Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

The other students around had stopped glaring and they actually seemed to be paying attention now. We were continuing toward the shelter at a steady pace, but I had no idea where that was located.

“I get the picture. Has she ever been outside of the tower before?”

Patrick shook his head. “Don’t think so. She’s a spire guardian, they rarely are found outside.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. “What floor of the tower does she guard?”

“She’s not one of the ones that guards a floor. She goes where the visage wills, protecting things that we’re not supposed to see. In addition to ‘Hero’s End’, they call her the Guardian of Secrets.”

That sounded… really bad. A monster designed to serve a visage directly was going to be nearly invincible. The size of her was intimidating enough, but that knowledge made me all the more concerned that we lacked the firepower to repel her in a confrontation.

Looking up, though, I had to frown. There was no confrontation. The monsters weren’t raining fire from the sky, nor were the mages below firing bolts of lightning at the monsters above.

What was going on?

“Patrick, do you recognize the other types of monsters up there?”

He blinked at me, and then looked up. “Oh, yeah, why?”

“What are those things? Gargoyles?”

He made a ‘hmm’ sound, considering. “Yeah, a few of them, but not a lot. Gargoyles are solid stone… like that one.”

Patrick pointed at a particularly monstrous looking creature, with a gator’s jaw and four massive arms. “Those are tough, but slow and not very smart. They’re just animated by magic. Those scalier ones, with the leathery wings? Those are urgoyles — they’re flesh and blood. Much easier to hurt, but smarter. And the ones that look like fashion models with wings? Karvensi. They’re tougher than gargoyles, as smart as humans, and a few of them even use magic.”

Looking closer, it looked like groups of the urgoyles and gargoyles were clustering around individual karvensi… which made things scarier when I realized the implication. They’re organized.

I saw one of the karvensi point a finger and a trio of urgoyles descended on a distant part of the school.

I really hope Sera is already in a shelter.

I can’t rely on hope in a situation like this, though.

“Patrick, do you know where Sera is?”

He shook his head, looking pained. “No, sorry. Haven’t seen her since the morning.”

Oh, resh. That’s bad.

A part of me wanted to break off from the growing crowd — more classes were falling into columns near us — and search for her. I didn’t have any idea where to begin, though. More importantly, if these things were here for me, being near Sera might have actually put her in more danger.

I hoped she found one of the other shelters. They seemed like our best chances to survive.

Seeing Mizuchi’s shape dip below the line of the clouds again, though, I had to wonder if even the shelters would be enough.

We were approaching a large stone building and the teachers at the front of the lines were beginning to point and talk to each other. I couldn’t quite hear what they were saying, but I got the impression we’d just reached the shelter.

“Stop here,” Conway instructed. “There’s only one entrance, so the classes are going to file in one at a time. Don’t worry, there should be plenty of time—”

A figure slammed into the ground in front of the entrance, cracking the pavement. At least eight feet tall, with a wingspan broader than his height. His skin was dark gray like the stone of the gargoyles, but this was no cumbersome beast of rock.

A karvensi. Tiny rocks were floating in the air around him, and I thought I could see the crackling of electricity a few inches from his body.

“One moment,” Conway told us, then spun on his heels.

Students and other professors alike backed away from the creature as it stood up to its full height, stretching its wings.

Professor Conway walked right up to it, turning his head upward to meet the creature’s golden irises.

“You, sirrah,” Conway said, “are blocking our way.”

The karvensi stared down at him, leaning in closer.

Conway stood up a bit taller. I could feel a pressure building in the air, like the tension between them was forcing the air out of my lungs.

It lasted several moments before the karvensi turned its head away, scanning the crowd, and then ducked and launched itself back into the air.

Professor Conway watched the creature depart, and then waved to another teacher. “Professor Vanway, you may lead your students inside.”

We cheered and clapped at the display, but Conway quickly silenced us with a gesture. “No time for celebrations. We will proceed in an orderly fashion.”

And we did. It took several minutes for each of the gathered classes to file inside. Once within the building, we were guided toward a stairway that led downward, into a large underground tunnel system. Runes flashed on the walls of the tunnels as we approached, lighting mana-burning lanterns that looked ancient and disused.

We began to pass doors on either side of the tunnel, but they were locked shut and covered with a broader variety of runic etchings. There were more there than I’d seen outside the doors of the tower itself. I wanted to stop and write them down for later study, but the crowd was moving at a steady pace.

We eventually reached a fork in the tunnels, taking the left passage, and proceeded through an open doorway into a huge chamber. Filled with wooden desks and benches, but with the walls covered with pristine tapestries symbolizing the various god beasts and visages, it reminded me of a cross between a mess hall and the audience chamber of a king.

There was no king here, however, nor any sign of Chancellor Wallace. Most of the few teachers gathered looked as nervous as the students, but Conway still looked taciturn.

There were students coming in through three other entrances to the chamber, but even so, those present only represented a fraction of the school’s population. I hoped there were several other safe houses — or whatever this was — throughout the school.

The teachers guided us toward seats. I scanned the crowd for Sera, Roland, and Jin, but I didn’t find any of them.

I was just about to take my seat when the room began to shake.

Dust and pebbles rained from the ceiling, and the tremors stopped as quickly as they had started.

Students exchanged nervous whispers. Patrick and I looked at each other, but remained silent.

This place must have magic to keep it stable in case of an attack, otherwise it wouldn’t have much of a point.

As much as I tried to reassure myself, though, the tremor had scared me more than even the sight of Mizuchi. Being crushed to death beneath thousands of tons of rock was not my idea of a good way to go.

I tapped my foot, trying not to contemplate the horrible ways this could end.

What am I doing here? Monsters I can deal with, but there’s nothing I can do if this place collapses.

I could hear a few people taking the situation worse than I was, crying into a friend’s shoulder or refusing to sit down.

A cluster of teachers had gathered near the front of the room, discussing in hushed tones. After a second bout of shaking, one of them stepped out of the circle. Teft.

He flickered, and then there was another Teft nearer to me. And another across the room… and a few more. They tapped their canes on the floor in unison, creating an echoing rap that silenced the students.

The original Teft was the one to speak, but I could hear his voice emanating from all of the others, presumably to make sure everyone in the room could hear him. A neat trick.