Just a Bystander

Herding

'The boundaries aren't clear enough,' Devon snarled as he paced back and forth, uncharacteristically angry. I didn't blame him.

We were all back in the dorm. Kevan and Lynus had retreated to their room while the rest of us were gathered around the table again. It was a similar scene to the morning, but a lot had changed in the last few hours.

'No, they're not,' Jerric agreed shakily, pinching the bridge of his nose.

'This is wrong, totally wrong,' Devon continued.

'Let's calm down, then we can discuss this rationally,' I said, trying to project confidence. But my own voice betrayed me and cracked a little.

A glance at Ambrose told me that he was doing a lot better than the rest of us. We were all just slowing piecing ourselves together from the emotional trauma we had endured at the hands of Kevan's compulsion, and it showed in red-rimmed eyes, runny noses, and patchy breaths. He, on the other hand, didn't seem to have been as emotionally distraught and only looked very exhausted.

Not for the first time, I wondered if this was down to his own hard-won greater mastery over arcanophany, or if it was just a product of his Prophetic protection. I couldn't help but feel a little jealous if it was the latter. It was like plot armour in real life, and it was really beginning to grate on me. Did effort count for anything, then, if prophecies held that much sway over reality?

'Have you all managed to vent the ambient arcana in you?' Ambrose asked wearily.

Jerric and I nodded. Devon stopped his pacing and, with a great deal of effort, forced himself to sit down and focus inwards. A vague ripple disturbed the air around him.

Kevan had fled after flooring us with his compulsion. Even now, I didn't have a clear idea of exactly how he had managed to do what he did. I found myself in a deep hole of utter misery and hopelessness, and the feelings were accompanied by memories of all the occasions when I had fallen into that pit of despair over the years of my life. But it was more than that. Those feelings must have been amplified because I was sure I had never felt that depressed before. Yet somehow, Kevan had infected me with this new intensity that felt real, natural, as if it had been taken from my own life.

It was a good fifteen minutes before any of us could contemplate anything beyond ourselves. Ambrose had been the first to recover by quickly venting the ambient arcana in his system that carried Kevan's compulsion. That was another mystery - I didn't know why Kevan's compulsion was still in effect even though he was gone and had released his hold on the ambient arcana.

I took my cue from Ambrose and did the same, albeit at a much slower pace, and with less improvement. Then the two of us went about coaching the rest through the process of venting ambient arcana and keeping it out, which was made even more difficult due to the fact that we all had to work through our grief. Devon had been inconsolable for a long while. All in all, it had taken almost three hours for us to even get enough of a hold on ourselves to make it back to the dorm.

Jerric let out a long sigh. 'Kevan did something really amazing, speaking from a purely technical standpoint. But before we break it down, we do need to talk about this compulsion thing.'

'And set up absolute boundaries, with punishments,' Devon added, with more than a little venom.

'No,' Jerric said, surprising us all. He looked momentarily taken aback by the look of outrage from Devon, then clarified, 'I mean, I'm not against that, but I'm talking about the bigger picture here.'

'You mean with the Academy encouraging this,' I surmised.

'Exactly.' He looked emotionally wrung out, but somehow he managed to rally. It was strangely encouraging to watch him handle himself so well. 'Why is the Academy getting us to learn something like this on our own time? Why isn't it formally taught, with clear principles, guidelines, and boundaries laid out and enforced with the authority of the professors?'