Chapter 29 Sage
Adrian just died twice, but he was still Adrian. He asked Old Jingo if there could be an Adrian Isn’t Dead party at the tavern and looked like he fully intended to go there and party ass naked and covered in soot.
“Ye aren’t putting yer bare, dirty arse on my furniture. Get cleaned up and get some trousers and you can have yer party.”
“Okay, but more people would show up if I’m naked. Stop staring at my cock, Mark. I’m a taken man now.”
Mark seemed to take that harder than Adrian dying twice, but Ivar and it seemed like Iman, too, really didn’t like Adrian standing there with his cock out in front of all these people he’d had sex with.
Ari didn’t like it, either. Ari was bigger than even Ivar.
He yanked his shirt off and threw it over Adrian’s head.
Adrian wasn’t a small man, either, so Ari’s shirt barely covered his cock.
Iman placed herself in front of Adrian and actually hissed at someone. Ivar took up the rear, and they started herding him towards their dorm room. Everyone started dispersing, but everyone was talking.
I was sure we had every intention of going to the tavern to celebrate Adrian not being dead for good and figuring out what he was, but we stayed behind because there was one person we needed to talk to. Adrian might not have a million questions right at this moment, but I did.
“So, that was exciting,” Headmaster Mykene said.
“What does it mean?” I asked.
“The phoenix was a mythological creature from thousands of years ago. Like I said, there’s no stories of anyone creating one or turning themselves into one and there was never a race of phoenixes created.
There are several different cultures that have stories of phoenix-like birds, which would suggest there were either more than one at one point or the original phoenix got around as they can shift into birds and fly.
“We all have a life cycle, but unlike the rest of us, the phoenix was supposed to have built a nest to die and be reborn in. There’s not much known about that.
It’s said a basilisk was the one thing that could kill a phoenix for good, but we haven’t seen one of those in my lifetime, either.
Either the original phoenix was killed by a basilisk and is only just now being reincarnated or the phoenix has always been here living in secret and that was why Adrian was found in a burning warehouse as a baby.
It would have been hard for him to not have been snagged by one of our schools if this was the case and he does have the birthmark. ”
“Everything means something,” Liam said. “I picked the hostel Sage ended up at for a reason. What do you think Adrian being a phoenix means?”
“I couldn’t begin to speculate. Since I only have legends from thousands of years ago, I don’t really know what he’s capable of. There are stories that phoenix tears cure anything and that phoenixes possess the eternal flame.”
“Like, a flame that could burn two void beings and kill them permanently?” I asked.
“Not that kind of fire. The eternal flame is primal, almost like Liam’s connection to nature.
It’s been said it can impart knowledge, but it’s also supposed to create balance.
Even if Adrian does have the eternal flame and the balance he can bring with it is making sure Apep and his mate can’t destroy the world, no one here knows how to teach him to do that since this is the first phoenix to ever end up here in the history of Ouroboros Academy and as far as I can tell, Adrian didn’t wake up when he was reborn as his immediate thought was to flirt and throw a party. ”
“I don’t think that’s the only reason. Iman is their mate. They had no idea because she was doing cat stuff and decided to not even tell them in private,” Khalid said.
“It’s her story to tell, but Iman had an incredibly tough life before she ended up here. She is very much an introvert and two of her mates are definitely extroverts.”
“I lost track of Radames and Lola after Adrian came back from the dead,” I said. “Iman was just going to not shift, so they didn’t connect her to the cat, but they would have to know Adrian can ID him as the one who killed him.”
“Adrian must have magic dick because everyone was just so happy he wasn’t really dead, no one asked who killed him,” Liam said.
“Arsehole, everyone watched you bury your switchblade between his eyes,” Lucian said.
“Zombie, dipshit. A dead man literally crawled out of his grave. It was justified, and he didn’t stay dead. I meant the first time. I only thought he might actually be the reincarnation of Jesus after I killed him.”
“Mr. O’Breen, this is a magical school and you are all reincarnations. The logical explanation was that it was a hint who Adrian was,” Headmaster Mykene said.
“If you were wrong, he might have eaten Sage’s brains and I would have had to kill everyone here in my grief.”
“You’ve rotted your brain with television. Zombies don’t eat brains. They are generally slaves created by magic users and it’s forbidden, so the chances of you coming across one are pretty slim.”
“He had no way of knowing that since our time in the library has been devoted to the Forsaken Ones. I thought he was the Restless Dead since his shade didn’t come to the veil,” Khalid said.
“I’d love to know where a phoenix’s shade goes when they die so I’m going to fight through his army of adoring fans at the tavern and ask,” Professor Gefn hummed.
“That would be a fascinating.”
“I didn’t scream the second time Adrian died,” I said.
I felt it the first time and knew someone died. The only reason I knew Adrian died the second was being I was standing right there.
“I don’t think you’ll feel it if Adrian happens to die again.
I think his first death unlocked his magical powers after he was reborn.
So many people have tried to cheat death and as far as I know, only a few have succeeded and only for a short while.
Apep couldn’t be killed by his contemporaries, but he eventually died in Fairy because he’s reincarnated and killing my students. ”
If Adrian had a weakness, then Radames and Lola did, too. I couldn’t help but feel Adrian was the answer to stopping them for good.