Chapter 5 Rune #2
“Hey!” Zuko pouted. “That was sentimental.”
Jesper turned back to the panel. “Do you require medical attention?”
Zuko winked. “Only if Rune’s doing mouth-to-mouth.”
Slater high-fived him.
I rolled my eyes.
Jesper muttered something under his breath and snapped his fingers, shifting the simulator around us into mission configurations.
Zuko leaned in, breath hot against my ear. “If you stab me again, pretty little poison, at least aim higher.”
“Shut up,” I huffed. “You got my knife confiscated.”
“Don’t be like that.” Zuko nudged me with his shoulder, as if I hadn’t literally just stabbed him. “This was my first intimate exchange. Are you going to take responsibility for me?”
I stared ahead, still pouting, refusing to look at him. “You got blood on my boot.”
“Sharing fluids already,” he sighed happily. “This is going better than I planned.”
“No fair,” Slater mumbled grumpily. “Why did you stab him and not me?”
“That’s how she flirts,” Zuko purred.
“My question still stands.” Slater crossed his arms.
“Since this is not a real mission, do remember you will be entering a simulation of the Bizarre,” Jesper cut us off.
“It’s essentially a reconstruction of a quarantined village that had been sealed off twenty years ago after a dark magic ritual went wrong.
There is no dark magic residue, but there is magical essence rot from the failed ritual.
Objectives are: investigate a magical anomaly pulsing at the town center.
Free or neutralize a tortured phantom caught in a corrupted binding circle that has been there for the entirety of the quarantine, but be aware he is likely unstable and hostile.
Track down a rogue warlock who is siphoning power to the anomaly.
Prevent the magical essence rot from spreading to the nearby forest or other nearby villages.
Contain or eradicate the warlock without full magical support.
That means no enchanted or digital assistance allowed.
You cannot go in with weapons, but you can use any that you find within the simulation.
If you’re caught cheating, failure. If you leave a squad member behind, failure.
If you die, a simulated death, obviously, you lose points.
Depending on how you are eliminated, you may or may not fail.
If you are taken out, you will be frozen to the spot you were killed and have to observe the rest of the mission from that point until the simulation is complete. ”
He let that information sink in for a few moments, and I did my best to forget about Slater and Zuko beside me.
This trial needed my total focus.
“You have four hours. All applicant squads will be rotated through the two simulators the academy has over the next twelve hours. Everything you do will be recorded and reviewed by me and the professors that will watch from the monitor outside. This includes your decision-making under pressure, your leadership skills, how you protect your team, and how you handle moral ambiguity. Use your instincts. Think fast. Work together.”
I bit down slightly on my lower lip, drawing blood with a hiss. I licked it as it healed.
Dimitri’s red eyes caught on mine. His fangs descended as he jerked his head away from me.
My lips curved at the corners. Was the vampire interested in my blood?
Perhaps I could trade him. My blood for his venom?
It would be a perfect exchange.
“Rune will be the spy.” Jesper’s brown eyes settled on me.
My heart pounded wildly in my chest as I met his gaze.
“Your mission is to infiltrate the village under the guise of a magical researcher studying the aftermath. You need to find signs of the rogue warlock and maintain character to distract him because he will be watching you, even if you do not see him. Lull him into a false sense of security, understood?”
I winked. “Understood, mister agent.”
His muscles quivered ever so slightly. “Do you have any more weapons on you?”
“Other than my venom?” I flashed him my fangs. “That was my only one.”
“Good.” He turned to Dimitri quickly. “You’re the enforcer of this squad, meaning you are to act as a physical shield. You will negotiate through strength or become brute-force backup when it is needed.”
“Understood.” Dimitri took a deep breath, and his fangs receded into his gums.
“Zuko, as the torture expert, your job is to interrogate anyone you find at the village. It’s an abandoned village, but that doesn’t exactly mean there will be nobody present,” Jesper continued. “Do not lose focus.”
“Sick. Just when I thought this would be boring.” Zuko grinned.
Jesper raised a brow. “Do you understand your mission?”
“Understood.”
Jesper hesitated for a split second before moving on. “Slater, as the arcane specialist, your job is to decipher the corrupted runes or bindings in the ritual all around the village. You have to decide whether to contain or free the phantom. That may require more risk.”
“Understood, future brother-mate.” Slater winked.
I groaned.
Was he going to call every male I thought was attractive that?
Jesper’s brows furrowed, and he opened his mouth before snapping it shut and moving on.
“Aura, being the tech specialist means that without being equipped with tech, you must create anything you need by using old tools and electric wires from village houses. Perhaps even unlocking certain locations within the village.”
“Understood,” she replied softly.
“Coralynn, as the intelligence analyst, you need to map the pattern of magical and natural decay through clues in the abandoned village. Predict where the next anomaly will spread. Figure out what is going on and how to stop it.”
Coralynn nodded with a smile. “Understood.”
“Koa, as healer, you keep the team alive during the mission. You may also have to stabilize the phantom stuck in the ritual or purify magical essence rot from a team member.”
“Got it.” Koa nodded, crossing his arms. His muscles bulged from the movement, and I had to tear my gaze away from him.
“Eleanor, being the diplomatic envoy means it’s your job to negotiate with the phantom and the warlock. Perhaps you could prevent a fight. Maybe you can calm a terrified phantom who’s seen too much. It’s up to you.”
“Understood,” she agreed with a determined nod.
“Good luck,” Jesper said, his eyes meeting mine for a few moments before he turned toward the controls. “Initiating field practical exam, third trial. Version two.” A loud chime echoed through the simulation as Jesper hit the large green holographic button.
The simulation of the abandoned village fell into place around us.
Heat clung to everything, distorting the horizon in shimmering waves. The season within the simulator was consistent with summer, but that was the only familiarity.
A thick, metallic rot crawled along my skin and made my gums itch. It was an uncommon scent of magical decay.
The ground was stripped of wild overgrowth and creeping vines as if the fae had abandoned the land completely, and maybe they had. There was only dry dirt beneath my boots. Even the trees stood wilted, their bark flaking. Not a single leaf blessed the branches.
The structures in the villages, at least the ones still intact, were brittle stone and scorched wood, warped by magic and time.
Some homes had partially sunk into the earth, while others leaned at crooked angles.
Shadows moved in the corners even where there should have been none, curling along the ground in slow, syrupy movements.
I knew it wasn’t a glitch in the simulation, so it had to be there for a reason.
At the center of it all stood a statue—a war monument.
Jesper had told us about it, but it pulsed with weakened magical energy, faint and irregular.
It was defaced in red runes, old and messy, bleeding into the air.
The magical energy surrounding the monument was so thick it was palpable, yet it carried a rotten aroma.
Everywhere else in this village was lacking magical energy. Yet, around the monument, magic fractured in the air.
“That’s magical essence rot,” Coralynn murmured softly, pulling her long blonde hair into a bun on her head with the tie that was on her wrist.
“What’s magical essence rot?” Slater asked, making a face at the rot of an oozing dark green substance that leached from the ground near the monument. It grew outward, webbing into the surrounding forest as if it were spilled ink. “It’s gross.”
“And dangerous,” Coralynn emphasized. “It’s like a virus that doesn’t exist on its own or in nature, but when it’s brought somewhere, it spreads and consumes all the magical energy it can.
It’s one of the possible side effects of dark magic rituals.
Whether they’re successful or not. It eats away at magical essence and will drain any nearby supernaturals’ reserves unless it’s purified by a purification ritual. ”
“Purification ritual?” Aura asked, tilting her head and blinking her big blue eyes. “How do we do that?”
“Arcane specialist should know,” Coralynn suggested, glancing at Slater.
“Don’t ask me.” Slater held his hands up, and his chaos manifestation curled around his neck. “I have no fucking clue. I’m not a warlock.”
Coralynn smiled slightly. “I have a friend who is super into anything to do with witch magic. She’s told me a lot about rituals, and purification rituals are usually done by a witch or warlock.
However, they can be done with other supernaturals.
It just takes more focus and more magical essence.
Either way, we should probably do it before it eats away at our magic. ”
“That’s a good idea.” Eleanor wobbled on her long legs as she took a step away from the rot. “We should do that now.”