Hidden Earth Short Tales

Vasco Confronts the Academy

Vasco looks at the closed door in front of him. He holds up his fist to knock, but instead he just rests his hand on the knob and takes a deep breath. He pulls the signet from his pocket and looks at it. He nods to himself as he feels the hot flicker of anger in his chest once again. He pops four white tablets into his mouth and swallows before he throws open the door.

Seven wizards look up from their conversation at him. "Bertramus."

Vasco closes the door behind himself and storms straight up to a redheaded sorceress. He holds the signet where they can all see it clearly. "Trisopia, I demand to know to whom this belongs. "

Trisopia looks at him and then at the patch. "Bertramus...As I told you years ago, we don't know. We are working on it though."

"Oh. So you want me to believe the great Academy is so incompetent that it's been fifteen years and you still haven't found my wife nor any leads at all?" He slams his fist down on the oak table. "I refuse to sit and wait any longer. This has been completely ridiculous!"

"I'm sure she left you. I mean, why wouldn't she? Any girl with any sense wouldn't stay cooped up with a necromancer." Another wizard snorts.

"Ziphius, shut up. I wasn't talking to you." He growls. "She wouldn't have left me on her own free will. She promised she'd never leave me alone. We were deeply in love."

"Bertramus... I say again, we don't know who it belongs to. That sort of spell is dark magic. You know this is a place for only light magic." Trisopia says slowly.

"Feathers! Then just tell me the spell and I will do it myself." He stands over her.

"We both know you don't know any dark magic either, kid."

Vasco glances over his shoulder to his left. A blonde wizard, sitting with his ankle crossed on his knee looks back at him with a smirk. "Arrogan."

"I'm impressed. I really am. Never thought you'd actually have the balls to ever pull something like this." He stands up, purple cloak dropping down behind him. He nods to Trisopia. "I'll tend to him; continue without me." He smiles and walks to the door. "Come along, Bertramus."

Vasco follows him with a slight frown. "Yes, sir..." he mutters.

Arrogan closes the door. "You were my mentee for what, fifty years? I never double crossed you during that time, right? So you know you can trust me like you trust Pulsatilla?"

"Where was she anyhow? I didn't see her there."

"Teaching. They replaced her about a year ago on the board...Too caring. She couldn't make some of the hard choices that had to be made." He nods. "Now, don't tell them or anyone what I'm telling you, but I know of someone who does know dark magic."

"Alright."

"Delphinea Delavan. Her father saved my life once. She's a necromancer, but she doesn't publicize it."

"How would I find her?"

Arrogan scratches under his chin. "You remember where I live? Look in the map room. There should be a scrolled up map of the Obsidian Mountains. It should be marked there. Should be clear enough that even you can find your way there."

Vasco nods. "Why are you telling me any of this?"

"I liked seeing that display of newfound courage. I spent fifty years trying to build your confidence, but if this is what lights that fire in you, then I really am a sucky mentor to stand in the way." He smirks. "When you find that sun of a gun that took Calandra, you show him that you really do have teeth and shouldn't be messed with. You hear me?"

"Yes, sir. Thank you." He nods.

Arrogan nods and walks back to the door. "See you around, Bertramus. It's been too calm here the past few years without you falling down the stairs all the time."

Vasco rubs the back of his neck. "Yeah, I'm sure it has." He watches as the older wizard returns to the others and sighs. "I can't say that I miss it here." He shakes his head and walks down the hall.

He finds and empty classroom and closes its door before tracing the outline with his fingertips. "If I have to purge my stomach contents anyway, might as well travel the fast way."

With that, he opens the door and steps through into a large atrium. He pulls the door closed behind himself and just stands extremely still for a minute. He then sprints to the kitchen and its sink and lets the inevitable occur. He then fixes himself a cup of water as he mumbles the simple purge and dispel spell. He then downs the glass and leaves it in the sink with a sigh.

"Let's see...should be upstairs." He mumbles as he walks and begins his treck up a sprawling spiral staircase. As he walks, he thinks back to when he used to live and study here with Arrogan. He used to run up and down--okay, run up and trip down these stairs what had to have been close to a fifty times a day. Bertramus, do this; Bertramus, do that. Bertramus, did you feed the teacup wyverns? The carnivorous plants? Ironed all the cloaks? Scrubbed every window? The floors? Swept the ceilings?

He sighs, shaking his head at the memory. He had done everything he was asked and more. He hadn't even cared if or what he was learning; he just wanted to return to his Estella, and to do that he had to spend those fifty years interning and graduate. She was his only reason for keeping with his studies, his only reason to keep trying to exist.

And now he has a chance to get her back again.

Vasco throws open the door to the map room and starts checking the scrolls by hand.