Chapter Text
With the revelation of the student records, Tala had been keeping an open eye. The teachers made a mistake with their record books, and there could be other slips that Tala could discover.
She had to conduct her investigations alone at Fade’s behest.
Everyone hates me, and you’ve seen the records. Dark mages like me are on a hit list. If you really want to help, stick to the original meet-up plan and keep yourself safe. I’ll see you this weekend, and we’ll talk more.
Logically, Tala understood. It just didn’t mean she had to be okay with it.
There was safety in numbers, and despite being unplanned, Fade has become a friend to her, and she dreads even thinking about the possibility of the dark mage getting into harm’s way.
The knowledge of who is being targeted helps Tala gather information more easily. In her classes, she notices a few things. The students were segregated, and not in a traditional sense of separating magic users according to category. Well, yes, but most of the dark mages were placed near walls, and the out of place ones, Tala sees rune carvings on the ceiling above or below them.
Dark mages are presumably under heavy surveillance, given how they are often placed around those things.
Rune users, on the other hand, are often treated more as an inconvenience by her classmates, especially by those with gold trim stitched into their robes, a sign of nobility from what Tala had just learned.
Some teachers do reach out to certain students from their department. The lightning mage thinks that some of them may be assisting the teachers with their endeavors.
Though that begs the question, why them? The dark mages were definitely the primary targets; there’s no doubt about it. But it was still quite a puzzle as to how they concluded that they were the priority element.
Tala shut her eyes, rocking her chair on its heels to try to stimulate her last working brain cells.
Based on the little info she has; it’s probably got something to do with the corruption and finding a cure for it… So, did they think the dark mages caused it?
That didn’t sit right…
What even is the corruption they dread so much about that they essentially singled out an entire branch of magic? The minotaur she and Fade fought back in the village seemed no different than a man inebriated by too much alcohol.
He seemed strong? Tala supposes, but she had no clear reference, considering she had only fought like two people her entire life?
Tala heaves out a deep sigh, blast it all. She needed help. Her chair clacks back into place when she reaches underneath the table to grab a quill and parchment to try and organize her thoughts before she meets up with Fade.
There were the runes… corruption… and then there was the…. the lightning mage slammed her head onto the table. This was hopeless.
It’d be great if she had someone to discuss things with, but she’s not sure who to trust, and the one person she thinks she could trust was off doing who knows what solo somewhere else!
Tala felt more alone than ever. She wished she could talk to Jett or Phoenix about this, especially to Killjoy and Raze, so she could get some help translating what the runes she spotted were even about.
She wasn’t close to any of the teachers besides Reyna, and her mentor hadn’t been back in a while. It gets her thinking … Reyna was her mother’s friend; she knows she could trust the woman to divulge the secret to. Could that be a reason why she was the one asked to fight? One less nose sniffing around?
The bell tolled, signaling the end of free time, and she’s still no closer to bringing something useful to Fade.
Walking back to class, she hears cheers coming from the ground floor. Another fight was going down…
She doesn’t hurry going down this time; she takes her time, observing the stairs, ceilings, hand railings, anything that could give a slight hint of a clue. On the field, some teachers had already arrived, which was a surprise considering there were none of them in sight when Fade had a guy on his knees.
There were some patches of grass soaked, and the other patches were singed, so a Water and Fire mage then. The crowd erupted into chaos, some pushing deeper into the center, some igniting flames in the air.
“G-guys, maybe calm down with the riot?!” Tala shouts to the crowd, but their anger just intensifies. Tala grabs the nearest person she can.
“What’s going on?!” The guy was taken aback when he saw the famous lightning mage talking to him.
“Huh?! Oh! Oh— the fight, yeah. You’ve become an inspiration to all of us! The fire mage, he’s a pretty timid guy, has been the lackey of the Water mage—” Tala peers over the guy’s shoulder. Gold trim on the Water mage’s robes…
“Everyone’s been talking about how you beat Kion, so a lot more of us are inspired to stand up for ourselves.” The crowd collectively gasps, Tala pushing through, unable to just hear the story anymore.
“Hey! Get off him!” Tala shouts. The fire mage was pinned down to the ground by the teacher, the student trashed and breathed out fire, but the teacher just encased his mouth with solid rock.
“This is none of your business, dear student.” The fire mage was swallowed into the earth, Tala diving down to try and pull him out of it.
“What the hell?!” Tala’s eyes were sparking, voltage burning the grass underneath her soles
“He was just defending himself!” The teacher took none of it. Tala’s arms and legs were encased in stone, pinning her down to the ground from the sheer weight of it.
“I do not appreciate that tone. You may be the talk of your peers, but you are still a student. You are to communicate with respect. Now, as for that riff raff, defending himself does not entail violence. He was out of control and blinded by rage.”
“Did you do anything….” The teacher knelt to Tala’s level
“Excuse me?” The rock that held Tala’s right hand shattered. She grips the teacher by the collar.
“Did. You. Do. Anything. Before he had to resort to violence?” That day, Tala remembers. When Fade was fighting with Kion’s friend, they both bore no gold trim.
The teacher was wide-eyed, summoning another rock to hold down Tala’s freed appendage.
“Such insolence! I will have you expelled! You dare put your hands on me—” Sir Atkinson, having pushed through the students, put a hand on his fellow teacher’s shoulder, stopping the ranting.
“Now, now, Miss Graily. Tala here is a bit new; she hasn’t had many social interactions, so forgive her insolence.” The large minotaur dipped down
“Furthermore, Reyna specifically asked that she be watched over. You do not wish to anger the empress. Do you?” The teacher shivered, shrugging off the offending hand.
“Fine. But such disrespect shall not go unpunished.” Miss Graily points a hand at Tala, the earth finally shattering.
“You are to clean the beast taming classroom with NO help.” The teacher turned on her heel, the students quick to get out of the still fuming teacher’s path. Sir Atkinson gives Tala a courteous nod before following Miss Graily.
Tala takes a moment longer on the ground, her fingers digging into the dirt, the excess travelling from her fingers to the ground.
Shit. She almost got that teacher seriously hurt. She got lucky to only get a slap on the wrist.
“Hey… you, okay?” A few of the students stay behind, worry painted all over their faces.
“Yeah… I’m fine.” They didn’t look at her like they were scared. They looked at her in awe.
“That was awesome! Tala, was it? We’ve never seen anyone put Miss Graily in her place and get away with it! You’re like a— a role model to us now! Of like defiance and rebellion!” The students who stayed cheered her on, chanting her name, praising her work, but all it does is make Tala want to throw up.
“Excuse!” She ran past them; everyone just continuing to chant and proclaim her as a hero.
She fled straight to the gates. Rarely was anyone there to witness her breaking down, with the exit being blocked during class hours, so many so no point hanging around there. And most students avoided the area in general, as there were a few who got accused of plotting escape by just being there.
“Okay, okay. So, everyone is a little messed up. Cool… cool. Next thing I know, I’ll get away with murder just for either being Reyna’s ward or being a symbol, apparently. How the fuck are good and bad even categorized here??”
“Strange, isn’t it?”
Tala jumped in place, feeling like she was about to jump out of her chest. Fade was halfway through crawling out of a dark shadow. Tala, unable to help it truly, smacks Fade upside the head for the unnecessary scare.
“Bu acıtıyor…” The dark mage complains, rubbing the not-so-sore sore spot.
“What are you doing here?! I thought you were the one who said ‘we shouldn’t be seen together too often.’” Tala helps tug Fade out of the shadow portal during the last few inches, only so the sight wasn’t too weird, or possibly get them into a witch hunt.
“Your fear suddenly spiked so high that I could feel it at least three buildings away. I assumed you were in trouble.” The lightning mage vehemently ignores the little skip in her chest.
She knows it’s a safety risk, but she still checked in on you… cool, cool, cool
“Yeah, well, apparently once you notice things, you can’t unnotice them.” It all still feels a bit unreal.
She never saw all these things before, and if they did, they have never bothered her. And honestly? It kinda freaked Tala out that she went through such a feeling while this… bigotry happened in plain sight.
Fade clicked her tongue, flicking Tala on the forehead.
“Kahretsin, you’re blaming yourself for something, aren’t you?” She sees Fade in a much better light now, but that does, however, not stop the shiver running down her spine.
“You have to stop doing that, it’s so creepy how you just know what I’m feeling.” Fade shrugged.
“It’s not really something I could turn off.”
“Doesn’t it get annoying? Just… constantly bombarded by everyone’s feelings?”
It takes a beat for Fade to answer.
“Does it ever get annoying how you have to hold back yourself so you don’t accidentally shock anyone?” Not really an answer, but it did reveal to Tala more than a simple yes or no ever could. Tala felt bad, I mean, she’d always seen a part of herself in Fade, but even their struggles were so similar.
“Is that why people are afraid of you?” Fade throws her head back with a full-bellied laugh, Tala’s cheeks flush red, embarrassed for asking such a dumb question.
“I think it might just be the makeup and all the metal on my face.” Fade fidgets with one of said metals, the one beneath her lips.
Seriously? Tala paid close attention. Dark, heavy eyeliner, purple lipstick, and the mark/scar across her face perfectly fit the dark mage. If anything, seeing her made Tala feel a little bit inadequate.
Is this what they call feminine envy?
“I think you look pretty like this,” the blunt and straightforward compliment slips out. Instead of laughter again, Fade blinked owlishly at her.
For perhaps the first time since Tala met her, the dark mage looked caught off guard.
Could she count this as a win of sorts over the other mage?
"You have a very strange standard of beauty then, sparks." Fade says with a shake of her head. It was an awkward reply, but the lightning mage will take it.
Attention students! Will Miss Tala report to the beast taming class? I repeat! Will Miss Tala report to the beast taming class?
The sound echoes throughout the campus, some coming from their left. Tala goes to inspect it, and there are runes there. Was that how they gave out announcements?
“Didn’t I tell you to keep yourself safe? How could you have landed yourself in detention during the few hours we have been a part of?” It's petty, but Tala raises a middle finger at her friend.
“Screw you. How do you know that it’s not just volunteer work?” Fade raised a brow, communicating a silent ‘really?’
“Fineeee, I got angry and grabbed a teacher by the collar. Happy?” The atmosphere around them drops to a freezing temperature. Gone was the teasing smile on Fade.
"Tala, I beg of you. Please, please keep yourself safe. You are imperative to creating a solution to all this.”
“What are you im—”
The runes in front of them flash into activation.
Miss Tala! If you do not report to detention, I will personally have you expelled— I told you! Reyna will ‘personally’ have my head if we do that— the child’s impudence must be—
The runes dim as the announcement gets cut off.
“Go. I promise you by this weekend, you and I will answer any of your queries.”
~
“So, this is why no one will volunteer…” After asking for directions to her ‘detention hall,’ she found Miss Graily with a bucket, a mop, and some soap on hand. That was all the tools she was given to clean up the mess.
Feathers from all sorts of animals are all over the room. Dirt and other debris on the tables, seats, and floors. Creature excrement of almost every variety on almost every goddamn surface.
“I wonder if I panic hard enough, Fade would arrive and she’d help me out…” Yeah, fat chance…
No point in getting out of it. She gets some water from one of the faucets they had at the corner and fills the bucket, mixing it with some soap. About thirty minutes into mopping the floors and having changed the water bucket about ten times already, she’s beginning to lose hope.
“Winnggsssss, landinggg!” A griffin came in tumbling through the window, and the rider clung onto its neck for dear life when they skid to a halt.
“Shit! Are you guys, okay?” The rider, with a very peculiar hair color, waves it off.
“Yeah! All’s good! Wings here just needs a bit more practice with his landing.” The griffin chirrups, nudging its head at its master.
“He definitely does. But ah— if you’re here to use the classroom, sorry to say this, I’m in the middle of cleaning it at the moment.” Which the newcomer may have just doubled the amount of mess that she’d have to clean up… sigh
“Oh, I ain’t here to practice! You’re Tala, right? Jett sent me!” The guy extends his hand.
“Name’s Gekko. Heard you needed help cleaning?” Jett, you are a godsend! Tala shakes the offered hand, careful that she does not produce any static.
“I am in fact Tala, and yeah. You couldn’t have come at a better time,” As they shook, a slithery creature crawled out from Gekko’s robes.
“Whoa,” Tala retreated her hand, not wanting to accidentally agitate the creature. Once fully out of the robe, Tala sees it has two heads. A hydra, then, really young by the look of it.
“Whoops, sorry about that. Dizzy here likes meeting new people.” Gekko raised his arm to show off the hydra at eye level, the little snake creature giving Tala an elegant twirl.
“I see where she got her name from. Well, Dizzy, Wings, Gekko, time to get to cleaning! I just gotta throw away the debris…” Another creature crawls out of Gekko’s robe, this one a green slime.
“Forgot to introduce this one! This is Mosh!” Mosh jiggled its spherical form, crawling towards the broken pieces of furniture and melting them inside its body. Tala was ready to cry tears of joy. She might actually be able to get through this!
Mosh was used to melt down the loose feathers and other debris. Gekko and Wings flew around, wiping the walls that Tala couldn’t reach. Dizzy gave moral support, while Tala focused on wiping down desks and sorting chairs.
Dizzy, the little supporter that she is, used her head to ‘help’ Tala set a desk upright, then all of a sudden, a cage made out of light surrounded them.
“Whoa! Forgot to warn you about that!” Gekko went to the teacher’s desk, one of the runes to unlock the trap was kept there for instances just like this.
“What was that for? And where did it even come from?” Tala looked at the ceiling, the floor, then finally, underneath the desk.
Rune carvings. The same ones she noticed dark mages placed nearby.
“Those are safety cages. Beasts have their own personalities, so taming doesn’t always go right. There was a Naga who went wild ‘cause a classmate of mine tried to force a bond, and it went wild. The cages here get activated when they sense danger to prevent injuries.”
“I see….” Dizzy looked offended, its head turning its head away from the desk, whipping its tail at the offending furniture.
“Eyy, just means you’re super powerful, Dizzy! Let’s just get back to cleaning, yeah?”
Gekko and his beasts were quick to go back to work, but Tala stared at the desk. Dizzy wasn’t the one who activated it… The lightning mage was starting to get tired, and her control was slipping. The sparks must have brushed against the runes and activated them…
The dark mages weren’t just being supervised…
Shit