Author's Preface
The cold immediately hit Casimir’s face like a jab, and his nose began to run. He wiped it away with his handkerchief before the mucus could freeze to his face. Casimir rushed back to his dorm for much-needed warmth.
The lounge was filled with his dormmates huddled around the fireplace. Damian and Sasha were playing an intense game of air hockey with a couple of upperclassmen. Casimir’s attention turned to the workroom. He peeked through the window and saw Alistair studying alone at one of the tables.
Right, he likes to study down here. Casimir turned the knob and crept inside.
Alistair looked over to see who had entered and gave him a cold glare. “Hmph! If you are here to ask for notes, you can get lost. I only help those who help themselves, not slackers who skip class.”
Casimir shut the door behind him. “I heard from the nurse that you spoke with Bryson. Is that where you rushed off the night before?”
“What do you think?”
Casimir narrowed his eyes. “Are you surprised by what happened to him?”
Alistair tilted his head back and sneered at his question. He then furrowed his brow as
if he remembered something distasteful. “No, instead I feel vindicated for being right. ”
Alistair looked away with a hint of sadness in his eyes and disappointment on his face, wrinkles marred his pale forehead. “If you are looking for someone to blame, turn around and point at yourself.”
He promptly rose from his seat. “I can pardon him and his ignorant friend, but you have no excuse!”
Alistair’s gaze pierced holes into him.
Me, that is ludicrous! “I understand you wanted to teach him a harsh lesson of how ill-suited he was for this school, but you went about it the wrong way. He could have–.”
“Died!” Alistair squared up to Casimir. Although he only came up to his neck, Casimir had to admit that those eyes of his were unnerving.
He turned away from him and sneered. “You know, the saddest part of this is I was finally reaching him. Bryson began to understand that he had other options. Unlike me, he isn’t forced to be here, so why should he condemn himself and his future line to this life?”
Casimir winced. Why does he have to be right?
Alistair sighed and lowered his head. “He actually was going to consider it, but his friend fed into his delusions…and do you know what he said to me?” He demanded an answer from Casimir with a glare.
“No, enlighten me.”
“I’m going to do what Casimir said! I’m going to play into my strengths and become a great Alchemist, and make you eat your words!” Alistair’s impression of Bryson was so uncannily spot on that it caught Casimir off guard.
Bryson actually took my words to heart, even though he previously shot them down. Casimir wanted to shake his head. Why is he trying to condemn me over such an innocuous statement?
He brushed it off. “It was sound advice, and I doubt my words were what spurred him to wander into the woods.”
“It was pure bull. Being a Weaver requires much more than mixing Aether-rich ingredients in a pot. Otherwise, any Aetherian cook could be one.” Alistair then scoffed. “You sold him a lie, instead of telling him the hard truth. I blame you for that!”
“Look, I just want to find out what happened last night because both Tristan and I noticed discrepancies—”
“Chasing conspiracies is not going to clear your conscience.”
Casimir gritted his teeth. “With all due respect, I believe you should direct your anger at admissions.”
Some of the rage on Alistair’s face subsided, and he scrutinized Casimir intensely with a pondering gaze. “I don’t respect you in the slightest, Mindrattler. But since you are supposedly my equal in status, I will give you this courtesy.”
He straightened his collar and continued, “As per custom among my family, we handle personal offenses through combat. If you want to hear any more from me, you are going to have to earn it outside.”
***
Snowflakes swirled outside the gas lamp-lit courtyard behind Clifford’s Rise. The dying light of the evening came and went, and darkness fell upon them. Casimir looked back at the tower. Students poked their heads out of the windows, curiously watching the spectacle down below.
An audience of students from the common room braved the bitter cold and congregated around Damian’s Aether barrier. Casimir’s gaze shifted to Sasha, who stood between him and Alistair as their referee.
I guess I should be grateful that he and Damian postponed their match for this.
Casimir returned his gaze to his opponent, Alistair, who had not removed his icy glare from him since they got there. His iridescent eyes produced an unnerving glow, intensified by the stark shadows that gathered on his angular face.
Casimir scoffed at Alistair’s glare of contempt with a grunt, took off his overcoat, and tossed it in the snow.
Alistair bared his teeth and rolled up his sleeves.
Sasha casually addressed them, “Alright, take a bow, and you can duke it out. The match will end when one of you yields or if I deem you unable to continue. Got it?”
“Yes.” Casimir stretched his arms.
“I’ll make this quick. Unlike some of us, I know better than to slack off and ride on papa’s coattails,” replied Alistair.
Anger flared up in him, and Casimir clenched his fist and took a step forward.
Sasha outstretched his arms, pushing Casimir and Alistair away. “Alright, back up a bit and take a bow. ”
They took ten steps back and exchanged bows. Neither of them took their gaze from one another.
Sasha raised his hand and gave both a sweeping glance. After a long pause, he chopped the air, slicing through the imaginary wall between them. “Begin!”
Alistair took advantage of his superior speed and bombarded Casimir with a wave of light beams. Casimir jerked his body to the left. Grateful that this part of his Inquisitor training translated here, but his relief was short-lived when the stream of luminescent projectiles followed him. Of course, he’d use this right out of the gate.
Casimir sprinted away with the beam trailing behind him. He weaved a shadowstep. The beams missed him and collided with Damian’s barrier. He appeared behind Alistair and lunged forward with his electrified hands. However, they met Alistair’s electric barrier. His gloves sizzled as the hostile energy forced its way to his hands. Casimir leapt backwards.
Before Casimir’s feet touched the ground, Alistair weaved another pattern. A fast- moving glowing dart was heading right towards him. Drat, he’s fast .
Casimir barely deflected it away from him. He landed and weaved a circular pattern that launched a six-foot-high wave of ice toward Alistair.
His opponent converted the ice back to water with what seemed to be one flick of his finger. Alistair’s hands moved like a blur. The water rose above them, separated and formed into golf ball-sized hail that Alistair mercilessly rained down on Casimir.
Casimir weaved a square pattern, materializing a shield around him that weathered the hailstorm. But his relief was short-lived when Alistair pierced through it with a light beam.
The Aether shield shattered on impact, sending Casimir flying backwards. He recovered with a roll, then shadowstepped away from the onslaught of hail to Alistair’s left.
Casimir weaved a star pattern and hurled a large, erratic ball of blue electricity. He gritted his teeth. Blast it, I fumbled that one.
Alistair clicked his tongue, disappointed by Casimir’s incompetence. “Are you trying, Mindrattler?” His finger moved again, and the ball shrank and sharpened into a blue dart. He then returned it Casimir’s way with another one of his light beams. “This is how it is done.”
Casimir shadowstepped the attacks and attempted to fire an Aether arrow, but Alistair beat him to it and launched his own that streaked through the air. Casimir did not register it in time and was forced to block with his forearms. The blow sent him tumbling, but he recovered with a backward roll and rested on his stomach.
His skin stung as if he had fallen into a patch of stinging nettles, and his muscles burned like they were punctured by a thousand needles. Even Jett wasn’t this fast.
“You okay?” Sasha called out.
Casimir gave him a thumbs-up and rose to his feet.
Alistair smirked. “Is this the first time you put effort into something?”
Sasha nodded. “Alright, continue.”
After a grunt, Alistair continued his relentless assault of light beams, increasing his speed.
He is making it apparent that he is not going to give me an opportunity to return fire. Professor Deadeye was able to strain his shield with his own attack. I could brute force my way through. He does not look like he can take a well-placed hit.
Casimir dug in his heels and blitzed towards Alistair’s onslaught. He twisted away from one blast to his right and ducked another one that zoomed past inches above his head. He kept pressing forward without losing his speed while the beams pursued him. When Casimir was close enough, he weaved a square pattern, and a layer of Aether formed a coating around his skin.
Alistair released control of his projectiles when Casimir got too close and materialized another electrified barrier.
Undeterred, Casimir rammed into him with his shoulder, sacrificing a few stray hairs that were singed off by the energy barrier. He ignored the unmistakable scent of fried keratin and continued to push.
Undaunted, Alistair offered him some resistance, but it was not long until he began to skid backwards.
Casimir’s Aether heart beat faster, and the Aether around him flared, and Alistair's shield shattered.
“Arrugh!” He prevailed in knocking Alistair off balance.
There! Casimir shadowstepped behind him.
Alistair twisted, mid-pattern, but it was too late.
Casimir hooked Alistair’s head and left leg with his arms, and they both fell hard.
Alistair’s legs stuck up like an overturned turtle. His body lay across Casimir’s chest. He struggled, but Casimir still had Alistair’s leg in his arms.
Casimir shifted his weight to the right, and they became an amalgamation of rolling limbs. The crowd of onlookers roared.
“What the hell!” Alistair hollered as Casimir performed a rolling cradle and tumbled him around the ground.
“Let me go, you madman!”
Casimir kept rolling.
He slowed his speed when he heard Sasha laugh. “Okay, Casimir, I think he had enough.”
After one more roll for good measure, Casimir let Alistair go. He rose to his feet and rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry, that was the only thing I could think of. You really had me in a bind.” He gave Alistair a smile laced with venom and offered him a hand.
Alistair ignored his hand and got up on his own. Lines formed on his forehead as he averted his gaze from Casimir. “Bodyblow. At least you were practicing on your day off.”
“I was doing more than that. Now, you owe me a chat.”
***
Casimir retrieved his coat as the crowd slowly dispersed. He noticed that Alistair waited for him near the yard’s wall, brushing off attempts at conversation from other students. His pale face was flushed from irritation and his wounded pride.
I hope this fight was not for nothing. Casimir winced at a crick in his shoulder and gently massaged it.
Sasha smiled. “Not bad, Mindrattler, but you should add gravitational patterns to your arsenal.”
“I thought the Vector family kept most of those to themselves.”
“They published a few for non-members. You can ask Damian more about it.” He pointed to their dorm viceroy going back inside the dormitory.
“Thank you for the suggestion.”
Sasha slapped him on the back. “Loosen up, you kicked the crap out of that guy and gave us a much-needed distraction.” He frowned. “We will see you two inside.”
Casimir joined Alistair off in his corner. He successfully pushed the other students away and stood alone underneath the glow of the gas lamp.
“What is it that you are trying to find out?” Alistair gave him a skeptical look. “To me, this looks like another starry-eyed commoner who was duped and destroyed before they got any use out of him. The Empire will carry on without him.”
Casimir crossed his arms. “I don’t know. I’m just trying to make sense of it all.”
Alistair narrowed his eyes and studied Casimir intensely. A look of sudden realization appeared on his face, and he looked away. “Hmph, to be frank with you, this was my way of whipping you into shape, but it backfired.”
Casimir smirked. “It certainly did.”
Alistair grunted. “Sorry to disappoint, but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary last night. ”
Nothing.
“Ah.” Casimir frowned. “Well, thank you for your time.”
Casimir gave him a polite nod and turned away.
“You need to let this go,” Alistair said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Weaving is not for the faint of heart or slow of mind. We should focus on the living and continue to uphold our standards of Weavers.”
“I might.”
Alistair silently followed him. Only the sound of their footsteps and pitter-patter of snowfall on the ground could be heard. A sigh from Alistair broke the silence. “I know it’s cruel, but that kid did not stand a chance. Weavers are born, not made. You either got it or you don’t. And Bryson did not have it. ”
Casimir looked over his shoulder and saw Alistair’s face filled with regret. “So it seems.”