The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Finding the way out from where he had been trapped was easier than Larek expected it would be. Only 20 feet or so after leaving the cracked stone doorway lying on the floor, he discovered footprints in the dusty floor, the area around the room too disturbed by the crashing stone to show much trace of anything. It was simply a matter of following the multiple sets of footprints through the stone hallway and taking a few turns when the path he was following led that way. Eventually, the footprints slowly began to disappear due to what was obviously higher traffic areas and the lack of dust along the ground, but at that time there was actual magical light along the walls that indicated that he was approaching what he could only assume meant people.

“What are you doing here?” shouted one of the staff members of the Academy when he nearly ran into them after coming around a corner. The woman looked frightened and angry at the same time, the woven basket in her hands trembling as she stepped back from Larek.

He debated telling her the truth, but given her obvious disposition toward him – as she was a commoner from the Kingdom – he doubted she would believe him. Even if she did, then there was a possibility that she could be in danger if she reported it, as the ones that had abducted him were Nobles.  As much as he was told that the Nobles didn’t have as much power in the Academy as they did outside of it, which was why they primarily had non-Kingdom instructors, they obviously had some power – otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to do to Larek what they had.

Getting her involved could potentially put her right in the path of danger, which he wanted to avoid if possible. It wasn’t as though he cared about her specifically, as he was still predisposed to dislike the people of the Kingdom for how they’d treated him, but if all he’d learned about why they were like that was true, then it wasn’t their fault. That didn’t excuse it in his eyes, but he wasn’t planning on taking his frustration out on them, other than through not being willing to stand up on some town wall somewhere to defend them from a horde of monsters streaming out of a Scission.

So, he didn’t tell her the truth. Nor was he inclined to be polite at the moment, because he was still angry at what he had just gone through, and with her attitude toward him, politeness was the furthest thing on his mind.

“I got lost. Tell me the way out,” he demanded gruffly.

The staff member moved back another step, a measure of fear transforming her face, as she pointed down another stone tunnel. “Up that way, turn right twice and then left once, and that will get you out of the storage tunnels.” She seemed to regain some of her anger as she shouted, “Where you shouldn’t even be in the first place! Get out of here!” At that, she turned around and rushed away, thankfully in the opposite direction of where she pointed him to go.

Ignoring her parting words, he ran the rest of the way as he followed her directions, fortunately not running into anyone else in the process. As he passed room after room, he saw what appeared to be food supplies and other mystery objects packed up in crates and barrels stacked up in what were obviously storage areas. Larek didn’t stop to investigate, and before he knew it, he was racing up a set of stone stairs which emerged into a large open room, which appeared to be another storage area, though this one was located next to a kitchen and its accompanying Dining Hall. Seeing an exit, he ran toward it and burst through the door, only to find himself in the yard, near the middle of the Academy portion of the massive building.

There were staff members running around the yard, along with a few Professors, but it was otherwise empty. In the far distance, he could hear the muted sounds of fighting in the form of fiery explosions and metal clanking on something hard such as metal or stone, but it was so far away that it was more a hint of violence on the wind than anything else.

Nedira is on the wall still. Who would’ve thought being up there fighting against monsters was safer than being stuck in our rooms?

Larek took off toward the entrance located near his room, only to find a few Mages in white robes coming out of the doors with staff members following after, carrying what appeared to be bodies slung between them. It only took him a second to identify their small forms as his roommates, his friends, and he rushed to their sides.

“Whoa! Stop right there, young man,” an older woman said, holding up her hand as he approached.

“Those are my roommates! Are they alright?”

Silence descended upon the small group of healers in white as they took in his words, before the one that had stopped him said, “They’re physically fine, but we cannot wake them up. They appear to be in some sort of coma, but I suspect that they’ll wake up soon. Now, tell us what happened.”

Larek slumped in relief to hear that his friends were alive, even after immediately guessing why they were in comas. They must have been conscious enough to activate their healing Fusions long enough to heal themselves, and then deactivate them before passing out into comas. I just hope that they wake up soon.

Realizing that the woman was staring at him suspiciously, Larek recounted what had happened from start to finish, though he left off the specifics of the interrogation, the damage done to his legs, his Healing Surge Fusion, and what he had done to remove the Fusions on the door.

“… and then I ran back here as quickly as I could.”

“We’ll have to verify that when someone can test the truth in your words, but for the moment I’m inclined to believe you,” the woman said, directing the staff and the other healers to move on ahead. “They’ll be in our healing ward until they wake up from their odd comas, so you don’t have to worry about them,” she explained.

“Thank you.” He was generally thankful that they were alive, though the coma still worried him a little.

“That’s our job, and we don’t appreciate it when our students are attacked in the middle of the Academy – and especially first-years! Would you be able to identify those that took you? And do you know why they did all this in the first place?”

He shook his head. “No, their faces were covered or obscured, though one of them appeared to be an Aeromancer in his yellow robe and the other two were Martial trainees. As for why they did all this, I can only assume it has something to do with my height?” That wasn’t a complete lie, because it was somewhat true. “They left for the walls to fight the Scission before they were missed, so I never found out more than that.”

“How did you get away?”

“I’m… stronger than they expected. Anyway, I’ll do whatever I need to do to prove my innocence and to identify those who did this to my roommates and I; for now, I really need to eat something and get some rest.”

She looked at him again with obvious suspicion at his deflection; she was about to say something else when there was another, larger explosion off in the distance. “There’s too much going on to discuss this anymore right now; I have a feeling we’re going to be inundated with patients in a short time. Head to your room; it’s been cleaned up for the most part, but you’re going to be out of a door until we can get it replaced. Someone will be in touch.” Without another word, the older woman ran off after the others, heading toward another door in the massive building, an area he hadn’t been in before – but he was planning on visiting soon enough to check on his friends.

Now that the worry about his roommates had largely been alleviated, at least to the point where there was nothing else he could do for them, Larek was at a loss of what to do next. He wanted revenge for what had been done not only to him but to his friends, but how was he to go about that?

It wasn’t until he went to the Dining Hall and sat down to stuff his face full of food, the weakness in his body alleviating somewhat, that he came up with a plan. It was foolhardy and dangerous, as well as hastily put-together, but he knew that if he didn’t act soon, he might not get another chance. His abductors were relatively unidentifiable, as he’d seen dozens of Aeromancers in their yellow robes wandering around the yard or in the Dining Hall, and he could only assume there were more than he’d casually seen. Unless he caused them to make a misstep that would indicate their guilt, there was no way to figure out which Mage it was that did it.

That was even assuming it was a student and not a Mage from the SIC, but given that his accomplices were Martial trainees, he was sticking with that assumption.

Perhaps they can use the truth detecting spell on all the Aeromancer specializations throughout the Academy? That would surely find them, right?

It was always a possibility, but would they punish the Mage student if they actually found him? He was a Noble, that much was clear, and a highly placed one at that to have all the information that he had imparted to Larek. Would they kill him for what he had done? Would they simply send him to this “Diregate” place that had been mentioned for those that didn’t succeed in the Academy? The more he thought about it, the less likely either of those seemed likely to happen.

What would he be punished for? Destruction of Academy property and temporary abduction of a student? The injuries that Verne and Norde had suffered were likely not even observed, as they had healed themselves – though their comas were suspect, of course. Without revealing how they were healed, which would then lead to Larek and his Healing Surge Fusion and then inevitably lead to putting it together and identifying Larek as someone who had personal knowledge of Body Regenerationsuch as Shinpai had, they were essentially just two students who had been knocked unconscious for a few days (hopefully). The same thing went for Larek, as he was reluctant to explain exactly what had happened down in that room.

But would exposing myself as a “half-breed” be so bad?

Based on how the Mage, who was a Noble himself, had acted toward him and the fact that the majority of the students in the Academy were Nobles, it would obviously be bad. If the students didn’t take it upon themselves to repeat what the Aeromancer had done to him, if only to get their own type of revenge against the “Great Ones” that they were enslaved to, then word might get back to these mythical beings about his existence.

After a brief thought that they might have some answers for him, he dismissed the idea as being entirely too dangerous. He didn’t want to be enslaved to anyone, which was in part why he had balked at going to the Academy in the first place, where he would inevitably end up being essentially enslaved to the SIC and ordered to defend the people of the Kingdom against monsters.  He just wanted the freedom to live his life the way he wanted; if that meant spending his days cutting down trees in Rushwood Forest or making Fusions for himself, his family, and his friends, then that’s what he wanted to do. But that would never happen if he was somehow enslaved by a “Great One”.

To make sure that never happened, he had to keep his secret… and kill those that had abducted him and who could threaten to expose his presence to their masters. Which was the only reason he was contemplating his reckless plan in the first place, as it would mean confronting the Mage and the Martial trainees immediately and directly, rather than trying to expose them through other means.

After finishing his meal to the point where he was stuffed but not uncomfortable, Larek left the Dining Hall and made his way back to his room. When he got there, the wooden door was completely gone, and even the pieces that had been blown off had been cleaned up; two of the beds closest to the door had their sheets shredded and they had moved from their original places, but there was surprisingly little overall damage inside the room.

He found his axe behind his bed where it had fallen from his grip when the explosion of air entered through the door. Picking it up, he found that it was unharmed and just as sharp as ever, as it had nearly cut through one of the legs on his bed when it had flown out of his hand. Just having it in his hands was like meeting a long-lost friend, and he knew that when it was with him, he could do anything he set his mind to do.

At least, that was what he felt; the reality of the upcoming plan was a bit more work than simply holding his axe.

Scattered around, he also discovered the 5 steel plates that contained the Fusions that he had submitted to Shinpai – who had handed them back without reviewing them all. The Effects of the last two, the Major and Supreme Intermediate Fusions, were rather basic in their function. The Major Fusion was a temperature-regulating one that he had used as an example when reciting to his instructor what he had learned from the books he had gotten from the library.

Temperature Regulator +3

Activation Method(s): Reactive

Effect: Cools or heats the temperature around a designated space

Input(s): Physical touch, temperature measurement

Variable(s): Ambient temperature + or – 5 degrees difference of 70 degree base value

Magnitude: Envelops one person, +30 degree difference

Mana Cost: 7,500

Pattern Cohesion: 60

Fusion Time: 10 hours

The Supreme Fusion, on the other hand, was based on another one of the spells he had learned from his Spellcasting class, Light Bending. Having essentially failed at his Wind Barrier-based Fusion earlier, he had thought of another spell Effect that would not only duplicate the effect, but make it better. While Light Bending was basically a way to camouflage the caster into the environment by bending the light around them, that effect was canceled if they moved, were hit with something, or cast another spell. Larek’s Fusion eliminated – up to a point – the canceling effects, as someone could activate the camouflaging Effect and move around, even casting other spells if necessary. Anyone would see a spell being flung out from empty space, of course, as it didn’t stop anything from emerging from the area, but that was something Larek wouldn’t be able to fix without more information.

Camouflaged Sphere +5

Activation Method(s): Activatable, Reactive

Effect: Bends light in a sphere around Fusion location, camouflaging everything inside from outside visual detection

Input(s): Ambient light detection, movement detection

Variable(s): Light fluctuations of up to 4,000 lumens

Magnitude: Sphere has a 5-foot radius

Mana Cost: 45,000

Pattern Cohesion: 600

Fusion Time: 80 hours

It wasn’t perfect, as it had difficulty keeping up with quick movements and drastic changes in light levels, or lumens as they were apparently called, but he placed Stabilizers and Amplifiers into the grid formation to help account for the changes. While there was technically only one Effect, it still classified as a Supreme Intermediate Fusion with all the Inputs and Variables that he had to slot into the design, which would detect and account for nearby light levels and movement.

It was this Fusion – and slightly weaker versions of it – that would serve as the basis for his plan. With the steel plates and his best friend now back in his possession, he activated the Camouflage Sphere +5 Fusion as he left his room, heading for the one place where he knew his abductor would be as soon as the Scissions were taken care of.

He was going back to his interrogation room.

Book 2 Chapter 42: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-84119264