Chapter 26: Advanced Spellcasting Tactics

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December 17, 2024

Eldralore Academy

Damn, if only this place had some ketchup. Henry sat in the dining room, shoveling forkfuls of eggs, sausage, and bread into his mouth. The Guild test book they'd found yesterday lay open next to his plate, carefully angled away from any potential splatter. He'd woken up right past 8, relishing the extra hours of sleep after the usual crack-of-dawn routine.

He took a swig of the Ureth cacao Isaac had scrounged up, grimacing at the bitter taste. Even dumping half the sugar bowl in hadn't helped much. Wasn't Starbucks, but it got the job done.

It wasn't exactly early anymore – he glanced at the clock, just after nine – but the morning routine felt slower today. Sunlight filtered through the curtains, casting soft streaks across the floor. Is this what retirement might feel like? It was definitely something he could get used to. Or at least, it was definitely something he could enjoy for today.

The event logs showed nothing unusual at first glance – just the standard parade of students passing through the hallway. "Looks normal enough, yeah?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah, yeah," Henry agreed.

Ryan kept swiping through the files. Late night snack run, early riser heading to the library, then an anomaly at 0455: a single clip with no face attached, no person whatsoever present on the screen. Just a red square hovering over an empty hallway, flagged by the system as an infrared anomaly. Kinda like facial recognition software bugging out, as if trying to capture a ghost. Unless the Academy had suddenly developed a haunting, Henry could only think of two phenomenons that could produce anything like this.

Henry squinted at the feed, pinching the screen to zoom in. The clip was brief – just a handful of frames – as a patch of blue swept over the yellow heat signature of the sconce. Then, the yellow seemed to slide away, fading back to blue as it moved. Odd. The lighting was fixed, so why did the heat signature appear to shift? "Have we ruled out a glitch?"

"Yup. Checked it all already – cameras are runnin' fine. Reckon we've got ourselves an intruder. Nobian, if I had to guess, 'less somebody else figured how to go invisible."

Henry hoped that wasn't the answer, but it was the same theory he had. "Ah, for fuck's sake..."

Ryan simply shrugged. "Figured it was just a matter of time 'fore we ran into these sumbitches again."

"Can we be sure?"

Ryan hesitated. "Well..."

"Morning," Ron grumbled as he shuffled in from the kitchen, clutching a steaming mug of Ureth cacao. He took a long sip, eyes half-open. "What's going on?"

"Possible intruder," Henry said, nodding toward Ryan's tablet.

Ron raised an eyebrow, moving closer to peer at the screen. "You deadass right now?"

"Afraid so," Henry replied. "Flagged heat sig, no visual."

"Fuckin' Nobians," Ron grunted, now fully awake.

Though they were all on the same page, Henry knew better than to jump the gun. They could at least get some more opinions first. "Yeah, most likely, but we're not exactly sure yet. Mind getting Yen and Doc?"

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