Mage of Shadows (20 page)

I held out to her my cupped palms as if to present her something, "Do you see this?" I said seriously, showing my empty palms, "This is where I would keep a fuck, if I gave one."

"Vulgar." Yasmina commented, unimpressed, "I can see why Vik and Ruark like you. Immature, which is no doubt why Carmen feels sorry for you." She leaned in as if to tell me a secret, "Don't joke or talk like that in front of Danae, she'll probably toss you into a wall- if you're lucky."

"She could try." I boasted, "Didn't you see how I handled those Aber-things? I'm seriously getting a hang of my abilities, finally. I'm barely even tired."

Yasmina smiled wanly, "You are no doubt getting stronger," She admitted, "But you are years away from challenging Danae Lincoln in a fight."

She was probably right, I could still remember Carmen easily tearing magic from my grip with only a thought, and she was only Danae's trainee.

I down the second shot, feeling jittery but getting used to the horrible taste, "Why am I drinking all this coffee, again?"

"Caffeine," Yasmina said slowly, as if speaking to a particularly slow child, "Gives you energy. You just expended a lot of energy."

"Sleep gives you energy," I disagreed, "Caffeine just pushes your body to give it a little boost- I'm going to crash later."

"I guess you need a little lesson." Yasmina sighed, "It's not unexpected. Stratus, where does your ability come from? How do you control it?"

"With my mind." I responded immediately, all magic flowed through the mind like a specialized filter. The connection to the environment was there, as was the capability to wield it.

"Yes, from the brain." Her eyes turned to stare out into the still dark of the slowly dying night, "Do you know what the brain lives off of?"

"…Energy?" I replied blankly.

"Glucose." Yasmina corrected, "Energy derived from glucose, which in its more complex form is packed into carbohydrates. That's why you have three donuts to eat. It won't completely do away with magical exhaustion; you're still going to have a headache very soon. But it will help you get through the day. Did you ever wonder why pretty much every skilled User is skinny?" Although we were far from the cashier at the register, she kept her voice low and avoided actually saying the word mage.

"I honestly didn't think about it." I admitted, "Until recently, I hadn't met very many Users. You're saying it's because we use a lot more glucose?"

Yasmina smiled, "Now you're catching on. It's more pronounced when you're throwing around magic every day, especially. People normally only use ten percent of their brains. We use a bit more than that."

"How much more?"

Yasmina's smile turned mysterious, "A bit." She repeated.

"…Right."

There was silence as 5 AM came and passed, the minutes marching by unmarked. Yasmina seemed unworried, but I noticed her checking her phone's screen more often. Deciding it was now or never, I broached the subject I had been too afraid to touch thus far.

"Yasmina," I asked quietly, and she looked up at me, "Who did it? Who killed Emily?"

Her stylized eyebrows twitched in surprise, she hadn't been expecting the blunt question. I could see the same uncertainty on her face as when I had asked her what an Aether was. She was debating whether or not to tell me anything, or to lie, or to just tell me the truth. Despite her excellent show with the Aberrants, she didn't seem to have much of a poker face.

"You're better off not knowing." Yasmina finally replied quietly, "What would change? Her death was ordered from above. Whoever pulled the trigger was just following orders."

"…Was it Vik?" I had to ask.

Now she seemed agitated, I wasn't sure if it was because I was getting closer to the truth or because she just didn't like putting up with incessant questions that she didn't want to answer.

"What does it matter if it was? Vik doesn't control Archanos. Archanos controls Vik." She breathed deeply, as if trying to calm herself, "Archanos controls all of us."

It was rather depressing to listen to all of these powerful, smart, and sometimes even likeable Users talk like this. It was if Archanos was quicksand, as soon as they had stepped in it they were dragged down with dogged consistency. None of them, barring Vik, appeared to have hope or anything good to say about the situation.

Had they all once been like me? Young, naïve, idealistic? Was this my future?

We all want to think we're special, that we're above corruption and manipulation. That we do things because they're not only the best path for us, but because it's the right thing to do. No person looks in the mirror and sees evil staring back. We're flawed in the way that doesn't allow us to see our own flaws. It's the greatest imperfection in humanity, the ability to deny or play down our own inadequacies.

We are some seven billion humans, all the personal heroes of our own bell-curved ballads. Some surpassed a century, while others die in infancy, never really beginning.

The bell above the entrance door had tinkled happily a few times, and sleepy looking customers shuffled in, sometimes taking a seat or other times leaving directly after receiving their orders. So when it rang yet again, I didn't think much of it until I heard the steady confident tapping of shoes that were definitely nicer than mine approaching our out-of-the-way table in the corner. Yasmina's smile was another giveaway that whomever she had been waiting for had arrived.

She got to her feet as I turned my head just in time to see a well-dressed guy with dark brown hair, maybe a couple inches shorter than I was, pass me by to wrap Yasmina in a very affectionate hug. My suspicion that they were more than friends was confirmed when they finally pulled away from each other, smiling, to look back at me.

"Nick, this is my boyfriend Mehdy. Mehdy, this is Nicholas Stratus."

I was right to think that his shoes were nicer than mine, and several times more expensive too. The black loafers were accompanied by pressed black slacks and a button down light-pink shirt that only certain guys can pull off easily, while the rest of us look ridiculous. Mehdy smiled at me as he stuck his hand out to shake, it the kind of smile that fitted so well that it made you doubt if it was practiced, or if he was really that happy to see you.

"Very nice to finally meet the famous Stratus." He said smoothly, the kind of confident cadence that held almost no trace of an accent. I could place him and Yasmina as vaguely Arabic, though my knowledge of the specific ethnicity was far too limited to ever venture a real guess.

The Middle Eastern population at the University was fairly significant, though it also seemed to be a rather tight knit society of students that kept close with people of their own background and only had passing acquaintances with anyone else. Sam Albear was the closest Arabic friend that I had, so I could only make assumptions about the whole based off him. Brilliant, witty, a bit arrogant, and a touch too brusque in his dealings with people. Assumptions could only get you so far, however.

I reached out to shake and felt that all-familiar spark. Mehdy made no note of it, except that maybe his smile turned a touch more impish.

"Nice to meet you too." I replied with an even gaze, but Mehdy's sea-blue eyes had already turned to look down at my three empty espresso cups with amusement.

"We call it the User diet." The older student nodded at the cups and crumb-filled plate, "Lots of carbs, a lot of protein, and coffee." His firm grip loosed from my hand and fell back to his side, and he took a seat next to Yasmina, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

"He's still missing the protein." Yasmina said offhand, her dark eyes teasing, "Stratus is a rail."

Mehdy wasn't nearly as built as Ruark or even Vik, but his frame still held solid, tempered muscle built steadily over the years. Yet another mage that looked like he could throw a punch, and not just a magical one.

The handsome dark-haired mage looked me up and down, "You're just a skinny little freshman. But don't worry, we all were." His assurances didn't lessen the sense of embarrassment that I tried and failed to stop from stinging my cheeks.

The welcome bell jingled cheerfully again, and I would have thought nothing of it if not for fleeting glance my two companions shared, barely a flicker of their eyes and the sudden stiffness in their postures that hadn't been there before. I didn't turn to look for the perpetrator, and didn't have to, as they made themselves known right away.

Her approach had been silent. The expensive heels she wore made no noise, as if they were afraid to even dare. I only was aware that she was at my shoulder by the sudden sound of her voice.

"Yasmina, Mehdy." Dulcet, fetching, "Fancy seeing you two here- and who is this?"

A deceptively small, pale hand came down to rest on my shoulder, and I looked up from my seat to stare warily into the exquisitely perilous eyes of Danae Lincoln. Her hand sat delicately on my shoulder- and I would have felt less uncomfortable if she was gripping it. I felt like prey being set at ease by an experienced predator before they suddenly pounced.

Before Yasmina or Mehdy said anything, Danae named me herself, "Nicholas Stratus." Her smile was treacherously close to a smirk, "Yes, I've heard about you. Vik likes you."

How likely was it that this was actually a chance meeting? I had to wonder nervously as I did my best to steel my expression and rose to my feet and took Danae's hand into my own. It was only then that I noticed a few feet behind Danae, Carmen stood looking forlornly at the ground. She looked up to meet my eyes for only a moment, a small fleetingly sad smile playing across her lips for a fractioned second before disappearing again- as if it never really existed in the first place.

"The pleasure is all mine," I said to Danae, hoping my own tight smile didn't look too strained.

"Charmed," She replied, then looked past me once again. Without another word she daintily lowered herself into the seat I had temporarily vacated to sit across from Mehdy and Yasmina, ignoring the free seat that had already been there.

I could only watch with raised brows, and shot a questioning look at Carmen as if to say, is she serious? Carmen didn't respond aloud, but raised her shoulders in something that resembled a shrug- but only just.

"Did you lose my number, Yasmina?" I heard Danae ask sweetly, "I can write it down for you, we never seem to see each other anymore."

Yasmina smiled, and it looked a hell of a lot more convincing than my fake smile, "You know how it is, Danae, classwork and extracurriculars keep me busy. I'm sure you have the same problem."

Mehdy wrapped a protective arm around his girlfriend's shoulder, and smiled at Danae, "You know how it is, Lincoln." He said offhand, "Sometimes we barely have enough time to even see each other- we have to meet this early to do it."

"Of course, of course." Danae said with a wave of her hand, "We should hang out more often though!" Her icy eyes were suddenly intent, "It wouldn't do for you to forget who your friends are, would it?"

I felt myself shiver even though the biting stare wasn't directed at me. Admirably, neither Yasmina nor Mehdy flinched in the slightest. Yasmina nodded jovially, "Of course, you are so right. We'll do dinner soon, a double date! Won't that be fun? We haven't seen Bryan in ages!"

For an instant, something ugly passed across Danae's features before they smoothed out again, "I broke up with Bryan." The pale-blonde girl replied nonchalantly, as if it didn't matter to her.

"Oh no, that's too bad!" Yasmina sighed mournfully, "I always liked Bryan, he told the funniest jokes."

"He was an idiot." Danae replied darkly, and I could sense that her patience for the social niceties was wearing thin.

For a moment I wondered if this could possibly come to blows, and had to mentally berate myself for thinking about how cool it would be to see four experienced mages going at it. I glanced at Carmen who was also still standing, and hadn't said a word. I quietly shuffled over to stand next to her, and she looked up from where her eyes had been burning a quiet hole in the floor. She spared me the faintest of smiles, but nothing else.

Carmen shifted her hand for a moment, and I saw something faintly white against her naturally bronzed skin. I felt my heart sink as my mind grasped onto a theory that I didn't particularly want to be correct.

I reached out and held the offending hand for a moment and then let go, trying to smile in a way that I hoped was comforting. I saw the alarmed surprise flit across her face as she did so, and she seemed unsure whether to bolt or return my smile. Carmen hadn't meant for me to see what I had seen.

Despite her back being turned to us, Danae seemed to sense that I was sharing a moment with her disciple and shifted in her seat to look back at us, gaze calculating.

"Carmen." She snapped, pointing at the open seat next to her, "Come here."

The dark haired girl moved as soon as she heard the command, sliding into the seat next to Danae without a word. The female leader of APA gave me a look that clearly read 'back off, she's mine,' before turning back to Yasmina and Mehdy as if I didn't exist anymore.

"She shows me the ropes and in turn I have to do whatever she wants."

Carmen's explanation a few weeks back about what it meant to be Danae's servile apprentice suddenly made a lot more sense. It was scary to actually see it. I had to wonder if that would be me, soon. All that was left was to fill in the shadowy figure who would be my master.

I quietly pulled up my own chair, deciding in typical procrastinatory fashion to leave such future worries for future Nick. Instead I attempted to listen to the seemingly inconsequential chatter of the four mages as Carmen was dragged into the conversation as well. It seemed to be a necessary talent to veil innocuous banter with hidden meanings and subtle barbs. I mostly sat and tried not to look too uncomfortable and out of depth as I tried to follow the doublespeak- failing miserably for the most part.

After another fifteen minutes it was nearly six, and Mehdy nonchalantly glanced at his watch, "Well this has been pleasant." He yawned and stretched while he stood, Yasmina joining him, "But I have bugs to count and eggs to collect."