The Sorcerer, Part 38 - Sleep

We walk down to the castle basement where the dungeons are. Given the town's crime rate, the cells are as a general rule used as storage, though one of them is always kept empty just in case. Of course right now it is not empty, but rather housing my history professor and, potentially, a dead man whose demise singlehandedly started a civil war.

"This one," Wismuth says, pointing at a large wooden door. There is a gap between the door and the floor, so at least the cell isn't completely dark, even though to my knowledge they have no windows. It's a cruel punishment, the loss of any visual sensory. I'm not sure I could manage it for an extended period of time, although temporarily the boost in other senses is rather exhilarating.

I walk over to the door as Wismuth pulls it open. The two men inside blink at the sudden light.

"Hello, professor Cole," I say. His eyes widen, his mouth slightly agape, but he quickly composes himself.

"Mister Woodsham, what a surprise," he says, and he clearly is surprised, but I had been hoping for a more... exciting reaction. "Does principal Dunston know I'm here?"

"Yes, the principal has been informed," I tell him. He looks relieved. "I'd assume he's holding an emergency staff meeting before rushing over here to see you."

"Very good." He pauses. "And what brings you here?"

"Surely you know that already, professor, you're a smart man. I've heard the events of today from many different sources in the past half an hour, but I do feel like your version is the key to uncovering exactly what is going on, and how it all ties together with the events of thirty years ago," I say, my voice level and authoritative. And then, before he has time to say anything, "The truth, if you don't mind. I already know more than you think."

He's annoyed and doesn't trust me, I can see it in his face, and he takes a long break before he speaks again.

"Alright, but why don't you tell me first what you know," he says. I grit my teeth. I hadn't assumed he would give anything voluntarily, but it still pisses me off. I am this close to figuring out what is going on, and the biggest clue, the biggest pile of information, is right here in these two men. And they won't tell me anything. I need to know!

"You're the one sitting in a cell for using magic, not me," I say. "I don't think you have a lot of room for bargaining."

Cole snorts. Then he starts to laugh. I cross my arms, looking at him unimpressed, but he keeps laughing.

"I think it's quite the opposite," he says after a moment. "I have nothing to lose anymore. Besides, this isn't about me at all. It never was."

"You're right, it's definitely not about you, but you have important information, which makes you vital at the moment," I tell him. Technically I could also try to reason with Jacobs, get something out of him, but given the sneer on his face as he watches us, I'd wager he's not in a very... cooperative mood right now. He'll get his, sooner or later, so I decide to focus entirely on Cole. "And you're wrong about having nothing to lose. Unless you really don't care at all about the truth. Or what happens to the students of Academia."

Cole's face twists into an angry frown, his nostrils flaring. The reaction is expected, although whether or not it will be worthwhile remains to be seen. There is a chance he'll close off completely, but I'm hoping he'll let something useful slip while provoked.

"Chief Wismuth here thinks I'm a criminal, and I don't blame him for that, but I had expected you to have better understanding of why I did what I did," he snaps. "You are the last person I want to listen to preach about the safety of the school."

I snort out a laugh. "Oh, that is rich," I say. "And also completely beside the point. I do understand why you did what you did, and I'm not condemning you for use of magic, especially to help save an innocent life. But that doesn't change the fact that you are in jail and therefore unable to do anything about the still looming threat. Anything, that is, beside tell me exactly what is going on, and why this man-" I point at Jacobs, who blinks in surprise "-isn't dead like everyone assumes he is."

Cole is surprised as well. He probably had no idea I knew about Jacobs' real identity, and why would he? If it weren't for Tina's bright observation, I wouldn't know. I do hope this revelation is enough to bring out something interesting.

Eventually he tuts in annoyance and grits out, "In my opinion it would be a threat to say anything to you, and your little secret society."

That makes me pause. A secret... what? I was unaware I was part of any society, secret or otherwise, and I try to rake my brain for other things he might be referring to.

"What the fuck are you talking about," I say, staring at him in confusion.

"Oh, I know about your little magic club. I saw you attend the meeting on Friday," he sneers. "And judging by the hostility of the posters, I'd say you are up to no good."

I stare at him, unable to speak. The shock of him knowing I was there is shadowed by the overwhelming surprise of how little he thinks of his students. It's astonishing, really, and I tell him as much.

"Are you actually kidding me right now?" I say. I feel like the expression on my face is bordering on manic. "You honestly think that anyone in that barn has such loose morals they'd want anything to do with a, a secret society for overthrowing the government or whatever the hell you think the gathering was about? How little do you trust your students? Sorcerers are regular people, they know right from wrong and that killing is bad! You should know, since you apparently are one!"

"My magic has nothing to do with this," he says, his voice starting to rise. "Practicing magic was made illegal for a reason, and that reason is the potential danger it poses when in the wrong hands-"

"A fucking garden hoe is potentially dangerous in the wrong hands, doesn't mean gardening is illegal!" I interrupt. He scowls. "It's about the person, not about the skill, and just because there's one crazy guy who thinks it's OK to go around hexing people and shit doesn't mean that anyone else has any interest in joining his idiotic crusade! Oh, no, he was given a very resounding 'no thank you' when he tried to recruit us!"

"You stupid boy," he drawls out. My mouth falls open, because I may be a lot of things, but stupid? "You've known all along what's been going on and you've never told a teacher? Or the principal? It would have solved many problems if we'd known days ago! We could've stopped so many things-!"

"Oh really, what? What exactly could you have stopped?" I ask him, mocking. "Because seems to me that even though this has been going on for years, no one except me has taken any interest in stopping anything! I've done my research, I've been trying to connect the dots ever since I got here, and now, now it's all finally coming together and you expect me to go to the principal? After two years of no one batting an eye when weird shit kept happening, I should just go tell the authorities, so that they could tell me that 'they'll take it from here' and to 'not worry about it' while they continue to do jack shit about any of it? Nuh-uh. I wouldn't trust the officials of this country further than I can throw them. And this revelation about what actually happened thirty years ago isn't really helping with that."

"But magic is too powerful, there must be rules to protect people! There needs to be regulations, there needs to be control! Without control, magic is dangerous! People get hurt, there's accidents, because - don't you see that I-!" He stops, his eyes widening slightly as he tries to recompose himself. I scoff.

"Sure, rules are great!" I say, voice dripping with sarcasm, before he has time to start speaking again. "And while the legislators control from their ivory towers, regular folk are forced to hide who they are, in fear of deportation or a death penalty. People are shunned by their peers and even their families, who fear they'll be convicted too, guilty by association. People are unable to protect themselves from bandits and robbers because they can't use their magic, and you say it's necessary?" I shake my head with a laugh. It is hollow, and bitter. "A young man felt so excluded from society, so alienated from the people who should be his friends, that he concluded that the only way he could ever belong was to commit mass genocide and you're telling me it's better this way? That this is-!"

There is a light touch on my shoulder and I snap my mouth closed instantly. Gil's hand is warm and steady, and I bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself in check. I can't look at Cole right now, so I turn away, face Gil instead, close my eyes, and concentrate on my breathing and his hand. I'd gotten really wound up, hadn't I? It's almost embarrassing really, this is not at all how I had planned for this conversation to go, but it did and there's nothing I can do to it now. The hand on my shoulder grounds me, calms me, and eventually I reopen my eyes with a deep breath. There's a small, soft smile on Gil's lips and I would probably kiss him if we weren't... well. I do cup his face for a second though, before turning back to Cole.

"Okay," I say, much more calmly than before and take another deep breath. "Okay. I know that's not what you meant and I'm... sorry. For bursting out like that. There's been a lot of pressure lately, and I... we need to figure out what exactly is happening, and why now."

"I'm sorry I suspected you belonged to a nonexistent society," says Cole, which is nice. "But I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw you there, and I didn't have a chance of sneaking in to find out what went on in there. And you know I didn't mean to defend the current legislation on magic use, especially after everything we've learned today about the onset of the Great Battle. It is extremely important that the reasoning behind the magical prohibition law be reconsidered and the law reconstructed."

"Or removed completely," I say. He frowns. "I don't mean just disregard magic in the face of law, I mean that magic in and of itself wouldn't be punishable. Like, you can use magic, but if you use it to commit a crime the punishment would be more severe."

"I'm happy to discuss that, if someone is interested in my opinion," he says, and adds, "But maybe this isn't the time and place for that. Instead, could you tell how you figured out it was Jacobs?"

"Hey!" says Jacobs, offended. "My name is Josef Murdoch, not Jacobs whatever!"

"I've got connections," I say with a shrug, ignoring the man. "The maid at the Pines' farm, Tina, heard you say his name. It wasn't particularly hard to connect two and two, especially after this morning's history class." I scratch my cheek absently as I glace over at the frowning Jacobs and the long scar on his left cheek. "Besides, the scar is something of a dead giveaway."

"Well caught," Cole says, sounding actually impressed. "Thinking like that could really help speed up the case of Tauria Chand. I'm sure you've heard about the poisoned girl a little over a week ago."

"Oh," I say, suddenly sheepish. "Well, yeah I've heard about it. I actually... solved it already. Well, kind of, anyway."

"What? What do you mean?" Cole asks, surprised.

"It was Viper," I explain. "The guy who made the posters and tried to recruit students to his vendetta against the government. It's kind of a cheesy name, I know, but that's what he called himself and I haven't yet figured out who it really is, so it'll have to do."

"It was? So was it magic?" he asks. He looks very impressed, amazed really, and I nod. "Well then." There's a long pause, which at least for me is increasingly awkward. I really hadn't expected the conversation to take a turn like this either. Getting praise from professor Cole? Not really in my 'top ten most likely things to happen' -list. Finally, finally, Cole speaks up again: "Seems like we could really use your help after all. What would you like to know?"

"Honestly... everything."

And he tells me. I ask him about the events of this morning, what he did before the history class, and I ask his side of the story on what happened at the farm. I ask him how much the teachers know about Viper, and the meeting, and his plans, about what the teachers assume is going on. I ask him what he knows about Jacobs, at which point Jacobs protest again, but is shut down almost immediately. He quickly realises he will be unable to convince either of us that he isn't Hans Jacobs, but a poor traveling shoemaker who just happens to look a lot like a supposed dead man. I do ask him about his side of the story, but he only spouts out nonsense that he was attacked by Cole on the road and was just trying to protect himself. When I question the logic behind taking a hostage to protect oneself from an attacker he goes quiet and refuses to say anything more. I let him; I'll come back for him in due time.

I ask Cole for his theory on how Jacobs is still alive. He shrugs. Jacobs stays quiet.

"I've been wondering about that for the whole day," Cole says. "Although I did notice that everytime  Jacobs' death is mentioned, it's in reference to the same report."

"Yeah, I noticed that too," I say. "You think it means something?"

"It is indeed suspicious," he agrees. "It would make faking one's death a lot easier, if it were only one report that needed to be falsified. It might be beneficial to find the original writer of the report, see what they have to say about the whole ordeal."

"Something similar crossed my mind, yes," I say, nodding. I look over at Jacobs for a reaction at my next comment. "It was a sergeant Feathers, I believe. You wouldn't happen to know where he is?"

Jacobs goes rather pale at the mention of the name, so I know it's hitting close to home. He still doesn't say anything though.

"He was an old army friend of mine, but unfortunately I haven't heard from him in, oh, 15 years I suppose," Cole says. "Last I heard he was still in the army, though."

"Shame," I say. "But we'll find him. I'm sure he'll have a lot of interesting things to tell us." I pause, looking at Jacobs expectantly. He's pointedly looking the other way. "Unless you want to say something now, Jacobs?"

He says nothing. I shrug.

"Worth a shot," I say. "But I will find Feathers, and I will get him to talk. And it will be too late for you then."

Jacobs swallows.

"Alright, alright," says Wismuth. "I don't really understand everything that's going on, but it is getting late and I think it's time to go home. You're done for the day, so let's go." He turns to Cole and Jacobs who are still sitting on the cell floor. "I'll bring you some supper in a minute, so sit tight."

Then he leads us up the dungeon stairs and out of the castle.

~x~

It is way past supper time at the Academia, so we stop by the local tavern for a quick meal before taking White Diamond and beginning our journey back.

Gil is much more comfortable than he was last time, actually managing to relax against me as I guide the horse through the beautiful country landscape. We're in no particular hurry back, so we go around the lake on the eastern side even though it's longer, just to see the beautiful reflection on its surface as the sun sets down along the valley Lonchester is located in. It is absolutely breathtaking and we end up dismounting the horse to go sit on the big rocks that dot the shoreline.

We sit there on the rock and watch the sun sink in the sky, until it disappears behind the treeline visible in the horizon, and we're engulfed in darkness. One by one stars start to appear on the clear sky and soon the sky if full of them, and we ride back to campus, their light illuminating our way.

There's no one at the stables when we get back, so we have to so we have to go up to the equerry's lodgings so we can sign White Diamond as returned. After a brief explanation as to why we're here so late, and why we even have the horse, we get that done and walk back to the dorm.

It's already past curfew when we're finally there, and we have to sneak in. Luckily we don't run into any of the prefects and we make it into our room without further incidents. Once there we're too tired to do much else, and after a quick wash we fall onto my bed (Gil's is full of animalogy notes, and he complains to me that I don't keep the desk tidy!) and fall into the blissful realm of sleep.
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Hey hey heyyyyy, I'm so early! This is great! Although to be fair this scene was originally planned for the previous bit and I've been writing it for.... idk at least three days. So.... Anyway.

Oh mann, this took long to write. Like not only in the sense that we started thee days ago, but like... the writing itself took really long too. I'm kinda slow at writing to begin with, but having to collaborate with dad just made everything go soooo sloooowwwlllyyyyyy. But it's done! And the next parts shouldn't be nearly as heavy as this one. So that's good.

Uhh, what else? I don't know really. Interesting twist at the end there, although I have no idea what the dude was doing in the woods? Like?? Why does he know Knute? He doesn't know who the magical kids are! It's very confusing.... But yeah.

I, uh, I guess that's all for now. Your topic isssss *drumroll* "The Fool" yes good.

Pie out.