Chương 288: Just a Shadow

Ch. 288 - Just a Shadow Simon had started this life with high hopes. He'd planned on a nice, peaceful existence. He was going to relax, learn some magic, and learn more about another culture, but all that was over now. Even if the Magi's super orb wasn't going to show everyone who he really was, he wasn't prepared to watch a kid die every week or so because the teacher didn't think he was eager enough to kill his classmates.

He knew from his time as an acolyte that deaths usually occurred more often than that, which meant that they were intentional and part of a weeding-out process. They hoover up any kid with potential off the streets, then they purge all the kids too stupid to learn and kill everyone with a little compassion, he thought to himself sullenly.

While there was something he was supposed to learn at every step in his journey, it was a filter, too, and after years of this, he could only wonder at what monsters would be considered the cream of the crop. It was a revolting thought, but he kept that disgust far from his expression as he went through the motions serenely. Simon endured the privation and abuse silently over the next few days while his mind focused on what he was going to do next. The answer was simple, of course.

He was going to escape and do some real damage on the way out. The only question was how exactly. Was he going to try to be subtle and sneak around to get a glimpse at the library or the Dreaming Sphere before making his way back down to Hepollyon, or was he going to tear down the pillars and collapse the whole rotten pyramid on the heads of those who ruled? If I want to go out like that, then I really should take my frustrations out on the Pyramid of the God-King. He told himself. It's a much more potent symbol.

While that was true, and he liked the image of weakening some critical support at the heart of the thing to make the largest building in the city crumble, that plan had some problems. The biggest of which was that it was almost certainly much better guarded. The last thing Simon wanted to do was to get caught by someone who could make something like the orb he'd seen so recently. That wouldn't end well for him. Still, it wasn't like he had the freedom to do much of anything in his current role.

If only I'd known about this thing while I was in the scriptorium, I would have made my move then, he told himself, but he'd foolishly held out hope that he was moving to a better place and not a worse one. Still, ignorance was no longer an excuse. He'd refrained from magic since his transformation, and it had been good for his soul, but that time was probably coming to an end, and he was going to have to get creative.

Simon spent his time in the classroom for the next week doing anything but paying attention to the lectures and torments that passed for lessons. He always looked straight ahead at the magi, but in his head, he was a million miles away, identifying weaknesses in the schedule that confined him. Ultimately, the real problem with any of his plans, though, was his acolyte.

Simon had long since learned the kid's name was Jebier from the time spent talking to other acolytes in the dining hall and the boys' barracks where they slept each night; he'd also figured out what the real reason for the arrangement was, too. At first, Simon had thought that it was a humiliating way to save on books and instructors and that the Magi simply made each student go through this same class twice: once as a clueless newbie and once as the bottom-most member of the real social hierarchy.

He'd thought it was to give these kids a taste for ruling over each other, but it was more than that, too. It was an enforced buddy system. The shadow had to follow the acolyte, and the acolyte had to keep track of his shadow. It made for a neat closed loop, adding one more layer of fairly obvious control and observation on top of whatever magical monitoring they were under.

The apprenticeship is probably the same thing, too, Simon reasoned, whenever he saw a Magi walking through the plaza being trailed by a black-robbed apprentice. Everywhere in the system, everyone is always watching everyone else. It felt despotic to Simon, but it was effective because even though there were no real bonds between him and Jebier, the last thing he wanted to do was hurt the kid.

Maybe I'll wait until he graduates to whatever the next stage in the crazy learning process is, and then I'll make my move, Simon told himself. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. That was the only loose end he hadn't worked out. He knew how he'd take notes on the sphere if he got the chance and how he'd bring down the pyramid if time allowed. He even knew how he'd get across the plaza and out into the inner city without being seen.

As long as he didn't leave behind any clues that would give the Magi the chance to use divining magic to locate him, none of that would be a problem. He just didn't know how he was going to do those things without getting the acolyte he was supposed to shadow tortured to death for information he didn't have when Simon was never found. Fortunately, two weeks later, the teacher herself solved that problem when she tried to kill the boy.

Simon had expected the day to be like any other, and though he dreaded when she brought out the dreaming orb again and started tormenting her students with unreal magic that led to very real pain, he couldn't actually bring himself to stare into the thing, at least not until she summoned his Acolyte, Jebier to the front of the room. When that happened, and the teen boy moved to the front of the room, Simon made himself watch, but only so that if she tried to kill him, he would stop her.

As he let his vision be drawn into the glowing orb, he watched a familiar scene take place.

"We start with force," the teacher declared, walking them through each spell one at a time. It started well enough, and both boys seemed content enough to batter each other with waves of force, force, and whatever else. Even the illusionary shapes were drawn fairly well by both of them when you considered how much pain they were both probably in at that point. Fire and lighting, though, was where Jebier faltered.

Simon could see it immediately in the displeasure on the Magi's face and on how little Jebier's fire actually burned the other boy.

"It is not enough to be able to endure pain!" she declared.

"One must also be able to receive it." As the Magi opened her mouth to hurt them all enough that at least one person was certain to die from her anger, many thoughts flashed through Simon's head in that moment. His first was that he could strike her down and stop this.

That led to thoughts of using a word of force to slice up the witch into bloody chunks before she could speak a word of power, which led to the realization that if he killed her where she stood, the resulting explosion from the damn amulet they all wore would kill both the boys anyway.

"It all starts with force," he whispered, testing his voice for the first time in weeks before he whispered " Oonbetit" and sent the woman flying back against the far wall like a toy with a word of force. It was hard enough that it might kill her, but Simon pulled that punch a little to make just the same. While she flew, he paid attention to the way it felt to use magic again after so long.

He was out of practice enough that he could taste the sulfur, but something about the whole thing felt unclean to him, and he could see whatever part of his mind or soul that the oracle might call clarity slipping away from him almost as soon as he said the word. I can look for stillness in my soul later, Simon assured himself. Right now, I need magic more than enlightenment.

While the last thing he wanted was for her to be awake and aware of what came next, he'd much rather she lie there bleeding than self-immolate. Fortunately, he'd judged the forces involved carefully enough that that was about what happened. She was ripped off her feet and bounced off the stone twenty feet away from her like a rag doll before she collapsed on the floor. No one reacted yet, though, because all the students except for him had been gazing into the orb.

It was only when that light failed, and they looked around in confusion, that the first girl's scream of horror rang out. Soon, there were dozens of cries and gasps of alarm, and both boys backed slowly away from the orb, insisting they'd had nothing to do with it. They all feared punishment, and they should, but this wasn't enough chaos for what he was planning, so he amped it up a notch with an illusion."

Barom," he whispered, focusing on making it look like the pillar carved in the shape of the God-King had come to life. It looked down at the glowering with eyes that began to burn. Simon gave everyone a few seconds to notice that. Then he had words spring into existence over the heads of the students burning with the same fire.

'You have disappointed me for the last time. Flee for your lives, or I will devour your souls.' Simon had to admit, it was a frightening image, and as the words hunt there in row upon burning row, he felt pretty pleased with himself. There was no danger or even heat, but no one else knew that. Still, he was prepared to start tossing around his fellow students with words of lesser force if he needed to. Fortunately, it wasn't.

Even before the last words in the sentence appeared, those boys and girls who were the best at reading were running for their lives. Simon curled into a ball where he stood, cowering as the room began to clear out. The last thing he wanted anyone to do was to remember one little boy just standing there. Fortunately, Jebier didn't attempt to grab him and ran for his life, leaving his shadow to his fate. That probably should have annoyed Simon.

He'd just saved the boy's life even if he'd never know it, and yet somehow, he didn't even merit a single backward glance.

"Kids today," Simon sighed as he stood. Then, smiling as he took in the empty room, he started toward the teacher's lectern. He just needed a bit of metal, and he could get started.