In the event, the Gift was employed and, thankfully, two out of the three were kineticists and Dory was… determined. They passed under the Sea Gate, with its great arcing sea serpents carved into the archway and made their way down the Merchants’ Road to Mudville.
The rough suburb looked more impressive by day than it did under the moonlight. Tall, narrow buildings lined its muddy streets and wagons and people alike clattered through them. Manfred found himself consulting his mental map. He was not as familiar with this place as he needed to be, but already more than he would ever
want to be.
They came up to a large crossroads and he pointed right.
“This way!” he called, shooting down the narrow street at a somewhat undignified pace. There were other students about. Many were wearing hooded cloaks or some other means of disguising their identities. Manfred had been in such a hurry that he hadn’t thought of that. It was too late now, however, to rectify his error.
The buildings trailed off into a large thicket of sturdy sycamore trees and, behind them loomed a large, ramshackle villa. People were glancing around between themselves, conversing, and entering. A thin stream of white smoke trickled from its chimney. Glancing at his peers, Manfred pushed the door open and entered. Inside was a world of high, vaulted ceilings, tall narrow windows, and rustic chandeliers dripping candlewax from above. The central atrium was open, and there was a speaker’s lectern at the far end. Numerous hallways and rooms branched off towards the back and there was an upper floor and balcony surrounding all but the back of the atrium.
Manfred sniffed.
Incense, he thought.
Disgusting savage stuff. There appeared to be sitting mats on the floor too, as if the students weren’t good enough for actual chairs, like civilized adults. People were gradually gathering on those, taking the choice spots, but he had little interest in being up front. He’d have a better view from the back.
“Well,” he groused in a low voice,
“this about meets my expectations.”“This looks like some weird theater play. . Is this really a forbidden magic school or a group of theater kids?” Dorothea, now hidden in her cloak, would whisper in Manfred’s ear. She didn’t really know a lot about all the occult.
“And what’s up with this smell?”Eun-Ji was used to the scent of such incense, it being a common thing in Tan Keoul. Still, the overall atmosphere of the place was as shady as expected. She took a spot beside Manfred, sticking to the back.
”I agree. It is just as I expected…” she said softly. Then, she briefly glanced at Dorothea, still not sure why she was there with them. She definitely will need to ask Manfred about this later.
Manfred let out a sniff of mirth at Dory’s observation, and he was tempted to think of her as shamefully out of place, but she was the only one who’d actually brought a hooded cloak, and those seemed de rigueur here. He was just opening his mouth to comment when a group of robed figures appeared from one of the back hallways. Five had their faces covered, but one was in chains with a sackcloth over its head. In the rear was a sixth: a tall man with dark, shoulder-length hair and a pale complexion. Murmurs rippled through the group of students gathered.
The man who seemed to be the head of the group stepped up to the lectern. “Hello,” he said, “and good morning.” The other four spread out in a square around the captive behind him. They pulled the chains near taut, and the bound and gagged prisoner flinched and wailed beneath her gag. Though it was impossible to see her face, one could tell that she was panicked, hyperventilating. The leader with his deep red robe and dark shoulder-length hair twisted slightly her way and scowled. He turned back to the students. “Someone use Blood drawing, please,” he said simply, “and kill her.”
Dory’s eyes lit up in disgust, tugging on Manfred’s arm to try and keep herself calm.
“Are they really going to execute her? . . Is she even guilty of anything? . .” The look in her eyes was getting more and more determined to step in.
At the speaker’s words, a cold pulse shot through Manfred’s body. This was exactly how magic
shouldn’t be used. He glanced at Dory and Eun-Ji, determining if now was the time to say something. There were robed figures around the perimeter of the atrium now, though. They’d emerged from the back hallways and he could feel them reaching out with energy. What the hell was going on!?
”....” Eun-Ji’s expression remained neutral as she looked upon what seemed to be downright evil in full display. Her body tensed up, however, and it took her a considerable amount of effort not to reach for the daggers hidden within the fold of her dress.
Surrounded and outnumbered. Not enough information too… Part of her was indifferent to the scene, numbed by her years as a Lotus Sentry. Yet the other part of her was screaming at her, telling her to act.
She ended up looking at her companions, especially Manfred. Subtly, she shook her head at him. As much as she wanted to act and do something to stop whatever was going on, acting now will likely prove a folly, if not suicidal.
It was at that moment, with all three infiltrators and a good deal of the remaining student body perched on a razor’s edge, that someone stood up. It was a boy with wild white hair and reddish-violet eyes - clearly a bloodchild.
“As you command!” he shouted and, a moment later, the captive howled in pain. Her left hand began to disappear in a mist of blood and unraveling flesh.
But then there was a commotion. The boy was hurled off his feet by an attack from the side. A tall young woman in a hooded cloak stood, crackling with energy.
“You would just take life without question!?” she screamed. Her dress fluttered strangely, empty on one side, and it made her instantly recognizable as Penny: Penny Pellegrin.
“He ordered it and he is our master,” retorted another, also standing and gathering energy. Students quickly seemed to be taking sides. Meanwhile, the woman on stage moaned and shuddered, weeping beneath the sackcloth and clutching her ruined hand. The leader remained impassive, hands clasped behind his back, eyes slowly roving over those gathered.
As the situation seemed to become inflamed, Eun-Ji finally subtly reached into her dress and took a dagger out, hiding in by holding the handle stuck on her left palm, the blade hidden by the long sleeve of her dress.
"I suggest that we prepare for the worst, Manfred… And Ms. Hohnstein.” she whispered to her companions. If things came to blows, Eun-Ji already knew which side she would be taking. After all, she saw no one who fit the description of ‘master whose order must be followed’ in this place. She drew as subtly as she could from the noise and whatever ambient heat there was in the place, imbuing her dagger with kinetic magic. Of course, she seemingly remained standing calmly, not outwardly showing any intention to intervene.
"Can I shoot him? I really want that bastard to taste some lead for what he did!" She opened up her cloak to him, revealing a dueling pistol. Nodding eagerly for his approval.
Eun–Ji was on her feet, and Dory quickly joined her. Both women seemed ready for a fight, and Dory was not quiet about it either. Manfred rose as well. Unlike Dory, he didn’t have his weapon and he wondered just how in Shune’s light she’d hidden it, for he certainly hadn’t felt a pistol in there when he’d picked it up. He felt oddly naked unarmed, but he drew from the light pouring in through the windows, prepared first to cast an invisibility illusion so that he could work unmolested.
“Wait, he whispered.
Let’s see how this plays out.”“You attack me!?” roared the student who’d been tossed aside by Penny. He leapt to his feet with kinetically-aided speed and drew a handful of cushions, rematerializing them into daggers which he hurled at the tall girl.
And that is exactly where matters halted… along with the daggers. They disappeared in the blink of an eye, as if they had never even existed, and the leader stepped forward, wearing a scowl of disapproval.
“The violence will cease,” he commanded, his voice deep, calm, and unnaturally powerful. His eyes took in the entire group. Some sat. Some remained standing. Others had never risen. The room went quiet.
“All violence,” he amended softly.
“That is not who we are and that is not what we do.”He walked over to the captive and removed the sackcloth and gag. She was gritting her teeth in pain.
“Thank you, Lilla,” he said softly, placing a hand on top of her head. Students could feel the energy being drawn to him - gently, determinedly. He closed his eyes and concentrated and fresh new bones sprouted from the ragged stump of her wrist. Flesh and sinew coalesced and wrapped themselves around the bones, arteries and veins branched across them and then, finally, fresh pinkish skin, newly healed. Lilla stared at her hand reborn, and blinked.
“Thank you,” she said, opening and closing it in wonder.
“No, it is I who thank you for your bravery.” The four guards unchained her and she rose to stand among them. The man in the deep red robe turned to face the students once more.
“We are not monsters,” he said firmly.
“If that is what you think, if that is what you have come here to be, you may leave now.” He paused, hands clasped again.
“The only thing that we are here to destroy is the deathgrip that selfish people hold on Sipenta’s magic. Sure as each of us has blood running through our veins, each of us deserves to access this Gift of the Pentad.”“Oh, and if you’re hesitant to leave after being willing to murder Lilla in cold blood and without cause simply because you were ordered to, these lovely people -” He spread his arms and gestured at the roughly two dozen cloaked figures around the perimeter.
“- will be all too eager to assist you. Practitioners of the Blood do not obey,” he admonished,
“they think. If you did not come to think - to challenge your assumptions - you may also leave now.”Dory slumped down with a rather disappointed look on her face.
"Did they really have to intervene? . . My finger itches now." She'd lean against Manfred, trying her hardest to cry in a fake manner.
"What will I do now?""Hmm.” The situation was fortunately defused, revealed to be a test to weed out those who were, so to speak, deemed untrustworthy of learning the controversial school of magic. Eun-Ji calmly sat back down, putting back her dagger into the fold of her dress as subtly as she did when she took it out.
“At least they seem to be making an effort in regards to not confirming the stereotype… Still…” She whispered to Manfred. She wasn’t convinced yet, it was too early to conclude that this Blood Magic class was truly harmless. Furthermore, she wondered who this man was who became the instructor of the class.
“Manfred, do you perchance recognize who he is?” She asked Manfred, again in soft whispers.
Amongst the twenty who stood by and watched during the event was Trypano herself, standing taller than most if not all the people present. She had halfway wondered why she even bothered keeping her hood up when her red eyes, pale skin and unusual height were more than telling. Perhaps it was simply due to the fact that while she stood out she didn’t particularly care to draw attention to the fact that she stood out, not bothering to be among the only few in the room to have her hood down as well.
She watched the scene unfold. It was a test of course, one designed to weed out those who were all too bloodthirsty or simply far too accustomed to obeying their authorities. Blood Magic was a science after all, a subsection of Binding, not some cult ritualism practiced by priests to appease the powers that be. It was no less a tool to be used and utilized than Chemistry or Kineticism. Any field of magic could be used to kill after all. The fear of Blood magic was largely born of propaganda spread by the nobility for fear of what the mutability of their material world could mean towards the status quo.
Her face was no less cold or unflinching as it ever was. A perfect mask of serenity with a calculating stare. In her pocket she held her knife, a surgical tool and also something of a focus for her. Given how long she’s spent using magic alongside medical practices she’s spent a fair amount of her time holding this very blade whilst conducting her binding, hence why it serves well as a tool to center her focus, especially for directed casting.
Her magic was not directed however but instead was being used in the context of reading. Her Chemistry, to be precise. She monitored the chemical exchanges occurring within those who were recent entries into this class. Things such as adrenaline, endorphins and other such biochemical elements were all detectable beneath her discerning eye. She was well accustomed to dissecting the biology of living forms, human and otherwise. It was now simply a matter of doing so without opening the subject first.
She continued to stand by, not adding to the current discourse but remaining ready in the situation that action becomes necessary. Humans were a violent species after all, prone to assumption and aggression.
Meanwhile, Manfred, Eun-Ji, and Dorothea were exchanging whispers. After tut-tutting Dory and suppressing an only partly-comical shiver, Manfred furrowed his brow, thinking.
“I cannot say I have seen him about,” the Kerreman confessed to Eun-Ji.
“Still,” he continued,
“he reminds me of someone.” He shook his head tightly after a moment.
“But I cannot place it.” He glanced at the two women.
“He seems a showman to me. Look how he has these people in the palm of his hand. His narrative demands trust.” On the one hand, the denunciation of savagery in this space was welcome and reassuring. On the other, he still did not trust the Practitioners of the Blood or their strangely charismatic leader. However, before either of the girls could offer their thoughts, his soldier’s instinct pulled at him and his eyes darted to the side, where Penny was scooting over to join them.
“We have company,” he whispered, moments before she arrived.
"Who's that? Another acquaintance? . ." Dory looked at him with angry eyes, the woman really needed to shoot something soon. She’d stoked herself up when a riot had almost happened. But in the end it left her needy. Looking at the approaching girl, she cleared her throat while thinking about what her mother would say.
"Young lady, you could've died!"Penny blinked, unsure what to make of the intrusion.
“Ummm… okay, mom?” She glanced at Manfred and Eun-Ji for some type of assurance that this was not just some random nutter.
"A showman…” Eun-Ji nodded at Manfred.
“I agree. I would not trust him. Not just yet. Not when this whole thing seemed planned exactly to induce trust in him upon us, the students.” Then, she noticed Penny approaching just as Manfred whispered it. Dorothea was once more quick to speak up. Eun-Ji hardly reacted at all to the resulting peculiar interaction between Dorothea and Penny. After all, she barely knew who Dorothea was herself, what’s with her being an unexpected addition brought along by Manfred. She merely lightly shook her head in response to Penny’s glance at her and Manfred, as if trying to tell Penny that she herself knew little about Dorothea.
“Anyways,” the Perrenchwoman continued after a minute,
“I did not expect this to be a ruse. It’s rather brilliant how he’s weeded out the bad ones.” She shrugged.
“Besides, it’s the sacred duty of a Binder to protect life. I truly thought she would die had I done nothing.” Despite the light tone, there was a tension evident in her body language. She settled on a cushion beside them, gazing up intently at the speaker.
“If this is what Blood Magic is really about, then perhaps we should all give it a chance.”So, with varying degrees of embrace or reticence, that is precisely what the group of four did. This seemed to be as much a quasi-underground society as a class and Manfred had to admit that many of his initial fears had been allayed. Still, it seemed almost… too good to be true, as if they were putting on a friendly face for public consumption, for when they
knew they’d be watched. He wondered how it was that they could run a class so brazenly, just outside of the city walls. They would have powerful benefactors, he knew. One glance at Eun-Ji showed that she knew it too. Dory, for her part, had seemed eager to fight: heart in the right place, perhaps, but hotheaded.
A beautiful woman, he thought,
a loving woman, and not unkeen of mind, but questionable judgement. Of Penny he knew little except that she seemed favourably disposed towards Blood Magic and she was a person of action. Time would tell where she fell on the spectrum from friend to enemy.
Regardless of their interpersonal dynamics, the four Biros spent most of the next hour practicing the foundations of blood drawing: how to grasp with one’s manas at material as opposed to energy. While it seemed frighteningly easy for Penny, it was… an alien concept to Manfred, he was forced to admit, and an uncomfortable one. It did not feel
right to… destroy concrete things. For all of the Practitioners’ righteous rhetoric, all that the exercise served to do was to reinforce his fundamental wariness of the discipline.
Still, he admitted to himself, as he walked back with Eun-Ji and Dorothea for their afternoon rendezvous with Wvysin,
I will keep at it. Manfred knew that his instincts had been right. He, the dagger that was Eun-Ji, and the blunderbuss that was Dory had stumbled into something of great import, and there was no telling just how deep the rabbit hole would lead.
