Abyssal Arcanist [Chapter 7]

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Shami

CHAPTER SEVEN

MAN CAVE

Sorin pulled me into the dorm. “Ta-da!” He held out his arms and shook his hands around with showmanship flair.

Nasbit and Raaza also held out their arms, though with much less enthusiasm.

Knovak, who stood by the door, gave me an awkward nod, but said nothing.

Beforehand, the beds had been positioned with their headboards against the walls, five on one side, five on the other. Now the beds were crammed together in a semicircle around one singular bed, like a moat of mattresses and bedding. The lanterns had been brought over to illuminate the space, and the trunks and nightstands were placed next to each other between beds, creating makeshift tables. It was both cluttered and cozy, an interesting combination.

“Are we allowed to do this?” I asked.

Nasbit walked over to his bed. And it as obviously his bed, what with its blue sheets and plush pillows. Clearly, he had brought along his own comforts from home. “According to Astra Academy rules, we’re allowed to change our sleeping space. So, I believe this is acceptable.”

Raaza grabbed some of the blankets from one of the unused beds. He attached the end of one sheet to a lantern mounted to the wall, and then strung the bedding overhead, creating a canopy when he attached it to a lantern on the other side of the room. Once finished, he stepped back and admired his work.

“I like that,” Sorin said. He gestured to the other beds. “We should hang them everywhere.”

“It looks like we’re in a bazaar,” Knovak muttered.

“I still like it.”

Knovak crossed his arms. He wore a white silk shirt and fine black trousers. While they were high quality, they were plain. It was hard to understate how average Knovak was in appearance when he wasn’t wearing his flashing outfits. He had brownish, sandy-blond hair. His skin was tanned, but with no real markings. No blemishes, no freckles—just plain.

His arcanist mark was a seven-pointed star with a unicorn intertwined around the points. Even that, somehow, seemed unremarkable.

Twain leapt from the floor up to the one bed that was surrounded by the others. “This is Grays?” He kneaded the pillow. “Oh, yes. It smells like Gray.” Then he perked his lynx-like ears straight up. “Did you move all the beds around so you’re protecting him?”

Sorin nodded as he threw himself onto his own bed. The frame groaned as my brother’s solid body crashed onto the mattress. “That’s right! If anything happens in the middle of the night, we’ll all be close by to do something. Plus, if anyone comes trying to get Gray, they’ll have to climb over us first.”

“If they’re not going to expel you, we should at least take some responsibility and make sure nothing happens.” Raaza threw another blanket across the room, creating a larger canopy. “And while the nobles have more things for their dorm, that doesn’t mean we can’t make ours unique, either.” He slapped his palms together and then admired his own work.

His kitsune, Miko, crawled out from under the blankets of Raaza’s bed. Her red fur was puffed to one side. “My arcanist? Why hang all these sheets?”

“We can make a cave.”

“Oh!” She snickered with the squeak of a baby fox. “So mysterious. I love it.”

“I still think it looks like a market stall,” Knovak murmured.

I glanced over and offered a smile. “We sell dreams and rest here.” Then I went to pat him on the shoulder, but Knovak flinched away before I could touch him. He moved so far—and so quickly—he almost slammed into the wall.

That… wasn’t the response I was expecting.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared.

With my hand still mid-air, I lifted both eyebrows. “Are you okay?”

Knovak slowly moved to the moat of beds. “Uh, yes. I apologize. I just… Don’t want you too close. You understand.” He rolled over an unused bed and then made his way to own sleeping space on the other side of the semi-circle. “I don’t think you meant to harm me, but given that you’re plagued by terrible magics, omens, and circumstances, I’d prefer if you… kept your distance.”

Last time I had seen Knovak, it had been when Death Lord Deimos was manipulating my body. The Death Lord had harmed Knovak. I wasn’t sure the extent of the injuries, but it had to have been bad. Knovak rubbed at his arm and avoided making eye contact with me.

“Sorry about that,” I said. “I don’t think it’ll happen again.”

Knovak said nothing.

“Everyone should keep their distance.” Raaza grabbed the last of the unused bedding and started hanging it as well. The man-cave was almost complete. “Aren’t you wearing a deadly weapon like an old woman wears jewelry?”

I touched the collar of my shirt on instinct. “Well, yes, but it’s not doing anything.” I hopped over the nearest bed and then sauntered over to my own. “I mean, it just rests on me until I want it to do something.”

“Want it to do something?” Nasbit asked. He sat on his bed and fluffed his pillows. Then he carefully removed his boots. “What does that even mean?”

The others turned their gazes to me. They all held a hint of suspicion behind their eyes, as though they didn’t quite trust me to tell them the truth. After Sorin’s statements in the hallway, I didn’t blame them.

I grabbed Vivigöl from around my neck and tightened my fingers around the abyssal coral. It was as cold and hard as metal, but with a rough texture. I imagined the weapon as a trident—like how Deimos wielded it. Magic pulsed through the object.

Vivigöl click-click-clickedas it changed shape. The pieces around my neck and across my shoulders shifted and reformed. In a matter of moments, it went from being gaudy jewelry to being a gold trident worthy of a Death Lord. It wasn’t massively heavy, but it was sturdy, and I had lowered my arm. The three tines were sharper than any I had seen before.

“By the good winds,” Raaza muttered as he dropped the sheets and leapt over his bed. He approached Vivigöl, his eyes wide. “And it really changes shape? Just like that?”

“My mimic magic was infused into it,” I said. Then I half-heartedly swung it around. “I told you it can change shape back in class.”

“I… didn’t believe you. Seeing it in action is a different story.”

Nasbit’s eyes were so wide I feared they would fall off his face. Sorin scooted to the edge of his bed, his gaze on the golden weapon. Even Knovak, who seemed like he wanted to be disinterested, couldn’t bring himself to look away.

Twain twitched his ears. With a mischievous smile, he gestured to an unclaimed bed with no sheets. “Use it! Break the bed with Vivigöl.”

“I don’t know…” I swished the trident through the air a second time.

Raaza nodded once. “Do it. I want to see this in action.”

“Yeah,” Sorin said with half a smile. “No one is using that bed, anyway. Show us how powerful that weapon is.”

“Do it, do it, do it,” Miko said as she jumped up and down on Raaza’s bed. Her fox eyes were wide, and fake fire flashed from her paws with every bounce. “Do it!”

“C’mon, Gray. Show us.”

“Do it! I’m losing my mind waiting!” Miko dramatically threw herself on the mattress, acting as though she had died. She just lied there, unmoving, her tail flopped behind her.

“Okay, okay,” I said, holding my hand up. “I’ll do it.” With my breath held, I gripped Vivigöl with both hands, and approached the unoccupied bed.

Then it occurred to me that I didn’t really know how to use tridents. I mean, obviously to stick the pointy tines into your enemy, but that didn’t help me demolish the bed. Was I supposed to stab the mattress until it was nothing but a mess of feathers and fluff? Or chop it in half? Perhaps it would be better if I had an axe, or a sword…

Vivigöl click-click-clickedas it once again changed shape in my hands. This time, it morphed from a trident into an elegant longsword. The blade was nearly three feet in length, which was far longer than I would’ve expected, and the hilt of the weapon was flared out on both sides, creating six spikes that were just as sharp as the blade itself.

“Oh, amazing.” Sorin stepped close and stared at the weapon over my shoulder. “Gray, I like this.”

It was still gold, but it had a rough tarnish to the coloration. It was interesting, to say the least. Gold wasn’t a metal used for weapons because it was too soft. But this wasn’t gold, it just had the same appearance.

“Do you know how to wield swords?” Raaza asked.

I almost laughed at the question. “I know how to make candles,” I quipped. Then I swung the blade. It sliced through the air with frightening speed. If I weren’t careful, I’d cut myself on the damn thing. “Uh, maybe everyone should stand back.”

Raaza leapt to the other side of his bed. Nasbit ducked down close to the ground, like somehow I would cause an explosion. Even Knovak took drastic measures and hid behind his wardrobe.

Only Sorin remained close. He stepped backward, but he remained within lunging distance.

“You got this,” Twain said from my bed. “Make that bed pay for being… uh… empty?”

After a nervous chuckle, I tightened my grip on Vivigöl and then swung downward, hoping that gravity would aid in my power. The blade effortlessly sliced through the air, and when it hit the bed, it cleaved the mattress like butter. But then Vivigöl struck the solid wood frame and went halfway through before getting stuck.

I tugged, found it wedged in there, placed my foot on the edge of the frame, and then yanked back. Vivigöl came out, leaving a perfectly clean slice through half the bed. Even with my lack of skill and strength, it was enough to make this bed unusable.

“Excellent,” Raaza whispered from the side of his bed.

I swung again, aiming for the same spot, and the bed was shattered clean in half. It happened so quickly—and the blade clanged on the ground so loudly—I startled myself. I dropped Vivigöl and leapt backward, running into Sorin’s solid body. He grabbed me, like he knew this would happen.

“It’s okay,” he said.

After a deep breath, I nodded.

Vivigöl…

It remained a sword for only a short period of time. While everyone watched, it click-click-clicked back into its trident form, as though it were more comfortable like that than as a sword.

Miko perked up her head. “Do it again! Mess up that whole bed! And then another one!”

“Th-There actually Academy property,” Nasbit said. He hurried over his bed and into the area around mine. “I think Gray should pick up his foul weapon and wear it again. And we should hide any evidence we destroyed something.”

“Did you also encourage this?” Raaza asked with a sneer.

“I admit nothing.” Nasbit motioned to the bed. “Hurry. Before someone comes in here to investigate that calamity!”

Knovak peeked out from around the wardrobe. He stared at the broken bed for some time, never muttering a single word.

“I thought Vivigöl would’ve been more… magical,” Sorin said as he patted my shoulder. “Nothing really happened. It was just an extra sharp blade.”

I shrugged as I bent down to pick up the weapon. “Apparently, it amplifies magic. I think, if Twain had transformed into something, I could’ve used some magic through it, or better, if that makes sense. I’m not sure, though. I haven’t experimented much.”

As Raaza picked up splinters from the shattered bedframe, he glanced over. “You should experiment. Constantly. I want to see what that thing can really do.”

Nasbit frowned. “You should curb your bloodlust, Raaza. Not everything needs to be related to violence. Perhaps Gray can make the weapon transform into tools.”

“What kind of tools, ya blowhard? Weapons are already a kind of tool. A tool of war. And self-defense.”

“Well, um, perhaps a hammer? Those can be used to build great buildings, or even assist at chiseling a beautiful statue.”

“Oh, yes. I like that. Hammers cave in skulls quite easily.” Raaza snapped his fingers at me. “Make it turn into an epic hammer.”

Knovak darkly chuckled as he said, “Or why not an icepick? A great tool for both picking at ice, and killing a man.”

“Yes.” Raaza laughed with him. “The hat-boy gets it.”

“Hey!” Knovak barked. He stepped out from his hiding place and crossed his arms. “I’ll have you know those hats were designed by a great fashion designer in Thronehold.”

“Uh-huh. Whatever, hat-boy. Just keep coming up with deadly tools and leave all your thoughts about clothes for another time.”

Nasbit nervously chuckled as he stepped closer to Raaza. “Now, now. We should all calm down and focus on hiding all our tomfoolery. What if someone sees this?” He knelt and grabbed some of the feathers from the mattress. “They said we could rearrange the dorm, not obliterate it.”

After a dramatic roll of his eyes, Raaza knelt and went back to cleaning. I glanced down at my weapon and thought of it as the necklace it had been before. Vivigöl clicked into place, wrapped around my arm, then my neck, and then settling onto my shoulders so that it wouldn’t limit my movement.

Sorin watched the whole time with a critical eye. When he realized I was staring, he merely smiled.

“Maybe you should go get an actual shower,” he said. “Unless you’re tired? We should try sleeping in our new arrangement.”

“I think our sleep will be exactly the same as any other night,” I muttered.

“You never know. Maybe you’ll feel protected, and safe, and that will help.”

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Then, c’mon.” My brother threw himself back on his bed. “I, for one, am looking forward to having no more troubled nights.”

That would be great.

I took a seat on my bed and smoothed the bedding.

Perhaps it would happen.