Adamagika: The Spirit Within - 32. Ch 32: Odd Ways of Communicating

CHAPTER 32: Odd Ways of Communicating

That was it. My growing anxiety over what happened to Jacob tripled after that dream. Something was terribly wrong with Jacob. I just knew it. First, it was Ho-o that tried reaching out to me and for the briefest moment I got a vision of her in pain. Now, I was dreaming about Jacob in no less dire circumstances. I could tell he was trapped somewhere in darkness, perhaps the same darkness that was now holding tightly onto Ho-o. More importantly, the meaning of the dream was clear – his life was on the line. I had no doubt about that. Knowing that and nothing else made my skin crawl an army of ants – hungry, ravaging ants.

I realized then how deeply I did love him. It was just a dream but I knew that my intentions would have been no less pure had it been real. I was willing to suffer for him. I was willing to die for him.

I wasted no time getting dressed. The sun wasn’t out yet but it’s rays could be seen in the twilight. It would be morning soon and I needed to speak to Magister Aenhol before he managed to wiggle away from me. The appropriate thing to do would have been to wait for the sun to rise before going to him. But, I had no intention of doing that. I was bursting with worry and I didn’t care if I had to break down his door to speak to him.

I was distracted from putting a clean shirt on when I heard a wheezing sound come from the door. It sounded remarkably like a sneeze.

“Hello?” I asked towards the door. The outside remained silent.

Was I hearing things? Ok fine, I have been hearing things for a long time but at least I more or less knew who was speaking to me those times. It was always Ho-o, her voice being familiar and comforting. Whoever or whatever made the sound definitely did not sound like Ho-o.

Besides, did spirits ever sneeze?

When I could not hear any sound coming from outside, I resumed my getting dressed. I looked at the mace I had stashed the night before. It was just lying there. Tentatively, I reached out for it. I honestly didn’t want to bring it with me. It could have been the warning or it could have been some inert sense within me, but I knew something was wrong with that mace. Nonetheless, I took it from its shelf and placed it within my robes. I needed to bring it even if it felt wrong. I needed to ask Brian about it anyway and he would have grown suspicious if I didn’t have it with me. Somehow, I didn’t think he would have been sympathetic with the reasons I had to not use the mace.

It was then that I heard it, clear as daylight – a distinct harrumph of the throat as though someone was being reproachful for a wrong answer I had given in class. Now fully dressed, I closed the doors of our dresser and walk towards the door. I placed an ear against it listening for any sound, any indication that someone was on the other side. Call me paranoid but after that dream, I was feeling more wary about strange things happening around me. I prepared to raise a shield as I placed one hand on the door’s handle.

I quickly swung it open to face whoever was causing the noise.

The hallway was empty. It was dimly lit as the torches had not grown their full strength yet. It was undoubtedly empty though… except for a small package that was left right in front of my door.

Well, actually it was an envelope. Picking it up, I noticed that it was light brown in color and seemed to be made of thin parchment. Frankly the envelope looked too frail to be used dependably. My name was scribbled in a familiar script handwriting in the front. I had no doubt that it was from Magister Aenhol.

I flipped the envelope over and my suspicions were reinforced. A large wax seal was stamped unto the back where the envelope’s slit would open. On the seal was an ornate circular frame with a large curved E in the upper left corner and an elaborate A in the lower right – letters which I presumed stood for Edward Aenhol.

A letter? What was in the letter? Perhaps his explanation of what had happened to Jacob was in it. But, why didn’t he just come to me if that was so. He knew how important it was to me.

I tried breaking the wax seal but it was solid and refused to even crack. I tried tearing at the paper around the seal and I realized that it was just as stubborn as the wax seal. I looked at the frail looking envelope and wondered how the heck it was that strong. I flipped the envelope over and over again looking for some way to open it but nothing I tried worked. At one point, I decided to just give it my best shot in opening it at the risk of damaging its contents. I took the envelope in both hands and attempted to rip it in half right down my cursive name.

“Will you stop doing that?” a boyish voice said.

I looked around the room in surprise but found myself still alone. I looked at the envelope in my hand but other than a wrinkle here and there, it looked exactly the same.

“Hello?” I called out but was met with silence. I stared at the envelope and again started trying to rip it in half.

“Stop that!” came the voice again.

“Who’s there?” I asked the envelope. “Who’s talking?”

“Me, duh,” said the envelope.

I looked at the rude envelope and wondered what to say next. “Do you have a message for me?”

“I can’t talk to you like this.”

“What?”

“Flip me over,” the envelope said.

It felt weird following instructions from a piece of parchment but I did as it said. I was surprised when a boyish face was staring at me from where the E and A were at earlier.

“Much better,” the little wax face said, crinkling his nose.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Me? I thought it would have been obvious. I’m an envelope.”

“I didn’t ask what you are. I asked who you are.”

“Is there a difference?” the envelope asked in a way that suggested that he wasn’t interested in the answer.

I wanted to point out that there was a difference between who or what a person, err thing, was. I also wanted to point out that unlike what he said, he wasn’t an envelope and was in fact just the wax that sealed an envelope. However, the expression on his face told me that neither points would have been relevant to him either way. I shook my head and continued. “Do you have a message for me?”

Envelope face looked at me and asked, “do I look like a letter to you? Didn’t I just say that I was an envelope? Obviously, the message is inside me, not on me.”

I looked at the boyish face, liking it less and less. “Okay, could you please open up so I can read the message?”

“I need the password,” he said.

“What password?”

The little envelope face rolled his little wax eyes or at least I think he would have if his eyes could roll. “The password to open the envelope, dummy.”

“I don’t know the password.”

“Then I guess you’re not going to be able to open me,” the little face said with a smile. “Unless you’d like to guess.”

I blinked at him. “But the message is for me. I’m Adam.”

“Who’s Adam?” asked the face.

“The name written on this envelope.”

The little face turned his head left and right as though looking for something. “I don’t see your name written here.”

“It’s on the other side of the envelope,” I responded not bothering to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

“Well how am I supposed to check back there?” he grunted.

I sighed and I got tempted to melt his tiny wax face off with fire. If only I was sure that whatever was inside was fire-proof.

“Why don’t you just give me the password?” he continued.

It felt stupid but I started giving out guesses that I thought could be passwords. I started giving out names of people we knew and then places around the city. I even guessed with dates or historical facts. I must have tried for quite a bit because soon, the sky outside was getting lighter.

“Look,” I told the annoying face that seemed to be enjoying my predicament. “I don’t have time for this. I have training to attend, and I have to see Magister Aenhol before that. Will you open up or not?”

The boyish face scrunched up his face. “Let me think about it.”

I shook my head and slammed the envelope hard on the table, wax face down.

“Ow! Oh alright!” came a muffled voice on the table. “Pick me up and I’ll tell you.”

I picked up the envelope and flipped him over. The little face seemed to be blinking his eyes as though to get something out of them.

“Will you open up now?” I asked.

“Pixels tuponto,” the little face said.

I stared incredulously at the face. “That’s the password?”

The little face nodded. “Yes. You were very close earlier.”

“I’ve never even heard of… you know what, nevermind. Open up.”

“You haven’t given me the password,” the little face said.

“You just told it to me,” I countered.

“I know I’ve said it,” said envelope face in an exasperated voice, “but you have to say it.”

I wanted to smack that boyish wax face right off the envelope with my mace. However, I had a sinking feeling that that wouldn’t have helped me get the contents inside. “Alright, alright. Pixels two pont oh.”

“Not two pont oh,” protested the annoying face, “it’s pronounced tupon to.”

“Pixels tupon to.”

I was shocked when the tiny face suddenly screamed. I dropped the envelope and it fell onto our table with a swoosh. I watched as the wax seal suddenly snapped in half straight through the little face’s nose, his mouth locked in a scream of pain and terror.

“That is sick,” I said out loud.

“It is, isn’t it?” said the little face or rather the lower half of the face. A smile broke through his oily demeanor before both halves of the face sank into the wax and all that was left was the broken E and A.

I opened the envelope before the little wax face could reappear. I pulled out a thin and very small sheet of paper which contained more of Magister Aenhol’s handwriting. It was addressed to me.

Dear Adam,

I’ve found Jacob and he is alright. But, we have to keep him under observation for a few days. He seems to have undergone the same things you did except he did not receive immediate healing. Rest assured that I will do everything within my power to help him recover. Please do not try to look for him or ask me to tell you where he is. I have already left this morning for a meeting with the council and I will be there the whole day. It is best that you focus on the tasks at hand.

The Council will declare a State of War in the coming days which will undoubtedly mean that the Aerophalanxes will ride out into battle. That should be your most immediate concern. Let me worry about Jacob.

Yours truly,

Edward Aenhol

That was it? He’s fine, don’t worry about it, go on with the rest of your day like nothing’s happened? That was just unacceptable! Not only was I worried and anxious but now I was angry. I would confront Magister Aenhol no matter what his annoyingly short letter said. I’d tear down the doors to the Gathering Halls if I had to, the Council be damned. If Jacob was with him, then I needed to see for myself.

“Oh fine, leave me on the table for anyone to read,” I heard the envelope (I mean wax) shout out as I was leaving the room. I ignored it.

I rushed down the hall and down the steps to the first floor. I was rushing out of the Academy and didn’t even notice that the large double doors of the Academy had been replaced since I last destroyed them. I didn’t get that far though when I heard a voice call out my name.

I turned and I saw Brian rushing from the side of the Academy. It looked like he was waiting there by the wall.

“Brian, what are you doing here?” I asked, half-annoyed.

Brian looked tentatively at me, perhaps caught off guard by my hostility. “I just thought you’d want to walk together to the Armory today.”

I looked at him suspiciously. “Magister Aenhol asked you to come here, didn’t he?”

He at least had the decency to look sheepish. I turned around and continued walking towards the Administrative building.

“Adam, wait up,” Brian said. “Whatever it is you think you’re going to do, it’s a bad idea.”

“You don’t even know what I’m going to do and you’re already saying it’s a bad idea.”

“Yes, because look at you. It’s clear that your emotions are running high. You’re not focused and you’re not thinking right.”

“Don’t tell me I’m not thinking right!” I yelled angrily as I turned towards him. The few people that were walking around us in the early morning light hurried their steps. “’I’m getting sick of people telling me what I should do… or what I should think… I’m not some pawn of fate that would just do whatever someone else said just because they said so.”

“Wait. What are we talking about here?” Brian asked with a frown. When I started turning away from him, he reached out and placed his hands on my shoulders effectively yanking me back as my legs wanted to more forward while the rest of my body was held back. “Sorry! Adam, look. I can’t pretend that I know what’s going on with you but could you just pause for a moment and listen to yourself. I’ve never seen you this angry or this rash. You’ve always been calm and collected which are qualities that we seek in Aerophalanx recruits and I know that that is how you really are because you wouldn’t have been chosen otherwise. So believe me when I tell you that you’re not behaving like yourself right now.”

I took a deep breath and realized that he had a point. It was rare that I let my emotions get the best of me but this whole ordeal seemed to be affecting me in ways that I didn’t expect.

“I just need him to be alright,” I whispered as thoughts of my dream last night came back to me.

“Does Magister Aenhol say that he’s alright?” Brian asked softly and I nodded my response. “Then he’s alright,” he added with a squeeze to my shoulders before finally letting go. We stood there in silence before Brian finally spoke up again. “Why don’t we get to training?”

I just nodded as I suddenly felt emotionally drained. I honestly felt like going back to bed but I was worried of what I might see if I did. We walked towards the Armory but the whole trip there seemed to go by in a blur. The next time I looked up, I realized that we were already inside the training room and Brian was looking at me with concerned eyes.

“I’m alright,” I said as I started walking towards the other recruits without looking back at him.

The others said hi to me and a few even asked where Jacob was. Each time they did, I felt a dull ache in my chest as I responded that he was feeling ill and was unable to come today.

“Jacob is one of a kind though,” Rick commented. I agreed wholeheartedly. “Don’t take this the wrong way but I don’t think he has the qualities of an apprentice.” I would have flayed him if I didn’t know Rick well enough to never mean any harm with what he said. “Minus the temper, I imagine he would have made a good Aerophalanx.”

Brian called for formations and we soon found ourselves in the familiar pattern of practicing deflective shields with wind spheres. More people were getting successful at creating shields that blocked with only one side though a few were still having problems.

I could feel Brian watching me as though I was some precious glass statue about to break. I couldn’t really blame him after the way I had acted earlier but after awhile I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Will you stop watching me!” I half-whispered, half shouted at him on the pretense of asking him a question. “You’re making me nervous.”

“Why, Adam?” Brian said mischievously and I just knew something cheeky was coming. “Do I give you performance anxiety?”

I glared at him and he had a nerve to laugh. Eventually he shook his head and walked away to watch another group. I knew he was still stealing glances at me every now and then but at least it didn’t feel like his eyes were going to bore into my back anymore.

Unlike the previous day, we also practiced moving the shields while we floated across the room. It was one thing to project a fixed shield and an entirely different one to have the shield move with you rather than stay in place. It took awhile but eventually I caught on and even managed it a few times though I realized that the shields were somehow weaker probably because I wasn’t concentrating as much.

“You have to remember,” Brian said to us, “that when we’re up there, you have to create a shield that will protect several gryphons and their riders at the same time. Your shield will be useless if it doesn’t move with you. We will stay in formation unless your team says otherwise. You will also have to learn to project it much farther away from you as we will be flying way above the squads on offense. In two days’ time, we will practice flying in formation with the senior Aerophalanxes. Bring your helmets and maces with you.”

Until that point, I had completely forgotten about what had happened with my mace. The events of the night and the morning pushed those thoughts at the bottom of my mind. As soon as Brian sent us back to training, I approached him and decided to ask him about it.

“A mace resisting magic?” Brian asked in confusion as a flurry of spells were hurled past us. I asked under the pretense of being curious. “Never heard of it. I suppose it could be defective but that would be a first. Let me see.”

I handed him my mace and he gripped it tightly in his hand as it expanded. I could feel the energy flowing from him to the mace. He kept at it for a minute. After which he shrugged and handed it back to me.

“Seems fine to me,” Brian said. “Did something happen when you tried?”

“No,” I said quickly. “Just curious.”

Brian looked at me as though he knew I wasn’t being entirely truthful. After a moment though, he nodded and sent me off. I suppose he was worried I might blow up again.

We spent the next few hours practicing the adjustments. I found projecting it much farther as not being a problem at all. The difficult part was moving it with you while you were being levitated across the room by another mage. By the end of it, most of us were feeling thoroughly exhausted.

Brian didn’t let us rest though. After training, he immediately had us go to the aviary to practice more flying for those who already had gryphons. Those who did not had to keep trying each compartment until they found the gryphon that they were meant to fly with. I sometimes wondered if there was a more efficient way to do it but I figured it had something to do with gryphon culture.

I flew out with Aida. She seemed happy to see me and this time I met her with some of the rat treats that gryphons seemed to like. Brian had handed me some figuring I wouldn’t have had the time to get some myself. I thanked him and promised to pay him back. He merely shrugged with a smile and walked away.

The flight this time was far less exciting than the previous day but honestly, I thought it was better considering how exhausted I felt. I was worried that I might fall asleep in midflight. But as though Aida could sense when I was drifting off, she would suddenly jolt towards a different direction effectively waking me. I’d think thankful thoughts towards her and again I could have sworn that I heard her laughing.

As we got back into the aviary, I fed the remaining treats I had with me to Aida who seemed thoroughly grateful for them. I patted her gently on the cheek. I was just about to head out when I heard a horrible scream coming from one of the compartments. For a moment, I wondered if someone had managed to break open another of Magister Aenhol’s letters. However, this voice sounded different, more familiar. I rushed towards the source of the scream. Several people were watching something intently. I nudged my way through until I finally found myself behind Brian who surprisingly had a grin on his face.

I heard the scream again and I realized it was Rick.

“Raaaaaaaaaaaaargh!” he yelled towards a gryphon who was standing in front of him.

“Raaaaaaaaaaaaawk!” the gryphon yelled back with outstretched wings.

“Raaaaaaaaaaaaargh!” Rick yelled again which was answered once more by a loud gryphon screech.

I looked around at the other gryphons and they seemed disinterested in what was going on with one of their own as though it was perfectly normal.

”Bond with me!” Rick yelled with a pointed finger at the gryphon.

“Rawk rawk ree,” the gryphon screeched.

“Did that gryphon just talk?” a wide-eyed Clarisse asked Brian.

Brian folded his arms across his chest and his grin grew into a smile. “I think our Rick just found his gryphon.”

I looked back at the two arguing creatures. Rick was still yelling something about bonding and the gryphon repeated it in gryphon speak which at the moment probably made no sense to him.

“Rawk rawk ree!” Rick yelled. The gryphon across him stared at Rick as though he had gone crazy. Rick suddenly lunged forward and jumped towards the gryphon which was knocked back in surprise. The other gryphons finally turned their heads as though only noticing the commotion then.

There was scuffling on the compartment floor and soon we were staring at a gryphon held down by his arms by a rather slim human no more than a fifth of his size or weight.

“Do you give up?” Rick asked, a grin breaking through the corners of his lips.

“Rewrer,” the gryphon said or at least I think he did.

“I’m gonna have to teach you a lesson,” Rick said as he took one hand off the gryphon’s paw.

The gryphon suddenly turned sideward and in one swift motion Rick was thrown into the air. By the time he had fallen down, the gryphon was on its legs and promptly caught Rick on its back. Rick looked confused for a moment as he realized what was happening. He was seated on the gryphon except that he was facing the wrong way. His butt was pointed towards the back of the gryphon’s head.

“Oh shit,” he said as the gryphon released a mighty scream. Rick screamed in terror as the gryphon suddenly charged forward with Rick on the gryphon’s back.

Rick wrapped his arms around the gryphon’s stomach and his face lowered within inches of where the gryphon’s butt should have been.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!” Rick yelled as the gryphon lunged towards the exit wall that dissipated upon their approach. Rick’s screams faded as the gryphon flew out higher and higher into the sky, the words “somebody do something” trailing behind him.

The rest of us watched in silence as he disappeared behind one of the towers. It was broken when someone chuckled at which we all broke out laughing. For a good few minutes, speculations were made as to what other antics Rick’s new gryphon would end up doing and if Rick had finally met his match. I can’t be sure but I could have sworn that the gryphons sitting around us looked amused.