Chapter 38 - The Sting I

Characters – 

Felix Sutter: Poor boy living in Sacramento, recently found out magic existed. Hard worker, knows the price of everything.

Erik Morsin: Heir to the Duchy of the Emerald Isle. Just wants to play his violin.

Hazel Winslow: Ran away from an abusive cult. Awoke as a natural mind mage.

Sora Park: Erik’s loyal friend. Loves flying. An absolute broombrain.

Vivian Merryweather: An expert on all things color, fashion, and of the heart. Gets seasick easily.

Alexandria Renard: Wants to be the next Morgana Le Fay. Can’t speak louder than a whisper. 

Thalia: Half-unicorn, walks around with a big “DO NOT TOUCH” sign.

Christopher Mau: The black cat. 3rd year Dragon student. Possibly has nine lives. Unusually lucky and dexterous.

Beatrix Brynwyll: 3rd year dragon student. A little uptight. 

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Yet the common folk felt no weight.
Duke Morsin declared a tax holiday.
He distributed new warding stones, stronger than the old,
Promising safety from all threats - arcane or mundane.
The fields were not burned.
The markets bustled.
To the farmers, smiths, and shopkeeps -
Nothing had changed.

And for many, that was enough.

The Saga of Bjorn, Verse 37

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“Hey Felix!”

Felix looked up and around at his name being called. He immediately recognized Erik sitting up in his bed, a mess of bandages wrapped around his throat. He rushed right over, Chris and Beatrix in his wake.

“Dude, what happened?” He asked, worry etched across his face. Felix could play it cool when some of his friends hurt themselves, maybe laugh at them if they did it in a particularly dumb way. In the hospital though? That was a bit more serious than a wheelie gone wrong.

Erik’s eyes flickered to his escort.

“Tell you later?” He said. “You’re probably here for a reason that isn’t saying hi to me. I’m sure Camelot and magic’s much more interesting.”

Felix wanted to deny it… but Erik spoke only the truth.

“Yeah, this guy here’s a walking plague rat.” Chris joked, slapping one hand on Felix’s shoulder. 

One of the Unicorns bustled up to them, and Felix snapped his fingers. The pure silvery hair, the unnatural grace, he’d seen that before! The girl was impossible to forget, and Chris had even explicitly told him to look out for her.

“Oh! You’re Thalia, right?” He said. She rolled her eyes.

“Yes, hi, nice to meet you too.” She said. “I didn’t think we knew each other well enough to be on a first name basis yet.”

Oh right. They went with last names here… and nobody had told Felix what her last name was. Plus, how would he feel if someone came up to him and already knew his name? Yeah.

“Sorry. I’m Felix. Er, Felix Sutter.” He said.

“Well Sutter, what are you here for?” She asked, looking him up and down. She was trying to be brisk and efficient, but she just came off as bossy. “Training injury? Curse?”

A spike of annoyance went through Felix, but he reminded himself that she was probably brand new to Unicorn house. With how early in orientation this was, this could literally be her first time in the hospital wing. Give people grace and patience… he couldn’t afford it otherwise.

“Sutter’s from the mundane world, and needs all of his potions.” Beatrix explained.

Thalia seemed to light up.

“Oh! I can do that one! Hang on!”

She rushed back into the hospital wing.

“Bit eager that one?” Erik said.

“I think you’re in good hands.” Beatrix said. “I’ve got some other things to do. We’re just about done for the day. Feel free to do whatever. Might catch up with you at dinner. See you tomorrow morning after morning physical training, and we’ll continue orientation.”

Felix suddenly felt how sore he was.

“Alright.” He said. 

“Do you know how to get to the dining hall from here?” Chris asked. “And our Lair?”

Felix shrugged. 

“If I get lost, that’s a great way to learn the place, yeah?” He said. “Worse case, I’ll just ask for help and directions.”

“Bye!” Chris waved, did a perfect about-face, and walked out.

“Good luck.” Beatrix’s exit was nearly as abrupt.

Felix looked around. A couple of students had their curtains pulled back, and were watching the free entertainment, but most of them were closed. A woman approached him.

“Do you need anything?” She asked with stars in her eyes. Literal stars in her eyes, her gaze was quite severe otherwise.

“Errr… I think Thalia’s getting me the potions I need?” He said.

“Excellent. I’ll review her work. I’m Healer Elaine, I’m in charge of the hospital. Here are the rules.”

She quickly laid down the law, and Felix nodded along.

“Are you going to give me any trouble?” She asked.

“No ma’am!” Felix resisted the urge to snap off a salute. He’d just learned this morning how to do one.

Healer Elaine looked at him critically.

“You’re in Dragon house, you’ll be in here often enough giving us trouble.” She said dismissively. “If nothing else, you’ll push yourself too hard in training. Well, with a bit of luck, it’ll be a few weeks before that happy day is on us. Welcome to Avalon, welcome to Camelot!”

Another one of the Unicorn students called out with a distinct note of panic.

“Healer Elaine!”

“Excuse me.” The woman turned on her heel, and practically blurred as she moved across the hospital. Felix shuffled out of the main aisle, and sat down on Erik’s bed. Not seeing anyone coming, he struck up a conversation.

“Sooo… what happened?” He asked, gesturing to the bandages. “Er, if I can ask.”

“Another student took offense to me being here.” Erik said drily. “Seems determined to keep me in the hospital, instead of actually learning anything.”

“Oh damn.” Felix said. “Can I help?”

He felt dumb a minute later. How could he, a brand new student with no knowledge of magic, help at all? 

“Can you close the curtains?” Erik asked. Felix did.

“I’ve got a few ideas…” Erik said. “But look. It’d be wildly unfair for me to tell you this without letting you know there might be consequences to you.”

Felix crossed his arms. There weren’t too many thoughts of self-preservation.

“Nah, fuck that, someone’s going to mess with you learning magic? I’m not going to let that slide. Come on, we’re friends, how can I help?”

“Well… all you need to do is tell this one upper year, De Corci, that I’m leaving the hospital wing right before curfew tonight.”

“What, I just walk up to him and tell him that?” Felix said, surprised. That was it?

Erik grimaced.

“It’s not quite that simple, he might think something’s up. Although, if you tried to sell him the information, he might believe it more.”

Any thought of protesting died in Felix’s throat at the prospect of making money. Making money and helping his friend out.  

“I’m in.” He said.

“To be clear, you don’t need to-”

Erik was cut off by the curtains being ripped back. A beaming Thalia was bearing a tray filled with gnarly looking potions arranged in neat rows. Quite a few looked harmless. Clear potions, blue potions, red potions. 

Others had Felix cursing Paracelsus’s name once again. One of the potions was letting off thick, black smoke from the top. Another one looked like solidified sludge. A third potion was moving inside its tidy vial, and Felix swore he saw an eye looking at him.

Healer Elaine was watching carefully, which made Felix feel a little better.

“You have to take them in order.” Thalia said, gesturing. “We’ve got a vaccine for The Hollowing, Wardbrew, The Silver Dose, Bastion Balm, Panacea of the Third Moon, and Roko’s Bane.”

They all sounded bad, but the last one in particular… 

“Wait, what’s Roko’s Bane?” Felix asked.

“It kills you if you’re magus Roko, and inoculates you from him otherwise.” Healer Elaine said.

“Uh. How does it know?” Felix asked, staring at the innocent-looking potion that could just kill him. He suddenly became aware of a bunch of motion around him, and looked up to see wands pointing at him.

A lot of wands pointing at him. Erik was edging away from him, but also seemed to be contemplating violence.

“Let me make one thing crystal clear.” Healer Elaine said into the silence. “You will drink Roko’s Bane right now, or we start shooting.”

Felix grabbed the potion in question, almost fumbled it with his trembling hands, and threw it back so fast half of it spilled down his shirt. 

Felix was quite familiar with the saying ‘hunger is the best spice’, along with all the delicious ways it could flavor food. 

Pants-wetting terror was his new best spice.

There was a tense moment, but when he didn’t fall screaming to the floor, the whole room relaxed. The others continued on with their work.

“Any significant violence on not drinking any of the others?” Felix asked, eyeing the tray warily.

Thalia bit the bottom of her lip, and Felix was hit with a sudden surge of paranoia. If he asked a question that caused Thalia to break skin or otherwise harm herself, did that count? Would he get eternally unicorn-cursed, whatever that entailed?

“I mean, you’ll probably deeply regret not taking any of these, but we won’t shoot you for refusing, no.” Healer Elaine said.

“Oh! While I’m here, do you have something for covid?” Felix asked.

“Thalia, do you know the answer?” Healer Elaine asked.

“We’ve got a lot of ways to treat it?” She said. Healer Elaine shook her head.

“You’re technically correct, but so vague as to miss the mark. There’s six charms and eleven potions that can handle covid, before the endless healing rituals. Covid is pretty simple, we didn’t bother trying to develop a vaccine.”

Deadly plague in the mundane world, barely a blip here. Cool. Felix wondered if he could bring any of it home with him for his mom.

“Sutter, you should drink the rest. Make sure you eat a good dinner and get to bed early. Does Dragon house have PT tomorrow morning?”

Felix nodded.

“Er, yes.” He said.

Healer Elaine flicked her rod, and a note came zipping over the ceiling to land in Felix’s hand.

“You’re excused tomorrow morning from it, on account of the potion course. I’m not going to lie, doing all of them at the same time is going to be rough, but it’s not going to take too long. I assume you don’t want to spend the night here?”

Felix shook his head.

“I still want to explore and everything.”

“Well, if you’re uncomfortable at all, come over, we can monitor you for assurance.”

One of the other Unicorns ran up to Healer Elaine.

“Excuse me, but-”

“Coming.” 

Healer Elaine cut the conversation short and dashed off to whatever new emergency there was.

“Are you going to drink?” Thalia asked a minute later. Felix started.

“Oh right!”

They were fortunately organized in order to be drunk. One by one the potions went down the hatch. They tasted bad; Felix had eaten worse. 

“If you see any of the other students in your situation, remind them to come visit the hospital wing.” Thalia said. 

“Alright.”

With only a bit of fidgeting, Thalia made her excuses and left. Felix closed the curtains around Erik’s bed, who’d watched the whole thing with mild amusement.

“Okay, I’ll confess, I totally forgot what we were talking about.” Felix said.

“Yeah, after having that many wands pointed at my face, I think I’d forget what we were talking about as well.” Erik joked. Felix sat down on the end of the bed again.

“Were they serious about the Roko thing?” He asked.

“Deadly.” Erik said. “It’s been a long time since he was around and active, but people are still paranoid about him.”

Felix shuddered.

“Plan to help you. Right. What’s going on with that?”

“De Corci. Let him know I’m leaving tonight, right before curfew.” Erik grimaced. “There’s a little more to it than just that.”

“Oh yeah?” Felix asked.

“Yeah. Okay, so, my whole life I’ve been trained how to be social and all that. Do you know the difference between manipulation and persuasiveness?”

“I imagine you’re about to tell me.” Felix said. He was a little nervous at where the direction of this conversation was going, but also fascinated. He’d never heard things laid out like this before! And it was exciting, almost thrilling. He swore he could feel his heart rate speeding up.

“The amount you tell people. Manipulation is when a person’s told just enough to act in a particular way, but they might not like what happens. Persuasiveness is when you tell someone everything, and convince them to go along with your idea.”

Felix wasn’t the smartest, but he could make the connection.

“There’s something more to all this that moves it from ‘manipulation’ to ‘persuasion’?” He guessed.

“Eh. Yes, but I don’t want to manipulate anyone, especially my friends..” Erik said. “It leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Right, here’s what I’m hoping will happen, and here’s what the possible consequences are.”

Erik talked about what happened.

Felix’s feelings of rage and injustice at the whole situation burned hotter and brighter.

Erik explained the plan.

Felix’s grin grew wider and wider.

“... best of all, if he’s not a raging arse, there won’t be any problems!”

Oh, he was so invested in seeing this happen.

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Felix only got a little lost finding the dining hall. Thank goodness - thank magic? - that it was in one of the central locations.

He grabbed his tray, loaded it up with food - his mother would be disappointed in him if he didn’t come home fat - and looked around for a place to sit.

He automatically skipped all the upper years. He knew he hated it last year when the little kids wanted to sit with him, and he wasn’t so socially inept to think he’d be welcome. There were a few Dragon students here and there, but none of them were in a Dragon-only group. Felix knew he’d be welcome there, but didn’t want to intrude on upper year friend groups, not as a tadpole. Cliques and groups were rapidly forming, but Felix didn’t quite know anybody yet to try and sit down.

Damnit.

Paracelsus had been right. Getting a good night’s sleep before the Prydwen was crucial. That also might’ve been why everyone else had been running around, socializing. They knew each other well enough to say hi, and with his house, it wasn’t like he was in orientation with a bunch of other first years and making a connection that way.

Fine, so the short term easy benefits were gone, Felix would just have to wait until classes started. He kept scanning the tables, and found a few people he could sit with.

Hazel was in a corner, picking at the crumbs on her plate. Alexandria was trying to murder her food with a fork and too-sharp knife, and Felix didn’t like the angry look on her face. Vivian was sitting next to her, and the two were chatting.

Wait… were those tears on Alex’s face? Felix was definitely not getting involved in that. 

The sick girl was sitting with her friends, buried in a sweater.

The last person he recognized was Sora, which made his decision easy. Given how prickly Hazel was, Felix sat down next to the girl.

“Heya! Mind if I sit here?”

She looked up and grinned.

“Sure!”