Chapter 4 Drecken
drecken
. . .
Forty-three students out of the applicant pool failed to withstand an arcane attack to the academy’s standards, but there was one more student left…
Rune Bloodwyne; Sabine Bloodwyne’s daughter. Sabine had been a colleague of mine for several decades, but I’d never met her daughter before. I had heard of her, of course. Though, I’d never seen her until today.
And now, I was locked up in the Apex Simulator with this…peculiar young woman.
Her midnight orchid scent overwhelmed me in a way no scent ever had. It wrapped around the edges of my psyche, like a vine growing through an old magic circle.
She was short but not fragile. I saw that much from her spar with the dragon agent.
She walked with slow steps rather than bursts of movement.
Her hair was impossible, and it intrigued me greatly.
Rich, dark greens melted into neon greens at the tips, glowing faintly like bioluminescence.
She wore it in two messy knots on top of her head.
Loose strands curled around her pleasant-to-look-at face.
I’d never quite enjoyed looking at anyone before, but I reveled in studying her appearance.
Golden eyes, bright as enchanted ambers and twice as unnerving, scanned over the inside of the sleek simulator as if she was measuring how fast she could kill me if she had to.
It was rather…cute. I did believe cute was the correct word.
She took in the walls that were lined with obsidian mirrors and crystalline-based monitors, mixing enchanted visual and tactile projections with virtual reality scenarios.
When her gaze finally met mine… something ancient and instinctive shifted in my chest. It wasn’t lust. It was bone-deep recognition of power meeting power.
Her skin was pale, faintly luminous, and her build was slender, deceptively so—like a serpent before it strikes.
Considering she was a basilisk, same as her mother, it made sense.
Tattoos crawled over her rather stunningly: a skull and crossbones on her wrist, a potion bottle inked into her upper arm, a black snake curled around the opposite arm, and the words ‘pretty poison’ were scripted in delicate font over her collarbone.
I’d already noticed the piercings on her tongue, ears, and the gleam of light off the one on her belly button that had become visible when her shirt lifted while fighting Jesper.
And I…a warlock who had been around over a century…had completely forgotten what I was supposed to be saying. Because for the first time in all my centuries, I looked at another being with more interest than just power level.
“Professor Grimsworn?” She tilted her head, taking a couple of steps forward. “I’m ready when you are.”
Spatial magic coated my tongue. The air buzzed with layered enchantments, and it pressed against my eardrums.
Something about the way she said my name made my magic twitch. I cleared my throat and turned to the central control holographic in the center of the simulator. My fingers flicked across the invisible glyphs woven into the air, sparking off magic every few seconds.
With a simple command, the entire simulator could become a war zone, a cityscape, a wasteland, or even a reconstructed historical event.
This simulator was adaptive, sentient, and ruthless.
Only staff could control it, and even then, some parts of this structure had a mind of their own.
It was a fact that we had to face, and I had a hand in creating this particular one.
“Initiating Arcane Exposure Trial. Version seven,” I said smoothly.
I was confident version seven wouldn’t kill someone of her stature.
With a low hiss, the simulator transformed.
The obsidian floor shattered into a hundred glowing rocks, each one floating at an angle. The walls splintered into spires of crystals, rippling with unstable spell intentions. An aurora of unfiltered energy shimmered across the air, and every few seconds, the magical field surged.
The simulator became a living arcane being. Breathing. Testing.
Rune stood calmly on one of the rocks, her ankle twisted at an odd angle. She looked completely unbothered. Her glowing green hair crackled faintly with static, and her magic splintered off her as she withstood it.
My composure, slowly, began to fray.
Version seven was created by my magic.
The first arcane burst hit the space below her, sending the rock she was on flying. She leapt, landing gracefully on another one.
Most students at least stumbled…aside from that vampire I’d passed a few students before her.
She simply narrowed her golden eyes and kicked off her boots with balance I’d never seen before.
When the second surge of magical power struck, she didn’t flinch. Her jaw set.
An illusion of a lost child filled her senses, but she brushed it off. Good thing, too. That illusion was not a child at all. It was a dark magic-infected warlock with a glamour…something I programmed in personally.
Usually, agents fell prey and had to at least fight the warlock.
She handled everything this version threw at her, and I was so curious to see how unbothered she truly could be by magic, so I let my power flood out of me and head toward her in a wave of crackling light.
As soon as my magic touched her aura, my soul surged with warmth. It was steady and pulsing in my chest. Somehow, she was familiar even though I’d never met her before today. It was the warmth I hadn’t felt since my parents were alive, and it cracked something deep inside of me.
She jumped across the floating rock, only pausing for a second when my magic brushed hers, leaping from one fractured surface to the next. She flipped over a barrier ward as if it was child’s play. Full grown firedrakes struggled with that barrier, but she didn’t.
She didn’t just survive the arcane storm of version seven that I’d built myself. She maneuvered around it as if it were hers, which was odd since she wasn’t a witch and couldn’t possess such control.
All of a sudden, fingertips brushed the back of my neck.
A jolt spread through my muscles, and I dropped to my knees. Just for a fraction of a second, but the simulator caught it.
Trial passed.
She…beat me?
“Did I pass?” she asked, panting just slightly, sweat forming on her collarbone, making the pretty poison tattoo shimmer.
“You...” I coughed, disoriented as I pushed to my feet and stumbled back. “Yes.”
She stepped closer. Too close. I could smell midnight orchid clinging to her skin, and it was driving me crazy in a way I’d never felt before.
“Nobody has ever outmaneuvered me before,” I uttered, rubbing the back of my neck where she had touched. “What kind of venom did you dose me with?”
Her lips curved, golden eyes gleaming with amusement. “I actually didn’t. That was just my hand.”
No.
That couldn’t be right.
My equilibrium still had me swaying slightly, legs wobbly beneath me. It was as if her magic had slipped under my skin and rewired something subtle but vital.
My breath hitched. My wards were all intact. Yet…
I stepped toward her as if on autopilot, reaching out to her without meaning to. My hand hovered an inch above her collarbone, drawn to the shimmer of sweat beading against her skin. That cursed tattoo, pretty poison, glowed faintly.
“You’re powerful,” I whispered. “You shouldn’t be able to manipulate my magic like that. And yet…I felt you do just that. You synced with it.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe it synced with me. I didn’t do anything specific.”
That was entirely possible considering what had happened. It was also entirely maddening.
Did she have some kind of special power I didn’t know about? I was briefed on the fact that any venom or poison she consumed gave her the power to excrete it as a venom, but…this was something else.
“Your venom,” I blurted, too fast. “I’d like a sample.
Purely for academic, er, research purposes, of course.
I’ve never seen basilisk magical energy interact with arcane instability like that.
You have to let me study it. Or perhaps your blood?
I would be happy with either, though, I am partial to the venom. ”
She blinked at me, startled, and then, her mouth quirked upward. “You want me to spit venom in a vial for you?”
“Yes,” I answered, excitement thrumming through me. She was much easier to deal with than Sabine. “Ideally, while your emotional state is unchanged. Or better yet, I could extract it directly. Do you wish to go to my lab with me?”
“Okay!” Gavin’s voice boomed as he entered the simulator, clapping once, hard enough to crack the silence. “That’s enough for this trial, Professor Grimsworn,” he said pointedly, stepping between us. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but my daughter needs to start the next trial.”
Right.
I cleared my throat and straightened my shirt. “Of course. She passed with distinction.”
“Everyone saw through the monitor. I’ll make a note of your…fascination,” Gavin muttered as he herded Rune away by the shoulder, throwing one final glance back over his shoulder.
Rune winked at me over hers. “I’ll give you my venom next time, Professor.”
Fates.
I could not wait to study her venom…and with how willing she offered it to me, perhaps I could convince her to let me study her blood as well.
My lips curved into a smile.
Rune Bloodwyne was interesting.