Sleep must have come for him at some point, because Rei's swearing and banging about dragged him awake. Sebastian swore and pulled the covers over both his and Christian's heads. Christian peered out through a gap between the blanket and pillow. Rei's aura was flaring with his frustration. Another chill crept down Christian's spine. He really hoped that maybe he had cast the ward of holding without realizing it. He'd have to track down Samir and Emmerich, ask them what a lack of an aura in an unwarded person meant. He had a nasty suspicion that it wasn't good. What was good, however, if not entirely appropriate at the moment, was exactly where Sebastian's hands were going. Christian took a very deep breath and let it out very slowly, reveling in the sensation. Rei must have had an inkling of what was going on under the covers, given how very deliberately he started swearing even more loudly in a hybrid of Japanese and English. He finished throwing all his books into his bag, and gathered up his coat and gloves before leaving with a tremendous slam of the door.
"Is that about us?" Sebastian asked. Christian made a noise as he rolled over.
"No. That's about having to come and go in a snowstorm. He must have a study session, given the number of books he grabbed." Christian stretched against Sebastian. "It was a doozy last night. It sounds like it's died back a bit."
"Nasty still. It's nine in the morning. Do you want to go to breakfast?" Sebastian propped himself up on one elbow. Christian ran his hands through his hair, wincing as his fingers caught in the tangles.
"I want a shower first. You should grab one too." Christian rolled out of bed and found an extra towel and set of shower shoes for Sebastian. "Let's make it quick. I want to get an omelet today."
Despite the improvement in the weather in relative terms, it was still an intense storm. The college did something next-to-unheard-of, and opened the old maintenance tunnels for student use to traverse campus. It didn't make things easier for the students in the newer dorms, but those who lived in the older buildings finally had an advantage. The various resident hall staff members were patrolling the tunnels to make sure no one got into trouble, but it was a pretty relaxed affair. Christian had cast the ward of holding before he had left his room, and scanned the crowd. Even with the ward, people still had a dim outline of light. He really hoped his panic had tricked his senses last night, because the thought of someone without an aura was troubling. Even Emmerich and Samir had the faint outlines, though so much more subdued that Christian had initially thought that they had none. He had so much to learn still. He would have to study those wards tonight, but he needed to know for what he should be watchful and wary.
The dining hall in White Hall was the oldest of the three and somewhat more grand due to its vaulted ceiling and high windows. The furniture was all older dark wood and spindled chairs. Usually on Sunday morning it had only a dedicated handful of early risers and insomniacs who didn't feel like contending with the hungover bunch at South Branch. Today it was rather more full than usual. It also looked that some of the student workers from the food court at the student union had been pressed into service. Christian and Sebastian had their meal cards swiped and made their way straight to the line at the omelet station. After about fifteen minutes, omelets were acquired, and the rest of breakfast could be chosen. Christian was most interested in coffee in vast quantity, and then made his way through the buffet line for bacon, grits, sausage, and any other thing that might suit his fancy. He finally found an empty table behind a dividing wall and settled in to enjoy his breakfast.
Sebastian joined him shortly, with a couple of waffles in addition to a plate full of meats and scrambled eggs. He also had Emmerich with him. Christian nearly choked on his coffee. Sebastian made a tsking noise and set a large glass of tomato juice down in front of Christian. He and Emmerich took seats.
"Have you met Jaeger? He's in my European History seminar. Jaegs, this is my better half, Christian." Sebastian settled in comfortably. "I hope you don't mind, Christian."
"Not at all. We've met." Christian looked at Emmerich over his glasses. "Jaeger, is it?"
"Ugh, now this is why I go by my family name," Emmerich said in disgust. "Bunch of drunk frat boys and all they hear is booze booze booze." He turned a bit red under his jaw. "Not that I think that you're a drunk frat boy, of course."
"Where's Samir?" asked Sebastian. " You two are so attached at the hip, I thought you were a couple for the longest time." Christian did snort coffee that time. Emmerich looked amused.
"He won't leave his room in this weather. I asked him if he wanted to get breakfast and he told me to go fuck myself." Emmerich ran his hands through his hair, making it stick up like a coxcomb. "I don't blame him, we don't have the tunnels. He'd have to brave the the wind and snow. I heard my R.A. saying that classes may be canceled tomorrow. We should be so lucky. I have a trig exam at eight in the morning."
"Poor Rei, I hope he didn't waste a trip to the library."
"Library, nothing. He'll be okay. I saw him running full-tilt toward Cherry Street. I think the book bag is a pretense." Emmerich rolled his eyes. "He better plan to get some actual studying in today."
"I need to do a bit of that myself," Christian said pointedly. The meaning was not lost on Emmerich, who gave a subtle nod. "I'm still playing catch-up."
"Then a campus-wide day off tomorrow might do us all very well."
"I left all my crap over in my dorm," Sebastian grumbled. "Are we seriously going to study today?"
"I am," Christian said. "I don't expect anyone else do to so, and I'm not out to wreck anyone's afternoon. I keep having nightmares about failing Professor Ohda's art history final."
"Yohda?" Emmerich laughed. "He's such a soft touch if he likes you. I heard him bawling out Rei in Japanese one afternoon. That was pretty fantastic."
"Rei probably deserved it. He likes to play on his phone in class." Christian made a face. "I warned him to knock it off."
"Hey, if you're not too keen on studying, maybe you'd like to roll up a character for my gaming group. We had to throw out one guy, a real piece of work. Total woman hater, which doesn't work out so well for a group with some actual women in it." Emmerich looked at Christian thoughtfully. "We need a ranger-type, if you're comfortable with that." Christian saw Sebastian's eyes get that slightly unfocused look that they always got when geek-talk entered the conversation. Christian saw the Sunday paper abandoned on a nearby table, and he motioned to it. Gratitude filled Sebastian's entire demeanor, and he retrieved it.
"I'd be glad to if your gaming day doesn't interfere with any of my classes."
"Great. Do you want to roll him up here, or back at your room?"
"Oh, up in the lounge on my floor. We can go up there after breakfast."
"These are some solid wards," Emmerich said softly, trying not to draw attention from the guys who had started playing video games in the fourth-floor lounge. Christian thought the abundance of caution was a bit extraneous, as a fully-nude woman riding through on a motorcycle with a rocket launcher firing continuously would not have gotten their attention. Sebastian had excused himself some time earlier to watch a hockey game on the TV in the main lounge. Emmerich scanned the list again. "Your friend knows their business. All of these are the sorts of things to keep magic and darker forces in check. The sort of things priests and the like use." He handed the paper back to Christian. "I won't ask who it is. You should probably keep having them tutor you in this, so I can worry about teaching the more hands-on business."
"They gave me some inkling as to how spells are performed, but as a non-magic user couldn't give a more in-depth lesson." Christian summarized what Sean had told him, with a few interruptions from Emmerich to elaborate on a point or two. "So, I have the gist of it, and am just lacking the actual instruction?"
"Pretty much," Emmerich said. "It takes the ability to draw and redirect energy to cast a successful spell. Even if you have the motions and the sounds down pat, if you don't have that critical asset then you're going to cast dud spells. Sure, maybe one time out of every thousand or so castings, someone is in just the right place at just the right time and does things just exactly like so, and something happens, but they frequently backfire so badly that the pretender-mage, if they come out of it in one piece, is so turned off to the whole affair that they hang it up. That's the risk of dabbling. You run a risk of getting the exact opposite of what you intended to do. This is especially the case if they're trying to get something to behave in ways that they wouldn't naturally act. They're trying to use a half-understood magic to twist the laws of reality to their own purposes, and don't have sufficient energy to twist it enough to hold.
"Well, what they may not realize is that every spell cast, because it is a twisting of reality and its laws, creates an opening between our world and the others. The duration of this opening varies with the type of spell cast, as does the size. Hence the need for some more powerful wards, to keep a barrier on those openings. Summonings, of course, are deliberate wide openings, and extremely dangerous. Even if the being you're summoning is benign, there's absolutely no way to fully prevent a malevolent creature from coming in through the open door." Emmerich fiddled with his small silver rod, rocking it between his fingers. "To make a more powerful ward, you use magefire."
"Does magefire create openings?" Christian asked with worry. Emmerich shook his head.
"Magefire is just a channeling and redirection of energy, not actual spellwork. It can be completely harmless, like using it as a source of illumination, or a powerful weapon, depending on the user's strength and skill. It's like any energy that way. With focus and practice, you'll be able to use it as a weapon, and I highly recommend that you learn to do so. Ward-making with it is not as complicated. You direct the energy down through your arm and hand into the symbols you make for the ward. They're stronger, longer-lasting, harder to break, and they have a much wider range. Some of the wards around my family's home are nearly a century old and have not weakened at all, and we're not wizards. Wards you set with magefire should be indefinite until you unmake them."
Christian sat quietly for a long moment, letting this sink in. He wasn't sure he was ready for this amount of power, any more than he was prepared for his endless lifespan. It didn't really matter, of course. He had this power, he had his life, and he had better to come to grips with it sooner rather than later. He'd better find a place to practice with his magefire. Maybe Emmerich and Samir knew of an adequate location. Ah yes, he had wanted to tap their knowledge for something else.
"What does it mean if someone doesn't have an aura?" he asked. Emmerich looked at him like he had asked a stupid question.
"It means they're dead, dumbass."
"Even if they're talking with you?" Emmerich turned pale at that.
"It means that they're dead and something sinister has taken over the body. Who doesn't have an aura? Someone here?" He scanned the group of young men flocked around the tv. Christian shook his head.
"No, last night--"he began, then stopped as the lounge door swung open. Scott came in, looking perfectly healthy. Christian stared, baffled. His usual soft shimmering green outline was clearly present, even through the ward. "I thought I saw someone without an aura, but I think I must have been half-asleep. It was during the power outage."
"Oh my god, that." Emmerich sounded annoyed. "Some numb-fuck must have been dabbling last night. I felt an energy surge, but I couldn't place it or find any lasting damage. Probably some self-proclaimed witch trying to call down the moon or some shit. Every now and again they do get half-lucky. Dad says we can't interfere with them unless they actually do unleash something, but most are too inept to do more than cause power flickers and surges. Asshats."
"So, it was nothing?" Christian needed confirmation, that he had been seeing things. Emmerich gave a nod.
"Yeah, magical feedback, like someone standing too close to an amp while wearing a mic, that kind of thing. It makes me glad I don't see auras. Samir says that he gets wicked after-images after a surge like that. I think that was part of the reason he wanted to stay in bed today. Djinn are sensitive to that sort of thing."
"Oh my god, thank goodness, I thought I was going crazy." Christian sat back in relief. He glanced over at Scott, who was going from group to group. He seemed perfectly fine, his usual short, skinny self. He even grinned when he came over to their corner.
"Fantastic news, guys. They're canceling classes tomorrow." Scott looked gleeful. "A whole extra day to work on my game. Hours upon hours for coding, all mine." He steepled his fingers and laughed mock-diabolically. "If you'll excuse me...." and he went on to the next bunch of residents. Christian blew out an annoyed sigh.
"What a nerd, and that's coming from me," Emmerich muttered. Christian nodded, the knot in his chest coming undone. He certainly had earned a free day, he felt.
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