Chapter Text
Epel, Yuu, and Rook sat around a fire as Trey tended to their meal for that evening. He wasn’t the most experienced with campfire food, but the goal was to produce something edible, not provide a fine dining experience. “Man, Rook, Ace, and Deuce all said you make the best food. Thanks for cooking for us. I didn’t even think about food when I decided to come.”
“It is truly a treat, I have never been able to resist,” Rook replied with a smile.
“It’s hardly anything to write home about. Just a simple stew.” Trey shook his head.
“Still looks amazing,” Epel replied before looking toward Rook. He also knew that the baker didn’t like being the center of attention, something he could sympathize with, so he asked a question that had been on his mind since they’d left. “You said you didn't know where the Island of Woe was, but you could ‘envision’ where Vil and the others were. What did you mean by that?”
Rook just chuckled a bit. He wasn’t any better at revealing his secrets, but he saw no harm in telling his charge. Especially knowing who the boy’s soulmate was. “The gift of my unique magic,” he brought a hand to his chest.
“I haven’t heard you talk about yours before.” Yuu, who’d already been offered a Pomefiore uniform to fight the bitter cold, looked at him curiously. “I know several, actually I think Riddle’s was the first one I learned about. When Ace showed up with that collar around his neck.”
Trey stirred the stew and sighed. “There was never any hiding his. And Cater uses his rather freely, but other mages might prefer to keep theirs secret, or use more discretion.”
“Mon amour is right,” the hunter nodded. “As with Monsieur Multi, if his magic was more common knowledge, it would prove less effective. In my case, there is generally no reason to bring it up. It’s rather weak in comparison to others you may know. I can’t lock away anyone’s powers like Roi de Roses, or place a curse on another like Roi de Poison. It’s not as versatile as Monsieur Magicam’s or Roi d'Effort’s.”
“Then what can you do?” Epel asked, it was an interesting subject for the boy who had yet to discover his own.
“It enables me to locate anyone upon whom I cast it. Even if they go over the Seven Jeweled Hills, or go beyond the Seventh Fall...even to the very edge of the world.” Rook waxed a bit poetically.
“Okay, now I know why the two of you are soulmates.” Yuu stared at the pair of 3rd years. “Trey tried to say his magic wasn’t that great before, when he can warp reality. And now you’re here telling me that you’re the king of persistence predators, and acting like it's no big deal. That’s terrifying that once you cast your magic on a person, they can’t hide from you.”
Both Trey and Rook looked a bit flustered. “Ah, it’s omnipotent by any means. If someone is using magic to shield themselves, then my spell is not strong enough to penetrate it. Something STYX is unfortunately very adept at.”
“Then how are you following them?” Epel looked confused.
Rook shook his head. “There are moments when they have to drop from their magical stealth. At those times, I’m able to pinpoint their location before it goes dark again.”
“That’s still really useful.” Yuu looked slightly disturbed. “All I have to say is I’m glad all of you are on my side.” It really was reassuring, one way or another, she knew they’d find Grim and save their friends.
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Vil crossed his arms. So far, he was extremely disgruntled about the experience. “Now that you’ve run us through the equivalent of a human dishwasher, and tried to destroy my skin - which I will bill you for any restorative treatment I have to undergo- you will tell us exactly what’s going on.”
Idia just sighed. “I have a video for you to watch,” he hit play as the video whirled to life. ‘Audio and video recording of footage shown within this facility is prohibited by law. If you begin to feel ill during the video, please notify staff at once.’
The group of overblot victims stood, watching the grainy image on the screen that looked like it was at least 3 decades out of date. It lasted about 10 minutes, vaguely going over the purpose of the STYX facility and what they did. But it all felt like an ancient after school anti drug psa.
“That…was some of the worst videography I’ve seen in my life. Was your budget 5 madol?” Vil spoke unimpressed.
“I know Vil has high standards.” Jamil cut in. “But I have to agree. I barely retained anything. It was painful to watch.”
Idia had a tired look on his face. It was clear he wanted to get away from all of them, but he had a job to do. “Well, if you want the tl;dr version…” he huffed, crossing his arms. “ Magic is a fancy miracle power with lots of unknowns, and Styx makes sure people use it safely. They've been researching blot since the olden days, like when people wrote on clay tablets and stuff.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Leona rolled his wrist. “We get it, STYX deals with blot, and we've all overblot. So what horrible experiments are you doing on us? And more importantly, why did you have to drag our soulmates into this?”
“Whee hee hee, I'm glad you asked! To start with…” the acting director had a sinister grin on his face. “I'm gonna strap you all to chairs so you can't move, and examine you with a bunch of probes. That way I can score some sweet data on the correlation between stress and blot accumulation!”
Riddle took a step back with a horrified look on his face. “You don’t think you can really get away with something outrageous like that, do you?!?!”
“Of course not,” Idia scoffed. “Don’t you know what a joke is?”
“It wasn’t exactly funny,” Azul spoke softly. He still had his arms wrapped around himself, slightly sunken in.
The other immediately flattered. “I…” he brought up a hand to the back of his neck. “I’m sorry.”
Vil crossed his arms, glaring at Idia. “I have to agree. You've taken our clothes and magic away. We're completely at your mercy. I’d ask you to refrain from making any more jokes.”
“Eh…” Idia felt awkward, but he launched back into his explanation. “When you overblot, all the blot you can't hold spills out and takes on a giant form. You guys saw the faceless monsters that appeared behind you, right?” he pointed a finger in the air. “Well, we call those Phantoms. You weren't exactly yourselves, so I don't know how much you registered. But when you overblotted, you were able to use magic way beyond your normal reserves. Do you know why?”
“No, but I’m sure you’re about to tell us,” Jamil muttered.
The acting director moved on, ignoring the slight interruption. ”It was because of those monsters. Phantoms feed on blot that's filled with the mage's darkest emotions. It's their energy source. You should all know, Blot is a toxic matter that's generated when you use magic. Normally, it's nothing but a debuff.” His excitement grew as he talked about something he was extremely knowledgeable about. ” But when you're in overblot mode, that debuff turns into a buff.
That's why overblotted mages instinctively blow through their reserves and keep generating blot.
The Phantoms suck it all up and get a bigger and bigger POW bonus. And once the mage exhausts the last of their reserves...their job as an incubator is finished.”
“ An...incubator?” Riddle nearly shouted.
“Yup. It's like you're an energy drink. Once they've drunk the last drop, the empty can gets chucked in the trash. The caster is gone, leaving only a monster that's driven by hunger and negative emotions. They wander the land, refusing to let go and spewing hexes all over the place. Hence the name Phantom. At that point, either the Arcane Response Unit steps in and slays them…” he paused, looking at the horrified looks on the others’ faces. “Or they're captured and brought here for research. Though I've heard of ultra-rare cases where they manage to blend in with direbeasts and other wildlife and hide in the mountains.”
Jamil brought a hand to his chin. “ I mean, I knew that if someone overblotted and spent all their magical reserves they would die…”
Azul tried to relax a little bit, but it was hard. He was still dealing with everything he’d found out. He didn’t know why he felt so betrayed right now. “ But the monster living on after that? It's a bit hard to believe.”
The rest of the explanation died on Idia’s tongue.
Vil, however, stepped in. “Well, I think at this point we understand what you want with us. But this still doesn’t explain why you took the others.”
Idia sighed as he brought a hand up to his arm. “We already established that your cases are extremely rare. Most overblots end in death for the caster. It's not often they’re brought back from the brink of the abyss. We didn’t even really know that the energy from overblot could be felt, but Soulmates thought logically it made sense as a theory.”
The group listened intently as he continued his explanation. “It’s not a secret that the experience is extremely painful for your counterparts. Their inclusion in our experiment is two-fold. To see if there is some way to shield a soulmate from the pain caused by overblot, and to see if your soulmates taking on some of that negative energy is the reason you were able to recover.”
“With the others, I suppose that could be a plausible theory.” Azul looked away. “But I don’t have a soulmate, as I told you. Wouldn’t my survival be enough to prove your theory wrong?”
Idia paused for a moment, clearly flustered. “We really don’t know,” he finally admitted. “It’s worth studying alongside ways to help shield them from the pain during overblot.”
Vil’s temper had at least been quelled a bit. He’d been horrified at the pain he’d put Cater through. “As long as you don’t do anything to harm them.’
Riddle closed his eyes in thought. He’d had no idea that Floyd had been affected at first. It wasn’t until he’d witnessed what had happened to Ruggie that he’d questioned the eel on his own experience, and the other had come clean. “I agree.”
“Alright then, we’ll go over the paperwork,” Idia instructed, as everyone else sighed.
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Ortho had been given care of the group of soulmates. He was having a slightly better time as he explained what was going on to the 4 of them.
“So you’re saying this is all to help ‘Zul, Goldfishie, and the others?” Floyd scratched the top of his head. “Why didn’t you say that when you picked us up?”
“They’re not used to dealing with rational targets,” the boy tried to explain.
This entire thing was definitely pushing the limits of Cater’s carefree nature, but he did like the idea of someone checking Vil, Riddle, and the others out after what had happened to them. “I don’t like that we can’t see them. But I get what you’re doing.”
“I might be able to arrange a video call between tests.” Ortho offered.
“It would be nice to be able to check on Jamil,” Ace admitted. “ I imagine he’s going nuts with how things were left.” Not being able to be there to protect Kalim had to be putting his soulmate on edge, or at least the first year, thought. He’d be shocked to learn the other was more concerned about him than his master.
“Some days I don’t think Leona knows how to function without me.” Ruggie laughed, masking his own real feelings.
“Goldfishie can take care of himself,” Floyd replied with confidence. “Azul might cry, though.”
“I’ll speak with Idia and let you know.” The boy replied excitedly. “But I should go consult with him. You can make yourselves comfortable for now. We’ll let you know when testing is starting on group 1.”
With that, Ortho exited the room, heading toward the control room, where he and his brother would watch the testing. He arrived before Idia and turned his attention to the live feed from their room.
He’d always found his brother’s behavior around Azul Ashengrotto to be curious in nature. He never treated anyone else that way. But there was a lot about humans and their interactions Othro admittedly didn’t understand, even when that human was his own brother.
Idia had never told him his suspicions about Azul, Ortho having no idea that his brother had suppressed his own soul link. But the way he grew almost timid during their interactions. The way his heart rate changed, his eye patterns. It was clear as day to the robotic boy that Idia was hiding something. Even his speech patterns varied where the octomer was concerned.
What he did know was that Idia considered Azul a friend. One of the few he’d allowed himself at Night Raven College. “This is the first time we’ve ever had friends to our home,” he acknowledged. “Maybe Idia is nervous about the circumstances. Maybe I should do something to help make them feel more welcome,” he questioned out loud.
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“There you are,” Sebek spoke as he walked into the room where Silver sat with Kalim.
“Did you need something?” Silver asked him, tilting his head to the side. “Has something else happened?”
“No, campus is secure at the moment, Lilia, however, asked me to locate you. I think there are some things he wishes to discuss about the invasion.” The first year replied as his eyes flickered to the bed and the bandages around the boy’s head and chest. “What happened to Spade?”
“He pushed Yuu out of the way of some falling debris,” Kalim explained, though his normal cheerful attitude was dampened. “If you need to go Silver, it’s okay, I’ll be alright here with Deuce.”
“We should be going,” Sebek replied curtly, turning his gaze to from the boy on the bed to his friend.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Silver promised before squeezing his soulmate’s hand and placing a soft kiss on his forehead.
The pair of Diasomnia students left together as Kalim sank back into his chair.