The Academy's Genius Mage

Talon clicked his tongue. "Tch. Never thought that brat would actually pull something like that." The words came out almost reluctant, like admitting it cost him something.

"Slipping past us, setting that up right under my nose." His jaw tightened. "I underestimated him. More than I should have."

Nobody responded to that. There wasn’t much to say.

Sylvia steadied herself on her feet and took in the clearing.

The three brothers at a distance. Lucas on the ground in front of her, conscious, breathing, blood drying on his lips and hands and chin.

The forest quiet again after everything it had just held. She put the pieces together fast and quick, she pieced together what must have happened while she was unconscious, what Lucas must have done.

She dropped to her knees beside him.

"Are you alright?" Her voice came out softer than she intended, the concern sitting openly in it.

Lucas looked up at her. His smile arrived before anything else did, which was very him. "Yeah. Don’t worry about me. Nothing serious."

She looked at the blood on his hands and said nothing about that.

Kine’s voice broke across the clearing, impatience threading through it. "So what now, brother? What are we doing?"

Talon’s eyes hadn’t moved from the two of them. He read the situation the way he read everything — quickly and without sentiment. One of them beaten down and running on empty. The other just pulled back from forced unconsciousness. Neither of them at anything close to full capacity.

"What else, she just woke up from Butterfly Mist. She can’t be recovered yet. We overwhelm them now and we finish it."

Lucas injured. Herself not recovered. Three of them still standing and ready. Her eyes moved to her hands, to the faint traces of lightning still threading between her fingers, and the thought arrived before she could stop it.

’Should I use it?’

She held it for a second.

Then shook her head.

’ No, if anyone from the academy sees it, or even if they realize it. If they figure out what it is— No. I can’t... But what do I do. Think, come on think!’

"I know what you’re thinking, Sylvia."

She turned.

Lucas had his hand raised toward her. Something small sitting in his palm.

A mask.

She stared at it. "When did you even—"

"Remember when I said I had something to take care of and left you at the registration exit?" His voice was tired and light at the same time, the particular combination that happened when he was in pain and refusing to make it everyone’s problem.

"I figured there might come a time when you needed to use that power but didn’t want anyone recognizing you." A small exhale, something almost sheepish in it. "I used to wear this when I was a kid. Some dumb childish thing. Thought it might finally be useful for something."

Sylvia looked at the mask in his hand for a moment.

Then at him.

Something moved across her face that she didn’t realize.

"Thank you," she said, and took it from him.

Lucas leaned back against the ground, his voice dropping into something quieter. A challenge and an invitation in the same breath. "Now show me what you’ve got."

Sylvia slipped the mask on. Felt it settle. Let herself stop holding back the one thing she’d been holding back.

’Last time I was managing this,’ she thought, straightening. ’Not this time.’

"Teamwork— move!" Talon’s voice cracked across the clearing, flames erupting around all three of them simultaneously, Kine and Ley surging forward on either side as they charged. "We end this now!"

Sylvia stepped forward to meet them.

Purple thunder came down from the sky, massive and overwhelming, the air itself trembling under the weight of it, the sound arriving everywhere at once.

Thirty seconds later—

Lucas’s jaw had dropped somewhere in the middle of it and hadn’t come back up.

Kine and Ley were on the ground, unconscious, caged inside crackling walls of purple lightning that pulsed quietly like they were breathing, keeping them exactly where they were with no interest in letting them go. Talon was on his knees, not out, but close, his arms bound in glowing cuffs of thunder that held him with a grip that had no argument in it. His head was down. His breathing was audible.

And Sylvia—

Her legs made their opinion known and she went down, hitting the ground on her side, the mask still on her face, the marks still faintly visible beneath her eyes, refused to fully fade. Her breathing came in uneven pulls, each one costing more than it should.

"I’m completely drained," she said, to the ground mostly. "Feels like my body is tearing itself apart when I try to move."

The cost of that power was clear. The Amplifier didn’t grant strength without consequence.

Lucas let out a breath that started somewhere in his chest and took a long time to finish. His shoulders dropped.

"Looks like everything’s finally under control," he said. He glanced at Sylvia. "Celia and the others should be here any second with the academy staff."

Silence.

Then Sylvia’s eyes snapped open.

"Wait." Her voice had changed. "What did you just say."

Lucas blinked. "I said Celia’s coming. I told her to inform the academy before we split up, so they should be—"

"You absolute idiot!"

The words came out sharp and precise and Sylvia was already trying to push herself upright despite every signal her body was sending her about that being a bad idea.

Lucas stared at her. "What? What’s wrong? Why are you—"

"LOOK AT ME."

He looked.

The mask. The marks still faintly glowing beneath it. The amplifier’s traces that hadn’t faded yet and wouldn’t for another few minutes at minimum.

"OUR SECRET IS IN DANGER!"

Talon, still barely conscious on his knees, lifted his head slightly, his ears catching every word now.

The thought arrived and it was not a good thought.

"Oh," Lucas said.

"OH?" Sylvia’s voice climbed. "That’s all you have? Oh?"

"Okay wait, we can just try to cover it up—"

"The academy has a Truth device, Lucas. A Truth device. If they use it they will know exactly what happened here. They will know what I used. And if they find out you knew and helped me hide it—" She pushed herself up further, legs shaking. "You get dragged into it too. We need to leave right now before anyone—"

"Here they are!" A familiar voice arrived through the trees.

Both of them turned.

Sylvia’s breath hitched as she turned, Celia had arrived, and behind her stood Professor Starc... along with a broad, black-beard man who looked like academy staff.

Sylvia’s grip tightened around the grass beneath her fingers.

"...Shit," she said, barely above a whisper, behind the mask.