The Unskillful Thaumaturge

L

Lillian was not doing homework.

Although she was seated in the physics lounge, an area which normally helped her study productively, she was too lost in thought to concentrate on anything school-related.

The only coherent thought she was entertaining kept returning, in different contexts and permutations and scenarios. It wasn't anything critically important, nor did it relate to the case in any meaningful way.

Three weeks.

It had been three weeks since she had found out who she really was.

And yet, for so many reasons, that statement simply didn't feel right. Who she really was? Who was she, really? The DIAO hadn't provided her with any solid answers as to her true identity.

For years she had a clear idea of who she was, but after learning the truth about her birth, she felt almost as if the ground had been pulled out from under her feet. Suddenly, her birth was a mystery that billions of people were yearning to solve. What if she had some destiny to fulfill?

Even if she did need to "fulfill a destiny", her task seemed incredibly unclear, just like the rest of the events within the nebulous haze surrounding the truth about the Thaumatogenesis. She felt as if a huge responsibility had been set upon her shoulders.

A beep and a click sounded in close succession, snapping Lillian out of her reverie and alerting her to the imminent entrance of another physics major. The door swung open soundlessly, and Angela careened into the room, swinging her backpack noisily into the chair.

"Hey, Lillian," she greeted, panting loudly as she dug her wallet out of her pocket. "I was going to go get some pizza at the Cosecant. Want anything?"

"The Cosecant?"

"You know, C-S-C. The Creative Sciences Center or whatever it's called."

"Oh, yeah, okay." Lillian laughed lightly, still trying to clear her mind. "No thanks- actually, you know what, I'd rather have a bagel."

"What kind?" Angela asked immediately.

"No, no, I don't want to make you wait in line twice," Lillian amended. "I'll come with you." As if to emphasize her point, she rose and circled the table, leaving her backpack on the floor. Angela's face broke into a smile, and she led the way out of the lounge.

The two walked across campus in silence. Angela attempted several times to convince herself to say something, but every time she felt uncomfortable with the strange expression on Lillian's face- a peculiarly unfamiliar kind of anxiety. By the time the pair finally reached the Creative Sciences Center, Angela was slightly frightened, and she was relieved to separate from Lillian, heading for the pizza line.

Angela was still watching when Lillian, at the end of the bagel line, whipped her head around, searching for something with those intense deep blue eyes.

❦

Dakota had been hungry.

He could have subsisted on a granola bar, or waited another fifteen minutes. He was standing in line behind the registers, tightly clutching a box of chicken strips, when he first saw her. She was walking in through the main doors, heading straight for the bagel line.

A stream of options ran through his head instantly. He couldn't use an illusion, because either Erica would notice or he would end up making Lillian's eye twitch. In order to exit the building, he'd have to walk past her, and running too fast would attract attention. He would simply have to wait and hope.

The odds were in his favor, he told himself. The line at the register was longer than the bagel line. By the time he finally paid for his food, Lillian would have left.

But there were three registers ahead of him, and the bagel shop had only one. And as he stepped forward to pay for his chicken, Lillian was still waiting in line.

The woman behind the register accepted the bill from Dakota's outstretched hand and reached into the drawer to retrieve a few coins for change. She dropped them on the counter.

Dakota wasn't looking.

He was staring straight into Lillian's deep blue eyes.

And she was staring back.

Leaving the change on the counter and dropping the box of chicken, he took off at a run, sprinting past Lillian and out the side door of the Creative Sciences Center. The woman behind the register looked from him to the coins, shrugged ambivalently, and swept them into her cupped hand. Lillian whipped her head around, her eyes narrowing, and abruptly shouldered her way out of the line, dashing after Dakota. She caught the door as it swung back and pushed it open with a vicious shove. She could see his back, racing away from her, toward the thaumaturgy building; he could hear her behind him, panting with effort, willing desperately to catch him, to get answers.

In his haste, he forgot what Ashley had told him the day before, and pushed open the doors of the thaumaturgy building- not the back doors, not the side doors, nor the door by the stairs, but the main doors- and as he entered the building, he realized three things at once. The slap of Lillian's palms inside of the door he had just passed through. The shocked face of Erica Heath, the DIAO thaumaturgy specialist. And the route to his salvation- an empty elevator, the doors almost all the way closed, his only chance, and to escape he'd have to use an illusion.

The cuttlefish illusion was what saved him as he leaped through the narrowing doors, the illusion that rendered him invisible to the motion sensors. Regaining his balance, his cheeks red with exertion, he watched the faces of Lillian and Erica twist helplessly as the doors lumbered shut, sealing him inside. He punched the button for the fourth floor insistently, repeatedly, until the elevator lurched off the ground floor. He could hear the pounding footsteps of Lillian and Erica- racing up to the second and third floors- yet, mercifully, the elevator was faster. Dakota flinched every time it let out a beep to alert him that it had reached a floor.

Finally, the doors slid open to release him onto the fourth floor. He let out the breath he had been holding in relief and began slumping down the hallway to his office.

And then he heard thundering footsteps coming up the main stairs, and broke into a run.

He tore down the hall and around the corner. Lillian reached the top of the stairs just as he turned left, and the two stared into each others' eyes for a split second- his eyes filled with anxiety, hers with an accusatory, smoldering anger. He stopped at the end of the hallway by the back stairs, and pulled off his boots, throwing them over the edge of the stairs. He dug his ID out of his pocket and pressed it to the sensor outside the office block atop the stairs. He let out a loud scream just as the beep chimed, masking the sound; the shoes hit the floor just as the lock clicked; the boots zoomed up the stairs telekinetically; Dakota reached for them and slid them through the crack as the door closed silently; and as he heard Lillian round the corner, he flipped off the light switch and ducked underneath the window. He heard her pounding footsteps reach the top of the stairs and stop abruptly with a curse.

"Erica!" she shouted roughly, the word tearing out of her throat.

Dakota heard another set of footsteps approach behind her.

"He was way ahead of me. He went down the stairs. Could be anywhere in the building by now."

There was silence for a split second. "The only thing I'm able to trace is the cuttlefish illusion. It's..." Erica stopped, seemingly trying to describe it. "It was a very good illusion," she shrugged.

"There was a scream and a thud. My eye twitched."

"You think he... jumped?" Erica's voice wavered.

There was silence; Dakota assumed they were looking down the gap in the middle of the stairs.

"If he jumped, he's gone by now."

Erica began walking down the stairs. Lillian tagged along behind her. "I'll get Diane and Derek," Erica explained. "We'll watch the front and back stairs."

Dakota smiled as their footsteps began to fade. He slipped his boots back on, then slid his key into the lock on the door of his office, swinging it open. Ashley stood inside, eyebrow raised, loose strands of hair dancing around her face.

Dakota stared into her wide green eyes. "I need you to do me a favor."