The Fusionist Book 3 -- Chapter 11

(A little late on this chapter tonight, but I was spending some of the day finalizing my packing for the convention this weekend.  I'll be gone the next 3 days, so the next chapter won't be until Monday.  Have a great weekend everyone!)

Chapter 11

Larek struggled to wake, his mind and body feeling pained and sluggish to the point where he felt like he was on death’s door. Memories of teaching the Academy Professors flowed through his thoughts, drowning out any attempts to reach up past the point of unconsciousness, but he persevered by figuratively swimming out of the flood of the nightmarish onslaught.

Opening eyelids that felt gummy and full of lead, he finally glimpsed a brightness that blinded him momentarily before his vision adjusted to the sudden light on sensitive eyeballs. The first thing Larek noticed was that the ceiling he was looking at was only vaguely familiar, with a half-stone and half-wooden pattern that reminded him of the healer’s ward in the Academy. But that wasn’t possible, because he specifically remembered going to sleep in his own bed just a short time ago, so the entire ceiling should be wooden beams.

The next thing that occurred to him was a sharp pain in his stomach, a stabbing emptiness that spread a weakness through his limbs to the point where he felt as if he was dying. He attempted to sit up, only to fall back down after lifting his back up off the soft surface beneath him an inch or two, as a debilitating exhaustion sapped all of his strength.

“He’s awake! Go tell the Dean!”

The voice coming from somewhere off to his right startled him as it was both loud and sudden, and he lethargically turned his head to see the blurry sight of Vivienne approaching his bedside. Did she… did she poison me again?

His thoughts were a mess of confusing questions, as he had no idea what was going on. The exhaustion he was feeling reared its head again as his eyelids closed of their own volition, but just as he was drifting off to sleep again, he heard the indistinct sounds of people talking nearby.  Forcing his eyes to open and his head to turn toward the voices, he blinked a few times to clear his vision as he saw Dean Lorraine and Shinpai talking to Vivienne.

“Larek? How are you feeling?”

Seemingly out of nowhere, the Grandmaster Fusionist was by Larek’s side, his words strangely echoing the same question that the Dean had asked him shortly after collapsing in the classroom.

His voice was rough and cracking as he tried to answer. “Tired and… hungry.” It was at that time that he realized that the pain in his stomach was actually his body telling him that he was literally starving, which was strange because he had just eaten the night before. Sure, it was a quick meal because he was still teaching the Professors, but it was at least something.

“That’s not surprising,” Shinpai said, sitting down on the edge of his bed as he smiled sadly at him for some reason. “You’ve been unconscious for over a week. The healers were able to sustain you, but your body needs external sustenance soon.”

A… week? What?

His Fusions Professor surreptitiously looked around before he moved his fingers in a quick cast of a spell. There was an audible *pop* as his ears felt assaulted by a vacuum of air, and he could see a spherical bubble of something surrounding himself, Shinpai, and Larek’s entire bed.

“We believe you’ve overextended your Dominion magic, which wasn’t something we were even aware you could do, having no real understanding of how it works,” Shinpai continued, and the way he was speaking so openly about Larek’s secret made the exhausted Fusionist believe that they couldn’t be overheard. “For that, we sincerely apologize; both the Dean and I thought you might be using it to help impart the necessary instruction to gain the Skill, but you have to believe me that we had no idea it would do something like that to you.”

Larek slowly nodded, finding that the simple act of moving his head took entirely too much energy. His nod was more of an acknowledgment that he understood what his Professor was telling him; it was in no way an absolution. Even if they hadn’t expected it, they were deliberately using his connection with Dominion magic to gain something they wanted, even if it was ultimately for a good cause. His dislike and disgust of the magic he didn’t have any control over made him never want to use it again after learning of it, and he had mentioned that same thing to both of them at the time. For them to believe that they could use it for their own gain was like a violation of his trust in them, and he felt his faith that they knew what was best for him start to erode as he stared at the contrite expression on the older man’s face. The Professor’s regret seemed real, prompting a part of him to want to forgive and forget it ever happened, but he squashed that feeling as tired anger suffused his body at the thought of what they did to him.

“Now that we know, we can work on regulating how much of your special magic that you’re using when you teach—”

“No.”

“—the rest of the… what? Did you say something?”

It took him a second to clear his throat since he was parched. “I said no. I… don’t want to use this… vile magic anymore.”

“But think of the good you can do! You would not believe how powerful this Skill is—”

Larek shook his head once. “No. You… teach.” He was aware that he sounded like his speech skills were degenerating, but it was getting harder and harder to speak.

Shinpai appeared frustrated. “We’ve already tried, but for some reason it seems as though anyone new trying to learn the new Skill can’t seem to grasp it even after days of trying. The Dean is hopeful that others will eventually pick it up, especially since she was able to unlock it despite not being affected by your Dominion magic, but it’s slow going. We need your help—”

“No. No more.”

It wasn’t just that he didn’t want to do it, but with how much he felt like he nearly died from the process, it was to ensure that he didn’t hurt himself. The slight scare he had with his pattern not that long before discovering the Focused Division Skill made him a lot more cognizant of his limits, and whatever this Dominion magic was doing certainly passed those limits without his awareness. If that wasn’t reason enough to not want to teach anyone else, then the simple fact that he didn’t want to be used like that was all he needed.

They could use him to make Fusions all they wanted, as that was something he actually enjoyed doing (even if he was starting to tire of creating the same ones over and over), though he was curious if there was some sort of compensation he could get for his work. He’d learned that some Fusionists were able to earn something for the Fusions they made above and beyond what was required for the SIC; since he was technically part of the SIC (or would be once he graduated), didn’t that mean he should be earning something? Not necessarily for him, but perhaps for his family so that they could eventually move away somewhere safe? He still had his winnings from the Skirmish, but would that even be enough? While he’d picked up a little bit about how much food and other things cost on his brief travels through the Kingdom, he didn’t really know how much it would cost to completely pick up and move somewhere else.

So, Fusions he didn’t exactly mind being asked to do, but manipulating him to utilize his mysterious Dominion magic? No. He wasn’t having it. There was a lot that he could and would put up with, but that wasn’t one of them.

Grandmaster Fusionist Shinpai patted him on the leg and got up, his expression seeming a bit patronizing to the exhausted Larek. “We’ll talk more when you’ve recovered. Rest up and enjoy the vacation from classes, because your second year just started.” Before Larek could say anything else, his Professor turned around and walked away, the spell that had prevented anyone from listening disappearing as soon as he passed through its edge. Larek turned his head to watch him stop near the Dean, where they spoke in voices too low for him to hear. The head of Copperleaf Academy just looked inside the room and nodded in what he took to be an apology, before the two of them left.

Almost immediately upon them leaving, Vivienne walked inside with a wooden tray filled with something that smelled good. Larek was disappointed not to see anything hearty and delicious, as the only thing on the tray was a huge bowl of soup and a cup of water.

“You’re going to need to start slow to get your energy back, and so that you don’t hurt yourself with solid food. You gave us a little scare there, Larek, and we don’t want you to have a relapse,” the Ranger said, placing the tray down on the bedside table that he hadn’t even noticed until now.

And then she began to spoon-feed him soup, which made him feel like an invalid. I suppose I am right now. He couldn’t sit up or even lift his arms, so he unfortunately needed the help, as embarrassing as it was. Still, he didn’t refuse to accept the assistance, and even thanked her after he was surprisingly quickly full, only to pass out minutes later.

The following days were more of the same, but after the second time he woke up Larek was propped up and was able to lift his arms by that point as his energy started to return. He still felt inordinately weak, as if something not only negated every single Martial stat point in Status but took away his natural strength as well; that feeling wasn’t actually reflected on his Status, which he looked at the second time he woke up to see if anything had changed. He even added another AP to Strength, Body, and Agility to bring them all to 60 just to see if that would have any effect on his recovery… but nothing happened.

Nothing else was different and nothing appeared on his Status that indicated what might be wrong with him. There wasn’t much he could do other than wait for his body to recover, which happened slowly at first; a little over 4 days after waking up in the healer’s ward, his strength seemed to return overnight, and he felt revitalized and raring to get up and out of bed the next morning. Once he finally got up and moved around, the lingering traces of weakness worked themselves out within minutes, and he felt better than he had in a long, long time.

Through all that time in the healer’s ward, he didn’t see Nedira a single time, though Verne and Norde mentioned that she had briefly visited while he was asleep. The avoidance bothered him greatly because he still considered her a great friend, which made him thankful that she was waiting in his room by herself as soon as he felt well enough to leave the healer’s ward.

“Nedira! I’m so glad you’re here; I’ve missed you.” That was the truth, too, as he felt like he was missing a part of his life when she didn’t show up to visit or act as a bodyguard while he was awake.

There was a guilty look on her face as she turned away, mumbling something that he didn’t catch. Sitting heavily down on the extra bed next to where she was sitting, he reached out his finger to turn her head so that she was facing him.  “What was that?”

She turned her head away again, but he brought it right back with a gentle finger. “I… I’m sorry.”

“What do you have to be sorry for?” he asked, generally confused. Is she sorry that she didn’t visit? Or is it something else.

“I shouldn’t have been mad at you for keeping secrets from me,” she reluctantly said with a sigh. Tears suddenly threatened to spill out of the corners of her eyes, as she blurted out, “And I was afraid that you pushed yourself too far because of me that I couldn’t face you while you were in the healer’s ward.” At that, she burst into tears for real, before burying her face in the front of his robe, tightly gripping onto it as it quickly became soaked.

Awkwardly putting his arms around her, he held her close while she sobbed, unsure what to do or say. There was unfortunately some truth to his secret being the cause of his collapse and stay in the healer’s ward, though it wasn’t due to anything that Nedira had done to him. Larek softly said as much to the top of her head, since that was all he could really see of her when he looked down at her clutched to his chest. He wasn’t even sure if she heard him, but after a few minutes she started to pull herself together.

Sniffling and wiping at her eyes as she pulled away, she looked at him and asked, “Is that true? It wasn’t anything that I did?”

He nodded. “It’s true. It was purely a situation that was caused by something no one could’ve accounted for,” he explained. “Regardless, I’m determined not to let it happen again.”

“You know what caused it?”

Again, he nodded. “Yes, but you don’t have to worry about it. I won’t let the Dean or Shinpai force me into that situation again.”

Sucking in her breath, she asked in surprise, “They did this?”

“They caused the situation, but it wasn’t necessarily their fault that it happened because no one could’ve guessed this would occur once I was pushed too far. Again, I won’t let it happen a second time.”

Nedira pulled back slightly at his tone. “All this secrecy, huh?” Sighing, she seemed to come to a decision. “I’m not going to let it bother me like I did before. I don’t know what it was; it was like some part of my mind was angry that there was something you didn’t share with me, like you were deliberately shutting me out. I was in turns angry and close to tears, and there was nothing I could do to control it.” She suddenly smiled, placing her hand on his knee. “But that’s all in the past. We can move forward now and pick up where we left off.”

Uh, oh. Is this my Dominion magic at work? Is she being affected by it right now, or was her reaction before caused by it? Her wildly fluctuating emotional state was obvious even to Larek, who was far from an expert on such things, and he couldn’t help but think that he was the cause.

As she leaned forward, her eyes locked onto his lips, the door to the room suddenly burst open with a bang. Flinching as he remembered the last time that happened, he was relieved to see that it was only Verne and Norde rushing inside.

“Larek! We heard you were released and figured we’d find you here—oh!” Verne shouted, before his roommate spotted Nedira sitting close to Larek. “Are we interrupting something? Have you two made up?”

Feeling the blood rushing to his cheeks as he realized what Verne was trying to insinuate, he shook his head. “No, we were just talking. And yes, I think we’ve worked past our issues. Anyway, tell me what’s going on with you? How’s second year?”

His two roommates were very excited to tell him all about the new year at the Academy, including all the “advanced” classes they were attending now that they weren’t lowly first-years. Larek briefly wondered when he would get his own class schedule, as he hadn’t thought to ask about it until now, but apparently Nedira could read his mind.

“I’ll bring it by tomorrow morning. I was told that you’re still off for another full day to recover, so you don’t have to worry about it until them. As for me, I need to be getting to a late class right now; as a fifth-year, I have a lot more self-instruction time to do what I want, but there are still some required courses.” She scooted over and kissed Larek on the cheek, causing him to blush once again, before rushing out the door.

His two roommates smirked at him before they left as well, as they still had one more class that they were already going to be late to, but they wanted to take the time to check on him to see how he was doing. As soon as they left, Penelope entered and checked up on him before taking up a position outside of the door, giving him some privacy.

What am I going to do about Nedira? This all feels extraordinarily wrong, but I don’t want to push her away because now I think that will hurt her more than anything else I could do. Seeing how affected she was when she thought I was shutting her out, I have a feeling that if I try to keep my distance, it will cause even more problems.

He didn’t know what the correct answer was in this situation, but he eventually decided to wait a few days to see how things were going with his second year of the Academy. It was entirely possible that he would be too busy to worry about spending too much time with her, especially if he returned to creating more Fusions.

No matter what, though, he wasn’t going to be teaching any more people about the new Skill he had discovered. That tree had already been felled, as his father used to say; there was no going back once he made the decision. It might get him in trouble, but what could they do? Kill him?

He’d rather die than be forced to knowingly use his Dominion magic again.