Codex

10 - Division Debunked, Sort Of

Flynn laughed out, stupidly loud, attracting a lot of eyes as we walked through the Order's main courtyard. "I can't believe this! You're coming to me for help?" he rubbed it in my face, "Did hell freeze over? Did the ocean dry up?" He held his stomach, crying with laughter, even pointing at my concerned but irritated face.

"You're a jackass, man. A total moron," I said, "it's actually astonishing that you didn't utterly fail at life."

He grabbed me by the collar, "Say that again, you mistake," he said, his face switched up.

"You're a useless piece of shit!" I shouted. He curled his fist back, and I did the same, we socked each other in the cheek and stumbled back. We bounced back and I sent a kick right to his midsection but he dodged, creeping in on the outside and sank another punch to my other cheek. I lost my footing a little but regained balance, catching him back with a swinging backhand when he neared me again. We snared at each other and clenched our fists again, going in for another round, but a dense wall of water suddenly formed and our fists sank into the sludge-like water. Dawn's water wyrm was the culprit, and honestly, I was relieved it wasn't Mary the demon.

"Eric, professor, please conduct yourselves," Dawn asked of us, nervously. I took one look at Flynn and scoffed, cast Dispel and just walked away, taking her by the hand and bringing her with me. She released the Water Wall before she could leave with me.

"So, what was that about?" she asked, slowing me down.

"I asked for advice on how to manage a large class. He laughed at me."

"Huh? That's it?!"

"What do you mean 'that's it'? That's a lot!" I folded my arms.

"So, you're mad at him?" she sat me down on a bench nearby.

I looked left, then right, and shrugged, "Nah, not worth it. We're always like that."

"Well," she tittered, "he is your father."

"Which is depressing..." I rubbed the back of my head, "Listen, Dawn," my legs felt like led, "I've been thinking about you, about us, but mostly about you." I noticed her priming herself up, she probably sweated buckets internally. Her nervousness was clear to me, and in a way, it reflected my own apprehension about taking our relationship further. My usual straightforward half-lexicon of words was there, yet I couldn't help but feel I wasn't my usual brazen self. "What is it you want? What is it you want to do? How do you picture our lives together if you're able to stand me? I feel like I know nothing about you. Why do you study magic anyway?"

A long silence echoed between us, as she contemplated various things in her mind. She faced forward as if to change the topic and tucked her hair behind her ear, "I'll just, keep it short. My uncle, dad's brother, was a mage from the Order, and probably more of a father figure to me than my father was. We were pretty close and I guess, I was pretty impressionable when I was younger. He taught me a bit of magic, and I came to like it because of him. One day, he was given a mission to investigate someone the Order suspected of practising forbidden magic. That was the last we saw of him. Dad grew suspicious, questioned the Order and eventually made enemies with them after years of talks about my uncle's disappearance. At first magic was just interesting for me, now it's more of a tool to unravel what happened to my uncle.

As for you, well," she folded her arms and turned her face away from me, "you notice nothing!" she said angrily.

After that sap story, she said that and totally derailed my ongoing investment in her. "Wow, yeah, you really don't notice anything huh? Aren't you worried about copulating? You know, like other boys your age?"