nifty, but I can't shoot fire." Blake was no longer part of the darkness, appearing normal against the bleak background. "If I ever figure out how, though, it'll look awesome."

  In a rush the darkness vanished and the world was as colorful as it had always been. Yet her eyes had followed the movement: the shadows hadn't evaporated, they had contracted into Blake. They were all still there... not that it really mattered. Judging from his apprehensive expression, probably best to make that obvious.

  "Not exactly what I expected, but that's pretty cool. I assume you can do more than the light show, anyway."

  Blake was looking at his phone and frowning. "It's later than I thought. Not that I have anywhere I need to be, but if I plan to finish the Maleficium reading and also hang out conspicuously, I should get started."

  "Same time Saturday?"

  "See you then."

  They headed in different directions, since she only had a short walk to the dorms and Blake usually cut through the campus to go to the apartments. Usually she liked having a moment to herself, but today she slipped back to memories she would have preferred to forgotten. Laxir had told her that one day Blake would kill her.

  Just in case he was watching, Aki flipped off the sky.

  ~ ~ ~

  It had been a long time since Keisha had so many books stacked around her. Since she didn't want to give them to a librarian to shelve, she would need to replace all of them. That would be a pain, but it would be worse to leave the book she needed on the shelf because she was lazy.

  Research on the Sinistrals and the Omphalos had been more difficult than she expected. Assuming she was spelling both of them correctly, the words were simply too common. Her search results were flooded with company names and video games that used the terms, plus some authors abusing mildly arcane words. Even getting past those, there was mythology and etymology that probably had nothing to do with what they were in reality.

  That left her with the university library. She was glad most of the shelves were devoted to normal books. It wasn't the Harvard archives, but the selection rivaled many libraries. There were about as many books dedicated solely to magical subjects, though she suspected there were rooms and basement levels that were closed off. Most of them were old, and unlike science texts, she couldn't tell when something was out of date.

  Another giggle pulled her out of her book. Keisha glanced irritably at the fey women sitting on the floor opposite her. They were allegedly studying. She was distracted again by the fact that they varied widely, skin tone ranging from bluish white to darker than hers. Until recently she had been thinking about non-humans as races, but she realized they were separate species with their own races and histories. She had to remind herself that these thoughts were interesting but not particularly productive.

  Now that she had finally pared down her selection, she thought she understood. Though detailed information was restricted, an Omphalos seemed to be a kind of object that stood at the center of a realm. That fit the word's historical meaning.

  Presumably Axis University had one, and in real life they served some kind of important purpose. She was too inexperienced to know exactly what the attackers might have been able to do with the Omphalos. Maybe it was a hostile takeover of the university, maybe they needed it for another purpose. Whatever the case, it was a battle over resources, and that was normal enough. It was certainly easier to understand than a war between Light and Darkness.

  "So you're the one taking all the good books." Aki sat down opposite her and dropped two thick volumes on the table. "I guess it's impressive they have these organized at all, but I wish they had more information in the online catalogue."

  "It's certainly much slower research than I'm used to." She was glad to push the book away and rest her eyes. "I think I'm on to something. Several books that start talking about Omphalos also talk about realms."

  Aki smiled and opened one of her books. There was a drawing of an ancient worldview, heaven stacked on top of earth and over many layers of hell. "There's some kind of connection. I get that an Omphalos is at the center of a realm, but maybe it can be at the center of a bunch of them?"

  "I'm not sure, but look at the modern version." Keish
a flipped back to where she had found it and slid the book across the table. Sub-Mundane, Mundane, Spirit, and a top tier labeled only "Beyond." This diagram was more like the labels on a light spectrum.

  "Yeah, that. It's one of those things they've sort of gotten into during classes, but I'm trying to put too much in my brain already. I'll learn it when I have to."

  "While I wouldn't claim to understand either, this says that all realms occupy the same place physically. They aren't literally on top of one another, they just put them that way in order of frequencies or something. So an Omphalos would have to be in the center of all of them."

  "But that doesn't tell us why they would be after the one here, unless it's special." Aki leaned back and tried to pull tangles out of her hair. "That's assuming this isn't a crazy kind of magic. There could be only one Omphalos that exists on every plane simultaneously."

  "You'd think they wouldn't try to get at it in a place so heavily guarded, though. Most of the references mention there being many of them. That does support the theory that the one here is special. Maybe it is central for more than just the university."

  "Making it an axis, eh? I see what you did there."

  Keisha smiled wearily. "Names aren't given for no reason. This realm has been around for a long time, even if the university hasn't."

  They remained in silence, neither really wanting to go back to reading. After a while Aki spoke. "I guess neither of us has even tried to look up the Sinistrals."

  "It could be anything. Some melodramatic army, a left-handers support group, or a word in a fey language. It could be Sinistrils, too, I'm not sure about the last vowel. We need a more specific reference. I don't suppose the name rings any bells for you?"

  "The Lufia bosses, of course." Aki grinned. "That doesn't help us at all."

  "Well, at the rate we're going, those games will turn out to be the clue we need at the last second."

  "I really hope not, but I guess we are pulling ourselves deeper into this, aren't we?"

  Keisha held her head in her hands and tried to regain her focus. What she needed was the truth about Axis, and understanding why it had been attacked would help her. She didn't need to interfere with anything that happened, and the fighting was best left to the professionals. "If we do get involved, we'll probably get killed. Maybe we need to pull back."

  "I don't think the reading itself can hurt." She started to roll a pencil across the table and Keisha gestured for her to stop.

  "I'm using that for Propitiation. It probably shouldn't be moved."

  "Really? What are you doing?"

  "There's always the possibility someone might be following my research, or listening in on our conversations. So I've been taking what precautions I can. It won't stand up to an assault, but it might hide us." Keisha showed her the nails under the table linked by wire and how the upside down plastic cup was actually the focal point for the ritual. "It doesn't seem very likely to work when I explain it like this."

  "Hey, I know next to nothing about Propitiation, so I'll trust you with it. I just wish I'd thought about this kind of security."

  They probably weren't going to get any more work done. As she closed her books, Keisha smiled at Aki. "Actually, you're probably fine. I tried to see if I could get the ritual to shield you as well, and had a hard time even finding you. For some reason you're slippery."

  Aki blinked. "I wish I could say that's part of my brilliant defense scheme, but I have no idea what that's about."

  "It could be because you're so neutral. I won't complain about the power that comes with an Essence, but sometimes I think it's like wearing a tracking collar." Her real worry was that someone could manipulate it at any point and leave her helpless. The fact that it was Light was no comfort, since people had been claiming to fight on the right side since... well, possibly since the war of the prophecy.

  "Now you've gone all grim again." Aki stood and pulled at her sleeve. "We need to get you out of the library and doing something more fun."

  "Agreed."

  Chapter 11

  Putting his legs up on the seat in front of him looked clearly apathetic, but it was starting to be uncomfortable. Blake had taken to slumping forward in classes. That was a problem in Basic Maleficium since the chairs had only small writing ledges that were little bigger than armrests. He settled for slouching and leaning his head against one hand.

  If he was going to be seen paying attention in a class, it might as well be Maleficium. Emile Martin was an engaging professor. He was close enough to the age of his students that he had a good idea how they thought, though he didn't make any effort to act like them. Today he had put a table next to the podium and never once used it, but Blake knew why.

  "For the rest of the day, we're going to be working out the practical applications of targeted effects. This is a skill that gets a lot of use among the advanced classes. The faculty thinks it reduces complications for everyone, so they want it in my class. I think most students will try it before they're ready and just cause us problems, but the task still falls to me. Call it a community service."

  "What'd you do?" Several laughed at the voice from the back, but Emile only stared.

  "I killed a man."

  More laughed at that, as if the idea was entirely ridiculous. Blake smiled, though he was a little disappointed. He thought Emile's real joke had been how seriously he answered the question. It should have been an awkward moment, but for most people here death was not a real consideration. Judging from Emile's cheerful expression it had been intended as a joke. Whether or not he had actually killed someone was a separate question.

  "Now, I want everyone to appreciate the irony of what we're about to do. Our ancestors spent a lot of time worrying about fertility and ensuring they had children. They spilled blood and tears, and money if they had it, making sure they had offspring. Thousands of innocents have been killed because it was believed they used Maleficium to prevent a couple from reproducing, and millions of hours have been poured into developing magic to prevent infertility."

  Emile spread his hands to either side. "And how do we use the sum total of their effort? Contraception."

  A few people around the room laughed and several cheered. Blake raised his eyebrows and sat back as if the topic now interested him. That also gave him the opportunity to scan the room. There were students who looked extremely uncomfortable with the subject but most were attentive.

  "Now, who wants to do a live demonstration?" There was more laughter, but before it could get out of hand, Emile poured a handful of ball bearings onto his desk. "I thought some of you would walk out for a moment there. I've said this before, but I'll say it again: never experiment with Maleficium that produces an effect in your own body. Some of you might master the basic principles today, but you're months from being able to use it."

  Though the ball bearings had been rolling away, they reversed course and began moving in a pattern. Many didn't notice until a blue circle lit up on the table and the spheres followed it. Several more circles appeared and the spheres started shifting between tracks.

  "The circles are just to make the pattern obvious." Emile leaned one arm against the table. "And before someone thinks he'll be the first person to make a crack about this, no, the circle doesn't represent anything. You're not making anything infertile, you're manipulating probability. By far the safest method for amateurs."

  "Excuse me, Professor Martin, is this really the same for both men and women?" At least Keisha no longer raised her hand when she asked questions.

  "The technique is similar but the principles are different. I haven't gotten to that yet." The spheres separated into two different circles that had slightly different patterns. "Left is men, right is women. From your perspective. Some of you might notice that these patterns are the opposite of one another, which isn't accidental, but that is advanced theory."

  Several boxes of ball bearings were passed out and everyone began experimenting. The tiny writing desks made
sure that they spent half their time crawling after spheres that had fallen off. A few were only looking in confusion, so Emile continued his explanation.

  "Now, by this point you really should know that it's impossible to move anything with Maleficium unless you coat an area in your own power to simulate a human body. I bring it up because this is a little more complicated. One, you need to cover the ball bearings as well. Two, use more power instead of less, because the consequences of a weak effect would be unfortunate."

  As he explained the details, students began to do better. Blake stayed slouched and tried to look bored. This was a little different than the method last year's students had told him. While the school was probably glad Emile changed his methods, it only made Blake's job harder.

  Once he had thought it through, he raised a hand to the nearest student. Jaden was short with spiked brown hair and hadn't done anything to make Blake remember him. "Give me some. I guess I'll give it a try."

  "You're a piece of work, man." Jaden shook his head, but did pull over a number of ball bearings. "What are you going to do if someone gets pregnant?"

  "They had to take this class too, so it'd be partially their fault." That was a little more unpleasant than his usual lines, but fortunately it caught Emile's attention and he spoke before anyone else could object.

  "Blake brings up a good point. While technically you only need one effect in place, that's assuming perfection. Lots of students aren't thinking clearly normally, much less under... other circumstances. However, if both partners are competent, the rate of efficacy should be 100% regardless of the circumstances."

  At first the ball bearings rolled haphazardly, but then quickly began to follow the pattern still circling on the front table. Blake also created a set of circles in darkness, with curving spikes off the sides for effect. Jaden gaped, and his wobbling pattern rolled to the floor.

  "That's ridiculous!"

  "Wasn't that hard after all." Blake kept the spheres going as he sat back.

  "That's just not right. You get a Dark Essence and everything just falls into place..."

  When the class began he had read the syllabus and learned about each practical lesson from students who had taken the class before. This one had kept him awake an hour after he wanted to go to sleep, figuring through the exact method and then mastering it. He had kept careful records of his failures and memorized a set of steps along the way so when he appeared to learn the technique in several tries they were logical jumps along the way.