The Dark Magic 2

Part 16

I was soon back into the library. If Skylar was this mad at Tracy, I figured she wouldn't care what happened, right? And she was pretty much the one person who knows the definite location of both schools. Tracy, Bell and I only know the secret route there, but I figured that it would be in the same direction.
"I'm sorry!" Tracy was crying across the table from me, Bell wrapped around her like a giant teddy bear.
"Look, Tracy, you kind of ticked off possibly the most powerful caster on either of our schools," I continued reading, not looking up as I spoke "And I'm sure as hell that she's not gonna care what happens to you,"
"Yeah, but only to her," Kevin said, also trying to calm Tracy down. We had reluctantly told him nearly everything. Mostly because he wouldn't stop asking "It doesn't mean it'll start a full out war,"
I looked up at him "Kevin, do you even know Skylar?"
"Uh...."
"I've been friends with her since childhood. And I've seen inside her head. Of course, her thought patterns would be to go extreme and tell them where the location of Lonerth is,"
"And what are you even reading?"
"The most likely scenario if both our schools clashed in an all-out, end-of-it-all battle. If they did launch one without us knowing,"
"We would be completely decimated?" He asked.
"Absolutely so. But the small issue, I just realized, is our principal. He would descend like a plague upon the  Alrium students. Their school would be cursed and them too. So it would basically be mutual destruction,"
"What if we were prepared?" Kevin asked.
"Would involve telling too many people. And guess what'll happen when the principle inevitably heard of this?"
"A all out attack?" Kevin asked. I nodded.
"And then both our schools would clash, causing massive deaths on either side and blam. One of us will launch an all-powerful attack or something, and the other will launch one back just before they're destroyed,"
I threw my pencil on the table for dramatic effect.
"Have you found any scenario when both of our schools wouldn't be destroyed?" Kevin asked. I quickly looked over my notes and sadly shook my head.
"Only if our schools continue to not know where each other is, then thats our only hope,"
"So we need to stop Skylar from revealing anything,"
"And that entire group," I nodded.
"How are you planning to do that?" He demanded.
"Uh," I looked away, realizing I had absolutely no plan whatsoever "Im...working on that. Meanwhile, we need to assemble a small defence party of sorts. Like a small group of people, who we can trust, that'll feed us intel around the walls just in case of attack,"
"Let me remind you that right now, that's pretty much only you, me, Bell, and Tracy,"
"I'm pretty sure I know some other people," A grin spread across my face.
"Who?"
"I have a few friends. I'll handle the makeshift defence. You handle getting into Arlium,"

Kevin's POV

Austin's instructions were rather simple. Get into Skylars room, and find her Arlium uniform. Tracy fumbled with the lock.
"I can't seem to make this budge," SHe said, trying the lockpicking spell for the third time.
"Let me try the old fashioned way," I pulled out a couple of pins and levitated them into the lock. After twisting and turning them, I found the sweet spot and the lock opened.
"What do you need that for, theif?" Tracy teased and walked inside. Skylar's robe laid crumpled on the floor. It was pretty wrinkly, but we still got the basic concept. A lot of gold and white, as well as a cape. Tracy grabbed it and stuffed it in her pocket.
"Alright. Now what?" I asked.
"We go down to the village and see if we can find a tailor who will make a duplicate. I and Bell are going to infiltrate Arlium,"
"Aw, why can't I come?" I fake whined.
"Because we don't know what a guys uniform looks like. Now come on,"

We made our way down to the village. It was the weekend, so we didn't have any classes. Me and Tracy bounced from store to store, looking for a tailor. Eventually, we ended up heading to the student market. A few students got the brilliant idea to open a marketplace of their own in the village. It was located in a large alleyway. You could find almost anything here, from normal school supplies to questionable, probably less than legal substances. There were also hired muscle apparently. I hated it. Besides being uncomfortably small, it was also extremely dangerous if you are hated by someone. Because unless your tough, smart or charasmatic, your probably going to die. We eventually found a tailor who would recreate a similar robe. Tracy gave them a extra large amount of gold to not question where they got it, why they needed it and not to tell anyone. While we waited, Tracy suggested taking a look at the other stalls. We eventually ended up getting some weird tasting noodles. As we ate in the eating area, which was a few table and chairs lit up by loosely strung paper lanterns, I figured to ask Tracy a question.
"How long did you know AUstin for?"
"I think we became friends when we were eight or nine," SHe replied, taking another mouthful of noodles.
"Where do you think hes getting these 'friends'?" I asked, lowering my voice.
"He ran a spy business a few years back, so hes probably getting them from there,"
"You dont suppose he's hiring people here, right?" Tracy looked at me then burst into laughter.
"A-austin. Here. Your kidding, right? There's no way. He might be pretty powerful now, but considering how many people put bounties on his head because of his spy business, Id eat my own daggers before he'd show up here,"
I looked around. It's not that I didn't trust Tracy. I trusted her with my life and more. But around us, there seemed to be a constant deal going on. A small student talking to a large, hunchbacked one. A man with his face obscured by a leather cloak going about his business. And four men sitting hunched at a table, one in black robes and the other three dressed like makeshift mercenaries. For some reason though, I recognized the robes. I couldn't remember where they were from, but I just remembered them. I pointed this out to Tracy and she seemed uncertain.
"Its probably just a random guy, but those do look like Austin's robes..."
The men and robes seemed to be getting along rather well, ordering a constant flow of drinks. It seemed like Robes had just said something controversial because the three men all looked at him in surprise. One shook their heads hard. The middle one crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. He said something to Robes, and he nodded. Then he seemed to negotiate a bit before pulling out a bag of gold. The middle man's eyes widened and a grin spread across his face. he extended his hand and Robes shook it. I couldn't see the proper hand since it was covered by a leather glove, but I noticed a small flap open up, revealing pale skin with dark veins. Just like Austins left arm...

"I really think that's Austin," I whispered.
"Did you not hear what I just said? It's probably some random guy making a deal. For all we know it could be on his very head,"
"No, I saw something black on pale skin. It has to be him, who else has very visible black veins?" Tracy took that into consideration.
"So what? What are you getting at?"
"What if its Austin and he's hiring untrustworthy people? Because if he's hiring them, hed have to tell them something,"
"Hmm," Tracy scratched her chin "I trust Austin's judgment, but sometimes he is pretty...oblivious," I nodded in agreement.
"I'm going to go take a look," I stood up. Tracy hissed at me to sit back down but I walked over to their table. One of the men caught my eye, and his eyes seemed to hiss at me. I continued and put a hand on Austin's shoulder. He whipped around, standing up at the same time. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it surely wasn't a masked face. I couldn't even see his eyes, they were covered up with glowing, purple magic light.
"Kevin??" He asked in surprise "What are you doing here?"
"What are YOU doing here?" I asked
"Wraith, who is this?" The man in the middle asked. Wraith? I looked at Austin. At this point, Tracy had also came over.
"I'm getting people for the makeshift defence, what are YOU doing here?" He asked again.
"We were looking for a tailor to duplicate the uniforms. Austin, are you seriously hiring random strangers for a very important lookout?"
"These arent 'random people'" Austin explained "I've known these guys since I was eleven. They're cool,"