Chapter Text
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Shicmuon had this *thing* about doors.
When he visited, he’d only get in through the door. No window entrance, no matter how wide and big the window was. No matter how urgent.
And in the case of locked doors—well.
Either Rood opened the door for Shicmuon, or Shicmuon would blow it up to smithereens. Really. Talk about being extra.
The only reason Rood even knew this was because Ophion and the Magician Association had worked together for a few cases now, and for some reason, the Association kept sending Shicmuon—despite Rood’s loud protests—and the asshole kept destroying locked doors like it was his mission in life.
To be fair, he didn’t exactly destroy doors without cause. His first instinct when he found locked doors was to first knock, and then wait. After a few seconds, depending on whether the case was urgent (it was always urgent, the Association only sent Shicmuon when they were sure the case was about to go badly very quickly–Rood would learn later). If it was, then bye bye went the doors. But if not, then he’d just come by another time, once he was sure there was nobody behind the locked doors.
He never, ever checked the windows.
Also, the thing about Ophion was that Rood’s first instinct upon finding Shicmuon’s face was to slam the doors on his face. To which Shicmuon took it as a challenge and proceeded to blow them up.
So… yeah.
But anyway.
Shicmuon and doors entrance.
It was totally a thing.
I would not be a *secret,* something ushered in through hidden means. Shicmuon totally didn’t say, but Rood still heard it anyway.
There were a thousand things Rood would like to say to that, except he didn’t say any of them. His heart was still hammering away inside his ribcage, erratic. Rood was incredibly nervous, and anything he said when he was in such a state tended to end up disastrous. Ren always said, learn to pick your battles.
So he did.
Looking at Shicmuon on his way out the Ophion’s door, Rood said, “Stay a while.”
Shicmuon rolled his eyes. “At least try to look like you *meant* it.”
Rood stared.
That asshole had always been strangely perceptive.
How annoying.
.
That was already two weeks ago, and Rood hadn’t heard anything from him since.
How typical.
If he didn’t know better, he’d have thought that asshole was avoiding him.
“Please,” Blow said, gripping the collar of the mage in front of him hard. “Stop making this difficult. Just tell me who your contractor is.”
There was this contract Master Kielnode threw at him, something about a certain Lord noble getting magical poisoning that inflicted the victims with rage. The contract was to find the culprit, because nobles were always vindictive bastards and getting revenge was more important than finding a cure. Which was why even a month after the incident, the cure was still a slow-going research-in-progress.
Whatever.
The point was, this particular contract required more black market dealings investigation (read: hit hard and punch harder) rather than the delicate strategy needed in the upper class places–which was why he went at it alone without Ren there to help placate ruffled feathers.
“I-I really don’t, I don’t—” the man trembled in Blow’s grasp, feet kicking the air, both hands around Blow’s wrist that was holding him up in the air, trying to get it to ease up. Trembled even harder when Blow summoned his scythe out of the shadows. “I swear to you we don’t kno—”
Blow tch’ed.
Then shook him.
The man started wailing, sounding as pathetic as the numerous scums whimpering all around Blow’s feet. “We swear to you we know nothing! We were just the couriers! The goons! Tasked to deliver goods to places and nothing more!”
The man’s heart rate didn’t change; just that steady fast desperate rhythm. No avoiding his gaze. No sudden spike of magical energy.
Blow shook him once more, for good measure. “Tell me the poison’s medium. With so many people dead, you can’t expect to be spared at all, can you?”
“It was–it was not supposed to be deadly, the contractor promised us!” the man choked. “It was only supposed to give a bit of a scare, that’s all!”
Blow narrowed his eyes.
A few people on the ground chorused the man’s words.
Fine.
“Show me the direction your contractor went the last time they gave you their order.” he put a bit more pressure on the hand choking the man. “Lie to me, and I’ll make sure to find you again. Trust me, you do *not* want me to come find you. Again.”
The man scrambled to point in a direction with his hand.
Blow narrowed his eyes further. “Be more specific. Tell me the name of the area or building at least.”
A sudden flare of magical energy, and a powerful explosion suddenly happened in the direction the man pointed to.
They all looked at the tall and flashy display of the impromptu fireworks.
“Damn.” Blow blinked. “Speak of the Devil.”
.
It was, indeed, caused by Shicmuon.
By the time Blow arrived, an awakened Shicmuon was standing at the forefront, close to the explosion site, hands over his chest, scowling. He was wearing his Hereis uniform, for some reason.
Beside him, Van was clutching his head in both hands, muttering about repayment cost and responsibility and dear god and I’m so getting fired---which was totally normal for him. So Blow didn’t pay them any attention and bee-lined to the long, pink-haired association member whose name Blow could never remember.
“Any lead?” Blow asked. It was always better to be frank and to the point with these people.
“Black Mage, sir.” the pink mage (Erwin? Erin?) smiled at him, ever so personable. Which kinda made Blow feel guilty for his inability to remember his name. “Fancy seeing you here. Are you working the rage poison case too, sir?”
“I was supposed to find the hit contractor here though. Please tell me you at least managed to uncover a name before going boom.”
Shicmuon’s back twitched.
The only reason Blow noticed at all was because he kept his sight on Shicmuon, always. Even while Evelyn? talked to him.
“Yeah, we don’t think it matters much who the contractor is. But then, we weren’t exactly asked to find the one who ordered the original hit contract.” Evan? Erune? said, still smiling, sharp. Blow raised an eyebrow. Somehow he kept forgetting how sharp association members could be at times. “Still, this is not exactly an exclusive contract, so we can actually share with you the information we have so far.”
“Which is…?”
“The poison is made through alchemy, not magic.” Eruen? said with a wink.
Huh. “What about the magical reaction, though?” alchemy was alchemy, and sometimes could cause miracle-like reactions, but alchemy had its own traces—completely different in nature from magical reactions.
“That,” Eren? No, his name was totally Eruen; Blow was pretty sure of this. “--is something you need to ask our fearless team leader over there.” he tilted his chin in Shicmuon’s direction.
“Of course.” Blow sighed. Then purposefully in a loud voice, “if only your fearless leader hasn’t avoided me for the last two weeks.”
Shicmuon twitched again, but stubbornly didn’t turn around.
Eruen raised an eyebrow. Shrugged. Then went over to Shicmuon, leaning *down* slightly to speak in his ear.
Blow stared.
He was very aware Shicmuon was a tall guy. The asshole had at least 5 cm on Blow’s 179 cm height, and he liked to rub it in every chance he got, making sure Blow never forgot who was taller between them.
But seeing Shicmuon among the Magician’s Association guys, he looked… short? At least standing between Van (who was around 190 cm) and Eruen (who was nearly the same height as Van, and had almost the same body mass), Shicmuon somehow looked noticeably *smaller.*
The fact Shicmuon was only wearing a standard Hereis jacket uniform instead of the blue cape uniform of the Association (like Van and Eruen) was definitely a factor. Blow never realized until now how the blue cape seemed to add illusion of body volume to the overall look.
Come to think of it—
He watched several Association members milling around the scene, looking busy. For some reason, all Association members here looked decidedly on the *really* tall side.
Huh.
He blinked.
Did Shicmuon kept calling him *shorty* only because Rood was the only other man he knew who was actually shorter than him?
“Wow.” Blow said, laughing, still in the same loud voice, making both Van and Eruen looked at him, “you’re just *adorable,* aren’t you.”
A pause.
It was then Blow realized he accidentally said his thoughts out loud. Oh shi—
“Ha???” Shicmuon turned around, staring at him in disbelief.
Eruen cackled.
Which was of course the moment the burning building in front of them suddenly collapsed, showering them with debris and wood splinters amongst the thick smoke.
“Team Leader Shicmuon, sir!” one of the men shouted a few moments later. “We found the secret underground entrance!”
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“It looked really unstable.” Van said stubbornly. “I oppose.”
They were trying to gather a team to explore the secret underground tunnel, but Van had been opposing it. He’d like to wait for backup and especially for mages that specialized in earth magic, trying to be safe.
“Fine. You stay above ground with the men. Let me and him,” Shicmuon pointed at Eruen, “pave the way for you.”
Van looked at Shicmuon like was crazy. “Absolutely not. I really couldn’t care less about him,” he pointed at Eruen, to which Eruen reacted by blowing him an air kiss, “but I absolutely can’t let *you* go down the tunnel at all. The Chief would have my head if something happened to you!”
Shicmuon rolled his eyes. “He won’t care, you know that. So long as the job’s done, what’s a little risk?”
Van went to his knees and threw himself at Shicmuon, hugging his waist, bodily preventing him from moving. “ABSOLUTELY NOT!”
“You fucker! Let go!” Shicmuon seemed torn between trying to kick him and trying to make his hands let go, both of which seemed impossible from the way Van held on tight. “I said LET GO!”
Eruen yawned.
“How lively.” Blow said, watching the spectacle.
“They’d be at it for at least another 10 minutes.” Eruen flagged down one of the mages carrying supplies. “Would you like some refreshment?” He cheerfully showed him some scrolls.
Blow stared.
Some were reasonable supplies like healing scrolls, tracking scrolls, transportation scrolls (damn these rich motherfuckers), but there were also– “Are those explosion scrolls??? Your team leader is a trigger-happy explosion enthusiast and you’re sending your subordinates with an even more explosive arsenal???”
“Hey! You never knew! What if our lovely team leader accidentally buried you under the rubble due to one of his explosions? Then you can use the explosion scroll to explode your way out of the rubble!”
“Just use the teleportation scroll like a normal person, you lunatic! Also tell your team leader to stop making things go boom every five minutes!”
“Teleportation scrolls need you to focus on your desired destination! What if you have a concussion and can’t focus??? Just use the explosion scroll! No thinking required!”
Oh for all that was holy, this guy was clearly deranged. All members of the Association probably were. This guy nearly made Shicmuon and his temper seem *normal*.
“Please,” Blow massaged his temple, feeling a sudden incoming headache. “Just bring me some water. Normal refreshments. No magic things.”
“You’re no fun.” Eruen rolled his eyes and trudged away dejectedly, dumping the scrolls on Blow—who quickly stashed them all into his subspace pouch. “Fine.”
Shicmuon and Van were still *fighting*, if you could even call it that.
Blow’s left eye twitched.
“Hey.” Blow called. No reaction. He sighed. “Hey!” he grabbed one of Van’s wrists still hugging Shicmuon’s waist. “I’ll take him.”
Both Shicmuon and Van blinked at him.
“I’ll go with Shicmuon to investigate the underground cave.” Grabbing Van’s other wrist, he pulled them to the side, forcing Van to release his hold on Shicmuon. “I’ll make sure he won’t explode anything down there without permission. Should anything get dangerous or something, I could just warp us both out of there with my shadow powers. Is that acceptable?”
Shicmuon’s eyes narrowed, clearly suspicious.
Blow ignored him in favor of looking right into Van, who was still on his knees. Shicmuon might be the Team Leader for this operation, but it was clear Van was the one with the authorization.
“That’s fine, isn’t it?” he smiled, tugging on Van’s right wrist, urging—er, helping him to stand up.
The fact that his moves put him *between* Van and Shicmuon was totally a coincidence and not something he did on purpose—honest!
No, really.
The way Van’s eyes flickered to Blow’s hands on his right wrist before looking at Shicmuon’s unmoving back told him he didn’t buy it.
But he said nothing. Instead, he rose to his feet and looked directly at Blow. “We’re looking for the formula of an alchemy that could cause hallucination, so make sure to be careful. Do not engage. We still don’t know why the alchemy reacts differently to each mage affected, so make sure to always be on guard.” Then he gripped Blow’s shoulders, making Blow widen his eyes in surprise. “No, listen. You’re *both* rank 1 Mages. We’re fucked if you started to go crazy due to hallucination alchemy, so please, be careful.”
Shicmuon scoffed. Started to head toward the underground entrance without even waiting for Blow.
“Shicmuon—ah wait!” Blow hurried to catch up, feeling Van’s peculiar stare on his back.
Weird.
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The exploration itself was pretty uneventful.
After ten minutes of walking, they found some rooms. Signs of being ransacked in a hurry. Nothing worth investigating left.
“Too late?” Blow asked, examining some strewn papers on the floors.
“I never expected to find anything worthwhile from the start.” Shicmuon said. He was rummaging in the overturned cabinet for… something.
Blow sat on the dusty floor and just. Watched him.
The way he meticulously bagged each used vial with careful deliberation, so that the liquid inside wouldn’t slosh over inside the enchanted containers.
Like he needed any reminder that Shicmuon always did his job seriously—as long as Blow was *not* involved, that was.
So really, this sudden focus on his job was totally suspicious.
“So.” Blow said. Shicmuon tensed up. “I thought I was imagining things. But it seems I was right after all: you *were* avoiding me. Why?”
“Mission came up.”
Blow scoffed. “That was a bullshit excuse and you know it. Not like it ever stopped you before.”
A sigh. Ever so careful, Shicmuon put all his equipment and enchanted containers inside his subspace bag, making sure it was properly secured.
Blow waited.
“The last time… you had *this* face.”
“Gee, so I have a face. Big news.” Blow rolled his eyes.
Shicmuon turned around and looked down at him, eyes narrowed. “That was the face you always show whenever you’re about to be careful with the civilian victims. The kid-glove face. The bearer of bad news and unfortunate decisions. So you had *that* face, and suddenly you asked me to stay—something you never did before, by the way–-so what was I supposed to think? You were clearly trying to tell me not to bother you again or something. Because clearly I’ve been overstaying my welcome with my daily visits over Ophion and The Association’s latest joint case.”
Blow stared. Of all the time for Shicmuon’s thick-headed skull to get a clue, it had to be *that* time. Of course. Just Blow’s luck, really.
“Hey, asshole. What do you think I was trying to do before you ran away?” because that was what it was. Shicmuon basically *ran.*
Shicmuon narrowed his eyes even further. “You tell me.”
“I was about to kiss you.”
A pause.
Time ticked by, second by second.
Shicmuon blinked. “...what?”
“I was halfway sitting on your lap with my hands on your face and my nose touching yours! What do you think I was about to do?!”
“I thought you were about to kiss me! Except it clearly couldn’t be anything but wishful thinking on my part, since you never showed any inclination for that before!” Shicmuon was breathing hard. “So I thought—I thought I must have been reading you wrong. So I had to go—because. That was just cruel. To me. Because. I mean. Why would *you* want to kiss *me*? You’ve made it clear time and time again you were only *tolerating* me.”
They looked at each other, eyes wide in disbelief.
This couldn’t be right.
Something… was wrong.
They were basically confessing to each other, right? Confessing about wanting to kiss each other?!
So why did it feel like they had just admitted to murder instead?!!!
What was up with the whole heavy and charged atmosphere, like some ominous thing was happening?!!!
“Oh God. I was about to kiss you. Then you pulled away. So I thought, you were just not into me like that. Then before I could even try to cover my blunder, you suddenly just—ran out.” he was really mortified, okay. Because Shicmuon was basically rejecting him, and running away from him, and what was he supposed to think other than Shicmuon ran because he was disgusted by him??? “I told you to stay because—I need to. I need to tell you I was jo–” he stopped.
Except he wasn’t joking. He couldn’t afford to have Shicmuon thinking it was just a joke. “--that I made a mis—a mistake. In judgment.”
Shicmuon eyed him warily. “Your face was very clear in *not* wanting me there.”
Blow made some unintelligible frustrated noises. “Because I was mortified! Embarrassed to hell! I just made a blunder, and I really don’t want the person I like to witness how I was such an embarrassment!"
Silence, silence.
Oh shit.
They stared at each other.
This was just.
“...now what?” Blow asked, deflated. All the will to fight left him.
Shicmuon laughed hollowly. “You’re really asking *me*?”
A pause.
“Can I kiss you now?” because he couldn’t *not* ask.
“I’ll kill you.” Shicmuon threatened, looking like he meant it.
Blow sighed.
Well. It was worth the shot.
Yeah. Okay. Fine. this was totally fiiiine.
Frustrated, he swept his hands around him on the floor just for something to do–which was the moment his fingers snagged on *something*. On reflex, he *pulled* and just—
Crash!
“Ouch!”
They both froze.
Looked over to the source of the noise, where a mousy man was sprawled on his stomach, pieces of broken glass vial on his hand. The spilled green liquid started to turn into thick smoke, smelling vaguely of sulfur and… citrus?
It appeared Blow had accidentally pulled on the thin wire near the man’s feet and tripped him.
Which was absurdly lucky, in retrospect.
Or unlucky, considering the spilled liquid and the very nature of the case they were investigating.
“Oh no.” Blow said, his shadows moving hesitantly, unsure of what to do. The smoke was already nearly permeating the whole room, making visibility a hell. He still couldn’t decide whether to get them both out of here as promised or isolate the alchemy sample as they so desperately needed.
“I’m sorry! I was just trying to help!” the mousy man cried, backing away slowly. “It was for your own good!”
The fuck was he on.
“Prioritize capturing him! Everything else can come after!” Shicmuon shouted, coughing. “Something’s—something’s wrong! My magic—”
Blow moved fast to comply, because, right, airborne toxic magical alchemy. His shadows quickly wrapped themselves around the man, rendering him immobile. Just as quickly, he shoved a tracking scroll on him while also slapped some forced-summon spell for good measure–making sure the man would be transported into Ophion base.
The moment the scroll activated though, there was a sudden jolt. And then the ground all around them started shaking. Sounds of glass breaking, things falling from the shelves. Several seconds later there was a loud rumbling, the ceiling raining down stones and dirt and chunks of wet sands.
Oh shit.
The cave was about to collapse.
“Hey asshole! Time to—”
Something hit him over the head, and Blow knew no more.
.
He was trying to take things slow, as Ren had suggested. Ease his target into a relationship by first spending time together, doing mundane things.
Clearly it was bullshit.
Next time he should just take what he wanted and—
Wait.
…would there be even a next time?
.
“Wake up.” Someone said. “Wake up.”
What?
He groaned. Tried to move his limbs. Felt them sluggish, hard to move. Some thick liquid ran down his temple, leaving a wet trail down his cheek. It felt like blood.
What happened?
“Blackie, you’re killing me.”
Eyes snapping open, he scrambled backward; taking in his surroundings at once. Saw nothing but debris and ruins in near darkness.
The cave collapsing on top of them. A boulder fell right on Blow’s head, knocking him out. Shicmuon, shouting.
Where was Shicmuon…?
“Blackie, undo your awakening.”
He blinked.
In front of him, a girl in white was staring at him in *contempt*; eyes glassy, long hair askew. His shadow powers were surrounding her like a cocoon; a few tendrils held on to her legs and shoulders tight.
“Now.” she said.
He hurried to comply.
In the next second, Rood Chrishi sat wide-eyed in Blow’s place, wearing all the wounds and hurts Blow had suffered.
Across him, the girl crumpled forward to the ground helplessly the moment the shadows disappeared, breathing hard. A puppet whose strings had been cut.
“Are you oka—”
The girl turned her head to the side and threw up.
Rood stared. “...you’re obviously not okay. Fine. stupid question. Sorry about that.”
Glanced around the space they were in. Rubbles and ruins, surrounded by boulders. Yeah, there would be no exploding from inside for this. Not without risking burying themselves even deeper.
“Shicmuon.”
Silence, silence.
Shicmuon had this eerie ability to come to him whenever he so much as *mentioned* his name. He expected it to be no different this time.
But only the stillness of the caved-in pocket they were in answered him. That, and the sound of heaving from the girl, who was still struggling to even sit properly—all trembling limbs and ragged breathing.
Despite her conditions, the girl was still watching him. Her eyes were weirdly judgmental, for someone Rood was sure he had never met before. She looked at him and judged him and found him lacking.
They stared at each other.
Who was this girl…?
“Shicmuon…?” he tried again, spreading his powers far and wide, trying to find Shicmuon’s signature magical energy, any trace of it—
thump.
Rood blinked. A hand pressed against his forehead, where a small stone had just hit it. He stared at the small fragment. Just an ordinary stone, with no magical trace. It wasn’t thrown hard enough to cause him hurt. But it was unexpected enough that his magic stopped and disappeared in surprise.
“You never listen, do you?” the girl glares. “Stop doing magic. Why do you think I asked you to undo your awakening?!”
And she continued hacking out her lungs, each cough looked more and more painful.
Rood was just—frozen. Watching her.
Watched her as she crawled over to him, her limbs barely supporting her. A newborn fawn learning to move for the first time.
“It was you.” She grabbed him by his collar and hissed through gritted teeth, “You did this to me.”
Tears running down her cheeks, pure hatred in her eyes. Her hands trembled—not from fear, but from rage.
She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and Rood found himself unable to look away.
“Take responsibility, you cruel jerk.”
Well.
In the face of such conviction, what can he do but comply?
.
By the time the teleportation scroll dumped them in the Ophion Base, her coughing had gotten worse; she was vomiting blood all over Rood’s clothes. Rood did nothing but watch, since she was still holding on tight to his lapels, a tremor running down her entire frame. She looked fragile enough that he couldn’t bear to touch her, fearing he might accidentally hurt her.
He had to do—something. Hallucination alchemy, they need to wash everything off to make sure they wouldn’t infect anybody else.
You did this to me.
…what did she mean by that?
And Shicmuon—the asshole was *missing*. He had tried to canvas the cave before his magic was interrupted, but there was no trace of Shicmuon’s magical signature within the cave. It was like he just—vanished. Like he was never even there.
They were deep enough underground, the only way in or out from that collapsed cave was through magic.
But since there was no trace of magical energy, and the way this girl also appeared out of thin air, dressed in clothes that Shicmuon had been wearing—
Rood looked down at the top of the girl’s dark red hair, similar enough in color to Lanoste’s hair.
“...Shic?”
The girl blinked, slow. Her eyelashes lightly brushed against the exposed skin of Rood’s collarbone. She looked up at him. “...you stupid dunce.”
Then promptly passed out.
.
“Lanoste is totally going to kill us.” Kielnode despaired.
A couple hours later, Rood was seated in the Ophion’s meeting room, dressed in fresh clothes after thoroughly showering. A mug of warm tea in his hands anchored him to the present.
Sitting across him, Kielnode was currently burying his face in his hands. “You’re telling me the girl is really Shicmuon? No chance of hallucination at all?”
“Yes.”
“Are you really sure—”
“Please snap out of it, Master.” Ren said, frowning at the documents in her hands. “We’ve been over this for far too long already.”
After Shicmuon passed out, Kiel came close and bombarded him with questions, though Ren put a stop to it and made them prioritize their guest first.
Which had made them all pause.
They needed to get rid of Shicmuon’s clothes in order to eliminate further risk of contamination from the alchemy compound, except.
Shicmuon was presently a girl.
Previously, all matters related to the Association—and by extension, Shicmuon—had been handled by Rood. Only, it seemed a bit… inappropriate… to have Rood taking care of Shicmuon right *now*.
And so the responsibility went to Ren, as the only girl member in Ophion.
Two hours later, Shicmuon was still sleeping in the guest room upstairs, while the three of them were comparing notes and the mousy man Rood found in the underground cave was tied and tucked away in the corner of the room.
“I think,” Ren began, “Shicmuon has developed some kind of allergy reaction to magic—any kind of magic. He couldn’t even stand small magical tools like an enchanted water heater. When exposed, his body’s first reaction is to repel foreign matters from inside. Symptoms include dizziness, vomiting, cramps, and anaphylaxis. It’s severe enough that prolonged exposure may threaten his life. Is this really not an intended effect of your alchemy thing?”
The mousy man squeaked.
“She asked you a question.” A shadow tendril flicked a grape at the mousy man. The man tried to get away in a great panic, like Rood had just thrown an explosive instead of tiny, harmless fruit. “I already feel shitty as it is. Don’t make my day worse, or I’m going to need a distraction target.”
Ren sighed. “Rood, do we need to have another talk about the appropriate way to use your shadow po—”
“I don’t know anything!” The mousy man shouted, trying to make himself smaller as some black shadows started dancing around him, boxing him in.
“Try again.”
“I swear! I can’t do magic! I don’t know any magic! Eeep!” the shadows lifted him by his collars higher and higher, his legs kicking air. “I swear!”
Ren sighed. “I think I believe him. So far, none of the victims underwent any physical transformation. Shicmuon is our first case.”
Rood frowned. “Didn’t some victims die?”
“Not through transformation. They died the normal way—if you can even call it that. Stabbing, blunt trauma, assault. The point is, there was no physical altercation, magic or otherwise.”
“So all the victims who got exposed to the alchemy saw some hallucinations, started attacking people, and ended up getting killed or killing others. All except Shicmuon. Fucking figures.”
“Great. So how much time do we have before Lanoste starts hunting us down?” Kielnode wailed, still hiding his face under his hands.
knock knock.
They all froze.
No fucking way.
.
“You kind of disappeared on us last night. We were—worried.”
It was not Lanoste.
It was worse; it was Van and Eruen—still wearing yesterday’s clothes, looking harried and harassed (Van) and definitely too cheerful for this time of morning (Eruen).
Rood could handle Lanoste easily—he didn’t know him well, didn’t care about his own pride, so the man’s jabs just didn’t affect him. But Van was different. The man was basically Shicmuon’s caretaker, acting as his shadow. Through their groups’ joint cases, they had butted heads enough times for Rood to get to know him.
Enough to understand that despite his frequent complains and grumbles, Van genuinely, sincerely cared about Shicmuon—more than his job required him to.
And Rood just—
He just couldn’t handle the sincere type well.
“Sorry about that.” He couldn’t meet his eyes, so Rood focused his eyes on Van’s shoulder. Noticed the dirt and dust and grime there, when it was quite clean the night before. Instantly felt guilty again. He must have tried to dig the cave out after it collapsed. “I was—distracted.”
“As long as you’re alright.” Van grimaced.
A pause then, where everybody in the room could hear the unspoken question: what about Shicmuon?
But nobody was willing to voice it out, just like nobody was willing to answer it and break the fragile balance they had right now.
I won’t be a secret. Shicmuon had said.
And here they were, treating him as yet another secret. Shicmuon might pretend he was unaffiliated, acting alone with no backing and therefore no consequences. But the truth was the exact opposite.
The truth was the exact opposite.
“By the way, what’s this thing?” Eruen was standing in front of the mousy man, looking at him the way a big cat would eye a particularly interesting little mouse.
“Right.” Kielnode blinked. “Time to compare notes, I guess.”
.
“No, you don’t understand!” The mousy man was crying. “It was not supposed to work like that, okay? It’s not! People come to me, asking me to make them something to test their partner’s faith on them! The alchemy reacts to brain chemistry, okay, it was supposed to show you who your most important person is!”
“What.” Van said in disbelief, while Eruen was laughing his ass off in the background. “You’re telling me this alchemy compound is some kind of love potion?”
The mousy man actually looked offended. “Do not insult me by comparing my precious compound to a cheap lust-inducing concoction like love potion! You’re not listening! This compound affects your brain, not your physical bodies!”
“Brain chemistry, huh.” Ren was tapping her finger on her arm. “How do you figure who their most important person is?”
“Why, by stimulating their fear, of course! When you’re scared, the first person to come to mind must be your most important person! Wait wait wait why are you all suddenly going pale?”
Kielnode sighed. “It was a fucking fear potion. I shouldn’ve known.”
Fear potion worked similar to love potion, except to induce the exact opposite reaction. Fear potion made you hallucinate your worst nightmare, thinking it was real. No wonder those affected all reacted violently.
“Where does magic come in, though?” Rood asked.
A pause.
“Well.” The mousy man stuttered. “Well. You see, I. um. Don’t know?” seconds ticked by. “Don’t glare at me! I told you from the start I don’t know! The compound was only supposed to make you confront the truth and overcome it!”
Ren glanced curiously at Van and Eruen. “What happened? Was the magic not purposely caused by the caster mage?”
Van sighed again. “We thought so too. But then we discovered your culprit.” a nod at Rood. “She was formerly a Tower Magic member. We believed she might have tampered with this man’s compound ingredients and caused some unintended magical complication.”
Kielnode froze, eyes wide. “She made the nightmares into reality.”
“Exactly.” Eruen snapped his fingers together. “It was messy to clean up, let me tell you. For the record, we still don’t know what she altered, and she refused to say anything. But we have her in our custody, and so the Tower Magic guys would have no choice but to come and get her later. Also, Young Master Shicmuon discovered the compound’s nightmare effect’s duration fluctuated depending on the victims’ magical energy reserve. So far we’ve been lucky it was mostly lower ranked mages who fell victims to it.”
Making nightmares into reality? Then what about him? He was pretty sure no such scary thing happened when he and Shicmuon got exposed to the alchemy compound last night.
…right?
Rood suddenly remembered Ophion’s own case before getting involved with Shicmuon last night. “Wait, it was really a case of a lover scorned?”
“Congratulations, you just closed your case.” Eruen winked.
A Noble Lord with considerable reputation cheated on his wife with a former member of Tower Magic, only to break it off later; the lover felt scorned and exacted revenge on him, causing him to hurt his legal wife in his fear induced hallucinations.
Tale as old as time, really.
“Since we helped solve your case, we were hoping you would help us in return.” Eruen’s smile turned sharp.
Rood’s heart sank.
“Where’s Young Master Shicmuon?”
.
“It’s better to just show you.” Kielnode said, after an intense and wordless back and forth among him, Rood and Ren.
Van tilted his head curiously at them.
Rood still couldn’t look at him. Instead, he led them to the stairs and showed them the way to Shicmuon’s guest room.
“Curiouser and curiouser.” Eruen laughed. “It’s Young Master Shicmuon, after all. What possibly can affect him?”
Rood was very, *very* careful in looking ahead, keeping his head empty, and not reacting to Eruen’s words.
Behind him, Master Kiel and Ren were probably doing the same thing.
Van just massaged his temple, likely warding off the impending headache. The gesture had become increasingly familiar to Rood after constant exposure to Shicmuon.
Shicmuon, who was sleeping off the effect of his allergic reaction to magic. Shicmuon, who now had the body of a girl. Shicmuon, who had grabbed Rood’s collars with trembling hands and looked at him in hatred.
Felt like his heart just sank again.
Something was wrong—something didn’t add up. Something—
They both were exposed to the compound.
Nightmare becoming reality. Shicmuon looking at him in contempt.
Suddenly, he really, desperately needed to see Shicmuon right now. Needed to make sure it was real and not just hallucination, or something worse, like he had accidentally left Shicmuon for dead in that collapsed cave.
He walked faster and faster, his desperation urging him, until he reached the guest room and pushed open the door.
“Shicmu—”
He froze.
“Rood, what happened? Why did you suddenly—” Master Kiel said from behind him, looking worried. He glanced at the room, blinking in confusion. “What? Where is he?”
The wind slipped through the open windows, making the curtains dance to a rhythm only it could hear. Sunlight poured in, bathing the room in gold, casting the bed in a quiet, reverent spotlight.
It was empty.
Shicmuon was gone.
.
.
.