FWFW 3 - 71

Olivia held a little mirror behind her back, looking at Barnt’s handiwork in his larger bathroom mirror. The big Vodkin had been surprisingly gentle and dextrous with his little Energy-driven needle. He’d sketched the tattoos on her flesh before applying the permanent ink to be sure she approved, and Olivia had been quite impressed by the exact, perfectly copied lines. The final tattoos were just as good, no, better than the sketches had promised.

Barnt’s ink seemed alive, shimmering under her skin, and though the tattoos were just symbols and runes in an interlocking pattern, they were done with clever shading and transitioned from black to pale blue in a way that gave them depth and vibrance. They were more than she’d bargained for. The one around her waist curved under her belly button and over her hip bones, almost like a fabric belt hanging on her flesh, and she thought it was beautiful.

The band around her throat was low, just above her collar bones, and not easily seen when she wore her robes. Olivia traced her fingers along it, amazed that her skin wasn’t stinging or raw in any way—Barnt had applied an ointment with a mild healing effect, speeding up a process that might normally take several days or a week.

Olivia buttoned up her blouse, slipped into her robes, and then walked back to where the gigantic ex-legionnaire waited. He’d acted absurdly nervous that she wouldn’t like his work, despite Olivia practically falling over herself exclaiming how beautiful the ones she could see were. Barnt hadn’t liked it when she had to pull up her robes, either, when it came time for the tattoo at her waist. Olivia had asked him if he’d act that way with one of his legion comrades, and that had settled him down—he just imagined he was going to war with her.

“I love them, Barnt. Shall we see if they work?”

“Work?” he asked, his voice rising into a squeak.

“Oh, relax, they look right—if something goes wrong with the spell, it will be my fault.”

“Spell?” Barnt backed up a foot.

“Watch,” Olivia said, then she built the pattern for her new defensive spell in her pathways. She’d practiced it a hundred times while Barnt was doing his work, and when it pulsed in completion, she channeled a braid of her four elemental affinities into it. The finished spell rushed through her pathways and out through her new tattoos, causing them to flare, brightening at the Energy’s passage.

As it flowed out, the Energy from the spell spread around Olivia’s body, snapping into a shimmering bubble that seemed to reverberate and shake for a moment, flickering through a rainbow of colors, and then it subsided, falling transparently to her flesh.

***Congratulations! You have learned the spell: Chromatic Personal Barrier - Advanced***

***Chromatic Personal Barrier - Advanced: Prerequisite: Four or more elemental affinities. You channel a barrier of elementally-attuned Energies that is maintained by a static runic structure and fueled by the Energies in your Core. This barrier will stop various types of damage, defined by the runic structure and dependent upon your Energy reserves. Energy cost: Varied. Passive maintenance: 5 Energy per second. Cooldown: Minimal.***

“Five per second . . . “ Olivia started, but Barnt cut her off.

“Wha’ was tha’?” His eyes bulged out, and he said, “Did my tatts do that?”

“Well, you certainly got them right, but, no, it's the design combined with my spell. Thank you so much, Barnt!” Olivia offered the dazed man a handful of quad-attuned beads she’d made, usually in the hours before bed each night when she would normally have read to fall asleep. She found the process almost as relaxing and much more rewarding—her beads had a value among the populace that greatly exceeded the standard System Stone rate. “Will this cover it? They’re quad-attuned.”

“Oh?” Barnt held one of the beads up to the light and marveled at the interplay of the different elements for a moment. “Yes, ma’am, they’ll be quite enough. I’d have done it for free if I knew I’d be part of such a work of amazing magic!”

“Oh, really?” Olivia pulled back her hand with the beads and giggled when he stammered for a response. “Just kidding! Here.” She poured them into his big palm and said, “Listen, Barnt. I have a lot more to do, so I’m going to head back to the academy. I’ll always remember how you dropped everything to help me.”

“My pleasure, Miss. Thanks for the conversations we had. I feel like I got as much out of this as you did.” Barnt moved to the door of his little apartment studio. He didn’t have an official business, but it was clear he had clients on the academy grounds. Half his apartment was filled with objects having to do with his craft—a custom-built, reclining wooden chair, a stool, a desk for his ink mixing, and even a little alchemy set. When Olivia had asked about the latter, he’d said he was dabbling with making his own inks.

“See you around, Barnt,” Olivia said, smiling as she passed through his open door, ducking beneath his arm as he held it from closing. She strode purposefully back toward the academy. It was early evening, and people were still about, and she was sure she could go back to her dorm and find her cohort there, waiting and worrying and ready to read her the riot act for disappearing on her own all day.

They’d have to wait, though. Olivia felt like she was up against a clock, and there were more spells for her to learn. She felt better walking around with her defensive spell up, but she needed more utility. Thinking of her spell, she thought back to the description—five Energy per second. “So three hundred a minute.” Olivia pulled up her attributes section on her status sheet as she walked up the main road toward the academy:

Energy Affinity: 9.1, Fire 9.6, Earth 9.6, Water 9.6, Air 9.6

Energy: 10322/11070

Strength: 20

Vitality: 72

Dexterity: 50

Agility: 20

Intelligence: 206

Will: 192

“So with zero regeneration, I could keep this shield active for nearly forty minutes . . . “ she mulled things over, looking at her “Energy” attribute several more times as she walked. It became clear that she was losing Energy much more slowly than three hundred a minute. Less than half that, it seemed. She figured she could keep the spell ready for nearly two hours if she didn’t mind draining herself.

The more she thought about it, the more Olivia figured it would be a clever idea to create a mana battery of sorts that she could wear or carry, attached to a weapon or staff, that she could use to fuel her shield. “In fact, I could create a recharging mana battery!” She smiled at the student that looked at her with wide eyes, perhaps not used to crown-wearing, tall, slightly-shimmering humans striding around talking to themselves.

Olivia walked right past the stair that would take her to her dorm, continuing on, directly to the library. She had plans to dig through the stacks for some more spells before figuring out her next step. She hoped that, with a little luck, she might find a spell that would help her with that. More than anything, she hoped to figure out a way to set a trap for the killer. Obviously, he had an interest in her—she just had to think of the best way to use that.

“Olivia!” Professor Oylla-dak said sharply, jerking Olivia out of her thoughts and startling her back to the present. She’d walked, without paying attention to it, into the library and had already begun to steer herself toward the rear stacks, nearly brushing past Oylla, Carlu, and another professor she didn’t know.

“Oh! Oh, Professor, you startled me!” Olivia said, stopping and turning toward the trio.

“You shouldn’t be startled! You should have been quietly resting in the library when I came to talk to you! I’m afraid that wasn’t the case, though, was it? You’ve been gone for hours, and we’ve been scouring the campus looking for you!”

“I’m sorry, Professor, I had to get something done at the market . . .”

“I’m sorry, Olivia, but this simply illustrates to me that I can’t deal with you on campus at the moment. It’s too dangerous, and it’s too difficult to treat you with dignity and still maintain control of all the variables!” Oylla shook her two hands around her head as though to illustrate how many things she had going on in there.

“What are you saying, Professor?” Olivia asked.

“I’m saying that you’ll need to go home for a while . . . until this killer is apprehended.”

“I’d like to be a part of your investigations, not sent packing!” Olivia said, her lackadaisical demeanor suddenly stripped away as her anger and frustration surged forth, out of the corner where she’d pressed those feelings down.

“Yes, but this world doesn’t revolve around you, Olivia. We have others here at risk. We have others here whose job is to keep students safe and deal with situations like this. It's not fair to them to keep you around. Nor is it fair or safe for you to be involved in the investigation anymore. It’s become far too personal, Olivia!”

Olivia opened her mouth to argue, wanting to scream that she deserved to be there. She deserved to help punish the awful, psychotic creep that had hurt Adaida and defiled and slaughtered sweet, kind Alyss. She knew it wasn’t rational, though. She knew that, even on Earth, among the law enforcement professions, people so connected to a case wouldn’t be allowed to work on it. Surprising everyone, including herself, she said, “If you’re sure, professor.”

Olivia’s mind raced in a panic. One minute she’d been planning to figure out how to capture the killer, and now she was giving up. Was she letting the killer win? Olivia was sure she cared, sure she wanted to get justice, but when Oylla had spoken to her, bluntly telling her to leave, it had triggered deeply buried feelings, and, at that moment, the only thing she could think of was Alyss’s head, eyes staring, mouth held in its default expression of determined kindness. She could only think of that head and realize that she’d never hear her professor’s voice again. She’d never be able to ask her for advice. She’d never hear her tell her how proud she was for doing something she deemed remarkable.

Whatever dam had been holding back Olivia’s grief burst then, tears started to pour from her eyes, and she fell into Oylla’s quickly open arms, sobbing out her endless, immeasurable grief. “I can’t believe she’s dead! I can’t believe this fucking guy is killing all these people! Why couldn’t I stop him before he did that to Alyss? Why would anyone hurt a person like Alyss?”

“Hush, Olivia,” Oylla said, pulling her in as her body sagged more and more. “We don’t know why, but don’t you waste another minute thinking about that. Alyss doesn’t care why. She’s with her ancestors, and she’ll either stick around to meddle with us a while, or she’ll be moving on to a new life. We’ll stop this killer, and that’s all Alyss would care about. I promise you: we’ll get him. I also promise that I’ll come to you if there’s any way you can help!”

Olivia stayed like that for several minutes, soaking in the warmth of Oylla’s embrace. It felt like a hug from her mother, and she knew how ridiculous it was to want to hug your mother at her age, but she couldn’t help how she felt. It felt like a failure to go home, but something in her wanted to go, to let the professionals handle things. That guilt, that feeling in the pit of her stomach, kept her huddled in Oylla’s arms longer than was probably comfortable for the professor. Still, she handled it with aplomb, holding onto Olivia and quietly saying, “Shhh, shhh.”

“Can I take some books to study?” Olivia asked, finally. She straightened and sniffed, brushing the wrinkles out of her robes. “Sorry about that,” she said, looking down.

“Don’t be! Thank you for showing me your feelings, Olivia. I was beginning to worry about you!” Oylla smiled and reached out to smooth the collar of Olivia’s robes. “Yes, you may choose some books from the library. Gather them up, and then say your goodbyes to your cohort. I’ll have Professor Voyle-dak here escort you. He’ll walk with you to the Travel Pavillion. We’ll give that portal a test, hmm?”

“All right,” Olivia nodded, then glanced back toward the rear of the library and said, “Even the spell books?” She cursed herself as she said the words. Why couldn’t she have just taken them and asked for forgiveness later?

“Hmm.” Oylla frowned and massaged her temple. “You may take three of the spell tomes. Only three, though! If they hear of this, I’ll be skewered at the next board meeting, so you better bring them back with you!” She hissed, grimacing at the prospect.

“I will! I promise, Oylla” Olivia glanced at Carlu and the other professor that must be Voyle-dak, now lurking a dozen feet away, ostensibly talking about a book. “I mean, professor.”

“Don’t worry about them,” Oylla said. “They were only here in case you didn’t return—Carlu was helping me to organize the search. You really had us worried!”

“Thank you, Professor, for everything,” Olivia said.

“Hush, Olivia. We’ll get this sorted quickly and get you back so you can get on with some real learning. What a trial this has been for you! I’m so glad you’ve listened to reason.”

Olivia nodded, squeezed Oylla’s hand again, and then hurried off to the rear stacks. She had no idea what books she’d take, but she didn’t care. When Olivia got to the stacks of spell tomes, she performed the same strange ritual she had the first time—closed her eyes, walking along the stacks with her hand trailing over the spines of the books until she felt something, a tickle or a hunch, she didn’t know. Still, Olivia acted on it, taking the book under her fingers. She did this three times, slipping each tome into her storage ring.

“Got what you needed?” Carlu asked, startling her. She hadn’t realized the little inspector had stuck around, nor that he’d come so close. She looked up to see that he was leaning against a nearby stack, watching her through his spectacles.

“Yes, um, where’s Professor Voyle-dak?” Olivia asked, looking past Carlu and not seeing any sign of Oylla or the other professor.

“He had a class, so I offered to be your escort. I was hoping to interview you a bit on the way. Will that be all right? We can head straight to the Travel Pavillion—I’ve sent word for your cohort to meet you there. Oylla-dak thought maybe one or more of them would like to go home with you. Would you like that? Some company while you’re gone?”

“I’d like for this killer to be caught so that we can get on with our lives,” Olivia said, frowning at the slight Shadeni in his perfectly pressed suit.

“Of course, Ms. Bennet, I’m working on it! Please, let’s walk. I have a feeling some of your answers to my questions might very well point me in the right direction.”

“I’m not sure how, but that’s fine with me. Let’s go.” Olivia brushed past the inspector, taking the lead, and he hurried to catch up, pulling out his notepad and clearing his throat.