He gave a toothy grin. “Early release for good behavior. I can speak, play dead, and fetch monster corpses, now. Are you gonna introduce me to this rather…unprecedented duo?”
"We're unprecedented? Should I be amused or insulted?" Juni scowled.
He didn't wait for an introduction and sat down heavily between Juni and Neska, bearing a tray heaped with rarely cooked slabs of meat piled high.
The more Neska looked at him, the more she realized he looked like a younger, less evil version of Felix, with lighter fur shades and some odd banding patterns on his arms and legs. His fur coat was trimmed shorter, his mane stylized and groomed to be shorter and less wild, and keen amber eyes met hers.
He gestured to the two of them. “What an odd couple, Syra! You need to get better at sharing. Brent Smithers, by the way.”
He extended a paw to shake hands. On the one hand, Neska found his behavior off-putting. On the other hand, given what she’d witnessed before, this might be just like with Tycus and just a little humorous ice breaker.
She took the chance and shook his. “Cassia. Just keep in mind the last canine-type monster I met had an ego problem. Our encounter didn’t end well for them,” she replied with a straight face. Or, she hoped her face remained emotionless.
Regaining a face and limbs was one thing. Remembering how they worked? That was a different matter altogether.
Brent frowned at her bold declaration. “Is that a fact? How bad are we talking?”
“I set him on fire. He really earned it, too,” she added with a grim smile. “Let’s break the streak, shall we?”
He shook her hand firmly, grinning with pointy canine fangs protruding slightly from his muzzle. “Oh, that cute-but-dangerous attitude sounds familiar. Syra, she’s just a more scaly version of you, with more refined manners. And as for you, little one?”
Juni let out a grunt of displeasure. “Juni. This 'little one' was there watching Cassia kick tail and take names, and I had a hand in that effort, and killing a few dozen monsters. What’s your claim to fame?”
“Dozens? Already killing the horde before first class?” he asked, looking impressed. “Can’t say I have quite the claim. I’m a tracker and scout. I’m about six months into my studies, I started in the winter session. You guys have that bright-eyed look, so I know you’re new.”
“He’s mostly harmless,” Syra said with a soft sigh. “And he flirts with everyone under the sun. Just give him a firm shooing, and he’ll tuck his legs and scamper away.”
I can’t even begin to contemplate romantic courtship in the middle of a monster invasion, and about three existential crises playing out on top of it. Hard pass. “Yes, my first love is study. She took me firmly,” Neska added with a trailing hiss.
Brent let out a howl of laughter. “Oh, you’re such a good sport! Don’t worry about me, I’m far more amiable when there’s real danger around, and we’re up against the Varadur. I hear danger long before they come into range. Or I can sniff them out, too.”
“And what do the Varadur smell like?” Juni asked, her curiosity finally getting the better of her.
“Less washed, in general.” He wrinkled his muzzle. “No joke, if you go in the field, ditch any hygienic products before you leave. They can smell them, some of the more perceptive ones. Free piece of advice, especially for canine types like myself. The other workaround is sensory overload from a nauseating scent to disorient them.”
Oh, so he’s more than he lets on? I’ll take usable information any day. “So, I haven’t seen many…” Neska trailed off.
“Canines?” he asked, before tapping a claw on the table. “Yeah. It's kind of hard to beat a rap for something you didn’t do, before you even showed up at the academy.”
This got her attention. “So you’re being punished for something?”
“For sharing a form with a reviled fiend,” he answered, his tone bitter. “Four years ago, a canine-type Awakened murdered and ate a student in a dispute that got way out of hand, and lost control of himself. Some say he was provoked, others say he stone-cold devoured the kid as lunch. They almost didn’t even take me in on account of still-fresh memories of one or two professors who were there. The only thing I know aside from the fact that people won’t even name the attacker, is that they came from Bregin. It’s a little forest town north and west of here, by the crossroads with the eastern Valos high road.”
Juni tilted her head at Neska, likely thinking the same thing at the same time: Felix.
Even many years after the incident, Felix’s betrayal had fractured the trust of the students. “That’s a hard thing to live with. But you can only control your own actions, Brent,” Juni said in a matter-of-fact voice. “Don’t bear the blame for what others did.”
“You say that, but…you stick around here long enough, you notice the trust between the various Awakened has a cracked foundation. Or the humanoids,” he added with a shrug. “Look, it's not all dour, either. Keep your chins up, and don’t go dead-eyed like a few around here, believing there is no hope of victory. I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me, and reasons to keep fighting for humanity. It sounds like you two had your own share of trouble just getting here.”
"So why the detention, earlier?" Neska asked.
Brent shrugged. "I got a little aggressive with a humanoid teen bullying a friend of mine. There were more bruised egos than bruises. But, when you're bigger and stronger, they expect more control." He rolled his eyes at that.
"And they're right," Syra said, looking peeved. "You know you can't do that, Brent."
"As opposed to doing nothing? Nah. I know what happens when no one steps in: nothing good." Neska found this at odds with his prior behavior. Perhaps she was wrong with her initial assessment.
He gestured to Neska. "Haven't seen many snake types. I think there might be at most a dozen other snake-type Awakened on campus besides you. How'd you end up here?"
“I’ve got a monster invasion to cancel,” Neska said, gulping down an egg, watching his face scrunch. Then he raised a brow in curiosity. “I made a promise to someone who meant a lot to me to make that happen,” she explained.
“That’s a big goal. How are you doing that?”
“Finding out what controls the Varadur. I don’t think they’re all willing participants,” she answered. “I think it’s tied to the Interface.”
He snapped his claws in a humanlike gesture. “You’re not the first person to say that, either. The eggheads in the occultist classes all think the Interface is some giant slave collar for the Varadur. I’m on the fence; some of the monsters seem pretty nasty, even if that were the case. But what do I know? I sniff out threats, report out, and try to be unseen.”
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“So you’re some kind of stealth expert, not a warrior?” Neska asked, intrigued. “I’d read that monsters came in various shapes and forms…but roles, I was less aware of.”
“The humanoid-type monsters have some abilities that are similar to what normal humanoid classes do. It’s not always a direct comparison, and they’re typically not on the front lines. They let the feral monsters whittle people down first, then storm in to kill the rest if that’s successful.” He chomped down on a slab of steak, juices running down his chin, and Neska swore she heard a bone crunch. “Sorry in advance. I’m a messy eater.”
“You’re a mess in general, Brent,” Syra said in a playful retort. “He gets lucky on one mission to the front as part of our field practice, and he gets an ego bigger than his head. By the way, when you go on a field exercise? Set aside any differences you have with your fellow Awakened or humanoids. Whatever issues we have between us, we set them aside out there, for the fight that matters.”
“Shouldn’t that always be the case?” Juni asked, nibbling on a chunk of cheese to immense satisfaction.
“We’re awakened monsters that are in an immature state, and most of us died young-ish,” Brent said, wagging his paw a little. “Maturity may vary.” He grabbed a cloth to wipe his hands after finishing a chunk of his meal, and pointed his thumb behind him. “See the table at the back end? Filled with the golemoids and elementa? They’ve got it in their heads that they are the people who let or make things happen in the dining hall.”
“I see several bored elementa, one of which is bullying a slime girl and holding an ember flame next to her,” Neska said, raising her body, in anticipation of moving toward them. “That’s not particularly nice.”
Brent put one paw up, slowly. He gave a soft head nod for her to lean in. “Yes, that might be the case. But they are all high Tier twos. Maybe even one or two Tier Threes. Tiers mean something around here. And they are valuable when sent on field excursions for taking down much bigger Varadur.”
“So it’s a pecking order."
Brent nodded, eyes dimmed a little. “Yeah. You could say that. Now, before you decide to go intervene, ask yourself if it’s in your best interest to intervene?"
“It always is–”
“Riggs! Knock that off,” one of the elementa sitting at the table barked, a wispy humanoid that looked like solidified air. It sounded like a male voice, and he pointed angrily at the fire elementa–presumably, Riggs. “She tripped. It was an accident. Let it go.”
The fire elementa glared at his counterpart, as if daring to be defiant. The other remained firm, and eventually the flames dancing above the elementa’s hand faded like a snuffed candle. He rose and walked back to the table. The slime girl fled out of the dining hall, leaving a slight trail of green goo behind her.
Brent took that as his cue. "Luckily, you and I aren't the only ones who share that mindset. We were human before. Which makes it more important to hold onto decency and empathy. I try, anyway."
"Your approach needs work," Syra sighed in a soft jab. "But, heart's in the right place."
All the while, the small group finished their meals in silence. It weighed on Neska’s mind what she had just seen. That just isn’t right. How am I supposed to be the revolutionary that’ll burn down the Varadur, if the Awakened are busy punching down at each other, and the humanoid students treat us as second class?
Something still bothered Brent enough that he cleared his throat, as if to to say something more. “The professors keep that stuff from playing out in class. Anywhere else, you might see some of that. Fair warning.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Neska asked.
“My good deed for the day,” he shrugged. “Honestly, I didn’t have anyone in my corner when I first got in the door, almost at my Tier two, but not quite. I was asked quite often which students looked tastiest to me, and taunted me with some stupid child fable about wolves dressing as grandmothers and eating delivery girls. It was absurd, and I’d already died once. Wasn’t about to let that shit bother me.”
“Any particular reason we’ll be singled out?” Juni asked in an edged tone.
“You’re short,” he said, pointing one claw lazily at her. She stifled a chuckle. “Oh, good, you don’t let it bother you. You’re also friends with a lamia…so I guess the jokes write themselves.”
“It was an odd meeting of good fortune,” Neska said proudly, having finished her meal in the meantime. “What about me?”
“People hate snakes. Plus the whole ‘Ouroboros devoured the world at least once’ myth,” he added with a grumble. “Not that I believe that crap about the gods and everything. If the world ended once, how could anyone have written about it?”
He did raise a good point. She hoped she wasn't destined to become the devourer of worlds. Eggs, maybe. “Are we sure the Divine Beasts don’t exist?” she asked, raising one brow.
“I…well…I’m not really the guy to say. But I’d like to think someone was thinking of me when I got a second shot at life,” he answered halfway.
A moment later, they all rose to leave. Brent nodded politely. “Guys, if there’s one thing you can take away from your first day? Good people are fighting a near-impossible challenge in every exam they ace, every skirmish they launch against the Varadur, and every extra training and study session to help others reach their potential. You two look and sound seasoned and strong-willed. That’ll be your strongest asset here.”
Brent turned to leave, with Neska, Juni, and Syra headed out a moment later.
“So, thoughts?” Neska asked Juni.
“Tolerable,” the mouse shrugged. “A little cocksure of himself, but sounded knowledgeable and reliable. Why are you asking?”
Neska let out a hissing sigh. “Because the odds of Hadley and Jurik joining us in field forays are slim. I’m planning for team compositions for when we fight the Varadur again.”
Juni laughed softly. “But him, though? Why?”
“Because he has something to prove.”
The sound of book bags bouncing onto a bed was soon followed by the sound of a lamia springing from the floor to the soft surface, landing in a cozy coil. She let out a sound of delight, opening her pack to examine the textbooks. “Where do I start first?”
Juni, on the other hand, could barely heave her bag off her shoulder and onto the bed. “If I wasn’t going to damage the floor,” she panted,” I’d use a stone spine to launch my bookbag off the ground.”
“How close to the ground do you have to be to use that power?” Neska asked in curiosity.
“I think…like within a few feet? So in an area with lots of buildup, if there’s no natural ground, that could render it useless, along with anything else that requires the earth or rocks.”
Neska tilted her head. “What about the granite blocks of the city walls or the cobblestones? Would that count?”
“I…” Juni twisted her whiskers between her fingers. “No idea. There’s some fuzziness about what I can and can’t manipulate. Earthen soil can be solidified by my powers and change the density to generate spikes. My other powers require me to manipulate materials directly to extract minerals. So…maybe?”
"Put that in my 'need to test' list," Neska said, jotting a note down. Wait. Vivi, that note-taking feature that Jurik and Juni mentioned. How do I use it?
It's in the utility functions. Mentally call it up by thinking 'Utilities' and you can find the notes that way, with various parameters to sort and organize them.
With a feature like this, why do I bother writing notes? Neska pondered.
Some people memorize things by writing them. After all, Risha had many books hand-written in her home, did she not?
A good point. But probably to ensure others could read it. This is a journal for a party of one. Well, two, counting you.
Juni took Neska's distraction as an opening. “So, you’re saying you have ideas?”
“I’m suggesting investments in testing our powers to find their limits.” Neska pulled out the alchemical book, running her thumb gently over Risha’s name. “We have a lot of ground to cover. Are you sure you want to keep working in the alchemical and ritual classes?”
Juni pulled out a thin spiral-bound notebook. “Student code says they can’t stop us from it. But most Awakened focus on combat, tactical strategies, and working with the Valos and Juiksen army base. I noticed like one…maybe two Awakened in both classes we observed. Hells, if your work with your hexes and evolutions is any indication, I can’t wait to see what you’re planning.”
Then Juni leaped onto the bed next to her, one book in hand. “So, where do you want to start? You realize with us both demonstrating our knowledge, the professors will likely continue to challenge us. Especially as Awakened in classes normally reserved for humanoids.”
“Good. Challenges mean we prepare better,” Neska replied softly. She frowned when her lower body curled around Juni. Stop that, tail. Ask permission first for hugs!
But Juni didn’t mind, apparently. She grabbed the blanket and pulled it over them, with her nestling in. She tapped the alchemy book gently. “You think Risha might have left…secrets for you elsewhere? A trail to follow?”
“If I had to hazard a guess…yes. But I worry about what we find at the end.” She ran her thumb along the open end and flipped open to the beginning, then skimmed to about halfway through.
Juni squinted as Neska marked several pages on a notepad. “What are you doing? Those don’t look like basic formulas.”
“Nope. They’re poisons and toxins.” Neska continued to mark pages, while Juni’s concerned expression only grew.
“And, are we planning on poisoning someone?"
“Yep. Myself. But hopefully only a little.”
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